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You don’t have to hire an interior designer or have a complete DIY shop in the garage to update your home’s look. There are lots of ways to freshen things up and still stay within your decorating budget.

Paint Those Walls
Paint is a relatively low cost way to change a room and it is easy to do yourself. Neutral walls are great if you like to change the color accents in your room with pillows and wall accessories. Bold color on the walls, or even on one wall of a room, will make a big impact. The paint departments at home improvement stores have lots of ideas for interesting color combinations. There are brochures at the store and online tools that can help you envision what you room would look like in the new color. Don’t skimp on paint, though. Buying really good quality paint, brushes, and rollers makes the job easier to do and will yield better results when the project’s finished.

Repurpose Old Furniture
An older piece of furniture can be given new life by a new finish. Stripping and refinishing involves some work, but you will love the end result. The key is to have enough imagination to look past what the piece looks like now to what it could look like later. In addition to what you might have in your living room or garage, you may be able to pick up older pieces at garage sales or thrift stores that are worth your time. If course, if you have always wondered whether that old table you got from your grandmother might be worth something on Antiques Road Show, you should probably have it evaluated before starting in.

Sew, Sew, Sew
If you know how to sew, you have a whole world of designer fabric waiting for your creative talents. Budget decorating can inspire to make all sorts of colorful accessories for your room like pillows, window treatments, and tablecloths fairly cheaply if you can wait for the fabric to go on sale. If you are really ambitious you could even try a reupholstering project. Fabric is available in stores as well as online.

Rearrange
If you can’t afford new furniture, maybe all you need to do is to rearrange what you already have to change the feel and focus of the room. Perhaps just one new piece would be all you need in a newly configured design.

Call Your Friends
If you have a creative friend, ask him or her for advice. A friend can look at your home with a more objective perspective and may see how to change a room to maximize its impact. This is design help on the cheap.

Enlist a crew to come and help you paint. This will help get the project done quickly and cheaply, and they will probably be glad to help if you provide a nice dinner after the job is done.

If you have a tight budget, decorating doesn’t have to be expensive. You don’t even have to do the whole room at the same time. Try to develop an overall vision for your room, and work on different aspects of the project as you have the time and money

There is nothing quite like a home-grown tomato or some really fresh green beans from your garden. Maybe you have always wanted to have a vegetable or flower garden but just didn’t know how to get started. Square foot gardening is a great way to begin, and has the added advantage of making very efficient use of your garden space. Rather than wasting a lot of ground between rows in a traditional garden, each square foot of space is continuously occupied during your growing season.

Basic Plans
The basic plan for square foot gardening is a square that is four feet by four feet, giving you sixteen square feet of growing space. It is easy to reach each square from the sides of the area so tending your garden is easy. If you want to grow more than this will allow, simply prepare multiple beds with adequate aisles between them. Now you have to consider the sun, soil, and water needs of your plants.

Gardening Tools

Sun
Most vegetable and flowers need 6 to 8 hours of full sun a day to produce well. Don’t put your garden in an area that is shaded or one that puddles after rain.

Soil
If you already have good soil in a great location, you could use the square foot gardening method to maximize the efficiency of your already prepared garden area. If your soil is less than ideal, making a raised bed from 2″ x 6″ untreated lumber is easy. Make sure to use untreated lumber, since the chemicals used to treat the lumber can leach into the soil. Fill the box with a mixture of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 coarse vermiculite. Since you never walk on the soil it will stay nice and loose, perfect for growing great vegetables.

Mark off the sixteen squares with string or wire and you are ready to plant!

Choosing Plants
What flowers do you love? What do you like to eat? What is best suited to the climate conditions and length of growing season in your area? To maximize your production, you can plant several smaller plants in one square whereas one bigger plant, like broccoli, may take up the whole space. Guides are available that help you to plan out your space. After harvesting from the square, simply add a little extra compost, mix it in, and replant the square to keep it producing.

Water
Make sure that you visit the garden regularly to check on the soil conditions and water if necessary. Don’t overwater, though, since this can be just as bad for your plants as not having enough. Keep the weeds under control to get the best yield and be alert for garden pests.

It only takes a few hours to get started with square foot gardening but you will enjoy seeing your plants grow all summer. And you will get to enjoy some delicious vegetables and lovely flowers that you have grown yourself.

