Ever since I discovered Andrea’s blog, I’m obsessed with making necklaces.  A couple weeks ago, I made this red and orange seed bead necklace, and I’ve been stringing necklaces like a fool since then.

I love making necklaces because all they take is a little time.  I don’t need to carefully make stitches or count anything or handwrite something only to realized I mispelled a bunch of words.  In Sharpie.

Stringing beads can be on the tedious side.  But it goes pretty quick and the result is that sort of instant gratification that I love so much.

Anyway, after seeing this awesome necklace Andrea made (see the tutorial here and her necklace in action here), I hopped on over to my Michaels clutching my 40% off coupon in search of those jade beads.

I found those beads (or what I believe to be those same beads…they look close enough), and I picked up two sizes of the jade beads and one packet of gold sead beads.  Since I couldn’t find the smallest size jade beads (like Andrea had), I made some changes to my necklace.

Since I prefer things in odd numbers, I went with three strands.  One strand is made up of all the large beads, one strand is a mix of the large jade beads, the medium jade beads, and the gold sead beads, and one strand is a mix of the medium jade beads and the gold sead beads.

I am crazy about this necklace.  It turned out lovely, and I love to wear it as often as possible.  My favorite combination of the moment is the necklace paired with gray.  But I also wore it to a wedding last weekend with a simple black dress.  It’s totally a dress up or dress down necklace.  Love that.

What color should I go for next?  Turquoise?  Gold?

Remember when I lamented my frustration with my re-purposed jewelry box? It turned out, wrapping it in fabric wasn’t the best idea.

So, I went in search of another box. And I found a replica.

This time, I decided rather than wrap it in fabric, I would spray paint it. I love spray paint. So easy, such a huge pay off. (I fell in love with spray paint here.)

I didn’t know if spray paint would work. But I figured I’d give it a whirl. Worst case scenario, I spent less than $10. So why not?

(I was able to pry those jewels off the top of the box easily. I admire the craftiness of whoever previously owned this box, but I swore off bedazzling, so those had to go.)

Well, spray paint for the win!

Since I’ve worked with spray paint before, I knew the Rustoleum Painter’s Choice provides awesome coverage (I chose the color dark grey in a satin finish). And it sure covered this box, no problem. Like frosting on a cake.

The trick with spray paint is to keep it moving. If you linger, you’ll get drip marks. So spray back and forth in wind shield wiper motions to get the most even coverage.

To cover the top of the box, I found some foam sheets with a sticky back at Michael’s for $0.99. I cut the sheet to fit the top of the box, wrapped my fabric around the foam, and slapped it on the top of the box. To cover the inside, I found this cool, textured felt, cut it to size, glued the back, and adhered it into place. Felt is cool for a couple reasons: it costs about $0.30 a piece, is forgiving, and provides great texture. Since the inside of the box was kind of rough where I pulled out the old fabric, it left uneven spots. If I used thin fabric, all those imperfections would be evident. But, felt, he really covers up.

I love this project. So simple, such great results. I love it so much, I might just have another project to show you featuring another can of spray paint…

(Oh! I almost forgot! PSA: don’t spray paint the grass! Some members of the house were not too appreciative of the spray painted grey grass.)

When I started blogging, I knew nothing about HTML or web design. So I decided to teach myself.

It took me about six months to redesign my website. During that time, I taught myself HTML basics, researched design, and learned how to make a cohesive look. (Note: you can probably teach yourself faster if you don’t have a child under the age of 1 sitting on your lap.)

I am not a web designer nor an HTML expert. But, with some patience and time, anyone can learn some basics. Here are a couple things I learned.

1. Go for a white background. Now, this is not a set-in-stone rule, but if you are like me and don’t have much experience in web design, I find that a white background is easiest to work with. Plus, I am a huge fan of white space. Looks clean to me. So no matter if you’re selecting a template or designing you site from scratch, you can’t go wrong with a white background.

2. Select a couple main colors. You will need a handful of colors (probably three) to use as your text color, blog post title color, link color, header color, etc… Choosing colors that look well together on the web is no easy task. At first, I thought, really, how hard can this be? I get dressed everyday, I match, how much more difficult could it be to select colors that coordinate? Well, it turns out, really hard. So, let the Internet help you. There are a variety of color pickers out there. Google something like “color combinations for web.” I used this tool here. These tools are incredibly helpful because they generate a pallet of colors that work together, providing you with some options.

3. Go for a two column layout. At first, I was all about the three column. Oh, I needed those three columns. Because…well…I didn’t know. I saw other bloggers with three columns, so I thought I should also create a three-column layout. Laying out three columns is hard. It can look messy faster than Kate can unroll a roll of toilet paper. And she is speedy. Go for the two-column layout instead. It automatically looks clean. Plus, your blog takes up one column, so there’s only one remaining column you need to worry about, rather than two.

4. Find a good template. If you are interested in building your own blog rather than using a template from Blogger or WordPress, find a template you like from Open Source Web Design. Now, just find a site with the layout you want – don’t worry about the colors, fonts, etc…you can change all that. I found my current design on OSWD, and I altered it from there. Since I am new to HTML, it helped me to have something to work off of instead of starting from nothing. Once I found the template I liked, I downloaded it and started messing around with the HTML. (For Windows users, you can use Notepad++ and for Mac users, you can use Komodo Edit to mess with the HTML code.)

5. Find a book book and a website. I started teaching myself HTML much the same way I teach myself most things. Through a book. I checked this book out of the library, and it provided me with a great foundation. Once I knew HTML terms and the basics, I knew what to Google to find more answers. That landed me on this site, which is great for refreshers. HTML is easy to learn, so flip through some manuals and Google some YouTube videos. Trust me, you can do it.

6. Don’t over design. Less is more, really. Especially for newbie web designers. You can always go back and add stuff in. Think about how someone brand new to your page might react. If a new, potential reader stumbled across your blog, would he or she be overwhelmed or intrigued? Along those same lines, no crazy fonts. Ugh, nothing is more frustrating than small or otherwise unreadable fonts, especially for the posts. Sure, use a fun (but still readable) font for your header. But keep your post text to something like Arial, Times New Roman, Currier, Calibri, or something along those lines.

7. Use web developer tools. There are no secrets on the Internet. Are you wondering what code I used to make portions of this site? Or the colors? Or the font? You can find out! And not just on my site – on any site! In Firefox, click “Tools,” “Web Developer,” and then “Firebug.” From there, you can open the Firebug in a new window, open the site you like in another window, and use the Firebug tool to call up the code for any website. In Internet Explorer, hit F12 to bring up the Developer Tools. No, I am not saying you should steal anything. Stealing is bad. But using the web developer tool is not stealing. These tools will help you learn more about how code works. Most of the time, you will be sad because what you once thought was a mystical Internet trick is nothing more than an image with a link inside it. Secrets of the Internet, demystified!

8. Think logically. When you think about what should go where on your page, think about what you want readers to see first. Prominently display your “about me” and “contact me,” as those are mostly likely the first things readers will be interested in reading. Then group other pages depending on content, like your “readers favorite posts,” “archives,” etc… Think about how you click through blogs and what you read first, second, third so you layout your blog accordingly (keep in mind, we read from left to right). Make sure no to burry something you really want people to read or else they’ll never find it.

So don’t despair, non-designers. You, too, can teach yourself and design your own site. Any other questions? Anyone else out there teach themselves HTML and design? What advice do you have?