Garden and Home

Does a room in your home lack life, energy or interest? Here are a few tips to give it some oomph without spending a dime! 

Look at your room closely, is everything in your room square? Examples; your sofa, coffee table, television & stand, bed & bedside tables. If they are, consider adding some interesting accessories that are circular in shape to create some contrast. Some ideas I could suggest are lamps, plants, vases or sculptural art to add softness into an otherwise hard lined room.

Do you have an old dresser you aren't using? Maybe a dresser that's seen it's day or not all the drawers work? Have I got a simple project for you!

Underbed Storage: This is a great easy to do project that can come in handy for adding storage to your bedroom or your childrens bedrooms.

Materials needed:

• Dresser
• Casters
• fabric
• Spray adhesive
• Sandpaper
• Paint

Take a drawer and lightly sand the surface on all sides. This way your paint will adhere better to the surface, not to mention smooth out any nicks. After sanding, wipe down with a damp cheese cloth/flour sack cloth.

Does your bathroom still look like it did when you moved into your home? Well here are some quick tips on how to make your bathroom look brand new!

In view of today's economic crisis, it is more important than ever to find ways to reduce our over-all spending. One way to accomplish this is to reduce the amount of money we spend at the grocery. Listed below are some tips that will help you as you endeavor to gain control of your household spending.

My husband was in the mood for meatloaf for dinner. I wasn't in the mood for the traditional meatloaf recipe so I started putting ingredients together and this is what I came up with. It was sooo good! Hubby declared it his all-time favorite meatloaf!!

2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 pound bulk pork sausage (I used hot)
1 (14 oz) jar pizza sauce
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 (1.25 oz) packages taco seasoning

Sweet, crunchy goodness in every bite! A great snack for any occasion!!

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound English walnut halves

In a 3-quart saucepan, mix together the sugar and sour cream. Cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Stir in the vanilla extract; add the walnuts and stir just until well coated.

When caring for a home, you can never have too many helpful hints. Read below for some great helpful hint ideas !

1. For musty smelling books, use a mix of baking soda and baby powder to dust the pages of the book. Wrap the dusted book in an old cloth or towel; allow to set for a few weeks, then open.

The kitchen faucet, more than any other faucet in the home, gets a lot of heavy-duty use. Just about every activity performed at the kitchen sink requires water. Choices for a kitchen faucet are more varied and interesting than ever before. Below you will find some tips on finding the right tap for the task.

Types of faucets:

My number one cooking rule is to always have a clean kitchen! In my opinion, cleanliness is the most important ingredient in any recipe I may be preparing.

But there are so many cleaning products on the market these days and most of them are quite pricey. With our current national economic crisis, it is more important than ever to save in as many ways as possible.