DIY Life

I'll be the first to admit it: I don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen part of my trailer. It has too many windows, too many drawers, and the smell of vinyl wainscoting gives me a headache something fierce! When the wives go out of town, however, I'm oftentimes forced to enter their unholy realm of sausage and flour; and it's during these rare forays into the forsaken principality of pizza rolls that I sometimes stumble upon a fantastic, culinary DIY project.

For instance, did you know you can make lasagna in your dishwasher? It's true. Apparently all you have to do is throw a bunch of ingredients into a foil-wrapped pod and toss it in with your dirty beer koozies. Set that sucker for two hours of steamy, soapy action, and you'll have a festering pile of delicious Italian goodness that will rival anything you've ever tasted from the Olive Garden... or even Fazoli's, for that matter!

Now, if you're like me, dishwasher lasagna might not come to you as quite a surprise. Hell, I've been eating dishwasher medley on a bed of crispy ramen noodles since I was knee high to a grasshopper! And that was back in the days before we even had dishwashers! Back then, mother would just slop all the leftovers together, add a mouth-watering burst of Easy Cheese, stir to a mashed-potato-esque consistency, and we'd be set for the next couple weeks. But I digress.

In case you missed our announcement on Monday, DIY Life is currently looking for new writers. If you or someone you know is interested in writing for our little website (and getting paid for it), feel free to drop us a line.

In other news, we're less than a week away from T-Day... can you believe that?! It seemed like Halloween was only last week! Before you know it, it'll be Christmas, then 2008 will roll around, then Valentine's Day will be here, then it will time to gear up for the 2009 holiday season, then the US will celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and then I'll be dead.

Sheesh. Maybe we should slow down a bit and take some time to stop and smell the roses. To that end, here are some of our favorite posts from the last week... in case you missed them on the first go-round:

• Gary demonstrated how to stop potential cold air leaks by insulating your home's electrical outlets.
• Francesca treated herself to a DIY body scrub, then turned around and showed us how to deep fry a turkey!
• Diane illustrated how to turn a curved (overly phallic) banana squash into the Mayflower.
• Farrah pointed out ten great resources for homemade holiday ornaments.
• M.E. provided us with an amazingly detailed list of the best free crochet and knitting patterns.

Here are DIY Life's top three most viewed stories for the past week (I think the secret is to start the title with a number):

1. 20 cool ways to reuse old pantyhose
2. 10 Handmade holiday ornaments to deck your halls
3. 10 handy uses for coffee filters

And a final reminder: since winter-like weather has been slow in coming to most parts of the US, there's still time to winterize your roses. M.E. shows you how.

What new and exciting things will we learn next week? Only time, and your continued readership, will tell.

Today on Unclutterer, they featured a fantastic conceptual design from Boiler that transforms your floorboard into a miniature picket fence, creating a perfect place to store all those ugly, hanging wires.

From the site: The Picket Fence adapts to older homes and cleanly manages the electrical necessities of the occupants. The baseboards have a certain thickness to them, typically much thicker than an electrical cord. By sticking these pickets onto the baseboard, a space is created between the wall and the picket points. This space serves as a track for routing all of the wires cleanly around the room. They can go wherever they like and double back as much as they need to, all concealed behind a picket fence. Because of the gaps between the individual pickets, a plug can jump out wherever it is needed.

What a clean and interesting way to hide wire clutter! This could easily be turned into a DIY weekend project with little more than an Exacto knife, durable foamcore, and some double-sided taped. Give it a try and let us know how it turns out!

Attention all DIYers! Your favorite DIY blog (that would be us, I hope) is currently looking for fresh-faced, talented writers to help us expand our dominance in the do-it-yourself universe. We've only been around for a little over three months, but our readership has grown so quickly that it's time to start exploring new and interesting DIY topics to help us sustain our growth.

