Tuesday, August 2, 2016

These 14 Projects Make Chicken Wire Chic

These 14 Projects Make Chicken Wire Chic

One of the least expensive ways to add a bit of shabby chic to your home decor is with chicken wire. Big rolls of it can be bought for very little cost and the only tools you really require are some wire cutters and pliers. So skip the chicken coop and get yourself a roll. Just the one will probably give you enough material to complete a couple of the projects I've found for you!

1. Hold your toilet paper with style.

It would be easy to add chicken wire to a basic TP holder. Just replace the backing with wire. 

2. An alternative to a pegboard in the workshop.

The wire can have hooks hung from it too, so you can store all the same tools you would on a basic pegboard.

3. Turn a lamp shade into a wire basket.

You can change up the look simply by choosing a differently shaped shade to start with. 

4. Or just use the lamp shade.

If the wire is too bare for you, lining the shade with a gauzy fabric would still reveal the wire's pattern when the light is on.

5. Swap out your cabinet fronts with wire.

You can leave them open to show off the cupboard's contents, or you could line the inside with a cute fabric.

6. You can age the wire with chalkboard paint.

Brand new wire may not have the rustic look you want, but you can paint it! Chalkboard paint gives a nice matte finish, and you could even add some other rusty colors to age it even more.

7. Make a greeting card display board.

The great thing about this is that you can change it up for the season. Swap out the wreath and it can hold birthday cards, Easter greetings, or even just beloved family photos.

8. Giant Christmas baubles!

If I had a proper front yard, I would totally do this! Just form the wire into a ball shape, wrap that ball in Christmas lights, and stick that beauty out on the lawn.

9. Organize and display jewelry.

This is another great use of a wooden frame with some chicken wire stapled to it. Add small hooks to hang your baubles from.

10. Turn an old window and clock face into decor worth talking about.

If you're feeling ambitious, it would be really easy to add a basic clock mechanism and actually tell the time! 

11. A cool alternative to paper or fabric bunting.

Just cut the wire into triangles and hang from more wire — or to add to the shabby-chic look, hemp string. 

12. Add wire to a mason jar lid to make a vase.

The chicken wire will keep the flowers standing upright, while still leaving it easy to add water when needed. 

13. Create a wall sconce planter.

These would be cute both in the garden and inside the home. 

14. DIY your new laundry hamper.

Large wire hampers can cost a fair bit in stores, but it's easy to make your own with a wooden circle, chicken wire, and some casters. Use a store bought fabric hamper to line it, or sew one yourself if you have the skills.

I could watch chicken wire being made all day. It's oddly soothing.

SHAREthis list with all your shabby-chic-loving friends and family!

Monday, August 1, 2016

Immortal Stem Cells Allow Scientists To Create An Unlimited Supply Of
Artificial Blood

Immortal Stem Cells Allow Scientists To Create An Unlimited Supply Of Artificial Blood

Do you ever close your eyes and think, "Please future, hurry up and get here"? There seem to be tons of amazing things just over the horizon, promising a life of incomparable convenience, ease, and wellness. Of course, it's always been that way. Compared to the previous generation, we are living in the future. And it looks like the next generation will have it even better – as it should be.

Researchers at the University of Bristol in Britain have developed a method of producing an unlimited supply of artificial blood using immortal stem cells.

The stem cells typically used to make artificial blood tend to fizzle after producing no more than 50,000 red blood cells. Given that an average bag of donated blood contains about a trillion red blood cells, that's not very much.

However, the Bristol team stopped adult stem cells early in their development so they can expand and replicate indefinitely.

Dr. Jan Frayne, who worked on the team, said, "We have demonstrated a feasible way to sustainably manufacture red cells for clinical use. We've grown liters of it."

Artificial blood isn't about to replace blood donation anytime soon, but the Bristol team's breakthrough is particularly big for people with rare blood groups and blood diseases. 

“The patients who stand to potentially benefit most are those with complex and life-limiting conditions like sickle cell disease and thalassemia, which can require multiple transfusions of well-matched blood," said Professor Dave Anstee, Director of the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Red Cell Products. 

Trials of man-made blood are expected to begin in late 2017, although the Bristol team's cells won't be included in those trials.

Even if they were, the artificial blood still can't be produced on a large scale – yet. "To produce that much at scale is quite a challenge, and really the next phase of our work is to look at methods of expanding the yield," said Dave.

Advertisement
20 Epic Yearbook Entries That Will Be Remembered Forever

20 Epic Yearbook Entries That Will Be Remembered Forever

Do you still have your old high school year books? 

Unless you're that person who considers the years of mandatory phys-ed and puking in your parents' flower bed the glory days, most of the time after high school is spent desperately trying to block it from memory. The very last thing I want to see is the haircut I had at 16, and I certainly don't want to be reminded of whatever life goals I had set for myself at a time when I considered milk-chugging contests the height of cultured entertainment. 

