This "Change" Stuff Sucks.

Like many of my friends can attest to, I'm pretty random and my thought patterns are not linear.  I would say they follow the principles of Chaos Theory.  So, the other morning, I saw a sticker on a truck that said "This 'Change' Stuff Sucks".  Now, I'm not sure if my recent political leanings or the fact that the sun wasn't quite up yet (yes, I was up and at breakfast one morning long before the sun rose), but I found that sticker quite funny and it got me thinking.

Change.  It's scary.  It's what you get back when you pay cash.  It's alterations.  It's something different.  It's what the current administration was elected on.  But is it really change?  Is it more of the same ridiculous gridlock that keeps bogging down our political system?

So my friends, don't forget to keep fighting the good fight and keep those we have chosen to lead us honest and responsible.  Make sure your voices are heard when a policy is enacted that you don't like.  Remember.  THEY work for US.  Make sure to get out and vote.  Albuquerque has an election coming up in a little over a week.  Whatever side you are on, make sure you get out there and make your voices heard.

Funky Fresh Tshirts

Hello all.  Just dropping in since it has been a while and I've actually been working on many crafts over the past month.  I made a sweet wreath for Easter, but I almost lost a finger to that craft, so let's move on to the other craft I have done this month.

Many of you know that my daughter is a dancer and the team had a competition coming up, and they all wanted to make a team shirt.  Well, Lily's birthday is coming up, so I thought why not kill two birds with one hot glue gun and make one giant party out of it.

The shirts were a big hit, using a few different methods to get the end result.  There were fabric appliques for the names on the back and hearts on the sleeves, sponge painted letters on the front, and braided sides.  I have done a quick tutorial below for each of the methods used on the shirts.

FABRIC APPLIQUES

Pick the tshirt you'd like to work with. It should be pre-washed and 100% cotton for best results. Make a trip to the fabric store and find some fabric you'd like to work with. While you are at the fabric store, grab some fusible web (if you aren't sure, ask a nice lady there....they will totally know what you are asking for.  Popular brands are Wonder Under and Heatnbond)  Make sure to pre-wash the fabric so it will not run onto the tshirt after you've attached the applique.

With a hot iron, press the waxed paper side of the fusible web, pressing it into the wrong side of the fabric. This should take about 30 seconds.

Trace the design of your choice onto the paper. You can use stencils if you don't want to draw your design freehand.  Remember, if you are doing letters, you need to trace them backwards so they come out right side when you cut them out. Cut around the design with sharp fabric scissors.

 When you have all your designs cut out, peel the waxed paper off the back of the fabric. The side where the paper was should now be clear and glossy.

Place the fabric, glossy-side down, where you would like it to be on your tshirt. On a flat surface, like the floor or an ironing board, press the fabric onto the shirt for 30 seconds. When the shirt is cool, your tshirt will have a new design.

Reinforce your tshirt applique to make it last longer.   The guaranteed way to make the appliques stay is to sew around the perimeter of the design with a needle and thread.  However, chances are if you are reading this, you can't sew.  So, a funkier way to seal the appliques is to use fabric paint.  Glittery, metallic, puffy, slick - it doesn't matter.  Just run a bead of fabric paint along the outside of the applique (half on the applique, half on the shirt).  Just make sure to not put these shirts in the dryer after washing.

SPONGE PAINTED LETTERS (OR DESIGNS...IT'S WHATEV..)

Go to the dollar store and find those large packs of multi-color kitchen sponges.  Don't spend a ton of money on these....

Trace templates on sponges with fine marker. Letters, numbers, random shapes, anything goes.

Cut all of the shapes and set them aside.

Pour fabric paint onto small paper plates. Use a new plate for each color since the paint will get smeared around the plate and become mixed up.  Tulip fabric paint makes a line that comes in bigger squeeze bottles and the paint doesn't  stiffen like the stuff in the little bottle. 

Dampen your sponges. This will allow the sponge to expand for better coverage. Squeeze out excess water. Every now and again, you may want to wash out the sponges to keep them getting sodden with paint.

