Me, My Shelf and I

Carly asks:

Hey Beth, I need to put a shelf in my pantry, where can I go to find one on the cheap?

"94.7thHStreetFestival.NE.WDC.17September2011" by Elvert Barnes licensed under  CC BY-SA 2.0

When looking for shelf to be placed in an exact amount of space, the cheapest route to take would be to make your own.  You may be able to find something pre-made to fit the measurements of your pantry, but unless it is a pretty standard size, you may not have much choice when it comes to cost.

In the Washington, D.C. area, I suggest checking out Community Forklift.  They are a treasure trove of reclaimed building materials and a DIYer's dream!  In addition to shelves or shelf pieces, you can also score some brass doorknobs, a claw-foot bathtub or a vintage light fixture.  The prices are incredibly reasonable and you'll be reusing instead of buying new!

Let's keep it brief

Dan asks:

Hey Beth, I need a classic-looking briefcase.  I want something that isn't too fancy, but I don't want to look like a broke college student either.

One word:  Saddleback.

Although a bit on the pricey side, they have a 100-year warranty.  That wasn't a typo.

One hundred years.

So the price may look steep, but you'll never need to buy another briefcase again.  They look pretty casual but the quality of the bag really shows that you're a professional with an excellent eye for detail.

As a bonus, here's how to make a Saddleback knock-off:

Why can't all this tech stuff work together?

Hey Beth, why can't everything just get along?  I've got a tumblr, a Jawbone Up, Instagram, Gmail, and a bunch of other applications.  I really want to make them all interact with each other but of course, they don't.  Have any magical ways to fix that?

Actually, there is a way to actually make this work.  It's called IFTTT (pronounced like 'gift' without the 'g').  Which means 'if this, then that.'

They are a free service that allows you to make conditional statements about your different applications.  For example, I set it up so that when I post to this blog, it also posts to my tumblr.

They have an iPhone app in addition to their web app so you can set up different relationships (or 'recipes') from anywhere.

IFTTT

Bonus!  IFTTT office dog blog!

Rain, rain go away

Hey Beth, I hate the rain.  Do you have a website to fix that?

No one's made a website that controls the weather just yet, but if you dread rainy days, it really helps to have the happiest umbrella on earth.  Get yourself an umbrella that you are so excited to use that you can't wait until it rains.  Here are some of my favorites:

Samurai Umbrella from Neatorama's Neatoshop

Lightsaber Umbrella from ThinkGeek

The Colour Change Umbrella from suckUK
My personal favorite and it hasn't rained since I got it.  :(

Scotch Tape

Hey Beth, why is it called Scotch tape?

First of all, Scotch is a brand, not a kind of tape (like Kleenex and Chapstick are brands, not items), made by the company 3M.  The legend behind the choosing of the name is that one of the first iterations of masking tape was not quite adhesive enough.  The bodyshop painter attempting to use the tape exclaimed, "Take this tape back to your Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!"

MIT article