Makeup Brush Holder

I have makeup brushes out the wazoo (fewer pictured for more photogenic outcome), and literally nowhere to store them. 

So I bought a candle that came in a cool jar. I spent a little extra than I normally would (I won't spend more than a dollar on candles usually) but I wanted this one specifically FOR the jar. 

I burned the candle foreeeeeever and finally had a small enough chunk of wax left to do this. What *I* did with the wax was dump the rest of it into a scentzy warmer so that it wouldn't be wasted. But if you don't have a warmer in your home then I recommend using THIS tutorial for wax removal. 

So I got the empty jar all cleaned up, coated it with a mixture of homemade modpodge {1/2 elmers glue and 1/2 water}. Swish it around in the jar until every square inch is covered. Dump the excess glue. Then dump glitter in and swish around until every inch is covered. Let it dry for 24 hours and spray with a layer of glue using a product similar to this.

Now fill the jar with water beads. These can be found in the fish aisle but are more commonly in the flower arrangement aisle. They come in any color (my walmart had pink or pink so I went with pink). To activate them, stick them in a separate jar and fill with water. Wait 4-6 hours while they grow to the size pictured above (they start out REAAAAAAALLY tiny). Then dump them into the glitter jar and stick brushes in and VOILA. 

{ps. the beads come with directions but just in case you don't read those for some reason, you should dump out any excess water BEFORE putting into the glitter jar. Also your beads are going to dry out. Put drops of water in them occasionally to keep them refreshed}

For decorative purposes I tied a black ribbon around the jar that I had leftover from a thrift store DIY that I'm working on. Always salvage DIY stuff for later. 

And there you go! You have a gorgeous makeup holder.
You're welcome.

UPDATE (2.14.14):
Don't get colored beads they stain your brushes if you have white brushes. I have white brushes and they stained. I don't mind it, but if you do then don't get colored ones okay, okay. 

Project: Beautiful Feet -- Adam Denton to Trujillo, Bagua and Chiri Yaco, Peru

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” 

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)

In the summer of 2013, Adam Denton went on a mission trip to Trujillo, Bagua and Chiri Yaco, Peru. This is his story: 

Trujillo is a desert city of about 1 million people, living primarily in slums. There were about 40 people with us and the main group stayed and worked here for the duration of the trip, but my team was only in Trujillo for the last two days of the trip. We worked mostly in Bagua, a poor town of several thousand, and in Chiri Yaco, a small village in the Amazon jungle. 

Our group was there to provide medical clinics and spiritual counseling. We spent 6 or 7 hours in clinics each day. In both Bagua and Chiri Yaco there was a strong church presence and we had many church volunteers who we used to fill out the questionnaires for the patients, asking about their top ailments or medical complaints as well as religious affiliation.

Once patients had been seen by the medical staff, we organized any medication to be given to them while they were moved to counseling. We would ask about whether they attended church, and whether they knew Christ as their Lord and Savior. We shared the gospel with many, and prayed for families and loved ones, sicknesses and relationships, work and social problems. We also attended many local church services, sharing our testimonies, our leader preaching, and myself singing a song or two in Spanish.

There was a group of about fifteen children, mostly around 5 to 10 years old. One of us would be taking care of them, trying to keep them quite when they were in the clinic, or playing with them outside. I was with them pretty frequently because I could speak Spanish. I talked with them and they poked around and asked me questions about myself or America, like what my tattoo was and how to pronounce different words in English. They taught me several games of theirs and I taught them a few American games, like Red-light, Green-light and duck, duck, goose. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the words for duck OR goose, so naturally I called it Pollo, Pollo, Perro. (Chicken, Chicken, Dog is a better name for the game anyway, right?). So if you ever go to Peru and find kids playing Pollo, Pollo, Perro, I started that.

At first, the reason I went was really just that the opportunity presented itself and I believed it would be a good experience; for me and for my record. However, as the time drew closer and my financial need for the trip wasn't met, I had something of a breakdown. I was angry at myself for not working harder, raising more, and I guess at God as well, for making it so hard. 

But after a while, when I had exhausted all my perceived options, God told me that I honestly wasn't going for me. It wasn't to show that I liked doing charity or to see a foreign country. He told me I was going in order to praise Him. He was going to teach me how to praise, and teach others with me. I started out wanting to go for the medical experience, but ended up most changed by the simple act of meeting so many great believers who helped me understand what it was to praise and honor God.

