So my awesome headphones that came with my Samsung S3 (plug because I LOVE MY PHONE) finally died after 8 months of use, and I also figured it was time for a new case. I buy only wallet cases now: A. for the extra protection. B. So I don’t have to carry a separate wallet. C. because just look how swell they are!
It’s like an extra piece of jewelry. People always comment on it.
I’ve been wrapping my headphones lately too. It keeps them from tangling, protects them and looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself. I was lucky to find the perfect matching thread to my new case too. Yahtzee!
This is just about the easiest DIY project you could possibly take on. Simply cut a length of thread (use your judgement here) dab a little glue (i used super glue. hot glue might melt your headphones!!) wherever you want to start the wrap, and get wrapping. Once you get to the end, dab a little more glue to finish. I added a tiny bit half way down as well to ensure the thread wouldn’t slip and slide too much.
My last pair of dead phones still have their wrap in tact after months of use. Totally worth the effort!
So whaddya think? Gonna try this out yourself? Have you already? (I know I’m not the first genius to do this after all). Let me see!
Holy Easter egg decorations, batman! Thanks to the internet, Pinterest, and a handful of crafty people, we can all be inspired to go the extra mile this year. And a couple of these are insanely simple.
My favorite is #7, which actually happens to be dip dyed wooden eggs. Which one do you like? Or do you know of a different version I haven’t seen yet? OR!! Did you make a tutorial yourself? Lemme at it!
Problem: Bread is my favorite food. Bread is expensive.
Solution: Learn how to make it.
Problem: HAHAHAHAH Make bread? HAHAHAHAHA
Solution: Suck it up.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. WARM water
6 1/2 c. flour
2 tbsp yeast (or 2 of those little Fleischmann’s packets pictured above)
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp salt
1/3 c. canola oil
1 egg
Tools:
1 large baking pan
1 large mixing bowl
1 large cutting board or counter top
HANDS!
As a first timer this took about 2 hours. It can probably be done much quicker, but don’t quote me on that. It makes a nice dense bread, perfect for sandwiches and all your bread needing desires!
This recipe is a hodgepodge of some I found online and then made my own. Mostly ’cause I didn’t understand them and was nervous so I kept going in for second and third opinions until I just said “screw it!” and figured it out. I think I’ve watched one too many Looney Tunes or something though because I had it in my head that if I screwed up the yeast, it was going to quadruple in size, take over my kitchen, explode and then kill me.
I LOVE October. I think it’s safe to say this is my favorite month of the year. The weather is just right PLUS apple picking/cider PLUS pumpkins PLUS sweaters PLUS Halloween.
I could go on.
I had a blast making pumpkins last year, and this year I want to get a jump start on some really fun ideas. I wish I had time for all of these:
I’ve spent the last 3 weeks+ dressed in work boots, dirty jeans and t-shirts. Heaven? Yes. Of course! But a part of me was really having fun getting… girlier. With my crazy long hair I thought I’d at least throw it up from time to time. But in the end, that’s all I did… throw it up in a giant plop on my head.
With the popularity of my hombre hair post, I thought “I bet there are some cute but easy hair-dos I could try out for work…”
Pinterest to the rescue as usual. Of course, I’ll probably leave the bows at home for fear of the carpenter boys teasing me relentlessly. Plus, I’m not that into bows.
As a photographerand early adopter, I have been dying for this app to become available to me. It’s made me completely insane that A. there’s been a community photography app out there that I couldn’t be a part of and B. my username was just sitting there all vulnerable and waiting to be scooped up by some poseur! But have no fear! I am “rypepper” and always will be (on Instagram)!!
So, let’s get to the fun part first. A few photos:
My First Shot
The Perfect Daffodil and my first use of the frames offered.
I got hungry somewhere in there, so I went to the kitchen.
Had some lunch with our dining room guardian, Burt Reynolds.
Headed back downstairs to start working on this post.
Realized I haven't shown you my first go at a handmade business card stamp yet.
Rolling Jesus was all "Dude, get back to work." So I took a picture. Cause how often does Rolling Jesus talk?
Ok, so let’s do as Rolling Jesus says and get down to the how to of Instagram. If you’re like me and have been Android only (FTW!) then you probably haven’t even bothered to look into it very much. Well, here’s some helpful links to get you started.
