Jewelry Organizer Frame Tutorial

I love when I rediscover clothes, jewelry, etc. that I already own but haven't worn in a while. It's like going shopping in my own house. Sometimes I'll forget I have things if they're not front and center where I can easily see them. When you can easily see what you have, it's easier to plan more creative outfits because you can see how things can look good together.

I'd been wanting to make a jewelry organizer frame for a while and just hadn't gotten around to it. It's not an original idea of mine; I've seen it in various places online. I have scads of beautiful necklaces I love in addition to the ones in our shop and really wanted a place to prominently display all of them, where they'll not only be in easy reach but part of the decor because they make me happy when I see them. I had them all on a coat hanger, and what a pain it was taking one off. I was planning on having a booth at a local craft fair recently and worked hard all week making more of our necklaces and planning the display, and then for many reasons, I wasn't able to go. But I finally made a frame organizer to display them on, so now I can use it at home til the next craft fair comes!

You can find more of our handmade self-love necklaces at www.theclosetnarcissist.etsy.com.

You simply take a large, empty wooden frame (mine was one of many that I used for painted signs at my wedding), cut a piece of chicken wire to fit, and use a staple gun to attach the wire to the back. Then take some S hooks and place them around on the wire. You can bend the backs closed with pliers if you want or leave them loose for rearranging. Once you have all the materials, the project will probably take you all of 10 minutes, unless you want to paint your frame. I love how it looks, how my necklaces don't get tangled, and how easy it is to get what I need! You can also hang rings, bracelets, earrings, and brooches.

And voila - you have a great way to see your favorite things every day, even when you're not wearing them.

A Shower for Baby Narcissist

No, that's not what we're naming her. lol Let me tell you, this was the best shower I could've hoped for but felt rather surreal...it really sank in that I was not a guest at someone else's but was there because I'M the one having the baby!!

Of course Rob was there to cheerfully greet all the guests at the door.

The gorgeous hostesses: Kam, Alana, and Bonnie...thank you, my lovely
and generous friends, for making it a perfect day!

Kam was extremely proud that she won the "guess-the-circumference-of-Jen's-belly" game!

I got a perfect score on guessing all the melted candy bars in the diapers.
Do I know my chocolate or what!

Kam handmade this beautiful baby blanket!

The aftermath! We got so much stuff that it took up more than half our living room.
The cats and dogs had to investigate.

And last, but not least, this is our baby girl! If you look closely, you can make out her
chubby cheeks and chin, curled fist, her button nose, and lips like her mama's!!
I can hardly wait to meet her in person. :) 7 weeks to go!

We found out what we're having!!!!!

Every time I word it like that, it reminds me of how my husband always answers people’s “do you know what you’re having yet?” with, "Uh, yeah...we're having a baby." haha

And I guess the picture sorta gives it away before you even click on the post. ;)

We went to our second ultrasound today, and I have been so anxious to find out if we were having a boy or girl that I thought today would never get here. I was dying to know so we could really lay out some names (don't ask me; sorry, but I am keeping mum on names!) and know how to plan the room and all that stuff. Most importantly, the baby is healthy, and everything looks good. But I was hoping above all hope that the baby would let us take a peek too...I've heard of people having to go three and four times before their little one would uncross its legs! But that did not happen! She was not shy at all and let us see quite clearly from two different angles. :) The funniest part was they kept trying to get a profile view of her face, but she kept insisting on looking straight into the "camera." I didn't wanna say this in front of the ultrasound tech, but I thought to myself, "Haha, she's just like her mother!!!" Not camera-shy at all, heehee. My husband said later he thought the same thing. We did eventually get the profile, and of course, I think she's just beautiful. We also got some really sweet ones of her little fingers and toes...I can't wait to kiss 'em!

All my life, I've known I would have a daughter. But once I got pregnant, I was hesitant to say I knew knew, just in case. Little boys are wonderful...it's just that I always thought I'd have a girl for whatever reason. Turns out my instinct was right. I am beyond excited!!! Now I'm itching to start getting the room ready. But we're planning on selling our house because we need more space, so I guess it'll have to wait a bit. 

I don't believe in forcing gender stereotypes on children. I've said it a hundred times before, but I believe the best gift a parent can give their child is to let them be themselves, whatever that means. But while the baby is little and I'll be the one mostly enjoying her surroundings, I'm goin' all out with the pink and Shabby Chic, baby!!! Once she's older, she can of course have her own input, but for now, I'm going wild. Y'all have seen a pic of my old bedroom from before my husband and I bought our house, and my whole house was like that...so I have scads of pretties to pull out of storage that I'll get to use again. :)

I just can't believe this is really happening!! If all my horrible sickness didn't make it real enough, this sure does. I hope that I can help instill a strong sense of self in my daughter and always show her how amazing she is. I hope she can be confident and understand her worth. One thing I know is that she will never have to doubt whether she is loved!

Ch-ch-ch-changes! Wall color, hairstyle...how 'bout you?

Lately, I keep having these uncontrollable urges to redecorate things!! KameraWhore and I have MANY things in common, and she'll attest that this is definitely one of them.


It happens every so often with me...when I lived by myself, it seemed to happen about every six months, requiring me to repaint my walls. To my credit, I haven't changed my mind on a paint color in our house in about four or five years! So it's past time for a change!! I think I want to repaint our living room. I posted a pic of my former bedroom before...here is our living room. 

Not as girly as you were expecting, huh!

