Booya Fitness

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Found a workout website that I love! Fitness is important but something I don’t always make time for.

Between work, house work, volunteer activities and trying to be crafty, I have found it difficult to force myself to work out. I hemmed my yoga pants, I would actually like to use them for yoga and not just lounging on the couch. I even knitted a headband for running in colder weather and I might have said “no more excuses” I found plenty not to venture out into cold.  Booya Fitness brings professional trainers to my living room! It’s pretty cheap at $10/month. It has four workout categories: cardio, bootcamp, strength and toning and yoga. Now I can “retire” the winter headband and use my yoga pants for their real purpose! And  I don’t have to leave my house!

I was pretty excited to find Booya Fitness and thought I’d spread the word!


French Tip Manicure at Home

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french tip manicure

I wanted to do a French tip manicure at home but I don’t have the steadiest of hands when it comes to painting. I was looking at Chloe’s Nails Blog and liked that she uses tape to get the designs she wants and was inspired to find something similar to achieve my desired effect. I decided to try band-aids. But they have to the plastic or sheer type because the polish will soak through the fabric band-aids. For my first couple of tries, I am pretty pleased with how my nails turned out and decided to share what I did.

Things you need:

  • base coat
  • main color
  • tip color
  • top coat
  • band-aid
  • time
  • maybe nail polish remover

How:

  1. Clean and prep your nails by filing, pushing back cuticles, etc
  2. Apply base coat and allow to dry.
  3. Next apply a couple of coats of the main color to get your desired color.
  4. Wait a few minutes and then apply a thick layer of top coat.
  5. Now you’ll want to wait awhile for these coats to dry, so catch up on a show or something. Also, while they are drying take out your band-aids and put the sticky side on your palm a couple times in order to take away some of the stickiness so it doesn’t pull up your polish.
  6. After your polish has dried, carefully place the band-aid towards the tip of the nail, just exposing the area you want to paint.
  7. Paint the tip. Carefully and quickly pull the band-aid off.
  8. Continue on the rest of your nails, you might need more then one band-aid to avoid a mess.
  9. Next clean up your nails. I like to use an angled craft/paint brush dipped into nail polish remover. It’s much easier for me to be more precise around my nails with a paint brush.
  10. Apply top coat and wait for it to dry.
  11. Enjoy!

My product list:

french tip manicure


rit dye

How to use RIT dye in the Sink

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I have this shirt that I love the way it fits but I managed to get a stain on the sleeve. I have a couple of RIT dye just sitting in a drawer begging to be used. I decided to go with the wine color. It’s a pretty color for a button up shirt. I have to use the sink to dye because my apartment upright machines are plastic and I’m slightly terrified I’d stain them. My stainless steel kitchen sink works out perfectly, it won’t stain and I don’t have to be in the basement of my building.

Things I used:

  • Hair tie – always need to pull your hair back
  • Throw away clothes –  chore clothes, clothes you don’t care if they get stained
  • Towel – again one you don’t care if it gets dyed
  • Gloves
  • RIT dye
  • Clothes to dye
  • Something to stir the dye bath
  • Approximately 1 cup of salt
  • Measuring cup with something to stir that will get dye on it like stainless steel spoon

rit dye

Notes:

  • Wear gloves the entire time! Yes, they’re uncomfortable and probably don’t fit right but it’s better than stained hands.
  • I don’t care what the package says. I always do one packet of dye per article of clothing. I feel it gets the best color that way.
  • Put some music song to get you from getting bored while stirring the dye bath.

Directions:

  1. Put your gloves on and mix 2 cups hot water and one packet of dye.
  2. Put stopper in and fill sink with hot water so there’s enough water for the clothes to freely move around in the sink. Add the 1 cup of salt. I didn’t measure it, I just guessed.
  3. Add the dye to the sink and stir.
  4. Start your microwave or kitchen timer to 30 minutes. I actually did 20 minutes but you’re going to leave the clothe in the dye bath until the desired color is achieved.
  5. Add clothes, make sure it is completely soaked and start stirring. Stir the entire time.rit dye
  6. When time is up, let the water out (yay for gloved hands) of the sink and rinse the clothes. You want to rinse in warm water and gradually going to cold until the bleeding stops.
  7. Wash separately in warm water and dry as usual. Also, rinse and wash separately the towel used to clean up.
  8. Clean the counter and sink with bleach.
  9. Enjoy your newly dyed clothes!

rit dye

 

 


kiwi

How to Peel a Kiwi

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kiwi

I bought a couple kiwis at the store and I realized that I didn’t know how to peel them.  Usually I buy them pre-cut so I have never thought about how to do it.  My husband showed me a quick an easy way to peel a kiwi. It was so clever I thought I’d share.

