DIY Life

Stop looking for that perfect piece of art: convert that big empty wall into a rock climbing training wall!

OK, you probably wouldn't choose to build this in your living room, but a basement or garage might be the perfect place for a climbing wall.

Building your own rock climbing wall is a great way get exercise and improve your climbing skills, but this project isn't for the faint of heart. First, you'll want to carefully design the wall, taking into consideration your space constraints, your skill level, and your skill goals.

Essortment has a full list of tools and materials, along with detailed construction instructions. This project isn't for amateur builders, but if you have the experience to take it on, you'll have the coolest garage on the block.

Summer vacation keeps rolling along. How long until your kids go back to school? Are they spending too much time lounging on the couch? Here are a bunch of summer projects to trick your kids away from their air-conditioned sanctuary and out into the great outdoors of, er, your backyard.

Okay, okay. So the backyard is not the great outdoors. True. But the main thing is to get the kiddos out in the fresh air, learning about nature, and learning about the noble pursuit of maintaining a garden.

Getting their hands dirty
1. Ask them to help with the weeding. Pay them a small amount of pocket money for their time.

Let's face it: the world is built for early birds. Businesses open early, as do schools, and even trite old sayings assure us that unless we're up early, we won't be getting the worm. Want to be healthy, wealthy, and wise? Better not sleep in! It's not easy being a night owl.

Some people are able to create a life where being a night owl is to their benefit. But others are forced to live an early bird life despite their late night ways. If you have to get up early for work or for school and are finding it difficult, Newsweek has nine ways to change your habits and become a morning person.

Practical tips include setting consistent sleep and wake times for yourself (which means no sleeping in on weekends!), keeping your shades open to let the early morning light in, changing your workout time to earlier in the day, and avoiding large meals and alcohol just before bed.

As a morning person who is married to a dyed-in-the-wool night owl, I can't guarantee that these tips will change your natural body rhythms. But they might make those early mornings a little easier.

Using a comfortable mat when doing yoga isn't really necessary, but it sure does come in handy against carpet burns, bruises from the hardwood floor, and grass stains all over your lovely white shorts. No matter how much padding you have on your tush, if you don't use a mat, you may notice all the pretty colors on your body the next day.

Your yoga mat is probably in need of a new bag, and Myam has just the thing, with a handy tutorial on how to make a yoga mat bag. To make the bag, measure the length and circumference of your yoga mat, then cut your fabric, adding two extra inches of fabric to your rectangular piece. Cut out the bottom piece. Don't forget to add two strips of fabric to make the strap.

Myam's pictures and her tutorial are perfectly easy to follow. I love the fabric she chose. It is so very energetic, and just the pick-me-up we all will need after our heart pounding yoga exercises are done and we all have to drag our butts out of the class.

via: Craft

I've abandoned my office chair for a yoga ball. The hope is that I might get a little ab-action, while sitting around on the computer. For the most part, it's very comfortable, and it encourages better posture, which I could definitely use. Still, I find that over time I start to lose my balance and the ball becomes an awkward seat.

It looks like this balance chair might be just the right compromise for me. Essentially, it's working on the same principle, but designed to give you added balance when you need it. The best feature of all is that you can easily build one yourself.

Along with the recycled seat and back from an old office chair, you'll need 45x45mm wood x 2m and 45x65mm wood x 1m, wooden shims and a hinge. You could have rolling casters on the feet if you want to pivot and move around the office easily. Check out the full assembly instructions, and images to guide you through the simple construction process. The end results aren't widely adjustable, but as long as you're not sharing the seat with your entire household, it should work just fine.

All the trendy spas offer health detox and body cleansing packages. If you're somebody who indulges in these little luxuries, good for you. I'm sure you're happy, healthy, thin, and energetic. You may not be one of the lucky ones, jet-setting off to a private island for your renewal, but that doesn't mean you can't get the same benefits at home (minus the pretentious attitude and sky-high price tag).

Home detox 101: 4 easy tips for detoxing at home lets us in on 4 simple secrets for purging those damaging elements and renewing our bodies the DIY way. I was shocked to learn that starting your day with lemon water, then keeping a bottle of water boiled with ginger and black pepper can alleviate fatigue and cure chronic headaches. It will also cleanse your liver.

This is just the beginning, the benefit of skin and tongue scraping will regulate digestion and cleanse toxins. Stressing the importance of a brisk walk, they recommend taking a 20 minute walk to improve circulation, cleanse the colon and give your lungs a healthy dose of fresh air. The article closes with suggestions on detoxifying food and drinks.

If you want to spoil yourself even further, check out Debra's Scentual Life series.

Last week I ran down the list of various iPod+Nike Sport Kit hacks or mods that'll put your transmitter pod onto your shoe. As I said in that post, I don't care to carve up my shoes, so I decided a pocket was the only "safe" choice. The construction couldn't be simpler.

