Downtown Phoenix Historic Home Tours

It was a year ago this December when we first spotted our 1920's English Tudor home in the F.Q. Story neighborhood in downtown Phonix. We ventured to this unique part of town during the annual Home Tour and our future residence was having an open house the same weekend. It was love at first sight. The perfect front porch, original double-hung windows, and black and white tiled floors just oozed charm and character. A little over a month later we moved in.

If you enjoy history, interior design, architecture, or just like to look at homes the Historic Home Tours have something for you! Food and gift vendors are also on site during the tour. Ticket sales go toward preserving and supporting these historic neighborhoods (as there are no HOA fees). Checkout the schedules below and websites for more information!

F.Q. Story
December 6th & 7th, 2014
Website: fqstory.org

Willo
February 8th, 2015
Website: willohistoricdistrict.com

Coronado
March 1st, 2015
Website: gcna.info

Encanto/Palmcroft
March 29th, 2015
Website: encantopalmcroft.org

Must-Watch TV: The Profit on CNBC

Listen up, folks. Marcus Lamonis is the prophet on The Profit. If you can get over the pun and the constant tweets on re-runs, this is must-watch TV.

What is it? Well, imagine a Shark with a heart from ABC's Shark Tank out in the wild stalking prey. He finds struggling small businesses. Assesses them. And makes an offer. Then, the madness begins. 

One small business owner insulted a nine-year-old girl. Another refused to trade down her new BMW while her employees helped pay for inventory out of their own pockets. And the popcorn people - oh my - lied, cheated, and tried to steal the Prophet's ideas.

Watch it. Here's a sampling.

IKEA is Getting Crafty

Have you been to Ikea lately? Most of it looks the same. It still takes a year to walk through, the furniture is still uncomfortable and the Sweedish meatballs are still filling. But it's the new section that caught my eye. Holy smokes. I was in a gift-givers paradise!

They have TONS of coordinating wrapping paper, ribbon, gift tags, paper lanterns, party supplies, and more! It was such a nice little treat and I got to explore the new paper crafts section with my friend Maryann which made it that much better (the hubs wouldn't appreciate it like my lady friends. That's the gospel truth). AND, the best part? Christmas trimmings and wrappings a-plenty! Go check it out!

Paint Nite

Who knew that as an inexperienced artist you could paint a snazzy little canvas like a pro? And in two hours or less, may I add. The lady friends and I had a fun evening at Paint Nite in Phoenix and our cityscapes were pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. Some had a little help from wine and others from Coke (the cola, not the other), and a fabulous time was had by all!

Paint Nite provides you with all the tools you need to create your masterpiece and you just show up and have a good time. And maybe you'll be lucky enough to win a drawing or game like I did. Yup, a pass for a free paint night and green smock were mine for the taking! Visit their website HERE to find a class in your neck of the woods. And take someone fun along. It makes the evening so much more enjoyable!

Extra Credit: Frame your painting and hang it on the wall. There is something about a frame that makes the art look like it came from a store and you paid big bucks. Really.

PLAYLIST: Now and Then

I've created the perfect mix of current tunes intermixed with some oldies. I took it for a test run today and was completely pleased with this heart-pumping combination. You're in for a treat folks, a real toe-tapping, dance in front of the mirror like no one is watching, shake your bon-bon treat. (Yes, that was a Ricky Martin reference. Find him in the list below!)

PLAYLIST: Now and Then

1. Shake it Off. Taylor Swift.
2. Stuck in the Middle with You. Stealers Wheel.
3. She Bangs. Ricky Martin.
4. Live and Let Die. Paul McCartney.
5. Blurred Lines. Robin Thicke.
6. September. Earth, Wind, & Fire.
7. Let's Get Loud. Jennifer Lopez.
8. That's All. Genesis.
9. Let it Rock. Kevin Rudolf.
10. Don't Stop Me Now. Queen.
11. Lights. Ellie Goulding.
12. Show Me How You Burlesque. Christina Aguilera.

DIY Gilded Vases

In case you haven't heard, gold is in right now. I really like the shape of these Mama Chia glass bottles and couldn't bear to part with them so I had to find a way to repurpose their use. Enter Gilded Vases. With some tape and gold spray paint I turned these bottles into beauties!

DIY GILDED VASES

1. Dampen a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and wipe the expiration date and other writing from the surface of the bottle. Light pressure should remove the ink fairly easily.

2. Remove the label from the bottles by soaking them in warm, soapy water. Use a hard, flat edge (like a Pampered Chef scraper) to help remove the sticker in one piece. If sticky residue is left on the bottle use Goo Gone to wipe it from the surface. Wash and dry bottles throughly.

