Lookin' for an AMAZING washing machine!

I love doing laundry, yes I really do!  Except I haven't liked it for a very long time, well as long as we've owned a Maytag front loader!!!  I cannot express the amount of disdain I have for Maytag washing machines!  Or their repair service.

All of our clothes smell sour, are dingy, stains don't come out, and it is like an earthquake rumbling through, or wait maybe it's a freight train.

So I knew if I posted a "HELP ME!!!!" on my blog, you wonderful ladies would give me advice.

I have been researching on consumer reports and the Kenmore and LG's are top rated.  Except LG makes Kenmore, so those count as one.  I have my eye on the new Electrolux, you know where Kelly Ripa is on the commercial, getting everything done, looking amazing doing it in her size -0 pants?

But my hubby has his eye on Samsung.  Which both Electrolux and Samsung get very high reviews on consumer reports too.

But do top loaders do better cleaning?  We don't know if we should get a top loader or another front loader.  And the top rated top loaders are by Maytag and Whirlpool, which now are one in the same and I REFUSE to own either!!

So let it all out and tell me what you really think, what machine you have and if it's a top or front loader.

Thanks my fellow housewives!

Lovely

I love this photo, now how can I turn this into a Lollibag?

Dolce & Gabbana

Just some ramblings

I am re-reading a book I had read a long time ago, it is called Gap Creek by Robert Morgan.

Pretty good for a male author, since he is writing from a girls perspective.  It is set in the last years of the nineteenth century.  I love how Julie (main character) makes cornbread every day and grits or oatmeal every morning.  I love to read how she comes up with meals when they have nothing.  Why am I so into food?  I don't know. 

But I was reading it at the dentist office today (again, each child has to go!)

and in the story they had just had a flood and barely made it out alive.  Julie's  husband was a bit suicidal from having no money and loosing it all in the flood. 

 She said to him, "You think you're so important the Lord would make a special flood just for you?"  "This flood is happening to everybody."

"There ain't nothing special about your troubles."

I love that!  We can all learn something from that, when we get caught up whining about our lives or our trials.  HEY, I'm not pointing fingers, I am THE WORST!! 

I can whine like there is no tomorrow! Feel sorry for myself too, I do that really well!

I love that phrase and I will say it to myself when I start sending out invitations to my pity party.....

There ain't nothing special about MY troubles.

Moving on, who loves Good Earth Tea???

My mom always had a pitcher of Good Earth Iced Tea in the fridge, and now so do I.  In the same pitcher my mom used to keep it in.

On every tea bag there is a little quote, here are a couple of my favorites.

Why should I buy expensive art when I can make my own.

Piero Milani

(1964- )

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.

Horace Walpole

(1717-1797)

Have you ever been to the Good Earth Restaurant?  My mom used to take my sister and I there when we were older, she would always order the cashew chicken salad sandwich, with of course Good Earth Iced Tea.  After she died, when I still lived in MN, my sister and I used to eat lunch there, ordering the same thing.  The closest one was an hour away, by good shopping, so we would make a day of it.  The shopping center is called The Galleria.  Oh I miss doing that!  I would give anything to be eating that sandwich with my sister right now, sipping a glass of tea.

Whose been to the Good Earth?

"event"

The event was OK.  I had a great time with Lauren on Friday night, we were silly.  I met some new friends.  I sat next to a nice gal.

The 6ft table was a lot smaller than I invisioned.

I did sell a few bags, but made no profit.  I think my bags were a little to country for the city gals.

Or should I say city guy.  He was the lone Mary Kay Man.  I admire a man who will do what he wants even if he is the only one!

WHEEEEWWW!!

I am so glad that is over with!  Doc says see you in 5 years.  When they put the "narcotic" (as the nurse called it) in your IV, it is pure blissful sleep.  On a funny note I woke up to people farting in the recovery room. 

I heard a nurse tell the old man next to me, you can go home when you release some air.  He then let out a loud, long fart, and said, there I am ready to go home now.  Ha ha, it was pretty funny!

Sadly I heard the Dr. tell the older man on the end he will have to have surgery tomorrow because they found a pretty big tumor.  I am so thankful I am clear, but so sad someone else was not.

Getting ready for the event tomorrow night and all day Saturday, I'll post pictures when it's over!

March is colon cancer awareness month

Soooooo in light of that, I will take you on the colonoscopy journey.  Now I am a pretty open person, I will walk up to a stranger in a store and start chatting, hoping to find some common ground.  I will tell you how I feel.  When I go through the starbucks drive thru, I always want to be honest when they ask me how I feel, I want to tell her I have a migraine and I'm not doing well, but there are people waiting behind me, so I lie.

