How To: 8 Ways to Protect Your Skin from Winter Dryness
Though feeling cold during the winter is pretty unavoidable, you can definitely prevent the torment of having flaky, dry skin during the cold winter months.
Though feeling cold during the winter is pretty unavoidable, you can definitely prevent the torment of having flaky, dry skin during the cold winter months.
You may have enjoyed Nutella-covered toast or Nutella-covered banana slices in the past, but you haven't really enjoyed the full potential of Nutella's hazel-nutty, chocolatey goodness until 've had Nutella-covered bacon for breakfast.
Hot chocolate is great and all (especially when made at home with real dark chocolate bars and whole milk), but sometimes even old holiday classics need a taste upgrade from time to time.
You don't have to be a professional artist to make sweet crafty gifts out of the humble Sharpie pen. On a budget, you can easily make personalized yet visually pleasing gifts for your favorite people out of Sharpies and a blank canvas in the form of ceramic mugs, T-shirt, tote bags, canvas shoes, ornament balls, lampshades, and more.
If the idea of baking perfectly-shaped sugar cookies in time for Christmas is an intimidating prospect for you, you can make your own no-bake holiday treats simply using a microwave and a few simple ingredients.
Sick of the same boring, holiday-printed, gift wrapping paper for packaging your presents? Using spare cardboard, make a pyramid-shaped gift box for your unusually-shaped item. Or, transform your spare empty cereal boxes into fancy custom-made gift boxes.
Got a box full of Christmas lights but don't exactly have a picturesque rooftop to hang the lights from? Or, have too many Christmas lights and too little space to decorate with?
For your next dinner party, impress your guests with some intricate-looking, but actually super-easy, napkin origami when you're setting up the table.
Last year and the year before that, I gave some suggestions on DIY holiday gifts that you could make for family and friends, and this year, I wanted to follow up with even more Christmas gift ideas.
If the holiday season is stirring your dormant DIY spirit to make cool handmade things, then look no further than your fruit and vegetable drawer in your kitchen.
Here is more reason to eat cereal for breakfast. Once you have an empty cereal box on hand, you can use it as a DIY magazine organizer, emergency cupcake transport, cutting mat for arts and crafts, DIY holiday gift box and more.
Feeling like you're trapped in a creative rut? Try painting the walls of your room blue and dimming the lights. Studies have shown that blue-colored walls and dim lighting are conducive for creating a creatively stimulating environment.
If you want to avoid catching the cold this season, act like a complete germaphobic nut and wash your hands frequently. Wear gloves to avoid directly touching frequently-touched public surfaces that may carry germs, such as doorknobs and handrails.
To make your own sinfully delicious chocolate peanut butter cups in the comfort of your own home, all you need are chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter, and sugar.
Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, but it's definitely not too early to pull out that turkey baster hiding in your kitchen drawer. There are many things you can do with it besides baste a roasting turkey.
In addition to making homemade ice cream in an empty coffee can and ziplock freezer bag, you can also make your own ice cream very quickly by using dry ice.
Do you hate bringing drinks outdoors because of the possibility of leaves, bugs and other debris flying into your cup? Solve this annoying problem by placing a cupcake liner over the opening of your cup when you are not drinking it. Mission accomplished.
Even if you never plan on visiting a golf course for the rest of your life, it's still a good idea to have a few golf tees lying around the house. You never know when you might need to replace a small cap, stake a picnic blanket to the ground on a windy day, and (assuming that they are clean and new) hold a thick sandwich together.
Need to give yourself a super-cheap back massage? Place a few tennis balls inside a long sock, tie the end, and place the sock on the floor. Then, lie down and roll your back against the sock to relieve your sore back muscles.
If your love for Chinese takeout has left you with a pile of unused disposable chopsticks in your kitchen drawer, then you're in luck. In addition to being a very versatile eating utensil for pretty much any cuisine, chopsticks also come in handy for eating Cheetos without getting cheesy dust all over your fingers, pitting cherries, skewering food, stirring drinks, cleaning out dirt from hard-to-reach spaces, and more.
Bringing your lunch to work doesn't always have to involve boring brown paper bags and plastic ziplocks.
