Learn how to twist a lemon peel or fire up an orange for the perfect summer drink garnish.
Photo by Divine in the Daily. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Visit http://how2heroes.com/videos/beverages/citrus-garnishes for a video how-to. It features a detailed guide to get a perfectly curled peel and an easy way to do multiple twists at once. Dress up all the drinks at a summer get-together or make yourself smile at home.
-Taniesha Robinson
Sun catchers make great summer window treatments and fun crafts for kids that you won’t mind displaying in your home. You can get elaborate with this craft using stain glass or adding chimes, but for an easier way to catch the sun, grab a few CDs and string. Use a few old CDs that skip on your favorite parts – it’s time to upgrade to digital MP3s anyway – or find some in your junk mail.
The sleek shine and circular design of CDs provide a luminous, modern finishing touch to your window. Also, because they’re reflective, they’ll complement any room’s color scheme. You can even add a little paint for accents to further match the space. Here’s a link to a step-by-step guide for making a CD sun catcher from eHow.com.
Photo by Eternal*Voyageur. Licensed under Creative Commons.
A recycled-CD sun catcher is a great green design idea for any window at home, but for methods on creating sun catchers visit http://crafts.kaboose.com/how-to-make-suncatchers.html and http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/stainedglasssu_saih.htm
- Taniesha Robinson
Last year, I took an English class that centered around this equation: space + value = place. And boy, did I learn about the art and science of Feng Shui experiment.
Space
The space of my apartment is structured somewhat like a small studio, as in for one person or for a couple who doesn’t mind keeping close. It is oddly angled. The walls and the ceiling seem to be in some type of tension that makes the walls seem slanted. Then again, they could actually just be slanted.
Value
I have a roommate who is also a writer. We both have too many books, scattered Post-it notes, old magazines, and more receipts and napkins scribbled with our furious writing all over the apartment. We like to save our money on low rent. We also both knew that the apartment would be small, but when we both moved in we didn’t remember it being this small.
So as we are moving our beds so we can still manage to get inside the bathroom, I shake my head multiple times at every arrangement. In one arrangement, one of our beds ends up blocking the entrance to our room (um, no door) or the bathroom. Another arrangement, one bed is too close to the radiator and blocks off the closet. My roommate and I push our beds around like Tetris blocks when she decides we should make an “L” shape with our beds.
“What’s wrong with this?” my roommate asks.
“It’s not Feng Shui,” I say, ignoring her exasperated-dagger-throwing look.
There’s always a time when friends, especially roommates, find out things they never expected to know. For me, I never knew how much my roommate liked her stuff monogrammed – her stationary, her towels, her bathrobe and her apron. And she never knew I was “into Feng Shui.” She also didn’t know that I promised my mom that I would try to use Feng Shui in my apartment, who is visiting this weekend.
So faced with the task of just fitting all our stuff into our apartment, my roommate (grudgingly) and I are also going to arrange out apartment with the principles of Feng Shui.
Making a Place
I would not say that I’m “into Feng Shui” and I don’t know much on the subject, but I grew up with my mom arranging our house using Feng Shui techniques that she learned while growing up in South Korea. At home, I am mostly unaware that our house was arranged with any set of rules or requirements, but I know how practical the arrangement is. Our furniture is set up with multiple points of access and there are no sharp corners to bump up against. It’s also very clean.
Feng Shui literally means “wind” and “water.” It’s an ancient Chinese practice that looks how people react to their environment and how the environment impacts the people who live and work in that area. Remember, space + value = place? Well, Feng Shui principles are also based on calculations… only ten times more complicated. Feng Shui involves rules of aesthetics equated from the astronomy and geography, or more abstractly using the laws of both heaven and earth, to improve one’s life and maximize one’s chi.
It’s an eclectic term and it’s a lot of information based on 1,000 or more years of history and practice, but really it has to do with being in balance and harmony in a space that you occupy. Feng Shui has been shrouded in a lot of skepticism and superstition, but from my experience so far I think it’s simply practical.
So in respect to my mother and to the practice of Feng Shui, I have enlisted the help of Feng Shui consultant Reiko Gomez in order to correctly Feng Shui my apartment. Owner and founder of Reiko Feng Shui Interior Design, Gomez uses her knowledge of Feng Shui and background of design in personal consultations, both online and in person, to help put this ancient practice back in style with a modern sense.
Following the tips from my consultation, here is how I used Feng Shui in my apartment:
1. Clutter Free: After many trips to the dumpster, my apartment is cleaner and feels bigger. My roommate and I designated a bookshelf with some storage to hold all our books, notebooks, journals and other precious pieces of paper in we couldn’t bear to throw away.
2. Clear the Door: The front door is very important in Feng Shui, Gomez calls it the “mouth of the chi” where energy activates and enters a room. I bought a shoe rack that kept us from kicking our shoes all over the floor and from blocking our chi.
3. South Ward: Arranged my bed so the crown of my head faces south. Through my consultation, Gomez said it was the best direction for me to sleep.
4. Major Storage: After investing in some shelves and some canvas bins, it easy to store things away and to keep clutter at bay by freeing up floor space. My small armoire was perfect in style and in space.
5. Color Add-ins: In order to enhance certain elements (fire, earth, metal and water), I added colors in small accents. We put a blue poster in the bathroom to enhance the water element. To enhance the earth element in our bedroom, we bought a potted plant that hasn’t died…yet.
My consultation with Gomez was very detailed and she offered plenty of advice with both Feng Shui and design, but these are just the basic changes I made due to my budget and time. And while it hasn’t been that long for me to tell you that I’ve felt my life change, I can tell you that I feel more organized and it didn’t really hurt, besides a couple of dirty looks from my roommate, to give Feng Shui a try.
- Nina Yun
Armed with a sewing machine and some fabric, Margo Witzel reveals her ABCs of made-to-order manufacturing.
Witzel, a baker with the Web-based specialty cakes company Edith+Ethel, began her love affair with the apron when she started culinary school a few years ago in Chicago – and she hasn’t slowed down since.
Here’s her best apron recipe:
1. Take an apron you already have and the new fabrics you are using, fold vertically.
2. Trace and cut.
3. For contrasting fabric style, repeat steps and then sew both pieces together.
And here’s a cute apron from Jessie Steele!
-Kate Sullivan