So here it is:

Now I thought it was going to be a really horrible day, I have been dreading this day for a month.  But I received a wonderful e-mail from Kayce , a sweet lady featured in Country Living.  I wrote about her a few posts back. I commented on her blog about how I would love to hear the boring details of how she started out.  She actually wrote me back and gave me her number and said to call her!

So this day has started out pretty darn good.  By thy way, visit her blog and you can link to her online clothing store.  Beautiful dresses!  I'm adding a dress to my wish list, yet another thing to save up for with Lollibag sales!

Back to reality here, I have talked about my mom, her death was a huge life change for me.  It haunts me and being motherless has changed me.  She died of colon cancer.  Which is the most preventable cancer there is!  Your Dr. will tell you, you don't need a colonoscopy till your 50.  My mom died at age 50 from colon cancer.  If you have a close relative that has had it, they say to come in at 40.  That is better, but I have a friend who has stage 4 colon cancer and he is my age, 38.

So....... THE PREP

In the above picture you see what I can have today.  I must be on a liquid diet, I can have chicken broth, yellow or green jello, 7-up, gatorade (which I hate), ice tea , and coffee.  I gotta tell ya my tummy has been growling since 7:30am....Lord help me.

At Noon I must take 2 laxative tablets.  At 2pm, I must mix the ENTIRE bottle of Miralax in a 64oz. bottle of gatorade, my bottle is 128 oz, but that is all target had.

Now I have to drink half the gatorade/miralax mixture slowly over 1-2 hours.  Drink 2 cups of water after to optimize the prep.

At 5pm if I have not had several trips to the bathroom, drink a bottle of magnesium citrate (another laxative), slowly over 1 hour followed by a glass of water.  I can skip this step if I have ran to the bathroom quite a few times already.

Now tomorrow at 4am I must get up and take two more laxative tablets and drink the other 34oz of gatorade/miralax mixture.  They say expect to have only 12 -15 trips to the bathroom throughout entire process including earling morning hours.

That is NEVER how it happens for me!  I take all this stuff and don't start running to the bathroom till maybe 10 pm, then I am up all night for FAR more than 12-15 times, by that point I am so sick to my stomache, I end up skipping the 4am pills and drink, cuz I would just throw it up anyway.  and I am still "running" to the bathroom till we leave for the appointment.  Which I have to "run" to the bathroom at the clinic also. 

But somehow it all works out, you get hooked up to an iv, your head hurts so bad from being dehydrated I think.  You walk into the room.  Last time I did this I walked into the room only to be greeted by two young male nurses, who looked to still be in college... GREAT! 

They give you some sleepy medicine and you wake up in recovery and throw up.  Well I do, cuz I get sick from the sleepy medicine.  So there you have it.

I hope I didn't discourage you to much, but if you have a family history of polyps or cancer, go in and get it done,  it could save your life!

Every girl needs a beauty shop

I finally found a beauty shop I love.  I went the other day to get a trim and color and I thought Portia would like to go too.  Her hair was almost at her waist and needed a trim. 

 Something you should know about Portia, she wants to be a mermaid when she grows up and she dreams of seeing the princesses and Cinderella at Disney Land. 

A couple years ago, she saw a commercial for Disney Land and you could enter to win a stay at Cinderella's castle!  She saw the two beds in the room and said MOM!  why is there two beds? before I could respond she said, Oh, one must be for her husband.

So the morning of her haircut, she came into the bathroom while I was getting ready and asked me , Mom, are mermaids real?  I said well I'd like to think they are!  I just could not say anything but that,  to her.  Then she said are the Disney princesses real or do they wear costumes?

I said OF COURSE THEY ARE REAL!!

Don't you think little girls grow up to fast?  I could not tell my little girl that mermaids and Disney princesses were not real.  I remember when I was little I was in complete and utter love with unicorns.  I still have the pictures I drew of unicorns.

Well, when I found out they weren't real... I was so sad, I cried and cried.  I just feel like my sweetie is going to grow up and have enough disappointments in life, why start now when she is still so innocent.

So for now my little girl still wants to be a mermaid.  After we left the salon she said, Mom it's a girls day we need to go to lunch!  So off we went.  We also went to Target for a sketch pad so she could draw her designs for Barbie clothes.  It was a good day.

New Lollibags

I have been sewing non-stop for a month in preparation for "THE EVENT", which is next Friday and Saturday.  Somehow I still feel like I don't have enough, I have 40.

This bag is different from the one above, one has a single handle, one has a double handle.

I sold the bigger bag just like this, so I had to make another one, I love orange and pink.

And here are the tags I made, I soaked them in coffee and threw them in the dryer.

Have a great weekend!

