My newest obsession

So in my last post I said I was going to try and figure out what this blog is for and to get into a better routine. The routine might take time since I am still transitioning from my home to my old country/new apartment, but I'm trying my best. 

But today is going to be one of those random pats that the fashion freaks like me will enjoy if you haven't already had the pleasure (and time loss) of discovering this wonderful thing. A couple of days ago I was browsing Appsfire (also fantastic) which is an app that shows you what apps are on sale/free (temporarily and permanently) and I happened to see an app I wasn't familiar with. It was called Polyvore. I thought the name was kind of odd so I decided to check the description. A fashion app? Eh, I figured why not! The second I opened the app I realized I would not be disappointed. I had been trying to figure out how people were posting those outfits to Pinterest like the modern princesses and things like that. And I got my answer: Polyvore! For this unfamiliar with it, the nifty app lets you browse through outfits and fashion collages people have made and make your own using their stock from different websites and I believe you can upload your own content. 

Now, I'm kind of a fashion freak. I love coming up with new outfits and have a blast matching things with accessories. So for me, Polyvore is now my favorite app and I am only upset that it requires Internet so I can't design in the car. But really if you like that sort of thing and haven't already checked it out, do! It's free and loads of fun! 

This is pointless rambling

So it's been a while I guess. I know from the start it hasn't been exactly consistent but even I have to admit this is bad. I honestly have meant to post but things have been a little tough around here. It's been nonstop packing since we got back from the States and I honestly haven't found any time to do much of anything. Last week I got my wisdom teeth pulled so that's also had me pretty much incapacitated for the last week and even now I've managed to find myself feeling under the weather and awake at 2 AM. Not a huge surprise honestly. Though I have been wondering what the point of this post is. I never started this blot with the intention of writing personal stuff on it. I never really thought anyone would read any of the posts. But it has been read. And I am awake at this hour writing personal stuff. It's my blog right? I can do that. I can write about how I just found myself wandering around downstairs in the kitchen at 1:45 AM for cornstarch to try a dry shampoo remedy because I am incapable of actually getting any sleep for the second night in a row. This is my blog. I can ramble on about utter nonsense if I like. I can rant about how my kindle fire won't let me type this post in the actual compose section so I have to type in the HTML and hope it works. This is my blog after all. I apologise (sorry if I spelled that wrong but it won't even acknowledge that as a word in general.) if I offend anyone. But honestly I am still working out what I want to do with this blog. I might actually use it just to blog sometimes. You know, like most people. I might use it to test out popular pins (myths) on Pinterest and test the accuracy of them. I might use it to put recipes I've found that I enjoyed and thought others might like to try too. I might put up some of my own things I've done. I might put up artwork. I might rant. I might post photos. I might post vlogs from future trips. I might do journals from future trips. I might just talk. I might talk about stuff that matters. I might talk about pointless things. I don't really know. But one thing I do know is that I can't control whether or not you read any of it. That's your choice. You don't have to. This blog is my blog. But if you like it you can read it and contribute your own thoughts and opinions and ideas. That's your choice and your right. I cant stop you from it. So here's to spreading our wings and figuring stuff out along the way.

Sponge nail design

Wow, so it's been a while! I had to take a mini hiatus while I was in the states because I honestly had no time to even begin thinking of trying any posts. But I'm back home again and I've got some time to kill before we move to Honduras in about a month or two. So here goes! 

I know it's a day later than I planned to have this post, but yesterday was kind of a stressful day with a goodbye party for my dad at the clinic where he was formerly director but has since left because of our move. So anyways here's my post. Monday was a boring day and since I had time to kill I decided to try out a new nail design. I've noticed that sponge designs are pretty popular on Pinterest and decided to experiment with one of my own. After I put down a clear coat I got an old kitchen sponge and painted it with a pearl white and pressed it onto the edge of my nail and then repeated it with the black, leaving just a bit of the white to be seen. I finished off with a clear coat. For best results  suggest using the other side of the sponge and dabbing it at the the nail polish while it's still wet to get it more splattered looking. 

Shameless self-promotion

So since this is my blog, this was bound to happen. I'm here to shamelessly self-promote my shop on society6.com which is a really cool website that lets artists, like myself, to put up our work and for people to buy this as a t-shirt, sweatshirt, print, laptop cover, and a lot of other really cool mediums. The site has a lot of really cool artists that do some really cool things and the prices are pretty good for things that someone poured their soul into. To any artists out there that are looking for a place to sell their work, you should seriously check it out. The way it is set up, you just have to put your work up and Society6 does the actual work of printing and shipping your pieces, which in the end, even with the percentage they take of the profit, it is a really great way to get your things out there and gives you a chance to concentrate on your work rather than worrying about how to get it printed and shipped. 

