DIY Life

Strap a brown-bag lunch to your wheels and head off to work. According to GreenYour.com, restaurants produce over 50,000 pounds of trash per year and consume more energy per square foot than any other U.S. industry. By steering clear of restaurants during your workweek, you can be part of a small change to decreasing both of those numbers (and probably decreasing another number while you're at it--- those dreaded numbers on your bathroom scale).

Luckily for you, reusable lunch bags are cuter than ever, and with this tutorial from Evil Mad Scientist, you can create your own over the weekend, green-ifying your work ritual by Monday.

Don't bike to work? The reusable bag is the perfect size for a weekend biking jaunt-- just right for nestling your keys, wallet and perhaps a great book to take to the park. Sure beats a plastic bag, and you're guaranteed the cutest bike on the block.

I love watching street performers. In the summer, my favorite days are spent wandering the shops on Granville Island in Vancouver and watching buskers. Our children have loads of fun and enjoy the entertainment too. There is something about their exceptionally odd talents and their fearless performance style that I find appealing. I probably like it so much because it is so far from anything I could ever pull off. Or so I thought until now.

How to make money busking (street performing) teaches exactly that. You'll learn what separates the good shows from the great shows or what might leave passers by to mistake you for a beggar rather than busker. You'll learn why it's not a good idea to set up next to a pretty girl and why seeding your hat with tips works so well. Play to the children and their parents will follow. Plan a good show with a clear beginning, middle and end to draw and keep a crowd.

Do your research, track your success and sell merchandise. If you think of yourself as a professional and treat your show that way, others will too, and you'll be more successful for it. There are loads of great tips. Even if you're not really considering abandoning your job for busking, maybe you'll take a challenge and try it just once.

Some people love giving Secret Santa gifts, mainly the overly friendly HR lady who is in a constant state of cheer. For the rest of us, it can be a royal pain. The sentiment is good: getting to know each other and celebrating the holidays with your workmates. The idea is that you pull somebody's name and you'll be their "Secret Santa", giving them a special gift. The problem is that you might not know much about the person who's name you drew and you might not have a clue where to start.

First, consider the guidelines that have been set out (probably by the same cheerful HR lady). You'll want to make sure that you stick within the guidelines for price and type of gift. Some offices love crude gag gifts while others have strict rules against it. Make sure you know what you're working with before you set out to find that perfect present. Once you know what you're working with, it's time research your giftee. Wired.com has some great suggestions for choosing the perfect gift, starting with getting to know them. They suggest a number of questions you can ask about this person to give you a pretty clear indication of what sort of thing they would like. Once you've decided on what you want to give, they have some ideas for where to get it. Remember that presentation matters and the gift giver is supposed to be a surprise, so don't wrap it in that old gift bag that's been sitting on your desk for a month!

Don't dread this part of your Christmas party. You're going to participate anyway, so have a little fun with it.

[via: Lifehacker]

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.

There's a little known strategy for getting into places without paying the cover charge. It worked for people many years ago and I'm guessing that it would still work now. I think the trick to making it work these days is to be certain that you're attempting it at the right event.

What you need to do is to show up at your chosen event in a clown suit. Yep, show up at an outdoor concert dressed as a clown with full face makeup and a couple balloon animals and then go to the rear entrance where they let the vendors in and out. You have a fifty percent chance that you'll be able to walk in through the rear gate completely unmolested. After all, who pays any attention to a clown? If someone stops you, you're in the perfect position to say something about hoping you were scheduled to work and that you're looking for the promotions staff or supervisor. Sell yourself into the event. You're a clown for the day.

The angle is that when you get inside, you had better be walking around making people laugh and smile. When the security people walk by, if they catch you two or three times leaning against a picnic table and sucking a cold draft beer, they might get a little suspicious. Work the crowd, travel the grounds and be a clown. Chances are that you'll have more fun in a clown costume than you would have had otherwise!

Working from home can provide a rewarding and flexible lifestyle. In fact, to most it sounds ideal - no daily commute, no boss to report to, no cubicles filled with annoying co-workers, and you can eat lunch when you want, for as long as you like. You can even take a nap if you want to!

Unfortunately the biggest complaint from people who work at home ... they don't actually get any work done. According to one study, only 14 percent of people who work at home put in a full eight hours ... the rest put in three hours or less.

If you're reading this and you're currently working from home .. well, 'er odds are you probably fall into the three hours or less percentile. If so, here are some suggestions from WIRED on how to change that and successfully get your job done.

1. Switch into work mode.
It's hard to feel like a productive professional with flannel jammies, fuzzy slippers, and bed head. Get up, take a shower, and dress like you're actually going to work (because, hey -- you are). I vouch for this one ... I've done the pj thing and it doesn't work. I now get up everyday at 6am, shower and get dressed immediately.