How to get Sparkly Fixtures

Here is a very easy way to make your Kitchen and Bathroom fixtures sparkle with no effort at all.  

Take a little toothpaste and rub it on the fixture with a damp cloth and then just rinse .

It will sparkle like new :)

give it a try and let me know what you think.

Cookie exchange 2009

kids judging table

kids decorating

kids judging table

Last night we had our COOKIE Exchange. We enjoyed some delicious pizza , My marinated hot peppers , My sister in Laws( Carmela) Fried dryed hot & sweet peppers . , but most of all we enjoyed great family & friends time together.

The kids then had some fun decorating gingerbread cookie pops , which we then judged and gave prizes for most colorful, most icing used , least icing used , . it was fun .

My 9 yr. old gave us a magic show ...Watch out magicians of the world ! cause he is getting good at his tricks ! :)

The ladies than got judged on who had the most decorative cookie, The cookie santa couldn`t resist ( Santa loves kisses ) , the cookie with the most ingredients, the least ingredients, the nuttiest, the sweetest , the plainest .. The zestiest ..Lots of judging and a load of fun . I can`t wait to do this again .

Everyone left with a prize :) I can`t wait to do this again next year .

Winter Wonderland :)

view from our Kitchen window :)

This is our first winter in our New Home ...We started to see some flurries yesterday but nothing much . My youngest Adam already wanted to just go outside to make a snowman !  Living in Florida all his life made watching the snow come down  outside such a big treat for him .
I talked him out of going outside knowing there was more snow (blizzard ) on its way  :)  , The rest of the day was fun babysitting for my sisters kids while she did some of her Christmas Shopping .

This morning we woke up to almost 2 feet of snow ! and WOW the look on Adams face grew wider .He was so excited as soon as he woke up and looked outside that he ate breakfast in a minute and can not seem to put on his snowsuit fast enough LOL but his older brother is still asleep so he is now removing his snow suit and waiting and waiting hoping his brother comes down for breakfast soon to venture out into the snow for some real fun with snowball fights and building snow forts to hide from the snowballs . He has a lot of imagination and really makes the little things in our life more meaningful and well appreciated as they should be .

We will be spending the day sipping on Hot chocolate, roasting marshmellow's by the fire  and playing in the snow .

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow .

Going green around the Holidays

If you thought going green around the Holidays was going to be hard just look around you and think for a minute and save a tree !

wrapping presents can be fun , easy and GREEN !  Have you ever thought of using newspaper comics to wrap a present in ? be creative and make a matching bow .

If you have fabric around , use it to wrap presents .

Kids art work from school would be great to wrap grandparents presents , they would be thrilled !

Old maps would also be great for wrapping.

clothing is also a fun way to wrap ... If you have something tubular , a pair of socks would be especially fun to wrap and receive.



Old Christmas/birthday/anniversary cards can be cut up with pinking shears to make new tags for this years presents.

Any other ideas ???

Deck The Halls

Our Tree 2009


Our tree with the snow village

Tips To make your home very festive looking with very little work .

Add a special holiday touch in every room of your house .

If your putting up a Xmas tree in one room ... place your Nativity scene in a different room , Your snow village in yet another room .  Add little color by changing your doilies to festive colors  like red, blue, or green .add small holiday guest towels in the bathroom . add holiday salt & pepper shakers in your kitchen , keep it simple and elegant . As you go to each room , you will get into the holiday spirit and you`ll get to enjoy all your hard work each and every day no matter what room you spend your time in the most.

Making a list , Checking it twice !

My son`s Gingerbread House

Now that Thanksgiving is over . Time to make your list and check it twice and start looking for those bargains !

I am so out of it this year ... first my move back to NY in a Rental house  , Then the move into our NEW HOME ,  and now Thanksgiving at our house ...I have a huge family !, It just wears me out to even think of the shopping I now have to start . I am usually all done by this week yet this year I haven`t even gotten started yet. My cold is not making matters any better .

Black Fridays are for the birds , I just can`t see getting so stressed shopping in those crowds and standing on line forever just to save $30.00 !  I do try to get whatever I can from online and their specials are almost as good as the Black Fridays prices with Free Shipping included. 

My advise is ... find a bargain online and grab it !

Time for Decking the halls and really getting into the Spirit of the Holidays .

Money saving tip(laundry)

As I was doing my laundry today , I wondered how many of us ladies think of how much electric we waste when doing the laundry . I was in the habit of doing 1 load of  laundry every day to make it easier on me . 

My new way of doing the laundry is making sure I have 2 full loads to be ready for the wash at once .  Not only will you save.. water, electric, and soap  by doing less loads per week if your loads are full!, but you will also be saving on your electric bill by running your dryer one load after the other so that the dryer does not have time to cool off before your next load goes in . Also clean your lint AFTER EACH LOAD !! Your clothes will dry alot faster . Clothes should be shook piece by piece as you put them in the dryer .  If your clothes took 40 minutes to dry before  , following these steps will dry them in 20 to 30 minutes !