Vanilla ~ Rebottled

My husband Ray has a friend that lives in Texas, and when he comes up to Michigan in the summers, he always brings me a huge bottle of La Vencedora Mexican Pure Vanilla. 

This is the BEST vanilla. I never buy it in the grocery store anymore, 1. because this bottle is so big, almost 32 ounces, I never run out..and 2.  because the tiny bottles of real vanilla in the store are so darn expensive. Forget even buying imitation vanilla...it's not going to happen.

But the absolute BEST thing about this vanilla....is the price. I would just always give my husband's friend $10.00, and I thought he was just giving me a good deal. But no. I googled it, and found that it can be purchased HERE and HERE....for not much more than I was paying our friend.

So he brings me these bottles, and I use it for baking...I add a little to pancake batter when I make pancakes, I add some to my coffee sometimes, and at night I will warm up some milk and add a few drops to a mug of milk...mmm.

But the bottle is like a bottomless pit...no matter how much I use, it seems like it never runs dry, haha! Also....it's hard to pour when you just need a drop or two. It's the size of a big fat bottle of wine.

Ok....now to get to the actual reason for this post.

So the other day I decided that I needed to put it into something smaller.

I happened to use the last drop of soy sauce, and I washed out the bottle, soaked the label off and let it dry.

But I didn't just want a plain old bottle of vanilla in my cabinet.

So I went to The Graphics Fairy's blog, knowing that there are a vast array of all different sorts of vintage graphics, labels and whatnot available there.

I did a search for 'vanilla'...and was so excited to find this:

Apothecary Label - Vanilla Extract

Oh my. How perfect.

I printed it out and it fit perfectly on the bottle.

As you can see it's a much smaller, more manageable size bottle...and so much nicer looking.

So much nicer, in fact....that I don't want to hide it away in the cabinet.

I'm going to leave it out on my shelf for all to see. :)

My entry into Craft and Tell @ Cherished Bliss is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines

My entry into Fridays Unfolded sponsored 

by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines

Thanks for stopping by....I hope you all have a wonderful day.

And don't forget to go and visit The Graphics Fairy!

Linking to these parties:

Thursday

{aka} design ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ Bear Rabbit Bear ~ Brambleberry Cottage ~ Delightful Order ~ Embracing Change ~ House of Hepworths ~ Just Winging It ~ live laugh rowe ~ Momnivore's Dilemma ~ My Repurposed Life ~ No Minimalist Here ~ RadCrafter ~ Saved by Suzy ~ School House Scraps ~ Somewhat Simple ~ The 36th Avenue ~ The CSI Project ~ Thrifty 101

Friday

2805 ~ 504 Main ~ Addicted 2 Decorating ~ At The Picket Fence ~ Blissful and Domestic ~ Chic On a Shoestring Decorating ~ Delicate Construction ~ Family Ever After ~ Finding My Way in Texas ~ Fingerprints On The Fridge ~ Five Days 5 Ways ~ French Country Cottage ~ Happy-Go-Lucky ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Here Comes The Sun ~ Just A Girl ~ Kojo Designs ~ little becky homecky ~ love notes by lauryn ~ Momma's Kinds Crafty ~ Nap Time Crafters ~ One Artsy Mama~ Remodelaholic ~ Sassy Sites ~ See Vanessa Craft ~ Serenity Now ~ Stuff and Nonsense ~ The Charm of Home ~ The Creative Paige ~ The Grant Life ~ The Rooster and the Hen ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Thirty Handmade Days ~ Tidy Mom ~ Whipperberry

Saturday

Be Different Act Normal ~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ Lolly Jane Boutique ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~ Positively Splendid ~ Six Sisters' Stuff ~ Young and Crafty

Sunday

Ask Anna ~ DIY Showoff ~ Flamingo Toes ~ Homemaker On A Dime ~ I Heart Nap Time ~ It's Overflowing ~ It's So Very Cheri ~ My 1929 Charmer ~ Nifty Thrifty Things ~ Petite Hermine ~ Randee's Organized Chaos ~ Sew Chatty ~ Sew Many Ways ~ Under The Table and Dreaming

