Birds of a feather

Do you watch Portlandia?

I tried to resist.

I fought the good fight and told Brent it is too stupid..

a total waste of time.

Then this episode aired and I was sold.

And a little embarrassed because I immediately kind of like anything that has a bird on it.

Gotta hate when I'm typical. ;)

Anyhoo, a friend of mine had a birfday

(yeah I said birfday... it's what all the cool kids are saying)

and I made her this sweet necklace.

Now don't look to close.

I am a newby at this jewelry making game

and man am I hooked!

It is so much fun!

I got the idea for the lace pendent from my favorite local jeweler.

She was selling something similar at the farmers market a few weeks ago.

I would have LOVED to support her but it was a wee bit to pricey for me.  

Sad day.

The other two pendants came in a pack of three.

I picked the two I wanted and then I shortened the chain on one of them to make it a little more asymmetrical.

My friend loved her necklace.

I did to (I really wanted to keep it!)

Do you like it? Do you want to know how I made it? I was thinking about making one for myself. So, if your interested I'll take some pictures. Let me know!

xoxo

I love to party at all these fun places!

shabby chic jewelry hanger ... tutorial

So on a whim I decided to put one of my cute new old frames from this post to good use.

I made, a long while ago- like when I lived in an apartment 1/3 the size of my house, a holder for necklaces.

Well sadly enough I and my space grew out of it.

I needed something that gave me more room to organize and  something that made a little more of a statement for the space.

I came up with  this

Isn't it cute!?

Wanna make one of your own?

It is WAY to easy!

You'll need:

Chicken wire

wire cutters

a frame

staple gun

Step one: Lay the chicken wire over the back of your frame

and staple it down.

Step two: Use wire cutters to cut the the chicken wire down to size.

Step three: There isn't one! Seriously.

It is that easy.

Now go make one to hang on your bathroom wall!

Much love

I'm linking to these great parties!

I made jewelry AHHH!

Hey friends!

Happy Monday!

Or if your Monday has gone like mine has, so far, then hopefully you will have a quick Monday!

Well family photos are upon us this week. Yay!

And AHHHH!

I always want to run out and get invisaline and smile lessons and freckle lightener (does that exist?!) before picture day.

I am such a teenager sometimes!

I am not a very photogenic person, but luckily I have an AMAZING photographer!

Z- baby is having her 1 year old pics done.

(I know I am 3 or so months behind!)

I am having a few maternity shots done.

And we are taking our Christmas pictures.

I have been working on a few projects to use as props in the photos.

I wanted to share them with you.

First I'll show you the Christmas photo prop:

It was so super easy it is kind of embarrassing to show!

I just picked up this wooden tree at Michael's (for $3!) and spray painted it gold.

We are wearing neutral colors for our Christmas pic- off white, black and tan- so I wanted to keep our prop neutral too.

We shall see how it turns out!

A major plus is I cannot wait to use it in my Christmas decor. I love gold at Christmas time. Plus, those holes are for mini Christmas lights to stick through- How cute is that!

The second prop I worked on is a necklace.

If you know me, you know that I am not a huge fan of jewelry.

I wear it, but not often and usually only one piece at a time.

But I really wanted a sentimental piece for the new babe.

I, of course, stole the idea from one of my amazingly creative and talented friends.

She makes and sells these necklaces for people. Her etsy shop is called valley of Elah. She will use the person's child's name, name meaning, and initial as the decoration.

It always turns out SOOOOO cute!

To bad new baby has no name.

Well she does- I just haven't annoyed my husband to the point of committing yet :)

So I made my pendant more general but still so meaningful!

I LOVE it! Here are some close-up of the pendant.

If you want to make one I'll show you what I did to help you out.

Please remember: I am NOT a jewelry maker!

I bought the pendents from Micheal's. They came two to a pack....

I can't wait to try again!

I also bought another pack of charms that were the same brand to add to the necklace. That is where the medal piece came from.

The pendant is really easy to take apart, you just unlatch it!

I took it apart and cut a piece of white computer paper to match the size of the glass.

Then I pulled out an old Thesaurus I got at a yard sale FOREVER ago and started clipping.

For the heart on the back side of the pendant I just google imaged "vintage heart graphic" and picked one I liked. I moved it to paint and saved it as a Jpeg. Then I scaled it down and made it sepia in picnic photo software.

I then pasted it to paint and printed it on regular paper.

The button came from some scrap booking supplies I had on hand.

I just twisted the brad in the back around the necklace chain and then I dabbed some hot glue on it.

I really like how it turned out! I can't wait to see what my photographer does with it!

And just for kicks... Look how cute Z-baby looked for church yesterday!

I hope you like my necklace and Christmas tree!

Are you taking any Christmas pictures soon?

Are you one of those super-awesome people who can take your own?

If so I am very jealous.

~Happy photo-taking!