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Of course this is not really a mind-blowing DIY idea. No, I’m not painting & repurposing IKEA kitchen cabinets into a Mid-Century Modern drawer set. Today, I’m going to share my little clever tech idea on how to make…AN EXTENSION CORD FOR THE IPAD!!! No need to bust out the champagne here. This is just a simple idea I stumbled upon one night when I was trying to charge my iPad AND use it while sitting in bed. The charger kept popping out because the cord was too short. The distance between the wall socket & my bed isn’t really that wide, but unless I’m sitting on the edge of my bed facing the wall, the cord is not going to reach the bed. Then, I had a “lightbulb moment” where I thought about merging my Macbook laptop charger with my iPad charger (Thank you, Apple for your interchangeable & USB plugs).
I’m not sure if this will work for ALL Apple products, but this worked in my situation.
- I am using a standard 2010 Macbook charger & an iPad 2 charger with a flathead USB cord.
- For the laptop charger, remove the laptop piece of the plug & keep the long wall plug-in. Then, for the iPad charger, remove the wall plug-in & keep the iPad piece.
- Connect the long wall plug-in to the iPad piece & Ta-Da! You just made an extension cord for your gadget.
This isn’t the next great invention. You won’t see me on the TV show Shark Tank hocking my new idea. This is just a simple DIY project I wanted to share because I never thought of mixing & matching my gadget chargers to make one long extension cord. Maybe this idea might work on other gadget chargers. We’ll see… Until then, cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
“I Wanna Get Better” by Bleachers
I just discovered this crazy awesome new radio App called Rio Radio, & I am completely obsessed with it! I am so in love with this App that I put it on both my iPhone & my iPad. This App streams popular Brazilian music (some straight from local Sao Paulo radio stations, complete with commercials), & also streams popular Bossa Nova, Jazz & Samba music.
Lately, I’ve just been on this extreme Brazilian everything spree. I have been practically binging on all things Brazil. For example, I recently bought the Blu-Ray DVD of one of my all-time favorite movies: RIO, & I have been playing this movie on repeat everyday. I’ve also been listening to Brazilian Pop music non-stop (even when I’m working out at the gym) even though I don’t understand a lick of Portuguese! Well, I do somewhat understand the universal Spanish words, but I don’t understand any of the traditional Portuguese words. Although, I do find the language very interesting (& sounds very close to French)!
I’ve also been dreaming a lot lately of visiting Rio de Janeiro. I’ve been playing around with the idea of visiting Rio for my honeymoon vacation…but the only thing that’s holding me back from taking the plunge to go there is the safety concern. I’ve been reading up on a lot of travel guides & tourism board websites, & all the resources say that right now is not really safe for tourists to travel to Brazil. I’ve even had a former boss that visited Sao Paulo in mid 2011 for a business trip, & he had to travel around town with a personal driver & a bodyguard. I know that sounds like a totally extreme case, but his experience really makes me think twice about traveling to my fantasy destination until the tourist safety situation improves.
Anyway…enough about my Brazilian obsession. I am also listening to my (usual) favorite Bossa Nova & Jazz music on the Rio Radio App. I really love this App, except for the tiny little bug in the App where it’ll sometimes shut-off by itself…but otherwise, I am smit-ten! Que é tão surpreendente. <— copied from Google Translate.
I really have no clue how to sew anything. I can’t even operate that As Seen On TV Stitch Quick hand-held sewing thingy let alone a full-fledged sewing machine. The least I know is how to use a simple needle & thread. The best I can do is mend a hole in a pair of socks, or fix up a tear in a shirt. I can just barely stitch in a semi straight line.
This is my first REAL attempt at making my own personalized iPad case, complete with padding & an inner-lining.
My very first attempt at making my own DIY style iPad case ended up in a tragic disaster. I didn’t follow any type of tutorial, guideline, or sheet pattern. I just used the fabric I had purchased & was supposed to make something for my niece, & I just made up my own steps as I went along. Instead of going the easy & much more professional-looking route by sewing the fabric, I had decided to get creative by using no-sew iron-on fabric tape. I thought this would help me cut a corner in having to do any sewing. Well, let’s just say that after all the cutting & fabric tape ironing etc. etc. etc., I ended up needing to do some sewing after all. I had to sew the seams together because even though the package claimed the tape to be long-lasting, I didn’t want to run the risk of the stuff coming unglued. The biggest mistake I made was not properly measuring & cutting the fabric before doing all the nipping & tucking, so my iPad case ended up being a little too baggy & bulky. The end result? Let’s just say a 4th grade elementary student could do better than this:
my first attempt at a sewing project. don't judge me. -__-
On my next attempt, which I’d like to call it my first “real” attempt at making a good quality DIY style iPad case, I actually followed an online sewing tutorial. Rather than follow the tutorial line-by-line, I improvised on a few of the steps. The end result, I think, looks pretty darn good. It’s still not quite Cut & Sewn quality, but it’s still very durable & clean looking for a casual iPad case. Even though sewing is not my best skill by a long shot, I’m still very impressed that I managed to pull a rabbit out of this dusty ol’ hat.
This is the online tutorial I used: http://www.creativekristi.com/freebie-friday-sew-you-own-ipad-case-pattern.html
This is the shop where I buy all of my fabrics: http://www.peapodfabrics.com
Rabbits & Foxes 
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