Wacky Interview

*Dusts off laptop*

Hello blog world!

I have missed you! 

I know I have been MIA on this blog for a while but I have a new idea and hopefully you will enjoy it. 

I know so many talented people who are trying to let their creativity flow and I want to support that. And it seems like the facebook page is getting more traffic now so hopefully I can help them spread their craftyness!

I have never done blog interviews, and I don't know if there is a right or wrong way of doing them... But as we have known in the past I tend to put my own spin on things anyways. So lets try it out and see what we come up with!

My first vicitim... I mean Interview... is a dear old friend of mine. 

Kasondra Decowski! *play upbeat music as intro*

Kasondra and I went to High School together. GO BULL DAWGS... oh that felt weird to say haha. 

Recently she started making custom tumblers, wine glasses and keychains. She is taking orders now on her Facebook and Etsy page!

https://www.facebook.com/Winters-Wacky-Wonders-101442191637556

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WintersWackyWonders

Go place your order today! 

They look amazing! Lets dive in and talk.

Casey:

 So you started making custom Tumblers, wine glasses and key chains... tell me what kind of products you make and how you customize them.

Kasondra:

I always start by cleaning my cups with alcohol then spraying them with a base paint. From there it depends on whether I use modge podge or epoxy for the next step. My 6yro daughter always gets to help with glitter cups! This is probably why those are my favorites to do. I always end up sanding my cups to buff out imperfections before placing my final epoxy layer on. Once dried I wash them thoroughly before they are handed over to the customer. Safety is my first priority.

Casey:

So besides the glitter cups, what would be your favorite?

Kasondra:

Water Slides, here are some pictures of the ones I did.

Casey:

I think my favorite is the you are my sunshine. Those came out great! Why are the water slides your favorite type?

Kasondra

They are so pretty!

Casey:

Agreed! But from what I have seen, all your cups are pretty. Can you tell me how the process is different?

Kasondra:

The image just looks more lifelike to me and it is as simple as printing your picture on the appropriate type of paper, sealing it with acrylic sealer, soaking it for 30 seconds and sliding it onto your cup

Casey:

Is there a process you have tried and it's harder than you thought it would be? Or is there one you have tried that you think you need more practice on

Kasondra

I definitely need to do more practice with vinyl. I haven't mastered the cricut mat with all its different cuts for more intricate designs

Casey:

I have always wanted to check out what you could do with the cricut mat and all its tools. But I am not going to lie, it looks very overwhelming to me.

When ever I do a project most of the time I wing it. I'll get ideas from Pinterest or other projects I have seen out in the real word and I put a Casey spin on it. Sometimes it works out other times it's a complete fail. Which is why I started this blog in the first place. So when you craft are you following along with instructions, or do you have help? Or are you winging it?

Kaondra:

Ill watch a tutorial just so I have a basic idea of how to do something. Then I just go for it on my own and it comes out with my natural spin.

Casey

Do you have any tips and tricks that might make it easier for a newbie?

Kasondra:

I tried my first "woodgrain" look and fell in love with its simplicity but how pretty. Light strokes with makeup brushes are perfect for that one

Casey:

Oh great idea!

And you can usually find ones that are pretty inexpensive.

Speaking of costs, would you say the start up costs is expensive for starting this as a hobby or a business?

Kasondra:

I get makeup brushes, rubbing alcohol, popsicle sticks ( to stir epoxy), glass wineglasses all at dollar tree. To start as a business definitely a bit expensive.But hobby fairly inexpensive.

Casey:

What made you decide to start doing this?

Kasondra:

As a mother of 2 going to school full time out of pocket and loans since my veterans bill ran out I needed some side money since my paychecks go right to bills.

Casey:

So whats the goal? Are you hoping to be able to do this as a full time gig or just for extra money?

Kasondra:

Definitely want to try for full time. Id love to be able to be with my kids more and create my OWN schedule around my creativity. Life is too short and my kids are growing so fast

Casey:
I hear that!

