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Fun and Easy Spring Craft Ideas for Kids

April 16, 2015 by

The springtime is known for its long, rainy days, and on those afternoons when you’re stuck in the house, you’ll likely need an activity to keep the little ones occupied. Here are a few fun and creative craft ideas that offer hours of entertainment for your budding artists.

Tissue Cherry Blossom Tree [marthastewart.com]
Instead of hanging their artwork on the refrigerator, why not create a craft that you can use in your home decor? This chic cherry blossom tree sculpture is perfect for the springtime, and it’s also simple enough that the kids will have a great time piecing it together. Let them gather branches from outside, then get to work gluing pieces of pink tissue paper in the shape of delicate blooms.

Painted Canvas Bags [parenting.com]
If you’re looking for a craft that’s both beautiful and functional, this painted canvas bag is the ideal choice. Simply purchase plain canvas bags from your local craft store, set the kids loose with fabric inks and brushes, then use the completed bags at the grocery store or even for their school books.

Faux Tie Dye Spring Flower Window Display [momto2poshlildivas.com]
Because real tie-dyeing may be a bit to complicated for young children, this unique craft is a great alternative that produces similar results. Once your child is done, you can hang the colorful flower in a window for all to see.

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Three Websites to Buy Modern Furniture Online

March 19, 2015 by

With its clean lines, bright pops of color, and timeless look, there’s a lot to love about modern furniture. This style has seen a major resurgence among design enthusiasts, and lucky for you, there are a number of affordable websites that offer stylish modern furniture. Here are some of the best:

West Elm
Fans of modern furniture look to the expertly arranged displays in West Elm stores for design inspiration, but if you don’t have a location in your area, the retailer's online store is just as inspiring. From tufted headboards to mid-century inspired buffets with slim wooden legs, West Elm is a fairly affordable option for modern furniture pieces and home decor items.

Design Within Reach
Design Within Reach aims to reintroduce the iconic styles of designers like Herman Miller into today’s furniture market. The online shop carries beloved pieces like Eames chairs, and it even offers items from up-and-coming modern furniture designers.

CB2
CB2 operates as the modern sister company of Crate & Barrel, and its price points are a bit lower, as well. Large-scale furniture pieces like bed frames, sectional sofas, and dressers are mixed in with industrial light fixtures, geographic-print linens, and other modern decor items on this easy-to-navigate site.

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Want to Cut Calories in Your Favorite Baked Goods? Try These Oil Substitutes!

March 5, 2015 by

Replacing the oil in a recipe is a simple way to make your baked goods a bit healthier, but choosing the right oil substitute and the correct amount can be complicated. Here are a few of the best foods to substitute for oil in your cakes, cookies, and breads.

  1. Fruit purees. Fruit purees like canned pumpkin, applesauce, and bananas are sweet and tasty substitutes for fattening oil. They impart the same moist texture to your baked goods, and they have a light, flavorful taste. Most chefs recommend using between 3/4 cup and one cup of any puree for every cup of oil.
  2. Yogurt. Plain yogurt also makes a healthy oil substitute. Simply replace half of the oil with 3/4 of the amount of yogurt in order to cut fat and add a creamy texture to any dish. You can also use low-fat or fat-free yogurts to make it even healthier.
  3. Buttermilk. Replacing the oil in a recipe with buttermilk is an easy way to maintain the moisture while also cutting calories. Simply replace every cup of oil with 3/4 cup of buttermilk mixed with 1/4 cup of butter or margarine and prepare the rest of the recipe in the usual way.

Common Ingredient Substitutions [AllRecipes]
What Can You Substitute for Oil While Baking a Cake? [Livestrong]
Healthy Substitutes for Oil [FitDay]

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Three High-Potassium Foods Beyond the Banana

February 19, 2015 by

Potassium has many important health benefits beyond preventing muscle cramps after a workout. This essential mineral helps prevent hypertension and fatigue, and it also regulates your heart rate. Here are three foods that are high in potassium for you to add to your diet:

  1. White beans. Cook up one cup of these beans to get 29 percent of your daily value of potassium. Add them to your soups or make hummus for a healthful boost.
  2. Avocado. Here’s a good excuse to go in for seconds on the guacamole: 1/2 cup of pureed avocado contains 16 percent of your daily value of potassium.
  3. Mushrooms. Add them to stir-fry or saute them alone; mushrooms pack in the potassium in small doses. One cup of sliced white mushrooms gives you 12 percent of your daily value.

