Magazine inspiration: Shells!

I was flipping through a recent Instyle magazine and these caught my eye.

They are made & sold through the Melissa Joy Manning webpage - though I can't find them there at all. Maybe they were special order made? No clue.

ME upon seeing earring: "adorable, I can make that. Easy, peasy"

sure....

I tried and below is the pair I made. It was actually a lot more difficult than it seemed. This is one of those projects that is super easy and quick for those that already know how to do it, but figuring it out on my own took a while (well over an hour of arguing with shells). The tough part was getting three shells to line up properly. It's a good thing that I didn't want the earrings to be larger because that work would've tested my patience!

This is my strand of shells before de-construction.

(that photo turned out horrible here, but I swear it looked okay when I viewed it)

After a lot of time, some colorful language, and changing materials (wire to embroidery string) - the earrings were complete

I now have a fun pair of summer earrings. It's a shame that it's August and summer will be ending, but I'm in Houston (hot until November) and I have a feeling that they will reappear next summer too!

PS: I've never heard of Melissa Joy Manning until that article and I have to admit that they have interesting stuff on their site. It's not cheap, but it's definitely interesting.

-b-

Who's the Big Winner? ME

Woohoo I just found out that I won a loverly prize from Erin at Work with What You've Got

I've won a $35 credit towards her Etsy store. Now the hard part: picking something out. Here are my favorites:

Decisions...

Decisions...

I don't have anything like these pieces and each would make a super addition!

Thanks so much Erin!!!

-b-

Shopamo

Sometimes I get into moods where I just want to BUY BUY BUY. I'm there right now and here are some items calling my name:

Benefit Coralista http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P229206&categoryId=B70:

I was stuck in a Sephora store for well over an hour last week. This blush was my favorite out of testing at least 10 others. I'm pretty stingy when it comes to makeup, so I'm having a tough time justifying a $28 blush. Am I silly, should I just get it or find a sub?

Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! Everything is on sale!

I recently bought a pair of peep toe, snake skin heels and today I saw these http://www.ninewest.com/Mane/3083204,default,pd.html?cgid=526934&itemNum=100

I want these too!

Houston is having a crazy dry summer, but that doesn't stop me from wanting the most adorable rain shoes ever: http://www.6pm.com/product/7248939/color/68150

Great, fun, interesting jewelry:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5887895

Another Purse with this fabric: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23721673

I kinda already have one purse that is with another color combination of this fabric. it's a messenger style bag, but I'd like a clutch too.

I'll take this opportunity to plug the Etsy store that made my bag (since I'm using it today). I got it last year. Charmdesign made it quickly, at the right price and it's held up awesome!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16633

That's me today...loads of unintentional khaki. It's unbelievably cold in my office and the sweater is one of several "office sweaters". Not great, but matches a lot of outfits and is thrown on to ward off frostbite.

These are some of my wants...maybe I'll save up a little and get the blush. That's probably number one on the list today.

geez louise...blogger is fighting me on the formatting today! I've been trying to get an organized layout on this post and can't get the spacing right. forgive?

-b-

update

I got a couple responses from my evite, and people are enthused about the tacky theme for a birthday bbq. yeah.

Party Planning

My birthday is coming up. I've always been one of those brats that likes my birthday to be 'special'. Since it's a big one this year* I figured I'd throw a bbq party at my house. But now I'm a little nervous. This party has a theme.

It's tacky...it's a white trash birthday bash. I know, but it rhymes and that is fun by itself. Plus, this way I won't feel pressured to buy fancy/hip food & drinks. It invites low-key.

These are things I'm thinking of:

Cans of beer

Playing Washers

http://www.originalwashers.com/carpeted-washer-toss-game-set.shtml

Eating bad for me, but yummy food:

http://www.amazon.com/White-Cooking-Jargon-Ernest-Mickler/dp/0898151899#

(seriously, I'm a little tempted b/c I'm sure there will be tasty ideas for the grill. Or I could just call my mom, I suppose thats an option too. She never met a recipe that couldn't be enhanced by more butter or ground beef.)

And wearing my jean shorts.

I tried in vain to convince people that these were indeed back in style and no one believed me. I've received the nickname of jorts for my support of these particular shorts. They are a little tacky, but what better way to use jeans that I'm not wearing anymore? Plus, it's hot in Houston, vanity goes out the window with 100+ temps and 90% humidity. {side note, I'll say it: This is a fab photo of me. I have a bosum and tiny waist. Another reason to like these particular shorts, they are magical}

I just sent the Evite - it's a month early, but it seems like there are already a couple things going on in August and I'd like folks to partake with me. I hate the time right after invitations go out.

What if people don't wanna/ can't come over that night?

