Pearl Drop Chain Earrings: DIY Jewelry Tutorial

Jewelry making projects can be so satisfying to me because I can usually come up with an idea, sit down, and make it in under an hour. I had an idea for these earrings, Google image searched some pictures for further inspiration, and then finalized my design. Then I sat down and made them. It took a little tweaking to get the length I wanted, but you could knock out a pair of these in 10 minutes.

I really do love how they turned out. They look nice and sophisticated enough to wear out on a date, to a party, or for a wedding. I think they'd also make a great gift. Plus, I'm a sucker for dangly earrings. I love the feeling of them swinging around when I move. Also, I made these with metal findings and faux pearls, so it is a super inexpensive project! That being said, you could definitely class these up by using silver or gold findings and real pearls.

Recent Makes: Crochet Beanies with Pom Poms

I feel like I've been making a lot of hats lately. Half of them have been baby hats (a couple years ago it seemed like everyone around me was getting married, now everyone seems to be having kids!), but the other half all been for me. Including the free crochet pattern that I released last week for the Messy Bun Beanie. Check it out if you haven't already!

It's the tail end of winter here, and it being Northern California, our winters tend to be around 50 degrees with a good amount of rain (the last few years of drought excluded). However, I'm taking a trip to London later this month where it will be a bit colder and a bit wetter, so I definitely used that as an excuse to make myself a couple new hats. By the way, if you want to see pictures from my trip and my day-to-day life in general, be sure follow me on Instagram. I spend most of my time on social media there, so it's the best place to see what I'm up to and sneak peeks of future tutorials.

How to Shorten Jeans and Keep the Original Hem

If you're on the shorter side like me, you may find that a lot of jeans are too long for you. Or if you're in between inseam sizes, you have to choose between jeans that are a bit too long or a bit too short. Either way, you're faced with jeans that are the wrong length or the expense of taking them to the tailor.

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to shorten your jeans and keep the original hem to give it a professional finish. Traditional hemming calls for cutting off the excess fabric and re-hemming the bottom. In jeans, that causes the hem to lose the signature distressed and worn in look of most denim hems. It then becomes quite obvious that the jeans were altered. I'm going to show you how to keep the hem so that the jeans look as close to the original as possible. Even the underside of the jeans will have a clean finish, so if you still wanted to wear your jeans cuffed (for fashion rather than necessity), you could still do that.

10 DIY Valentine's Day Crafts

It's been a long time since I've done a roundup post, but I'd thought I'd share some cute 'n' sweet DIYs I've found that are perfect for Valentine's Day. Hope you find some inspiration to make some decor, clothing, and gift for your valentines. Enjoy!

Messy Bun Hat: Free Crochet Beanie Pattern

I'm probably a bit late on posting this since the frenzy around these hats seems to have died down a bit. The Messy Bun Hat, a.k.a. The Ponytail Beanie, a.k.a. The Mom Bun Hat, a.k.a.... well, I think that's it. Anyway, I felt like I saw those hats all over the web in December. I even got a special request to make one for Christmas. So I looked at a couple free patterns out there and then ended up making my own version.

This hat's starting row is crocheted around an elastic hair band. I like that the hair band helps to stretch the beanie to fit over the bun without having to have a huge gap. The hat is worked up with bulky yarn so it's a fairly quick project. I also decided to publish this pattern because it gave me an excuse to make my own! I think these are perfect for bad/lazy/dirty hair days in the winter. It also perfect for preventing hat head. You can just put your hair up in a loose bun, put on the hat, and stay warm outside. Then when you're inside, you can just take off the hat and undo the bun and you have lots of volume in your hair. I'm still working on perfecting my messy bun, though, to give the hat maximum hair pompom effect.