3. Using tape (painters tape, masking tape, round stickers, etc.) create designs on your bottle. The area under the tape will be left clear when the tape is removed. Be sure the edges of the tape/stickers are adhered strongly to the surface. Any lifting will cause the paint to creep in on the edges.

4. Prepare an area to paint the bottles. I prefer Rustoleum spray paint with primer already in the paint. Spray 3-4 light coats of paint over the bottles, leaving about 3 minutes between coats for the paint to slightly dry.

5. After drying the bottles for 1+ hours, remove the tape and allow the paint to dry for an additional 24 hours. Add water, flowers, and voila! Enjoy your beautiful new vases.

For another glass jar project, read HERE.

Fall Decorating Ideas

I'm going to pretend it wasn't 100 degrees last weekend in Phoenix. I'm so ready for the fall and miss the cool weather and the changing leaves. Since traditional fall weather isn't coming to the Valley of the Sun I will find a way to bring it here, at least in spirit.

I found some great fall decorating ideas while out and about this weekend. I also ran across this amazing photo of my mom, her siblings and friends from Halloween back in the late 1940's. It's a gem! I'm so excited to get this picture printed, framed, and displayed along with the rest of my holiday decor.

Picking a Juicer

The Rolls Royce of juicers is the Norwalk 280. It runs a cool $2,500. I'm sure it's fantastic, but when I was looking for a juicer this one was out of the price range. Just slightly, of course. :/ We tried 3 different juicers before deciding what worked best for us. Here's the biggest difference you need to know about when deciding the right juicer for you: Masticating or Centrifugal. Read more HERE.

These are the 3 juicers we took for a test run.

1. Bella High Power Juice Extractor. It's an affordable centrifugal juicer available at Target for $70. Not bad! Overall it worked fine, but it kind of made a mess with leaks and spitting kale out of the machine. Ultimately, it wasn't our favorite.

2. Omega Model J8006 Heavy Duty Nutrition Center Juicer. This is a high quality masticating juicer that we got from Bed, Bath & Beyond for about $300 (less the 20% off coupon that's always available). It takes a little more time to use than the previous juicer, but you do get slightly more juice. This machine will also make pastas and nut butters. Yum! The biggest disappointment with this one was juicing fruits- it's just not effective. It turns it into mush and clogs the juicer. It's great if you just want to juice veggies!

3. Breville Juice Fountain Plus. Another centrifugal juicer similar to the first, but higher quality. This specific model is available at Bed, Bath & Beyond for $150. This was our winner! It had a wide mouth opening to fit whole apples, was speedy, and it didn't spit our veggies back at us like the Bella. We've been using this model for about 3 months and really like it!

If you missed our other juice posts, read more:
Juicing Post #1 HERE 
Juicing Post #2 HERE

What to do in NYC on Vacation

Just in case you're wondering what you should do while on vacation in NYC, here's a short video. And by the way, New York doesn't have to break the bank. Here are a few tips to help save while having fun in the Big Apple.

1. Stay somewhere Uptown: We stayed in East Harlem (SpaHa), but West Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Washington Heights are more affordable and easily accessible via public transit.
2. Buy a Metro Card and use it. Use the green and red subway lines to travel north and south in Manhattan, and use crosstown buses to go east and west.
3. Don't wait in long lines to go to Liberty Island. Save your money and ride the Staten Island Ferry for FREE.
4. Citi Bikes: There are hundreds of Citi Bike stations throughout the city, and it's only $10 a day. Note, unfortunately, the blue bikes haven't made it north of 61 Street yet. Patience.

And now, for your viewing pleasure watch the video below or click HERE to visit our YouTube Channel. (Must use link to watch on mobile).

9/11 Museum and Memorial

"No day shall erase you from the memory of time." -Virgil

Those are the words on a wall in the 9/11 museum surrounded by blue watercolor papers that mimic the color of the sky the morning of September 11th, 2001. Behind that wall are the remains of unidentified victims from that day.

Dusty black shoes, a tattered red wallet, and crushed firefighter's helmet are a few of the items displayed along with stories of the person they belonged to that remind us of the everyday life that was forever interrupted. Personal photos of each victim are shown at the "In Memoriam" exhibit ... a heartbreaking, humanizing reminder to go along with 2,977 names. #neverforget

Read more about the museum from CNN HERE.

#TBT

Throwback Thursday! The Scratch 'N' Stef blog has been up and running for a whole year. Time has flown by and we've published nearly 150 posts. Whoa. The first post on the blog was about the Clarisonic. My love has only grown for this handy, dandy little face tool and I can't imagine my skin care routine without it! The most popular post has been my Top 5 Pop Sugar Workout videos. I've got to tell you, I still refer back to this post for the quick links to the 10-minute videos.

