Artsy Farty Fridays - Polymer Clay Bracelet

Delighted Momma is one of my favorite blogs for DIY projects, and so I decided to give one of her polymer clay crafts a try! I followed her pretty simple instructions and finished up with something kinda cute!


Materials:

1. Sculpey, 2. Exacto Knife/Razor blade, 3. Sandpaper (not pictured)

Knead the Sculpey color of your choice (I probably should've picked a color that less resembled poop..) and then roll it into a tube. *Tip: measure your wrist or use another bangle as a guide so you don't make the bracelet too large or small!

From here on, I pretty much just followed Delighted Momma's tutorial to the letter. I will say that I wish I had used a razor like the one pictured on her blog since it allowed for more varied and angled cuts.

I am absolutely, 100% a beginner at this sort of stuff, and I know I could probably have made a much better quality bracelet if I'd had experience making jewelry or working with polymer clay before (it's tricky to know exactly how to handle that stuff). BUT, I'm still pretty happy with my little hand-made bangle =) 

This is how it turned out after I sanded it down some ^_^

Perhaps I'll spice it up by mixing this project with another of Delighted Momma's DIYs by wrapping some colored thread around portions of the bracelet, but I'm not sure yet. 

Artsy Fartsy Friday - Mason Jars

I recently got into this new-ish website called Pinterest, which basically just allows you to “pin” pictures of things you like on the Internet to “boards” that other people can follow. If you like someone’s pin, you can click on it and it will link you to the website where they found the picture. I frequently haunt DIY (do-it-yourself) boards because I like to believe I’m crafty. At this point, I have accumulated many pins of DIY projects and recipes that I have the best intentions to try but never actually do. Hence (partly) this blog. My lack of interesting things to write about has lit a fire under my butt to get these projects going! 

This first project is really quick and easy, which is perfect for me because I’m impatient and easily confused. I already have a hipster-y fascination with old books, so the main item this project took me out of my way for was the mod podge (which you can buy at any craft store for under $10). Anyways, just get yourself some mason jars, rip some cool looking pages out of some old books, and just slather mod podge on the jar as well as the paper to stick 'em together! It adds a little flair to an otherwise plain glass, and it looks really cool if you put a candle in it, with the light flickering through the pages. I haven't gotten to this myself yet, but you can decorate them even more with twine or ribbon to take it up another notch.

*(I don't remember exactly where I first saw it...sorry I'm not sure who to give credit to for the idea!)

**I'll have a better camera for the next craft post...

Health and Fitness...BLAH

“I did it! I worked out! And it totally wasn’t even that bad! I’m definitely gonna lead a healthier lifestyle now!”

About a week later, an ever-growing pile of excuses knocks me off track until I am right back at square one. I think one big obstacle for me is that I’m too results-driven when it comes to self-improvement. If I don’t see positive results quickly, I lose interest and give up, even though I am fully conscious of the fact that these things take time.

My stomach doesn’t look significantly more toned after running for a half hour? EXERCISE IS FOR WEENIES.

My milkshake ain’t poppin’ after 20 squats? WALLOW IN DEFEAT (and milkshakes).

My motivation is just so seriously lacking…I have failed SO MANY TIMES. Just two weeks ago, I started a workout routine I found online, stuck to it for week and a half, and then “got too busy,” “was too tired,” etc. etc. *sigh*

So since I’m apparently the worst at exercising, I thought I could work on my diet. But, I’ll tell ya right now, day 1 of eating nutritionally was NOT easy. So many health blogs push the whole “eat a snack every 2-3 hours” thing, but what they fail to consider is that some people have jobs that make that INCREDIBLY difficult. Take my job, for instance. I work at a very fast-paced café from 10:30am-7pm. I get one 45-minute break in that time span. The rest of the time, I’m working. The only way to eat a snack every 3 hours is to swallow that snack whole, which I am told is also adverse to a healthy diet. I am legitimately boggled on how I am supposed to make this sort of diet work, but I’m trying and doing the best I can.

