Five on Friday - Lamps, Keepsakes, Miracle Toilet Scrubber, and Happy Mail

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Happy Friday!  We made it through the week, and our little fam is kicking off a 3.5 day weekend since the kids get out at noon today.

Are y’all ready for some favorites from the week?

O N E – New Lamps

I mentioned in my weekly recap last week that we finally bought some new lamps for our living room.  The ones we had prior to this were a wedding gift back in 2007.  Since the lamps were 13 years old, they were a bit outdated, and the switch on one of them has been broken for a few months which made it such a pain to turn on and off. 

I found these lamps on Amazon sometime last year and I added them to my wish list, but when the time came to buy them, the price had skyrocketed.  After searching elsewhere online and locally for new ones, I managed to find the original lamps on sale at Target.com.  Since we also get an additional 5% off with our Red Card, I snatched them right up.

I was worried about them being broken or damaged in transit since they’re so fragile, but they arrived in perfect shape… Safavieh knows how to package some lamps!  The quality of these is fantastic… they’re, by far, the nicest lamps we’ve ever owned.  These are also really large – several inches taller and wider than our old ones – so they make quite a statement in our living room.  If you’re in the market for new lamps, I can’t gush about these enough.  They are stunning, and judging by the quality, I’m sure they’ll last a really long time. 

T W O – New Keepsakes to Treasure

Since my Grandma died a couple of weeks ago, my family has been cleaning out the house that she and my Pop lived in since 1969.  My Daddy and I went over to see the house one last time last week and I found a couple of keepsakes to take home. 

I love old books, and I’ve kept at least one or two from each of my late grandparents.  I grabbed this dictionary from my Pop and Grandma’s house to add to my collection, and my dad also grabbed this white teapot for me to keep.  The book is dated from 1956 and it is super old and worn.  There’s also some writing inside (not sure whose, though) and I just love it so much.  It’s now sitting on our entertainment center with my other old books, and the teapot is displayed in our kitchen.  I smile every time I see them, and I just love that they serve as little reminders of people who I miss very much.  

While we were over there, my dad also found this picture of me and my Pop at Christmas in 1985.  Look how sweet!  I posted it in my Instagram stories last week, and so many people commented to say how much that looks like Olivia.  I couldn’t agree more! 

T H R E E – Old Pictures

Over time, our family members have given us lots of old family photos, so I decided to display them on the chest of drawers that holds our DVD collection.  It is one of my most favorite areas in our whole house, and I’m excited to be adding more to it soon.  My Daddy has been slowly going through my Nana’s old photos since she passed a year ago, and now he has more photos to go through since my Grandma just passed, too.  

So far, our collection consists of five old photos, clockwise from the left:

Brian’s paternal great grandparents (my FIL’s paternal grandparents)

Brian’s other paternal great grandparents (my FIL’s maternal grandparents)

My maternal grandparents (Mama Cass and Big Daddy)

My paternal grandfather (Pop) and his sister

My maternal great-grandparents taken on their wedding day, April 3, 1913

I’m working on adding more to our framed collection as we get them… I’m hoping to eventually have all of Brian’s and my grandparents and great-grandparents displayed… I’m going to need a bigger surface!  Haha.

 

F O U R – Miracle Toilet Scrubber

I posted this pumice toilet scrubber in my Amazon Purchases post, and many of you asked me to update you once I’d used it.  Well, I finally got around to cleaning our toilets with it last weekend, and the results were amazing.  Before I get to those, a little back story – our toilets are nearly 12 years old and they all had permanent stains that no cleaner would remove, including bleach. 

This pumice scrubber claims to remove calcium, lime, rust, iron, mildew, and hard water stains, and it easily got rid of whatever it was that was staining our toilet.  The scrubber is made of pumice, so it’s hard-ish, and it almost acts like sand paper by gently scrubbing the stains right off.  It didn’t take but a few seconds, and it didn’t take a lot of work either.  Since it’s made of pumice, it does gradually wear down, but I cleaned three toilets and there’s still a lot left, so I’ll be able to use it many more times.  My only complaint is that the handle is pretty short, so my hand did touch the toilet water a few times.  Eeeew.  Haha.  It does come in its own handy little plastic storage container, too, so it’s super easy to store!

This thing was seriously a miracle worker and it was definitely worth the money… 100% beats getting new toilets, that’s for SURE!

 

Before: There was a permanent ring around the water line.

After: All clean!

F I V E – A Sweet Gift from a Friend

Last week, my one of my friends randomly texted me and told me that she had ordered a little something for me and that it would be arriving from Amazon.  Friday afternoon, these hand towels showed up at my door and they are the absolute best!  I cannot wait to add them to our Christmas décor later this year… heck, I may just go ahead and start using them now.

Getting that little package just made my day and I’m so grateful for life-long friends who know me so well.  Thank you, Jeannine.  Love you so much!

Friday Funnies

 

On the Blog This Week

 The Easiest Way to Keep Track of Daily Tasks (My Daily To-Do List)

 Our Week – The One with Quarantine, Week 47 (Grandma’s, Baseball, and the Super Bowl)

What I Wore – January 2021

Happy Friday, y’all! 

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.