In December, I wrote a post about this comforter from Target that had developed a few snags in it. I covered one of the snags with this applique: … and then I set it aside and did nothing about the other snags until summer came. On this snag — — I sewed a four-point star sewn from four kite-shaped pieces. I … Read more
It’s that time of year again, when consumer goods grow on the curb and around dumpsters as if by magic, all sitting there just ripe for the picking. In other words: the leases downtown are almost up, university students suddenly realize they have no desire to move all their crap with them, and they end up throwing perfectly good stuff out as trash: … Read more
There is no happier cat than one who is curled up in a little box. OK, well, one that is killing a spider might be equally happy, but that’s not as cute. This wooden box is a drawer I’ve had since I was in college. I got it when the school threw out a bunch of old furniture from the dorms. … Read more
There are lots of recipes out there for vegetable stock and broth, but I tend not to follow any of them. It seems a shame to take vegetables at their peak and cook the dickens out of them, then throw them away. I prefer to make stock from vegetable scraps, instead. Whenever I prepare fresh veggies, I put the peelings … Read more
To make this journal, I used things that would otherwise have been thrown away (or actually had been thrown away): the paperboard cover from a broken binder notebook odd-sized old-school computer paper with perforated edges that I found in a dumpster fabric from an upholstery sample book (the kind that fabric stores throw out on a regular basis) binder screws … Read more
Earlier this week I was in my office typing, and as often happens when I do this in the winter, my hands felt stiff and cold. I often wear regular hand braces when typing, which doesn’t have much effect on my hands’ warmth, but I remembered seeing fancier wrist supports on Amazon that offer compression, so I looked them up. The … Read more
A few weeks ago my friend Tania messaged me that her husband had gone rogue while she was out of the house and covered the living room windows with bubble wrap. She attached this photo: I snickered and asked her if this was his idea of Christmas decorating. Nope, she said. He’d read on the Internet that bubble wrap is … Read more
MAKE and Instructables are treasure troves of awesome ideas, although some are more involved than others. This particular lightbox for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is pretty simple and can be made with spare and scrap parts, depending on what you and your friends have lying around the house/workshop. If you are using your light therapy box for seasonal affective disorder, check … Read more
I picked up this wonderfully soft cashmere sweater by Banana Republic last fall while going through the piles of stuff that local university students throw out when they move to new apartments. Besides being extravagantly comfortable, it is scandalously low cut. Maybe that’s why the previous owner threw it out. I decided to create a less revealing neck line by taking in … Read more
