Buying your food at grocery stores is all well and good, certainly at least for convenience’s sake.  However, spring is here and being able to find fresh, locally grown produce, fresh meat, and baked goods is one of the best parts of this time of year.  There are several great markets to find local produce around the Tri-Cities area, so why not try visiting one of these locations near you to get your fresh fruits and veggies!   Bristol   State Street Farmers’ Market   This market is located along State Street and the Virginia / Tennessee border.   Saturdays (May - October) 8am - 12pm Wednesdays (July - September) 3pm - 7pm   Johnson City   Johnson City Farmers’ Market   Originally known as, “F.A.R.M.”, or “Tri-Cities Association for Retail Marketing,” - this market has been around

      Small spaces come with big challenges!  Saving space is nearly always an issue when you live in an apartment, especially if you have roommates or your square footage isn’t an ideal number.  There are countless ways to save space in your apartment, but a tried and true method is to go up when you can’t go out.  Meaning: when you run out of floor space for organizational units, start hanging things on the walls!  A cheap and easy way to do this is with good old fashioned pegboard.  Pegboard may not look like much at first, but with a coat of paint to match your color scheme and some hooks to hang things up, you can astonish yourself with the attractive organizational possibilities.   Pegboard Kitchen Helper Use a shelf on your pegboard for your laptop or tablet (maybe consider a tablet stand) for recipe searches while you cook.  Leave space to hang grocery lists, weekly menus, and a calendar for reference.  Try to install this pegboard near an outlet so you can plug y

  Unless you're planning on staying in your apartment for a number of years, it is unlikely that you'll paint the walls there.  It's expensive, takes a substantial amount of time, and then you have to paint it back before you move out.  Yet, all white walls can be really drab.  If you're not into the whole super-minimalist Scandinavian look or you don't have enough windows letting in natural light to pull it off, there are surprisingly simple ways to improve the overall color palette within your apartment. Rugs   Bright and bold rugs are one of the easiest ways to add color.  A large area rug can dramatically change a space in an instant.  Rugs with smaller patterns are more subtle overall while dark, large patterns are perfect for a bolder look.  For a more eclectic look, try layering smaller rugs of varying patterns and colors. Statement Art Use large paintings, prints, or anything big, bright, and colorful on the wall to add color.  The walls can be as white as ever, but

  As deemed by someone, somewhere, today is World Chocolate Day and nobody seems to be complaining about that!  Since the fateful day sometime around 1900 BC, when a brilliant Mesoamerican citizen decided to harvest and roast cocao seeds to make chocolate, we've all been hopelessly hooked.  It's no coincidence men look to providing chocolate to scorned women in the hopes of redeeming themselves - chocolate is a powerful stimulant for the brain, proven to have positive associations with increased cognitive function.  Many people also experience a bit of a "chocolate high" after eating it.  In the long list of random national and international holidays celebrating food, friendship, and all things bizarre, I think World Chocolate Day is about as good as it gets.   So if

  So you have a brand new spot and all your things are moved in, but something is missing.  You haven't put anything on the walls yet.  This obviously isn't the first priority when setting up your new place, but eventually you'll want to put something or other on the walls.  You can go the graphic route and buy a poster or a print from a place like Society 6 or you can do it old school style - and get a super cool typographic poster from one of the many letterpress studios around the country (or world).     Letterpress is an incredibly old form of printing (dates back to good ol' Johannes Gutenberg) which is still alive and well today.  This type of printing involves using movable type - each letter is individually set and then printed when the desired word, phrase, sentence, etc is achieved.  Newspapers were once printed this way (just fathom the effort it took to do this for a moment) as were playbills and posters.  Contemporary lette

    Summer is upon us and the sun is finally out long enough to need some protection against its harmful rays.  Most of us grew up using Coppertone or a similar brand of sunscreen every summer to keep the sunburns at bay.  But over recent years, people have been questioning the chemical content of mainstream sun care products like these.  Are they safe?  What chemicals are we absorbing into our bloodstream?   According to this Dr. Oz article on sunscreen, many contemporary sunscreens are made from clear chemicals, which are absorbed into the skin and block UV rays that way.  However, these chemicals are considered "endocrine disruptors" and can negatively affect our hormonal balance, causing a myriad of vari

    I may not have realized it at the time, but college was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had.  The freedom, academic atmosphere, interesting course load, and never-ending calendar of activities had me ecstatic from the get go.  Having the autonomy to make my own schedule and then not keep it if I so desired was intensely amusing.  The only aspect of my early college experience which had its drawbacks was housing.   The dreaded dorm room.  I shouldn't completely write off dormitories as the worst possible living situation (second only to prison of course).  Ok, I'm kidding - they're really not that bad...in fact I realize they teach a valuable lesson, which is: you learn you don't want to live that close to anybody ever again.  It's akin to your 5 year old self wanting to try the baking chocolate your mother is using and her subsequently giving in, allowing you to spit it out when you realize there's no sugar in it.  There are some things you just have to experience firsthand to truly understand, which you may as well get out of the way at an early age.   It would be unfair of me to simply point out the negative aspects of dormitory living; I would like to take a look at the fli

