DIY Glitter Flats

You looked so sharp when you were new.

Dear Shiny Patent Black Flats from Target: How I loved you, for awhile.  You got me through many court appearances where I stood in front of the mirror at 5:30am, ready to commute to another county, unable to imagine wearing heels.  You could be casual or you could be professional.  You saw me through a lot, but then your toes went and committed patent leather suicide, and I couldn’t wear you anymore.

Not cool.

Still, I couldn’t bear to let go, because I loved you more than most small children and tiny fuzzy animals.  I’ll never let go, Jack.

…

Finding a comfortable new pair of black flats is still on the agenda, and I was bitterly disappointed that Target doesn’t carry this style anymore.  They are just that comfortable.

Then I remembered this tutorial.   I could fix them!  I didn’t know whether I wanted to fix just the toes or glitter the entire shoe, save for the twisted part across the top, but I figured I would start with the toes and see what they looked like.

All you need is Mod Podge, glitter (I used Martha Stewart’s superfine glitter), masking tape, a sponge brush, and a paper plate.

First, I taped the shoes up to protect the soles and the twisted band.

Next, mix a teaspoon of glitter with a large amount of Mod Podge.

Just mix the glitter and glue together with the sponge brush.

Apply as many coats as you need, with a 30-minute drying time in between each coat.  I used 3, but touched them up with a fourth.  At the end, wash your brush (or use a new one) and paint a coat of Mod Podge ONLY, over the glitter.  The original tutorial calls for a sealant, but I can’t speak for that either way.  I should probably look into getting one.

Drying...

And...done!

All in all, I liked how they turned out – silly, but funky, and great with jeans.  The turquoise is much darker in real life, and since at least half of my wardrobe is turquoise – and the rest coordinates with it – it made me happy to repair these incredibly comfortable shoes with a little bit of color.

Cost:

• Mod Podge: $7.50 (with 90% of the bottle left)
• Superfine Glitter: $7.20 for a 3-pack (different colors) on Amazon (60% of the turquoise bottle left, both other colors remaining)

The only problem is that now I want to glitter over everything.  To the thrift store!  I must rescue more shoes!

Every lawyer needs some pearls…and apatite

I actually have “lawyer pearls,” or at least what I imagine is the East Coast-approved version of jewelry for a Serious Lawyer.  They were my great-grandmother’s, brought back from Hawaii by my grandfather as a gift.  (Mom has a matching set: her mother’s.  And this is me wearing them, on the day I was sworn in.)

More, after the jump.

99 bottles of air on the wall

"repurposed" tequila bottle on left. I like to pretend it has a purpose at all, other than oooh shiny color pretty object more please.

I have a thing for containers.  It’s a bit of a fetish: no decor in my home will be complete without some sort of container that I don’t actually use for containing things.  Luckily, my mother has the same affliction, so I can blame it on her.  Bad mommy.  Bad.

Things you can do with an awesome, yet empty tequila bottle (the full bottle having been a gift from my uncle): wash it out, take the paint off with acetone nail polish remover, and display it in the window along with all the other pretty empty containers.

I could use it as a vase, I suppose, but that would defeat the non-purpose.  We don’t need no stinkin’ practicality around here.

Coral statement necklace

One of the nicest things about being done with the Bar exam is the abundance of free time I’ve had.  When I was still in my last year of law school, I was working anywhere from 1-3 jobs and taking 13-16 units.  Studying for the Bar exam wasn’t a lot better – I’d look longingly at my craft supplies but knew that if I picked them up I’d feel guilty for Not Studying.

After I came out of my post-Bar catatonic state, the first thing I did was pick up the beautiful coral beads my Dad recently bought for me, and string together a very belated Mother’s Day present for my Mom.  They had been sitting in my apartment taunting me since March.  Dad had gotten 4-5 different styles of beads at a local gem show, all in the same rich dark red.

I thought the chunky, “branch” pieces lent themselves well to a collar-style statement necklace, so I spaced them with large round beads, and used the smaller chips and beads to finish up around the neck (with a few of the large round chunky beads to add some interest).  The trickiest part (besides not dropping it and breaking it) was stringing the branch pieces so that they would lay flat against the skin when worn.

Why didn't I think to take a high-res photo when I was done? Doh.

It’s quite heavy, and the long pieces are very fragile, so I used a lobster clasp and a heavy-duty ring to finish it up.  When worn, it sits just around the collar bone and the long pieces spread out to create a collar-like effect.  (I want to make a matching bracelet, but since my family has a habit of gesticulating wildly, I will have to leave out the branch beads.  They wouldn’t last five minutes.)

Mom wore it twice in a week, which was a nice compliment.  It’s probably an upgrade from the dyed-macaroni necklaces I made for her as a child.

Now the goal is to make more jewelry from the semi-precious stone chips I bought in Sedona.  I’m hunting for a good collar pattern (any suggestions?), and in the process, found Beading Daily, which features a lot of interesting free patterns as well as other beading resources – perfect for anyone just starting or getting back into beading.