First cut the fruit in half.

kiwi

Next, take a soup spoon and wedge it between the flesh and the skin and move it around the fruit to separate it

.kiwikiwi

Peel back the skin from the fruit.

kiwi

Slice.

kiwi

Enjoy!


Make Your Own Dress Form Links

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Ever wanted to make your own dress form? Me too! I have complied a list of tutorials to choose from. Pick the one that is best for you and good luck on your dress form making endeavors!

dress form

 

This how to is from The Esty Labs Archive gives a very detailed description with pictures to make a dress form out of a t-shirt and duct tape with the help of a friend. You can also jazz it up a bit by using colored or patterned duct tape.

 

 

 

dress form

 

This paper tape dress form from Instructables is great idea with the use of paper tape, t-shirt, spray sealant foam and a friend. The instructions and pictures are extremely detailed.

 

 

 

dress form

 

This dress form from Jezebel is probably the closest to buying the real thing, but it is also a lot more involved. It uses plaster bandages, sealant foam, IV cart to create your own stand for it to go on and sewing and creating a cover to cover the form.

 

 

dress form

 

 

I love the creativity used to make this form. It seems to be so simple. Syzygyo of Worlds created one from chicken wire and some duct tape!

 

 

 

Also, if you have your own dress form already but it isn’t to you exact measurements, look at FabulousFit, they sell “fitting systems” which are pads you can buy to help make adjustments to any part of your dress form!


Fixed Latch on a Canister

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I read the book Vitamin Water by Arnel Ricafranca. It’s a free kindle book that explains how to make your own vitamin water.  It inspired me to create my own. But I didn’t have an air tight glass pitcher or one that didn’t take up a lot of space. Then I found this glass canister at Marshalls! $3.00!!!!

canister

canister

I was so excited that I didn’t even notice it was missing part of the latch. Of course, the simple thing would have been for me to return it. But why? Of course I could fix it. First I tried a paper clip. That didn’t work because it was too flimsy. I decided to try a wire hanger. I grabbed my husband’s tools and some of my own and got to work with Gordon Ramsey yelling at the chefs on Hell’s Kitchen in the background.

canister

It took a lot longer than I expected, like 3 episodes of Hell’s Kitchen on Hulu. I thought I’d just use part of the hanger that’s already bent because it’ll be more pliable. But no, it snapped in two. So I took a piece about 3 inches long from the straight part of the bottom of the hanger and used pliers and my tiny muscles to bend it. My fingers hurt after I finished but it was worth. It’s not pretty but it works! Now I can make delicious vitamin water.

canister


bleach a shirt

How to Bleach a Shirt

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I have this sweater style t-shirt that I accidentally got some bleach on. It’s disappointing but not surprising that I managed this. I didn’t want to go around with a dark brown shirt with a few random orange spots and I also didn’t want to throw the shirt away. So, I decided to bleach my shirt in trying to make the entire shirt orange.

bleach a shirt

This to ———->bleach a shirt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what I did.

Materials:

  • bleach
  • water
  • shirt/item you want bleached
  • rubber gloves
  • clothing you’d be ok if bleach accidentally got on
  • hair tie, bobby pins to keep hair out of your face

Instructions:

  1. Make sure the item you want bleach is clean
  2. In a stainless steel sink or something white, I used a small white trash can, do a mixture of ¼ cup bleach to 2 quarts warm water, the warmer the water the more bleach the item will absorb. I also did this in my tub if some of the bleach water splashed around.
  3. Add your item and let it soak for about 20 minutes. I let it soak for 30 minutes because I went and watched TV while I waited and checked/stirred it on commercial breaks.
  4. In the tub or sink completely rinse out item and wash in your machine separately,  following tag instructions. 