  Bathrooms really deserve a little more credit than they are given.  Unless you still have an outhouse (haha), we spend a substantial amount of time in the bathroom while we get ready in the mornings or unwind in the bathtub at night.  It seems unfair to discount the bathroom just because it’s saddled with housing the porcelain throne.  Grooming is an equally important part of the day as eating and sleeping and having a comfortable space to do so in helps make your apartment feel whole.  Here are five simple things you can do to make your bathroom a little more comfortable. Your bathroom doesn’t have to be white to look crisp and clean.  Pick a paint color which you find calming and it will help turn your bathroom into your own personal relaxation oasis…especially when you’re soaking in a nice hot bath. It’s easy to remember to put plants in the living room or your bedroom, but there’s no reason not to put plants in the bathroom, too!  Add humidity loving plants in windows and on stands to improve

  Sigmund Freud said, “Time with cats is never wasted,” and I’m willing to bet that if you’re reading this, you agree.  I’m also willing to bet that at some point you’ve spent more than 30 minutes watching ridiculous cat videos on YouTube for entertainment – no judgment here.  You don’t have to be the stereotypical crazy cat lady to have a soft spot for those furry little goofballs, but if you are a crazy cat lady you’re in good company (the amount of cat-themed stuff I own is borderline distressing).  So if you love cats, you’ll want to make sure your own kitties have a safe apartment to roam around in, free to loudly catch imaginary prey in the middle of the night… Keep certain plants out of reach – Granted, not much is out of reach for cats so if you have plants, check to make sure they’re not toxic to cats or if they are, find a safe place where your kitty absolutely cannot reach them and eat them.  Why do they like to eat them so much?  Here’s a guide to which plants your cat shouldn’t snack on. Consider storing paper products in cabinets – or anything you need thumbs to access.  Something about toilet paper beckons kitties worldwide to completely obliterate it (must be some centuries-old grudge) and you d

Does the thought of wallpaper make you cringe?  Just the word, “wallpaper,” can cause shudders and cringes in your average decorator.  For many, wallpaper conjures up the nastiest of home renovating nightmares- inevitable in older homes, impossible to easily remove.  It’s often assumed that wallpaper is a thing of the past, completely outdated and terrifying, a reminder of the trends of yore.  I for one am a lover of good patterns and am happy to announce that if you haven’t already noticed, wallpaper has made quite the comeback. Luckily, there are contemporary companies producing wallpaper that is absolutely stunning and looks nothing like the pasty sage green and mauve stuff your Great Aunt had (nothing against your Great Aunt…just her wallpaper).  And if you’re tired of solid colored walls and want to really make a statement in a room, it’s just so easy with a good wallpaper.  It can immediately pull everything in a room together and help elimina

    Spring is…almost here and I’m already getting the cleaning bug.  It’s warm enough to throw open the windows (until the temperature fluctuates back down once or twice more) and get some fresh air in the apartment.  De-cluttering after being cooped up all winter can be incredibly revitalizing.  Here are some things to consider while you’re planning the big spring reorganization: If you don’t LOVE it, get rid of it.  Marie Kondo and her Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up has taught us all to ask one big question- “Does it spark joy?”  So if it doesn’t, consider what life would be like without it, then keep or toss. Consider a capsule wardrobe.  It’s all the rage right now, but there honestly might be something to this.  A capsule wardrobe consists of around 24 pieces of clothing which can be mixed and matched to make a multitude of outfits together

If you haven’t at some point been privy to photos of immaculately decorated, bright, airy kitchens complete with a SMEG refrigerator, then it’s time to see one of these beauties.  It seems to me like everyone with a Pinterest-worthy retro kitchen has one.  SMEG appliances are easily some of the most attractive pieces of industrial design I’ve ever seen.  They shine with retro 1950’s glory, all round corners and creamy colors, with fabulous chrome lettering reminding you who manufactured them. So of course I want one.  Not only do I want one, but I want one of everything they make, preferably all in seafoam green (but I’m not opposed to cream, pink, light blue…).  The question I’m left with is: Are they worth the price? Design certainly counts for something and you will i

    Does your apartment family include a furry friend?  Pets make us happy and help us feel more fulfilled in our everyday lives.  They’re always happy to see us, they never talk back, and always listen when we need a good ear.  So it’s no surprise that you would want to keep your pet as healthy as possible.   Plants liven up any apartment and help increase the level of oxygen in the air, even sometimes filtering the air w

Welcome to the newest addition to the Tri-City Apartment Guide! We’re thrilled to finally have the blog going and hope you enjoy the fun content to come! Being a renter means so much more now than ever; it is no longer just a stepping stone to owning a ho