Boring to.... yummy?

So I think just about everyone at some point has seen a cheap (or not so cheap) paper lantern style light fixture, right? And if you're like me, you're less than thrilled about how commonplace they are nowadays. The cool ones are uber expensive and hard to find. Meanwhile, mine focuses more as a dead bug catcher than anything else. And it's got a huge rip in one sides.

Luckily, I saw a great and simple idea to revamp ye olde paper lantern for about $5. Cupcake wrappers! Yup, cupcake wrappers. Here what I used:

• About ~200 large cupcake wrappers
• About ~200 mini cupcake wrappers
• Hot glue.

 That's it! Here's an intermediary shot:

Nothing really to it. Just glued on lots of big ones first (easier with a partner to do the hot gluing and break the hot glue threads!) and then I glued the smaller ones inside each of them. I didn't squish them too much.

 

I wasn't too sure at this point. It didn't look as flowy as I wanted and I didn't know how much of an effect the smaller ones would have, but I kept on! Well, me and my helper.   

And for the final product....

Tadaa! A simple, chic, cheap, quick project with a big effect. Any cool simple projects you want to do? Let me know (so I can steal them!!)

Part Deux - The Jersey Edition

Well howdy-ho! Have you missed me? Obviously, it's been ages since I've blogged and it's time to get crackin' again! Let's consider this Part II of my blog - the Jersey chapter? I'd like to make this an exciting post, but I'll be honest - this is the "summary of recent life events and missteps and things I want to improve" post. So....

Sorry!!!

So in the past 6 months, I graduated dive school (top of my class - take that boys), scored a new job with a great company, moved to New Jersey (wtf - I know), moved in with my lovely boyfriend and have started a new phase of my life as an underwater bridge inspector. I'll try to elaborate on all of those at some point. I'm sure there's at least one montage of cool dive photos in me.

So now for the elephant in the room (the blog room...?) - that would be me! :-x Woahhhh is there a lot of me nowadays! Surprisingly, I've been pretty upbeat about my current "big boned"-ness. Unfortunately, that's also lead to some pretty apathetic complacency that just needs to quit! I've been ramping up for a good solid game-change over the past few weeks. I've been getting back in the gym a lot more regularly (re-starting New Rules of Lifting for Women). I've been going for lots of bike rides and walks. I've done some awesome farmer's market shopping:

I'm trying to kick it up a notch now though and actually track, log, blog and focus on getting healthy. It's not really a getting fit thing anymore - I feel generally unhealthy and that just wont do. So here are some of my upcoming health goals:

• Homemade dinners - been lazy lately!
• Homemade breakfast - I used to make awesome eggwhite omelets. That would be great but some premade fritatta or quiche would be great too.
• More protein!!! - A must have for any gal trying to get back in shape, stay full, bring back some of the muscles.
• Take my vitamins, especially my iron and fish oil
• Floss
• Invest in better quality kitchenware - BPA free/microwave safe tupperware recommendations?
• Give morning workouts another shot - I'll probably procrastinate this goal!
• Go to sleep earlier/wake up more regularly
• Learn to run again
• Not suck at pushups (never ever been good at these, even at the height of my fitness abilities)
• Try new recipes - I have lots of great healthy cookbooks that should get dusted off
• Drink more water/tea and less (eventually none) diet soda

I'm going to be working on incorporating them slowly. I'm thinking one new habit a week? Maybe every other week? I should really give that small changes thing a good chance. In addition to those, I'll be working on some general life goals:

• Putting out the trash on Monday (not tuesday am)
• Find healthy/green/craft magazines
• Try not to kill all plants that enter my house
• Do the dishes!
• Read more
• Write to/call my friends more
• Blog!!
• Start playing the piano again
• Actually do the crafts I've bought supplies for.
• Sign up for some classes in town. We have:
• ExtraordinaryEd - where you can take special classes on all sorts of goodness
• The Quilted Nest - where I could *finally* take sewing lessons
• In the Kitchen - Classes including date night courses
• Start prepping and slowly reviewing for the PE exam -April 2013? October 13? We'll see.
• Learn about home buying

Well that doesn't sound like too big of a list, does it?  Hopefully I'll be able to take it slow and steady and add new good habits at a decent pace. And more importantly, get some fun blogs out of it and get you guys back in the loop with my life!

Cheers! Let's go!