Camryn Rabideau – FoodWatcher

9 Ways to Make Grocery Store Bouquets Look Like a Million Bucks

If you’re lucky, you might end up with a life luxurious enough to have weekly seasonal floral arrangements, brought into your home by a dedicated florist who snips blooms at their peak… But if you’re in the other 99 percent (like us), it’s more likely that you pick up flowers from the grocery store every once in a while to treat yourself. Because, if we’re being honest, floral arrangements are really expensive.

While you’d probably rather pore through the online options for expertly-arranged flowers, sometimes it’s not within the time frame or the budget. Your dreams of a home freshly-scented from fluffy peonies notwithstanding, grocery-store bouquets are a great quick fix for a dinner-party host, a friend who’s had a bad day, or a surprise mother-in-law visit. What’s even better? There are plenty of ways to spruce ‘em up.

Thinking About Composting? This Is Your Ultimate Guide

It’s always gross when you go to take out the trash, only to find the bag smells like rotting food—and maybe is even dripping from the bottom. Bleck. But what if I told you there was a way to prevent your trash from smelling, all while being more eco-f…

It’s always gross when you go to take out the trash, only to find the bag smells like rotting food—and maybe is even dripping from the bottom. Bleck. But what if I told you there was a way to prevent your trash from smelling, all while being more eco-friendly in the process? Sign me up!

Composting offers both these noteworthy benefits, not to mention that it creates rich fertilizer that your gardens or houseplants will love. (Seriously, people call it “black gold”!) However, I didn’t know the first thing about composting—not to mention how I could do it in my apartment—so I called in an expert: Erin Rhoads, an eco-lifestyle blogger and the author of Waste Not, a guide on how to make a big difference by throwing away less.

Is This Raised Bed Method the Key to Gardening Success?

I’m always looking for ways to make gardening more streamlined, so when I stumbled across the concept of a keyhole garden, my interest was officially piqued. These garden beds look like raised beds—and it’s no secret we love a raised bed—but they have …

Naturally, I needed to know more about keyhole gardening and whether it’s as game-changing as it seems, so I reached out to a few master gardeners to pick their brains. Here’s what I learned.

How to Give Your Living Room a Lil’ Spring Refresh

We’re all spending lots of time indoors these days, so creating a space that’s functional and beautiful has become more important than ever. We teamed up with Designer Looks at American Signature Furniture to share expert tips for giving your living room a spring makeover—no renovation necessary. The centerpiece of this refresh? A comfy sectional from Designer Looks at American Signature Furniture the whole family will want to curl up on (psst: It’s from the Westport Collection).

After a long, dreary winter, you might be looking for ways to make yourself feel fresh and invigorated again. You could give yourself bangs using a YouTube tutorial (always a gamble) or plant colorful flowers in your window boxes, but might I suggest giving your decor a refresh, too?

4 Interior Designer-Vetted Tips for Picking Bedroom Paint Colors

Even if you don’t necessarily spend a lot of time in your bedroom—and are asleep for most of the time you do spend in there—it’s still worthwhile to make the room beautiful. A well-decorated bedroom will not only bring you joy, but also help you relax …

If you’re planning to give your bedroom a lil’ facelift, one of the key decisions you’ll need to make is what color to paint the walls. That’s easier said than done, though, as there are quite literally thousands of hues to choose from—so many, in fact, that you might not know where to start.

10 Nifty Raised Garden Bed Ideas We’re Stealing for Our Yards

While you’re sitting at home waiting for the snow to melt, why not get a head start on planning your garden for the year? Whether you’re hoping to grow your own vegetables or just spruce up your yard with vibrant spring flowers, one of the best ways to plant them is in raised beds. There are lots of benefits to planting in elevated beds—there’s no tilling needed, you can easily add soil conditioners like compost, you’ll have fewer weeds, and you won’t have to bend down as far to tend to your sprouts. Need we go on?

If you’re wondering how to build a raised garden bed, you’ll be happy to know it’s a fairly simple DIY project. For a basic raised bed, you’ll want to use 2-by-10-inch lumber to create a four-sided box—no need to put a bottom on it, either. The dimensions of the bed can be tailored to suit your space, but you’ll typically want to keep it less than four feet wide to ensure you can reach the center. Once you’ve cut the boards to size, use deck screws to fasten the short walls to the ends of the long walls, and your raised bed is complete! (If that seems a little too hands-on for you, many home improvement stores sell raised bed kits that include pre-cut materials and are quick and easy to assemble.) Before you fill it with soil, you may also want to line the bottom with landscape fabric to block weeds from growing.

11 Pantry Storage Ideas Using Around-the-House Items

Welcome to Storage Wars, a new series about the best ways to store, well, everything. From how to keep produce orderly in the fridge (or not), to ways to get your oddball nooks and crannies shipshape; and yes, how to organize all those unwieldy contain…

Is it weird to say that one of my passions in life is organizing cabinets? I find it incredibly satisfying when pantry items are neat and accessible, and I’m forever buying bins and baskets to help organize my pantry ingredients. However, the cost of these little items can add up (not to mention that it’s single-use plastic, which isn’t exactly an eco-friendly choice), and it got me thinking: There’s got to be a better way to keep cupboards organized with things I already have around the house.

How to Turn a Closet Into an Office (a Cloffice!)

If your work situation suddenly moved home last year, I’m willing to bet you tried to get by without a desk at first. But, as many of us have learned (myself included), it’s incredibly inconvenient to work on the kitchen table or counter because, well, you have to clean up your work space every day, and who really wants to do that? Personally, I much prefer being able to leave my laptop set up, notepads open, and pens scattered.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one with this struggle, either, as a new home office trend has gotten quite popular in the past several months, and it’s called the “cloffice.” The word is a combination of “closet” and “office,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like: an office built in a closet. It’s a great space-saving solution if you don’t have a dedicated home office space, and not only is a cloffice ideal for working from home, but it can also be used as a virtual learning space for kids.

Dreaming of Growing Your Produce? It’s Easier Than You Think.

Food definitely tastes better when it’s made with fresh ingredients, and if you don’t have a farmers market nearby (or even if you do!), why not try growing your own produce this year? A lot of people are intimidated by the idea of cultivating a vegeta…

Where there’s a will to grow a vegetable garden, there’s definitely a way, no matter how much space or experience you have. Sure, gardening often takes some trial and error, but the worst thing that can happen is your plants don’t make it, in which case you can simply try again next year! (I know, I know. It feels bad when plants die, but part of gardening is learning not to take it so personally.)

Barbeque Begone! How to Get That Smoke Smell Out of Everything

Now that all of our social activities tend to happen outdoors—and now that the outdoors is not nearly as hospitable a place as it was a few months ago—it’s likely that backyard fire pits are all the rage again. Maybe your extended family is huddling around for s’mores, distanced six feet apart, calling for quite a substantial fire to warm the divide. It could be that you’re just grilling on the deck, shuffling back and forth into the house with steaks for a Friday dinner. Or perhaps you’re a serious outdoors-person and you’re braving the winter elements—in which case, a crackling fire is most definitely necessary.

The origins notwithstanding, smoke smell is one of the most notoriously clingy scents, latching onto clothes, hair, blankets, furniture, and anything that comes within a 10-foot radius of it. It can be tough to banish, too, often lingering well past the last s’more is scarfed down and steak digested. To remedy that, here are some tips (straight from the experts) that will be sure to get even the most stubborn smoke odor out of winter sweaters and summer patio furniture alike.