Cover of Scrappy Cooking. Carleigh is tossing an apple into the air, wearing a green jacket in front of a lighter green background with all sorts of fresh food in front of her.

Discovering True Scrappiness in a Best-Selling Book

Have you ever known someone who became famous? I mean, really famous. Ten million social media followers and appearances on major TV shows like Good Morning America famous? Having their face on a New York city billboard famous? While I’m stretching the definition of the verb “know”, I recently discovered someone’s a self-made sensation.

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cactus

The Secret Life – and Death – of Plants in my Care

When we lived in London (Byron, specifically) we had a huge pear tree in the back yard. One year, we noticed a Kijiji ad asking for pears. A lovely older couple came and harvested them all. We weren’t pear people and in previous years we struggled with fallen fruit and wasps. So many wasps.

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Healthy (Really!) Two-Ingredient Chocolate Pudding

This one’s for anyone who wants a treat that doesn’t contain white sugar. Or who’s craving chocolate with vitamins in it. And it’s for parents who can’t get their kids to eat a vegetable. Oh heck, it’s for anyone who wants to try something different!

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portrait photo of woman with brown curly hair doing the shhh sign

The Q Word That’s Better Not Spoken

Erin and I don’t second-guess ourselves a lot when we record our Gracefully & Frankly podcast. We are in charge of our own contributions. In other words, if one of us wants to remove something, we do it. It doesn’t happen often but recently I asked her to edit something I said.

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Podcast launch artwork features a piece of graph paper with the title The Trade Up Podcast with John Finan and Lisa Brandt on a workbench with various tools and a welding helmet nearby

Trade Up Podcast Launches Today!

Today, episode one of the Trade Up podcast is live and kicking off another adventure in John Finan’s and my mission to promote the skilled trades. We call it “your guide to understanding, navigating, and excelling in the world of the trades.” It follows our book, Trade Up: Why Buy a Job When You Can Start A Career.

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Tyler Perry in a tux posing in front of a Time Magazine red backdrop

Sounding an $800-Million Alarm on AI

Movie mogul Tyler Perry halted an $800-million expansion to his Atlanta movie studio lands last week. The former army base is already one of the biggest film studios in America. Plans called for a dozen new soundstages and more to be built on the 330-acre lot. But after testing a new text-to-video AI program, Perry pulled the plug.

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