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Spring-Clean Your Meal Plan With These In-Season Fruits and Veggies

May 19, 2016 by

Everyone knows that the springtime is one of the best times of the year when it comes to produce. From ripe, juicy fruits to lush, green vegetables, lots of your favorite foods come back into season in the spring. Here are just a few of the fruits and vegetables that you have to look forward to.

  • Strawberries. Whether you choose fresh fruit salads or a decadent pie, you can use strawberries in lots of delicious recipes that are perfect for warm weather days.
  • Asparagus. Looking to add a side of greens to your dinner? Asparagus tastes its best from March through June.
  • Cherries. With a great deal of fiber and potassium, sweet cherries are some of the springtime's tastiest and healthiest fruits.
  • Radishes. If you're looking for a unique veggie to add some color to your salads, radishes are the perfect choice (and they're also packed with Vitamin C!).
  • Apricots. Add them to yogurt or simply bite right in, because apricots deliver a healthy dose of potassium, Vitamin C and fiber.
  • Artichokes. Once it's warm enough to fire up the grill, your guests will love a side of char-grilled artichokes with their main course.

Spring Produce Guide [Food Network]

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Bring Spring in Bloom with These Crepe Flower Tutorials

March 17, 2016 by

Whether you’re decorating for a bridal shower, a child’s birthday party, or you simply want to spruce up your home for the spring season, crafting crepe flowers is an easy project that really makes an impact. These blossoms look beautiful, but they last a lot longer than the real thing! Here are three great tutorials for creating crepe flowers at home.

Martha Stewart’s DIY Flowers [marthastewart.com]
Martha Stewart’s website includes a number of different ways to make various types of crepe flowers. The single-petal method produces lush, full blossoms, while the tulip version is great for creating a bouquet of life-like flowers to display in your home or give as a gift.

Crepe and Watercolor Flower Tutorial [craftberrybush.com]
If you’re interested in creating the most realistic crepe flowers possible, this is the tutorial for you. It involves first using crepe paper to form the petals themselves, then gently painting the petals with watercolor paints to create the gradation that you find on a real flower. By spritzing the petals with water, you can even get them to curl a bit in a truly realistic way.

DIY Crepe Paper Flowers [thebridescafe.com]
This simple tutorial is perfect when you don’t have a lot of time, but you still want to get beautiful results. All it takes is a bit of crepe paper, floral wire and tape and some microbeads to form the flower’s center.

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How to Style and Organize a Bookcase

February 18, 2016 by

Sure, bookcases are meant to hold your book collection, but that doesn’t mean that yours should look like a jumbled mess. Turn your overstuffed bookcase into a focal point in your home with these simple, designer-worthy decorating tips.

  1. Organize all of your books in an attractive way. Whether you organize them by color to create a rainbow effect or by height for a unique pattern, you should consider book placement before anything else—it is a bookshelf, after all!
  2. Add knickknacks. While knickknacks may make you think of a cluttered grandmother’s house, modern versions will add an artistic flair to your shelves. Hunt for vintage brass or ceramic objects at local thrift stores, pick up small sculptures on your travels, or simply place green plants throughout.
  3. Fill it with frames. For a personal touch, frame photos of your friends or family and place them upright on the shelves. Or, if you want to create a more unique effect, attach the frame with a small nail to the front of the bookshelf where a corner meets.
  4. Step back and admire your work. To ensure that your bookshelf looks as good from afar as it does up close, frequently back up and reconsider the placement of each item.

How to Decorate a Bookshelf [Decoist]
How-to Beautify Your Bookcase [Coastal Living]
22 Ways to Arrange Your Shelves [Real Simple]
Flip for Decorating: The Bookcase [House Beautiful]

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Cool and Unusual Uses for Fabric Softener Sheets

January 21, 2016 by

While you likely already know that you can use fabric softener sheets for, well, making your fabrics softer, you may not know that there are a number of other uses for these handy household items. Here are just a few smart and surprising things to do with your dryer sheets.

  • Wipe up fine, powdery spills like flour or makeup using dryer sheets, because the anti-static properties help to pick up these hard-to-scoop messes.
  • Likewise, dryer sheets also make great DIY dusters for shelves, television screens, and baseboards.
  • Freshen up musty places by placing dryer sheets inside of your smelly winter boots, gym bag, or in a musty closet.
  • Remove pet hair from just about any surface (including your clothing) by wrapping a dryer sheet around your hand and gently running it over the surface.
  • In the summertime, stuff dryer sheets in your pockets to repel mosquitos.
  • Remove hard water stains from faucets and the door of a shower by running a dry dryer sheet over the surface.
  • End static on your hair and clothing in the winter by running a dryer sheet all over yourself.

