Mami solution: If the shirt is too tight fit, rip it.

 

Before anything else, I'd like to emphasize that this is not a fashion blog nor I am trying to convert this to one.  But I'm making this entry for sale and thrift lovers like me because one, I felt so clever (let me be conceited just this once, mmkay?) getting a good result and two, I might be able to give some ideas to others who, like me, bought something so cheap and then didn't fit.

 

 So here is the subject matter:

 

I bought this shirt from Zara for almost 3 euros ONLY.  I fell in love with the ruffled sleeve and with that price, I didn't even check if it will fit me.  Size is médium so I thought it should fit perfectly.

 

But when I got home and tried it on, it was too fit and I didn't feel comfortable about it showing off my curves, you know what I mean? And this mami want's some comfy shirt without looking frumpy.  So I was a bit disheartened... I didn't want to return it as I do really love the effect of the ruffled sleeves on me and the sexy neckline without revealing much.

 

See? Nice Ruffled fitted sleeves, but I would have to tuck my tummy all the time and that means tough and less oxygen for my body!  In this picure I was holding my breath and I haven't even eaten lunch, heh. What is that you say? My mirror is yucky? That's some photo filter a la instagram! :-P

 

Going back...

 

So what did I do?  Here comes the clever-me part...

 

I ripped the sides off!

 

That feels a lot better.

 

But I will never go out the streets half naked like that! 

 

So I grabbed these lovelies. Cheapos.  60 cents from the Chinese store - equivalent of dollar store

 

And hand-stiched them on to the shirt's open sides.

 

I was really pleased with the result.

 

Do I get a standing ovation?

 

BOW.

Recycled Nescafe Jar

Have I already mentioned that Pinterest is addicting? Man, it seriously is! I find myself pinterest-ing every.single.night. Once the little one starts to do her little snores, I'd take my mobile and put myself under the blanket and start browsing through the bazillion ideas one can find in the sweet addicting world of Pinterest.  Yes, it could be possible that I am losing sleep because of too much Pinterest-ing.

Anyhoo... as I was browsing and pinning, I found this work of a really artsy man named Eric Barclay.  One of his works is this:

Isn't this too adorable??? I tell you, the guy is full of creativity and talent!

And since this is about recycling (I've been very gung-ho about recycling but just couldn't find time) and by a very, very good chance, I have one empty Nescafe bottle lying around the house, I said I must try this! 

And here is the result of my wannabee-artist work.  I know, it's far (like oceans afar!) from Eric's work but hey, the colors I used are all I have at the time AND I swear, my hand wouldn't just stop from trembling while I was trying to paint the bottle.  I don't really know what I was so nervous about.  And that crackled effect near the whites... and what's going on with the white?  Looks like I used a liquid paper.  I tell you I did not.  I used a super old white paint marker... but I guess it's already super old, that's why.

 

 

But I am still happy with the outcome.  My striped cat turned out cute in its own unique style, yes?  Maybe I'd get better on the next ones.  Maybe I should also get nicer colors to use, yeah? I still have to think of what to store in it.  For now,  it holds small knick-knacks in the kitchen.  But it should find a better purpose.  Maybe nuts? Or Sugar perhaps?  What would you use a bottle like this for?

 

 

DIY: Fabric Hanging Bookshelf

In the midst of too much work and drama and some drainage problem around our household,  I tried to work on some DIY project that hopefully would make me feel like there's still something we are able to accomplish inspite of all the hullaabaloos.

 I've been eyeing this project for quite some time now but couldn't really dedicate enough time to sit down and start on it.  But then slowly, slowly, like that tortoise in the story  The Tortoise and The Hare,  I managed to win the race!  Thanks to Pinterest and to this lady who posted a great tutorial.

I'm not posting my own tutorial as really, I just followed whatever is in the link above plus, some improvisation.   If any one has some questions though with anything, just haller and yours truly will try her best to help :)

So here is my own version.  The fabric is from a curtain that was on sale.  From €24.99 to €5. Score!  One whole curtain was already more than enough for these two hanging book shelf. 

