Logga in   
Swedish

diy

10 December 2010

#345 Make a cup

Today’s guest blogger is Christopher Hoshino, a potter and illustrator. He lives in Gothenburg, and started his career as a bookbinder. Besides making cups, he has also done Dosetts for Medicine in ceramics and is playing with the idea of how to make gold. Read more about him on www.hoshino.se.

Required time: 
1 week or less
Cost: 
Less than €10
Cons: 
The clay could crack, you may find that you are not so dexterous as you think. You need access to an oven.
Pros: 
Cups are needed in this coffee drinking country. You'll find a new hobby and you practice your dexterity.
Taggar: make your own, diy, cup, Christopher Hoshino
20 November 2010

#325 Make your own coffee table

Here's an awesome howto for making a coffee table out of a pallet! It's both functional and perty.

BONUS: How to make a wood deck with pallets

Required time: 
One day
Cost: 
Less than €50
Cons: 
Might turn out like crap
Pros: 
You make something new out of something old. Will most likely turn out awesome.
Taggar: table, pallet, howto, diy
20 November 2010

#325 Make your own coffee table

Here's an awesome howto for making a coffee table out of a pallet! It's both functional and perty.

BONUS: How to make a wood deck with pallets

Required time: 
One day
Cost: 
Less than €50
Cons: 
Might turn out like crap
Pros: 
You make something new out of something old. Will most likely turn out awesome.
Taggar: table, pallet, howto, diy
13 November 2010

#318 Make soap

Tyler Durden said, make soap. Nuff said.

Required time: 
Less than a day
Cost: 
Less than €50
Cons: 
Could get burned on the lye
Pros: 
You make something yourself plus it's so very Fight Club
Taggar: soap, howto, fight club, diy
9 November 2010

#318 Light doodle

Light doodling looks amazing and is with a little practice not that hard a all. Check out how to make custom lights for this purpose here and for more examples and howto:s look here.

Required time: 
Less than a day
Cost: 
Free if you have a camera and some sort of light source
Cons: 
None.
Pros: 
It kind of makes you feel like a clown, a hipster and a wizard at the same time.
Taggar: light doodling, howto, diy
23 October 2010

#297 Make your own all natural kitchen cleaner

Sonia C. is looking for life's silver lining. A goal that has recently inspired her to transform a rainstorm in her living room into a photographic experiment, the development of a few new skills, and bad haiku.

Why waste your money on toxic, eco unfriendly products when you can mix up your own miracle spray for pennies. This recipe yields one 500ml spray bottle of an easy to make, non-toxic, and very effective all purpose cleanser. This stuff is so good my mom's house-cleaner asked for the recipe, and it is the ultimate workhorse in my home.

Gather your ingredients. You will need:

2 cups water.

2 tablespoons vinegar. I use white vinegar, 5% acetic acid by volume. Vinegar has a high enough concentration of acid to allow it to kill most molds, mildews, and bacterias, making it a wonderful, all natural, and relatively gentle deodorizer and disinfectant. It is also a good degreaser and rust remover.

1/2 teaspoon dish soap. Soaps or detergents work equally well in this recipe. I use a liquid detergent as that is what I happen to have on hand, and I find it cuts through really greasy messes better.

1 teaspoon baking soda. You can find this stuff in the baking section of your local supermarket; it is often sold in a box with a cow or an arm holding a hammer pictured on it. Baking soda is mild base, and is one of the chemicals that causes the cleanser to fizz as it's being mixed.

A few drops of essential oil if you want extra germ killing ability or are just in the mood for a sweet-smelling kitchen (optional) . Many essential oils are stronger antibacterial elements than phenol (the chemical found in most store-bought sprays) and can give your spray a mighty punch. Some of the best germ killing essential oils are lavender, thyme, juniper, tea tree, rosemary, eucalyptus and clove.

 

Mix your ingredients. Pour the baking soda, soap and vinegar into your spray bottle and give it a stir. It's going to fizz up like crazy, so let it sit and calm down for a few minutes before moving on.

Fill your spray bottle to the top with water. After your solution has calmed down fill to the top with warm water and essential oil if desired. The minerals dissolve easier in warm water, but cold water will work as well in a pinch. Just be prepared to spend a few more seconds shaking the bottle.

Shake and spray. Cap the bottle and shake. Around my house this spray works miracles. It removes dirt, grime, and food from just about anything. For particularly stubborn messes, spray until the areas is wet and wait 5 minutes. The extra time gives the cleaner a chance to do its job. After waiting, just wipe the grime away with a clean rag.

