Year: 2009

How-To: Catnip Castle

As a pet lifestyle expert, I’m often asked the question, “What do cats want?” The answer is simple: A fun outlet for their instinctive needs to scratch and climb. Unfortunately, most commercial pet playgrounds consist of towers (aka “cat condos”) and scratching posts swathed in hideous nylon broadloom. If you dread displaying these eyesores at home, you can now make your very own Catnip Castle. Easy to craft out of corrugated cardboard, it mounts to the wall, niftily saving room in small spaces. While the Castle’s sculptural lines are aesthetically appealing, it also works as furniture insurance, keeping Kitty’s claws gainfully occupied.

How-to: Muddle Some Mojitos!

I tasted my first mojito in the mid- to late 90s in a bar called Absinthe in San Francisco. A co-worker named Mike Little insisted that I taste his, and one sip later I was hooked. Back at home, I searched for various recipes, did some testing, and at the next backyard BBQ with friends, […]

Akro-Mils storage cases

Akro-Mils storage cases

One of my upcoming Toolbox columns is going to cover shop storage tech. So I was happy to see this positive review of Akro-Mils storage cases in today’s Cool Tools: Working in industrial design, I constantly acquire small sets of parts to use for multiple clients and projects. I’ve tried using a variety of translucent […]

Fashioning Technology Smart Materials Kit

If you’ve ever thought about expanding your crafting horizons by trying out some of the new high tech materials available to us today, like photochromatic inks, polymorph plastic, and conductive thread, you should definitely check out Syuzi Pakhchyan’s Fashioning Technology book. This DIY intro to smart crafting is an invaluable resource that walks you through the materials and tools you can use, gives technical primers on everything from LEDs to soldering to troubleshooting, and then offers 12 innovative projects of wearables, home goods, and toys you can make.