The Enchanting Rose Mug Exchange #7

Today I've got another great guest post from Erika. I think you'll enjoy hearing about her mug exchange and may even want to participate the next time The Enchanting Rose hosts one. Happy reading!

Hello!  Since I don’t have a blog, Natasha was kind enough to let me post about a mug exchange I recently participated in.  Stephanie, who blogs at The Enchanting Rose, hosts a teacup/mug exchange periodically and it sounded fun, so I decided to sign up.   I discovered Stephanie’s blog by happening upon Kitty’s blog. Am I the only one who has no idea why or how they originally discovered some great blogs???

I sent Heather in California a package, and it was so fun choosing items to include.   We also share some similar interests, and it was such a fun way to make a new friend.  Please visit her blog Blue Jeansand Teacups and tell her hello!  

Jodi from Virginia sent me a lovely package!   I don’t think I did a great job of completing my profile, but Jodi chose a mug that has “Erika” written all over it!  The colors are soft pastels, and it has peonies on it, which are some of my favorite flowers!   And the best part?  It came in the most beautiful box!!!    It also perfectly matches the throw on my ottoman.

Jodi also included an adorable quilted coaster.  It has such pretty shades of blue and green.   She also sent me a bar of homemade soap which I will certainly enjoy.

A great variety of teas, hot cocoa, biscotti and caramel wafer cookies were also inside my box of goodies.   I am saving most of them until the weather gets a little cooler, but those caramel wafer cookies – they were calling my name - I had never tried them before and they are deeee-licious!

Thank you Jodi!  This mug exchange was so fun, and I am so glad I decided to participate.

Guest Post: Review of PW Dishes By Erika

I have a special post for you today! My sweet friend Erika wrote a post reviewing her recent purchases of The Pioneer Woman's new glassware. Erika knows I've been super busy with school and work and offered to write this guest post and she did a fantastic job! I may or may not have bought some PW things for myself so I may or may not follow up with another review later on. Big thanks to Erika for taking the time to write this. I hope you all enjoy it!

Hello friends!  It’s Erika here today – thanks to Natasha for letting me be a guest. 

Natasha and I have been fans of The Pioneer Woman - (PW) (Ree Drummond) for a long time.   Although, if being perfectly honest, I think our intrigue has waned a little bit over the last couple of years.  Nonetheless, the lady knows how to cook! 

Anywho, I was VERY excited when PW announced that she was introducing a line of kitchenware.  I am a sucker for pretty dishes and glassware, and couldn’t wait for the items to be released.  Luckily her items became available in early September, and available at none other than Walmart!!!!  

Normally I am not a fan of Walmart, but I thought the prices would be pretty reasonable, and I was right.   All of the pieces are very affordable.  I placed my order online -  because really – who wants to go to Walmart when it can be shipped straight to your door?   The only thing better would be if it had been offered via Amazon Prime.

I received my items yesterday, and I am so thrilled!    I only ordered some of the Adeline glassware pieces; I have a very extensive collection of Fiestaware, so the ceramic ware didn’t interest me quite as much.

Overall I am very impressed by the quality, look and price point of the items I received.  They are manufactured by Gibson Overseas, and Gibson has been producing good quality products for a long time.   My only quam???  She’s “The Pioneer Woman”, right?  She’s the wife of the All American cattle rancher….. BUT, her products are made overseas???  I get it – I’m sure it was waaaay cheaper, but I am a little disappointed that these products aren’t manufactured in our country.  The sad thing – it won’t stop me from keeping them – and I’m sure it won’t phase many others as well.  But that’s a discussion for another time.

On with the show!!

First up, we have my favorite of what I ordered – The Adeline Sundae Cups.   If you know me at all, you know I LOVE stemmed glassware!  These are adorable, and look very vintage – something else I love.   I cannot wait to fill these up with goodies like brownies topped with ice cream, warm cobbler, or even as serving dishes for nuts, mints, etc. at a shower. 

Next up, my second favorite piece – the Adeline Pitcher.   It’s the perfect size for a half gallon of tea, and it is going to show off my homemade lemonade just beautifully!!     These pieces remind me of depression glass and things my grandmother had in her home.  So nostalgic!

The last item I ordered was a set of the Adeline bowls.  They are really super cute as well, and will work very well as vegetable bowls I think.  I can also picture them filled with pea salad, chicken salad and other girlie foods.  I may or may not keep them – I’m just so smitten with the sundae bowls and those little glass feet! 

I checked each piece to make sure everything was smooth, and I didn’t find any chips, nicks, dings, etc.  So that made me very happy.  At such a low price point, I was expecting to find a couple of flaws, but so glad that wasn’t the case.

Also – kudos to Walmart for the excellent packaging!  It makes me so mad when companies don’t take the time to package things properly for shipping, but these pieces were snug as a bug in a rug in their little Styrofoam containers. 

I can’t speak to the quality of the measuring bowls, plates, etc., but the images online remind me of something you’d find in Anthropologie.  So check them out if you are interested.   

Have you bought any of the PW pieces? What do you think?  Yay or Nay? 

PS – Please excuse my poor photography and lack of Pinterest worthy photos 

Guest Post: Never Say Never Review

From time to time I like to have guest posts here on The Chronicles of Nat because let’s face it, I don’t always have interesting things to write about. So, last Friday when Jackie called and told me she was taking Ashlyn to see “Never Say Never” and would I like for her to write a guest review, I said, “Heck yeah!” One, because I knew it would be funny especially since the lasses love The Beiber and two because folks come here for all the best information when it comes to the latest movies and such, right? Well, maybe not, but I knew this would be a post that we would all find interesting. And so, without further ado, I’ll hand it over to Jackie and her guest review.

