Blog Posts

Make Your Own Body Scrubs

It can seem enticing to spend a lot of money on a high-quality body scrub, but did you know you can make perfectly good scrubs from the comfort of your own apartment for a small fraction of the cost? This week, Liv Avenida Blog is here with some of our favorite skin scrub recipes, all for you! Keep your skin happy and healthy this time of year by making one of these in your Chandler, AZ apartment this month. Coconut Oatmeal Scrub This coconut oatmeal scrub works perfectly for scrubbing your hands or for any other part of your body; it will exfoliate your skin and leave it feeling as smooth as ever. It also has brown sugar in it, so if you are looking to remove facial blackheads, this is a great option! Just be careful to keep the scrub away from your eyes. Green Tea Scrub Are you hoping to find something to help your skin to feel more fresh and rejuvenated? This green tea body scrub might be just what you are searching for. Not only will it leave your skin feeling soft and moisturized, but it will also help to tighten it up and minimize any scarring that you may have. You’ll need green tea bags, coconut oil, and white sugar. Coffee Foot Scrub Try not to let this scrub’s color scare you away. It will do wonders for your feet! Banana and coffee grounds are the two main ingredients, and when you combine them, they will simultaneously tone your feet and get them smooth. This scrub is perfect as you prepare to start showing off your feet in sandals again, or for any time you want to make your them feel like a million bucks. Honey and Blueberry Face Scrub The ingredients in this face scrub can do wonders for your skin! Blueberries are filled with Vitamin C and antioxidants, so this scrub is a great way to treat your skin to all these nutrients that you usually save for the inside of your body. Believe it or not, your skin could use them, too! On top of that, honey is naturally anti-inflammatory, so it is a great way to keep your skin calm and blemish free. Thanks for reading today. Have fun and happy scrubbing!

National Random Acts of Kindness Day

Aesop once said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” We here at Liv Avenida Blog stand behind these words, and what a better day to test them out than on National Random Acts of Kindness Day? Join in on the festivities this February 17th by taking a few moments out of your day to perform a small act of kindness for someone else. Here are some ideas you could try: Pay for the customer behind you at a drive-through. This is a simple way to serve someone, especially if you have a little extra cash to spend. It’ll make their day, and it will probably make you smile knowing they’ll probably never figure out who it was! Support a friend’s work. Since our world thrives on creativity, there are surely loads of artists and innovators around you. Chances are one of them is a close friend or relative, and they just might need some extra help to launch their business or spread the word about their work. It won’t take much to help! A like, retweet, share, comment, or small purchase can show them that you support them while notifying others who might love to support them. Pick up litter. Cities can get dirty with garbage and litter, so take some time to pick up trash in your neighbor to beautify the city. It might be a small gesture, but you could think of it as a symbol of your love and appreciation of the place you live and of your willingness to contribute to the prosperity of your community. Teach something for free. Do you have a skill or talent that those around you wish they had, too? It might be knowing a different language, playing an instrument, or knitting. On National Random Acts of Kindness Day, teach a younger family member or a friend who has been asking you to give them some pointers for a while. You could even invite a small group of people over and teach a class on it! What do you plan to do on National Random Acts of Kindness Day? Let our Chandler, AZ apartment community know in the comment section below!

Books to Read in February

Liv Avenida Blog welcomes you to the month of February! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, so we thought we’d share with you a few popular books including the theme of love. Whether you’re in the mood for a young adult novel, a classic, or a memoir, there is something for you! Pick up one of these books this month to read in your Chandler, AZ apartment: A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz William, a young graduate student, never thought twice about Jane Austen, because he thought he had nothing to gain from her writing. However, after he read Emma , his world started to transform! In this memoir, the author lyrically articulates how his life experiences intertwine with the life lessons and misfortunes that Austen’s beloved characters undergo as well. If you’re a fan of Jane Austen, or if you too need a little convincing of the relevancy of her books, don’t miss this one! Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë While it was considered deeply controversial during its time, Wuthering Heights has become one of the most significant classics of the English literary canon. Join orphan Heathcliff brought to Wuthering Heights and headstrong Catherine Earnshaw as their companionship evolves into a dark romance, challenging current ideals of morality, gender equality, and religious hypocrisy. Written in the heart of the Romantic era, the setting is key to the story. If you haven’t read this classic yet, consider doing so this month! Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton “This is a memoir for anyone who has ever fallen in love in Paris, or with Paris. Paris: A Love Story is for anyone who has ever had their heart broken or their life upended.” If you’re in need of a particularly honest account of love, loss, and grief, Kati Marton’s memoir about her experiences in life and love in Paris is a perfect one to read this month. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell If you’re looking for something light, entertaining, and relatable this year, then Eleanor & Park is the right fit for you. It details the story of a red-haired girl named Eleanor and a half-Korean boy named Park who experience a first love together. After meeting on a school bus, the two misfits slowly connect through mix tapes and comic books, eventually falling for each other. Don’t miss Rainbow Rowell’s magical debut into young adult literature! What will you be reading this month? Share it with our community by leaving a comment below!

