DIY Mini Kids Table

If you're anything like me, you want all these cute things but sometimes that price tag just doesn't cut it. I have been wanting to get our two year old her own little table. I see all these cute Pintrest ideas for the modern tables but I refuse to pay over $100+ for something I want to redo anyway. Lucky for me, my mom saved the day. 

 I am an avid lover for thrift shop furniture. You can't beat the prices and you'd be surprised of the finds that you can redo. My mom called me and said she found some steps at one and came up with the idea of turning it into a small table. My initial thought, "Oh gosh! What is the woman thinking?! That is not going to work!" She picked them up anyway and I must say, mom was right again. It turned out so cute! 

stairs= $3

 paint= Free (found a can in the garage along with everything else I needed :)) 

sand paper= $2

paint brush= $1

So here is what I started with. I was able to picture it a lot more once I started working with it. And please ignore the gorgeous garage floor. That would be the mess from my other pintrest attempt currently going on with an antique dinette set. 

I sanded it down really well to make sure she wouldn't get any splinters and broke out my tack cloth to do my final wipe down. I definitely recommend keeping those on hand if you are a renovator. They are about a $1 at Walmart. Once I sanded it down, I threw on some paint. I probably would have gone with a bright yellow but we had this pretty blue left over from my son's nursery. Plus, her favorite color so win win! 

Starting to see it now?? Yes!! Now imagine some cute designs on it. 

I threw on 2 more layers of paint since the paint was so light. Picked up some wall art at Walmart for $1 and added them to give it that perfect touch for her and finally, a coat of polyurethane to seal it all up. And yes, you can actually use wall art. I was completely surprised but it says it can go on wood as well! 

The best thing about this is it's portable and light weight! Fits perfectly in her room but can easily bring it into the kitchen for lunch play dates.. or even outside. It also made me feel a lot better knowing she can't take a chair and climb up something. We know how creative kids can get. I would definitely call this one a hit! 

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Using Straight Talk on your unlocked iPhone 3GS

If you followed by earlier blog, I identified the steps I took to successfully jailbreak and unlock my iPhone 3GS. I am now using the unlimited $45 plan from Straight Talk on my iPhone. I will explain to you how I did this as well as give you the tools you need to do the same. You will be able to use Straight Talk to send texts and make calls prior to following these steps BUT you will not be able to send media or use internet out and about with Wi-Fi.


What you will need:
iPhone 3GS (unlocked)
Nokia E71 (activated with the sim card)
Wi-Fi

• You should not have to cut the sim card to fit this model iPhone. It will fit perfectly into the sim card tray.
  • If you are not sure how to open the tray, you can do this by holding the phone upright and finding a very small hole at the top. Your iPhone box should have came with a small tool but if you not have that, you can use safety pin or something small like that. Insert the pin into the small hole and it should pop pit.
• Go to the safari browser and type in http://unlockit.co.nz
  
• Hit continue and then custom APN- then hit at&t and click create profile
• Go back to the main screen and open the cydia app. I did have to buy an app. Think it was $2 or so. Search the app tether me and go ahead and get it.
• Go to settings, general, network, and then cellular data network and enter the following information:
  • Cellular Data
    • APN: att.mvno
    • Username:
    • Password:
  • MMS
    • APN: att.mvno
    • Username:
    • Password:
    • MMSC: http://mmsc.cingular.com
      
    • MMS Proxy: proxy.mvno.tracfone.com:80
    • MMS Max Size: 1048576
    • MMS UA Prof URL:

JAILBREAKING & UNLOCKING 101 (iPhone 3gs)

After reading many articles and watching tons of videos, I realized it became very confusing to understand the process on jailbreaking. Now before I get into all the steps I took, which allowed me to successfully jailbreak and unlock my iPhone, I want to let everyone know I am not some kind of tech pro. I can now use my AT&T iPhone 3gs on Straighttalk with full capabilities (minus the hefty price tag J ) This is not to say this is the only way or the best way but this is the route I took. I just want to share the steps so that others may have the opportunity to benefit as well.


What you will need?
*It is best to keep these programs on your desktop for easier access*

• sn0wbreeze-v2.9.1 exe
• redsn0w
• iPhone2.1 5.0 9A334 Restore.ipsw
• iTunes- updated
• iDetector

All of these links can be found at iJailbreak Downloads Section

First off, I will reiterate that I did this with an iPhone 3gs on IOS 5 with a 5.16.05 baseband. By the end, we will be on the 6.15.00 baseband. If you have an older IOS, that's fine because we can update it prior to jailbreaking. That can be done through iTunes. I will post some links throughout the blog where you can access certain software you will need during the process. 


TAKE OUT THE SIM CARD PRIOR TO PROCEEDING! 

1. Make yourself familiar with the baseband and ios you are using now. You can access this information by going to settings>general>about. The baseband (modem firmware) is located at the bottom
2. Go to iDetector. We need to figure out if you are using the older or newer version. If you already know, then you can skip this step. Just follow the instructions (takes about 2 min.) We can also find the information by looking at the serial number. The last numbers in the first 5 will give you this information.
3. If you want to use redsn0w- use this step. Now we are going to preserve the baseband before unlocking. I do NOT recommend skipping this step. Go to redsn0w on your desktop and right click it. Make sure it is extracted from the zip file. You will want to right click it and go to properties and then compatibility. Click run as administrator and run this program in whatever mode is compatible with your computer. (ex. Mine was Windows 7)
4. Once in redsn0w, click extras, select IPSW, and click the restore file on your desktop. You should get a pop up box asking for the version. We identified this is step 1. Once it is identified, hit back and then click jailbreak. You will want to click Install Cydia and install ipad baseband. You can go ahead and put the phone into DFU mode if you know how, if not, it will guide you. I have attached a video link if you are still having trouble. Continue to follow the steps. If it did not work, you can repeat this step.
5. You can also use sn0wbreeze to unlock it. Preserve the baseband by uploading the link above to the stock IPSW. It will walk you through the process. If you plan to unlock it, I recommend using the expert option and clicking hactivate. If not, just click simple. When its done, go to iTunes and ok when it tells you the phone is in recover mode. Make sure you are on the setting where it identifies your phone to the left (ex. Tiffanys iphone). You will want to hold shift and click restore and then upload the IPSW that sn0wbreeze created for you. Should be on your desktop.
   
    **WARNING** Once you run the iPad baseband, you can never go back to the old one so make sure you want to make the commitment. It is said you may lose the ability to use GPS. 
   
    Video on DFU mode- http://johnsiphone.com/
   (uploaded by johnsiphone1 on Aug. 15, 2011)
   
    
   To continue on to unlocking: 
6. Go to Cydia on your phone (should look like an app) and open it. Click user (if you want to change it later, go to manage) and go to manage>sources and click edit. You want to add this repo http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com.   Be sure to select “Disable Location Services” when it pops up. You can also disable the location through the settings option. 
7. After it is installed, you should successfully be unlocked. Enjoy your new iphone! :)
   
    
   This is the general idea. I tried to do it step by step but I can only identify so many steps without doing it as I speak. If you have any trouble, I will try to help as much as possible. Check out my next blogs on trouble shooting and using straight talk with your newly jailbroken and unlocked iPhone.