Amber Renee

Staycation: Create a Hotel At Home During Coronavirus Season

03/15/2020

Does the COVID-19 Coronavirus social distancing have you down about missing your spring break vacation or plans?

Bring them to you.

Decorate. And please bring some flowers in and have a tray of muffins in the kitchen for a bed and breakfast feel. Or have a tray of special snacks on your coffee table and decorate your living room like a motel. You can also pretend your living room hotel is anywhere: the beach, Disney World, France, space, Japan, decorate it accordingly.

Beverly Hills Hotel Pillow By Floral Inferno

There must be a limit to how much Netflix and snacks a person can handle, which are reasons we all can enjoy a few fun activities to make our staycation even more splendid (and memorable).

This article is about actually blocking out a few days or a week of time to “be on vacation” at home. It’s not a list of things to do on regular days of social distancing.

1. Splurge on Meals

Often times when we’re on vacation we eat meals out but on this staycation we may need to order in if places are looking too busy. Look up your favorite restaurants on DoorDash or UberEats and order dinner or takeout.

You could also make a cooking date night and subscribe to Hello Fresh or Marly and Spoon for the week you plan your vacation.

2. Host a Fancy Cocktail Party Or Themed Gathering for Housemates

Your vacation at home is probably one of the best times to have a fancy gathering with your best friends or family members. Why not go all out and make a whole decadent meal?

If you’re worried about this being a lot of work on your end, try a pot luck and invite others to help prep.

3. Be a Tourist

Most staycations are a great time to act like a tourist and go on an adventure exploring your hometown. If you are having your staycation during the period (now) of distance restrictions it would be best to go to the forest, nature parks, walks around non-crowded areas, etc. Pack a picnic, enjoy your time, take everything in. You may find new favorite spots!

Picnic in your own backyard, the forest, a meadow.

4. Break out the Games

Grab some cards or board games and sit at a table inside or outside and play. If you live alone, download a card game app (Uno, Exploding Kittens), or play a board game online. They even have board games on most gaming consoles. Play a few different types of games, nostalgic games that you’ve been missing or didn’t even know you liked!

5. Make Your Own Spa Day

Create your own Spa Day and make sure you have some epsom salts, essential oils, and candles. Treat yourself to a bubble bath with a cold glass of champagne or green tea and a book. Try a face mask. Exfoliate.

After your bath, turn the shower on hot and fill the room with steam. Breathe deep and relax.

If you’re living with someone you feel comfortable asking, ask to swap massages.

6. Get in the Holiday Spirit

Pretend it’s Christmas for a day and that you’re snowed in. Make hot chocolate, light some candles, decorate cookies. Cut snowflakes out of a few squares of white paper. Sing Christmas carols and watch a Christmas movie on tv. You could even have a holiday-staycation where each day is a holiday theme: New Year, Halloween (ex: swap the hot cocoa with cider, bob for apples, wear costumes, watch scary movies, spooky); Valentine’s day (make valentines and cookies, make strawberry sodas with strawberry ice cream, sprite and strawberry jam, hearts); Easter/Spring (hide eggs with either scavenger hunt notes OR treats, boil eggs and dye with food coloring, pastel colors)

Drinks and doodles while listening to records?

7. Camp In Your Backyard

Want to go camping but don’t want to be in a campground? Do it in your own backyard! You also have access to necessities and snacks. And bathrooms. Make a fire pit and roast marshmallows. Tell spooky stories. Count the stars.

8. Go For a Crawl

If the travel restrictions lift, get together with a friend or your partner and explore your city by going on a crawl. Choose a theme for your crawl such as sampling the best tacos, donuts, beer, or pizza.

If you’re stuck inside, try a bunch of the candy, chips or teas in your house and rate them.

9. Get your DIY on

Try to learn to do a new craft or project you’ve been wanting to do. Make it a group effort and invite everyone over to work on the same type of project such as knitting, cooking, painting, even digital creations (laptop party!).

You could also plan to learn to do a project together such as friendship bracelets, painting wine glasses, making dream catchers, creating vision boards, etc.

10. Take an Online Class

Have something you’ve had on your to-do list to learn for quite awhile? Something you’ve been wanting to learn, do, create, or experience? There are all sorts of classes online where you can join with others and achieve your goals right from the comfort of your own bed!

