Home & Lifestyle

The only thing you can guarantee about summer is that it will fly by and back to school will be upon us all before we know it. This is the year to get a jump on your shopping by scoring some of the best picks for your kid’s backpack. 

If you’re just starting out in your new place and are tempted to hit your parent’s house for a little ‘shopping’ for your linen closet, you’re in luck, because I’m here to save you from that experience.  With everything available for bed and bath right now, there’s no reason to suffer through hand-me-downs.

    Let me just start by saying that I can’t sing. At. All.   My family has asked me to stop on numerous occasions when I’ve been belting out the soundtrack from Frozen, but sometimes you just can’t help it. You have to sing along with Elsa.   Now that I have the KOHLER Moxie Showerhead and Wireless Speaker hooked up in my bathroom, I have a place to belt out the showtunes or turn up the morning music. Although anyone who has hearing and is within 20 feet of my house during shower time may not be so happy I’ve installed it, I think this just might be one of the coolest home tech devices I’ve ever tried.

  The Internet of Things will ultimately change all of our lives for the better, and the Philips HUE lighting system is a great place to start. Imagine being able to control every aspect of your home with your Smartphone or tablet, and even have aspects of your home control itself based on a set of rules that you can customize. Philips Hue can take you there and do much more. It makes your lighting fun and convenient, while adding a lot of utility that can make your house more secure.

I’ve always loved school. In fact, throughout my entire pre-university academic career, I was what you would call a teacher’s pet. So much so, that at the end of every summer, while most kids were bemoaning the start of another school year, I was sitting on my bedroom floor, surrounded by new school supplies, getting organized for the first day of class. Yup, I was that girl. But not everyone is as school-supply obsessed as I was. So with September around the corner, here’s a breakdown of the essential supplies your kids will need to make the most out of a new school year. 

It’s important to break your ‘must haves’ into ‘absolutely pack’ long before you head out the door. For some people the ‘absolutely pack’ includes everything but the kitchen sink, but because I’ve been there and done that, I can definitely share what you can safely leave behind and what is absolutely essential to bring when you’re heading back to school.

Last November, I had an opportunity to review three different in-ear headphone models from Monster’s iSport line – Strive™, Intensity™, and Victory™. While each had their pros and cons, it was the iSport Victory™ that got my vote for the best of the bunch. In fact, since my review, the Victory™ earbuds have become just as much a staple to my workouts as my overpriced stretchy pants. But to throw a bit of a kink in things, I was just sent the latest in the iSport arsenal – the over-ear, wireless, and Bluetooth-enabled Freedom™ headphones. Would they take the place of my beloved Victory?

The amazing thing about summer vegetables is that you can make a new side dish for dinner every single night. Some of them are so good you may just opt out of a main course and stick to your sides.

With so many two-income families at work each day, home security is important. It can even provide safety for families that are at home. Someone tried to break-in to my home while we were asleep, and fortunately I woke up in time and was able to scare him away. That was before I had a security system! A security system is an excellent deterrent as there are so many unprotected homes burglars generally won’t  risk a protected one. I particularly like camera systems because they not only deter thieves but also vandals who get some sick joy out of destroying property.   I already have a Q-See Surveillance System installed in my house, but recently got a chance to test out a couple of Lorex Wireless Security Surveillance Systems and see how they compare. In fairness, the 2 Lorex packages that I tested out were smaller configurations, but with the same primary function – cameras that can monitor and record activity. All three systems have some significant differences that are worth knowing about.

With a cat who loves to sprint out the door and a dog in the learning phases of obedience training, I was definitely up to the task of testing out the Tractive GPS Pet Tracking Device. It’s a small, plastic tag that hangs on your cat or dogs collar and it lets you track them via the Tractive website or using an app on your smartphone.