But before you do, please go follow me on Instagram. I’m really excited to see you there!
Instagram via the web:
Instagrid - A Clean Web Gallery for Your Instagram Photos
Webstagram - a really great way to access all your followers, find new ones, get links to you images, etc. Also includes fun stuff like Photo of the Day (#photooftheday)
Hashgram - extremely simple search tool for Instagram
Statigram - All the whistles and bells you could possibly desire from an Instagram web viewer including statistics
[instahub] - an all in one stop for all the Instagram related web services
Followgram.me - another way to view yours and other people’s Instagrams, but also includes a handy follow me piece of code (like the one I used above)
Yesterday was a tough day. And let’s face it, when a gal has a tough day, some hair therapy is usually in order, right? Plus I’m trying to girlify my life a little more and as I was perusing all the yummy ombre images on Pinterest (cause that’s the other thing a gal does on a hard day… browse Pinterest), It occured to me that adding a blond gradient to my hair might actually be pretty easy. And just what the doctor ordered.
So, after years of not dying my hair at all… I did it. And now I’m going to share the how-to with you, you poor things.
**Heads up: I have never ever done this before. That’s my “I ain’t no pro, so do as I say at your own risk” disclaimer.**
My DIY tools: Clairol “Born Blonde”, an old tooth brush, precut tin foil and a bowl. Oh, and gloves… not seen here. I hear this is much easier with highlighting bleach kits so keep that in mind if you have darker hair than me.
My before hair. Not bad, but could be a lot more fun. Definitely tired of the dull brownish blonde it’s become over the years.
Step One: Change into a shirt you don’t care about getting dye on and brush your hairs!
Step Two: Apply a pretty healthy dose of the dye about 3-4 inches up, depending on how long your hair is. Use downward strokes with your brush. Set in tin foil and check regularly. I left it in for about 25 minutes before moving on to step 3. **One tip I learned is that when you’re doing it yourself, do NOT go above your shoulders. This leaves room for improvement.
Step three: Take the tips out of the foil and check your color. When it’s about a shade and a half lighter, apply more dye further up your hair. Be sure to fade it in nicely with your brush. Leave the older dye on your tips so it continues to lighten while you do the rest (unless you’ve gone too light, in which case just go ahead and rinse it off). I left this in for another 25 minutes. For a little extra fun, lighten up random strands around your head here and there.
Step Four: Rinse, wash and condition. Then wait approximately 10 years for your hair to dry before you can take a picture of it. GRUMBLE!
I hope you enjoyed this! If you’re thinking of dying your hair, this is a really low maintenance, low hassle way of getting a really fun look. I HIGHLY reccommend it and plan to go even lighter the next time. PLEASE refer to these fantastic videos below. They really helped me learn how to master this technique. OMBRE!
After many years as a professional surfer of the world wide web, I have discovered that the one thing we’re all talking about in the blogosphere (aside from kids, cooking and love of course) is:
Real life is such a total timesink sometimes. Without the advantage of being away at an office, we can be easily distracted by phone calls, snack breaks, music, videos, dilemmas, etc. Yes, being our own boss is a difficult task, but I think with a little forced organization, things would be a lot easier. They do say deadlines are an artist’s best friend. But how on earth to really get ahead of yourself and organize?
Let’s start with the three basic things I need to accomplish in order to at least FEEL like a successful blogger/artiste/person-who-does-things:
Create a post. After all, there’s no blog without content. So I have to be able to find the time to actually write a post including photos/videos or whatever madness I have in mind for that day. Which also reminds me that keeping a healthy handful of themed posts every week really makes life easier (i.e. Wednesday Wants which is an updated version of my old Etsy Wednesday series).
Socialize. This means reading other blogs that mostly fit within my niche and commenting. It’s fun to be a part of the conversation and being a wallflower doesn’t get us anywhere in the blogging world. This also includes my involvement on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc
Projects. This is an art/photography/oh-look-at-the-pretty-things blog. Essentially I’ve got nothing if I’m not creating offline as well as on. I need to shoot pictures and complete those artful projects in order to share them after all. Plus, that’s the real reason I’m here, because I love to create!