A few great places to try:

“Vacation is a state of mind – you don’t have to actually leave your house to get that same relaxed, never-leaving-this-room-again feeling you get in a hotel room. These products will help you recreate that feeling, whether you’re on your way to paradise or bringing paradise to you.”
ban.do?

0 Comments

Shop

Be My Kawaii Valentine

01/31/2020

Hey! I have been struggling with some health problems for awhile but I feel like I’m finally getting answers and I can begin to work towards a goal. The first goal of course is to stop sitting on some designs I had left in the “oven” for far too long!

Kawaii Candy Heart Earrings

Happy Valentine’s Day, loves! Here is a pair of pastel, candy, conversation heart earrings that say “KAWAII” or “CUTE” in Japanese Hiragana. These are on 14k gold plated surgical steel posts with butterfly earring backs. These are for sensitive ears and free of nickel or other low-grade metals that irritate ears. You can show your love of POP CULT cuteness in a whole new way with our first ever earring set!

Shop Now

Rainbowlicious Strawberry Barrette

Even if it’s a rainy day, you can carry a rainbow or two with you! Here are a pair of rainbowlicious, gummy rainbow, strawberry barrettes you can wear together or share with a friend, in honor of my own best friend, Kimi. Taste the rainbow and it just might taste like the perfect Pacific Coast strawberry! These are on gold plated steel bobby pin barrettes. There is a left and right side, perfect or pinning back both sides! You can show your love of POP CULT cuteness in a whole new way with our first ever barrette set!

Shop Now

P.S. Happy Aquarius Season!

My birthday is on February 13th, if you’re a fellow Aquarius or know one, you might enjoy this meme I found. XO

0 Comments

Visual Splendor

Judith Leiber Couture

01/29/2020

I would not mind breaking my teeth on these forbidden sweets… what about you?

0 Comments

Le Game Scans

Le Game: My Nintendo releases Animal Crossing 2020 Calendar, Download it Here

01/04/2020

Guess what? Nintendo just released an Animal Crossing Calendar on their My Nintendo loyalty program!

The super cute digital download is an Animal Crossing 2020 calendar to print. You can sign into My Nintendo to redeem your points and celebrate the birthdays of your favorite characters from your Animal Crossing town.

Unfortunately, this download is locked by My Nintendo and only available for redeem and download if you have a Nintendo account registered in the United States.

But don’t worry if it’s not available for you, we got it for you.

My Nintendo Animal Crossing 2020 Calendar (70457 downloads )

You may wonder if the calendar could hint about which villagers we might find in our Animal Crossing: New Horizons towns. This calendar, however, is Animal Crossing themed and not specific to New Horizons, so who knows!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches worldwide in less than three months from now on March 20th! Preorder the game here (digital or the hard copy).

0 Comments

Design Your Life Diary

I’m Not Telling You About Miseducated Monday

01/02/2020

I’m not. I’m also not going to tell you about how I made a promise to myself to blog more. That if anything I should just choose a day and devote that day to blogging. Because then, at least on that day, I would be continually making new content.

No, I’m not going to tell you because I started this plan WAY BEFORE New Year and I already didn’t follow through. I don’t want you to look at me as a lazy blogger, you see. Especially because I am a very lazy blogger and I intend to change.

What is your New Years resolution? Don’t give yourself a lot. Don’t make a list. Nothing is more off-putting than an endless list of ways you expect yourself to change. No. Choose 1-3 things you plan to focus on improving about yourself or your life this year. Do that. Don’t “Lose 20 lbs eating healthy and exercising at least 5 times a week” yourself. Don’t “Stop eating sugar, drinking wine, and smoking” yourself.

Personally, that is one sure way I will not succeed. We have to make it easier. You can always add another goal after you achieve the first one. You don’t need an endless list of things you must do to accept yourself or feel accomplished. No.

My 2020 Resolutions:

Blog on Mondays
Make a gratitude list of at least 5 items each day.
Be more open hearted. Tell people what they mean to you more often. Love more. Judge less.

What is on your list? What is your main focus of self-growth this year?

Happy New Year!

All of the cute diner food is from Baby’s which used to be Talbott Street, our favorite club! Check it out this year!

