This Month’s Top Post: Home Made Decorative Wreaths – 260 Views – 9 Comments Runner Up: How I Use SmartThings for Home Automation – 144 Views - 7 Comments This month went quite differently than planned.  I stated in my last monthly update that I was looking forward to slowly growing my blog over 2016 and working my way into becoming self-hosted by in 2017.  Well, as I was working my month, I realized that little by little, every new thing I would try required me to become self-hosted. So, I took to the internet to learn about self-hosting and ...

**Dreaming** Here we are, in 2016, the year of endless possibilities.  Jobs are popping up everywhere, housing prices have reached an affordable rate and families are gaining financial stability each moment. **Wake-up Call** It’s 2016!  The housing market is still growing at an exponential rate even though it is predicted to grow at half the rate it did in 2015.  Jobs are still hard to come by and more and more families are struggling to make ends meet.  Worse off, somewhere between 40 and 76 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Now let’s get the facts.  In 2014, the ...

I previously posted 5 reasons why I love Smart Things.  Two of the reasons I mentioned was that it is versatile and fun. I use Smart Things for both Security and Home Automation.  My home is set up with open/close sensors on every door, a siren, a garage door sensor/opener/closer, a front door deadbolt, thermostat, and multiple light bulbs.  I thought long and hard about whether to use light bulbs or light switches.  But, this is for a future post. All together, I have 25 Smart Things that all work together in my Smart Things app. Smart Things has a ...

Every once in a while I get the creative bug and want to do some arts and crafts.  This time, I was going to make some wreaths.  One for Christmas, and one for every day to match my house colors.  So, I took myself to the Hobby store then to Walmart since they of course are a million times cheaper for most items.  I gathered enough to do two types of wreaths but quickly learned that I do not have the same patience as I did when I was younger. Here's the style of wreath  on making for the teal wreath.  ...

While Winter can bring freezing temperatures and shoveling can be miserable, Winter does bring some of the most cozy meals.  Today's meal is meatloaf, a recipe my mom made often when I was growing up.  I of course have put my own spin on the recipe by making mini-meatloaves instead  of one large meatloaf because I typically bring them to work and it is easier to have them pre-portioned.  And, the cook time is way lower when they are smaller. Before we get started, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and gather your ingredients. For the loaf, you will need: ...