DIY Home made Ice Packs

Items needed - 

• ice pack containers - bottles, zip lock bags 
• Isopropyl alcohol 
• water
• ice box 

• Mix 1 part isopropyl alcohol to 4 parts water 

• Put ice pack bottles in fridge till it completely freezes [ it doesnt completely freeze because of the alcohol in the water ]  

• Put ice pack to ice box together with your beverage [ to be cooled ] and enjoy !!!

• Chilled beverage [ in this case, a water glass bottle ] remained chilled even after 7 hours later as seen below 

• Put second ice pack into ice box while first ice pack is put back in the fridge for re freezing

• Test #1 29/12/2015 10:40 pm -  frozen ice pack + Ginger Beer 

• Test #1 29/12/2015 10:55 pm - extra Ginger Beer bottle to load balance the ice pack. Also to check IF 1 ice pack can chill 2 glass bottles 

• Test #1 30/12/2015 01:25 am - Chilled drinks [ mist on glass bottles ] 

• Test #1 30/12/2015 10:16 am - crap !!! it REALLY WORKS. Drinks COLD to the touch 12 hours later with huge chunks of ice in the ice pack

• Test #2 30/12/2015 07:51 pm - 1 frozen ice pack + 2 Ginger Beer bottles + 1 ice tray of ice

• Test #2 31/12/2015 02:45 am - Half melted ice cubes + half frozen ice pack = chilled Ginger Beer = 7 hours later 

• Test #2 31/12/2015 02:45 am - Half frozen ice pack 7 hrs later

• Test #2 31/12/2015 01:38 pm - Chilled Ginger Beer + ice pack = 18 hours later 

• Test #2 conclusion = having just 1 ice pack = 12 hrs chilled drinks. 1 ice pack + 1 ice tray of ice + beverage = 18 hrs  chilled drinks

Ice packs & beverage bottles from 100% recyclable items at home

Sports bottle cleaner on a budget

Use of stainless steel water bottles to carry liquid is a must-have for anyone. Fresh off the shelves, bottles are so colorful and shiny. Couple of weeks down the road, they get dirty and need to be washed. Cleaning the outside is easy, any detergent will do the job but what about the inside where thin layer of gunk stick like glue to the inside surface. Using detergent alone doesnt remove this gunk. 

Therefore one needs to go invest in another tool - baby bottle cleaning brushes. But come on, they are brittle, dont remove all the gunk and they require one having to visit the store for replacement brushes x number of months later. 

One can use half a cup raw rice and little bit water or baking soda + vinegar. They work too, but they wont remove the sticky gunk off the insides of the bottle-to-be-cleaned. Plus, you cant re use that rice once you use it to clean the bottles. Why waste ingredients. 

But there is a solution. Using items you already have at home, where it never occurred to you that it can be used for more than just scrubbing dishes. 

Items required - 

• Bottle to-be-cleaned - water bottles/ protein shakers etc
• Detergent
• Scrubbing pads 
• Water
• Bit of human strength

scrubbing pads

bottle-to-be-cleaned

scrubbing pad

Put some detergent + water 1/4 size of bottle/ protein shaker and close the lid and shake away and empty the contents to a sink. Remove the scrubbing pad and refill with plain water and rinse the bottle once or twice. Congrats - now your water bottle/ protein shaker  is gunk free. Repeat same procedure once a month or as and when its required. 

a clean bottle with fresh drinking water. Mine is salt water

As seen in the pics, my bottle [ was ] clean before i took these how-to pics. I had to test if my theory worked [ before ] i wrote an article about it. 

Oatmeal Smoothie

• Oats
• Milk
• Coconut Oil - 1 teaspoon
• Fruits [ optional ]
• Yogurt 
• Blender

Could have been much much worse. Not bad for 1st time though. It came out too thick [ like porridge - no fun trying to drink that ] , need to add more milk next time and some fruits.

This came out perfect. Trick is [ put sufficient liquid ] after you put all the ingredients into the blender, you pulse it twice on very short 2 second bursts so it mixes well and then you blend by turning it to position 1 or 2 for 15 seconds. If you just blend by putting it to position 1, all the ingredients will be thrown upwards and you end up just mixing liquid. 

You can pre grind the oats by just putting oats into the empty blender and pulse it twice on 2 second bursts and then add rest of the ingredients. Then this smoothie will have no oats taste [ not that there are no oats ]. 