Many people are sort of scared to bake bread for the first time, but the process is so uncomplicated that just about anyone can achieve good success with the help of these few tips below. All you need is 20 minutes or so to get the dough ready and a few hours around the house occupied with other projects while you check in on the dough. The delicious aroma and wonderful taste – not to mention the nutrition benefits and pride of making freshly baked bread is well worth the effort.

Preparing the Dough
A basic recipe for one loaf of sandwich bread is:
1 package of yeast
1/2  cup of lukewarm water
2/3 cups of lukewarm milk
1 egg
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of sugar (this is variable, but we like our bread a little sweet)
1 teaspoon of salt
3 1/2  cups of flour, usually half white and half whole wheat

Dough Rising

Sprinkle the yeast onto the water and add a little of the sugar. Wait for about 10 minutes for bubbles to appear that prove that the yeast is active. Add the milk, egg, oil, remaining sugar, and the salt and mix with a whisk until thoroughly blended.

Add half of the flour and beat with a spoon. Beating the batter now helps to reduce the kneading time later. Add the rest of the flour and incorporate it into the dough. If you are a beginner, you may get the best results by starting with bread flour that has more natural gluten. If you are using heavy stone-ground whole wheat flour, you may want to lighten the loaf by replacing some of it with white flour and adding extra gluten. Other finer ground whole wheat flours may do fine. This is something that you gain with experience with the flours available in your store.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead it by folding and pressing repeatedly, adding flour to keep it from sticking to the counter, until the dough is smooth and springy. Kneading develops the gluten in the flour and gives the bread its texture by creating spaces to contain the gases produced by the yeast that make the dough rise. Beginners may need to set the timer for 6 or 7 minutes to make sure they are kneading enough. As your kneading gets more effective and you develop a feel for the dough, you won’t have to knead quite so long.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place until doubled. Punch it down, roll it up tightly, tuck the ends under, and place it in your oiled 5″ x 8″ pan seam down.

Final Steps
Cover it with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in the pan until it is just higher than the top of the pan and bake bread at 350° for 30-35 minutes. Remove it promptly from the pan. Buttering the top of the loaf while it is hot keeps the crust soft and adds that warm glow of buttery flavor.

Really anyone can bake bread. Don’t be afraid of it, just try it. If your first effort is less than perfect, it will still taste delicious, and you will probably achieve better results with practice. Your family will love you for it.

Backyard bird watching is a very popular hobby because it is a great way to enjoy and appreciate nature even in an urban environment. Spending a few minutes in the company of your feathered friends is a great way to relax at the end of your day. If you want to attract birds to your yard, you have to provide at least some of their basic necessities.

Humming Bird Flying

What Do They Eat?

If you provide what they eat, the birds will show up. Different birds eat different things, so think about which birds you would like to attract and give them what they want. A hummingbird feeder filled with nectar will be visited almost constantly and you may be treated to interesting territorial displays. Commercial seed mixes are easily available that will attract a variety of birds and a suet feeder will draw others. Besides feeders, you could plant plants and trees that provide growing food. Conifers, hollies, and other garden fruits and seeds will provide food on a natural schedule that the birds are used to. Many birds eat insects that inhabit your yard and garden, so you may want to consider the impact on the bird population of any pest control products that you use.

There are other critters that also love to eat bird food, so you may need to invest in a feeder that is designed to resist the efforts of squirrels and raccoons.

Bird in Field

Water

During the irrigation andwatering season there is often plenty of water available for birds to drink, but other times of the year may be difficult for them. If you provide clean, fresh water, you may find birds coming to drink and bathe. Be sure to keep your bird bath clean and free of mold or algae.

A Place Out of the Weather

Birds also need shelter from the elements and a secure place to nest. Each species is particular about the nesting habitat that they choose. Some birds will nest in bird houses if they are made to the right specifications. Watching the whole nesting process and keeping track of the growth of the young ones can be a delightful part of your backyard bird watching. Trees, shrubs, and dense brush create safe places for birds to roost and to hide from predators. Evergreens provide good cover and can also be a source of winter food.
Backyard bird watching doesn’t have to be involved or cost a lot of money. Start with a basic feeder and start enjoying your visitors. You can keep adding to the attractions of your backyard habitat as time and funds allow.