DIY~ TOMS Flag Wallet

Things You'll Need:

• Toms flag
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Sewing Machine (or needle and thread)
• Pins

Estimated Time To Make: under 45 minutes

Step 1.  Take your toms flag, and measure vertical lines about 3/4" from the T and the S, and cut. 

Step 2. Take one of the side strips, and flip upside down. Fold flap over about 1/3".

Step 3. Tack the side strip flapped over to the Toms Flag, just about 1/3" below the white, so it looks like this. (click on image to enlarge)

Step 4. Lay the flag down, so that the tacked fabric covers "Toms", sew the flapped part down with a horizontal stitch, to create a credit card pocket. Note: if using a sewing machine, you may want to remove the pins before feeding through your sewing machine, however I personally didn't have to.

Step 5. Flip credit card pocket over, so that it doesn't cover "Toms". Fold fabric right below credit card pocket, so that it looks like this.

Step 6. Turn inside out, and sew along seams. So it'll looks like this.

Side 1:

Side 2:

Step 7. Turn back right side in. 

***

Weekend Playlist

1. "Ghosts" -The Head and the Heart
2. "You Could Be Happy" -Snow Patrol
3. "Clark Gable" -The Postal Service
4. "A Walk" -Tycho
5. "Daughter" -Youth
6. "Young Pilgrims" -The Shins
7. "Catch My Disease" -Ben Lee
8. "Janglin" -Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

(or click here to listen)

Vegetarian Awareness Day/Month

October 1st kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month! So I challenge you to join me by eating meat-free for the day or throughout the month!

eat beans not beings!


Some of the benefits from not eating meat:
•Reduce the risk of major killers such as heart disease, stroke and cancer while cutting exposure to food-borne pathogens
•Provide a viable answer to feeding the world’s hungry through more efficient use of grains and other crops
•Save animals from suffering in factory-farm conditions and from the pain and terror of slaughter
•Conserve vital but limited freshwater, fertile topsoil and other precious resources
•Preserve irreplaceable ecosystems such as rainforests and other wildlife habitats
•Decrease greenhouse gases that are accelerating global warming
•Mitigate the ever-expanding environmental pollution of animal agriculture

(click here for more information)

Weekend Playlist

1. "No Cars Go"- Arcade Fire
2. "Paper Thin Walls"- Modest Mouse
3. "You're Gonna Break My Heart Someday"- Idyllists
4. "Gone For Good" -The Shins
5. "Little Talks" -Of Monsters and Men
6. "One Red Thread" -Blind Pilot
7. "Ho Hey"- The Lumineers
8. "You're The One I Want" - Chris and Thomas

(or click here to listen)

DIY Ombré Nails

Things You'll Need:

• 2 different colors of nail polish
• Makeup sponge
• Clear top coat nail polish 

Estimated Time: half an hour

Step 1. Paint nails a base coat, with one of your 2 colors. (Lighter color works best)

Step 2. Using a makeup sponge, add a small stripe of both colors. Use the darker color at the tip of the sponge, and the base coat color above it.

Step 3. Dab sponge on each nail individually and repeatedly until you like the fade effect. Apply more nail polish to sponge for every nail. Be careful not to apply too much nail polish to the sponge.

Step 4. Let nails dry, and add a clear top coat. 

Weekend Playlist

1. "Ghostwriter" -RJD2
2. "Wildcat" -Ratatat
3. "Madness"- Deltron 3030
4. "Blue Bossanova" -Bossanova
5. "Xylem Up" -D Numbers
6. "The Last Four Things" -Deceptikon
7. "Bustelo" -Ratatat
8. "My Only Swerving" -El Ten Eleven 

(or click here to listen)

DIY~ The Daile Lele Dangling Scarf

Things You'll Need:

• An old t shirt 
• Scissors 
• (Optional: paint or dye)

Estimated Time To Make: half an hour

Step 1. Cut a t-shirt straight across below the arms.

