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The glass hurricanes (the glass parts that shield the candles from the wind)? They can be purchased from home decorating stores like Michaels, for dollar stores, garage sales, or maybe in your closet or basement.

For the DIY concrete stand you see pictured, Quick Tubes were used. Actually just one Quick Tube for cement.

When buying cement select the kind you want. Some is smoother, some has gravel in it. Some is grey and some is white.

You also need protective equipment, namely safety goggles (you do not want cement in your eyes — wash them out immediately if this happens and consult medical attention). You also need gloves (dish gloves or some kind of totally waterproof safety gloves. You don’t want to touch cement when it’s wet. It’s usually not bad, but it can cause serious cement burns in some cases.

Decide the size you want your columns and saw your Quick Tubes or other concrete mold to size. Use a level to get the top and bottom LEVEL.

You can make bottoms for your columns by duct taping on paper plates. You can also duct tape on cardboard or wood or anything else to keep the wet cement in.

Stand the tubes up and use the level again to make them straight up. Mix your concrete and fill your tubes. You can use shovels for this or anything else. Then use another container to push in on the top of the concrete to make a depressed circle there. Plastic coffee containers work. You can also wait for the cement to harden a little and then carefully cut some cement out of the top — exacto knives work but it will dull the blades quickly.

Let the cement sit for 24 hours.

Use box-cutter knives to cut off the cement molds. Sandpaper to smooth off rough parts (sharp parts).

Place your glass on top, then put some stones and a candle inside.

Visit Diane Henkler at In My Own Style

Beautiful Lace Candle Holder You Make Yourself Out Of Concrete

With a few simple materials, you can make these attractive candle holders, or “votives” as you can call them. They were blogged about by Claire from Fellow Fellow and put on Say Yes, and they’re quite nice looking aren’t they.

Note: this article uses regular cement, but you can also get air-dry clay from art stores and can do even more things with crafting vessels and ornaments.

Crafters can use these cement candle holders for outside on summer nights or on the table, in bedrooms, bath-sides, anywhere.

You can buy cement from any large building store, but once you have it, and you’re making cement crafts, you can take the cement powder and put it in clear plastic bags.

You need:

– Cement powder
– Paper cups to mix cement in
– Wooden sticks to stir cement mix
– Coins
– Petroleum Jelly (or cooking spray) – Optional (I’m not sure how much it helps)
– Sticker tape
– A disposable container (plastic, or paper cup) for the outside of your votive
– A smaller disposable container (I used a medicine cup), big enough to hold a tea light
– Sandpaper
– Pliers

Take your lace (use lace that’s not too wide) and wrap it around the inside of your cup. Then mix your cement in that cup. Then take your other container (the smaller one), lubricate the outside of it, and put it inside the cement and fill it with some coins in it.

Let it set for 8 or 12 hours, even 24 if you want, and take off the outside container. The sandpaper’s for removing any sharp edges. Now you can put candles or tea lights into your craft cement container.

Visit SayYes.

Concrete DIY Flower Vase You Can Easily Make Yourself!

Look at this beaufiful vase made by Shannon Madigan of Madigan Made.

Look at the great touch she put on it with that paint. She’s using the color of the concrete as well — that grey — as a second color with that aquamarine. You can get concrete in many colors as well, and you can die concrete.

Making things with concrete is very easy and only requires a little precaution — concrete is safe, but you don’t want to get it in your eyes (there are serious dangers there, but actual trajedies are rare) or on your skin (again, concrete burns are real, but as anyone who has worked with concrete before, it gets on your skin once in a while, and you generally don’t ever notice. (DO NOT, however, disregard safety precautions. People have been seriously injured after wading in concrete for periods of time). If you want to learn more about concrete, check out sealwithease.com for more information.

One of the things with concrete is it can crack, but if you set it and it doesn’t crack, its going to be good for a while (unless you drop it).

Madigan used a square paper milk carton for the square vase. She filled it almost full with concrete, then she placed her glass in her concrete mold and filled up the sides so she was satisfied. She cleaned up the edges with paper towel.

She let it set for around 8 hours, then tore off the milk carton (which is a great idea because it has a wax coating, and, unlike raw cardboard, won’t stick to concrete as easily. If you don’t have wax coatings, you can line your box with saran wrap or coat it with Vaseline.

Know what Madigan did for the bottom? Put felt circles (the kind you buy from the dollar store and put on the bottom of your chairs’ legs) on the bottom (she used 4).

These concrete craft vases might be nice out in the garden as well. Fun activity for craft hobbies.

