Projects

MIA for all the right reasons

~ Margaret DTH ~ 77 Comments
ileava Sleeping Moon Pendant


That’s what I’ve been! MIA for all the right reasons. Two pieces of big (good) news keep interfering with my WP time. First up- I was accepted as an artist for the Startup Art Fair in San Francisco. (May 1-3 at the Hotel del Sol in San Francheesie) which is SOOOO exciting. It’s basically the most legit art show I’ve participated in to date. Click on the artists link, find my name, ahem, Margaret Timbrell… that’s me!!! But now I need to make more new work. My artwork for this show is almost entirely needlepoints so I must stitch from sun down to sun up, until my fingers turn into canvas and needle and I start dreaming about stitching. It happens. Trust me. But so, stitching and blogging are some serious conflicts.

The other big blogging conflict? Pregnancy with TWINS!! I am carrying two guppies right now. My honey and I are over the moon!! But so my main activity besides stitching? SLEEPING. Here’s my schedule: wake up at 6:30 AM. Take a nap from 9-10 AM. Walk to work. Curl up in my little nest on the floor of the storage room and nap for about an hour midday. Walk home. Go to bed at 7:30 PM. Somehow squeeze in enough stitching to make a decent show of this art fair.

Stitching and sleeping. Stitching and sleeping. What are you guys doing? Writing? How productive of you. I find writing seriously cuts into my *yawn* … yah, so…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

*faceplant into the desk*

Researchery

~ Margaret DTH ~ 6 Comments

My last post (ahem…right here) showed off my recent accidental Goodwill find: an ivory bangle. As I mentioned in the post, this is a very complicated piece of jewelry and it has prompted me to do some research in deciding if I (likely) keep it. My honey and I brought it to our jeweler Isabella Hutten to confirm it’s ivory-ness. Which she did. It’s tricky to place a value on ivory because of the laws surrounding the sale of it in many states, the undesirable yet valuable nature of ivory, and the lack of comparable ivory items on the market. So I started googling ivory like jewelry.

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It seems bone is the popular ivory looking material. I guess because it might be cow or horse. Basically a waste product in our meat eating economy. Like this second hand Chanel bangle. Yep I just called a Chanel bangle “waste product”… That is how we do! For seriousness tho the raw look of bone is highly popular. Bone, along with geodes, fossils, and skulls are definitely having a moment. In an odd way, most ivory is too polished looking to be fashionable.
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The other big ivory-like material out there is acrylic resin. Handling my ivory bangle it feels and looks very much like a synthetic material. Maybe because I’m so accustomed to synthetics. The big difference in ivory is the very light cross hatching pattern. It is a tooth, afterall. It has some tiny natural rings and details. Like a tree pattern but much more delicate.

Anyway, I enjoy this research and reason to read about jewelry. My honey and I are staying in Lake Tahoe for the week to commune with the snow. Whenever we come up here I have the most challenging time packing. I’m all “Do people wear jeans in winter weather?” I can’t ever remember.

Our friends and their ridiculously cute 1.5 year old are staying with us at the cabin we rented. Most people come up here to ski, but I enjoy the hiking and snowshoeing. Bandit is all about the outdoors whereas Leroy likes to remind me that he is a Chihuahua.

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Yep, this is how we do it with our visiting dog. (This is actually a pre-Tahoe shot- see my ivory bangle? Paired with the yellow enamel my brother gave me. Below is the legit Tahoe shot. You’ll note I finally decided people in the cold *do* wear jeans. Unfortunately I brought the pair with the fly that’s afraid of heights.)

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#weirdselfies 🙊

How you like dem Apples???

~ Margaret DTH ~ 30 Comments

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This post is for Jenny at She Loves Dresses because she loves food jewelry! If you too love cute food jewelry, Jenny, besides blogging about wonderful vintage dresses, sells some cute food jewelry at She Loves Cute Stuff (shout out, woot woot!)

Today is the day that I do something with my collection of slowly rotting apples. I have mentioned before my cooking skills. As in, they are not an inherent skill set of mine but something I have learned through practice and following recipes closely. These apples have been bugging me, like quite literally, because of all the fruit flies. So I figured I’d do something with them. Welcome to my little apple butter cooking lesson AKA how Margaret fuck’s up that which she’s attempting to cook.

