Blog Posts

Inexpensive Hobby Ideas

Because January is National Hobby Month, Randolph Towers 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 expensive fairly quickly, there are lots of ways to spend your time that are perfectly affordable. Consider trying out one of the inexpensive hobbies we have on our minds this year: Podcast Listening If you haven’t jumped on the podcast train yet, it’s a great time to consider doing so! 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. 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. Choose a beautiful destination near you to go on a walk in, and pay attention to any unique 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! 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 a lot 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! Which other hobbies do you look forward to starting this year? Let our Arlington, VA apartment community know by leaving a comment! Thanks for reading, and have a great week.

Working Out at Home This Winter

Welcome to 2019! Chances are at some point in your life, you’ve set a lofty New Year’s resolution to get in shape, yet failed to exercise consistently enough to achieve it. There’s no shame; we’ve all been there too. This year at Randolph Towers Blog, rather than encouraging you to suddenly start going to the gym every day in attempts to achieve something out of your comfort zone, is sharing a few ways you can exercise right at home. Whether a home workout once or twice a week will be a stepping stone toward a larger fitness goal, or whether your fitness routine never becomes much bigger than that, we think the convenience of these workouts which are readily accessible within your own four walls will help you to take care of your body. Read on for a few suggestions! Yoga With Adriene If you enjoy yoga, then you can’t miss Yoga With Adriene on YouTube! Here is an excerpt from her channel description: “Welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, all souls! Find a practice that suits your mood or start a journey toward healing. Work up a sweat, or calm and relieve a tired mind and body. Create space. Tone and trim. Cultivate self-love. Make time for you. Go deeper, have fun. Connect. Fall off the horse and then get back on. Reconnect. Do your best, be authentic and FIND WHAT FEELS GOOD.” FitnessBlender Ski Conditioning Workout Do you plan to get any skiing in this winter? If so, this workout video is a great way to prepare your body and get in a good exercise along the way! Regardless of whether or not you’re going to hit the slopes any time in the next few months, this routine will strength and knees, and it will help you get in some cardio. Check out FitnessBlender’s Youtube channel for free videos on almost any type of home workout! A Routine in Two Exercises As this workout is composed of only two different types of exercises, it is one of the easiest to follow we have ever found! Following an inverse ladder pattern by decreasing repetitions every round, you’ll be surprised how effective this simple workout actually is for making a difference. 30-Minute Indoor Workout This routine is perfect because it targets your whole body, it’s not longer than 30 minutes, and all it requires is your body weight. You probably won’t run into anything new in this routine, but it’s nice to have a path laid out before you so you don’t have to leave it up to memory and chance to keep up a pace on your own. Which workout routines will you be performing in your Arlington, VA apartment this winter? We’d love to hear in the comments below, and the rest of the community would too! Thanks for reading.

Holiday Gift Wrapping Tips from Randolph Towers

Welcome back! Here at the Randolph Towers Blog, we have some basic gift wrapping tips to make the whole experience better. Check them out below! Measure Paper Before You Cut If you’re just going to eyeball the amount of wrapping paper you need, you’ll probably get a piece that is much too big or way too small. To save yourself from a whole lot of trouble, make sure to use the gift you’re wrapping as a tool to measure the correct amount of paper that you need. Widthwise, cut the paper to be a few inches longer than the present itself; lengthwise, make sure you cut ample paper to completely cover the entire present. Doing so will keep you from wasting your time and getting frustrated! Add an Embellishment If you think your presents look plain after you wrap them, make them a little more exciting adding something small that will make them look a lot better! Bows are a great choice to compliment the paper you choose. Curling ribbon also does the trick. If you’d like your gifts to look particularly stunning, try using twine, parcel paper, and some live greenery like rosemary or holly. Whatever you decide to do to make your wrapping job look better, spending a bit of extra time to add that perfect touch will show the recipient that you spent time not only choosing your gifts for others but that you put a lot of thought into how you presented those gifts as well. Reduce Reuse Recycle Did you ever think that the three R’s of the environment would help you in wrapping your holiday presents too? If you’d rather not break the bank on expensive wrapping paper, you can use any newspapers or paper grocery bags you have around the house as an alternative. If you’d like to have reusable gift wrapping each year, look for some old cloth you have around your house, like an old bed sheet or a t-shirt, and cut it into the appropriate shape and size for wrapping presents. Last but certainly not least, make sure to recycle any gift wrapping you do end up using once the holidays are over. If you do this, it will help prevent landfills from filling up quicker than necessary. Do you have any helpful tips for wrapping holiday presents? Let our Arlington, VA apartment community know by leaving a comment below!

