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Apples harvested from backyard trees rarely resemble their grocery store counterparts. Expect homegrown fruit to have a few blemishes and sport some odd shapes. A wide variety of fruit sizes and unique color combinations are common too. Apples you grow yourself may look far from perfect, but their flavor more than makes up for this fact. Take a bite of a freshly picked apple and you’ll quickly taste the difference between it and a grocery store apple....

The best leaf vacuums typically work as both a leaf blower and a vacuum, so you can use them to push leaves around your yard or suck them away entirely. “When considering a leaf vacuum, look for one with dual purpose blower and vacuum capability so the leaves can be blown into a large pile before being vacuumed and mulched,” says Dan Vessell, product manager at Husqvarna. He also recommends opting for a large vacuum bag size to spend less time unloading leaves....

The extent of the damage can help determine if a repair is a better option. In addition to shopping around for quotes from at least three licensed roofing companies, homeowners are cautioned not to just take a roofers’ word for it. After all, it’s in the company’s best interest to have a roof replaced (which costs on average $5,000 to $10,000) versus simply performing a repair (which costs on average from $315 to $1,000+)....

Can I Wash Down Comforters and Pillows at Home? Comforters for full-, queen-, and king-size beds are probably too big for standard-size home washing machines. For best results, use a large-capacity front-loading washing machine, such as the ones at a local laundromat. Down pillows, on the other hand, might be small enough to launder in your washing machine at home, which is the more convenient choice, especially if you have a front-loading machine....

Just how popular are these videos? Well, hashtags relating to these cleaning clips each have millions—sometimes hundreds of millions—of views. There are YouTube compilations of TikTok room cleaning videos so that you can watch them without interruption. And large companies like The Container Store are getting in on the trend with cleaning challenges and their own organizing posts, so it’s safe to say these videos resonate with a lot of people....

Can I Substitute Different Size Eggs in Recipes? Most standard recipes use large eggs as a default. In the case your recipe calls for an extra-large egg and all you have are medium, here’s a guide on how to substitute egg sizes thanks to Sauder Egg’s egg size chart. one large egg = any other sized egg will worktwo large eggs = three small, two medium, two extra-large, or two jumbo eggsthree large eggs = four small, three medium, three extra-large eggs, or two jumbo eggsfour large eggs = five small, five medium, four extra-large, or three jumbo eggsfive large eggs = seven small, six medium, five extra-large eggs, or five jumbo eggs...

Decide how you want to dive in and start with our cozy paint color picks to help you create your look. Note: Actual colors may appear differently than on screen. Always consult paint color chips. Palettes designed by Khristian A. Howell. Cozy Paint Colors by Room Cozy Living Room Colors A fireplace is a natural focal point in a living room, but you don’t have to actually have the architectural feature to enjoy its warmth....

Sculptural candles, often featuring bold colors to highlight their artful silhouettes, seem to be popping up at retailers everywhere lately. And according to Etsy’s 2020 holiday trend report, the retailer has seen an 86% increase in searches for abstract, modern, and geometric candles over the past three months compared to the same time last year. Whether you prefer to light them or preserve them as a decorative accent, these candles make a stylish statement on fireplace mantels, dining room tables, nightstands, and more....

Adding a Chapter to the Home’s Story Striking that balance encouraged Patricia to look at her 127-year-old house in Mill Valley, CA, somewhat like a book, with each previous owner contributing a chapter. “It’s a mix of styles and the histories of the people who have lived here,” she says. “I wanted to preserve the layers of architecture and those stories.” Art Brings Personality She combines her hippie-chic and midcentury modern styles to create an eclectic Victorian home that has an impact as soon as you cross the front porch and enter the living room....

Home renovation is a surprisingly popular topic in the YouTube community. Renovation videos rake up hundreds of thousands of views—even more if they feature celebrities or social media influencers. You can learn simple techniques like how to use a stud finder or learn about more advanced tools like a wet tile saw (which the Robertses avoided). Check out their favorite projects, mastered with the help of YouTube, and see how two average joes made this redo not only doable but done....

Plants for Creating the Easy-Care, Summer-Blooming Shade Garden Plan 6 Hydrangea (Light-O-Day): Zones 5-9 8 Hydrangea (Endless Summer Blushing Bride): Zones 5-9 4 Shrub rose (Rosa Little Mischief): Zones 4-9 2 Dwarf mock orange (Philadelphus ‘Miniature Snowflake’): Zones 4-8 9 Perennial geranium (Rozanne): Zones 4-8 6 Siberian iris (Iris sibirica ‘Sky Wings’): Zones 3-9 4 Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum ‘Prairie Sky’): Zones 4-9 2 Lilac (Syringa Tinkerbelle): Zones 3-7 1 Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’): Zones 5-9 5 Hydrangea (Endless Summer): Zones 4-9 3 Astilbe (‘Snowdrift’): Zones 3-9...

Along with the brushes, the set includes an extended reach attachment to help you clean tight places, like the space between stove grates or grout between tiles. The brand also offers other brush styles with different bristle strengths that you can use for surfaces like grills, plastics, cabinets, upholstery, and more. One five-star reviewer said using the brushes is a breeze, and they were “able to get into spots [that are] hard to reach and get my tub cleaned better than ever and make it look like new....

Test Kitchen Tip: Hard-cooked eggs made with eggs that have been refrigerated 1 week to 10 days after purchase are easier to peel.

cup 2 wood chips (oak, hickory, apple, maple, or pecan) cup 4 ice cubes Smoked Graham Crackers cup 1 wood chips (oak, hickory, apple, maple, or pecan) 12 graham cracker squares

Varieties of Coleus India Frills Coleus (Solenostemon ‘India Frills’) has deeply lobed narrow leaves with a chartreuse margin and maroon, magenta, and purple center splash. It grows in part or full shade. It trails to 1 foot. Telltale Heart Coleus (Solenostemon ‘Telltale Heart’) has heart-shape leaves with scalloped green edges and a deep purple-maroon center. It is slow to flower, so it needs little pinching or pruning to maintain its trailing shape....