Backlog of crafts!! (Part I)

Once upon a time, there was a graduate student who knew she had work to do. Papers to grade, tests to study for, research to do! She could barely see how to keep her head above water. So what happened to this poor overstressed soul? She procrastinated.  How you ask?
She finished the Abby Caddaby outfit for her 'niece' lily's second birthday
She decided to dip her toe into the world of sweet lolita and made several skirts
Worked on Cutsew tops
Made a Parasol in design, not function
Made clay jewelry
Flower hair clips
and more.
Unfortunately she didn't blog about any of this until now!

Since the most recent projects are fresh I'll be blogging backwards.

After one night up way too late on the internet I decided to create an Etsy account and order several (30) ring blanks to make rings the blanks cost about $12 shipped. After doing this I also decided to get on ebay  and found earring posts (24 pairs) with backs and hair clips (20) for about $15. These arrived first.

Using the clay I had bought (see earlier post) I decided to make some of the cute earrings I had seen on the internet. Most of the ones I found entertaining were the items from Mario. So far I have made toadstool earrings and Yoshi egg earrings. I also will attempt to make chomp earrings and the evil fire plant earrings after a bit of study on how to do it. For the teeth I realized recently that i should just roll a tube the approximate height i want then make it into a triangular prism shape then cut them to make the teeth. (Pictures to come) I used to love Yoshi (favorite character) so I plan on making more yoshi inspired earrings as well. And possibly Kirby.
The main reason to get so many posts (and now I'm beginning to thing 24 isn't enough) was to make sweet jewelry to match my outfits. I've made a pair of strawberry earrings as well as purple and white spiral lollypop earrings. I will need to obtain a chain to hold the red and white spiral pop that I had made as a necklace (hopefully for less than $2).

As for the flower hair clips I'm slowly getting the hang of it, although I'm beginning to realize I need better quality flowers than the ones from the dollar store since most aren't full enough. I'm thinking about making my own but that would be a whole other project. So far I've just been playing with the hot glue gun. 

I've been wanting a parasol for quite a while now. I had attached ribbon to an umbrella and it is cute and I still love it but I wanted something with more fluff to it. Since at the time I was determined to start a new project without leaving my house to buy something I found a stash of old black yarn and found a fun doily pattern on the internet, figuring that I could just adapt it for the larger parasol, and by adapt I mean just ignore the gauge size and see what happened. With (LOTS of) help of my friend Michelle I was able to finish the pattern. Which took several weeks (mainly of me waiting to ask for help again) Then I bought an umbrella from Walmart for $5 and cut off the covering. With a $1 can of spray paint I painted the silver spokes black since the pattern is very reminiscent of a spider web I didn't want it to have  the obvious silver spokes. After painting it and letting it dry for a day or so, I sewed the crochet pattern to the spokes and it was done. However after looking at how large it was I decided to see if I could get it to shape more into a bell, So I crochet a chain around to narrow the circumference.  Although I still had it a bit too wide this made much of a difference giving me an idea for a much more useful parasol.
I plan on taking the fabric cut from the umbrella and cutting it into the right shape to have the desired circumference of about 90in or so then cut fabric to match it. After decorating the fabric I can sew it to  a new umbrella. I'm planning on this new project costing me under $10 by using quite a bit of odds and ends I already have around.
Now that it's 2am and I have a test in less than 10 hours I must say adieu, buenes noches, 休みなさい！