The Bedroom

I haven't done anything in here, project-wise;  I just finally got it all together and cleaned up for photographs - and I'm showing off, because I loooooove my bedroom.

Clockwise from the door:

My dresser, the Ikea SONGESAND, which took me nearly two months to find, because it was always out of stock.  Popular one, this thing!

This thing is a big block, but it seems less bulky in a tiny (9x10') room crammed with furniture than I thought it would be.  I love it, though - it's pretty, the finish feels nice, the color is gorgeously dark,  the drawers roll smoothly and quietly, and I have drawer organizers in some of the drawers to help corral my things, which works great.

My vanity, composed of:

•  an old hall console table that I painted
• A $10 Goodwill bathroom medicine cabinet, also painted, which houses things like jewelry, perfumes, beauty products, and hair things. 

The Tilden metal bed from Target, with Ikea bedding, a wooden jali screen from World Market, and an antique side table given to me years ago by a friend.  

As you can see in this pic, I have about a 3.5' walkway around the bed to move in, and that's all. It's a tiny room. But since I'm a person who doesn't really do anything but sleep and get dressed in here (I don't hang out in my room), that's really all I need. 

At the end of the bed is a wee nightstand table that I refinished years ago, the giant mirror from the fireplace at my old house, and my acoustic guitar, Ember (an Ibanez AEW40). The curtains on both windows are Ikea's MATILDA. 

This bedroom, the design of which I've been working on for three years now, makes me feel like a Jane Austen heroine.  I never thought I'd want white walls again, after I moved out of my last apartment in 2004; but I love the feel of this room, and I'm finally happy with it, and finally feel like it's complete. I didn't even have to paint this one myself. 

About that vanity cabinet...

Because I adore my cabinet, and I'm super proud of it, here's some more of it's awesomeness: 

It's made from a bathroom medicine cabinet I got at Goodwill for $10.  I cleaned it thoroughly (and cleaned gum off the inside. Gum! Who does that?), primed it and then painted it black.

The necklaces up top are hung on bronze-colored shower curtain rings on a tension rod that I keep meaning to spray paint to match.

There used to be a second shelf, but I got tired of having to pile my necklaces on it to get the doors to close, so I took it out.

The insides of the doors are painted in black chalkboard paint.  I draw little pictures and write inspirational quotes on them to perk myself up in the mornings.  How Pinterest of me, I know.  Currently, they say:

• "goooob morning", a tribute to Thoughts of Dog
• "I am enough", which is what it says on a ring that a friend gave me, because she said I needed it. ♥ 
• "Always use your full ass!"  Never half-ass anything. 
• "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'" ~ Shawshank Redemption (this is what I tell myself when I'm having a hard time getting off my butt to do things) 

Oops.   Loch Ness Handster.

Time Out For A Shitload of Jewelry

In and amongst the various house projects, I've also been making a whole bunch of jewelry.  I don't know what's got into me lately - I haven't made jewelry in years, but now I can't stop doing it. I guess I caught the bug again while repairing some pieces. Here are some of the pieces I've made lately:

A "let's see if I can still do this" starter piece with metal leaves, and a wrap on a clay scarab. 

Necklace and earrings in Fluorite, amethyst, iolite, and emerald chips. 

The fluorite set (left) was inspired by this lampwork glass set
(right), which I made several years ago. 

Miscellaneous bracelets. From top right:  a silver-colored metal bangle with
stones glued on (don't know what kind of stones);  a "silver" and black faceted
bracelet and earrings, plastic;  and a bracelet with blue faceted glass
and plastic  "metal" beads. 

Faceted carnelian, graduated, with that scarab from the first picture. 

Faux-lapis (dyed howlite, I believe) which broke. I didn't have the right spacer
beads, so I improvised...

...I improvised in a way that left me with enough beads and spacers
to make a matching bracelet. Yay! 

I have two more necklace-and-bracelet/earrings sets going right now, and nothing planned after that.  Whew!  So many projects. 

I also painted this: 

"Atchafalaya", painted from photos I took the last time I was passing
through the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana.   

