If you have a tight space in your garage to park your car, then you might want to install a tennis ball “guide.” It can be a big help in avoiding dents and scratches. Here’s how to setup a guide of your own:

Prep Work:
1. Take the time to park your car in an ideal position in your garage space.
2. Prepare a tennis ball by puncturing a hole in its side.
3. Take a long, tough string and tie a knot at one end. Force the knot into the hole in the tennis ball to make your hanging guide.

Setup:
Now take a tall step ladder and set it up next to the driver-side mirror of your vehicle. Take the free end of the string and toss it around a rafter, or pin it to the ceiling of your garage. You want the tennis ball to touch—or come close to touching—your windshield.

Try to line the tennis ball up with the steering wheel of the vehicle. This may require pinning up the string in a temporary position, moving your vehicle out, and then adjusting the string (a foot or two) into its final position.

Now every time you come home, you can safely drive up to your new guide.

Can’t wait to see what we have in store for our spring catalog? Here’s a peek into some of the NEW styles and colors we’ve added to your old favorites. And make sure to keep an eye out…it will be arriving in mailboxes the week of February 27th.

You loved our rugged, waterproof Slip-on Garden shoes in bright red and blue. Just in time for gardening season, they’re now available in green! Wear them all day, the anti-microbial insoles will keep your feet dry.

No more wrestling with the garden hose! Our self-coiling hose made it easy to handle those watering tasks. Make sure to get yours in the new blue! It’s also UV-stabilized so it won’t fade.

Our Flower Rocket made it easy way to grow flowers in your pot. Now there’s an easy way to grow flowers in your flowerbed. With our new 10′x1″ Roll Out Flowers, just unroll and water—it has over 2,000 seeds.

Our customers loved watching the copper-plated garden art spin in the wind. Now this yard accent is available in 3 news styles: Hanging Daisy Spinner, Lily Spinner, and Oval Leaf Spinner.

All the neighbors were envious of your colorful Fairy Tale Flags, but now we added some great new styles! Our cute Ladybug and Butterfly flags will bring smiles to the neighborhood.

Now there’s one more reason to love our Perfect-Fit® Cami …it comes in a sexy lace! Dress up a suit, wear it with jeans, it’s available in black and white.

Back by popular demand, we’ve added two new patterns of our Low Profile Rug. Choose from 7 sizes, and check out the new Heart and Shelby patterns. Fade-resistant, dirt-catching, and easy to keep clean.

 

Cast your vote by choosing from the list below—pick as many as you would like!

Have too many CDs and movies to keep track of? Here are some creative ideas to help you organize your collection.

1. Start by pulling all of your CDs, DVDs or videos games out of their current state of mess so they can be sifted through.

2. You will need to decide how you would like to organize your collections. Basic organization starts with separating out all types of media (DVDs, CDs, video games) if you have not already done that.  From this point you have options as to how you would like to arrange your separated collections.

• Alphabetical: Create a list of all the titles in an Excel spreadsheet on your computer. Then sort the entire list with the Sort feature in Excel, which will automatically create an alphabetical list for you.
• Favorites: Another organization technique is to arrange movies or CDs by your personal likes & dislikes. Place your favorite movies on the top shelf and work down (or to the right) from your starting point.
• Genre: Organizing by genre is another logical option for arranging media. Separating comedy movies from action movies will take less time than sorting alphabetically—and will speed up the time it take to find what you’re looking for.

3. Once you’ve organized your collection, it’s time to stack, setup and put it away. A simple wall shelf at eye level will do, but we suggests you take a look at our large collection of media storage. You’ll find many easy and affordable upgrades for your home. Solutions carries many different options for storing your media, which will safely and neatly store your DVDs, CDs and video games in attractive wood furnishings.

The Solutions creative team put together some Valentines cards just for you! Just click on your favorite image below and a print-quality PDF will download to your computer. Happy Valentines Day, from Solutions.

Here’s an easy recipe that is healthy and delicious. Make sure to save some for later, it’s even better the next day! Serve it with as slice of rosemary bread.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup chopped onion
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 lb. Italian style ground pork sausage
• 1 14oz. can ready-cut diced undrained tomatoes
• 1 14oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
• 3 cups beef broth
• ½ cup sliced yellow summer squash
• ½ cup sliced zucchini
• ¼ cup thinly sliced carrots
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup uncooked rotini pasta
• Shredded parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top.
  

  Linda’s Minestrone Soup

 

Directions:
In a large stockpot, cook sausage, onion and minced garlic. Then add carrots, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, beef broth, basil, oregano, pepper and olive oil. Bring to a boil, then simmer 10-15 min. covered. Add zucchini, yellow summer squash, and uncooked rotini. Bring to a boil and then simmer 10-15 min. covered.

Serves 4

Nothing beats the taste of popcorn on a movie night! But recently my sister told me that microwave popcorn was bad for you, so I had to look into it. Turns out the hot steam contains toxic chemicals, mainly from the buttery flavorings, glue and ink on the bag.
The good news is that you can make your own delicious, low-fat microwave popcorn using a brown paper lunch bag! It’s an inexpensive way to make healthy popcorn, without using unwanted oils or other ingredients.

Here’s how:

• Grab a paper lunch bag and add a 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels.
• Fold over the top of the bag to a couple of times to close.
• Cook in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes. Make sure to watch the popcorn carefully so it doesn’t burn—stop the microwave when the popping slows to one to two pops per second.
• Get creative and try some different flavors! Some people put the kernels in a bowl with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and seasonings and mix it up before putting it in a paper bag to cook.

*If you don’t want to create waste with disposable bags, we have a glass popper that cooks corn in the microwave. It’s available in two different sizes.

The Tonight Show recently featured a Solutions product on Jay’s Christmas Gift Ideas Part II. We were flattered when contacted by the show about highlighting one of our favorite Christmas products. After seeing it live on TV alongside some products he poked fun at, we are far too excited not to share what we consider his positive review. Watch all four minutes or skip to the end because the Solutions Pull-up Tree is reviewed last. See Jay in person demonstarting just how fast setting up your Christmas tree can be.