Something made from something made...

Well, I have been kinda slacking on posting once a week as was my goal. This jewelry tutorial should make up for it. :) It is a simple little thing, but turned out oh-so-cute.

 I hate having things laying around the house that I do not use (trust me, we have plenty of stuff like that around here). I loved these very imperfect gold freshwater pearls when I bought them. Who doesn't have a thing for pearls? I love them. I made this necklace about a year ago, because I loved the pearls and the middle glass bead and thought they went together perfectly:

... But when I put it on, it just didn't look right to me. Maybe it was the length, maybe it was something else. I don't know. I just did not like it, so I did not wear it. I got sick of having it sitting there in my jewelry display, so today I decided I would do something about it and use those pearls to make something I really wanted to wear!

I have had a thing for copper and brass tones lately and have been loving mixing metallic shades, so I went and bought some copper-toned chain at Wal Mart. I would usually go to a craft store for things like this, but since I was there already, and so was the copper chain... I bought it. Here it is:

I bought two of these, and there was tons of length. I also bought some gold eyelet and pin-head things (why do I not know what these are called?) to link the pearls to the chain.

So during my recorded episode of Catfish, I just separated the links to the chains, removed the bent link, then replaced it with a gold pin-thing with a pearl on it!

After this, of course I closed it off by cutting it, inserting the other link and bending a loop like the first one to connect them. I did this at random spots on the chain so there would be no set pattern when all of the chains (I cut the long chains into 4 smaller ones to make the necklace with) were together and I was wearing the necklace. After that, I attached a clasp. You do not have to, if you do not want. You can simply separate the links like the above picture, and then hook them back together to make continuous chains, as long as they fit over your head! :)

Here is the finished product:

I will try to get a picture of myself wearing the necklace. Normally I would have my husband do it, but he is very far away right now, so when I get one, I will update it!

Spring cleaning for the creative person, part one of many

Happy February, everyone!

It is warm (well, to a Northern girl at least) here in Georgia, and the sun is shining. This makes me want to get into gear and start organizing the house for the spring. There will be several posts about organizing, especially as I get into the thick of it.. This is just part one, and I am starting small.

Like many women I know who enjoy pretty, sparkly things, I feel like I can never have too much jewelry. For the longest time, I was just keeping it all in the most organized (huge) pile in and on top of my jewelry box. This got messy and tangled, and was very frustrating. It was also really ugly and on the rare occasion that our room did end up clean (I am a terrible housekeeper, I will admit), the jewelry was still a problem!

My sweet husband, M, does not care what the decor in our house looks like, and he is generally pretty excited to see what I come up with. He definitely loves to see the house organized and clean.We have plenty of wall space in our bedroom, so I decided that I would use some of it to create some decorative and very functional jewelry displays.

For this one, I bought a decorative wood sign (unfinished) from Michael's for $7.99 and I used a hook and some used drawer pulls (one of my best friends calls these drawer-knobs, which I love) I found at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for about 50 cents apiece. I also used spray paint in raspberry, pistachio and metallic brass colors. If you want it to be cheaper (and it might also look cooler, but I was impatient and did not want to go looking), you could use a piece of old wood.

The raspberry-colored one is the first that I finished and here is what I did:

1. I painted the board the color I wanted it.
2. I set the knobs on the board where I wanted them, then marked the spots with a pencil.
3. I drilled holes in the board where I marked it, and then put the knobs/hooks on. (It was a lot easier to drill holes in the board once I stopped accidentally using the drill on reverse. woops!)
4. Voila. :) 

 Here is the finished product on my wall:

The next project I will show you, I did about six months ago (so I apologize for the lack of instructional pictures) when my jewelry had just started getting out of control. I like to make jewelry, so I have quite a bit more since then. :)

I found this shadow box at Michael's for about $9.99. You could use a different kind of box, maybe one without a little glass door on it, if you want. Again, I just used this one because it was easy to find. For the hooks, instead of drilling something into the wood (because it is thin and I did not want to worry about screws sticking out) I bought some command hooks and attached them to the top. They are the kind with a hook that moves.

What I did:

1. Used painter's tape to tape up all of the places that I did not want to get paint on
2. I used a stencil I bought and stenciled a design on the back wall of the box. I used a bird, you could use whatever you want, or just freehand it.
3. I stuck the command hooks on the inside top wall of the box, taking care that when necklaces were hung on it, they would be far enough away from the back to hang naturally.
4. I hung it on my wall
5. Voila!

Since this was the first jewelry organizer I made, I feel like I should share the things I would have done differently. I used acrylic paint for this project, but I think if I were to do it again, I would have used either different paint, or a coat of mod podge or clear top coat at the end. I don't like the matte look of this as much as I thought I would. I can still do this, though. I think I will also add a little knob on the front for easier opening.

These two projects cost me about $45. Pretty great! You could even do these projects for cheaper than I did.

Happy organizing!

How to get the most for your money at Sephora

My husband and I are both very loyal Sephora customers (ok, so I do the buying for both of us). He has sensitive skin that breaks out very easily and loves the Peter Thomas Roth skin care line, and I love makeup and all of the free samples I can get and try, in my quest to find the perfect skin care and cosmetics! :)

Since buying makeup and skin care items at Sephora (or any specialty store) can get expensive, I have a few tips on how to get the most for your money when buying from them.

In-store: One of the best things about Sephora is the fact that they will let you try pretty much anything there. If there is anything that you'd like to try, just ask a sales associate and they will get you a little container of the product(s) for you to take home. This is an excellent way to avoid wasting money on something you don't like. If you do happen to buy something that you don't like, you can return it with no problems.

