Nautical Necklace

Anchors aweigh! 

Spring Break is coming to a close, and I realize that I've done no homework, and more crafts than I should have been able to responsibly do.  I don't know how I got time to do them, however, between the constant shopping trips!  Today I drifted between craft stores, and when I got home continued the party online.  I've officially ordered a charm that I've been searching for for weeks, and as soon as it arrives I have an awesome craft I'll be posting.  Today, however, I got the bounty for a necklace:

The set of charms was $2 at Michaels.  Of course I printed out a coupon for 20% your purchase including sale items, and completely forgot about it.  Oops, I guess I wouldn't have saved that much anyways.  It's just the concept.  The clasp and chain were 50% off at Hobby Lobby, so the grand total for the necklace was about $4.  Not too shabby!

Spring clasps are great, but sometimes you just want something a little different.

Toggle clasp, ftw! 

I replaced the spring clasp with a toggle clasp.  You'd be amazed at how long it took me to pick this one.  I couldn't decide if the gold of the chain/toggle matched, and polled quite a few women at the store.  I also came to the realize that only older women shop at 1pm on a Thursday at Hobby Lobby, and that these are not the women to ask about color matching.  No offense.







Save this for later...  You never know!





(Again, I'm pretty sure all crafters are hoarders)








Then I attached the charms to the toggle clasp.  This was excessively difficult.  Instead of having normal jump rings the charms were on these sort of key chain things that did not want to open wide enough to be put on the toggle hoop.  Honestly, I'm posting this about 5 hours after making it, and my thumb nails still hurt.









But it's so pretty!  I love how my pictures turned out!  They had some paper on serious sale at Michaels (7 for $1) and I have some crafts coming up that require paper.  While this was chilling in my craft area I decided to put it to work.


































And speaking of Michael's clearance.  I adore Michaels- I go there a couple of times a month, and twice this week.  But their clearance?  Seriously.  50 cents off does not a clearance item make.  And it was even worse today than usual.  I was sifting through the beads in the clearance, and noticed some were there for $9.99.  First off, I don't consider it clearance unless it's less than $3.00.  Secondly, the original price?  Guess.

I'll give you a minute.

Yup.  $9.99.

And that wasn't just one item.  Over half of the strings of beads I picked up were not actually at all on clearance.  When I went to check out, I told the cashier about it (yeah, I'm one of those) as well as asked for a price check on another item.  This charm was missing the inset it had originally had, so I assumed it would be on some sort of sale.  Especially since I found it in the clearance section.  Nope.  Still was $4.99. She was very helpful and said that she would check out the clearance and fix it, although I'm sure that was to pacify me.  But she humored me, which I guess is half the battle of retail

By the way, this is the same problem I have with Marshalls/Ross/Home Goods.  When I look for a deal (and I'm always looking for a deal) I expect to be able to find something for less than $5.00.  Those deals are few and far between at those stores.  I'm a thrift store chick born and raised, and I know I'm ruined for normal stores.

Now that I've gone through that rant, leave a comment if you think I'm completely unreasonable in my expectations,  or if you agree wholeheartedly,  or if you want to post 'first!'.  Am I sounding needy enough?

Til next time!