Lifetime365

My son is in kindergarten this year and I love hearing what fun things he does in school each day since it's all so new to him.  Last week he came home and couldn't wait to tell me about gym class - they had played tetherball! 

Wow, does that bring back some memories.  Apparently, I'm not the only one that remembers standing in line during school recess waiting for my turn to take the big swing.  A few weeks ago, one of the popular Twitter topics was #whenwewereyoung.  (BTW, you can follow us on Twitter @Lifetime 365!) I was surprised to read how many people tweeted about tetherball memories!  Some fond, some not so fond...guess it depends on if they were hit by the ball!?!

Well, good news!  Tetherball is no longer limited to school playgrounds!  Lifetime has made a new portable tetherball you can have in your own backyard or driveway.  It has a plastic base (very similar to a portable basketball hoop base) that you fill with sand or water to make it sturdy and you can roll it to your desired location of play.   

Remember, it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas presents!  Lifetime's portable tetherball is a gift that's sure to be fun for the whole family!   And, be sure to visit Lifetime's Tips & Solutions page for more fun tetherball tidbits and official game rules...just in case you forget from your elementary days!

Gathering extended family together on Thanksgiving Day adds quality to life. There is excitement in the air as guests start to arrive and greet each other and catch up. Children especially love to visit their cousins at the holidays. When entertaining, always keep in mind that invited children are guests too. Having an activity table for the kids that can double as a dining table can be invaluable at holiday gatherings.

My six grandchildren love to have their own kids' table with activities. On a busy day like Thanksgiving, offer crafts that are simple and fun. Try these easy ideas to keep your young guests entertained. As always for safety, adult supervision is required.

• Set up a Lifetime Children’s Folding Picnic Table and cover with a sheet of white butcher paper and fasten with tape. Have washable markers and show the kids how to decorate their table with colorful turkeys by tracing the outline of their open hand with a marker. Draw a beak and eyes on the thumb and feet at the bottom of the handprint and then color the fingers as turkey feathers
• Have a bowl of miniature pumpkins to decorate along with stickers, glitter pens and markers
• Go to http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/thanksgiving/index.html to print out free Thanksgiving coloring pages, puzzles and mazes to keep the kids amused.
• Pasta necklaces are fun to make. In advance, color assorted pasta shapes by putting into a zipper lock bag. Add 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of food coloring and shake. Let the kids string the pasta onto lengths of yarn for festive necklaces.
• Set aside time in the day for all family members to share something they are thankful for. This puts the focus on the “Thanksgiving” part of the day.

I took a trip to San Diego this past weekend for the International PRSA conference. Awesome information and great speakers. But, four days of workshops, exhibitions, and keynote speakers-- needless to say, it's healthy to take a break! What better place to do just that than the San Diego Zoo! For me, the highlight of the zoo is watching the polar bears. I was so excited to get to the exhibit, only to find him spread out on his belly, fast asleep. After a few minutes of debating wether or not I should move on, suddenly, he opened his eyes and lumbered over to the pool. Kids and adults alike ran toward the glass, watching with excitement. This polar bear knew exactly what he wanted to do. He swam to one side of the water, grabbed his ball with one humongous paw, and swam to the other side right in front of a group of children. What happened next was hillarious. A game of '1 on 7 basketball' between the kids and the bear! Or was it a game of break the glass?  You decide.  Although, I do wish he had a basketball hoop so I could have seen his shooting form, that could be one big slam dunk!

Lifetime just launched something really cool that I couldn't wait to tell you about....The Lifetime Space Planner!  It's a FREE online tool that helps you, well, simply put....plan your space. 

You can use it to plan any room or space - plot the perfect spot for your new Lifetime shed in the backyard, or plan a folding table arrangement in your living room for the upcoming Thanksgiving feast for your entire family.  This tool is great because you can plan layouts for practically any space - banquet halls,  offices, backyards, inside a shed,  dining rooms, you name it.  Simply enter your dimensions and you're good to go!  Almost all of Lifetime's products are entered, just click the picture to add it to your plan.  Plus,  it has everything you can imagine to make your layout realistic and to-scale... couches, grills, plants, treadmills, even electrical outlets! And, there is no software to download, it's all available online for FREE!

