Marie Callender's Pie Review

I can't believe the major holidays are just around the corner. What comes to your mind when you think about Thanksgiving and Christmas? Friends and family gatherings, big feast, cooking for a big crowd and cleaning up... sounds exciting but a little overwhelming doesn't it? I love to cook but I do not want to get too stressed about get togethers. Marie Callender's ready made pie shells have been a great “go-to” for me for sometime. They are made from scratch, have a homemade quality and taste great. I was given the chance to try some of the Marie Callender's pies. The pies were Coconut Creme, Chocolate Satin Pie, and Dutch Apple Pie. My family and I happened to love all these pies, so we are very excited to try them! Every Monday is our special family night. No matter how busy our life gets, we try not to schedule anything that would keep us from spending time with each other on Monday nights. We had a couple friends visiting us that night and it was just the perfect time to try the pies with them. First of all, I was very impressed when I pull them out of the box. They. Look. Exactly. The. Same. As the picture. I know, it is supposed to be that way, but when you buy something, how many times does the picture looks amazing, but the actual product doesn't look anything like the picture? This isn't the case.

My family LOVES chocolate, so naturally they were drawn to the Chocolate Satin Pie. It was decorated with real chocolate curls (which by the way, my daughter kept eating off of the pie before I could even cut it!). The rich chocolate filling is very smooth and tasty, yep, it was definitely a hit. One of my sons and I love coconut cream pie. Usually though, even in big family gatherings, because it is not as popular as chocolate pie, we don't have it on the table. I realized that with Marie Callender's that problem is solved! The creaminess of the coconut custard with crunchiness of the real toasted coconut created a great flavor and texture in my mouth. Mmm... heavenly... Now, last but not least, the Dutch Apple Pie became one of our favorites. The delicious aroma of fresh Fuji apples and brown sugar streusel filled our house while it was baking in the oven. Even though I said that my family loves chocolate, the dutch apple pie got eaten the quickest! I loved the combination of the extra flaky crust with the filling. Special occasion or not, having a delicious home made quality dessert by Marie Callender's will be a great help to celebrate our everyday lives with our loved ones.

Don't forget to visit their Facebook page and Pinterest to find out more about their products and coupon offers.

Which pie looked more appealing to you? Leave a comment for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card.

Entry Instructions:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 12/2/2015 – 2/29/2016

Be sure to visit Marie Callender’s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

Be sure to visit Marie Callender’s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

Tea Towel Apron Review @Lolly Jane!!

Meet Kelli and Kristi...

They are the geniuses behind the amazingly popular blog Lolly Jane. You will understand right away why people are drawn to their blog when you visit them. Their eye for craft, home decorating and fun recipes are captured by the beautiful photographs and shows through in their posts. They are not only talented, they have the biggest hearts and are down to earth. I love them both!

Let me show you some of my favorites.

They have created this nicely organized Numbered Cubby System. Right now we don't really have an organized space like this in our mudroom, I am drooling over this look.

Christmas is around the corner, it is always nice to have different decorating ideas. I really love this mix of color and texture!

Then their craft room ... Isn't it so pretty and picture perfect? I am dreaming of visiting them and crafting with them.

They have agreed to do a review of my Tea Towel Apron Kit from Crafternoon. Please head over to Lolly Jane and read their experience with the kit today!

Also, if you haven't enter for a chance to win the Tea Towel Apron Kit, you still have time. The giveaway closes on the night of the 15th!

Review ~ the Shirt Making Workbook

If there is such a thing as a bible for shirt making, this book would be it.

I was given the chance to review the book, "the Shirt Making Workbook" written by David Page Coffin who was an editor at Threads magazine as well as contributing many articals for them. David has taught and lectured all over the U.S, Canada, and U.K. He has also taught an online class for Craftsy.com.

What I love is that David did an amazing job explaining things so well throughout the book.

Yes, I can sew a garment... well, as long as it's not too complicated. I have never attended a sewing school, I have learned everything I know through trial and error. I know I still have a lot to learn. I hope my book review can give you the glimpse of how awesome this book is and how great it is for everyone; beginner to intermediate!

In chapter 1, he talks about where and how to get these five basic blocks(patterns). In the last chapters (3 through 7) teaches us details and specialized techniques associated with each of five block types in the picture in the bottom.

In Chapter 2, you can learn and review a few key generic construction techniques in common use among professionals.