The UPS man is my friend

I will admit, it is really fun for me to shop online and wait for the UPS man to show up at my front door.  Why is this so exciting?  I don't know.  But this is not frivilous shopping, no, I NEED these things.

Yes I do feel a tad guilty that he has stopped here for 3 days in a row.  But I am trying to get my oldest son, Josh, back to work.  He works part time in the wee hours of the morning, unloading and loading boxes for UPS.  He has not been called in , in a looooong time.  So lets get shopping ladies!!

My first purchase were some shoes.  The next day I got my box from Lehman's.  I ordered a new dust pan, theirs are cute and farmy, not plastic so you can hang it up in your kitchen.  I also ordered some washing soda, for cleaning.  But the best thing in the Lehman's box was the soap!  I got Grandma's Lye soap

                           And Grandpa's Shea Butter Soap with lavender & vanilla.

They both smell so good!  They actually smell vintage.  I am a huge smell person.  I really love the lye soap, I haven't tried the shea butter soap yet.

Just today I received my box from Sephora.  Who loves Sephora???  ME!!!!

I had just read about Clinique's new product, Even Better CLINICAL dark spot corrector

So yes I do see this as a need because if I can get my skin looking great, that will be less makeup I wear, which means less money spent at Target.

I am also trying Murad's T-zone Pore Refinging gel.

Ok the guilt is really hitting me as this is not a need but a want.  I so want clear skin, my whole life I have had skin troubles, and I've tried everything.  Here is one more product to add to the list.    So I will let you know how I like these products. 

Also when I shop online I shop through Mr Rebates.  I go to mr rebates website and login and then I go to Sephora and click on that and I am linked to the Sephora website.  Sephora just had a special going of a 9% rebate.  So I will get a 9% rebate back on these items.  There is small print, you have to aquire $25 in rebates before you can get a check and they don't post your rebate till 3 months after purchase date.  BUT I must say I always shop through them and love it, have even gotten rebates on hotels.

It's another sunny day here in Oregon!

The Grandpa's

I really needed to vacate the farm today, so I gathered up my little farm girl.....

and headed for Starbucks.  Wouldn't you know it, the grandpa's were there.  We said hi, and Sophie immediately grabbed a bag of cookies.  So of course they bought it for her.  I asked them if I could take their picture and they said yes.

Sophie is sitting with Lloyd, who always wears a hat, then to his right is Jim better know as "kid".  To his right is Howard or "taxi".  Last is another Jim or "razor".  All four are retired police officers.  They asked me to sit and chat for a little while.  Sophie plowed through her first bag of Lucy's peanut free cookies, so of course Lloyd bought her another pack, the first pack was bought by Taxi.

I learned a bit about their wives, Razor has been married for 53 years, Lloyd's wife died 9 years ago.  Kid is divorced.  I think Taxi said he is still married. 

After Starbucks, Sophie and I headed for Joann's Fabrics, I needed some pinking shears and a ruler to help me make straighter lines.  I remember my mom's pinking shears, the handles were black.  I don't know where they are now, I wish I had them. 

I bought a cheapy pair till I can afford a nice pair like my mom had.

I remember going to the fabric store with my mom when I was little, I think it helped create this illusion I had for a long time about women who sewed...  First off the old ladies who worked at that fabric store were always grumpy. and old.  and frumpy. 

I never wanted to "get into" sewing, because I thougt it meant I would be a plain ole ugly grumpy lady, who sat home sewing cheesy elastic waist pants all day.  Or that I would have to grow my hair long and wear it in a bun and wear NO makeup and wool plaid skirts every day, with comfortable, "smart" shoes.

I still see people like that at fabric stores and I still think fabric store workers are a bit grumpy, don't those  ladies like cutting fabric??

But one good memory I have is getting to look at the buttons.  When I was little I would love to look at the round racks of buttons, I loved it , the cute animal buttons, or ice cream cone buttons.  Just think if my mom would have bought those for me and saved them, they would be so fun to look at now!

So I got Sophie out of the cart and let her look at buttons.  Imagine from her eyes how wonderful those buttons look!

It is a sunny day here, it is amazing how your mood changes with the weather!

I'm going to go use my new ruler and see if I can cut a straight line.

Lolli's Dress

Here is the dress Lauren made!  It is her first ever dress and without a pattern to boot!

A couple days ago she grabbed a sheet I had and started cutting away, then I saw her folding away and pinning away...

and sewing and sewing and sewing.....

It's quirky, just like my Lolli

vintage blue zipper

and a bubble skirt.  Oh just to clarify, the t-shirt is not part of the dress, but I told her she had to wear a t-shirt under it.  Did I say 100 times already there was no pattern, she just whipped it up??

That's my girl!

