So one weekend while I was sitting across from my boyfriend eating lunch I saw him staring at me with such concentration. I turned around me to see if he was looking past me, but there was nothing there. When I ask him what's going on he bluntly says: "You need to clean your earings." Yikes! If my boyfriend is noticing it then they must be dirty! So right away I knew I had to find a DIY Jewelry cleaner on Pintrest. I found one that had the most repins and seem to be quick and doable, and it turned out it was great and I love it! Common household items that I already had so it didn't cost any money either!
Small bowl
1 Table spoon Salt
1 Table spoon Baking Soda
1 Table spoon Dawn Soap detergent (Why Dawn? I'm not sure)
Continuing with some ecofriendly blogpost in honor of Earth Day, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend and work with some wonderful people at the Bart Blue Sky Festival last Friday. Don't forget to take public transportation whenever you get the chance. Keep the sky blue. ;)
3 girls and all of our items packed into this cute little Mini.
Earth Day is around the corner and things just kind of lined up so that I havethe perfect ecofriendly post to honor Earth Day! So I've started interning with Ecomonster for the past couple of weeks now and I've learned so much! One of the things I found out about was FabMo.org, a nonprofit organization that gives away free "scrap" fabric that otherwise would have been thrown away by places such as textile companies. Here's a cool informative video about FabMo.
Lucky for me, when I found out about FabMo, their next event was a week away so I signed up for a selection slot right away. Their website is pretty easy to navigate and you can sign up for 45 minute slots available 3 days at least once a month. They have multiple time slots available to ensure that they don't get over crowded and so that you can always get a fresh batch of fabric to look through.
The parking lot is small but if you pick an early or late enough time there should still be plenty of parking spots. There's only one or out of their little warehouse area and immediately you can see a full table stacked with fabric. I'm not going to lie, I got a little giddy seeing it. At the door there were a few volunteers standing and talking to other folks searching the room and checking people in. A volunteer greeted me and checked me in an explained how things work since I told it was my first time there. You're free to walk around the room, majority of the fabric is in the middle table and back wall had some rugs and carpets, vinyls and other scraps in other sections. Then she showed me against the check in wall they had 3 different bag sizes and the suggested donation value. After that I was free to roam the room and stuff my bad full of goodies. :)
Huge piles of fabric to rummage through on the center table. they were organized by size and set in short stacks all across the table. Everyone kind of just roams around looking through stacks and that is exactly what I did too. There were stacks of fabrics in all sorts of sizes. The most popular sizes were place mat sizes (no cutting/sewing required).
Along the front there were baskets of trim and tassels all organized in boxes.
Roles of vinyls, fabrics, and rugs! After a few minutes the volunteers got everyone's attention and mentioned that the "Fabric Fairies" will come out and bring more fabrics if we organized the stacks to make sure that others can have an enjoyable experience looking through organized stacks of fabrics. Everyone laughed and all sorted the closest stack of fabric. Nothing but smiles and cheers at that time.
At the end of my 45 minutes I managed to grab a full bag of all sorts of goodies. I left my donation at the door on my way out and thanked them for such a great experience.
Here's my free* haul from FabMo. I'm in love with this place and I'm probably going to be going again next month and as long as my schedule allows me to attend their selection events. I can't wait to give these rescued designer fabrics a new life!
It's good to be back everyone. :) Here's a mini update on my life after my adventure with SJ Made. I was whisked away on vacation with my mom to Washington DC. (I'm going to create a pin board and write a blog post on that once I get my pictures off my camera). Once home from vacation I had to deal with a dead graphic card on my computer. Since I don't have the $300 (quote from the Apple store) to get a new one, I'm using my boyfriend's and sister's computer in the meantime. Unfortunately my camera doesn't register on my boyfriend's computer so I can't get my photos off.....First world problems right? Luckily I have a wifi camera so I was able to email myself a few photos to get this blog post done. However, I still don't have a permanent solution for my computer problem, but hopefully soon. Now that everyone is caught up on my personal life, here's the DIY blog post you've all been patiently waiting for.
My friends are getting married in a couple of weeks and I couldn't help but make this hanger for the bride. I love making these personalized hangers for my bride friends. It's something that not too many people think about getting for their wedding day because most of them cost between $20-30 on Etsy and trying to keep within your wedding budget buying a wedding hanger might not be on the top of your list. But little do people know, this is an easy do-it-yourself project you can do that adds an instant wow factor in photos of your hanger for your wedding dress (or any bridesmaid dress). I don't have a pin for this, since I learned how to do this for my sister's wedding some months before I started my blog but hopefully you'll be inspired to pin it. :)
What you'll need:
1 wooden hanger (Bought @Target)
Floral wire
Pliers & cutter (scrap cloth)
Print out of the words you want to have "written"
Drill (for hole in hanger - not pictured)
Glue gun (not pictured)
Floral wire is super flexible and easy to work with which is perfect for this project. The downside of that is that any bend you make in the wire leaves stress marks, and the pliers can be a little rough on the wire leaving nicks on the wires. To fix this, I just wrapped some scrap cloth around the pliers in order to soften up the rough edges.