Who knew there are so many different collar types!

There are some unique pocket and cuff ideas too!

He also featured some designers in his book. My most favorite designer is Morgan Meredith. Morgan and her husband Matt has a pattern line for menswear. You need to go check out their website for the unique and versatile patterns, tutorials and links. It is hard to find stylish and current menswear patterns. As my boys are getting older, I am happy to know that I have a go to pattern store with one click of a button.

Reading through the book I realized that this is not a sewing how-to book even though he shared many great techniques through out the book. This is a shirt design book which is full of information that professionals would use with a more friendly approach for home sewers like myself. Also, what's great about this book is that this workbook provides a large collection of full-size add-on detail patterns in digital, printable format. Now, we can really get rolling and have fun with it!

Intrigued? If you want to expand your knowledge in shirt making, you don't want to miss this one. I highly recommend it! :)

Rug Pad Corner Review!

My formal (well, not so formal) living room ... I want to talk about something in this picture today. Can you guess what it is???

I had a chance to review a couple rug pads from Rug Pad Corner. This review offer couldn't come at a better time than this; I had a couple rugs that are on my hard wood floor and they kept sliding. I was going to go to the store and buy rug pads that week!

I went to their web site to do some research, here is what I found out:

The founder and CEO Sam Kaoud worked at his father's oriental rug store as a part time job when he was a student. After that it became his full time job and passion! He saw too many rug pads in customers' homes actually sticking to the floor. After he did his research, he found out that mose of the rug pads contain inferior quality materials, commonly adhesives and chemicals.

He saw the need for genuine quality rug pads that would actually do what they are supposed to do. He states:

"I visited the mills, told them what materials to use and which not to use…told them I did not want any glue or adhesives at all…told them that the rubber must be real, solid rubber. I got what I asked for and started offering these pads to every customer in our rug store, but why stop there? For the millions of other people around the country with area rugs, I wanted them to have the right rug pad - so in 2009, I launched www.rugpadcorner.com."

I also found this statement on their site:

"We manufacture natural felt and rubber rug pads in the USA with American materials. Our mills know how strict we are about quality standards and there is never any imported material or chemical found in any of our rug pads. We also do not believe in coating our rug pads with common adhesives that others use – instead, we pay more time and money to utilize specialties, such as a heat pressing process to assure safety to your homes and floors."

RPC Heat Pressed™

Exclusive only to Rug Pad Corner, felt rug pads labeled as RPC Heat Pressed™ assure you that there are no adhesives or glues in them – Instead, we utilize a Heat Pressing Process to reinforce the material within the rug pads. Our Ultra Premium, Superior and No-Muv Rug Pads are Certified RPC Heat Pressed™. Click here for more on RPC Heat Pressed."

Wow! Sounds promising right? I have to admit, I am not the most Green minded person or anything, but as a wife and a mother, I would love to know what I am bringing into the home and if they are safe for my family. At first, I was just happy just to have a rug pad, but now, I am really excited to try them out! So, the rug pads came to our door...

The rug I had by my kitchen sink was from Target. I fell in love with the design, but there is no grip on the back of this rug. It was slipping all over and the kids hated it. I tried the Super Hold pad, which is made out of real rubber not plastic. Oh what a difference it made, the rug is staying in one place and we all love it!

I also have a larger rug in my formal living room. Because there is less traffic there, and because of it's size, it wasn't moving as much as the kitchen rug, but it was sliding more then I liked. I got to try out the Ultra Premium rug pad. It is 1/3" thick and it really stays on the floor!

Rug pads are not something we show off or decorate the house with, but knowing the product really works and it doesn't contain harsh chemicals is a great feeling as a customer. I totally recommend their products to my friends.

As a Tea Rose Home reader, you receive 15% off of your entire order. Just use REVIEW15 at checkout. I hope you enjoyed my post!

Clothing Construction Book Review

When I first started to sew clothing, I had no clue where to begin. The pattern that I bought (in Japan) had instructions, but as I was making progress, there were a few areas that needed more explanation because I was new to sewing. Eventually, I bought a sewing book that covered more details of how to do things; it had lots of pictures and that helped me a ton!

The book I had the pleasure of reviewing and introducing to you today is "The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction" by Christine Haynes. The title says it all, very straight forward and the content is true to the title. When I read through the book I was very impressed with how the author paid attention to detail and explained things so well. There are over 600 colored pictures throughout the book to go with the explanations!

