Video Overview

Occupy Your Mind:

1. Learn a New Skill: Being out of work is hard! However, maybe this will offer you the perfect chance to change the course of your life, if you so desire. There are thousands of classes on line that teach skills. If you are currently unable to work, make time to develop a skill that has always been of interest to you. Take up woodworking, painting, drawing, photography or writing. Learn to play an instrument or improve your skill in an instrument you already have. Take notice of the things that are beautiful to you and find a way to make it into something more. For instance, if you love a specific photograph that hangs in your home try to put it on canvas. It may not be perfect, but it will take up some of your time and may bring you unexpected joy.
2. Tease your Brain: Try out a puzzle, learn a new board or card game. Do things away from the screen.  For instance, if you enjoy figuring things out, learn how to change the oil in your car, or repair a mechanical issue. Start a blog or a YouTube channel on something you are passionate about.  There are so many resources you can use to exercise your brain while away from work or spending time at home.
3. Many people find joy in music: Music makes people happy. Throw on some headphones or blast the radio while you are sitting around, running, dancing or even doing a chores. Music will instantly lift your mood. There are many opportunities to have a “private” concert with a favorite artist as people are taking to Instagram and Twitter to share their talents. Take advantage of this. Try a different genre of music that takes you on a journey, Spanish or French music,for instance, can transport you to another place.  There are even orchestral performances that have free concerts throughout the next few months. There is no better time to be able to see these beautiful works of art than from your home office.
4. Podcasts: There are thousands of podcasts out there. You could probably get through a few of them from start to finish with this quarantine. Pick a few favorites to listen to when nothing else seems to be working. One of my favorites is My Favorite Murder. A comedy murder podcast.  It takes a little getting used to, but if its your cup of tea, it will entertain for hours. You could also take up audio books. They are a great way to listen to your favorite books while working around the house, in the care or even as you are falling asleep. Your local library has an app that you can download and get audio books for free, or you can use one of the many services available with a subscription.
5. Get Your Virtual Tour On: There have been posts popping up all over the place with museums, farms, and even the Sistine Chapel offering free virtual tours.  This a perfect way to exercise your mind and keep your spirits up by focusing on the beauty that exists in this world.
6. Be Grateful: I know its hard to do when we are all worried about our health, our jobs, the economy and the world in general. But take a minute to start a gratitude journal. Try to write down one thing a day. You may be surprised at everything you have to be grateful for.

Occupy Your Body:

1. Organize/Clean: Its about the time for spring cleaning. Take this extra “mandated” time at home to get rid of things that don’t bring you joy as Marie Kondo would suggest. Old paperwork, photos, books, etc. Create something with them or remove them from your life. When you take time to de-clutter your home, your mind will often take the journey as well and you are better able to focus on work, friends, family or whatever else matters most to you.
2. Make-up Tutorials: Again, there are thousands of make-up tutorials to occupy your time. You can go from frumpy work from home (like me) to glam in a matter of minutes. Give it a shot. You may just impress someone. Plus, despite how it feels, this won’t last forever, you will eventually get back to real life, and work.
3. Lose that weight you have been stressing about using exercise. No joke. You don’t get to see your crush for a month. Make that month matter. Exercise at home with these at home exercise videos for beginners or get more intense with videos for a more intermediate level. You can even try dancing. Get outside for a hike or run. There are so many options outside of the gym.
4. Make food at home and learn what you can about what is most nutritious for your body. While everyone has the same general guidelines, make decisions that work for you and your body. Use this month to eat healthier. There is not a pressing reason to go out to eat, so try to avoid it. Make food at home and learn what you can about what is most nutritious for your body. While everyone has the same general guidelines, make decisions that work for you and your body.
5. Find New Recipes: There are a million and one bloggers out there offering copy-cat recipes for your favorite menu items, healthier versions of your favorite foods, and brand new recipes you may have never even considered.  This is an awesome time to up your cooking/baking game. Impress a significant other or spouse by creating a beautiful version of their favorite food, or find a new favorite. The possibilities are literally endless.
6. Learn to Garden: There is no better time to learn about gardening. This can prove beneficial to your health, and your food storage. Having healthy, home grown fruits and vegetables to eat will make a world of difference in your both your mental state and overall well-being. Even if you don’t think you have a green thumb, do some research and you may find a method that works for you. Create an indoor garden if you are renting or don’t have the space for a real outdoor garden.

The post 12 Self-Quarantine To-Dos to Occupy Yourself appeared first on Got Glam?.

Although avocados are available at grocery stores pretty much year round now, their true season is from April to September with a very large amount of the country’s source being San Diego, in fact over 85% of the entire country’s avocados are hand grown in California! So as a true Californian, one should have a large repertoire of recipes at their disposal, especially for hosting your summer parties!

