10-Minute DIY Holiday Gift Idea: Peppermint Soap It’s time for another round of Craft Lightning – quick and easy DIY projects that take less than 20 minutes to make (like my shabby flower headband and stenciled wood bangle bracelet tutorials!). Craft Lightning + Holiday Season = twice the fun! These lightning quick peppermint soaps are a fun DIY holiday gift idea for friends, neighbors and teachers and can be whipped up in about ten minutes! What You’ll Need: The large block of shea butter soap base is smooth and silky, and it cuts easily with a kitchen knife. Pour the melted soap into the mold and top with a few drops of red soap colorant. Wrap a band of paper or ribbon around the stack of soap, and it’s ready for gifting! 5 Household Products That Can Revamp A Tired Wardrobe GSS’s Things We LOVE :: Christian Louboutin Inspired DIY Glitter Pumps! :: Groom Sold Separately :: Ultimate Wedding Planning Resource Connecting Brides and Wedding Pros We love pumps (So sexy!). We love sparkly things (Ooh shiny!). So it shouldn’t be a surprise that we would love sparkly pumps! You’ll Need: - Extra Fine Glitter - Mod-Podge (I used Gloss-Lustre) - Pair of Shoes – Sand Paper (or a nail file) - Bowl - Paintbrush (I didn’t use the paintbrush above, it was too big) - And something to cover your work surface (I used tinfoil) You should probably sand the shoes just to make sure that the glitter and glue can adhere to the shoes as best as it can. Next I sorted through the glitter I bought to decide which colors I wanted to use. Just mix the glitter together in whatever combination you’d like. Once you’ve mixed in the Mod-Podge just start brushing it on the shoes. And VOILA!
The 16 Best Healthy, Edible Plants to Grow Indoors From farmers’ markets and Community Supported Agriculture, to urban farms and rooftop gardens, to produce delivery services, more and more people across the U.S. are embracing farm-fresh food. And for good reason: Locally grown produce tends to be better for the environment and for local communities than its store-bought counterparts. Growing food at home also ensures that growers know exactly where their food comes from and how it was grown (no need to worry about deceptive food labeling). If you’re not whipping out the pruning shears yet, consider this: Learning new skills is good for our brains. Luckily, you don’t need to be a farmer (or even live near a farm) in order to reap the benefits of home-grown produce. General Growing Tips Before you get started, here are a few tips that will be handy to keep in mind no matter which of the plants from this list you choose to grow. Fruits and Veggies Photo: Alpha 1. 2. 3. 4. How to Harvest: Most lemons will ripen in six to nine months. 5. 6. 7.
Articles: Instagram Coasters — By Hayley Decker — Foam Magazine Articles As our iPhone libraries begin to overflow, we're always on the search for practical, tangible uses for our Instagram snaps. Spruce up your place or dish these D.I.Y. coasters out to your friends to remind you all of your latest outdoor adventure/ music festival outing/ seafaring weekend. Or the newest FOAM cover of course. What You'll Need:-4-inch round, flat cork pieces -Modge Podge glue -Card stock paper -Instagram print-outs -Foam or felt mounting dots How To Make Them: 1. 2. 3. 4. Bottoms up!
26 Clever And Inexpensive Crafting Hacks Simple Aquaponics System for Growing Your Own Food & Fish At Home This aquaponics system is different than most. It’s a scaled down version of the system Will Allen over at Growing Power Inc uses to grow 1 Million pounds of food on his 3 acre farm in Milwaukee, WI. The whole system uses just a single pump and uses very little energy to pump nutrient rich water up to the gravel bed on top for filtration. The upper bed is slightly angled so the water can slowly drain down to the second bed below. And then finally back into the main tank where the fish are kept. This system is scalable and will produce a large amount of food in a very small space when compared with traditional row cropping. This system has almost unlimited potential yield, and scalability. Also, this system can be housed in a greenhouse for year-round growing. So, what are you waiting for? Image: Comments comments
DIY Floral Sunglasses We always claim to see the world through rose colored glasses . . . but how about rose trimmed glasses? In honor of the widespread floral trend and our love of Dolce & Gabbana‘s Baroque-inspired fall collection, we’re DIYing a pair of outrageously fabulous sunglasses using the same charming little ceramic roses from a recent tutorial. These will surely be a pair of shades you won’t go unnoticed in this summer! You’ll need:a pair of sunglassesa variety of ceramic roses and flowersdisposable container or popsicle sticka handful of toothpicksE6000 Start by squeezing a small amount of E6000 into a disposable container or onto a wooden popsicle stick. Press the flower firmly onto the outer corner of the sunglasses. Add a few small flowers down the right side of the glasses. Repeat on the other side and allow to dry for a couple of hours. Your floral shades are ready to wear! (top image via Vogue.uk, rest of images by HonestlyWTF)
21 Incredibly Important Diagrams To Help You Get Through Life Upskilling for Post Growth Futures, Together When I was seven, I was given an Apple Macintosh in the hope that Mavis Beacon would teach me how to touch type. It was an unreasonable expectation, for I was actually more interested in escaping to the fantasy lands of computer games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and Lode Runner. Yet, these games had a lasting, unexpected impact on my thirst for learning. In playing Dungeons and Dragons, I remember being particularly excited each time my archetypal characters would gain ‘experience points’ that enabled them to upgrade their abilities. I still feel that childlike thrill each time I learn something new. As my work has expanded to explore how humans can flourish within the planet’s biophysical limits, I’ve also become painfully aware that in some aspects of my life, I’m not very well-equipped to flourish in futures beyond economic growth. But the rising value of the generalist does not mean we each need to know how to do everything ourselves. Means of Learning and the Self Health Bushcraft
All Natural Lip Balm The week leading up to the new year wasn't exactly how I had pictured it. It was the last week of the boys winter break. I had envisioned walks around downtown looking at the lights, taking down the Christmas tree together, continuing our holiday baking marathon and maybe even a little post Christmas mall browsing. But alas, none of those things happened. The flu happened. Or rather, what I guess must have been the flu. Thankfully, I had made a big batch of lip balm the week before Christmas to give as little handmade gifts to my girlfriends. This recipe is super simple. The recipe came from this blog last year and I tweaked it a bit and she grabbed it from this book where she had tweaked it a bit. Sweet Orange Lip Balm 8 Tablespoons Coconut Oil 3 Tablespoons Beeswax 1.5 Tablespoons Raw Honey 30 drops Sweet Orange essential oil (if you want color) 1/2 stick of natural lipstick (I like Jane Iredale and Josie Moran) Remove mixture from heat, and add peppermint oil and lipstick.
27 Creative And Inexpensive Ways To Keep Kids Busy This Summer Hydroelectric Hydroelectric Power - Water power - micro hydro systems Micro hydro power is probably the least common of the three readily used renewable energy sources, but it has the potential to produce the most power, more reliably than solar or wind power if you have the right site. This means having access to a river or creek that has a high enough flow to produce useable power for a good part of the year. Many creeks and rivers are permanent, ie, they never dry up, and these are the most suitable for micro-hydro power production. The Campo Nuevo Watermotor is the only modern turbine designed to drive common machines directly with waterpower. Micro-Hydro Power Plant overview & basic math formulas & conversion needed to find "Head", "PSI", Flow Losses" & Power Output. By Joe Cole Micro Hydro Systems work? Info: The Micro Hydro Centre has been carrying out research into low-cost equipment for small-scale hydro-electric power (up to 100kW) since 1985. Dealers: