Cafe Express

Do you remember my mention of my love of coffee in this post?  My favorite brand of coffee is Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. 

Cafe Express is a discount membership program offered through Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.  While I know that there are cheaper brands of coffee on the market, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters coffee is by far my favorite, and receiving a discount on a product that I love is even better!

Cafe Express membership offers some great deals.  You set up your recurring delivery by choosing what flavors you want, what quantities you want, and how frequently you want to receive a shipment.  You are able to change your selections at any time, and Cafe Express emails you prior to each shipment to make sure that you don't want to make any changes.  As a member you automatically get 15% off your coffee purchase (which includes bags and k-cups).  If you order four or more boxes of k-cups you also get free shipping.  After you have received four shipments, your account is accelerated to "Platinum Membership" which then entitles you to an 18% discount off of your coffee purchases.

The BEST feature (in my humble opinion) is the free extended warranty on your Keurig brewer.  With Cafe Express membership you are automatically eligible for this unique feature.  Should your Keurig brewer stop working after the manufacturer's warranty expires, you simply call Cafe Express, provide them with the serial number off of your brewer, and they will replace it with an equivalent machine for FREE!!  This feature alone is worth partaking in the program.  When our 3-year-old Keurig brewer ceased working, I simply called Cafe Express, they took my information, and a new Keurig was sent to me with absolutely no hassle!!

What are you waiting for??  Go sign up!!

Free Curtains

Letting friends and coworkers know about your hobbies can be advantageous.  I had mentioned a recent sewing project to a coworker, and it turned out that she had a bunch of fabric that she was looking to rehome.  She asked me if I was interested, and I wholeheartedly said, "Yes!"  So far she has brought me multiple boxes of fabric!!

In one of the boxes was this large piece of drapery fabric.  I didn't immediately know what I was going to do with it, but after a couple of weeks the need for this fabric became very clear.

We have been working on finishing our mudroom (slowly over the course of the past three years), and it came to completion last week!  Unfortunately, the fabric that I had set aside to be the curtains for this room was not quite long enough. I remembered seeing the fabric pictured above while I was sifting through the boxes that were given to me, and inspiration struck!

Armed with the donated fabric, a pair of scissors, some black thread, and my sewing machine, I set to work.  Straight valances are, by far, one of the easiest sewing projects.  If you can cut and sew in a relatively straight line, you can sew a valance.

The valance above was made from a strip of fabric cut 24 inches in length (I kept the width from selvage to selvage). I made a quarter inch rolled hem on all four sides, then folded the top down three inches, and seamed along the bottom of the folded edge (creating a three inch pocket on the top of the valance. I then measured down one inch from the top of the fold and made another seam all the way across. This created a "ruffle" along the top, and a smaller pocket to feed the curtain rod through. Each valance took less than 20 minutes, including measuring, cutting, and sewing!