This particular avocado recipe is great as an appetizer to a vegan meal, in my opinion because avocados are so filling and vegan meals aren’t always so satisfying for some, so this creates a nice balance. But this alluring fruit is so aesthetically fabulous that it will be the center of attention at any gathering.

Video Overview

I love cooking with avocados because of their versatile taste making eating healthy so enjoyable. Topped with juicy veggies like cherry tomatoes and cucumbers mixed with the tanginess tart of lemons create a mix of sensations for the senses.

Organic Ingredients for the Grilled Avocado Appetizer Recipe:

DIRECTIONS:

Turn on your grill and preheat on medium.

In medium saucepan boil water. Add quinoa and cook for ten minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water in a fine colander. Let it sit and dry.

In a small glass bowl, mix lemon juice, vinegar, smashed garlic and salt together and let it sit for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the garlic and add in olive oil and whisk to make oil.

Brush oil onto avocados and put avocados on the preheated grill, open side down cook until charred and take off grill.

Combine everything (except the avocado) in a medium bowl and toss to make avocado filling. Add salt and pepper to preference. Place avocado filling in halved avocado and arrange nicely and serve!

Enjoy!

Makes 6 servings.

Takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to prepare/cook.

The post Glam Grilled Avocado Appetizer Recipe- Gluten Free & Vegan appeared first on Got Glam?.

There may be more interesting and possibly more important subjects and questions out there in our complicated world but, for the moment, we want to appeal to those with a very specific problem: How to wash fleece blankets or, in the singular, how to wash a fleece blanket. Don’t tell us you do not have a fleece blanket because everyone in the USA, and in most of the free world, has had at least one fleece blanket in their lifetime.

We get them as birthday or Christmas gifts, at sporting events, and even as prizes at fairs and social gatherings. A fleece blanket is always pleasantly received because we know it will be well-used by ourselves and our family! But, as we well know, one day it will get dirty and, once again, we’ll have to ask ourselves how to wash fleece blankets?

Washing fleece is pretty easy because of the type of fabric it is, whether it is fleece or microfleece. The only differences between fleece and microfleece blankets is how tightly it is woven together and how thick it is. The microfleece is the thinnest and woven the tightest. You can find 100,200, and 300 thread count fleece on the market.

When it comes to figuring out how to wash fleece blankets there are many thoughts and discussions on the subject. Some will tell you that tossing your fleece into hot water with a good, strong, and reliable detergent is the way to go. On the surface, it does appear to make sense. When you see your blanket inexplicably on the floor, gathering dust, dog or cat fur, and any number of disturbing germs the thought of a cleansing hot wash seems like a good disease preventative. Yes, most will think, this is how to wash fleece blankets!

Usually, fleece is made from polyester. Fortunately 100% fleece is usually vegan. Fleece fabric can be entirely made from recycled plastic, that usually being plastic bottles. Regular fleece that is not made from recycled plastic is usually made from petroleum. If your looking for a vegan blanket make sure to check the label because some blankets are a mix of fleece and wool (and wool is obviously not vegan).

The query remains: How to wash a fleece blanket or, in general, how to keep blankets soft?

• Pour the instucted amount of liquid laundry detergent into the washing machine for your load of blanket(s).
• Then place the blanket in the washing machine.
•  Use the gentle cycle using cold water.
• During the rinse cycle, add the instructed amount of liquid fabric softener.
• Skip the dryer. Hang the blanket to dry.

Tips:

• If you wash your laundry in hard water it can lead to rough blankets. Use a water softener and add to your water as needed to help keep your blankets and clothes soft. It works wonders on cleaning your clothes/blankets and making them softer.
• If your blanket tends to shed in the washing machine, place it in a laundry bag case (like what you would use for delicate garmets) and then put it in the washer.

• Don’t use dryer sheets on your fleece blankets. They can leave a coating that can cause the blanket’s surface to feel rough.
• If there seems to be a coating on your blankets that make them rough, try using an extra rinse cycle to ensure all of the detergent is removed.
• Don’t use the dryer.

While we can give you ideas and knowledge from those who have experience on how to wash a fleece blanket you, as a fleece blanket owner, may need to experiment a bit, figuring out the most manageable way how to wash fleece blankets, and seeing what works best for you and the family.

How to wash fleece blankets may not ever be as important as your son’s college education or you and your spouse’s 401Ks but, for comfort sake, picking up on small tips and tricks, like knowing how to wash a fleece blanket, can make life just a bit easier and comfortable! How to wash fleece blankets? Who does not want to know that?

The post How To Wash Fleece Blankets – Keeping Your Fleece Blankets Soft! appeared first on Got Glam?.