We've tried to cover nearly every corner of the DIY world at one time or another, but haven't been able to give full-time focus to certain niche topics, such as:

• Woodworking
• Home repair / remodeling
• Automotive repair / restoration
• Landscaping
• Electronics / gadgets / hacks and mods

If you have a special knowledge in one or more of these areas, and would like to earn a few extra bucks by writing about them, we'd love to hear from you. Continue reading to find out more.

Now that Halloween is over, we've focused our DIY holiday spirit on the next big celebration of the year: Thanksgiving! In my book, the more a holiday focuses on food, the better. I can't wait to read all the turkey-related articles over the next few weeks.

Mmmm. Turkey-related articles.

Now, in case you missed them, here's a quick look at some of our favorite posts from the last week:

• Speaking of turkey -- Mmmm, garbage can turkey.
• Have lots of candy corn left over from Halloween? Turn it into cookies!
• M.E. published the longest DIY article EVER!
• Does your vacuum cleaner suck? If not, read this.
• Dude, where's my drawstring?!
• Mmmm, make your own candy bars.
• Does your bathroom vanity suck? If so, install a new one!
• What time is it? Time to build a new clock!

And in case you were wondering, this week's most popular stories were "How to clean vinyl siding" and "Disney's Haunted Mansion: 999 Crafty Haunts."

What new and exciting things will we learn next week? Only time, and your continued readership, will tell.

This post was supposed to go live on Friday, but I've been having internet problems all weekend, so here it is... finally... on a Monday. For those of you who had continual internet connectivity over the last week, here's a list of some of the best posts you might've missed on the first go-around:

• Did the stink from "How to de-stinkify your shoes" get used in "Making the ultimate stink bomb?"
• You can't go wrong with DIY car shampoo on a shoestring
• Rasterbator: It might sound dirty, but it's not.
• Let's hear it for my favorite all-around tool: the vise-grip!
• Make a banjo. Devilishly simple... just like the banjo player from DELIVERANCE!
• Cardboard furniture? Awesome!
• Return of Punk-man... despite what you might think, this post isn't about Iggy Pop.
• Jawa jive: build your own Star Wars Jawa. Wootinee!
• 16 basic products (and tools) you need to clean everything in your house

Most commented posts:

1. How to de-stinkify your shoes
2. 16 basic products (and tools) you need to clean everything in your house
3. Head in a jar

Most viewed posts:

1. Make your own fairy wings
2. How to figure out a combination lock in 12 seconds
3. How to make a charred corpse

What new and exciting things will we learn next week? Only time, and your continued readership, will tell.

The beginning of this week saw the first annual Blog Action Day, which DIY Life proudly participated in with a slew of our own green DIY posts. Along with staying green, we've been continuing our barrage of Halloween-themed DIY projects to help you get the most out of the spookiest day of the year -- we even went so far as to create a special Halloween page to collect all of our sweet DIY tricks and treats! AWESOME!

And in case you missed them, here's a quick rundown of some of our favorite posts from the last week:

• Toilet repair: get a royal flush the DIY-way
• Pet mishap marinade: using vinegar to remove stubborn odors
• Give your office chair a makeover
• DIY spa teatment - Face mask
• Remember to re-register for the do not call list
• Glowing resin Green Lantern ring

This week's top three most viewed articles were:

1. Pet mishap marinade: using vinegar to remove stubborn odors
2. DIY Definitions: Furoshiki - multi-use wrapping cloths
3. Multiplying the value of high efficiency light bulbs

What new and exciting things will we learn next week? Only time, and your continued readership, will tell.

Today, October 15, 2007, thousands of blogs across the blogosphere will join together under the banner of environmental-friendliness for the inaugural Blog Action Day. Keeping with the idea of green-centric posting, DIY Life will be publishing several articles devoted to helping you help the environment in a do-it-yourself kind of way, which, in our opinion, is the best "kind of way" around.

In case you've missed them in the past, here are 25 previous DIY Life articles that fit the bill for today's posting pattern: