My Homemade Birthday Present Streak Continues...

Curly J was back from her honeymoon just in time to celebrate her 30th birthday this weekend.  Of course I had to attempt to make her present since I made that goal of making all birthday presents this year.  Plus I wrote about that goal on my blog and she reads my blog. 

I kind of took the easy way out and made some earrings.  It's just too hot for any more t-shirt scarves at this time and I was drawing blanks on everything else.  I also gave her a bunch of photos from her wedding shower, bachelorette party and wedding and an album.  I had big plans to make an album but they fell through.  So, earrings it is.

Plus I made her a birthday cake.  It's my go-to chocolate chip poundcake which I have finally mastered over the years.  And by mastered, I mean it actually came all the way out of the pan instead of getting stuck in there and ripping apart.  Yay me!

The evening started with dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant followed by game night at her house.  B and I were victorious at a game of LCR and scored $7 in prize money.  Have you ever played LCR (left, center, right)?  I was pretty skeptical at first but it ended up being pretty fun.

So in conclusion, Mexican food and cake are good, LCR is fun, and I'm still doing ok on my handmade presents. 

Bridesmaid Jewelry aka Will Work for Nut Butter

This weekend I went to the awesome wedding of Curly J.  I will give you some more details about the wedding later this week.  But first, let's talk about my big project...

J decided she wanted some "fun" jewelry for the bridesmaids to wear.  She showed me some pictures of things that I didn't really know how to make but I said if she picked out all the beads, I would string them together for us.  She had some flower beads made by a seller on Etsy (whose name I cannot remember right now).  Then we selected other beads that we thought would go well with them and then I attached everything together.  I though they ended up looking pretty good.

Each necklace was little different which I thought was nice.

As my reward for being a jewelry consultant, Curly J got me this awesome gift basket filled with some locally made nut butters and accompaniments (crackers, apples, chocolate, etc).  The nut butter was made by Big Spoon which is a local roaster and nut butter company in Durham.  This stuff was good.  We had cashew, almond and peanut.  I enjoyed the peanut the best.  It was just a little sweet and had a great nutty texture.  I liked putting some of the peanut butter and some honey on a graham cracker as a snack.

I'm still recovering from all the food and dancing this weekend, so I will get back with you on more details of the wedding soon.

What do you think of the bridesmaid jewelry?

Have you ever had fresh nut butter?

My New Favorite Earrings...

I have tried making earring wires several times on my own.  I'm not good at it.  Usually I get the wrong type of wire.  I tried beating it with a hammer.  Usually it would just end up breaking.  So I figure if you can't make something, buy it from someone who can.  So I found these ear wires on Etsy (at Shel's Jewelry Supplies) a couple weeks ago and bought some.  I also bought the mini version cause I love mini stuff.

This weekend Beezus5 attempted to take me to her favorite beads store downtown but it was closed.  Fortunately there was another bead store across the street.  So after checking out every bead they had I ended up buying a few.  I made these earrings for myself with the mini hoops.

I like them.  I think the ear wires really "make" the earring.

And here are some more I made for my Etsy shop with the bigger hoops.

What do you think?

The Acorns Get Married-My Favorite Wedding Details

One of my best friends and former post-college roomie got married this past weekend (which you probably already know if you have been reading this blog).  Mrs. Acorn and I lived together after we graduated from college and both ended up moving back to our home town.  I moved back home (with my parents) because I made no life plan for myself while in college and therefore had no job.  Mrs. Acorn would call me every day and force me to update her on what I had done that day to secure myself employment.  After all, I would need a job before we could move out of our parent's homes and live together.  A loooooong 6 months later (no offense Mom and Dad) we found a cute little rental house and Mrs. Acorn, her giant dog Barkley, and I moved in.  It was a time of ups and downs.  I think after college we both had expectations of getting married, making tons of money and being super happy.  Instead we were both working at unexciting low paying jobs and were not having huge successes in the relationship department.  We also got robbed and discovered that killer bees (ok maybe not killer, but giant) had infested one of our walls.  We did have some awesome times though, especially after Beezus5 and Curly J also moved back to the Boro.  Eventually we both decided to move away.  Mrs. Acorn moved to Chapel Hill for grad school and I moved to Maryland to be with my now husband.  After her first year in grad school, Mrs. Acorn started dating Mr. Acorn.  Her whole outlook on life seemed to change for the better and I was super excited when they got engaged last December.

Now, my favorite wedding details.......

The wedding was held at The Hayloft in NC.  This place is really cool.  Mrs. Acorn's Sister-In-Law's family owns the place and restored it a few years back when Sister-In-Law got married to Mrs. Acorn's brother.

Some beautiful bridesmaids (and bride) in their beautiful bridesmaid jewelry standing in front of some hay after drinking some champagne (the bridesmaid jewelry did not ruin the wedding btw)...

Sister-In-Law/Wedding Coordinator made our bouquets and all the other flowers...

The cutest cake topper ever (featuring my old roomie Barkley and his new sister/wife Dixie).  This was custom made by Etsy seller Lynn's Little Creations...

The homemade hot sauce favors made by Sister-In-Laws family.  I took like 6 of these and am excited to try them out....

