Dying Old Jeans

I have two pair of jeans I love that had gotten very faded, so I decided to experiment with them. The pair on the right were even lighter than the pair on the left. I used one bottle of black Rit dye and dyed them this afternoon. It worked pretty well, but there are a few spots of slightly uneven color. I think next time I'll use a bigger bucket with a bit more water so the fabric can move around more freely. I have a front loading washer, so a bucket is really my only option. The only hard part was rinsing the dye after it was done soaking. It took about 20 minutes of rinsing and squeezing until the water was almost clear. I used rubber gloves for the first 15 minutes of the rinsing, but then they filled with water and I gave up on them. After rinsing I ran them through the washer with an extra rinse cycle to try to get all the dye out. On the other pair I'm going to try Rit Denim Blue. I'm really looking forward to wearing them now that they're not pale blue!

Multicolr Search Lab

Multicolr Search Lab lets you search Flikr by color. Useful? Maybe. Fun? You bet!

Glitter and then some...

This is my glitter collection. I call it a collection, see, because I keep buying glitter but never use it.

My goal for January is to actually glitter something. I've picked up some sweetgum balls from my yard and once they've dried out, they will become my first glitter-experiment.

Nothing says Christmas like some glittered sweetgums on your tree!!!

Clementine Votives

It's clementine season! I saw this cute votive at apartment therapy and had to try it. Just cut a clementine in half across the center and gently peel out the flesh without tearing the pith. You should end up with a long wick sticking up from the bottom. If you have no wick, feed that clementine to your kids and start again. Fill the bottom with about a teaspoon of olive oil and let it soak for a minute while you cut a cute shape in the top half with a paring knife. Alternatively, you could cheat and use a tiny cookie cutter for a less rustic look. Now, light the wick and place the top back onto your clementine. You gotta love a 5 minute craft!