Articles tagged “Do It Yourself”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Why Homebrewed Beer Is Green By Sami Grover IN Food & Health Jul 24 2009 I've recently revived my interest in homebrewed beer. After some spectacularly unsuccessful attempts as a teenager (OK, I started young...), I must admit that I had resigned to buying my beer from the store. But inspired by Sara's tips on homebrewing beer, and Brian's homemade hard cider recipe, I decided it was time I got into my own homemade alcohol again. + READ MORE

Harvesting the Urban Forest: The Value and Drawbacks of Using Backyard Wood By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 24 2009 Steve Thomas is the host of Planet Green's Renovation Nation, a program that focuses on making green renovations to homes across the country.He wanted to utilize ash and red oak from his own acreage and it was about 2.5 times more expensive to use his own wood that it was to buy wood. + READ MORE

The Week's Best DIY Projects, July 10-16: Bathing Suits, Lip Balm, and More By Blythe Copeland IN Home & Garden Jul 20 2009 We know you want to live a more DIY life?it's just that you don't have the time to weed through the hundreds of projects, directions, and ideas that crowd the internet every week. But don't worry: we have the time. Every week we bring you the best do-it-yourself plans we've seen over the last week, so you can spend your time doing projects instead of just searching for them. + READ MORE

How to Use a Solar Cooker: Solar Cooked Pork & Grapes By Sami Grover IN Tech & Transport Jul 17 2009 For a relative newbie to solar cooking, it seems my post on How to Use a Solar Cooker has definitely garnered some attention. In fact, reader Copeland Casati, part of the team behind Green Modern Kits prefab homes, liked our thinking so much that she wrote in to alert us to her own experiments with solar cookers. + READ MORE

Sites We Love: Get Crafty with CraftingAGreenWorld.com By Cara Smusiak, NaturallySavvy.com IN Home & Garden Jul 17 2009 Are you a crafter with environmental sensibilities? Want to see what other eco crafters are cooking up? Check out CraftingAGreenWorld.com. You'll find instructions, advice and hilarious stories about things gone wrong. There are interviews with crafters, posts on craftivism, and reviews of some pretty amazing crafting, cycling and recycling books. + READ MORE

The Week's Best DIY Projects: Pet Tags, Vertical Gardens, and Easy Solar Panels By Blythe Copeland IN Home & Garden Jul 17 2009 We know you want to live a more DIY life—it's just that you don't have the time to weed through the hundreds of projects, directions, and ideas that crowd the internet every week. But don't worry: we have the time. Every week we bring you the best do-it-yourself plans we've seen over the last week, so you can spend your time doing projects instead of just searching for them. + READ MORE

Make Your Own Bike Basket for Easy Riding By Blythe Copeland IN Tech & Transport Jul 17 2009 Summer is the perfect season for bike riding—the weather is consistent, the breeze is welcome, and it feels like you have just enough extra time for that slow ride down to the grocery store, post office, pharmacy, or bagel shop. But there are some goods that just don't transport easily in a messenger—for me, it's a cup of coffee from my favorite convenience store; for you, maybe it's a six-pack, an Italian ice, or a cake from your neighborhood bakery. In these situations, you need a basket—it will make your two-wheeled transport more useful and efficient, even after summer is over. + READ MORE

Renovation Nation Episode: Baton Rouge, LA—Carport on a Dime By Team Planet Green IN Renovation Nation Episodes Jul 16 2009 Steve Thomas shows a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, architect how to build a carport on a dime. To keep the project green, and relatively cheap, they use salvaged building materials. Later, they greenovate the inside of the house by installing window... + READ MORE

Cookies: The New Dashboard Jesus? By Jessica Root IN Food & Health Jul 14 2009 Slide aside your dashboard Jesus to bake these choco-chip bad boys solar-style--on the dashboard of your car! + READ MORE

Keep Your Chicken Coop Simple (Video) By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 14 2009 I think the idea of raising chickens is really cool.Even though building a chicken coop may look simple, it can be very complicated. + READ MORE

