Christmas For Grandparents – Personalized Christmas Gifts For Grandparents

Posted by on November 5, 2011 · 3 Comments

Choosing Christmas gifts for grandparents can at times be difficult, especially since many if not most grandparents have a home full of just about everything they need. Having seen several lists of what are deemed to be the “worst Christmas gifts for grandparents”, it is easy to see why gifting grandparents with things like cookbooks or knickknacks that must be cleaned or dusted aren’t the best ideas for gifting purposes.

Many grandparents have already or are in process of downsizing their homes to smaller abodes, so the last thing grandparents or elderly people need or want is more “stuff” to fill shelves and spend time on cleaning. Finding the perfect Christmas gift for a grandparent doesn’t have to be expensive, can certainly be homemade and dearly loved, and the more personalized the gift is the happier the grandparents will be.
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Christmas Preparation – Preparing Christmas Activities, Gift Lists, Cards and Xmas Dinner

Posted by on September 29, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Christmas will be here before you know it. Year after year, we strive to begin preparing for Christmas very early into the holiday season, usually months ahead of time. Planning and preparing the various holiday season activities and parties to attend, as well as compiling a list of those we plan to buy gifts for, buying or making Christmas cards, preparing the Christmas dinner menu and guest list, and yes, all of the shopping for budget-friendly gifts.

As Dave Ramsey says, Christmas is not an emergency – it falls on December 25 every year, so you know it’s coming.
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What is Quinoa? Nutrition Facts and Recipes For Quinoa

Posted by on June 24, 2011 · 2 Comments

Quinoa? What is that?, I asked. Pronounced “Keen-wah”, not Kee-no-wah, quinoa is something I had never heard of until very recently and wanted to find out more. Friends were discussing a website called “Cooking Quinoa“, which has recipes for cooking with quinoa with lots of delicious looking pictures of foods made with it.

Based on everything I’ve read so far about quinoa, its numerous health benefits and the nutritional facts shown on bulk packages I found, adding quinoa to our diet is a smart choice. We’re not vegetarian or vegan by any means, we do enjoy eating lean meats for sure, but we have been reducing our consumption of fatty meats over the last few months.
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Home Canning For Beginners – Canning Books, Equipment and Supplies

Posted by on June 20, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Home canning and preserving have been around forever, but I’ve only known a couple of people in my lifetime so far who know how to can. Learning how to can fruits and vegetables grown in our organic garden is a relatively new interest of mine, and it only makes sense to learn as much as possible about the basics of canning in order to can correctly the first time around, hopefully.

Being an avid reader with a thirst for knowledge on many different topics, acquiring books on home canning that explain exactly how home canning is done, the needed canning jars and supplies, and of course a variety of tasty recipes for the canned goods is a must-do for canning beginners like me. Fortunately, technology advances have improved the options available for people wanting to begin canning for the first time, where the “old fashioned” way of canning isn’t the only way anymore.
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Top 5 Gadgets for Grandma

Posted by on May 17, 2011 · 1 Comment

As you may already know, some grandmas are pretty much set in their ways. It’s hard for them to embrace “new school” applications, especially when it comes to technology—some find all those fancy tech gadgets and accessing the World Wide Web a tad bid too complicated.

But there are in fact special gadgets that are designed with Grandma in mind. To learn the top 5 grandma-user friendly tech gadgets that she might want to try, continue reading below.
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Power Juicers, Jack LaLanne Juicers or Breville Juicers, What is the Best Juice Extractor to Buy?

Posted by on March 28, 2011 · Leave a Comment

I wanted to buy a power juicer for fruit and vegetable juicing before we decided to start an organic garden of our own, and I’m thrilled with our recently purchased Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800JEXL juicing machine. After consulting with Consumer Reports juicer reviews of various brands and models and reading many other online customer reviews of juicers, the decision to buy a Breville juicer was an easy one.

While researching juice extractors, reading about the differences between a simple citrus juicer vs. a power juice extractor for fruit and vegetable combinations, and understanding the terminologies used for juicers was a great help in deciding which juicer to buy. I’ve of course heard of the Jack LaLanne juicers and seen the infomercials more times than I care to count hyping the LaLanne juicer as being the best juicer, so I was somewhat surprised to find it had the lowest ratings on Consumer Reports.
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Super Bowl Snacks – BLT Dip and Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipes for Super Bowl Sunday

Posted by on February 6, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Super Bowl XLV kickoff starts in just a few hours from now, and we’re preparing our favorite Super Bowl snacks, dips and recipes for a fun Super Bowl party with family and friends. We’ve decided to add two more snacks for our Super Bowl Sunday gathering, the BLT Dip (bacon, lettuce and tomato dip), and the delicious Buffalo Chicken Dip commonly referred to as Buffalo Dip.

Our Super Bowl watching party would not be complete without many of the most popular snacks football fans want to have and enjoy while watching the Big Game. Buffalo Chicken Dip, BLT Dip, hot and spicy chicken wings, Frito chips and bean dip, popcorn, shrimp dip, stuffed mushrooms, guacamole, vegetable tray with dipping sauces, bbq chicken, potato skins, pasta salad, pizza, and my famous Mexican 7-layer dip. We’re skipping the chili this year.
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Easy Beginner Sewing Patterns – Easiest Sewing Patterns for Beginners to Learn How to Sew

Posted by on February 2, 2011 · 1 Comment

As a sewing beginner, it makes sense to learn how to sew different things from easy sewing patterns, whether the patterns are free pattern downloads found online or quick and easy patterns made and bought from Simplicity and others. I’ve been making a long list of easy sewing and craft projects I want to make myself with my sewing machine, but I’m also planning on taking advantage of as many no-sew crafts and kits as possible too, for home use or to give as gifts for various occasions that come up.

I recently came across a complete list of sewing pattern companies, with many company names I’ve never heard of. The most well-known, popular pattern companies tend to be Kwik Sew, McCall’s, Simplicity, Stretch & Sew, Butterick, Burda, Amy Butler, Vogue, etc. Since my order for fleece and cotton fabric has arrived from my favorite online fabric stores and so quickly, I’m ready to really jump-start my sewing hobby by making several easy scrub tops, since Grandpa’s no-sew throw blanket is nearly finished.
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