My favorite/exciting moments included.........

-Right after we hung up the wedding dress it fell off the hook and all the bridesmaids screamed and slammed the door shut so Mrs. Acorn would not know.  (All's well that ends well, right?)

-My shoe fell off right after I walked down the aisle and I had to struggle for about a minute to get it back on.  I could see my husband laughing at me.

-A bee jumped on my head during the scripture reading and I kept myself from screaming.

-The Minister's speech about the bride and groom being best friends.

-Mini Ham Biscuits!

-Mo Young gave my bouquet toss a shout out in her Maid of Honor Speech.

-Curly J, Beezus5, Mo Young, and myself somehow convinced Mr. Acorn to lay across our laps for some whimsical photos.  I really need a copy of this $hanzie!

-The Cake! It was strawberries and cream and quite tasty.  My husband had two pieces after getting approval from the bride

-This photo that I made my Dad take of me and B.  It started as a joke but then my dad seemed game to take the photo so I went with it.  Check out the cool corn fields in the background.

All in all a beautiful, hot, fun day of love!

Bridesmaid Jewelry

So I finally got my big break as a jewelry designer when my friend Ms. Acorn asked me to make bridesmaid jewelry for her wedding this weekend.  I sent her several photos via email and she decided she wanted something pretty simple. 

So I present to you....photos of me modeling the bridesmaid jewelry...

What?  He wanted to be in the picture.

I am also practicing my breathing.  The dress in my size came with normal sized stomach area and giant size boobage area.  So I had to get this taken in.  The alteration lady told me if I was not going to wear straps then she would have to make it tight.  Apparently that meant tight in the area where oxygen flows to my lungs cause I'm having a bit of trouble breathing normally.  I'll work on in though.  I'm also practicing walking around in my new silver heels.

Ok so here's some close ups of the jewelry.  I used some crystal beads, silver beads, and sterling silver ear wires and chains to make these.

So I hope the other Bridesmaids like them or at least pretend to. 

Also in Hair news, I have purchased a new gadget and am practicing with it this week to see if I can make a low loose bun for the wedding.  My backup plan is a hot ponytail.  Has anyone ever used the Goody Simply Style Spin Pin?  I kept seeing commercials on TV so I decided to go ahead and pick one up.

I'm super exciting about the wedding this weekend!  Go Team A-Corn.

Do you think my bridesmaid jewelry is acceptable?

Or do you think the jewelry will ruin the wedding?

Should I take Hobie as my date because we look so good together or should I let B come with me?

Do you like weddings?

Ribbon Jewelry....Yay or Nay?

Ribbon jewelry seems to be all the rage at J. Crew these days.  I have been experimenting with Ribbon jewelry for the past couple weeks. I finally made something that I deemed acceptable to wear out this weekend....a purple and green bead and ribbon necklace.

I know that not everyone in the world is as big a fan of purple as I am, but what can I do?  What do you think? Is this necklace stupid, ok, or super neat?  I'm having mixed feelings on it right now.  The bow might be too big but I made it big so I could alter the length of it depending on the size of the bow I tied.  Also it might look a little like my dog's collar.  Oh well. 

Last week I also made this bracelet out of ribbon and wood beads.  I have not actually worn it yet.  What do you think?  The bow is also a little big but its pretty hard to tie if it is any shorter.

So how do you feel about ribbon jewelry?

Black and White Earrings

These are my favorite earrings that I have made recently. What do you think?  I used beads that I bought at a cute bead shop when I was visiting Beezus5 and I went on our trip to NYC.  I have also been working on my jewelry photography and I thought these turned out decent.  I was at the beach all weekend and am now tired and headed back to work and having a hard time coming up with things to say.  That is all.  Hope everyone is having a great Monday!!

I made these earrings by stringing 5 beads onto ear wires similarly to the technique used in this Post.

Button Earrings

Button Earrings are fun!

So after my wedding this past August, I got really in to jewelry making. Mostly earrings. I made so many that I started putting them for sale on Etsy. Sales have been a bit slow. One night over Thanksgiving break I had my sister, her friend, my brother, and my best friend all crammed in to my craft room (which was a huge mess by the way). They were all looking at my earrings and someone suddenly decided I should make earrings out of buttons. So, here they are.

These are pretty easy to make. You just glue 2 matching buttons to earring backs, which can be purchased at any craft store. I, however have been using super glue to glue the back on, which has been a little difficult. I always manage to glue a button to my finger, a button to the carpet or my fingers to each other. And super glue does not come off your fingers once it dries. At least not for a few days.

I also attempted to sell these earrings at the flea market a couple months ago. One woman came up to my table and shouted "no, you did not make earring out of buttons". I wasn't really sure how to respond so I just nervous laughed and said "yes I did." She did not buy any but one other woman did. So yay for button earrings. Also my friends and sister seem to like them. And if someone asks you why you are wearing a button in your ear you can always say "uh yeah, how do you think my ear is staying on my head." I said that once. The person looked confused. But anyways, I heart button earrings.

Oh and if you want to save yourself from gluing your fingers together, you can get some here....

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38263028