What if people don't wanna play with my theme? This one requires at least some participation (bandanas, flip flops, Wbeaters, trying the boone's farm, etc)...

AND Music! I kinda want one of those monsters of rock power ballad cds now. You know, the one from the commercial that you make fun of, but know every word to? Music tends to set the tone for a party and I really want people to have a silly fun time.

Good think I'm planning early .. my mind is a-spinning!

-b-

**I guess it's a milestone. I turn 30. It seemed like a really big deal 5 years ago and now I'm kinda meh about the whole thing. I thought I would feel all moopy about the impending birthday, but I'm ready. 30 seems like a much better age than 20. I know stuff now and I have a better idea of what's important and what's just a distraction. **

Blueberry Pie

I have the best neighbors ever. These lovelies watch our pets when we leave town...and they do it with LOVE. They make sure that each kittie gets petted and loved on each time they were checked on. They turn our porch light on at night and off in the morning. They cleaned kitty litter, even when we set out a bunch of boxes to avoid such an icky chore.

AND they brought me back 5 lbs of blueberries on their recent trip to Michigan. I wasn't sure what to do with such a large quantity, but a pie seemed in order.

This was my first attempt at a pie and I was super excited that I didn't fail. It was a ridiculously each recipe (seriously, it's like add some sugar, flour, and lemon to a premade crust), but I think I can still claim homemade. It was perfection. Ooey and gooey, with ripe bursting blueberries. The pie pan couldn't contain the tastiest and the pie overflowed (good thing I had another pan underneath).

I ate two pieces yesterday and plan to eat more this afternoon/evening. Mr. Moto ate a piece last night and once again for breakfast (blueberries are part of a healthy diet, yes?)

I froze some last night, but there is still a large amount left. I ate some with my cereal this morning and mixed them with other fruit for a snack at work. I thought about making jam, but haven't a clue on how to do that.

Any more ideas?

-b-

Mental Health Day

I took a mental health day recently with a good pal of mine and we had a super duper blast. We sipped coffee, thrifted, ate a turkish lunch, got stuck in Sephoria for 1.5 hours (rain), and then had a beer all by 5pm! It was a fantastic day and I got to fulfill a want: Swatch watch!




Recently, Sal at Already Pretty http://www.alreadypretty.com/2009/07/already-prettypoll-back-to-future.html posed the question of what trends we'd like to relive. My vote was for swatch watches, they came in fun colors, were waterproof, and even had accessories (those little face protectors).



I've looked into buying a new one, but sheesh, they are $55. I guess that isn't too much if you're wearing it often, but I just wanted a silly weekend watch with color. $55 was too much.




On my mental health day I found a swatch. For $12! In its original case! I was pretty pumped. I got a battery today and am proudly wearing it.





BUT I can't take a photo for you today. I don't have my camera cord with me right now to show off my cool watch. Below is what it looks like, you'll have to pretend to see it on my wrist (worst.post.ever.)

Image from http://www.antiquorum.com

ha! I just saw it on Ebay for $40. yeah for mental health days!

-b-

Tie-Dye

I've been digging on the Tie-Dye trend BIG TIME this summer. It's fun to make and seriously fun to wear. I was happy in the winter when I saw magazines proclaiming a come back, although I think I would've worn it anyways.

I recently had girlfriends over for a super fun ultra girly "Tie-Dye and Twilight" night. We tie-dyed and as our stuff was chilling in dye baths, we watched Twilight. This was pretty much like a sleepover (girl talk, food, crafts, boys, icecream, giggling) - without the sleepover part.

Here is what we did:

Got everything wet with the hose

We rubber-banded in all sorts of different designs and plunked it into a color.

Then rinsed, rinsed, rinsed everything.

Here are some of the results:

My new favorite Tshirt! It's already heavy into my weekly rotation.

I found nice plain cotton bags at Walmart a couple weeks ago for $3 and dyed them all sorts of colors. I think I have at least 6 or 7 of them. Unfortunatly, I only photographed the blue one. go figure. Again, these are in heavy rotation for trips to the pool, library, and think I'll try grocery next week.

A little tough to tell, but that is a pink shirt that I dyed. I wore it to work and tempered it down with a rather boring cardigan. But, it's proof that tie-dye and work can go together.

I used Dylon brand dye that I bought at Walmart, but I've also seen in at Joannes. Not too expensive, I think both stores were selling it for 2-3 dollars. So far, none of my stuff has faded or got onto other clothing in the wash.

I didn't photograph it, but I also overdyed a denim skirt the pink color. It came out really well, it started as a dark denim, so now it has a tint/sheen of pink.

This has proved to be a super fun way to enliven clothing I already have but am bored of. Try it out and have fun.

-b-

Always, never, sometimes....

