Homemade Earrings

I have a wonderful friend named Jennifer, and she is a really classy lady. She suggested that we have some lady time and make earrings, which I have never done before. I was really pumped, because I had only ever made friendship bracelets out of floss at summer camp, but never legit, grown-up, fashionable baubles. She brought over a fishing lure box filled with beautifully colored beads, tools, and earring parts. I made 4 pairs, and am excited to share the results with you!

Materials:
-earring hooks
-beads of various sizes, shapes, and colors
-metal spacers
-headpins (1 per earring)
-wire cutter
-nose pliers
-earring backs

1. Pick out the beads you would like to use. Thread beads in desired order onto headpin. As a note, if the bead hole is too big and falls right through the headpin, first place a small seed bead at the end. I actually had to do that on this pair, if you look closely.

2. Trim headpin with a wire cutter, until you have enough wire to fold over into a tiny loop. I left about 1/2 inch. It's better to have too much and need to trim more than not enough and have a wasted headpin.

3. Bend the excess wire over into a loop using the nose pliers. It takes serious practice to not make it look all jacked up (I'm still working on that). It's tough to not run into the bead at the top, also. Slightly squeeze the loop with the flat, inside part of the pliers to ensure it's closed securely. The loop should look like this when finished:

4. Almost done! Take the earring hook and slightly open the loop at the end with the nose pliers, enough to get your headpin loop into it. Then, squeeze the loop back shut securely. As a side note, you can add a seed bead to the actual earring hook (these ones came with a silver seed bead, and I replaced it with a translucent one by removing the ting spring and replacing it. This was the finished product!

And here are all the ones I made! I tried to do some with spacers, small ones, long ones, etc. for some variety. That's it! It was much easier than I thought, and I had a lot of fun making earrings. I hope you do too! :)

Rainbow Fan

Josh actually saw this idea somewhere and we both loved it and wanted to give it a shot. A DIY rainbow fan! Here was the inspiration:

I was impressed--pretty sweet, huh? I needed an excuse to buy a new (taller) fan anyways, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to get creative. I picked up a fan for $26 at Target, some painter's tape, and spray paint in red, yellow, and blue. BEFORE YOU BEGIN--get a fan that has a slow spinning blade. Otherwise--let's just say, don't expect the above picture unless you have a camera with a slow shutter speed.

Materials:
-a fan
-scissors
-a razor
-a flat edged tool (like a paint can opener)
-painter's tape
-newspaper (to protect your work area)
-spray paint in red, yellow, and blue

1. Remove the fan blade from the fan. Cover the middle piece well with painter's tape.

2. Smooth down the edges of the painter's tape with a flat edged tool (we used a paint can opener).

3. Carefully remove the tape that overlaps onto the blade for a more perfect edge.

4. So, in retrospect, I would have tightly wrapped each blade I was not currently painting with saran wrap or something. I was lazy and just laid ripped up cardboard pieces from the box the fan came in onto the other 2 blades. The result wasn't horrible, but not as perfect as I would like.

5. Cover your workspace in newspaper. Spray the first blade with red spray paint, covering it evenly. Don't hold the can too close--just use a thin layer of paint (I will tell you why in a little bit!). Allow to try a solid 45 minutes, just to be safe.

6. Cover the other 2 blades and spray the second blade with yellow spray paint. Allow to dry for 45 minutes. Here's a fun story--we used too much paint because the yellow was initially too light, and the paint ran and clumped and dried in the middle and looked like SHIGGENS. Oops! So we sanded the plastic blade with sandpaper which resulted in it being all scratched up. SHIGGENS! We repainted it with 2 coats of yellow paint.

7. Cover the other 2 blades and spray the third blade with blue spray paint. Allow to dry for 45 minutes.

6. Remove the painter's tape. If touch ups are necessary--don't spray them! Simply get a paintbrush and do the touch ups by hand.

7. Reattach the blade onto the fan.  

8. Turn the fan on. Moment of truth! Here's what we got:

Well, dang it! It just looked light yellow, even on the lowest setting. However, when we turned it off, I snapped a pic and got a good one of what we WISHED it looked like, which was:

Well, it was a fun project, nonetheless, but I was a little disappointed, to say the least. Can't win 'em all, I guess! :)

Italian Dressing Seasoning Chicken and Veggies

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and was saving it for a lazy day. It only takes an hour to cook! I can handle that, even on a busy work week.

Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
-2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1 bag of baby red potatoes
-1 bundle of asparagus
-lemon juice
-parmesan cheese, grated
-pinch of salt and pepper, to taste
-1 packet Italian dressing mix
-1 stick of butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Rinse chicken breasts under cold water. Lay flat in oven safe baking dish.

3. Rinse baby red potatoes under cold water. Lay next to chicken in baking dish.

4. Melt stick of butter in a bowl. Drizzle over chicken and potatoes.

5. Sprinkle Italian dressing mix over chicken and potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Cover dish with foil and bake in oven for 1 hour.

7. To see how I made my asparagus, check out my past post here. Enjoy!!