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½ cup warm water 2 tablespoon white vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar ½ teaspoon salt 2 medium carrots, cut into thin bite-size strips **Tip: To warm tortillas, preheat oven to 350°F. Stack tortillas and wrap tightly in foil. Bake about 10 minutes or until heated through. ICON: warm weather

Find more natives for your southwestern garden here! How to Grow Wavy Cloak Fern Wavy cloak fern grows best in full sun and well-drained soil. Native to the desert Southwest, it is most often found growing underneath evergreen desert shrubs in rocky soil or in rock crevices. It shows the most growth when it is growing in locations where its leaves receive sun and its roots are sheltered in the shade of a rock outcropping or underneath a dense shrub....

Before you consider swatches, keep this painting pointer in mind: There’s no need to go crazy with color, especially when you’re trying to appeal to as many buyers as possible. Valspar’s Sue Kim advises keeping your paint color combination to around three colors. For example, “try a clean white for the siding like Valspar’s Swiss Coffee, Dark Kettle Black on details, and Heirloom Red on the front door for a traditionally classic scheme that won’t go out of style,” she says....

Influenced by Germany’s utilitarian Bauhaus movement and the simplicity of Scandinavian and Japanese design styles, minimalism provides a quieter alternative to over-accessorized interiors. Minimalism creates a tranquil atmosphere in living rooms or bedrooms and gives kitchens and bathrooms a clean, modern look. Although it’s designed to appear effortless, decorating in minimalist style is highly deliberate and can be difficult to pull off. Learn more about its key characteristics and discover tricks to achieving a clean, minimalist look without sacrificing personality....

Especially if you’re planning to complete any DIY electrical work, such as repairing or replacing a switch or adding a new light fixture, it’s important to know the basics of how these switches control your electricity. By taking the time to learn how your switch wiring system works, you can reduce your risk of electric shock or fire when working with switches. Check out our comprehensive guide below to learn the ins and outs of light switch wiring, including information on power-through and end-line switches....

Rhododendrons Curl Their Leaves Against Winter Wind If your rhododendron is exposed to too much cold winter wind, it will curl its leaves inward, trying to keep less leaf surface exposed. The shrub is trying to keep water from evaporating from its leaves. Here’s how to help: Whenever the temperature gets above freezing, give your rhododendron a slow and steady trickle of water until the soil feels damp 8-10 inches down....

Taking just an hour or two to sort out its contents can help guard against food waste and unpleasant smells while making meal prep much more efficient. Take your kitchen organization to a new level with these tips on how to organize a fridge. Start by Choosing a Section Figuring out how to organize the fridge can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Start small and tackle one section at a time....

The painting steps below work best for solid wood and hollow-core doors. For vinyl-covered or plastic doors, you’ll need to apply at least one coat of primer after sanding and before you begin painting. Choose a durable paint finish in a semi-gloss or glossy sheen, which will stand up well to everyday use and frequent cleaning. Editor’s Tip: If you choose to paint an interior door with it still on the hinges, keep paint off the floor by sliding a piece of cardboard underneath the door....

See how to decorate with buffalo plaid. What You Need TSP (trisodium phosphate)Painters tape for delicate surfacesPaint: white, light, medium, darkSatin-finish polyurethane sealerRubber glovesSponge1 1/2- or 2-inch paintbrush for each color and the sealerSmall foam roller for each color and the sealerTape measureStraightedgePencil Step 1: Prep and Prime Floor While wearing rubber gloves, clean your floor with TSP, hot water, and a sponge; let dry. Mask off baseboards and fixtures with painters tape....

Before you jump into painting your home, you’ll want to decide on a color scheme, research the best type of paint for your home’s materials and climate conditions, secure scaffolding or extended height ladders, brush up on your safety knowledge, adequately and thoroughly prepare your surfaces, and maybe even recruit a few friends to help with the project. Step 1: Choose Exterior Paint Colors Deciding on a color scheme is one of the first steps to tackle....

Varieties of Blue Lobelia ‘Blue Wings’ Lobelia Lobelia tenuior ‘Blue Wings’ bears large blue flowers on a mounding plant perfect for hanging baskets. It grows 10 inches tall. ‘Lucia Dark Blue’ Lobelia Lobelia erinus ‘Lucia Dark Blue’ offers gorgeous true-blue flowers on a trailing plant that’s more heat tolerant than many older varieties. It trails to 24 inches. ‘Magadi Blue’ Lobelia Lobelia erinus ‘Magadi Blue’ offers better heat tolerance than most lobelias....

Colorful Combinations One of obedient plant’s best features is its long bloom time, about a full month from late summer into fall. The blossoms are light shades of pink and white, a rarity among the hot, bold colors of fall. The flowers look good in a garden setting and also make good cut flowers. The lance-shaped serrated leaves are typically a deep green color, but there is also a variegated selection with green leaves edged in cream that take on a purple coloring once nights begin to cool in the fall....

More projects and advice from Danny Lipford

So what do you do if your weed trimmer comes without string or you’ve run out of string during a job? How exactly do you restring it? Just follow these simple steps to get back to whipping your yard into shape. Step 1: Remove Existing Spool Whether you’re starting with a pre-strung spool or you’re going to restring your existing spool, you will first need to remove it from the motor housing....

Why is milkweed important to monarchs? Milkweed is a perennial flower native to North America that thrive in a wide array of ecosystems. This plant is essential to the life cycle of monarch butterflies because the insects need milkweed to lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, milkweed is the only plant the white, black, and yellow striped caterpillars will eat. This makes it an essential element for helping the next generation of monarchs grow and hatch each season....

To learn about this and more, check out our tips below on staining and varnishing trim. How to Remove Trim For most paint jobs, it’s actually easier to remove the baseboards and finish them on a work surface that’s about waist high. If you paint or varnish either new or existing baseboards when they’re on the wall, you’re going to spend a lot of uncomfortable hours on your hands and knees....

So what, exactly, does it mean to stir-fry? It’s a technique of quickly cooking small, uniform pieces of food in a little hot oil in a stir fry wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. We love it for highlighting vegetables, in particular, as the cooking style helps them retain their color, crunch, and nutrients. Do I Need a Wok as I Learn How to Stir Fry? If you plan to do a lot of stir-frying, you might want to invest in a stir fry wok, the traditional round-bottom pan used in high-heat Chinese cooking....