Friday, March 11, 2011

Hang It Up!

I. am. in. LOVE!!!! Yes, I admit it. I know some of y'all have been wondering if you'd ever hear me say those words! I'm even willing to shout it from the housetops! Cause I am in LOVE with jewelry! That's right friends, I love that sparkly, glitzy stuff! It makes my heart melt, puts butterflies in my tummy, and brings me a lot of happiness. (or something like that)
Somewhere along the college way I realized that jewelry was more amazing than purses. So...my purse collection shrunk and my jewelry collection...well...it put on a few lbs. :) However, I have a SMALL upright jewelry box. Ya know the kind that sits on top of a dresser and has four drawers. I loved it when I first got it and it worked perfectly. It is so full now that I lose stuff in it.

The little drawers were crammed so full that I eventually discovered that I owned two pairs of the same earrings. (Apparently, I really liked those earrings) A good friend of mine was the recipient of the 2nd pair since I didn't really need both sets. (She had to pry it out of my fingers...but we won't go there j/k)

I came across this idea for an earring holder on a blog many months ago. I wish I knew which blog I saw it on so I could give due credit, but I have no clue. This earring holder is easy to make, can be personalized, and makes a great gift for the jewelry fanatic.

Earring Holder:
Picture frame (size of frame depends on how big you want it to be)
Fabric (lace, mesh, organza, etc. Anything that's easy to hang earrings through)
Hot glue gun
4 Wood cubes
Pencil
Ribbon
Flowers, sparkles, embellishments

1. Lay the picture frame on the fabric and cut the fabric around the edges of the frame.

2. Place a line of glue along the middle of the frame edge. Place the fabric on the hot glue. Roll a pencil over the glue and fabric to secure the seal. As you glue the remaining 3 sides down pull the fabric to make it taut. You do not want any sagging or looseness to the fabric. Repeat this process on all four sides.

Trim off any excess fabric after all 4 sides are glued on.

3.Glue 1 wooden block to each corner. These blocks give room for the backs of the earrings. I did not put these blocks on the first one I made. Every time I took an earring off 3-4 more earrings would go flying off as well. (which is pretty annoying)


4. Cut your ribbon to the length desired and glue to the back of the frame. Make sure you glue it so the pretty side of the ribbon is touching the back of the frame. This will ensure the ribbon looks right when hanging up. I always hot glue the ribbon to the frame and then place some added reinforcement on top of the ribbon.

5. Now it is time to work on the front of the frame. You can decorate this side however you like. I normally add ribbon and flowers to it. I put sparkles on one for a teenager. Here are some ideas:
-I added hooks to the bottom of mine to hold necklaces. However, they are very difficult to screw in. You'll want to drill a tiny hole first and then screw in the hook. Otherwise you will give up after doing half of them. (I cleverly cut that out of my picture--well, kinda cut it out) :) -

-This purple one is mine. Mine originally had blue lace, no wooden blocks on the back, and several other mistakes. So when I found the silver netting for my friends I decided to re-do mine. I love the 2nd one so much!
I made the flower out of 2 different synthetic flowers that I pulled apart and reassembled. I hot glued the ribbon to the frame-

-This one is for a friend of mine-

-I made the flower out of ribbon-

-A little bit of sparkle never hurt anyone-


These earring holders make great gifts and are so easy to make.
Hope you enjoyed today's blog!

Jaime

Thursday, March 3, 2011

I'm back!!

Sorry to have fallen off the planet y'all. Life has been kinda crazy and I am not in the habit of blogging. Things seem to be calming down which is so nice. However, it is the calm before the storm with Missions Conference right around the corner. I am super, super excited about it conference this year since I have finally signed up for Camp BIMI. Camp BIMI is a training program for people desiring to go on the mission field. I finally feel like things are starting to move for that dream. It is a slow process, but the Lord has the best timing!

I have been cooking a few things and making a few crafts in the last few weeks. I even pulled out my sewing machine to start working on some skirts for me and gifts for friends. I've made an adorable gift for a friend of mine, but will not be able to post anything till after her birthday! All that to say I have not completely fallen off the wagon. One night I made 2 carrot cakes, 1 quiche, 1 chocolate cake, 1 batch of nariyal burfi (an Indian dessert), and a cobbler (don't have a clue what kind it was because I threw away the box and it doesn't taste like any fruit in particular)!!

One night I was craving cookies, chocolate, sugar, etc. Ok..ok..I crave that every night, but I gave in to the craving one night. I looked in my pantry and realized I was out of chocolate chips which puts a damper on having chocolate chip cookies. I was also exhausted so I wanted it to be easy!! I saw that I still had 2 bags of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix and a fridge full of frosting. All a girl has to do is throw in some sprinkles and life is good...very good!

Frosted Sugar Cookies

1 bag of sugar cookie mix
1 tub of frosting
Sprinkles



1. Bake the cookies per the instructions on the mix/recipe.
2. After cookies have slightly cooled frost them with frosting of your choice. (which of course will be chocolate!!)
3. Apply sprinkles to the freshly frosted cookies.
I found that I could only frost a few at a time before the frosting started to harden and the sprinkles wouldn't really stick.



Eat the whole batch or at least half the batch while watching a chick flick.