Do It Yourself: Warm Hands

It occurred to me this morning that winter is, in fact, cold. This was quite a shocking revelation. Granted, this cold should be taken with a grain of salt because I wear sweatshirts in summer. Still! It is too cold, especially with no snow. At least if we had snow I could throw snowballs at my friends on our daily trek to fitness (*everyone sighs and whines*). This trip is horrible, not just because we are on our way to a horrible circular track in a stuffy dusty room, but the cold is killer on the hands. With this cold hand problem present, I'm ready to embark on my next project: hand warmers.

 ---side note: My camera is broken so I couldn't take pictures. I know this presents an issue, just work with me here and I'll post pictures as soon as I can.                                         

What you'll need:

• cold hands (or a friend with cold hands. or both.)
• white rice
• felt
• scissors
• sewing supplies (be they a machine and thread or thread and needle)
• microwave

Tutorial:

1. Take your felt and lay one piece (or end) over the other. Make sure there is enough felt for 2-4 layers of 3-4 inch hand warmers (2 if you want one hand warmer, 4 if you want one for each hand)
2. Pick a shape. Any shape. Your favorite shape. (I'm doing hearts because they're so cute and sweet and lovey.) Once you have a shape you think is fantastic, cut the felt in that shape. You should cut the fabric a little bigger than you want the actual warmer to be because some of the fabric will be used in the sewing.
3. Lay two lovely matching pieces of felt on top of each other, make sure they fit. Then, thread your needle and sew around the edges (if you don't know how to never fear, instructables is here) You're going to want to sew about a half-full centimeter inside the edges depending on how big you're making them. Leave the last inch of the felt un-sewn.   (<-- this is a very important step don't screw it up. It will ruin your project if you sew that part.)
4. Scoop the white rice into the little hole you left. Fill it almost all the way full.
5. Sew up that little hole now so you don't lose any grains. That would be an annoying mess to clean up.
6. Put your little pouch of warmth into the microwave for 30 seconds or so (it all depends on how long they need to be warm)
7. Hold the pouches. They are now hand warmers.

Bravo! Now your pouches of nice winter repelling warmth are done. Stay warm now and pray for snow!

Do It Yourself: Make a Difference

Before Thanksgiving break there was a Uni Period workshop on human trafficking and and a movie--Very Young Girls--later. Unfortunately I was unable to go to the movie night, but I still think this is an important cause. All over the world adults and children are tricked into or are forcibly moved to another location to work. A majority of these trafficked people are forced to be sex workers. The people made to be sex workers are often young girls, starting at age 12. This issue is especially prominent in India where the caste systems keeps women and girls in the lower-caste families where their only source of income will be prostitution. Girls denied education and training are perceived as having no worth, no way to bring income to the family. So, they can be married at age 13 and sold into prostitution by their husbands, or be put into prostitution by their families. Either way, many women don't make it out and remain in sex work for as long as they are "marketable."
But, all is not lost. We can help.

What you'll need:

• The guts to reform yourself and your community
• Cloths
• Resources to stay connected to the movement (provided at the end of this blog post)

Tutorial:

1. First, you need to choose to change. To stop normalizing the sex trade is going to be difficult because it's already so normal to us. 
• Stop jokingly using words like "pimp," "ho," and "whore." Challenge people when they do use this language. 
• Stop jokes that are sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive. 
• ^These two step are probably the most difficult. I realize it's hard to stop a practice ^ you've been doing forever. 
2. Donate clothing to victims of sexual exploitation. Sweat pants and sweat shirts should be donated to rape crisis counseling services. 
3. Fundraising and donating money will always be a help to these volunteer organizations that help victims. It's not important to give a lot, it's important to give what you can.
4. Finally, get involved with organizations that help with these things. Actually working with and volunteering for centers and charities is needed too. 

Resources and organizations:

• The National Human Trafficking Resource Center- a toll free hotline that receives tips and give information about trafficking. The number is 1-888-3737-888.
• ECPAT International and The Body Shop-  "Stop Sex Trafficking of Children & Young People" is aimed at stopping the 1.2 million children domestically trafficked. The website is: ecpat.net/TBS/en/about_campaign.html
• Project Futures- Project from the Somaly Mam Foundation which helps volunteers to fight against slavery. Website: projectfutures.somaly.org
• Say NO- UNiTE to End Violence against Women- launched by UN Women to end violence based on gender. Website: www.saynotoviolence.org

Human trafficking isn't going to go away by itself. If everyone pitches in and does what they can, hopefully forcible sex trade and human labor trafficking will become less normalized and begin to end.

