Cake Pops

A coworker bought me a cake pop from Starbucks the other day, and it was deliciously good.

I made cake balls about a year ago, but they were nowhere near this pretty.

Here's a great tutorial on making your own cake pops.

Alisa Burke

I think these plates would be perfect for cake pops!

West Elm

Any volunteers on making and sending me some? ;)

Tutorial: Refurbished Mouse Pad

I was in need of a new mouse pad, but I didn't want to buy one.  I made/sewed a mouse pad last year, but since it didn't have a traditional rubber backing, it would slide all over my desk (annoying to coworkers using my computer!).

I decided to take a mouse pad I already had and give it a makeover!

This mouse pad is from a college a town over.  I didn't go to school there, so I had no real issues with covering it.  Maybe you have a mouse pad that a company was handing out or you have one that's seen better days and needs a facelift.

I took some scrap material.

And traced around the mouse pad to know where to cut the fabric

I made sure to leave plenty of fabric around the edges, in case I didn't lay the fabric just right, there wouldn't be any of the original mouse pad top showing.

Cover the mouse pad with glue. (I used Mod Podge, and used matte because this part won't show.)

Make sure it's covered really good with glue.

Lay the fabric on top and press it down, making sure to leave no bubbles.

Trim the excess fabric.

The next part is super important, because it's what will show AND you need a good surface for your mouse.

Glue the top of the fabric.  I used Mod Podge gloss.  I did one coat with the strokes all going one way.  Then I did a second coat (after the first dried) with strokes going the opposite direction.  Then I did a third coat.  The more coats you do, the smoother the top with be.  Be sure to cover the entire pad. If you're sloppy about this step, your mouse may have trouble moving around.

You could skip this step and just leave the fabric plain, but I wanted a bit of a gloss top for my mouse to glide smoothly.

I glued the sides of the pad too, so the fabric wouldn't fray or try to peel away.

After drying completely, I had a new mouse pad!

The mouse pad works great and looks much more stylish!

(Mr. Lion is my cell phone holder!)

This project is easy, quick (minus drying time), and cheap cheap!  There's nothing better than using what you have around the house!

World Water Day: Calculate Your Footprint

I'm baaaaaack!  I'll update with pictures from my trip within a week or so.  I'm still sorting through them!  Until then...

Today is World Water Day.  Click here to calculate your water footprint and to learn how to conserve water.  It was definitely interesting to see how much water I used!

Into the Jungle (literally!)

I'll be taking a short break from blogging.  I'm headed to Guatemala and Honduras, and will not have the access (nor the time) to blog.  I'll be working with the Garifuna people on the Honduran coast and the Kekchi people in the Guatemalan jungles.  I had the privilege of going on this same trip two years ago, and I can't wait to go back.  I'll come back with lots of photos and videos to share in a couple weeks.  Talk to you soon!

Wordle Yourself!

Today I wordled myself.  You should too!  Wordle generates text clouds from text you enter or from text pulled from you blog.  You can have it generate all kinds of random patterns.

You could do some really cool word art with this site!

It's so much fun!  And it's FREE!  So, get to it!