Pa-DOW

I actually really liked what I'm wearing today, so figured I'd share:

At first glance, it's a little too neutral and dull looking but then PA-DOW!

The blue pops near my face completely lit up my eyes. Yeah for that.

And I kinda love wearing this vest, although I never feel quite right when I wear it with anything other than off-white. If you're reading...got any other ideas?

-b-

Craft time

I went on a huge crafting spree a week or so ago and never got around to posting. I made so many fun little things…with Halloween coming up, there were a lot of skulls.

These are earrings I made for each of the girls that came to my pumpkin carving night.

I have extras …want a pair? Shoot me an email at ramurray{at}hotmail.com with your address.

I made these for myself (hey I already have a pair of the skull only). I made a big circle using wire, then went back over it with a thinner wire and smaller beads. They are pretty fun earrings (clickable for closeup).
I also made these skull earrings. The skulls are carved wooden beads.


A NON-Skull item is this beautiful pearl necklace.

I loved the color of these, not too light and not too dark purple. I made this for a girlfriend that just announced her pregnancy. It’s too early to know if she’s having a girl or boy, so I thought I would give her something just for her as a mom. Moms deserve to look pretty and I thought the purple would compliment her skin.

Before my trip to Florida, I made one of these necklaces for each girl. You may recall this necklace is hanging from my dining room light!

The beads around the light were originally in 5 strands (one for each girl) when I decided that they would look good combined and hung from the light.

I came back a week later and made 5 new necklaces. I love these glass beads. They were super inexpensive from Joannes (I think $5 for a one POUND bag and then it was buy 1 get 1 or something like that). They make great necklaces b/c no two beads are the same and at least one bead in the necklace will pick up colors from your outfit. No brainer jewelry!

Remember to let me know about the skull earrings. I don't know how many pairs I had leftover or what colors, but I'll send what I have.

-b-

Team Spirit

My husband and I have been following the Houston Dynamo for the last couple of years and finally got season tickets for the 2009 season. We've loved it and actually just renewed our season passes for next year. Today was an important game with a sweet giveaway (scarf!) and so I trudged out ... even though I was going alone...hubby is traveling for work.

What's a girl to do? Take a photo before heading out!

Here is what I wore to Today's game:




It was raining for the last day and I went in full rain gear. Which worked out well, until the rain let up. Then I was a super sweaty hot mess...holy moley it was muggy today. I got the giveaway scarf, but don't think I'll be wearing it anytime soon.


Here's a close up of my earrings:




They are painted bottle caps & glitter! haha, they move around a ton when I'm cheering.

We didn't WIN win today, but we tied and that got us into the first round for the MLS championships. Yippee


-b-

Adornment

Everything needs to feel pretty. Like my super ugly, heat-radiating dining room light.

It got fancied up this weekend with it's own necklace thanks to a 1lb bag of glass beads:

The other table accoutrement were also new for the weekend (thanks for the runner & candles World Market).



When I waiting in traffic yesterday I saw this adorned truck:



And since I had my camera out, thought I'd show my own adornment.
I LOVE these cute little earrings:





Boy, that is some ratty looking hair! I booked an appt, but the only time that was convenient for me and open is in 1.5 weeks. oh well, what's another week or two?


later


-b-

Torquoise and Earrings

I spent last Thursday night at the bead shop crafting things. I made two necklaces, this is one of them. It's another knotted necklace. I liked the combo of turquoise with purple. I wore it on Friday...but it's tough to tell from the one photo I took that day.

I'm wearing it again today with my all over pink outfit.

The lighting is doing me no justice, but you get the point: this necklace goes with a lot of colors.

Do you see what else I'm wearing? Probably not, I need to zoom in....

More zoom? yep, more.

These are the earrings I selected for my winnings at Work With What You've Got. I love them! They are super light but big and dangly. Check out her Etsy shop LoveErinDesigns

-b-

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-

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-