It’s that time of year when some of us have family and close friends visit for the holidays. Most of my family lives within an hours drive, but we do have a few relatives who live out of state and spend the night when they do visit.
Don’t be stressed out at the thought of hosting family or friends overnight. I have a few tips to help you make your guests feel right at home.
Make sure to air out your guestroom a few days before. When I say air out I mean just that. Open the windows slightly to let the …read more

It’s the end of another month and so once again I have put together a list of this month’s articles for easy access.  I tried putting them into categories, but some of the categories overlapped a little.  I hope this helps to find what you need or missed this month.

Food, Cooking, and Holidays:
Cooking with a Little This and That
10 Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Your Last Minute Stop for Halloween Ideas
17 Halloween Cupcake Ideas
20 Pumpkin Inspired Recipes
Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner
30 Fall Inspired Desserts and Treats
Organization and Declutering:
Do You Have an All or Nothing Attitude
Tips to Get Your Organization …read more

Many times when I go to a party, potluck or some other function, I end up finding a great new dish that I’d like to make myself.  When I complement the person, they say, “Oh, it’s really easy.  You just need a little broccoli, some onions, a little this, and a little of that.”  It’s so frustrating because you can’t repeat the dish without the recipe.

Then Wednesday I made a sausage and spinach quiche.  Wouldn’t you know it, someone asked me what was in it.  I think I said something like, “Uhhhhh, some sausage, eggs, spinach, cheese, uhhhh.  Hmmm. Let …read more

Some people have an all or nothing attitude.  They feel that if their house can’t be perfectly clean and organized, then there’s no sense in trying.  Rather than taking the clutter one pile at a time, they let it pile up and overwhelm them.  As promised, here are some tips for tackling the clutter.

1.  Commit to 15 minutes. Set the timer for 15 minutes and commit to work for that amount of time.  Give yourself permission to stop working when the timer buzzes.  This will help get you started and the time you’re working doesn’t seem so overwhelming.  This way …read more

There is a pile of ironing sitting in my laundry room.  It’s getting bigger and it feels like a huge weight each time I see it seeing there.  The problem is, I absolutely cannot stand to iron.  I think I would rather clean all of the bathrooms than iron. 

Each of us has a certain chore that we just don’t like to do.  This has me thinking of some tips to help us accomplish these dreaded chores.  Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll get to put these tips to use.
1)  Reward yourself.  Tell yourself that after your chore is completed, you’ll do something nice …read more

I’ve been browsing around the internet today.  Thought you might enjoy these too.   :)

Landlord Ed Peirce refused to evict his tenants.  Instead, he got a job.  This is a beautiful story of kindness and mercy.
This chicken tenders picadillo sounds yummy and simple.  I might give this recipe a try some time soon.
I’ve had fruit pizza before and now I have the recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod.  The pictures make the pizza look too pretty to eat.
To get educated about tea shopping, check out these 10 healing herbs used in teas.
Some days I can get a lot done and …read more

Each month, I try to make a list of articles from the month.  I don’t include articles with tips that have expired, such as giveaways.  My hope is that this will provide you with an easy list/table of contents to the articles from the month and it will help you to see if there’s anything you missed that you would like to read.

Switching Over to Cloth Napkins
Finding a Closet Organization System
10 Ways to Decorate with Gourds & Pumpkins
30 Creative Cake and Cupcake Ideas
5 Tips for Organizing Your Kitchen
My Ongoing Yard Sale Pile
Recipes from Quaker Maid
Crock Pot Shredded Mexican Beef Recipe
Fantastic …read more

When decorating for fall, try using gourds and pumpkins.  This will you allow you to have decorations that can last through the entire season. 

Seasonal centerpiece – Turn a large pumpkin or squash into a bowl.  Fill it with ornamental gourds and small pumpkins.
Autumn chandelier – Suspend burnished miniature pumpkins and gilded maple leaves from a chandelier with thread.
Curvaceous container – Turn a narrow-necked gourd into a vase by sawing off the gourd’s tip.

Floating Beauties – Fill an assortment of glasses with water and float mini pumpkin gourds inside. 
 Table centerpiece – Start with a fall wreath that has been decorated with leaves, …read more

Kitchens tend to be a dumping ground for everything.  We walk in the door and drop our keys, purse, mail, and shopping bags on the counter.  We put away the groceries and somewhere in our subconsciousness find it ok to leave the mail there.  Next thing we know, we have a few little items scattered throughout the room.  

I am guilty of disorganization in my kitchen.  I am trying to get better though.  Here are a few kitchen organizing tips.
1)  Put things away when you’re done using them.  If we did this with everything our lives would be so much cleaner …read more

It seemed that no matter how careful I was while cooking, I still had issues with food and grease getting stuck to my stove top.  I would wipe the stove, let the hot wash rag sit on the stains, add dishwashing liquid, and some other cleaners, but I could not get it cleaned properly.  After complaining to my mom about the stuck on grease and food on my stove top, she suggested that I try Fantastik cleaner.

This is a picture of my stove top with the burners removed. Although this picture does not show all of the mess, you can …read more