I read someone's else list like this and dug it, so I'm going to do one today:

I always:
1. Read the comics in the morning.
2. Talk to dogs, cats, and babies in that annoying baby-talk style. I know it's ridiculous. I can't help it.
3. Try to send birthday cards. Real ones. Not texts, not emails. Cards with stamps
4. Lay out my clothes the day before, ever since grade school and uniforms.
5. Listen to music at my desk.
6. Miss seeing my sister and her kiddos.


I sometimes:
1. Have a tough time remembering things. Not certain things - everything. Not on purpose. I've been trying to figure out if I'm really that rude or really that flighty. It seems to come in waves, like I'll do it for a week or two and then follow up with being really 'on my game' .
2. Crave diet coke and/or Diet Dr. Pepper. I tried to stop drinking it a year or so ago, but still really want it. Most weeks I avoid it.
3. Call Mr. Moto my lovebunny. It's digustingly cute, but I like to say it.
4. Get overexcited about seeing people or doing certain things and end up a little spazzy.
5. Revel in being home alone and othertimes dread it.
6. Get so tired from soccer after evening games that I just go to sleep dirty. I usually feel all kinds of stank in the morning.

I never:
1. Get the pancakes right.
2. Like to look at my bank account, even when I know there is money (b/c then I'll def. want to buy something)
3. Was a picky eater. I try to eat right, have been on local/organic kicks, and get stuck in ruts, but really I'll eat almost anything.
4. Wanted to stay in Texas, but here I am and I'll admit that it's grown on me.
5. Sleep naked. I was recently told by girlfriends that I'm nuts, but what if you have to run out of your house in the middle of the night? You have to being wearing knickers.
6. Knew that supposibly wasn't a word until my coworker pointed it out. I've gone my entire life sounding like a dolt and no one told me?

YOU?

-b-

Crazy Cat Lady: History & Jewelry

I never even had a choice - I was born to be a cat lady.

My grandmother bred and showed siamese cats for decades. My sister and I used to work at the shows when we were kids. We'd go around and clean all the holding cages between judging rounds. A lot of the cats would get upset/stressed, and um, spray. But we didn't mind because they paid us a whole $10/day and we got to pet the nice ones!!! We were very cheap and enthusiatic labor.

My mom breeds siamese, but not for show. When I was young she bred apple-headed siamese. Now she breeds a cross between traditional siamese and apple-heads.

She is a crazy cat lady....as in she likes to wear kitty themed jewelery. I've been making necklaces, earrings, bracelets for a year or so now and she really wanted me to make her something with kitties. So she bought about 16 glass cat charms. She doesn't want to keep all to herself, she wants to give these trinkets to folks that take one of kitties home.

I accepted the challenge of multiple kitty-themed pieces and below are a portion of the results:

In all, I think I've made about 10 different items because some of the glass kittties were broke when my mom mailed them to me and things like earrings take up two cat heads. I'm mailing the completed project back to her this weekend and I'm going to bubble wrap them up.

Here is my cat, Borris aka bobo, demanding attention during all the mayhem.

I like to think that he appreciated my first 'collection' of jewelry.

-b-

Toes!

As I've been cruising the internets, I've been collecting all sorts of fabulous ideas for beauty, crafts, and fashion. I got my latest idea as a combination of things these two ladies are doing:

The Bargainista
http://cheapfashionblog.blogspot.com/

and

Bargain Princess

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jld7ZsT76Q&feature=channel_page__

Both have really great ideas for funky nail polish.

*warning photo of toes to follow, if you're anti-foot you may want to skip this post*

These are the polishes I used:

And here is the result:

Pretty cute for summer, huh? At first I didn't use the light pink shade and instead had the darker pink. BUT, the darker pink kinda blended in with the orange and you couldn't tell there were stripes.

I don't have a very steady hand, and I can't imagine doing this on several nails due to the unnatural amount of concentration required. But for two nails, it was do-able.

-b-

Lips!

I'm a real sucker for all types of lip products: glosses, stains, sticks, balms, you name it and I will probably have 5+ in my purse. So I had to try the new Covergirl Outlast Lipstain.
http://www.covergirl.com/products/product.jsp?productId=outlast_lipstain

I bought this Coy Coral at Walgreens for around 7 bucks and tested it out. At first it seemed pricey for Covergirl, but I really like it and thought I'd share the results.

*heehee I'm making some kind of face in the last pic*

It looked fantastic after lunch and was still kicking 6hrs after application. It looks like a sharpie marker and pretty much applies as you'd expect a sharpie to. Pretty easy stuff, though I'd recommend a mirror.

I'm impressed with the product, although a little glum about my absolute lack of natural lipcolor.

