Organize boards by content & name them accordingly.

When you first join Pinterest, it’s easy to fall into madly pinning everything you love, find interesting or that makes you laugh. Before you get started, think about how you are going to use Pinterest. Read more »

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If you’re wondering about how Pinterest works, get ready for some fun. Pinterest is like an electronic room full of bulletin boards where you can pin things you find on the web…or that you find on the Pinterest boards others create. You can even pin your own photos to Pinterest when using the Pinterest app on your smartphone or tablet.

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Okay, we’ve all been there: you start the new year all fired up about your resolutions, but by mid-January you find yourself on the couch with a bag of potato chips and the remote control, thinking, “Oh well, I’ll meet that goal next year.”

Here at the Solutions office, we’ve been through the resolution make-and-break cycle a time or two (or ten!), and we’re here with some advice. No, not advice on how to keep your resolutions; if we knew the secret to that, we’d all be millionaires. Instead, we polled our whole team and gathered a list of great excuses for breaking your resolutions. Each of these tried-and-true justifications has been used by a member of our team with rousing success. So if you find yourself at the end of January surrounded by broken resolutions, just pull out one of these for an instant excuse!

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When we heard about Disney Family Fun magazine’s “homemade ice cream from a baggie” recipe, we had to spread the word. It’s a fun activity to do with kids and it’s super easy to make. What a great idea!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup salt (Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.)
Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
1 pint-size ziplock® bag
1 gallon-size ziplock® bag

Serves 1

Instructions

1.     Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.

2.     Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it’s done.

3.     Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add mix-ins, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag.

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Looking for a quick housewarming gift?
Fill a basket, bucket or box with essentials that any new house might need. Get creative an include something for every room. You can include dishcloths, light bulbs, kitchen gadgets and even cleaning products. You might also want to throw in any useful local neighborhood information for those who are new to the area.

You can even pick a themed gift basket, such as a garden basket filled with gardening tools.

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The results are in! Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey we posted for April Fool’s.  The results show that you were able to decipher between our real and fake products—with only one exception: The Talking Mirror. Although 51% of you thought it was a real product, unfortunately it doesn’t exist at Solutions.com.

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In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, we came up with two fake products—just for fun! See if you can guess which two products are real Solutions products, and which two are the impostors.

Check back on Monday, April 4th and we’ll reveal the correct answers!

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On April 22, millions of Americans and people from all over the world will take time to honor and celebrate planet Earth. They’ll plant trees, dedicate parks, clean up rivers, take public transportation and participate in hundreds of other activities that heighten awareness of environmental issues. Earth Day is a time to reflect on our planet’s fragility, resilience and recovery. It’s a unifying event that brings people together, no matter their age, race, nationality or political agenda. The thread that binds them is their desire to respect, honor and protect the planet.

The environmentally concerned statesman

Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin, who in 1962 was concerned that “the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country.”

“All across the country,” he wrote, “evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.” In 1963, he persuaded President Kennedy to take a national conservation tour. While it did little to bring the issue to the forefront, it did become the seed of what was to become Earth Day.

Overwhelming response

Through the ‘60s, Nelson continued to speak on environmental issues. While on a conservation speaking tour in 1969, he saw how non-violent protests called “teach-ins” were effectively used on college campuses to protest the war in Vietnam. He believed this grassroots approach would work well to heighten public awareness of environmental issues. Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970, there would be a nationwide “demonstration” on behalf of the environment.

“The response was electric,” Nelson said. “Inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air.” The country was ripe for such a demonstration, as evidenced by the participation of two thousand colleges and universities, ten thousand high schools and grade schools, and thousands of communities. In all, 20 million Americans participated in that first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

From activism to acts

This was the beginning of the environmental movement in the United States. That same year saw the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. By 1980, multiple environmental acts became law: the Clean Air Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, among many others. What started as a grassroots effort is now an international event celebrated by billions of people from around the planet. Until his death in 2005 at the age of 89, Nelson remained dedicated to improving and protecting the environment.

Get involved

Want to know what activities are planned for Earth Day in your community? Contact the mayor’s office, city hall, newspapers, radio and TV stations, children’s and science museums, colleges and universities, and non-profit environmental groups. You may not find a “teach-in,” but you’re sure to find an activity you and your family can participate in to show your concern for the planet.

Tidbits about Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day:

Governor of Wisconsin 1959-1962

• U.S. Senator from Wisconsin 1963-1981
• Earth Day founder
• Co-sponsor of the National Environment Education Act
• Counselor of the Wilderness Society
• Created legislation to:
  • Preserve the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail
  • Mandate fuel efficiency standards in automobiles
  • Control strip mining
  • Establish the St. Croix Wild and Scenic Riverway (MN/WI), and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (in Lake Superior off the Wisconsin shoreline)

Originally posted in 2008.

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