A big diet weakness for me is getting over cravings. I have a serious sweet tooth, and I also feel as if I need to eat any time my stomach growls. Turns out our stomachs are just selfish liars that tell us we want something terrible for us when what our bodies actually need is something else entirely. A VERY helpful tip I’ve found is to drink a cup (or at least a few gulps) of water whenever I feel hungry. Especially if I’ve eaten recently but my stomach wants to see how much it can confuse me into eating even more. I’ve been doing this at work and it helps me hold on through the lunch rush until I can take a break and eat a snack.

Anyways…hopefully I’ll keep up with that. In the meantime, if anyone has fitness motivation tips, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put them in the comments. Or maybe a workout buddy? Yeah? Yeah.

Tuesday Tunes - Five Mile Town

Let me introduce you to Five Mile Town. First things first, this band is from New Zealand. Number 1 reason for thinking they’re awesome.

Number 2? There is a banjo in this song. In my opinion, the banjo is a sadly under-utilized instrument in modern music. And it brings such an interesting feel to this song in particular, giving the otherwise pretty typical song a nice twangy (twangy? Twangy.) accompaniment. Also, playing an upright bass in the woods is downright baus (see what I did there?).

Liking this song also means being one of probably less than 500 people who have even heard of this band (their Facebook page only has 472 likes so far). They’re a hipster’s wet dream, really. They don't even have a Wikipedia page. However, they are gaining some popularity in recent days, thanks to a random fan posting their new video on Reddit, so you'd best start following them now while you still have the chance to start hating them later when they become mainstream.

But seriously, a friend (Pete!) randomly introduced me to this band, and I really like their sound. It’s a solid first single and the video for it is simple but beautiful. Considering I have some friends who are trying to make it big in the music industry, I have a fondness for aspiring musicians who need a little help getting their names out there. Check out their Facebook page, Like them if you like them, and share this post with your friends =)

Tuesday Tunes - BOY

I first saw this song posted on another blog (JK JK), and I followed the advice to “take a moment and breathe this in.”  This song really is just…so simply beautiful. The original is also really good, I just have a soft spot for acoustic versions. I did a little digging (read: did 1 Google search) and found the band’s official website, which loads to a full window video of their song “Little Numbers”. 

This song and video are SO CUTE, and I now officially adore this band. I mean, who doesn’t love a video montage of beaches, miniature pianos, children playing with chalk, and lots of sunshine, all set to a cheerful tune about “all the pretty things that we could do”? I also found that this Swiss-German duo, made up of singer Valeska Steiner and accompanist Sonja Glass, writes all of their songs in English, a fact that I love because the lyrics of the two songs I’ve mentioned are simple, playful, and leave you wanting more.

I’m no expert at articulating in words how I feel about music, but I do know to say that this band’s sound has definitely caught my attention. Two uniquely beautiful women making uniquely beautiful music…what’s not to love?

Let's Try This Again

I’ve realized that there are a lot of things I like to share with my friends. So instead of constantly overwhelming my Facebook friends with random posts they may or may not care about, I went with starting a blog.

I know, I know…I’ve done this before. I start a project and then fail to keep it up. But if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, amiright?

As an introduction to express my goals for this blog, let’s just say it will be sort of like a variety show – a little bit of everything. Or, as my boyfriend just deftly described it: Seinfeldian. I’d like to think he’s wrong, that this blog won’t be about nothing, per se, but I do love Seinfeld (who doesn’t?), and I don’t have any problem with being likened to such a hilarious show. There are just a lot of things that I find on the Internet that I want to talk about, or want to try, or simply want to share, and this seemed like the best outlet. Make sense? I sure hope so.

If you really want to know what to expect, here are some ideas I have for post topics:

-Music I like.

-DIY Projects/Recipes: I'd really like to document what it's like for a total craft/cooking beginner to try some of these projects that bloggers always say are so simple. Show what it's like for us common folk.

-Exercise/diet stuff: again, I'm a TOTAL beginner when it comes to fitness and nutrition, and I want to post about the trials and tribulations of trying to get healthy.

-Etc. etc. etc.

So as you can see, I’ve actually already got some post ideas lined up, and dare I say, some posts already pre-written and ready to go…? I’m cautiously optimistic about this, guys. I hope you’re excited too! Tell your friends and all that.