-b-

New Perspective

How are you with glasses? I go back and forth. Sometimes I wear my contacts everyday and sometimes I just wear my glasses. I seem to have eye wear moods.

Lately, I've been wearing a pair that I bought at least 4 years ago. The Rx is a little old, but I like the style of the glasses. A year ago, I bought new glasses and promptly hated them. They had the thick plastic side pieces which did look cool, but darn it if my head isn't cockeyed. Those stupid things never were straight on me. I was constantly fidgeting and trying to get them to line up properly.

So, I've been wearing the old pair AND lately I've been having insano headaches. I think an outdated Rx and computer glare is to blame. I broke down last week and bought new glasses. My insurance wouldn't cover it since I already bought contacts, so this was kinda spendy for me.

The new pair are supposed to be super cool with anti-glare magic on them. It's tough to tell from the photograph, but they are a navy blue metal frame. Fairly light & comfortable. And really, not too different in style from the old pair.

Here's a comparison.

Darn, I think my labeling turned out too small. Next time....

I think I like them....I'll use the work week as my test run on the fancy antiglare abilities.

-b-

Georgia peach_part deux

I'm back from a super de duper weekend spent in the Georgia Mountains. I can't gush about it enough. It was fantastic. The weather was perfect, our cabin looked just like the internet photographs, and there were loads of fun activities! To top it all: very reasonable! We cooked almost every meal and split between 8 people that was insanely cheap despite our best efforts to eat and drink more than humanly possible.

I don't have all my pics together, but here are a few.

That wasn't my best photograph, but wanted to show you the necklace I made. There were 4 women this wkd and I made one for each of us. The necklaces were all very similar, but each person had a different little animal in the center. Mine was a butterfly and there was a ladybug, turtle, and dove.

Hmm...my next project?

This was hung above a toilet.

-b-

Georgia peach

I'll be out of town for a couple days kids, so behave and I promise to return with some pics and some stories....

D'oh!

Well, it finally happened. I lost one of my library CDs. I've torn up my car, my office, and home stereo. This CD is bad luck for multiple reasons:

1. I owned this CD at one time, but it was in my radio when my radio was stolen from my car a couple years ago.

2. I have now lost the library copy. They are going to make me pay about $30 to replace it. The crummy part is that the library copy was pretty scratched up and I couldn't listen to the last couple songs on the album.

3. I brought some other music into the office today and one is a non-labeled CD. Guess which CD...

THE SAME ONE!

I must've burned it years ago before it was stolen out of my car so that my husband could have a copy. I didn't even need to bother with checking it out from the library.

GRRRR...one of those days for sure.

-b-

Holiday weekend fun

This weekend was both super busy and super relaxing. I love that about a long weekend, you actually have enough time to get things done, have fun, and relax a little.

Mr. Moto played dirt bike, while I played jewelry (is it odd that we have such sex-defined hobbies?).

I did some major necklace making throughout the weekend. I didn't take pictures of everything, but here is a sampling.

The earrings were the easiest and my favorite. I made 12 pairs and brought them to the July 4th party as favors for all the chicas. They were either a big hit, or my friends are fantastic liars. Either way, everyone traded out thier earrings for some dangly stars. I have a couple leftover stars and am trying to think of something else that I can create with them. Ideas?

-b-

Unicorns

What is running through your brain? Lately for me it's unicorns. And rainbows.

I've scoured Etsy for bags & tshirts with them: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=handmade&search_query=unicorn&order=date_desc&ship_to=

And Amazon (Megu Purse in Black Multi Unicorn by Yak Pak)

I've made a necklace:

I have a clear desire to adorn myself with them....they make me giggle.

-b-

(hmmm....that was tough to photograph, any hints on jewelry photos?)

Who knew?

I love these shoes!

And guess what? They're "Reba" as in the country singer. I didn't realize she had a collection of clothing, let alone shoes. http://www.rebawear.com/

I'm sure that might knock me down a peg on the badass ladder, but seriously these are fantastic shoes. Great retro T-strap style and I love the two color tone. Best part? They are comfortable. Reba is a freaking genius....

I found mine at ghetto Dillards. Do you have these? They act as clearance centers for the area Dillards. http://www.dillards.com/sec/StoreHomePageServlet?storenumber=0609

The one in Houston is the first floor of an old Dillards in a fairly dilapidated mall. I've had people ask me for money while in the store. not cool.

BUT, they have fantastic deals. Everything is marked drastically, and everyday there are different specials ($4.99 men's shirts, 40% women's dresses, etc....). It's completely hit or miss, but usually provides at least one fantastic deal. These shoes were my fab deal recently. Less than $20.

Go. Get thee to Dillards and trust your feet to country music stars!

-b-