Baby’s Indy

2147 N Talbott Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46202

0 Comments

DIY Recipes

How to Make and Enjoy Bubble (Boba) Tea

11/27/2019

Bubble tea/boba tea, is usually a milk tea drink with tapioca pearls sitting on the bottom, waiting to be slurped up a large, colorful straw. Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, pearl milk tea is the direct translation from Chinese. Thanks to Taiwan, bubble tea is now available all over the world.

Know of a great bubble tea spot? Post it! There are three I know of in the Indy-area. Strange Brew, a cafe in Greenwood, serves bubble tea as well as a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Indy and a fast-food Chinese stand in the Washington Square Mall. If you know of any spots in your neighborhood you should list them, bubble tea is a fun, tasty drink that should be shared with friends.

Bubbles

The ratio should be about 7:1 (water to tapioca pearls).
Boil water in a large saucepan.
Add tapioca pearls to boiling water.
The pearls should float.
Continue boiling for about 25 minutes (depending on the tapioca pearl type) covered.
Add some sugar to the water so they absorb the sweetness but make sure it doesn’t burn!
Turn off the heat and let the pearls cool.
Rinse the cooked tapioca pearls in warm water and drain out the water.
Cover with syrup and add some to your favorite drink.

Syrup

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups water

Mix sugar and water in a large pot.
Cook at medium to high heat.
Once the mixture boils remove from stove immediately.
Let cool; to be used for bubble tea and similarly sweetened drinks.

Rainbowlicious Bubble Tea

1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup pineapple
1/2 cup rice milk
1/4 cup syrup
1 cup ice
2 cups of cooked tapioca pearls

Place all ingredients minus the tapioca pearls into a blender and blend well.
Blend it to desired consistency.
In the a glass, pour some cooled bubbles.
Pour your blended smoothie on top.
Cover the top of the smoothie with strawberry slices and pineapple chunks.

* I had this piled high like and covered in strawberries and pineapples at the E-Zone cafe in Toronto with my best friend. Too bad the cafe has since closed and I have never found anywhere even comparable!

Iced Bubble Coffee

1/4 cup non-dairy powder creamer
1/4 cup bubble tea sugar syrup
3/4 cup desired strength coffee (cool)
1 cup ice
2 cups of cooked tapioca pearls

Put coffee, creamer, and bubble tea sugar syrup in a shaker and mix well.
Add ice, cover shaker and shake until blended and frothy.
Add tapioca pearls into your desired glass, pour the coffee on top and enjoy!

➡ No bubbles? Try coconut meat or a thick-set flavored gelatin for substitutes!

Show Your Bubble Tea Love

This *LIMITED* hard enamel lapel pin is so tasty I want to eat it. It is a magical strawberry bubble milk tea fresh from Miseducated Bubble Tea Bar! My first bubble tea was in 2003 in Toronto and I immediately fell in love. When I lived in Japan I delighted in bubble shaved ice at any opportunity. It’s a texture thing! If you also love the tapioca pearl bobas and the tasty teas then you can show your love with this super kawaii tea pin!

Check it Out

4 Comments

Business Features Features Self Decoration

Miseducated presents Tokyolux-Style T-shirts 2020

11/19/2019

With Audrey Kitching as the brand frontrunner, I designed a lot of the designs you used to buy from the brands/stores Tokyolux, Coco de Coeur, and Lazy Bones Vintage.

It was rumored that she stole ideas — she would give me sketches occasionally and I would create them or I would send her my ideas. The cats and roses, for example, were created by me. I designed and created those. These designs were all completely original and well-loved. I do not have examples of her stealing. We created.

Tokyolux was featured in fashion magazines around the world, donned by celebrities, and sold in stores on Melrose in Los Angeles. It was all so fast. Then, as fast as it started, our doors were closed.

I never got the full story from any party but I was told orders were not being sent out and the brand image was damaged.

I will say that Audrey has continued to be kind to me so I will not speak on recent articles about her dealings with others. This isn’t about that! She has always been kind and giving to me, both in person and online.

I went on to do Audrey Kitching Los Angeles, and after that, Crystal Cactus (which I have not been involved in the “design of” since the very beginning).

I have so many designs that I was unable to create, use, or complete. I am at a time in my life where I would like to make these available to the public and those who loved Tokyolux.

