DIY Halloween Mason Jar Globes

Even though Halloween is not my favorite time of year, I do appreciate the creative process of those who love and embrace it.  I can see how fun it would be to create a haunted house or zombie apocalypse in the backyard.

For this particular craft, you can be as creative as you wish and the materials will vary, but here is what I used:

• Various sizes of jars
• Halloween figures such as skeletons, rats and spiders
• Glycerin
• Black Plasticine
• Purple or black glitter
• Wooden skewer
• Waterproof Crazy Glue
• Sandpaper
• Black spray paint (optional)

I found this plastic skeleton at our local party store and removed the skull and arms.

For a creepy display in a jar, take some Plasticine and form it into a mound; add glitter if you wish.

Stick it to the bottom of the jar. I used a wooden skewer to press the edges of the Plasticine down.

Place the skull and other items as you wish.

Fill with water. 

For an inverted jar, sand the bottom of the figure and the lid. You want to make it rough so the glue adheres.

Stick the figure to the bottom of the lid with waterproof glue and allow to dry.

Cover with Plasticine and glitter if you wish.

To create a “snow” globe, fill the jar with water and add a pinch of glitter and a dash of glycerin, to make the glitter fall slowly. Do not add too much glycerin, or the glitter will stick to the bottom.

Slowly insert a figure into the jar and close tightly.

Here are some of the globes I made. I spray-painted the lids black, but that’s entirely up to you.

For this one, I simply placed some white yarn and spiders inside a jar. I added water and skipped the glitter.

Have fun and use your imagination.

From : ehow

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DIY Carved Pumpkin Planters Tutorial

It’s officially pumpkin season! One of our favorite ways to decorate for fall is through the use of pumpkins and brightly colored autumn plant varieties. Today we’ll share how simple it can be to combine these two classic seasonal staples to create a welcoming (and living) fall array for the front porch, stairs and entryway to your home.

Things You’ll Need

• Sharp carving knife
• Large spoon or scraper
• Large bowl
• Power drill or screwdriver
• Gardening gloves
• Gardening trowel
• Gardening soil

Start by selecting pumpkins and the coordinating plants you’ll pair them with. Look for pumpkins that will easily accommodate the size of the potted plants you choose. We went with a mix of fall plant varieties such as mums, ornamental versions of peppers and kale. Choose styles and colors that speak to you, and opt for plants that thrive in an autumn climate.

Using a sharp knife, cut the tops from the pumpkins as if you were making a jack-o’-lantern. Cut a wide enough diameter to account for each plant.

Scoop the seeds and roughly scape the innards from each pumpkin to clean them out.

Tip:Don’t toss those seeds! Save them to make a nice seasonal batch of roasted pumpkin seeds. Find our favorite recipe here.

Using a power drill (or screwdriver and muscle), puncture four holes through the bottom of each pumpkin to allow for drainage.

Fill the base of each pumpkin planter with a layer of garden soil, and then gently fit each plant into its respective pumpkin, adding more soil as needed to fill the pumpkin.

Give each planter a healthy watering, and it’s time to decorate!

These pumpkin planters work really well to brighten up a front stoop or stairwell and would make for a fun “living centerpiece” for fall gatherings, parties and even weddings.

Looking for more pumpkin projects? See how we’ve decorated them in the past using doilies, paint and painter’s tape, and learn how to create surprisingly beautiful designs using a power drill.

Cheers,
Mary & Tim

From : ehow

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How to Speed Up Metabolism

When it comes to weight loss, a fast metabolism makes the difference between reaching your goals and spinning your wheels without seeing much progess. Not only does a speedy metabolism help you burn more calories, but it allows you to eat more during your weight loss journey, making you more likely to stick with your new lifestyle for long-term results. Luckily, you can maximize your metabolic rate through exercise, diet and lifestyle choices.

The right diet, exercise and lifestyle tweaks will get your metabolism racing. (John Howard/Digital Vision/Getty Images)

Contrary to popular belief, the way to get a faster metabolism is not through hours of cardio. Weight lifting is the best thing you can do if you want a faster metabolism, because it helps you build and maintain lean muscle. “Someone with more lean muscle mass has a higher resting metabolic rate because it takes more calories to maintain muscle than it does fat,” says Jarrett Arthur, a fitness and self-defense expert.

