Button Jewelry

After waiting almost a full month, my earring and ring backings finally arrived! I purchased two bags of vintage-style buttons from Micheal a few months ago because they just spoke jewelry to me. After hunting around for a good deal on earring and ring backings/bases I finally ordered some through Etsy. But since I ordered internationally, the shipping took foooorrrreeeeevvvveeerrrrr. 14 business days = 3 weeks! Checking the mailbox everyday really gets old fast. I felt like a kid waiting for my birthday party. So when my package finally arrived I got to work right away and managed to remember to take a few pictures on my phone for ya!

I used wire cutters to snip off the backings of my buttons-soon-to-be-earrings/ring. And I had to sand down the nubs so the backings would be flush together for optimal glue strength.

I'm not sure yet if Krazy glue is the best for gluing plastic and metal. So I'm going to wear these non-stop, partially to test them and also to make up for lost time. I've been so anxious to add these beauties to my wardrobe. I want to add a pair to those purple velvety flats I picked up earlier in the month too. I just, for some reason, get all anxious over which buttons to sew on. Like it's this horribly permanent decision. I mean just a little snip and I can replace the button. Not sure what my problem is here. Maybe I should make button shoe clips! Maybe wearing my new earrings will help calm me down....

UPDATE: So Krazy is glue is totally not strong enough/right for the job. My ring lasted 2 hours and my earings are broken after 1 day. Back to the drawing board...hope to have better news soon!!!

Drug Store Shoes

Drug stores have the best little treasures sometimes. I mean, did you realize Rite-Aid has cute shoes? Sneaks & slip-ons similar to Keds & Toms.
All $9.99 and under too!

I think I know where February's $20 is going...

Glitter Accent Nail

I've been seeing alot of this one nail super glitter-fied trend everytime I turn around. So since I've been trying to spend less money by doing my own nails, I added to my routine. It definitely fed my need for sparkle.

How-To: coat nail with polish and quickly cover with craft glitter. Coat with several layers of clear polish to seal. Next time I'm going to try krazy glue for a base coat because the glitter peeled completely off on day three. Then again, normal polish has a three day life cycle on my hands anyways.

Shoe Rack is Complete!!

Cody finished up my shoe rack a couple days ago! It took a few coats of paint to get all evenly colored. But its happily in-use in our closet now! Hopefully the whole angled aspect of it is a bit clearer now with shoes on it. So here is my update I promised you when I first bragged about it!

The only bummer is that it's already filled up..guess I might need two or three or  four more!!

Positive Propoganda

Love these colors, cheery & soft yellow with a cool & rough gray.

$20.06 spent in January 2012

My strategy for spending less money ($20 limit!) on clothing this year is to A) just stay AWAY from the mall & tempting stores and B) only buy items I truly, truly LOVE. I made it about two weeks. And then there it was, the extra 30% off all clearance ginormous and colorful poster sucking me into Old Navy. And there went my $20. Ok so I went over by $0.06...but only because of California's high sales tax, you won't hold that against me, will you? Here are the goods!

These purple velvet flats cost me $5.59. I'm not completely sold on the bow, makes them look a bit too much like slippers, I think. So a little re-working (possibly adding some bling?!) is in order for these and I will keep ya posted.

And then.......(drum roll, please!)................

Ta-Da!! Remember this?! The $50 sweater I was drooling over? Yes, it was there, the second-to-last-one, I might add. And now its mine, all mine for $12.94! 

Just noticed I didn't even take off the tag before snapping this pic! Guess I was a tad-bit excited (paired it with a sweater I got at a clothing swap, $5 jeans from last year & my biggest splurge ever--cowboy cowgirl boots). 

So, who is else is taking this challenge with me? How are you doing with it? I guess I should let you know that I added a "rule": if you don't spend your $20 one month it rolls over into the next month, BUT you can't pre-spend your money for future months either...This way if you can muster up the self-control, you could get a really awesome something for like $40 or more! But only if you really want to...

Rough & Ready

There seems to be a baby fever in my little circle of people I know. And since I'm not a part of the club yet, my mind just wanders to what I may be into for future nursery themes. I played around a bit with a girly nursery before, and so its time I do the same for a little bambino-boy. In all of the photos I've looked through (and its been lots!) it seems the trick to a successful boys room is to make it baby-cutesy without going too feminine. At this very moment, my mind is hovering over a red or orangey color scheme for a boy: SF Niners (WOOOOO-HOOOO!!!)

(found here)
and/or SF Giants, KTM & Honda Moto-cross Racing... I know thats a lot of influences, but a little reference here and there throughout the room would be fun. Something in this sort of direction:

And I totally love this sheet set too.

 

It'll be interesting to see what I actually end up doing when its my turn to get in the game. Hormones have been known to change a woman!

But, man, did you SEE THAT GAME ON SATURDAY? WOOO-WHEEE!!!!!

Tempting to just go all out like this here:



Good thing I've got lots of time to simmer down...

Beer Burgers

Took a trip down memory lane a few nights ago and experimented with what I could remember on how to make Beer Burgers. Basically, you BBQ the patties in beer. It's pretty much self-explanatory, but here a few pointers:

1. Make your own patties with fresh ground beef. I added onion and garlic to mine. Notice though, that these are a bit too round, by the time they were cooked they'd become more like BBQ'd meatballs.

