Recommendations Needed

Hi All,

I would like to hear recommendations for a really good steam iron.  I bought a Rowenta Focus but this baby just isn't living up to the hype.  It's just hot enough on the cotton setting but anything lower will barely smooth out paper patterns.

I've purchased a new ironing board that has the handy dandy silicone iron holder at the end of the board.  That helped to maximize usable ironing space on the board.  So, one decision worked out.  Having made that decision on the ironing board I am not really interested in the Oslio iron.  Although I admit their colors are really cute.  My Rowenta is burgundy and seeing how much water goes in . . . yeah, you can't see it.  Ok, another lesson there.

Please comment and I am open to all suggestions.  I almost said any price but no, not really. 

Thanks!

Toocutedobs

New job!

I started a new job this Monday and I am back as staff in higher education.  So as you can imagine from the lack of activity here on the blog through the holidays I will retire this little blog.  I'll still be using it to track all of you guys of course and that has turned out to be it's major function for the last couple of months anyway.

All of my craft and sewing projects are still upstairs waiting for me to make my way back to them.  And I really hope that I am able to do so sometime this spring. But for now it is work and run home to tend to my poor lonely dogs left unattended duirng the day.  The Honey made his way home for lunch today but I doubt he will be able to do that all the time.  Right now I only have a 30 minute lunch so I don't have time to drive back home to let them out at noon.  As you might imagine they are stir crazy by the time I get home.

Looking for day care for them was unsuccessful since the places I found would be very stressful for them.  At home care would be nice.  There is a company that comes out to your home for an hour with your pets---but did I mention I have dobermans? Excellent guard dogs, very faithful to me and the Honey but not so keen on new people in their lives.  Oh well, it will all work out in time---I hope!  Take care and I'll be visiting you on your blog.

Our Two Girl Angels

I forgot to tell you (and photo) what the two liitle girl Salvation Army Angels are receiving from us for Xmas.  Well, almost everything on their lists.  They asked for bikes and the Honey said "No bikes without helmets".  So they got their bikes and helmets, they asked for baby dolls and strollers, they got those too.  Clothes were listed and they got hoodies and they also will receive children's DVDs and books. 

Under our Christmas tree you will find . . . the tree skirt.  I'll try to photo the tree and get it up on the blog.  The ornaments are beautiful!  If you are interested in what our little boy Salvation Army Angel is getting and missed it just look back a couple of posts.  Off to cook some dinner. . . .

A $1.00 Donation to Dress for Success with each pass it on for this video

Clairol.com : Nice 'N Easy Mirror Moments

Lady Grey London Christian Dior Short Movie

Master Bedroom Part 2 and 1 Angel Complete

Yes I know I am slow about getting this out on the blog but I had other things taking priority--you know how it is.

You might remember we tried very hard to choose a new color for the MBR and here you see some of the colors we considered.  Ultimately we choose Martha Stewart's "Yam".  Ok, so the name is not so good but the color would have worked with almost anything.  Really, it would have.

Here you can see where the paint color was lost in translation from the Martha Stewart brand to Behr Brand.  This was done because I needed satin finish and Martha does not do satin.  The large paint blob at the top is the Martha color we chose and the small blob below is the Behr version they mixed at the store. 

The Behr color is really worse than you can see here since it looked kind of neon orange in our room.  YUCK!  By this time we were exhausted by trying to choose a color and Honey said let's just do a fresh coat of what was already on the walls--Laura Ashley Gold #3.  And so we did.

The color is really hard to see in these photos.  Sorry about that but this is a nice medium gold and really neutral.  But the big story, at least for me, is that I finally bought bedroom furniture and at a big ole bargain too.  You see here the headboard, two side tables, and chair I bought for $120.  Yep, it was $20 for the chair and $100 for the headboard/side tables. The oversized comforter set came from Overstock about 3 years ago. This baby is very heavy and only used in the cold winter time. The room is all still pretty plain but a progress in the works.  Some artwork would really help it out I think.

The chair is very clean but the cushions are just kind of flat and I should make new ones.

This is the triple dresser I bought for $200.  The very large triple mirror is out in the garage.  I would rather hang a painting over the dresser than the mirror.  This is Thomasville Furniture made in the 1980's and solid as a rock.  Dovetailed joints no staples here on this baby.  I was very happy to get this and I found it advertised on a roadside sign.  The lady had tried to sale it the weekend before at a garage sale for $500.  Lucky me!  No one was interested in it at that price.

Here you see Dog #2 on her new Kong bed.  She hates it when I get the camera out.  I had the curtains from the former house and finally hung (or is it hanged) them up.  They are called "liquid gold".  Also, you can see the edge of an Ethan Allen desk I have in the room.  A bit early american design and so I thought I would change out the hardware and paint the bottom portion maybe.  Just leave the top in the wood grain.  What do you think?

"Stop taking my photo!! I vant to ve alone!" 

We call her the super model because she is so thin compare to Dog #1. That said she weighs in at about 72 pounds.

Here is a painting Honey did a couple of weeks ago. 

And here is the loot for one of our Salvation Army Angels.  This is for a 5 year old boy: spiderman pj's, two shirts, a hoody, a spiderman backpack, a spiderman lunchbox, a spiderman floor puzzle, Pajama Pirate book, My First Day at School book, Where the Wild Things Are DVD (kid version not new scary version), two cars, and a jeep.

I am still looking for the baby dolls for the girls and it turns out that I need two black baby dolls.  I called SA and checked with them and both families are African American.  TJ Maxx has a new shipment of toys coming in today so I'll check again with then.

Babies!

Hey I found a couple of websites with pretty ethnic dolls Pattycake Dolls and Black Dolls to Love.  You can even find dolls for children with Down Syndrome at Pattycakes.

I found one that I think is very pretty but not sure if it is the right one for our angel tree girl since she asked for doll with stroller.  But look!  Isn't she pretty and she has fabulous hair. She is also very stylish I think.

Cecile by Corelle

Ok, bloggers with little girls out there....would she do fgor a 5 year old?