Top 10 Foods Highest in Potassium [Healthaliciousness]
15 Foods That Are High In Potassium [Health.com]
Food with More Potassium than a Banana [Huffington Post]
Potassium and Your CKD Diet [National Kidney Foundation]

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Helpful Tips for Controlling Your Blood Pressure

February 5, 2015 by

Controlling your blood pressure is important as you age, as it may decrease your risk of stroke or heart attack. High blood pressure, otherwise known as hypertension, is a blood pressure level of 140/90 mmHg or higher. If you feel that you may be at risk for high blood pressure or you simply want to take preventative measures, these simple tips can help. But first, remember to consult with your doctor!

  1. Start a heart-healthy diet. The most important way to control your blood pressure through your diet is by decreasing your sodium intake and not consuming saturated fats. You should also incorporate more lean meats, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables into your daily diet.
  2. Lose some weight. The majority of people with high blood pressure are at least 10 pounds overweight, so this makes a good starting point for how much you should lose to see blood pressure results. If you’re already on blood pressure medication, this can also help make it more effective.
  3. Decrease stress. Although stress isn’t the main cause of high blood pressure, it is certainly a contributing factor. Practice meditation and deep breathing to help ward off stressors in your daily life.
  4. Quit your vices. Bad health habits like smoking, drinking, and consuming too much caffeine can all increase your blood pressure, so try to cut them out of your life.

Prevention & Treatment of High Blood Pressure [American Heart Association]
Lower Your Blood Pressure Fast With These Tips [Healthline]
Preventing High Blood Pressure: Healthy Living Habits [CDC]

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How to Style Your Own At-Home Bar Cart

January 22, 2015 by

Vintage-inspired bar carts are one of this year’s most popular interior design trends, and the best part about them is that they can be customized in an endless amount of ways. Whether you want to create a modern mixology station or a coffee cart for the kitchen, these tips will show you how to style your very own bar cart just like the pros.

  1. Pick the perfect cart. First, decide what type of bar cart to go with. Yard sales and flea markets are great places to score authentic vintage carts, or you can opt for a modern version from an affordable home goods store.
  2. Divide the cart into zones. Before you start cramming things onto your beautiful new bar cart, plan how you want things to look. Dedicate one area for cups and glasses, another for ice buckets, stirrers, and other accessories, and leave the top free to display bottles. Use trays to corral smaller items if necessary.
  3. Choose pretty pieces. When choosing the items for your bar cart, make sure you stick to a theme. Use a matching set of glasses for a seamless look, and invest in spirits and mixers with attractive packaging.
  4. Add some finishing touches. Once you have all of the essentials on the cart, fill in any gaps with patterned napkins or a small bud vase. Be sure to fill the walls around the cart with artwork, and place it somewhere where it’s easily within reach.

How to Style a Bar Cart [HGTV]
The Intentional Apartment: Assembling the Perfect Bar Cart [Primer]
How To: Create and Stylize the Perfect Bar Cart [Guest of a Guest]
Styling 101: How to Style a Bar Cart [The DIY Playbook]
How to Style a Bar Cart [Style Within Reach]

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Spruce Up Your Decor With These Creative Uses for Wallpaper

December 18, 2014 by

Wallpaper is an old-fashioned design element that's making quite a comeback, and removable wallpapers make it possible for renters to enjoy the paper's subtle patterns and attractive colors. Even if you aren’t prepared to line your walls with the stuff, these fun tips will show you how to incorporate wallpaper into your home’s decor.