What's really neat is that it's simple enough for the everyday homeowner to use but sophisticated enough for professional event planners to use to plan functions for hundreds of people.  Now you can quickly find out what a layout will look like and how it will fit with just a few mouse clicks.  And, you can save your plan to come back to it anytime, email it, or print it out to start creating your real space!

And, while we obviously intended for the Lifetime Space Planner to help you with your Lifetime products, feel free to use it even if you aren't incorporating a Lifetime product. The Lifetime Space Planner includes furniture for all rooms and spaces - beds, couches, computers and even the kitchen sink!.  Just drop all the pictures into your room dimensions and you can quickly see if it fits. Sound fun and useful?  Click here and start planning!

Gardening in Vermont, I know about cold weather. The growing season is short and intense. I don’t dare go away in May or early June, because if I don’t get everything planted, I may miss the opportunity to get annual plants in the ground soon enough so they produce before a fall frost. Then there’s September and October when frost can come at any time. Yes, it’s a crazy place to garden, but I’ve learned some great tips over the years to make the gardening easier and more productive. Here are some of my best tips:

Build the Soil- With the short growing season and cool temperatures, the soil needs to be in tiptop shape to produce the best annual flowers and vegetables. I like to add a 1- to 2-inch thick deep layer of compost on my beds every spring and work it in. It’s cheapest to buy the compost in bulk from a garden center or have it delivered to your home. To move it around your property, use the Lifetime Yard Cart. This cart can be used as a wheelbarrow for small loads, or attached to your lawn tractor and pulled as a trailer for larger loads. It can hold up to 650 pounds of compost and dumps easily.

Plant on Raised Beds- Create 8- to 10-inch tall beds no more than 4 feet wide and as long as you like. These raised beds will warm up and dry out faster in spring and stay warmer all summer. They’re perfect for getting a jump on the season for cool season crops and keeping the warm season plants growing strong.

Relish the Cool Stuff- Cool weather crops, such as pansies, violas, snapdragons, broccoli, lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots, and kale, all love Vermont. They grow all summer. Even when we get the occasional 90 degree day, they still survive and produce from spring until the real cold weather kills them in October or November. Focus on planting a lot of these flowers and vegetables for success.

Protect the Warm Stuff- Heat loving flowers, such as geraniums, canna lilies, zinnias, and celosia, and warm weather loving vegetables, such as melons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and squash, all need hot weather to thrive. In cold climates it’s best to protect them early in the season by planting in plastic mulch (keeps the soil warm) or protecting transplants with floating row covers (keeps the air warm around plants).

Plant in Cold Frames- To really extend the season plant in cold frames. These structures are like mini-greenhouses. They allow you to grow plants a few weeks longer in the beginning and end of the gardening season. Plant cool weather loving vegetables such as lettuce, radishes, or carrots in early spring. Once they’re finished, use the cold frame for heat lovers such as cucumbers. When cold weather returns in September, sow another crops of mesclun greens, kale, or spinach. You’ll get 3 harvests from one cold frame each year.

Do you love Lifetime products?  Do you love getting good deals?  Then follow us on Twitter and become a Lifetime Products fan on Facebook!

Our first Twitter exclusive promotion will be held this Wednesday, November 11, 2009 on Veterans Day.  Follow us on Twitter and in honor of Veterans Day and the 50 great states that our veterans give so much for, I'll announce a discount code good for $50 off any purchase of $150 or more at Buylifetime.com!  And, as always, shipping is FREE at www.Buylifetime.com!

Lifetime is proud of our military and is proud to offer this discount to everyone - whether in the military or not - in honor of the service and sacrifice these men and women give for our country.  But hurry, the Veterans Day discount I mentioned above will be valid for one day only. 