I downloaded pictures of animal silhouettes from the internet, printed on a paper and then traced them on an old shirt I have.  I then just pasted them using fabric glue.  I love the result! But man, cutting animal silhouettes on a fabric is a tough job. 

Ok, some revelation... see the big red arrow above? Not cool.  That shows how my sewing skill needs tons of practice.  But I am turning a blind eye on that as I am currently too lazy to correct this booboo.

And now for my favorite part.  See the embellisments on the side?  Rolled paper magazine, what else!

Coz, this? Is ugly.  I bought long curtain rod and just cut them in half.  So the result is this ugly thing.  They badly need some eblishment but the ones that are ready-made from the store are either too big or way too expensive for my budget-conscious self.  So I think and think and think of what to do... and my trusty magazine papers were the answer!

I was thrilled with the result!  They are quite simple and pretty enough to be considered as embellishments heh :)  I am contemplating though whether to paint them green or not... I'll probably try and see how it looks much later. 

 

So there ya go!  I hope you like 'em like I do ;-)

Next project should be something to put on that blank part of the wall.  Any idea for a DIY?

DIY: Stair Risers...

... made of what else... rolled magazine papers! Didn't I say I am really starting to develop some twitch because of this addiction?  Well yes,  I couldn't stop rolling.  I'm on a roll, y'all! (pun and rhyme intended).

So I we a stair and it has open risers.  Stair risers are the backing on each step of the stairs.  It's been a while since I've been wanting to install backings on our stair risers but guess what I really don't want to spend a fortune hiring some professional carpenters to do the work because here in Spain, it can get ridiculously expensive.  One reason I want our stairs to have backings is that we kind of use the space under it as a storage and it seeing the mess through the open risers can really become an eyesore. 

Plus, I've read that this is against Feng Shui.  Not that I am a big follower but I think it doesn't hurt to consider Feng Shui's teachings when it comes to home arrangement so long as the suggestions are practical.  Feng Shui said that stairs with open risers on stairs lose flow and energy.  Stairs play an important role for the enery in a home to move from one floor to the other... so if a stair has open risers, chances are the rooms upstairs will lose flow and energy. 

Learning this gave me more urgency to do something about our stairs but still didn't give me the stomach to spend significant ka-chings for the home improvement. 

So what did I came up with? You guessed right.  The rolled magazine papers!  It is still a work in progress but I am already liking the result.  It's gonna be a long project so I didn't want to wait until it's done before I post something about it.  Twitch, remember? Addiction? Excited? All that!

Ok, so here's a picture of how it's moving along. 

First try.  I made the two squared rolled magazine papers and just let them sit in-between the steps so it can take better form.

The first step is done!

On to the second...

So that's where I'm currently at.  On the second riser! How many steps does our stairs has? I don't want to think about it... I might lose the will to go on LOL.

Seriously though, I think this will have an awesome output.  Not to mention that it'll cost me practically almost nothing.  The only materials that really has a cost on doin this are the glue and the paint.  The paint was bought for 5 euros (on sale!) way back January I think.  It was bought thinking it will have some use one day... now is the time ;-)

A blog-friend asked me the possibility (hello Sey!) of using rolled magazine papers for a book shelf... now that's a bigger and more challenging project! But I don't think it'll be impossible.  I just need to have an idea on how the pieces can be put together and make sure they'll not fall off :-D

What else can you possible think rolled magazine papers can be made into?  Let's see at what Amazon can give us as an idea...

Recycled Magazine Mirror

Recycled Paper Spirals Bamboo Bowl

Recycled Magazine 6-Bottle Wine Rack

DIY: Pistachio Shells Wall Art

So one day, I was happily munching on my pistachios.  They are one of my many simple pleasures.  I started looking at the pistachio shells and thought it's such a same that they end up on garbage pit.  I thought they look pretty, sturdy, uniform so there must be something that can be done to re-use them. I thought of consulting the internet - perhaps other people have such great idea about how to recycle pistachio shells and surely, the internet didn't disappoint me.  It's just amazing how much info one can find from the internet.