Monday

A Diamond in the Stuff ~ Between Naps on the Porch ~ Boogieboard Cottage ~ Brassy Apple ~ Cherished Handmade Treasures ~ Cottage Instincts ~ C.R.A.F.T. ~ CraftOManiac ~ Dittle Dattle ~ DIY Home Sweet Home ~ Everything Under The Moon ~ Home Savvy A to Z ~ Keeping It Simple ~ Lines Across My Face ~ Making The World Cuter ~ Our Delightful Home ~ Polly Want a Crafter ~ Sarahndipities ~ Serendipity and Spice ~ Sew Can Do ~ Sew Chatty ~ Singing Three Little Birds ~ Skip To My Lou ~ Sumo's Sweet Stuff ~ The Girl Creative ~ The Southern Institute

Tuesday

A Bowl Full of Lemons ~ Adventures of a DIY Mom ~ At Home With K ~ Chef in Training ~ Cherished Bliss ~ Coastal Charm ~ Crafty Confessions ~ Debbie Does Creations ~ DIY By Design ~ Elizabeth & Co. ~ Funky Polkadot Giraffe ~ Home Stories A to Z ~ Homework ~ House of Grace ~ How To Nest For Less ~ Kammy's Korner ~ Mommy By Day Crafter By Night ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ Nothing But Country ~ Sassy Sites! ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Sweet Little Gals ~ The Blackberry Vine ~ The Lettered Cottage ~ The Project Queen ~ The REAL Housewives of Riverton ~ Tip Junkie ~ Today's Creative Blog ~ Vintage Wanna Bee

Wednesday

{Primp} ~ A Little Tipsy ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Cheap Crafty Mama ~ Fabric Bows and More ~ Fireflies and Jellybeans ~ Gingersnap Crafts ~ Handy Man, Crafty Woman ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Home Happy Home ~ I Gotta Create ~ Ivy and Elephants ~ Lil' Luna ~ My Girlish Whims ~ Night Owl Crafting ~ Oopsey Daisy ~ Polka Dots On Parade ~ Restore Interiors ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ seven thirty three ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Someday Crafts ~ Southern Lovely ~ Sugar and Dots ~ Tea Rose Room ~ The NY Melrose Family ~ The Sasse Life ~ The Trendy Treehouse ~ Vintage Gwen

My "Pretend" Dishwasher or How I Hid My Dishes

Recently our Sears store went out of business, and they had all of their stock on sale for 30% off. While this sale was going on The Husband and I stopped in to look around. It had been quite a few years since I had a dishwasher, and I sure did miss it, as washing dishes is something I HATE to do.

We found a mid-priced one, and saved quite a bit on it, which was nice.

One thing that always bothered me was dirty dishes in the sink. You eat, rinse them off, then there they sit in the sink until there are enough to wash. To me no matter how clean and straightened the kitchen is, if there are dirty dishes sitting in the sink, the whole room looks messy.

Here's a simple little trick that I used to do before I had my new dishwasher.

I used my 'pretend' one.

What I did was go to Walmart (or Kmart or where ever), and I bought a plastic dish pan.

{source}

Underneath my kitchen sink, I had one side cleaned out, and I kept the dishpan on that side. 

Then when we had dishes, we would rinse them, then stack them in the dishpan.

Once it was almost full, or full enough that it wasn't too heavy to lift, I would take it out of the cabinet, put it in one side of my sink, fill it with hot soapy water and wash the dishes.

Then after I was done with the dishes, I wouldn't pour the water in the sink....I would bring it into the bathroom, and pour it in the toilet. That way I didn't have any dirty water or bits of soggy food to clean out of my kitchen sink.

Then I would just rinse and dry the dishpan, and put it back under the sink.

With 4 people living in the house, I of course had to do this twice, sometimes 3 times a day (compared to the one time I have to run my real dishwasher in a day), but it kept me from having to look at dirty dishes piling up in the sink, and made cleanup a lot easier.

:)

Eucerin & Orange Glo

My 4-month old grandson started developing a red rash recently. It was mostly on his back and the back of his neck. It was raised red blotches, and looked very dry. Since my daughter and I hadn't changed anything we were using for him like laundry soap or any kind of bath time stuff, she asked about it when he went in to his doctor for shots. He told her it was eczema, and said to used baby oil on it twice a day, or baby lotion. 

Well we tried the baby oil, but no matter how little we used, he ended up a slippery mess and it was getting all over his clothes...not to mention that it didn't seem to be helping his skin at all.

