This story category covers easy step-by-step instructions on a variety of home, food and entertaining topics.

How Cool Is Kuler, Adobe’s Colour App?

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Damn cool. Adobe’s new point-and-shoot app for the iPhone allows you to instantly pull a color palette from whatever image your camera snaps.

Adobe Kuler

 

FREE & AWESOME | Have you seen Adobe’s new Kuler app?” my friend Giorgio Verzoletto of vanhit.com asked when we met up for coffee last Monday. “Watch this,” he said, waving his iPhone camera at the Frugalbits website displayed on the laptop screen in front of us. As G gestured with his phone, five circles on its screen bounced around like metal balls in one of those old-fashioned handheld puzzles, changing colour repeatedly depending on where the phone was directed.

When he snapped a shot, the circles turned into rectangles forming a band of the dominant colours in the image and creating what Kuler calls a colour theme on his phone screen. “These themes can be used, modified and shared in so many ways,” G said. “Anyone who works with colour is going to love this.” Or anyone who loves to play with colour, I added. Read more

looplacinglock- Katie Runs This

The Best Way To Lace Your Workout Shoes

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Who knew there were so many corrective ways to lace up your workout shoes?

looplacinglock- Katie Runs This

 

GOOD TO KNOW | I have a very narrow foot with a very high instep, which is no biggie for me except when it comes to buying workout shoes. Very few athletic shoe brands fit my feet straight out of the box; usually, I need to add orthotics. Recently, though, I’ve been able to eliminate this extra purchase by lacing my sneakers using a method that actually improves the way my workout shoes fit my feet. Read more

ResQue

Rescue Me: How To Escape A Sinking Car

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How to escape a sinking car—plus an inexpensive tool that could make the process easier.

Skagit River Bridge - News 1130

 

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE | When an Alberta truck driver hauling an oversize load struck a steal beam on the Skagit River Bridge in Washington state last week, sending a segment of the bridge and two passenger vehicles plunging into the water below, the thought crossed my mind, as I’m sure it did yours, what if one of those vehicles had been yours.

How would you react if you found yourself in a sinking car? What should and shouldn’t you do? Are there tools you can have on hand that will facilitate your escape? Read more

Color coded keys

Never Mistake One Key For Another Again

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A quick way to differentiate the keys on your keychain is to use nail polish to colour code them.

Color coded keys

 

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | Do you have keys on your keychain with bows (the handles used to turn the keys) so similar that you continually confuse one key for another, an activity that wastes time and causes frustration? You could use plastic key caps to distinguish important keys, but key caps are bulky, often fit poorly and don’t last all that long. Another less obtrusive way to differentiate your keys would be to use nail polish to colour code them. Read more

Face Washing

Skincare 101: How To Super Clean Your Face

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The easiest way to remove eye makeup; when not to wash your face; and how to apply toner cost effectively.

eyemakeup

 

SATURATE — When removing eye makeup or waterproof mascara, start with a good-quality makeup remover. Soak a cotton pad with the makeup remover and gently press and hold it against your eye for about 15 seconds—don’t rub right away! Read more

Duncraft Black Hawk Decal

Give Birds A Chance: Use Window Clings

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Each year thousands of birds are killed when they crash into windows and glass doors. Here’s how to put an end to the slaughter.

Baby Bird

 

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE | I’d been meaning to do it for a few years, but it wasn’t until I experienced three horrible deaths in a single week, each one the result of a small bird crashing into the picture window in my home office and then dropping into the reflective pool directly below it and drowning, that I decided to make a preemptive move. Read more

Plant Props - H. Ross

How To Make This Curly Garden Stake

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Why settle for pedestrian plant supports when these fanciful ones are super easy to make.

Plant Props - H. Ross

 

CREATIVE SOLUTION | This curlicue cousin of the commercially available metal plant stake is made with 12-gauge T-bar ceiling hanger wire, which comes in a bundle of precut lengths that are perfect for supporting garden smaller plants. Read more

Chef Sleeve

3 Ways To Protect Your Computer Screen

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When you use your laptop as a cookbook, its surfaces need to be covered. Here are three ways to get the job done.

Chef Sleeve

 

SHOPPING AROUND | When you use your tablet or laptop as a cookbook, calling up recipes and scrolling back and forth between ingredients and instruction, it’s only a matter time before something gloppy on your fingers winds up stuck to its surface.

Computers working as cookbooks need to be protected, which is how I came to discover the Chef’s Sleeve, a clear, disposable (yet reusable) envelope for the iPad that does not interfere with touch screen operation. Great as it is, the Chef’s Sleeve isn’t all that easy to come by in Canada. When you do find it, as I did at Kitchen Stuff Plus, it is a titch pricey when you consider there’s a less expensive, if not as sexy, alternative available in most grocery stores. Read more

nonwoven garmet bags

Keep Your Best Clothes In Nonwoven Poly Bags

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Who knew that nonwoven polypropylene could actually protect your best garments from evil clothes-eating moths?

nonwoven garmet bags

 

THE FIX | I’ve done a lot of things to rid my home of casemaking clothes moths (CLICK HERE for our Frugalbits how to) but, until recently when I read about it on goop, I didn’t know that a particular material used to make clothing storage containers might actually ward off these hungry insects. According to Gwynnie and, as it turns out, a gaggle of other Internet home-keeping pundits, breathable nonwoven polypropylene, the material found in those ubiquitous grocery shopping bags, may do just that. Read more

female-sprinter

Lean In: How To Walk To Build A Better Butt

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How sprinter’s mechanics and plain old walking on a treadmill can help you develop the derriere of your dreams.

 

female-sprinter

 

FIT FOR FREE | Elite athletes know which sport produces the best butt in their biz: it’s sprinting by a mile. A sprinter’s buttocks sits high, round and proud, a position that comes from maximum gluteus development through explosive running done in short bursts of time. Correct sprinting technique results in a long, lean lower body with both thighs and butt in proper proportion. Read more