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-

Fakey McFakerson

A girlfriend of mine recently had a birthday party where she asked everyone to wear black, white or red (don't get me started on bday party requests, or we'll never move on)....I obliged by wearing a black top, black capris, and self-made Louboutins...

Painting my $10 payless shoes

(I love that there is a creepy hand in the newspaper advertisement grabbing the heel...)

Afterwards

The shoes came out pretty well, but in an extra homemade move the paint was almost completely peeled off by the end of the night. ha! Good thing it was dark!

I think I will scrub it off to wear the shoes next time. The shoes were surprisingly comfortable for cheapO shoes.


Even better than the shoes was my cool necklace. I wish I could say that I made it, but I just bought this one (I suppose it's something I could make but I didn't have the time that afternoon)My cool necklace:

It's a little tough for me to pull off, since I think it requires the wearing of something low cut. But maybe next time I'll try it with the opposite and wear a full shirt/tank top with it. That might work too, huh?

-b-

seriously?

I get daily emails from 6pm.com about their deals of the day and while I normally peak and move along, today's caught my eye.

Trina Tarantino on sale. Never heard of her, but in case you haven't noticed - I'm kinda of a collector of the costume jewelry so a sale on accessories catches my eye.

Holy bejebus, the stuff on sale was pretty eh, but most noticeably pretty GD expensive. I consider myself an amateur beader, but really, I can do this.

Here are some examples:

Barbie heart bracelet for $56. There are some swarovski crystals and glass pearls, but $56 as a sale price seems excessive for something you could throw together from thrift store barbie bits.

Toyko Hardcore hoop earrings for $40. Not bad, actually I think they are pretty cute and might copy the design - but I'm not sure how they are $40. Maybe it's the crystal?

Buddha necklace was the most offensive to me. $112. I can make that for ya in about 30mins, and the only unique component I see is the buddha (hidden in this photo, but check it out on the link).

So, what am I missing? I can see that the pieces are creative, but I wouldn't say that it's anything above work being sold on Etsy. The materials are nice, but not spectacular.

I don't get it...cute, but too pricey!

-b-

clearly

I was inspired by these....

From Bloomingdales

From Lord & Taylor





From Saks (which I'm having a hard time linking, but promise it's there)



and made this...


I thought the chickens added a nice touch, you?

-b-

Whole lotta handmade

I think I made this two weeks ago, and can't believe that I didn't post it right away since I was so excited about it: I made a necklace with beads that my aunt made for me.


The beads are awesome and each one is slightly different. They were tough for me to photograph, but they are a metallic gray with rainbow sheens of color.


My aunt does a lot of (usually) artsy fartsy stuff with clay/ceramics. She makes all kinds of pieces: vases, wall hangings, mugs, photograph frames, magnets, etc. I've been the benefactor of some of the creations, and while I love them, this is my favorite.

yippee for handmade!
-b-

Imitation artist

Check it out:
Ann Taylor Necklace that retails for $58
My version

Worse Photo, but Better Price (around $10 in supplies with leftover material)

woot woot

-b-

Recent Necklaces

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been making more ribbon necklaces…

This one is for my mom as part of her Christmas gift. I used the black ricrac that I used before with some more big plastic beads. I love it with the black & blue!

This one is for my sister. She usually dresses pretty preppy and if she could, I’m sure would spring for Lily Pulitzer. This pink & green together remind me of that style:

This is one I made just for me! Hehe..


NO ribbons, just attached a bunch of things together. I love it and want to make another like this! I’m keeping my eyes open for the cheapy rhinestone necklaces at stores. It really works in this combination and has just enough sparkle to dress up an outfit.


I don’t think I’ll have time this week, but next week, I’m hoping to make some in the vein of Ann Taylor like these:
Click here for link

Link

LInk

That's a lot of necklaces for one day, but there really are a lot of fun ideas floating in my head right now....I look forward to some time to create.

-b-

Ribbon Necklace: Round Two

Another ribbon necklace:

My favorite part is the hidden clasp. I'm wearing the necklace today and with the bow tied in the back, you can't see the clasp. yea!

I LOVE it and while purchasing the supplies got to hear some awesome employee bickering at Joanne’s. It was pretty funny, I guess one employees kids were pranking the store phone every 3 minutes and the other employee was flipping out…I’m not sure how long it’d been going on, but he was getting pretty amped up about the whole thing. They were arguing at the registers and in the small store, you could hear everything. I bet those kids got in a heap of trouble that night!

-b-

ribbon + bead = new necklace!

I’m starting to really like all the different ribbon-y necklaces and bracelets that I’m seeing in stores and magazines. After going through a Harpers Bazaar at the YMCA this week, I decided to try making my own.

This is my first stab:

This black ricrac ribbon was purchased with the intent of decorating Halloween pumpkins, but never got used. I think it worked pretty well with the white plastic beads. I bought those a while ago, but couldn’t think of what to do with them without them looking cheap.

