Waking up in the morning to make that cup of joe to realize that the pot of coffee from yesterday still isn’t finished can be a little unnerving. There are multiple recycling options for leftover brewed coffee and also the used coffee grounds.

Freeze your leftover coffee to create coffee ice cubes! No more watered down iced-coffee!

Create a meat marinade with olive oil, your favorite spices and your left-over brew for a robust and delicious taste!

Some plants like the Japanese iris or magnolia require higher acidity content in their soils. Add a few tablespoons of your leftover coffee to their soil to give them that needed boost! Be sure not to over saturate with coffee, for it could be detrimental to the overall health of the plant.

Replace some of the milk in your favorite brownie recipe with coffee to make mocha brownies.

Leftover coffee grounds are an amazing exfoliant for the skin, mix with 1 parts coffee grounds, 2 parts coconut oil to create an amazing facial mask.

Low on dish soap? Use the leftover coffee grounds and hot water to clean your dishes of grime.

It is important to find every purpose for all of the things we would potentially just throw away, saving us not only resources from the earth but, resources from our pocket!

There are some essential ingredients we reach for when cooking or creating a beauty concoction that can easily be grown indoors. There are some essential ingredients we reach for when cooking or creating a beauty concoction that can easily be grown indoors.

1. Aloe Vera is a perfect plant to be used on burns, scrapes or cuts especially when cooking or baking. You literally just break a piece off the plant and use the gel inside directly on the wound. You can also use it in a variety of homemade beauty products including lotions and salves

2. Rosemary – fresh rosemary is delicious when cooking chicken or fish. You can pluck a few pieces off your plant and lay out to dry or dry in the oven. You can also use it fresh and sprinkle a few sprigs on top of your dish for roasting and baking.

3. Basil – Basil is another wonderful herb that can be used dried or fresh. You can use basil in salads or with any dish  where basil will enhance its flavor. Just pluck a few basil leaves off your plant and place on or in your dish. I love a cutting a few slices of tomatoes with mozzarella cheese and adding one or two pieces of basil on top with balsamic vinaigrette drizzled on top. Yum!

4. Thyme – thyme grows quickly and abundantly in the home and is another wonderful herb for cooking! I typically pluck several sprigs off and place in the oven or lay out to dry to use in a variety of dishes.

5. Mint – mint is also another great herb to grow indoors. My mint plant is currently growing outdoors because it exploded in abundance! Mint can be used in a variety of dishes but also works great in mixed drinks like mojitos! I use a mortar and pestle to grind the leaves to release the oils. I sometimes even pluck a few pieces off for a quick breath refresher. You can use this herb in many beauty products by extracting the oils including lip balm and lotions.

These are just a few of the many herbs that can be grown indoors but I found them to do the best with daily water and mild sunlight. Place them on the windowsill  in your kitchen or in a sun / green room in your house. Be careful to not have too much direct sunlight throughout the day for possibly drying them out. You can grow these beauties from seed to full plant, so have fun, enjoy and happy growing!

When I think of Mint green, refreshing and calm come to mind. Take this color and apply it to your interior walls, home furnishings and decor to experience those sensations when entering your living space. Mint green is a very subdued color but because it is green, it still is eye-catching making a strong impression in the living space. It is truly a charming color that can mold itself nicely into many different interior design motifs.

Some design motifs mint green work well in include: rustic chic, contemporary, mid-century modern and even Victorian, Mint green pairs nicely with creamy colors, like a creamy off- white, salmon pink, peachy orange, mustard yellow and a dusty gray. You can make mint green the main focus in a room by designing the room in a primarily monotone color palette.

The color simply can’t help but stand out and dazzle us with its vibrancy. On the other hand, you can choose to paint one wall or an entire room in mint green and decorate with furnishings that complement the space in colors similar to the ones described above. You can even use mint green as simply an accent color on a few furnishings or decor items allowing it to blend in with the rest of the designs color palette.

Aside from mint greens versatility in how it can be integrated in the home, you have many choices as to where to place this color in your living space. Mint green just so happens to look pristine in the kitchen, bedroom or living room.

If you want cheerful, refreshing and calm in your interior design, mint green is an excellent option!

