Of jewelry and a garish display

My blindingly yellow DIY jewelry display, as told here, and the sad state of my jewelry collection.

Accessorizing is not one of my strength... I wear the same things over, and over, and over again.  (Same goes with clothes, actually.)  To add to that, my taste in clothes and accessories lean toward the "plain" side, as you can see above.  Okay, I don't call it "plain" as much as understated, clean, simple, classic.

The pearl necklace (and studs, not shown) I wore daily back in '05-'07, during my "prim, proper, and preppy" stage.  With pumps and twinsets and scarves and all.  So pretentious.  The whole thing aged me 10 years, so I stopped doing that after my work office moved to the suburbs (people don't dress up much there).  The good thing though, climbing the corporate ladder was so easy, probably because people took me seriously.  Well, not anymore, of course, since I stopped wearing pearls.  I need to go back doing that.

Watches I wear everyday, alternating depending on my my mood and outfit of the day.  Hoops (the medium size, top row) I wear almost everyday now, if I'm not wearing a necklace. Necklaces that I wear most often nowadays are the long gold-tone chain (far left), and the beaded coral multi-strand (top middle).  I don't wear bracelets much, although I don't mind cuffs or chains or links (no bangles, they're noisy and generally too loose on my wrist).  I also have accepted my warm skin tone and wear gold-tone jewelries without feeling outdated.

So, as a reward to myself for finishing this jewelry display project, I'm going to shop for some new cheapo jewelry.  Perhaps something geometric, with clean lines and enough presence to make a visual impact.  Any suggestions? 

LCH: Dresser + Table top = Kitchen island

A little pictorial algebra:

 

+

=

 

=

Well, with a few steps in between, of course.  See it all here.

LCH: Kitchen makeover!

By kitchen I meant just the cabinet, and by makeover I meant just painting a color that's really different from the previous one, and slapping on some new hardware.  Voila!  I have discovered the secret of DIY with the most impact!

Enjoy the adventurous before, progress, and after post!

Some teaser pics to warm up your eyes:

Before:  Stinky, sticky, funky!

After: White, bright, light!  New camera helps too!

How do you like a big-ass fridge for the focal point?

Oh, not forgetting my other hobby... I sewed something!  And it's a dress, not a throw pillow.  Yay!  I'll post it next time.

LCH: Ottoman makeover!

Before:

After!

Times two!

Go here for more details

LCH: Rolling stand for the gigantic printer

My first woodworking DIY - check it out here

Things I Know Now That I Didn't Know Before

No. 1, the top of the list of Things I Know Now That I Didn't Before is not to start a second blog when you can't even keep up with the first one.  Epic fail.  I'm closing it down.  It will probably take me months to get around to it, too.

Anyway, so I've got a new house blahblahblah...  Big deal.  Actually, yes, it is a big deal.  I didn't know how much work it was going to be (that's item no. 2 of TIKNTIDB).

After 6 months of work (well, okay, more like 3 months of work and 3 months of being lazy) the house is decent enough to live in but there are still all sorts of little details that need to be finished and things to be cleaned and fixed, not to mention future renovations of the kitchen, garage, and fireplace, and all other boring administrative stuff like tax and insurance and mortgage payments.   Those makeover shows and DIY blogs are such a scam; they only show "before" and "after" (in an hour, mind you!) and how everything turns out so well and pretty and drool-worthy, but nothing on the painstakingly long "during", which in reality takes weeks or months (no. 3).  They also don't tell you that it can be confidence-crushing when you think you have a knack for interior design but the best thing you could come up with for the wall color is white and all of your furniture is against the wall (no. 4)!  I think they hide those things on purpose to lure and convince naive, innocent wannabes like myself that we can do makeovers ourselves and post the pretty pictures on our blogs in a snap.  Pfft - what a lie.  It's all Photoshop and good lighting (no. 5) and even Photoshop takes a long time to learn (no. 5a - I kind of know it already).  I want my money back!

Or... is it taking long because we've been lazying around since it's cold and when it's nice out we didn't want to work on the house because it's pretty comfortable already in its partially-done state and we have low standards like that?  I don't know, I'm confused.  I know there's a lot of work to do and no money to spend.  Maybe I'll just pay my weekly pilgrimage to Ikea to clear my head and get motivated and accidentally buy a few things I don't need.  Speaking of, some people look down on Ikea but I seriously love their stuff.  The designs are modern, they're cheap and surprisingly long lasting.  The house is currently 80% furnished with used Ikea seatings & bookcases (they're suprisingly long-lasting - no. 6) and a couple of new stuff (I had promised myself to buy only used furniture, but you don't find things like expandable daybed with storage for $400 any old day.  You just don't.  Of course after I said that, it shows up on craigslist).  More on my love for Ikea on a future post.  They should pay me for advertising.  Or at least send me some gift cards as a thank-you for keeping them in profitable business.

Anyway, that's just my long and winded way of saying that it's going to be a little while before I put up some good pictures.  I want to make you proud... either completely good, or none at all!  No half-ass!

(Sorry, little donkey... you're cute and I love you, but you are, literally, a half-ass, and I didn't know you actually existed - no. 7)


While waiting for the pictures, enjoy this epic video to fill up your time.