Posts

Tips for Growing Hot Peppers Start hot peppers from seed indoors in late winter or buy transplants and plant them directly in the ground after the last frost in the spring. You’ll get to pick from a larger variety of peppers if you grow from seed, because there are online sellers offering a slew of pepper varieties in seed packets. But it’s simpler and requires less planning to buy transplants locally and plant them in the spring after the last frost date in your area....

Due to their nature, all folding chairs can be easily stored and put away, ensuring you always have an extra seat when you need it without cluttering your home. To help you decide which is the best folding chair to suit your needs, we researched the top picks, keeping in mind size, weight, weight capacity, and materials. Overall, the best folding chair for those looking to add a little extra seating to their home is the HDX Black Plastic Folding Chair....

Some of these fun board games are perfect for one player while others are meant for two, while more still are best played with a large family. Whether it’s critical thinking and competition you seek or simple fun and loads of laughter, there’s something on this list for everyone. Classic Board Games There’s a reason these classic board games have been around for ages: They’re fun to play and sure to liven up any setting....

The best steam irons heat up quickly, offer multiple settings to accommodate a variety of materials, and are easy to maneuver. Added features like auto-shutoff settings, anti-drip soleplates, and retractable plugin cords are also helpful. We put some of the best steam irons to the test to determine which ones are actually worth buying. Our expert home testers purchased and used 30 different steam irons in our lab in Des Moines, Iowa, putting each one through its paces on materials like cotton, linen, and satin....

“The two most important features when looking for a vacuum to clean up after your pets are suction power and filtration,” says Ollie Toogood, senior design engineer at Dyson. We put 37 of the best vacuums for pet hair to the test in our lab in Des Moines, Iowa, to see which ones picked up fur from hard floors and carpets alike while remaining maneuverable and easy to operate. Our team of experts spent an entire day running each vacuum on different flooring types covered in pet hair, dust, dirt, and more....

“Carpet can be a great investment and really enhance a space if done right,” says Cameron Johnson, Founder & CEO of Nickson Living. The best carpets are available in an array of styles and materials, such as nylon, polyester, wool, or cotton. You can also get them in a vast selection of colors and patterns too, making it easy to truly personalize your space. However, not all carpet is created equally, and since it fills such a large surface area in your home, it’s important to evaluate which carpet is best for your needs....

Stone Fruit Hybrids Each of these stone fruit hybrids contains different ratios of their parent fruits. Follow the same picking methods for hybrids as you’d use for their parents. Look for fruits that are fragrant and firm but yield under slight pressure from your thumb. Plums should feel heavy for their size when you hold them. Apricots ripen more quickly than peaches and plums, so purchase only what you can eat within a couple of days....

Purple (Almost-Black) Foliage Raven is distinguished by deep, deep purple, glossy leaves. The foliage is so dark it can appear black in rooms with low lighting. Justin Hancock, head of brand marketing at Costa Farms, describes this variety as “a stylish version of a practically indestructible, tried-and-true houseplant. Its purple-black foliage stands out and fits in a wide variety of home decor styles.” The sleek leaves and striking color evoke the popular modern farmhouse style and fit right in with classic black and white decorating schemes....

The skeleton sold out long before October in 2020 and was comparably tough to get in 2021. If you’ve yet to get your hands on this viral decoration (and have the space to set up and store it), this might be your year—but only if you act quickly. You can order the skeleton (as well as the rest of The Home Depot’s Halloween decorations collection) online starting July 15. Wait too long, and you may have to wait until 2023 to finally bring your very own skeletal giant home....

May Day Flower Baskets Looking for easy May Day basket ideas? Upcycle a berry basket from the grocery store into a sweet gift. Simply print our free DIY May basket tags and glue them to a cardboard or wooden berry basket. Fill the homemade May Day baskets with fresh-cut flowers or candy. Add a piece of patterned wrapping paper under the tags for an extra pop of color. Paper Flower May Day Cards This handmade May Day card is the perfect way to use up leftover scrapbook or tissue paper....