Step one, find a recipe! No problem, thanks to my wonderful Fannie Farmer

Step two, realize that you do not have most of the necessary ingredients and the quantity of apples? Significantly less than 5 lbs.

Step three, proceed disregarding these shortcomings.

Step four, dice apples, put them on the stove to cook and commence research on apple jewelry.

Can I show you these apple jewelries? OMG. REAL FRUIT jewelry by, what else, Real Fruit Jewelry. The apple is kind of boring, but their kiwis? Pretty cool. I think they are dipped in resin to preserve them.
apple necklace

Or the bracelet apple? Made of unknown materials by Inekeotte Jewelry, seems like it’d be a bit awkward to wear and do basic stuff like reach into your purse. But whatever! It’s creative, right?
apple bracelet

Step five, notice the pot is clanking a lot. Return to stove top and add various ingredients the recipe both does and does not call for.

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Step six, ignore instructions to stir constantly to avoid burning and return to the internets. Read Dora’s The Walking Dead post. Uhhh what the fuck machines are they unplugging on TWD? With my first hand “being run over by a truck” experience I can tell you that there aren’t any life maintaining machines for you to be plugged into. Chest tubes have been around since WWII, they’re just tubes shoved into your pleural cavity that drain blood into buckets. BUCKETS. That’s not exactly sophisticated machinery.

The other machines I was connected to were: heart monitor, morphine drip, and oxygen tank. But it’s not like I would have died if these were “unplugged”. So whatevs. NO SPOILERS, I am not concerned as to the outcome of the character being “unplugged.” I mean, unless there’s brain damage and *character* can’t breathe on their own? But then they are fucked regardless because brain trauma = no bueno in zombie apocalypse.

Ehhh… Where was I?

Step seven, improvise MORE. Add tapioca flour (to make it stickier) and frozen blueberries (because why the hell not?). Notice apple butter is turning a bloody color. Add lemon juice. AND WINE. Again, why not?

Step eight, realize wine was a mistake. ADD BRANDY to counter act the wine. Because brandy is the opposite of wine, right? It’s simple math, folks. Close and put away cookbook because we are riding far off trail now.

Step nine, start looking for wine jewelry on some popular wine websites. Bemoan the fact that you can purchase a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird on the Coppola Vineyards site but not bracelets only to realize it’s Tequila Mockingbird, a cookbook? Then bemoan the downfall of Western Literature. Finally find cork bracelets (close, right?) but… ehhhh… no. This is not up my alley.
cork bracelet

Step ten, finally finish cooking and arrange a pretty “apple “butter photo.

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Remember that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… Bon appétit!

Verybangled, getting you the pressing bangle news first!

~ Margaret DTH ~ Leave a comment

Today we address a highly controversial issue. Sterling silver polish. Now, I am not one to shy away from Hot Topic, which is why I decided it was time to address the monkey in the room. Because silver polish is exactly that, a monkey in the room. What kind? That’s not important. Or maybe it’s cute, with ear tufts, but that’s beside the point.

I roll deep in the silver bracelets. Polishing them this morning I realized I have a selection of polishes and I don’t actually know which ones are the best, or when to use them, if they’re safe with gems or anything.

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So practicing the scientific method I learned from 6th grade science fairs, I made an experiment. I tried each polish on a different tarnished bracelet.

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You’ll notice the left side is unpolished, the right is polished. Frankly, I didn’t find any real, quantifiable difference between the brands except the Goddard’sdip is easiest to use.

However, this Nancy Drew was not yet ready to call a draw. I needed to get the scoop from the pros, so I rang Robertino at Hutten Jewelers and asked for his recommendation. Well, firstly, because they are fantastic, they told me to bring my jewelry to their shop and they’d polish it free of charge. Excellent customer service, but that didn’t answer my questions. Evading the issue, aren’t you Robertino?!?