Working out with moderate to heavy weights also helps you burn more calories in the hours after your workout. This phenomenon, called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) makes your body take in more oxygen, firing up your metabolism for hours after you've left the gym.

Schedule muscle-building sessions into your gym routine 2 to 3 times per week, with at least one day in between each session for recovery.

Build muscle to burn more calories 24/7. (Thinkstock Images/Stockbyte/Getty Images)

HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training

Transform boring cardio into a metabolism-boosting workout with HIIT, or high intensity interval training. Like weightlifting, HIIT stimulates EPOC, so you’ll burn more calories all day -- not just when you’re working out.

If you already do cardio on a regular basis, start adding sprints to the mix. Work at maximal effort for 15 seconds to 1 minute, then slow down to recover between sprints. Here's a quick 5-minute HIIT workout to get you started.

• 45 seconds burpees
• 15 seconds rest
• 60 seconds jump rope
• 15 seconds rest
• 45 seconds jump squats
• 15 seconds rest
• 60 seconds ice-skaters
• 2 minutes rest

Repeat three times.

If you’re new to aerobic exercise, ease into interval workouts. Try moderately raising your intensity for three brief intervals during your workout, but don't go all out, suggests Arthur. As you get fitter, you can start adding more intervals and work at a higher intensity during your sprints, then start reducing the amount of time between intervals.

Add sprints to your cardio to torch more calories after your workout. (Jupiterimages/Stockbyte/Getty Images)

Spice It Up

Add a little fire to your food to get your metabolism revving, says Charmaine Jones, a registered dietitian based in Washington, D.C. Spicy meals, like ones containing cayenne or ginger, increase your body temperature, which speeds up your metabolism. You can add a pinch of cayenne to almost any savory meal, and even include fresh cayenne and ginger in your smoothies.

For a metabolism-boosting pre-workout, make this energizing pineapple ginger smoothie:

Combine 2-3 pineapple chunks, 1-2 small slices of fresh ginger, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a squeeze of lemon, and ½ cup coconut water or filtered water. Combine all ingredients into your blender and blend until smooth. If you want a chillier treat, use frozen pineapple instead of fresh.

Fiery fare, like ginger and cayenne, naturally raises your metabolism. (maceofoto/iStock/Getty Images)

Pump (Dietary) Iron

Raise your metabolism with meals and snacks high in iron, says Jones. Iron helps transport oxygen to your cells, supports your cellular metabolism, gives you natural energy, and helps with chemical reactions needed to burn fat.

Foods rich in iron also tend to contain protein, which raises your metabolism. Protein has a high thermic effect, so your body burns more calories while digesting protein than it does digesting carbs and fat. Foods high in protein also tend to be filling, so they can help you stick to a calorie-controlled diet.

Add lean meats and beans to your meals to increase your iron intake, recommends Jones. Here are a few ideas on how to add more protein to your diet:

• Add a handful of chopped chicken breast or grilled tempeh to your salads
• Pair celery and carrot sticks with black bean hummus
• Drink a protein shake as a meal-replacer or post-workout snack
• Swap out regular yogurt for Greek
• If you're craving fruit, pair it with 1/2 cup of cottage cheese
• Swap refined carbs for lentils or quinoa
• Add protein powder to your oatmeal

Iron-rich foods, like beans, boost your energy and your metabolism. (Lusoimages/iStock/Getty Images)

Use Metabolism-Stimulating Supplements

Certain vitamins and herbals supplements can also speed up your metabolism. The B-complex vitamins help you get the most energy from your food, providing a boost that powers your workouts and revs up your metabolism, says Jones. Green tea extract, or GTE, contains caffeine, a natural metabolism booster. GTE acts as a thermogenic, raising your body temperature to increase your calorie burn throughout the day.

Make sure you check with your doctor before taking any supplement, cautions Jones. Your doc can recommend an effective, quality-controlled supplement and recommend a dosage that’s not likely to cause side effects.

Supplements, like vitamins and green tea extract, can raise your metabolism -- but check with your doctor before you take them. (Brand X Pictures/Stockbyte/Getty Images)

Drink Icy H2O

Staying hydrated is key to boosting your metabolism, says Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian and personal trainer. Water helps flush away energy-sapping toxins that would otherwise make you feel drained and tired. Getting enough water is especially important as you lose weight, because your body generates more toxins when it burns fat.

