Beaded Stilettos

Do you know SkyMall? It's a catalog that's found on airplanes. I remember a comedian once saying the catalogs were full of things you never knew you needed until you saw them there. In some ways Pinterest is like that for me. Take stilettos for instance.. The only stilettos I knew about before Pinterest had to do with shoes. 

Did you know these are stilettos too?

I didn't. I saw them at Pinterest and immediately repinned them onto my Tutorials board. These are the lovelies that I discovered there.

This set was made by the Empress of the Universe over at her blog, (what a cool blog name.. I'm totally jealous!). When I saw them at Pinterest the pretty beads caught my eye so I clicked through and read about them. 

They're handy little tools that can be used in a lot of areas of crafting and sewing. From guiding fabric near the presser foot on the machine, to turning narrow hems up at the iron, and even something to manipulate objects around wet glue or paint. 

I looked for the turkey lacers for awhile after discovering the stilettos at Pinterest, but didn't find them anywhere. Then, a couple of weeks ago I ran into Bed Bath & Beyond and remembered that was where the Empress mentioned finding hers.

I found the same ones she did. They were $.99.. A craft project for a buck! (That's Mr. ShowMe's favorite kind! heheh) 

 I bent the angled ends into loops with my jewelry making tools.

 Then went through my bead stash and pulled out beads with holes big enough for the lacers. 

 What a great way to use up some of those pretty onsies lampwork glass beads! It was so much fun trying the different beads on the lacers and figuring out which ones went together! Once I got that part worked out I decided on which glue to use.  

Then put a bit of glue between the bottom two beads and at the bottom of the last one. 

I took the Empress' tip and clamped the looped ends in clothes pins and set them up like that to dry overnight.

And voila!

I named them from left to right, Her Majesty, Heavy Metal, Circus Circus, He Loves Me, Woody, and She Swims With The Fishes. They were a blast to make and I've already used them countless times. Oh yeah, and I found the perfect place to store them... this little Florida souvenir toothpick holder that I picked up at the flea market for $1.

Has Pinterest helped you discovered something that you never knew you needed and then just couldn't do without?

I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks for stopping by :) 

Flea Market Adventure

There's a flea market near our house each weekend. Mr.ShowMe and I decided to venture out to it today. It's blazing hot here, more typical of 4th of July weather than Memorial Day weekend. We figured we could get out to the flea market early and be back home long before the hottest part of the day. I found some real treasures and captured many more on film like this pressed glass compote. 

Here's a little peak of our adventure. 


It's a popular place.

An old large domed glass oval frame with a baby photo. I always find these to be sweet, but a little creepy too.

 Some pretties placed on an antique dresser.

 Old cast iron.

 A doll house.

It wasn't all old items there. This dealer had fishing stuff, here's a just a few of his tubs of rubber worms.

An old pink grocery scale and a really cool stylized bird lamp base.

 Check out this neat old hat box!

And these gorgeous vintage dresses!

Several dealers had tables full of old oil lamps. These were particularly lovely.

Old teddy bears and their little black lamb friend.

The bright colors in this old painting really grabbed my attention.

More oil lamps.. these with metal bases.

This old Sante Fe railroad clock reads Hollywood Cal. on the face.

 This old rocker upholstered in red velvet was in really good condition.

I couldn't walk by without taking pictures of the old sewing machines.

Retro Anchor Hocking Fire King Tulip Bowls. (Their condition was so perfect, Mr. ShowMe and I wondered if they were repros.)

Here's an electric typewriter probably from the early 70's with the case and the proud union label from a time in history when we still manufactured things here in the U.S. and a World's Fair poster that might be a repro, but still had cool graphic images.

A really big wheel!

This dealer had a neat assortment of old, tiny, stuffed animals and had them arranged in and on a tiny wooden dresser.

Here's the items that were too tempting to leave behind.

