Clearance Jewelry from Fred Meyers

Fred Meyers has fantastic jewelry sales every few months. I was lucky enough to stop in the week after Valentine's when they were having a 75% off all Curfew jewelry... and of course I looked through the clearance items first! Here are the pieces I bought.

This is my favorite piece, but its also a disappointment: the charm part broke off within a few hours of wearing it. Its an easy fix, but... disappointing.

Both pairs of earrings were normally $7.99 +tax, they were clearanced to $5.97, and they were 75% off!  

*Does happy dance!*

I love these, but I would love them even more if they studs were gold! DIY project on the way!!!

I also got to try out a new backdrop-ish. Its a weathered board I found behind my house and two different log pieces from some trees we had to cut down. I'm so happy with how the pictures turned out!

Sewing a Bow Tie

One day, my husband and I had to run over to a thrift store to pick me up a pair of shorts. While there, I saw this vibrant men's shirt ($4) ... in my husband's size. I told him that if he didn't want it, I would take it and feminize it! 

His condition for wearing the shirt: 

I had to make him a pink bow tie.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

I was lucky enough to find a tie and bow tie pattern at another thrift store (for $0.25, I might add. Score!). The bow tie pattern had already been cut for a 14" neck ... and Shawn is an 18" neck. Keeping that in mind, this is my third attempt at a bow tie. 

First, we went to Joann Fabrics. We picked up a yellow, green and this pink, as well as some fusible interfacing.

For this bow tie, I make it tube style. That means I needed two pieces of the same shape.

Cutting the interfacing to the general shape ...

Ironing on the interfacing ....

(Yes, I realize there are better ways to do it... the interfacing ends up fusing to the ironing board this way.)

All fused ...

After it's all fused, I trim the excess edges off.

Sew it up wrong sides out ...

... and spend 10 minutes turning the silly thing right-side-out after making a few cuts on the rounded edges. Oi.

Finally, I ironed it and hand-sewed the 3-4 inches of open fabric to seal the deal. Doesn't it look awesome next to the Alexander Julian shirt?!

The final results ... a happy husband! I will share the results with the other colors when I get them made. His work has a bow tie Monday... and this is his first bow tie.

Bow ties are super easy to make and look amazing, as long as you take the time to go around curves and pull the seams out when ironing. I could make them all day!!!

What do you think?!

Nail Rack and Polish Collection

Remember my last or so post, about getting the gift cards from Influenster? Well, the items I ordered with those gift cards both arrived this week!

My nail polish collection before ....

....and after!!!!

To Pocatello ... and home again

Good afternoon, friendlies. I had to take a 2-hour trip to Pocatello, so I thought it would be a good time to play with my camera. I really do live in a beautiful state, even in bleak fall weather!

This is my all-time favorite photo from the shoot!

I have been practicing taking pics of mountains recently.

One side of the highway was all cumulus clouds, the other side was (I want to say) sirius clouds ... the thin, wispy ones.

I was doing the whole "private-eye" thing while we were at the stop light. I just really like this shot!

I was hoping for a less cloudy sunset, but I won't complain. The clouds diffused the light and made for some interesting silhouettes!

This is one of my favorites ....

So it this one.

I just loved the soft pastels of the mountain and sunset. This is my new facebook header!

Cracked Doll Makeup

My younger sister (19) wants to be a broken doll for Halloween. Although I don't observe the day myself, I thought it might be neat to do a quick photo shoot with the look! So, I let her practice on my face. Needless to say, she broke it.

This one is part of my #‎fivedayblackandwhitechallenge‬ !

Black and White Portraits

I have been playing around more with portrait photography. As you may have seen in my previous posts, people aren't generally my main subject! I have a dream of conceptual photography, so I decided I really need to learn portraits!!! I advertised on Facebook that I would be doing free shoots to get models (hehehe free stuff always works!). The top girl is my younger sister. The little boy is my Facebook find.

Super happy thoughts your way!

Textures From Oregon

I love texture. In fact, in my first photography class ever, that's all I wanted to take pictures of! Now I have developed to where I can take a picture of something with texture to create something as a whole. But, old habits die hard. While enjoying artist's block in Oregon, I reverted back to my original style: texture and close-ups. Oh, and a pair of birds.

Enjoy your Monday!!!