necklace revamp

We have a few events to attend this week and I'm struggling with what to wear.  I've got a little black dress on its way in the mail.  Very simple and it calls for a little flair.  I wanted an interesting necklace but I dug through my jewelry box for a bit and wasn't finding what I had in mind.  Then I came across this.

I got a ton of wear out of this necklace a few years ago when I purchased it.  I wore it all the time with work outfits and it was looking rather tired.  The leather cord was worn and the beads that are covered with a sort of crocheted look were a bit dirty.  So I snipped off the crochet covering.

Then I snipped off the leather cord.

I opened up the jump rings

and I fussed and shifted the decorative elements around the gold chain until they looked right.  I just opened up the rings with my fingers and closed them up with regular old pliers once I was happy with the overall look and now I've got this.

I've got no jewelry making experience but as you can see this was VERY simple.  Now I have a new necklace for $0 and some flair for my black dress.  Now lets just hope the dress fits : )

lamp makeover

Shortly after we moved in I got this lamp from Home Goods

don't mind the partially obstructed and poor quality photo

 It was an inexpensive find, the perfect color green and had a 1950s look that went with our house.  As our living room started to change the lamp wasn't really working for me anymore.  There was nothing wrong with it.  I still liked the lamp but I couldn't make it work in the room.  When we were working on fixing up the finished area of the basement I thought of a great way to transform the lamp and have it work with the nautical look I wanted.  Something like this West Elm lamp

West Elm Round Rope Lamp

So, I took off the shade and spray painted the base and the piece below the harp, what is this called?  Both of the spots on the lamp that were a shiny silver were sprayed a matte black.  I thought the black would tie in nicely with some other accents we have in the basement.  I got some jute from home depot

I attached the jute with hot glue and just started wrapping and gluing, wrapping and gluing until I got to the top.  When I got to the top I snipped the excess and tucked in the end.  I topped it with an inexpensive rectangular shade from Target and here it is!

my new nautical lamp

jute detail

The green lamp got a new look and a new home.  A happy ending for all.

I like to hang this little Havanese light house ornament from it in honor of Olive

Check back for more house tour and I'll show you the basement where the rope lamp found its happy home!