Clothespin photo line

While I was staying with my future sister-in-law and my cousin in their dorm room this last October, I saw something really cool in the hall of their dorm. To display some of the art done by the girls that were in that hall, they had hot glued clothespins up on the wall and used twine to make it look connected. Then they hung the pictures on the wall with the clothespins. This is a cute and easy way to change out your decorations if you get bored with it. So a few months ago before I even began thinking of doing a blog, I had decided to try this out as the hot glue does not peel the paint if you are careful about taking it down (not pulling at an angle or sharply, otherwise I accidentally found out that it will rip it.). Well, my first try at it went somewhat successfully until two of the three clothespins I had put up fell off while I was away for a bit. After several months of trying to convince myself to stop being lazy and get out the ladder to put them back up, I finally decided that this would be a good tutorial and got about putting it back up. Unfortunately due to my poor coordination and lack of assistance in this, I could not take step by step pictures, so hopefully this makes enough sense that the end result pictures should be enough.

Before you begin, I do need to warn you to be extremely careful with the hot glue gun. I had an unfortunate incident with the hot glue gun when a huge glob of it dripped off the string onto my finger. Which you can see the lovely results here. This caused a bad blister and a lot of pain, so please use extreme caution when you use the gun!
Note: When gluing the string for the middle clothespins, do not place the glue directly onto it as the glue does not stay on! Place it directly onto the clothespin.

Okay so onto business!

Step 1: Measure out the length of twine or string (ribbon would work as well I believe) that you are wanting to use. I used about 2 feet of string to hang up three pictures, but it's up to you on that one.

Step 2: Once you have your string measured and cut and your hot glue gun is ready, carefully glue the back of the clothespin. I have found that it is best to liberally glue the back of it for added strength. Put it up quickly, and press very hard to ensure your clothespin will hold tight.

Step 3: After your clothespin is dry, open your clothespin and place a spot of glue just below where it opens then put your string in.

Step 4: Continue this with the rest of your clothespins.

Step 5: Once all of your clothespins are up and the glue has dried, place your pictures inside of the clothespins. This can be used for several different styles of pictures and papers, so be creative! I used this to place pictures I bought on the street in NYC and even in the plastic baggies, they still stay up quite nicely.

If anyone does this, or any of my other tutorials, I would love to hear suggestions or see what you've done!

Four strand braid

Well, this post was going to be put up a lot earlier today, but my internet has been down most of the day and then went down yet again just as I was about to start focusing on this.

Anyways, for today's post I decided to do another braid I figured out how to do last night and dragged my poor guinea pig into it. This is another one of those braids that looks harder to do than it is, which is coming from someone who can barely do a normal braid without disastrous results. Today's braid is a four-strand or a four-piece braid, whatever you know it as. I, yet again, learned from a video which I'll put at the bottom in case anyone wants to see that way as well.

Step 1: Brush out your hair and separate into four equal(-ish) sections.

To make things easier, I'm going to number the sections 

Step 2: Take strand 1 and place it over strand 2

Step 3: Take this strand under strand 3

Step 4: Now take strand 4 and go under strand 3 and just repeat what you did the first time: Go over strand 2, bring strand 1 under 2, over 3. Bring strand 4 under 3, over 2. Repeat this until it is at the desired length.

Step 5: Tie off with a clear elastic or hair tie.

Step 6: (optional) For a looser, somewhat messy look tug on the strands gently. 

And now for the video I watched. For this I did the first version, but sometime I might try out the second one as well. 

Fishtail braid

So here is my make up post for being so lame last week. Recently I've been looking at different braids for when I actually get hair (hopefully not too far in the future) and a friend of mine showed me how to do one on her daughter. Well, naturally I was intrigued, so while I was browsing Pinterest, I happened to find the same braid! Turns out it was a fishtail braid. Though hers, unlike the kind I do, was very tight and controlled.

So I managed to nab my poor hair guinea pig (Andrea) and use her in my braiding experiment tonight. As she has such nice, long, thick hair, I asked if I could try some out on her and the poor sap agreed without realizing what she was getting into. By the end of Disney's Brave and two episodes of Supernatural we were both pretty sore and tired of trying to get several different styles down. The first, and probably easiest for me, was the fishtail!

One thing that is fabulous about this braid is that it looks so much more complicated than it is, giving you the look of someone who spent a long time on it when really you could probably do it with some practice in about 5 minutes more or less (depending on your hair length and thickness). I watched a video (which I'll post) on how to do it to yourself, so that will be a nice reference if you get confused.

Step 1: Brush out your hair. It's easier to get a nice smooth finish if it's brushed out, but if you like it messy then leave it unbrushed.

Step 2: Put it up in a loose ponytail with a rubber hair band (I have heard you can buy them at a dollar store or a general store very cheaply) or a regular hair tie. 

