No longer secret projects

I have some projects that I couldn't show you before because they were for gifts. Now that they're given out, it's safe to post about them.

 I made this hematite jewelry for my sister-in-law Lori for her birthday back in September and I can't remember if I've posted it on here before? Well anyway, here it is again.

 This 14k gold plated jewelry with taupe and brown/olivine freshwater pearls was for my mother-in-law for Christmas. 

 I had made this necklace and earrings from midnight blue freshwater pearls (from Hawaii) with Swarovski crystals for my mom, but a week or two before Christmas I decided to add to it.

  

 I went through my bead stash and came up with these freshwater faceted cranberry pearls, rose and burgundy freshwater rice pearls, garnet chips and amaranth fire polished Czech beads. The colors are so pretty--they remind me of pomegranate seeds.

 The necklaces can  be worn separately or together, I love the jewel tones.

 

 While I was at my local rock/bead shop last month, I picked up a package of these silver plated filigree pieces and made them into earrings. I listed them in my shop here, there are five pair available!

 I had tried to order something Doctor Who-ish for my sister Meg and my friend Anya for Christmas, but the item was back ordered and I still haven't had any luck. So I was searching on etsy for something else to give them and came across these sonic screwdriver earrings (for $25 a pair, gulp). After looking at them for a while, I was like, "HEY, I HAVE THOSE BEADS" and was able to whip out two pair without having to buy anything or even leave the house. They are not exactly the same, but close enough. Etsy is full of versions of these, and the girls could tell what they were supposed to be, so that's the main point.

 

Remember the 9x13 pan of homemade caramel that I'd been kvetching about because I didn't want to wrap it in a million little pieces of waxed paper? Well, the caramel never actually set up, so instead I just scooped it into jars and gave it out as apple dip. So thankfully, all that time stirring over a hot stove didn't go to waste.

And finally, on New Year's Day I did some alterations that I've been meaning to do for months. I took in the sleeves on a jacket of mine and used this tutorial from Pinterest to add elastic to the inside of existing waistbands on three pair of Madelyn's pants.

If you have a skinny beanpole kid like I do, this is a never-ending problem. Jeans are easy enough to find with adjustable waistbands, but leggings, sweats and things like these cute twill pants from Old Navy don't have them. Belts are too much of an inconvenience for my girl, but I was looking for a way to not butcher the back or sides of the pants like I've normally done in the past.

 Basically, you make a couple of slits in just the inner layer of the waistband, thread some elastic in there, sew through all the layers to hold it in place on one end, pull the elastic (which cinches in the waist) and stitch that into place. I used a zigzag stitch so it would close up the slits in the fabric at the same time. That part does show through on the front of the pants, but since the thread matches the fabric it's not really noticeable. Genius! It only takes a few minutes to do, too!

 If I ever get my crafting mojo back after this life-sucking insurance drama I'm going through right now, then I've got some cute baby projects up my sleeve. I'll keep you posted. :)