Tea Towel Review and a God Thing…

Recently I was asked if I’d be interested in reviewing some tea towels from www.all-tea-towels.co.uk    After looking over all the adorable tea towels on the website I chose two really cute  ones to review.  Of course I had to pick a pretty pink floral one…..

See how pretty the flowers are!

I also picked one out for my hubby’s birthday!  You see, he’s a drummer and he carries a towel with him to dust off his drums, or even wipe a sweaty brow from time to time! lol  I got him this one, and there’s a story that goes along with it too! (Please read the whole thing…it was SO cool how this happened!)

See, my hubby had seen the saying, “Keep Calm and Carry On” on a poster one day while we were in a craft store. (and yes, he does take me to craft stores…I’m a lucky lady!)  He said he REALLY liked that saying on the poster and I kind of tucked that away in my brain.  To make a long story short when I was approached to do this review by www.all-tea-towels.co.uk, I saw this adorable tea towel and got it for him as a surprise for his b-day and hid it away for a while. This is where the story gets interesting…..he is the worship pastor at our church and our senior pastor was going to be out of town and asked him to preach.  This was the very first time he would preach so we were pretty excited about it!   He had a whole week to prepare and I didn’t bug him about what he was going to preach, or even ask…I didn’t want to make him nervous.  He was to preach on Sunday night and on that Sunday morning I got the bulletin that announced what would be taking place for the day…it announced my hubby would be preaching and the name of his sermon was “Keep Calm and Carry On”!! When we got home I told him I had something for him…I gave him the tea towel and we both knew at that moment that it was a confirmation from God that he was indeed supposed to preach that message, on that very day, you see it has been months since he had seen that poster!  How cool is that?  I love it when God talks to us like that. :0)  Oh, and he did a marvelous job preaching too! His entire sermon was Keep Calm, Carry On…You are not alone.  (saying God is always with us…even in the midst of our storms)

So these tea towels are not only beautiful and sturdy, but this one in particular was a gift from God. (and www.all-tea-towels.co.uk )  :0)  If you’re in the market for some really lovely towels, that have held up wonderfully for me, I would recommend you go over and look at the tea towels on this site.  I had a hard time choosing because there are oodles of great ones to pick from!

I had a hard time not getting this one…isn’t she lovely!

AND this one!

These are very well made too…see the hems..

I have my pink floral one hanging in my kitchen.  I received the towels a while back, but asked if I could wait a couple of weeks so I could do an honest review….they were happy to oblige me. 

So this is my honest review…I adore my tea towels and wouldn’t hesitate to purchase more!

Here’s the website again if you’d like to go take a look!
www.all-tea-towels.co.uk

Hope you all have a blessed day!
I have another update on my window seat…I’ll post it soon!

Hugs

Missy

Technorati Tags: www.all-tea-towels.co.uk,tea towels,dish towels,keep calm and carry on

How to Add Molding to Your Doors- Door Header Tutorial

Hey ya’ll!  Recently I was blessed to be asked to review some paint brushes by Purdy and of course I said, “yes”!  I knew I had some things coming up I could use them on and this project was one of them!


Here’s what they sent me! Woo hoo! I’ll tell you up front these are the best brushes I have EVER used! (but keep reading…you’re gonna want to see what I painted with these brushes..and get the tutorial!   lol)


I have been wanting to do some updating to my doors for a while now and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do until I saw what Emily did to her doors. (she was inspired by Diann)
I’ll show you how I went from this……

this….

and this….


To this……

this…..


and this……


To get started you’ll need pre-primed MDF boards from Lowes…I bought 3 1/2” wide x 8’ long boards for $6.76 each.  Each piece did two doors.  (well the regular sized doors…I bought longer pieces for the bigger doors)
First I measured the width across my doorways from the outside edge of the door facing  (most of my doors were 38” wide.) 


I then took my board and cut it with my handy dandy miter saw and nailed it above the doorway like this…




The next step was crown molding (I had some left over from another project and just bought a little extra to finish up)

Crown molding is a little bit tricky to cut…you have to cut while it’s resting at an angle and upside down…like this. (see how the little curved part is facing up…that’s actually the bottom of the crown.  Also, it’s angled just like it would be when it’s installed)   You cut it at 45degree angles on each end,  and to the length of your board that you’ve already nailed up.


Like this…. (see how the bottom edge of the 45 degree cut is right on the edge of the board that you already installed? This is what you want it to look like on each end)

The next step is to cut little pieces that will fit into that space on the end.  Your side pieces will have one 45 degree cut that matches the 45 that you just cut, plus it will have  a straight cut that goes against the wall. (these too are cut upside down and angled)
They’ll look like this when they’re in place


I just put some glue on the angled side……

stuck it in position and used painters tape to help hold it in place until the glue dried.  Do NOT try to nail this piece in place, it will split out your wood.
I installed a little decorative piece of half round next, to hide where the 3 1/2” piece of MDF joined with the regular facing.  I just glued that piece up too and taped it until it dried.

After the glue dried, I primed all the doors with my Kilz 2 primer and my Purdy brushes!
I have to tell you, I LOVE these brushes!  I used to think I was doing  the smart thing by just using the little foam brushes that I could throw away when I finished using them, but I was wrong! I think I’d have been much better off buying a reusable Purdy brush and just keep using it over and over…these have been amazing!  They come in these cute little boxes that you can reuse once you clean your brushes…it keeps the bristles nice and straight.