Inexpensive Hobbies

Since January is National Hobby Month, Liv Avenida Blog is here to help you find a new hobby to start enjoying! While it’s true that lots of hobbies require special equipment or supplies that can get pretty pricey fairly quickly, there are plenty of ways to spend your time that are perfectly affordable. Consider trying out one of the inexpensive hobbies we have on our minds for this year: Listening to a New Podcast If you haven’t yet joined the podcast train, it’s a great time to consider jumping on! Whether you’re looking for something to listen to on your commute to work, at the gym, or while you’re relaxing on the couch, there is bound to be a podcast out there for you. The nice thing is, there is a podcast for every mood. You might be looking for something funny, educational, mysterious, suspenseful, or short. Whatever it is, there’s something that is sure to get you hooked on podcasts. Coding Are you looking for a hobby that can result in a marketable skill? If so, learning to code may just be the route for you. While plenty of people pay for college degrees or fancy certificates to learn how to code, there’s plenty you can do from the comfort of your home for little to no money. If you have no exposure to coding at all, starting with Codeacademy is a great way to learn some of the basics. If you decide to turn this hobby into a more serious investment, Pluralsight offers personal subscriptions at competitive monthly prices! Refinishing Furniture For those of you who’d like to get your hands dirty a little bit, you might pick up a hobby of restoring furniture! While you’ll need to purchase some initial supplies, you’d be surprised at how inexpensive this hobby can be if you skip all the fancy tools. Rather than starting with a really nice piece of furniture to restore, start small on something you purchase at a low cost at your local thrift store, or on something you find for free on Craigslist. Knick of Time offers a great beginner’s guide to refinishing furniture that you’ll want to check out before you start! Flower Pressing Flower pressing is a fun way to explore nature and to preserve a little piece of what you found by turning it into art. Pick a beautiful destination near you to go on a walk in, and pay attention to any beautiful flowers or leaves you find there. Bring a few of your favorites home and press them in between the pages of a heavy book, and after a while, you’ll have some beautiful pressed flowers! Are there any other hobbies you look forward to starting this year? Let our Chandler, AZ apartment community know by leaving a comment below! Thanks for reading, and have a great week.

Decluttering Tips

This week on Liv Avenida Blog, we’re here to help you start your year off feeling clean and organized. Thanks to the Chicago Tribune, we have this wonderful yearlong guide to house cleaning , and because one of January’s largest task is decluttering, we thought we’d share some of our favorite decluttering methods. Keep reading for ways on how you can easily declutter your Chandler, AZ apartment today! The Daily Declutter Rather than trying to dedicate an entire weekend to decluttering, we suggest that you spend a little bit of time doing it daily. While decluttering an entire room or closet in one sitting may take longer than a few minutes, dedicating too much time to cleaning out your house can get overwhelming and shouldn’t be done very often. Instead, pick a time each day where you can add in ten minutes of decluttering to your daily routine. It might not seem like you get much done of a given day, but over the course of a few weeks, you’d be surprised how far it goes! Donation Box Do you have a designated donation box in your home? If not, we highly suggest you get one soon. That way when you’re decluttering, deciding to donate something will be quick and easy, because you already know where to put it until you get a chance to drop off your donations at a local charity. When the box gets full, having all of these items in one place makes for a quick and easy donation process that will make you want to fill up another box again soon! One In, One Out If you haven’t started implementing the one in, one out rule, now is the perfect time to start! It’s simple: every time you get a new item, get rid of one item. Doing this will keep you from accumulating any more than you already have, and it will help you prioritize your future purchases. If you’re already following this rule, we suggest stepping up your game and upgrading to the one in, two out rule! That way, you’re actually decreasing the number of things you have rather than simply keeping it the same. The 20/20 Rule The purpose of the 20/20 rule is to help you with those items that you’re having a hard time letting go of for whatever reason. Maybe you feel like you might need to use it again in the future, or like you’ll regret giving it away. With these types of items, we suggest that you ask yourself if you could replace them for $20 and in less that 20 minutes. If this is the case, we suggest you donate quickly and affordably replaceable items. Doing so will surely eliminate lots of added clutter in your home! Thanks for reading our post today; we hope it helped!

Tips for Carrying Out a Morning Routine

Last week on Liv Avenida, we learned about the benefits of implementing a consistent morning routine. By establishing a mood for the day, it will help you prioritize your time and be more productive. Having a morning routine will increase levels of self-confidence and contribute to a belief that you truly can achieve your goals. Ultimately, it will reduce stress and fill your life with a greater sense of peace. Read on for a few tips you can start practicing today in your Chandler, AZ apartment to start developing a morning routine that works for you! Dedicate Enough Time Does your current morning look a whole lot like setting your alarm for as late as possible the night before, staying in bed quite a bit longer than you should, and then sprinting out the door while still getting dressed and shoving a bite to eat in your mouth? Creating a routine that actually benefits you will require a little more effort than that. For most people, a healthy morning routine will fall somewhere in between 30 and 90 minutes. One way to know that you’re taking enough time is that you sincerely benefit from the time you spend on your routine each morning and that you enjoy it as well. The most basic yet most difficult goal to help you achieve this is not to hit the snooze button! Move Your Body Right after waking up, it is so easy to lie in bed and scroll through your phone until you feel alive enough to roll out of bed and start your day. Rather than using that time to look at content you’ll probably see later in the day anyway, spend a minute right after getting up to wake up your muscles and your mind by doing something simple to get your body moving! You might be the type of person who likes to work out first thing in the morning, but if you don’t, there are plenty of other ways you can move your body. If you enjoy yoga, consider doing a pose or two to make your mind and body feel a little more at peace. If your muscles are feeling tight, stretching is a great way to do something good for your body before you proceed to wear it out again over the course of the day. You might even consider taking a short walk. Whatever you decide to do to get moving, it will surely help your body. Remember to tell remind yourself that as you adjust to this new routine! Fuel Up the Right Way Isn’t it ironic how we have been constantly told how important breakfast is, yet some of the most sugary foods with the least amount of nutrition in them are marketed as breakfast foods? It’s crucial that we not only eat in the morning, but that what we do eat is nutrient-rich and energy boosting to help us make it until we eat again at midday. Instead of choosing a bowl of sugary cereal that will only give you a few minutes of energy and then make you crash, make sure to incorporate enough protein, whole grains, and fresh fruit into your breakfast fuel up. Thanks for reading our post today!