DIY Life

Sleep is one of the most important parts of our day, so why do we take our pillows for granted?

You may say that it doesn't matter, that you can sleep on any old pillow, be it fluffy, flat, firm, or mushy. However, your pillow can -- and usually does -- affect your sleep quality. In this busy time, don't we want to get the most renewal points possible out of our night's rest?

Believe it or not, there is a method to choosing the perfect pillow for yourself: Web MD says you can alleviate headaches, neck and back pain, and even allergies by taking the time to learn how. I'll share some guidelines after the break.

My coffee table has seen better days. It no longer has the glass top, which is fine, because my oldest daughter loved to watch the milk drip from her sippy cup and pool under the glass in the wicker of the tabletop, and I broke the said glass one day when yelling at said daughter and slamming said sippy cup onto glass. I must admit, the spider effect of the broken glass was pretty cool, but a pain to clean up!

If you happen to have an equally ugly coffee table, let's think about turning that dinged up thing into an upholstered bench. With some new fabric, pretty paint, and a little hard work, you can create a one of a kind bench to suit your decor. The step by step instructions and detailed pictures should make it a snap to makeover the coffee table you have tried to hide from all your neighbors and friends.

When I get a flyer in the mail that is advertising sale prices on their furniture, I quickly browse through it, and then pitch the flyer into the burn bag. Even though the furniture is on sale, it is still way too expensive for my budget.

If you are in need of a new sofa or loveseat, check out diydiva's memory foam queen sized bed turned loveseat. By buying a bed on eBay and using an electric saw, she transformed the bed into a cool loveseat, complete with custom slipcover.

What more do you want for under $200? I think her loveseat is adorable, and is nice to have especially if you have pets that are on an evil mission to destroy any furniture you may own.

My father made me the most fabulous wood dollhouse when I was about 8 years old. It took him hours to put together, as it was very intricate and I had to get in the way and help. I don't know what ever happened to that dollhouse, but I treasure the many hours and years of fun I had playing with it.

If you want to give your little girl something very special this Valentine's Day, you can make her a foam dollhouse that folds flat and can be taken anywhere she goes. Cookie's market editor Meryl made one for her niece using a 20" x 30" piece of foam core board. She covered the walls with graphic wrapping paper, cut pictures and a clock out of catalogs, and used a sharpie to give the pictures their own unique frame. Her niece then filled all the rooms with her own toys.

I didn't like being confined to one spot with the lovely house my dad made me. The dollhouse was too heavy for me to lug around, and it was hard to reach into tight areas. With Meryl's foam dollhouse, your little princess can easily pick up and move her toys, and not worry about being confined to one area.

Thank you, Rachel, for the tip.

Recently I had occasion, courtesy of my spouse, to change out the trim on the shower valve in our kids' bathroom. The project went very smoothly until I pulled the trim plate from around the single handle valve control. For some reason it had been caulked into place. Usually the trim plate is help in place by screws that attach to the valve body. I removed the old plate, old caulking, and re-installed the new plate. After finishing the whole assembly I discovered the reason for all the caulking on the old one.

Apparently the one-armed, special-ed, blind contractor (no offense) who had originally installed the valve assembly did not secure the pipes to a stud as required. Whenever I pulled on the handle to open the flow of water, the whole valve body (trim plate included) would pull out and create a gap between the plate and the shower wall. AAAUUUGGHHH!!!! Why do plumbing projects always turn into these kinds of nightmares? Is it just me?

So now I was faced with either using 18 gallons of caulk to hold the plate in place, or cut a huge hole in the wall to be able to reach and secure the pipes to a stud mechanically, or figuring out a different way to secure the pipes.

I love the sewing tables that my mom had, but they are small. They certainly won't be able to support the memory quilt I plan to make from my oldest daughter's clothing. The quilt would end up dragging on the floor when I sewed the pieces together. Mom's vintage sewing tables are nice, but not big enough for a quilt project.

Marguerita had a work space that was too small for her quilts, so she decided to make her own quilting desk. She used two inexpensive folding tables from Sam's Club, and foam insulation and window insulation she bought from her local hardware store. The vinyl window insulation really helps to slide her quilts around so that she isn't pulling and tugging when she needs to move them.

I love her new quilting desk and it has really given me inspiration to get going on cutting up the clothes needed to make my memory quilt, and I especially love that I can slide pictures of my girls under the vinyl so that I will be inspired to keep going when I don't feel like quiting. It also helps that I don't have to shell out big bucks for a table that I won't be able to put away when I am not working on a sewing project.

We got a Wii for Christmas and our whole family is having a blast with it! It's light and easy to pack around if you want to bring it to a friend's place or a party. If you are taking your Wii out of the house regularly, be carefully, and protect this new favorite toy (particularly the sensor bar).

This homemade Wii sleeve is the perfect way to cart your Wii around and stay confident that it's well protected. Your sewing skills don't have to measure up to your gaming skills to pull this one off. It's simple, using just a few materials and a bit of time. Here's what you'll need:

1. 1/2 foam
2. Cotton fabric (1/2 yard)
3. Thread
4. Velcro

The full instructables explains each step and gives pictures to help you along the way. This one is definitely going on my project list for the new year.

Some of my favorite projects are born of necessity. I just happened to need something to spruce up a gift for my brother, an avid gamer. So instead of a cheesy card or clumsy letter I created a "handmade" Wiimote from Crayola's Model Magic clay.

If you've ever used Model Magic you know it isn't so much a clay as soft foam. It hardens over a few hours, and is terribly resistant to detail like square edges. Our cat happens to love to eat the stuff too, which means all MM projects go into a box. Anyway, this craft couldn't be simpler, and shows what you can do with very simple materials. My bag of Model Magic was actually over 5 years old! But it was white and available. I also used a red fine-tip permanent marker, a fine-tip blue pen, a fine-tip black pen and a regular permanent (Sharpie) marker.

Air infiltration into your house is the number one enemy of your home heating and cooling efficiency. Wall switches and electrical outlets which are located on the exterior walls of your home can serve as ports of entry for outside air. Insulating these potential thermal leaks is simple and cheap to do.

You can get inexpensive foam outlet seals at any home or hardware store. They are simple die cut foam shields which go between your outlet plate and the wire box in the wall. These foam insulators can potentially shut off air leakage entering your home from behind switches and outlets.

The process is simple and goes like this:

Making your own masks as a kid used to be kinda painful. At the very least, cardboard and construction-paper masks aren't very comfortable. But today we aren't limited to paper plates, we've got convenient sheets of foam.

Masks are a great way to make pretend play dress-up items on the cheap. Craft foam rectangles can be purchased in bulk, in all colors. If you have room, buy several packs so you have a lot of duplicates. The rectangles we get are about 7 inches wide, which is perfect for heads of any size. Foam masks are light and durable (but not indestructable), and take permanent marker and white glue readily.

Full details after the jump.