Etsy Wear

Have you heard of one of the best sites online to find handcrafted EVERYTHING? Etsy is a great place to shop and see some of the most creative and unique creations from all over the world. Please visit my site: Brittanyh.etsy.com to see some of my creations. I will also be hosting a different shop each week! Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to find (clothing, jewelry, home decor, etc.)

Find this black and pink necklace at: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31972595

Happy Halloween! DIY Ghost and Cat Silhouette Candle Boxes

My first DIY! I hope you all like it. I felt festive on this Friday morning and decided to add to my fall/Halloween indoor decor. However, like the rest of the country I am also on a budget. These are things that I had in my house. You can alter the look of these by adding more details (i.e. by using an exct-o knife, using orange tissue paper, or larger contruction paper for a wider box-type look). This is EASY on a crafting scale so even people will little to no creativity can easily pull this off and impress their friends and neighbors this Halloween!
What you'll need:

Black construction paper (I used an 18" x 12" construction paper pad $1 at the Dollar Tree)

Scissors (any size should do. I think mine are actually supposed to be kitchen scissors)

Tissue paper (either white or orange)

Glue stick

Tape

A ruler

A pen or pencil

First you will want to divide the length of the paper by 4 to ensure it will be a square when it is finished. ( for my paper i did 18/4 = 4.5 inches. I took my ruler and measured 4.5" four times and drew a line up the paper so I knew where to fold it when I was finished. (Note: You want to make sure you are drawing on the inside at all times so when you are finished it looks clean and neat)

Then I measured the holes for my windows (the cat's was 1/2 inch and the ghosts were 1 inch all around)

I used the paper i cut out from the holes to cut my silhouette shapes.
An easy way to cut a perfect full moon is to use a nickle!

Next you glue the tissue paper to the black construction paper. It should look like little "windows".

For the cat silhouette I glued the fence posts first, then the horizontal "posts" on top of them. You don't have to make everything perfect, each side differs slightly from the others.


Once you have glued your paper bits to the inside of the tissue paper, bend the edges to form your box.

Cut off excess tissue paper around the construction paper and tape the open corner together. You can glue the corner together, but it is much faster and less mess to use tape.

Put a small, medium, or large pillar candle underneath (I used a small one) and there you have it! Your very own Halloween Silhouette Candles!

Tribute Bracelet to the Black and Red Shoes

I never did find those shoes...oh well maybe something just as cute will come along. I did however create a tribute bracelet inspired by them which I posted at my store on Etsy! It was a lot of fun! If you'd like to see my Etsy store, you can visit me at http://www.Brittanyh.etsy.com

MY Black Marker Purchase

So I said I would try it on my own purse and here it is!!! I only did the front side because I have some errands I need to run, however I think it turned out pretty good! I am pleased with my $6 designer look. I bought the purse from WalMart last year for $4 and I got a $2 pack of sharpies (for larger projects like this one you will definitely need more then one marker!). White purses are so hard to keep clean, once they get trashed it's easy to throw them out or throw them in the back of your closet (mine was under the sink in my bathroom!). I put stripes where it was the worst and I love it!!! Easy, easy, easy! You could do it with anything! And it doesn't have to be just white. You could do it on pink, blue, yellow, green, etc. but for the best designer look I'd stick with white. I hope y'all like it! Just the front took me about 30 minutes, so the whole project will be along the lines of an hour and a half I'm guessing.

Happy Friday! Have a Great Labor Day Weekend!

Black Marker Purchase

So I have been searching the Internet relentlessly for a certain pair of Delicious brand shoes (above). They are zebra striped with red trim, and although I still want them and am bound and determined to find them and at a reasonable price (Delicious shoes run between $25-$80 not too bad) I did run across a fun article about zebra striped items for free. Yeah I know that most "free" things are too good to be true but curiosity made me click and I'm glad I did! It turned out to be an Eco-Friendly website and gave tips on what to do.

To put it simply:

1) Use your old (or if you don't have any then buy) shoes, purse, etc...preferably white

2) Look on the Internet and pull up your favorite Zebra print design

3) Take a black permanent marker and trace (Yes! Trace) the zebra stripes on your item(s).

4) Color them in! Too easy! Chic, stylish, and budget friendly!

A designer look we all can afford. If you're a little leery about the stability of the color, just pop an extra marker (I'd probably use Sharpie, you can get little key chain sized ones for about $1.99 or less)

Happy Stripe Making! I'm going to try one on my old purse!!!! I'll post a picture to let y'all know how it turned out! So you better check back ;)

Reference:

Elizabeth Seward (2009) Wear Armani-Inspired Zebra Print with the Help of a Black Marker. Retrieved September 3, 2009 from Green Planet website: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/fashion-beauty/diy-zebra-print-fashion.html

Pure Barre will do that?!?

Hi Everyone! Happy Wednesday!
Have you heard of Pure Barre? It is an exercises program that I just got on.
I did Pilates a lot and definitely saw progress, but I gained a lot of weight with my two pregnancies and I felt discouraged because it just wasn't coming off as quickly as I wanted it to. So... I searched the web for some better work out programs.
Facebook actually made me stumble upon Pure Barre in one of its adds (Yes, people actually click on them; I am one of them, lol). I went to the Pure Barre website and decided I wanted to try it but I didn't want to pay $20.00 for something I didn't know was going to work or not...
So I went to eBay.
Silly me, I found one for $13.00 and free shipping. I bought it. It took about a week and a half for it to arrive and I opened it and tried it that day! Oh man! It kicked my butt!! My arms were shaking, my legs were shaking and i didn't know if I wanted to throw up or cry because I was so thrilled I completed it.
It was tough, there is no denying that but I've been trying to watch my salt, sugar, and fat intake (you know, regular healthy foods) as well as do the pure barre workout. This week was my first week and I've done pure barre three times. I went from (I know I'm actually going to give my weight...yuck!) 170lbs to 167.4lbs (as of this morning).
So if you are determined and do the workout -it's only 45 minutes! Three times a week like it suggests, it's amazing!
Pilates claims that, "In 10 sessions you feel better, 20 sessions you look better and by 30 sessions you have a whole new body" (Ana Caban, 2008) I do believe in Pilates and it is a GREAT background to have before you do Pure Barre, however with Pure Barre you see dramatic results in just 10 sessions (Carrie Rezabek, 2007).
So, for fun workouts, great results, higher confidence and just over all warm and fuzzy feelings you be the judge, but I would definitely recommend at least one of these two options.

References:
Ana Caban (2008) Ana Caban's Blog: Pilates 10, 20, 30 Challenge. Retrieved Wednesday September 2, 2009 from Blogspot: http://anacaban.blogspot.com/2008/08/pilates-10-20-30-challenge.html
Carrie Rezabek (Founder & CEO) (2007) Pure Barre, Original DVD. Released February 2007, United States. http://www.purebarre.com/