Personalized Address Planters

Personalized Address Planter ($59.95 + Free Shipping)

These personalized crocks would make a wonderful housewarming gift and a nice addition to your own home.  Personalize these crocks with your family name and/or street address and then set them on the porch or walkway.  Black, blue and green colored fonts are available.  They are currently $59.95 at Plow & Hearth, and you can get free shipping by using coupon code: PHFSN.  Other Plow & Hearth Coupon Codes Available Here: http://aptgarden.blogspot.com/p/savings.html.

Better Homes and Garden Holiday Store

One of my favorite magazines, Better Homes and Garden (BHG) has a Holiday Store! Currently, you can get $3.95 shipping on any order, any size.  You can shop by issue or by topic.  They also have holiday exclusives! For example, you can get 40% off holiday fruit boxes and get free shipping as well.

Cover Those Gray Roots in a Pinch

Photo Credit: Everyday Goddess

So you are getting ready for a hot date or an important meeting, but as you are primping yourself in the mirror all you can see are those pesky gray hairs staring back at you reminding both you and the world that you are not that young anymore.  Well, here's a quick, inexpensive tip for covering up those gray hairs in a pinch.  All you need is eye shadow in the same shade as your hair color, an eye shadow brush, and if you wish some hairspray.

Materials

• Eye Shadow in the same shade as your hair color.  I have dark brown/black hair, and I use Cover Girl  eye shadow in "brown smolder" #740.  It works great as a brow liner too.  Target only charges $0.49 shipping for this item, and it costs $2.98 before tax. 
• Inexpensive or old Eye Shadow Brush. You can also get a complete set of brushes at Tmart.com for about $4 or individual brushes as low as $1.  Shipping is FREE.
• Hairspray (optional).  I use a fine hairspray to give my roots a light spritz.  I allow it to get tacky, and then apply the power to my roots.  It's not necessary, but I think it makes the powder stick to my roots longer.    

Directions

1. Style your hair as usual.
2. If you want to use hairspray, give you roots a very light spritz of hairspray.  
3. Dip your eye shadow brush in the eye shadow while you are waiting for the hairspray to get tacky.  This should only take a few seconds.  
4. Then start covering your gray hairs with the powder.  I use small, short strokes...think stippling.  Avoid getting the powder on your scalp.  

Today's Finds: Grass Animals

Alpaca ($4.29 + Free Shipping)

Puppy ($4.38 + Free Shipping)

Bunny Rabbit ($4.42 + Free Shipping)

Squirrel ($4.43 + Free Shipping)

These are so adorable, and a fun way to dress up your desk this winter.  

They are crafted out of artificial grass so there is no need to water or maintain it.    

They are under $5 each and shipping is free at Tmart.com.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Glamour ran an article called "31 Days of Giving."  The article gives readers 31 ways to give back to people.  You can read the online version at Donating to Charity: 31 Days of Giving by Glamour.com.  The article inspired me to compile a list of ways to help our troops and their families in the spirit of Veteran's Day.

• Send a teddy bear to the child of a deployed marine.  For $25, jonathancollins.org gives a plush toy with a voice message recorded by the parent, which will play when the paw is pressed.

• Show your support for our troops. A donation to woundedwarriorproject.org can aid a soldier’s physical—and emotional—recovery after deployment.

• Support the troops with warm socks, deodorant, Cheez-Its: Find their wish lists at anysoldier.com.

• Staying home for the holidays? Donate frequent-flier miles to injured soldiers’ families at heromiles.org

• Buy a counseling session for a soldier returning home after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan with your $17 donation to www.giveanhour.org.

• Create and send a postcard to our troops for free by visiting: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/cosmo-kisses-postcard.  Cosmopolitan and Maybelline New York will donate $1 to USO for each postcard sent. Up to $20,000.

Pumpkin Update

Photo: Jack-o-Lantern from the Garden

I planted pumpkin seeds in July, but as you can see our pumpkin was not quite ready for carving.  My daughter and I decided to carve the pumpkin anyways.  We were inspired by the jack-o-lantern in the Bubble Guppies episode about Halloween.  We both bonded over the experience, and were happy with the final product.  Next year, I will try planting the seeds in June, and will use a lot more organic fertilizer.

Free Christmas Cactus by Mai

Photo: Christmas Cactus, Free Plant of the Month by freeplantsbymail.org

Free Plants By Mail (freeplantsbymail.org) was started by local growers as a way to use the surplus plants from nurseries and also as a way to support The Nature Conservancy.  Free Plants By Mail offers a new free plant each month.  This month they are offering Christmas Cactus.  Although the plant itself is free, you do have to pay a small shipping and handling fee of $6.95.

This organization also has over 100 plants available for sale on their site.  100% of the proceeds from the sale will go to The Nature Conservancy.

Click here to view Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Send Postcards to Our Troops for Free

You can create and send a postcard to our troops by visiting: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/cosmo-kisses-postcard.  Cosmopolitan and Maybelline New York will donate $1 to USO for each postcard sent.*

Many of my family members and friends are in the military.  They do so much for us, and I know that they will appreciate the fact that we took the time to write them a kind message.  So please take a few minutes to show them your appreciation!  

*Up to $20,000.