Make it Yourself

To go with the theme of making things on your own, I found a failsafe song that'll remind you that a gift made by hand is a gift also made from the heart.

I give you Wow!Wow!Wubzy, a personal cartoon favorite of the kids I nanny for. The song came up on an internet search and fit so perfectly with what I had in mind for this blog that I thought I'd post it for a little inspiration.



I promised soup in this entry, but it's been so warm this past week I couldn't bring myself to make any! Instead, I've been cutting up vegetables and fruits, as well as drinking a lot of green tea :-)

Awhile back I toyed with the idea of creating "Feminist Rosaries". When I thought about it more, I realized that I just could not follow the Catholic ideology a.) because I didn't know much about it and b.) because I didn't think it would be fair to the people who do.

Instead, I picked up craftstylish.com's "Gifts to Make" at the Barnes and Noble by my house. Inside, I found the best idea for rings: buttons!

Luckily, my mom used to be a huge crafter (and doesn't like to throw things out), so I found a jar of old buttons that would work great for cocktail rings.

Ring bases can be bought off Ebay.com, but the mag recommends Jansjewels.com. Then you can take whatever buttons you find interesting, detailed, or just plain awesome and glue them with epoxy glue to the ring bases. It's best to have adjustable ring bases, that way if you'd like to give them as gifts you don't need to have exact sizing down.

When using epoxy, make sure that the ring isn't worn for a few hours until the glue is dry. Make sure to prop it up so it doesn't come apart while drying!

In a few days/a week I should be getting my ring bases, and once I put them together I'll be sure to post the pictures.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is experiment!! A lot of the greatest pieces I've made, ring or otherwise, were at some points just me winging it because I thought it might turn out great. And it did.

Happy Crafting! Perhaps next time I'll be able to write some soup entries :-D.

Packing in the Protein

Starbucks has really been a bit of an inspiration to me. It seems that no matter where I go, the comfort of incredibly strong coffee and overpriced sandwiches envelops me like a security blanket.

After a trip back from Manhattan this past weekend, exhausted from traveling, I met my friend Heather at our local Starbucks. It'd been over 12 hours since I'd last eaten and the least expensive thing food wise would have been a sugary, chocolaty, calories up to my eyeballs cupcake. Instead, I decided to hork over a few extra Washingtons for a health conscious meal.

The up and coming get-fit trend is growing and Starbucks has jumped on the bandwagon with a few choices that are both healthy and delicious.

I picked up a "protein pack", a lunch that consisted of one hard boiled egg, two miniscule slices of mild cheddar, a smattering of grapes, two apple slices, a mini whole wheat bagel and peanut butter.

When I thought about it, that entire meal could have been made for less than the five dollars I paid for it.

Like the Pumpkin Spice Latte before it, I decided to create my own version. Most of the things you find in your fridge or pantry can be protein packed and awesome, so just in case you're not sure you can check out About.com for more info.

The protein pack I purchased was reasonable small, like any lunch pack. In Japan, they make these things called Bento boxes that I have been dying to try out American style. It may be packed with less protein than the Starbucks one, but it sticks to the silly/fun aspect of Bento.

Here goes nothing!

Kaitlin's Protein-Bento Awesomeness

2 hard boiled eggs for egg salad, which includes yellow mustard, 1tbsp of miracle whip, and some garlic power/salt put onto whole grain mini rolls or sliced into fun shapes
1 sliced green peppers
Nature's Harvest granola bites
4 slices Havarti cheese
5 carrots

Picture to come shortly. It seems that my father moved my camera to regions of my house unknown to myself.

Next post: Soup for the Soul! A few recipes to soothe your chilly bones as winter sets in.

Happy Lunching!

PS I'd love to encourage all of my readers to clicky clicky on my top links, they rock!