My DIY: Color block bracelets

As you know, color blocking is the cat's meow in fashion this year. (For those who don't know, color blocking is wearing two or three loud colors together without it looking bad.)

You can make your own color block straw-look bangles using one simple supply - dollar store rope.

These bracelets are 50 cents a piece to make and about a half hour of your life per bracelet.

You'll need some brightly colored poly rope from The Dollar Tree. Cut two nine-foot pieces per bracelet. Burn the ends to prevent fraying.

Cross at the center of both ropes and start tying a series of lanyard knots. (Get a how-to here.)

Keep tying until your chain of knots is long enough to go around your wrist.

Then weave the loose ends into the finished end so it looks like one continuous chain of knots.

Glue where the ropes intersect.

Allow to dry completely before trimming the loose ends. Then put a little glue on the cut ends to prevent fraying.

You can afford to make several.

Closets: Front and center

Following up my previous advice to wear your stuff until you hate it, I've been trying different methods of making myself wear seldom used items.

I started with jewelry, sorting it all out and separating jewelry I liked and couldn't seem to give up but never wore.

I put some of said items in a bowl front and center in my closet. (The bowl is a recent thrift find, btw.)

And I did indeed wear this blue-beaded necklace. For about 10 minutes. A strand broke, scattering dozens of little beads.

See how easy that was?

Wear it. Break it. Problem solved.

How do you make yourself wear things?

Found items: Bird and Thai silk

Elizabeth Abernathy has inspired me to start posting my finds again.

I recently thrifted this gold bird figurine and a long Thai silk skirt that I will maybe wear once because it goes past the ankles and I'm not boho enough to pull it off. But wouldn't it make neat pillows?

Found anything good lately?

DIY art: minerals and music

Two DIY art ideas from the clever people at Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams - pretty minerals in shadow box frames and oversized sheet music.

Check out their furniture, too. Lots more style than other brands at the same price.

Drip drip drop

Trying to embrace all the wet. How's the weather where you are?

Closets: Crush your crush

As many organizers will tell you, you ought to get rid of things not worn in a year. But, I can tell you that things not worn in a year are impossible to get rid of. Infatuation can continue indefinitely when one is not required to deal with the dream on a daily basis.

So, really, don't get rid of things not worn in a year, which causes emotional upheaval. Simply wear it. Get to know its flaws. See what it looks like when it first gets up in the morning. Take off those rose-colored glasses (unless it is a pair of rose-colored glasses that you are trying to get rid of). Then you will not able to wait to ditch it.

Case in point - my crush shoes.

These shoes are impractical in every way for any girl from middle America over the age of 40 who is occasionally required to crawl on the floor for work, unless that girl is Kelly Wearstler.

But look. They are metallic and shimmery on the inside.

And they have these awesome zippers and tassels.

Soooooo cute.

Because I'm not wearing them, I'm keeping them. As paperweights.

What kooky closet crush do you cling to?

Guest posting at The English Organizer

I'm guest posting at The English Organizer about Stealth Storage. Drop by Pauline's blog and say Hi if you can.

Nature's first green is gold

Just had to show I finally figured out the f-stops on my camera. (Still working on coordinating f-stop and shutter speed.)

New York is beeoooootiful right now.

Ports 1961 jewelry

A little DIY jewelry inspiration from Ports 1961. See what you can do with clear plastic, linen and tubes?

Closets: Follow your mood

Looking forward to staying home a little bit this weekend and doing one of my favorite things - sorting my closet - which my bloggie friend Mise calls "pottering." (She's Irish.)

My first bit of advice when it comes to tackling your closet or your stuff in general is to embrace your current mood - either to purge or to hoarde.

The purge mood is pretty self explanatory. The hoarde state of mind, which I'm in right now, can be OK, too. This means you love your stuff. And isn't that the point of having a closet in the first place - to fill it with things you love?

The trick is you have to wear it. Wear everything. Everything. Make yourself do it. We don't do theoretical outfits when we live in tiny spaces.

Fortunately, there's lots of inspiration out there. Carly at Chic Steals made a whole month of outfits just out of things she never wore.

If you need to figure out how to get your pleats to go with your prints, there are plenty of high-style "outfit" blogs out there.

For example, for West Coast style, there's Atlantic Pacific.

For East Coast style, there's The Glamourai.

Then there's the uber-outfit blog, The Sartorialist.

All are lovely to look upon and hard to pull off.

For the average girl, there's always the "looks we love" section of your favorite clothing retailer's web site. You don't have to buy all their stuff, but you can figure out what goes with what. And then spice it up by wearing it backwards or something.

Where do you find inspiration for reinventing your wardrobe?

Travels

My excuse for being a lame blogger lately is work and travel, puncuated by travel and work.

To entertain you until I get my act together, here are a few of the places I visited this weekend in California (two cool homes) and some of the yummy food consumed (homemade scones, salad and grilled things).

The last pic is all of us fawning over a leather-bound journal made from a thrift store leather jacket. (Check out Craft Stylish for a tutorial.)