Last year I shared the exciting news that Coca-Cola and the World Wildlife Federation were partnering to support the Arctic Home program, which is dedicated to raising awareness for the conservation of the polar bears and the Arctic North that makes up their habitat.
The program has been a phenomenal success so far and now Coca-Cola wants to make sure that the next generation is raised with a passion for protecting the environment that will ensure the future of the polar bears for years to come. [Read more...]
Living in a century-old house means that we are always renovating and as a result, we do a lot of painting compared to most families. In fact, since we bought my childhood home almost two years ago, we’ve painted practically every room in the original part of the house. And with an unfinished addition to make liveable as well, we’re going to have a lot of painting in our future too!
The first product that caught my eye was the clever SHUR-LINE Easy Release Roller Cover Frame. There’s nothing that exciting about most paint rollers, but this one really was something special. It featured a clever easy release trigger to minimize mess when changing rollers. I just pulled the lever and the roller popped out so that I could remove it quickly and cleanly. And the ergonomic handle made painting so comfortable!
The final SHUR-LINE product we received was the Edger. This clever hand-held painting tool was the one that I found the most useful and I fell in love with it almost immediately. My husband has a steady hand and has no problem carefully painting around doors and windows or along the bottoms and tops of walls. I, on the other hand, am notorious for messing up these areas and smearing paint on baseboards and casings. But with the SHUR-LINE Edger, those days were finally behind me! I simply had to lift the plastic guides at the top of the edger, dip the pad into my paint, click the guides back down again and then follow the edges of doors, windows, baseboards and ceilings with the front of the Edger. And just like that, I could create the perfect edge I’d always wanted!
To get the results we want, high-quality paint is important, but high-quality painter’s tape is important too. We’ve had a chance to use a few different brands and varieties of tape during our many renovation projects, and until we did I never realized what a big difference the right tape could make. 3M has been providing professionals and homeowners alike with high-quality painter’s tape for years and when I got the chance to review tape featuring the company’s new Edge-Lock Paint Line Protector technology for perfect lines with no paint bleed, I couldn’t wait to test it out.
There is no question that there will be a lot of painting in our future, so when I was asked to review an innovative new painting device called the 
The basic concept is simply to apply painter’s tape along the upper and lower edges of the U-Stripe It & Design Tool, moving the tool along gradually as the taping is completed. When that area between the two lines of tape is painted, the resulting stripe will be exactly the desired width. The one thing that I did find was that because I was creating a horizontal stripe rather than a vertical one, applying the tape while holding the U-Stripe It & Design Tool was a little tricky. My husband and I were quickly and easily able to mark a wall when we worked together with one of us holding the U-Stripe It & Design Tool and the other applying the painter’s tape. I also found that holding the U-Stripe It in place with a strip of tape or two while I marked the wall helped to make the job easier. Vertical stripes, however, were much easier to create by myself, since I could let the roll of tape hang down as I held the tool with one hand and applied the tape with the other. The website offers great information about how to create a hands-free feature for the tool, and I can’t wait to give it a try at some point in the future!
After the lines are marked, all that’s left to do is to roll or brush paint between the taped lines. The 
