DIY Life

Christmas is a mere eight weeks away (I know, GASP!) so that means now is the time to start your Christmas crafts. Somehow, nothing says Christmas like pine cones. Buying them, however, costs an ungodly amount for such simple and plentiful objects. What is the thrifty and crafty DIY'er to do? Use that collection of pine cones that you have hidden in the basket in your basement, of course. Or you could always go find a forest and do your collecting now.

Once you've hunted down your cones, either out of storage or from your brave venture into the wild, what should you do with them? The lovely and talented folks at Tipnut have your answer. Before you tie your cones into a wreath, or use them in any other craft, you must first prepare them. Tipnut has detailed instructions on how to prepare and preserve them so they are ready to make your Holiday centerpiece the work of art you are envisioning.

There are a few methods of making sure your pine cones are clean and bug free, but the second one sounds much safer to me. There are also instructions for bleaching them white. If you do choose to use the oven method, remember the very important step of watching for fire and smoke. (Like I said, the water method sounds safer)

Chances are, you've probably heard of NaNoWriMo (a.k.a. National Novel-Writing Month). Each November, aspiring writers (or non-writers) try to churn out a 50,000 word novel from start to finish. Not to be outdone, the knitters have established their own November challenge, NaKniSweMo (a.k.a. National Sweater Knitting Month).

The challenge? Knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in the month of November.

To quote the organizer:

Yes, the stitch count thing is crazy, but I think I can say with confidence that most sweaters out there are at least that, or more.

NaKniSweMo is hosted by Shannon a.k.a. KnitGrrl. If you want to join, comment on her blog or join the Ravelry Group. Also, check her blog in December - there'll be pictures of the completed projects.

Now that Halloween is over, we've focused our DIY holiday spirit on the next big celebration of the year: Thanksgiving! In my book, the more a holiday focuses on food, the better. I can't wait to read all the turkey-related articles over the next few weeks.

Mmmm. Turkey-related articles.

Now, in case you missed them, here's a quick look at some of our favorite posts from the last week:

• Speaking of turkey -- Mmmm, garbage can turkey.
• Have lots of candy corn left over from Halloween? Turn it into cookies!
• M.E. published the longest DIY article EVER!
• Does your vacuum cleaner suck? If not, read this.
• Dude, where's my drawstring?!
• Mmmm, make your own candy bars.
• Does your bathroom vanity suck? If so, install a new one!
• What time is it? Time to build a new clock!

And in case you were wondering, this week's most popular stories were "How to clean vinyl siding" and "Disney's Haunted Mansion: 999 Crafty Haunts."

What new and exciting things will we learn next week? Only time, and your continued readership, will tell.

Several of my silver jewelry pieces have been looking less than stellar of late. So I've added: "Necklaces -- clean them!!" to my ever-growing things-to-do list. Being a bit of a Web nerd, I got to thinking about what tips and warnings on silver care might be floating around in cyberspace. So I took a look. The best guide I found was wikiHow's "How to Clean Silver." Here are some highlights:

Yes, folks, it's that time of year: the latest roughly-seasonal issue of The AntiCraft is up. The current issue is the Samhain (Winter) 2007 issue, full of cold-weather weirdness. As always, we have to start with a warning: the projects on the site are not "adult" in the naughty sense, but the language is, so if you're easily offended, The AntiCraft is probably not for you.

The newest issue is spider-obsessed, there have been changes to the site in the form of forums, and the ladies of The AntiCraft are also starting to peel back the covers on their new book, which will be released in a few weeks. In relation to the book, there's a shiny new extremely odd contest for you to try your hand at.

See what I mean after the break.

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Say bye-bye to your boring, cookie-cutter front yard. Step one: add interest, diversity and texture with thoughtful landscaping. Step two: spice things up a bit (and express yourself too) with some fun yard art. Yes, you can buy yard art at hardware stores and plant nurseries. You can even buy high-priced yard art that is manufactured to look all rough-hewn and rustic, just like it was -- er -- homemade.