Step 3: Separate your ponytail into 2 sections 

Step 4: Begin by taking a section from the outer part of your left side and going over the left side and under your right.

Step 5: Do the same from the right side. Take a section and go over the right, under the left. 

Step 6: Continue going back and forth like so.

Here are some photos to give you a general idea of how it should be looking:

Step 7: Once you are getting towards the end (with about less than an inch or so, depending on the style you are going for) tie it off like you would any other braid. I saw with either one of the clear rubber hair bands or with a regular ponytail. 

Step 8: Carefully remove the top ponytail or cut the rubber hair band if you used one. 

Step 9: (optional) If you would like, fluff it out and tug it some to get a loose somewhat messy look. 

And you're done! Yay! Now, seeing as this is my first successful braid ever if I can do it, I know plenty of you can out there. So give it a shot, and with some practice you'll get it down, I'm sure. 

And here's the video I watched to learn in case you would like to see a video instead or want to know how to do it on yourself easier: 

Glow in the dark nail polish

First off I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts this week! I'm moving the posts to Tuesday instead of Monday because of issues with school, but this week I was so swamped with papers that I couldn't even get in that one and yesterday we were traveling out to El Sembrador which is near Catacamas, Honduras. This is actually the place where I grew up originally so I have been a bit busy around here reacquainting myself with it and showing around our volunteer. But I just got inspired (since the internet came back up) to write a new post to make up for yesterday and Monday I will do a  post to make up for my lack of post on Tuesday.

So I just recently got some nail polish from a volunteer team that was down here for a week working. They are these really nifty ones that are double sided (purple on one side and hot pink on the other and another that is bright blue and lime green) and I decided I was going to use them on my nails sometime this week while I was here. Well last night our lights went out for a bit and while we were talking in the dark, our volunteer Andrea, who is rooming with me while we're here, noticed that something was glowing on the counter. Upon closer inspection we realized that it was the blue and green nail polish that was glowing! We both promptly began freaking out and laughing excitedly . Once the lights came back on, we tested the nail polish out on the tips of my nails to see if they really glowed, and sure enough they did! So now our nails are all wonderfully glowy, and whenever we get in the dark we both wave them around excitedly like a bunch of five year olds.

                     

Example of one of the tutorials I saw for it

Well, this got me thinking. How can I make my own glow in the dark nail polish? So this evening when I finally got internet back, I looked around to find some good ways of doing it. Basically all the ones that I've seen say around the same thing: take a glow stick and cut it and mix with your clear nail polish. Well, all except one. The title of the blog got me curious. Liesthatpinteresttoldme.wordpress.com talks about the dangers of doing something so incredibly reckless as dumping something that is possibly toxic and not meant to touch your skin, all over your nails. Which, she really does make some good points, and coupled with the fact that most of the blogs/tutorials I saw from my search are people that have never actually tried and are just blindly recommending it for other people to try and tell their results, I kind of think that there really must be a better option. And there are! She links to a very cheap one that you can buy at partycity.com and I'm sure in stores, or at Walmart.com they also have one that's a bit pricier. Either way, it's a lot safer looking and much easier than trying to do it yourself. When I go up this summer to the states I'm so trying this! Let me know if anyone does this as well.

Mac and Cheese in a Mug

I have searched high and low for a good macaroni and cheese recipe that I can just pop into the microwave and eat that will actually be filling. No such luck. Every recipe I find makes about five bites. And I figure if I'm going to go through the trouble of doing it, I might as well actually make something worthwhile. So I've come up with a general idea of how to make macaroni and cheese in a mug!

Supplies:
A microwave
mug
plate
spoon
macaroni
milk
cheese
salt
pepper
pepper flakes (optional)

Directions: Okay, so it's not an exact science. I'm not good with measuring and things of that sort when I get into the kitchen. But I do have a general idea of how to go about making it for almost any measurement of mac and cheese in the microwave.

First off measure out your macaroni. I fill the mug about half way which is about a cup of macaroni. Put in enough water to go just below the top of your macaroni. It's about half a cup of water at the most for what I put in. Put it in the microwave with a plate underneath to keep the overflow from getting messy. Put it in for 2 minutes then stir it before putting it in for another two. Repeat this until it's been in for about 4-6 minutes. If more time is still needed put it in for another 2 minutes. Next put in your milk and cheese. It needs to be a little under halfway which is around 1/4 cup for mine. Now for the best part! Adding the cheese. Now this all depends on your taste and how much you love cheese. I personally love mixing them and adding a ton. I put in usually cheddar, mozarella, and if I have it pepper jack. It's usually about half a cup more or less of cheese (usually more rather than less). Pop it in for another 2 minutes. Your cheese should be melted and all should be ready. :) I usually throw in salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of pepper flakes to finish it off.

