Kids find painting fun and relaxing. Why not try making a different kind of painting. Did you know you can create a masterpiece with some paint and a toothbrush? You can. It’s easy and entertaining, but very messy. You are going to have to do this craft in a area that can get splattered. The best place to do this outdoors.
Find a location that can be easily cleaned. The outdoors for this project is ideal. If not, make sure you completely cover all areas with newspaper.
Make sure you are wearing old clothes that you don’t care about. Or if you are doing this activity outside you can wear a bathing suit and a plastic smock.
Design some shapes you can use for your painting. Draw those shapes on one of your pieces of paper. You can have two or three big shapes or five to seven small shapes. Your shapes can have a theme such as fish in the sea, or animals in the desert. Once you are done drawing your shapes cut them out.
Place your shapes on to another sheet of paper.
Dip your toothbrush in to your paint. Whatever color you like is fine. Now splatter the paint across your paper by running your fingers across the bristles of your toothbrush. Don’t worry if any paint gets on your shapes at this point. Do this as many times as you like with as many colors as you like. You can do one color across the top and another across the bottom or do them both all over the page. You are the artist so you choose.
Now remove your shapes to see that your painting is now complete. The spots where your shapes were are now white and they stand out. Isn’t that neat?
Leave your paper out to dry and then hang up or place on your refrigerator.
Choose some fabric with a large-scale pattern. Go to your local art supply store and buy 4 lengths of wood frame made for stretching canvas. The wood strips have corners designed to interlock. (Or you can cover an existing blank stretched canvas, but it will get pricey if you go very big.)
In local art stores the wood strips were standing in bins, available in lengths all the way from super short to too long to manage. Buy two each of 50″ and 34.” Each piece is just a couple bucks. Push the corners together, pounding them with a hammer if needed. Cut your fabric to a size somewhat larger than your frame; you’ll need enough to wrap around to the back. Iron the fabric; wrinkles will show!
Position your fabric the way you like it and use a staple gun to tack it down. I stapled along a long edge, then did the opposite side, pulling it very tight. Next do the short sides, one at a time. Trim off any extra fabric that hangs past the inner edges of the frame. To finish the corners, tuck in the extra fabric as if you’re wrapping a present and then staple it down. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as it looks tidy from the front. The art store gave me a wooden tool to help with this, but it’s not essential. Attach a picture hanger (or maybe two if your panel is large) and hang.
This will be your home-made fog machine. It uses the same regular fog juice used in store-bought fog machines. You can buy the juice from Terror by Design, Spencers, or party/theatrical supply stores (check your yellow pages). You can also make your own juice. It’s less expensive, but there may be legal issues if the general public is going to breathe your fog. According to the Halloween-L archives: “For fog juice, mix 15% to 35% glycerin to distilled water.
Experiment, the less glycerin you use the cheaper and cleaner your fog will be but it will also be lighter and not last as long.” You don’t have to use distilled water with my fog machine design because there’s no heat exchanger to get clogged. You can get small amounts of glycerin at a drug store, or larger amounts from restaurant supply companies.
A piston air pump (bought at the local surplus store for $5) squirts the juice onto an inverted, disassembled iron (bought at a garage sale for $1). The iron is on all the time. It’s held above the juice by long bolts from the bottom of the box. The wooden box is sealed and waterproofed inside with a kind of paint called C.R.A.E. (Corrosion-Resistant Acrylic Enamel.)
Any thick, waterproof paint will work. If you build something like this, be certain to keep enough space between the wood and the iron, you don’t want to start a fire! Any device like this should be thoroughly tested before being used unattended. Heat it up without juice in it to be sure it won’t burst into flames when it runs out of juice.
The juice is pumped into a metal tube 4 inches above the iron with several pin-holes in it to distribute the juice over the hot surface. The heat vaporizes the juice into fog. Fans (salvaged from an old computer) on both ends of the box blow the fog out the front of the machine. Unvaporized juice runs back down into the reservoir. The intake for the pump is a metal tube glued to the side of the box with water-proof epoxy. It’s bent 90 degrees at the bottom and the end is covered with a screen to keep little bits of junk out of the pump.
You can learn how to make custom headbands inexpensively. You can buy plain headbands and elastics at many local dollar stores very inexpensively. Most of the time you can get several headbands for a dollar. These headbands can sometimes be plain or boring, but you can make them custom easily and inexpensively with these instructions.
Floral
To make a custom floral headband you will need a hot glue gun, hot glue sticks, and fake flowers. If you do not have fake flowers you can use felt and scissors. You will also need a headband that matches the flowers you have chosen.