Movies to See This Holiday Season

Welcome back to the Randolph Towers Blog! With the holidays just around the corner, we suspect you’ll have some extra time off from work, school, or whatever else fills your schedule. Luckily, some of the best movies of the year come out around the holidays, so make sure to treat yourself to a trip to the cinema! Read on for a few films we’re planning to see this month. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Don’t miss a new twist on the classic tale of the Nutcracker! A young girl named Clara is sent on a quest to find a magical key that will unlock a timeless gift. After the key disappears into a parallel world filled with mystery and magic, she finds herself in the midst of that world. While there, she makes friends with a soldier named Phillip, and now together, they have to enter a fourth realm to bring harmony back to the universe, and of course, to find the key. Now in theaters everywhere! Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse If you’re looking for a new type of superhero movie experience, this time in animation rather than live-action, then you can’t miss Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Join Miles Morales, a teenager from Brooklyn, as he discovers the story of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, and as he is introduced to the Spider-Verse, where he learns that threats across multiple dimensions call for multiple Spider-Men, including himself, to step up and save all of existence. See this movie as early as December 14th! Mary Poppins Returns This holiday season is bringing you the most supercalifragilisticexpialidocious sequel Hollywood has ever seen! Join Mary Poppins as flies back into the lives of the Banks children for more magic and fun. This time, the Banks children are all grown up, and Michael and his kids are in a load of financial trouble. To help with trying times, the world’s most well-loved magical nanny once again helps the medicine go down with singing, dancing, and of course, penguins in tuxedos! The whole family is bound to love this soon-to-be classic, in theaters on December 19th. Check out showtimes to see all of these movies and more near your Arlington, VA apartment this holiday season!

Alternatives to Black Friday Shopping from Randolph Towers

Not feeling up to Black Friday shopping this year? Neither are we! Maybe you aren’t in the mood to brave the crowds, or maybe you know you’ll go over your budget if you go. Whatever reason you aren’t participating this year, Randolph Towers Blog has some tips for what you might do instead on the day after Thanksgiving. Opt Outside REI started closing its store on Black Friday in 2015, suggesting to its customers and employees to #OptOutside instead of shopping. We think it’s a great idea! Whether it’s finding a place in nature you haven’t been before or spending the afternoon in a local park, the ways you can enjoy yourself outside this Black Friday are endless. You might even consider making it a tradition each year on this day to choose a new outdoor adventure to go on! Clean Out the Closet Instead of buying new things, take Black Friday to assess what you already have first! Maybe you have some winter clothes that no longer fit that you could donate to a local clothing drive. Your kids could rid their bedrooms of toys they no longer play with to make room for the new ones they’ll receive during the holidays. Being aware of what you have will help you focus on your priorities when it comes to gift shopping, and you can prioritize purchasing the things you need before the things you want. Support a Local Business You probably want to start your holiday shopping before December comes, so rather than supporting the large corporations that dominate Black Friday, why not shop at a local business? The Saturday after Thanksgiving has been designated as Small Business Saturday, and it’s a perfect time to purchase gifts that will be far more unique than those you might find somewhere else. Plus, choosing to shop at small businesses will benefit the local economy much more. Buy Gifts Online With online shopping becoming an increasingly popular alternative to in-store shopping, you are bound to find similar deals online to the ones you’d find in person during Black Friday, if not even better deals. Many businesses have Black Friday deals available online these days. On top of that, the Monday after Black Friday is Cyber Monday, a day dedicated to discounted shopping online. Skip the long lines and get the same great prices, all from your own home! Thanks for reading, and have a happy Thanksgiving at your Randolph Towers apartment or wherever you may be!

Fun and Simple Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving is coming quickly, and we at Randolph Towers Blog are sharing some of our favorite holiday crafts to help you set the holiday mood in your home. A few simple decorations can have your Arlington, VA apartment looking festive in no time. Here are some of our favorites this year: The Thankful Tree by Simply Vintagegirl Create a makeshift tree by using some old branches from your backyard, wooden chalkboard tags, and a large jar or vase. With this festive tree, share your gratitude with everyone who walks into your home. You could even invite them to add a tag to the thankful tree every time they visit. Book Page Pumpkin by Creations by Kara Using a can of orange spray paint, you can transform an old book into the perfect decorative pumpkin for fall! Follow these step-by-step instructions to make one for your apartment this season. Box Grater Luminaries by Country Living If you’re looking for something vintage to decorate with this holiday season, try these luminaries. By placing vintage box graters on a tray, illuminating them with flameless flickering votives, and filling in the gaps with acorns, you’ll have nice-looking ambiance lighting in any room of your choice. Rosemary Wreath Place Cards by Spoon Fork Bacon Have you chosen your Thanksgiving Day place cards yet? These simple yet elegant ones are made by tying the two ends of a rosemary sprig together with floral wire. Placing them atop neutral-colored dishware will make the dark green sprigs pop. Not to mention the rosemary will leave your table smelling fresh! Fall Leaf Painting by Minne-Mama If you have children, keep them busy on Thanksgiving day with this kid-friendly craft while the adults prepare the food. Tape some fall leaves to a large sheet of white paper, and have the kids paint on top of them! Once the paint has dried, you can remove the leaves to reveal clean paper where the leaves once were. Your kids will love seeing the outline of the leaves they painted! There you have it! All the tips you need to have your apartment all decked out with turkey day decor before your holiday feast. Thanks for reading, and have a happy Thanksgiving!