DIY Life

LED eyes, the perfect accessory for your Halloween costume. You'll look like a demon wearing these frightening lights over your eyes. The best part is, it only cost $1. Here's what you'll need:

Materials

1. 330 ohm resistor (any 200-500 ohm will work)
2. 2 Miniature LED - red
3. Battery adapter
4. 9 volt battery
   
5. Crimp connectors
6. Velcro strap
   

Take a look through the full instructions and accompanying pictures. It's really interesting to see the actor wearing the headband in light contrasted with how frightening she looks in the dark.Sit at your front door to terrify trick-or-treaters, or wear them as an original accessory to your Halloween party. It is a quick and cheap Halloween trick that sure to be a popular DIY hack this year.

[via: Hacked Gadgets]

Over at Halloween Tree, a site "dedicated to the fun, creative, family aspects of Hallowe'en," there's a list of Halloween program instructions from a brochure put out in the 1930s in Delaware, OH. It made its way to a Works Progress Administration program in Fresno, CA, so it must have been pretty popular around the country at the time. (Delaware, OH, is now one of the further-flung suburbs of Columbus, but it was a little more isolated 75 years ago.)

The selected parts of the brochure that have been posted include a section on superstitions and another on fortunes. The superstitions might be good inspiration for decorating your house or creating a party theme. The fortune activities would make good party games, at least for younger guests (the whimsy means they might be a hard sell for adults).

Catch some details, suggestions, and a word on bobbing for apples, all after the break!

My husband lived with a juggler in college. While they were roommates, Jason picked up some pretty good juggling skills. He's tried teaching me, but I have proven to be a slow learner in this realm. I think this video is just what I needed. If you're looking to add another cool skill to your party trick repertoire I'd suggest learning juggling with the Snap method. This video is teaches a simple way to learn the traditional three ball juggle.

Learn to juggle in 8 steps:

1. Toss one ball head height. Start in your dominant hand and catch with your non-dominant hand. You can do it!
   
   
2. Continue tossing the ball as you did in step one, but this time snap your other hand before catching it. Think of a metronome as you try to keep rhythm. Relax!
   
   
3. Repeat step 2 with your non-dominant hand. Don't give up!
   
   
4. Cycle the ball through each hand. Keep it continuous. Snap each hand between catches. Focus!
   
   
5. Add in a second ball. Toss them head height, keeping a single snap. Master each step!
   
   
6. Repeat step 5. Make it continuous. Think: snap, catch, catch. Breath!
   
   
7. Add in your third ball in place of the snap. Master this step by stopping at three throws and catches. Don't forget to count it out. Finish strong!
   
   
8. Once you've got the hang of it, keep going. Enjoy, teach and show off!
   

It's that time of year again: Martha Stewart's super-awesome special Halloween issue is on the newsstands, and there's plenty of interesting material on her website to match.

The magazine features the usual mix of easy, stylish costume ideas, tricks, treats, home decor ideas, templates to print out or photocopy, and a ton of interesting ideas for Jack O'Lanterns. This year, it's a split between "good things" -- spooky-cute ideas with a slightly retro feel -- and "bad things," which are a little darker and seem to be meant for a slightly older audience (some of the finished products could frighten very young children). A couple of items come in both flavors.

The Martha Stewart Halloween web page has a lot of features in it that seem to be from past Halloween special issues (and regular October issues!), as well as some ideas and downloads from the current one. You can download templates for atmospheric black paper drapes, a paper bat garland, or Creepy Mice. Try instructions for moth-eaten curtains. Serve Gothic Grog or Witches' Brew from a coffin-shaped table, make papier-mache decorations shaped like pumpkins or black cats, burn "specimen jar candles" (you sent out Mad Scientist Invites, right?), and bake Creepcake cupcakes.

You'll find plenty of tips for costumes and makeup, too!

Birthdays, graduations, Friday nights with the gang: eventually, you'll probably wind up at a Karaoke Night. Karaoke can strike fear into the hearts of non-singers: what to sing? HOW to sing? Well, I can't teach you how to sing... at least, not in a blog article. But I can teach you to make it a little easier on yourself the next time Karaoke Night rolls around.

The most important thing to remember: karaoke is more about having the guts to go up there and finish the song than it is about sounding like a professional singer. While there are karaoke-based singing competitions, it's a bonding activity in most countries: silly fun in which a group supports its members as they perform a potentially humiliating activity with aplomb, regardless of how bad they actually are.

Your biggest enemy is not the audience, it's your nerves. Your goal is "to not make a fool out of yourself." That's it, and that's not too hard: the bar of expectations is set low, so "making a fool of yourself" is what happens when you chicken out, not when you sing badly. Still, you probably want to feel confident, and you probably want to sound as good as you're able to.

Tips on song selection, exercises, practice, relaxation, and basic singing follow after the break!

One of the greatest traditions ever to take root from a sporting event, would be the football tailgate party. Every Saturday and Sunday from August through December, you'll find hearty souls brightening the parking lots surrounding football stadiums nation wide. These rowdy, spirit filled people gather their friends and families to enjoy the best of food, drink and sportsmanship, all prepared and presented in classic American style. For most people it's not just a matter of grilled food preparation, gallons of beer and a foam #1 finger to wave. When you come right down to it, football tailgate parties genuinely provide that sense of neighborhood, community and goodwill that the majority of us still crave.

Throwing a successful tailgate party is not at all difficult. In fact, this checklist from TailgateHQ.com will get you well on your way. One of the most important things is to get everyone who will be attending the party involved in the preparation because building team spirit is what the event is all about. Divide the project into it's basic components of food, drink, equipment, entertainment, decorations, seating and other special needs. Ask everyone to pitch in and give everyone a copy of the checklist which has been prepared by the group. You will find that with an operational framework, the preparation can be nearly as much fun as the event itself. The more you involve the group in preparation, the more appreciation each individual will have for the experience. A little bit of teamwork and some attention to detail will help make your tailgate party a lot more fun!

Go Packers !!!

Is it August already? If you have school-aged children, you are probably starting to think about getting ready to head back to school.

This means a more structured routine, purchasing school supplies and acting as a cheerleader.

What? C'mon, you know what I mean. Your kids aren't exactly psyched to get up and out the door early every weekday morning, only to do work for six hours straight. Did I mention the hours of homework that would be coming too?

Part of your job as parent is to help remind your kids about the fun parts of school: the amazing books they'll read, the new mathematical concepts they can use to wow their grandparents and of course the useless facts or knowledge they will need for Trivial Pursuit games. And recess.

Making your own masks as a kid used to be kinda painful. At the very least, cardboard and construction-paper masks aren't very comfortable. But today we aren't limited to paper plates, we've got convenient sheets of foam.

Masks are a great way to make pretend play dress-up items on the cheap. Craft foam rectangles can be purchased in bulk, in all colors. If you have room, buy several packs so you have a lot of duplicates. The rectangles we get are about 7 inches wide, which is perfect for heads of any size. Foam masks are light and durable (but not indestructable), and take permanent marker and white glue readily.

Full details after the jump.