day four hundred and forty

it's been a crafty few days! first, with jen's help, i accomplished my jewelry-making goals (#51 and #52). we took a trip to the bead store in wallingford where i was totally overwhelmed by all of my options and realized i probably should've done a bit of prep work beforehand. however! after about an hour i had a pretty good handle on the process, and all in all i spent just over twenty bucks for two new pieces that i anticipate wearing quite a bit. i also wanna go back to that bead store, like, now.


this is one tray of beads. on one table. i'd guess there were over ten tables in this place, and about ten trays to a table...

...and then there were walls and walls of these beads that you could buy by the strand.

so yes, between the beads, the closures, the jump rings, the chains, the strands of fabric and so much more, i was overwhelmed. but with jen's sage advice and expertise (not to mention her wide array of jewelry-working tools) this is what i walked away with:


i really, really like this. i wanted something neutral that would go with everything, and as a bonus it makes little clinky noises when it moves!


here's the close-up. those are antiqued brass plates on a suede band. for those who aren't familiar, i had to buy those little hoops (jump rings) separately and manipulate them with tiny pliers to get them through the plates.

and these are the earrings!

dig! it's some sort of black and white stone with a similarly colored bead underneath it. that bead is attached by what used to be a straight wire that i had to bend and loop around itself multiple times. jen said this looked like a moldy cheerio.

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to keep this craft-train moving, i decided to finally put together my mobile (#49) from the kit i bought a couple months ago. using some of the postcards i received from the postcrossing goal (#92), this was super easy to do. just had to drill a hole in the ceiling (well, first i had to buy a three-step stool so i could actually reach my ceiling), screw in a hook, and hang!

this is just the kit. my home does not look this modern.

i didn't put as many postcards on this as i could have - i was worried about it getting too busy. instead i doubled them up front and back so you can see different cards as it moves.


this isn't the best picture, but it gives a sense of how the thing looks in my apartment. really, it's better in person.

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it's nice to finally have the time to get these sorts of projects done, but i do miss working. hopefully i'll be back at it soon, and this time with a job that gives me enough free time to keep at this list!