I browsed on different ideas until one clicked for me.  This girl makes flower brooches out of pistachio shells and they are just lovely.  I was so sure I can do it... but I have a bigger idea. Literally.  Instead of making flower brooch, I made a big flower wall art.  Our entrance hall has been bare from the beginning we moved in our house up until now for reasons like 1 - not having an idea how I'd want it to look like 2 - no desire on spending significant ka-chings and 3 - lack of time.

Lately though, I've been obsessing on doing small projects in our house for organization and decoration and this is one of them!  So let's move on to the presentation because if I don't stop talking er, writing now, I will never stop, ever. I am a very, very wordy person.

Pistachio shells painted in red, red wine.

Pistachio shells painted yellow mustard

One on top of the other

Full view of the pistachio wall art together

Our entrance hall is still a work-in-progress.  This mama loves anything handmade, thrifty, unique and pretty so I've been trying to incorporate some DIYs to really personalize our entrace hall.  These pistachio flower wall arts are perfect for this wall that yours truly painted :)

Showing some more details on our entrance hall.

A different angle.  Some details from right to left:

yellow and green vases - from a thrift store. They were like less than a euro each

book type picture frame in natural wood and green color - a souvenir we got from Dos Palmas back in 2004

White picture frame - gift from MIL

Lantern made of candle (leftmost) - craft from Kultura store in the Philippines

This is probably too girly for a house but I got an approval from hubby before I have installed them and I also got a wow so I guess, there's really nothing to worry :)

So there.  I am really liking how the entrance hall is turning into something we really like.  Paging Dianne:  I still have a space in our entrance hall for your DIY Chicago skyline framed art :-D

Now, let me bore you a little bit with my thought process while I do this craft: {I tried to sort out the not-so-pretty and not-so-perfect pistachio shells because what else, I'd like the end-result to look perfect. After all, it'll be hanged on the wall of our entrance hall. Then as I continued working...}

I told myself:

 "Poor unpretty pistachio shells. They have even failed this 'second chance' of being useful. Now, they have no use at all. Off to the garbage can!"

Then I answered myself:

 "That's not really fair isn't it?

To which, I answered back:

 "That's right. That is not fair. Just because something doesn't look perfect, doesn't mean they should be deprived of opportunities." Then the reflection continued. I Imagined children getting outcast by other children because they are not 'pretty'. I imagined my daughter not wanting to play with another child because the child is 'different'. How will I teach my child against prejudice? About equality? About giving the same chance to everybody? If I myself don't even know how to give the same chance to these not-so-pretty pistachio shells in front of me?

Then I heard myself telling me: "Ok. Enough gluing. You need some rest."

So I had to stop the gluing of these pistachio shells as they were starting to come alive in my mind.

I sat on the couch and ate some more pistachios.

Can you tell I am nutty?

DIY: Rolled Magazine Paper Project - Behind The Scene

I’ve promised long ago that I will post a tutorial on the garbage bin, magazine rack and spice drawer I’ve made out of rolled magazine papers.  But I was kind of stumped on where to start as they are 3 different things and didn’t know which of this three I’d make a tutorial first.  So I decided on just putting here the basic concept of using rolled magazine papers to make A LOT of things because this is what's really important.  Knowing these basic concepts, can lead you to be able to make  A LOT of different things out of rolled magazine papers. Yes, you can do A LOT  of things using rolled magazine papers.  You are only limited by your imagination!

So let’s start with the basic concepts.

First is of course collecting old magazines.  I try to strip each page (or 10 at the same time) out.  I do not cut it from the binded side as I want to maximize the page that can be used.  Sometimes, depending on how the magazine is binded, there is no other choice but to cut it.  Anyways, I then fold the pages in half and cut. The size of the magazine does not really matter.  I try not to be picky with the type of magazine because I want to be able to recycle as much magazines as I can.  

Ok, so now, you have cut magazines.  Next is to start rolling the magazine pages into a tube-like shapes.   I tried to check out the internet on tutorial for this as I thought, surely, I am not the only one who thought about recycling magazines by rolling them.  This way, it may be easier for me to refer to this sites than recreating the steps to take pics, etc.  I wasn’t surprised really to find thousands of other people who are into this as well.  Their procedures are not very far from what I do but there are slight differences.   Like the way I roll the magazine pages.  I use a plastic rod where I honestly have no recollection what it was for.  I just found it one day lying on our floor and was about to throw it but then thought maybe one day, I would need it.  I am a pack-rat like that.  Other people do this by just folding the magazine paper from the long side.  I find this more time consuming. 

