A big part of helping the environment is reducing waste in our landfills. As I was going through some old clothes, I came upon a bunch of pairs of jeans that were too worn out to donate to charity, but I didn’t want to just throw them away. What a waste! So I decided to make them into a crocheted rag rug.

I ended up using about four pairs of old jeans and six t-shirts. However, I’m a bigger gal, so my jeans are big…so you might end up using a bit more if you’re using smaller jeans. Once I had all my strips together I started crocheting. I hadn’t crocheted anything in a while, and prior to this rag rug the only thing I had ever crocheted was a scarf. For the very best crochet rag rug tutorial I suggest this tutorial from Sugar Bee Crafts. She actually has some videos on that page that show the most simple crochet stitch as well as tips for starting/shaping the rug.

I’ll tell you this, if you start with denim, the beginning of the rug is going to look like a hot mess at first. Like a big denim blob. But eventually it starts looking REALLY good.

I alternated two rows of denim with three rows of t-shirt strips, and then I alternated the blue t-shirt strips with the green. I really like how the rug turned out. It’s not perfectly shaped, but just seeing it every day and knowing that I MADE it out of old materials – it’s so satisfying. And the dogs like it too!

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You see, I had pinned this tutorial for making a paint chip business card holder a while back. The guy who created the tutorial did an awesome job of explaining how he made the paint chip card holder and he even included two different templates that you could print out to fit different sizes of business cards.

The guy at DesignVerb! (I think Aaron is his name) mentioned that he used Behr paint chips from The Home Depot. Perfect! I go to The Home Depot all the time to get spray paint and other heavy-duty craft supplies. So I went along my merry way and picked up some purple (of course) Behr paint chips from Home Depot. I then printed out the template and started trying to figure things out. That’s when I ran into my problem.

The DesignVerb tutorial was posted back in 2006, and since then, Behr paint chips have apparently gotten smaller. There was no way I was going to be able to make a proper business card holder using that template with my paint chips. So I put my crafty brain to work and figured out how to make it using two of the paint chips.

First, I glued together two of the paint chips. I tried to line up the chips and glue them together so it looked like just one long paint chip.

Next I got a gift card holder from the dollar store. The box was the perfect size to be a business card holder, and while I could have just covered the box with the paint chips, I wanted to actually make the box out of the paint chips. These were 2 for $1, so I didn’t feel bad dissembling one of them for my project.

I planned to use the disassembled gift card box as a template, but the glued-together paint chips weren’t big enough to fit the whole thing in one piece. I cut the box in two pieces along the bottom seam and then traced the box onto the paint chip. Where it’s a dashed line it means to fold it (not cut it).

I cut out the template, folded along the dotted lines, and taped the pieces together. Last but not least, I sewed on a button to hold the top in place. As far as the last step, you could probably glue on some velcro or glue two buttons on with a rubber band to hold the two together. It’s a pretty versatile craft. The completed business card holder comfortably holds about 25 business cards.

If anybody wants the template to make the business card holder from paint chips let me know! If enough people request it I’ll put up a template on Google docs.

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Well, sort of. I went to another wine and painting class to paint this peacock. And this is what it looked like after the class.

It just didn’t look complete to me. A peacock’s gotta be bold and beautiful…and it’s gotta have purple, of course. So I added in some purple paint and some gold paint as well – both of which I had left over from my Mardi Gras craft. I like the finished product so much better, and I think this is definitely a step in the right direction to painting some completely original artwork.

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I started with just a plain vase from the dollar store and I painted it gold. I just used some watered down acrylic paint and painted it from the inside so that it would still maintain a shine from the glass on the outside.

I found some Hollywood-themed decorations at Party City and bought some napkins with gold star prints on them. I then cut out the stars as well as gold starbursts that were on the napkins and then glued them on the vase.

Add a gold and silver balloon weight inside the vase and you have a quick and easy centerpiece for your Oscars party!

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How did I make this wreath for only $5? I started with a wreath form and two St. Patrick’s Day scarves from the dollar store. Then, I found this amazing green sequined bow at the dollar spot at Target. I was originally going to use foam clovers to finish off the wreath, but then I stumbled upon a spectacular find. A wooden shamrock “Welcome” sign. Can you believe I got it for just $1.30 at the Salvation Army? Well, believe it!

