"Cool" little organizer DIY

I think I've mentioned in other blogs that I'm a music teacher, musician, mom and full time college student! The holiday season has me in a busy whirlwind. I've got three seperate performances this week! There have been so many outfits, reviews and ideas I've been thinking about posting in that time, but I think this week to save my sanity I'll post some helpful shorter entries.

Today I just want to share an organizational idea I found recently that I'm loving for my earrings. Obviously, you could use ice cube trays for many things! I'm proud of all my thrifted and vintage earrings and I've found many neat ways to display them much more artistically--picture frames covered with nylon, hooks, etc.--but with alot of vintage clip and screw ons, it was too much of a hassle to pull them on and off.

I thought at first I wouldn't like the LOOK of ice cube trays but I actually do! They are very organized and stackable and look just fine on my jewelry shelf. I don't mind the colors but a neat idea would be to spray paint them. You could even color code your jewelry--gold, silver, or a color to represent long earrings, short, etc.--but I took the easy route and let them be.

Easy to find my earrings now, and no struggles getting them off of a display!

DIY Cotton rag scarf/necklace

Check out what I made today in 15 minutes!

Where did I get this idea? Well, it wasn't my own--though I've seen many things similiar to this and just needed to be reminded. Fast forward to last night when, in my adventures on Etsy, I stumbled upon these gorgeous upcycled tshirt scarves! This is her version below:

"EcoShag" is the vendor and all of the scarves are totally adorable. I especially love the large peices! Also, if you buy from them I believe that portions of proceeds go to charity. They even have some scarves made of recycled pressed cotton shirts. There is one in red gingham. Oh my. LOVE! I will be making more of these for sure!

So, if you're not a person who likes to craft but you like the style...check them out and get one for yourself! But, if you have some old tshirts laying around (as I suspect you do) and you have time for a 15 minute project that actually doesn't even require sewing...read on!

All I did was select three old tshirts I didn't want anymore in grey, dark brown and light purple. They were different sizes. I didn't worry about the strips I was cutting even being exactly the same because of the nature of this project, but I'd say they were roughly three inches wide. Most of them ended up being about 1.5-2 feet long, as I cut them horizontally from the tshirt.

I pulled on them and ran them through my fingers so that they would "curl up" a bit on the edges.

Next I sewed ends together so that I'd have larger loops (around 3 feet once they were secured) that I then doubled those loops. Then I arranged the loops together as I liked! You don't have to sew them; you could tie them together for a rag effect or even use fabric glue (though I'm not sure about the permanency when washing).

Once I had the arrangement I wanted, I secured them with tiny strips of the lighter purple fabric, because I wanted a more pulled together look. (Also, I knew I would wear the piece arranged just as you see it above, and not differently every time).

Of course, YOU don't have to do it that way. You could leave the ties off altogether so that the pieces were just free to arrange however you like. In this case, I think I would at least bind the larger loops together once in the back where the back of your neck will be, so that they have some security.

I plan on making more of these. I suspect at EcoShag they razor the cotton to get a nicer curl on the edge. Live and learn.

How awesome, right? Upcycle chic! I will post an outfit with this scarf later! :)

Chunky Bead DIY

Remember this cute little bead I found on my Thrifty Thanksgiving trip? I ended up doing something very simple and easy with it.

On the same trip, I bought a scrap of red leather. I think it was from some old upholstery squares. It was dark brown with red suede on the flip side.

Here's what I did: I took the leather and cut it into a thin string for the string of the necklace. I then laced the ends through the bead and then secured them by using a little red button as an anchor! I could have used any color, really, or something else--but I thought the red was cute.

The result was a chunky, romantic looking necklace that I thought would look cute with this white sweater! (The sweater is "Ana" by the way, and was a $2 thrift find).

See what is lying around your house that you can make pretty jewelry with...don't be shy....