I basically sewed the beads to the ribbon and added a chain – not too hard at all! The only difficult part was sewing the bead in at a good point, if it was too tight or too loose, then the ribbon didn’t lay right across the bead and that is what I was going for with the ricrac.

I didn't follow any instructions to this, but if you're a visual person - I stumbled accross a blog with instructions - Samster Mommy. She has some instructions here for a similar necklace.

Check out this beaded necklace (also with instructions).

Now you know what to do with that ribbon! Get to it!

-b-

More shells

Check it out - more non-nautical shell necklaces:

There will be earrings, oh yes, there will!

-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-

Non-nautical shells

After reading a post by Punkystyle, I was inspired to make my own Alex & Chloe style necklace.

Here is mine from afar:
And Close up

I love it. It looks a little dark, but still comes across as an organic piece of jewelry. While in St. Pete, I picked up a lot of little shells and will probably make a couple more necklaces. Or maybe earrings?


I think I will try other colors with the next ones. Right now I’m thinking of hot pink and gray with glitter!

-b-

Shark tooth necklace

I’m wearing my heart/shark tooth necklace that I made. I think the center bead is supposed to be a heart, but it reminded me of collected shark teeth at the springs as a kid.

Photo from Travelpod

We used to love going to the springs as kids. It was seriously the best.thing.ever. The water was super cold but it was so hot outside. Sometimes we tubed Rock Springs, sometimes we canoed or swam at Wekiva Springs. If we were swimming around, we’d root around the bottom to find shark teeth. We always took them home and tried to do something with them. Wekiva Springs, from http://floridanature.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/so-you-want-to-be-a-nature-writer/

Rock Springs, from Orange County webpage

People, I'm telling you that these photographs weren't doctored. That is how these places look. Lush, green, and just bursting with beauty!

There were always lots of baby red-eared slider turtles swimming around the edges of the water near the plants. This is kinda bad, but we would take a couple home at the beginning of the summer and keep them in an aquarium and then return them to the springs at the end of the summer when they were a little bigger. I remember a girlfriend in high school thinking that it was pretty odd, but it was a pretty normal summer thing for us.

If you were canoeing you were guaranteed to see an alligator or two or three (eep). About ten years ago, I saw a HUGE one chillaxing in someone’s yard that backed up to the springs. Dude slide into the water right before we were set to go by. Scared the bejesus out of me.

Picnics and/or grilling were required pieces of the summer springs puzzle. We used to get so tired swimming or canoeing around. I remember sitting at picnic benches and on blankets being pooped out and eating sandwiches from our cooler.

My mom recently went to Rock Springs with my sister and her family and I can’t tell you all how jealous I was when I saw the photographs. My 7 year old nephew was floating down and I remember being that kid!

So – that makes this my shark tooth necklace.

-b-

PS: Now have an intense sense of urgency that to purchase photographs of Wekiva & Rock Springs.

Necklaces and red lips

I had a party a couple of weeks ago, and overheard a girlfriend talking about my bathroom (that tiny little thing) and the heaps of necklaces I had in there. I, of course interrupted, and said "What are you talking about, I don't think it's a lot. Plus that isn't my entire collection. There are more. Much much more...."

Turns out that she took a photo of that set of my necklaces and included it in her party pics album.

It's at a weird angle, but really, it doesn't seem excessive to me at all. There are 12 hooks on each holder and I bet each hook has between 2-4 necklaces. I mean, I wear a necklace everyday, I need variety. right?

Plus, I end up making most of them ... so it counts as both entertainment and fashion (like that rationalization?) Here's a peek at my supplies.






I was organizing my stuff last weekend and think it might be wise to lay off the bead buying for a couple weeks (at least). Otherwise I'll have to buy more containers. I'm already up to 8 and they are pretty chock full of fun stuff!

____________
Unrelated: I busted out some red lipstick this week. I never wear red, and will admit that this particular color was from the NYC makeup collection ($0.99). It was pretty fun to wear it and I may actually purchase a decent red lipstick. This one didn't stay on long and was really drying on my lips. I thought the color was pretty though. Here's a ubiquitous lipstick photo:









Hope you have a great weekend. We're gearing up for rain, Rain, RAIN! in the Houston area. It could be deluge...good thing I still have a library book and some Netflix at home.

-b-

Bottle Caps

For the last couple weeks I've been trying out a new (to me) charm: re-fashioned bottle caps. It's a lot of fun, I have an excuse to drink beer, I get to smash stuff with hammers, glue whatever designs I want onto them, and then use a bunch of glitter. Really, it's probably the most fun craft EVER. Here are some of my caps:

Before


After

Tough to tell, but the two caps on this necklace have Atlas holding up the world.

I've been sneaking these caps off the table while enjoying at the bar. I'm glad no one has noticed me grabbing caps and putting them in my pockets or purse. I have a little collection growing - much more than are shown in the photos.

It's the friday before a long wkd, and I gotta be honest - I'm just not up for the work thing today. ugh. But, I'm going to put in my headphones and chug along. One day, I can do it, right?

-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-