How to Make Your Home Smell Awesome

I have been seeing pins saying "how to make your house smell exactly like William Sonoma," so I tried it out! It was definitely aromatic, but I can't say it was my favorite smell. Everyone else loved it, so you should try it out and let me know how it goes!

Let's go through the steps of making it!

You'll need:
a lemon
a few sprigs of rosemary
half teaspoon vanilla extract
one cup water

Cut the lemon up into slices. Throw everything in a pot and put it on your stove. Let the mixture simmer on low heat for a while, as long as you want. Come back and stir occasionally if you wish. I ended up adding more water as time went on because of the evaporation.

As far as kitchen safety goes, please do NOT leave your stove unattended!

Let me know how it goes or if you have anything that makes your home smell amazing at marketing@haverkampcorp.com.

Spring Soundtrack

Need some new tunes for the new season? Thought so. Here's a list of the Spring songs we're listening to!

Change by Churchill
Sunny Day by Joy Williams
I Was Made for Sunny Days by The Weepies
Lock Your Heart Down by Churchill
Famous Flower of Manhattan by The Avett Brothers
Operating by Hunter Hunted
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong by Spin Doctors
Watching You Watch Him by Eric Hutchinson

Try 'em out! We use Spotify, you can find all these songs there!

Spring Wedding Style Guide

Spring Wedding by kaitlinungs featuring a fit and flare dress

Invited to a wedding this Spring and not sure what to wear? Don't worry, we have your back.

There are lots of blue looks in this because I gravitate towards it, but you can look at the shapes and styles instead of color if you don't like blue! 

For formal weddings, gals should stick to dresses that are about knee length or longer. Add a belt to cinch in your waist and add to your formality! For guys, long sleeve button up shirts with a tie or bow tie and dress pants. Don't forget your belt!

Casual settings call for a more laid back vibe, which is why I included the t-shirt sleeve dress and long sleeve striped dress. I can picture a girl rocking the striped dress with the sleeves pushed up and a simple necklace with colorful flats. Done! Guys, roll up those sleeves and throw on some khakis and you're good to go. Don't worry about ties this time!

I included the bottom row because a solid colored dress or little black dress can transform into what you need for whichever event you need it. Accessorize to make your look! Guys, you can't go wrong with a button up shirt. Sleeves rolled up or left alone, tie or no tie, cardigans.. The world is your oyster!

Hot Spot: Joe's Pizza and Pasta

Have you been to Joe's Pizza and Pasta? I have, and it was wonderful.

The first time I went to Joe's we were trying to watch the ISU basketball tournament game and all of the other places were full, so we wandered in and sat down. I didn't know what to expect of the restaurant. The waitress walked up to us and gave us all a menu with a smile. We ordered drinks and within 10 minutes we had some great cheesy garlic bread in front of us. Our group of six girls ate the entire serving within 5 minutes. Four of us ordered an 18" pizza and we each ate 2 slices. It was so filling and delicious, plus at their price ($18.95) we paid about $5 each! So worth it!!

Joe's offers pizza, pasta, sandwiches, seafood, strombolis, and dessert, along with a daily special.

Joe's has some of the best pizza in Ames, is fast, very friendly, and makes quality food quickly. It's in West Ames on Mortensen Road! Visit online to order online, order over the phone, or just to check out the menu. Go to their website at www.joespizzames.com.

It's also part of our Fun Money (wahoo!), check out all of the options to spend Fun Money at www.usefunmoney.com.

Recipe: Homemade Applesauce

When I go home, a favorite of mine is my mom's homemade applesauce. She makes it in big mason jars and always lets me take a few, which I inevitably practically inhale. The other day I had a few apples sitting around that I knew I wouldn't be able to eat before they went bad, so I asked her for the recipe. It is so simple! Try it out and love it!

4 apples (I would suggest granny smith apples but you can use whatever you like)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (brown or white, can add more to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Slice apples into chunks, any size you would like. Put the water in the pan and add apple chunks. Cover and leave for about 10 minutes. Mix the apples so they don't burn. Continue with this process until the chunks are a size that you like. (I like my applesauce pretty chunky.) Add sugar and cinnamon. (My favorite is brown sugar with cinnamon, but you can experiment!)