Anyways, I'm just now getting into actually putting my stuff up on there. Right now the piece I'm working on is still a little rough, so it will be up in a couple days hopefully at the most. But I have several ideas that I'm working on and as soon as I can get them drawn up on my computer I will put them up for sale. Right now they are having an artist promotion sale, which means that you can get free shipping, but only until the 16th of June! And only if you use THIS LINK to my store! Though this offer does not include Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert. Sorry to anyone who was wanting to buy it that way. 

Update: I just put up the design and I am working on getting it up in as many mediums as I can right now. 

But seriously even if you do not buy anything from my shop, you should definitely check out the site. It's got some really great artists on there that have some awesome stuff!

Cute framed collage

My brother just recently got married and for their wedding presents I wanted to do something that would be cute and unique. So after looking around, I decided on something I thought they would both like that would sort of match.

I unfortunately did not think of taking any pictures during the process of making either, because hers I finished making at like 1:00 AM after working on it for several hours and his I just forgot to take photos of because I was in a hurry to finish it.

His:

Hers:

But for the most part it's a pretty straightforward project just from seeing the finished project (hopefully at least). It's a pretty easy and cheap to make. I got the frames at Goodwill and the rest of the supplies can be bought from either Walmart or Hobby Lobby.

Supplies:
Black (or whatever color you're wanting to use) sheet of heavy paper ( I bought some for about 78 cents at Walmart in the craft area) or you can buy the wooden letters or pre-cut out ones if you can find them.
 poster paper (Again cheap at Walmart)
mod podge (I made my own just using water and cheap glue)
a cheap paint brush or a sponge brush (Hobby Lobby or Walmart)
The decorative paper you are using for the collage (I used newspaper but I wanted to use old books from Goodwill but I forgot to buy some before we left and for his I just copied different eras of Batman comics and cut them out).
Backs for hanging the pictures if your frame doesn't come with one (neither of mine did. I got them at Hobby Lobby in a pack in the frame section).
a hot glue gun or strong glue (I used Elmer's strong glue)
scissors

Step 1: measure out your poster paper so that it does not show behind your frame.
Step 2: If you are cutting out the letter, measure it out so it fits so it fits neatly in the middle. As you can see I did not do the greatest job of cutting out the letters but since it was sort of a last minute gift idea I had to make do. I would suggest either using a stencil or buying pre-done letters and just painting them the color you want if you get the wooden ones.
Step 3: Cut out your background pieces. I liked to get a lot of different sizes to give it variety and I would have liked to get it from different books to give it some contrast in colors and font sizes.
Step 4: Arrange your paper how you like on the and glue them down. I liked to layer them and put them at different angles, but you can do as you like.
Step 5: Cover the background with a layer of mod podge using either the cheap paint brush or the sponge brush, being careful not to get it too thick on it. Then glue the letter down and do the same to it.
Step 6: Once everything dries, put a layer of the strong glue down on the back of the frame put down your background. To dry put it right side up and leave it on a flat surface otherwise I found that the glue doesn't dry right unless it has a little pressure (then again it might be because I was trying to let it dry in the car on the way to their house)
STep 7: If you are using a frame that does not have a hook or anything to hang with I got a pack at Hobby Lobby that don't require screws and you just have to put them in with a hammer (or as we did, with a meat cleaver since my brother has yet to buy a hammer).

This would be fun to do as kid's wall decoration too or really anything. There's a lot of fun ways you could do this. I'd love to know if anyone does it and see the results!

Strawberry vanilla cupcake recipe

Hi all! Sorry that this is kind of a weird post. I'm sort of out of whack thanks to being sort of "on vacation" you could say so my schedule is kind of weird with driving up and down everywhere to visit my brothers who happen to be in different directions of the state. Fun times. But seriously I will try to at least post once a week, if not twice a week when I can. I have a few things I've been wanting to try out now that I'm here, and have access to an actual art store and places to buy different ingredients I can't get at home. 