Then she painted it. Concrete, paint and crafting.

Visit MadiganMade‘s site.

The Basics of Gold Mining

While venturing into a gold mine is fun and exciting, it can also be intimidating and dangerous as all mines are underneath the earth’s surface in some shape or form. Working in a gold mine is no easy job as it will take extensive amounts of time and effort to find any pieces of gold. In order to break ground on a brand new gold mine, you will have to assemble a team of committed workers to dig, drill and blast through all the rough spots of the new mine.

You have to first create a smooth path for a railway so that you can easily go in and out of the mine with the help of mine cart transportation. Gold mining will also take the right equipment to go as deep as you and your team of miners expect. Since you are going underground, always prepare for possible safety issues by putting on a hard hat, and to see where you are going in the mine, make sure that there is a light attached to the hard hat. All gold mines will be dark inside and will only get darker the further you venture into one.

Tools such as pickaxes, hatchets, crowbars, normal hammers and sledgehammers are all sufficient to start out with when you need to cut through areas in the mine that are heavily covered by large rocks and hard dirt surfaces. Sand scooping tools are very helpful both in underground mines and outside on beach-like surfaces.

If you are in a mine that contains considerable amounts of water, you should resort to using water scooping tools and suction pumps as these tools will be able to pick heavy pieces of gold out of the water they are submerged under. Hand chisels and various thin crevice tools will also help you dig out all the hard to reach areas of a gold mine. Because of heavy the material is, gold has a tendency to stay buried and pinned inside the most narrow gaps of a mine.

There are plenty of tools to use outside the mine as well, which include the cradle rocker, a special device mainly used for placer mining. The cradle rocker is primitive and old fashioned but is indeed a natural and safe way to sort out materials. You just rock the cradle back and forth after dumping your water-filled materials through the filter of the device, and the smallest materials will steadily drop down to appear at the far end of the rocker.

Especially if your gold mine is in or next to a body of water, having a sluice box would be ideal as it will allow you to pump out water in a stream, and its riffles are designed to catch any heavy materials and prevent them from flowing all the way downstream. Many sluice boxes use conveyor belts which act as riverbeds, maintaining the water flow as it pushes forward. A gap that you see in a sluice box is a long enough gap which gathers all sorts of materials that come through the water flow, including gold.

You have to get the right flow of water in order to get your sluice box to work. Otherwise if too much water is put in too quickly through the sluice box, the overwhelming pace will cause all materials including the gold will rush downstream. If too little water is put in, then the spaces of in the sluice box’s riffles will be too easily filled, effectively letting the gold move past the clumps of materials that already occupy those spaces and downstream.

Processing plants are key instruments in advancing the daily workload of a gold miner as the largest processing plants can crush thousands of tons of rocks and ore. Processing plants mainly do their crushing in stages. Most processing plants are built to be stationary, but in recent times gold mining companies have created more versatile and economical mobile processing plants that they can move to any spot in the mining field. These innovative mobile plants are compact and portable, having a maximum capacity of 100 cubic meters per hour of continuous feed. These mobile processing plants can be towed by any powerful vehicles that you may have and they include power sources such as power generators, pumps, hydraulics and electric fuse boxes.

Some mobile processing plants feature a component called a primary concentrator which can crush as much as 40 tons of rock and ore per hour. The primary concentrator operates at a specific, calibrated G-Force, and its internal chambers fill with lighter material to form soft beds of water. The primary concentrator contains multiple chambers that work together to flush the concentrate into a receiver with the help of an electro welder and a diesel generator. Using a mobile processing plant, you can get a full day’s worth of production before you will need to flush it.

Another important part to have in the gold mining process would be a grinding mill. Grinding mills are used to grind various materials into powder, and this is a great way to find gold because nothing can be done by a grinding mills to alter any pieces of gold. Gold is too pure of a material to lose its shiny appeal.

There are numerous kinds of grinding mills to choose from, and one example would be the Ball Mill. The Ball Mill features two different ways of grinding, which would be the dry process and the wet process. The Ball Mill’s design consists of a feeding part, a discharge part, a gyre part, a transmission part and much more.

The Ball Mill has two separate chambers. Materials are evenly placed inside the first chamber along the input hollow axis by input devices. A ladder scale board and a ripple scale board are inside this first chamber. When the barrel body of the Ball Mill rotates, centrifugal force is developed. The steel balls that are installed on each scale board are carried to particular heights and then fall to strike the material, grinding the material afterward. After the first chamber grinds it up, the material is sent to the second chamber for regrinding, and the end result is powder being dumped by the output material board.

