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Photo: mattbellphoto / Flickr

Old picture and mirror frames tend to lose their pristine condition over time, especially if they are moved around a lot. If you’ve found a beautiful piece that needs some refinishing, give it a thorough cleaning before you start working on it. Use an old toothbrush, a soft cloth and a very gentle cleaner. Use turpentine to remove old, dirty wax. Don’t allow the frame to get too wet. Once cleaned, the frame’s moulding can be seen to. (more…)

Photo: Marshall Astor – Food Pornographer / Flickr

This poppyseed cake is rich and flavourful as it incorporates rum-soaked raisins, butter, ground poppyseeds, caster sugar, honey, vanilla sugar, ground almonds, lemon rind and egg between layers of sweet shortcrust pastry. Prepare your shortcrust pastry in advance so that is well rested, in which case allow for a preparation time of just over half an hour and a baking time of 35 minutes. You will require a buttered 23 cm square cake tin or a rectangular baking dish. (more…)

Photo: jam_90s / Flickr

The London Stock Exchange is all abuzz with 100,000 new worker bees set to be employed on its rooftops next month, according to The Independent. The fourth-largest stock exchange in the world has already received the bees’ new home in the form of two beehives. The London Stock Exchange is planning to give the honey away as corporate gifts. The move to bring in honey bees is a small effort to address the threat of a falling honey bee population in Europe. (more…)

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Loneliness in a relationship can be painful but it is also a common problem. One may blame one’s partner for a lack of physical or emotional intimacy but there may also be other reasons worth investigating. Stress may play a role as well as distance from a supportive base of family and friends. Perhaps you are incompatible or you’re growing in different directions. Some people have a genetic predisposition to loneliness while others may be distant because of their upbringings. (more…)

Photo: Sami Taipale / Flickr

You’d probably have to wash dishes for a year before you you’d be allowed to cook rice as a potential sushi chef in Japan. But luckily, the secrets to making good sushi rice are out there and you won’t have to spend a full year preparing rice before you get onto the fishy side of things. Here we share with you how to get the rice just right for sushi, as well as how to prepare the vinegar mixture. (more…)

Photo: roland / Flickr

Chocolate chiffon cake, like all chiffon cakes, shouldn’t be baked in a tin that has ever been greased. The cake can be used as a base for several desserts or as a replacement for black forest cake. The cake requires cocoa, flour, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, salt, sunflower oil, eggs, vanilla extract, cream of tartar and some boiling water. Allow for a preparation time of about 40 minutes and a baking time of an hour. (more…)

Photo: davidz / Flickr

If you are unable to focus, you’ll find that you often have to fight off brain fatigue, besides getting lost halfway through a task. The good news is that training your brain to concentrate is completely possible. And once you are able to focus on the matter at hand, without allowing your mind to wander, you’ll start to fly through whatever you’re doing. Here are some concentration tips, but keep it in mind that it always helps to start with a healthy lifestyle. (more…)

Photo: roryrory / Flickr

When you’re faced with the problem of a broken piece of wood on a treasured piece of furniture, your main objective should be to repair it without any evidence of the repair. This is especially the case if you are working with an antique. If you’re not up to repairing the piece yourself, rather take it to a professional restorer than run the risk of a ‘broken repair’. If you are up to the challenge though, read on for some tips. (more…)

Photo: avlxyz / Flickr

Once you know how to make choux pastry, the world is your oyster when it comes to creating delicate pastries. That’s because choux pastry goes into the making of delectable treats like chocolate éclairs, choux puffs and Saint Honore chouxs. Here we show you how to make ice-cream filled profiteroles with chocolate sauce (once your choux buns are baked). (more…)

Photo: benwarren / Flickr

There is a lot that you can do to work your abdomen besides crunches. Sports like rowing, skiing, walking and running offer more than just aerobic activity, because they all work your core area to some degree. But if you’re wanting to zone in on your core for abdominal strength then consider doing abdominal crunches. We’ll show you how to go about doing two types of crunches including an easy version and a difficult version. We’ll also look at working the diagonal abdominals. (more…)