12 Junk Drawer Gadget and Doodad Projects By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Home & Garden Jul 13 2009 Have you noticed that your junk drawer is filling up and you're not quite sure if you should bite the bullet and start organizing? You might be tempted to toss much of what's in there. But that overflow of "junk" actually holds a lot of possibility for some cool weekend projects. You may not know it, but you likely have in that drawer everything you need to build unexpected gadgets or craft some handy household items that are anything but junk! + READ MORE

The Week's Best DIY Projects, June 26-July 2: A $10 Wedding Dress and Lego Security By Blythe Copeland IN Home & Garden Jul 7 2009 We know you want to live a more DIY life?it's just that you don't have the time to weed through the hundreds of projects, directions, and ideas that crowd the internet every week. But don't worry: we have the time. Every week we bring you the best do-it-yourself plans we've seen over the last week, so you can spend your time doing projects instead of just searching for them. + READ MORE

Mini Blinds are Boring—Craft Them into Chic Fabric Shades By Jessica Root IN Home & Garden Jul 6 2009 If you?re like me, you?ve made the mistake of skipping the beautiful bamboo and woven wood shades for cheap-y, plastic mind blinds for one reason only: their unbeatable cost. Ever since, you?ve dwelled in regret but don?t just mope about it. Turn them into beautiful Roman Shades + READ MORE

Think It's Too Late for a Garden? You're Wrong By Blythe Copeland IN Home & Garden Jul 2 2009 The die-hard gardeners among us—you know, like your neighbors who spend all winter browsing seed catalogues, studying the almanac, perfecting their compost pile, and drawing diagrams of their plot?are already seeing their planning pay off with an early-summer bounty of asparagus, zucchini, tomatoes, and greens. But if you?re just deciding now that you want to try your green thumb at planting, it?s not too late: putting hardier vegetables in the ground means you?ll be enjoying the fruits of your labor into September?or at least until the first frost, depending on the climate where you live + READ MORE

DIY Drawstring Bag for Camp Gear By Cara Smusiak, NaturallySavvy.com IN Travel & Outdoors Jul 2 2009 Summer is the season of camp. If your kids are headed off to sleep-away camp in the next couple of months, then you probably have a long list of things they need to pack, with a bunch of little things rolling all over the place. Fretting over a way to keep the cutlery, plate, bowl and cup together? Want to keep the bathing suit, goggles and sun screen together? + READ MORE

Peru Planted 512,820 Trees a Day for 3 Months—Try Planting One By Brian Merchant IN Travel & Outdoors Jul 2 2009 In an encouraging effort to create a massive carbon sink, Peru embarked on a mission to plant 40,000,000 trees in three months—and yes, that's the correct number of zeros there. It amounts to over 500,000 trees planted a day, and an estimated 570,000 metric tons of carbon captured each year. + READ MORE

Sew Like the Pros with These Easy Patterns By Blythe Copeland IN Fashion & Beauty Jul 2 2009 We love Etsy for the one-of-a-kind, handmade gifts and items that the member artists sell—but if you prefer giving handmade gifts that you personally, well, made by hand, try these irresistible patterns you can purchase from the site.Strawberry Truffle Tea party set It's always tea time with this crocheted tea... + READ MORE

Reuse Those Plastic Cups As Earrings By Elizabeth Seward IN Fashion & Beauty Jul 1 2009 BBQ parties are part of summer. They're especially part of 4th of July celebrations. But with every celebration like this, plastic cups are left throughout the house, waiting to be recycled or reused the next day. + READ MORE

Turn an Altoids Tin into Some Pocket-Sized, Travel Fun By Jessica Root IN Travel & Outdoors Jul 1 2009 Here?s another one to add to the long list of Altoid Tin reuse ideas. It?s a DIY Portable Travel Game set. Super cute and super fun for camping trips, sleep away camp or simply those times when sugared-up little Susie and Tom get antsy and anxious (read: hyper) during long eco-travel trips. + READ MORE

Make a Patriotic Star Necklace from Old Magazines By Elizabeth Seward IN Fashion & Beauty Jul 1 2009 Taking pride in being American is totally cool these days. Tomorrow is our first 4th of July with this new history-making president and I think we should all be proud and eager to celebrate. Reusing or paper can yield this fun star necklace for your weekend celebrations. + READ MORE