Eggless Cookie Dough

So this week is a really stressful week for a bunch of my friends and I because it's tech week for our show Shakespeare Sings at the Moon Luau (which you should all come to on Thursday or Friday at 7:00 pm)! It is a common practice amongst Uni thespians to bring little noms to eat backstage to loosen up; this is usually Twizzlers or the like, but I brought cookie dough truffles to our first tech practice. They were pretty well received, so I promised everyone a recipe and here it is!

                          What you'll need:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), softened
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla (tsp. means teaspoon if you were unaware)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup flour 
• Pinch of salt (I don't know, just put in about a 1/4 tsp. )
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or whatever you feel like putting in, I just kind of eyeball it)
• Mixing bowl or large bowl, spoon, and upper body strength

Let's begin:

1. In bowl, place brown sugar and butter. Mix until smooth.
2. Mix in vanilla extract and milk (it may get a bit soupy here, but never fear flour will save the day)
3. The flour, salt, and chocolate chips finish out this dough. 
4. Chill the cookie dough if you want it to be firmer. If you don't care, it's eating time!

To make chocolate dipped cookie dough:

1. Make sure your cookie dough is really chilled. Like, really really really chilled. (Make sure you cover the container with plastic wrap when you put it in the fridge/freezer. If you don't it will get freezer burned and won't taste good.)
2. While it's chilling in the fridge/freezer, melt your chocolate. This can be done several ways:

• With a double boiler if you have one (water boils in the bottom and melts what's on top)
• A normal pot with a bowl on it (water boils in pot, bowl goes on top, chocolate melts in bowl. Just be careful for the steam, I got burned)
• A mircrowave. Like a sensible human being. (Put the chocolate in a microwaveable dish for 45 seconds at a time stirring between each time. Do no burn the chocolate, it smells bad. If you do burn a bit, get a spoon, scoop out the burned bits and run them under cold water which will make it firm up so it doesn't burn you.
3. Get out a platter and put parchment paper on it. put this near the area you'll be dipping the cookiedough. 
4. When the chocolate is all melty, get out the chilled cookie dough. One at a time, roll a ball of cookie dough and dip the base half of it into the chocolate. Then, put in on the platter. When the platter is full, set it aside and make another if you need to. 
5. Once all the chocolate on the platter is hardened put the cookie dough truffles in a separate container and put it in your freezer for at least 10 minutes. (the cookie dough gets all melty when it's warm.)

Voila! Eggless Cookie Dough completed! Happy eating!

Note: This is eggless so you can't get salmonella, and anytime cookie dough is not in use it should be in the fridge so it doesn't become unworkable, warm, and gooey. 

Note 2: This cookie dough would be awesome between two cookies, just saying. :3

Stress Jar

Now at the end of the quarter, it is safe to say that the past few weeks were very stressful. Homework, tests, and essays piled up and got finished leaving me with minimal sleep and therefore, a short temper. Well, maybe not a temper, per say, but definitely leaving me a little less patient. For this reason, my project this week has to do with relieving stress. Apparently, a stress jar is a commonly used craft in many Preschool-Kindergarten classes because it gives kids something to focus on making them forget what they were mad/stressed about. Basically, a stress jar is a jar with glitter or other shiny/interesting things suspended in fluid. When you're stressed, you shake the jar creating a snow globe like effect and wait. You wait until all the floating glitter is back at the bottom of the jar, by which time, you should be little bit calmer.

I don't know about you, but I would feel a little silly shaking a glittery jar in the middle of a classroom to get rid of my anxiety, but hey, if it works it works.

