I want to apologize to all of my readers and Entrecard visitors. I have been on the road for the past 8 days and had little to no internet access. I spent the last 5 days in a cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN the had no internet connections. I was so busy with selling my sewing projects in Knoxville and seeing the sites, I wasn’t able to get to a place that might have internet connections.
I had planned on being home on Tuesday (tomorrow), however, due to a sudden death in the family on my husband’s side, I am now heading towards the Atlanta area for a funeral, a very sad way to end what has otherwise been a fun and rewarding trip.
I miss my blog and connecting with all of you. I should be home sometime over the coming weekend, I hope!
Every year I find myself searching the advertisements for sales on school supplies. Then, I find myself running from store to store looking for just the right items. It makes it more challenging because my daughter is somewhat choosy about her school supplies and what she wants, so I always have to make sure she is with me. Of course, as much as I love having her with me, it always ends up taking me longer and costing me more! This year is no different, except that she’s going into junior high so their are some additional items to hunt down.
I would love it if our school district would utilize the EZ School Supplies program. Through EZSchoolSupplies.com, schools can register, enter their supply lists and receive a promotional package to help inform students and parents about the program. Students and parents can then order prepackaged school supplies that are exactly what their teachers want and require them to have. Not only does it help students be prepared for class, but it helps them to be successful in school, after all, being prepared leads to a feeling of confidence. Being confident leads to success.
I was fortunate to receive a sample box of school supplies from EZSchoolSupplies.com and I have to tell you, the items in it were all first rate, quality products. These weren’t knock of brands either, they were name brands, items I would purchase if I was at the store shopping. I even love the box the supplies came in, it has a convenient carry handle and is large enough to accommodate the large size construction paper and deep enough to stack up all the folders and markers and still have room to add to it. It’s a great way to keep the supplies organized and handy.
EZSchoolSupplies.com carries all kinds of school supplies, including these:
3-RING BINDERS
BACKPACKS
CRAYONS
ELECTRONICS
ERASERS
FIRST AID
FOLDERS & FILES
GLUE & TAPE
KITCHEN ITEMS
LABELS & DIVIDERS
MARKERS
NOTEBOOKS & PADS
PAINT
PAPER
PENCILS
PENS
POST-IT NOTES
REFERENCE BOOKS
SCISSORS
STORAGE
WATER BOTTLES
If you’re not sure if your school utilizes EZSchoolSupplies.com, take a look at their website, type in your zip code and it will show the schools in your area who participate. It does benefit the schools who do participate in more ways than one. Besides helping the students to be prepared, schools who participate earn 10% of the total net sales. It’s a great fundraiser and something all students can use.
To all my readers and loyal Entrecard droppers, I am leaving this morning on a road trip to Tennessee and will not return until July 23. I am not sure what type of internet access I will have, if any. While I am taking my laptop with me, it may be a few days before I can get online.
I will attempt to post, but until Wednesday at least, I will only have dial up, very slow dial up, access and will be unable to drop EC’s. I will return though and for those of you who continue to drop, I will surely appreciate it!
I hope you all have a great week and if you’re going to be in the Knoxville, TN area next weekend, let me know!
When we moved into our house a year ago, one of the items to go immediately on our home improvement to do list was to get new carpet in all of the bedrooms. Let me just be up front and say, our home improvement list is fairly long, so we haven’t yet gotten around to getting new carpet. I think about it a lot, especially when I’m watching television and I hear the Empire Carpet jingle, you know the one, “800-588-two-three-hundred, Empire Today”. If you’re like me, you have that number memorized!
Did you know that Empire Today, a company that was started as a family business in 1959, was recently named one of the the top 200 Brand Names in the United States? According to Wikipedia, Empire Today was also named the #1 Specialty Flooring Retailer in the U.S in 2007. Not bad for a company with such humble beginnings.
What began as a small, family-based business in Chicago, has grown into one the largest home improvement companies in the U.S. They now operate in over 50 cities in the United States and Canada. Empire Today specializes in flooring installation, including carpet, hardwood, and ceramic flooring. Of course, flooring is not the only thing they do. Empire also does window treatments and bath and shower liners for bath renovation. Their goal is to make it easy, fast and affordable, whether you’re buying window blinds or plush carpet.
Besides the great value and next day service, I think the biggest advantage of Empire Today is the in-home demonstrations. With today’s busy schedules, it’s nice to know that you can look at flooring in the comfort of your own home. It might also help to see the color choices in your own home’s lighting. How many other companies allow in-home shopping when it comes to home improvement?
Personally, when I think of Empire Today, I think of the Empire Man, and I had no idea that he’s been around since 1977! He began as a live action hero, before becoming an animated character. He has definitely become a recognizable icon of Empire Today, representing value, customer service and next-day installation. You don’t even need to hear the jingle to know who he is, he’s synonymous with Empire Today. He has become so famous, there are even Empire Man bobbleheads! I found it very interesting to learn that Lynn Hauldren the man portraying the Empire Man, began as an advertising copywriter, but when Empire Today couldn’t find an actor for their commercials, the company owner at the time, Seymour Cohen, asked Hauldren to play the part. The rest as they say, is history.
