How to repair a hole in your jeans - or anything.

Cut patch.
Smooth it so it lies right, then pin it.
Sew around it while hanging out with friends or family.  (Big needles are less fiddly to use.)  You can patch on the inside or outside.  If you loop the needle through each loop as you go round, it will make a nice pattern.  When you are done sewing round, "heal" the hole by sewing it down until the edges will no longer fray.

Also - when you start using a needle (you can keep a few big needles and some thread around - don't be fussy or it's no fun) you can use your skill for many things. 

How to make a good old-fashioned slingshot

Cool idea from my father.

"This is the way we used to make slingshots as kids."

How did you make this slingshot today, Dad?

"That stick was a forked branch from a plum tree. I peeled the bark off it. Notice that I notched the top of the forked branches. Notice that I cut a pouch out of leather. I used a strip of inner tube rubber, I stretched it around the notches and wound cotton around to fasten the edges. Lucan stretched the rubber into the holes in the leather, and I used cotton string to tie it."

Glass Milk Bottles seen in Kimberley BC (Canada) that you return for a deposit

Just visiting my good friend who lives in Kimberley, BC, Canada - and was so happy and hopeful to see that they are using a system of actual glass milk bottles there that you return for a deposit and get refilled!

This makes me more happy than one normally feels - at seeing milk sold in a grocery store.

Beautiful.

An Amazingly Beautiful Bathroom in Kawakawa (in the far north) of New Zealand

Cool ideas from the web

The quick and dirty method for separating worms from compost of your worm farm.

A quick way to separate worms from their compost is to dump a whole entire layer into a large vessel, like the one pictured.  Then I then fish the worms out (not as hard as you think, you can feel them and grab them from the brew) and pour and use compost water on garden.  I use this method when I don't have time to fuss around, and would like to clear some room in my compost bin fast!  Also, seeds float to the top, so you can remove future sprouters.  

How to fish them out?  Any utensil - they really grab onto any object which passes through the water they will cling to.  Truly, my rubber gloved hand passes through at the end to make sure I have got them all out (or most - as long as you return as many as you can, they can only assist in the garden - dead or alive...)

I deposit them into a separate bucket which I have ready before I start, then when I am done I throw them all back to work in the worm farm.  I had started initially by using colanders, but they get clogged up and are unnecessary.  With worm farming, your rubber gloves are your best friend (and tossing around the layer you are adding to each time - and adding lots of paper!)

I also have a bucket ready to throw all the crap like seeds, and another for uncompostable crimes of humanity - plastic bits.  The seeds and bits can be composted, tossed somewhere to rot, or perhaps planted.  

This method allows you to clear what you are throwing in your garden from rubbish, or unwanted things - and since you are adding the compost with water, the plants can access the rich brew just fine!  A wonderful method.

For the usual method - which I finally realized how to do easily, go here.

Honey toffee in moulds shaped like animals and flowers and tikis

I started experimenting with making caramel and hard toffee candy after my son Luke asked me how candy is made. Of course the kids all loved it, but I felt bad about how much sugar they were eating. 

I had read a great article on how much better for you honey is than sugar - it is a far more complex food. I did a search. Did you know you can make candy using only honey and butter? (Usually it's made with sugar.) A French recipe makes honey butter candy by boiling equal parts of both to 150 degrees C / 300 F (upper limit of hard crack stage).  Then nuts and dried fruits are added.  

So you can make pure honey candy, which is the healthiest.  For the candies above, I used some sugar.

Mix and boil 

230 g butter
500 g honey
1 cup sugar

Boil candy to 135 C / 275 F.  (You need to use a candy thermometer.)

It turned out great, but a little too much sugar - a few pieces and my blood was racing. I actually wished I had just used honey alone as the French recipe said.