The author, Christine Haynes, has her own line of sewing patterns, writes regularly for many sewing magazines and teaches sewing in Los Angeles and online. Wow, no wonder this book so well organized and written from cover to cover, she is an expert!

In the book you will find the anatomy of various garments:

Introductions of all sorts of notions:

Instructions and tips on how to read patterns properly so we can get a jump start to creating quality clothes.

In addition to all the basics, she also added some beyond the basic techniques; such as French seams and rolled hems!

I look forward to returning to this book often while I sew clothing in the future, my bookshelf definitely has a spot for this gem. If you are thinking about starting to sew, still new to sewing clothing, and even somewhat advanced, you will find this book very useful. Yes, I totally recommend this book.:)

Epson LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit Review

I received a really fun package one day... Have you heard about Epson's LabelWorks Printable Ribbon Kit? This is a perfect handy gadget for printing personalized satin ribbons for crafts, decorations, gift and much more. There are 14 font types and 10 font styles to choose from. You can store up to 30 label designs and print up to two lines of text. This particular model accommodates tapes from 1/4" to 1/2" wide. Usually I have a hard time with any techie things, but seriously, everyone, it was easy enough that I was able to figure out the way around, right away! Once I start playing with it, ideas started popping in my head; here are some of the things I did...

I wanted to print customized ribbons for each of my kiddos. I am going to tie these onto their Valentine's day gifts. I bet they will LOVE to see their own names on the ribbons!

I also have been wanting to have labels for my sewed items(that's right! I washed it and the letters did not fade or come off!!). I experimented with different fonts to see which one I like better...

My favorite are these two. I am going to fold the one with just "T" in half to sew in to the seam of bags and pouches.

While I was away, one of my boys printed himself one while giggling. It read:

I am glad to find out he has quite the self-confidence. :) Well, I mentioned Valentine's day at the beginning of the post... these words popped in my head as well and I had to type them out.

There are so many people around me that I adore very much. "Adore you" is such a simple statement, but I feel like it says a lot, wouldn't you agree?

I can think of many other ways I will be using this label printer. You can find them at Office Max, Amazon and Staples. What would you make and say if you had this awesome label maker?

Review: DownEast Home & Clothing

I was asked to do a review for DownEast Home & Clothing, and I am so excited to share this post with you today!

They have been one of my favorite "GOTO" stores for the last few years for their fairly priced, fashionable modest clothing. Did you know that I created the "Ruffle Shirt"from their wonder tees? Their stores are located throughout Utah and Idaho, and I am so glad that I have some stores that are within driving distance from my home! I packed my camera, and headed over to one of the stores last week.

Every time I visit the store, I find several furniture pieces that catch my eye. This day wasn't an exception either... I will share some of my favorites.



I love the colors of these pots. The way they were displayed was pure genius. The shelf caught my eye immediately.

I love the details on the door. Simply beautiful...

I have a weakness for little chairs...

I have been eyeing this chest with lots of drawers. It would be so awesome to have something like this for my sewing room to organize stuff.

This iron union jack table literally took my breath away... and followed by three words, I WANT IT!

Because there are so many beautiful things, I had a hard time getting over to the clothing section. I ended up spending a long time there as well, there is so much eye candy, all over the place, I mean on the wall, racks, display tables... sigh...

Redwood or amber green?

Feminine lacy top or casual border sweater?

Their girls collection is very fun too...

I like this mother & daughter coordination. It is not exactly the same, but there is a link with colors and style. Such a cute dress for a little girl!

I picked some of my favorite accessories for little girls and took pictures. :)

Are you curious what I end up getting that day?

After going back and forth for some time, I found the dresses on the sales rack that I have been eyeing forever!! I had to claim them as mine. :)

I love the simplicity of these dresses, and I was thinking about fall as well. With different types of accessories, I can wear them in so many different ways. For example... purple shoes & scarf? or boots with wide belt and necklace? I mean, I will have so much fun with these dresses this fall & winter.



In fact... I have already started enjoying them. One of the ways to have fun with these dresses for me is to wear it with a petticoat. I think it gives a different look to the dress.




You can connect with DownEast Home & Clothing through Facebook and Twitter and get the latest and greatest scoop!

Thank you Kathy and Cammie for this review opportunity, I had so much fun!