So you mentioned your daughter helps, does your other kid have anything to do with it or not yet?

Kasondra:

He LOVES to touch them and tell me they are beautiful!

Casey:

So you have a number one fan already! That's great.

I'm sure trying to tackle these projects requires a lot of patience.

Do you have any other advice for anyone that wants to try doing this

Kasondra:

Every cup can be saved. No matter what. Its very easy to strip them and start over OR to cover up what you may not like

Casey:

My last question is what is your favorite project you did so far, maybe one you are having a hard time parting with or plan to make for yourself

Kasondra:

My favorite look is the one that has the dave matthews band decal. I Love how that one looks. I plan to make a Golden Girls cup, and Cheshire Cat for myself

Casey:

Well I look forward seeing all your creations!

Good luck on your journey!

Kasondra:

Thank you!

So I hope you liked this style of blog.

Some more information about Winters Wacky Wonders:

Kasondra wants to make sure you are happy with the product you receive. If it has any imperfections you are not happy with she has no problem redoing the item for you.

She is new to all this and as we know there is a little bit of a learning curve with any project.

I hope you everyone has a wonderful weekend and if you find yourself needing a custom tumbler, wine glass or keychain...Please check her out!

I know my order list is getting long... :D I will be sure to post pictures of what I order on the page!

I'M BACK!

Hey Blog world! Gosh it's been a long time.

First I would like to apologize for jumping ship! Lots has happened since the last time we spoke. I wont bore you with the details. Just know that I am starting a new chapter in my life and I want you to tag along!

Part of my new chapter is buying a house. Geez, don't even get me started on how complicated that has been! So I am playing the waiting game. If there is one thing that is for certain I am not a patient person. Understanding, sure. But patient? No way.

Well I am staying with my folks for the time being and I am so grateful that they are tolerating me right now. I only have one complaint. I am very bored. I didn't realize how much my stuff meant to me until I locked it away in a storage shed. So while it sits there I sit around and do nothing.

While I wait I apparently started collecting funiture for my new house. Free is awesome. However sometimes free isn't exactly what you pictured. So. What you do is make it what you pictured. :) Now for the fun part.

Having all this time and projects I decided to get started on my new stuff. Making it *Me* if you will. Of course all my crafting stuff is locked up with the rest of my belongings and I can't spend a lot of money right now so we are doing this on the cheap.

Here it is my first project after over a year of hiding..... wait for it....wait for it...DON'T you dare scroll past this part. Enjoy the waiting. It will be worth it...That's what they keep telling me!

Ok I wont make you wait anymore.....

About a month later, HAHA I bet you are confused. here let me un-confuse you. See I tried doing this blog on my laptop then I remembered why I didn't do it with my laptop. It was difficult... SO here I am finally in my new house with my computer set up in my new office. Now we can talk projects!

Were you expecting something so colorful? I bet not. But this is my "I am Casey, hear me roar" Piece. I wanted something crazy for my house. Colorful, bright, and happy. I think I succeeded. So I know this blog probably wont look like my other posts but it I guess its not like riding a bike. That and my computer is acting a little slow tonight. I promise I will get back to normal soon. I have lots of projects lined up. New house, new furniture. The ideas are endless!!!

Back to this project, I know I am all over the place tonight. So this is what the coffee table looked like before I colored it up.

Boring!!!!

Now I am sure a lot of you will probably say "oh I liked it more natural." Well then this is not the place for you!

As you know most of my projects I have good intentions of showing you step by step on what I did but you also know I get carried away. So I will try to tell you what i did.... also from memory about a month ago. HAHA.

So first, I got the table. My Aunt donated it to my new house furniture. Along with some paints and brushes. I mean with all the materials I needed how could I not start this project?

However I did get some new acrylic paints for the primary colors (green and blue)

I found this brand at Walmart and the size was perfect for what I was using it for. So along with some random other colors I got to work.