A dealer had a basket of vintage fabric that contained a bag with 39 pieces of sample fabric. Each piece is 11" wide by 9" tall. There are 3 or 4 color variations of each print. I think they're upholstery samples. They're lovely and just the thing to use for some bags I'm going to make, (stay tuned for that!). They only wanted $2 for the bag, so they came home with me.

This tiny (3.25" diameter) Hot Springs souvenir plate came home with me too. It would have to be The Bargain Of The Day since it was free! I collect Florida souvenir plates, so I always look when I see one to see if it's from Florida. I just couldn't believe it when I saw it said Hot Springs. That isn't in Florida, rather Arkansas, but it's where I lived with my Grandmother when I graduated high school, so I just had to have it. When I asked the dealer the price, he told me, "It's yours". I tried to insist that I pay him something, but he told me again that I could just have it, so I quit arguing and put it in my camera case for safe keeping till I got home.

Old watches are great to craft with so at $2 that Elgin was mine, and when the dealer told me those disc earrings were only $1, I decided to find a second pair for the price and selected the turquoise drops with the red beads too.

So here's my whole $7 haul. (I keep telling Mr. ShowMe that I'm a cheap date. I think this proves it!)

The clamps and note pads for $1 rounded out the rest. I'm always scrounging around for clamps and clips to hold things until the glue dries, and I need to start keeping a note pad in my purse to jot things down when I have moments of inspiration for blog posts or purse & craft ideas.

I hope you're having a great weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Dream Catcher Jewelry

I've been on a jewelry making kick lately. My latest adventures in jewelry making have been with dream catchers.

This is a bracelet that I made. I bought some vintage drapery panels at an estate sale some time back for the fabric and they still had hardware attached to them. Here's a side by side of the bracelet piece with one of the rings... sort of a before and after.

The rings are very light weight, some sort of metal. I wrapped one with aqua embroidery floss, tied it off, and placed a small drop of glue on the knot to secure it. Then using beige colored embroidery floss I did the dream catcher weaving within the ring. 
I wanted small silver feather charms to use with them, but of course, when you want to find something specific like that, you never can! (Do you experience that too, or is it just me?) I settled for small silver leaf charms and hung one from the webbing with a tiny jump ring.
The thickness of the ring itself, made attaching a jump ring an issue. I didn't have any in my jewelry finding stash the right size, but I did have a small bag of these tension clips. They were just right to clip over the ring on each side.
I dressed up the clips with two silver beads on each, attached a length of chain to each clip, and a lobster clasp to finish it off.

After making a bracelet I wanted to try a necklace, so I used the same method with a large ring sold as purse hardware. I changed up the colors a bit on it and worked some beads into the webbing since I was working with a larger ring. Here's how it turned out.

I used one of the same leaf charms. This one is quite heavy, but fine for a necklace. I used a large jump ring and a long chain on it, about 28".
Here's a picture of both for size reference. The small ones are light enough that they could be earrings, but I'm on a bit of bracelet kick these days.

My inspiration for dream catcher jewelry came from something I saw at Pinterest, but it's one of those pins that doesn't get me back to  an active website, so I'm not able to give proper credit... other than the shout out for Pinterest. But here's proof that Pinterest isn't just for pinning!


Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week :o)

Color Post 3 - Aqua / Turquoise

 

I've been seeing a lot of pictures lately with pops of aqua or turquoise. 

 

They've really been catching my eye. Red is still my favorite color, but I must say that aqua is a close second. Maybe it reminds me of fun 50's decor that I like so much. 

Or perhaps it's the connection to the ocean that I don't get to visit often enough. 

But whatever it is, I really love the look of a room with flashes of aqua or turquoise.

 





I've got a bathroom in my house in desperate need of a makeover. Maybe I could introduce a little aqua there. And speaking of red, I think I really like the two paired together. Hmmm... What if I made this shower curtain that I absolutely LOVE in a pretty shade of aqua,

accessorized with bright red towels and perhaps a rug, and added some artwork for the walls that pulls in both colors? Looks like my to-do list just got a little longer!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a lovely weekend :)