Making your own snow cone syrup requires only three ingredients: sugar, water, and a packet of your favorite Kool-Aid flavor. Simply combine sugar and water until it's boiling, then let it simmer for three minutes. Gradually add a packet of Kool-Aid until it's completely dissolved, then pour the syrup with a funnel into a separate container, which can then be chilled in a fridge until it's ready to use.
Other than displaying your favorite take-out menus on your refrigerator, magnets can be used in a number of surprisingly useful ways around the home.
The main developer behind the Xposed Framework just teased Android 5.0 compatibility for his popular mod. Rovo89 posted a screenshot on XDA that shows the framework running on a Lollipop-powered Nexus 5. Android Lollipop's switch from Dalvik runtime to Android runtime—better known as ART—made Xposed compatibility a problem for the OS. But alas, our favorite modding platform is just about ready for primetime.
To add a splash of unexpected color to your living space, paint the side of your door a vibrant color, or repaint an old piece of furniture to a bright new hue. Sometimes interior decorating, especially if you want to do it on a budget, is simply a matter of elevating what you already have or adding a single piece that changes the ambiance of the entire space.
If baking soda can be used to deodorize your refrigerator, it can also be used to keep your general living space smelling nice. Simply fill a glass mason jar about one-third of the way full with baking soda and add 5 to 10 drops of your favorite essential oils. Cover the jar opening with a lid that has holes poked through it, and set it somewhere in your home.
If you are like most people, you will probably be traveling a lot over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. While holiday air travel is hardly the most fun or relaxing activity in the world, you can prepare yourself with the following tips and strategies to make long flights as bearable and comfortable as possible.
Are you bored of draping a scarf around your neck in a single loop like everybody else? Tie both ends of a long scarf to form a large loop, then loop the scarf around your neck twice to create a DIY infinity scarf.
With the release date of its round-faced smartwatch drawing near, Motorola is calling on the public to help design clock faces for its new Android Wear device.
Bored of eating Oreo cookies on their own? Stick a jumbo marshmallow and a Hershey square in-between the cookies and melt in the microwave to make Oreo s'mores. For a savory-sweet snack, crush them into small pieces and mix with a bag of freshly popped popcorn.
Also known as shower soothers or vapor shower tablets, vapor shower disks are circular tablets you place at the bottom of your warm to hot shower to release effervescent vapors into the steam, which you then breathe in to relieve your cold congestion, allergy-induced stuffiness, or simply stress.
If you have zero baking skills but still want to make something sugary and sweet for your sweetheart this Valentine's Day, invest in a heart-shaped metal cookie cutter.
Why give a heart-shaped card to your favorite person when heart-shaped bacon can convey the same message and taste so much better?
Tell the awesome person in your life how much you love him or her by writing a secret Valentine's Day message in invisible ink, which can then only be revealed by heating the paper over a flame or a hot light bulb.
HTC has started rolling out it's KitKat update (Android 4.4.2) for the HTC One to French carrier SFR, expanding on the original update to it's Google Play Edition devices from November. Update roll outs tend to begin in Europe, Asia, and Africa before hitting stateside, but the release means we can't be too far away from a public build. As always, US carriers take much longer than their international counterparts, but the French OTA (over-the-air) update means that, for all intents and purpos...
Listen to your favorite music while washing the dishes. Get rid of old knickknacks of yesteryear so you have more clear space to truly appreciate your environment. With a little discipline and mindful planning, getting more clean and organized for 2014 shouldn't have to be such a chore.
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.
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.
Skype has recently made some really great changes to their Android app that were once exclusive to softModders with rooted devices. Previously when Skyping, using your device for other tasks was impossible. Your entire screen was devoted to your Skype conversation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In 1859, 22-year-old chemist Robert A. Chesebrough accidentally discovered petroleum jelly when he visited a working oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Oil workers complained of a gooey substance referred to as "rod wax" which kept getting into the machinery and slowing them down. Chesebrough noticed that oil workers also smeared this same substance on their burn marks or dry skin to help speed the healing process.
Cayenne peppers are great for spicing up your bland cooking, but did you know that they can also prevent frostbite? If you ever need to keep your feet warm during a long snow hike or skiing adventure, add a little bit of cayenne pepper powder to the bottom of your socks.
Ice cream never gets old in hot weather, especially if it's super cheap and made within the comforts of your own home!
Sooner or later you're going to have to deal with a stuck zipper, whether it's on your favorite jacket, backpack, or pair of pants. Simply tugging hard on the zipper tab hardly ever works, but a few things lying around your house might do the trick.
Commonly associated with cleaning gunk out of your ears, cotton swabs, colloquially known under the brand name Q-tips, have a ton of other practical uses.
We all know that distilled white vinegar is great as a general non-toxic cleaning solution and for deodorizing funky smelling rooms, but did you know that vinegar is also great for curing hiccups, deterring ants from invading your home, relieving jellyfish stings, and testing the alkalinity of your garden soil?
Whether you're a coffee fiend or beer enthusiast, having good coasters is necessary to prevent watermarks from forming on your tables. But instead of going out and buying a set, consider making some custom ones yourself that match you and your home's personality.
With the help of a hot glue gun and other basic craft supplies, the iconic red and white candy cane sticks can be used to make candy cane vases, candy cane wreaths, and candy cane candle holders.
For those of you familiar with our "The Very Important Dudes & Dudettes in Film History Show" video series (hosted by Matthew Price of the MAMO podcast) you'll be pleased to hear that MAMO & thesubstream.com have teamed up to bring you a more in-depth discussion about our favourite filmmakers every month, straight to your ear-holes!
Anthrax (the band, not the disease) remains one of my favorite bands, so I was really happy to see that Dan Spitz, the former guitarist of Anthrax, is now a master watchmaker, supposedly one of the best in the world. After all, there aren't too many things more steampunk than watchmaking, especially when he even makes some of his own parts. I never really thought about it, but as Spitz mentions in an interview, one of Anthrax's best songs, "Got The Time", is about time.
I have to say, this is one beauty pageant I wish I had attended. The Nail Queen 2009 Awards Ceremony was held at the Tokyo Nail Expo 2009 this past November.
I can't resist Luxirare's decadent, over the top food tutorials... even when it involves making white chocolate egg molds covered in edible gold leaf and injected with egg nog.
Rosemarie Fiore is badass. She makes art with pyrotechnics, amusement park rides, Atari, guns, and pinball machines. Though all of her work is cool, I have to say my favorite piece is Fiore's larger than life spirograph, made from an amusement park ride, entitled "Good Time Mix Machine".
Tom Friedman. One of my very favorite contemporary artists. Friedman injects the wonder into the humdrum. He creates magic from the unsuspected with his incredible sculptures assembled from simple, everyday materials. His materials have included: toilet paper, drinking straws, construction paper, masking tape, toothpicks, bubblegum, spaghetti, toothpaste, soap powder, sugar cubes.