I sanded the table down a little bit and started painting...

I am constantly reminded of the fact that I hate painting. It takes forever and I mess up a lot.

Of course the first coat wasn't very reassuring. using these paints was kind of risky. I wasn't sure what to expect. It took a lot more coats than I thought it would. Especially the bars. I am not sure how many coats I ended up doing, but I know that coral/orange color...was the worst! I eventually painted with the gray (It sort of looks white in the pictures) then the coral. That seemed to work a little bit better.

I painted the top completely green first. After letting it dry over night My mom helped me with the tape so I could get the middle part a different color.

I painted the inside of the tape a light blue color and let that dry.

So once I got finished painting all the boring parts... on to the stencils. And... let me tell you... stencils are not Casey Approved! However I feel like since this was my first time attempting stencils I did a pretty okish job.

Had my mom help me find the center. I have never been good at that... :D

Because I have never done stencils before my mom and I thought it would be a good idea to use pencil first and trace it out. Maybe for normal people this would work out well. For me however it was kind of a pain. I write kind of silly and I ended up smudging the pencil up a lot. Lucky for me it washed off in the end.

You can kind of tell in this picture where it was all smudged.

After I growled and stomped around because I smudged it all over the place I started painting the flowers.

Evil...little... stupid flowers.

Taking the tape off was oddly satisfying.

I am happy with how it turned out. I still have to put some sort of top coat on it to protect it from things but for now if you must know, cheap bathroom cleaner does not strip the paint. In case you were wondering!

I really wish I kept better notes on this project. Next time will be more normal I promise.

This project was a Casey Original and.....

MIA

Hey blog world. It isn't Thursday and I know I haven't been around things have been sort of blah lately. It seems silly how one little change in your life can just set you back. I haven't wanted to write or do any projects. I wanted to do this blog to try to put myself out there. Try to boost my confidence. I knew it wasn't going to happen overnight but I had hoped for something a little more I guess. I am not giving up! I will be back but I want to focus on projects I really want to do. Not projects to just fill a post.

About a month ago I lost my dog. She had a tumor and she was old. 15 years old.

I had her from the second she was born. and now she is gone. It hurts a lot more than I thought it would. I still find myself looking for her and crying when I know she isn't there. I know that sounds really stupid to some. But to a lot of people I know they understand. She was my writing buddy. That's why its been so hard to sit down and write.

You see I recently put myself out there, Had some one else read my book. It wasn't anything "official" But it was my first time getting criticism from some one else besides my mom. It was a hard thing for me to do. I got decent feedback. The author was really kind and professional. But with the criticism comes the "work." And I don't know how to fix it. This would be the part where my dog would be helpful. Whenever I sat at my desk she would sit right by my feet right where it would have been to much work for me to get up and do something else. I don't know if she did that on purpose but it worked. Or if she wasn't in the same room as me she would periodically come check on me to make sure I was where I was supposed to be.

I am at the part of the sadness where I don't know what I am supposed to do anymore. I don't "Feel" like doing anything productive. I need to snap out of it. Its just harder than I thought it would be.

I am sorry this post is sappy and pathetic and a million other weak things. But I look at this way. I rarely have anyone look at my posts anyways. What difference would it make.

I hope that I can get inspired to do something again soon.

Sharing my projects did make me happy...sometimes.

Writing made me happy to.


Editing however. not so much.

So I hope you all understand....all 7 of you. And I hope you are all doing well.

I will see you when I see ya.

Review on Blue Apron

Hello Blog World!

I want to start off this post by apologizing for my absence last week.My friends and family know my reason and I hope you understand. 

This post is going to be a little different this time. I cooked. 

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

I have a bad track record and the scars to prove that I am a horrible cook...Ok maybe not horrible just...bad. I know with my last name being Cook you would think something would have rubbed off...but nope. 