Suggestion: instead of parting with your precious cash, devote an afternoon this weekend to creating your very own yard art. I stumbled upon some terrific resources while surfing the Web today, in particular a site called Free Woodworking Plans. Here you'll find a bunch of easy DIY yard art ideas, complete with full instructions and patterns you can print out and trace onto whatever surface you're using.

A few weeks ago I was sitting at the pub with some girlfriends. We were all commiserating about how hard it is to keep up with day to day things. It occurred to me during this conversation that I was the only one at the table who cleans my own house. I am a DIY house cleaner as I think most people are. It is not a job I enjoy and not one I even do particularly well, so I'm always looking for tips on how to be more efficient.

In Mexico and in Mexican-American communities around the country, it's the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), a festive celebration to honor lost loved ones and others who have gone before. It corresponds with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on the Catholic calendar: November 1 is dedicated to children's souls, while November 2 is for the spirits of adults. It is said that these souls return to Earth for a visit, but they aren't feared: they're greeted with open arms. And lots of trinkets.

When relatives are coming, you don't want them to think you're unhappy about the visit, do you? The same logic lies behind much of the celebration. People commemorate the lives of lost loved ones by creating ofrendas ("offerings": altars and shrines), making sugar skulls as presents for the dead, hanging banners made of papel picado ("pierced paper" filigree), decorating with real or paper marigolds, baking pan de muerto (the tasty "bread of the dead"), visiting family graves, and maintaining a festive atmosphere.

Who can resist taking these themes and running with them? You'll find more information and plenty of tutorials after the break!

I never would have guessed that you can build a barbecue smoker out of a garbage can and hot plate. You can smoke a whole turkey this Thanksgiving and re-use it again at Christmas. Instructables member DEel brings us the steps we need to for build our own garbage can smoker. I've summarized the steps here.

How to make a garbage can smoker

1. Build a grafting support inside the garbage can
2. Add support for a dripping pan
3. Add the hotplate
4. Add a thermometer to the lid
5. Prepare the wood chips
6. Prepare the turkey
7. Smoke it
8. Enjoy!
   

The full instructions have accompanying pictures and important details for each step. You'll learn everything from putting all the pieces together to properly preparing wood chips. Eating out of the garbage never tasted so good! This DIY project will definitely leave your Thanksgiving guests talking.

Cornucopias have been around since the 5th Century BCE. They are often called a "horn of plenty" and represent giving and sharing. The modern cone-shaped basket is filled to overflowing with fruits and vegetables, leaves and straw, and can sit on the table as a centerpiece.

eHow.com has a great article on making a Thanksgiving cornucopia. To make your own cornucopia basket, you can buy a cone shaped basket at a craft store and steam the end to make it bend into the shape of a goat's horn. Gather some colorful Autumn leaves from your yard and place them on a tray. Stuff the basket with straw or other craft filler, place the basket on the tray, and fill the basket with fruits and vegetables such as miniature pumpkins and gourds, small apples and oranges, and Indian corn, allowing these fruits and vegetables to spill out in abundance. In all the cracks and crevices, sprinkle some nuts and hearty berries. Finish your Thanksgiving cornucopia by placing more leaves around your finished item.

I will make a cornucopia this year, following eHow's directions. I have never made one before, so I think it's time to try something new. My table needs a little dressing up, and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, I love to decorate for it, and give thanks for all the blessings in my life.

As we gather to give thanks and enjoy time with family and friends, Thanksgiving tables will take center stage. If you haven't decided what to put in the center of your table, this quick, beautiful and all-natural centerpiece idea may give you some inspiration.

Think about fall's unusual fruits and foliage, and let them inspire you. Search your local farmer's market or grocery store for gourds and colorful fruits, like figs, quinces, and star fruit, and gather oak leaves and branches. When arranged on tiered cake stands, or in bowls, or carved out pumpkins these harvest-time items make a centerpiece that takes only minutes to create, leaving you with plenty of time to concentrate on the meal.

