diy clay feathers

i don't know about everyone else but i'm still totally in love with feathers.  well technically i had a fascination with them since i was small child before they were cool and adults were telling me that they were infested with germs and parasites...  but anyway, when i saw these ceramic feathers i knew i wanted some!!  these feathers are $42 for the set of 5 ceramic ornaments-pretty steep but you can make them less...waaay less.

i made mine out of some cheap-o air dry clay but i was really wishing i had shelled out for some more sculpey.  air dry clay has a tendency to get all crackly if you don't finish fast enough and it doesn't hold texture nearly as well as sculpey does.  plus it warped when it dried *sigh*.  that'll teach me to try and save some money lol.  but i think the warping makes it look somewhat more featherish?  i think it'll still make a nice pendant or some other accessory.  now i'm just wondering i should add some color to it...maybe a soft blue or gray?  i will def be making more of these with some better quality clay.  

if you want to make your own all you need is some clay and a toothpick (one of those metal ceramic probe thingies would probably work better but i think i left mine in storage...).  start by taking a small piece of clay and flatten it in the shape you want your feather to be in.  i started by tracing where i wanted the center quill of the feather to be and pressed down everywhere else so that the quill was the only raised area.  then just use your toothpick and make lines down on either side of the quill.  it'll probably look weird at first but the more lines you add the better it looks, and don't worry about making every line perfectly parallel no one will be able to tell when you're done.  drill a hole, cure the clay and now you have a new feather pendant!!

on a side note...can anyone guess what i had for dinner last night, breakfast and lunch today?  and will probably have again later as a snack?  smores...that's right i had smores for 3 meals in a row...  it did lack some authenticity since i was making it over my gas burner in the kitchen but hey it was still deliciously sweet and toasted.

blog makeover

so i had the day off from work today so i decided to change things up in my blog a little bit.

first, the background-it went from chevron to more of a herringbone pattern.  not really a major change but i actually made this background myself instead of using a free background so i like that.  i just used a sharpie (ahh sharpie fumes) and a sheet of computer paper.  then i scanned it and slapped it (electronically) up on blogger.

next, my new social media icons!!  i stumbled across this awesome tutorial via Her New Leaf that shows you how to make your own icons with html.  i've never used html before and i thought it was pretty easy to follow-mostly cut and paste.  one thing i did have a problem with was getting the icons side by side.  originally i was making a new gadget for each icon-you need to put the html code for each icon in the same gadget and then they'll be lined up horizontally.

<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Her-New-Leaf-Blog/
329109590455030" target="_blank"><img src="http://hernewleaf.
files.wordpress.com/2012/01/facebook.png"></a>

here is the code form Her New Leaf, just switch out the bolded parts for your own image/site.  again keep adding the code to the same gadget instead of opening a new one each icon.  

 i was going to use these cool pantone freebie icons from The Academy but i decided to make some bunny inspired ones instead.  i couldn't decide what color to make them but i settled for a turquoise color that was part of my blogger color palette.  i'm sure i'll end up changing the color...as soon as i decide what to change it to...

diy hair clips

i hope everyone has been having a good weekend-the weather here has been gloriously cool and breezy i hope it lasts...

are you tired of boring black/brown hair clips?  or maybe you're looking for a hair accessory to go with a certain outfit?  well jazz up your plain hair clips with this cheap and easy diy!!

supplies:
-scissors
-embroidery floss
-hair clip
-needle (optional)
-adhesive (not pictured) (i used liquid stitch)

you can secure your floss to your hair clip with a bit of glue or just tie it in a knot.  then start wrapping-it's easier to use a needle but you could do this by hand too.  i didn't use any glue on this part but if you feel like your hair clips get a lot of wear and tear it probably wouldn't hurt.

once you've wrapped both sides of your hair clip, use the floss you have left to form a braid.  i forgot to take pictures of this part so i'll try to explain:  visually divide the floss you have left into thirds.  bring the top of the bottom third to the top forming a loop (and also giving you 3 pieces of floss of similar length).  you can use these 3 pieces to start braiding-just make sure to keep detangling as you go this method can get messy pretty fast.  once you've finished the braid, start from the center and wrap the braid around in a circular motion, gluing as you go.  tuck the end under the outermost circle and secure with more glue.  and that's it!!

i actually got these hair clips in high school because i loved how oversized they are but i never used them because my hair always got caught in them (minor design flaw in the clip).  but when i wrapped them i could cover the crack where my hair always got stuck and now i can wear these again!!  plus they're much more exciting this way...

