I have to introduce y'all to Instructables, a great new site I discovered as I was reading all about people who buy Ikea products and hack them into something different. Instructables is basically a technical site with lots of tips on how to wire up cool stuff,... but thrown in are a few pearlers and a bit of useful stuff.
Firstly, here's my favourite Ikea-based instructable - Universal lamp shade polygon building kit. I LOVE these lights in store, but now that I know what shape they're using I can see all kinds of potential for it. Christmas tree baubles, gift wrapping, toys for Grace to play with,...
We have a Christmas tradition where I make everyone a Christmas bauble which involves a game or a puzzle. Sometimes it's a toy wrapped and wrapped in strips of crepe paper (which become streamers when the toy is unwrapped), and like a pass-the-parcel, it has lots of other things to discover along the way. Sometimes the centre's a Kinder Surprise. I usually print jokes, trivia, scriptures and stuff like that on long strips of paper for people to share during Christmas dinner.
Using the polygon shape, I could put all that trivia and stuff on the back of a polygon and give everyone their own colour-coded bundle tied with a ribbon. Then, the challenge could be to build a Christmas bauble using their polygon pieces. It would give them all something nice to hang on the tree. I could see some of my relatives having a great time building interesting shapes. They could use the ribbon to hang their baubles on the tree. Nice!
You could also make your own designer Christmas lights using these instructions. Make smaller polygons and attach them to a string of Christmas fairy lights. No one in your neighbourhood will have a set like yours. (-:
Here's an instructable on how to make longer handles for your baby stroller. This is amazingly useful when you realise that most strollers are too low and hurt your back when you push them for more than ten minutes.
How to kiss! While this is actually painful to read now, I can imagine a time in my teen years when I would have earnestly studied such an article. The thought of watching the video of the guy practising kissing in the mirror just makes me cringe. This is pretty funny.
Here's yet another useful article - How to clean your sinuses using a Neti Pot. This is one of the most useful ways of managing everything nasal, from the average cold through to chronic sinusitus. Scott and I both have one and we use it almost daily. Read it. Use it. But make sure you get pure salt (eg. from a health food store) with no iodine and no anti-caking agent added. The last thing you need is to be absorbing these chemicals through your mucus membranes!
Go and check out Instructables and be inspired. It's worth signing up so that you can print out the instructions. I'm sure you'll find something fun to make this weekend.
PS: Yes, I know this sounds like an ad, but frankly, I'm just enjoying it so much that I had to share it with everyone. No payments (of the cash variety) have been made!
