Coconut oil can prevent grass from sticking onto your lawn mower blades and revive your old leather goods. It can also provide sunburn relief, heal cracked heels, remedy chapped lips, and remove eye makeup.
Using rose petals plucked from your own garden, a large pot with an inverted lid, and some ice, you can create your own DIY rose water which can then be used as an ingredient to make your own beauty supplies or for floral-scented cocktails and desserts.
Did you accidentally burn the edges of your freshly-baked cookies or muffins? Rather than throwing them away, salvage the good parts by using a cheese grater to shave off the burnt ends before serving.
Though cream of tartar, also known as potassium hydrogen tartrate, is commonly used in the kitchen to stabilize egg whites when making meringues or meringue toppings, it can also be used as a DIY cleaning product and to repel ants from your home, among other things. Read below for more practical uses for cream of tartar.
Paint chips, small cards that show different colors from paint manufacturers, can be picked up for free at your local hardware store to help you decide what color you want to paint your living space. They can also be used for a number of crafty DIY projects, such as making your own drink coasters, gift tags, bookmarks, and more.
Want to show off vacation photos on the big screen or project goofy videos on the wall? Using a shoebox, magnifying glass, and a smartphone, you can make your own photo or video projector for super cheap.
While mold is a naturally occurring phenomenon outdoors and in nature, it can be a major health hazard and an expensive problem if it infiltrates the inside of your home.
Turn your refrigerator door into a mini-garden by scooping out the top of a wine cork, adding a small air plant, and then hot gluing a small magnet on the back of your wine cork. Just make sure to mist the air plant with water every week to keep it green and healthy.
Sometimes, raising your self-esteem is a matter of sticking to basic self-care routines like exercising, eating right, and getting enough sleep. Once you have that down, you can then move onto other productive mindsets and rituals, like setting realistic goals for yourself and exploring hobbies, activities, and communities that interest you the most.
Disposable shower caps are great for keeping your hair dry while showering, and they are also perfect for covering your hair during a DIY house painting job.
Whether you know you have gluten sensitivity or simply want to see how you feel if you cut wheat products completely out of your diet, going gluten-free is actually not as difficult as you would think.
An estimated 19 million American adults live with depression, a mood disorder which causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.
If you have an earache, look no further than your kitchen or medicine cabinet. For a non-intrusive remedy, simply rub a little Vicks VapoRub along the outer part of your ear (never inside the ear canal) and place a heating pad over the affected ear.
Unfortunately, toxic and belligerent people are not as avoidable as we would like for them to be. They show up in our work place, schools, neighborhoods—sometimes even within our own circle of friends and family members. The best we can do is minimize our interactions with them and plan for exit strategies to cut the conversation short. If an interaction is avoidable because the person is your boss or family member, then arm yourself with a few verbal defense moves to keep yourself from getti...
Do you feel like you need a confidence boost in social situations? Fake it 'til you make it—and in the meantime, try incorporating a couple of body language and posture tricks to appear confident before others. Appear verbally confident by speaking only when necessary, acting decisive, and make a point to say the other person's name.
If you are sitting in front of a computer all day for your work, make the most of it by exercising your different muscle groups even while you are finishing a PowerPoint presentation or filling out cells in an Excel worksheet.
Want to increase your creativity, attention span, intuition, self-knowledge—maybe even your sense of oneness with the universe? Start meditating on a regular basis. In addition to improving your concentration, mental health, and capacity to handle stress, regular meditation practice has also been scientifically proven to have numerous physical benefits such as lowering your blood pressure, improving your immune system, and adding more life to your years.
I managed to take a few snapshots of the solar eclipse in the Malibu area, where it was just a partial. Just wanted to share a few. I've still got the same setup as when I took my supermoon pics, but hopefully one day I'll be able to get something bigger than my 105mm capabilities, something like Cory's awesome solar telescope (see his time-lapse of the annular)!
As a follow-up to an earlier post on surviving deadly animal attacks in the wild and another one on relieving a jellyfish sting, listed below are things you should do (and shouldn't do) if you are ever bitten or stung by potentially poisonous wild animals.
Assuming that you're not a burglar-in-training, you may one day find yourself in a situation where you have to break into a home through a door chain lock. But what to do if you have no time to wait for a locksmith?
Tombstone rubbing is a simple and beautiful way to transfer a tombstone design onto paper using rubbing wax or black crayon. Many people do this for their own genealogy research to record tombstone designs of family members, or simply as a hobby to capture unique and interesting tombstone designs in cemeteries all over the world.
If your bicycle's feeling a little dull these days, then give it some personality! Using the crafty ideas below, you can transform your two-wheeler in a unique work of mobile art that will have everyone jealous.
Jet lag is inevitable when you're traveling long distances by plane, and it can leave you feeling completely wrecked for several days to a week after you arrive at your destination.