Gardening hose starting to leak? Don't throw it out just yet. Cut it up into smaller lengths and slice it open to use the hose as a protective barrier for outdoor electrical cords, or as added grip on a metal paint can handle.
Is your epic snoring ruining your bed partner's sleep at night? The next time you go to bed, consider taping or sewing a tennis ball on the middle of the back of your nightgown or pajamas. Sleeping on the side instead of your back is one effective way to ensure a snore-free night.
Back in the '80s, NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America did a study where they discovered which houseplants were the most effective in purifying the air in space facilities. Though you may not be living in a rocket ship, you can definitely benefit from having one or more of these plants in your home.
Like table salt, black pepper has its unexpectedly handy uses that goes beyond seasoning your meals at the dining table. You can use black pepper to keep ants from invading your home, drive away bugs from eating your delicious garden vegetables, temporarily fix a radiator leak, and even stop bleeding on a minor wound.
If you want to prevent your bathroom mirror from fogging up in the morning, simply rub shaving cream all over the surface before hopping into the shower.
If you ever run out of shaving cream in the morning, just step over from your bathroom to the kitchen and use olive oil as a substitute. Not only does it save you a future trip to the drug store, it also helps moisturize your skin.
Whether you use an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android smartphone, it definitely doesn't deserve to get scratched up by car keys or other sharp objects that may be in your pocket or handbag. If you're too cheap to invest in a protective phone case, how about making your very own of duct tape and staplers?
If you can't stand the idea of tying a birthday present with a wrinkled piece of ribbon, all you need is a slightly warm light bulb that hasn't been lit for more than five minutes. Simply run the length of the wrinkled ribbon across the top of the warm light bulb until the wrinkles go away, saving you the time of finding your iron and ironing board.
If you missed out on the Chia Pet craze from the '80s and '90s, don't worry—it's never too late to build and make your own weirdly head-shaped thing with grass hair growing on top.
If you don't have enough shoes to justify an over-the-door shoe organizer, you can still buy them for your home because they can pretty much organize anything that is small and can fit in a pocket.
Commonly used for washing and scrubbing dirty dishes, the ubiquitous kitchen sponge can also be used to sprout seeds, loosen wallpaper, remove oil leaks, deodorize your fridge, and more.
The next time you're feeling tired and stressed out, pull down on your earlobes firmly for a few seconds, or apply firm pressure to the indentation on your nose bridge between your eyebrows using your thumb for several minutes while breathing deeply. Sometimes a little acupressure is all you need to give an extra lift to your mental and physical health.
If eating bacon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn't enough to satiate your love for rashers, then how about eating it for dessert too? It's what a true baconphiliac would do.
Using an empty Gatorade bottle, empty 5 oz. food container, power drill, string, and some red nail polish, you can easily construct your own DIY hummingbird feeder in less than 10 minutes to attract hummingbirds to your own backyard garden.
If your shoulders are starting to look like a white Christmas in the summertime, then you might have a chronic dandruff problem. Thankfully, there are numerous DIY home remedies at your disposal, which use cheap and common household products that are probably already in your kitchen or medicine cabinet.
If you don't have the backyard space to make a Japanese rock garden where you can spend long afternoons meditatively raking ripple-like patterns into the sand below your feet, settle for the next best thing by making a simple, miniature zen garden that can easily fit on the corner of your desk or nightstand.
Originally invented by the Shaker community in the 1700s, clothespins are incredibly useful for hanging wet clothing on a clothesline, but also can be used to organize your cable cords, keep your pair of socks together, hold down the used end of your toothpaste tube, and decrease the possibility of you accidentally hammering your finger while pounding down on a nail.
Is your favorite black T-shirt starting to look a little old? To restore a faded black fabric color to its former glory, add two cups of brewed coffee or black tea to your washer's rinse cycle.
Combine your passion for drinking soda and growing your own vegetables by making an upside-down tomato planter! This gardening project is especially great for people who have limited space for growing their own green things. To make this, you'll be using an empty soda bottle, aluminum foil, masking tape, twine, potting soil, and other simple materials.