DIY Life

Join me each week as I explore the naturally aromatic side of DIY. Helpful recipes for your "scentual" pleasure: from essential oils, herbs, and other botanicals to soap-making, body care products, and other useful blends.

There's nothing like a cool drink to refresh on a hot summer day. Last week, we explored drinks made with fresh mint and essential oils. Now it's time to think beyond the mint.

Did you know that most citrus and herbal essential oils are sold to large food companies as flavoring? Hydrosols, which are the water left behind when plants are steam-distilled into essential oils, are also safe to ingest in small quantities when they're organic and top quality, according to Suzanne Catty, author of Hydrosols: The Next Aromatherapy.

Make sure your oils and hydrosols are organically grown and of good quality, then read on after the break for drink recipes -- citrus, herbal, and even some floral -- made with essential oils, herbs, and hydrosols.

When I was growing up, I wasn't allowed to drink soda. Even back then, my dad was pretty smart. He said the stuff would make me fat and rot my teeth. Seems research studies are proving him right about the unhealthiness of soda.

When I was old enough to move out of the house, I started drinking soda like mad. My dad was right; I did indeed gain some unneeded weight and I had to go to the dentist because I had cavities.

If you are trying to kick the soda habit, try jazzing up water with natural flavorings. You can make your water super cold with ice chips, then add in some lemon or lime juice, along with a couple slices of the fruit. Keeping water refrigerated at all times will get you reaching for the jug instead of the can.

Earlier this week, Debra taught us how to remove seeds from a watermelon. Reading her post made me keen for summers on the patio, enjoying ripe, juicy watermelon.

Of course, as soon as my mind drifts to watermelon and summer evening on the patio, I'm immediately planning the rest of the moonlight treats, which simply must include spiked watermelon. I remember when we thought that spiking watermelon was a matter of setting chunks of it to soak in a bowl of vodka, but there is actually a right way to do this, and you'll really notice the difference.

This technique seems to the the most effective. Basically, you cut a small hole in the top of the watermelon, and pull out the plug. Next, take a skewer and poke it through the hold at various angles. This will help make passages for the alcohol to flow through (but really the watermelon has plenty of those naturally, so you should be ok). Funnel in about one cup of your favorite alcohol. I think vodka is great with watermelon, but over at Sweet Georgia Blue, they recommend bourbon, so you might like to experiment with it and decide for yourself. Once you've poured in the alcohol, replace the plug and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Invite some friends over, slice the booze infused melon, and enjoy!

Green beer is a St. Patrick's day tradition in many homes, restaurants, and pubs. You don't need to be a chemist to mix this celebratory drink. All you need is beer and food coloring. Simply add food coloring to your favorite beer, mix it up and enjoy.

The beer
Choose a lighter beer, one that will take the color easily. If your favorite beer is of the darker variety, it will take more coloring.

The color
It was suggested by a commenter on Slashfood, where we were reminded of this cool St. Patrick's day tradition, that blue food coloring works best; by mixing it with the yellow beer, you should achieve a true green color. I tried both blue and green food coloring. Take a look through the gallery and decide which one you think worked best.

For the purists among us who don't want to tamper with good beer, enjoy a Guinness. If you're in the St. Patrick's day spirit, but aren't really a beer drinker, follow me through the break and I'll share some other green cocktails along with a few non-alcoholic ones.

We've heard our fair share of warnings about Coke and the health issues that accompany too much consumption of any cola product. Some of them are pretty shocking. We know that one can of Cola has 100% of your daily recommended sugar intake, causing a urinary excretion of calcium and other necessary vitamins and minerals. I get emails about twice a year, telling me that coke is strong enough to clean the toilet or dissolve corrosion from car batteries. I'm disgusted for a few days but eventually make my way back to that tempting can of Coke, despite all the warnings.

So how do they make that distinct recipe that so many of us love? Store brand imitations pale in comparison. I never would have guessed that a home brew would be possible, but it is. The brewing process takes months, and is far too intensive to do with any regularity, but it would be a neat experiment. Check out the full instructions if you're interested in becoming a cola-chemist on your own. Just think about how impressed your friends will be when you offer some home-brewed cola. Hold a blind taste test and see how good you are.

Everyone needs coasters, right?