Then we tried Johnson's Baby Lotion. His skin must have been very irritated, because he would cry when we put it on his back....I'm guessing something in the lotion was burning when we applied it. Again, it really did nothing to help the rash.

A day or so later she went back for a follow-up to the doctor, and this time he suggested using Eucerin and also prescribed something if that didn't work. He also mentioned that if we filled the prescription, to not used much of it, because of some of the ingredients it contained. Well that put me off right away.

Anyway...she bought a bottle of Eucerin on the way home...and she used it twice a day for about 2 or 3 days. His skin cleared right up. The raised splotches went away and his back is smooth and clear now and does not look dry in the least. He has his baby smooth skin back! We're still using it once a day, or every other day, but the difference is amazing.

I will definitely be buying this from now on for myself. Not getting paid by their company for this review...I just like to let others know when I find a product I love!

http://www.eucerinus.com/

Another product that I have recently been using again is Orange Glo. This is a wood cleaner and polisher. I have used this for a while on wood tables, etc...and really love how it polishes and shines the wood, not to mention how great it smells.

Around Christmas time...I also discovered another use for this product that I don't know if people are aware of. I know I wasn't.

Around the same time that Christmas cards were arriving in our mailbox, I discovered the wonderful product know as glue dots. Yea...the little round sticky things used for crafting and scrapbooking and whatnot. Well I ran out of surface space for displaying the cards, so I decided...hey, won't these cards look cute if I stick them to my mirrors. Well they stuck. And they looked cute. And were impossible to get off. Oh I got the cards off the mirrors after Christmas, but each place I had a glue dot, it stayed in place on the mirror, along with part of the card. Ugh. I tried to pull it off. I tried to scrape it with my nail. I tried to scrape it off with a razor. I tried glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner and holding hot, wet rags on the glue. The glue just spread. I left the mess for a couple days, debating whether I should just throw out the mirrors and hang other stuff on the wall.

Then, as I was looking thru my cleaning supplies...there sat the Orange Glo. I grabbed the bottle and sprayed a little bit on a dry cleaning rag, and rubbed over one of the glue globs. Oh saints be praised....it completely removed the glue within seconds!!! It left an oily film on the mirror, but that too came right off with glass cleaner and paper towel. Every trace of glue was gone and the mirrors were like new!

Now, if there is a sticky label on a jar or glass or whatever, I remove what I can with hot water, and use the Orange Glo and the sticky actually slides right off of the surface. Speaking of slide...the one thing that I don't suggest using Orange Glo on is kitchen tile. I accidentally got some overspray on the floor one day, and we could have charged admission to skate in our kitchen...VERY slippery!

Again..not getting paid for this review...just another product I love!

http://www.orangeglo.com/

Linking to:

Be Different Act Normal ~ Show and Tell Saturday

Best Vacuum I've Ever Owned

About 6 months ago, I knew I finally needed to break down and purchase a new vacuum. I've had several vacuums through the years, the last couple being moderately priced 'red' ones. They worked fine for a while, then I would find myself having to lay it on it's side and pretty much dig out all of the hoses that would become clogged with whatever I had picked up the previous time I used it.  Hoses would become plugged solid. There was no suction whatsoever. The last one I owned, at the end of it's short life, would actually leave more junk on the floor than there was when I started, and the beater brush would throw the dirt out the back of the darned thing. Also, clouds of dust would hang in the air afterwards, not to mention the pain in the butt that it was to keep having to buy bags for it, and have to keep putting them back on when they fell off.


I just don't have the patience for this. All I want to do it get dirt up off the floor and be done with it.


So, I started reading reviews online and checking into new ones. I came across the Shark Navigator Upright Bagless vacuum on the Walmart website. It was a little more than I wanted to spend at the time, but not outrageously priced, but after reading the reviews, decided to buy it. Now after having it for all these months, all I can say is...I LOVE it! Well worth the money I spent, it has never plugged up or lost suction, works great for both my carpets and tile floor. The canister holds a lot and is very easy to empty. It's lightweight and easy to .maneuver. The cord is nice and long. There is also a pet hair attachment that works great on my sofa...and having 3 cats and a dog in the house, I need it. 

Shark Navigator Upright Bagless Vacuum

So that's my opinion on the Shark Navigator. I don't see myself having to buy another new vacuum anytime in the near future...but if I did, I would definitely stick with this one.