HOW-TO KNOW-HOW Archives - Page 4 of 8

An Easy Way To Insulate Single-Pane Windows

March 5, 2013/4 Comments/in Cleaning & Maintenance, DECOR & DESIGN, HOME, Home & Garden, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Replacing single-glazed windows with new double-panes used to be the energy-wise solution. Now there’s a less expensive alternative.

WASTE NOT | When it comes to improving the energy efficiency of older buildings, one of the major things we tend to think of is replacing single-glazed windows with double-glazed models. A CMHC report on energy savings proves otherwise. In 2004, their case-study research found that replacing doors and windows averaged just 12 percent energy savings compared to 34 percent from insulating the foundation and ceiling plus draftproofing the rest of the house, 14 percent from insulating exterior walls and 39 percent from upgrading the furnace. Read more

Five Tips For Returning Store Purchases

February 4, 2013/0 Comments/in FASHION, Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, SAVE MONEY, Shops & Shopping, View All Fashion Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

What you need to know about taking purchases that don’t work out back to the store where you got them.

SHOPPING SMART | It takes me a long time to make up my mind about buying something so I have always tended to take things home, think about them and then return them once I’m sure they’re not right for me. I do this even more since I started shopping at stores such as T.J. Maxx and Winners where there may be only one of something so it’s best to grab it while you can.

Here’s what I’ve learned about returning merchandise back to the store where you bought it. Read more

Make Your Resolutions The Babylonian Way

December 30, 2012/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

This New Year, instead of focusing on how to improve yourself going forward, why not think about settling up.

DO THE RIGHT THING | The stats don’t lie. According to resolution research conducted by noted psychology professor Richard Wiseman at the University of Bristol, in England, 78 percent of those he sampled who made New Year’s resolutions failed to achieve their objective.

When the overall success rate is this dismally low, resolution making begins to feel like a whole lot of why-bother—though maybe it wouldn’t if we began the new year the way Babylonians did back in their day. Read more

How To Make Designer Votive Holders (VIDEO)

December 3, 2012/0 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

These designer votive candle holders are surprisingly simple to make. Brendan Power shows you how. (VIDEO)

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | These decorative votive candleholders are an easy-to-make, inexpensive Christmas gift that is both beautiful and useful. Brendan Power, our D.I.Y. columnist, got the idea after he saw something similar in a high-end gift shop. “The patterns on the votive holders I saw were probably either applied as decals or printed directly onto the glass,” he says. “My adaptation is made with photocopy paper, but the look and the translucence is no different from the original.” Read more

How To Layer Deep Vee & Scoopy Crew Tops

November 28, 2012/2 Comments/in Classics & Trends, Fashion & Beauty, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Fashion Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

As necklines plunge, top fashion brands offer a variety of ways to layer up their deep V-necks and scoopy crews.

Have you noticed how the necklines of pullover sweaters have all gotten deeper this season? While there’s nothing wrong with showing a little skin, some of these necklines may be too impractical and drafty (not to mention unflattering—protruding collarbones, anyone?) for daytime use. Read more

How To Light Snowy Pathways With Candles

November 19, 2012/0 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, Design, DIY, Entertaining, GARDEN, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Garden Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Make light outdoors on a winter’s night by planting candles in the snow.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | Sometimes the most stunningly beautiful solution to a problem is also the most elementary one—like using candlelight rather than electricity to illuminate a snowy walkway.

How To Make An Easy Herb & Spice File

November 2, 2012/2 Comments/in DIY, FOOD, Food & Drink, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, Organizing, View All DIY Stories, View All Food Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

How to devise a storage system for herbs and spices and forever do away with novelty spice racks and their special containers—or purchasing extra spice packets you don’t really need.

PROBLEM SOLVED | Has this ever happened to you? You’re ready to whip up a dish from scratch when you realize your recipe calls for a dried herb that, after rummaging among your cache of spice bottles and bags, you appear to be out of. So you rush out and pick some up only to discover later that you already had a bottle on hand—three, actually, stashed away in the dark recesses of the various places you store this stuff. Read more

Chinese Lanterns On Mini'lights - Martin Tessler

Make A Lantern Plant & Mini-Light Display

October 24, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Harvest Chinese lantern plant pods to create the perfect, illuminated holiday display.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | I first spotted brilliant orange Chinese lanterns fitted over mini-lights on an organically decorated Christmas tree. This is one way to use them for sure, though I like them better when they are used to create an original Thanksgiving or Halloween display. I love them threaded through a tangle of branches on the front porch or on top of the mantel or on a dinner table. I also love mini-lanterns strung around doorways for a punch of spot-on seasonal colour. Read more

Make Bedazzling Window Screen Wrap

September 26, 2012/1 Comment/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Knock your present out of the park with pedestrian materials from ye olde hardware store.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | If you’re looking for an easy, dramatic and glamorous way to wrap a very special gift, nothing has the power to bedazzle like ordinary window screen and wire. Read more

Big Life Canada Wants To Save Elephant Lives

September 21, 2012/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Elephants’ existence in the wild is threatened as never before. Here’s what Big Life Canada is doing about it.

DO GOOD | “A world without elephants—how could that be?” my friend Jean asked when I mentioned the subject recently. “I thought they had poaching under control in Africa.”

Not really. Read more