So my goal is to (DEEP BREATH): manage all my posts ahead of time which leaves room for socializing and also taking time to carefully and thoughtfully plan out projects which will then allow me to carefully and thoughtfully plan out my posts that people I’m socializing with will want to read and share….
Dang.
I love technology and all the wondrous apps it provides us. Naturally I need the ability to keep track of digital information like links for This Week’s Finds, images, etc, but finding the right program can be extremely daunting.
After research and watching the short video below, I decided to give Evernote a try for one month.
Why the trial run? Because with so many ways to stay digitally organized, it’s easy to get distracted and bounce from one thing to another. This way I am commiting enough to learn and really decide if we’re compatible, but also allowing an escape hatch if it’s just not working out. So far I can report it’s extremely easy, but I’ve barely touched all the whistes-n-bells. Have a look:
I also use my Pinterest for keeping internet things filed neatly. It’s without a doubt the easiest way to keep things organized online, there’s just no good way to sift through it yet. The day they allow us to search through our own boards via date, I doubt we’ll need much else.
More important than any of this is the actual organization of my days. In this way I am and always will be an old-school paper & pen gal. I have a notebook dedicated to keeping ideas, lists, notes for photos, blog posts and projects.
((FYI – I got all these awesome things from Muji. It’s cheap and they’re plain enough for me to want to beat up with everyday use, but also pretty enough to feel creative and fun.))
But what about an every day calendar to stare me in the face and really remind me of the daily to-dos? One that is easily customizable? Well that’s where the super fun part came in:
First of all, this is what it looked like over my desk before:
The bulletin board, although fun and colorful, is basically just a bank for distracting things that no longer really serve as inspiration, just old reminders. Plus, look at all those post-its. Well what better way to solve my dilemma than with a calendar… made of post-its? HM? WHAT BETTER WAY? There is none… see?
It’s like being able to breathe again after… um… not being able to breathe.
Anyhow. This is stupid easy so let’s hop to it:
Materials:
Post-its
24×24 sized piece of construction paper/posterboard/cardboard
colorful tape or gaffers tape
colored pencils, crayons, markers
hands or really talented feet
a ruler (optional)
Reason #1 why I need to be more organized, I am embarrassed to say that this photographer pretty much sucks at remembering to take photos when I’m working on projects like this. It’s on my to-do list to get better at that.
So yada yada I used a large piece of black construction paper and cut it into the 24×24 shape. I truly hate measuring and leveling things and prefer to use my eye to hang pictures. I used that same “technique” I like to call “looking” when I made this calendar by simply placing the post-its in a uniform manner until I was satisfied. Voila:
Now you can skip the next part I did and simply tape out lines if you want, but I’m a crazy loon and used some crayon to fill-in the cracks between post-its in order to get my calendar lines:
Then I removed the post-its, used gaff tape to really emphasize where the lines are and get a nice raised effect, then mounted the paper to cardboard (which is why you still see some wet glue wrinkles that later dried nice and smooth):
I’m way too impatient for absolute perfection, which is why this photo was taken before I filled in all the days nicely.
I want to point out that I’ve designed a kind of sliding calendar. I don’t know about you, but I need more than just one month at a time in front of me. So as every day of this month passes, I remove a post-it and add one for next month. I use colors to separate the dueling days. Here you see March slowly disappearing while April begins to arrive.
I have been flipping through my overwhelming blog feed and realized that just about every other post is someone sharing a tasty cocktail recipe to ring in the new year. It kinda makes me wish I was hosting a party!
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA no it doesn’t!! But it does make me want to have a few drinks!
Seriously, punks. These are some of the finest looking beverages I’ve ever seen. I whittled it down to 8 favorites:
the frostbite mocktail (add vodka for cock…tail)
Mulled wine: Cider. Wine. Honey. Other stuff. I'm in.
Campfire Martini. It's a drink, with a perfectly burned marshmallow in it. Um.
It’s like an extra piece of jewelry. People always comment on it.
This is just about the easiest DIY project you could possibly take on. Simply cut a length of thread (use your judgement here) dab a little glue (i used super glue. hot glue might melt your headphones!!) wherever you want to start the wrap, and get wrapping. Once you get to the end, dab a little more glue to finish. I added a tiny bit half way down as well to ensure the thread wouldn’t slip and slide too much.