What you'll need:

Note: NO CORN SYRUP :D

• a jar (glass or otherwise, I'll be using a cheap plastic one)
• glitter
• water
• superglue

What you may want that is completely totally optional:

• Sequins or something else glittery to put in instead of/with the glitter
• food coloring
• nail polish remover (for those of us who are scared of glueing our fingers together)

Procedure:

1. Get your jar. (Like I said, mine's a cheap one I got from Staples for fifty cents because I do love a sale. You can most definitely use a glass jar, just make sure it's not huge.) Then, if there are any labels on the jar, get them off. Clean. No one wants icky residue on their jar when they're trying to de-stress. 
2. Once you have about 75-90% of your jar filled, stop and put in glitter. It's completely up to you how much glitter you want in it. I like glitter. I got a bunch of glitter at the same sale I got my jar at--I love sales. 
3. When completely satisfied with the amount of shiny in your jar, the tough part of this tutorial arrives. We must glue the lid of the jar down. With jar lid and superglue in hand, beware, because you don't want to glue your fingers together. (No worries if you do though, just use nail-polish remover to get it off. Just use a cotton ball or q-tip and rub the spot that's glued gently until the glue is gone.) Now, line the inner rim of the jar lid with super glue--you're going to have to squeeze quite hard on a superglue bottle--and screw the lid on. Give the lid 1-5 minutes to dry, depending on how cautious you are, and then lightly tip it on its side to see if it's sealed.
4. If it is, tada! You're finished. 

Have fun de-stressing! 

Friendship Bracelet

I've never been real big on the friendship object trend. It just never struck my fancy. This is probably because it'd be really awkward to get/give a friendship bracelet and then start hating each other or something and have to ask for it back. That would completely ruin my friendy mojo. That being said, a fabulous bracelet doesn't have to come from a friend, so I made one for myself.

What you'll need:

• String or yarn
• hex nuts, beads, or anything with a hole in it you feel would look nice on a bracelet (Have fun with it!)
• tape
• a clasp if you really want it

PROCESS:

I'm serious. Tape that sucker down.


1. Cut three equal lengths of the string.
2. Tie these three in a knot 
3. Tape that knot down. Firmly. With the tape. It's going to want to come off the table once you start working with it so this is actually a very serious step. (Actually it's not life-or-death so don't sweat it.)
4. Start braiding. I don't really know how to explain braiding, but there are lots of great tutorials on the internet and if you ask around I'm sure you have a friend who knows how to braid. 
5. Once you've braided a bit of the string, maybe around a third, tie another knot separating the braided section from the rest.
6. Slide a bead/anything with hole onto all three strands or as many as possible.
7. Knot it off again. 
8. Repeat 6 and 7 until you have as many bead things as desired. 
9. Braid the rest of the string until it's the length you want it to be.
10. Now it's honesty time. I'm horrible at tying of things. I just can't do it. So, if you got a clasp, just tie it on to the strings and you're done. If you didn't, I just tied my bracelet onto my wrist loose enough to be able to untie it.

'




 
 VOILA! A bracelet that will forever mark your friendship. Or at least validate it's there because they're wearing an... interesting... bracelet that you've made.
 
 
 
A couple notes: 



As you can see some nuts are closer together than others

• There are different ways to do this. One way I tried was to follow the original tutorial where you don't tie any knots on except for the ends. You just braid and slide the beads/nuts on as you go. This looks good, except it's really hard to space them right (it's hard to make them look even). You have to keep track of the strands you are braiding and make sure they stay tight as well as maneuver beads on.
• I used cheap plastic thread on my bracelet, which I am ashamed of, however it was for a good reason. I did a couple bracelets to see what would work best and did not want to waste good string. 
• I realize there is a distinct lack of pictures in this post, I was having formatting issues. I will post an update blog with lots of photos I promise! In the meantime if you have any question feel free to post them in the comments. 

Private Nook

77 miles is a long way to travel for anything, especially school. I live in a hamlet type town Sigel, which is an hour and fifteen minutes away from my high school in Champaign-Urbana. This distance does leave a lot of time to relax because all of my time is spent in the car. However, when I am at home, I certainly don't want to spend my time around my pesky brother's puns or parental nagging. It is at this point that I go to my room to chill a bit. Then an idea struck me; I should have a proper place to chill. Something like... a reading nook! Now, I realize this isn't a project that can be recreated exactly how I do it, but bear with me. All you'll need are some items you have around the house and a bit of elbow grease.