To create this custom headband simply pull the fake flower bud off of the stem. Press some hot glue into the hole in the bottom of the flower bud. This will secure the petals together. Then add glue to the bottom of the flower bud and the headband. You may have to cut the bottom of the flower bud to make it flat enough to stick to the headband.
Buttons
You can add buttons to a headband very easily to create a custom headband. For this craft you will need buttons, a hot glue gun, hot glue, and sandpaper. Start by lightly sanding the side of the button that will be glued to the headband. You can sand the headband as well if you like. This will add extra security.
Brush or wipe the powder leftover from the sanding paper off of both items before gluing. Then apply the glue to the button and press it gently on the headband. Make any pattern you like with the buttons. When the glue is cool you can wear this custom headband.
Ribbon
You can make a headband custom using ribbon. Ribbon is a great way to match a headband to an outfit for special occasions. For this custom craft you will need ribbon, hot glue sticks, a hot glue gun, scissors, and a headband.
Continue wrapping the ribbon around the headband. Add glue intermittently while wrapping. When you reach the other side add glue to the end of the ribbon and wrap it around the headband making sure to tuck the edge underneath itself. These custom headbands are fun and inexpensive ways to personalize your accessories. These crafts are fun for kids and adults alike; so try them today!
Practice the Breath of Fire Kundalini Yoga Pranayama
What Is The Breath of Fire Kundalini Yoga Pranayama?
The first Yoga breathing exercise we will explore lies at the heart of Kundalini Yoga practice, it is the legendary Breath of Fire Yoga Pranayama.
Benefits of Breath of Fire Kundalini Yoga Pranayama:
Primary:
Quickly oxygenates your blood, thus helping the body detoxify itself and remove waste more effectively.
Builds lung capacity and helps purify the respiratory system.
Generates heat and increases your level of energy by activating the energy flows in your body.
Syncronizes your entire system under one rhythm, thus promoting greater internal harmony and health.
Secondary:
Balances and strengthens the Nervous System.
Magnifies the benefits of exercises done in conjunction with this breath.
When done forcefully, the pulsating of the diaphragm massages the internal organs, thus improving the digestive system.
Cautions for Practicing Breath of Fire Kundalini Yoga Pranayama:
If you feel dizzy when practicing Breath of Fire, you should stop and substitute normal breathing. If you suffer from vertigo, you should use caution in practicing this breathing exercise.
If you are menstruating you should not practice Breath of Fire, use Long Deep Breathing instead.
You should be careful practicing Breath of Fire if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or suffer from stroke or epilepsy. Also, if you have acid or heat related gastric issues such as ulcers you should use caution.
How To Do Basic Breath of Fire Kundalini Yoga Pranayama:
To practice this breathing exercise sit up in a comfortable position.
Elongate your spine upwards, lengthen your neck and subtly bring your chin back and in like a soldier at attention. This will align the spine with the back of your head.
Close your eyes.
Rest your hands in any comfortable position.
Relax your stomach muscles.
Now begin to breathe rapidly through the nose with equal emphasis on the inhalation and exhalation. It will be like very fast sniffing. Keep the breath shallow, just at the tip of the nose. Proceed at a comfortable pace and establish a steady rhythm. Pay no special attention to the chest or diaphragm other that staying relaxed. You will find the stomach pulses on its own in rhythm to the breath.
Water yoga is low impact and gentle on the muscles and joints, making it perfect for the elderly, pregnant women and people with injuries or chronic conditions. Additionally, the buoyancy of the water cushions falls and makes certain postures, like handstands, safer than on land. With a little creativity, almost any land asana will translate to water. However, there are some poses that lend themselves to water already.
Floating Forward Bend
In shallow water, hold on to the edge of the pool and place the soles of the feet against the side of the pool, with your knees bent. Slowly straighten your legs and rest your torso on your thighs. Hold the pose for 10 seconds. Repeat three times.
Wall Cobra
Stand in chest-deep water approximately one foot from the edge of the pool. Lean forward until your navel touches the wall of the pool. Arch your back and hold the pose for 10 seconds. Repeat three times.
Floating Boat Pose
Float on your back in the shallow end of the pool. Engage your abs, point your toes and hinge at the hips so that your toes and head are both out of the water. Extend your arms toward your toes and hold the pose for 10 seconds. Repeat three times.
Floating Half Bow Pose
Float on your back in the shallow end of the pool. Extend your right arm overhead and bend your left leg into the water. Grab your left ankle with your left hand, engage your abs and open your chest. If you begin to roll to the right, extend your right arm sideways to stabilize. Hold the pose for 10 seconds and alternate to the other leg. Repeat three times on each leg.
Making stickers is a fun project you can do with your family or friends. Decorate any surface, the windows in your bedroom or customize gifts with your own homemade creations. You can make almost any shape or picture that you want.
