Earring Organization

Well, well, well. One year without posts and here I am, breaking the streak.

Lots has been going in life, obviously. I'm finishing up medical school this May and finally going to be a DOCTOR. I start my training in Pediatrics this summer! In less than two months, I'm also GETTING MARRIED to truly the best man I know (and there will be a little DIY coming with that, believe you me).

But this is about crafting!

I just wanted to share this with you guys because I've never seen earrings stored quite like this. Putting chicken wire, or lace, or burlap in frames never really worked for me. They were all a bit too rustic, for lack of better words, for how I like to decorate.

I do, however, have a few of these scrolls hanging in my apartment:

It hit me when I saw these that I could imitate this style.

One trip to Michael's later and....

Pretty, no? I have been using this system for almost two years, and it's held strong for me. Hooks go near the top, hoops go on the edges (they of course also work really well on the bottom, and studs go near the bottom for easy unhooking.

Here's a slightly closer look at the top edge:

Also, this was almost laughably easy to make. I found a nice long piece of Aida cross-stitch canvas, a dowel (about 3/8" in diameter I believe), and red embroidery thread.

First I cut the dowel into two lengths, for the top and bottom. I pre-measured how many rows of canvas would be enough to make a casing for the dowels, then I back-stitched it in to emulate the look of a scroll. At the top, I also added a loop to hang it from.

Choose a spot, hammer in a nail (or hang a Command hook, whatever floats your boat), and put your earrings in. Done!

Thanks for reading, especially to those of you who used to follow my blog and remained faithful followers! Hopefully I'll poke my head in again soon to share some of my wedding DIYs with you!

- Annie

Statement Necklaces

Happy almost-May! I hope you all are well!

I've wanted to foray into jewelry-making before (anyone remember these?), but I was a bit limited by lack of tools and lack of inspiration.

Crafting confessions: I almost never wore either of these pieces. There are some times when you make something and you're just super-proud, but then a few days later you look again and realize it's...not that great. We've all been there.

But I'm actually reasonably certain that the necklaces I made this time will continue to be used! Score one victory for me!

The first I made was based on this tutorial. Absolutely gorgeous. I'd previously gone to Michael's and arbitrarily bought a couple strings of beads, being too silly to try and figure out how many I actually needed. Turns out, I had only purchased about half of what was necessary. But no matter, let's just shrink it down!

Shock and amazement, it actually turned out super pretty. (apologies for sad quality photos)

This used 28 beads instead of the 55 called for in the tutorial.

I was a little intimidated by having to use eye pins and head pins for the first time, but it was surprisingly easy. I need to get a second pair of pliers though. Pinching on to those jump rings kills the fingers!

The second necklace began as one of these super cheap "pearl" necklaces I'd bought for a buck each:

Using this tutorial as a guide, I started adding on a bunch of individual and doubled up beads (one head pin even has 3 beads on it...still deciding if I like it or not). Et voila!

So I'm pretty happy!

And then inspiration struck! Who ever said that even statement necklaces need to be worn alone?

I actually really like this combination, and I fully intend to wear these necklaces together someday! What do you guys think? Is this something you would try?

If any readers have been teetering on the fence about experimenting with jewelry-making, I totally recommend it. It's a lot easier than I was afraid it would be. Just make sure you have the right tools. :)

I'd love to hear any thoughts, opinions, and advice! Please share!

Thanks for reading!

-Annie

Commitment Day 13: Storage Solutions - Earrings, Rings, and Watches

Welcome to Day 13 of my 30 Days of Commitment Series! You can find the other posts in this series here.

This isn't quite what I had planned for today; I just found out that I don't have the photos that I thought I did, so that will have to wait. Instead, I'm continuing my series on how I store my oodles and oodles of stuff.

The champion of today's post is boxes. Boxes of any kind. Pretty ones saved from gifted jewelry, or candy, or laying around storing silly things like decorative silverware. Put those boxes to use!

As a recap, here is the "accessories corner" of my room.

When I was China, I saw these wire-framed, straw-wrapped, jewelry-holding doohickeys that I instantly knew I needed. To hang it, I tied a piece of embroidery floss around the wire at either side of the top "petal", then hung the whole thing over yet another Command hook. Don't be fooled, that thing is heavy with so much hanging from it.

