Origami Stars Door Curtain DIY

Door curtains. Curtains for the door.

 "Doors need curtains?" You may ask. Some interior designers use them for decorational purposes, and some go as far as saying they've got spiritual healing properties.  Frankly, I'm not quite sure about spiritual healing, but they wake me up in the morning when I struggle to the bathroom in dazed mode. 

Door curtains are one of those things that's hard to get used to at first, but once used to, hard to live again without. They may feel like they're in the way at at first, with you know, all the little things slapping against your face,  but it's really quite refreshing somehow. Great way to spice up any mundane entrance way anyhow.

Do I have u sold yet? Follow the following simple tutorial and make some origami stars door curtains DIY!

Materials needed: threads, star orgami paper strips (need about 120 stars depending on the width of your door), needle, and ruler.

1. Measure your door width. The # of strings needed=# inches your door width measures. We'll place the strings about an inch apart from one another. My door width is about 15 inches. 

2. Prepare however many threads u may need. I need 15 since my door measures 15 inches. Threads should be at least 36 inches each.

3. Start folding stars. Each thread needs about 10 stars, so I would need about 15threads X 10stars= 150 stars

4. Begin making one string of curtain by knotting at the end of the string. And use the needle to sew through the star at a diagonal angle. The knot at the end serves as a stopper for the star.

5. Tie a knot about 3 inches higher than the last star. Sew the star through again. Repeat process until you reach the top of the thread.

6. Repeat process for the rest of the threads.

7. After all 15 threads are done, collect them and begin taping them to your door, placing them about 1 inch away from another.

And ta-da! Enjoy your spiritual healing!


Too much of a hassle to fold the stars? Here are some pre-made origami stars that are folded and ready to go!

The Proposal: Will You Marry Me?

Baby I know we've had our rocky days...

Like the day when we both came home from a layoff


Or that time when our trip was a total disaster as we were trapped at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for exactly 38 hours to our connecting flight to France.


Or the time when we were caught by a surprise typhoon in Taipei without any rain gear


Or the time I made you try Durian for the first time in Phuket and made you sick to your guts


Or the time when we sobbed in despair over Slippy's death


Or the times we screamed really hurtful things at each other that we didn't mean


But the good days won't be nearly as good if it weren't for those rocky ones.

Baby, I've loved every minute with you since the minute I met you, the rockiest moments included. You've inspired me in ways I've never been since Steve Job's speech at Commencement, made me cry in ways I've never since newborn, and most importantly, made me love in ways I've never before.  I grow as a person for and because of you.

Marry Me

I promise to make you the happiest woman alive.

We'd probably still have those occasional rocky days,

But if the rocky days really isn't what you've signed up for, there's always this kind of rock for your choosing

:)


Linking to Crafty Claireification. Check out her awesome crafty blog :)

Red White and Blue: Spice Up Your Fourth of July Celebration

Our nation's 235th birthday is coming up! I have about one week left to organize a July 4th Party that's unforgettable for my family and guests. Of course, it's the little details that count because good food and drinks are already a given.

Some Red, White, and Blue:

1. Red, White, and Blue Party Fruit Platter

2. Red, White, and Blue Liberty Chips

3. Patriotic Drinks: I'll be sure to make my July 4th Party filled with references to American History.

• Samuel Adams? Check. Savor American values embodied in this beer named after the American Patriot 

• Some Concord for the Battles of Lexington and Concord? 

• Patriotic Drink Recipes

Franklin
1/2 measure dry vermouth 
3 measures cold gin
2 green olives or lemon zest twist, to decorate


Swirl the vermouth around the inside of a chilled martini glass, then discard the excess. Pour in the cold gin and add the olives or lemon zest twist.

American Rose
4-5 ice cubes, plus crushed ice to serve
1 measure brandy
1 dash Pernod
1 dash grenadine 
1/2 ripe peach, skinned, pitted, and roughly chopped
Champagne, to top off
Peach or mango slices to decorate


Put the ice cubes into a cocktail shaker. Pour in the brandy, Pernod, and grenadine and add the peach. Shake well, then strain into a cocktail or Margarita glass filled with crushed ice. Top up with Champagne just before serving and add peach or mango slices to decorate

Liberty Drink

1/2 measure of dark rum

3/4 measure of applejack

1 measure of iced water

1 splash of syrup

Pour rum, applejack, iced water into a cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into a pre-chilled Margarita glass. Top it off with syrup to serve.