Press sponge stamp lightly into paint and keep from overloading the sponge. Shapes will be distorted if there is too much paint used. 

There is one other thing  I have learned using this method.  Take the extra time to put a piece of cardboard or something in between the front and the back of the shirts...it is really easy to soak through the shirt layers with the paint.

CUT/BRAIDED SIDES OF THE SHIRT

So this one is a little harder to explain in print.  So, in order to not re-invent the wheel, I found a quick tutorial on YouTube.  For the shirts for the girls, it was this same method, but I made the cuts shorter and thicker and did not stretch the cuts.  I did the shirts this way so there would not be the large gaps on the sides and it looked more like a traditional braid.  I also tied the last loop to the bottom hem instead of a hole or around existing loops.  Check out You Tube if you are interested in cut shirts.  There are a ton of tutorials out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCnpIzPiUXk

Anyway, hope you all enjoy and happy crafting!

Zombiepocalypse Crafts: Flammable Gel

Hello my friends!  I hope you are enjoying your lovely lanters.  Well, if you were unlucky enough to not have candles, I have a recipie for you that will help you light your way, keep you warm (ok, not really) or help cook some of that food you might have.

On your next recon or scouting patrol, hit up the local drug store and pillage, er I mean, aquire the following ingredients:

• antacid tablets - must contain at least 1000 mg calcium carbonate per tablet
• vinegar (weak acetic acid)
• isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) - 90% or higher is recommended* (70% isopropyl alcohol will work, but you will need to allow let the mixture from step 3 evaporate until it is a little more concentrated to make up for the extra water in the alcohol. )

Prepare the Flaming Gel

1. Crush 5 antacid tablets into a powder.
2. Stir 50 ml (~10 tsp) of vinegar into the powder (10 ml per tablet) to make a slurry.
3. Allow the slurry to evaporate until it is less than half its original volume. This could take about a day. If you accidentally evaporate all of the water, you can reconstitute the slurry by stirring in a small amount of water.
4. Fill a container with about 2x the volume of however much antacid slurry you have at this point.
5. While stirring, slowly add slurry to the alcohol to form a thickened gel. Do this slowly: If you add too much slurry, the mixture will liquefy and you won't get a gel. So, once you have a gel, don't add any more of the calcium tablet slurry mixture.
6. Place the gel into an airtight container for future use. 
7. Scoop up a ball of the gel and ignite it.

That's it for today kids.  Stay tuned for the next exciting craft!!!

(If there is anything you would like to see in future posts, feel free to suggest!!!)

Shot through the heart and you're to blame... (a special dedication)

So, here we are upon another holiday.  Guess what????  Yup it's that time again.  HISTORY LESSON!!!!  This one is dedicated to Ali.  :)  You know you love it.  Get it...day about love and I said you loved it?  No?  Not Funny?  Sorry - Don't slap me.

I get why so many people despise Valentine's Day.  I do.  Really.  I promise.  When one stops to think about it, the holiday is really a consumeristic idea of what love is supposed to be.  Valentine's Day is now a multi-BILLION dollar money maker for florists, candy makers, card makers, jewelry stores and anyone else trying to cash in on the holiday.  Who didn't go to the stores looking for that after Christmas bargain only to be confronted by pink and red hearts everywhere?  (OK, in reality, I don't mind so much because I adore the Russell Stover raspberry creme hearts.....mmmmm).  Florists in the US sell about 198 million red roses on V-Day.  This boosts the bottom line for the florists where this one day alone constitues approximately 25% of their annual revenue.  Candy sales for V-Day ranks fourth on the list of holidays behind Halloween, Easter, and Christmas.  As for Holiday Card sales - well that is second on the list *just* behind Christmas cards.