The plastic rod.  It's about 7mm in diameter.

I believe you can also use a long, thin pencil or whatever that has this shape.  The diameter of the rolled magazine paper will of course depend on the thickness of the “rod” that you will be using.  Here’s a short video on how I do it.

First you put the rod on the lower left corner of the paper in a slanting position. Then you start rolling until all the paper is rolled into the rod then you pull out the rod.  This is the part that is a bit difficult for me to explain so I made the video above… I hope it helps J

Another advantage of using the rod to make magazine strips is that the ends

After making TONS (as in gazillion of them, depends on what you want to do) of these rolled magazines (at this point, I will call them rolled magazine paper strips), we can already start with the next step. You don’t actually have to make a gazillion of them before rolling them into circular or squared shapes, etc… you can alternate the steps – it all depends on whatever is more convenient for you.

Now the next step is to roll these rolled magazine paper strips into whatever shape you like.  I’ve done circular (solid and a with a hole in the middle) and square.  The concept is just the same…  You will be the primary responsible on how it will take shape. Just like a potmaker on his pots.  So  let’s do the solid circular one as for me, this is the most basic of 'em all.   See the video below.

I thought of narrating the step but I am way too shy haha.  I actually hate hearing my voice on recording so… no, not this time :-D  Also please forgive me for the quality of the video. I do not have enough lighting and I didn’t have time to properly set up… I’m a first timer ;-)

Ok…  moving on.  So you just add more rolled magazine paper strips until you got the right size you are looking for. Now, to have a hole in the middle of your circular rolled magazine piece, you can just use a small bottle or whatever cylindrical object to wrap the rolled magazine paper strips… then you just take it out once you got the right size of the rolled magazine piece.  Or, you can just roll it leaving a small space (by wrapping it first on your thumb).  It doesn't have to be a perfect circle.  This project is very forgiving of imperfections... in fact, it can even give more uniqueness to the finished product.

Another way is to shape the rolled magazine paper into square.  I do this to make something that is square or rectangular in shape like a box or a chest (this is my upcoming project) perhaps J .  As I've said, the posibilities are endless (somewhat). 

So let’s say we now have a number of these rolled magazine pieces.  The next step is to put them together to construct something useful or decorative.   The process I do depends on the use of the end-product.  For instance,  with the magazine rack, since I want it to be sturdy and not break out if I try to push more magazines in it, I tied each piece with a nylon string.  I use a big needle to poke the nylon thred in the sides of the pieces and just tie it really tight.  Maybe next time, I can make a video for this.  The other way is just use hot glue.  This is what is mentioned from most of the tutorials I see.  For a garbage bin, hot glue should be enough.  You just try to put the pieces together and hot glue the sides that will touch the other pieces.  It’s simple really. 

I’ll try to make another tutorial that will focus on constructing these pieces together to actually form a real object that is useful or decorative J  as a tease, here’s my latest project:

This baby is about 65cm tall now.

Wordless Wednesday: Coming Soon...

cooking in my craft table a.k.a dining table

DIY: Rolled Magazine Pages Part 2

So here's what I have promised.

I'm really excited to share this because I reeeeeaaaallllly loved the output. As an introduction, I like to show this picture:

Pay attention to the spice rack on the sides of the microwave. Yes, that black poor little square thing in the middle is a microwave oven.  The books on top are small recipe books.  Placed in there to also fill in the space.

When we moved in to our own place, this area of the kitchen is empty.  Microwave oven is not included in the kitchen when it was turned over to us.  Our old microwave is too small for the this particular spot and thus, it looked awful.  Hubby told me we'll have to buy a new one.  I gasped and huffed and puffed and eyes wide open (wider than they are already are), I gave him a big resonating NOOOO! There is no way we are changing a fully functioning microwave oven just because it doesn't look good (read: too small) in its space.