Be sure to check Twitter and Facebook often to ask us questions, see new product announcements, learn more tips, and receive more special discounts and giveaways!

I'm sure you remember that I'm the "technical guy" that blogs about geeky stuff, right? Here's another one of those geeky posts, so if you're looking for Thanksgiving Tips or something along those lines, this isn't the article for you. If, however, you'd like to see some of the nuts and bolts that make Lifetime Products the company that it is, you might just enjoy the read.

Lifetime Products recently made the switch to Microsoft Exchange 2010. For those of you who don’t know, Exchange is Microsoft’s “Swiss Army Knife” server application. It’s an email host with LDAP & contact capabilities, it handles schedules and calendars, tasks and to-do lists, voice messaging, fax, unified messaging, syncing to Windows Phones (formerly known as Windows Mobile, formerly known as Pocket PC) and iPhones, and a whole bunch more stuff that I can’t possibly cover in a short article.

Crystal Flores, Exchange Program Manager for Microsoft has headed out on the road to talk with some “early adopters” of Microsoft Exchange 2010. Her first stop was Lifetime Products, right here in Clearfield, Utah.

Crystal interviewed Lifetime’s Richard Hendrickson, President; John Bowden, CIO; and Vince Rohton, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Some of the more notable advantages and features mentioned in Crystal’s interviews included the ability for Lifetime to eliminate their desk phones and offer one number to their customers and clients, which is completely transparent to our customers.

They estimate a savings for $1,000 per year for each desk phone replaced or not deployed because of the power of Exchange 2010. By putting email, contact, voicemail, text messaging, and phone calls all one one mobile device, all this information is available where ever that employee goes.

Lifetime Products’ Exchange 2010 deployment serves their facilities and employees in China, Mexico, and all their USA users as well, all hosted in one data center, on a single instance of Exchange 2010. That’s impressive. What’s more impressive is that they don’t need a dedicated Exchange Administrator to do it all.

The same technology that Lifetime Products uses also empowers employees of their online store BuyLifetime.com and their brick-and-mortar BackyardsInc.com stores as well.

CIO Magazine has a great article that features some more details about Lifetime’s adoption of Exchange 2010 titled Exchange 2010: Five Reasons Why I’m Upgrading and  has posted a video interview with John Bowden, Lifetime's CIO.

Buying the right shed can be a difficult task. There are many options available ranging in size, material, design, etc. Choosing the right material can often be the most difficult part of purchasing a shed. Many people refer to Lifetime sheds as “vinyl” sheds; however this is not the case. Lifetime “vinyl” sheds are actually made out of high-density polyethylene plastic (HDPE), which differs greatly from vinyl (PVC). Some of the main differences are:

• HDPE is much stronger and durable than vinyl
• HDPE will not crack, chip, or shatter
• Vinyl turns weak and brittle, especially in temperature changes
• HDPE is UV-protected and will not warp or change in extreme sunlight
• Over time vinyl can put off toxic gases into the air, ground, and water
• HDPE is completely recyclable and “eco-friendly”

So, when looking into purchasing a shed, whether a Lifetime one or not, make sure to do some research on the material it is made of. Go for a polyethylene (HDPE) shed, over a wood, steel, or light plastic one.  HDPE will last much longer, won’t fade or crack, is stain resistant and easy to clean.  It’s definitely the best shed material option! 
Other factors come into play when purchasing a Lifetime shed as well. Make sure your shed has certain attributes to meet your needs.  Things to consider include: the size, how many windows it has for ventilation, if it has large enough doors (single vs. double doors), and making sure it is low-maintenance. Good luck!

