It’s hot! The only thing worse than a warm beverage on a hot summer’s day is ice that melts prematurely. Standard ice cubes just don’t stand up to summer heat the way they should. This summer, keep your beverage frostier than an Alaskan winter morning with oversized ice cubes. Simply use muffin tins (silicon style work best) and freeze some ice that will give your standard trays cube-envy.

Ah, the glorious avocado! When perfectly ripe, the avocado lives up to its superfood reputation. But how to know when buttery-smooth, green ripe fruit awaits you? Remove the stem of an avocado – if it’s green and the Avocado is soft, it’s ripe. If it’s brown it’s too ripe (and sometimes frightening looking inside).

If you’re tired of that flimsy, cheap looking plastic paper towel holder, why not go to the other extreme? Our friends over at Design, Dining and Diapers put together a nifty how-to that results in an inexpensive, industrial-chic paper towel holder that just about anyone can make with a few easy to find materials. A little wood and some plumbing parts go a long way with this project. Check out the full details on the DD&D site.

Whether you’re looking to do monograms or pithy sayings, stenciling letters and words with laundry marker or fabric paint can turn flour sack towels high-end.

Carefully drive a screw around 2/3 of the way into the cork (don’t make the screw bigger than a corkscrew or you can shatter the bottle). Grab the screw head firmly with a pair of pliers and pull!