Now, how did I assemble the wreath in five minutes? First, I cut the wooden shamrocks apart from each other. I wish that they had the awesome patterns on each side, but unfortunately, when I turned them over they were just plain green. But they still look super high quality, so it was all good.

I wrapped the wreath form with the two scarves and then glued the bow to the top. Next I glued the wooden clovers on, and I was done! That was it. Really! It was that simple. If you need a wreath for St. Patrick’s Day and you’re in a hurry, this is your go-to craft! I know the wooden St. Patrick’s Day sign was a one in a million find, but you could easily use the foam shamrocks from the dollar store in its place and it would still look totally fun and festive!

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In honor of Labor Day weekend, here is a quick and easy dessert — that’s no work at all and perfect for any barbeque or get-together.

I’ve seen some variations of cheesecake treats online that use no-bake cheesecake mix, but most of them are pretty big, or involve little cups and spoons that I’d rather not deal with. I’ve found that the no-bake cheesecake mix is pretty sweet and rich, so I wanted to make a variation that was smaller and easier to handle.

These cheesecake bites are sooooo easy and quick to make – they literally take about 15 minutes to put together – and they’re a hit at parties, barbeques, etc.

Ingredients:

• One box of no-bake cheesecake mix
• Graham crackers (I recommend the Honeymaid brand because the generic kind can be hard to cleanly break apart)
• Assorted fruit
• 1 1/2 cups milk (non-fat CAN be used to lighten it up a bit, but feel free to use any kind)

Start by mixing up the cheesecake filling with the milk (the kind I used called for 1 1/2 cups of milk but check the box just to make sure). Stick the filling in the freezer, and while you’re waiting for it to set, break the graham crackers into quarters and lay them out on the plate or platter you’ll be using.

I also use this time to chop up the fruit I’ll be using as decoration. This is pretty much the most time-consuming part of making the dessert, and it really only takes about 10 minutes!

Once the cheesecake filling has set (give or take 10 minutes in the freezer), I put it in a sandwich bag and cut one corner off the bag to make a “pastry bag” of sorts. I then pipe the filling onto each cracker.

Last but not least, I top the cheesecake bites with fruit. For Labor Day I made a festive flag design using strawberries and blueberries. On the plain pieces without fruit I sprinkled a bit of graham cracker crumbs from the cheesecake mix just so they weren’t completely plain. This dessert is so fun and versatile, you could make it and decorate it for pretty much any event or holiday.

Just a few tips:

This DOES contain milk, so if you’re bringing it to a barbecue on a hot day, I would try to keep it refrigerated as long as possible.

The graham crackers can get soft if they stay too long in the refrigerator, so make these as close to consumption as possible (AKA this is not a make-the-night-before dessert).

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Take a Walk

The first and easiest option is to just go outside and walk. I take my dog for a walk every day, so I count that as 15-20 minutes of my exercise time for the day. Even if you don’t have a dog, you can just go outside and take a nice walk for half an hour or so. You don’t need any fancy shoes or gym equipment – you can just walk! It’s easy.

Go Back to School

Sometimes when I’m feeling motivated (yet not motivated enough to go to the gym to work out), I go to the school near our house. It has an outdoor track that I’ll walk/run on. Some schools may lock up their track or have rules about using it after hours, but I think for the most part it’s pretty easy to find a track you can run on. I even bring Petey with me sometimes. (He’s actually a pretty good runner for a little pug.) Most schools will also have outdoor jungle gym equipment you can make use of, such as pull-up bars, monkey bars, etc. Get creative and you can get a really good workout in!

Stay In

On the opposite end of the spectrum, why not stay home and try some indoors exercise? There are many good exercise programs now on DVD, such as Zumba, 8-minute abs, etc. Or if you don’t want to commit to buying something you might only use once, a lot of TV channels have exercise programs early in the morning that you can DVR (or do live if you’re an early riser). There are also a lot of good fitness programs for the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect. We have a few, but unfortunately there’s not enough room in our living room to move around and do them.