Other kinds of grinding mills include vertical grinding mills, high pressure mill machines, roller mills and trapezium grinding mills.

This is how we get gold to our markets and it can be found in many different goods. For instance, jewellery and other collectables like golden nuggets. The nuggets are a very popular as they are easily accessible to the main market, visit their website to discover more information. This is the final process, from mining to manufacturing and to selling the item to the consumer.

Re-Use Plastic Bottles as Mini Indoor Hydroponic Gardens

At present, there is a need to do some recycling projects in order to save the planet. Plastic bottles can be easily recycled by simply being resourceful and creative. Creating mini indoor hydroponic gardens is something worth considering, especially now that prices of vegetables are getting high.

If you are a salad-lover, then it makes sense to stick to salad veggies like green and crispy lettuce, sweet cherry tomatoes, celery and some herbs like parsley, coriander, sweet basil and mint. Home-grown salad veggies are absolutely flavorsome!

Creating hydroponic gardens is simple! You just need to remove the bottle cap and fill the bottle with water. Pour some grains of sand and moisten the seeds. Wait for a few days and wait for your seeds to sprout. This fascinating indoor garden will also serve as your decoration. They look fresh, green and naturally, you are creating a relaxing ambiance at home.

You have done a great step of saving the planet by re-using plastic bottles plus you can enjoy the freshness of home-grown veggies! This is double advantage!

Also take note that not all vegetables are recommended for this type of gardening. Corn, squash, melons and zucchini are not ideal for this. They may grow well in a hydroponic garden but because they tend to be grow big, they occupy a lot of space. It is not practical to grown them indoors. So stick to petite ones and enjoy re-using plastic bottles for your indoor hydroponic gardens.

 

Balancing Act Between Gaming and Business

If you are an independent game development company and you are just starting out, then it would be ideal to fill out your own Business Model Canvas. This canvas is a helpful tool in allowing you to describe to your peers in your indie company what you want to set out to achieve. This canvas is separated into 9 different parts and each part carries significance. This should provide a foundation on how to run your business, and what to incorporate into any new game(s). Do you add cheats into the game like GTA did with their GTA Cheats? Do you add expansions?

Key Partners – Who will be your key partners in the everyday operations of your company? How will you work with your key partners? What will their roles be in helping you produce your ideal gaming content?

Key Activities – What is the bread and butter of your everyday operations? What do you do best as a company? What needs to be done to keep the workflow steady? There are key development stages of a game that need to be addressed and activities such as acquiring tools for programming and designing would certainly help.

Key Resources – General networking with other people who are in the know in the gaming industry is a key resource. Also, what kind of tools do you already have? What kind of programming and designing technology do you have that will set you apart from the rest of the pack? What about support groups? Can they provide you the resources you are looking for?

Value Proposition – The core of the Business Model Canvas describes the gaming products that you will offer on the market. This category is in the middle of the canvas for a reason. You need to know what types of games you are going to make, and more importantly, why you will be making them for your target audiences.

Customer Relationships – Know your target audiences. Simply put, don’t be making First-Person Shooter Games for audiences that love Role Playing Games. That is an example of not knowing your target audience. Define what your target audience likes and why your gaming products would be good for them. There are many gaming computer brands on the market in this day. For instance, the Razer 13.3 laptop which has all the up-to-day technologies installed to allow for the optimum gaming experience.

Distribution Channels – There are many different ways to sell your gaming products, and there is no one right way of selling them. Will you have online stores? Will your games go right to the retail stores? Are they available for downloading? Will you offer hard copies of games? WIll you be promoting your games, or do you think Youtubers like Tfue will be giving your game enough promotion? Fortnite has received a heavy promotion from plenty of YouTubers and these channels are so into talking about the game that they will even talk about things as simple as their control schemes, for example, the Tfue fortnite Settings. Could your game be next to get this treatment? Keep in mind what kinds of sales outlets you want your business to operate with.

Customer Segments – How are you target audiences active? How exactly do you reach your target audiences? Do you use social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.? Do you use live streaming videos on platforms like Google+ Hangouts, Twitch.tv and the like? How much activity goes on in your target audiences?

Cost Structure – Let’s not forget about the economics themselves. How much will everything cost to get your game project off the ground? How much will it cost to have your own headquarters? How much staff will you employ? Are commissions involved? Any bonuses? What about bills and additional costs? Whatever you acquire for your company, it will cost money.

