Hiatus

30 Crafts in 30 Days will be on hiatus until I figure out how to fix my camera. A craft blog is boring with no pictures.

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 14

So I have this stupid cardigan that has a necktie on it. The neck tie is ACTUALLY AT MY NECK! What kind of top with bows on it has the bow actually at the neck?! Ok, I guess it kinda looks cute but totally not my style. I like the bows to be a little lower with a v-neck.

Here I am wearing the top with the bow untied. Check out my new bangs!

I removed the bow ribbon from the front of the cardigan.

Look how beautiful it looks with the front ribbon cut off! Ok, it still looks pretty ugly.

I re-sewed the ribbon down to make this cardi into sort of a v-neck. Something I’d actually wear! Look how comically large my hand is in comparison to the rest of me!

Ok, so this craft is pretty lame, but this needed to be done. And isn’t that the point of 30 Crafts in 30 Days? To finish what you started?

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 13

Day 13: another foodcraft. I decided to make a salad out of a bunch of vegetables that I had in my fridge.
I started off with a layer of cucumbers. I only used half because I only had half a cucumber in my fridge. I peeled it because I don’t like cucumber peels. Ok, so I don’t really like cucumbers but in this type of salad it’s super delicious.

I put on a layer of 2 tomatoes. No background info on these. They’re just tomatoes. Slimy and red.

Then a layer of red onion. I think I only had 1/4 of a red onion but luckily, it was just enough. Ogres are like onions. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

Then I added a layer of spelt berries. Not entirely clear as to what spelt berries are, but I used half a cup of spelt berries and approximately 1.5 cups of water. I boiled it for maybe an hour or so until they were cooked.

Then I put a layer of feta on top and squeezed a lemon and added a dash of salt and pepper.

Ummm so I decided I don’t really like layered salads so I mixed it all up. Then I ate it. It’s really delicious. I implore you to try it.

FETA FETA FETA FETA FETA!

Interlude

I just entered this contest!


:)

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 12

Well, since this 30 Crafts in 30 Days has sort of turned into a “GODDAMMIT NIDHI, FINISH THE CRAFT PROJECTS YOU’VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR JUST ABOUT EVER!!” blog post frenzy, I’m going to share something I should have made a long time ago.

Placemats.

I have been living in my apartment for over a year now, and I still had 0 placemats at my kitchen table. I think I made my guests uncomfortable putting their drinks/food on my table for fear that they might ruin my table. PLEASE. My table cost a mere $200 and is really fakely wooden.

Anyway, I was thrift store shopping at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift shop this weekend (best craft section ever!) and I found this a-maize-ing fabric (I had to. goblue!). I was going to turn it into pillows, but realized it was not big enough. So I decided to make placemats because I have been living over a year without placemats OR coasters.

I cut the maize fabric into four slices (SO GORGEOUS DAMASK) and cut out canvas material that I had in my stash for the backing.

I created the canvas as a border for the placemat. I love love love this fabric. It is so gorgeous.

Oooh! Check out the back!! If I ever wanted to have canvas placemats, I could just flip them over!! So exciting. Ok. I would never want to have not the damask printed side up.

Placemat in action, with my dinner for tonight: ratatouille and a wineglass of water.

I know the point of this placemat is to keep my kitchen table clean and it’s supposed to get dirty, but I really don’t want it to get dirty! Hopefully it’s machine washable.

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 11

For my craft today, I decided to make myself a dry erase board to write down my to-do lists.

I started off with this black 11x8 picture frame that I had in my craft cabinet (craftinet?). The glass is a perfect surface for dry erasing.

I used water colors from a $3.95 art kit from Michaels (side note: if you do not have one of these, you need to invest in one. There are markers, crayons, and a bunch of other random art supplies. LOVE IT!)

I put them together  and this is the the loveliness that I got. I love these colors together.

Dry erase board in action! And faux capiz shell chandelier in the reflection in the bottom left!

The phrase “Hey Yo Girl” somehow became the phrase of this weekend. My friend Jon’s friend was at a bachelor party and the guys saw some girls sunbathing. So after watching them for about an hour, he decided to yell “Hey Yo Girl” at them, and I, for some reason, thought this was hilarious. And yes, his team lost again. Happy Birthday!

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 10

Those of you that have been following my 30 in 30 quest may have noticed that I didn’t post yesterday. It’s not because I didn’t make a craft (ok, I didn’t). I went to the Michigan v Notre Dame football game yesterday. Instant classic. Go BLUE!

ANYWAY, because I want to actually do 30 crafts in 30 days, I’m going to do a double posting today.

I had a lovely Friday night hanging out with some friends and for some reason or another, my camera is not longer fully functional. Someone took it and broke it. Then they told me they would buy me a new camera but I forgot who it was :(

Anyway, this craft is half lame – I’ve been obsessed with these vintage-y camera prints recently and really wanted to know how to use GIMP to manipulate a photo to look like that.

I wanted to use this as my facebook profile pic. It’s a picture from Friday night of me and my bff Tara. So it looks kind of lame but I was all I WANT THIS TO BE MY NEW PROFILE PICTURE OMG.

So I googled “How to make pictures look vintage using GIMP” and since there is apparently a youtube video for everything, I found one that would show me how to switch up my photo.

Hey – what’s black and white and brown all over? Me and Tara :)

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 9

So, in my dining room I have this super-awesome lighting fixture that is so beautiful, I felt terrible about doing this craft (just kidding).

I decided to make a milk carton chandelier! I know what you’re thinking, “Gosh, milk cartons are soo ugly. Why would you want to display them proudly in your home??” But don’t worry!