But in the end, it really is oh-so-perfect for "hook" earrings.

It's roughly organized between metallics and non-metallics, as well as "big and dangly" vs. "small and delicate". This really helps me when I have an idea of what kind of earrings I want to pair with an outfit and don't feel like searching across this whole spread (it's surprisingly difficult to actually find the pair you want, even in such a small area).

My post earrings all live on the cart in two boxes. This one below holds the "fun" ones, ones that I am more likely to wear in a casual setting. The box itself used to hold one of my silver bracelets that is now hanging on the wall with its brethren.

See the snake one hanging from the lid of the box? That's an ear cuff, and I will definitely be wearing it when the opportunity comes. Super-cool.

Also note how, as much as possible, I try to keep my earrings paired by fastening one of them through the stopper of the other one.

The fancier post earrings I keep in this flower box. Remember the M&Ms teddy bear box from this post? This one also once held M&Ms.

Going clockwise from the bottom:

• The first compartment holds green-toned earrings. For some reason I have a lot of those.
• The second compartment holds my earrings that are primarily gold.
• The next two compartments hold vintage earrings that used to belong to my mom. They wreak havoc on my ears (I have a relatively sensitive nickel allergy) so these are reserved for special, short-term wears.
• The fifth compartment (it's kind of difficult to see) holds the dangly crystal-and-silver earrings.
• The sixth compartment holds my crystal and pearl studs. 
• The center holds any hoop-style earrings. Most of them are actually a perfect fit!

I rearrange these on a regular basis, as my collection changes frequently. Some time soon I will need to go through my earrings and put away the ones I don't usually wear.

Moving on to rings!

This box used to be just a box, and I would throw my rings in it willy-nilly. I finally decided I had enough and actually turned it into a real "ring box."

See the ribbon-like one on the bottom left?
My favorite ring, hands-down.

It was a very easy and fast project. With some white fleece, I cut out a rectangle about as wide as the box and at a length that I knew was too long. I rolled it up until the roll was the size I wanted and cut off the excess, then used that rectangle as a pattern for more pieces to cut and roll up. I just kept cutting out and rolling rectangles until the box was filled. Then, it was a simple matter of sliding my rings in, sorted, of course, by the base metal.

I used another box for my watches. Someday I may devise some dividers or something to keep them better sorted, but for now, this works fine. I have a bunch of other watches that either don't suit my taste (again, passed down from my mom), are broken, or have no battery in another box hidden away in the drawer.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of my Storage Solutions! Eventually you'll get to see what I do to store my other accessories, clothes, and crafting stuff. Hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am!

-Annie

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Commitment Day 6: A Little Jewelry Inspiration

Day 6 is here! See the rest of my 30 Days of Commitment series here!

Today's exam was exhausting! But I pulled through, and with a nice long nap and a long cooking break, I'm ready to work again!

...after, of course, today's post. ^_~

Today's post comes thanks to a site where I take a lot of inspiration from. I have a huge collection of inspirations for clothes, etc. that comes from Modcloth.

Recently, I found this necklace, the Just Bead Yourself Necklace in Concord.

Just Bead Yourself

When I saw this, I remembered these:

A while back, I found a store that sold a bunch of these "pearl" necklaces for a dollar each. In colors like this, who could resist?

My initial thoughts were to make one of those bird's nest necklaces (like this one), but I wasn't sure what else I wanted to do. The Just Bead Yourself Necklace is a good inspiration point.

I didn't really have time to actually make it, but I did experiment a little during one of my breaks. Using the fiber that the beads came strung on, I tried stringing a few beads together to see how it might look.

Did you see in the product image how the beads steadily decrease in size? While the blue beads don't come in that many sizes, the gray beads I have come in smaller sizes, so I might incorporate those in to the design as well.

Here were a couple of idea sketches I made:

Do you guys have any suggestions? Have you made jewelry before?

Thanks for reading!

-Annie

Commitment Day 5: Storage Solutions - Bracelets and Necklaces

Day 5 is here (see the other Days here), and boy, did I cut it close today! Still immersed in exams (one down, three to go!), so today is again a short one.

Storage is a big problem for me. I have a lot of stuff and not tons of space, nor do I want to spend tons of money on fancy solutions.