Robertino then explained to me that there is different polish for silverware versus jewelry. They currently use Wright’s polish for the silverware they sell, but for jewelry he uses baking soda!! He stressed the importance of properly washing off the items after using the baking soda because it will continue to eat away at the metals. His next recommendation is for Goddard’s Silver Dip and my face was like:

IMG_2502.PNG ERMAGAWD that’s exactly the one that I preferred! So there you have it, for jewelry use either baking soda (thoroughly rinsed off) or Goddard’s Silver Dip and for silverware use Wright’s. From the pros mouths to yours. Well, not to your mouth, maybe to your eyeballs.

Signing off, make each day (pause, whip off glasses) a silver one.

Bangle Display

~ Margaret DTH ~ 4 Comments

Let’s talk turkey! Er…ahem, bangle display! I’ll admit it was tricky coming up with a solution for my collection. Initially I used a charming little jewelry stand by Roost

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The problem with this one is the single removable bar, the center one, and it’s not nearly long enough to hold any quantity of bangles. The top and bottom bars are fixed and so, for bracelets without clasps or openings, utterly unusable. It’s great for earrings, however.

Next stop, antique ribbon spindles.

IMG_2468.JPG My mom bought a couple of these at a local shop The Ribbonerie. They’re very darling, hypothetically perfect but I found the diameter of some of my bracelets were too narrow to fit over the end of the spindle. My mom and I attempted to Macgyver one, but to no avail.

Finally, my clever husband and Home Depot. I can’t remember what brought us there initially but he noticed the towel racks and suggested using one as a bangle display.

IMG_2466-0.JPG It works like a charm, right? The bar lifts out of the two support arms so I can easily access my bangles. (Like my presentation :D?)

Since then, however, I’ve researched the manner that Indian women display their bangles because that is a culture that loves their bracelets. My brother in law informed me that the daughter’s bracelet display is a point of pride in many households. The best I’ve found so far are these by the Bangle Emporium on Etsy

IMG_2490.PNG How can you resist any place with an Emporium in the name? I haven’t ordered from them yet, so I can’t attest to their customer service or the quality of the displays. But if you do, let me know?

How do you display your collection? I’m always curious.

9.4.14 Rubberbandery

~ Margaret DTH ~ Leave a comment

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Some interlopers snuck into today’s bangles. I’m wearing the 2 skinny horn bangles, my chartreuse Caleche from my mama (she figured the crazy color could help absorb all the stress that’s contributing to me not getting knocked up, but this was before the current stress so. There’s that. We shall see how effective this is), my Tiffany’s bangle from 1993, a fake Cartier Clous (obviously not silver when it’s paired with actual real silver), my Tiffany’s deb bangle, my UP and… Some rubber bands! They look kind of neat, right? Like a combo of industrial and organic.

As for the purpose of the rubber bands, or as my mom would say, the porpoise of the blubber bands, I have joined not one but 2 fantasy football leagues. You’d think that with 3 brothers and a dad who loved sports, I’d have had some exposure to football watching. But I hadn’t, except in passing, until my honey came into my life. Do you know how much football is on TV every week? A lot, the answer is a lot. And he watches ALL of the footballs. So I used to nap thru Sundays, or read an entire book, but now, in my need to be all the time distracted and to be constantly watching TV, I figure I should ‘get into’ football. So, 2 fantasy leagues, one is a girls league and we need a prize. Which brings me to this: did you know that Chanel made a football?!?

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It sold for $195!!! I have never before encountered anything Chanel for $195.

“Holy shit, what a great deal and perfect prize!” I thought to myself.

I phoned Chanel straight away, asked them if it was in stock and then found myself thoroughly disappointed. The football is not available seeing as how it was a special item from 2009 or sometime. I searched eBay, Amazon, everywhere, to no avail. So now I’m making a fake Chanel football. You’d think there’d be more black footballs on the market, but don’t even get me started on the google results of “black football” search.

VERY very long explanation short, I’m spray painting a football and creating the straight white lines by wrapping the football in rubber bands and painting in between. I need a bunch of rubber bands for this, and so as not to lose them, I am wearing rubber bands. PHEW. Thus concludes the story of the rubber bands.