There really isn't any solid information of the origins of Valentine's Day.  But there is general consensus.  One legend credits the creation of V-Day to the holiday the ancient Romans celebrated known as  festival of Lupercalis/Lupercalia.  This festival is a fertility celebration that was observed annually on February 15. But the rise of Christianity in Europe saw many pagan holidays being renamed for and dedicated to the early Christian martyrs. Lupercalia didn't escape unscathed. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius turned Lupercalia into a Christian feast day. He proclaimed February 14 to be the feast day in honor of Saint Valentine, a Roman martyr who lived in the 3rd century and was martyred on February 14th. 

So who was this Valentine dude and why was he martyred?  Well, let me tell you (because if I had a Delorean and a Flux Capacitor, we'd be taking a field trip).  DISCLAIMER:  The Catholic Church officially recognizes three saints that were all martyred named Valentine or Valentinus, so we are just going to go with the one that lived in the time of Claudius, K?  Good.

Imagine you are in the Roman Empire... life is good and you are conquering the world.  Ok, maybe not YOU, but you get me, right?  Well, like all good things, it must end, and the end of the Roman Empire is near.  The Empire grew too large for the soldiers of the Empire to defend.   Because of this, Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.  How very Friar Lawrence from Verona of him. 

Since no one can really keep a secret, it wasn't long before "the friend of lovers" was discovered and Claudius II had him arrested.  While awaiting his sentence in prison, Valentine was approached by his jailor, Asterius. It was said that Valentine had some saintly abilities and one of them granted him the power to heal people.  Here the story varies wildly by faith.  Catholics believe that Valentine restored the sight of Asterius' daughter, while the Protestant refute this fact.  Anyhoo, whatever happened there, a strong friendship formed between Valentine and his jailors daughter.  It is said that just before his execution, Valentine asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine."  The phrase that will live in infamy and tourture the lonely hearts club.

In 1916, Lily Hardy Hammond wrote, "You don't pay love back; you pay it forward."  In the Garden of Delight (p. 209).  Wise words.  I think this year we should start a new trend for Valentine's Day.  Instead of using the day to tell the person (or people) that are close to you that you love them - something you should be doing everyday anyway - and showering them with gifts for no apparent reason really, why don't we pay the love we get forward?

It's easy to do.  We all know someone who has suffered a loss of some sort over the last year or so.  Why don't we reach out to them?  Fork over that dollar to the unfortunate soul on the corner.  Smile at someone who looks like they are having a rough day.  We are all fortunate in our own way to have love in our lives...let's pass it on to someone who doesn't or has forgotten.

So with that being said, to all of you who took some time out of their day to read my ramblings, I love you and appreciate you all for being in my life.

Zombiepocalypse Crafts: Romantic Lanterns

Beans in a can.  Somehow I can see that as being a staple when the Zombiepocalypse hits.  Eh, it's sustinance, right?  Well, when the end of the world as we know it comes to an end, we don't want to be wasteful, now do we?  Well, you're in luck.  I have a little something that will pass the time a bit and create some ambiance in your base camp.  This is a perfect project for Valentine's Day since the weather, in what seems to be the entire country nowadays, gets to be pretty chilly.

Ok, on to the how to:

1. Have a hearty meal consisting of baked beans, canned corn, soup, fruit salad, or anything else that comes in a can that you managed to scrounge up in one of your recon patrols. 
2. Wash the can thoroughly to remove the label and any food residue. We are going for funky looking, not funky smelling.  And besides, the jury is still out on whether the walking dead are attracted to the smell of cooking and/or rotting food.
3. Now for the cool part - fill the can with water and put it somewhere super cold until the water is frozen solid.  This isn't totally necessary, but it makes it a ton easier to punch holes in the can and it keeps the can from crushing down.
4. OK, you’ve waited out the freezing, now it’s time to get to work. And time is of the essence, ‘cause you don’t want to let the ice melt! Take the can out of the freezer and use the crayon or Sharpie or whatever you happen to have, and map out your design using dots. Flower patterns, Hearts, Random Dots or even Pac-Man are good designs to try. Try to center the mid-point of your design between the top and bottom of the can. The dots you draw will become holes where the candlelight will shine through, so try not to plan too few or too many (remember the light attracts zombies).
5. Position your crossbow bolt over the dot and punch a hole in the can.  Oh, you don't have a crossbow?  Well, if you don't have a crossbow handy, you can use a nail and hammer.  Center the nail on a point in your pattern, grab the hammer, and pound out a hole.
6. Continue the poking/hammering process until you’ve poked holes in each spot, and then put the can somewhere out of the way, like a sink to thaw. Or bust it out of the can and make a nice margarita on the rocks.
7. Once the ice is gone and the can is dry, you’re ready to add a candle. Candle choice depends on can size and what you happen to have handy.  Tea Light candles works well in most standard vegetable cans. Experiment a little. If you can't figure out how to make this work, then you have no chance of survival.  If you don't happen to have any candles laying around, use flamable gel.  That my friends will be our next tutorial.  Just know where the closest drug store is to scrounge for materials for that little project. 
8. Now all that’s left is to strategically place your new lanters in corners and around the room to cast a lovely pattern of lights in your hideout.

