collections: brooches

I thought it would be fun to share some of my collections here once in a while. Partially because, like I said in this post, I want to post more about my various interests, and partially because I just really, really like collections. I like having them, photographing them, lining them up, looking at them.. thinking about them.

I can remember in third grade we did some sort of project where we had to tell the class about something we collect, and I couldn't decide between my Disney VHS tapes, my pillows (I've always had a lot of pillows and apparently I used to consider them worthy of show-and-tell. Actually I still do. My pillows will probably be featured in a future installment of this series) or my Barbie dolls.

Now that I'm all grown up with no parental veto power over my desire to excessively collect a bunch of stupid things, I've acquired quite a few collections. One of my favorites is my brooch collection.



I started collecting brooches a year or two ago. I love being able to accessorize but I've never been a huge fan of necklaces or bracelets since I always feel the need to fuss with them. A brooch is a nice little non-invasive way of adding something special to an outfit. I used to have them tossed in a few containers on my dresser, but last week I found this dessert tray at Target (only $10! yay!) and knew it would be perfect to display my pins! I love that I can see them all at a glance and the chances of pricking my finger on one that mysteriously popped open is much slimmer now.

Here are some of my favorites!



The unicorn stick-pin was a gift from Solanah. The carousel is from modcloth. For Christmas I got one for me and one for my grandmom since we always used to ride the merry-go-round together when I was a kid :) I like to get her one carousel themed gift each year if I can.  The "Math is as Easy as Pi" pin is from amazon. That's my Pi Day pin! The Carl Sagan brooch is from The Science Boutique. I also have a glow-in-the-dark Marie Curie and a Nikola Tesla from them as well. The rainbow sweater clips and the dinosaur are both from my Sweet and Lovely shop. I'm so tempted to keep one of everything for myself ;) The constellation brooch is from Under the Shade of a Bonsai Tree (I'm a scorpio!) and lastly the cute little heart is a vintage find. I'm planning on wearing that one on Valentines Day (obviously.)



The I love Cats pin is from modcloth (although I think the amount of cat hair I have on all of my clothing advertises this fact without me having to spell it out lol) The kitty cats were a birthday present from Casey. The corn brooch was something I picked up when I had a pesky ear infection that wouldn't go away last summer. I was visiting the doctor so often I thought it would be a funny joke but nobody noticed. Oh well, I still thought it was funny :) The enamel flowers were lucky flea market finds (I love these so much but can't justify spending the $20+ people ask on etsy. I got mine for $1 each. woo!) The mod girl is one that I made from these wood cut-outs. I love this shop so much! I bought a couple other sets that I've turned into brooches too! And lastly the hot air balloon eraser brooch was a DIY on the blog last year! :)

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eraser brooch DIY

Maybe this is just me, but I absolutely hate using really cute erasers to actually erase things. I never want to ruin them! But at the same time, I also seem to hoard cute erasers because they're so... cute. So I decided, in light of my new brooch obsession, to try turning some of them into pins!



It's pretty self explanatory -- get an eraser and a pin and glue them together! But I will say that this particular glue seems to work really well, and I'd definitely recommend it. When I first decided to try this I was worried that no glue would be strong enough to stick to the strange eraser material, but this is holding up fantastic! It's a gel consistency, so I think that might be it!

The pins that I got at the art supply store also came with little holes in them, so if your eraser is thick enough you could always use some kind of pin or screw to hold the back in place, too!

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brooch the subject

jumper - modcloth
shirt - c/o romwe
brooch - my etsy shop
shoes - c/o bait
belt - asos

I am on SUCH a brooch kick. It's bizarre... I've never been a huge fan of jewelry at all but lately I just can't get enough (or in this case, make enough) pins. I made these a couple months back for my shop, and then kind of forgot about them until I sold one a few weeks ago. Since my brooch phase was in its infancy at the time, I decided to make one as a keeper, too.

I guess I like that they're a way to spiffy up an outfit without getting in my way. It's the same reason I've never been a fan of wearing my hair down.. it just gets in the way of me doing things, having to constantly brush it out of my face. Bracelets jingle jangle, necklaces swing around and bonk my cats on the head... but brooches just subtly sit there, enhancing your ensemble without any fuss.

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how to fill a locket

This is probably the stupidest thing to do a post about, but I have always been a little perplexed about how to perfectly fill an oval or circular locket. It's hard to just randomly cut out an oval and hope it fits, and the edges always end up looking jagged and messy. So now that I figured out how, I thought I'd share it in case anyone else was equally baffled :)



1. Measure the locket's height and width.



2. Create a new photoshop document with the same height and width. (My adorable Hypatia desktop background kind of looks creepy in this photo lol)



3. Create an ellipse shape that fills your document. That shape is now the size of your locket!



4. Open the image that you want in the locket. Copy it, and paste it into the document. Create a clipping mask (right click on the image layer and select "create clipping mask.") so that the image now takes on the shape of the ellipse.

5. Print it out! I have a Xyron sticker machine that can make anything into a sticker, so I usually run my image through that, cut it out and pop it in the locket. But you could also print it on sticker paper from Staples or go the old fashioned route and use a glue stick ;)

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would you locket that

dress - asos
sweater - forever 21
shoes - modcloth
necklace - c/o modcloth

I'm always shocked when I order a dress online and it turns out to be super short on me.. I'm only 5', how on earth did it look longer on the 6' tall model on the website?! As much as I love the color and dotted lace overlay, this is probably going to be in my shop my closet store pretty soon. Maybe someone taller can buy it as a shirt/tunic? ;p

On a much lovelier note, I want to share the contents of my locket! If you've read my blog *at all* you probably already know what's inside... it's my pretty little kitties, of course! ;D

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