What I like about Hanes brand products

One Hanes Places offers some of the best brands in bras, hosiery and casual wear that you can find. We're talking about brands like Hanes, Bali, Playtex, Champion, Legg's and more. The difference is that One Hanes Places offers these brands at discount prices. Even better news is that you can save even more with a one hanes place promo code.


This is good news for me and for you. I use Hanes products and have been consistently happy with them. I can't imagine finding a more comfortable t-shirt than Hanes sells. My kids and I frequently decorated our t-shirts when they were younger. We would paint or tie-dye them according to the occasion. The shirts themselves always held up to repeating washing even when our artwork wasn't up to the challenge.

Kitchen upgrade may include paint and spice racks

When a local grocery store went out of business, it surprised me that very few people stocked up on spices. Even the most exotic flavors are affordable when priced at 20% of the average retail price. I am going to need some of those choices when my daughter marries in June. So, Hubby and I decided to stock up while the prices were so low.

It seemed like a good idea at the time but it kind of backfired. We overflowed our spice rack pretty quickly. I also think that happy couple will enjoy having some as a 'sort-of' wedding gift. Our plans are to share some of these with both daughters. In the meantime, I still need a place to put all of the bottles and that may mean working a kitchen spice rack into the budget.

Painting the kitchen is going to be my first priority. The walls are a light cream color right now but that is going to change. I went by Lowe's Home Improvement and picked up a beautiful shade of deep red. It is going to go above the cabinets on each side of the wall. With luck, it will make the kitchen look deeper. With more luck, I will be able to get this done while Hubby is out tomorrow and be able to post before and after photos. (Check back in a couple of days!)

If we purchase a rack for the spices, the style is still up in the air. Our kitchen is well-maintained but small. Age is causing the one we have to be replaced sooner rather than later. In addition to the overflow, the kitchen counter rack that we have now takes up a fair amount of space. It may be that a wall spice rack may work the best. First, I have to get that painting done and then we will go from there.

Purple memories from my youth

One of the good things about growing older is how your taste in style changes. I can remember a set of http://home-and-garden.become.com/purple-table-lamp that a friend of mine had when I was younger. The large butterflies were made in the ceramics studio that her grandmother owned.

The bottom line is that a ceramics show was coming up. We were close in age and always competed against each other. Her lamps were pretty and made me nervous. It was a relief when we both brought home blue ribbons.

I can laugh about this because when my daughter was about the same age she found a purple lamp that she liked. Fortunately, she grew out of that notion before Hubby could get involved.

Hubby enjoys working with his hands. If we had access to reconditioned table saws he might have made the lamps for her. Wiring them is easy. Creating the bases and the lamps themselves are what's difficult. However, a new saw is out of our budget and without the right tools any job is impossible.

It goes without saying that Hubby rarely fails to mention that a reconditioned table saw would be just as useful as a new one. I saw this great cabinet at the craft store a couple of days ago. It's just the thing for my kitchen. Hubby pointed out that a saw would mean that he could build a cabinet at the fraction of the cost of buying one. This is an ongoing exchange that we have.

One day, I'll probably come home to the cheerful buzzing of his new toy. That buzzing could indicate that my cabinet won't be too far behind. If so, I just hope that it won't be painted purple.

Change a life with a promotional pen

When is a pen more than a pen? When it’s used to change lives or help others it becomes a symbol of achievement.  

The nonprofit that I work with is always on the lookout for small affordable items that we can give away to the public and to clients. One of the things I hear regularly at workshops or in books is that personalized pens make an excellent marketing tool.

Most of you know that Hope for Healing.Org works with juvenile offenders. Ideally, we would also like to raise funds to buy some engraved promotional pens, key rings or mugs to give the kids who come to us.

For the organization that I work with, these items are more than just a way for people to remember us. Most of the kids don’t receive positive reinforcement at home. Using pens and promotional products to reward good behavior may help us make a lasting difference with the kids that we work with.

Taking care of carpets and friends

We never know what type of furniture or floor coverings that that we’ll find in a parsonage. One of the things about moving around often is that you gain experience in cleaning a wide variety of household furniture.  

My family has been blessed with some well maintained homes. When a church goes to lengths to provide something nice you want to take the best possible care of it. For this reason, I often turn to professionals for help with special cleaning needs.

Friends of mine who are in Texas feel the same way. We talk often about daily chit-chat. But we also talk about wicker furniture cleaning in Austin. While I don’t have wool carpets she does so she had to find a wool carpet cleaner in Austin.

One of the things that she and I both agree on is that carpets need to be professionally cleaned once a year. Finding reliable at home carpet cleaning Austin or anywhere can be a real challenge! Getting references from friends and relatives can be a big help.

One year, my family was moving to a new home and needed to have the carpets cleaned in the old one. My favorite company wasn’t available to help us and we had to use someone else. The results were disastrous. I was really glad that we had regular household carpet.

My friend doesn’t. She had to find a Berber carpet cleaner Austin when she moved. She had a hard time before she found a reliable cleaning company.

It’s nice to have someone that you can talk to about everything from the kids to church and even carpet cleaning. I’m really glad that we’re friends.

~~ Many thanks to the above company for sponsoring this blog.~~