Hope you had a fun and safe Halloween this year.  We sure did!  My kiddos were the perfect age this year to really enjoy it.  Of course, I wouldn't being doing my doting mommy duty if I didn't brag about how cute my kiddos looked.  Personally, I think they were the cutest costumes I saw...maybe just slightly prejudice, I know.  :) 

My two-year-old daughter went as Minnie Mouse and my 6-year-old son was R2DT from Star Wars.  At first I figured R2D2 would be easy to find since Star Wars is so popular right now.  What I didn't realize is that R2D2 is not in the new movies and cartoons.  Tons of Stormtroopers and Darth Vadar costumes were readily available, but leave it to us to pick the one character for which a costume doesn't exist. 

Luckily, my son LOVES to do craft projects so we decided to fully embrace his R2D2 passion and tackle yet another homemade costume. I must say, despite all the trips it took to find the supplies, it turned out AWESOME!  He was the hit at his school costume parade and in the neighborhood.  Believe it or not, we ended up making the R2D2 costume out of a trash can!  Wait just a minute. Before you start giving me any creativity points, I have to admit, I completely borrowed the idea from familygo.com.  Another wonderful (and much more creative) mom graciously posted her pictures and step-by-step directions of how to make the entire costume.  Thank you, thank you!

It was pretty cute watching R2D2 (complete with working lights) walking up and down the street.  Our neighborhood is only one square block - perfect! You make the loop, buckets are full, and you're done!  Instead of having kids walk up and ring the doorbell, many neighbors simply set up Lifetime folding tables and chairs at the end of their driveways so they could see all the costumes, and kids quickly knew which houses were handing out candy.  One group  even made it a neighborhood socializing event.  Costumed adults set up a 8' Lifetime folding table and about five different neighbors had  their treats on the table for kids to fill their buckets.

After the trick-or-treating, my husband and I donned our own homemade Halloween costumes - Titanic Survivors - and headed to a costume party.  (This time the costume idea was completely our own!)  Another successful Halloween.  Now, I just have to figure out how to get rid of all this candy before the Easter Bunny comes!

My husband helped the kiddos carve our jack-o-lantern last night.  Honestly, I don't know why we go to the effort every year because they kids never help.  They both think it's gross and stinky.  They do like the finished product, just not the actual scooping and carving process.  Oh well.  I guess we just keep hoping that one year they'll actually find it fun. 

So, after your jack-o-lantern glows for three or four nights, now what do you do with the pumpkin?  Well, you could do what some of my neighbors do and let it simply rot on the porch.   (Personally, I'd vote against that smelly option!)  Most people probably just throw the pumpkin in the trash and think nothing of it.  Instead, this year, why not let your orange pumpkin go green! 

Composting pumpkins is a great way to dispose of your pumpkin.  Be sure to remove the candle and any wax build-up first, then cut or smash your pumpkin into small pieces.   Go ahead, let loose, relieve a little stress, and smash away!  Or, let your kids burn off a little extra energy, they'll love it!  Then, simply throw the pumpkin pieces in a composter, like the Lifetime Composter Tumbler.  Add some of those leaves that have fallen all over your lawn and other organic materials like table scraps and grass clippings and you'll soon have some great compost to use in your garden and flowerbeds.  

Don't have a composter?  Give your pumpkin to a neighbor who does.  Or, simply bury your pumpkin in a garden or flowerbed to enrich your soil.

If you haven't actually carved your pumpkin, scoop out the insides and use them for cooking before you send it to the composter.  You can also save the seeds and use them to roast as a snack.  There are plenty of good recipes online to try, including these three toasted seed versions from 101cookbooks.com. 

Oh, and of course, don't forget to save a few seeds to plant next year to grow more pumpkins! 

I’ve been to a lot of yard sales. At a recent one, I bought a 1921 replica Coca-Cola serving tray and made arrangements with a seller to pick up a refinished oak tool chest that I plan to use as a coffee table.

After years of experience buying and selling, I’ve also brought home what I call my three Ps for a successful yard sale: Planning, Presentation, and Pricing.

