Spring cleaning

Has anybody started yet?

Me, barely. Although I did throw out my body weight in magazines last week (which, since my interests have drifted from fitness to blogging, is 10 pounds more than previously.)

Here are a few of my hard-learned lessons:

Choose your battles: You only have so much time and energy, so focus on the areas that are driving you nuts. The fine china in the upper cabinet can stay dusty another year. The junk drawer at waist level needs help now.

Spend time on areas where you will be ditching items: Cleaning and putting back what you have is nice. But real results come when you clean and get rid. The only reason not to dump 1/3 of the items in any area you are cleaning is if you plan to do absolutely no shopping during the upcoming year.

Do a little at a time: This is especially helpful for boring areas like the kitchen. Do one shelf or one drawer every evening. Tip: Start with the liquor cabinet.

There's always next year: Don't make yourself crazy. The older you get, the faster spring comes around again. Whatever you skimped on this year, you can hit hard in 2011. And if you skimp again, the Mayan calendar says it's all going to wash away in a global cataclysm anyway.

Wuvs

White jackets. Always looking. Own four but always looking.

Image: Ann Taylor Bubble Cotton Jacket

DIY Wednesday on Thursday: Marlaina Stone inspired necklace from your own stuff

Guess who forgot yesterday was Wednesday?

Here's our DIY Wednesday project, posted a day late. This is the second in our continuing series on restyling your own jewelry rather than buying new or spending money on jewelry-making supplies. Last week's project was making a Talbot's inspired necklace from a plain strand of beads.

This week's project ups the bling factor a bit under the influence of designer Marlaina Stone. I will now make you look at a whole bunch of Marlaina Stone necklaces because I think they are so pretty.

Isn't it amazing she can put all that stuff together and make it look good? And for only $500 to $1,000 per necklace.

I like her mix of hard and soft, bold and delicate, and fabric and stone. At first I thought my necklace was too over the top until I looked back at hers again. Now I feel like adding more to it.

Below is my jewelry drawer. It's a not-so-hot mess right now. But it is a tremendous source of raw material.

Out of all that, I fished out the following, along with a scrap of silver-grey fabric.

My secret craft supplies are twist ties and ribbon from The Dollar Tree. You may note that the twist ties are bright green. I colored my pieces in with a black marker to tone them down.

I had one short necklace, one long one doubled up and tied with a ribbon at each end (about nine inches per side. See last week's post for details.), a pin, a pendant and a fabric flower. I put on the short necklace first and then tied the long necklace just under it. I attached the pin, pendant and fabric flower with twist ties. (In a future post, I'll show you how to make the fabric flower.)

I wouldn't necessarily wear it to, say, a rave or a pogo race, but overall it is pretty sturdy.

Poor girl botox and big nerd glasses

Bangs and nerd glasses look good on her.

After four years of thinking about it, I finally got bangs.

My forehead is huge. I could slap a solar panel up there and power my whole building. And then there are the furrows that arrived all at once in the mid aughts and have been displayed front and center, like dents in the hood. Lots of reasons to get some bangs.

But, of course, I was scarred by the '80s. Back then, if you touched one hair of your bang, your whole hairdo moved because it was decoupaged with hairspray. For me, a naked forehead has been a symbol of naturalness, adulthood and sophistication.

Then I got a little older and the tag of 'adulthood' wasn't so special anymore. Last week, on the spur of the moment, I got the bangs. Saturday, with a group made up of a 14-year-old and a 21-year-old, I was mistaken for a college student.

In other news, big nerd glasses are back.

My mom sent me these bifocal glasses in a bag with a bunch of other stuff. I thought they were an old pair of hers. Or belonged to someone's grandmother. Then I remembered they were mine. I wore these when I was 13 years old with a Dorothy Hamill haircut and a mouth full of braces. I looked 90 when I was 13 and 21 when I'm 42. Maybe I'll look 13 when I'm 90.

Anyone old enough to have lived through big glasses once is wise enough not to do it again. Right?

Mr. Bromeliad, of course, always rocks the look.

Earth Day Giveaway - Ruffled rose pillow

Welcome to my second giveaway. In honor of Earth Day, we'll be giving way the ruffled rose pillow I made from a bridesmaid dress.

As my regular readers know, every day is pretty much Earth Day at this blog. I'm all about reusing what I've got rather than buying new. This is somewhat to save the planet but more so to save a buck. And I just dislike waste in general.

Anyway, first a disclaimer. This an upcycled product from a hack seamstress. The center of the pillow turned out weird, and the seams were done with black thread since I had no hot pink. And the pillow is a bit lumpy. So if you win, don't be critical.

To enter, leave a comment here. For an extra chance, leave a comment at my how-to tutorial over at examiner.com. Feel free to tweet your heart out. (Although, statistically, it will dimish your chances of winning.)

In other news, Chadwicks is having a 41% off sale for Earth Day. With promo code CH41, you get 41% off one item until midnight tonight. I have dibs on the white slingbacks.

DIY Wednesday: Easy Talbot's inspired necklace from your own stuff

This is about the easiest DIY fashion project ever. It requires only ribbon and opposable thumbs. And a drawer full of jewelry. But I'm sure you've got that.

This is the first in a series of easy projects that were inspired by my jewelry drawer cleanup. If you want to make some DIY jewelry, do not be going to the craft store and buying beads and whatnot. You have beads. Look in that drawer. You know you do.

Below are some necklaces we are going to be knocking off. They are everywhere. You've seen them - multi-strand necklaces with lucite or clear glass beads and a ribbon. Below we have examples from Talbots, Ann Taylor and Stella & Dot. They cost between $34 and $150.

Some currently available necklaces that are similar are Anthropologie's Mystic Tieback Bib Necklace and the Lily Mineral Necklace and Ann Taylor's Faceted Teardrop Statement Necklace.

To accomplish this, take a boring beaded necklace (I got mine at Annie Sez last year for $3) and fold it in half. Tie two pieces of ribbon at either end. The ribbon should be about nine inches long. Make one of your tie points where the clasp is, if you necklace has one.

 

Use two clip earrigs to hide the knots. You can stop here if you like.

 

Or you can attach a fabric flower pin. Don't have one? No worries. This post shows you how.

And here are some more DIY jewelry projects:

• An easy tie-dye necklace that only takes minutes to make
• A dyed lace bracelet from your craft stash
• An easy t-shirt bracelet that only costs pennies to make

Vintage frog giveaway winner

Our winner is Mary E., who won with her second comment posted over at examiner.com.

Mary, send me your snail mail info at bromeliadliving@gmail.com and we will ship these off to you before your flowers wilt.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Despair not. We will have another giveaway later this week.