10 Easy Ways To Preserve Herbs Enjoying a big bounty of herbs from the garden this year? Fresh is best when it comes to cooking with them, but here are ten easy ways you can preserve them for year-round use (along with a nifty tip at the bottom of the page for crushing them fast). Air/Hang Dry Method: If you have the space and the time, you can tie small bunches together (about 4 or 5 cleaned stems) and hang them upside down in a dark, warm, well ventilated area. The drying time is about 2 to 4 weeks – you want the leaves to be crispy and easily crumble between your fingers before you pack them for storage. If space is tight, here’s a clever project you can make using old frames, fiberglass screens, chain and S hooks (for hanging in tiers): Hanging Frames Tutorial.Oven: Arrange cleaned stems in a single layer on a cookie sheet with temperature set at 180° F. *First published December 19, 2006 Here’s a quick method to try if you need them fast…but watch to make sure they don’t smoke or start on fire.
Top 10 Essential DIY Skills That Aren't as Hard as You Think I think it depends on your definition of "maintenance." I wouldn't hesitate to change my own oil or something like that but I wouldn't dream of replacing a radiator myself. That isn't my idea of "maintenance." That's fixing something. Sorry you are afraid of doing that stuff, but even a complete engine rebuild is easy to do, and no you don't need "special tools" unless you call things beyond a hammer and screwdriver "special" I can do a front end alignment on a car in my driveway with a tape measure and a couple of carpenters squares along with the wrenches most people would have. Also if you do buy the cheap but special tools you can replace your own tires and balance them better than the "laser computerized" balance machine at the tire place. In fact the only expensive special tools I need are a Crane and engine run stand. Danger? This is why I don't take my cars to the dealer for any routine maintenance. Aside from that, dealers are inconvenient.
Make Clothes and Accessories When you make your own clothing and accessories, your style is truly like no other. DIY fashion is often quite easy to accomplish, and the satisfaction of saying 'I made it!' is priceless. Start with some easy projects and advice. DIY style can happen in a matter of minutes. Shirts and Tops Create these cute tops and shirts with a little DIY know-how. Bags and Purses Carry something that makes a statement or simply holds all that stuff. Skirts Tailor your prom dress or just make a skirt shorter. Dresses You can create simple dresses or alter your dress to the perfect fit. Pants and Shorts DIY Pants. Hair Accessories From headbands to hair sticks, you can make all sorts of hair accessories at home. Belts Make your belt do more than hold up your pants. Hats Cap your lid with a toasty winter hat or a breezy sun-blocker. Gloves, Wristbands and Warmers Warm your chilly hands with these gloves, wristbands and arm warmers. Wraps and Scarves Add a wrap or a scarf, be it for warmth or style. No-Sew Clothing
How to Make Your Own Clothes Learning how to make your own clothes is a pastime that will not only save you some money, it is skill that can evolve into a hobby that you love. With some practice, patience, and some sewing know-how, you’ll be on your way to making your own clothing before you know it. Here are some helpful tips to get you going. Getting Started If you have never attempted to make your own clothes before, or if you have little or no sewing skills, finding some good reference materials is a great place to start. Before you purchase any other materials besides a few reference books or patterns, you may want to start thinking about what kind of clothes you would like to make. Gather Notions, Materials, and Equipment Before you begin to learn how to sew, you’ll need to accumulate a few sewing necessities. Learn How to Sew If you already have some basic sewing skills or if you’re already a master seamstress, you can skip this part and move on. Choose a Project Use Recycled Fabrics Be Creative
Tissue Paper & Paper Flowers Tutorial I debated sharing this tutorial for a couple-o-reasons. Reason 1. It's a craft that has been around since before I was born and reason 2... it's a craft that has been around since before I was born. Since it's new to me I figure it's got to be new to someone else too so I am doing it anyway! Supplies you'll need to make tissue paper flowers:Tissue paper (seeing as how this IS a tissue paper flower tutorial it would stand to reason that some form of tissue paper will be required)16 HUGS (just checking to see if you are actually reading this)Pipe cleaners or floral wireScissors Extras (for pizzaz): glimmer mist, brads, 2 inch Styrofoam balls, ribbon, more hugs (still checking), a flower girl (seriously), and lastly... As I stated last week, I purchased a Martha Stewart tissue paper flowers kit a few months ago on clearance at Malwart. Since I know a lot of people cannot find these kits I figured I would share some of the details and the templates I made so you can make them too! ...or...