Despite all this, I keep my yearbooks, not out of nostalgia, but out of apprehension that one day I might actually feel nostalgia and a desperate need to remember what jerk-face-Kathy wrote to me at graduation. Even if you don't want to look at your own yearbook photos, you're going to want to look the ones these hilarious people captioned. After seeing them, you might even be inspired to take a look through your own to see if any golden nuggets like these are hiding in there. 

1. Now we know why Sarah was always so joyful

And what that smell was.

2. Standing up for what you believe in

I mean Jesus definitely wasn't white, so who knows?

3. It's because of this advice that Joanna had to take grade 10 math three times

Eventually she caught on.

4. Setting it straight once and for all

Guys, it was a goddamn clock!

5. A reminder to all those teachers who call kids out for sleeping in class

Some of us are just Asian, you assholes. 

6. The entry that speaks for all of generation Y and the millennials. 

Because what haven't the baby-boomers ruined for everyone else? 

The economy, the environment, not to mention they raised a bunch of narcissistic internet addicts. I can't wait to pay their old age pensions when I'm 40 years old and still in an entry level job. 

7. This perfectly placed twosome 

A Samantha might be acceptable, but Carrie? Really?

8. That weirdo Canadian 

Always trying to set themselves apart, eh.

9. For the last time!

Nguyen is basically Vietnamese for Smith. 

10. I guess my sparkling personality comes from all those flavored Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers I used to eat. 

11. Deep thinker?

Or always high?

12. You all had some version of this guy at your school. He never went to class, but he always had some form of breakfast food.

Amen brother.Something we can all agree on. 

13. This profound confession 

I bet this makes you wish you got to know him better. 

14. High school can be a tough world

Don't we all wish we could crawl back in there and escape?

15. It's all dad wants

Good thing you haven't told him you're double majoring in Film Criticism and Women's Studies. 

16. And people say making friends is hard in high school

Sometimes you just find your other half. 

17. When people ask you why you wear the hijab 

Best answer ever. 

18. What happens when the yearbook staff isn't up on the 'new slang'

F.A.P. is a huge part of everyone's life in high school. Unless you're Catholic. But maybe still then. 

19. This guy who's got his life planned out

It's a life skill. 

20. This guy who captured the hard realities of growing up

Subtle. 

Main image via reddit / NotableCrayon

Collage image via reddit / L_Dav_

12 Shocking Things About Chef Gordon Ramsay

12 Shocking Things About Chef Gordon Ramsay

Chef Gordon Ramsay is famed for his hostility and talent in equal measure in the kitchen. From obscenely creative obscenities to his mouth watering menu, Ramsay knows how to dish it out, that's for certain. Chef Ramsay also knows how to sell himself, between Master Chef, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, and so many spin-offs and variations. But what about all the things we don'tknow about Chef Ramsay? Well read on and find out some of those secrets.

Know anyone hungry for more kitchen-based reality TV? Be sure to SHAREthis and tag them!

1. Gordon Ramsay opened his first restaurant in 1998.

This was Ramsay's first restaurant to earn him 3 Michelin Stars by 2001. That's no small feat.

2. He studied hotel management in college.

Considering how much of his work is based in hotels, this makes a ton of sense actually.

3. He almost died while filming a segment about puffin hunting in Iceland back in 2008.

He fell down an 85 foot cliff into the ice cold water. He had to remove his boots and clothing to avoid drowning and was under for almost 45 seconds. Talk about a close call!

4. He's apparently the 21st richest celebrity in the entire world.

He is tied for this position with Ryan Seacrest and Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy aka P. Diddy aka Diddy.

5. He lied about being a pro soccer player.

Ramsay has told the press in the past that he played for the Glasgow Rangers for 3 years on their first team before injury forced him to stop. The team acknowledges that he was a trialist with the team, but that he never played for them, only trained with them.

6. In 2008 Sarah Symonds claimed to have been having an affair with Ramsay for the past 10 years. The publicity of this event lead to her own reality show called The Mistress.

The focus of the show was her using her experience as a mistress to help women whose husbands were having an affair.

7. Gordon Ramsay was fired from a chef job for having an affair with his boss' wife.

While working as a commis chef in a hotel when he was in his 20s, Ramsay says he was seduced by his employer's 30-something wife. He was fired when the affair was discovered and he moved to London.

8. Gordon Ramsay's favorite cocktail is something called a "wake up you donkey!"

The cocktail is made with Tanqueray gin, and the name's perfect because it sounds like something he would yell at you if you made it wrong.

9. He was named one of the 60 nastiest villains of all time in 2013.

Given his penchant for creative and harsh insults, he's come off as quite the villain to a ton of the contestants on his shows.

10. Ramsay is quite skilled at martial arts and has a black belt.

He has a passion for boxing on top of his black belt in karate. A man of many talents!

11. Gordon Ramsay loves In-N-Out Burger.

He refers to it as his guilty pleasure and will even sneak a Double Double into first class flights if he's heading back to England.

12. Gordon Ramsay's favorite way to prepare eggs is scrambled.

He prefers to have them on a fresh slice sourdough bread that's been grilled and doused in worcestershire sauce.

So if you know anyone wanting to bite into some more info on Gordon Ramsay, SHAREthis with them!