~restyle #1: keychain to necklace~

Welcome to my very first restyle! The only reason that I joined the blogosphere was because of the fabulous fashion ideas that I found on DIY blogs that I've taken up reading. Though this isn't the first DIY that I've made, it is my very first posting, and I can't say how excited I am(:

All of us have a friend who sets the trends, the one who jetsets around the world. Lucky me, I have more than one (I can't put my jealousy into words). I have a friend, L, who's father is German, and they head off to his homeland at least once a year, often for an entire month during each summer. It's become routine for her, and for me to miss her for the entire month. I also have another friend, K, (check out her blog here! warning: she's a fledgling blogger like me) whose parents take her on equally fabulous trips, though they don't last a month (seriously, who vacations for a month at a time?). Since K's mother is a flight attendant, they get crazy good deals on flights, I think. Anyways, K and her parents went to Paris for spring break last year (our sophomore year). Crazy, right? While the rest of us were making day trips to the local beaches, she was off rubbing shoulder with crazy, beautiful Parisans in the city of lights. Sorry, I'm rambling, but... Anyways, since I knew I wasn't going with her, I was happy for her, but secretly (maybe not so secretly) hoping that I was going to get some time of souvenir from France. And, thankfully, K didn't disappoint. Upon her return to Middle of Nowhere, USA, I was presented with a postcard of Paris that did nothing but strenghten my desire to visit AND a keychain filled with four charms. There was a charm that said Paris (stating the obvious), one in the shape of a clover that repeated Paris again and again, one representing the Eiffel Tower, and my personal favorite: one of the Arc de Triomphe (see the photos below). So I had this keychain with charms that I absolutely adored, but truth be told, I'm not much of a keychain person. So, I wanted to find a way to use the keychain since I both appreciated the thought and I wanted the charms. Months later, after perusing DIY blogs for several days, I came up with the thought of making it into a necklace. This restyle is pretty simple to do, so my instructions are going to be brief and you should be able to figure out how to do it fairly easy.

Here are the charms puleld off of the keychain. Such an easy step one, right? After that, I looked through my mom's old jewelry-making stash, hoping to find something to use as a chain. My search produced a plain back cordy material that was already set up to be a necklace. I'm guessing that it was an old necklace from my childhood with the pendant missing, which was just fine with me.

Sorry the pictures are kind of blurry, but my camera's not the best. Anyways, I threaded the charms onto the chain, and voila! All done. Or, so I thought. As soon as I finished the necklace, out I went with K (ironic, right?). We were scheduled for a tour of the local university (we're overachievers like that), and I just barely finished before she picked me up. She said she liked the necklace, which was important to me, considering she gave it to me. Then, when we were checking into the tour, the student checking us in complimented the necklace. It was a very, very proud moment for me, considering it was the first thing that I've actually made. Pretty sweet, huh? Anyways, while we were doing the tour, it broke! I repeat: the new necklace that I loved so much broke, just hours after it's "creation". Dejected, and disappointed in my apparently nonexistent crafting skills, I stuck it in my pocket for after the tour. Once I got home, I tried my best to find a new way to put it on a chain. But, all I could think to do was thread the charms onto a braid, similar to the Braided Hex Nut bracelets that have been kicking around on blogs like Honestly...WTF (spoiler alert to my first DIY, guys). So, that's what I did. Surprisingly, I like it better now! Simpler things like friendship bracelets and things made out of hemp are more my speed anyways. But instruction wise, this is super easy. Just start a braid, get it going, and then loop the charms on eventually. Continue the braid, and bam! You're done, just like that. If that doesn't make sense, then keep an eye out for my first DIY, coming soon. I promise, there'll be more instructions in that one!

Here's the finished product, which I happen to love:

Ever since I got the hemp to make the hex nut bracelet, I've been obsessed with making jewelry from it. So that's all for now, but I am sorry that this was such a long post, dear imaginary reader. It wasn't supposed to be, but I have a bad habit of rambling, as you'll soon learn.

Enjoy!

D.