15 Baking Ingredients You Can DIY
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Ikea: A New Way to Decorate
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London Party Ideas
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25 Hello Kitty Foods That Are Almost Too Adorable To Eat
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21 Surprising Things You Can Mail
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15 Things You Didn't Know Your IPhone Could Do
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New Cool App: Recifoto- Save and Share Vintage Recipes
/This free new app is like Instagram for recipes. Users snap photos of physical recipes, then upload them to an eternally scrolling feed.
Much like Instagram, you can “follow” folks whose taste you trust--and hashtag, “like” and comment on their posts accordingly. Unlike Instagram, you can also save your favorites within the app itself, meaning next time you want to make that avocado soup you saw in your feed, you don’t have to dig around searching for it.
So cool! Download here.
The 11 Worst Types Of People You Get Stuck Behind In Line At The Grocery Store
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8 Helpful Sleep Tips
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I don’t know about you, but I struggle with insomnia. But here are a few tips and tricks that I use to get a good night’s sleep:
- Make sure your mattress is comfortable. A few years ago, we had a really bad mattress and it made sleeping pretty much impossible. We finally bought a new mattress and our problems were solved! We also got a really nice bedding sets and that helped too.
- Keep the pets out. I find that my cat Breezie is especially annoying at night, trying to get my attention when I am trying to sleep. Worth it to shut the door!
- Be careful what you eat before bed. I know if I eat anything spicy or chocolate before bed, I am going to have issues with being too awake and sometimes heartburn. So it’s worth it to plan out meals and snacks.
- Stick to a sleep schedule. I tend to go to bed late at night, as I am up working, but I find when I go to bed at a more reasonable time, like 11 pm instead of 1 am, I feel much better in the morning.
- Get a walk in a few times a week. If you don’t hit the gym weekly, be sure to take a walk a few times a week. This will not only relieve stress, it will help you sleep better.
- Managing stress is essential. There is so much to deal with in this fast-paced world. Relaxing before bed, with my nice luxury bedding and a good book is a great way to rewind.
- Turn off the electronics. I find myself reading on my iPad with the bright light or checking my email before bed. Its not only a distraction, it can wreck havoc on my sleep!
- Know when to get diagnosed for sleep issues. If you are finding that you are snoring, waking up with a headache, dealing with being tired all day, you may want to talk with your doctor about visiting a sleep clinic. By staying overnight at a sleep clinic, a doctor can monitor and diagnose exactly what is going wrong with your sleep. With simple lifestyle changes, medications and sometimes a sleep mask, your sleep problems can be solved.
75 Fun Family Holiday Traditions
/- Have a cookie exchange
- Make gingerbread houses
- Watch a Christmas movie as a family
- Memorize and recite the Christmas story from Luke 2
- Drive around looking at Christmas lights
- Make baked goods for your neighbors
- Visit a nursing home and sing Christmas carols
- Have a kids Christmas party
- Decorate your house together (inside and out)
- Read a classic Christmas story like “A Christmas Carol”
- Give a secret gift to someone in need
- Make a special meal together
- Go to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve
- Cook up the same old family recipe ever Christmas Eve
- Christmas caroling for shut-ins from your Church or community
- Plan a cookie baking party
- Go to a farm and cut your own Christmas tree
- Decorate your tree while drinking eggnog and eating a special snack
- Buy a new ornament for each child relating to a life event that year
- Make a family keepsake craft or project
- Allow the children to arrange the family Nativity scene
- By an Advent devotional book to read throughout the season
- Write a Christmas letter with family news from the year
- Read the Christmas story… and the resurrection story
- Participate in Operation Christmas Child
- Contribute to the Knit Together In Love scarf project
