DIY Life

Have you ever gone to a thrift store or a garage sale and seen the ugliest piece of furniture, but just knew in your heart that it could be transformed into something beautiful? Me too... sigh. Lucky for us, you and I are great DIYers that can turn yuck into fab.

Marianne Kirby picked up a plain side table at a yard sale for $5, and purchased about 1600 buttons on eBay. While waiting for the buttons to arrive, she got busy sanding and painting the little table. When she received the buttons, she applied a basic tacky glue to the tabletop, then situated the buttons in a way that pleased her eye. She let the glue dry overnight.

After the glue had fully dried, Marianne mixed and applied resin to the tabletop, allowing each layer to set before applying another, until she reached her desired amount (at least enough thickness to cover the buttons smoothly). Then, she allowed the tabletop to cure for 72 hours... and yuck turned into fab!

Since green is my favorite color, I absolutely love Marianne's new and improved side table. Of course, you can use any color buttons you wish, and arrange the buttons in a way that pleases your own eye. Just be sure to let the table top completely cure before using it.

I consider myself a frugal person. When it comes to buying anything new, I check my local thrift stores or shop on eBay to see if I can get the item cheaper. It seems that the only time I decide to spend too much money is when I go to the grocery store hungry.

Besides clipping coupons and going without a night on the town with my husband, I wondered what else I could do to step up my frugality. Lynnae over at beingfrugal.net asked her readers to send her their frugal tips on surviving when money is tight and dollars need to be stretched. Her readers came through in a big way, so she compiled a list of 168 frugal tips to survive a recession.

From saving money on grocery shopping, utilities, transportation, and clothing to saving money on miscellaneous necessities, Lynnae breaks down the great tips her readers have offered into nine categories. While not all the tips are feasible for everyone, there certainly are tips that everyone will be able to utilize.

[via: Curbly]

Get your magnifying glass ready. Or your patience, at least. For this is one pesky task, my friends: reattaching a laptop key that has popped off.

I experienced this particular mishap first-hand a few months ago. An over-enthusiastic terrier used my laptop keyboard as a spot from which to vault to the windowsill. Grr. The good news is that even with my non-techie abilities, I was able to fix the problem myself. However, there was a fair bit of humming and hawing involved as I figured out how to click back into place the teensie-weensie plastic hinges that keep your laptop keys click-clacking.

I wish I had known about this -- LaptopRepair101's fine instructions for reattaching laptop keys, complete with excellent close-up photos demonstrating each step. Check it out. Oh, and here are some important facts up-front: Lesson 1: the aforementioned teensie-weensie plastic hinges are actually called key retainers. Lesson 2: if you don't get them repositioned just so, your key will be useless for all time. Lesson 3: be gentle. They are super-fragile. Lesson 4: If you need a replacement key, don't bother calling your computer's manufacturer. Unless you've paid for a tech help plan, they don't care. Instead, search eBay for a replacement key.

Wired's How-To Wiki has an interesting article about avoiding being cheated by a fake listing on Craigslist and eBay, some of the Internet's leading person-to-person commerce sites.

The title may make you think it's largely about Craigslist, but it seems like the majority of tips are for eBay. For the most part, they're good ones: if you follow their advice, you won't fall hook, line, and sinker for anything.

With regard to Craigslist, the tips are pretty simple: make deals in person and in cash, as money orders, checks, and wire transfers are exponentially likely to be fraudulent. There may be some disagreement about their eBay tips, though: click through to see what we think!

Mark Frauenfelder is well-known to web-heads as the editor of MAKE magazine and the founder of BoingBoing, which may be the world's most popular English-language blog (they say it is, anyway). His recent book, Rule The Web, is full of tips and tricks to help you do just that. Even if you think you're an old hand at this Internet game, you might still be able to learn something from his book.

Some of the tips in the book, like the general information about eBay, will seem like no-brainers to anyone who has any experience with the sites or processes in question. But there are also sidebar tips, labeled "Deeper," which usually include inside or obscure information that may be new even to quasi-experts.

Find out more about Rule the Web after the break!