A few beading projects

Inspired by some links I've found on Pinterest, actually!  I've got a whole board of jewelry inspirations.  There are lots of good jewelry inspiration ideas floating about on Pinterest, and as our heat wave continues on, I've been more into beading and general crafting than knitting - much cooler to work with, at least temperature-wise!  So, I'm being creative using another outlet, and hoping that Fall comes soon :)

First up is a necklace inspired by an Anthropologie piece, the Spinet necklace.  Anthropologie often has such adorable or striking pieces, but such prices!!  Much easier to make on your own!  This one used chain from Michael's, and a string of yellow and cream stones, also from Michael's, and a clasp and accent bead from my own stash, nothing too complex.  The necklace portion is 16 inches, then the chain drops down as a pendant.  I used the accent bead, as I only had 6 of the stone beads.  That left either extra beads, or oddly spaced stones on the 'pendant' portion of the necklace if I used 4 there, with 2 stones on the drops.  I played around a lot with the spacing of the stones and so forth, before diving into my stash and coming out with the brass accent bead - same metal as the chain, same size as the stones, works out nicely.  And I liked the dragonfly accent too, so I'm very pleased with my final result.

 

Another piece is a casual button bracelet.  I liked the monochromatic ones from the original website, Milomade, but found some black and white buttons to use in my first attempt.  This was a completely WalMart craft, actually.  They have blank link bracelets, and bags of assorted, color coordinated buttons.  Perfect supplies to get you started.  All you need now is the eye pins to attach the buttons to the bracelet.

I started with attaching the eye pins to the buttons, then laying them out in a pattern I liked.  The pattern I ended up with is alternating black and white buttons, and alternating styles of buttons within each color.  Black A, White 1, Black B, White 2, Black A, White 3, and so on.  It gives it an artfully random look - not perfectly matched, but not totally reach-in-the-bag-blindly type random.  I like it  :)

If you look at the above picture on the right, you can see how I attached the buttons.  The eye pin is looped through one of the buttons, then the eye of the eye pin attaches it to the bracelet link.  I spaced my buttons on this bracelet to be one per link - 23 altogether.  If you're working with a smaller linked chain, you might want to adjust the spacing of your buttons so it doesn't get too crowded.  This one worked out nicely for 1-per-link.

I've worn this one a couple of times already now, and really like it.  I've enough black and white and grey in my wardrobe that this works nicely as a casual match-almost-all sort of piece.  I've already picked up buttons for another in fall time colors of navy and gold and rust and green.  Thinking a copper chain with that one, but we'll see what looks good :)

Happy Roald Dahl Day!

Every year, Sept 13 is Roald Dahl Day!  Sept 13 is (was) his birthday, so makes for a fitting day to celebrate.  In the UK, they plan all sorts of things!  Some areas even have a whole Roald Dahl Month of activities!  Fun!

My favorite Roald Dahl book was by far Matilda.  Probably a combination of the independent, intelligent female protagonist who loved books, combined with an inner desire to have telekinetic abilities (ranks up there with my desire to have my own dragon... some things I still haven't outgrown!).  Probably why the Roald Dahl books have lasted so long - who ever outgrows the desire to see outrageously appropriate bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good ones?

Fun foods!

In celebration of my birthday this week, I'm sharing some foods I've attempted as some 'Happy Birthday to Me' fun!

The first is my birthday cupcake itself.  I was inspired by the web-famous Cookie Monster Cupcake.  I realize that my Cookie Monster looks a lot more melted than the inspiration piece, but I'm still happy with him.  I didn't use 'decorator's icing,' which makes the difference.  I made cream cheese icing instead, to go with the carrot cupcakes.  Tastes delicious, but doesn't hold peaks as well as the icing typically used on decorative cakes.  But, for whatever reason, I just don't like that icing.  Too rich, too sweet.  Looks beautiful, but I just don't like the taste, a waste of calories.  Oh well.  I think I can deal with melted Cookie Monsters if it means I like the taste of the finished cupcake!  I could have used white candies for the eyes, though, instead of icing.  Would have made them a little rounder, neater.  But seeing as only Zach and I saw them, I'm not worried.

And yes, I am almost 30, and made Cookie Monster cupcakes for my own birthday.  Any problems?  :)

 

And for a main dish (or lunchtime snack, whatever), here are Mini Corn Dogs!  I've seen this recipe posted a bunch of different places, and have wanted to give them a try.  These are delicious, and oh-so-easy!  Only a few ingredients: corn muffin mix, some hotdogs, and whatever corn dog toppings you like!  I used Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, my go-to corn bread mix, and it worked beautifully.  Yum!  

I did find that it yields a few more corn dog muffins than the box says it will yield in muffins.  Makes sense, as the meat does take up some space in the muffin cup, you can squeeze a few more corn dog muffins out of each box of mix.  Does mean that you have to adjust accordingly with the hot dogs you prepare, though - just something to note.  The hot dog part can be hot dogs cut into pieces (I found that cutting them into 3rds fit perfectly in the muffin cups) or Vienna sausage if you like that better.  Just press them into the muffin cups once some batter is in the cup and bake as usual for the mix.  

As for toppings, I like to sprinkle a bit of cheese on top, and serve them with ketchup.  But then, I'm a hot dog purist and don't go for many toppings on my hot dogs.  You can add whatever you want - mustard, onion, whatever toppings you like.  When adding cheese, I added it just a few minutes before the muffins were done, just enough time to melt.  

This was my first time making these, but I definitely know I'll be making these again! They made a good lunch, too.  Two or three of the muffins fit perfectly in my little lunch box, add some fruit, and there you go!  A nice change from sandwiches or casserole leftovers for my lunch at work :)