After its invention in France, neon signage landed on U.S. soil in the 1920s, initially providing showy outdoor advertising for car dealerships before it was adopted by a range of other businesses. Throughout the following decades, elaborate neon displays lit up big cities and small towns all across the country, welcoming customers toward diners, bars, roadside motels, and other establishments. Neon signs originally used gases like neon and argon to produce their vivid glow and often contained harmful metals like lead and mercury....

Types of Switches and Dimmers Be sure to select a switch that’s compatible with the circuit where you want to install it and your lighting needs. Here are the basic types of switches and dimmers. Essential Light Switches The most common household switch, a single-pole, has two terminals and simply turns power on or off. A three-way switch has three terminals; a four-way has four. These control a light from two or three switch locations, such as at the top and bottom of a stairwell, at either end of a hallway, or in a large room with multiple entrances....

Buy It: Select by Calphalon Jumbo Skillet ($50, Target)

1. S’more Cake If you think a semi-homemade dessert can’t get much easier, think again. This boxed chocolate cake recipe “bakes” in your slow cooker. Top the ultra-simple cake with marshmallow crème, milk chocolate, and graham cracker pieces to bring your favorite summer sweet indoors. Better yet, there’s a surprise ingredient that makes it so easy to prepare: chocolate cake mix with sour cream. 2. Crème de Menthe Cake Using boxed chocolate cake mix as a shortcut doesn’t get any better than this treat that’s a flavor doppelgänger for mint chocolate-chip ice cream....

To get this customized plan, all you have to do is take a quick questionnaire on Sunday’s website. Indicating where you live, the size of your property, the climate in your area, and the type of grass you have, all help pinpoint the best products for your lawn. For example, the first thing to figure out is how much product you’ll need for the total square footage of lawn you have....

So Elizabeth fast-tracked a three-month reno to get settled with her kids in time for the new school year. Sticking to a limited palette of materials (heavy on the acacia wood and knotty pine) and painting almost every wall white simplified the decisions Elizabeth had to make at breakneck speed, with the added benefit of tying together the choppy floor plan. Embracing the home’s quirks and filling it with her collections and some passed-down family furniture ensured the remodel didn’t erase the soul of the place or of the family she’s raising in it....

Perhaps that’s why more than 4,000 shoppers have left five-star ratings for the Abco Tech Garden Kneeler, a convenient tool that offers cushion and stability for the whole body while gardening. And right now, the brand is bundling its best-selling gardening bench with a pair of gardening gloves and a set of lawn-aerating shoes for the holidays—and it’s on sale with a clippable coupon. The kneeler is beloved by shoppers because it can be used in two ways: as a bench to sit on while working with taller plants, like roses, and as a kneeler when flipped upside down for weeding and planting....

The kit makes it easy for gardeners of all skill levels (even none at all) to get started growing vegetables and leafy greens. The “funky” vegetable kit, named after the colorful and unique crops it yields, comes with five seed packets for growing cosmic purple carrots, golden zucchini squash, purple Rubine Brussels sprouts, Tigerella striped tomatoes, and rainbow chard. It also includes five small growing pots, five peat disks to plant the seeds in, five plant markers to label each pot, and a booklet full of growing tips and tricks....

⅔ cup butter, softened 2 cup powdered sugar ¼ teaspoon salt ⅓ cup unsweetened coconut milk 5 cup powdered sugar Unsweetened coconut milk

3 tablespoon butter, softened 3 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon rum 1 teaspoon vanilla Milk

2 pound tiny new golden potatoes ½ teaspoon salt ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions 2 tablespoon salad oil 2 tablespoon rice vinegar 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil 1 clove garlic, minced ½ salt ¼ sugar ¼ crushed red pepper 1 medium cucumber, seeded and cut into bite-size pieces