Down at least 64 ounces daily, and choose cold water for a further metabolism boost -- you’ll burn a few extra calories warming it up to body temperature.

Icy water improves hydration and speeds your metabolism. (Design Pics/Design Pics/Getty Images)

Get Your Z's

Revving your metabolism involves more than healthy diet and exercise -- you also need enough rest each day. Your body regenerates lean muscle while you’re asleep, says Palinski-Wade, so quality shut-eye boosts your metabolism by helping you build muscle tissue. Getting enough sleep also helps reduce stress and regulates your hormone levels, preventing a buildup of stress hormone cortisol, which is linked to weight gain.

Good sleep hygiene benefits your muscles and helps you burn fat. (View Stock/View Stock/Getty Images)

From : ehow

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How to Change Sleeping Patterns

If you've been suffering sleepless nights and agonizing mornings, you know all too well the impact an irregular sleep cycle has on your life. Chronic sleep deprivation poses a serious health hazard, upping your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and depression. We asked top sleep experts how to develop a healthy sleep cycle -- and how to tweak it to fit your work schedule and life.

Stick to the same sleep and wake times every day to shift your sleep cycle. (GYRO PHOTOGRAPHY/amanaimagesRF/amana images/Getty Images)

Sleep Cycles 101

Your brain follows a natural sleep cycle, called a circadian rhythm, that’s primarily guided by light. For the simplest explanation, Nitun Verma, MD, a sleep specialist and co-founder of health technology company PeerWell, likens our circadian rhythm to the daily habits of a farmer:

Farmers do their most arduous, tasking jobs early in the day under bright light, slowly reduce their activity as the light dims, and fall asleep after the sun sets. Your brain follows a similar activity pattern -- it’s most active when exposed to bright light, reduces activity as the light dims and relaxes when you sleep.

No matter what your desired schedule, you’ll need to adjust your light exposure to change your brain’s natural sleep cycle.

Adjust your light exposure to change your brain's sleep cycle. (Getty Images)

Identify Bad Habits

The top three sleep-sabotaging sins? Overworking, clocking too much screen time and keeping irregular hours.

“A lot of my patients are so busy they’re working all the way until bedtime,” says Verma. “Their stress is off the charts and they’re looking at screens that give off pure white light, which contains lots of blue light.”

Those blue light rays trick your brain into thinking it’s daytime, so it’s harder to fall asleep at night, explains Verma. Stress also taxes your brain, which interrupts your sleep cycle. Recreational electronic use -- like checking Facebook on your phone -- isn’t much better.

Keeping irregular sleep hours means you’re not following any schedule, so your body has no regular sleep cycle to adjust to.

All three sleep issues are fixable, and you’ll need to correct them to develop your sleep cycle.

Looking at screens can prevent sleep. (Getty Images)

Choose Your New Schedule

First thing’s first -- you’ll need to plan a schedule that leaves enough time for quality shut-eye. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults from age 18 to 64 get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, while adults age 65 or older get 7 to 8 hours. While your needs might deviate slightly from the general recommendations, they’re a good starting point. Figure out your bedtime based on your desired waking time, and stick to those hours every day.

Figure out your bedtime and stick with it. (Getty Images)

Reduce Work-Related Stress

In a perfect world, you’d be able to leave your work at the office and have lots of time at night to relax, but that's not always the case. If you have to work at home, get the most stressful tasks out of the way as soon as possible.

Over the course of your evening, switch to easier work and gradually dim the light in your office to mimic the setting of the sun. Set reminders to turn down the brightness on your smartphone and computer, or invert the colors on your screen. Low light naturally advances your circadian rhythm, which prepares you for sleep.

Gradually dim the light as you work. (Getty Images)

Limit Your Screen Time

Even inverted or dim screens give off some sleep-interrupting blue light, so you’ll need to quit electronics before you go to sleep.

Ideally, you should avoid all light-emitting electronics for three hours before you go to bed. If that’s not possible, aim for at least an hour of screen-free time at the end of the day. In a worst-case scenario, just do what you can. “Even 10 to 15 minutes is better than nothing,” says Verma.

