Three Tips.

1 // 2 // 3

1 // Bowl as iPhone speaker. Place your iPhone in a bowl and turn up the volume -- the concave shape of the bowl will amplify the sound coming from your iPhone. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! And a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a device to do the same thing (which we may have done a few moths ago...)!

2 // Keeping your matching sheets together. Tuck your sheet set inside one of the pillow cases and stack according to size. Simple trick, I mean, really simple. Another benefit, your linens closet will be ten times more organized. 

3 // Label your power cords. Ever need to unplug a device from behind your entertainment unit, or behind your computer?! All the cords look the same and half the time you end up unplugging the wrong cord (I do at least). Solution? Using those colorful bread tags you have collecting in a drawer, put a label at both ends of every wire and cable. Such a great idea to help keep your cords in order.

Hope you find these three tips useful! Since living on my own, I am all for saving money and finding ways to make my life easier. 

7 Tips to Keep Food Fresh.

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Since moving in with my boyfriend this past summer, I have been trying to find ways to reduce my our monthly spending on food, while at the same time trying to reduce the amount of food we waste. 

My solution? Meal planning and buying in bulk.

While both are great solutions and have been saving me time and money, its important to think about keeping the food you buy fresh, for as long as possible. For us, there are always a few items that don't always get used up right away, or are forgotten about. This tends to happen more often than not; and generally when this happens, I find a way to sneak it into the garbage before D knows. He hates wasting food, and I hate eating food that's gone stale, etc. 

To help keep food fresher and to reduce the amount of food we throw away, I have done some homework and found a number great tips to help.

1. Depending on how quickly you go through sliced breads, it may make sense to store them in the freezer to help increase shelf-life. This is a must for us because there is only two of us, and sometimes it takes a month to eat a loaf of bread.


2. Use glass or plastic containers to prolong the freshness of foods. Instead of storing half-empty bags of cereal, rice or pasta in your pantry, transfer these dry foods into air-tight containers after you've opened the original packaging.


3. Although dry food items such as rice and pasta generally do not go bad, certain types of small bugs like to get into these dry food items. To help fight these "flour bugs," place bay leaves around your pantry. The scent will discourage these bugs from attacking. This may have happened to us last year; we ended up throwing away almost everything that had been opened. Yuck!


4. In your refrigerator, designate one drawer for veggies and one for fruits. The reason being, some fruits give off high levels of ethylene and can speed up the ripening of nearby vegetables. But I also read some fruits can do this to other fruits. Can't always win!


5. Snip those leafy stems off your vegetables, such as carrots, before putting them in the refrigerator. You can leave about 1 1/2 inches to ensure it wont dry out, but by doing this, it will increase their shelf-life.


6. Store fresh herbs, such as parsley and basil, in a little glass of water (like a bouquet of flowers) and use them as you need them. This will help to keep their flavor and texture for longer than if stored loose in the refrigerator or on the counter top. For non-leafy herbs, such as rosemary and type, wrap them in a moistened towel and store in a reusable shopping bag in the refrigerator.


7. Zip-freeze your herbs. You can store fresh herbs in the freezer for up to a month; simply place them in a ziplock bag. This is perfect for the summer because we always end up with way too much basil and parsley and can never eat it all right away.


8. Freeze your cheese. While freezing most cheeses isn't advised, you can freeze aged cheese for up to 3 months. To thaw frozen cheese, put in the refrigerator for 7 - 8 hours. We like to buy big blocks of cheddar cheese when it goes on sale; I usually end up freezing half of it and small ziplock bags and take it out when needed.

Your turn -- do you have any great tips for keeping your food fresher?

Today I am linking up with:
The Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife

Houseplants for Improving Indoor Air Quality.

I have always loved the idea of filling my home with greenery. Since moving in with the boyfriend last summer, I have been purchasing all these various houseplants. Considering neither of us know that much about houseplants, we've been really lucky and haven't had any die on us. *knock on wood*

A few weeks after buying a spider and snake plant, I found out from my mom that both work as living air purifiers. Really? Who knew! To learn more about beneficial houseplants, I stumbled upon this great article from the mother nature network website (www.mnn.com) about fifteen houseplants for improving indoor air quality.

I have yet to find all fifteen plants in my local garden shop, but I thought I would share eight of my favorite plants and their benefits.

1. Bamboo palm. This small palm tops the list of plants best for filtering out both benzene and trichloroethylene. They’re also a good choice for placing around furniture that could be off-gassing formaldehyde. 

