Hex Nut Bracelet

Another DIY Pinterest treasure!! Gave this bracelet to a friend for her birthday along with an essie nail polish (I think it's called turquoise & caicos).

simple, elegant, unique!

I love how the materials of the bracelet are just string and hex nuts from the hardware store! I will admit though that I was slightly embarrassed when I went to pick up my supplies at Home Depot (I think I have a penchant for doing embarrassing things at Home Depot!). They had run out of the brass colored nuts, and the nice old man who was helping me was telling me that the zinc ones work for most applications and that the brass ones would only be needed if I were concerned about water corrosion. How could I tell him that I was just particular to the color... because I was making jewelry... 

I have enough extra material to make a few more (in zinc), so if anyone* wants one, leave me a comment!**

*someone I actually know :)

**while supplies last!

Project #2 is revealed!!

Dun Dun Dunnnnnnn: DIY Jewelry Board!! 

I made this for my sister's birthday, so I had to keep it as a surprise! I saw this first on Pinterest (love love love) and I wanted to make one for my sister (jewelry whore). It's a fast and simple DIY project that is super functional. Function is KEY to a successful craft, imo (and we alll know whose opinion matters most!!).

Before:

supplies from good will and home depot

After:

color: cool melon (hi, sooni!)

pretty & functional. loveee it!

Project, success!! -- I'm gonna pat myself on the back. :)

Bagel bust + fun with nails!

Due to the popular demand of 1 person(!), I have decided to create a blog for all my DIY crafts and baking extravaganzas! (Basically, I want to be Martha Stewart, and I will document my insanities here).

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I was a DIY queen yesterday and tackled three projects that I had been mulling over this past week!

Project #1: Bagels!!

I've always wanted to try making bagels. The whole boil before baking concept was so intriguing! I followed the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but obviously I did something wrong, because mine ended up like this...

my very flat flat "bagels"..

I'm pretty sure I messed up in the very first step. My sponge, which SK describes as a "sticky pancake batter" looked nothing like that... whatsoever...hahaa

my very dry dry "sponge"...

I guess I could have added more water, but at this point, I had already added an additional cup... and I didn't want to veer too far off the recipe. I'm thinking a used the wrong type of flour. I bought gluten flour at Whole Foods.... but it was reallllly gluteny... making the bagels realllly chewy...

All in all, although the bagels don't taste horrible (just a little too chewy..not to mention ugly..), I would probably never make these again.. even though I'm SURE it's me NOT the recipe (it's me not you!!). It's just too much work, especially without a stand mixer & dough hook. My arms were soooo sore from all the kneading!!

I think I will be sticking to the sweet pastries & cakes rather than the breads.. breads are so hard!

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Project #2 is a secret & will be revealed later in the week!

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Project #3: tie-dye nails!! So much fun!

wheee! so coloful!! <3

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** Also, I should probably note that I will never be a step by step photo taker... it's just too much work!! I'll leave that to the professionals --> Pioneer Woman! Andd also, I'm sure you all don't care anyway. Ha.