These are both new and original designs never before released on new shirts, clothing, and accessories. I am now opening a division of Miseducated for t-shirts and fashion. These are one of a kind designs. made in house, solely by me. Some of our clothing will feature Pop Cult icons from our pin collection. Others will be similar to the designs you loved and adored from Tokyolux and Coco de Coeur.

Preorders for the first design are here. Stay tuned.

4 Comments

Features Le Game

I Came Here From Tiktok

10/13/2019

I joined Tiktok as @miseducated pretty recently and I’ve decided I really like it.

It’s BETTER that YouTube, to me, because it is geared more for artists with a low attention span or vloggers who just want to say a few little things.

Every type of person is using it from all over the world. Even celebrities and businesses are joining now, from a marketing standpoint. If you’re up for it, try it and say hello (@miseducated)! I joined as a joke and shortly (a few weeks) got 30k+ likes and 2k+ followers.

How Can You Get 1000+ Followers on TikTok in a week?

If you show what special thing, quality, lifestyle, culture, art, hobby, etc that makes you unique then I think it’s likely to get a little attention. I showed my realism artist, husband David H Cunningham‘s, portrait work of me in one video and my lapel pins in another.

Anyway, I’ve tried YouTube so many times, you know, and I’m just not as into it as others are. Everyone seems to watch someone on YouTube or be on YouTube in addition to whatever else they do. I CAN’T! I have tried and it’s just not possible for me to formulate videos like that. Maybe some day. Maybe if I ever get a longer attention span.

It’s Me, @Miseducated

Anyway, that’s where people have been finding me from lately and because they are not old school internet users, or fans of Miseducated, they have no idea if this is me. This is me, I design graphics and I make cute stuff like lapel pins.

So have you like, joined yet?

0 Comments

DIY

Create Your Own Incense & Magical Clouds

08/17/2019

Incense, you either love it or you hate it. That’s what I’ve found in being a lifelong pusher of it!

“Hey, you don’t mind if I burn incense do you?”

Often met with a casual eye-roll or possibly a sure and then, can I put this out? It seems a person either appreciates the presence of it in their home or they despise it because of the sheer invasiveness of the smokey scent. Many times powerfully strong, incense can leave your environment highly fragrant in a matter of minutes.

The process of making herbal incense without the use of salt peter, or even charcoal is actually quite easy. However, perfecting the art is another matter. Perhaps the easiest way is by using a binder commonly called Makko. Makko not only serves as a water soluble binder, but as a burning agent as well. Makko is a natural tree bark from an evergreen tree and contains no synthetic chemicals, charcoal, or salt peter.

Incense began use as an instrument in spiritual practices. With the killer scent it packed in such a small size, it also became a hit with hippies and homeowners everywhere. If you can appreciate the presence of lemony-sweet sodapop in your home, or more commonly a woody-spicy fragrance, you’re definitely a contender for incense!

Now, you can buy incense for pretty cheap just about anywhere that sells fragrant candles. If you can’t find it in your area you’re in luck because there’s an even bigger selection online! Be sure to gaze at the carnival of delicious, handmade incense scents on etsy and imagine the sheer wonder of your home or studio being transported to a fragrant fantasy land!

… but if you wanted absolute control over the fragrance you could make your own as well.

DIY Incense

Now, it sounds very easy to create your own incense but the trick is mixing the ingredients correctly so that you get a nice, even burn. Your incense might be too smokey, might not burn properly and could keep going out prematurely.

To begin making your incense (this is the Japanese way), mix an incense base with makko (incense powder), and add some warm water. When using a resin your incense will become more difficult to burn. Therefor you should use resins, like Frankensense, at much lower percentages as the burning agents (makko and sandalwood).

“Sandalwood is common to almost every incense formula, and serves as a wonderful base aroma as well as a burning agent of its own right. If you were making an incense of sandalwood alone, the amount of makko required may be a little as 10%.”

Mix the ingredients into a dough-consistency and knead it thoroughly. Form into cones or sticks (form sticks around bamboo reeds) and Knead the incense-dough thoroughly and form into cones or sticks. Allow them to dry slowly, about a week. Check them to see if they’re dry and enjoy your new incense.

In-SCENTS

My favorite part about candles and incense is the *aroma*, like most people I adore a waft of delicious fragrance to pass by me while working at my desk. It’s a shame you can’t have them in cubicles! It definitely would have lightened the atmosphere in the slightest way. Especially when there happens to be a microwave area in your office.

