Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti tossed with a simple, creamy, vegan avocado sauce. This healthy recipe is ready in 30 minutes!
My youngest son, Sam, is crazy about robots. I mean, crrrrrraaaaaazzzzzzy. And since he needed a quilt for his bed, I searched all over the web for a robot quilt or bedspread to buy or a pattern of a quilt I wanted to make. But didn't find either that quite matched what I was picturing. So, then I decided to design my own. And...I gave the unfinished quilt to my son a year and a half ago. For his birthday. And then....I had a hard time finishing it. I meant to get back to it quickly after his big day. But I didn't think about the next three birthdays in the family within the next month. And then the summer got busy. And then...and then....a year and a half passed. Yes. I'm aware. I'm a stinky mom. Every now and then he'd say things like, "You need to finish my quilt, mom." But mostly he was very sweet and not pushy at all. So, then, of course, I felt worse. I made a decision last month. I couldn't craft or make anything else for Christmas presents unless I finished that quilt. And I did it! Granted, I didn't make any other presents, but I got this quilt done*. So, how do you give a gift again that you've already given? Well, my Sam is always searching for underwear. I don't know what happens to his. I mean, where does it go? So, I bought him a bunch, put the quilt in the bottom of a big box, covered it with layers of tissue paper and then laid out the selection of underwear, some covered with robots. "You always need underwear," I told him when he opened it. But then he found the tissue paper underneath and tore it away. One robot peeked out. "YOU FINISHED IT?!" And then he became a blur of joy. It was so nice to finally give this to him. It's been on his bed ever since, unless he's pulled it off to snuggle with it on the couch. Applique Robot Quilt Tutorial Step #1: I decided I wanted to do really big quilt blocks. And then I took big sheets of paper, drew the size of blocks I was making and drew big robots. I looked at loads of robots on-line and then some I just made up. I had fun with this part... In case you're wondering, wrinkling the paper is not part of the process. This one was kicking around in my sewing room for...um...the past long while. Step #2: Time to start appliquing those robots. I traced the fabric-bots onto fusible webbing and got busy fusing the different pieces to fabric. You can see a cute video my friend did about doing appliques on her blog, The Life of a Cheap Chickadee. Step #3: {Optional} Wait months and months before you get the blocks out again. Step#4: Machine applique your robots. Step #5: Sew blocks together, add borders, layer with middle and backing (I used a green minky) and quilt. Ta-duh! Your robots are ready to conquer a bed near you! These two are my favorites. *Disclaimer: And I when I say it's done...I mean, um...it's mostly done. For example, as I was laying it out I noticed a few of the robots have antennas missing the wires connecting them to the top of their heads. So....I'll be hand sewing some wires real soon. Hopefully they won't take me a year and a half. Linked up to...(Alright, I figured out how to make these smaller...but now I can't figure out how to get them all together! Anyone know?)
The flatbread recipe is full of Mediterranean flavor thanks to tomato pesto, prosciutto, provolone cheese, and peppery arugula.
Build an Iron Man Helmet for Cheap!: I recently received a commission from a college friend of mine to make her a wearable Iron Man helmet without breaking the bank and was given complete control of the design and outcome. For this project, I chose to replicate the MK3 Iron Man from th…
Allow your child to explore and have fun playing with nuts, bolts and washers. Great activity for developing fine motor skills and coordination during play.
Varivo je uvijek dobra ideja, posebice ako je zasitno, a uz ovu kombinaciju namirnica zasigurno nećete ostati gladni
Tips and tricks on how to use sunflower seeds to make delicious vegan recipes like plant milk, creamy sauces, gravy and cold sauce. A perfect substitute when you have a nut allergy!
