DIY: Olympic/Patriotic Brooch

The Olympics started today! I am so excited to watch the opening ceremonies with my friends tonight. My Canadian friend Ashely has been watching it and she keeps giving me little hints. She said that Voldemort makes an appearance. I am not sure if thats some sort of joke, or if it is for real... I guess i'll have to wait to find out! 

I am a big fan of crafting/dressing for awesome things (Christmas, 4th of July, the Olympics, Halloween, etc.) Since I am completely overzealous about the good ole USA, I thought I would show my patriotism today. Basically I want Team USA to win all of the gold medals. All of them. Since my heart is so full of love for my country I decided to make an American flag brooch to wear today. You can make one too!

You will need: Small wooden heart, red white and blue paint, small paint brush, glue gun, brooch pin, good music.

 The entire process is very simple. I made a bunch of these for my friends and it took me a couple hours just because you have to wait for the paint to dry before the next step.

I found this shirt at Goodwill yesterday and immediately knew when to wear it. Nothing is more patriotic than red white and blue stripes. Nothing. 

Go Team USA!

Carli

DIY: Safety Pin Brooch

A few years ago my bestie Kaitlyn gave me a bunch of random charms on a chain. She was preparing to move to Hawaii (jealous) so she needed to do some downsizing. Being the craft hoarder that I am, I took them home with me. They had been sitting in a box of junk until the beginning of this year. Since I don't naturally gravitate towards wearing necklaces I spent a lot of time thinking about what I could do with them. I came up with the following.

The project took me a total of maybe two minutes? It is so simple. If you don't have pliers you can do it by hand, but it might be a little harder but not impossible. 

As you might have noticed, the past few pictures are not recent. No my hair has not miraculously grown back no matter how much I wish it would. I actually took pictures to for this DIY project back in January but then decided that I didn't like them (the lighting in may last apartment was terrible and it was too cold to do it outside) and then forgot about it entirely. Story of my life... Then I found the brooch I made and decided to re-photograph and share. 

If you try this out please let me know! I'd love to see how it turns out for you!

Carli

Vintage Brooch: Swift Eagle

I have absolutely no idea where I got this brooch. I think it might have come from my mother, or maybe her mother, or maybe her mothers mother... you get what I am saying. I love it. It reminds me of those elementary school days when we were learning about native americans and their culture. We each made paper indian chief hats and each had out own native name and animal. Mine was "humble bee paints sky with pollen" or something like that, but I remember being particularly jealous of a boy with the name "swift eagle flies at dusk". Not because my name wasn't cool, but because at the time I didn't think my name was cool. I pretty much loathed bees because me and bees have always had a strictly hate relationship. They hate me so they sting me, I hate them because they sting me. So I was pretty unhappy when I found out that I was a humble bee. But anyways.... I love this brooch! It is very unique and makes me feel like the swift eagle that flies at dusk that I fell like I deserve to be...

Carli