All that Glitters is Gold - A DIY

I did a post recently about a DIY blog and after collecting the supplies I decided to attempt one of the DIYs that I featured on my blog. The DIY was to make a pair of earrings out of rope and rhinestones. I've seen a few similarly nautical themed pieces of jewelry in stores, so I thought that I would save money and have fun making them. It was also pretty simple!

All you need is (shown clockwise): fishhook ear wires, 8mm cord hooks, rhinestone trim (about a half yard), and rope trim (I used a yard of a medium thickness gold rope).

On a side note: the cost of all the supply was about $12! The rhinestones made up $6 of the total.

All of the supply was found at my local hobby store.

Steps:

1. I made a few knots near the end of one side of the rope. I didn't want the earrings to be too large or dangly, so I only made a few knots. Be sure to allow space in between each knot, so that you can complete step 2.

2. Weave the rhinestones into the rope.

3. Then trim the rhinestones.

4. Super glue the ends of the rhinestones to the rope base.

5. Attach the cord end hooks to the ear wires.
6. Fit the ends of the rope into the hooks. Super glue them in and let them dry.

7. Pair the earrings with cool accessories and nautical themed top and prepare to get some complements on your handiwork!

I also made a bracelet with the same supply, but I added glue on clasps as bracelet connectors. I only wish the connectors were gold instead of silver!

Steps:
1. Cut the cord in half and double it around wrist (just to get a general measurement of how long it should be).
2. Twist the rhinestones around the cord.
3. Glue the cord and rhinestones together in four or five places, so that they will stay together.
4. I cut the cord into two strands, but left one of the cords longer so I could knot it in order to fasten it (this will cover the silver connectors). I glued the fasteners on the shorter cord ends to attach them. (See below) I'm sure there is a better way to do this, but my way served its purpose...

It looks rough here, but I left tape on the ends of the rope... Why? Another note: Each time you cut the rope you should put tape on the place you want to cut so that the rope doesn't fray!

The end result is definitely cute! I'm wearing these ASAP! I hope you'll try these DIYs! They're too easy! I hope the directions were easy enough to follow...

 Emily

Ps- You Need to Check Out this Site

One of the people I follow on Twitter recommended this blog called PS I made this for DIYers and I had to check it out! When I did, I found quite a few DIYs that I wanted to try. The best part? All of them are really simple, I have most of the supply in my house already, and sewing is probably the highest skill set required to do the PS DIYs!

I picked a few of the DIYs that I'm going to do ASAP:

I'm definitely going to need to a trip to the hobby store soon!

Emily

Golden Girl

I'm pretty busy lately and I'll be honest that I haven't had much time to take pictures (or put on) cool outfits. Me? I'm busy studying, cramming, and packing for home. But I think every Blogger has those extra pictures or an extra post to use for times like these. So this is mine.

I've wanted to share these for a while. My little collection of vintage gold belts. You've seen one of my lion belts, but here are a few you haven't seen, yet:

My Ferragamo bought on Ebay for a VERY reasonable price. It was almost unreasonable how reasonable the price was...

Little shoes!

Authentic, too!

I wore this outfit in early January. My Richard Chai for Target skirt, old silk Gap blouse, the belt, leggies from Target, and my Gianni Binni yellows MJs.

Leaf belt from Ebay. Unfortunately, the outfit pictures were terrible, so none of those to show!

My lion. I have two others with smaller lion heads that link in the middle, but they're at home...

He's been on the blog a few times. I just can't get enough vintage gold belts from the 80s.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my vintage belt collection!

Emily

Three Strikes in Soho

So a weekend or two ago, I thought I'd hit up a few vintage shops in one stop before finals, stress from finals starts, and before leaving NY for the summer. I went to three shops and then to the Soho Park Cafe for lunch in (guess which neighborhood...) Soho.

First stop was Screaming Mimi's:

Mimi's was one of the higher-end vintage stores I've heard of, but frankly I don't think high priced vintage is my thing. I didn't really see designer pieces, though there selection of pieces was well edited. Mimi's was too expensive and didn't fit my needs, so I left empty handed and headed over to...

Zachary's Smile:

One of my beloved Vogue contributors wrote about Zachary's Smile in her book (I had a great idea to do a post on the book just now. Will do!). I was intrigued, so I thought I'd stop by. This shop was better price-wise, but nothing really fit my taste. I did find some really beautiful things under the shops namesake label, but, alas, the label was too expensive. Oh, well... I moved right along to...

Housing Works:

One of my friend's stumbled upon this store when we were looking for places to go in Brooklyn for this post . We never made it to the one in Brooklyn, but they have an excellent website: here. Most items are donated and proceeds go to New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. 

AND (drumroll...) it's relatively inexpensive to shop here. I only came home with one thing, but I was eyeing a cute Marc Jacobs top (which they had about ten of in different sizes!). They sell vintage furniture and housing wares, too, like satin curtains for $8 for each panel and book ends for $6 each.

Also, next door is a cafe/bookstore full of vintage and used books on the cheap. It was a terribly charming antique/used book store with a very hip vibe. I love Housing Works! Do visit their website because they have some great things!

I bought this vintage bag for $5 dollars! I saw it and I wanted it, so the price didn't matter at the time, but what a deal!

Here's what I wore it with on Saturday night to go out:

I think a fashion mag would write me up for mixing my metals. Silver sequins and a gold bag? Gasp. But you know what they say, rules are meant to be broken.

I also made it to H&M and Madewell that day. So introducing my new H&M embellished tee. It was on sale for $10. Why? I have no idea. I love it!

Worn with a BCBG skirt, leopard print shoes from Urban, and my new vintage bag from Housing Works!

Have a great day all!

Emily