Twig

This was found on a roadside yesterday. It looks even more lovely in person.

There’s one particular leaf on the right that’s naturally unlike the rest. It looks more heart-shaped in person.

Magnetic knife holder

I prefer to have my knifes just above the kitchen sink but apart from an Ikea Grundtal rail + 2 hooks, there isn’t any space for a magnetic bar. In reality, with just 2 knifes; a paring and a chef’s, which are the ones I use most of the time, a bar may not be necessary after all.

The 53cm (21″) rail hangs sponges, a strainer and peelers and it covers almost the entire wall distance behind the sink.

Since Grundtal is magnetic, I’m more than happy to grab my .95cm (3/8″) rare earth and ceramic magnets to setup a mini panel ready for some serious attraction.

The chef’s knife (length = 25.4cm/10″) needs 2 rare earth for a firmer grip.

You can tell that the magnetic grip isn’t sufficient if the knife tilts to the side and/or if the magnet clings onto the knife as you remove that knife from the rail. But all that is solved with the addition of a ceramic magnet placed on top of the rare earth (and not the other way round).

A word of caution if you are setting this up: keep the knife far away from the rare earth until the setup is completed. Be careful when handling very strong magnets and sharp objects, for their mutual attraction to each other is hard to tear apart and you could be the one getting hurt! Ugh. Sounds like a love triangle.

Bamboo charcoal deodorant pack

You might have heard me mention about the benefits of bamboo charcoal last year. On Sunday, I bought a bigger sachet - a size suitable for a room. It’s acting as a desiccant. I’ve indicated yesterday’s date on duct tape to remind myself the date of purchase and that it should be replaced in a year’s time. Also, I must sun it at least once a month.

The next charcoal goodness on my wish list is the pillow, for my neck-achy hub.

Perfume bottle lid

This is an icy bloom from a perfume bottle.

The perfume, which is already used up, was a birthday gift.

The bloom cap still looks natural even though it’s inverted to hold a necklace.

This is one of the most decor-friendly perfume lids I’ve ever had.

How to bind papers without staples or clips

I learnt this trick from a Taiwanese program on smart tips and shortcuts for daily living. I think that was in 2005. It was such a fantastic tv show! Afterwhich I’ve spotted the same instructions posted at Instructables and Truveo. Well, for my personal use, I take 3 extra steps to complete the procedure which I’ll explain why further down.

Steps:

1. Align the papers. Here I’m using 5 sheets of letter-size.

2. On the top left-hand corner, fold a small triangle and crease the fold. The fold (ie the longest part of the triangle) is about 5.2cm long, however measuring is not necessary.

3. Rotate the stack and bring the fold closer to you.

4. Cut a 1cm-long slit, about 2cm from the edge on the fold, then cut another slit about 1cm away from the first one.

5. Fold and crease the flap as shown.

You could stop at Step 5, which is officially the end. The next 3 steps seek to hold the flap down.

6. Lift up the flap from Step 5 and create that little hollow space.

7. At the top of the flap, press it down to flatten.

8. Fold down the 2 halves.

Finished!

This is how it looks after you’ve completed all the steps, except for the triangle (Step 2), which has been folded over to the back of the stack instead of forward.

Tips:
The heavier the paper, the bigger the triangle fold and the deeper the slits.

The maximum I’ve gone is 15 sheets.

The shorthand pad look

Last Friday, the need for a distraction (from work) came in the afternoon and so I talked myself into giving bloomize a makeover.

I had designed fake comb binding patterns as a layout for one of my websites in the past but this time I decided to use a real flip-calendar, my camera and some editing at Paint Shop to produce this.

The spiral wire on a real writing pad weakens the bonds esp when you tend to over-flip (I know I will, so that’s why I rarely use it) but with wire pixels, the bonds are permanent.