Dual Purpose Vintage Charm Bracelet or Necklace

I was holding a piece of handmade vintage charm bracelet with a toggle clasp. I gazed at it for a long time, thinking to make a short necklace with the same style. Hmm... How lazy I was... I was lazy to do the ring by ring connection craft, lazy to think about a new design at that moment. Ahh! What should I do? Laying down and continued gazing at the bracelet. Haha, an idea flashed into my  mind!! I picked a metal chain and attached a toggle clasp on it. I made a convertible chain to transform my bracelet into a necklace. Let's see the outcome.

Just with one convertible chain, you can transform all bracelets with toggle clasps into necklaces just in an instant!! Here show you some of my bracelets with toggle clasps.

This bracelet is made up of glass beads and bronze metal beads and charms. The red watermelon tone beads bring me a really sweetie feel.

This bracelet is made up of glass beads, ceramic beads and bronze metal beads and charms. The floral ceramic beads and the glass beads in the bracelet give me a classical feminine feel.

This bracelet is made up of hematite and bronze metal beads and charms. The musical clef sign and note charm bring my every action into a music-filled atmosphere.

This bracelet is made up of cloisonne, hematite and bronze metal beads and charms. The cloisonne beads give me an ancient China feel.

Making the ring-to-ring connections for a bracelet is not hard, whereas you need a little knowledge on making a bead charm, especially when you need a unique charm and not a ready-made charm that can get from the shops out there. If you are interested in making your own charm, please click this link to view a post that shows you how to make a bead charm. It might help.

Hanging Ornament

 

Want to adorn, beautify or decorate your bag, pencil box, key chain, purse or anything that looks dull or monotonous? Do you believe a unique handmade hanging ornament would be a special enhancement that could relieve the plainness and monotony of an object or background? These hanging ornaments are my unique designs. I like retro ancient bronze ornaments, so I choose some bronzed plated mini beads and charms before I start making these ornaments. The black agate bead is the major structure for this bronzed series. The bead size is 14mm, it is a perfect size for my designs.

It is very easy to make this kind of hanging ornament. The materials you will need are fine cord, beads, charms, jump rings and raw chain. No special skill is required, I believe you also could make it, as long as you know how to make a simple knot, arrange the beads and charm onto the cord with your own idea.

 The hanging ornament relieve the plainness of my simple bag.😄

How to Smaller an Oversized Waist on Legging

How to alter the oversized waist on legging? If it an elastic waistband, then it will be super easy to make them a couple of inches smaller. You don't need any understanding of garment pieces and construction but you need to know some basic knowledge of simple stitches like slipstitch and whipstitch to get it done.

In order to save ourselves the tailoring fees or the cost of new leggings or pants, we should try to do something on it! Am I right? I have done something to smaller the oversized waist on my legging. It looks so nice and fit my waist size now.

Before you get started, find out how many inches you want your waist to be. In this post, I will show you how to alter the waist size by reducing two inches at both left and right sides of the waist on legging. Let's go through the steps below.

To begin, lay your legging flat with the right side out as shown in the photo. Align the front and back middle lines and pin it in place.

Using a pin to mark both sides where you need to do the alterations.

Push the pin inwards about one inch deep (can slightly more than one inch) as shown in the photo. Then, flatten the inner fold to create an inverted pleat and pin it in place.

Slipstitch the pleat. How many inches long should you slipstitch the pleat? It depends on how wide is your waistband. The width of my waistband is about one inch wide, so I slipstitch the pleat slightly more than one inch.

Now, turn to the wrong side of the waistband. You will have a box pleat here. You need to do a final finishing. It is so simple, what you need to do is to slipstitch or whipstitch the two sides of the box pleat so the pleat stays in place neatly.

Da! Da! Done!

Sunset at the Contryside

Sometimes, I like to give myself a relaxing holiday away from the bustle of town and stay in the countryside for a few days. I like to go to this paddy field every time I am there, here I enjoy the peaceful, quiet and modest scenery... especially the sunset.  Apart from the beach, have you ever enjoyed the awe-inspiring sunset in any greenish paddy field? Why not have a try if you have a chance? It might give you another feeling of relaxation.

 I remember, on this infinite paddy field, I enjoyed an amazing sunset last year. The sun looked like a giant egg yolk, it tinted the sky orange,then mingled with scarlet... how pretty that hues was! it moved slowly until it dipped itself beneath the skyline. I enjoyed the twilight  moments...The dusk crept over from the east...

Happy Chinese New Year 2015

Chinese New Year 2015 took place on 19/2/2015. This year is the year of the goat by the Chinese calender. This is one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture. It is not only represents the start of a new year but also referred to as a joyous occasion for family reunions. To me, It is also a festival to relive cultural tradition ...

You can see streets，houses, shops, or shopping malls are permeated with festive atmosphere, feeling the warmth and optimism of a new year. Let's welcome new beginnings!!

Golden Goat and a large number of red lanterns in Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur.

What a wonderful lantern tree!!

Spring couplets calligraphy contest as a part of the Chinese New Year celebration. My daughter and I took part in the contest at her school. Haha, quite a long time I didn't write in Chinese calligraphy! Anyway we enjoyed this festival activity.

Red is an auspicious color in Chinese culture, it symbolizes good fortune and joy. Thus, I tried to dress up some of my potted plants with red ribbon yesterday... I also put up a Chinese New Year tree at the corner of the staircase.

One of my decorative potted plants - Water Jasmine.

                                       

My Chinese New Year tree.

May the year of the goat bring prosperity, success and joy to you...