Meyer lemons, a hybrid of a lemon and a mandarin orange, are in season throughout the winter and the early spring. From Julie O'Hara at NPR: "the Meyer lemon has smooth golden skin the color of a fresh egg yolk. It also has a thin edible rind, a high volume of juice and none of the tartness of a regular lemon — yet its potential in the kitchen went unnoticed. Today, the Meyer lemon is a darling of farmers markets… Continue Reading
According to Zen Habits, the trick to successfully decluttering a room is finding a large area to serve as a working and organizing space. Then, you can:
"2. Start on one side of the room and work to the other.
3. Do one drawer or shelf or spot on the floor at a time.
4. Pull everything out of the drawer or shelf (or section of floor or what have you), and pile it in the working space. Clean out the drawer or shelf."
… Continue Reading
A splash of wine, or deglazing with a broth or stock, can take an average home dish to saucy deliciousness. But, it's impractical to open a new bottle or carton just for a few tablespoons. So watch this video for a fresh idea.
February 14th can actually be fun, non-commercial, and quite inexpensive...if you plan ahead. And since it's on a
Saturday this year, there's no excuse no to embrace these very fine ideas from Dumb Little Man to show your sweetie you care.
These collections of quick-cleaning and decluttering never get old...because the clutter never seems to go away. These five from DumbLittleMan are a mighty fine five, particularly with the habit-creating, and not just the collecting and tossing approach.
1. Schedule Some Time
2. Concentrate On One Place
3. Tackle Something Each Day
4. Keep Up Your Enthusiasm
5. Don't Undo Your Good Work
Make it beautiful, and make it cheap. Holly Becker has collected ten tips from her own experience of decorating a small one bedroom in Germany. Go and do likewise.
1. Take IKEA seriously.
2. Yard sales!
3. Bargain at flea markets and secondhand stores
4. Share a car.
5. Shop online at places like Craigslist, Ebay, and Amazon
6. Do it yourself.
7. Bundle your services like phone, internet, and cable.
Whether your selling it, or just want to make living in it a little more pleasant, your home can benefit majorly from mid-sized improvements. With many well under the $500 mark, Handy Man Home Repair has gathered a list of useful, and mostly easy, bang-for-your-buck options.
Real Simple says that with just one bucket of supplies you can scrub every surface in your home squeeky clean. Their 18 handy-dandy tips include:
Although I’m easily seduced by yarn, glue and paper punches and such, I do live by a few craft-buying money-saving rules. Daphne’s list of ten things to keep in mind when crafting on a budget pretty much sums up my approach.
Know that little packet of additives that come with arranged flower bouquets? Apparently, it's just a little sugar, 
chlorine, and some citric acid. So, create your own DIY solution that you can continue to use throughout multiple water changes. "Mix 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon bleach, and 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice in a quart of warm water."
That's it. The bleach sounds scary to me too, but I'm imagining the chlorine keeps out… Continue Reading
Don't just leave it for tomorrow...or for whomever you've suckered into washing the dishes. Just clean it up.
Fluffing up mashed potatoes with baking powder? Using baking soda to tenderize meat? Using a funnel to separate eggs?? These are just a few of the ideas included in Tipnut’s list of 50 Quick Kitchen Tips. For the entire breakdown, mosey on over to Tipnut! And, while you’re at it, you might want to check out their ‘quick tips for baking substitutes’ article as well.
Image courtesy of Tipnut.
Wow. The Golden Thimble doesn't mess around with these 527 free craft projects from around cyberspace. And it seems to be updated a couple times a month to incorporate new links, and includes an email listserv notificiation for new links. Sure, the site's design could use some work, but did I mention there were 527 free project links!? Via and photo.
Domino has put together a slide-show of 31 cheap and creative decorating tips. Some are easier than others, but all are inspirational. Two ideas that really appealed to me....
Lavanya put a softboard up inside the chimney of her non-working fireplace. She then wrapped wire around toothpicks that she slipped under the softboard. From the wires, she hung glass balls into which she placed tea lights. Lovely effect!
Sandie… Continue Reading
The internet has been so integral to the DIY and handmade revolution, its no surprise to find an enourmous collection of how-to websites from around the world. Lifehack.org has assembled a solid eighty, in areas like home decor, crafts, dining, business, and personal finance. Though, there's no Curbly. Write in and make it eighty-one!!!!
Also, check out this collection of fifteen from DumbLittleMan.
Apartment Therapy, Chicago-version, offers this clever take-along floorplan. The goal is to be able to account for all the components of your room, particularly scale, arrangement in color: "You will want to include basic information like the size and layout of your rooms, color choices (fabric swatches are perfect for this!) and sizes of existing pieces of furniture. Other things that might be helpful are window heights (in case you… Continue Reading
If you're gonna take your eyes from the sky and try to capture the burning streams of fireworks this year, you should at least do it right. The nighttime setting and relatively small sources of light makes for a unique challenge to capture the colors, shape, and atmosphere of your local show.
• Stabilize Your Camera
• Shoot Hands-Free
• Control Your Exposure
… Continue Reading
Tip Nut has an excellent list of 20 things you can use before you throw them away. Some of my favorites are refrigerating butter wrappers to use to ‘grease’ baking pans, using tissue boxes as plastic bag dispensers and turning plastic strawberry baskets into totally awesome homemade bubble machines! For the entire list–including links–visit Tip Nut.
When enjoying a few cocktails, be smart, and don't get sick. Here's a few ideas to avoid head and tummy aches.
Drink Water. Everyone who's mature enough to have a drink should be mature enough to drink some agua along with it. Drink a glass of water before and after every drink, and gulp down a few more before bed. If you get way carried away, to the point of vomiting (another source of dehydration), drink a Pedialyte to replenish yourself.
Here's ten excellent ideas to cut down on major house and life-cleaning projects. I especially like the leaving the dishwasher open while cooking, provided it's not a safety hazard.
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