The Secret Yumiverse How-Tos
How To: Change Negative Thoughts into Positive Ones
When we are dealing with something as abstract as your thought process, visualization is the best way to improve the way you think your thoughts. So what is the easiest way to change your negative thoughts? Literally imagine flipping them around to its optimistic counterpart. It also helps to imagine them as little monsters, too.
Drawing 101: How to Sketch Your First Caricature (Portrait)
If you've ever been to an amusement park or carnival, or even just been on a stroll down the boardwalk or promenade, then you probably know exactly what a caricature drawing is—those cartoony depictions of people or things with extremely exaggerated or oversimplified features that create a comedic effect. Caricatures aren't just for street artists, though—they also work great for political satire and entertainment purposes.
How To: Do a Very Basic Ikebana Flower Arrangement
Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, dates back to over 500 years ago and is still practiced as a highly respected cultural art form in modern-day Japan.
How To: Roll Your Own Sushi
The next time you are craving sushi, how about making it yourself? All you need is some sushi rice (you CAN use leftover white rice, but this would taste better), sheets of nori (seaweed), a sushi rolling mat and your favorite sushi ingredients. Do the classic California roll (avocado, imitation crab meat, cucumber, daikon radish) or go crazy with your own unique sushi invention (tempeh? smoked salmon? shredded kale? Anything goes).
How To: Fold a Chopsticks Rest from Its Paper Wrapper
The next time you go out for sushi with friends, impress your company by fashioning your own chopstick rest using the paper wrapper the wooden chopsticks come in. Keeping the ends of your chopstick off the table surface makes for good hygiene (who knows when was the last time the table was really wiped clean?), and there is no awkward moment of getting your chopsticks off your plate when your server whisks your finished plate away mid-meal. Gotta love functional origami.
How To: Make Your Own Homemade Tea
The next time you are in the mood for a hot drink, make your own tea bags to brew at home. Grab your favorite herbs and spices from your garden or your local supermarket. Mix and match your favorite combination, add to an empty tea bag, and steep in hot water. Voilà—instant one-of-a-kind tea and instant brownie points for your DIY street cred.
How To: Feel Awake in the Mornings (Without Caffeine)
For a quick pick-me-up in the morning, a hot cup of coffee is usually enough to wake up even the most groggy of risers—but feeling fully awake in the morning is possible without a single drop of caffeine.
How To: 5 Cool Things to Do with Origami Paper Cranes
Origami paper cranes make for lovely eye candy and, once you know how to fold them, become wonderfully meditative when you compulsively make a bunch of them in one long sitting.
How To: 7 Random Uses for Used Tea Bags
The next time you brew yourself a nice cup of hot tea, don't throw the tea bag away. Old tea bags can be used in many ways ranging from household cleanup to DIY beauty and even gardening.
CONTEST WINNER: How to Peel an Orange in Just One Piece
Thank you to everybody who submitted entries to last week's Secret Tips Of The Yumiverse: DIY Contest!
How To: Make Rabbit-Shaped Apple Slices for Your Bento or Sack Lunch
Apple slices are so meh... that is, until you add bunny ears to them. A long-standing staple of bento lunches in Japanese and Japanese-American households, bunny-shaped apple slices are quite easy to make and sure to bring a smile to your face—or you child's face.
How To: 8 Ways to Get Started as a Guerrilla Street Artist
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a gallery space or expensive art education to share your art with the rest of the world. Take a cue from today's innovative artists who share their creative experiments directly out on the streets and in public spaces for the everyday pedestrian in unique and quirky ways. And no, you don't have to be a skilled graffiti tagger, either. Just some yarn, random knick-knacks, photos, and Post-it notes as well as other basic office supplies.
Home Remedies for Dogs: Treating Fleas, Bad Breath, & Skunk Smell
They don't refer to them as "man's best friend" for nothing. Your dog can be your best pal and least judgmental confidante, so make sure you take good care of him or her! When the occasion arises (which is hopefully never), follow the three home remedies below for treatment of fleas, bad breath, and skunk smell—you may even save a few pennies in the process.
How To: 5 Clever Uses for Toothpaste (No Teeth Involved)
Almost every human being on the planet uses toothpaste daily, but typically for just one task—oral hygiene. Keeping your teeth clean is undoubtedly important, but this magical mixture of abrasives, fluoride, and detergents must be useful for more than just scrubbing your chops, right? For instance, it's great at removing scuff marks from shoes!
How To: Yumi's Vegetable Cooking Cheat Sheet
To some, vegetables are even more flavorful than meat, but they're also more sensitive—overcook them and they go from extremely delicious to extremely icky real quick. They generally require very little prep, and the best recipes are the simplest. A little salt, olive oil, and garlic—just watch them close, and make sure you time it right. Print out this handy drawing, set your timer, and you'll never have soggy, ill-cooked veggies again.
How To: The Secret to Keeping Cake Fresh
You just baked a yummy cake, but who can eat it all? If you're lucky, you don't have a gang of family members gobbling up your leftovers—it's just you and one delicious slice a day for the rest of the week. But you don't want your cake getting stale on you. The secret is all in the way you slice it—and a spare apple doesn't hurt, either.
How To: Yumi's Guide to Easter Egg Blowing
Get crafty this Easter weekend with egg blowing, a technique where you poke holes on the ends of raw eggs and blow out all the yolk so that you can use the empty, still-intact eggshells for painting and decorating. Fun for the whole family and all that huffing and puffing just may distract you long enough from over-binging on the giant chocolate bunny and that package of sugary Peeps. Happy Easter!
How To: Old Wives' Tale or Science? 20 Snacks That Just Might Make You Sleepy
I'm sure you've heard that binging on turkey will make you sleepy, and there's a reason for that. Turkey contains tryptophan, which some believe is the go-to amino acid for increasing serotonin (a calming neurotransmitter) and/or melatonin (a sleep inducing hormone) in your brain. Some say old wives tale, some say science, but clinical research has shown mixed results in regard to its effectiveness as a sleep aid.
How To: 5 Simple Ways to Cure Stinky Breath
For general purposes, and in case of unexpected make-out sessions with that person you've been crushing on forever, it always helps to make sure that breath of yours is minty fresh as often as possible. And no, you don't need be yakking on breath mints 24/7 or swigging a bottle of mouthwash hidden under a paper bag. Below are 5 super easy DIY tips and tricks for curing bad breath and keeping it fresh.
How To: 9 Eat-Me Flowers for Haute Cuisine
Flowers can be just as delicious as they are beautiful—as long as you know which flowers to choose and what to use them for. Nasturtium salads, rose jam, chrysanthemum-sprinkled cakes—the possibilities are as endless as the shapes and colors the flowers come in.
How To: 10 Extraordinary Uses for the Ordinary Lemon
Seriously, what can a lemon not do? Other than being your go-to fruit for making lemonade, this versatile citrus can do some household cleanup, deodorize bad smells, alleviate sunburns, and much, much more. Read on and you will never look at a lemon the same way again.
How To: Reduce Your Pain Body
Your "pain body" is a parasitic energy entity that feeds on your negative energy. (From the Intent Blog.)
How To: Listen to the Space Between Your Thoughts
The silent spaces between your thoughts are sacred. (From the Intent Blog.)
How To: Be a Silent Witness to Your Thoughts
Yumi's beautiful guide to mental peace.
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