A set of Scrabble tile coasters were recently one of Craftster's featured projects. They're simple, requiring more patience than time or skill. The creator, Jessfun23, glued Scrabble tiles to thin cork sheets in clever drink-related patterns, then coated the tiles with a sealant.

She chose Mod Podge, but any waterproof, non-toxic clear sealant should be OK. Some sealants might yellow over time, but there's no ideal soft base for coasters that won't deteriorate over time anyway (most coasters have a finite life span by definition). Another Craftster user, TracyinNH, was inspired to try this project with a felt bottom and denim edging, for an entirely different look. You could try running a metallic gold paint pen around the edges before applying the sealant, or edging each coaster with glue and glitter. The possibilities are endless.

Acquiring the letter tiles for this project is probably the largest obstacle to hurdle. I did some research, and was able to find some surprising and interesting options... not just for sources of tiles, but also for the look of the tiles themselves. There's even a totally different way, shown in the photo above, to make a similar coaster. You'll find something for almost everyone, including your favorite l33t g33k, after the break.

This is a cool trick to keep handy the next time you entertain a bunch of pre-teens or you really want to spruce up your next adult party. Now, keep in mind that your guests may ingest a huge amount of sugar by drinking these things. Calories be damned though, as these are too cool to just sit on the bar or kitchen counter.

You'll need a decent amount of sugar, four glasses of your choice, several colors of food coloring, a tablespoon measuring device, and a small funnel for pouring the different colors on top of each other without mixing them. Mixing these different-colors-in-a-single-glass drinks really won't take very long once you assemble the right items just listed.

After watching the video, try this yourself and see what results you get. You can even have four different "flavors" in each glass you prepare due to the varying sugar levels in the "color bands" along with adding some possible flavoring in with some of the colors (vanilla, anyone?).

There are many hot beverages that are great during cold weather in general, and the cozy, convivial Christmas-to-New-Year's-Day period in particular, but my favorite is spiced cider.

It's more warming and flavorful than hot cocoa, and not as cloying (don't get me wrong -- if you offer me cocoa, I'm not turning it down). The flavor is fresher and often more complex than that of mulled wine; it's also more family-friendly in its unfermented form. It's even a healthy drink for people who are under the weather.

You can get really fancy with the recipes, creating a concoction that's almost more of a punch than a cider and takes as much time to make as a small meal.

However, I know of two ways to make a few servings of tasty hot apple goodness in well under five minutes, with special ingredients that make it easy. You'll find more about them after the break!

Polonium 210 has had a lot of news coverage lately. Unless you're a secret agent or are having trouble with your mob connections, you probably don't need to worry about this stuff. If perhaps you are a super secret agent, or have angered some "associates" then it's always worth being cautious. You can make your own Polonium detector and bring it along to your Christmas parties and pub crawling for the holidays. Here's what you'll need to construct a homemade detector:

1. 2 darlington transistors
2. LED
   
3. Homemade iron chamber
4. One or two resistors
5. Battery
6. power switch

Once completed, hold the device over your drink. If the drink is tainted the light will go on. The detailed assembly instructions have diagrams and pictures to help you along the way. I don't know how you'd test the accuracy of this homemade device without actually poisoning one of your drinks. If you're one of those paranoid types, or you actually have a reason to hide, then pack this little gadget along and stay safe.

Eggnog is a holiday tradition. Eggnog came to America from Europe in the early 17th century. The name origins and particular history are disputed, but one thing is for sure: It has become a North American tradition for toasting the holidays.

The grocery stores started stocking eggnog weeks ago so somebody must be buying it. For our family we're still a couple of weeks off from enjoying this traditional drink so I have time to perfect my homemade recipe.

Our sister site, Engadget, has a post about a coaster project from Evil Mad Scientist Labs.

These coasters are made from the photomasks used in semiconductor manufacturing; the patterns on the photomasks are etched into the components in the factory. The masks are solid glass with a thin metal design applied to them. You can get them from retailers who deal in electronics surplus.

Be sure to check out the comments on the Engadget post, where readers discuss safety issues and sources for the materials. It's useful to know, for example, that shattered quartz glass is unusually sharp -- and difficult to remove from a cut. The reader suggests backing the coasters with clear plastic; I suggest keeping them away from small children.