Don’t use cheap oils — they can irritate the skin and the aroma can provide no benefit.

You can combine your favorite oils to create aromatherapy benefits *or* just to delight your nose.

Incen-spiration

Ehehe.. my favorite part of blogging has always been the eye candy.

(By Ilkka Suppanen)

After seeing this incense design exhibit I *had* to find rainbow incense, cute holders, and well-designed incense packages~

Japanese incense comes in many shapes in sizes, sometimes with especially cute scents and packing like these Cafe Time incense sticks.

Incense Holders

Now that you have some great incense to try you might want to purchase a cute handmade holder *or* make your own.

Bowl / Teacup Nab a cute bowl or teacup from the local antique shop or use your grandmother’s you’ve been saving in the attic. Fill it with sand, stick your incense in the bowl — add some to the middle or add in a circle around the center. Light and enjoy!

Holder These leave the most ashes but hopefully you’ll have this in an area where ashes can be easily cleaned up! Create a clay sculpture, be it a cupcake, mushroom or anything you like. Grab an incense and stick it into the (still wet) clay where you’d like your incense to be.. Move the incense around a bit to make the hole a little wider. Remove the incense and bake your holder (or let dry if it is no-bake clay).

Tray The typical wooden (or clay) tray is usually longer than the length of the incense stick, has a little ash dip in the middle and a hole on one of the ends for holding the incense. These generally leave ashes scattered also.

Plant That’s right, I often stick a lit stick right in a big, potted plant.

8 Comments

Uncategorized

How to Raise Monarch Butterflies

08/05/2019

Saving the Monarchs is easy and inexpensive; it just takes patience and planting milkweed (the only thing the caterpillars eat!!). If we all get involved we can make a big difference.

Common milkweed grows abundantly in many areas of the US starting in June. Other types of milkweed, such as tropical or swamp milkweed, easily grow as well. You can harvest milkweed, locate monarch eggs, and easily raise 100 caterpillars indoors in what is called a “butterfly hamper” until they pupate. Upon leaving the chrysalis you release them 24 hours later bearing the weather. Super easy! If you want a lower maintenance approach, even planting nectar flowers AND milkweed helps immensely.

Egg found on common milkweed
My caterpillars eating tropical milkweed.
Our first chrysalis of 2019!

Create a Monarch Waystation

Plant nectar flowers and milkweed for wandering monarchs to have a place to rest and eat. Some great, low-maintenance plants for butterflies are: cone flowers, Black-eyed Susans, hollyhocks, meadow blazing stars, and, of course, milkweed flowers! Learn more here.

Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Monarch caterpillars, or any caterpillars really, eat A LOT. That means you’ll need a lot of milkweed. Milkweed is the only thing monarch caterpillars can eat. Each caterpillar can easily devour a whole plant before preparing to make its chrysalis. If you can’t grow or locate enough milkweed to feed your caterpillars, only bring in as much as you can feed. In Indianapolis it literally grows wild in ditches, forests, and medians.

You’ll have to place fresh milkweed in your “butterfly hamper” which is what we call a zippable mesh insect cage, daily. You will also have to remove caterpillar poo/frass everyday as well. (They eat and poop non-stop.) Other than that I prefer to place my chrysalis in a separate hamper so no diseases are transmitted to young caterpillars. When the butterfly emerges and dries their wings for 24 hours, release it on a nice, sunny day. If you need to wait a little longer because it’s raining or dark soon, please offer a nectar flower or orange slice just in case! This website was the site I used for information raise mine, they seem to have the process covered very nicely from what cage to how to keep milkweed fresh!

Prefer to Leave Them Outside?

Why bring them in at all? Haven’t they survived until now?

The percentage of monarchs that survive from egg to adulthood is very low. Researchers agree that less than 10% of the eggs that are laid survive to become adult butterflies, and some feel that this number may be significantly under 10%. – Monarch Joint Venture

Overall monarchs have declined by more than 80 percent over the past two decades.

Scientists estimate the monarch population needs to reach 225 million butterflies to be out of the danger zone. Monarchs have lost an estimated 165 million acres of breeding habitat in the United States to herbicide spraying and development. – Center for Bio Diversity

How to Raise Monarch Butterflies FaceBook Group

Join us and get involved!

1 Comment

Older Posts

Newer Posts