the DIY: HEADPIECE OUT OF A NECKLACE

So Free People creates lovely headpieces just like this....

But sadly they are waaaaayyyy out of our price range! They make them for $75, $98, and $158. Ours was practically free! Of course, we still love Free People!

So to create this headpiece you will need an old necklace (or necklace strands bought from the jewelry making section in a craft store), jewelry chain, jump rings, a lobster claw fastener, and some pliers. My jump rings and fastener are going to come straight off of the old necklace.

This is the necklace as it was originally supposed to be worn. Not so hot, huh? But I made sure Casey didn't throw it away because I knew one day we could probably do something with it. And what do ya know? A cute headpiece was born.

As you can see, this necklace has four strands. We won't be using all of those strands but we are going to disassemble the whole necklace.

Loosen all of the jump rings but make sure you don't destroy them.

When you have pulled apart the whole necklace, every piece should be on it's own. You should have some jump rings, some necklace strands, a fastener and extras.

Connect the extra chain with two jump rings to the ends of one of the necklace strands.

This is what it should look like when it is all connected.

You will then cut the chain. The way you measure how much you cut is by putting this whole piece around your head. It should wrap around right at the top of your forehead and the ends should match up perfectly touching in the back of the head.

On one end of the strand connect the lobster claw fastener with a jump ring, and then on the other side add a jump ring.

Now we are going to connect the center piece. I've picked the shortest necklace strand and I will connect it in the front with a jump ring.

I've just connected it to the string that the beads are on. After it is connected, put the headpiece on and measure the center piece over the top of your head.

When you find where the pieces should connect in the back (by measuring it on your head) connect it with a jump ring. My strand was a little longer than it needed to be so I just let the extra part hang over.

Now I'm just connecting the end of the old necklace to the end of the center piece with a jump ring. I think this just gives it a nice finish.

Done and ready to wear!

Check out what it looks like on Casey!

Obviously this doesn't look exactly like Free People's headpiece up top but it is our cheaper version and I really like it! I might even think I like the color version more.

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manic MANI MONDAY: RINGS OF SATURN

I know we are all well aware of the half moon trend- that has been around for a while. As much as I love it, I've never actually done my own nails this way. I figured there was no better way to wear my new favorite Julep colors- Meryl and Oscar. I named these nails "Rings of Saturn" because well, that is what the gold part in the middle reminded me of. Check out how I created them below!

I started with a gray color. This is Julep's Meryl.

I took reinforcement labels, cut one side, and placed them where I wanted the half moon shape to start. For me, it was about 1/3 of the way down.

I then covered the open nail with a gold glitter polish. I used Julep's Oscar.

I then removed the reinforcement labels. You could stop here and cover with a top coat but I wanted to add a little something more.

When your nails have dried, (Julep polish dries so very quickly) place another reinforcement label a little over the gold polish. The part of the gold polish that is covered by this label will be a gold stripe in the end.

Cover the open nail with navy polish. I used Sally Hansen's Navy Baby.

Remove label.

Repeat on all nails.

Cover with a clear polish and enjoy your freshly painted nails!

We're mucho in love with Julep nail polish and we are Julep Mavens if you must know.

Top reasons why we love Julep:

1. They have amazing colors (with equally fun celebrity names)

2. IT DRIES SO FAST!!!

Become a Julep Maven with us!

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the DIY: WRAP WATCH

A few things before we start this DIY...
1. We were in love with the neon versions of these watches so our original intentions were to make a neon one and as you can see, that did not work out. We started with black vinyl and spray painted it neon, but it was too sticky to wear around your arm. So we painted the vinyl gray which was less sticky.
2. DON'T PAINT YOUR VINYL for this DIY. If possible, get vinyl or leather that is already in the color that you want your watch straps to be. Please do learn from our mistakes!
3. This isn't the easiest DIY there ever was so check it out and if you don't feel like making one yourself, you can always buy one! We just had the supplies to create one and wanted to save a few bucks so we made our own! (Well it belongs to Casey so I guess we made "her" own.)
So enough about that... let's get started.

YOU WILL NEED:
VINYL
NEEDLE & THREAD
QUICK DRYING CRAFT GLUE
A CLOTHESPIN
SCISSORS
A TORN APART NEW OR OLD WATCH
(You will want to disassemble the watch- separating the watch face and the end piece(s) from the straps)

Cut 2 long pieces of vinyl. The width of these should be determined by how wide the ends of your watch face is, because that is where they will attach. Also cut 2 short pieces of vinyl. These should be a tiny bit thicker than the long pieces. Our long pieces measured about 12" x .5" and our short pieces measured about 1.5" x .75".

Take the shorter pieces and snip the ends with scissors making them come to a point.

Put a dab of craft glue on the top of one end of a longer piece of vinyl.

Place one of the short pieces on top of the glue. Make sure both pieces are facing upward.

After the glue has dried, weave the piece through the end of the watch like in the picture. The watch face should be facing upward and so should the vinyl piece.

With the vinyl piece still with the watch, flip over everything.

Add a dab of glue on the backside of the vinyl.

Fold down the pointed piece of vinyl and secure it with a clothespin so it will not move while drying.

Once the glue has dried, hand stitch around the triangle-ish shape that has been created.

And it should look something like this. It doesn't have to be perfectly stitched. It will all blend together later.

Now you will wrap the watch around your wrist to see if the strip is too long.

When you turn your arm over, the strip should end right in the middle of your wrist. If it doesn't, like in the picture, then cut the strip.

Take the piece that looks like this (name?) and lay it by the end of the long strip to see where you need to poke a hole.

Poke a hole with the scissors about .75" in.

So the rest of these pictures are hopefully self-explanatory as I cannot find a way to put them all into words. Basically I'm attaching this piece and I've taken many pictures to help you understand how to go about doing it.

Now that you've weaved this piece through, add a dab of glue on the underneath of the vinyl and press the pieces together.

When the glue has dried, stitch a little skinny rectangle just to secure the piece.

Attach the other long piece of vinyl to the other side of the watch face.

Cut the end of this piece into a point and cut a few slits so you will be able to adjust the watch size.

Cut a piece of vinyl that is about .25" x 2.5" long.

Make it into a loop. The loop should pretty much be as thick as the watch straps.

Put the loop over the watch strap. Glue the loop together and if needed, completely secure it with a needle and thread. It doesn't have to be fancy because that part will face your arm. Just make sure you don't glue or sew the loop to the strap.

Wear your new watch!

Casey's new watch on my arm...

The watch all by itself!

Since this tutorial, Casey's watch has acquired some chains on it because the simple wrap watch just wasn't enough for her. We also plan on making another watch in the near future that does involve neon and we will let you know when that happens!

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