• Planning is crucial. If you sell it, they will come, right? Wrong. Run a classified ad in your local newspaper. Be sure to include popular and big-ticket items as well as the date, time, and location of your sale. Post a free listing at Craigslist.org also. Then make signs to put up at the nearest major intersections and other strategic spots to direct people to your sale. (Check with your local municipality or homeowners association first to make sure it’s okay to have a yard sale and that signage is permitted.)

• Presentation is everything. Don’t just throw stuff out on the lawn and call it good. Organize your sale like a retail store – by department – so buyers can more easily find what they’re looking for. Hang clothing on racks (you can make a rack by inserting a broom through the rungs of two step ladders). Display all other items attractively on sturdy folding tables, like those from Lifetime Products.  I like the Fold-in-Half Tables because they store easily when I’m done using them. 

• Price to sell. Forget what you paid for an item. Price at 20-30% of the original price and be willing to negotiate. Remember, you’re trying to turn clutter into cash, so accept all reasonable offers. Put a price tag on everything so buyers don’t have to ask – some will, some won’t and those who don’t will just walk away. I use a Sharpie marker on blue painter’s tape because it peels off easily. Another strategy is to group like items such as books in a bin and create one sign with one price for all. 

Happy yard sale-ing!

My husband and I made the big leap a about a month ago.  We bought iPhones.  I have to say, as reserved as I was about making a jump to such a trendy gadget of which I thought I wouldn’t really need, I LOVE it!  It is soooo user friendly and the voice control feature is astonishing.  It is so cool to do a Google search just by talking to your phone, then simply tap the phone number Google pulls up to call the place you were trying to find... or tap the Google map to get GPS directions!  Amazing.

But, of course, we couldn’t just simply purchase iPhones and be done.  Oh, no.  Naturally, we had to find snazzy cases, too.  After running around to more than five different stores, I narrowed my choice down to the Speck Candy Shell and the iFrogz Luxe.  I loved the fun two-tone colors and unmatched durability of the Candy Shell, yet the iFrogz felt great in the hand and had a sliding bottom piece for easy docking. 

I came home and showed my husband my narrowed-down choices online.  (Ummm, just so you know, they are both available much cheaper online than in stores.)  But, still, which one to pick?  Well, when I did my Google search for iPhone case reviews, one of the first sites that popped up was actually a video review.  I was planning on reading some user reviews, but it never even dawned on me there might be video reviews for a phone case!  Turns out there are dozens of in-depth video reviews available for almost every style and brand of iPhone case made.  These reviews were super helpful!  Nothing fancy or professional about them, but lots of specifics and answers to details I never would have thought about, plus up-close product shots from all angles. 

Anyway, it got me thinking...there must be video reviews about almost every kind of product if there are video reviews for phone cases!  Hmmm, I wonder if there are any video reviews of Lifetime products?  (Well, obviously, I knew there were at least a few because I have done a couple myself for Lifetime wheelbarrows, Lifetime yard carts, and Lifetime plastic sheds...although not nearly as in-depth and detailed as the reviews I found for phone cases.)  Anyway, sure enough, a quick Google Video search for "Lifetime basketball hoop reviews", pulled up several video reviews, most of them on expotv.com.  The reviews, or "Videopinions", are unsolicited by Lifetime and are from everyday homeowners who own Lifetime basketball hoops. There are also numerous written reviews about Lifetime basketball hoops on various sites, as well.  Here are just a few of the Lifetime basketball hoop video reviews I found that may be of help to you:

So, my point with all of this:  if you're making an investment in a product - an iPhone case, a Lifetime product, or any product - be sure to take advantage of today's wonderful technology.  Take the time to do a quick search online to help you make a wise and educated decision.  Manufacturer's websites can provide you with all of the specs and benefits of a product.  Google Video, YouTube, and Expotv are all great sources for customer video reviews.  And, most all online stores usually have written customer reviews for each product that are extremely insightful, too.

Oh, yea. I forgot to tell you... we ended up buying the iFrogz Luxe cases and so far they are great!

