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!

I stumbled upon a blog entitled Not Quite June Cleaver and it just so happens the host of the blog loves aprons! If you know me well, you know that I too love aprons and in my opinion you can never have too many.

From the comments posted it sounds as though she makes some pretty incredible aprons and the giveaway is for one vintage apron and one handmade apron....I would love to have one!

She is having an apron giveaway so go check out her blog, leave a comment and you will be entered into the giveaway.

It doesn't get any easier than that!

Best Kept Secret for Exterior Wood Surfaces

As the warmer temps arrive we find ourselves moving from the warmth of our homes to the outdoor living spaces we have created.

As the temps rise so too does our workload outside. From weeding, to planting to mulching to watering and don't forget about the arduous chore of treating those wood surfaces like decks, fences, swing sets and siding. While I enjoy being outdoors (as long as it isn't hot and humid) I dread some of the chores that go along with moving outdoors and the number one chore I put off is staining our screen porch.

I like many other Americans thought that water sealing was the best thing for my pressured treated wood structure especially if it is Thompson's and those great commercials that show the water beading on the wood and not penetrating the surface of the wood! Well, I recently learned the error of my ways and once again was reminded that not everything I see on a commercial is 100% correct. You can read for yourself more on the water beading myth on http://www.flood.com

As luck would have it I was introduced to a wood care system of products from an Ohio company who has been around since 1841, that company is called Flood.

They offer a full range of wood care products including a Wood Cleaner that will remove dirt and brighten the wood, and surface prep is the most important step of the process as it helps the stain adhere to the wood and you will get maximum penetration and life if you clean first. Please don't use a pressure washer to clean your deck as it actually can drive the dirt and mildew into the pours of the wood and can cut the life of the deck in half. in addition, you will also cause your deck to splinter and then will have to sand it, which removes a layer of the wood. Use a cleaner instead.

In addition to the Wood Cleaner, they make a Wood Stripper, which will take paint, stain, and almost anything else off of wood. So, if you want to change the color of your deck, fence, play set, this is the product to use. It will strip off all of the old and get you back to clean wood that is ready to accept the new color.

If you enjoy the look of natural wood, you should use Flood's CWF line of products. CWF stands for Clear Wood Finish. It has UV protection, since the sun is as damaging as the weather. It also is fortified with Penetrol, which has been used since 1934 and is exclusive to Flood. Penetrol penetrates the core of the wood and essentially protects the wood from the inside out. This product is so thick compared to other stains in the market and nothing penetrates like Flood. It comes in a range of colors including clear/natural, cedar, redwood, honey gold, chestnut and walnut. For those brown lovers out there, walnut is really rich looking.

If your wood surfaces (decks, play sets, fences, outdoor furniture, etc.)are showing a little age or if you want a little more color and only a little wood grain to show, then Flood's TWF(semi transparent wood finish)line of semitransparent colors are for you. The colors run the spectrum from lights to darks and include colors like Dessert Sand, Falling Leaf and Chocolate to name a few. The TWF line has this great additive included in every can called E-B Emulsa Bond, E-B Emulsa Bond™ is an additive found exclusively in Flood brand products. It provides unsurpassed adhesion to wood surfaces where other finishes may fail. No other exterior wood care brand but Flood has this unique technology. The SWF product is guaranteed to last 3 years on the horizon surface of the deck (part you walk on and rails) and 5 years on the vertical surfaces (spindles). The best part is that it only requires one coat.

If your wood surfaces have seen better years or you just want a burst of color try Flood's line of SWF products(Solid Wood Finish). This is a line of Solid Colored Wood Stains that look like paint, but wear much better. Again, they are designed for wood and have all of the protection you could want for your wood, while giving you more durability than paint and are fortified with E-B Emulsa Bond, just like their TWF product is. It comes in a range of colors including Sand Dollar, Winter Sky, Cedar, Espresso and more. In addition you can have a custom color made or you can have a color matched. I just had our house trim color matched and we will be using Flood's Solid Stain on our screen porch, I will post a picture when it's complete. The SWF products are guaranteed for 5 years on vertical surfaces and 15 on horizontal. You can even use this product in place of exterior paint on all of your outdoor trim on your house. While it's thinner than latex paint, it wears better. This product has been rated #1 by consumer reports for the past three years in the 3 year test and beat out Behr!

The best news of all, is that Home Depot carries Flood and the TWF and SWF products are on sale until September 20th and are $4.00 off at register per gallon, which means no rebates to fill out and then wonder if you ever received them. In addition there is a 2.5 gallon can of the CWF UV 5 on sale for $39.97, which is about $15.99 per gallon. This is called a deck in a can as it is enough product to cover the average size deck.

You can check out Flood on their website http://www.flood.com.
Try it you will love it and will look forward to the approach of summer!