(Optional: since I was dealing with a plain white t-shirt, I had some fun playing with fabric dye, and glitter paint. To create the glitter circles, I dipped the end of a toilet paper roll into a puddle of the glitter paint, and stamped on the fabric.)

Step 2. Cut fringe about .5 inch thick, and 5 inches long 

(you can play with lengths for a different outcome.)

Weekend Playlist

1. "Burning"- Whitest Boy Alive
2. "No You Girls Never Know"- Franz Ferdinand
3. "Effect & Cause"- The White Stripes
4. "Tropicalia"- Beck 
5. "North by North"- Faded Paper Figures
6. "White Daisy Passing"- Rocky Votolato
7. "California"- Rogue Wave
8. "Chicago"- Sufjan Stevens

(or click here to listen)



DIY~ The Daile Lele Denim Bow (no sew)

Things You'll Need:

• Denim Scraps
• Tacky Glue or Hot Glue
• Sicssors

Estimated Time To Make: under half an hour

Step 1. Cut a strip off the leg of a pair of blue jeans, about 5 inches long

(or you can play with the measurements for a bigger or smaller bow)

Step 2. Turn the strip inside-out.

Step 3. Fold edge up one inch and glue. (repeat to both top and bottom)

Step 4. Let glue dry and turn back right-side-in

(This is what the inside will look like.)

Step 5. Pinch in the middle.

Step 6. Take a smaller piece of fabric and wrap it around the center of the larger piece of fabric. (click here for more instruction)

You may also like:

• DIY~ Fabric Bow (no sew)
• DIY~ Lace Bow (no sew)

DIY~ Decorate a Candle Using Tissue Paper

Things You'll Need:

• Tissue Paper
• Candle (the bigger the better)
• Sharpies
• Wax Paper
• Hair Blow Dryer

Estimated Time To Make: under half an hour

Step 1. Take a piece of tissue paper and cut it so that it'll wrap around your candle.

Step 2. Using sharpies, draw your design or write a message on the tissue paper. Be creative, use fun hole punches, or even cut your own pattern out.

(white tissue paper on a white candle will blend in, but the marker won't blend in)

Step 3. Cut away as much of the excess tissue paper as you can.

Step 4. Wrap the tissue paper around your candle.

Step 5. Then, tightly wrap a piece of wax paper around the wrapped tissue paper.

Step 6. Using the blow dryer, on high heat, move it back and forth for about 30-40 seconds on each section.

(If your tissue paper completely wraps around your candle, try holding the candle with an oven mitt, as it'll be very hot)

Step 7. Once you have heated the entire design, gently peel back your wax paper and make sure the entire design is adhered to the candle. If not just repeat with the wax paper and blow dryer.

To Relieve Mosquito Bites

So this past weekend, I stayed on the Mississippi River. Needless to stay, I was eaten alieve by mosquitos. 

For the next time you find yourself in this situation; here is my personal collection of home remedies, to atleat relieve the itch.

1. Directly dab on peppermint toothpaste 
2. Directly apply a lemon slice to affected area
3. Crush an aspirin and add water to form anti-itching paste
4. After applying scentless lotion on bite area, rub on table salt
5. Directly rub on apple cider vinegar
6. Rub itchy area with the pulpy inside surface of a banana peel
7. Dab on ammonia
8. Make anti-itching paste with baking soda and water

DIY Fortune Eggs

Now we've all had fortune cookies, but here's how you can make your very own fortune egg!

Things You'll Need:

• Egg
• Paint & Paintbrushes
• Paper

Estimated Time To Make: one hour

Step 1. Take an egg, and blow the yoke out.

Step 2. Rinse the egg out and let dry.

Step 3. Once dried, paint the egg with fun patterns.

Step 4. Let paint dry.

Step 5. Take a small piece of paper, and write a fortune on it.

Step 6. Roll the fotune paper up.

Step 7. Slip the rolled up fortune into the egg, through the hole you used to blow the yoke out.

Step 8. Put the egg in a small box and give to a friend to crack open!