American Beauty 
4-5 ice cubes
1 measure brandy
1 measure dry vermouth 
1 measure orange juice
1 measure grenadine
1 dash creme de menthe
2-3 dashes ruby port
Maraschino cherry to decorate
Orange slice to decorate
Mint sprig, to decorate

Put the ice cubes into a cocktail shaker. Pour in the brandy, vermouth, orange juice, grenadine, and creme de menthe and shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass. Tilt the glass and gently pour in a little ruby port so that it floats on top. Decorate with maraschino cherry, an orange slice, and a mint sprig impaled on a toothpick.

4.  Ice Shot Glasses Made From Beer

Fruit Infused! I chopped up some raspberries and blueberries and threw them in before freezing.

5. Invitation and Thank You Cards: be sure to express your warmest welcome as well as gratitude for your guests.

For more party preparation tips and supplies, visit the store for inspirations!

Friendship Bracelets Intrepreted

I saw from Honestly WTF the other day a great tutorial on making friendship bracelets. Reminiscent of good old grade school times, I refreshed my memory with the tutorial and made myself half a dozen of colorful bracelets. As I was making the bracelets, knot by knot, I wondered to myself what the meaning of these bracelets are. I mean, they make a great piece of fashion statement, but what makes them a symbol of friendship for what they are?

So here's what Wikipedia along with some other sites said about the meaning of friendship bracelets:
Friendship bracelets, like its name implies, are bracelets made to celebrate everlasting friendships. These beautiful striped bands originated from the Native Americans in Central America. Traditionally, one would hand-make it for a good friend, have the friend make a wish, and tie it to the friend's wrist. The bracelet is then worn until its naturally worn out and falls off, which is the moment the wish should come true. 

What about the colors? Do they symbolize anything? Apparently there are different meanings associated to each color too:

Red is for Love (wasn't hard to guess)
White is for a Pure Friendship
Orange is for Close Friends
Yellow is for Happiness, or Best Buddy (as opposed to a romantic one symbolized by red)

But as I was making the friendship bracelets, I came up with some of my own interpretations as to why friendship bracelets are called what they're called. The process of making friendship bracelets is analogous to some of the things that happen in a friendship: 

A friendship is the knotting of two people together, just as the bracelets are made of many tiny little knots.

A friendship sometimes have bad knots (or misunderstandings) like those bracelets do. We fix a bad knot in a friendship bracelet by pinpointing where it went wrong and untangling it like friends make up from their fights by clearing any misunderstanding and reconciling.

Just as the process of making these bracelets, there are no short cuts nor easy ways to obtain true friendships. Only hard work and investment will prevail.

Just like the friendship bracelets, once made, it's hard to break.

Like the threads in friendship bracelets, friends build upon one another, help eliciting our potentials.

Some Tips for Making Friendship Bracelets:

1. Don't knot too tightly. When I made my very first bracelet, I strangled each and everyone of the knots before moving onto the next one. My bracelet ended up looking very distorted and hard.

2. Align the threads somewhere visible in the order of your bracelet's colors to prevent confusion. This is very helpful at first when the threads are still unruly.

 3. Baby powder your hands if they start to get a little sweaty after extensive braiding. Maybe it's the result of over-concentration, my palms start to run a little wet after a while and the threads become yuckily soggy. Baby powder helped solve this problem.

4. Enjoy the process! I pinned my friendship bracelet to a pillow and snuggled in bed with a cup of hot cocoa next to me. It might be a good idea to start your bracelet at a desk, but as the threads fall nicely in order, move to somewhere comfy!

Some Red White and Blue for 4th of July!

I'm going to do it the good old traditional Native American way, and have my best friend make a wish before I put it on her. Happy braiding! :)

Macro Lens for iPhone 4 DIY: Highly Addictive

Thanks to Grey Luster Girl's awesome post on making macro lenses for iPhones, I gave it a shot and sure enough, the resulting images mirrored professional macro photography. I stopped by a local drugstore today for a disposable camera, and that is all that's needed for this iPhone macro lens DIY!

My macro lens is a little on the dingy side because I lacked the proper tools to make a pro looking one. It works just fine though! :)

This little thing does wondrous things to your photo if you're looking to really show off the details of an object. Disclaimer: gadget can be addictive. Here are some of the results of my stampede with the macro lens:

Thanks to Craftgawker for their helpful feedbacks!