Easy Vegan: Homemade Cranberry Sauce

General | 15 November 2011

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own cranberry sauce from scratch, now is the time! This is honestly one of the easiest recipes in the world, and can be made with a variety of sweeteners and optional ingredients like herbs or citrus. Check it out:

Ingredients:

1- 12 oz. Bag of Cranberries

1/2 Cup Water

Your Favorite Vegan Sweetener*

1 Sprig of Fresh Rosemary

1 Sprig of Fresh Thyme

Directions: Tie the rosemary and thyme together with a bit of pure cotton twine or string. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium/high heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. The berries will begin to burst and create a jam. Stir often for about 15 minutes, and sweeten to taste. Cool and store in the fridge. Sauce will last for weeks!

*Popular vegan sweeteners include agave nectar, demerara sugar and maple syrup. Regular white and brown sugar is sometimes processed using non-vegan methods. See a list of vegan friendly sugar companies here.

Creative Packaging: Unique Designs for Everyday Items

General | 11 November 2011

by Laurie Hartt

While it doesn’t take much to convince me to eat a pound or two of pasta, I would be even more eager to chow down if I could buy it in packages that look like this:

And really, who wouldn’t want a salami cd?

Parents, despair no longer about getting your kids to eat their fruit and drink their milk:

Drink your juice? What a bright idea.

Lady Gaga would get a kick out of this:

Multitasking Wonder: Work out while you clean up.

I don’t even know what to say about this one. Haha!

Here’s one way to make sure nobody steals your lunch:

(Pics courtesy of youthedesigner.com, boredpanda.com, and toxel.com.)

Interior Design How-to: 7 Fun Wall Decor Ideas

General | 07 November 2011

by Allie Paxton

I recently moved and realized how hard it was to fill up the blank wall space in my apartment. After reading multiple magazines for sources of inspiration and careful creativity, I finally found some awesome ways to spruce up my home. You will absolutely love these creative ways to liven up your walls, and they will be sure to keep you busy!

1. Full on Art Walls

Looking at walls full of different pictures in various frames reminds me of being in an antique shop, and I absolutely love the vintage feel it gives any room. Grab all sorts of different frames varying in color, shape, and size and frame anything from photos, newspaper clippings, art, or fashion magazine pages. This brings a sort of liveliness to a room that just can’t be beat.

2. Actual Book Shelves

I absolutely love the concept of these bookshelves. Just get a shelf hook and place your favorite books on them. These are so cute and extremely simple to execute!

3. Arranging Photos in Specific Ways

Anyone can just hang up pictures in a straight line on a wall. But to me, that can get very boring and calls for a makeover. I love the concept of arranging photos on the wall in anyway you wish. One of my best friends just did this in the shape of a peace sign, and it was amazing!

4. Painting the Walls

If you are a good painter, then feel free to do something a little more complex than the picture that is shown above. However, painting is a skill I lack, so I prefer easy things that are hard to mess up. If you are still weary of painting on your walls, try wall decals. They vary from text to pictures but are extremely easy to use and look just like you painted them on!

5. Buttoning the Walls

I did this in my grandma’s craft room upon her request. I simply hot-glued vintage buttons on the wall, and it turned out great! It can be time-consuming, and make sure you have a level and a ruler if you want to keep the buttons in an even line!

6. Empty Frames on the Walls

Something I love to collect are vintage picture frames. I realized that I had so many lying around without pictures in them and something needed to be done. Some picture frames are so ornate that they speak for themselves. I love the idea of just putting these up without anything in them because it allows the viewer to fill in the blanks and imagine something themselves. Try painting the frames to match an accent color or use the same color as your wall to just add some texture!

7. Plates on the Walls

As an avid thrifter, I love to collect vintage plates. If you go to Michaels, you can get wire plate hangers that clip on to the plate and allow you to rest it on a hook. I love this interior design idea because it is definitely a conversation starter and adds so much color to a room without painting the walls.

Now start decorating!

(photos courtesy of pinterest and weheartit)

Site to See: Draw a Stickman!

General | 28 October 2011

by Sienna

If you haven’t already received the link to drawastickman.com, then now is your chance to go have about three minutes of good wholesome fun!

Created by hitcents.com, Draw a Stickman is “a creative interactive project that demonstrates how animation can be used strictly [sic] with JavaScript on the web and mobile devices. A year project in development, Drawastickman.com was built with a sharing and viral strategy in mind”. And viral is right, with well over five million hits, this fun little project has hit it big!

Below is a scene from my own stickman, followed by snippets from the Draw a Stickman Gallery.

Try it out and be creative today!

Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

General | 28 October 2011

by Laurie Hartt

The weekend is almost here, and that means it’s almost time for Halloween parties, costume celebrations, and monster bashes! While many of the girls here at LuLu*s have been carefully planning their costumes over the past few weeks, there are others of us . . . *cough* . . . who put planning to the last minute and then end up frantically digging through our closets in hope of some miraculously awesome costume.

Sound familiar?

Well, despair no longer. I am here to offer you some quick, last minute Halloween costumes that are easy to put together and might even get a few laughs:

Shot in the Dark: Dress all in black and tie a shot glass around your neck.

Black Mail: Wear all black and put a postage stamp (a big photocopied one or a few real ones) on your chest.

Seven Seas: Draw the letter C seven times all over your face and arms (use safe ink!).

Quarter Pounder: Carry a quarter and a hammer.

Deviled Egg: Wear all white and attach or paint a yellow circle to your stomach. Add horns and a grab a pitchfork.

Refrigerator Magnet: Paint a shoebox black and attach it to your back.

Runaway Bride: White dress and sneakers. A veil is a nice touch, too.

Joan Crawford: Smear lipstick outside your natural lipline and add a bow and some bling.

Bucaneer: Attach a dollar to each ear: Buck-an-ear.

Aircraft Carrier: Carry a toy airplane.

Quarterback: Tape a quarter or an enlarged copy of one to your back.

Facebook Page: Use a piece of cardboard to create a profile page. Cut a hole out where your face should go and then fill out all of the relevant information with a set of colorful sharpies. Make sure to include your interests, phone number, favorite drink, etc. just in case anyone is curious.

Clue Cast: Have each of your friends dress in a single color and go as Miss. Scarlet, Cornell Mustard, Professor Plum, and the rest of the gang.

Bat: Cut up a cheap black umbrella from the dollar store and attach to a black hoodie. Insta-bat.