My Stay-At-Home Mom/ Homeschooling Mom New Year RESOLUTIONS: 

1. Start a workout plan that the kids can do with me.
2. Plan the home school curriculum 1 month in advance.
3. Do zero business during homeschooling hours.
4. Start my reading rotation program (Each person in the house will rotate reading a book to the family per day).
5. Try at least one new recipe per month.
6. Conserve energy in the house better.
7. Write 1 new story with the kids to read to the baby each month. At the end of the year we should have a collection of 12 stories!
8. Take some ‘me’ time for myself each day (no working, kids, husband…just me and something enjoyable).
9. Get even more involved in the JDRF (Type 1 Diabetes Foundation) for my daughter who has it.
10. Sneak in more filling-vegan meals into my family’s vegetarian diet

 See some of my housewife tips and tricks at REAL HOUSEWIVES and please add your own!

Happy New Year & Happy Mothering

The post My Stay-At-Home Mom/ Homeschooling New Years Resolutions appeared first on Got Glam?.

1st of all, for anything that is porcelain tile, ceramic tile, acrylic, fiberglass, and glass shower doors, use Bar Keepers Friend! It  will remove/clean anything! It’s the best thing I have ever used :). Confession: I sometimes use it on delicate surfaces that your not supposed to use it on, with a very, very small amount and wiping very carefully, but I don’t suggest you do this, lol! Do as I say and not as I do

Bar Keepers friend WILL become your bestfriend.

For marble I use a sponge with warm water to clean. To remove any type of buildup I mix 1/2 cup of bleach, peroxide or ammonia with a gallon of water and scrub. If it still won’t come off, saturate with solution and leave for 5 minutes before scrubbing with a soft brush. Rinse out! Using a toothbrush and the solution you can clean the grout like the rest. Then rinse and buff dry. To keep it cleaner for a longer period of time, I do a quick wipe down after showers.

*Alternative for Bar Keepers Friend. For cleaning bathtubs in apartments I use Commit, SOS pads and Bleach. If you’ve ever lived in an apartment, most have those white tubs that stain easily but don’t clean up very easily. It’s usually the grooves in the floor of the tub that are hard to clean. I like to Fill up the bath tub 1/2 way with hot water and pour about a cup of bleach and let it sit for about an hour. Then empty the tub and sprinkle a good amount of commit on the problem spots, let that sit for a few seconds and then scrub with the SOS pads. This will work like a charm!

Here is a hommade remedy I found also: How to clean your bathtub with a grapefruit and salt!

Make sure to vent your bathroom while using your cleaners and wear gloves!

Happy Cleaning

The post Tips for Cleaning Your Shower & Making it Sparkle! appeared first on Got Glam?.

It was time for a new apron and I thought I would make it myself! I went to Joanne’s & Micheal’s and looked and looked until I found fabric that spoke to me.

Here is the idea laid out (nothing attached yet)

Materials I picked up:

• Basic black adult apron from Micheal’s.
• 2 yards of different fabric from Joanne’s. I chose one for decoration and one that will easily wash so I can wipe my hands on it while cooking. Don’t know if you can see it, but the pocket area has a hounds tooth design on it…very pretty
• Some silver glass pearls (50) from Micheal’s.
• Some vintage looking decorative garland pieces (jewel accessories) from Micheal’s.
• 1 yard of black felt ribbon from Joanne’s.

Materials I used from home:

• A slip from an old dress that I wore to the opera like 10 years ago…never going to wear again, so I cut it off!
• Black thread & needles.
• Glue gun & glue sticks.

Steps:

1. Lay out the apron and arrange your fabric as you envisioned it (I changed my mind on the design).

2. Cut your fabric, (leave about an inch or 1/2 inch around your fabric…just in case.

3. Fold the fabric in just a bit and pin to the apron in the area where you want to sew it. Sew or glue gun it along the edges.

4. Glue gun the felt ribbon on.

5. Glue gun the accessories on.

5. Glue gun the pearls (already on fishing line) to the apron. Hold in place as you glue underneath (I had an assistant, my 10 year old in her pink snuggie ), then cut the fishing line flesh at the top. I ended up using cuticle cutters (which dulls them) but it did the job.

6. Then, to cover up the top edge (where the pearls end) I used extra felt from when I lined the apron. I just simply wrapped it along the trim, pearls and straps and glued it to the back!

7. Now for the giant hounds tooth pocket… cut it to the desired size.

8. Fold edges in like shown below. Sew or glue gun the edges folded over.

9. I sewed the bottom lace of the slip (back and front) together for more lace!

10. Then I cut the upper part of the slip off, leaving about an inch or two there.

11. I then glue gunned it to the back bottom edge of the apron. You could always make this part look more professional but with a baby in the house, I need to keep projects under an hour, lol.

That’s it, all done! Turn it around and enjoy!

*I plan on hand washing this only!

For more fun tips go to Event Makeup!

The post DIY: Make You Own Fabulous Apron! appeared first on Got Glam?.