Magazine Paper Bead Jewelry

A couple of years ago, my sister bought me a magazine paper bead bracelet from the deYoung Museum. It's from a company called Mzuribeads that gets handrolled beads from women in Uganda to make recycled fair-trade jewelry.

I love my bracelet and wear it all the time, and I wanted to buy another one. However, I did not see any bracelets being sold anywhere.

So I decided to make my own.

To make my necklace, I rolled up long triangular strips of colorful (and recycled) magazine paper into tubular beads, and then secured their shape with a dab of glue, a coat of mod podge, and a top coat of clear nail polish. After allowing the beads to dry, I strung them onto a piece of thread with seed beads to make a long necklace. Depending on how many times you wrap the necklace, it can be a long necklace, a double-stranded necklace, or a multi-stranded bracelet.

I've made a few of these as gifts and for myself, and I love the look they add to outfits. I gave one of these to my aunt, and my cousin bought a similar one in Africa for her, as well!

These necklaces are very easy to make, and they only take about an hour (plus drying time).
<3 Mandy

Roasted Chick Peas

When we were little, my sister and I used to polish off entire cans of garbanzo beans because we loved them so much. I recently discovered a way to spice them up: by roasting or baking chick peas in spices with olive oil. So yummy!

 For these garbanzo beans, I added garlic powder and mesquite seasoning as my spices.

<3 Mandy

Flea Market Findings

My parents and I went to visit the Antiques Fair and Flea Market in town today. We made a few good purchases! I find all the seemingly random objects that people have collected over the years so interesting.

Here are photos I took of some of the things that caught my eye.

woman with her Singer sewing machine

gumball machine phone

keys and things

box of records

box of stuff

strip of water faucets (sorry it's blurry)

creepy poster and a bike

rack of clothes

living room in the middle of the street

kitchen mixing utensils

binoculars and rotary dial telephone

rolling pins and mixing utensils

Dukes of Hazzard tin lunchbox and Normal Rockwell triple self-portrait tin box

denim backpack with elephant and bead detailing

streetlight

typewriter

pink toaster that reminds me of The Brave Little Toaster

mini jukebox

<3 Mandy

Food and a Movie

While watching The Devil Wears Prada today, I got a craving for the grilled cheese sandwich Nate made for Andy. So I paused the movie to make one!

Though I'm actually not a big fan of cheese, this sandwich was SO GOOD that I plan on making grilled cheeses whenever I want a quick and easy, warm, chewy, ooey-gooey, and crunchy snack, all in one.

When deciding on a movie to watch, I'm glad I settled on this one instead of Julie & Julia, which I had also been considering...

<3 Mandy

Crazy Crafting Times (and crepes)

This morning my friends and I made crepes for brunch! We filled them with chocolate and fruits. They were yummy.

my crepe, filled with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, nutella, and chocolate chips

I made some friendship bracelets for each of them, for some other friends, and for myself.

hearts for lovely friends

 

Also, my friend whose house we were at gave me this awesome button! It's pretty self-explanatory why I love it... Thanks, Bri!

And an update: I've made a lot more chip bag purses this summer, for a total of 11 completed bags since my last post about them. Still a lot more to go, though, seeing as to how many I have yet to assemble...

I've been making tons of crafts lately, as well as finding tons of inspiration, so I'll be busy with more DIYs until the summer runs out and the new school year begins.

<3 Mandy

Orientation Arts & Crafts

I had orientation for school earlier this week, and there were tons of activities for students to attend. One of the things we did was henna tattoos! There were lots of cool designs; here are a few photos of them:

I also decorated a little notebook I made to take notes on lectures in.

<3 Mandy