A note about apples: Like I said above, the granny smith apples are the ones that I would suggest because they are not very sweet. The red varieties of apples are all fairly sweet in applesauce, which I don't love.

A few more notes: I never measure any of this and it has turned out great each time I make it. A pinch of this and a pinch of that and it voila! Lastly, applesauce will boil down and make about half of whatever you put into the pan. Don't worry if the apples are overflowing in the pan when you begin, they WILL boil down!

Enjoy!

Color Wheel: Cerulean

Color Wheel: Cerulean by kaitlinungs featuring modern lamps

Cerulean is a blue hue that covers the colors between blue and cyan. It's a dreamy color that is calming and steadfast, which is why we're showing you mostly bedding and bathroom items. Blues calm you, which is always nice in a bedroom or bathroom. The world cerulean actually comes from Latin word caelum, which means 'heaven, sky.' This color can be used playfully, calmly, seriously, and basically any way you can imagine! Sweet dreams, readers!

Aromatherapy

Earth laughs in flowers. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses plant materials known as essential oils and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health. (via Wikipedia)

Personally, I love aromatherapy because I do find that it makes me calm. There are certain scents that are meant evoke certain emotions.



A few examples are cinnamon, lavender, peppermint, and lemon. Cinnamon is supposed to be warming, while peppermint is relaxing. Lemon is uplifting and refreshing, and lavender is soothing and calming.

Common uses of these essential oils are either as room sprays, added to unscented lotions, and even added into washing machines. Make sure you don't use pure essential oil straight on your skin because it can be harmful, and definitely do not ingest any of the oils. Happy experimenting!

Party Safety

A friendly reminder from the City of Ames! Have fun and be safe.

Heartbleed

What in the world is Heartbleed??

I'll let Bret Molina from USA Today explain:

"It's a major bug that affects the technology used to encrypt sensitive information. Ever log in to e-mail or your banking account and notice the "HTTPS" and green lock? That's SSL/TLS, and OpenSSL is among the most popular variants of it.

Heartbleed is a leak in that system that lets anyone read the memory of servers running OpenSSL. "This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content," reads a statement from a Heartbleed website set up by Codenomicon to explain the bug. "This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users."

Codenomicon says it's not clear whether the vulnerability has been abused, but since Heartbleed has been exploitable for a long time, it's difficult to determine whether any service is completely safe."

To read more of his advice (which I would advise), click through this article. He says to wait to change your passwords until the website lets you know that it has fixed the security breach and is safe again. To make sure that the website is safe and know that you should change your password, go through this tutorial from The Mac Observer. The end of this guide from SiteProNews tells you how to make a safe password.

Check your accounts and look through this website list from Mashable that has the affected services on it. Be careful with your information online!

VEISHEA

VEISHEA: What is it?!

VEISHEA began in 1922, when ISU was still just the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The name VEISHEA is composed of the first letters of the five colleges; V standing for Veterinary Medicine, E for Engineering, IS for Industrial Science, HE for Home Economics, and A for Agriculture. The events of that first VEISHEA included a parade, a sham battle, a Home Economics open house, a horse show, vaudeville and the VEISHEA queens.



Residents, please remember throughout this VEISHEA to be respectful to your neighbors, your homes, and your town. Keep in mind that this celebration is about the amazing history of Iowa State University and be safe.



Go to the VEISHEA website here to find more information about the celebration.

DIY: Lampshades

Lampshades! We all have lamps, but maybe we're not making the most of them. Can you look at yours and say that you really love it? If the answer is no, it's time to consider revamping!

FLOWERS
Set your glue guns to stun and glue the heck out of flowers onto your lampshade. Fake or felt flowers will probably work best but if you only need it for a day, you could try real flowers. Extravagant!  See examples from Mr. Kate, How to Nest for Less, and Creative Home Arts Club.

MAPS
History buff? World traveler? Day dreamer? This lampshade would be perfect for any of those people. Find a map and attach to your lampshade with some Mod Podge. See examples from Silver Boxes and Pretty Handy Girl.

DOODLES
Let the little kid in you draw on your furniture with some fabric markers or permanent markers. Doodle your heart out and admire your handiwork with light shining through it at the end. See examples from Jade and Fern, Your Home is Lovely, and this lampshade by Rachael Taylor.

Do you have a cool lampshade? Show us the results of your lampshade makeover at marketing@haverkampcorp.com!