Please Prewarn Obama, I'm Going to the USA

Hand me my cowboy boots and a map to the Jack Daniel's distillery, I'm going to the USA! Yes, for those of you who missed the announcement in my latest Monthly Musings post, I've gone and gotten myself a job as a summer camp counsellor in New England. I also have 30 days of bonus travel time once camp is over so I can run wild in America, binging on Cap'n Crunch cereal and slowly working my way ever-closer to the South, which, as we all know, is the capital of big hair, hoop-skirts and whisky and therefore, my mother-ship.

In six worryingly short weeks I'll be heading out to camp with an ample supply of enthusiasm and excitement (and a suitcase stuffed with Disney princess t-shirts) to undertake my new role as...director of arts and crafts. Yes, it's my job to come up with all the arts and crafts projects, write up the itinerary, buy the supplies and to ensure that fabulous keepsakes are made, fun is had, and no one burns off their fingerprints using the glue-gun. No pressure.

I have to admit, when I was first contacted by the camp I was a little concerned. You see, it's an all boys sports camp. In fact there isn't a single female in any of their photos or videos...at all...anywhere. Naturally I was initially a little hesitant as a) I'm a girl and b) I am the least athletic person in the greater South Wales area. My friend, Beth, tried to be helpful by pointing out that with such a skewed male to female ratio at least there would be a good chance of me finding romance. I quickly pointed out that, while there will be an ample supply of testosterone, the vast majority of guys there will be aged 8-15. Not exactly marriage material.

But anxiety has melted away into excitement. After all, surely no one is going to expect me to be any good at catching a ball while I'm in the arts and crafts room...right?

When camp is over and I've had my fair share of s'mores and poster paint, I have a month of travelling ahead of me. I'm hoping to make some friends at camp to travel with (hopefully they'll have a better sense of direction than I do), but I do worry that no one will want to visit the bizarre places I plan on going to. I'm sure most people will want to go to New York and Washington D.C, but I'm looking more towards the witch museum in Salem and Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

All I really know for sure is I'm jetting off to America next month and I still don't have a thing to wear!

To hear more about my upcoming American adventure you can watch my video on it!

DIY: Easy Peasy Valentine's Day Gift Tags

Just because I'm going to be spending Valentine's Day alone, pouring a combination of Jack Daniel's and Thornton's chocolates down my throat, does not mean that I can't get in on the festivities. Any excuse for a celebration (and/or copious amounts of chocolate).

So for the romantic, crafty, or extremely bored among you, I thought I'd share a really simple tutorial for these super cute handmade Valentine's Day gift tags. Even if your crafting skills are slim to none, these tags are really easy to do (and totally addictive to make).

Things get Artsy: Crafty Creatives Review

I'll admit that I'm not exactly an artistic genius. I'm not much of a drawer, I can't make sense of water colours and, at 23 years of age, I'm still banned from using charcoal in the house because of the amount of damage I've been known to cause with it in the past. But I love arts and crafts. I'll give anything a go. I've knitted a blanket, made birthday cards and scrapbooks, sewn my own Halloween costumes, and let's not even bring up my obsession with the glue gun.

So I was thrilled when Crafty Creatives offered to send me one of their boxes to review. They are a monthly subscription box service and each month they send out different types of creative goodies.

Actually getting my hands on the box was a bit of a drama. I was out when it got delivered so it got returned to the Royal Mail Office, which wouldn't have been a big deal if I could have actually found the Royal Mail Office. Bear in mind I've lived in this town since birth. I've been to collect parcels countless times before. It should not have been as traumatic as I made it. But I an incompetent human being and, as a result, I ended up driving around in circles for twenty minutes, reversing into a wall, getting harassed by a fellow driver with no patience, and getting stuck in a pointless narrow lane. When I eventually found my way to the office the mean driver behind me bullied me and took my parking space and I ended up having to park on the double yellow lines, which I hate doing.

Then, package in hand, I drove home and arrived back in my street at 3:25pm. I live opposite a school. 3:25pm is not a good time to arrive home. Exhausted, frustrated and in desperate need of a packet of crisps, I wedged myself across our drive, aware that the back end of my car was over my neighbour's drive (and boy does he go into a rage about that kind of thing) so I couldn't leave the car. Then there was a very confusing stand-off between me and a woman who, for some reason, refused to move from outside my house for a whole 25 minutes. All in all it was very stressful.

But, thankfully, my cute little box was totally worth it! I imagined the it would be full of poms poms, pipe-cleaners and the like, but it actually contained an Inkodye set from Lumi. At first I was confused. Then I became slightly more confused. Then I read the instructions and suddenly I was very intrigued.

Let me explain this the best way I can. It's a kind of sunlight activated dye for cotton and other natural fabrics. You apply the dye to your fabric and then you cover it with objects or photograph negatives to partially block out the light. Then you leave it in the sunlight and the dye gets activated. 

My set included the dye, the wash to use on it afterwards, a little roller, a photograph negative and some pieces of fabric to practise on.

And it gets cooler! You can download the Lumi app, which has all sorts of ideas for you to try. Plus, you can upload your own photos and they'll send you a negative to print with. So you can print your pictures onto cushions, clothes, pencil cases..

Look! You can even have my strange face on a jumper!

Odds are I would never have tried or even come across Lumi Inkodye if I hadn't got my box from Crafty Creatives. That's got me wondering about how many other fabulous crafty goodies are out there waiting to be discovered! If you're an arty type person and love getting goodies in the post you can take a look at their website and have a little nose for yourself.

Beware friends and family, you will all be getting photo printed goodies for Christmas!