The Experiment/s

First let's talk about how I'm a broke college student.

So broke. 

Money is as precious to me as the One Ring is to Gollum. 

It's true.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted a "vintage soft" tshirt. But going out and buying one is spending money... something I am not prepared to do. So I looked up how to make ones shirt "vintage soft", without it being vintage. Obviously I needed this project to be super cheap with ingredients and items I could find in my very own home. I also needed it to be DYI. (I am so great at stating the obvious.)

I kept running into this:

So I decided to try this one. It still has some "marinating" in the brine left to do, so technically this is Experiment 1, Part 1. And I do not know if it has been a success or not.

The second one I looked up it said to simmer your shirt in a quart of water with two cups of salt. I have several shirts that look like this: 

(Harry Potter quote!!!)

Because I have several of these shirts (don't ask why) I decided it would be okay if I experimented with one of them and tested to see if I could make it super soft, and if it got ruined in the process that's okay... I have plenty of back ups. And if it was a success, kudos to me. It wasn't exactly a "win-win" but it also wasn't a "lose-lose". Also it was a good "control". I could see how soft, or not soft it became by comparing it to one of the untreated t-shirts.

Here is my shirt simmering... like delicious, delicious stew:

 The Salt. About 2 cups.

Water, about one quart.

 Here's the shirt simmering in the brine. It was in there for a little over an hour.

I added three drier sheets to the mix. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes.

Lastly I washed and dried it as normal.

Okay so the shirt was softer, but barely. It wasn't really noticeable. So it was time to take some drastic measures. It was time to go all out.

Here is the shirt that I simmered. And sandpaper. I "sanded" it all over. Front, back, inside, outside. Number 80 sandpaper. Just in case you were wondering. 

Mixture of:

1 cup washing soda

1 cup salt

1 cup liquid softener 

1/4 cup of vinegar

Stir until it turns into a gritty paste. 

You will also need river rocks. I found mine in the back yard. 

(While I was out I found this rock that is totally perfect for skipping. Time to go find a huge body of water.) 

Rub the paste, all over the shirt. 

Front, back, inside, outside.

I mean really SCRUB. What you're doing is wearing down the fabric which makes it thinner, therefore softer. 

I scrubbed my shirt for about 8 minutes.

Lay it out and let the paste dry on the shirt.

Once it is dry scrub the shirt again with the dried paste on. 

Shake as much of the powder out of the shirt as you can.

One more cup of softener, and put all over the shirt.

Scrub it in.

Rinse with warm water. Make sure to rinse it thoroughly.

Wash and dry as usual.

 BAM!

Here I am enjoying the newly found softness. It's VERY soft now. 

It took some work, but was totally worth it in the end. There are several more t-shirts that I would like to do this with... on a day where I have many hours on my hands.

By the way, if you are going to try this I suggest maybe using rubber gloves. The mixture of washing soda, salt, vinegar, and softener can make your hands quite dry, plus it's painful if you have any scratches.

Hope someone tries this and gets back to me on how it works for them. 

Theresa

Frozen Yogurt vs. Ice Cream... The Great Debate

My brother told me the other day that anyone who says they prefer frozen yogurt to ice cream is lying...

I prefer frozen yogurt over ice cream.

Am I lying? Why would I just say that?

Sometimes I live in a world of wonder about things that come out of his mouth.

I will never understand him.

So here's the great philosophical debate of today... which is better? Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt?

Perhaps it's the lack of brain stimulation that makes me do incredibly strange and pointless things, like debate ice cream and froyo. But at the same time it can cause an endless amount of entertaining arguments, that will in the end leave someone feeling rather heated and upset. Maybe not the best away to go about spending my summer, but one must do something, I suppose. And what other time to debate frozen treats than during the summer... Almost summer. I guess we have a few days of spring left. Well here it's incredibly hot. HOT. SO HOT.

Yesterday I saw what appeared to be a melted traffic road cone. Either it had died from heat stroke or was giving up because of second hand smoke. The entire state of Colorado appears to be on fire, and we're all just breathing in our last, dear, sweet breaths... of smog.

And to comfort ourselves we must dive head first into icy desserts. So which will you choose? The healthy, and healthy tasting, Frozen Yogurt? Or the fattiness of Ice Cream... It's a question that will be debated for years to come, I am sure of it.

Theresa

Summer!!!

Hello lovely college students.... and other people,

Summer is here. Whether you're taking summer classes or not, seriously, just enjoy your summer. Because it's not gonna last long, and the cold will be back upon us, and we'll all be miserable again. People are so stressed out! Stop being stressed. You'll realize too late that it wasn't worth the anxiety. Take it from someone who knows. So I suggest you stop reading this blog, get out of the house or wherever you're sitting damaging your eyes by a computer screen, and get a chocolate malt. In fact... I think I may very well do the same thing. Who doesn't love a wonderful malt? Am I right?

This is an image of the wonderful chocolate milkshake malts my best friend, brother and I enjoyed last night. Delicious.

Can I just say, "yay summer"? Now I'm gonna go be a bum and enjoy this crazy Colorado heat.

Theresa

College is Fun?

I realized recently that being a college student is rough stuff. I am one, so I would know. The work is just dumb sometimes and the people are dumber. And I wish there was an option of just putting your head down, plowing through, and getting it done. People say you can do that, but let's be serious. That's not true.

So this is for people trying to survive college like me. Right now it's summer break, I'm not taking any classes, so it's a good time to get the blog rolling. I would also love for people who have been through college and graduated... and successfully survived, to read this and comment and give advice.

Sit back and remember, you can do this. It's gonna be rough at times, it's gonna be bumpy, it's gonna be straight up ridiculous too. But I'm right there with you, and I get it, and I'm just putting it out there that I'm sorry that we all have to do this. However, once we're out we're probably going to have more to deal with, and sadly work a lot. So maybe enjoy the ride too?

Theresa