Wondering how to cut your energy bill this winter? The US based AARP magazine has a few conservative suggestions, which are simple, good advice.

1. Plug wall openings

About 15% of air in the average home escapes through wall openings, an inconvenience that can be remedied by spraying insulating foam sealant around holes that lead to the outside and caulking any small openings, including your baseboards and steps. Pretend your house is a submarine and seal that sucker up tight!!! This quick trick can save you as much as $150.

2. Weatherize windows and doors

Control drafts by sealing small leaks around windows and doors with acrylic caulk to put $200 back in your pocket.

3. Update your thermostat

Did you know that replacing your thermostat can slash your heating and cooling bills by 20%? Purchase a programmable thermostat to control your bills and your bank account.

4. Blanket your water heater

By insulating hot water pipes with foam sleeves, you can increase tap temperatures 2 to 4 degrees and save up to $200 a year.

5. Seal and wrap ductwork

Eliminate unnecessary air leaks by sealing basement, attic and furnace ducts with mastic (a waterproof, flexible sealant); this simple project can increase your savings by $400.

6. Dress the Hearth

Though fires burn warm for the moment, the flames remove warm air from the house and send it up the chimney, increasing heating costs by about 10%. Purchase a glass screen or heat exchanger to reduce heat loss and put $200 back in your wallet.

Handmade Christmas cards are a wonderful way to share some holiday cheer, recycle old materials – clothes, bags, cardboard boxes -  and give kids something to do. Here are a few tips to do it right.

Handmade Christmas cards

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Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Thy Leaves are So Unchanging…. At least that’s one way to sing it. There are as many versions of the beloved Christmas song, originally titled O Tannenbaum, as there are strings of tiny lights in a knot in the bottom of my holiday decorations box.

Oh Christmas tree

If you love Christmas trees, and what the heck are you doing here if you don’t?, you should certainly visit this wonderful Christmas tree website with 18 different unusual ways to make, create and decorate your Christmas tree, including:

• The Mountain Dew Christmas Tree
• The Beer Christmas Tree
• The Geek Christmas Tree

I am partial to the Pac Man Christmas tree, myself.

I like trash as much as the next girl.

And kitchen junk, like poxy pastel Tupperware, rusted baking tins and tatty old aprons turns my crank quite a lot.

That’s why I love the book Kitchen Junk, by American junk queen Mary Randolph Carter (Penguin Group, Viking Studio, 1999). The third book in Carter’s “junk trilogy” – proceeded by American Junk and Garden Junk – shows how, in the right hands, piles of crap can be works of art. Sometimes functional ones. Just because I can’t do it, doesn’t mean I don’t believe.

Read on for an interview with the irrepressible Mary Randoph Carter and a book review.

Kitchen Junk by Mary Randolph Carter

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Declutter your life – you will sleep better, feel better and have more time. The decluttering movement seems to have taken hold, and not nearly soon enough. I have been reading a lot about how to declutter, and though there are a million tips and tricks, there seem to be a few basic principals guiding the decluttering movement.

Declutter Your Life

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Baking soda has a million uses outside of the kitchen. Your mother probably told you plenty of them… sore bums, bad smells, itchy rashes to name a few…  but here is a primer for those who need a refresher on the many non-culinary uses of this handy ingredient.

Baking Soda Uses

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The bathroom sink is a place that can get crusty and gross if you leave it alone for the shortest period of time.  One day, while I was playing football in the street with a bunch of bike messengers, one of them told me a little tip that changed my relationship with the bathroom sink forever.

Bathroom sink cleaning tip for males

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