I started a project AND finished it!
But before I give you the tutorial, I wanted to explain why I've been MIA for these last several weeks (months maybe?)
I've talked a few times on here about how I'm a runner. In fact, my post about why I run is one of the most visited pages on this blog. The thing is, I work full time, and outside of work I can usually manage 2 bigger commitments and/or a hand full of smaller , short term ones. Right now, I'm training for my second half marathon. So that's slot #1 of "bigger commitments". My other smaller commitments are really just spending more time with family and friends, and working through the kinks in my newly-wedded life. As I started to think about it more, I realized that my hobbies are fairly seasonal.
In the winter, I'm a total nester. I want the house clean, decorated, cozy, and since I'm in it more, I have more time to tweak it. And there's more time for projects around the house (at least inside) because I'm not running as much.
Summer, at least the past two, I've been training for races. Running several miles a day, and eating right to go along with it takes time. Not to mention the Saturday afternoon recovery naps.
Spring and fall are kind of a combination of the two versions of me, a little home decorator, a little stubborn athlete.
I guess what I'd like to know from anyone reading this, whether it's your first time hear or if you're a regular reader, would you like to see this blog reflect my seasons too? Would anyone wanted to hear about my adventures in running? Or is that boring and you'd like to see home decorating things only? Feel free to respond in the comments please.
Back to my original purpose for writing today - simple jewelry organizer.
I'm almost ashamed to even post this, but here's what my jewelry collection used to look like.
I promise you, the reason I was getting to work late was because most of my jewelry was tangled around a plastic Bachelorette necklace. Husband never mentioned that he was sick of looking at it, but I knew having it cleaned up would go a long way in making what used to be my bedroom ours.
I started my project like anyone would, researching some ideas on Pinterest. There are some seriously cool ideas out there! In the end though, most of them were too complicated or too costly for me to handle. So I took a good few months to think it over and finally figured out something that would work.
I had a couple of 11 x 14" picture frames I had bought for a friend's project that I never got too. I sprayed those in my favorite teal blue color. In the front yard. Without a drop cloth. (Praying for rain so grass will grow and blue can get cut off!)
I have a lot of necklaces and I decided to make one frame for those and the other for bracelets and earrings. On the necklace display, I screwed in several s hooks that I picked up from Menards for about 10 cents a piece. I just turned them with my hands into the inside of the top of the frame. I used pliers for the last couple of turns to make sure the hooks were in all the way, and I probably should have worn gloves. My finger tips are a little tender today.
On the earring and bracelet display, I screwed in more s hooks to the insides of the sides of the frame. I marked these out about 2 1/2 inches apart with the first set of hooks an inch from the top. I then used jewelry chain with larger links to run from one side of the frame to the other. The chain was pretty thin so I used another s hook, a figure "8" shaped one, on the end of each length of jewelry chain so I could hook and unhook the chain more easily to get bracelets off and on the chain. I just used my pliers again to open and close these figure "8" s hooks to connect them to the chain.
I had originally planned on leaving the backs of my frames open, but them thought my jewelry would look much better if it was backed by some kind of fabric. My next thought was some kind of fun print. Then I realized, black velvet. Jewelry always looks great against black velvet.
This is where things got really lazy. Well not quite yet. First I went to Jo-Ann and found a $5 remnant of black velvet. Then things got lazy. I took the cardboard that was in the back of the picture frame, cut the fabric about and inch or two larger than the cardboard, and taped it to the cardboard with packing tape. Told you- lazy. You could probably get some plywood cut to the size of your frame opening and put down a layer of batting and then your fabric, but I was on a role and would rather tape and fix later, just to have something finished now.
I used the glass clips to clip the fabric covered cardboard into place then hung them in my pseudo walk in closet with a few 3M velcro strips.
I'm happy, Husband is happy, and my boss is happy. (Seriously, I was on time for work today!)
I still need to come up with a solution for my larger bracelets, anyone have any suggestions? How are you organizing your jewelry?
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