Earth Day!

I hope most of you know that it's Earth Day this Friday, right? RIGHT?!
Ok, ok, so you're asking me, "What would I do?" Well, for starters, you could find a couple of tree seeds and plant them in little fields... But what is Earth Day?

Earth Day is a day specifically made to appreciate our Mother Earth's natural environment. It was started way back in the 1970's in the united states, just focusing on the country's natural environment. It then started spreading all over to different countries, and now, according to Wiki, there is over 175 countries who celebrate it. But the problem is that it's not treated the same way that Independence Day is, or even Mother or Father's day! It's our MOTHER Earth. We have to show how much we appreciate it being there for us and make up for all the Ozone layers we destroyed. And the forests... And some species... And... Well, you get the point. Mother Earth has to put up with a lot of stuff, and the rumor of her death in 2012 just makes her nervous. Let's show her how much we care!

1.Help some of her little green babies spread by planting trees and plants any where you can. Even if you don't have more than a plastic cup to plant it in, it doesn't hurt to start little.
2.Wear Earth's natural colors on this friday, Green and Blue, and some Tans. It'll show her that we notice she's there! :D
3.Turn off all lights until you REALLY, REALLY need them.
4.Use less water when showering, washing hands, and brushing, and never leave a sink running when it is not being used.
5.Try walking or riding bike instead of driving, that stupid gas fuel makes Earth cough.
6. Use recycled stuff. It may seem like a small change to you, but the more people that do it, the more impact it will make.
7. Don't toss things into the garbage can more than 5-10 times on Earth day... It will be hard, and heck, what about all the garbage, where is it going to go? Of course food can be thrown away, but try recycling more, and keep things like paper bags that can be used for other things. As well as plastic bottles!
8. DON'T EVER LITTER. EVER. NO. DON'T. IT'S STUPID. AND LAZY. Just don't do it.
9. Go for a walk in a preserved forest park thingy. Just don't leave anything human-like there.
10. Stay outside and enjoy it, no matter how cold it will be this week!

Brownies Recipe

So I watch Charlieissocoollike on YouTube all the time, and I just saw Charlie's new video: Cooking With Charlie. During that video, Charlie makes his Great Great Great Grandmother, Gertrude McDonnell's Super Secret recipe for brownies! Click the thing below to watch charlie make the brownies! It may help you follow along!

So I decided to try to follow all his instructions and make some brownies! 

 Well, here is the recipe: (some things may be different than Charlie's)

Ingredients: 
-8 oz  of Ghirardelli's Milk Chocolate Chips
-6 oz of Ghirardelli's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
-3/4 cup of unsalted butter
-1 1/2 cups of sugar
-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
-4 large eggs
-1 cup of flour
-1 teaspoon of salt
-some powdered sugar  


Directions: 
Step One: Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn the stove on medium-high heat, with a pot. Fill the pot with an inch or two of water and rest a medium sized bowl on top of the pot. When the water starts to boil, reduce heat and put the milk chocolate and butter in the bowl. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
Part Two: Turn off stove and remove the bowl of chocolate and let it cool for 3-5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract, the sugar, the eggs, the salt and the flour.  Once completely stirred, put in the semi-sweet chocolate chips, or if you wanted to, you could try peanuts, rice crispy cereal,or almonds!
Part Three: Line a baking tray with butter or flour, then pour in the chocolaty mixture. Then, you should smooth it until it is all level. Put it in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until it has risen and looks dry. Take out the brownies and evenly sprinkle powdered sugar on the brownies. I also put some sprinkles on top. Cut into 16 pieces and enjoy!

Plushies!

Plushies! I really have been wanting to make plushies for years now, and last Christmas I got a little sewing machine. I've only used it once though, and that was a test drive, drawing scribbles into an old rag. The same weekend I did that, I went out to Joanne Fabrics and got a whole bunch of animal colors so I could attempt making a complex cat. It was too complex for me and I got aggravated and never came back to it...