10 New Uses for Dryer Sheets [Real Simple]
20 Household Uses for Used (Yes, Used) Dryer Sheets [Apartment Therapy]
25 Alternative Uses for Fabric-Softener Dryer Sheets [Curbly]

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Newly Betrothed? Don’t Miss These Wedding Boards on Pinterest!

May 21, 2015 by

You can't stop admiring that brand-new ring on your finger, but now it’s time for the real fun to begin. Even if you’ve been dreaming of that fairy tale wedding since before you can remember, things can get a bit overwhelming once it comes time for the actual planning. Here are three Pinterest boards that offer hours of wedding inspiration, while also helping to keep you on schedule—and on budget!

Wedding Ideas
Are you planning a shabby chic wedding, or is your style more glitz and glamor? Whatever type of nuptials you have in mind, this Pinterest board is filled with ideas to help plan your dream wedding. Creative honeymoon funds, fun wedding favors, and simple, handmade decorations will make your big day even more special.

Weddings
Browse Pinterest’s main wedding board by categories like wedding photography, flowers, and invitation inspiration to find tips and tricks for every aspect of planning a wedding. There are even printable checklists and calendars to help you stay organized along the way.

Romantic Weddings
Whether you’re actually planning a wedding or if you just love looking at ideas for that day far off in your future, the Romantic Weddings board is an endless source of dreamy inspiration. Best of all, this board is filled with photos from real weddings to offer a sneak peek of real life couples’ special days.

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Love to Cook? Master These Must-Know Knife Techniques

March 19, 2015 by

If you love to cook, you know how important it is to use the proper cutting techniques in every recipe. Many people don't know the proper names of these techniques, however, which often leads to using the wrong one. Here are three important types of cutting that are essential for everything from entrees to desserts.

  1. Julienne. To julienne, you want to cut vegetables or other food items into stick-shaped pieces that are long and thin. Start by cutting the item into a square, then slice it into rectangular-shaped pieces lengthwise. Repeat the same step on each of the rectangles until you're left with pieces that resemble matchsticks.
  2. Chiffonade. This type of cut sounds fancy, but it actually just refers to cutting herbs or thin leaf vegetables. Roll the herbs up into a tight tube, then roughly chop across with a sharp knife. It doesn't matter how the cuts look, just that the pieces are small enough to sprinkle throughout a dish.
  3. Dice. Dicing is similar to chopping, but it creates entirely uniform pieces for dishes like stews or fruit salads. Begin with a rectangular shape and continue to cut it both directions until you're left with uniform pieces in the size that you desire.

Knife Skills: Different Types of Cuts [The Culinary Cook]
Top 10 Knife Skills [How Stuff Works]
Perfect Your Knife Skills With This Chef's Guide to Knives [Lifehacker]

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These Online Quizzes Put Your Memory to the Test

February 19, 2015 by

As you age, you may notice that your memory isn’t quite as sharp as it used to be. Luckily, there are a number of online quizzes that will test your memory and help you to keep it strong for years to come. You’ll even notice yourself improving the more often you do them. Here are just a few of those memory quizzes that are available online.

Short Term Memory Test
Do you often find yourself not remembering why you walked into a room or forgetting to pick up milk on the way home from work? Short-term memory is very important in day-to-day life, and this online quiz will show you just how sharp yours it. A sequence of letters will quickly appear on the screen, and your test is to see how many you can remember.

Dinosaur Eggs
If you prefer a memory game that’s a bit more fun and exciting, Dinosaur Eggs is the perfect choice. This addictive online game features colorful graphics of adorable dinosaurs hidden in eggs, and players must match the dinosaurs with their twins by memorizing their position in the group.

Memory V
Popular educational website Knowledge Adventure created this explosive card game to test players’ memory in a creative way. The game displays a series of cards for just a moment before flipping them over, and players must avoid each card that contained a photo of a bomb.

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How to Reuse Everyday Household Items and Reduce Waste

November 20, 2014 by

In our throwaway culture, the habit of mindlessly tossing things into the trash can be a tough one to break. However, many everyday items can be easily repurposed, helping you to reduce household waste—while also helping you to save some money in the process! Here's how to breathe new life into old, everyday household items.