Few words excite us do-it-yourself types more than the word "kit." Have I got a kit site for you! Klockit is the world's leading clock parts and movement supplie, with build your own clock projects for almost every style and skill level. Klockit makes it easy for you to exercise your craftsmanship talents by providing beautifully designed time pieces for you to build. Clocks are daily necessities which can act as decorating and design elements in every room, and they can also be timeless gifts (pun intended).

How would you like a hand-built solid walnut desk clock? Klockit's Breckenridge kit might be just the thing for you. At $36.00, it rivals anything similar you might find in a local gift shop and you get the satisfaction of building it yourself. Our lady woodworkers might like to make this mini grandfather clock jewelry box, but be warned, for $22.00 you get the movement, the glass, the hardware and the plans. The wood parts you must cut for yourself. For those woodworkers with exceptional skills, how about building your own grandfather clock from the ground up? Klockit has several styles to choose from, and nothing says heirloom quite like something that daddy built with his own hands.

Connecticut Electric & Switch Mfg. Co. in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a recall of approximately 64,000 circuit breakers bearing a counterfeit Square D logo. The company states that the Chinese manufactured knock-offs could fail to trip under excessive load, thus creating a fire and shock hazard. As of this writing, no incidents of property damage or injury have been reported.

The CPSC press release provides model numbers of circuit breakers which should be inspected to verify that they are truly Square D products. A description of the manufacturing characteristics which will help to identify the genuine models is also provided in that press release. You may wish to consider contacting a professional electrician if you are unsure if you had new circuit breakers installed from early 2005 to present.

For further information you may contact Connecticut Electric at: (866) 264-3702 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the company's Web site at www.connecticut-electric.com. Consumers also can obtain additional information by emailing Connecticut Electric at bdunham@connecticut-electric.com.

If you are anxious to capture some low-frequency sounds with the help of a standard microphone, you may be out of luck. that is, unless you employ a speaker driver as your microphone. I've performed this hack in a different lifetime for some amateur studio purposes and it does work.

Speakers and microphones are very similar in structure if you can believe that, and the larger surface area of a speaker cone is ideal for those lower frequencies, like form a kick drum or jazz bass. But, don't spend a ton a cash on a professional unit -- try making your own and see if the results stand up to what your recording needs are.

This implementation used about $20 worth of materials and some junk parts that were functional to create a speaker microphone. If you're an audio parts nut, you may have all the required pieces already. Check this out for a complete list and directions, then get ready for some thump recording.

[via Hackaday]

Dust is a major problem in my shop and most home wood shops. My tiny shop has more dust than projects in it. Not only does my enormous "portable" wet/dry vac suck at sucking and is even worse at filtering, it's a major roadblock to sweeping up at the end of the day. I've long dreamed of buying one of those big suck-your-brains-out dust vacuums that they sell at tool centers. However, even those have bags for filters and I never liked the way the old household bag vacuums would billow dust every time you turned it on. I imagined that the big monsters probably did the same thing only more. That can't be good for the lungs!

Enter Bill Pentz, woodworker, geek, and DIYer extraordinaire. Bill designed and built his own dust collection system that out performs just about everything on the market. His system really sucks!!

Most manufactured dust collection systems available to the home woodworker provide miserably low air volume and static pressure. According to Bill, none of the dust collection systems available in retail outlets provide even half of the air flow necessary to actually keep the dust from escaping large tools like your table saw, planer, jointer, or router table. The dust that does get swallowed up is often just spit back out into the air. Many of the filters don't actually filter the size of particles they advertise. Of course, we all could have guessed that much of marketing departments! In addition, course sawdust and the inevitable chunks of debrit damage even the best cartridge filters. A cyclone seperator like Bill's keeps all but the tiniest particles from getting to the filter allowing it to last indefinitely.