So I have had Justin Bieber crammed down my throat for quite sometime now. My 7-yearr old daughter, Ashlyn, has Bieber Fever big time. Her pink room is covered with Justin Bieber posters and she knows every single one of his songs by heart. There are days when I hear the volume of her little boom box getting loud and the distinct noise of her jumping on the bed and singing at the top of her lungs and I think, “Lord I can’t take much more”. Then I take a little trip down memory lane and realize I did the exact same thing when I was young except my walls were covered in New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) posters and my boom box was blasting “The Right Stuff” straight from a cassette tape. So the cool young chic mommy in me decided to take Ashlyn and her very best friend Maddie to see The Bieb in “Never Say Never” this weekend. To be honest I went with an open mind because when you see your child get soooooo very excited about something it’s hard not to join in. With that said I am a very cynical person and the way they manufacture pop stars now a days like they’re just pulling them off an assembly line and it’s disturbing. Needless to say, my music tastes have changed by leaps and bounds since the days of NKOTB.

So the girls and I got our popcorn and sodas and got settled in for 1hr and 45 minutes of Bieber mania. I am sure most of you reading this probably have NO desire to see this movie so I will try and make the review as short as possible. The movie starts out with his mother being interviewed. A little fact I didn’t know is that his mother was a teenager when she had Justin and with the help of her parents she raised him all on her own. They don’t really touch on the father subject very much; although he was in the first part of the movie at one of Justin’s concerts and is seen crying backstage, I am guessing because he realized how talented of a kid he had and how much he has missed out on. The movie is a countdown to Madison Square Garden or MSG as they refer to it. Madison Square Garden is the venue of all venues so this was a huge deal that he was able to sell it out. Basically the whole movie consists of a large montage of childhood videos, interviews with Scooter Braun the man who discovered Justin on YouTube and a slew of other famous people who have helped this kid build a massive career. I was convinced that this was going to be the same old story. Some young kid with a little bit of talent but the right look gets picked out of a crowd and bam he’s famous! I was WRONG! This kid taught himself how to play the piano, drums, guitar and the trumpet. His mom was very involved with the music side of the church they went to so Justin grew up around musicians. There is video of very young Justin (maybe 3) playing a killer drum beat on a little stand up drum. Not only does he sing great, can play pretty much any instrument you place in front of him and dance and he has a head of hair that is a being all unto itself (kind of like The Donald – note from Nat)! They do rip on him about his hair which I thought was hilarious because the Beiber swoosh is nerve racking! The unsung heroes of his story though are his mother and grandparents. These people keep the ground beneath his feet at all times. At one point he goes to visit his grandparents while on tour in Canada and a bunch of his buddies come over to hang out and his grandmother won’t let him leave until he cleans his room. The other thing I found really profound about him is that he is extremely affectionate with everyone and he prays a lot. Even when he is grabbing a slice with friends they all bow their heads to pray before they eat. This is not something you see on a day to day basis especially in the industry that he is in. With that said there was absolutely nothing mentioned about his education while on tour or while he was recording his album. I kept waiting for them to introduce a tutor or explain that maybe in Canada (how about I had no idea The Beib was from Canada – note from Nat) you only have to finish grade 8 (which I know isn’t the case) but they never mentioned him continuing his education after he hit it big. That was a huge issue for me and I am hoping it all ended up on the cutting room floor because they didn’t have room. Regardless, this wasn’t a horrible movie. Will I watch it again? Probably not. Do I feel better that my daughter is obsessed with someone who at this point seems to have some moral fiber? Absolutely. If you want to see it, wait until it comes out of DVD. My opinion it was just a really expensive behind the music episode. (I love Behind The Music, maybe I should see this – note from Nat).

Monday GUEST Movie Review - RED

A special thanks to Erika for today's movie review. I have also heard this is a good film and would like to see it and Erika is right about the theater being packed. This was the first time at the dollar movies for both Jackie and me and there was not an empty seat in our theater either. On to the review...

Last Friday I ran into Natasha and Jackie at the dollar theatre. I mentioned I was going to see Red, and Natasha said I could write a guest review – she may not remember, but she did say it! Haha

I originally went to see Red on the big screen – I was nice enough to let my boyfriend pick the movie, and tried not to roll my eyes in front of him when I learned I was going to see what I thought was a “shoot ‘em up bang bang film”.

Fortunately, I was wrong about the movie, and had to admit it.

Red stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and a couple of other people I don’t know and am too lazy to look up.

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA agent that has a crush on an office girl that works in the pension dept. Someone has set out to kill Frank, and of course, the girl gets involved as well – along with some of Frank’s other retired buddies. It contains a lot of violence – nothing too graphic to turn women away, but enough to keep the men folk entertained. It’s also a good love story – I love it when a man will do anything to protect his woman! And, it’s funny!

I definitely recommend it to couples who never can agree on movies. Catch it at the dollar movie (Carmike 10 for you Hsv readers) while you still can. Since you’re only paying $1.00, splurge on the ridiculously overpriced concessions! It’s some of the best movie popcorn I’ve had.

By the way, the theater is packed on Friday and Saturday nights. Definitely get there at least 30 minutes early. I don’t think there were any empty seats left in our theater.

Thanks again Erika! A movie review of The Social Network will be coming up later in the week.

A Week of {Thanks} giving

This week my friend Caroline is having a series of guest posts over on her blog for a week of {Thanks} giving. I met Caroline when I lived in North Carolina and we had some grand times together. I wrote a post for Caroline's {Thanks} giving week and it is being featured over on her blog today. So, if you want to see a little bit of the more serious side of Nat, then head on over to Mrs. Collie’s blog and check it out. Here's the link. Be sure and read all the other posts from this week as well. You’ll be glad you did!