2. Pour the beer into your pan once its already on the BBQ.  And don't worry about putting foil on your pan either (it just tears when you're trying to flip the burger).

3. The burgers will take a bit longer to grill because you've also got to get the beer up to temperature. But since they're cooking in liquid, the meat won't dry out.

4. Enjoy with your favorite burger toppings (for me, that means BBQ sauce!)

I had a picture of my meatball burger piled up high, but it seems to have gone missing off my camera. So guess that means I gotta make them again!

Silver Desk Accessories

Nothing brightens up a dark space like your work desk/cubicle/black hole like some metallic sparkle. I never made it to the flea market last weekend, but I did get a quick stop into Goodwill (I donate and then shop, its like a double-donation). I picked up these two little footed silver bowls, I think they were originally used to serve ice-cream ($0.99 each). They work perfectly for my paperclips and white-out tape and sticky tags. And then with my weekly Michael's coupon, I picked up a julep cup for my pen collection ($4.79). 

$6.77 (+ tax) well spent. And this so doesn't count for my $20 month, so don't start tallying up on me quite yet... that's only for clothes, remember?

DIY Shoe Rack

Brag Alert: My hubby made a shoe rack for me this weekend. It's not quite complete, still in the painting stages, so he was not to thrilled when I whipped out my camera to snap some pics. He took a 1x12 and cut it in half to make two 1x6's for the front & back and then put in 24" dowels (5/8", I believe) as tiers for  my shoes.  The dowels are staggered so my heels can hang over and the sole will have a platform. I know that sounds confusing, when its all done and in-place with my shoesies I will post an update pic. The rectangle cut outs on the ends are to allow visilbility should I want to put in the closet vertically instead of horizonatally. He knows me so well. But so far here's what all my excitement is about!

Freestyle Flower Arranging

Betcha didn't know I could freestyle! Well, actually I can't, but I do like to freestyle in my own way with flower arranging. I was a bit lazy yesterday and used a flower shop for my friend's (Katy--my baking buddy) birthday arrangement. And when I found out they purchase flowers from the same whole-saler I used in my wedding, it was a bit of a punch in the stomach! Sometimes, though, you can't do it all on your own and its nice to have somebody do the work for you--and in effect I'm filled with inspiration and desire all over again! I'm sure I'm not alone here.

So back to the point of this post. I first felt the desire to do my own arrangements during wedding planning. I realize florists are artists, but I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with the overly structured arrangements being flung in my face. Seriously, it was funeral like to me. So with that (& the budget!) I said toodles to the florists and found this wholesale site. I picked up some fake flowers and played around with yet another good friend, Suzy (ahhh, I am so blessed with good friends!!) and together we figured out the floral scheme and feel to my wedding. Now the weekend of the wedding I had no part what-so-ever in the arranging (because I was super stressed and distracted by a bajillion details), lucky for me Suzy is a mind-reader and cranked out some amazing arrangements. If you need a refresher, here's a link to my wedding post with photos of my flowers throughout. 

Totally just went off track again. 

Here are some photos of arrangements I've free-styled:

This is an oldie from one of my very first posts here! Awwwww....

(these last 2 pro photos were obviously not taken by me...

thanks AshWhite Photography!)

So that's what I mean by free-styled flower arranging. It's not exactly as free-spirited as free-styling sounds, but basically I just use whatever flowers are most readily available (store bought or cut from the yard) and smoosh them together in the prettiest fashion I can come up with in a two minute time span. Pretty sure I did not invent this concept, but I have fun doing it so...who cares?! I definitely have my fair share of flower failures too. Like trying to line inside the vase with leaves or fruit and having them float around, or even just floating stems like these guys from Thanksgiving:

You win some & you lose some. Hopefully in the process you learn some!

P.S. I totally realize I linked the crap out of the post...funny how writing everything out makes you realize how  connected all your thoughts are! Reminds me of this analogy: woman are like spaghetti (everything in their brain is inter-twined and linked together) and men are like waffles (everything in its own little square). Totally true, dontcha think?

Positively Inspiring Propaganda

I'm starting a new series of propaganda here. I seem to come across images (my own or otherwise-ahem-Pinterest) that are quite inspiring and speak to my biased idea of beautiful. So in an effort to persuade you, heres the image thats speaking to me this week:

(a ceiling medallion in a Gettysburg fort from our east coastrip in August '09)

$20 Challenge for 2012

I may or may not have a shopping problem. So before I let myself get out of control, I'm implementing a plan. For this next year I have budgeted $20 per month for clothing & accessory purchases. I have more the enough of the necessities, but the thrill of the hunt at the clearance rack totally entangles me. I'm scared, excited, nervous and curious all at once over this resolution. But I do hope it pushes me to be more creative with the hoards of clothing I already own. MaybeI will finally break out the RIT dye or beads, fabric scraps, etc. and go embellish-crazy. We shall see...Wish me luck!

(image found here)

P.S. Gift cards & Christmas/birthday money don't count towards my $20 limit! I gotta have a little wiggle room, ya know?