Blog Posts

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!

Perks of a Morning Routine

Liv Avenida Blog welcomes you to 2019! We’re thrilled to see what progress and growth this new year brings, and we hope you are too. Even though we’re aware that New Year’s resolutions have become somewhat laughable these days because they are most often left unachieved, we also know the big impact that simple positive changes can have on our lives. For that reason, we’re encouraging you to rethink your morning routine! Developing a steady routine each morning is one important key to a successful day. People often make it seem like you have to wake up far before 6:00 AM if you want to excel at implementing a morning routine, but it’s more sustainable to feel out what is best for your body and choose to wake up at a time that works best for you. Believe us when we say that the physical and emotional benefits of developing this daily habit are priceless! Today, we’re here to highlight some of the most noteworthy benefits you’ll enjoy as a result of reevaluating what your morning looks like. Productivity Morning routines are widely known to boost productivity, not only in the early hours, but throughout the entire day. By actively choosing what the beginning of your day looks like, you set a precedent for the rest of the day, and you’re much more likely to spend the rest of your time just as efficiently. It turns out that a little intentional action in the morning goes further than we thought! Confidence It’s true that positive self-talk including phrases like “I am an achiever” and “I love who I am” have a positive effect on self-confidence, but you’ll see a more tangible confidence boost when words are reinforced with consistent action and constructive experiences. That way, you’ll be simultaneously gaining a stronger belief that the words you are saying about yourself are true and a stronger belief in your own personal ability to accomplish what you set out to accomplish. Peace One prominent source of stress in life comes from feeling incapable of reaching goals and finishing tasks; it lowers our confidence levels, thus likely decreasing productivity as well. When you accomplish something at the beginning of the day you’ll likely have greater peace of mind, making it easier to continue reaching goals throughout the day. Feeling accomplished at the end of the day can lead to a more peace-filled evening and a better night’s sleep, which will then make the following morning feel even better than the last! Our hope for you is that you’ll be able to see some of these benefits in your own lives as you start implementing a morning routine in your Chandler, AZ apartment. Stay tuned next week for some tips on how to do so!

Recipes for New Year's Eve

If it’s your turn to host a New Year’s Eve party this year, it might feel like a lot to plan a menu of tasty snacks after all of the holidays earlier this month. That’s why on Liv Avenida Blog this week, we’re serving you a few of our most delicious appetizers and hors d’oeuvres that will go perfectly with any of your other favorite party foods. Keep reading for some of our favorites! Easy Coconut Shrimp New Year’s Eve parties are the perfect time to serve shrimp. This recipe will give you step-by-step directions so that you can serve your guests a mouth-watering batch of shrimp fried in a crispy coconut batter. Make sure you have flour, salt, pepper, eggs, bread crumbs, shredded coconut, large shrimp, and oil. Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Blue Cheese Sweet meets cheese meets bacon! There’s nothing quite as delicious as these cheese-filled dates that are then wrapped in bacon before they’re cooked. It’s the perfect combination of sweet, creamy, and savory. Spinach Puffs Anything with puff pastry is sure to be gone quickly, and these spinach puffs will definitely do the trick! Create a scrumptious filling using spinach, feta, onions, dill, garlic, and eggs. Bake this pinched between a square of pastry dough inside a muffin tin and enjoy these flaky bite-sized puffs. Blackberry Goat Cheese Crackers You can’t have a New Year’s Eve party without some fancy cheese. As it turns out, the sweetness of blackberries compliments the silky smoothness of goat cheese perfectly! Place some of each on top of a crunchy cracker to facilitate this match made in heaven. Salted Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Slices If you’re looking to add a sweet treat into the mix of all your savory appetizers, these mandarin slices are irresistible and healthy! The sweet citrus of the mandarin oranges brings out the flavor in the dark chocolate, and the sprinkled sea salt on top gives the whole thing an extra zing. What do you plan to serve this year at your New Year’s Eve party? Help inspire the rest of our Chandler, AZ apartment community by posting a link to the recipe in the comments below!