Ok friends, until next time, be safe and keep your head down!

A world without Glue Guns? Oh the Horror!!!!

Well good intentions clearly went out the window.  It's been  months since my last post.  But in my defense, October through January is kind of crazy around the Converse house.  I digress...

My adventures the last couple of months have been a blast.  Of course I can't just say my without meaning we.  Cody is the other half of my brain and we have had some righteous times and have met some of the greatest people ever.  But of course our crafting and general silliness has gotten us some attention and it really got me thinking - what would we do when the Zombiepocalypse hits?

The first thought that dawned on me was horrifying.  Was it the hordes of the undead trying to eat me? no.  Friends and family gone forever? no.  The world as we know it has come to an end? no.  It was the thought that without infrastructure, we would have no electricity, therefore making my glue gun something I had to learn to live without..... Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

With that being said, I have decided to start compiling useful crafty things one can do after the Zombiepocalypse.  The first post should be up shortly, and I do hope you enjoy them.  In the meantime, take some tips from one of my favorite people of all time (Martha Stewart) and make sure that you have your Survival kit ready to go. 

Jumping on the Bandwagon

I've dabbled a bit in blogging.  Nothing spectacular - just a history lesson here and there when a holiday would come around (mainly on MySpace - remember that site?).  However lately, I have been inspired by a few people I know who have started a blog and by those whose blogs I follow religiously.

So, I thought why not start my own blog - jumping on the bandwagon if you will.  Then I started thinking about what on earth could I possibly write about that would garner the interest of anyone other than myself.  So I thought and thought and designed my blog page and thought some more and it struck me.  I'm jumping on the bandwagon.  Where the hell did that expression come from?  Well lucky you, I'm going to tell you.

So let's break it down.  The word bandwagon was first used in the good 'ol USA in 1855 by Phineas T. Barnum in his autobiography The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself.  It is simply the name for the wagon that carried a circus band.  However, P.T. Barnum is NOT credited for coining the phrase, just the word. 

Even though he is not credited with coining the phrase, P.T. Barnum was a master showman.  Circus workers had an inate skill at attracting attention with the ruckus of a parade going  through town, complete with highly decorated bandwagons.  Other than Circus Workers, Politicians have a knack at making spectacles of themselves.  So, politicians used bandwagons to get their message out and have supporters literally get on the bandwagon to show their endorsement of a candidate.

The figurative use of the phrase "jump on the bandwagon" is credited to Teddy Roosevelt.  He made the reference practice in his Letters, 1899 (published 1951):

"When I once became sure of one majority they tumbled over each other to get aboard the band wagon."

After researching and writing this little blog, it got me thinking again.  (uh oh...I know)  Since this phrase was linked to politicians and it's everyone's favorite time of the year (woo hoo mud slinging), I just wanted to remind everyone to make sure to get out and vote.  Especially all you savvy ladies out there.  New Mexico has been a state longer than women have had the right to vote in this country.  Make sure you honor all those women who fought and were jailed in their fight to bring women the right to vote.  November 2.  Be there or be lame.