Anyways, back to the post at hand! On the 12th we left for the states, which also happened to be one of my best friend's birthday unfortunately. So to make up for the lack of me being there on her birthday, I decided to bake some cupcakes for her and her family the day before I had to leave. Now, I've recently gotten into this thing of baking, but I don't like baking normal people things. I don't want to just make a vanilla cupcake. I want to make a vanilla cupcake with homemade blackberry jam filling and homemade blackberry frosting. I don't just make chocolate cupcakes. I make chocolate blackberry cupcakes. I don't just do a chocolate cake. It has to be a Swedish chocolate cake (which I found out is delicious when you first get it out of the oven, but if you let it cool off too long, which i waited until much later to actually serve it, the cake becomes about as hard as a rock.). So you get the general idea. I like baking things (mostly cupcakes) with a bit of a twist. 

And that is why I got so excited when I accidentally stumbled on this recipe for a cupcake base. Basically all you have to do is make this base up and then add your flare to it. And that's when I had a light bulb moment! I wanted to make strawberry vanilla cupcakes. The unfortunate thing is that this recipe is only in grams for the dry ingredients. Why? I don't really know. It probably has something to do with being more precise or something. So that's a tad bit of a pain, but with a little digging I found a site that you can figure out how many grams (or whatever) it takes for cups (or whatever you're wanting) and this website has different calculators for sugar, flour, and butter. So that's pretty nifty if you need to convert things like that.

For this batch I was only making six cupcakes so I had to mess with the recipe and decided to just borrow my dad's electric weighing thing (very technical term right there.) instead.

Ingredients (if you're doing the full batch): 

• 125g butter, softened (a little over a stick)
• 125g caster sugar (a little over half a cup)
• 2 medium eggs
• 125g self-raising flour (1 cup)
• 2 tbsp milk

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C

Step 2: Beat your eggs and sugar until they are light and fluffy

Step 3: Add the eggs, flour, and milk and beat until smooth. 

All right now for the yummy part! 
Step 4: Add in about 1/2 a cup of strawberry pureed (thrown in the blender) and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix in.

 Step 5: place into cupcake tins and in oven for 12-15 minutes or until risen and the center is firm to the touch. 

Step 6: Wait until cool and then ice. I used a simple vanilla icing from scratch but there are some really amazing strawberry icing recipes (I might experiment and put one up sometime). I ha planned to place  strawberry on top of them, but i used all I had in the actual batter so that didn't work. 

The birthday girl's cupcake!

And the lovely birthday girl!

Please let me know how this went if you try it! From the batter I tasted it turned out pretty well, but unfortunately I forgot to make any extra for me to actually try (yeah, I know, that's kind of bad). So hopefully this recipe is correct and turns out well for all y'all! 

Lemon face toner

Okay so first off I would like to apologize for not posting anything in a while. Things have been super crazy around here. I had my SAT, traveling to the states, a wedding, and a new addition to our family in the last few weeks that has kept me pretty busy. My middle brother and his lovely new wife had asked me to be a bridesmaid for the wedding so that kept me pretty busy the days before the wedding on the 18th and my oldest brother's precious little Coralynn came 10 days early at 3:43 AM on the 18th as well so that kept us on our toes with a lot of reshuffling of plans. But everything has calmed down for the most part now and I finally have time to sort of catch my breath as I will be in America for the month.

So with all that said, let's move on to the actual post. As someone with severely sensitive skin (to the point that any little thing can set off an allergic reaction on my face) I am constantly looking for natural effective ways of tending to my skin. And I found a rather surprising one after doing some research. Apparently lemon/lime juice is a natural facial toner and if left on over night it can even out your skin tone and even get rid of freckles/dark spots.

At first I was a tad but skeptical as I mentioned that I have very sensitive skin. So the first time I put on just a bit and left it on for an hour. Noing bad seemed to happen so I went to sleep with it. Sure enough in the morning I had actually seen a bit of a change and no side effect. So I started trying it out at night and after a few days it really was working!

But there are some minor drawbacks. I have found that if you don't use it fairly consistently the effects go away and your face goes back to how it was. And also if you happen to leave it on when you go out in the sun (an d for me just going out in the sun is dangerous by itself as I am extremely pale and burn very easily) it causes even more damage from what I found from research appears to be a chemical reaction. But if you use it at night and wash it off in the morning before leaving the house it is fine. I do suggest if you are just going to be around the house, wash your face and put on another layer of it.

Okay so now how to use it. It's so easy it's ridiculous. All you need is a small squeeze bottle, a lemon, and water (if you have sensitive skin you will need more water). Squeeze the lemon juice into the bottle (depending on how much you want) and then dilute it a bit with water (more for sensitive skin). After washing your face, shake the bottle to stir up everything, squeeze the juice onto a cotton pad and apply to your face (I use it all over, but you can put it where you feel you need it). It's just that easy!