 

I cut up about 4 or 5 milk jugs into this oval pieces. Don’t they look marvelously like capiz shell? …and that’s exactly the point. I wanted to make a capiz shell-like chandelier!

I threaded the “shells” into rows of seven…

Sewed them to a piece of ribbon that I think was originally used as packaging for a comforter set…

And tied it to my lighting fixture. It looks way classier now. Well, it still looks kind of silly since I have a CFL randomly chilling at the top instead of lights all the way down. Maybe one day.

 

And ta-dah! Let there be light.

Ok, so the phrase “Let there be light” always reminds me of that one scene in Spider-Man I (before Emo Peter) where Uncle Ben changes a light bulb and says it.

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 8

Ok, I’m cheating a bit today. It’s a food craft, but since it’s my blog, I get to decide :). And really, all you need is love/a girl has got to eat/all you need is love/she’ll end up on the street/all you need is love/love is just a game.

I got a bunch of kale in my CSA so I decided to make kale chips. They are soo good and satisfyingly crunchy. Start with a fresh bunch of kale, not as wilty as mine is*.

Cut off the kale from the stem (I used scissors. I could have used food scissors but I don’t have a designated pair so I just used washed scissors. That reminds me, I should get a designated pair.) Place them on a tray and drizzle with EXTRA-virgin olive oil and sea salt. That’s right, make sure your olive oil isn’t slutty* (or even slightly slutty).

Look disparagingly at the mess you’ve made on the counter. As my ex-boyfriend would say, “OMG Nidhi, you’re so drippy*” and then wipe off the counter. Now I have to wipe the counter myself!

Bake the kale at 350C for ~15 minutes. Take the kale out of the oven and marvel at how small it looks now*. Eat the chips and let it CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH! Mmm.

 

Though nothing will keep us together, we could steal time just for one day. Oh god, I’m going to watch Moulin Rouge! several times in the next few weeks, aren’t I? It’s such a good heartbreak movie :)

*That’s what she said

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 7

I love, love, love the robin’s egg blue that is synonymous with Tiffany&Co. It reminds me of my childhood when my daddy would come home every Christmas with a small blue bag that always held a small present he picked up for me and my sister. (Ok, I’m totally kidding. My dad would never think to buy me Tiffany’s and we don’t even celebrate Christmas! Also I don’t have a real seester.)

Anyway, I had this blue circular box that I got as part of a present from some friends in college. It had this awesome hot pink bow on it. While the color was amazing, it didn’t really complement the blue of the box. The bow was also was very limp (that’s what she said).

At first, I tried adding some more pink ribbon that I had lying around to give the box a little more flourish, but it still didn’t help. So I cut the ribbon off and decided to make a Tiffany’s inspired box (totally didn’t see that coming, did you? That is also what she said.)

I started out by using a pen to indent an ampersand onto the box.

Then I filled in the indentation with silver acrylic paint. See! I made an ampersand. Isn’t that an awesome word? Wikipedia tells me that the word is a “logogram,” which is a “grapheme which represents a word or morpheme.” Hmm. Wikipedia has many design words that I have never heard before.

In addition to the silver ampersand, I needed some bow action on this box. I found some ivory satin that I had in my fabric stash and created these “ribbons” for tying onto my box.

And hte lovely completed project! Can you guess what I use it to store?

Money! I’m saving up so I can buy something from Tiffany’s one day. A girl can only dream…

And now, I’m thinking of “Frost yourselves, ladies!” from How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (a game I always win) and “You’re so Vain” is stuck in my head. I just want some right hand bling!

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 6

For today’s craft, I’m doing something simple because I rushed home after basking in the glory of the Tigers’ win over the Indians. (Yeah, I live in Cleveland but I’ll always root for Detroit.) I decided to make a small gift bag based on this tutorial for a present that I have to give to a friend.

I started off with a map of Michigan and cut it up into a rectangle. 
 

Then I reinforced the top of it using the cardboard from a shaving razor container because I’m eco-friendly like that. And yes, I do use a Gillete Fusion for men, in case you were wondering. It gives me the closest shave ever. 
 

After I reinforced it, I glued it up in all the right places and folded the bottoms in. But it still needed handles!

Enter yarn that I unraveled from a scarf that I got as a present in 8th grade or similar…

This gift bag has been handled. What. Now.

Ok, if you look inside the bag you can see that there’s nothing. I might have just wanted to do this craft because I wanted a cute gift bag, ok! I have no friends that need to get presents in the near future!!

And yes, the map is upside down, but that’s just a political statement letting everyone know that there there is no such thing as upside down when it comes to geographical representations of the earth.

30 Crafts in 30 Days: Day 5

For those of you that have been asking me what my Day 5 craft is, I have been telling you to google Robert Indiana. YES, I IN FACT DID MAKE LOVE TODAY! I had a large 2x2’ piece of cardboard on which I sketched out the LOVE type.

Then I cut it out using scissors. It’s very difficult to cut out cardboard with scissors for some reason. Are my scissors ruined? Yes. I’m ok with that.

There’s my LOVE, sitting in its naked glory on my couch. Too bad it didn’t have a guitar humming and serenading me with Heart of Gold. But it’s not the couch where we made LOVE the first time and you said to me… (ok, too many Yoü and I references, apologies.) (But I wish it were.)

I then put a corrugated lining around the LOVE, which you totally can’t see in this picture. I promise you, it gives the structure a nice 3D appeal.

I covered the LOVE in (surprise!) encyclopædia pages! and my LOVE is leaning against the wall (just the way I like it).
 
Too much? Never enough.