How to Make Angel Food Cake with Pineapple As noted, you only need two ingredients: one box of angel food cake mix and a 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple. There are optional toppings, too, but we’ll get to that later. Here’s how to make the 2-ingredient cake: Note: Traditional angel food cakes don’t require greasing the pan to get the height. We found lightly greasing the pan to work just fine, but if you see the cake pulling away from the sides or deflating too much after baking, you might want to keep the pan ungreased next time....

Original Publication Date: January 9, 2019 Earlier this week, the Connected Garden Super Sensor was revealed at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. This techy product takes smart gardening to a whole new level—let’s dig into how it works. You begin by putting the product’s sensor into the soil of your garden. The sensor, which works in tandem with an app on your phone, will detect information about that spot in your garden—sunlight exposure, soil moisture, and pH are a few details it’ll pick up....

“Punch bowls are great to keep both guests and flavors moving,” she says. “They prompt people to get up and refill a glass on their own. And as the ingredients for a specific recipe run out, it’s easy to direct the drink’s flavor profile in a different direction.” A vintage silver punch bowl with paisley detail and a plate painted in malachite green and blue launched a table setting that is rich in color and pattern....

In keeping with the no-fuss mood, the table is set in a light-filled breakfast area, intimate but without the serious undertones of a formal dining room. A printed cotton tablecloth lays a sunny yellow foundation for dinnerware, amplifying the summer aesthetic. Porcelain dessert plates decorated with a delicate flower motif add to the happy color scheme. Glass chargers layer in linenlike texture and enhance the florals with bright pops of blue....

Plants for Creating the Garden Plan for Partial Shade 2 Petunia: Annual 2 Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens): Annual 1 Sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Blackie’): Zones 9-11; annual elsewhere 4 Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides): Annual 9 Hosta spp.: Zones 3-8 1 Giant fleece flower (Persicaria polymorpha): Zones 3-8 5 Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.): Zones 3-10 3 Garden phlox (Phlox paniculata): Zones 3-8 1 Smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens): Zones 4-9 2 Shrub verbena (Lantana ‘Samantha’): Zones 7-11 2 Asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus): Zones 9-11; annual elsewhere...

The entryway decor—a bench upholstered in a mud cloth pattern, an antique Oriental rug, and a whopper of a chandelier—shows another side of Heidi’s balancing skills: pairing clean lines and neutral colors with global patterns and a mix of new and vintage furniture. “It’s all about contrast,” Heidi says. “We wanted to keep as many original elements as we could, so we went a little more modern or eclectic in some places to balance out the old-school vibe....

Search “cinnamon roll hack” or “TikTok cinnamon roll” on the app, and you’ll find a plethora of users upgrading their store-bought rolls themselves. The hashtag #cinnamonrollhack has nearly 23 million views, and creators and commenters alike have given it stellar ratings. One creator even said they would never make cinnamon rolls any other way. The key step of this enhanced recipe calls for adding heavy whipping cream to the baking pan after placing and spacing out your pre-made rolls....

Top Exterior Color Schemes Real-Life Modern Decor Design Tip: To mesh old and new, the modern elements in the dining room addition were limited to the lighting, fireplace surround, and chairs. Tile Fireplace Inspiration 8 Tips for Smart Mudroom Storage

We have inexpensive gifts in the $10 range (perfect for families who do one gift each night) as well as moderately priced ideas if you’re looking to do a few nicer gifts spaced out throughout the season. And if you’re in the market for a splurge gift, we’ve got those too! These are our favorite Hanukkah gift ideas for friends, family, coworkers, and even pets! Whether you’re searching for eight small gifts or a few larger splurge items, we’ve got you covered....

1 tablespoon olive oil 1 small red onion, cut in thin wedges (3/4 cup) 1 ½ cup quartered cherry tomatoes 2 tablespoon white balsamic or white wine vinegar 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon snipped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed Apple Jalapeno Topper 1 medium Granny Smith or other tart apple, cored and chopped (1 cup) ⅓ cup chopped green onions 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoon minced jalapeno pepper 1 teaspoon sugar