The sights, sounds, smells, people, none of it was really surprising. At least, none of it was unexpected. I knew I was going to see many impoverished and malnourished people. I knew I would be immersed in a foreign culture. I knew I would experience worse living conditions, different food habits and beliefs. What surprised me was how affected I was by these things. As I traveled through towns on buses, looking out at the shacks plastered with graffiti, or at people bent over in the rice fields, I felt the intense difference between myself and these people. But at the same time, God impressed upon me the sameness that we shared. As I talked with patients about their problems or about Christ, I heard many of the same kinds of difficulties, excuses or prayers as I would have back home. As I sat in a circle of people in the dark, early morning, looking out at the mountainous jungle surrounding us, I felt amazed that a Kansas boy could be in a place like this, with people like these. It was all I knew it would be, and everything I didn't expect.

I would definitely love to go back to Peru, and while I don't expect to go again this summer, I am currently planning on going back next summer. I made so many friends, both from the Americans and the Peruvians, that I just can't imagine not going back to see them. Otherwise, when I get my medical license, I definitely want to be at least a part time medical missionary, whether it's for just a few weeks a year or a few months.

Cute Picture Frame on a College Budget

I found this bad boy at a yard sale. I've been looking for these decorative frames for a while now but they're all just so darn expensive. 

This one was a stand-up frame but it was easy enough to take the back off. 

When I spray paint things I personally prefer to use Krylon. 
I've always found it to be the best quality. 

This might seem kinda obvious in text, but you'd be surprised how many people don't think of this while using spray paint:
GET INDOOR PAINT. Spray paint does come in "outdoor" and the chemicals are different because one has to withstand the weather (read: the chemicals are more intense).

I left the frame outside to dry for about 30 minutes. Then I let it sit on the table for another 45 just to be safe. 

I had to spray a second coat on because the plastic didn't hold the paint well. If I hadn't been lazy, I would have sanded the surface to rough it up a bit so the paint would hold better.


Anyway. 
Here it is, all pretty in my room.

DIY: Stele from The Mortal Instruments

So I just finished reading the first five books of The Mortal Instruments series (WHY did I not know book 6 wasn't out yet?) (WHY is book 6 not out yet??) I will be reviewing them on here presently, but first I was asked to make a DIY of the Stele that I made for Halloween birthday party reasons. So here it is: for your own Halloween reasons, perhaps.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Pencil (or something else that will be used for support)

Polymer clay

crystal 

STEP 1: 

Wrap the pencil in Polymer clay. I used an old pencil because it was shorter. You want to keep your pencil about the size of your palm so that when everything is together it's not too long. Because it was old and short, it was also sharpened. I broke off the tip and tried to get it as flat as possible. The pencil tip was having none of that. I eventually wrapped extra around the tip and rolled it out on the table, removing extra clay as I went, to make it all even and straight. 

STEP 2: 

Wrap clay around the end of the crystal using the same method as the pencil tip. My crystal was narrower at the bottom so I had to fill that in and roll it too. Make sure the clay on the end of your crystal is the same width as your pencil/handle. 

STEP 3: 

Bake them in the oven. I pre-heated my oven to 250 degrees and left the handle and crystal in for

15 minutes because they were only about a centimeter or 2 thick. 

STEP 4: 

This is the hard part. You use some industrial glue to glue the crystal and the handle together. And then you WAIT. For 24 hours. It's really, really hard to wait that long. Trust me. But if you don't wait 24 hours (even if it looks dry) the handle will break off. I learned that the hard way. WAIT. 

STEP 5: 

Now that you've got your Stele together (and it's dry) it's time for decorations. Each Stele is as unique as the person that owns it. They also reflect the personality of the owner. For example, Jace's Stele was clear, silver, triangular, and fairly simple. Isabelle's was red and had an antiqued silver snake wrapped around it. I can't remember what Clary's Stele looked like but for some reason I'm thinking it had some purple in it.

Mine is Opalite and silver with swirls and little jewels. 

Have fun and be creative with this process!

STEP 6: 

Now that you've got your decorations on the Stele (hopefully covering up the crevice, otherwise just take more clay and roll it out VERY thinly and cover the crevice, smoothing it down before applying your design) it's time to bake it for the last time. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees again and leave your Stele in for

20 minutes. My decorations were about a quarter inch thick so they needed 20 minutes vs the 15 from the first time. 

It is perfectly safe to heat the clay again once it's already been heated. Just make sure your oven doesn't get to 300. As long as it's between 210 and 270 then you are fine. At 300 degrees the heat reacts badly with the clay, resulting in toxic fumes. So that's kind of an important thing to know. 

WARNING: 

As you can see here, my clay cracked during heating. Here is a good article to read to avoid cracking. If it DOES crack, well, there's not much you can do to fix it. What I did was take tiny pieces of clay, rolled them until they were so thin I could barely see them, smash it into the cracks (smoothed it out) and then heated it for one minute. ONE MINUTE and no more. It seems to have worked. 

VOILA

The finished product.

Enjoy!


UPDATE 10.29.13:
Oh, look. Another Stele.
Just call me an Iron Sister.

