****Summer Relic - DIY****

This weekend was spent being lazy, catching up on movies and just relaxing with my better half. But in the middle of doing nothing, I did manage to sneak in some DIY fun time.  I am not sure if the inside of your pocketbooks look like a war zone between forgotten purchases, lip gloss, jewelry and the occassional piece of trash but that pretty much sums most of mine up.  On weekends such as this I usually like to take a moment or two and clean them out before I begin another week of filling it up. As I came to my third bag in desperate need of a good cleaning I opened the middle compartment and came across a collection of stones and shells from an evening walk on the beach about a month ago.  At the time I planned on putting all the beach treasures in a jar and collecting them every summer to display on bookshelf labeled with the year not yet purchased. But with my hectic schedule I barely visited the beach this past summer to accumulate enough and the bookshelf is still a fleeting idea so upon rediscovering them a great idea formulated in my head. 

With Christmas soon upon us...oh yeah its coming...why not take the shells and make jewelry out of them to give to family and friends who shared that summer moment.  I always go to the beach with my cousin Jess and my mom and it is always a blast.  Instead of going crazy in the middle of the holiday rush looking for gifts, I can make them something with a bit more heart.  Plus it is so simple you may find yourself running down to the beach in the middle of winter looking for washed ashore treasure ring bases and bezels in hand.

But lets get started shall we....

All you'll need is the beach treasures, a couple ring bases in the metal finish of your choice and a DIY'ers best friend E6000.

• Put the ring on and position the shell or piece of sea glass on top to get an idea of how you would like it to look
• Once a good position is decided on, go ahead and remove the ring
• Add a dollop of glue, attach and let sit

I mean it seriously doesn't get any easier than that and the end result is absolutely gorgeous.

Now try and remain calm as you casually get up from the computer and head on over to the the jars of shells and stones you've accumulated over the years.  Don't cause alarm to either your loved ones or pets around you and go ahead and get DIY'ing...