A Series of Quick Jewelry Fixes

As I mentioned Monday, I cleaned out my closet recently because of serious style stagnation (SSS syndrome?). While I was going through it, I pulled out everything that needed a little TLC: stuff to be sent to the dry cleaner, pieces missing buttons, pants I want to hem, and jewelry that needed a little fixin'. The intent was so that everything in my closet is wearable at any given moment. Now I won't shouldn't look at something and then dismiss it because it's x, y or z. I needed to maximize my closet shopability!

I sieved out this pile of jewelry that either hasn't been worn or needed some updates:

Let me tell you a secret, or maybe you already know, but doing minor jewelry fixes is easy! Was I the only one who didn't know this?? The craft store sells all kinds of finishings and beyond those, all you need is a pair of needle nose pliers and a sprinkling of patience. I picked up cord ends, jump rings, and head pins:

I started with the easiest thing first; eased my way in. I have a lot of pendants I've picked up during my travels, but they were attached to either hemp cords, cotton cords, or something else more Phish concert appropriate than work appropriate. After detaching them from whatever they were hanging from, I attached the rings (called 'jump rings' in jeweler lingo) in 3 easy steps.

1) Open the ring:

2) Put the ring on:

3) Close the ring:

Bada-bing, bada-boom, ready for hanging on a nice chain! (The jump rings, by the way, come in all sizes for any kind of pendant.)

Here is my jump ring handiwork (and clearly my nails sacrificed a king's ransom to make them happen):



Like having 4 new necklaces!

Next up was a simple bracelet with a little charm I bought on Etsy ages ago. I fixed it using two cord ends, and a clasp closure (which I already had laying around from other broken jewelry):

This was also beyond simple. So simple, I forgot to take pics of the process (whoops!). All you have to do is brush a little super glue on the inside of the cord end (how genius is the new brush on krazy glue bottle?! Why wasn't this thought of earlier?)  and crimp closed with the pliers! Attach the closure like I did with the jump rings above, and you've got yourself an easy to take on and off bracelet!

The last project was those earrings. They are a Christmas gift from my in-laws and I absolutely love them, but the little blue bottoms on them were kind of a distraction to me. No fear! I fixed 'em right up! Originally, they looked like this:



See what I mean? Those little blue flat beads didn't match the rest of the earring. I took them off by opening the jump rings they were attached to using  the needle nose. I saved those puppies because they are cute and I know they will be useful in another project eventually. Here's one of the earrings after removing the flat beads:



I used the needle nose to remove the round beads from the earring and then took them off the wire. Then it was time to bust out the head pins:

I slipped on the appropriate bead, and cut the pin short.

Then the dexterity came in. The pin gets threaded through the hole on the earring

and then bent over to form a closure.

Simple, right? WRONG. This isn't impossible, or even hard, it just takes patience to figure out a way to hold the earring, the bead and the needle nose in a way that gets the wire closed. All the advice I can give is PRACTICE AND PATIENCE. Like most other tasks in life. Go figure. In this instance, however, the patience was totally worth it, because now look at my snazzy earrings:



Score! Simple update made them like a whole new pair.

Phew! I know that was a lot of niche info. But maybe it'll be useful! I had always avoided the jewelry isle at Michael's because of sensory overload from all the colored beads. No more!

Anyway, moral of the story here: don't get rid of your easily fixable jewelry! A little effort and a lot of nail splitting could mean a few (basically) new pieces added to your closet!

Got any jewelry fixing tips for me?

Somewhere to Hang my Scarves

So, I'm a scarf fan. They're pretty and they add a bit of panache to any outfit, if I do say so myself. Given my fandom of scarfs, it stands to reason that I have a few of them. Or quite a few of them. Seventeen of them, as I found out while doing this little project.

I was cleaning out/reorganizing my closet recently as I'm known to do when I feel in a style rut and after the redo, I was without a place for my scarf pile. After the proper fantasizing of one day having a huge closet in which I'll never be want for storage, and will always sip champagne while getting dressed, I thought of a piece of ladder I had outside that could help solve my scarf problem.



The ladder is actually a leftover piece from a trash find that we used to display escort cards at our wedding. (Thank you neighbor 2 doors down for chucking it! She obviously wasn't plugged into the blogosphere's obsession with rustic chic.) Here's the other half in a mock up we did pre-wedding:

It looked like maybe an apple picking ladder, but regardless, it was old and rustic and had that great patina that only genuinely weathered wood gets.

I brought that bad boy down to the newly organized basement (thanks to the husband working on it all day Saturday) so I could work where it was warm. Call me crazy, but I was not interested in working outside in 19 degree weather, even if it was sunny.

The ladder was missing a rung at the bottom and was too tall for the spot, so I measured it out and cut the bottom off using the trusty jig saw. (I didn't wear eye protection, but you SHOULD. I totally forgot until after I was finished.)

Murphy's oil soap and hot water came to the rescue in cleaning off the dirt and grime that had accumulated in the grain. I scrubbed and wiped until I thought it was good enough, brought it upstairs where it was brighter, and deemed it good and clean. After letting it dry, I went over it one more time with a dry cloth and brought her in the house.

My original plan was to hang it, but after realizing it would involve either a) finding studs or b) toggle bolts, I decided leaning against the wall was a-ok with me.

Unfortunately, after the first go, the ladder stood a little crooked, kind of like we all did as teenagers with one knee bent and a foot turned 90 degrees from forward. ("Ugh, Mom, you're, like, duh, so uh-NOYINGGG.") Anyways, Mike came to the rescue and measured and marked evenly from the bottom-most rung using a square rule.

We hauled that thing back down to the basement and employed the miter saw to cut this time. (Didn't realize this pic was blurry until it was too late. Bummer.)

Back upstairs, I leaned it against the wall:

Hung the scarves:

And turned it around!

Et voila! Ladder turned scarf rack. Getting them on and off is easy-peasy, and I love that I can see all of them. Look out, world, my accessorizing is about to be kicked up at least 10 notches.