DIY Life

By Ilona Peltz

That decorative bowl of fruit on the end of the table has suddenly become a haven to a horde of ravenous fruit flies. You get rid of the over-ripe fruit that attracted them, you clean down the area, but you still have the little wretches. You can swat them, but wouldn't it be fun to trap them?

The people at Chow.com have a great tip for making a fruit fly trap, which involves a small dish of wine, a sploosh of water, and a drop of soap, stirred up with a finger. It would take about 10 seconds to put together.

One of the commenters suggests putting plastic wrap over the surface of the bowl, and making pin pricks in it -- apparently the flies can get in the holes, but are too stupid to get out again.

In fact, once you've watched the video, read the comments. There are a few more very creative fruit fly trap ideas there, too!

By Debra McDuffee

You've done it again. After writing your long letter to Aunt Martha -- on your homemade fabric flower cards, perhaps -- you've sealed the envelope, only to realize that you've forgotten to include little Harry's latest school photo.

You could either rip open the envelope, pop in the picture, and tape it closed, or you could try a sneaky way to open the envelope -- an undetectable way.

There's always steaming open the envelope, TV detective Veronica Mars' method of choice. This is wet and messy, though, so you may want to try putting the envelope in the freezer instead. Just a few hours in the zero -- or subzero -- environment, and the envelope should open on its own. You can reseal it after you put in Junior's picture.

I hope you aren't getting any illegal ideas, now that you're an expert at this....

Duct tape has to be among the handiest fix-it tools around. That big, fat roll of tape sure is bulky, though. Consider stowing just a small amount in your pocket, bag, or glove compartment. That way you'll always have some tape on hand, and there'll be no more riffling through the garage searching for the main roll of tape.

Here's how Lifehacker's Brad Isaac made his own pocket-sized duct tape dispenser from a drinking straw. You will need a roll of duct tape, a drinking straw, and a pair of scissors. Carefully wind a length of duct tape around and around the straw, then cut the excess straw on either side. Voila! You have a decent amount of duct tape that slips into your pocket for those unexpected little repair jobs around the house, car, at work, or camping out.

[via Lifehacker]

I have a very busy house. Two teens in full-time residence, three teens in part-time residence, five toddlers here during working hours. And one very patient husband. (There are still more offspring, as it happens. They're just old enough to live elsewhere.)

It's also a very small house, particularly for the number of people. Oh, and an old house, so that not every bedroom has a closet, and there is really no front hall to speak of, and certainly no front hall closet. I think I have now established my clutter and cleaning challenges, no?

You reach for the jar of salsa. A dollop of that on each plate, and dinner's done! Except that the jar is still sealed, or perhaps is just stuck, and you can't get it to open.

There are a few things you can try. First on the list is the ever-popular "give it a whack" strategy.

That gentle tap shown in the video is a far cry from my version. In our home, we deliver a series of lusty wallops around the edge of the lid with the handle end of a sturdy butter knife.

That decorative bowl of fruit on the end of the table has suddenly become a haven to a horde of ravenous fruit flies. You get rid of the over-ripe fruit that attracted them, you clean down the area, but you still have the little wretches. You can swat them, but wouldn't it be fun to trap them?

The people at Chow.com have a great tip for making a fruit fly trap, which involves a small dish of wine, a sploosh of water, and a drop of soap, stirred up with a finger. It would take about 10 seconds to put together.

One of the commenters suggests putting plastic wrap over the surface of the bowl, and making pin pricks in it -- apparently the flies can get in the holes, but are too stupid to get out again.

In fact, once you've watched the video, read the comments. There are a few more very creative fruit fly trap ideas there, too!

In my humble opinion, upholstered furniture looks better without the anchoring wall of fabric known as the skirt. More often than not, skirts are cut and hemmed too short anyway. Unless the legs are downright hideous, their presence adds an element which becomes a part of the overall design, rather than something attached to it.

Complete removal of a skirt can get tricky, but ReadyMade happened across a chair update project on The Brick House blog that opens up all sorts of vintage chair possibilities.

The blogger transformed this unimpressive gold 1970s chair into a retro gem by altering the skirt in order to show off those modern legs. Find out more after the break.

Nothing perturbs me more than sitting in a chair and wobbling back and forth because the chair legs need fixing. I get perturbed because once again I spent my money on something cheap, or someone else did, and they just like to be annoying by rocking back and forth.

Over at the Indianapolis Star, our own extremely talented Shelly Leer learned how to fix annoying chair wobbles when a furniture builder showed her how to apply wood glue to the chair using a turkey basting syringe. Genius!

There's a little more to it: please join me after the break to learn how it's done.