That's all for now!  I have a new rug I'll show you tomorrow. 

So I Made This Wrap-Around Watch

• $6 cheapass watch from Walmart, removed and discarded everything but the face
• Leather thong, beads, wire, closures, and hole punch - already had. 

Tada. 

Cheater Post

Holy COW do I have some updates.  But at the moment, this week, I'm up to my ears in social engagements and catching-up with other things, so for now, here's some more jewelry I made last week when I was on my jewelry-making kick:

Iolite and glass

anklet for my sex!boots (wore to a wedding recently)

tiny blue glass drop at the clasp

Lots of blue drops happened.  The
moonstone bracelet is old, but I made
it, too, back in the day. 

By the way?  Fuck the camera on my phone. 

An old beaded memory wire bracelet that I
made fit again.  

pink and black glass with silver, earrings 

ipnk and black necklace to go with the earrings;
I made the little charm loop in the center, too. 

One last phone-cam pic of a "ruby" and "topaz" + "gold"
costume piece I made for the SCA

Some of the blue and silver beaded jewelry here is part of a set I made to wear with a specific outfit, that I'm sewing myself, and which I haven't talked about, lol. Sorry.  Been posting about that over at my SCA sewing blog, since it's clothing stuff; you can read those posts here.  Should be a finished product photo in a couple of days.  :)


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Nail Polish + Jewelry

And now for something completely different!  This is what I did last night:

Incidentally, I give UP on the camera on this new phone.  The focus and quality are for CRAP, and there's no damned macro focus!!  I love 99.999% of this new phone, but fuck the camera.
So anyway, I had the bracelet on the upper left already - a gold chain with an oversized gold lobster clasp and ring closure, and a single clay scarab bead.  I wanted more stuff to go with it.

Using remnants of the same chain I used for the bracelet, I made the choker next to it, and the pair of earrings.

I wanted big, chunky, blue stones, but I didn't have any.  What I did have were some big, chunky green stones that I didn't like.

I made this a while back, but only wore it once, because I hated it.  The stones were far too heavy for the chain, and I just don't like that shade of green directly on my skin.

So I painted them with teal nail polish!  The result was a set of stones that look like slightly-iridescent sea glass.  I really wish I had a better picture for you, they look REALLY cool.

The earrings were made in the same way, but with two old pieces of rainbow fluorite painted with the same polish.

And because I know at least one person is going to ask:  yes, I painted natural stones with nail polish.  In addition to the serpentines being the wrong color for me, they were also old and chipped and had strange inclusions that marred the look of the stones - I only used my crappy ones for this.  Ditto on the fluorites.  :)

  The black bracelet on the left is where the gold nail polish came in.  The elastic connecting the four metal pieces was shot, and I couldn't wear the bracelet anymore.  Also, the gold paint was coming off and the copper underneath was starting to show through.
And so I painted it gold.  It's not the same yellowy gold as the other pieces, but I like it a lot.  Re-stringing this thing was a major pain in the bitch.







Nail Polish colors used:  

Sinful Colors "Gorgeous"

Nina Ultra Pro by Sally Beauty Supply "Big Spender"

Better pics, and pics of the outfit all of this was specifically made to go with, very soon.  :)


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It Really Is That Easy

Pinterest is full of DIY instructions for making simple rings out of jewelry wire.  Like this one, or any of these.  My BFF ribs me about how often I say, in various circumstances, "I could make that in like an hour!" or "I'm not paying that price when I could make this in a better color for like ten bucks!"   Mostly it's because I never actually follow through.

But this time:

Tada!  So easy a caveman could do it!  I used a silver-colored memory wire, like I used for the beaded hoop earrings I made last month.  It was already round, and already mostly finger-sized - I just had to wind it around the cap of a nail polish bottle to tighten it to fit.  (I really wish I had a ring sizer, though).

I have to say, it's been a long time since I had a ring I could wear on my first two fingers.  I have BIG fingers, you guys.  My hands are short and broad, like everyone in my family;  add to that all the work that I do with my hands that has made them strong and muscular, and the bit of extra weight I'm carrying - my index finger is like a size 12, I think.  I'll definitely be making more rings in the future!