Empty corner; yuck!

What you'll definitely need: 

•  An empty corner 
•  A lovely comfy chair
•  Some sheets or large pieces of fabric

What I used that you don't have to have:

• A rug
• A shelf  
• A lamp
• Drawings/Pictures

Tutorial:

1. Find an empty corner in your home/room and resolve to make it fabulous.

Drapes!

 2.  Take you rug and place it in the corner. (If you don't have a rug skip this step)

 3. For some privacy, take the sheets or pieces of fabric and hang them in the corner leaving enough space for the chair. I put my sheets up with wall tacks, but you could use hooks or towel holding mounts for more stability. (you will need a drill if you're going to use towel mounts)

 4.  This step is completely optional. I think that if you're spending time alone reading or in a contemplative hibernating state, it's best to be surrounded by memories and fun stuff. And so, the photo wall is born! Just stick a bunch of photos and drawings up on a wall in your corner. (I have magnetic paint so this is easy for me, but tape or tacks work just as well)

Here's the photo wall and chair

 5.  Now that your corner is nice and secluded, you need a place to sit. Personally, I like chairs that are massive. They make me feel safe grounded, so they're perfect for book reading, studying, or sleeping.Whatever chair you choose, stick it in the corner leaving room enough for a small shelf or side table.

 6. Add a shelf or side-table. (I also put an ottoman with storage in it just for good measure)

7. Fill the shelf with timeless books and other reading materials (I have the Harry Potter series and Batgirl comics)

8. If you don't want to read in the dark, it's probably a good idea to put a lamp in there somewhere. Otherwise, the shelf/table is a clean template for whatever awesomeness you want to put on it.

Tada! A fabulous new reading nook!

I am quite please with the way my corner turned out. Eventually it might become more elaborate, but until then it's exceedingly cozy and great for when I'm feeling especially philosophical. 

Until my next project, keep up the hard work! 

First Effort: Shoes

When I discovered the internet, a whole new world was opened. With this world came the realization that there are so many talented people in the world. With art and creativity everywhere I looked, my greatest desire was (and still is!) to join their ranks. The artistic group I've decided to jump into is the do-it-yourselfers. These people take everyday objects (or not so everyday objects) and make something new from them. My first attempt at a do-it-yourself project, before this blog, resulted in the tragic death of a gorgeous chocolate cake. Cake decorating is not for the faint of heart.

With this blog, I will chronicle my newest attempts at diy projects. I have decided to bite the bullet and risk something I treasure; my shoes. I have a pair of wedge-boots that are suede, so they're scuffed up because of the frequency I wear them. 

Unfortunately, the suede is coming off.

Because these shoes are already dead visually, it is not a risky project. If this is your first time with fabric paint and you're not sure what you're doing, I would not use your favorite pair of shoes.  What you'll need is:     

• A pair of shoes you want to refurbish
• Fabric paint of your color choice
• Spray sealant (found next to the paint in stores)
• Brush 
• Paint palette (or paper plate, anything goes)
• Good old-fashioned scotch tape
• The great outdoors

1.  First, use the scotch tape to tape off the edges to separate where you want to paint and where you want to leave the original shoe. If you're painting the entire shoe, you can ignore this step.

Yay, tape!

 2. Squeeze fabric paint into a section of the palette, or paper plate.

paint inside the tape

3. Once the paint is out in the open, take the brush and paint inside the taped off areas. Apply one layer, then wait for at least 10 minutes to apply a second coat. (two coats should be enough, but you can apply more if you want.)



4. When everything is painted and nice, peel the tape off the shoe.

5. When the shoe is completely tape-less, go outside or to a well ventilated area to spray at least the newly painted part with the sealant (I sprayed the entire shoe). Going to a ventilated area is very important for this because the sealant's smell is very strong and could be dangerous if there's no fresh air.

6. Wait for the sealant to dry and...

VOILA!

   Fabulous shoes resulted and everyone is happy. I painted a gold edge on mine freehand, which is completely unnecessary unless you want to do it. Overall, I am very happy with my first Do-It-Yourself Project. I think these shoes have a steam-punk kind of feel. More photos will come when I figure out what I'm going to wear them with!