 

This entry was taken from howtodothings.com

Required time: 
Less than an hour
Cost: 
Free
Cons: 
One less flashy corporate logo in your home.
Pros: 
You make something from scratch that's better than similar options in stores.
Taggar: howtodothings, howto, diy, cleaner
23 October 2010

#297 Make your own all natural kitchen cleaner

Sonia C. is looking for life's silver lining. A goal that has recently inspired her to transform a rainstorm in her living room into a photographic experiment, the development of a few new skills, and bad haiku.

Why waste your money on toxic, eco unfriendly products when you can mix up your own miracle spray for pennies. This recipe yields one 500ml spray bottle of an easy to make, non-toxic, and very effective all purpose cleanser. This stuff is so good my mom's house-cleaner asked for the recipe, and it is the ultimate workhorse in my home.

Gather your ingredients. You will need:

2 cups water.

2 tablespoons vinegar. I use white vinegar, 5% acetic acid by volume. Vinegar has a high enough concentration of acid to allow it to kill most molds, mildews, and bacterias, making it a wonderful, all natural, and relatively gentle deodorizer and disinfectant. It is also a good degreaser and rust remover.

1/2 teaspoon dish soap. Soaps or detergents work equally well in this recipe. I use a liquid detergent as that is what I happen to have on hand, and I find it cuts through really greasy messes better.

1 teaspoon baking soda. You can find this stuff in the baking section of your local supermarket; it is often sold in a box with a cow or an arm holding a hammer pictured on it. Baking soda is mild base, and is one of the chemicals that causes the cleanser to fizz as it's being mixed.

A few drops of essential oil if you want extra germ killing ability or are just in the mood for a sweet-smelling kitchen (optional) . Many essential oils are stronger antibacterial elements than phenol (the chemical found in most store-bought sprays) and can give your spray a mighty punch. Some of the best germ killing essential oils are lavender, thyme, juniper, tea tree, rosemary, eucalyptus and clove.

 

Mix your ingredients. Pour the baking soda, soap and vinegar into your spray bottle and give it a stir. It's going to fizz up like crazy, so let it sit and calm down for a few minutes before moving on.

Fill your spray bottle to the top with water. After your solution has calmed down fill to the top with warm water and essential oil if desired. The minerals dissolve easier in warm water, but cold water will work as well in a pinch. Just be prepared to spend a few more seconds shaking the bottle.

Shake and spray. Cap the bottle and shake. Around my house this spray works miracles. It removes dirt, grime, and food from just about anything. For particularly stubborn messes, spray until the areas is wet and wait 5 minutes. The extra time gives the cleaner a chance to do its job. After waiting, just wipe the grime away with a clean rag.

 

This entry was taken from howtodothings.com

Required time: 
Less than an hour
Cost: 
Free
Cons: 
One less flashy corporate logo in your home.
Pros: 
You make something from scratch that's better than similar options in stores.
Taggar: howtodothings.com, howto, diy, cleaner
19 April 2010

#111 Start your own religion

I wouldn't call myself a religious person. Never have been. Quite the opposite. My family left their homeland because of religion. My mother’s sister killed herself because of religious mechanisms. I have more stories than I can muster the strength to talk about. Simply put, I'm not Gods biggest fan. Not the Christian, the Jewish or the Muslim one. But I am not without faith. I have faith.

In the same way Apple don't have a monopoly on making music players, major religions don't have a monopoly on faith, morals or goodness. I have faith in people. Me and my non-religious friends have a very high sense of morals and an incredibly strong sense of right and wrong. That is why I would like to suggest the following.
•    Take all the things you like about your faith of choice. Right them down, make a list.
•    Take all the things you like from all the religions you feel have something to say. There might be something from Christianity, something from Buddhism and something from Islam that you can relate to. Make another list.
•    Now write down all the things you believe in that aren't part of any religion. Make a third list.
•    Decide that there can only be one follower. Meaning you. No more people can join.
•    Put all the lists together. If something doesn't fit, cross it off. If something's missing, add it.
There. You've started your very own belief system. If you feel that the god of your religion is superfluous, take her, him or it out of it. If you feel like it you can burn the manifesto to ashes and not have a religion at all. Or have it just sometimes. You decide.