Coastal Living and Country Living

Ok so I just received my Feb. issue of Coastal Living in the mail today!  The one with the adorable pink two tier umbrella!!  By the way that umbrella is from Santa Barbara Designs.  I haven't gone searching for the price, but I'll just add it to my list of wants but never gets...   The great lady at Coastal Living also sent me a free March issue too, Yippee!  I have alot of good reading to do today.

This is a blue umbrella from Santa Barbara Designs, isn't it lovely?

I was looking at my new Country Living last night, the April issue, and I came across Kayce Hughes.  Mother of 7 children, has her own clothing line.  Beautiful family.  She has a sweet yellow playhouse in her backyard for her kids.  I was saying to hubby, ha!  She did it!  She is a designer, has lots of kids, and her husband built her a playhouse.  Hubby just kinda , ya ya great, ok honey, you will....  I want to be called a designer, I have begged my hubby to build the girls a playhouse, and I have 5 kids...OH and they showed a picture of her kitchen with bird houses lined up on the wall, HELLO!!!!!  I have bird houses lined up on the fence in front of my house, could we be any more alike???

ok I'm know I'm not like her, just dreaming I am.. I read the article with longing, why can't that be me?  Hubby dutifully said, in monotone, it will be honey.  I said, wouldn't it be funny if I supported us on my Lollibag sales, ha ha... he said ya that would be great!  OH another similarity.... she collects seashells, SO DO I!  And her little girls room, same bed my daughter has!!

Honestly I want to be my own person and I am, I do not long to be like anyone else, ya right...  I really don't want to be envious, I just wonder, how do they do it?  If they can why can't I?  I wonder how do you get your foot in the door?  Well when I figure it out I'll let you know.

Oh, on a side note, Lauren grabbed a sheet the other day and started cutting, pinning, sewing, she has come up with a beautiful dress.  I am in awe that she had no pattern.  I'll post pictures when it's finished.  I am a very proud mama.

Lollibags and Converse

This morning I took Portia out to buy her a new pair of Converse.

Portia also has been wanting her very own Bible, so we got one of those too.

Of course we got one with a daisy on the front because that was my mom's favorite flower. 

We also went to goodwill today and you'll never believe what I found!  I found a vintage brand new enamelware strainer!!  It still has the vintage tag on the bottom!

.

It was only 3.99.  I also found a TON I mean a TON of white fabric for 4.00.  It's in the wash already so no picture...you'll see it in Lollibag form soon enough.

I finished up the new Jumbo Flower Lollibags..

And the vintage tag Lollibag

It was so much fun finding that strainer and taking Portia to get her red Converse.  I love having that special one on one time with each of my kids.

More Memories and What I'm working on

Here is a front panel to a bag I'm making.

I'm done with this vintage tag Lollibag, I did not take very good pictures...

Here is the front of the third Lollibag I just made, I know not pretty pictures, but I was so excited to show you the new Walk Down Memory Lane photos I found!!!

Alot of you wrote in to tell me about the Pond's cold cream your mom used.

Did she ever use Pond's shampoo?

I myself had never heard of Pond's shampoo, but maybe some of you have.

I remember the Breck Girl.

What is your favorite time of life to remember?  Is it when you were under age 10 or middle school?  Or do you like to relive high school?  For some reason for me it is when I was really little... I remember eating Apple Jacks for breakfast and they came in this box...

And somtimes we had Trix...

But the food item that REALLY got me going was Swanson TV Dinners!  Remember those?  If we were good, it was a VERY special treat to get a Swanson TV dinner, and my mom would let us watch TV while we ate the TV dinner!

Maybe some of you were allowed to have a pop with your dinner, not us.. while this picture is newer than the TV dinner, it still bring back memories of my mom drinking Tab, because she was forever on a diet!  By the way remember the diet drink Alba77?  I remember my mom drinking that and taking Fiber Trim.

Not all of us were allowed to drink pop, but we did get a special toy at McDonalds.

I'm not sure what year this toy is but I do remember the yellow nuggets box.  After lunch you may have had to reapply your lipgloss.

Remember all the vintage Avon?  I loved it when my mom would get my sister and I things from Avon.  One of my fondest memories were the glace pins.

Did anyone have the pink cone or the poodle?

And who can forget Sweet Honesty?  And Babe!

I remember when Jordache jeans came out I wanted a pair soooooo bad!  A pair with a horse on the back pocket.  I never did get a pair.

Did you go into Walgreens to pick up some Charlie?

Or was it to replenish your Aqua Net?

When my mom bought Leggs, my sister and I got to keep the egg to play with.

Thanks for walking down memory lane again, I loved reading your comments on products you remember!  So  tell me again!