If I can't have pink, red's the next best thing! :) But in a small room, the red can sometimes seem dark, and with spring hopefully on its way, I think I'd like something fresher, brighter, but without having to change anything else except the wall color. The dining room is pea pod green, and the master bedroom is light cerulean blue, so those two colors are out...but I want the rooms to flow together still. I want to be able to decorate for Christmas in traditional red and green, so even though that's one small part of the year, I wanna keep that in mind. So what I keep going back to is khaki. I usually prefer lots of color to neutrals, but I can still have pops of color around the room in other ways. Hmm. I know this isn't a decorating blog, but I know some of you out there have some talent! What do you think?


I've also been debating for a while whether or not I want to get bangs again. I know, HUGE life decision here... I think I wanna get bangs that I can change up...they could be side-swept, straight across, or Bettie Page depending on how I feel on any given day! Here's a couple pics of me when I had them, as well as one of Kamalama with bangs and one of our fave singers, Langhorne Slim. 

Look at my pretty baby girl!!

Oh, how I want to make a crude joke here about getting "bangs."

In the second one, you can just see hints of color from when the underside of my hair was fuchsia. I've also done hot pink and purple on the underside. My hair has been every "typical" color as well, even blonde! I think I want to stick with brunette for a while longer, though. Oh, and this is my FAVORITE hairstyle Kam has ever had.


I shouldn't give any opinions on the new (to America) show "Skins," because I haven't watched it and probably won't...but at the risk of sounding like a prudish 30-year-OOOLLLLD lady ;), just from what I've seen in the preview, the show would probably scare me out of having a child this day in age! lol Is this really what goes on?! I'm perfectly fine with adults doing "things" on TV, but they're so young. Anyway, the thing that stuck out to me watching the preview (aside from the obvious content of the show, ahem!) was this one girl's HAIR!! I love it! I am getting my hair cut this weekend and am having to talk myself out of getting it all chopped off like this. I've had my hair shorter than that before and loved it. But that length would just end up looking, on me, like that awkward "I'm growing my hair out" stage. I've been there; I know. Don't let me do it!!

http://ncampbelll.tumblr.com/

Ironically, I think I look younger without bangs than with. I'm pretty sure I wanna get the bangs, though. Yes? No? HELP!!!!! Aaaaahhhh!!!


And, finally, I'm considering redoing the layout of the blog. You have NO IDEA how long Kam and I pored over various blog layouts before we finally settled on this one!! I love it and think it's really cute, but for some reason, I just keep thinking I want to change it (which some of you agreed with in our survey - you can still take it here if you like, which we'd appreciate so very much!).


Which reminds me, if you have a Blogger blog and haven't yet set it up for mobile viewers, oooh, please go do that!! It makes viewing and commenting on them on smart phones a lot easier! Go here: http://draft.blogger.com/home - then go to Settings - then click on Email & Mobile - then click Yes for "Show Mobile Template."


Anyway, I'm probably just bored from the winter blahs, but I think some ch-ch-ch-changes will do me some good! :) 


I think this is why I love makeup so much!! It's not permanent, and you can do it totally different every single day to keep you from getting bored.


What are you considering changing as spring approaches? Your hair color? Your city? Your style? The way you perceive yourself?


And what do you think are your reasons behind changing - something deep-seated and profound or just boredom?

Everything's comin' up roses!

(I made the collage w/ the Diptic iPhone app.)

We finally got through all the snow and ice here - though there is still a bit left here and there that hasn't melted. Today is just cold and rainy. And there's nothing I like more on a cold and rainy day (when I can't just stay home on the couch and watch movies, that is) than to dress like spring!


Kam and I went to Target on Sunday and picked up these $5 rose-patterned tights. Aren't they shabby-chic-a-licious??! I love them. I paired them with my pink ModCloth shoes, which I wore in my wedding.


My Shabby Chic brand umbrella came from Target years ago. The little makeup bag is something I saw a while back on Zoella, and as soon as I saw how lovely it was, I HAD to have one!! It's so girly and sweet. It looks like a vintage postcard. It's from the Paper Plane series from Disaster Designs. I found mine on eBay.


And to add to all this pretty, feminine loveliness, we are now offering our handmade necklaces with your choice of 1) a little silver charm surprise or 2) a sweet little colored rosette - for FREE!


The little flowers won't fit on all the designs, so that's where the charms come in. Consider the girly cuteness level raised!! (You can also still get them unadorned if you like.)

Y'all, my entire house used to be decorated like the photo collage!!! It was dollhouse heaven. Sigh. Here's a pic of my old bedroom. My husband didn't wanna live in a dollhouse, and I guess I can't blame him! ;) But I sooo loved it.

And if that's not enough roses for you, here are two of my most coveted lip products. I have some type of weird allergic reaction to certain lip products, and I have yet to narrow down the ingredient that causes it. But I am safe with these two and love them. They leave a pretty finish that is slightly pink-tinted, and they smell rosy-posey and lemony, respectively. 

(Photo edited with the LoMob iPhone app.)

Rosebud Salve used to only come in a tin, which is really pretty but not always convenient if you can't wash your hands, so I love the squeeze tube. Fresh's Sugar Rose Lip Treatment is expensive - $22.50 for the full-size tube!! - but it's SPF 15, and I'm not allergic, so they sort of have me backed into a corner! 

Hope you're all enjoying your Tuesday. And even if you have yucky weather outside, you can make it come up roses too!