I am so incredibly impressed by The Eco-Natura Fredrik 5 Piece Dining Set with Molded Plastic Side Chairs! This set is extremely economically and stylistically perfect. This is a huge time-saver and money saver if you are looking to re-design or a first time buyer of dining room furniture that you want in a modern, contemporary style that will be sturdy, durable and will last for years to come.

Firstly let’s start with the table! This table is designed by world renowned Italian designer Lino Codato. The sleek, white table top has a surface that is burn, scratch and stain resistant. This engineered wood features solid american Ash wood inlays for added strength and quality with an applied powder-coating that seals out chemicals and bacteria. The design itself combines the styling of mid-century modern and Scandinavian design as you can see by the tapered wooden legs and the contrast between the wood frame and the table top.

The chairs offered with this incredible table are highly accurate reproductions of a mid-century modern classic by designers Charles and Ray Eames. This dynamic design duo are some of the most famous designers of this period of contemporary design. The chairs featured are made of a plastic seat shell molded from recyclable polypropylene with a strong polished chrome steel base. They gain their name from of course the Eiffel tower like appearance of the wire base. The chairs are lightweight and very comfortable, not compromising aesthetic for functionality or vice versa.

The chairs can be purchased with the table in a variety of eye-catching colors such as orange, blue and red – but for a more subtle look, they also can be purchased in white and black as well.

This combination is a winning dining set for its price, style and rich history in the world of modern design.

We’ve only been able to find this blog worthy dining set on one trusted furniture dealers site  – check out the Eco-Natura Fredrik 5 Piece Dining Set with Molded Plastic Side Chairs on Inmod.com

Looking for a cool nightlight for your kids or a quirky and colorful lamp for your desk? There is a lamp designed to not only look but also work similarly to the game Tetris!

This is an interlocking light fixture for old school gamers and 80s babies. There are 7 tetrimino blocks each in a different color in various shapes. The one main block is connected to the adapter that you plug in, while the other 6 shapes require you to stack and rearrange them on top of one another in various ways for them to light up.

Each block has a metallic frame and only light up when the alignment is just right serving as a power bus or electrical current for the other block. Each block comes in a vibrant color that shines brightly due to its LED Bulb. Although the stackable tetris lamp is a very simple design, these type of designs, where the furnishing or decor item not only looks the part of what it’s representing but also functions similarly are remarkable – plus the tetris lamp serves a whole new function while also reactivating 80s gamers nostalgia in the process! Just an overall neat gadget that both you and your kids can enjoy together!

From handmade jewelry to iconic weaponry, casting in metalworking is an ancient and honored craft that is still practiced today.

Making your own metal casted jewelry isn’t as difficult as it may sound. The process starts very simply. Before carving your design into a mold to be casted, sketch out the design on a piece of paper first. You can actually ketch out the design in the exact size of the piece desired and then cut it out.

Next, get a large enough piece of carving wax that will fit your design. Make sure it is large enough for you to feel comfortable carving into. While the process isn’t extremely complicated, it is still a craft that requires a flair for design, an eye for detail and a steady hand.

You will need tools to carve out your mold. There are a variety of tools you can use when creating molds for casting, some of these include a fettling knife, a mold makers knife or a carving chisel, just to name a few.

Take your cut design or use your sketch as reference. Place your design onto the carving mold. It is important to note that molds are actually the negative of the design. They appear like a hollow cavity where the liquid metal will eventually be poured into. The cast itself is the positive of the design, the piece that is taken out of or ejected from the mold.

So what does this mean when you are carving your mold? This means you want to carve around the total shape of your design and in the opposite areas of the cast. It is an extraction process to create an addition process. You are working in the inverted world here.

Once the carving is complete and you are happy with your design, you can send it to a metal casting company, this is assuming you do not have your own furnace to melt metals into liquid molten.

The metal caster will melt the desired metal (silver, bronze, gold) and pour it into your mold. Once the molded metal cools, the cast aka your lovely design is broken out from the mold and voila! You have your first piece of handmade metal casted jewelry!

The best part is you can use this mold over and over again to create replicas of your design, making it a very efficient way to keep cost down and to sustain materials. Additionally, these reproductions can make great gifts and can even be a side craft generating extra income!