Now I have a new shirt and I didn’t have to pay for it! I feel like the picture doesn’t do the pretty pumpkin shade of orange justice.


Favorite May Day Crafts

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Growing up we celebrated May Day, which is May 1st, and we put a lot of effort into our baskets we would create. If you don’t know what May Day is click here. Basically, it is where a person creates a little basket with flowers or candy inside and they put it on the door steps of their sweetie, ring the bell and run! If the person answering the door catches the basket giver, the give them a kiss and send them on their way. I think it is a cute tradition, even if you feel a little silly doing it.

Crafts:

 DLTK’s Crafts for Kids has a lot of cute May Day craft ideas to do with children

TLC also has a list of kid friendly craft ideas.

Martha Stewartmay day, of course, has a cute and easy take on a May Day Basket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple non-traditional crafts for May Day:

tiny_baskets_1_mediumThese are adorable knit baskets that would be perfect.The pattern is by Vicki Mikulak and can be found on Ravelry.

 

 

 

May Day

 

 

This is a cute and easy cross stitch basket pattern for May Day.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple of options if you’d like to buy instead of create:

may day

 

The Etsy store Heartmade Treasures is selling this beautiful and traditional May Day Basket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

il_570xN.372182922_sebw

 

 

 

The Etsy Store ElsieAStyle has this elegant basket for sale.

 

 

 

may day

 

 

This basket sold at Amazon would be a cute May Day Basket, just add flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 


pin cushion lid

Decorating a Glass Jar with Pin Cushion Lid

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pin cushion lid

I decided I needed something new to hold my buttons. So I took a jelly jar and removed the label. It took a lot of soaking and scrubbing that thing was really stuck on there. Then I got out my rainbow of permanent markers, beads and hot glue and decided to get to work, free hand style. FAIL this is how it started to turn out and I was not impressed. My lack of patience got the better me, again.

 

pin cushion lid

FAIL :(

So I removed the beads and got out some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls and removed the marker. The silver was a bit stubborn but it eventually came off. Now, it was time for some planning.

First I decided to create a design on my computer of what I wanted my jar to look like. But Photoshop kept crashing when I went to print the design so I said the heck with it, and hand drew the design on. It’s not perfect but I like it.

For the pin cushion lid. I just took a scrap piece of thick fabric and some Fiber Fill  stuffing and used Mod Podge to glue the fabric over the fill to the lid. I did have to fold over the fabric a bit along the edges but some better planning and correct cutting would fix this issue. The fabric was a little to long, so I cut off the excess from the bottom of the lid after the glue had dried and I now have my button jar with a pin cushion top!

pin cushion top

 


10 Favorite St. Patrick’s Day Outfits for Dogs

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I have created a list of my ten favorite St. Patrick’s Day outfits for Dogs.

 

st patricks day dog outfitThis adorable hoodie, can be found on Amazon, will keep your pup nice and warm and still festive for the holiday. It also comes in a variety of colors making it the perfect option for a male or a female.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dog outfitThis tutu dress from Posh Puppy Boutique will make your dog the center of all of the St Patrick’s Day festivities.

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dogIf clothes aren’t your dog’s style, try this collar from Artful Canine sold by Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dressHere’s something for your pup if you want an outfit she can wear more than once a year but is still green. It’s by DoggyVogue.com and they also have a tank for your male pup.

 

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dog

Perfect for a male or female, this bandana is the perfect accessory for St Patrick’s Day, it is made and sold by Designer Duds for Dogs as well as Amazon.

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dog

This adorable collar from Bloomingtails Dog Boutique is fun and sparkly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dog

 

This reversible bandana can get a little bit more bang for your buck and it clips on instead of tying!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dog

 

If your dog is a tough dog than this tee might be what he/she needs. Sold at michipet.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This tee, sold by i see spot, is the perfect statement for St Patrick’s Day.st patricks day dog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

st patricks day dogAnd last but not least, even though the picture is tiny, is this adorable leprechaun hat, sold by rockstarpuppyboutique.com. Oh if only I could get Rusty to keep a hat on his head.