Book Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4 & 5 by Rick Riordan

 

Wow, that's an insanely long title.
BASICALLY, I'm doing them both together because I read them back to back.
Like, I literally didn't get any sleep, I just kept reading forever.

This is going to be the most unprofessional book review ever, but I've never really been all that pro to begin with.

So here's what I think:

THESE BOOKS ARE SO AMAZING AND YOU HAVE TO GO READ THEM ALL RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I DEMAND YOU DO AND I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN IF YOU DONT AND RICK RIORDAN NEEDS TO WRITE MORE IN THIS SERIES RATHER THAN FOCUS ON SOME OTHER RANDOM KIDS BECAUSE I LOVE PERCY AND GROVER AND ANNABETH SO MUCH

I love this series so much I forgot how to use punctuation.
See?
Now don't you want to go read them?
Yeah, you do.

5/5 for both.

Book Review: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped.

Now it's up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared -- a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever.

So I read The Titan's Curse last night. I mean, literally. I read the book last night. The whole book. Last night.
Yeah. It was intense.

And hilarious. Is it possible for this series to just get progressively funnier? Because I think they do.
I laughed every other line just about. I can't wait for the next book. I have high expectations for that one.
I expect to be laughing after every line, Rick Riordan.

I say that like it's a threat. Like these books have ever let me down before.


WHO: The main character is still Percy Jackson, it would probably be weird having a series called Percy Jackson if the main character were someone else. But this time, *SPOILER ALERT* Thalia is back. Annabeth is there too, but doesn't play much of a role except she's way more awesome in this book. Grover, as usual, is along for the quest. We've also been introduced to some new characters, Bianca and Nico Di Angelo. I have to say, I was right about their Greek parentage for about half the book. The other character we follow through The Titan's Curse is Zoe. She's pretty fantastic too. And then of course you've got your original cast, but they don't play such a big role.


WHAT: So the goddess Artemis goes missing, and it's up to her hunters and some of the kids from camp Half-Blood to find her. So Zoe, Grover, Bianca, and Thalia go on this quest to find her. Percy's got his own agenda. He leaves camp to save Annabeth, whom he's OBVIOUSLY developing quite the crush on. By some weird circumstances, (AKA: he wanted in so he broke the rules to make it happen,) he gets to join the quest. So they all travel across the U.S. kicking butt and taking names. They eventually find the Titan that Kronos has sent on some mission to do something. I'm generalizing here so I don't ruin anything for you. Basically everyone is saved, stuff happens, people die. It's epic.


WHEN: I'm not 100% certain of the time stamp on this thing, but it's sometime rather recently and it's in December. Cause there's snow and it's like, a week from Christmas. Cool how I deduced that, right?


WHERE: They end up in a ton of places in this book. Long Island, Washington D.C., some random place in Arizona, San Francisco, the mountain of despair, Olympus... that's just to name a few. And now my personal favorite - Cloudcroft, New Mexico. I basically went nuts when I read that. I used to live in Alamogordo, see? (also mentioned in the book). Alamogordo is at the base of the mountain they were on in Cloudcroft. I've been there several times and knew exactly where they were at all times. I geeked out.

P.S. the grocery store really does sell rubber rats, I almost bought one once. Also, it doesn't actually cost several hundred dollars for a taxi from Alamo. Maybe if it was on the far side of town, but it's only 45 ish minutes away. So, yeah. Book fixer for you.


WHY: The whole point of this quest was to save the goddess Artemis. Percy had his own personal motivation and was mainly only going to save Annabeth. Grover went to help Artemis because appanretly he's in love with her? I didn't get that either, Greek mythology, eh. He also went to find Pan.


HOW: They get around. Subways, cars, trains, pegasi... you know. Your usual modes of transportation.


5/5 for this book.

Next up:
What Happened to Goodbye
by Sarah Dessen

Book Review: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson is finding his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson, a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any normal friends. But things don't stay quiet for long. 

Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders that protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters, the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia. Only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name: The Bermuda Triangle. 

Together with his friends, Percy must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family, one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.

Sea of Monsters. What can I say? This book reminded me so very much of The Iliad and the Odyssey that it's not even funny.
But actually it was funny. It was hilarious. I mean, I enjoyed the Iliad and the Odyssey, but I didn't laugh. Someone needs to tell Homer that this new version of his story is better cause it's funny.

Anyone who's read Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief should just go ahead and continue the series. It's great -- Just keeps getting better with each book. 

So I can't really tell you much about this book without going all "spoiler alert" on you. But I recommend it highly. I've also heard there's a movie coming out? 

Which I don't really see how that's possible since they screwed up the first movie plot so much they can't really introduce the second without completely re-writing it. 

Enough rant. I gave this book 4/5 on goodreads.com.

read it! now.
thanks.


Next up:
The Titan's Curse
by Rick Riordan