Required time: 
30 minutes.
Cost: 
Pen and paper. And the cost of any accessories such as incense, veils or icons that you feel is paramount to your religion.
Cons: 
Other religious groups might get upset but so what. Some other religious group might declare war and try to get rid of you. Stand your ground.
Pros: 
You take charge and decide your own religious playing field and spiritual development. You get out of doing things you don't want do to and you don't have to be submissive to anyone else. Or if you want to be submissive and feel that is your cup of tea then you can add that to your manifesto.
Taggar: religion, dogma, diy
14 March 2010

#74 Bake bread

The secret to a good dough is moving your arms in nice big circles.

The secret to a good dough is moving your arms in nice big circles.

I hate and love white bread. It's not just food. White bread is a collective term for everything that initially gives you a sensation of fullness but where you’ll just be hungry again five minutes later. Watching bad sitcoms on TV is White Bread. Gulping down candy in the morning instead of a proper breakfast is White bread. To eat pizza five nights a week is White Bread. And that the happy pizzeria guys know your last name for a reason. The reason is called White Bread. I hate and love White Bread. I have been stuffing myself with it in front of the TV since I was two boxes high. But the other day I got home-baked bread for breakfast. A cold winter morning, wearing long johns and wool socks. The bread was the missing piece. It was whole grain variety with pieces of peach and whole walnuts in it. It was like a tiny little party in my mouth. Small people danced for joy over the baked bread. I know I exaggerate but that's my job. It'd be like being mad at a surgeon because she smiles when she cuts into your body.

Bonus: www.bakabrod.se

Required time: 
Between 1 and 2 hours. Then there are premium breads on a hardcore level, where you let the bread rise for one day. But start easy and finish hard. That’s how I operate. Cost: If you have the ingredients at home there will be no extra charge but expect a cost of about 2 euro per loaf.
Cost: 
If you have the ingredients at home there will be no extra charge but expect a cost of about 2 euro per loaf.
Cons: 
Sometimes the dough doesn’t rise properly. I made cinnamon buns once that were small as rabbit poo. I have them in the freezer, just in case. In case of what I have no idea.
Pros: 
You make it yourself. You know what you put inside you. It is cheaper. It is tastier. It smells good in the kitchen when you bake. The satisfaction that fills our hands like a high when they get to build something themselves. It’s built into our genes. We have creative souls and our hands know it. We shouldn’t just passively consume. We should build, bake, and wrestle.
Taggar: healthy, diy, bread, baking
2 February 2010

#34 Reuse something you have at home

Word.

Word.

 

I won’t pretend that I don’t like to buy things. I love to buy things. That is exactly what scares me; people who say they will go shopping. As if that in itself would be something to do. You don’t go shopping for the sake of it. You shop for a thing you need. I get a little dizzy as I write that sentence, so I have to sit down in my nice designer chair and drink a latte I’ve made myself with my latte machine at home in the kitchen that I’ve just renovated. Where was I? Right. I was talking about desires and the need to buy things. I love to buy things. That is exactly what scares me.

When I was five years so I wanted a microscope. I had seen a TV-show where a scientist studied insects in their lab. Since then, I was completely obsessed with the idea of becoming a scientist. In retrospect, I know that that wasn’t really the direction I was leaning towards, but that’s not the issue. The point is I wanted and longed for that microscope a whole year before I got it.

That’s not how it is today. Today if I want something I go online and I buy it. There’s no longing anymore. There’s no appreciation when buying things. It is more like eating potato chips on the couch. Each chip isn’t a sensation in itself, it's more like five minutes and POFF, suddenly the bag is empty. No appreciation.

I won’t say that I know exactly how build up for the next paragraph, but I think you get the jist from the introduction. The idea is that you should feel eager to do something yourselves.

My mother used to always use old ragged T-shirts as rags. She tore them to pieces and used to clean the bathroom, kitchen or other rooms in the apartment.

My friend is a photographer and needed a good photo bag for his new medium-format camera. He took a regular backpack and sewed it to fit his needs.

 

Wine bottles can become candleholders. 
PET-bottles can become piggy banks. 
Old toilet rolls can become pea shooters. 
Curtains can become cloth bags. 
Ice cream containers can become lunch boxes. 
Ill-fitting old dresses can become stylish tops.

 

Required time: 
15 minutes to 2 hours.
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
None.
Pros: 
You have to think hard and find alternative solutions. It allows you ultimately become more creative as a person and a great problem solver. Check out MacGyver escape from an exploding locked room with only a paperclip and a pine cone! You also save money and are being kind to the environment.
Taggar: reuse, recycling, diy