New Etsy shoppe

This morning I finally posted some items for sale in my new etsy shop!! Well technically not new since its been 'open' for a while I just haven't posted anything... Anyway check it out and let me know what you think-you can find it here or through the 'shop' page.

free printable recipe cards

i'm usually not a big fan of recipe cards but when i found this adorable printable from Jayna at Behind the Studio i knew i had to make some!!

here is the original printable from Behind the Studio:

 all i did was make a more printer friendly version with 2 per page.  I also made a back for longer recipes.

mustache giftcard holder pattern and tutorial

sooo my first attempt at a printable pattern!!  it took me a longer than expected...mostly because of the damn 'stache but i think it turned out okay.  i made these a pdf file but then i couldn't figure out how to get it on blogger so here's the pattern and tutorial in jpg form.  if you want the originals just leave your email in a comment and i can email them to you.  or if anyone knows how you can post downloadable files on blogger let me know!!  you can find my original post here.  

happy crafting and i hope everyone is having a good weekend!!

sick day

sorry for the delayed responses and comments everyone!!  also for the delayed pattern/tutorial for the mustache card holder-i still plan on making one i just haven't had a chance-i've been running a fever the past couple of days.  i've also been toying with the idea of making a PDF this time...

health is such an odd thing...when i was born i was 2 months premature and had asthma and was just generally unhealthy.  the general unhealthiness continued up until about 3rd grade.  i remember i used to get the flu really bad about once a year.  and it always ended up with my vomit in a place other than the toilet, one time even in the sink...cause i couldn't make it that extra 3 steps lol.  but after that i never really got sick, i mean i had seasonal allergies (once a year) but i don't really count that.  basically from 4th grade to sophomore year of college i didn't get sick once.  i didn't get a cold, the flu, nothing.  it was a blissful time...

then sophomore year of college i got sick 2-3 times, i'm not sure what it was, it might've been strep but i've never had it and the college med office didn't test (yeah they just gave me meds without testing what i had...).  that was also the first time i'd been to the doctor in my conscious memory and i only went because i kept getting it.  well, excluding the optometrist 'cause i've had an intimate relationship with them since 4th grade.  but for whatever reason, my family is not big on doctors-we don't do regular checkups for anything; i've only been to the dentist 4 times!!  i also thought it might've been mono 'cause one of my roomies had it but who knows...

and after that...nothing really.  i got sick once senior year of college-i think it might have been a weird sinus infection or something.  again, i didn't go to the doctor so i don't really know what it was.

and yet...since i've moved to hawaii, granted it's been almost a year, i've been sick 3 times.  this past weekend was the worst-i actually had a fever!!  as in chills and sweats!!  am i just getting old?  was sophomore year the cutoff for youthful health?  do other people normally get sick this often?  was my immune system awesome before and just average now??  what's wrong with me lol!!

anyway, i've been trying to figure out why i've been getting sick so much since coming here-number one on my list is public transit.  i spend about an hour every day to go to work and back on the bus and on basically every bus ride i hear someone coughing.  i don't really have a way to get around this because i don't have a car and i don't want to wear a face mask around (not that i think those are that effective anyway).  i also thought it might be the fact that my apartment doesn't have central AC so there's usually a breeze (natural or otherwise).  and my bf says it's bad to have a constant breeze on you while you sleep-dries out your nasal passages and whatnot (and he has a degree in biology so he has to be right right??).  plus there's no filter which makes everything get dusty three times faster!!  again i don't really have a way around this either because the alternative is to sweat both myself and my rabbits to death, well technically not the rabbits since they can't sweat.

and then i wondered if it's just because there are a bajillion more people here than home and they all fare from different places with different diseases/viruses/bacteria.  plus the fact that there's an international airport so who knows what's coming and going out of there.  which then made me wonder if people in small towns get sick less often than in larger metropolitan areas?  i mean i'm sure the same diseases are present and that they can always mutate at the drop of a hat but at the same time, in a small town you might have fewer new introductions than in a large town with international connections.  my logic here is probably horribly flawed lol.

so my solution to getting sick less often...move to a small isolated town, drive my own car, and have central AC!!  or just get enough sleep and take me vitamins...which is probably the less costly option.

anyway, enough of my ramblings, i hope to get the pattern up this weekend, hopefully i can make a snazzy PDF for everyone!!

stay healthy and we're almost halfway through the week woo!!

mustache card holder

do you have a lot of gift cards taking up space in your wallet?  or maybe random cards floating around a kitchen drawer?  well i have both...so i decided to make a little card holder out of some scrap fabric and fabric paint!!  the topstitching was a bit off but i like the way it turned out; it keeps all my cards nice and organized without taking up extra space in my wallet and i used a freezer paper stencil to paint that cute lil 'stache on the front.

*update*
you can find the pattern and tutorial here