Home & Garden Archives | Page 2 of 4

Trader Joe’s Best Products (Or, My Love Letter to Trader Joe’s)

February 22, 2017 by Susan 12 Comments

Have you met my friend, Joe? I think you’re gonna like him.

The nearest Trader Joe’s is about a half hour from us, which is probably a good thing. I alternate my regular grocery shopping between Aldi (do you love Aldi as much as I do?!?!) and the Super Walmart, with an occasional trip to other local groceries.

I also hit Costco about once a month or every other month to stock up, and Trader Joe’s about the same. I don’t usually do my main shopping at either of these places, but at each, have items that I always pick up.

If you’re not familiar with them, Trader Joe’s is different from other grocery stores. It’s pretty much made up of all ‘store’ brands, and they pretty much have one of each product. What that means is that instead of 6 brands of chicken broth, there is one.

Happy Clean Your Computer Day!

February 13, 2017 by Susan 5 Comments

Everyone knows that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, but did you know that today is Clean Your computer Day? (It’s also Get a Different Name Day, so you can refer to me as Judy for the rest of the day if you don’t mind).

I’ll tell you, tech is not my thing. It has by far been the most difficult part of starting and maintaining a blog. Cars and computers: When they don’t work, my default is to sit down and cry. But just like Valentine’s Day is an annual reminder for guys to show some affection to the lady in their life, let’s take today as a reminder to tidy things up a bit.

Homemade Soap: It’s Not as Hard as You Think

January 9, 2017 by Susan 26 Comments

Have you ever thought that it would be cool to make homemade soap, and then immediately wondered what kind of crazy person would actually do that? Well now you know! 🙂

Seriously, though…it’s not hard. Promise.

Here’s what makes soap-making scary, one word: lye.

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

November 28, 2016 by Susan 16 Comments

Cinnamon smells like Christmas to me. I first came across this fun and easy craft when I was teaching second grade years ago. I made the dough with my class, and they each brought home an ornament as a gift for their parents. For weeks, while the ornaments dried, our classroom smelled heavenly!

The best part, in my opinion, is that these ornaments maintain their smell for years. Years, I say!

And they are so easy to make! Just two required ingredients…cinnamon and applesauce.

Painted Mason Jars: Just a Pretty Face?

September 21, 2016 by Susan 2 Comments

I always have Mason jars around the house. Besides using them for canning, we use the half pint ones for juice glasses, the pint size for storing things like homemade caramel sauce and hot fudge, and all the way up to my beloved half gallon jars.

I haven’t done a lot of crafts with Mason jars, mainly because I need them to actually use. But when these shiny, painted jars caught my eye– I knew I could find a use for them as well. Win – Win.

DIY Whiteboard Lap Desk for Kids

September 8, 2016 by Susan Leave a Comment

I promised last week when I wrote about what you need for your homeschool room that I’d share this craft with you. We made them our very first day of homeschool ever. My boys were entering 6th and 4th grades when we started homeschooling. I wanted for our first day of school to be special and fun. We planned to go out to lunch with dad and get ice cream. And I wanted to do some fun activities at home, too, something to remember our first day by.

One of the selling points of homeschool was that the boys could do their work anywhere… in their bedroom, in the treehouse, on the couch. In order to make that easier, we made these easy lap desks with cushions so they’d always have a surface to write on. As an added bonus, the lap desk surface is a whiteboard.