Palmistry is the art of characterizing or foretelling the future through the reading of palm lines. Though there are certainly many variations and techniques when it comes to interpreting the meaning of palm lines, you can brush up on Palmistry 101 by getting acquainted with your four major palm lines: the heart line, head line, life line, and fate line.
The microwave has an extraordinary number of uses that goes above and beyond reheating your cold leftovers from last night's dinner. For food-related uses, the microwave can also make your lemons more squeezable for maximum juice output, roast garlic heads, decrystallize hardened honey, dry up fresh herbs, and more.
What would happen to your productivity if you had a way to block Internet access to your favorite time-wasting websites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and trashy celebrity gossip blogs? If you are like most people, you would probably get a lot more work done.
If you're ever in a survival situation where you have no electricity and you're fresh out of flashlight batteries, fear not. By using commonplace items such as glass containers, old T-shirts, and cheap vegetable oil, you can very easily put together your own DIY oil lamp that will brighten up that darkness for hours. And no matter how fancy those store-bought scented candles can smell, none of them will smell as good as a DIY lard candle made with your leftover bacon grease.
What should you do in case of a major zombie outbreak? Many of the best survival techniques follow the same logic as to how you should prepare for major natural disasters; stock up on food and medical supplies, have an escape route, and form a community of people you can work with. When you're dealing with the flesh-eating undead, it also helps to invest beforehand in full body armor, weapons, and basic parkour lessons so that you know how to scale walls and jump across buildings when a horde...
Need to stash a couple small valuables and your super secret Moleskin journal in a place where no one will ever find them? Get yourself some glue, a few cutting tools and a fairly thick book, and you'll have all of the utensils you need to make yourself a nifty book safe that can be discreetly tucked away in your bookshelf when you're finished making it.
If you're a beer lover, you can enjoy your passion even more by incorporating your favorite beer flavors into your next cooking experiment. Beer can be included in recipes for meat marinades, frying batter, chili, soups, bread and even dessert. And if you're concerned about getting drunk from these recipes, fear not—most of the alcohol will evaporate in the cooking process. But your dish will be left with a rich, earthy flavor that can only come from beer.
Marital arts master Bruce Lee had his famous one-inch punch technique. He knew that putting all of your weight and energy into one inch of movement had far more power than moving your arm one foot.
Surprisingly, making your very own smoke grenade is pretty easy—and cheap. All you need is a saucepan or skillet, piezoelectric lighter, sugar and some potassium nitrate (easily available online and in most gardening stores).
Whether it's a shark in the ocean, a crocodile in the swamp or a swarm of angry bees, trekking through the wilderness always comes with its fair share of perils. To prepare for the worst case scenario, equip yourself with the right knowledge—then the worst that can happen to you is an awesome bar story when you tell your friends about your close encounter.
The art of disguise is a very important skill to master, no matter if you're a hounded celebrity trying to ditch the paparazzi or just someone who'd like to step out of the house without being recognized. If you think simply throwing on sunglasses and a hat is a good disguise, you are so wrong.
Without water, human beings can only survive for a few days. When you are out in the wilderness, knowing how to collect safe drinking water can be a matter of life or death. Large plastic bags are extremely handy for collecting condensation from grass and tree leaves, as well as creating a solar still. Dew water can be collected very easily with a clean towel and a small bowl. Large waterproof vinyl sheets are especially good for keeping your belongings from getting wet—and for collecting cle...
Here's a simple bar trick that you can pull off at your next alcohol-fueled gathering. Tap one beer bottle against another to freeze both beer bottles into solid ice in 2 to 3 seconds.
Need to pass along an important message on paper without having it accidentally discovered by your archenemy? Using very common household products, you can easily whip up an invisible ink recipe and write out your secret message with the solution. All the recipient needs to do is heat up the paper using a stovetop of light bulb, or brush the surface of the paper with a simple iodine mixture to read the message.
What should you do if you ever get stung by a jellyfish? First things first—do not urinate on your jellyfish sting. Contrary to popular belief, human urine can aggravate any stingers stuck onto your skin, causing more venom to release. Your best bet for relieving your jellyfish sting is to get yourself some vinegar, shaving cream and a razor.
Who would have suspected that vodka had so many practical uses? Vodka can alleviate the sting of a jellyfish, treat poison ivy rash, and help relieve toothaches. For using vodka around the house, soak a clean rag and use it to get rid of bathroom mold, clean your kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and keep your clothes smelling fresh.
Whether you really need to pinch pennies for a long road trip or are really at the end of your rope with your financial and living situation, desperate times call for desperate measures--and sometimes that involves living in your car for an extended period of time. It is certainly not easy, but with the right equipment and know-how, making your car your abode is certainly possible if you make the continuous effort to keep things clean, be smart about where you park your car and avoid arousing...
