Avocado Cheddar Quesadillas

Now that summer is coming up, I am in the mood for eating summer fruits and berries and other delicious vegetables in season. The farmer's market has begun selling avocados, and I wanted to try out a new mini-recipe.

Whenever I'm hungry for a little snack, a tortilla heated and slightly toasted over the stove and sprinkled with some grated cheddar cheese always just hits the spot. I tried slicing a bit of avocado over the shredded cheddar and jalapeño cheddar cheese while on the stove, making for a delightfully creamy melted quesadilla.

Looking forward to more tasty summer recipes.
<3 Mandy

DIY Worm Piñata

For a compost club I'm part of, I was assigned to come up with a fun activity for the week. I made a piñata shaped like a worm by using old cardboard food boxes, cutting them into the shape of a worm, and covering them with fringed red crepe paper.

I filled the piñata with a bunch of composty puns.

With some extra crepe paper, we made flowers for Cinco de Mayo.

<3 Mandy

Recycled Rings

Inspired by everyday materials, I wanted to put them to another purpose and make some jewelry.

I bought a few stones on link chains and an old notebook spiral from the school Reuse Store, as well as some hot glue, to make a simple yet bold ring. I cut one stone-link from the chain of five, cut one ring shape from the notebook spiral, and hot-glued them together into an adjustable ring.

  

Using four mini gold safety pins and a pair of pliers, and with the idea from this project, I bent into place a little ring. While three safety pins are actually visible in the finished product, I cut the fourth safety pin into a few little pieces to make my own jump rings (of a color that matched the rest of the ring) to connect the remaining three safety pins.

 

I plan to make more jewelry and continue reusing everyday materials for uses other than they were meant for.
<3 Mandy

P.S. Today marks the second year anniversary of this blog!

Stuffed Felt Totoro

I love Totoro, and so does the girl whose name I drew for Secret Santa. I didn't know what to get her, and I didn't want to get her something boring that she would rather just buy herself.

My sister has a stuffed Totoro that she bought, so I used it as inspiration to make a stuffed one out of felt. Originally, I was going to make one with a needle felting tool and wool roving. I watched a YouTube video tutorial on how to make one, and I bought a needle and used some grey felt I had at home. But I guess the felt that I had was too thick, because the pieces would not bind together properly.

 

I have more experience with sewing, as I have made fabric flowers and hair bows and a collar and detail on a collar. Using a few pieces of colored felt, I drew out a pattern and sewed together a little stuffed Totoro. I added a heart to the back, along with a tail.

<3 Mandy and My Neighbor Totoro

Photo Slide Lamp

 

At the Reuse Store at school, they sell old photo slides from different classes. They are really cool to look at, but you can only really look at them by holding them up to a light source. I bought a bunch of them and decided to use them to make a lamp shade. We need more light in our apartment, so an extra lamp would be really useful. Online, I saw some really cool-looking projects that inspired this one.

I found an old lamp my cousin had - it's really ugly, with a fabric Spiderman shade.While the projects I looked at online used circular-based lamp shades, the Spiderman shade is square. It actually worked out better than I anticipate it would have with a circular base - the slides fit almost perfectly, with 4x4 slides per side.

After removing the Spiderman fabric from the base, I used a pick tool to poke holes in each corner of each slide. The cardboard slides were slightly difficult to pierce through, but I managed to make holes if I pressed hard enough. I had a bunch of plastic slides, too, but I couldn't poke a hole in a corner without cracking the slide. So I heated the metal pick tool on the stove until it was red-hot, and it easily melted holes through the corners. I bought a few packs of jump rings to connect the slides to each other and to the lamp base. I decided not to removed the dangling Spiderman pull, so he adds a little bit of character to the lamp.

 

 

I am really happy with how this project turned out. It's nice to sit in our living room with the lamp turned on, and with Christmas lights still dangling on the walls. The colors on the slides reflect off the white table and on the wood wall, which are pretty to look at. With the light on, I like to look at all the slides side by side.

<3 Mandy

Ice Queen Crown

For Halloween, I decided to dress up as an ice queen. To top it all off, I made a crown with some wire, lavender, rhinestones, and hot glue.

To make the crown, I twisted wire into a circle that was a little bit big when resting on my head. I bent little pieces of wire to make triangular points, and I also glued sprigs of dried lavender on. Along the bottom, I glued some grey rhinestones into place.

 

Wishing you a spooky and icy Halloween.
<3 Mandy

Dried Lavender Pouch

My roommate went on a run and brought back a handful of lavender. We put it in a vase to double up as a table setting and air freshener. While it is pretty and smells nice, however, sprinkles of dried petals always fall onto the table and get into everything.

I filled the fallen petals into an empty fabric tea bag I washed out to make a mini pouch. I sewed it closed with a bit of colored thread. It smells really nice, and I don't have to worry about cleaning up fallen bits.

This pouch is perfect to throw into a sock drawer or to freshen up smelly shoes.

<3 Mandy