This past weekend we headed to a local pumpkin patch for our squadron's annual Fall Festival. It was an easy and fun way to celebrate autumn and Halloween without having to attend yet another costume party! 

It's tough to say what my kids' favorite activity was because there were so many cute things to do.  As soon as we got there, my daughter was immediately drawn to the Corn Box...a metal bin filled with corn instead of sand and loaded with buckets, shovels, and trucks.  However, the Corn Box soon took a back seat as soon as she heard the sputtering sound of tractors and noticed there were hayrides and little cart rides. My son enjoyed winding through the hay maze and pumping the old-fashioned water pumps for the plastic duck races.  And, naturally, they both took advantage of the free face painting.  (Personally, I passed on the face painting, but was thrilled to see they were using a Lifetime 4' adjustable height table as their painting station!) 

The farm also had stuff your own scarecrow stations, petting zoos, obstacle courses, and pumpkin basketball.  Yes, you read that right...pumpkin basketball.  They had a portable Lifetime basketball hoop, but in the spirit of the festivities, you played with a pumpkin instead of a basketball.  Hey, it's round and orange, right?  Obviously, I was a bit concerned since pumpkins are heavy, hard, and tend explode when dropped!  Thankfully, it was a fake pumpkin!  They also had Gourd Bowling... roll a pumpkin at gourds set up like bowling pins.  Yes, once again, these were all fake, too.  Whew! 

If you've never been to a pumpkin patch, they are worth the trip for the fun and to support your local farmers.  And, don't forget to check your local apple farm and corn mazes for Fall festivities, as well.   You'd better hurry though, because most are only open with special festivities through the end of October.

Save yourself some work and check out this great website I found that makes it easy to search for pumpkin patches near you!  Have fun and Happy Halloween!

Home and garden help is here! Whether it’s time to restore last year’s vegetable garden, prepare your home for holiday entertaining, or perform a garage overhaul, our panel of experts is here to help. Periodically, each of our experts will share his or her knowledge in the areas of organization, gardening, entertaining, and family-life balance.

Here, you will find advice, video demonstrations and firsthand accounts – sure to spark new project ideas, motivate you to complete those in progress, and uncover creative solutions to everyday home and garden challenges – all with you in mind. Be sure to check back frequently to get to know our experts and stay up-to-date with the latest tips – all for the way you live.

 Check out each of our Home and Garden Guru's Profiles to learn more about them:

Hannah Keeley, Lifestyle Expert

Patricia Mendez, Entertaining Expert

Charlie Nardozzi, Gardening Expert

Donna Smallin, Organizing Expert

You can read more about all our Home and Garden Gurus at http://www.lifetime.com/page/tipssolutions/Gurus

Anyway, the start of football season also means the start of tailgating season!  It may still be called a “tailgate” party, but nowadays, most people use more than just a tailgate when it comes to pre-game or pre-race festivities!  In fact, quite often, RVs and buffet tables with canopies have replaced simple tailgates.  Likewise, a rack of ribs or skewer of shrimp has replaced the traditional game day hotdog or burger.  And, surprisingly, a lot of people never even plan on going to the actual game!  They simply attend the tailgate party for the camaraderie and fun.  Yes, people actually tote their generators, televisions, and portable heaters to set up camp for one day in an over-crowded, paved parking lot! 

So, I wanted to pass along a quick video to get you psyched and prepped for your own tailgate party.  Check out these tailgating video tips from Jay "The Tailgate Guy" DiEugenio, author of I Got Your Tailgate Party Right Here!  He gives you some cool set up ideas and shows you some ideal tailgating products (including, of course, Lifetime tables and Lifetime folding chairs!).  The video gives you a great view of how easy it is to adjust and fold Lifetime's adjustable height fold-in-half tables, too! 

After you watch the video, click on over to Lifetime's Tip and Solutions page for even more tailgating ideas no matter how simple or extravagent your spread may be, including some fan-pleasing recipes that are sure to score big!