Starbucks CopyCat Pumpkin Spice Latte

One of Starbuck's best selling items is there Pumpkin Spice Latte. 

I liked it so much that I decided to try and replicate it. After many failed attempts and almost killing myself throughout the process, I've finally found a recipe good enough!

What You Need

For the Pumpkin Syrup:
2 1/2 Cups water
1 Tbsp nutmeg
1 1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon (or 3 Cinnamon sticks)
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger (or 1/2 inch piece of fresh)
1 Cup of Sugar
3 Tbsp Pumpkin Puree
Cheese Cloth

For Serving: (Not pictured)
1/2 Cup Espresso or Strong Coffee
1/2 Cup Milk (Warmed and Frothed if drinking it hot)

3 Tbsp Pumpkin Syrup (more or less to taste)

Step One

For the pumpkin syrup, combine the water and spices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and allow them to simmer for 20 minutes.

After spices have simmered, strain the mixture through the cheese cloth. (You can then pass it through coffee filters for a smoother syrup)

Rinse the remaining spices out of the pot. Return the reserved liquid to the pot, and mix in the pumpkin and sugar.

Bring back to a boil - reduce heat and simmer for another 10 minutes.


Store the syrup in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Can be stored for several weeks.

Step Three

For Hot Coffee: Add syrup into mug, pour hot coffee on top - top with steamed / frothed milk.

For Cold Coffee: mix syrup and coffee - add ice, top with cold milk.

Mosquito Killer

This is a very simple concoction that i came up with one day. It Was originally supposed to be ant killer, but it just made them even more upset. So i tried it on the insect that bothered me even more than ants: mosquitoes. AND IT WORKED! so i tried it on gnats; IT WORKED! So I thought that I should share it with everyone else. 

What You Need

1. Listerine Mouthwash
2. Dish soap
3. Vinegar
4. Water
5. Spray bottle (Windex)
6. (1 cup) measuring cup

Step 1: Mouthwash

Put half a cup of mouthwash into the spray bottle. This one is for the mosquitoes.

Step 2: Vinegar 

Add about 1/4 cup of vinegar into the spray bottle. This is very acidic and irritates the insects. if you add a lot of this, you can sprinkle baking soda onto ant hills and spray the finished product on it. this will fizz up and the ants will become trapped.

Step 3: Dish Soap

Add about 1/4 cup of dish soap to the mixture. This makes the wings of gnats and mosquitoes stick together. If they don't die by the time they hit the ground, you can crush them. Don't add too much, because it can clog up the straw in the spray bottle.

Step 4: Water

Add as much water as you would like. The more you add, the longer it will last. If you don't add much, it will be a lot more potent, and could possibly kill ants. i would recommend using more water.

GO MOSQUITO HUNTING!

Shake the bottle up and kill some bugs!

Another Simple Way to Wrap Your Headphones so they dont Tangle

Check out this video we found of an even easier way to wrap your headphones!

DIY Crystal Clear Rainbow Ice

Heres a neat way to cool your drinks with a flair!

Woah! Pretty right!?

Materials Needed:

All you are going to need for this is a measuring cup, food coloring, an ice tray, and water!

Step One: Boiling

Fill up a microwave safe cup full of water (better to have to much than to little) and boil in microwave for 3:30 min. After it has cooled, boil it one more time and let it cool. This eliminates dissolved air and decomposes minerals in the water.

Step Two: Freezing

After the water has cooled for the second time pour it into the ice cube tray and put 1-3 drops of food coloring in each little cup of water. Then put it in the freezer overnight and let it freeze. Some tips for this step are: 

-Fill each little cup with water just below the top so the colors don't mix

 -Use something to carefully stir the food coloring into the water

 -Be as careful as you can when moving the ice tray into the freezer, one tiny wrong move could mix two colors and ruin the whole thing

ENJOY!

After the colored water has frozen, pop it out of the tray into your choice of drink and enjoy! PS. Because of the color, it looks the best in water, but since its still just ice you can put it in any drink you want. Also be prepared because when it starts to melt it gets messy! You could also substitute something like flavors for the food coloring and add some flavor to your boring water!

Wine Cork Fishing Bobber

I came up with this idea...well because I like to come up with free things all the time.

What you need:

Wine Corks

Stainless Wire

Wire Cutter

Step One: Push Wire Through

Find a straight piece of stainless wire a little longer than your cork. Put a hook on one end with your pliers/wire cutters. Push it through as centered as you can on the cork. Pull it all the way through where the hook is buried in the cork. Now cut the wire just long enough to put a second hook in it.

Put the second hook on it and

YOUR DONE

Push the wire back and forth a couple times to where it can later be done by hand. You can now add this to your fishing rig. Some other ideas might be to spray paint them a fluorescent color or even glow in the dark if you will be night fishing. Add weights to the wire if you so desire. Thanks for looking!

Homemade Butter

Making your own butter is very fun, easy, and healthy! I learned this little trick back in middle school (forever ago, I know).

All youre going to need is:

-1 pint of heavy cream

-1/2 tablespoon of salt

-Food processor or you can use a container with a lid

-Cheese cloth

Step One

Pour the heavy cream and salt into the food processor (or container)

Step Two

Turn on your processor and let it do its magic. It'll sound like liquid for a few seconds but then you'll be able to tell that some butter magic is happening! If you don't have a food processor - this step involves you shaking the container and getting a workout. 

Step Three

5 minutes in and I SEE BUTTER! If you are using the shake-weight method this will most likely take more than 5 minutes but I promise its worth it!