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Master Bedroom Vanity Cabinet

Drumroll, please!

*drdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdr*

Okay, okay, wait.  

Before: 

White and very dirty $9 thrift store medicine cabinet about which I
posted on Monday.  

Vanity table with round dresser mirror and jewelry on
the wall - which I loved, but the various jewelry boxes
(more on two other surfaces in the room!) were a bit
ridiculous.  Too much walking around to find stuff.  

*drdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdr*

After:

Yay!  Plain ol' black paint - in fact, it's the same off-black that I used on the table beneath the cabinet, so they match perfectly. It took more than paint, though.  I scrubbed the entire cabinet inside and out, did some very minor repairs to small stains and water damage spots, primed the entire thing, and gave it three coats of the off-black paint. 

But wait - there's more! 

Yes, I'm a total nail polish junkie.  

Necklaces hung on rings on a tension rod at the top, a whole row of nail polish bottles (I can see them all now!!), and...well, to be honest, a bunch of other random stuff crammed in just for the photo, because I'm nowhere near decided on what will end up going where, and it'll take me weeks to get the new system to where it's comfortable to use. :)

Same with the arrangement on the table top - it's going to take work.  I'd like to have everything for my morning routine all here in the same space, but, we'll see how it goes.  :) 

This was just for fun, and because I had a tiny bit of black chalkboard paint that was getting too thick to work with, and I wanted to use up as much as I could before trashing the rest.  The face makes me giggle every time I see it, so, I guess this is working, morning-cheer-wise.  ^_^

I'm also a total lip gloss junkie.  

*

So, I have no idea what I'll do with the round mirror that was here before.  And I have plans for the dresser in the room as well; but that's going to have to wait a week or two while I turn my attention to the 12th century side-laced pendant-sleeved gown that I haven't even started working on, that I need to wear on the 7th.  OOPS.  

Back soon! 

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Cowrie Shell Bracelet FTW

I won this ankle bracelet in the raffle at my annual women's festival, oh, about 10-11 years ago.  I wore it to death, literally - about four years ago the elastic had degraded to the point that it became crunchy, and finally snapped.   I had no idea how to fix it, and I kept meaning to try, but none of the ideas I could come up with seemed like they'd work the same way.   It went into a drawer of mementos, to be sighed over every so often, but never worn again.  

Until this past weekend, when, going through that drawer looking for something else, I came across it, and picked it up to sigh over it again...and realized that the shells had just been crocheted into the black elastic thread!  I couldn't crochet before, and I'd never figured it out before - but I can sure crochet now!  

This time it's not elasticized, it's just plain black cotton crochet thread, because that's what I have.  So rather than just snapping it on like I used to, now I can tie it - and I made the ties long enough to wear as an anklet, double-wrapped around my wrist, or even as a choker!  I'm SO HAPPY to have my beloved cowrie braclet back!  

So, in my life, I'd only ever crochet with round beads, and only once.  This was NOT the same.  This was a pain in the ass, but I'm not complaining.  You may have noticed, I have a few dozen hobbies, hehe.  I like it when something's new, or hard.  I enjoy the challenge.  

In case you were wondering, this is just a single chain, with a loop drawn up through one end of the shell and then picked up from above (the hard part was the tension, and poking the thread through the shell).  When I got to one end, I just made the tie double-length, folded it over, and picked up the last shell on the other side. 

* Note for people who'll get this:  did you notice that the shells are purple inside?  I was wearing it during The Grape Ape Incident of 2004.  

Hoop There It...Nah. I can't. I Just Can't.

I almost did.

YAY I MADE SOME EARRINGS!

These were inspired by an Etsy pair that I saw on Pinterest not too long ago.  I really love the ocean tones of the original pair, but I have a LOT of blue and green jewelry, and I wanted this shape, but something more neutral that I could wear with black.  I wear a lot of black, and while I like adding color with jewelry, sometimes I don't want to - and sometimes I want more than plain silver or gold.

