I'm living in the jungle. At least that's what it feels like at night here in beautiful Iowa City. The hot, steamy air sings, alive with insects and birds. I look around and think yes, this looks like a quiet, tree-lined street somewhere in America's heartland, but it feels like the Amazon. Even so, each night I go sit on the patio and soak in the warmth and watch my boys catch and release fireflies. Although the move was a pain in the you-know-what, I am so happy to be here!

My cute friend Vanessa from V and Co. is on her way here right now. That's right--she's moving to Iowa, too, just 20 minutes up the road! She'll be here this week to experience the Amazon along with me, and hopefully we'll have a few field trips to quilt shops and antique stores in the area (yeah!). She also volunteered (in the middle of her move!) to guest post for our birthday bash. I just love this girl! If you don't know her already, go check out her blog and her shop. Everything she makes is just gorgeous--I love her style. Until then, enjoy this awesome spray painting tutorial for making this darling wooden bead necklace!

tutorial: that lime green necklace

i kept getting comments and emails over this necklace and weather or not i was going to show you how i did it. okay well it's not that complicated i think you can figure out that i strung wooden beads. so this tutorial will be for how i got an even coat over my beads with spray paint.
*i used a styrofoam half sphere (in the flower section in the craft store, or walmart.)
*i then got tooth picks.
*because the holes in the beads were wider than the tooth picks i put a little piece of tin foil at the tips of the toothpicks.
*i also used my left over spraypaint "ivy leaf" by krylon. (IN.LOVE.WITH.THAT.COLOR)

*i placed the styrofoam inside a box ( it's too cold to do it out in the back yard, and now i either have to do it indoors or in the garage).
*i then LIGHTLY sprayed the beads. let them sit for a little (like 5 minutes) and then repeated.
*let them dry completely
then i flipped them over and did the same step as i did on the other side.
let them dry, flip them over AGAIN, repeat steps till you get it completely covered with paint and you are happy with it.
i did 3 "flips" because i wanted the paint to be really solid. no wood showing through.

i love the combo of brown and lime green so i chose brown ribbon for the necklace.
i made sure i had enough ribbon at my "ends" that it would be easy to tie my necklace around my neck.
* then i made a knot.
i then stranded my beads. i wanted a few off centered big beads so i placed them accordingly.
tie off your other end and make sure you put Fray Check on your ends of your ribbon so the ribbon stays intact.
and there you have it.
;)

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