Category Archive

Do It Yourself

How-tos, photos and topics of DIY discussion.

Make your own lemon scrub at home

Here is a quick recipe that you can make at home that’s great for exfoliating your face. It also works great as a yummy lip scrub…

Use electrical tape to gussy up plain candle sticks

Offbeat Homie Chrome Cat uploaded this pic of her awesome candle hack to our Flickr pool.

Sandbox in the city: how I used an old fire hose to build a sandbox in my small backyard

Five years ago my wife and I bought a great house with a small yard in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Our firstborn, Sam, was about six-months-old when I started designing his sandbox. He was born in July so this gave me the winter to get it down on paper.

How to dry chillies for decor and deliciousness

When winter arrived, we harvested our chillies before the frost could get to them and found ourselves facing Mt Chillington. Since we use dried chilli in pretty much all of our Indian dishes, drying and saving them was the most obvious answer for us, and there was a certain appeal in hanging bundles of homegrown produce from the ceiling too. Here is my entirely unsanctioned, over complicated, make-it-up-as-you-go-along guide to stringing, hanging and drying chillies.

Make your own “12 Beers of Christmas” gifts

It can be a challenge when it comes to Christmas shopping for your spouse, friend, parent, or co-worker… but the gift of booze is usually a win! The downside, however, is that a pre-packaged box or carton of booze can also come across as “easy” or “thoughtless.” Well, I recently stumbled across a box that gave me an idea — a 12 bottle storage box could be transformed into “The 12 Beers of Christmas!”

How can I gussy up my kitchen table?

This is my kitchen table. It was given to my husband by his parents when he bought his first bachelor’s pad (now our family home), and it is a good one that performs all of its table-related duties. I am grateful for it, especially considering it is the only one we have. But sometimes I wish it was more … special. Besides a tablecloth, what are some ways I could gussy up this table and make it more uniquely ours?

Merry Sithmas: How we made our own Star Wars Christmas lawn ornaments

I saw a Christmas card last year that had an AT-AT with reindeer antlers that said “Merry Force Be With You” and I thought that would be awesome in my yard, and then thought about adding the sleigh and tauntaun reindeer from there. Here’s how we made all of this ourselves…

What are some good scent combinations for homemade toiletries?

I’m making homemade toiletries for everyone on my gift-list this year. I’d love to make my own scents without having to buy expensive essential oils, just using the herbs and other yummy stuff around my house. I’d love to know about some good and useful scent combinations.