DIY Life

Playing Santa is a huge privilege and a huge responsibility. Done well, you could make a child believe in magic and become part of their fondest memories. Done poorly, you could shatter a childhood, and scare them for life.

If you've been invited to play Santa, there are some important tricks of the trade. This clever video from the ministry of fun gives you a schooling in Santa impersonation. Here are the 7 skills to master.

• Jolly demeanor, quick thinking, Spirit
• HO HO HO
  
• Work with your eyes
• Be welcoming
• Don't disappoint
• Field difficult questions
• Do your research
• Know what's hip
  

While Santa is busy with his Christmas preparations at the North Pole, he'll need competent helpers. If you are one of the lucky ones doing the job this year, spend some time mastering that HO HO HO, expressing with your eyes and learning about the trendy toys. You'll bring magic to the children and have a great time too!

Home improvement shows always seem to make every project look like a breeze -- if they didn't, the average person wouldn't feel inclined to get up off the couch, fetch a drill, and start improving their home. For many of us the reality of these efforts is more akin to the video above than the after pictures from many of the shows. I love the way this duo continues to valiantly staple away at the ceiling until the very last moment when the water becomes too heavy and the sky literally rains down upon them. This is often the sort of a result I get when attempting anything bigger than the most basic of repairs.

Editor's Note: You might want to turn your speakers down, because some of their language is NSFW!

Have you ever sat around wondering just what exactly to do with 50 or so odd feet of rope? It can be a cumbersome bundle and get tangled up, leaving it a knotty mess and pretty much useless. If you happen to be on the go and needing to take that length of rope with you, it might be difficult to pack it in to a bag. Dragging the entire length behind you is out of the question for so many reasons, it could get caught on just about anything from a stroller to a herd of cows.

So if you are needing to grab some rope and make an outing, this is likely one of the best videos you could watch. Within just about a minute you can be coiling up the rope into something akin to a rope backpack where it can nestle between your shoulder blades in neat bundle of length, ready and waiting to be untied for adventures galore. The whole procedure looked a bit complicated to me, but then I don't have any uses for rope other than to herd my children and keep them still.

This Halloween trick is sure to terrify your friends and have you go down in history with the best prank of the year. Elaborate makeup with fake wounds and oozing blood are staples of gruesome Halloween costumes, but what about blood that appears without any wound at all? Imagine that you saw somebody get cut with a knife, and blood starts seeping from where the fresh wound. You'd be pretty freaked out, just like your friends will be when you pull this one on them.

This video shows you how to create the two solutions necessary for this trick. The first solution, a Potassium thiocyante formula gets poured onto your body in the place where you want the blood to appear. You then dip the knife in the second solution, a Ferric Nitrate formula. Use the blunt end of the knife (or better yet, get a prop knife to avoid any mistakes) and pretend to slice on the same spot that you applied the Potassium. The result: a stream of realistic looking blood as the knife is pulled down the skin. Check out the video, you'll be shocked at how convincing this one is.

Every little girl wants to be a princess. Not every little girl is born into a royal family though, so she just has to dream. Now, thanks to this video that woman that has not given up the dream of being a princess can learn how to become one. Since I am posting this for all to see you may need to pick a different prince to try this out on but I would think that it would still work.

Just be cautious, this could backfire if not used with caution, and please don't blame me if you get arrested for stalking. (Yes, I know that this is and I am full of it)

Are you one of the millions who tosses away a good portion of the day sitting in traffic and wasting inordinate amounts of time during the process? Welcome to the club, as recent reports state the average San Jose citizen wastes up to 54 hours per year just sitting in traffic. I think the total is easily more than that, and if you've driven in Silicon Valley traffic before, you're probably inclined to agree with me. In other areas, the figures range from 20 hours to 70 hours per year. Bleh!

Hey, we're not yet to the point in the future where flying cars ala' The Fifth Element have arrived, so what is the solution? If you're into cheating the system, how about a way to gain access to all the green traffic lights that you can? If you're into reducing the number of stops your lane of traffic has and you drive a smaller car, truck, scooter or motorcycle, listen up.

For about $6 or so, you can probably score some 3M exterior mounting tape and a pair of small neodymium magnets. With those two items, you'll fool most current traffic stop induction systems into thinking that Scion is a Ford Expedition -- and with that disguise, you'll gain access to much faster green lights. I'm trying this one soon after a short trip to the nearest Home Depot. Get the dibs using the below video. (NOTE: This may be illegal where you live! We provide this info for edutainment purposes only)

Ice, you use it every day. It cools your drinks, soothes swollen ankles, keeps your lunch cold, is good for crunching and, oh, so much more. Ice is so common in fact that I bet you don't think about it much at all except for when your drink is warm. Even then it more of a where can I find some thing than, "How can I make this look better."

One person did think about that though and in this video they show us how. Filtered water and a way to boil it is all you need to make crystal clear ice. You may ask why you would need clear ice. I can think of a few occasions, dinner parties, bridal showers, garden luncheons, and any other "fancy" party. Check out the video below and see how to make the wonder that is clear ice.