  1. Line your drawers. Instead of traditional drawer liners, which can be bland and unattractive, try lining kitchen or bathroom drawers with a fun pop of wallpaper. Attach the paper with double stick tape or mounting squares, and then cut it to the drawer’s proportions using an sharp paper cutting knife.
  2. Frame it. If you want to create a colorful gallery wall but aren’t sure what to put in each frame, add some beautiful wallpaper to give your walls a pop of your favorite color.
  3. Cover books. Whether the kids are heading off to school or you’re an avid book collector yourself, covering books with wallpaper is a fun makeover that’s much more stylish than store-bought book covers or brown paper bags. Bonus points if you use your freshly covered books in a stylish bookshelf.
  4. Cover shelves. Instead of lining your room with plain white shelves, cover the undersides with some attractive wallpaper for an unexpected bit of color.

Creative Uses of Wallpaper in Any Room [Better Homes and Gardens]
Unexpected Uses for Leftover Wallpaper [Real Simple]
Off the Wall: Creative Uses for Wallpaper [Apartment Therapy]
19 (Other) Ways to Use Wallpaper [iVillage]

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Today’s Imponderable: Why Does Popcorn Pop?

December 4, 2014 by

Popcorn is a tasty snack to make while having a movie night at home, and its noisy popping sounds make it especially fun for the little ones. By now you’re probably used to the popping noise of popcorn, but have you ever wondered how this happens? What is it that makes popcorn pop, while corn on the cob simply cooks?

On the inside, popcorn kernels are filled with oil, water, and starch, and the outside is covered with a protective shell. Heating popcorn—say, in the microwave—causes the liquids inside to expand into steam. Because the hard outer coating leaves nowhere for the steam to go, it simply gets hotter and hotter inside of the kernel until it eventually reaches 365 degrees, which is hot enough to burst through the shell! The action of the starch and oil expanding so quickly and with so much heat transforms the mixture into the familiar foam-like puff that we eat as popcorn.

The next time you make a bag of popcorn at home, examine the kernels and think of the science behind your favorite movie snack!

What Makes Popcorn Pop? [Popcorn.org]
Why Does Popcorn Pop? [Tell Me Why Facts]
Why Does Popcorn Pop? [Mental Floss]
How Popcorn Pops [About.com]

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Kick Back This Weekend With These HGTV Shows

November 20, 2014 by

Love watching home shows? Check out these two home renovation programs.

Fixer Upper
Fixer Upper is a fairly new HGTV show that follows married couple Chip and Joanna Gaines as they pair wary homebuyers with run-down, older houses in the Waco-Dallas area. The couple sees the potential in these older homes and helps the buyers to renovate them back to their former glory, from the intricate crown molding to the gleaming hardwood floors. All of the Gaines’s renovations feature a rustic charm that’s very unique to Texas, and once you see Joanna’s storage shed filled with potential design elements that she purchased from junk shops around town, you might become a fan of the show.

House Hunters Renovation
The most DIY-heavy of the House Hunters shows, House Hunters Renovation focuses on homebuyers who don’t mind getting their hands dirty when purchasing a new home. The hour-long show follows the usual formula of a buyer choosing between three potential homes, but the last half of the program is dedicated entirely to the renovation process after they've purchased the property.

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Sate Your Craving for Chocolate With These Molten Lava Cake Recipes

October 16, 2014 by

Molten lava cakes are the ideal dessert for a dinner party or other social gathering because their individual sizes give each person a little cake of their own to enjoy. When you cut into these warm, moist desserts an explosion of hot chocolate sauce spills out, which gives the cakes their fun name. If your mouth is already watering, try one of these molten lava cake recipes for dinner tonight.

Molten Chocolate Cakes [Food and Wine]
Food and Wine’s gourmet spin on the dessert classic brings an air of sophistication to the usual molten lava cake. Bittersweet chocolate and unsalted butter provide a rich, complex taste, and the thick chocolate inside is just the icing – or, rather, the lava – on the cake.

Molten Chocolate Cake [Pioneer Woman]
This recipe from the Pioneer Woman is just as indulgent as her other recipes, and the addition of an extra egg yolk ensures that the inside is even more runny than most lava cakes. Serve them with homemade whipped cream for an extra special treat.

Red Velvet Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes [Halfbaked Harvest]
This recipe not only uses a red velvet cake exterior, but a chocolate ganache center as well. If that doesn’t already sound decadent enough, a coconut whipped cream topping should do the trick.

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