I told him I'll do something to fill in those gaps.  So long story short, I made those spice racks that are custom-fit on the sides of the microwave to fill in the space.  They are just made out of hard cardboard recycled from boxes I took from the street along my walks (like a crazy lady).  Then the outside is covered with cork (the one basically used for corkboards) and the sides are decorated by none other than pasta! They are chipping away now by the way so it's actually time to replenish or change them :)

While I can say it can pass as a clever idea, it's not all good because since the spice rack is directly above the oven, sometimes the heat can go up and harm the spices.  Not all of them are affected though but once, I had a cheese powder tucked in one of the holes of this spice rack (the one that is nearest the oven I suppose) and over time, it has hardened and became unusable.  Plus, the hole for each spice is customed according to the bottle so when I had to replenish the spice, sometimes I'd get a different brand and thus, different bottle size - result: the hole that was created for the old spice may become too small or too big for the new one.  Lastly, the number of spices it can hold is just not enough.

This introduction is getting longer than I have planned.... ok... so comes in this problem.  We love spices and we have a good number of them which obviously, do not fit these two spice racks.  So they are practically all over my kitchen. And everytime I need to use one of them... ahh, it's a jungle out there.

Then I got inspired by Stay at Home-ista.  She's very clever on home organization and I am just the complete opposite.  For a whole day, I drooled over her spice drawer:

This picture is taken straight from her blog with her permission of course!

 

and I wondered how it was done.  I can see through the spaces in between that those elevated whatchamacallit is made of wood.  I am no carpenter and definitely haven't tried my skill on cutting wood... so I just let out an exasperation.  There is no way,  I can do this!  Then I had the light bulb moment!

Rolled magazine pages! It may work... so I started rolling magazine pages once again and with much patience, the whole plan started to materialize.

These are the magazine papers rolled into strips.

Applying the same concept I did for the garbage bin and magazine rack, I came up with this:

They are like elevated slanted platforms piled on top of each other by their foot.

It fit nicely on the kitchen drawer I chose to dedicate for spices.

It wasn't a one sitting or an overnight thing though. It required patience, waiting and finger-cramp-provoking activity but ALL is worth it.  The result is really beautiful (according to my beauty catergory).

So, behold!

I even got an extra space for some of my baking thingies.

I would love to share the how-to of this project but that should be on a different post as it may be a really long post.  I might also need to put short videos of the step as they are kind of difficult to describe just by words. I'm not making it sound complicated it's just that sometimes my english words are not enough to express my thoughts  ;-)

Anyone who is interested to learn on how to do this, just holler!

DIY: Rolled Magazine Pages Part 1

Warning:  This post is picture heavy!!

I love crafting and I love recycling.  I think I've mentioned this many a times already but I just don't have much time and resources (and sometimes creativity) to do much work on crafting AND recycling or repurposing.  There are times though that I get really inspired and be happy with my creation. 

One of the things I have done which I will basically discuss here is the use of rolled magazine pages.  I really am happy with the result and the usability of what I have done with an added bonus of being able to recycle, so I am definitely sharing this to all of you.

Back in 2008, I created a garbage bin out of rolled magazine paper.  Sick of too many magazines at home, but didn't really want to throw them all at once (out of concern for Mother Earth), I tried to think of what use I can make of them.  I came up with these:

The first two are being used now as garbage can  - one is in one of our bathrooms and the other (brown) is used to contain all old bulbs and/or used batteries that will be thrown in the proper place once the bin is already full.  Important note:  we do really need to mind throwing these things in the proper place and not together with the biodegradable wastes as these things can be toxic to the environment.  The last one (white) is as you can see being used as magazine rack.  Magazine for magazine rack - ain't that cool?

I've also done this out of the same materials:

Drawer space separator (is that even called that way? I am thinking I just invented this term) for utensils. I emptied one of the section/basket to show how it looks like.

A closer look.  It is made by weaving the rolled magazine pages.  Much like a basket.

I loved the idea because 1. I am recycling (I know I am being too repetitive about this) and 2. I can customize it and fit it according to the sections and sizes I need for my drawer. 

Then there's the latest project I just made that  I am extremely happy about - which I will be posting soon.  Hint:  It includes spices!