Each scoop of oats is 34 grams, I put 2 scoops = 68 grams per smoothie.

If you want a healthy breakfast first thing in the morning and cant be bothered wasting 30 mins over making breakfast - this is it !!! 

DIY Whiteboard

Last night i had an inspiration. I'm gonna make my own whiteboard [ under $10 ]. Searched for clear cellophane roll, couldnt find. Looked at professional magiboards [ $60 - $170 ]. 


Items Needed -

• A3 size or larger snap wallet closure 40 cm x 46 cm [ plain old clear sheet would do ] 
• some thumb push pins  
• hammer
• whiteboard marker pen(s)
• whiteboard eraser
• transparent duct tape 

• Initial tests using felt tip pen [ on top in red ] & whiteboard marker pen [ below in black ] 

• For the real test, WILL IT ERASE ??? . yup it did [ whew ] 

• Very carefully, slit the snap wallet closure in half. Expanded measurements would be 80 cm x 46 cm. 

• Now all there is to do is to hang it on the wall. 

• After couple of [ additional ] holes in the wall & thumb triple its original size [ together with lots of cursing ]  voila ! whiteboard is up !
• I only needed 4 push pins, but ended bending alot more than i thought. Oh well !!!
• umm, wall is BLUE, thats why it looks awsome !!!

• Damn !, duct tape holds whiteboard better. Made the necessary modifications. 

• 2nd whiteboard just installed - much cleaner look [ duct taped it ]

 

Thus endeth the lesson folks !!!

DIY Tablet Stand

Items Needed - 

• Thick card board
• Ruler 
• Scissors 
• Duct Tape

• Instead of throwing away money on plastic stands which break after some time or aluminium stands which collapse in on itself due to the weight/ declination angle of the tablet.

• Very carefully cut a single piece of thick cardboard to resemble this shape above. 
• The centre triangle section has to at a 45 degree angle 

Portrait mode

Landscape mode

• Thick cardboard has to be used, otherwise the tablet being heavy will topple over
• Left over notebook/ tv/ printer packaging is what was used for this stand

• Duct tape the entire stand to make it durable 

• Folded tablet stand

• This stand can hold anything from [ 5.4 inch x 2.8 inch]  Samsung Galaxy S3 all the way upto a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8 inch [ 8.3 inch x 5 inch ]  
• For a 10.1 inch or above device, you need to increase the vertical height from 11.5 cm by actually keeping a 10.1 inch or above tablet and let it tilt to a negative 45 degree angle. 
• Due to a 10.1 inch or larger tablet is heavier, the " centre triangle section " has to be even thicker to prevent tablet falling down

Perfume making at home

Super strong perfume that lasts 6+ hours 

Items needed - 

• Essential oils - 2 or more the better
• Perfume storage glass container [ it has to be glass as pure essential oil disintegrates anything other than glass over time ]
• Carrier oil - Olive / Extra Virgin Coconut oil
• Syringe

• Measure equal quantities of essential oils of your choosing, in this case i used 0.1 ml of each oil [ marked by 2 red arrows on this 5 ml syringe ] and put into a glass container. I used an empty 10 ml essential oil bottle 
• Measure about 7 ml of Carrier oil into your glass container
• Close with screw type lid & shake until all essential oils + carrier oil mix properly
• Open perfume container lid while keeping your finger tightly pressed on the top & tilt it [ once ] upside down, and tilt it back to right side up. Remove finger from the top of the bottle & you will see a drop worth of essential oil + carrier oil on your finger tip, apply that on your body. One drop per side of the body is [ all thats needed ]. 
• Given I used a 10 ml bottle, mixing 0.1 ml of 3 essential oils equaling 0.3 ml + 7 ml Carrier Oil results in [ Super Strong Perfume ] which lasts 6+ hrs with just one application. 
• Please DONT over do it, as it is, its pretty strong.
• For a larger container, mix 0.2 ml of each essential oil of your choosing + Carrier Oil 
• Try not to apply this drop on your skin which comes in contact with clothes or anything other than skin on skin, as pure essential oil resulting in fabric/ plastic/ metal disintegration over time 

My Home made perfume using Lemon/ Jasmine/ Rose  stored in a 10 ml bottle + body lotion made of same ingredients stored in a shower gel 250 ml bottle

If perfume can be stored as seen in above pic, so much the better as there are two lids holding your perfume guaranteeing the strength wont decrease over time like most shop purchased perfumes do.