2. Aloe. This easy-to-grow, sun-loving succulent helps clear formaldehyde and benzene, which can be a byproduct of chemical-based cleaners, paints and more. Aloe is a smart choice for a sunny kitchen window. Beyond its air-clearing abilities, the gel inside an aloe plant can help heal cuts and burns. 

3. Spider plant. With lots of rich foliage and tiny white flowers, the spider plant battles benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and xylene, a solvent used in the leather, rubber and printing industries. 

4. Gerber daisy. This bright, flowering plant is effective at removing trichloroethylene, which you may bring home with your dry cleaning. It’s also good for filtering out the benzene that comes with inks. 

5. Snake plant. This plant is one of the best for filtering out formaldehyde, which is common in cleaning products, toilet paper, tissues and personal care products. Put one in your bathroom — it’ll thrive with low light and steamy humid conditions while helping filter out air pollutants. 

6. Chrysanthemum. The colorful flowers of a mum can do a lot more than brighten a home office or living room; the blooms also help filter out benzene, which is commonly found in glue, paint, plastics and detergent.  

7. Chinese evergreen. This easy-to-care-for plant can help filter out a variety of air pollutants and begins to remove more toxins as time and exposure continues.  

8. Peace lily. Shade and weekly watering are all the peace lily needs to survive and produce blooms. It topped NASA’s list for removing all three of most common VOCs — formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene. It can also combat toluene and xylene.

Quite often people, aka me, do not understand why they don't feel well, and why they develop symptoms that worsen over time. Inside our homes, various toxins are present at any time and can lead to serious health problems, such as asthma and allergies -- interesting...I happen to have both. By keeping these beneficial houseplants in our homes, they assist in keeping our household air clean and pure, and balance indoor humidity. These plants not only absorb pollutants, they also absorb harmful gases out of the air and help fight pollution. Frigging amazing if you ask me!

If you want to read more about these plants, you can read the full article here. What do you think? Do you have houseplants in your home? 

Facts on Kissing.

Source: picship.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

Did you know that kissing is good for you and your health? 

Kissing that special someone is not only great for romantic bonding, it's also just as awesome for your heath -- it makes us happier, it promotes all sorts of amazing chemicals to go flooding through our body, and it helps to make us smile! 

Here are my five favorite facts about kissing: 

1. Kissing naturally relaxes you; it also significantly reduces the effects of stress.


2. It keeps your facial muscles strong; kissing uses 29 facial muscles and is also a very effective exercise to reduce wrinkles!


3. Kissing burns calories; a quick kiss burns three calories, and an energetic kiss can burn more than 10 calories.


4. People who kiss their partners goodbye before going to work live longer than those who shut the door. 


5. When kissing, the body produces a substance that is 200 times more powerful than morphine, releasing a powerful narcotic effect on the body.

So, what are you waiting for? Go give that person you love a great big KISS!

If you want to read the full article, 10 things you didn't know about kissing, jump on over to the MindBodyGreen website here. It's worth the read!

10 Health Benefits of Ginger.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how Ginger is a great natural cold remedy as it helps to support the immune system. Over at the FitLifeTV website, Drew Canole put together this great inforaphic on the health benefits of ginger. 

What do you think of ginger? 

Source: fitlife.tv via Chelsea on Pinterest

Good to Know // Handling Criticism.

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How do you handle criticism? 

More often than not, I have a tough time handling criticism. For me, my reaction varies depending on who I am receiving it from. Normally, my first reaction is to become defensive, and my second reaction is to become quiet.  

I stumbled upon this great post from Positively Positive, 6 Tips for Handling Criticism. 

1. Listen to What a Critic Is Saying 

2. Don’t Be Defensive 

3. Don’t Expose Myself to Criticism from People I Don’t Respect 

4. Delay my Reaction 

5. Admit my Mistakes 

6. Enjoy the Fun of Failure

To read more about the strategies, jump over to the Positively Positive website. Are there any other strategies that you use that you find useful? I think my favorite strategy is number six -- enjoy the fun of failure. As I've previously mentioned, I fear failure and learning to re-frame failure and criticism is something I need to work on. 

Good to Know // Don't Misuse Your Bed.

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Your bed should only be used for two things - sleep and sex! If you regularly use your bed for activities that are not conducive to sleep, such as reading, eating, writing your blog (like I am doing right now), or watching television, you may find yourself  too tempted to pick up a book or reach for the remote when you should be settling down for sleep. So, if you are not tired, don't go to bed. If you cannot fall asleep within 15 minutes, get out of bed and do something that literally bores you to sleep; and make sure not to return to your bed until you're tired and closer to sleep!