I stick with meals that are very basic. Microwaves are my friend. And as long as it doesn't involve oil I am usually good. 

But let me tell you that isn't very healthy. We have been trying to be healthier, but its hard!!! 

Really hard. 

I also hate trying different things, not so much because I am afraid I am not going to like them more along the lines of, 

1. I hate trying to find different things in the store. No one is helpful and when you don't know what the ingredient is its a little difficult to search for. 

2. I hate meal planning! I am currently searching for a website that does that for me. Surprisingly they are out there. It's just a matter of finding one that has food that I know I will be willing to try. 

3. I hate wasting food I don't like or don't use for other things. For example: Green onions. I do not use these often so when they are in a recipe I avoid them. 

4. I hate going to the store after work to deal with the crazy people and do all these things in my brain.  

                The solution? 

                             Blue Apron.

How many of you have heard of Blue Apron? Don't worry this isn't a sponsorship...(Although I wouldn't deny it if it was!)

The boyfriend heard of it off Life Hacker and was bugging me about it. Its a service that sends you fresh food for three meals that is already pre measured and planned out. All you have to do is open the box and cook it. 

At first I was against this. Why? Because I hate cooking. Now you are going to throw weird food at me that I have no idea what to do with. no. I wont do it. 

I did it. 

Only The Boyfriend helped me cook... This is the part you go WHATT? He doesn't cook. He cooked me two meals when I moved in with him. 1. Chicken picata (Amazing.) 2. What he normally made: Chicken with beef ramen. (Gross) 

I am pretty sure that was his clever way to get me to cook. And suddenly he forgot how to feed himself. (I think that is a guy thing...NO OFFENSE...sorta) 

So when he offered to help me cook I was floored! 

We set up the subscription (And they do have a discount for new members) 

Then we had to wait for a meal we would like. See that's the great thing about Blue Apron. It shows you in advance what you are going to get if you accept that menu for the week. So if they have anything that you just can't stand like in my case one night they had catfish and I wasn't so sure about that so we just passed on that week. The next week was the week we decided to try. Now these were all meals that were completely new to us. 

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken

Southern- style Shrimp and grits

Tomato Basil Burgers

The unboxing was really cool

In side the box is a cooler bag and freezer packs. They come with a recipe for each meal, full of pictures and helpful tips.  

Each meals comes with what they call "knick knacks" which basically covers any seasonings or dressings. 

You will use everything they give you in the box. None really goes to waste. 

The one I took pictures of the whole process was the Taiwanese three cup chicken. 

A few concerns when sorting out the ingredients for this recipe were: 

How is this amount of chicken going to serve two?

And how do you mince garlic. 

Let me explain...I don't cook with garlic too often because I am part vampire and it makes me sick. So I usually stick with garlic powders or the already minced garlic. 

I never once peeled a garlic clove and minced it...Neither did the boyfriend. So we had to google it. 

Once we figured out that you peel the outer layer first then separate the clove you have to smoosh it with a knife then you can chop/mince whatever you want. 

Any of the oily parts The boyfriend dealt with...

I am not allowed. 

I didn't do step by step pictures because well honestly that would be boring to you I think and the cook time for this recipe was 35 minutes. with 10 minute prep time...For normal people. 

For us it took almost over two hours. 

No I am not kidding. 

Anyways.... So I did however get pictures of the end product and let me tell you what for two cooking rookies such as ourselves I was really impressed with how these meals turned out. They were awesome! And yes the portion sizes are a little smaller than what the boyfriend is use to but it was perfect for me. No left overs :( 

Above is the Taiwanese chicken which was my favorite. 

My thoughts: I wasn't too thrilled with the additional thai basil as a garnish..in fact I don't think I like garnish at all. I picked off that right away. I am now a fan of Jasmine rice...I know how boring of me but when all you have had is minute rice and you taste this stuff... Its pretty amazing. The choy sum (The other green stuff) Was also interesting, it had a spinach taste to it but not in a bad way. 