I also enjoyed using a brush with a real wood handle….they were very comfortable to hold. (and let me tell you, I held them for a LONG time…LOTS of painting with these doors!)


The paint went on beautifully with these brushes, BUT


(ha, you thought I was going to say something negative didn’t you!) Nope, I was going to say, BUT, my favorite part was the angled brushes…they made getting the sides of the doors a breeze to paint! (and it was with no painters tape!)  The only time I used painters tape was to hold the wood while the glue dried! lol



So lets see the before and afters one more time shall we?! (cause we all know that’s our favorite part!)

upstairs hallway BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Above the front door BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Over dining room BEFORE:

and AFTER:


I did ELEVEN of these doorways!! I told you I did a lot of painting!

Ok..to wrap it up, I sawed, I nailed, I glued, I primed and I painted and now I’m in LOVE with my doors and the Purdy Brushes!
If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask away!
Hugs!
Missy
Linking up to Beneath My Heart

Technorati Tags: how to install crown molding,how to make door headers,how to make your doors pretty,how to install molding

Goodbye and good riddance! :)

As you guys know, I was asked by CSNstores.com

to do a review of a product from their stores. (did you know they have over 200 online stores?!)

OH MY GOODNESS,

do you know how long it took me to pick one item!

I had them lined up from here to kingdom come

trying to figure out what to get to review!

:0)

But I finally got it down to one item that

I thought would get more use in our home than any other.

You see, I have this......

Don't laugh, you know you all have had one or still do!

My hubs and I got this for a wedding present 25 years ago...

ya think it's time for a new one?!

Wonder if it qualifies as an antique now?

(No, no it does not, because that would mean I'm an antique

and I'm NOT..we were married as babies~!)

So having seen that, I'm sure you know

what I chose to review!

Yep, this puppy right here.....

a Hamilton Beach Stay or Go Crockpot!

Look at that removable insert.........

I hated, I repeat HATED, soaking that old

crockpot for hours because it didn't have a removable insert!

My heart is happy!

Okay, it's pretty in the box, but what can it do?

Well for starters it can travel....

With a show of hands, how many of you guys

 have had gravy or bbq

sauce on the carpet of your back floor boards in the car?

My hand is up!

Not with this baby, it has a lid that clips down so

nothing will spill and the lid even has a gasket around it!

(no more meatballs in my floorboard!)

See the gasket?....sigh.
(I know, it doesn't take much to thrill my soul!)
:0)

Yep, I know I keep showing you pictures of the clip tight lid, but

I'm totally thrilled with that feature!

Here's one more!

This is a 6 quart crockpot so it can hold lots

see......

It's a good thing too, I have three boys and a hubby that eat here everyday and a brother that eats here

 at least 2 or 3 times a week, so I need volume!

Oh, and I think this is the cutest little feature!

Looks like a regular name plate right?

NOPE, it holds these adorable little labels that came with it....

See!!!....

There are blank ones too, so you can label what you're taking...

I love this for all the church functions we go to!

Oh, and this feature is great too...

a place to rest your spoon!

(and the spoon came with it to boot!)

The first thing I made in this crockpot was a recipe I made up

all on my own, but it does come with a few recipes in the

instruction book to get you started.

I made a chicken dish that I poured over

egg noodles. It turned out REALLY

good, so I thought I'd include the recipe.

(yep,  if it had been bad, you wouldn't have gotten a thing!)

:0)

I started by putting all the following ingredients in the crockpot.

1 can chicken broth

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 small can of mushrooms

1 medium size onion, chopped

3 ribs of celery chopped

2 to 3 lbs of chicken tenderloins (I use the bagged ones from Kroger)

Cook on low for 5 -6 hours, checking chicken, celery and

onions for tenderness after about 5 hours.

When this is all done, add 8 oz sour cream. 

I found it was too thin at this point, so I

thickened with a little cornstarch mixed with a

tad of water.  It was really yummy!

I served it over egg noodles with a salad

and yeast rolls.

SO, if you can't tell, I

REALLY love this crock pot!

(and I'm not just saying that, if

it wasn't good I'd tell you so.)

If you're in the market for a new crockpot

or if you still have one of these...

You might want to pop on over to CSN and

pick up one of these...

It's Loverly!

:0)

Hope you guys have a great day!

HUGS!

Missy

How Fun!

CSNstores.com has given me a wonderful opportunity and I couldn't wait to tell you about it! Could it be that some of you don't know about CSN?! Well let me tell you about them!  They have over 200 online stores and they have so many items to offer...they range from lighting and rugs,

to bar stools and cookware! 

It really is a great place to shop!

Now on to my opportunity!

CSN has given me the privilege of reviewing a product! I have seen so many blogs out there that review products, but this is the first time I've been given the opportunity to actually review one myself!  How FUN! If you've never shopped CSN, you're gonna love it!    I did a giveaway from there a few months ago and just loved what they had in their stores....now I get to shop too! hee hee hee

What do you think I should pick to review?
Click on the link and help me!!
With all the holidays coming up, I was thinking bakeware....
mine looks horrible!
Let me know what you would pick!
Ohh, or maybe legos for my son to review, now
how much would he like that! lol

:0)

HUGS!
Missy