A few things to keep in mind before you start:
Getting the letters to your liking will take some practice so cut off a small piece and bend and unbend it a couple of times to practice some hard letters
Layering up on the wire is okay because people will look at the hanger straight on
The print out that you have will be a guideline so try to keep it as close as possible. But also keep in mind that a guide is just that - a guide. So don't freak out if your letters aren't matching perfectly. As long as you have the correct general size to fit in between the hanger, you're good to go
I originally had this post titled as "I Survived SJ Made" and realized that it was a little silly for me to have a title stating that I survived because it wasn't a life threatening event. After some reflection I've decided that it was more of a milestone in my life. With that said, this post might be a little bit longer and not like my previous blogpost, so I have to say thank you for putting up with me and continuing to read my posts. I'm going to ramble a little bit in this post and talk about what I feel in my heart. Jenna from White Rabbit Photography posted on her personal blog this week an open letter to her readers. I guess you can say it inspired me, and this is my open letter so please bare with me while I speak/write what's been on my mind.
**Warning** This blog post is looooooooooooooooong. I wanted to split the post into two, but I also didn't want to wait too long before posting my experience review so here it is all in one long post.
It's been 7 months since I was laid off from my corporate job and at the beginning I have taken a month or two off from actively searching for a job to enjoy the holiday season, but other than that I have always been searching job listings, twitter posts and utilizing any other career networking channel I have available to me. And here I am still unemployed. It is a very very very depressing feeling. Don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed because I have such a wonderful support group made up of my family and friends (more on that later) but there are times when I can't but help feel a little saddened by the fact that I still cannot find a job with my experience in today's job market. When I originally started blogging it was to keep myself distracted and busy learning new things. An opportunity to find myself and work on becoming a better happier me. I had the opportunity for continued learning/education but I didn't gravitate in that direction. Instead I gravitated towards building my crafting and creative skills. This is what made me happier. Right before my event at SJ Made I read a guest post on Blogging it Forward byAnita Boeira about some tips from Peter Shankman. One quote in particular caught my eye:
My last job had things I loved about it, but also more things I hated than loved. I never imaged myself at a desk job doing the mundane things in life. I love communicating and working with others. I also had a knack at being organized and putting all the puzzle pieces together as a project manager. But I wasn't doing what I was passionate about and I wasn't having fun at work every day. I worked hard at that company for 5 years and there were multiple times at the early stages with that company when I would call my mom and sister to cry and complain about how unhappy I was and I just wanted to quit. Every time I got the same response from them telling me a job is a job and you have to just deal with it, so I dealt with it and in the end the job was the one that let me down. So when I saw the quote I felt like it was talking directly at me. It made me understand that things happen for a reason. You always read it in books, hear it on TV, but let me tell you, when you experience a moment like this for yourself it has a lot more meaning.
I have some great news everyone! I didn't get myself a full time job, but I did manage to line up an exciting job opportunity. I'm going to have a merchant's table at a little event called SJ Made Start Up Shop. SJ Made is a fairly new organization/business that I am absolutely in love with. They organize vendor fairs for local brands, small businesses, and artist showcasing current projects and goods.
I was a little nervous about applying at first, but after the encouragement from my friends I decided to take the leap of faith. I originally applied for 2 nights, but they only had 1 night available and I was ecstatic to have any opportunity I could get, so I took it. I'm nowhere near being an expert at the crafts I make, but I'm going to apply the things I've learned to make during these past few months and hope for the best. :)
I'll be skipping my regular blog post for this week and next so that I can concentrate on making my crafts which I will be selling at the event. However, I plan to be updating my Facebook page/Instagram/Twitter accounts with project progress and sneak peeks of what I am making and going to be selling at SJ Made. So make sure to connect with me through those channels if you haven't already done so. And for those in the San Jose area, I hope to see you there!
Have you picked up your copy of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph yet? The movie came out today and I'm sitting in bed writing this blog post while watching the behind the scene material right now. It's such a great movie and I really feel connected to it because of my love for Disney and video games.
On a somewhat related note, my Vanellope Von Schweetz Halloween costume blog post is my top viewed post. So I just found it fitting today for me to say thank you to my readers and followers for making that possible. Thanks for pinning it on pintrest!
And if you don't know who Vanellope it's time for you to go watch the movie already. =D
yet? The movie came out today and I'm sitting in bed writing this blog post while watching the behind the scene material right now. It's such a great movie and I really feel connected to it because of my love for Disney and video games.