Ordnance Survey Blog » Dry stone walling for dummies Today we have a guest blog from Chris James of Fix the Fells / Nurture Lakeland. Chris decided to lend a hand to the dry stone walling teamIt was my first attempt at the black art of dry stone walling. Piling rocks on top of each other to build walls. It's hard work dry stone walling and a rest is well deserved! Have you had a go at dry stone walling? This year the Lake District National Park is celebrating its 60th anniversary. If you’re going walking in the Lake District – don’t forget to take your Ordnance Survey maps with you – they’re available now from our online map shop.
Long Overdue Fusing Plastic Bag Tutorial - StumbleUpon I realized this afternoon that I basically explain this technique to an Etsy Labs visitor at least once a day, but had never put the instructions online. So, here it is. Fusing! Plastic! Bags! What you'll needPlastic bags (thin, flimsy ones work best)Parchment paper, freezer paper or plain old copier paperIron (and your favorite ironing surface) Making it Flatten out the bag and trim the bottom seam and handles off. Turn the bag inside-out if it has printing on it. Next, run a hot iron (we set ours to "Rayon", but you will need to experiment a little to see what works for you) and keep the iron moving constantly. Peel a corner of the paper back to see if the plastic is fused together. Peel the parchment paper away from the finished plastic sheet. Here are a few more rad examples of what you can do with this stuff, courtesy of Etsy seller Eclipse Alright, y'all.
10 Open Education Resources You May Not Know About (But Should) | MindShift - StumbleUpon This week, the OCW Consortium is holding its annual meeting, celebrating 10 years of OpenCourseWare. The movement to make university-level content freely and openly available online began a decade ago, when the faculty at MIT agreed to put the materials from all 2,000 of the university’s courses on the Web. With that gesture, MIT OpenCourseWare helped launch an important educational movement, one that MIT President Susan Hockfield described in her opening remarks at yesterday’s meeting as both the child of technology and of a far more ancient academic tradition: “the tradition of the global intellectual commons.” We have looked here before at how OCW has shaped education in the last ten years, but in many ways much of the content that has been posted online remains very much “Web 1.0.” But as open educational resources and OCW increase in popularity and usage, there are a number of new resources out there that do offer just that.
Wild and Woody Related Content Woodworking Basics Learn the basics of woodworking with this book — or buy it for a young friend or family member with ... "I capture the power of saplings. . . and want some chairs to dance." "I'll tolerate anything in my chairs that's not a hazard to my body." Creating Rustic Twig Furniture From Natural Wood As the tree grows, so the chair goes. I make my living designing and building rustic twig furniture. The main roots of rustic furniture making in America reach to the so-called Romantic Movement that flourished in the nineteenth century and was marked by the attitude that contact with nature had a soothing, spiritually healing effect. Making Rustic Twig Furniture Many of these characteristics contribute to the appeal of creating contemporary rustic furniture today. You make what you are. Secondly, I want to bring humor and illusion to my work. Choosing Wood Use wood that's available. Pick wood with character. Think about the scale of the work. Use dry wood.
Make A Cheap &Easy Solar USB Charger With An Altoids Tin : TreeHugger - StumbleUpon Photos by Joshua Zimmerman The craftster behind the very popular $3 solar-powered emergency radio is back with a new awesome project: a cheap solar battery charger with a USB plug. Zimmerman wrote, saying that he saw a lot of small solar powered chargers being talked about over Earth Day, but there was a big problem: "They're all quite nice, but also quite expensive. So, he came up with his own, using one of our favorite reusable items -- the ever wonderful Altoids tin. In looking for the cheapest way to accomplish the task, Zimmerman found that he could build a USB solar charger for under $30 (or $10 if be buys parts in bulk, though it's not likely you'll be buying bulk solar cells and DC-to-USB converter circuits). Zimmerman states, "The central brain of our project is a DC to USB converter circuit. It can be done with a Minty Boost kit, a premade circuit off of ebay, or grabbing one from a cheap USB charger.
How To Rip DVDs with VLC - How-To Geek - StumbleUpon Yesterday we took a look at the new feature in VLC 1.0 which allows you to record DVDs to your computer. There is also an overlooked feature in VLC that allows you to rip your DVDs as well. Here we will take a look at how to rip DVD movies with VLC for Windows. Note: This feature should work with VLC versions 0.9.6 and up. Ripping a DVD with VLC Load up the DVD you want to rip and start up VLC. The Open Media window will appear and you want to click on the Disc tab. Next the Convert screen opens where you will want to select a location for the ripped file. While you are browsing to the location to put the ripped file make sure to give it a name and a supported extension. When everything is set up the Convert screen will look something like this where we have the source drive and destination file with appropriate extension. While the DVD is being ripped you will see a progress count in the main UI. You may notice a slowdown of your system as the process takes up a lot of resources.