Percolate My World

There are so many apps for the iPhone and iPad that modify and enhance photos that you can spend days just wading through them.  But when I happened upon a photo run through the Percolator app, it was an instant "I want!"  It's retro, it's bubbly, it's altogether an awesome way to be creative just a few taps.

The gingerbread man and Christmas tree above were simply to remind myself of the graphic that came inside  cookie molds.

Instantly transformed from boring to pop!

Since then, the kids and I have gone into quite extensive percolations.  Adam took a shot of a street light going by in the car and percolated it.




Dova took that image and percolated it again.



And then again with stars.



Holy triple percolation!!!

Stars look mighty fine on cute chihuahuas too.



I went for artful usage of percolator with this sunset.



And this view of a concert held in a church, like looking through stained glass.



Or looking through a water-spotted window at this foliage.



Last but not least, here are some shots of the kids all happy and percolated. Their faces are relatively untouched by using the "dark" mode, where only dark areas get percolated.





Have fun with Percolator!

Friendship Bracelets Made Easy

Although friendship bracelets became popular when I was a child in the seventies, the whole fad passed me by and I never learned to make them. So when Dova asked me to show her how to make friendship bracelets, I thought that googling some instructions would be enough to get her going. But with a mess of colored strings, we completely failed in making a bracelet with a stripe pattern. Dova was stuck making only the Chinese Staircase she learned from a friend.

Now we have the wonderful Choose Friendship Bracelet Maker by the Choose Friendship Company, originally known as Crorey Creations.  Built-in fingers keep up to 10 strands in their numbered slots, so there is no more confusion over which color comes next.  It really works to keep bracelets neat and tangle-free while you make them.  You can really see what is going on!

Best of all, it is an all-in-one portable solution which holds the bracelet in progress, so there are more bracelets taped to tables and pinned to cushions. Choose Friendship Bracelet Maker comes with 56 pre-cut threads in 14 colors which is plenty for a dozen bracelets.

On the ChooseFriendship.com site, we found the patterns and instructional videos to be extremely helpful. These are just some of the patterns they offer.  Dova wants to make all of them!



Since friendship bracelets are ultimately about friendship, The Choose Friendship Company has also created a music video to promote the message that kids should choose friendship, not bullying, which has become such a destructive force for kids today. Proceeds from song and t-shirt sales will be donated to non-profit organizations that support anti-bullying initiatives. You can check out the “Inside Out” anti-bullying video on YouTube.

For Dova, she was extremely proud to complete a beautiful friendship bracelet with the Choose Friendship Bracelet Maker. What a sense of accomplishment!

Special thanks to the Choose Friendship Company for providing the My Friendship Bracelet Maker for review.  No other compensation was received.