In case you’re not familiar, here is one of the Empire Today commercials.
One final video. This video is from 1979 when the company was known simply as Empire. This is also before the company went national and so you’ll notice the phone number is only 7 digits, a Chicago area number. See if you can find any other things that are different from the Empire Today commercials we’re all familiar with today. Listen to the jingle too, there is a slight change that came later, can you figure it out?
Well, I completely missed doing this one last week. It was July 4, so I took that day off from blogging and the computer in general, to spend time with my family. I am here today, barely. I’m getting ready for our trip to Tennessee and so I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I’m not sure I’ll have access to the internet next Friday, so I wanted to be sure to get this done today. There is no way I could miss doing my favorite meme 3 weeks in a row!
So, here it is. If you’d like to participate in this fun weekly meme, head on over to Fun, Crafts and Recipes and let Valmg know you’re playing along.
This weeks questions and my answers:
#1. Cake. Buttercream, whipped cream or ice cream? Oh! I love all three!! One of our favorites though is the frozen custard cake from Culvers.
#2. When entertaining do you use real, paper, plastic or styrofoam dishes? That really depends. For birthdays and outdoor parties, it’s usually paper. I don’t use styrofoam anytime, it doesn’t recycle too well.
#3. When hosting a party do you cook, have it catered or go to a restaurant? I usually cook, although, this past weekend we brought in food and it was wonderful. It even came with all the plastic serving utensils and saved me a ton of work.
#4. Share a recipe that you frequently serve when having a party. We don’t party too much, but I would have to say that in the summer, I do tend to serve deviled eggs more frequently than any other time. Everybody makes fun of deviled eggs, but they sure do disappear in a hurry.
Boil eggs, cool under running water and peel. (Doing this right away helps keep the shell from stick to the cooked egg). Remove yoke into a bowl. Using a fork, break apart cooked yokes. Add tablespoon of mustard, 2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise, a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp. of celery salt, and a dash of pepper. Mix. Adjust all amount to your liking. Taste. If satisfied, drop by spoonfuls into cooked egg whites. Sprinkle lightly with paprika. Serve.
I have designed a small name badge for each of us to wear at our booth next week. I created the design on my embroidery software and have transferred it to my sewing machine. It really should be a very simple thing to create.
Instead, I spent 4 hours fighting with my embroidery/sewing machine. The machine would tell me what size hoop to use, I would place that hoop on the machine and would tell me I was wrong. I battled with it until I couldn’t take it anymore.
I am concerned that perhaps the embroidery arm of my machine has somehow gotten out of whack. There is a sensor inside that tells it which hoop is attached and I’m not sure it’s reading it correctly. This could be a costly repair. I think I will be taking the entire machine to the store and ask them to look at it.
I really need my machine this week, so if it needs to be sent off for repair, it will have to wait. I can still sew on it, I just can’t embroider.
We got our van serviced on Monday. The oil was changed, new transmission fluid, the a/c was checked and fluids added and we even had new windshield wipers installed. On Tuesday, my husband drove it out to the airport, about 50 miles, and he said he couldn’t believe how much better it drove, it was almost as if it had been turbocharged!
No matter what car you drive, you can have an audi turbocharger or a big conversion van like ours, it’s always good to keep them serviced. Our van is now 8 years old and so it was time to do some of the other things, not just the regular oil change, especially since I’m going to be driving to Tennessee and Kentucky in a few days.
If you really want to turbocharge your own ride, check out www.turbochargerpros.com
My next door neighbor has placed a Little Tykes slide down at the curb for trash pick up. I really want to go pick it up and take it to my niece who is just about 18 months old. It would be perfect for her.
How would you feel if your neighbor took your trash? I don’t think it’s broken or anything, I just don’t think they’re using it anymore. I’m thinking I might wait until it gets dark and then go get it and put it in my garage. I’ll be seeing my niece next week, so I could take it to her.
I’m just not sure how my neighbor will feel about it if she sees me with it.
I’m going to be traveling all next week. I’ll have my laptop with me, but I have to admit, I am so accustomed to having high speed internet access that anything else just isn’t good enough! I will have a couple of nights in a hotel that will probably have high speed, but I will also have a couple of nights at my sister’s house who only has dial up access. Ugh!
I can’t blame my sister, she would love to have high speed access, it just isn’t available where she’s at. If Charter internet were available, I’d have her sign up right now. They’re currently offering the first 30 days risk-free and they don’t have any long term contracts. And, with pricing as low as $14.99/month, it’s very hard to beat. The current service comes with a high speed internet security service and 10 email accounts. That’s really good!
Okay, I’ve never been a big fan of Quiznos, although I have eaten there on occasion. I now have a bigger reason to not eat their food. My blogging friend Monique had a bad experience while eating a salad from Quiznos yesterday. Read about it here and you will understand.
I feel she did the right thing by calling to let them know what had happened. I don’t feel that Quiznos handled her complaint in the right manner. If we bloggers band together, maybe Quiznos will learn to treat bloggers better, not to mention, learn to handle their foods better.