Looking at your phone before bedtime could affect your sleep. (Getty Images)

Don't Wreck Your Weekends

Follow your sleep schedule seven days a week. But if that's not possible, stick within two hours of your planned sleep and wake times on the weekend, recommends Dr. Andrew Westwood, MD, assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center and sleep expert at ColumbiaDoctors Midtown. Some people are more sensitive to sleep changes than others. As you develop better sleep hygiene, you'll learn how much you can comfortably sleep in on the weekend without ruining your cycle.

If you find yourself crashing every weekend, that’s a sign you aren’t getting enough sleep during the week and should adjust your schedule to include more sleep time. Contrary to popular belief, you can’t “catch up” on sleep by oversleeping on the weekend.

When your weekend plans go completely off the rails, salvage your sleep with two emergency tips:

• Start your sleep hygiene schedule an hour earlier on Sunday evening to give yourself more time to turn “off.”
• On Monday morning, drench yourself in light by opening the drapes and turning on the lights for at least 30 minutes immediately after you wake up. This light stimulation balances your melatonin levels, so you’ll start to feel more alert.

You can't "catch up" on sleep by oversleeping on the weekend. (Getty Images)

Adjust to the Night Shift

If your work hours get in the way of a typical sleep cycle, you’ll need some advance planning to maintain good sleep hygiene. Take the longest nap possible before your shift starts and time your nap around your natural mid-afternoon energy slump to help you fall asleep. Once you’re at work, create a bright environment to trick your brain into thinking it’s daytime.

Daytime sleeping after your shift requires some tweaks, too. Tone down the light in the last two hours of your shift, recommends Dr. Westwood, and wear blue light-blocking glasses on the way home. These glasses, available without a prescription, help reduce your blue light exposure so your brain can start to prepare for sleep.

It’s especially important to stay consistent on your days off when you work night shifts, says Westwood. “You want to keep the same hours on the weekend, or it will impact you that second week.” Ask for shift blocks of two weeks or more, since switching from the night shift to the day shift and back every week is especially tough on your system.

Ask for shift blocks of two weeks or more to keep your system regulated. (Getty Images)

Melatonin Myths

Don't be tempted to turn to melatonin, one of the hormones that controls your circadian rhythm, as a natural alternative to sleep medications. Most people don’t use it effectively. If you’re having trouble adjusting your sleep cycle through behavioral and light changes, talk to a sleep expert to create a melatonin treatment schedule designed to shift your circadian rhythm and make it easier to sleep.

From : ehow

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This is What Your Acne Placement Means About Your Health and Personality

Do you always break out in the same spot on your face? According to the form of skin analysis called “face mapping,” the location of your pimples could be speaking volumes about what’s really going on inside your body.

Practitioners of the 3,000-year-old Chinese art of face reading (or, mien shiang) believe that different areas of the face can reveal the state of your health and aspects of your personality. It’s like the equally ancient art of reading tea leaves, but instead of tea–it’s your face, and instead of reading leaves, you read your pimples. Weird, right? Keep reading.

Using the face map above from Dermalogica as a guide, think about where you normally break out. The list of facial zones below will tell you which part of your body it’s connected to, and how you can get things back on the right track.

Forehead: Areas 1 and 3Breakouts in this area could be related to your digestive system, including your small intestines and bladder. Flush toxins by drinking more water and green tea, and improve your diet by avoiding sugar and processed foods.

Between Your Eyebrows: Area 2Bottom line, your liver is not happy with you. Indications of food allergies will also show in this area. Try cutting down on booze, and take a closer look at what you’ve been eating.

Cheeks: Areas 5 and 9The cheeks are linked to your respiratory system. If you smoke, the time to stop was yesterday. Breakouts here can also indicate a cold, flu, or asthma. If you live in a polluted area you might want think about a vacation.

Nose: Area 7This is the area that’s connected to your heart. Get your blood pressure checked and cut down a bit on the meat and sodium.

Around Eyes and Ears: Areas 6, 8 and 10You’ve got kidney issues, kid. Get more liquids in your system, and reduce caffeine and alcohol, since these could be making you dehydrated.

On Your Chin: Area 12If you’re breaking out on your chin, start paying more attention to your stomach. Increase your fiber intake to see if that helps your digestion.

Sides of Chin: Areas 13 and 11Stress and hormonal changes show up in these areas. Try to get more rest, exercise, and think about ways to promote inner calm like yoga or meditation.

Back and Shoulders: not seen
I’m talking to the guys here: shower after workouts and wash your gym shirts… please.

From : ehow

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