Online: This is my favorite way to shop at Sephora. There are so many opportunities to get free samples and little treasures with your order. First, with each order, you can choose three free samples. You can do this by clicking the "3 free samples" link at the top of the page, or just wait until checkout. When checking out, enter one of Sephora's promo codes to get some extra free stuff. You can get some pretty good stuff if you look for promo codes at the right time. Holidays are really good times to get some pretty awesome sample bags. RetailMeNot also has a list of promo codes that may not all be listed on Sephora's website. You can also get free shipping if the item(s) you ordered are over $50.

If you happen to be a VIB, you can use your accumulated points from previous purchases for free Beauty Insider Rewards either in-store or online.

Here is my latest Sephora purchse: 

Peter Thomas Roth face wash ($32), Buxom shimmer, shine and smoke kit (500 beauty insider points), 12-sample skincare sampler bag (free), and three free samples (free). I paid $41 for all of this, including shipping! In my opinion, pretty good.

Happy shopping!

Sole Society Shoes

About a week ago, I received my new pair of Sole Society shoes. I got a great deal on them, since I had a promo code that got me half off! That is wonderful. I almost never pass up an opportunity to get a pair of shoes I want at a discount.

I bought these cute little nude flats:

Buuuuut... they don't fit right. I really love them and wish they did! There is another pair of mustard-colored wedges I am just in love with, that I would love to exchange them for....

Here is the part where I give my honest opinion: so far, I am not too impressed with Sole Society. I really like the site, and I appreciate the discount code, but I am not very excited to order from them again. They make returns and exchanges very hard, and their customer service seems slow. There is no option to return my shoes on the website (there are instructions on my packing slip that came with the shoes, but the instructions are incorrect and do not work). I have contacted customer service with my problem, but no one has gotten back to me. On top of that, they charge a $7.95 restocking fee for each pair of shoes returned, so if you want to exchange them, you are actually going to have to pay $8 to do so. I felt like it was hardly worth it. The last thing is, I can no longer use my promo code ($25 off your first pair of shoes) for the pair I would like to exchange these for, so they will be twice the price. I might just search for some mustard wedges on Zappos or Amazon.

With as much as I love to save money and get a good deal, it pains me to pay a restocking fee of nearly $8.

I realize that was not the best review, but the shoes I got were good quality and cute. If you're sure of your size and you know the shoes will fit you, here is the discount code for your first pair: INFLUENSTER25, and it is good until the end of the month.

I couldn't resist!

Who doesn't love a super thoughtful gift that won't break the bank? For Christmas, some friends of ours commissioned a very funny British guy to sing a Christmas Carol for my husband and me. The best part? He was wearing a tinsel-covered thong. Even better? He said our names!! I couldn't believe it. The look on my face was priceless, my husband said. Our friends posted the video on one of our Facebook walls, and tagged us in it for everyone to see. It was awesome.

So of course, after seeing this amazingly creative gift that our friends got us, I went searching for something equally as creative to do for them in return. The things I found were amazing, but super expensive. Did you know that there is an evil clown who will stalk your child and send them threatening text messages the week of their birthday? I would have loved to have gotten a clown to stalk our friends! Of course that is out, though, because while its a funny prank, I don't want to scare them! It is also probably very expensive.

After seeing our profuse praise of their gift, our friends told us that they only paid $5 for that incredibly thoughtful and hilarious gift! How could this be? They went to a site called Fiverr, where everything is $5. How awesome! Here's how it works: people from all over the world take stock of what they are good at (or maybe even terrible at) and what people might find beneficial, and then they offer to do it for $5. You can find anything on this site! There are people who will sing in thongs, people who will crochet you a cute mini-monster and send it to you, people who will give you math tutorials, and people who will do advertising for you. I searched and searched, and I found this amazing gift for our friends:

This guy will write whatever you want him to on his amazing beer gut for $5. Is there a better gift?

The moral of the story  here is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving gifts any chance I get, and it is made even better by the fact that I am not paying an arm and a leg to do it. I am happy to have found, and to be sharing, Fiverr. 

Happy gifting! 

 

My Influenster Holiday VoxBox

I just LOVE trying new things. Especially when it comes to new products. I am CONSTANTLY on the quest for the perfect product, whatever category it might fall into. One thing I really don't like is wasting money. Unfortunately, I have done that way too many times, buying new products that don't work out for me.
This is why I love Influenster! I am addicted to social media and spend a ton of time online, so Influenster is perfect for me. In case you don't know, here's the deal: Influenster uses social media presence to get the word out about new products. By unlocking (fun) badges about your lifestyle, you qualify for different programs and may have a box of goodies sent to your house for you to test out! Social media addicts like me will find it easy to take pics, blog about and review different products. Each time you do this, you increase your score, and the higher your score, the more programs you will qualify for.

I have gotten three VoxBoxes so far... including the Holiday VoxBox, which was a wonderful treat to look forward to when I returned from my trip to the Middle East! Here's a shot of what was inside.

The site is just a little bit hard to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, you'll love it. Especially if you love free stuff, like me. :)

http://www.influenster.com/

Until next time!

Welcome!

Hello out there in web-land! My name is Emily, and I love saving money, crafting, and all things DIY. I love it all so much, I decided to make a blog about it! Here, you will find tutorials, links, and tips on how to get the most for your money.

Before I make my first post, allow me to share a few things about myself. I am married to a wonderful man. We have two cats and a dog and they are our babies! I am a graduate student, and an Air Force veteran.

I can't wait to share with you!