What you'll need:

• Roll of duct tape (the shiny vinyl stuff)
• Rubber bands (I get the variety pack at office stores)
• A little patch of Velco hook/loop tape (used to close the flap)
• Some sort of pocket (I used a disposable foil pocket from a lens cleaner)

You can craft a pocket from plastic, paper or whatever, but I find the little foil packs used to contain wet wipes or lens cleaners work quite well-- if they hold the Nike doohickey well enough. You take the packet and cut it cleanly across the top, leaving enough room in this "pocket" to hold the transmitter.

Next, use a little tape to "coat" the pocket. I made one long strip go from front, back, up and over itself just enough to make a flap that closes the pocket. But don't put the Velcro on yet! Now you have to take two more strips of tape to make the lower loop, which is critical for keeping the thing on your foot.

Over the holidays I got a Nike+iPod Sport Kit so I could start tracking my treadmill work. Unfortunately, I didn't have a pair of Nike's to support the device, which requires specific shoes which have a little recessed well in the sole of the shoe to hold the pedometer/transmitter. Instead, also over the holidays, I got the shoes I prefer: a pair of New Balance 779's. What to do but DIY, right? I've compiled a list of "hacks" for the Nike+iPod, all of which will somehow attach the transmitter to your shoe. Unfortunately, all of them tend to damage the shoe in some way. Next week I'll show you how to make a simple, effective pocket for your transmitter that will not harm the shoe in any way.

Simple and cheap: The 99-cent DIY shoe mod takes a simple strip of adhesive Velcro (the hook side) and allows you to latch to your shoelaces, while also slipping the unit under your laces. My problem with this? The Velcro will ultimately chew up your laces (I treasure the laces on New Balance, so unlike the slippery junk Nike's come with) and the transmitter, while tiny, can hurt when pressed against the top of your foot in this way.

(more on the next page)

Stress, to some degree we all have it. Most of us have far more than we'd like to have but we learn how to deal with it in our own special ways. One way that I deal with my own stress load is by visiting my chiropractor once a month. He puts my frame back in alignment and that simply makes everything I face on a daily basis a little bit easier.

The last time I had an appointment with my chiropractor I found a list of stress reducing techniques which actually made me realize that I do a lot more to relieve my own stress than I thought. Stress reduction mentally compounds, which means the less stress you think you have, the less stress you'll actually experience and accordingly, the less stress you'll think you have. The idea feeds on itself.

After the jump, get an idea about how well you might be doing in the ways of managing your own stress.

It's funny to think that we need to teach ourselves how to calm down, but it's true. We spend so much of the day on over-drive that when the time comes to decompress, we're not really sure where to begin. It is worth carving out time in the day for some calming rituals. Lifehacker points us to 12 ideas for establishing a calming routine, which I think are incredibly useful.

The tip that really caught my eye was this one about establishing a bedtime routine.

Yeah, I know -- exercise seems like odd placement in a DIY blog. But, let's get serious: do you sometimes find that doing the same thing over and over again gets, well, kinda boring? Scratch the thought of going to work every day and picture something else. As in, trying to find a way to juice up that regular exercise so that you don't get bored, lose interest and end up a non-exercising couch potato again.

If you're an athlete, routine and extreme may be the top two words in your vocabulary. If you're an average joe like most of us, then change and variety may be something you'd like to inject into anything that remotely resembles exercise. Instead of push-ups, crunches, bench presses and free weights, isn't there more to your exercising life? Sure there is, if you let that brain get crankin' and set your creative juice ablaze.

You know nothing about soccer, but it brings out a great group of kids, it's excellent exercise and you see tremendous value in team sports, so you sign up. As you're filling out the form you get to that dreaded box where they want to know how you can volunteer with the team. Most recreational soccer clubs are run completely by the efforts of volunteers.

You want to pitch in, but can't offer any real sport skills so you tick the boxes for Team Manager and Snack Coordinator. You show up for the meet and greet to find out that your team and others are missing coaches. The next thing you know, you've stepped up, and don't have a clue where to start.

We internet-addicts are a tragic group. We spend our days and nights creating and maintaining the greatest network of knowledge known to man, while wasting away (or, in most cases, ballooning up) in our extra-lumbar-support chairs. And what do we get in return for enslaving ourselves to our machines? Money? Fame? Sometimes, but more often than not all we get is a sore back, dry eyes, creaking finger joints, and carpal tunnel syndrome. What are we cubicle dwellers and home computer workers to do?! The answer is quite simple, actually: get some exercise.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "EXERCISE?! That means I have to get up and walk away from the computer! Are you crazy?!" While it's true that many of the most beneficial exercises require you to step away from your PC (i.e. riding your bike, walking, jogging, etc.), there are still plenty of workouts that can be done from your chair (or a nearby wall) that will help get you in better shape.