Magic Mouse Slippers DIY

Is your magic mouse making TOO MUCH NOISE? Try this! 

We recently got two magic mice for the common computers in my lab. One mouse worked flawlessly but the other scraped against the desk, which was very annoying. Apparently sometimes the "feet" on the mouse do not allow enough space for the metal battery cover. One solution was to buy Fliders, or "slippers" for $10. I thought this was rather silly that after buying an expensive mouse, Apple will rake in ten more dollars because of a design flaw. C'mon!

So I looked through my desk drawer to try to find a DIY solution to this problem. I was able to literally put a bandaid on the problem. I cut a large fabric bandaid into strips as shown below and then stuck those strips on the mouse. Problem solved! 

If you are trying this, make sure you use a fabric bandaid as the plastic ones will not glide properly.

Steps: 1) Find magic mouse. 2) Clean rubber feet. 3) Cut the bandaid in strips that are the width of the rubber feet. 4) Attach the strips to the rubber feet. The scraping should be gone! If the noise is still present, repeat with another layer of bandaid strips.

Simpson College Hat and Mittens

As a proud alum of Simpson College, I was honored that Dr. Jackie Brittingham, my developmental biology professor at Simpson, asked me design a hat for a silent auction in honor of Greg Sibbel, who also graduated Simpson College. Greg unfortunately lost his battle to Ewing's Sarcoma in December. His courage and strength during his battle was inspiring to all around him. To see former posts about Greg, click here and here. 

CJ's Journey, a charity that helps children, teens, and young adults with childhood cancer, provided a lot of financial support to Greg during his battle. Simpson College is throwing a chili cook off fundraiser, Going for the Gold, to raise money for CJ's Journey in honor of Greg. I really wish I could be there to taste all the delicious chili and bid on some items in the Silent Auction. To show my support from afar, I designed a one-of-a-kind Simpson College hat with the SC logo and a Simpson maple leaf. If you would like to bid on it and are in the Indianola area on February 19th head on over to the fundraiser!

This hat is designed to fit an adult head and is made out of hypoallergenic acrylic (animal-friendly) yarn. The mittens fit an average adult woman's hand and might stretch to fit larger hands. Both items are super warm! 

Candy Fish Bowl

This blog post features a craft my friend Erica and I made a while back. We decided to paint a glass candy bowl to look like a fish bowl and then finished the project by putting Swedish Fish inside the bowl. We found the small glass bowl at Dollar Tree.

To make this bowl, we only painted the outside so that the dried paint will never touch the fish inside. We used enamel glass paint, which can be found at any craft store or at Wal-Mart. Make sure you use paint designed for glass or ceramic and follow the instructions so that the paint sets on the glass and does not chip off.

I wanted the fish to be visible from both the inside and the outside of the bowl, so I had to paint the details first and then fill in the bodies. For example, for the clownfish, I painted the eyes and fin details first in black, then added the white stripes, and finally finished with the orange. Similarly, for the bottom of the bowl, we painted the crab and the starfish first before sponging on the brown for the sand. To finish the bowl, I added some iridescent blue glass paint to look like water.  

Of course, any candy bowl would not be complete without candy! For a finishing touch, we added the Swedish Fish.