I have accumulated a ton of jewelry. A lot of it is inherited from my mom, gifts, collected from garage sales, and bought off clearance. This stitcher may be stingy, but she's also a bit too enthusiastic about finding a good deal!

In several posts this month, I'll be showing off what I've done to store my jewelry so it's visible but out of the way. Today's all about the bracelets and necklaces. And today's star players are Command wall hooks, shower curtain rings, and paper clips!

This is an overview of my "accessories corner", sandwiched between the bookshelf and the closet door (on the right). You'll eventually see all of what's going on here in future posts.

Focusing on the left first, you see a ribbon with loops tied in it, hanging from two of those Command wall hooks.

And threaded through those loops are nothing less than shower curtain rings, holding my bracelets and bangles in sets and loosely related groups. All well-displayed and easily removed, and not even taking up table space!

I also have a few bracelets that are stiff and open (you know what I'm talking about, right?). For those, I just dangle them from the mouth of an old, cleaned-out jar. Easy-peasy, and I'm not afraid that they'll fall off and land who-knows-where.

 Necklaces were interesting for me, as I have a lot of those. I have this straw-wrapped, wire jewelry frame I obtained from China years ago, and it has served me so well. In order to maximize its utility, I added hooks made from bent paperclips to hang necklaces from. I threaded those through the straw, making sure they hooked over the wire frame so they wouldn't rip out.

Longer/wider/busier-looking necklaces are relegated to these hooks on the side. Thanks again, Command!

And hiding away in a drawer is a little bear-shaped box (its former incarnation) holding other pendants and chains.

 I hope you enjoyed looking at this! I enjoy being able to browse through other people's storage solutions to find approaches that work for me. Hopefully I inspired you!

Anyways, I have to get back to studying. Wish me luck, and I will see you tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

-Annie

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My First Foray into Jewelry-Making

Hallo! I've been getting some serious nerves lately, so I figured the perfect way to loosen up would be to do a little late-night/early morning crafting. I recently really wanted to try at least a little jewelry-making, especially after seeing wonderful things on blogs like Flamingo Toes and Tea Rose Home. I had virtually no tools, save for a pair of basic pliers (read: big and bulky), and a mishmosh of old chains, beads, and jewelry to mess with.

So first off, I wanted to try making a bracelet, especially after seeing this tutorial. It's so simple and so cute! I wanted to do something similar, but I like a little more homogeneity in my things. Matchy-matchy was bred into me, unfortunately. ;)

Looking into my stash of random stuff, I saw three of those elastic power bead bracelets. You know, the ones with wooden beads with Chinese characters on them and that little "gourd" bead?

Like these, found at RavenHaven.com?

One was pale green, one pale pink/salmon, and one a deep red. I put them together and actually loved those colors together, especially because the pink and the paleness of the green kept it from being too Christmas-y.

Unfortunately, I took no pictures, but the process was simple. I liked the fit of the green one (which had no "gourd"), so I untied the elastic of the other two, removed the "gourd," and re-tied them so they were the same tension as the green bracelet. I glued my big, ugly knots inside a bead (with simple Elmer's Glue, heaven knows how long that'll hold). Then, I simply took a coordinating ribbon, tied them all together, made a pretty bow, and stitched it in place. Voila! Done!

Sorry, the colors are a tad off. They're more accurate in the second picture. But is it not cute?

I was still too twitchy to go to bed, so the supplies came back out and I set out to make a necklace.

Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. As I've said before, I really had no tools and only a hodgepodge of supplies. But I decided to be creative, and you know what? I think I like it.

 What do you think? The small pearl beads were originally from an old barrette that just...died. I strung them onto two threads held together (is that a good idea even???). The two pearl "dangles" came from a brooch that had about 10 of the same thing, except one was missing so no one ever used it. And the heart pendant in the middle was a sort of hybrid between two old earrings.

Not bad for my first try, no? Especially with a bulky set of pliers as my only wire-working tool (yes, I was opening and closing those tiny chain links with it...). I don't know if I have the patience to do this often though. It was so fiddly! Do you guys feel the same way about jewelry-making, or is it just because I'm inexperienced and don't have the best tools?

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

-Annie

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