DIY Life

You're so close to walking down the aisle... only a few finishing touches on your DIY wedding, and you'll be ready for the big day. You've made your invitations, your bouquet, and your centerpieces, but have you thought about your favors yet?

Back when I got married, in an attempt to keep my wedding super-simple, we bought personalized votive candles and stuck them on the tables. Pretty much done, but looking back, I could have done something nearly as easy that:

• showed our personality more as a couple
• had a creative touch
• fit the theme of our wedding
• really said "thank you" to our guests.

If I could do it all over again, I'd choose one of these three favors.

Hmm. What to do with all this unwanted electronic stuff? Let's see: an old computer mouse that no one uses anymore, all the parts from a dead power source, an old power cord, two cds, and a fan cable. Hate to just throw it away... What a waste... (Thoughtfully rubbing chin.)

Well, Flickr member Random42 had all this stuff and he knew just what to do with it: create a Geek Wreath! He says it was inspired by the Geek Wreath featured at Boing Boing. Says the Boing Boing caption for that wreath: "The Geek Wreath is a simple and powerful idea: take a strand of lights and weave it around a wreath of all the goddamned power cables, spare USB cables, obsolete SCSI cables and whatever else you've got cluttering up your home." Awesome!

Now that wreath is fab, but I'm liking Random42's wreath just a tad more. It's a little more festive looking and has a few creative artful touches. Like that old computer mouse. Yep. It's all you could want in a Christmas decoration. It's where geek-thinking meets those traditional Christmas staples: electric lights, wreaths, and whimsy. Nothing goes to waste in this festive creation!

CDs are wonderful things. Beyond providing 800 MB worth of storage for your growing lolcatz picture archive, they can also be used to make gaudy desk organizers, tacky Christmas ornaments, and, of course, flimsy wind chimes. Let's face it, the majority of used CD projects are pretty lame (said while placing coffee cup on an old AOL disc), which is why I was so surprised when I found two that were actually pretty cool.

The first tutorial uses old CDs and a 6" fluorescent bulb to create a really cool lamp. Now, I know you're probably thinking to yourself, "why would I want a lamp made out of CDs?" And to that I say, "I don't know." Typically lamps are used to provide light, but I'm not sure how much usable light this little guy's going to spit out. Even still, there's something eerily calming about the light it gives out -- kind of like a futuristic lava lamp, but without the lava. You'll probably need about 60 or 70 CDs for this project, so if you start saving AOL discs now, you should have enough by Tuesday of next week (*rim shot*).