broomstick lace beanie

so Wednesday I finally got around to learning the basics of broomstick crochet

and I've never been so shocked

because it iS SO FREAKIN EASY

SERIOUSLY I don't feel like doing anything other than broomstick stitches at this point.

for my first broomstick lace project I thought I'd start with something small but functional, so I went with a beanie

I'm pretty excited with the result I came up with after only a few hours of crocheting--it's super lightweight and has just the right amount of stretch.  I can't wait for some fall weather to roll in so I can get some use out of this lovely bit of lace!

bottle cap + sea glass pendant tutorial

I made this little love a couple weeks ago and was rather pleased with the outcome.

here's a little quickie tutorial of sorts: enjoy!

crushed sea glass (using hammer + cloth to wrap glass in)

bent up bottle cap

bottle cap filled with  all purpose elmer's glue

crushed sea glass carefully placed into glue

clear nail polish applied after glue has dried

you can leave your pendant clear or hit it up with some different nail polish colors like I did on mine.

let me know what you think + be sure to share if you try this method!

diy: rockin' bookends

in the last year I've seen endless pictures of crochet-lace covered rocks circulating on Pinterest. They're super adorable and lovely, but beg the question: what the heck am I supposed to do with this? 

today as I attempted to reorganize my bookshelves for the millionth time, I decided it would be fun to make a few bookends and was finally able to put some lacy rocks to use.

 The wooden portions of the bookends themselves are nothing incredibly special, just a piece of scrap wood--although I did use my mom's miter saw (I think that's what it's called??? FYI woodworking is quite obviously not my greatest skill) for the first time and managed not to lose any fingers, so I'll count it as a success.  Other than a bit of sanding, I decided to leave them raw to go along with the natural aspect.

please note my impeccable taste in book selections--every person ever should read The Mistmantle Chronicles, and Lemony Snicket taught me everything I know in the way of sarcasm.    

                 

I can only hope that my mom doesn't mind the rocks I stole from our flowerbed.

Harvey the Cat joining me for photos

such a nice change from normal crochet projects, and hopefully a nice touch for my shelves!

xo
Sara Jean

diy: charger into necklace

with all of the brilliant technological advances of our time, I will never understand why iphone chargers only seem to last me like a week.

I'm currently at that point where my charger probably isn't safe to use anymore, but if you kind of bend it to the left and hold it just right, technically, it still works.

One time my dad, noticing such a need in my life, decided to purchase a heavy-duty charger for me.  My dad has a certain breed of initiative that some might call "impulse buying"--so not only was this a really heavy duty charger, it was a heavy duty, 10 foot long charger.  In short, the definition of luxury...that lasted for maybe a month.

It was a tragedy, but I wasn't about to waste that much material--so here we have the first of many projects putting it to use.  I'm kind of obsessed with peter pan collars at the moment, so this was a fun "industrial"-style twist.

If my dad is an impulse buyer, I definitely inherited that trait.  I bought this one jewelry-like belt at a thrift store once for unknown reasons--seriously, other than a couple of girls at Coachella, no one would ever wear this thing.  I had plans to take it apart and eventually discovered that the rings of the belt itself weren't nearly as useful as the little metal loops holding them in place.  They worked out for this project rather nicely since they crimp perfectly and are wide enough to string a chain through.

all in all a fun + energizing project! (get it, energizing, charger?? my apologies for the low quality pun.)

xo,
Sara Jean

picture perfect procrastination

here we find yet another of my creative attempts at avoiding studying for finals: when all else fails, start a blog.

I've been meaning to get a blog going for at least forever, but kept putting it off until I could decide on a name I really, really liked.  I was totally stuck on "The Sunflower is Mine" but some other blogger had already taken the blog address (shout out to you, other blogger) much to my heartbreak.  That aside, I was still able to channel my totally (un)healthy love for Van Gogh into my title, thus putting my soul at rest.  

Just as with everything else in life, when it comes to blogging I'm incredibly lazy.  But I've been needing somewhere to jot down things that are over 140 characters, plus I'm itching to write a few tutorials.  

in the meantime, you can find me on IG + Twitter @ sarajean116

xo,

Sara Jean