Build an Iron Man Helmet for Cheap!: I recently received a commission from a college friend of mine to make her a wearable Iron Man helmet without breaking the bank and was given complete control of the design and outcome. For this project, I chose to replicate the MK3 Iron Man from th…
I found the best robot vacuum for pet hair and it’s even a cheap robot vacuum! I have 3 dogs and a cat and this is the best robot vacuum cleaner I’ve had yet. Plus, I’m going to let you in on my secret to getting a roomba for cheap if you’re in the market for a cheap robot vacuum. If you’re anything like me, you NEED this in your life! Goodbye wasted hours of cleaning the floor! #roomba #robotic #vacuums #alternative #cheap #savemoney
De délicieux beignets de courgettes croustillants à l'extérieur, moelleux à l'intérieur et pleins de saveurs d'été.. Une recette autour de courgettes, oeufs, farine, persil
Since this year’s VBS theme, Maker Fun Factory, focuses heavily on robots, we’re all going to be professional robot builders by the end of the summer! I’ve looked at more robot building ideas than I care to admit, so I thought I’d share some of my favorites. Thankfully, robots are cheap and fairly easy to...
Printable robot coloring page - Over the past week or so I've been on holidays and I've had the good fortune to spend that time relaxing at the beach. For so long I've been waiting for some spare time to spend sketching and doodling. I started with nature sketches of all the treasures I found
Easy is an understatement.
This delicious tomato sauce is great on pizza and pasta. It comes together in just minutes on the stovetop.
This easy recipe is my version of Argentinian chimichurri, a tangy sauce made with fresh herbs, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar. Drizzle it over roasted veggies, use it as a salad dressing, or toss it with any cooked grain for a vibrant pop of flavor.
La danza entendida desde una perspectiva psicolÑgica : Amado Alonso, Diana: Amazon.es: Libros
This tutorial shows you how make a wallet out of fused plastic bags and resealable sandwich bags. Super practical, and so easy and cheap to make!
Servos are cool but you can only move them from 0 to 180 degrees, what if you want to have precise continuous rotation? Stepper motor is the answer. A stepper motor is a very precise motor that you can instruct to rotate one step at a time. They are used in CNC machines, 3D printers and in robotics. ... Read more
Three years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse killed 1,130 people, little has changed for the low-wage workers who make our clothes. As fast fashion retailers enjoy increased profits while paying lip service to sustainability, we explore whether the modern system can ever be fair.
Mes yaourts maison, une recette de la catégorie Desserts & Confiseries. Plus de recette Thermomix® www.espace-recettes.fr
Cheap PCB Production: In this article, I will refer to how to produce a PCB that we designed in the Proteus PCB design program from the pcbway.com site in China. The reason why we prefer Tile in this regard is the cost of this business. It often costs $10~ $30 to make 2-…
Enjoy the summer bounty with Thermomix Zucchini Fritters Recipe ! Versatile and flavorful, these fritters make a delightful addition to any meal. Try them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
J’aime beaucoup cette petite recette de mini quiches apéritives aux poireaux. Elle est simple et rapide à faire, équilibrée et économique. Elle permet d’ouvrir l’appétit de vos invités sans peser sur leurs estomacs. Bien sûr, le poireau ça ne plaît pas à tout le monde ! N’oubliez pas d’en prendre compte en préparant vos amuses-bouches lors de votre prochain apéro dînatoire… Vous pouvez prévoir quelques mini quiches apéritives à la tomate, par exemple, car elle se marie très bien avec le goût du chèvre, elle aussi.
