The Secret Yumiverse: Page 11

Need to start a fire and have no lighter? All you need is a clear water bottle or jar, some water, and kindling—and for the weather to be very sunny during noon time. Tilt the water bottle or jar at an angle so that the water in the container can focus the sun's light into as small of an area as possible. Keep the container at this position for as long as possible until enough heat is created to start a glowing ember.

You suspect somebody is lying to you. What are the signs you should watch out for?

Want to keep your money and valuables safe while traveling abroad? Play it safe and outsmart thieves by placing your money, passport, jewelry and other expensive things in unexpected places. Sew a secret inner pocket in your pants, or if that's too much work, try cutting open a tennis ball, using empty film canisters, or simply placing a small amount of money in a spare wallet while your real wallet is more concealed within your luggage or purse.

Let's face it: most commercial bathroom products are overpriced and loaded with weird chemicals. So how about a 2012 resolution to go completely DIY with two bathroom essentials many of us use on a daily basis: toothpaste and shaving cream?

Is your face shriveling up from the dry winter air? Do your hands feel all scaly and gross? Are the heels of your feet shedding skin flakes? If moving to Hawaii for the winter season is out of the question, you can relieve your dry winter skin with some quick and cheap DIY home remedies.

Just get some pure peppermint oil and put it on the end of a napkin or tissue or a swab. Put it around youre nostrils and breath in deep.  It is very refreshing and opens up those clogged sinuses . After a while you stop coughing. Do it until you stop.

A seasonal tradition brought over from Japan to America by Japanese-American farmers, making hoshigaki (as they're called in Japanese) is a fun outdoor autumn project you can do before the winter season really kicks in. Hang a bunch of peeled persimmons on a string outside, wait for three to five weeks, and harvest yourself some naturally dried persimmons during the winter months. Though peeling the fruit and then regularly massaging the fruit every few days after hanging may be more labor...

How do you stay toasty warm for the winter season without having to overexert your heating bill?

Keep your smile pearly white without buying a teeth-whitening kit or making an expensive visit to the doctor's office. One popular home remedy is to add a little bit of baking soda to your tooth paste on a weekly basis when you brush your teeth. (Do not do this more than once a week, as too much baking soda can permanently erode the enamel on your teeth).

Gina Kometani posted such a cool tip to the community corkboard, I had to illustrate it!

The most dangerous thing about having a bunch of baked goods in your home is the possibility that you will gorge on all of them. If you are in a cupcake-y mood, but want to keep your sugar-happy gluttonous side in check, just make enough batter for two cupcakes in a single mixing bowl. Sharing is optional.

Sick of the standard bread baked in a loaf pan? Impress your family and friends by baking bread in a plain terracotta flower pot. Baking bread in a terracotta pot makes for crispy bread with a tender and moist interior. Make sure the terra cotta pot is unglazed and unpainted before using it.

Don't let a missing corkscrew deter you from uncorking your bottle of wine at your next party, picnic or romantic dinner at home. Following up on a previous post on how to open a bottle of wine using just a towel and a flat, vertical surface (a wall or a wide tree trunk), listed below are three more handy ways you can open a bottle of wine using common household objects or tools. And what better way to impress your date than taking off your shoe, placing a wine bottle between your knees, and...

What do you do when you have a bottle of wine ready to uncork, but no corkscrew on hand?

This would make a fantastic illustrated Yumi-guide.

Other than keeping your popsicles and frozen veggies frosty, who would have thought that your everyday freezer had so many uses? Just like your dishwasher can be used for many non-cookware items, the freezer can be used in a variety of useful ways that don't involve perishable food.

Are the furniture pieces in your living space starting to look faded, old and beat up? Gather some milk, vaseline, pecan nuts, lemon juice, olive oil and toothpaste, and you already have a fine assortment of tools to help you restore your wooden, leather, vinyl and glass furniture to some of its former glory.

Contrary to what the infomercials may tell you, you don't have to own a gajillion kitchen gadgets and utensils to function properly in the kitchen when you're preparing a meal or dessert at home. To save money and space, get acquainted with the unexpected multiple functions that are possible with your everyday kitchen tools.

What do you do when you're right in the middle of your cooking or baking groove and realize that you're missing an extremely vital ingredient? Rather than delaying your next meal or one-person cake-eating party with a last minute trip to the supermarket, get around your missing ingredient by substituting another common ingredient. Below are 13 handy cooking and baking substitutions that just might save you time or money for your next cooking and baking adventure.

Refresh your wardrobe without buying a single new article of clothing. Yep, it can be done.

Never buy pasta sauce from the supermarket again. Or salad dressing. Or pie crusts, chicken stock, hummus, bread crumbs and other common cooking staples that can be easily replicated within the comfort of your own kitchen.

Too much partying and lounging under the mid-day sun? If your attempt at a toasty caramel tan has instead resulted in a bright red sunburn, you fortunately have many common household items at your disposal to relieve the discomfort and speed up the recovery of your burnt skin.

Rusty screw that won't go loose? Tiny nails fallen behind work bench? Get acquainted with nifty DIY toolbox tricks to make your home maintenance projects as smooth-sailing as possible when you are dealing with nails, nuts and bolts, and other possibly sharp metal objects.

Want to avoid getting your blood sucked by annoying little insects without breathing in toxic bug spray? Below are 5 DIY ways to create mosquito repellents with 100 percent all natural ingredients to avoid that annoying summertime itch.

Jim Lahey's no-knead bread is my favorite easy bread recipe. I've written an article about it, with a slight adaptation of Lahey's recipe here. I'd love to see the instructions drawn out Yumi-style!

Thank you to everybody who submitted entries to last week's Secret Tips Of The Yumiverse: DIY Contest!

My idea for a Yumi-fied how-to guide is this: Learn to juggle.  I thought for the longest time that I couldn't juggle because of some personal deficiency. That, somehow, a connection between the two halves of my brain and my hands could not be formed and I would never be able to do it.  I had watched people do it, I had even bought sets of special juggling balls (regular balls sold in a nice box) but nothing seemed to work. It seemed as though the ability to juggle was a gift possessed by some,...

Yumi, who knew mouthwash was so useful?! I certainly didn't!

This is one of the very first recipes my mom gave me when I moved out. Being Chinese, she didn't bother giving me a written recipe. It's pretty simple, and an excellent way to use your rice cooker:

I'd love to see a YUMI guide for how to draw hands (No matter what I try, my hands always seem to come out looking like fat sausage balloons, way too large for the body they're supposed to be attached to).

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