The boyfriends thoughts: 

Liked the basil, and the sesame oil sauce, Didn't like the portion size though. 

 The Tomato Basil Burgers. By far superior to any other burger I have had. 

This had an interesting mayo sauce with kalamata olives. Nope, had no idea what a Kalamata Olive was until this but I know I like it! (also had to google how to pit an olive.)

My thoughts: The burger was great, the mixture that went into the burger...Awesome I picked the additional basil off and didn't eat most of my tomatoes. The Olive Aioli and green bean salad was interesting. Like I said picked out most of the tomatoes. BUT I DID TRY. 

Boyfriend: Olive sauce was awesome, The basil instead of lettuce was a great change. The dijon mustard mixed in the burger was amazing, would have never thought to do that. Will be making this again!

 This was an interesting one:Southern-Style Shrimp and grits. 

I knew I would like it ok because I actually like grits, I just never thought to put shrimp on top. 

But let me tell you this was pretty awesome. 

My thoughts: Too much Grits not enough shrimp. The garnish was easy enough to mix in with the meal so I didn't taste it separately. This one was a simple meal to make. 

Boyfriend:

Take it or leave it. First time having grits, wasn't a fan. It was filling but not as tasty as the other meals. Would not make again. 

Overall this experience was great! We were able to do the first box at a discounted price of about $20.00 Normally its about 60.00. Which if you really think about it isn't a bad price! When you think of all the fresh ingredients that go into these meals its a bargain! And if you are still not convinced next time you go out for dinner look at your bill. If you eat out for three nights, you will probably end up spending more than sixty dollars. (for two people)

This was a way for the Boyfriend and I to try something new, and the team work made it fun as well. We don't normally cook together so this was a nice change of pace. 

Also you may notice that we had boring blue plates to begin with but have since upgraded to awesome square plates... We are that cool.

I would love to do Blue apron again, or even try some of the other services that are similar. Because I will warn you now, going back to your regular meals after this...is hard. 

After all this I made shake and bake pork chops...So not the same! 

ha-ha. 

I hope I inspired you to try this as well! 

And even if you don't want to have the food sent to you they do share their recipes online so  you can at least try new things!

But seriously, having them send you all the stuff just takes the nonsense out of grocery shopping. 

Now if only I can get a cook to cook these for me I would love it so much more...But I guess they had a problem putting a person in these boxes. 

Until next time Blog world! I hope you enjoyed this DIY. I know its not a craft... But it is a DIY project! I will keep you posted if I come across any other awesome food services such as this one. 

By the way this is...

See you next time! 

Facebook.com/DIYORDONT

Notebooks and Stones

Hello Blog world!

"You'll find your passion in what inspires you the most." -Anonymous

Yes we are starting this blog with a quote. Why because its been an inspirational kind of week. 

As I was browsing pinterest I found some cool idea's for inspiration and of course I found them worthy enough to share with you. 

The first one is one of the projects I wanted to do last week for the "dollar tree blog" But, my printer and I were having a disagreement. I thought it should print when I hit the print button. It thought it should not... So after a long night of battling we decided to take some time apart and think about our differences. On Monday we sat down and had a nice long chat while I took out its screws and pointed out to it that it was indeed a printer and printers are suppose to print. It finally agreed with me now we are on good terms again. 

After all that Let me show you what I did! 

First I will show you my inspirational stones

          Ok so I know the picture doesn't do it justice. I have nothing to blame but me and my lack of photography skills

There, now you get a better idea. 

This was so easy (once the printer cooperated) and it was only 2.00!

Bought these and the heart shape dish at dollar tree

Printed out some sappy words. Make them short, or the font small either way you can do as many as you want. 

The original project was "diy conversation hearts" where they made them all pink and had sappy says like "too cute" or "kiss" buuut I didn't want that so I just did the normal Love, Believe, and Dream. I had Happiness...but it was too long. 

