Happy Birthday America!

Hope you had a Happy 4th of July!

March Happiness!

Let's hear it for the Mountaineers!

Better than paper towels and a lot less expensive... COFFEE FILTERS

Coffee filters ..... Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing even the large ones.

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave.. Coffee filters make excellent covers.

2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.

4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.

11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter..

12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..

13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.

14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."

15. As a sewing backing.. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.

16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.

17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.

18. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.

19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.

20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies...

saves on having extra bowls to wash.

21.. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.

22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.

23. Use them to sprout seeds.. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout.

24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..

25. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS TOO.

25 Thoughts for the New Year!

YOUR DAILY SURVIVAL KIT FOR THE NEW YEAR


Today, I am sharing a DAILY SURVIVAL KIT to help you each day............

Toothpick ... to remind you to pick the good qualities in everyone, including yourself.

Rubber band ... to remind you to be flexible. Things might not always go the way you want, but it can be worked out.

Band-Aid ... to remind you to heal hurt feelings, either yours or someone else's.

Eraser ... to remind you everyone makes mistakes. That's okay, we learn by our mistakes..... eventually!

Candy Kiss ... to remind you that everyone (including you) needs a hug or a compliment everyday !!!

Mint ... to remind you that you are worth a mint to your family & Me.

Bubble Gum ... to remind you to stick with it and you can accomplish anything.

Pencil ... to remind you to list your blessings every day.

Tea Bag ... to remind you to take time to relax daily and go over that list of God's blessings. This is what makes life worth living every minute, every day

Wishing you love, joy, inner peace, gratitude, friends to cherish, someone to care for, someone to share life with, laughter, blessings, and warm feelings in your heart in 2010!

Thursday's Terrific Tips - Winter's Here!

As Winter settles in, here are some terrific tips to make you and your car a little happier this Winter!

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!

Who knew, some simple solutions to make life easier! Enjoy the Winter!

Christmas Throughout The House

To say I love Christmas would be an understatement! My grandfather was a huge Christmas Fan and he obviously passed the Christmas gene onto me! I remember we would get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving when we had real trees and once they invented Mt King artificial trees the tree went up Thanksgiving night!

We would decorate the tree with loads of old fashioned glass ornaments that he and my grandmother had for years, we even had the huge old fashioned light bulbs that I still cant' believe didn't catch the real tree on fire, they got sooooo hot!

Anyway, I digress, in honor of my grandfather's love of Christmas and all that the season stands for (birth of our savior, magic in the air, giving, caring and sharing and so much more)I now decorate everything! My husband is afraid to stand still to long as I may just decorate him! For those of you who don't know him, he is the biggest Grinch ever....he tolerates Christmas at best, and my decorating makes him crazy. He thinks the tree is too bright, but that doesn't stop me, I just add more lights!

So, here it is in all it's glory!


I love Snowmen and have them everywhere! This is a snowman head candle from the store that I can't bring myself to burn but he glows when you do!


More snowmen on a shelf in the family room.

My seasonal wall in the kitchen....this wall changes with the seasons. After Christmas it will sport snowmen until March and then out comes the springtime treasures and so on and so on, season after season!

A shelf in the dinning room with more you guessed it snowmen!



A shelf in my kitchen window with snowmen and my collection of antique graters turned luminary!


Another shelf in my kitchen window. I get to look at all of the beauties when I am doing dishes!

Check it out, I really do have something other than snowmen! My primitive Santa's and one of my kitchen trees decked out in kitchen utensils and tools from sifters and rolling pins to mason jars and whisks!


What would Christmas be without candy! These jars are here year round, but the candy changes as do the punch needle designs on the front, crafted by yours truly.

My entryway, sorry, I forgot to turn the little tree in the corner on!

My family room! Sorry about the image on the TV. My husband was watching something and wasn't happy when I tried to close the doors on the armorie to hide the TV! The crooked tree topper is thanks to WII Fit and the numerous people who have been in my family room on the balance board causing slight movements and jarring of everything not nailed down

One of my newest additions. Isn't this the coolest door you have ever seen. A very kind lady gave it to me! We stained it, my husband built a stand for it and I adorned it for Christmas. It will stay all year, but it's adornments will change.

There's still more, a tree in each room, a hall bath filled with Santa's and a second floor with lots of treasures!

I hope you have enjoyed the tour! Now, it's time to start taking it all down, which makes me oh so sad. I think the house looks so empty and cold when it all gets packed away!