1 Top 3 Ways

For those of you who were disappointed by Erin Fetherston's GO International collection for Target, I apologize in advance for yet another post on this topic. It seems that my local Target store received 90% of the pieces in the collection, and there's still a lot left on the racks. I went back and picked up 3 more pieces: the black babydoll dress with the Peter Pan collar, the black ruffled spaghetti strap top, and the ivory woven top with the black Peter Pan collar. The focus of this post is the ruffled spaghetti strap top. When I first saw it, I wasn't overly impressed. I've seen many tops like this and I didn't think it would flatter my figure. When I tried it on at home, I noticed that it has a subtle A-line shape and I liked the contrasting velvet fabric on the top panel and on the straps. I decided to try and style the top 3 different ways...

Look 1 - Feminine Romantic - Poet-sleeved blouse from H&M, a vintage pencil skirt, some Prada-esque sandals, and a quilted poodle-print clutch.

Look 2 - Edgy Ladylike - Same pencil skirt as Look 1, with a faux fur leopard print shrug, some "tough girl" fingerless leather gloves, gold peep-toe pumps, and a gorgeous croc print frame bag that I received for my birthday. (Thanks, S. R.!)

Look 3 - Urban Rocker - Printed scarf with fringe from F21, resin "love" bracelets also from F21, leopard print jeans from Urban Outfitters, pink croc print clutch from Banana Republic, and "vintage" Nine West boots that I resurrected from the depths of my closet.

If you like what you see, click the image to enlarge.

Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

Every once in a while I like to prowl around in my closet and resurrect an old favorite. For example, I'm currently reviving my old scrunchy cowboy-style boots from late 2005/early 2006. They have always been one of my most comfortable pairs of boots given the rounded toe shape. They also have extra room in the upper calf area, so I can squeeze my skinny jeans into them if I so desire. For today's family dinner I decided to wear a satin dress from Urban Outfitters and make it more casual by pairing it with my cozy thermal set from the Erin Fetherston for Target collection. Add a geometric necklace, and a skinny metallic belt, and there's my Christmas look.

Beaded Rose

The Beaded Rose is probably the most common and easiest to make of all Beaded flowers. Browse for free beaded rose flower making instruction and patterns and all the roses and arrangements I made.

Rose Tutorial

Featuring Free Beaded Flower project and Arts and Craft Project here, including Free pattern and instruction, beaded project and other project for Adults, Teens and Kid.

A few completed pieces

I wanted to share a few pictures of pieces I've completed. I'm began doing a few woven seed bead stitches in 2005. They are more time consuming than stringing larger beads onto a strand of jewelry wire, but the results are worth it. This blue bracelet was created with a basic spiral stitch, using size 15/0 and 11/0 seed beads (the larger the number, the smaller the bead). This particular bracelet took just over 2 hours to complete.


The black and white bracelet is actually a double spiral stitch. I've had people ask if the beads were just twisted together - I wish it were that easy! The double spiral stitch just involves an extra step than the blue single spiral bracelet. The seed beads used for this one are size 11/0 and 8/0. The seed bead size and the double spiral makes this bracelet chunkier than the blue one.

This is all for today. I've got several projects ahead of me that I'll share. There are always more ideas than time when it comes to beading!

Christmas gift stuufs

*On the 1st Day of Christmas: Charmed Scarf Pins

*On the 2nd Day of Christmas: Decorative Ornament Hooks

*On the 3rd Day of Christmas: A Pair of Swinging Earrings

*On the 4th Day of Christmas: Earthy Pendants

*On the 5th Day of Christmas: An Art Nouveau Pendant

*On the 6th Day of Christmas: Mitten Holders

*On the 7th Day of Christmas: Gift-Wrapping with Beads

*On the 8th Day of Christmas: A Flurry of Christmas Ornaments

*On the 9th Day of Christmas: Mix and Match Necklaces

*On the 10th Day of Christmas: A Filigree Pendant

*On the 11th Day of Christmas: Snowguy Necklace

On the 12th Day of Christmas: Candy Cane Ceramic Necklace

Thank you for joining us for the 12 Days of Christmas. If you were inspired to make one of the projects, we'd love to see it!

Bringing you all the dirt and drama from the beading blog world...

Cute heart ornament with lampwork art beads by aplcreations

About.com Jewelry Making Still in need of some last minute jewelry gifts? Earrings are the way to go, and Tammy has some super easy projects to help you out.

Jewelry & Beading It's not too late to make a super-easy sparkly pin for Christmas!

Visit Katie's blog this week for links to a fun podcast interview, last-minute bracelet idea and the final (for now) installment of Ornament Thursday.

Track Robin's travels to the traffic-laden trickiness of NYC and the tasty trinkets she turned up at Tinsel Trading!

Savvy Crafter Scurry over to Candie's blog if you've got gifts to wrap in a hurry! This idea puts the pedal to the metal in more ways than one when it comes to wrapping gifts!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean shows a new necklace for her chain maille gallery for her book, Links: all the great beads are made by Cathy Lybarger!

The Impatient Blogger It's the final installment of Ornament Thursday and Margot pulls out all the stops with four fabulous ornament ideas! Check out what this week's roster of talented crafters has in store for you!

Did you read or write any good dirt on a bead blog this week? Leave us a comment and a link and tell us the latest scoop