Ready to see part of what John and I've been working on the past few weeks? Not the whole thing, of course, but at least a little of it? SWEET. First pretend you didn't read that post title for a sec. You know, so you'll be surprised. Ahem hem hem. BB-8!! As you can see, this BB's been through a scrap or two. Never fear though, he's a tough little droid and will have a lively conversation with you if prompted. There's much more to our Project, but I thought BB-8 would be a fun partial reveal for now. Especially since he can be made separately! I'll warn you, our BB-8 doesn't roll; he's a static model. He's also not 3D printed - a rarity in the BB-8 building community - nor is his body made from a large acrylic lampshade globe, since those cost around $130 each. o.0 In fact, our droid is made entirely from common materials, and only cost around $50 to make, since we already had some things on hand. That's right, fifty bucks! Here, let me walk you through it. First you'll need one large exercise ball, inflated to about 20 inches, and one smaller ball at around 10 inches. (You can find both sizes at Walmart.) Stick them in large bowls so they won't roll away: Make sure the air hole for each ball is on the BOTTOM, so it's still accessible later. Carefully cover both balls (the urge to make jokes here is strong, y'all) with a single layer of cling wrap: Make the wrap as smooth as possible, without too many bunches. The wrap will allow you to remove the balls later. Next apply 4 - 5 coats of paper maché on both balls. For the head you only need to cover a little more than halfway down. It's up to you how much of the body to cover, though, since you can always leave a hole to be covered by the head later. Err on the side of covering more, though; you can always trim it later. That's no moon. Once all your paper maché is applied and dry (this took 2-3 days), it's time to move outside for a much smellier application: BONDO. Bondo is great for this because it's spreadable, fast-curing, and surprisingly flexible, so you don't have to worry about chipping later. It's also readily available at Walmart for about $15/gallon. SCORE. (One gallon is plenty.) Apply a healthy coat of Bondo, spreading it as evenly as possible with a plastic smoothing spatula. It won't be super smooth (see above), but no worries; next, we sand! A palm sander is great for this, but elbow grease works, too. Repeat with more Bondo as needed if there are any patches of paper mache showing through, or until you reach your desired thickness. (John did two coats.) Once that's cured and sanded you can deflate & remove both balls. Trim the edges of both the head and body so they're even & perfect circles. BB-8 has a metal band on his head, which John fashioned from flexible aluminum stacked on a wooden ring: You can find the aluminum at any hardware store, and the wood can be substituted with EVA foam if you don't have power tools to cut it. It's not a perfect fit, but close enough: Later John added a thick ring of EVA foam under the wooden ring to make BB's "neck" - that angled section under his head. Note: You can stack 6mm craft foam to make thicker pieces; no need to buy a whole roll of EVA. Once both the head and body are as smooth as they're going to get, it's time to break out the compass and start drawing in the many, MANY details: Print out as many reference photos as you can, and use a compass for all the circles and curves - it's a life saver. BB-8 is one of those things that seems simple until you stop to really look at it, at which point you sit down and cry a little, because HOLY COMPLICATED, BATMAN. I joined the BB-8 Builder's Club online for a little guidance, and happily they have a file of BB's body design you can download. We printed off all six sections and used them for templates: Now comes the really tedious part - or at least the NEXT tedious part in a long line of tedium, ha. Get out your Dremel with the small pumpkin-carving bit, and go over every. single. line. I'll warn you now: your lines are going to look terrible. They'll be wobbly and jagged and though practice helps a little, the fact is they're never going to be perfect. But it's OK, I promise. It's not just you; everyone's lines look bad. The good news is it won't matter in the end, so just keep going. Take breaks to shake out your hand, though, because you WILL have a frozen crampy claw after a while. I spread this step out over two nights. Once all your lines are Dremeled, it's time to prime. You can use buildable/sandable primer and sand some more if you'd like to get that texture a little smoother: Or just use any white primer to lay down a nice base for the rest of the paint. This will be the final coat for the white color, so make it a nice one - nothing too gray. Here you can see BB-8's neck ring, which I covered with random foam squares to simulate all the doo-dads under his head: Pay no attention to BB-8's body cut in half over there. I said pay no attention!! And now... WE PAINT. I used a metallic silver craft paint for the gray sections, and more cheap craft paint for the orange - though we custom-mixed our own shade. I watered down both colors slightly and applied them with the softest brush I could find to minimize brush strokes. I'll warn you now, your BB-8 is NOT going to look good at this point. The wonky lines will be all in your face, taunting and yelling about how you're a no-talented, 2-bit hack. Ignore them. This is gonna work out, I promise. Look at me, waving these virtual pom-poms. You got this. For BB-8's eye you'll need