Thanks for reading, and here's to more helpful posts in the future!

How to make Bakery Cupcakes

I took a cake decorating class a few years ago and the biggest tip I took away was how to make a box cake mix taste like it came from a bakery. A few small changes and you end up with some pretty great results. And, who would have thought that freezing cakes actually makes them taste better? (And easier to decorate, too).

Here's What You Need:
1 box cake mix, follow the directions on the box
Add 1 more egg
Use melted butter instead of oil, double the amount
Use milk instead of water
Add 2 T of vanilla
Add a box of instant pudding mix
Follow the baking directions on the box, and freeze them if you don't want to enjoy them right away!

Ever heard of Georgetown Cupcakes? Here's a great little tutorial on how to make their Red Velvet Cupcakes, but more importantly, how to make their cream cheese frosting and getting the perfect swirl!

My Latest Playlist

Here are the latest tunes making an appearance on my iPod. I'm an avid workout playlister and need to have something to keep my mind off the fact I'm running on a treadmill for 30+ minutes. Aside from exercise, I answer emails for work, do laundry, write blog posts, and make lunch to these tunes. It's an anytime list, really. Go on, get down with your bad self (spoken like a true white girl).

Sing, Ed Sheeran
The Story of My Life, One Direction
Runaway Baby, Bruno Mars
It's Time, Imagine Dragons
Safe & Sound, Capital Cities
One Last Kiss, Pink
Lights, Ellie Goulding
Raging Fire, Philip Phillips
Counting Stars, OneRepublic
Tokyo, Imagine Dragons
Pompeii, Bastille
The Walker, Fitz and the Tantrums

Review: Ryobi Hybrid 18-Volt Weed Eater

Say goodbye to gas and cords forever ... unless the battery dies. Yes, this is a review for the ONE+ 18-Volt Lithium Hybrid Cordless or Electric String Trimmer/Edger, but let's just call it a weed eater.  After calling some landscaping companies and exploring other economical lawn care options, we decided to man-up and purchase a weed eater. Because our yard isn't large, we wanted something light-weight and inexpensive. Most gas weed eaters are long and heavy (that's what she said), so we started researching battery-powered tools.

That's when we found the Ryobi Hybrid 18-Volt Weed Eater/Trimmer/Edger or whatever it's called. Seriously though, can tools have more concise names, please?

Reliability: It's been 6 months and everything is working fine. The battery lasts for an entire trim (about .25 acres) and hasn't lost any juice. It charges in less than an hour. And guess what, even if it does run out, this little dandy doubles as an electric tool. Plug it in, plug it in! Oops, wrong tagline, different product.

Ease of Use: OK, we have some issues with it here. First, the edger option isn't great, but we don't use it to edge much. It's the stock string that sucks. It's too thin and the auto-feed doesn't work well. As a result, the string sucks into the spool and gets lost. It's an easy fix, however. Just get some thicker gauge string, viola!

Overall, we like it! In fact, we just ordered the Ryobi 18-Volt Hedger. Stay tuned for that review. As far as the weed eater: 4 out of 5 stars.

-Scratch

DIY Fruit Fly Trap: Flies Be Gone!

It is so easy to make a DIY fly trap. Yep, that's right, say goodbye to those annoying fruit flies.

Here's what you need:

• Water bottle*
• Scissors
• Appe cider vinegar
• Dish soap

Step 1:
Remove the cap from an empty water bottle. Cut the bottle where the neck meets the body

Step 2:
Turn the new funnel upside-down and place it into the other part of the water bottle

Step 3:
Pour some apple cider vinegar into the water bottle

Step 4:
Add a drop or two of dish soap. This affects the surface tension of the vinegar and ensures that the flies can't escape.

You're done. It's that easy!

*Please recycle and stop drinking so much bottled water - highly recommed you watch Tapped on Netflix.

-Scratch

A Fun Family Card Game: Monoply Deal

If you don't love Monopoly, the original board game, chances are, you were born sometime after 1990. Grow up. It's a fun game. It teaches many life lessons: how to balance a budget, paying rent, being a landlord, paying taxes ... need I go on?

Here's the rub with Monopoly, it takes FOREVER to finish even one game. Enter Monopoly Deal. This is a fun family card game. Yes, that's right, it's a CARD game. It's easy to play, nostalgic, and you can complete a game within 15-30 minutes.

Get it. Try it. And live a fuller life.

You're welcome.

-Scratch