Jessica's Corner

In 2014, my New Years resolution was to become more fit. I am proud to stay that I have stuck with that and continued exercising regularly. While I don't always make it to the gym, I do exercise at home 4-5 days per week. Now, while I try to maintain a regular fitness routine, I just don't always have the time or energy to dedicate to a hard workout. If you work, have a family, or both I know you can relate. The list below applies to all ages and are activities that most of you have done before. For someone with a busy schedule, rotating these ideas would be a great way to stay fit and spend quality time with family or friends. Activities Hula Hooping Jumping Rope Walking or Hiking Jogging or Running Swimming Doing Yoga* Rollerskating/ Rollerblading Playing Tennis Playing Basketball Riding Bikes Doing Zumba* or Just Plain Dancing Cleaning Yard Work/ Gardening Skip-It (show the kids how it's done) *Great free videos available on YouTube **Do you have...

A few years ago, I bought a foreclosed home that was abandoned for at least a year. The property was owned by the city so I had a lot of work to do both inside and out. For the past few years, I have worked to transform my once abandoned property and I feel like it is finally coming together. A lot of the gardening tips that I have gotten over the years have come from plant professionals. I myself thought that I had a black thumb at once, but I was just doing it wrong. If you are interested in what I learned about gardening over the years, keep reading. Weed and Till At least one week before planting anything you should remove all weeds and till the soil. Remove all weeds at the root by using a small hand shovel or a butter knife. Tilling is the process of moving the soil around. The reason that you till is because soil erodes (breaks down), retains acid, and loses nutrients. After tilling, you can apply a layer of new soil with your plants to promote healthy growth. Inves...

Can you believe that Spring is here? And not to jinx it but we are actually getting favorable weather where I live, unlike the typical cold April that we are used to. If you live in a climate that frosts on average until Memorial Day, Early Spring can slip by pretty quickly due to unfavorable temperatures. This is why it's important to start Spring activities around your home and yard when you can. I bought my home a few years ago as a foreclosure. When I purchased, the home was vacant but I later learned from a neighbor that the home had been abandoned for over a year. And whoever was supposed to be keeping up on the property wasn't doing that either. The greenery in the yard was completely overgrown and dandelions covered my property. I also had a wasp nest in a window, bird nest above my light, and bushes growing over and crushing my downspouts. Without going into any more detail I had a ton of work cut out for me. Today I am going to provide you with some tips based ...

I was busy over the weekend cleaning my attic and it got me to thinking how could I turn that daunting task into a post? So I got my camera out, without a plan and took some before pictures. More than half of this mess was clothes and toys that my daughter grew out of, along with holiday and home decor items. Quite frankly, it was overwhelming to look at. Now, I love organizing so while I had no plan to start, I just decided to jump right in. I made two piles: Garbage and Donate . I would suggest to make a rummage pile if you plan on doing that, but I have tried it and it's not worth the effort to me. My Piles: Donate Garbage After sorting I was able to reuse boxes. Since most of the boxes that I have are already reused, I knew that I needed to figure out another way to label my boxes. Then I thought about some labels that I bought from Dollar Tree recently. I used Sharpies to write on the labels. I like the labels because they are distinctive and ...

I purchased my home about 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, I have been slowly decorating, organizing, and remodeling the house room by room with an end never really in sight. But, I am always getting inspired and I love to DIY so why not keep changing it up? This Spring I want to focus on my kitchen so to motivate myself to get going on my plans, I am starting with the inside of my kitchen cabinets. I do not have a lot of cabinets so I really needed to buy organizers. After lots of shopping around, I found that Walmart products (in-store) along with some DIY ideas would be my best option. DIY Lazy Susan  $3.00-  All of your supplies can be purchased at Dollar Tree. Idea from: www.Alejandra.tv What You Will Need 2-Round Cake Pans  1-Bag of Marbles Directions 1. Add all of your marbles to one of your cake pans 2. Place the second cake pan on top of the first pan. And now you have a Lazy Susan! This is great for extra condiments or spices in your cab...

Do you drink enough water? I am definitely guilty of not drinking as much as I should! For this reason, I am blogging to motivate us both to drink more water. My guilty pleasure is coffee, which I drink everyday and in larger quantities than I would like to admit. So now that Winter is coming to an end, I know that I need to slow down on the coffee drinking and step up my water consumption. Why Is Water Good For You? www.skinnyms.com  Bottom line is that your body needs water to stay healthy. A few useful tips to drink more water can include: Getting a refillable bottle Setting goals and tracking your water consumption Cutting out sugary drinks completely Finding a water that you like (examples: Spring vs Purified, brand preference, etc) Eat fruits, like watermelon that contain high amounts of water naturally If you just plain do not like the taste of water, find a water additive that you like, such as MiO or Crystal Lite for example. You can also infus...

When I first started growing my blog, I was looking for various ways to get my information to the public. While searching the internet, I came across an article that talked about how Pinterest is continuing to grow and now helping business owners reach their audience through pinning. It was genius! I immediately began using my Pinterest account to share my posts. At that time, I had 47 followers. After weeks went by, pinning was not helping so I started to look for ways to grow my Pinterest page, which would in turn bring traffic to my blog. While I found tons of forums with information from successful Pinners, the following are the tips that worked for me. I now have 260 followers and Pinterest brings at least 100 people per day to my site. So, today I am bringing you my picks for the best Pinterest success tips. Board Rules If you want to gain a large Pinterest following, you should have at least 20 boards with at least 20 Pins per board. My suggestion to create this many boa...

Spring is just around the corner! With just a little over three weeks until it is official, I have already begun to plan the Spring cleaning that needs to take place in my house. Since the weather is still cold where I live and will be for a while, I am restricted to organizing where I can stay warm.One place that seems to get neglected in my life is my car. To get some ideas for car organization, I headed over to Pinterest, of course, to get some ideas. To stay organized in your car, it is important to keep only what is necessary in your car. Letting your clutter and garbage build up will only encourage you to abandon your car's cleanliness. Don't neglect your car, it is probably the only one that you have. Simple Organization The Glove Box Keep all important documents within an arm's reach. This is also a good place to keep coupons for easy access when going to the store. Two of these tiny expandable file organizers will fit perfectly in any glove box. Or...