Hence:  these.  They're just made with leftovers - glass pearls and beads, and some silver and pewter spacer beads.  The ear wires and hoops are all one long piece of wire from a spool of memory wire.

I had hoped to get several more pieces made; but I ended up spending three freaking hours cleaning up my jewelry supplies.  Loose bits strewn all over the four boxes of parts and tools that I keep, two bowls of discarded and broken necklaces and bracelets as well as a bunch of widowed earrings.    I sorted through it all, fixed several pieces and returned them to my jewelry box, put everything in its right place, and dismantled  several old pieces to use for parts for new projects. Whew!  My hands were SO TIRED.

I did, however, throw a couple of old charms onto a scrap of chain, which I'm wearing with the beaded hoops today:

A clear Fluorite half-crystal, and an old ring that's too small

In related news, I got a new phone that takes WAY better pictures than my old one.  The bad news is, I haven't figured out how to do the "selfie" thing with this new one, which is why I had to take these off to show them to you.  Derp.  I'll get the hang of it eventually.


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Small Stuff

Some small, non-housey stuff for you this week.  I've spent most of my week working on big SCA sewing projects; but I managed to squeeze in:

This bracelet, which is also a two-strand necklace (one beaded, one plain chain), that I have wrapped around my arm.

The jeans in the pic are another project:  Target clearance $6, and BRIGHT screaming purple.  I dyed them black and slashed them this week. :)

I'm almost done with this red crocheted sweater;  pics when finished.

I started a purple one, too.

And I finished this pink crocheted snood - for SCA purposes, yes, but I've come to love wearing these so much that I'm wearing them with my regular clothes, too.  They're soooo comfy and convenient, and soft.  :)





More soon!






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WHEW.

I spent most of the weekend sewing, which will surprise exactly no one.  Got caught up on everything I meant to do last weekend, when I was down with The Food Poisoning.  Blech.

Not much to show for myself, photographic-evidence-wise - but later in the week there'll be a couple of posts about the costumes I worked on this weekend, some pseudo-14th century jewelry, the craft room shelves (YAY!), some organization achieved over the weekend in the craft room AND my bedroom closet,  and the aquarium stand I've been working on.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  <3

just something pretty to look at, in the meantime. from Pinterest

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"Other Hobby" - Now With 30% More Bling!

Since no outfit or costume is complete without the bling, I've been working on some of that.  Last night I popped Gladiator into the DVD player, sat my butt on the couch with all my jewelry supplies and some recently-delivered loot, and set about making some costume jewelry:





"Emerald" faceted crystal flat-rounds set in pewter, from Michael's.

Green glass teardrop from The Bead Pusher on Etsy
Chain links and twisted bail made with silver wire endpins.

Same faceted crystal set beads from Michael's, in pink ($1 each, by the way), same chain links made from wire. Closure is a round ear wire (the same kind I use to make my nose rings) that hooks into a flat coin-sort of bead component.

I'm wearing these right now.  :) The metal drops were also from The Bead Pusher;  nickel-free silver french ear wires + teal glass seed beads I had sitting around.

These were to replace a nearly identical pair that I used to have (I lost one).  The teal briolettes also came from The Bead Pusher; the filigree bead caps came from Michael's. 

They came in a 6-pack: two each copper, silver, and gold.  The gold and silver pairs I cut apart and made into aguilettes which are the [decorative versions of] the little caps they put on the ends of things like shoelaces and bolo ties.  I wanted some metal ones for costume purposes (ever tried to lace up a shoe with a frayed cord? Try it sometime with a dress with 40 lace holes). 

I tried using some small, plain, flat ones I found at a local bead place, but they were too weak to hold up to being clamped onto the cording I was using;  these guys were prettier anyway, and made of sturdier stuff.   I cut them in half, which made a small aglet out of the top half of the cone.  The bottom half I flattened out, split in half lengthwise, and then re-rolled into two smaller versions of itself.  So, each pair of bead caps ended up making SIX aglets!  Not bad for a buck per pair!

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