Coffee Slushie

While I myself am not a coffee fan, our volunteer here has fallen in love with something my brother used to make when he was at home: coffee slushies. So I've taken her word for how good it is after I suggested she should try it. It's a pretty easy recipe and a lot of it is based on your preference.

Step 1: Well obviously to start you need your coffee. You can brew it how you want and put it in extra ice trays. Usually there isn't a problem with this as far as staining the trays, but don't take my word on that one.

Step 2: Once you have your frozen coffee cubes (usually you have to put them in the freezer overnight), figure out how much you want to make. For about a small-medium sized slushie it's about seven normal sized cubes.

Step 3: Toss your cubes into a blender or whatever it is you happen to be using to grind them up. Add in your sugar (she put in about a teaspoon, but this depends on your preference for how sweet you want it).

Step 4: Depending on your amount of cubes, add in your milk. Fill it about to just below the top of the top cubes. She used about a cup for the seven cubes in hers.

Step 5: You can put in vanilla and cinnamon if you want to change it up a bit. She did not like it because it detracts from the coffee taste, but it is good if you want to tone it down a bit.

Step 6: After you've added all your ingredients, start the blender (or whatever you're using) and blend until it's at the consistency that you want. There usually is one or two small cubes that don't grind up all the way. You can try to grind these up better, but it takes a bit of work. 

Finished product

Vanilla Sugar Body Scrub

I love making body scrubs (as anyone living in this household can attest for). It's super fun and easy to make, plus the feeling of your skin afterwards is like rubbing a baby's fat tummy. Yes, a baby's chunky tummy is like the best part of big babies. Or any babies in general, but that's beside the point. The point is is that body scrubs are freaking awesome and feel like tiny babies dancing on you. Which is pretty dang awesome. Anyways so I was messing around in the kitchen one night and decided to do a a recipe from The Idea Room for a brown sugar scrub that I like. Well, I had seen some various sugar scrub recipes and decided why not try making one of my own? So I did just that! As per usual I lay it out with nice big pictures just in case (mainly because I get bored and love playing with the camera). I used an old salsa jar that we seem to be getting a lot of lately and simply used my label removing technique to get that pesky label off for a perfectly good jar.

Recipe:
1 cup white/brown sugar (whichever you want really. I have used both before and I find white is a bit more aggressive than brown is, but both feel great).
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tsp honey
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

I threw in the cinnamon and vanilla because (1 I have heard that cinnamon is great for your skin and (2 because they smell great and (3 Why not?

Alright let's get started!

Our supplies

 Step 1: pour in the one cup of sugar into your jar, making sure that you have a jar large enough

 Step 2: Pour in the 1/3 cup of oil and kind of move the jar side to side a bit to get the oil to sink in easier

Step 3: Pour in 2 tsps of honey. This part tends to get kind of messy and sticky, but you have to kind of scoop out the excess honey from your teaspoon. So as long as you don't mind having a little fun while you're making this, it should go fine!

Step 4: Pour in the 2 tsps of cinnamon. This may vary, depending on how much you like the smell of cinnamon. I personally love it so I wanted an extra good dosing of it. 

Step 5: Add in your 1 tsp of vanilla. Again this can really vary on your preference. I love the smell so I wanted to cover up the smell of oil with it. But you can add until you feel comfortable. 

Step 6: Mix all of your ingredients together with a spoon, making sure to get all of your sugar mixed with 

Step 6: Go forth and enjoy your new baby dancing awesome feeling skin! Or if you love giving homemade nifty gifts like I do, throw a bow on it and give it to someone you want to experience the amazingness.

Removing Labels from Jars

So this was supposed to go up yesterday (since my schedule is going to hopefully be Mondays and Fridays plus any day I just feel like throwing something up), but I had a paper to do on Al Capone and as such I didn't get to post. So here it is:

I enjoy making body scrubs and using jars for other random things, but I'm too cheap to go buy ones just for that plus I don't really have access to any stores in the convenient area that sell that kind of thing. So I looked around for good ways to peel off the label of an old jar without too much trouble. And after a bit of experimenting I have found a pretty easy way to do it!

Supplies: hot water and a jar

Step 1: I microwaved my water for about one minute, thirty seconds to get it nice and hot then filled my jar up a little past the top of the label. Screw the top back on and leave for about 7 minutes.

Step 2: Begin peeling from the corner carefully at first, but once it looks like it's all coming off you can go a bit faster. If it begins to seperate from the top layer, just press it back down and slowly continue peeling.

Successful!

To get the sticky stuff off I scrub it with soap and a scrub brush but I've heard that soaking it in hot water for a bit helps too! If anyone else has any ways of doing it or suggestions I'd love to hear them :)