one of those plastic Christmas balls that come in 2 pieces from the craft store, plus some thin black craft foam. Some builders dye the eye cover black, others don't - it's up to you. We chose to dye ours using Polyster fabric dye. It didn't work very well (ours came out splotchy), but it DID work. I'm sorry I don't have a template to share for his eye surround, because John just "winged it." He's talented like that. Yes, it's annoying. If you want the eye to light up (which it should), poke a single red LED through the back side of the foam, then tape on a button cell battery. BAM. BB-8 is alive! There's another piece on BB-8's face that's much harder to build - I think it's his holo-projector? After some experimenting John went with a small routed piece of wood topped with a blue glass gem and more craft foam: John made tiny slashes in the foam to make that beaded texture around the marble. So smart. Note: Instead of wood you could form that rounded base from paper clay, or even more craft foam, which rounds nicely when heated. I did the paint job to simulate the raised panels, and I'm not all that pleased with it. Still, when it's lit up and back a ways it gets the job done. Here are both on the head: For the antennas John headed over to SkyCraft, our favorite local electronics junk shop, and found two options he then covered in heat shrink tubing: You can always use painted wooden dowels though, and sand the tips to they're rounded. Drill holes in BB's head, poke 'em through, and glue down from the inside. In that photo you can see I've started outlining the panels with a thin brownish-gray paint. This is where the magic starts to happen, peeps. Get that paint inside all your Dremeled lines, then spray the whole droid with a layer of satin lacquer to lock it in. (Without sealing you could re-wet the paint in the next step. That would be bad.) Make sure it's a satin spray, so BB-8 will have a nice metallic sheen. Now the fun part: AGING. Get a larger stipple brush and a rag, and concentrate your aging on the seam lines. This helps camouflage the wonky lines, and also looks more believable, since dirt would accumulate there anyway. I find the best dirt color is a mix of gray and rusty brown, but have some areas of both colors for variation. EXTREME ZOOM. You can make BB-8 as clean or as dirty as you like, but given this is NOT a 3D printed version, I recommend some hefty aging to disguise any texture issues. Do leave some white areas, though, so you have nice contrast. If he's evenly coated all over he'll actually look LESS dirty, and won't "pop" on camera. Now I'm going to tell you a sad tale with an OK ending. Ready? At this point disaster struck. John was moving something late one night while in a hurry, and BB-8's completed head (as seen above) fell six feet onto the hardwood floor, breaking badly. (HE WAS THE ONE WHO KNOCKED... his head.) BB's projector nozzle thingy hit hardest, resulting in several large raised cracks across the front of his face. It was somber time in the Yates' household, y'all. WEEKS of work, shattered in half a second. But after a moment of stunned silence we got out the superglue, fixed what we could, and set about turning lemons into lemonade. Now our BB-8 has some pretty badass scars, if I do say so myself. Instead of trying to hide what couldn't be hidden, I sealed and then emphasized some of the damage - even adding a few more cracks, in fact, so it would look intentional. The rest I hid as best I could under more layers of grime. I'm most proud of the brownish "dirt" smear in the extreme upper right here: That's actually another crack - can you tell? And hey, since we wanted a battle-worn BB-8 anyway, I think it all worked out. At least now we'll always know which one is ours! :D It's intentionally subtle, but we do have 3 lit elements in BB-8's head: His projector has a dim blue LED, and the little circle under his eye is lit with a frosted piece of acrylic. (Pro tip: sanding clear plastic "frosts" it.) If electronics scare you, though, just go with the single red eye; it's by far the most important. Our BB-8 also "talks" and can swivel to look at you, but those elements will have to wait for next time. Again, our Project is still a work-in-progress, but we're hoping to debut it at Star Wars Celebration, so you don't have much longer to wait! (And we don't have much longer to finish! Eek!) And since I was curious myself, here's an approximate cost breakdown. Again, we had some of this already, but assuming you need to buy EVERYTHING here's an estimate: Exercise balls: $15 Paper maché materials (newspaper, flour): $5 Misc: (Aluminum trim, scrap wood, craft foam, antennas) $15 Bondo, 1 gallon: $15 Craft paint: $5 Christmas Ball: $1 Spray lacquer: $7 Spray primer: $5 LEDs, wire, button cell batteries: $10 Total Cost: $78 Hope you guys enjoyed the virtual walk-through! I know this wasn't a complete tutorial, so feel free to ask questions in the comments. And as always, if you make your own PLEASE share over on Facebook; I wanna see! *** Want to see ALL of my tutorials and project build in one place? Then head over to the Craft Page!
30 of the best DIY picture frame tutorials! Learn how to make your own handmade photo frames with these easy to follow instructions.
Easy Robotics With Cardboard and BBC Micro:Bit: Who are cardboard robots for? CARDBOARD ROBOTS is a set of free robot plans and building techniques easy to replicate worldwide with recycled materials and basic electronic components. Designed to be made at school with students aged from 10 year…
