Did you know there are at least 10,000 GREAT reasons to invite toads into your yard and garden this summer? That's right! According to the USDA, just one adult toad will eat 10,000 pesky insects in a single summer. Not only that, these efficient …
4 Tips for Enhancing Your Outdoor Living Space
Our lives have been all about home renovations over the last year or so. Having designed and built two houses from the ground up before venturing into this project… I can say first hand that remodeling an existing home (especially one as trashed as …
Caring For Your Cast Iron Cookware
The one piece of cookware I find myself reaching for over and over again is my heavy-duty 15" cast iron skillet. (affiliate link) Without question, it meets my personal trifecta for the perfect kitchen tool: it's durable, versatile and economical. …
8 Practical Cleaning Hacks You’ve Got to Try
Crazy how time flies, isn't it? I pulled today's article out of my own archives - from the Spring 2004 issue of Welcome Home Magazine. (This was a quarterly glossy print magazine I used to publish). Enjoy! ;) Bathroom Cleaning Tips Tidy Toilet …
Grilled Tequila Lime Shrimp Skewers
Since I'm the only one in my house who would even think of eating seafood, the 2 pounds of shrimp this recipe calls for is overkill. Fortunately, this recipe is easy to scale up or down depending on how many you are feeding (and how much they like …
Look, Ma! No Chemicals! Homemade Taco Seasoning
I almost wish I never started reading food labels. Back then, I didn't realize Aunt Jemima isn't really maple syrup and Ramen noodles aren't actually a food group. Now, I sometimes wonder if there is some high-level conspiracy between big …
Perfecting the Art of Making Homemade Soup
There's a reason I'm a much better cook than I am a baker: Cooking is an art, Baking is a science. Cooking allows you to be creative and is much more forgiving of the occasional misstep in measurement. Baking, on the other hand, demands …
Finding Room to Grow More Fruits & Veggies
Short on space for your vegetable garden? No problem! Today we'll talk about an easy way to grow more fruits, vegetables and herbs - even if you don't think you have the room for it. The only requirement is that you have access to some outdoor …
Adding Vintage Charm with Architectural Salvage
I'm not like other girls when it comes to shopping. In fact, if I never stepped inside a mall again, I would be okay with that. Instead, you're much more likely to find me happily digging through an antique/vintage/architectural salvage-type store …