I hope this has given you some new options for exercising. Do you have any other exercise ideas? What’s your favorite way to exercise outside of the gym?

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This patriotic red, white, and blue dessert requires the following ingredients:

• one 10 ounce bag of chocolate chips
• one 3 ounce package of cream cheese
• sliced strawberries (or other red fruit of your choosing)
• blueberries
• sliced bananas
• 25 graham cracker quarters (about 1/2 a box of graham crackers)

Start by melting your chocolate chips over a double boiler. You can use any kind of chocolate chips. I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking chips, which I really think balanced well with the cream cheese and fresh fruit. Once the chocolate is melted, mix in the cream cheese until thoroughly combined. Place the chocolate/cream cheese mixture in the refrigerator to chill while you do the next step.

Scoop your chocolate/cream cheese mixture into a pastry bag (or if you’re thrifty like me, just use a ziploc bag with one corner cut off). Pipe a thick line of the mixture onto each graham cracker and top with assorted fruit.

That’s it! You’re done! So simple, right? It’s great if you’re in a hurry and need a July 4th dessert to bring to a picnic or a barbecue. Just prepared to see them go fast. Kids especially like them. My nephew ate five of them in one sitting and said they were the best “cookies” he’d ever had.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

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Once you have all your materials together, it’s really quite simple. You’re going to want to get some “no-fold” elastic from your local sewing supplies store. I don’t really know how to sew all that well (yet), so I’m not exactly sure if the no-fold thing is just for sewing, or if it works for the tutu in some way too, but so far I have had no trouble with it. I bought some elastic on the thicker side, about 1/2 inch thick, but I think the narrower elastic would work too.

For the poofy portion of the tutu, I bought 3 different rolls of 6″ tulle – 25 yards each. You can buy these rolls of tulle at Michaels or a sewing store, but I’ve found the cheapest place to buy it is Etsy. I got these rolls of tulle for under $3 each on Etsy – quite a bargain.

So, making your own running tutu is really so easy that I didn’t even take that many pictures. It’s pretty self explanatory. To measure for the tutu you don’t even have to use a measuring tape. I just wrapped the elastic around myself and then took a few inches off the length around my waist. (You want the tutu to be snug, especially if you’re going to be running in it, and the elastic will definitely stretch to allow for the inches you take off.)

Next, you’re going to want to sew the elastic together. As I said before, I’m not a very good sewer, so I just hand-stitch the ends together. I make sure to sew back and forth a few times on the ends so as to make sure the elastic has no chance of falling apart.

Find a box or small chair – pretty much anything round or square that you can put the elastic around. This part is a must! You might think you don’t need to put the elastic around anything, but it makes it sooooooo much easier to tie the tulle around. For my running tutu I just used a cardboard box I had lying around the house.

How long you cut your pieces of tulle depends on how long you want your tutu. I wanted a longer, more flowy tutu, so I think I cut the pieces about a yard long. Doubled up and tied to the elastic, my tutu ended up being about 18  inches long – a good length if you want to make sure your bum is well covered. However, if you want a tutu that is shorter and “spikier” I would cut your pieces of tulle anywhere from 12-18 inches. (Remember you are going to fold the tulle in half to tie it to your elastic, so however long you want your tutu – double that.)

As you can see, I wanted my running tutu clearly color blocked, so I tied three pieces of each color before moving on to the next color. I tied the tulle onto the elastic using a simple cow hitch or lanyard hitch knot. (I had no idea what this type of knot was called until I looked it up for this post.) If you don’t know how to tie that kind of knot here’s a video. (I like that they call this knot the cowboy equivalent of parallel parking, haha.)

As far as how much tulle to cut and tie on to the elastic, that’s up to you. Obviously, the more you tie on, the fuller the tutu will be. I usually use up all 75 yards of tulle per tutu that I make, but that’s for a full-size gal. If you are smaller, or if you are making the tutu for a child, you will definitely not need that much tulle. But, at about $9 total for the tulle, it’s not a bad thing if you end up using it all.

Here’s the finished look of my running tutu:

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