Plastic cup flower DIY

I thought I would do a little DIY project. It's a flower made from a plastic cup and it is super easy! You can make one or a bunch, keep them in your home or give them away. And the good thing is that they do not die.

So. You will need a plastic cup and a straw. Any color will do but I chose to use a white cup and a green straw. Oh and you will need a pair of scissors later on in the process.

First you need to crack the border.

And tear down the cut. I didn't do it all the way down but left about a cm at the bottom.

You repeat this process until the whole cup looks like this:

Then you start to fold them as depicted in the picture.

Every time you skip two cuts and then fix the border of the cup between two other parts.

You repeat this process. The last two can be a bit tricky, but you just continue in the same way.

You then have your flower.

Make a hole in the cup. (I made the hole after making the flower but doing it before folding could be easier)

Make the hole a bit bigger so the straw can fit through.

Tada! A flower.

You can leave it at this, or, as I did, make a small adjustment by cutting the straw as if it is part of the flower.

And there is your flower!

You can vary, add leafs, use different colors etc. I didn't use any tape to attach the flower to the stem, but you could if you wish to. Have fun making your own flowers!

Phone makeover

Lately my phone has been feeling a bit sad. All the hip phones around the block have new features and apps. My phone doesn't even have internet. I told him he was good the way he was, but he had a hard time believing me. So I surprised him with a little makeover and now he is as happy as can be.

Giraffe painting

This weekend I finished another painting I have been working on for a while. As Mr. Giraffe (actually I am not sure if he is a 'he', he didn't deny it though) seemed to be of the good sort, I decided to give him some delicious ice-cream. He loves it.

Ladybugs

Ladybugs make me happy, so why not combine 'paint your love' with my love for these little creatures? It was time to say goodbye to my rainbow nails and say hello to these ones:

Wake-up list

I am not really a morning person (understatement of the year). I have the hardest time getting out of my bed. And if I do manage to tackle the task of physically removing myself from that beacon of warmth, hope, dreams and happiness, everything in the world around me seems to be one big slowmotion video. Like my head isn't processing anything yet other than COFFEE OR WILL SLEEP. But no longer! I resist! I am going to do a genuine attempt to be the best morning person I can be!

My sadist-self decided to make a little action list to wake me up. Throwing a dice corresponds with a number and specific action.

This morning fate decided I needed to juggle. When I started, I would only throw one ball in the air and realize 2 seconds later that the other two were still in my hands. This continued in the same fashion, but after a few minutes I welcomed my mind back to the world of the living, and juggled fairly normal. It did feel like performing the action helped in waking up :)

Spread money like love

To kids small things can appear quite significant, meaningful and exciting. Perhaps finding a coin does not make your heart beat one bit faster now, but to a kid a coin might be a treasure, the start of a collection, a motivator to go explore the world, to hope for big dreams or simply evidence for being lucky. I went to spread some money through town. I especially covered places where many children come (park, playground, near schools), some spots near the food bank and simply some other random places. Hopefully they will be found by someone who appreciates the act of finding, and hopefully it will make a small difference to somebody.

Dirty dancing

Today while I was having lunch, suddenly 'Time of my life' from the movie Dirty Dancing started to play. Then out of nowhere this guy walks into the main university canteen and starts dancing. The fact that he was wearing a tutu kind of added to the visual impact of it all. The act was being filmed by others and then they all just disappeared.

A while later, I was outside and saw him and some other guys again, still filming and dancing. Being rather curious what it was all about, I walked up to them and asked. They explained it was for a promotional video. Before I knew it I agreed on helping them and I was dancing with this guy.

The whole thing was just so absurd and unexpected that it totally made my day.

Rainbow nails

I have been wanting to paint my nails in the colors of the rainbow for a while now, but didn't do it yet because other things would come up and distract me. Then I read about 'paint your love', which I think is a great initiative. It made me not only follow through with painting my nails, but got me thinking a bit as well.

Paper cranes

I love the idea of the crane project and this movie:

Have you ever experienced you wanted to help someone, thank someone, say something, do something or react, but just didn't know how to? Especially when you don't know somebody well, or even don't know somebody at all... Perhaps it is the woman waiting outside looking terribly sad, or the local bus driver who is always merry. Inspired by the crane project, I started making a bunch of paper cranes. I want to carry one with me everywhere I go, so whenever I feel like it, I have the possibility to respond to a situation or a person by giving a crane.

While I was in the train I thought I would kill some time by adding to my crane collection. As I was folding, I got some curious glances. Then it occured to me, why not give these paper cranes to the people around me? In the worst case they won't care, in the best case I might bring some spark to their day. So that's what I did. They thanked me. I'm not sure about the impact of my act, but it felt good.

Banner

I have a banner therefore I am.

I'm new into the blogging world and haven't put much effort into my blog design yet. However, today I created a banner. I doubted a bit between these two. But I think you might have guessed what my final decision was.

Butterflies

Looking through the window gives an impression of what the weather is like outside.. It can be sunny or cloudy, good or bad, wet or dry. All I know is that whatever the weather is like from now on, my day might be a bit brightened by these little creatures. And you know what? They don't even fly away when I surprise them with my wild ninja moves. Or any moves for that matter.

Bird Painting

Lately I have been painting more again. I do not always make time for it, but I love to do it. My latest creation:

Lars the Laundry Monster

Meet Lars. Lars loves laundry. He eats it. The dirtier the better. Before I adopted Lars into my humble room, my laundry would be all over the place. Mostly on the ground though. But then I created Lars. He is such a merry little guy. Sometimes I feed him a lot, sometimes only little. He never gives a squeak. And always gratefully accepts the dish of the day. I love my little monster.

Lars is more of a night person, just like me. The only thing is, sometimes Lars eats too many coffee stains and gets really hyped up and starts eating random things laying around; anything he can get his hands on.

But later he makes it up to me by playing the most lovely songs.

Qeensday

Yesterday was Queensday. All the crazy Dutchies dress in orange, party, and sell their old stuff on flea markets during the day. Most of it is junk and clutter people can not get rid of (ironically the day often ends with people taking most of their junk back home). Anyway, I found a few nice pieces for only 4 euro. My treasure included:

A wooden cabinet. I have been looking for one of these, so I was very pleased when I found this one. I'm not sure yet what I want to display in it.

A suitcase. It is meant for storing vintage records, but I think I will use it to store drawings instead.

An embroided Dutch saying 'van het concert des levens krijgt niemand een program'. It loosely translates as 'nobody receives a program for the concert of life'. It is something my parents used to say when surprising events happened (good and bad) or when I wanted to know what was ahead of me. Since mother's day is coming up, I figured it would make a nice present.