#kutoto

The weather gods have told us that barbecue season is finally here. By that we mean Weather.com. So, what are you waiting for? Let's jump right into summer!

Here are a bunch of things that should be on your to-do list for summer - 

1. Plan a barbecue party - Call the entire block over. Heck, we say call the entire neighborhood over and show-off your beautiful home, your adorable kids and the backyard. And your barbecuing skills. 

Things you will need - Clean home. Clean Backyard. Barbecue meats. Some beer. And kids (not mandatory). 

2. Go downtown and attend one of those festivals you hear about every summer - You know those amazing sounding festivals your arty friends tell you about all the time? The something-or-other-palooza, or the jazz music festival or that delicious sounding food festival. Go for it. Decide on a day, pack your things and go for it! 

Things you will need - Festival details + Tickets. Picnic Lunch. Car full of gas or transportation.

3. Host a Garage Sale - You have a bunch of stuff that you don't use. Just admit it. It happens to the best of us! Let's plan a garage sale. Put all that stuff to work by earning some money selling it off! It just requires a Sunday and some tables (More or less)!

Things you will need - A Saturday and/or Sunday. Some tables. Heavy-lifting to lug all the stuff out. Listing down all your "for-sale" items. Garage Sale signs on lamp posts in your neighborhood.

Kutoto was on CBC News Toronto as well as Global News Montreal. Did you catch either?

If not, take a quick look here and spread the love!

For Earth Day, one of our very cool Providers, Tracy Chen, showed us a few upcycling projects that you can do at home yourself.

What is upcycling you ask? When you take a useless item, transform it into something gorgeous, it's called Upcycling. If you do this transformation yourself, it's called DIY (Do It Yourself) Upcycling.

So, with the basics in place, let's see what amazing things you can make by using simple wine corks!

1.  Slice corks in half, place on mounting paper (or any thick cardboard), cut into the size of coasters and glue them together to turn them into DIY Coasters.  Glasses will rest perfectly on them and it looks really rustic.

2. With a sharp coring knife, hollow out the top of the cork, 3/4th of the way through. Plant small planters in it with fertilizing mud and look at your tiny trees in wonderment!

3. Take a small piece of ribbon, and wrap it around the lower half of the cork. Stick two sequins in a straight vertical line above it and draw a face on the top quarter.  Take a needle and thread and create a looped hanging thread from the top of the cork and your little corkmen ornaments are ready!

4. With the help of three corks, a few beads and a needle and thread, string together a cool napkin holder.

5. Using a hot glue gun, stick a bunch of corks standing up into a hexagonal shape to make a pot trivet. You will need easily more than 25 corks for this. 

A relaxed day at the spa?

A glass of wine, a book and a warm bubbly bath?

A night at the local jazz club with the girls?

Hiking at dawn to catch the sunrise on a mountain?

Or a run, around the neighborhood, enjoying the crisp spring that we have?

What is keeping you from doing these, then? Too much work, too many chores, too many responsibilities? 

Well, let's take a step back. Find that time. Prioritize "me" over work, chores, and other unimportant things. 

Kutoto (@KutotoCanada) offloads your to-do's to trusted local people.

Every day in our lives, we spend quite a lot of time in worrying. Tensions and stress are a daily occurrence. How many times have you noticed that your forehead is creased and you don't know how long that has been happening for?

That's more than half of us!

33% found that overloaded work and family responsibilities had a high tendency to cause them to lose sleep or dramatically reduce their energy levels.

You know what this means? We are losing our me time, health and peace of mind.

Here's what the doctor has ordered for all of us. Try out these small tricks for this month, and if you see that your quality of life is better, continue doing it.

Once a week, take an hour out of your work schedule and home schedule and just go on a walk. Alone. Don't worry about anything, just concentrate on enjoying spring.

If you have a ton of pending work, sort it according to priority. Do the "GET IT DONE NOW" pile now. Leave everything else for later, finishing it gradually. Outsource your work to your team, if it is way too much for you to handle.

Divide and conquer home chores. Split your to-do's with your children and partner. This will teach everyone responsibility and accountability.

Easter is around the corner, and that's when things get really crazy, right? If your kids like to decorate their own Easter Basket, or if you would like a pretty baked goodie in the center of your table, read on to get a scoop on our tips!

Make an Easter Basket -

Take a simple cane basket, and lay some festive red packing paper inside. Make carrots out of thick, conically rolled up paper, with orange crepe paper stuck on them, and green crepe paper on top, cut to wisps. Heap fistfuls of jellybeans in a pretty mini-cupcake lining paper, or take a plain white paper cup and dot it with an orange or red Sharpie. Hard boil eggs with food color in the boiling water and try to use colors like yellow, green and orange. Assemble all the decorations with a chocolate bunny or a bunny shaped cake in the basket, voila! Your Easter Basket is ready for gifting!

Request for an Easter Basket here

Easy Easter Decorations -

Pick up dried wood branches from your backyard, or around the neighborhood. They don't need to look pretty, that is the part where you come in! Roll up some colored crepe paper into balls of different sizes, start from a really tiny ball, penny sized, to a ping pong ball. Use some hot glue to stick these to your dried (clean) branches and put bunches of them into a large vase, with the decorated part towards the upper end. Place the vase somewhere near the entrance of your house to make it look festive.

Request for house decoration

Bake an Easter Goodie -

You can't go wrong with an angel cake made with a bunny mould, swiss buttercream meringue and some pretty sprinkles on top. Or bake cookies shaped like eggs, cupcakes with pastel colored frosting and mini chocolate eggs on top. Your options are endless.

Request for baked goodies

"I requested for a bunch of roses to make my girlfriend's Valentine's day special. Along with that, I got to meet a great guy, got a romantic drive, and the bunch of roses. Result? A very, very happy girlfriend and a GREAT valentine's day!"

- Rashad (Kutoto User)

Kutoto user Rashad ordered half a dozen roses for his girlfriend Nandini this  Valentine's Day as a part of an elaborate plan.

Rashad had planned the entire day around Nandini's favorite things. A walk in Old Port, her favorite red roses, and an elegant dinner. He wanted the roses delivered to him, so he could hand it to his girl himself.  A Kutoto Trusted Provider, Jorge, got on it immediately, establishing small details, such as where he’d like to get the flowers, its packaging etc.  Since Rashad was unaware of the florists in Montreal, Jorge suggested a very affordable and kitsch floral shop that he knew carried beautiful roses.  "Jorge took pictures of almost a dozen bouquets just so I could find the perfect one and choose it myself! That, to me, was so amazing!" Rashad gushed.

Rashad picked a bouquet that he liked best, but since he was running late, he asked them to be delivered a little later. Jorge offered to deliver the bouquet to wherever Rashad was, regardless of the distance. When Jorge reached the Old Port, Rashad and Nandini were already delayed for their dinner reservations. So Jorge decided to help them out even more.

"Look, here's this really sweet boy, trying his best to make Valentine's day amazing for his girlfriend. The least I could do is help him along, right?" Jorge offered to drive the couple to their dinner reservations. "I put in some soft, romantic music, the two of them sat in the back and I drove them to their next appointment."

Nandini got her perfect valentine's day, gift-wrapped, Kutoto-style. She loved her roses, loved the fact that her boyfriend got her a romantic, chauffeured drive around Montreal and an elegant dinner. And Rashad? "Jorge did not charge me a dime extra for everything he did," he told us, "I changed my drop-off location, he gave us a ride to the restaurant and made our night amazing. But he refused to take any extra compensation! He was amazing!"