Step Four

Take a bowl and put two layers of cheese clothe above it. Pour all the buttermilk through it (so all the butter will be in the cheesecloth)

I then squeezed the ball of butter to get all the buttermilk out of it

Step Five

At this point you want to rinse the butter with cold water and kneed it. This is to get all the buttermilk out of it because the butter WILL go sour after a few days if the milk is not all gone!

Step Six

I then squeezed all the butter into a tupperware container and put it into the fridge. It's dangerous to taste it at this point because it might not make it to the fridge ;) 

Enjoy!

How to Easily Use Key Rings

Key Rings are annoying. We all hate pinching our fingers and chipping our fingernails trying to get them open. Right when you think you have it - it somehow manages to slam shut again. We here at DIY Kingdom have thought of a very easy way to fix this with just a quarter :)


Instructions
- Get a coin about the size of a quarter.
- Press the edge of the coin against the key ring at a 45 degree angle, near where it opens; the coin will slide under part of the key ring, lifting the end up.
- Apply pressure to the coin so that it lifts up the end of the key ring enough to slide the key on. Then slide the key on.
- Remove the coin and slide the key on the rest of the way.

How to Wrap Headphones So they DONT Tangle

Everyone hates tangled headphones so heres a really easy way to wrap them so they DONT tangle!

All you need is 

-Headphones

-Cable Trunking

Step One:

Step Two:

Step Three

Pretty easy! Hope you enjoyed this DIY trick and keep coming back for more!

Repair Broken Glasses Hinge

My glasses broke a few days ago so I decided to fix them myself! Heres how I did it:

So I decided to repair them using 1mm thick steel string (*) to form a hinge and temple in one single piece.

This method may not apply to any glasses. It depends on how the hinge is made.

(*) that is used in RC models to transmit the force from servos to controls.

Step One

1. With pliers, make a loop with the steel string. You can use a small screwdriver to roll the string around.
2. The internal diameter must correspond to the original hinge screw.
3. Cut out the excess string, and hammer the loop flat.
4. Adjust the loop so that it turns smoothly into the hinge, with proper angular limitation. This is the only tricky part.
5. Assemble using the original hinge screw.

Step Two: Shaping the Temple

DONE

Not entirely too difficult and it looks pretty nice! Better than paying hundreds of dollars for a repair!  

How to Catch 50+ Fleas in One Night

Recently our cat got infested by fleas and we've been seeing alot of them around our house. I've developed a homemade flea catcher that caught me over 50 fleas in one night!

What you need:

Dish Soap
Ground Black Pepper
LED Night Light
Container Lid
Toaster Oven Tray

Step 1:

We take our lid, fill it with water, and squeeze generous amounts of soap into it. Simply stir the water a bit and keep adding soap until the when you add a pinch of pepper, it sink right to the bottom of the lid. The tray is there to make sure my cat doesn't drink the solution - which I'm sure would taste bad anyways.

My best guess on the water to soap ratio: 2 cups water to 4 TBSP soap.

Step 2: The Trap

So this is serious business and at this point I'm sure you feel like the Crocodile hunter right now. Now that we have created our trap, its time to plant it!

Alright now as you can see we have placed a LED light right above the trap. The fleas will go towards the light and BAM bounce right into the soapy water in which they will sink and drown.

Results

I'd say it was a SUCCESS! 

Cheap and Effective Homemade Makeup Remover

Makeup remover can be very expensive, so we decided to make our own! With this method anyone can make it with materials found around the house!

Lets get started!

Step One: Gather Supplies

1. Extra virgin olive oil (plain olive oil will do too but it's better to use extra virgin olive oil)
2. Water
3. Container to hold the makeup remover
4. Something to measure oil and water (We used a tablespoon)

Step Two: Mix and SHAKE 

Take 2 parts oil and 1 part water and empty it into your container. This can be exponentially high enough till your container is full. Just remember to use the 2:1 ratio.

Now close the lid and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE!

Step Three: Use

I've tried it many times on my hand so I know it works. If you have any skin problems I would suggest seeing a doctor before using.

Just apply with your finger and wipe it off with a cleenex or wet nap!

Enjoy!

Simple Apple Sauce

Who doesn't like Apple Sauce? Its a childhood favorite and if you're like me, you still love it even being an adult.

Today at DIY Kingdom we are going to show you how to make simple, yet delicious Apple Sauce!

I'll be describing how to make this sauce in very basic steps which will only take about 15 minutes once you finish cutting the apples. Of course, you may always improvise with different types of apples and adding other ingredients, such as nuts.

What you need to make apple sauce: for 2 people

• 5 small apple
• 3 to 4 table spoon of brown sugar 

Step One: Slice Apples

Peel apples and cut in eights
Take off the core.
Thinly slice them. I usually slice as thin as 1mm.

It takes some effort, yet it's good to clear your mind. :) We are so multitasking in our busy life, so it's good to focus on such a simple task. I think it's meditative.

Step Two: Boil Apples

Put a little water in the pot. I didn't measure, but it was a little more than 1/2 inch deep in the pot.
Start boiling the water. Once you start seeing a little bubbles in the pot, add apples you prepared in the previous step.

Step Three: Add Sugar

Continue cooking with medium heat.
Add 3 table spoon of brown sugar. Taste it, and add some more if you want. Stir from time to time.

At this point it will cook pretty fast. I would say about 10-15 minutes.

Step Four: EAT

When the texture starts to feel like apple sauce, it's done! You are now ready to enjoy your masterpiece! I like to have a side of maple syrup incase it's not sweet enough.

Hope you enjoyed todays DIY instructions! Come back tomorrow for the next posting!