Now, in spring 2011, I decided to try easier stuff. During spring break, I went out to Joanne Fabrics again and got all the colors of the rainbow I didn't have yet. Then I started with a little pentagon that my friend asked me to make. She wanted it because it was her favorite 2-D shape. It's a little sloppy, but that's the first thing I sewed completely on my own... :D

And when you push in the edges, it turns into a star! =D I'm so proud of my first plushy, It's definitely something really cool that I would attempt to do over and over again! I have not given it to my friend yet...  I kept on forgetting! But I'll get it to her this week!

I also wanted to learn how to make spheres! So I used the pattern from this one person from Deviant Art who got it from another website. I Looked up a really random color scheme and I got forest green and yellow, so I used dark green... and yellow!

I didn't like how the one person rounded the pieces out, so I made the edges sharp again. But I think he/she turned out to be correct. It ended up being alot like a lopsided football... :(

It didn't turn out too bad, but it definitely made the perfect cat toy! =D Just kidding. I actually tried making my kitty play with it, but he didn't want to do anything. He hit it once or twice with his paws, but he was just so uninterested. Oh well...

So it's just going to sit in my room along with all my other fuzzy plush toys and Beanie Babies....

Then, I wanted to make an Easier Softie Ball, by Shishi Girl. I suggest you take a look at her blog. There is a lot of cool things to make there. So I followed all of her instructions and made a 6-piece sphere! Which, by the way looked a lot better that the three-piece sphere.

And this is my beach ball! It's very round, and very neat! The one side you can't see has a yellow piece and two white ones! It should like exactly like a beach ball! It's so soft and fun to play with! Thank you ShiShi Girl! This was really fun to make and super easy!


This is my favorite plushy that I've made so far. Because it is so neat and so perfect, it's so much fun to toss around! I'm definitely making more of these in my free time! Probably in the summer since I have so many projects and tests in school.

 I also planned to make a turtle for my friend . It's already started but not enough of it is started to show anything. Hopefully I can finish it soon and give it to her!

Procrastinating

Procrastinating. The one thing that seems to be ruining my personal life. I have no time to do anything without worrying about something else that needs to be done. So I looked around the internet and found some interesting tips. I checked about 6 different places and they are all basically saying the same things... To summarize it all up for myself and for anyone else who wants to know I have a list of the five most important things about avoiding procrastination. Here we go!!!

1. Make a list.  If you make a list, you are organizing your things to do in a simple way. Don't spend a lot of time on it, but if it helps, be specific and write down notes and details. You should also spend the extra minute or so to guess on how much time it will take. Don't under-estimate. It's better to over-estimate but not so much that it convinces you that you will never get it done. Then label each thing with it's importance.

2. Organize when.  What do you start with? In the articles that I read, some said that starting with the most important thing first gets it done the fastest, and gets it done right. But also, some articles said that if you start with something small, you get started easier. For the big overwhelming things, break it down in little parts. If you have a month to read a 450 page book, read 15 pages a day. If you only have one night to write a small paper, do half of it at 4:00 and finish it at 7:00. Find what works for you.

3. Get to it. The hardest part might be actually starting. As my mother keeps on saying, "You are already half done once you've started". Don't wait to "get in the mood" or "get motivated". Motivation is good, but not if you are spending an hour waiting for it.

4. Continue and don't stop. Go and keep going! Don't stop for silly reasons like talking to someone, checking your email, or just getting board and goofing around. Ignore all distractions and only stop for things needed, like eating or going to a class. Just continuing can actually boost up your mood! Stay on the positive side and convince yourself that it's possible.

5. Reward yourself! Every time you finish something, cross it off and look at your progress. Then give your self a little reward. Like a bowl of ice cream! Yum! The bigger the accomplishment the bigger the reward. But if you still have more things to do, don't spend more than 15-20 minutes on your breaks. Because when you're all done, you can have a big reward like a dinner out, or time to goof around with stuff you REALLY like to enjoy!


Maple