After printing them out I mod podged them to the back. 

The mod podge dries clear allowing you to see the words you put. 

I don't know if you can tell in the picture but I also did some colored paper ones to. Just blue and green. Just to add some extra color to the mix. 

Simple.

Next project I did was what I am calling my inspiration notebook. 

I plan using it for some of my favorite quotes, sayings or just things that inspire me. Why not right?

I found this project on pinterest as well (Seriously they should pay me for as much as I am on there!)

Now with this project it was a notebook tutorial which I thought would be a great idea since I am a writer and writers need notebooks. However. I am thinking that maybe half of this project should just go bye-bye and we should just focus on making a cover for a binder or an existing notebook. But I will show you how I did this and you can decide if you want to do the whole project or not. 

First I went on pinterest and searched things I liked. 

Sunsets

Green

Quotes about writing

My favorite James Dean quote

Flowers

My haunted house I want to buy

Moons.

You get the point. 

I copied and pasted these pictures in a new document. I used Paint.net which is what I use for all my photoshopping needs. 

(Its free by the way)

I set the document to be 8 1/2 inches wide and 11 inches long which you can change in your basic settings. 

Filled the white spaces with my pictures. Printed it out. BAM! Awesome cover 

After I printed the picture I got the rest of my supplies together. 

Loose leaf paper

Binder clips

Mod podge

Card stock paper.

Now in the original tutorial it said to use construction paper for the binding part but I used Washi Tape. 

I will explain why in a minute. 

So once you got all of your supplies together First thing you are going to do is determine how thick you want your notebook. This is important because I used the whole stack of loose leaf paper that was in the package...I think this is where I ran into problems. 

Once you figure that out you are going to clip the ends of the paper. Make sure its all nice and even like

 I was dumb and didn't take a picture of where I had the binder clips first 

but I put them on the other ends and along the sides I put glue (mod podge) This was where I put the clips to keep it together better while it dried. 

While that was drying I worked on the cover page. 

I did have to cut it down so it was so much bigger than the loose leaf paper and for me that was a slight problem.

I can't cut a straight line for the life of me but I tried. 

Always have your kitty supervise you while you are doing DIY projects. 

After I cut the front cover to the size I wanted I glued it on to card stock to make it a little thicker. 

Place under a heavy book to make sure it doesn't curl up. 

It will anyways but this is what they told me to do...

Now the next part SUCKED! Trying to get it all together...Was a bit of a challenge. I suggest you get about eight more hands and maybe it will work. 

The way the girl did it in the video..flawless!

I just don't understand. I was a fumbling mess. That's why I can't make videos. You all would commit me if you saw what I did to make these projects work. 

So anyways the tutorial said to use construction paper. Well when I did that it didn't really work as well as I wanted it to, this lead me to try Washi tape, Which ended up having the same problem...

It separates too much....

  The paper stuck together great! But its the binding that I am having a problem with. 

I don't know... the notebook isn't the most sturdy so its not a throw in your bag in a rush kind of notebook. But to sit on your desk and look pretty..Sure!

The boyfriend said "Looks like something you would buy in the stores" 

Yay! I like that compliment. 

Like I said before if you want to use the first part and just make an awesome book cover, I encourage that. I don't know How I feel about the second part though. I feel like the book is going to fall apart every time I open it. 

So there you have it. Two cheap easy projects. 

Which of course makes them...

But like I said...Mostly for the cover not so much the book part. 

I hope you enjoyed tonight's projects! If you want to see more subscribe by putting your email in the email box!

If you want to see what I am up to before and after Thursdays go like my facebook page

facebook.com/DIYORDONT

I am also on twitter now!

twitter.com/DIYorDont

Hey I am trying to figure out this social network thing! 

Got any projects for me? Let me know! 

I do these to show you if they are possible or just crazy!