Guest Blogger: Elizabeth of She Likes Stripes

Hi folks! My name is Elizabeth and I'm super excited to be blog sitting for Cynthia today. I met Cynthia through the magic of flickr, and I think it's pretty safe to say that we've graduated from internet friends to real-life friends. As for a little about me? I like stripes, tea, books (I'm a librarian so this probably goes without saying), baseball, photography, things that are brightly colored, and crafts. My blog is shelikesstripes.com.

When Cynthia asked me to write a guest post for her, I wasn't really sure where to start. I was thinking of writing about how because of Cynthia's (and our mutual friend Kim's) outfit posts, I actually bought and WEAR skinny jeans (I even bought gray ones! And I love them!) AND I have skinny belts that I wear on TOP of cardigans. This is big news for me. But truthfully, I don't think I could take a whole-outfit photo to save my life, so instead I'm going to talk a bit about crafts. I'm currently working on a project called Handmade52, and the basic idea is that I'm going to craft, bake, or make something every week for 2011. So I'm always on the lookout for crafty inspiration. (Otherwise, I'll end up with 52 hats at the end of this project.)

A few weeks ago, I found this tutorial for how to make earrings out of vintage buttons, and was pretty intrigued. And then over the weekend, I saw Bridemaids (HILARIOUS. Seriously. Even my boyfriend loved it. Also gross. Also, I need to dig up my Wilson Phillips cd.). Kristen Wiig's character, Annie, has an amazing wardrobe in the movie; it's all blazers and tshirts and boots over jeans and cute dresses. But what caught my eye was that she wears different pairs of studs in every scene - brightly colored hearts, circles, flowers... and they don't necessarily match her outfit. (Like, a blue pair of heart-shaped earrings with a red dress.)


(photos all screencaps from the trailer on imdb)

So then I was obsessed.



I bought a few sets of super cheap buttons, and a tool to remove what I now know are called shanks (the little hook on the back of a button), plus some earring backs. I also figured this would be a great opportunity to try to fix the red flower earrings that my sister gave me for Christmas a few years ago.



Except the super-cheap wire cutting tool I bought at the craft store? Totally wouldn't cut through the buttons. So this craft is on hold until I can get myself a better tool... but I can't wait.

I tried googling Kristen Wiig's earrings and didn't really find much, but etsy saved the day. A basic search for heart/flower/star stud or post earrings turns up quite a lot of incredibly cheap options. But I found a few shops that have lots of great options:


(photos from their respective etsy shops)

Acute Designs - mostly flowers but great color choices

Pink Flower Cube - hearts, stars, lots of other shapes

Paper Biscuit - hearts, circles, rainbows

I can't promise I'm not going to go buy a pair in every color as soon as I finish writing this... but I will follow through on trying to make my own, because buttons are super cheap. I just love this look. Next on my list? Growing my hair a few more inches so I can make it look like perfectly wavy Kristen Wiig's. (Love!)

Elizabeth, I can't wait to see how this project pans out! Thanks so much for coming over to my blog. Please check out the rest of Elizabeth's craftiness at She Likes Stripes.