- Deliver cookies and treats to emergency service men and women
- Give your pastor(s) a thank you and Christmas gift
- Sing in a church or community Christmas choir
- Open one gift on Christmas Eve
- Buy or make new Pjs for Christmas morning
- Have a special Christmas brunch
- Skype loved ones who live far away
- Decorate your tree the weekend after Thanksgiving
- Choose an old Christmas recording (Bing Crosby, etc.) to start the season with
- Play Christmas music in the house all season long
- Listen to a Christmas radio station in the car
- Do a Christmas countdown calendar
- Take family photos
- Video Christmas morning
- Watch old home videos
- Have a race to see who can get their Christmas shopping done first
- Read about Christmas traditions in other countries
- Find and read a book of Christmas legends
- Let children circle gift ideas in store catalogs
- Make and share a yearly Christmas list
- Let kids draw names to decide who to buy a gift for
- Give children “jobs” around the house to earn money to buy gifts
- Sponsor a Child or special project from Allow the Children
- Buy each child a fun new pare of sock or slippers for Christmas morning
- Make ornaments for the tree
- String a garland out of popcorn and cranberries
- Make your own Christmas cards as a family
- Make gift baskets with goodies for friends and family
- Let the young kids do their Christmas shopping at the Dollar Store
- Donate clothes or food to a shelter
- Hide a gift or make a scavenger hunt for the kids on Christmas Eve
- Host a wrapping party
- Go see a live nativity
- Go to a Christmas play or concert
- Have kids act out the Christmas story
- Have a game night with hot chocolate and cookies
- Invite someone without family to Christmas dinner
- Tell stories or have grandparents tell stories about past Christmases as a child
- Campout in the family room with sleeping bags after you’ve decorated the tree
- Memorize a Christmas poem or write your own
- Construct a manger out of wood and place it under the tree
- Make birthday card for Jesus
- Make a birthday cake for Jesus
- Have a birthday party for Jesus with the neighborhood kids
- Look at old Christmas photo albums
- Make Christmas treats for pets, wrap and place under the tree
- Buy a mini tree at the dollar store for each child’s bedroom
- Decorate a tree or house for an elderly person (after Christmas go back and help put the decorations away)
- Secretly give gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas to a neighbor
Source: The Better Mom
6 Ways To Make Hot Chocolate Awesome
/Here is how to make hot chocolate awesome!
1. Toasted marshmallow cream: Marshmallows that aren’t toasted are sooo [insert any year previous to this one]! Fire those suckers up and make it creamy before you add’em atop your hot cocoa and you’ll be good, with this recipe.
2. Mini gingerbread house: In case you’re the kind of person who scoffs at unadorned mugs, go past those everyday sugar cubes and perch a tiny house on your next hot cocoa. You know, if you’ve got time for such twee craftiness. Click here for instructions you will definitely need, unless you’re some kind of baking/architecture genius.
3. Nutella: Well OF COURSE. Why didn’t we think of adding more chocolate to chocolate that is warm? Here’s how to do it.
4. Candy canes: Got a dollar or two for a box of candy canes? Then you’ve got ingredients for some pepperminty hot whoa!-coa. Well those and also you’ll need peppermint extract per this recipe, but the canes are essential for decoration and eating purposes.
5. Cookies ‘n cream: Okay now we’re just tossing tasty things into the mug, right? Yes, andhere’s exactly how to do it. This trend is totally fine with me because hey, hot whoa!-coa! Just trying to get my quota of bad puns in.
6. S’mores: This is like taking all the coziness of a fireside snack and combining it with another cozy fireside snack. The recipe is basically the ultimate in wintry snuggly snackiness and it’s only right that it exists in this world.
Image credit: Gimmiesomeoven.com
39 Dishes from the First Christmas Menu, Published in 1660
/1. A collar of brawn [pork that is rolled, tied, and boiled in wine and seasonings].
2. Stewed Broth of Mutton marrow bones.
3. A grand Sallet [salad].
4. A pottage [thick stew] of caponets [young castrated roosters].
5. A breast of veal in stoffado [stuffed veal].
6. A boil’d partridge.
7. A chine (a cut of meat containing backbone) of beef, or surloin roast.