Cut two pieces of clear shelf lining paper, making both pieces the same size. Place one piece on a table and tape all four corners to it with the backing side down. Don’t peel off the backing.
Draw a picture on the shelf paper lightly with a pencil. You can find a picture that’s fairly easy to copy or come up with your own creation.
Fill in the picture by painting brightly colored acrylic paints onto the lining paper. Be careful not to smudge the paint as you go. Rinse your brush thoroughly in water when changing colors on your project.
Let your picture dry completely according to the instructions on the paint label.
Peel the backing of the second piece of lining paper very carefully. Stick this piece over your creation and smooth out all the air bubbles with your hands. Prick any air bubbles that you are unable to remove with a needle and smooth them out.
Remove the tape from the liner paper and cut out your picture with scissors or an Exacto knife.
Peel the backing off of the second piece of liner paper on your picture and stick it anywhere you wish.
With the necessity of “going green,” why not cut down on the use of tissues by making old-fashioned handkerchiefs? You can easily sew plain white ones in a large size, colorful ones in bright prints in a medium size for kids, or dainty small ones in old fashioned small prints for yourself.
Buy your fabric. For the large size hankerchief, you will need a 17-inch square of fabric. For a medium size hankerchief, you will need a 15-inch square of fabric. For a small size hankerchief, you will need a 13-inch square of fabric.
Wash the fabric, but do not use fabric softener. Dry and iron the fabric flat.
Carefully cut the fabric in desired size squares. If you have a rotary cutter and a quilter’s cutting board, the lines are all marked out for cutting; simply use a ruler to keep your cut straight.
With the right side of the fabric facing away from you, fold the very outer edges in 1/4 of an inch and press the fold.Repeat the folding (you’re doing this to make sure there isn’t an un-sewn edge to ravel), but after you have pressed the seam, stitch all four seams with a medium stitch. You can use a decorative stitch if your sewing machine has the option.
How do you actually manage time? The secret is in the categories. Look at your calendar for tomorrow. It’s probably already full of events and activities that you’re hoping to accomplish. As you work or afterward, you’ll be filling in the blank spaces.
Now look at the list and categorize it. How much time during your working day did you actually spend:
Putting out fires. An unexpected phone call. A report that’s necessary for a meeting that should have been printed yesterday. A missing file that should be on your desk. How much of your day was actually spent in crisis mode? For most people, this is a negative category that drains their energy and interferes with their productivity.
Dealing with interruptions. Phone calls and people dropping by your office will probably top the list when you’re assigning events to this category. Once again, for most people, this is a negative category because it interferes with (and sometimes kills) productivity.
Doing planned tasks. This is the most positive use of time during your work day. You are in control and accomplishing what you intended to accomplish. Planned tasks can include phone calls, meetings with staff, even answering email – if these are tasks that you have put on your agenda.
Working uninterrupted. You may not be working on a task you had planned to do, but you are getting to accomplish something, and for most people, this is a very productive, positive work mode.
Uninterrupted downtime. Those times during the work day that are used to re-energize and regroup. Lunch or a mid-morning break may count IF they’re uninterrupted. If you’re lucky enough to work with a company that offers on-site work-out facilities or nap rooms, that would count, too. Everyone needs a certain amount of uninterrupted downtime built into their day to be productive during their work time.
There are a variety of places where dry-cell batteries can be recycled, including municipal sites and for-profit entities such as retailers and sanitation companies.
Some cities have established permanent collection sites for hazardous household materials such as batteries (and indeed some cities have outlawed the disposal of batteries and other toxic materials in municipal dumps, though federal law permits it). Other cities hold special collection days one or more times a year.
Consumer electronic chains such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Office Depot also typically have recycling kiosks inside their stores or outside the front entrance. Recycling batteries at these locations is usually free and consumers do not need to have purchased batteries at a particular retailer to take advantage of its program. Button batteries are often found in watches and hearing aids. Retailers of these items often recycle the batteries for customers for free.
Consumers can receive information about recycling centers from their municipalities, or they can consult Web sites such as http://earth911.com/, which is endorsed by the EPA, to find municipal and other collection sites. Visitors to the site plug in their zip codes and the types of batteries they want to recycle. Another site that provides the same service is http://www.call2recycle.org/. The site is run by The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp., which is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainability. Companies have sprung up to fill the need for recycling batteries.
For example, Battery Solutions will accept batteries by mail or will arrange pickups for customers. The Big Green Box is another firm that recycles batteries from anywhere. The company mails customers a cardboard box for safe disposal of up to 40 pounds of alkaline, lithium, mercury, zinc and other types of batteries. Consumers then mail the box back to the company.This can be a solution for home offices and small businesses.