1) Sharpen scissors with aluminum foil. Finally, a use for those leftover scraps of tin foil! Simply fold a piece of tin foil in half several times, then snip through it with scissors to sharpen and hone the blades.

2) Portion and store food in old egg cartons. Clean a Styrofoam egg carton to repurpose as frozen food storage. The carton's compartments make portioning easy, especially for make-ahead recipes such as cookie dough and meatballs. Alternatively, you can use the egg cartons to store small odds and ends, like thumb tacks, miscellaneous screws and nuts, paper clips—even smaller holiday ornaments!

3) Use paper towel tubes to organize hair bands. Wrap elastics around the tube to keep your hair accessories neat and all in one place. Paper towel tubes can also double as boot trees, which prevent taller boots from flopping over and creasing. Or you can rely on the tubes to corral plastic bags: Simply stuff the bags into the tube.

Reusing Things: 100 Ideas of How to Reuse Commonly Thrown Away Items [Mother Earth News]
Best of 10 Uses for Common Household Products [This Old House]
10 Ways to Rethink Household Items [Real Simple]
10 Ways to Reuse Common Household Items [Wise Bread]

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Keep Your Kitchen Need and Tidy With These Organization Tips

August 21, 2014 by

In terms of most-used spaces in your home, the kitchen is usually one of the first rooms that comes to mind. Used for everything from cooking breakfast to catching up on emails, this is a multipurpose room that often gets very disorganized throughout the course of the day. Here are a few simple tips that will help you to keep your kitchen organized.

  1. Stack things high. If you’re short on cabinet space, maximize the room on each shelf by purchasing dishes that are meant to be stacked. You’ll be surprised how much more you can fit inside once you utilize that unused height.
  2. Use a Lazy Susan. Lazy Susans make it possible to store spices and other kitchen essentials in tight spots while still allowing for easy access.
  3. Spruce up storage containers. If you want to store your most-used ingredients on the counters but dislike the original packaging, opt for a matching set of containers instead. Small glass jars are ideal for storing things like sugar, flour, and baking soda in plain sight.
  4. Hang a pot rack. Pot racks are great ways to free up under-stove storage, and they’ll give your kitchen a professional, chef’s kitchen look.
  5. Organize pot lids. Use a wooden peg rack in a cabinet to file messy pot lids vertically instead of horizontally.
  6. Invest in a knife rack. Mount a knife rack to the wall to keep knives in a safe spot and maintain their sharp edges.

24 Smart Organizing Ideas for Your Kitchen [Real Simple]
Kitchen Organizing Tips [Martha Stewart]
8 Smart Organizing Tips for the Kitchen [Tidy Mom]
Kitchen Organization & Storage Tips [Better Homes & Gardens]

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Five Easy Decorating Tips for Renters

July 24, 2014 by

A new apartment is great because everything is clean and untouched, but it can also seem a bit impersonal. If you want to make your rental your own without making any permanent changes, these easy (and inexpensive!) tips can help.

  1. Dress up your windows. Every renter loves windows because they fill your apartment with natural light, but they can look a bit bare with just the standard issue white blinds. Add some colorful curtains, chic bamboo blinds, or patterned roller panels to give your windows your own character.
  2. Hang a gallery wall. From personalized photographs to brightly colored movie posters, a gallery wall allows you to decorate your walls with all of the things you love. Though many renters think that they can’t hang frames because of the nail holes, there are a number of removable frame hanging tools that won’t puncture the walls.
  3. Add some greenery. Not only do plants brighten any room in your apartment, they also clean the air and make everything feel fresher. Potted succulents and cacti are especially ideal for apartments because they require less care than most other indoor plants.
  4. Experiment with creative storage. If your new apartment is lacking storage space, don’t sweat it. Line a wall with white bookshelves to make them look like built-ins, add closet organizers to maximize that small bedroom closet, or invest in multipurpose furniture pieces with hidden storage.
  5. Don’t forget the rugs. Colorful rugs add personality to every room in your apartment, and they protect the floors to keep your security deposit safe.

24 Ideas to Steal for Your Apartment [BHG]
11 Decor Ideas That Will Change Your Apartment [Huffington Post]
Design Ideas and Tips for Renters [Remodelaholic]
10 Tips on Decorating a Rental [Sunset]

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