Revenue Streams – Finally, this is where you will get to know how successful your gaming product really is. This is where you will get the results from all the sales that you make on regularly scheduled processes. This will be an indicator of whether or not you are succeeding with your product, what you are doing right with it and what needs to be changed about it.

The gaming industry is a fun place to work in, but it is also challenging and it requires you to do some homework regarding the business side of the industry. Before there can be fun and games with the video games that you and your development team create, the work must be put in to assure that you will have success out on the market. If you are going to build a long-lasting franchise with a single game you will need to define all the little details of what you want your game franchise to capture.

Emphasis must be put on knowing the pulse of the gaming community, knowing what they will warmly receive and what they won’t. It isn’t so much about following what is currently trendy on the market but rather what your game can provide that will keep gamers interested. If the concept of your new game is something that has already been done before and it just has a different coat of paint over it, so to speak, then gamers won’t be so willing to buy your product. If you come up with a concept for a game that is different and stands out in a variety of ways, then you will stand a better chance of generating more sales.

Last but not least, know when your gaming franchise has run its course. If you have made a long series of successful games for one game franchise, then know when to take the next step. Sometimes you will need to put an official end to that game franchise, or you will make a series of spin-off games to complement your main franchise, or you will simply reboot the game franchise and start all over.

A Pair Of Socks Becomes This Cute Cat

DIY Sock Kittens – Free Pattern

Crafters will really have a fantastic day with this cute DIY Sock Kittens idea! Gather unused small socks from your bedroom’s drawer and you will enjoy making this adorable cat. Crafting a sweet kitten face is a perfect handmade keepsake for your kiddos and for cat-lovers. If you aren’t as creative as yo initially thought, you could always check out sites such as face socks usa to get your cat’s face printed on socks instead of making your own. At least you have this option to choose from if you’re not happy with how this DIY sock kitten turns out.

Making sock animals like kittens is exceptionally fun to do, especially with friends, and you don’t have to be skillful to create one! Unlike other craft projects like knitting or crocheting, it takes some knack to make one and also it is also time consuming but with DIY sock kittens, as long as you know how to sew, you can make one.

Just prepare the following materials:

unused socks (orange color preferably)
googly eyes
yarn
pair of scissors
stuffing material
needle
thread
pattern for the kitten

Procedure:

pattern (not in English)

1. Cut out the pattern of the kitten’s body.
2. Fill in the stuffing material inside the unused socks and sew all the sides.
3. If you are done sewing all the sides of the kitten’s body and face, it’s time to attach the googly eyes.
4. To make it more fantastic, use black thread for putting the kitten’s whiskers.
5. You can also put a nice red ribbon on top of the head to make it more adorable.

This DIY sock kitten will surely awe your kiddos and cat-lovers will delight with its awesomeness. You can also sell these cute sock kittens to your neighbors and who knows, it might be the start of your profitable business once wholesalers learned that you can craft different sock kittens. Business-minded people are always looking for new stuff to offer to people and they market products that are exceptionally unique. Your creative hands will let you create various DIY sock kitten designs and this will draw more uniqueness!

Source: Fab Art DIY

A simple approach to peace in Africa

Africans are busy fighting one another because no one is really concerned about Africa’s best interests; certainly not the mean-spirited leaders who have no national consciousness, have no intention of doing justice and are convinced that their role is to take advantage of their own people. In country after country a chronology of selfishness has left a legacy of bitterness and now brother is up in arms against brother in South Sudan, Darfur, Congo; or under the banner of Boko Haram, Al shabab, Isis in the Maghreb or whatever else they want to call it.

Instead of using money and violence to dominate, exploit and marginalize the beautiful people of Africa, it would be more reasonable, I think, for politicians and leaders to take concrete steps to liberate, empower and improve the people’s lives. Practical solutions are needed as a matter of urgency because the much talked about economic developments in Africa continue to elude the vast majority – who live in the rural areas or in the slums around cities.

Many basic problems could be easily solved, but they go on multiplying because they are supported by vested interests which, though short sighted or perhaps even blind, are quite powerful and remarkably adept at resisting change. Moreover, many of the marginalized people tend – in the words of John Kenneth Galbraith – to accommodate themselves to their miserable conditions and thus become equally conservative.

Let those who are capable start by taming corrupt administrators; then move to increasing poor people’s access to healthcare, clean water, decent housing, education and freedom of expression. Africa can then take its first tentative steps away for the externally imposed and myopic culture of dependency, to one which is more developmental and long-term in outlook. This is a simple way to make the different segments of the population less restive and less liable to join fanatical or incendiary groups.

By Nicholas Okumu