I told you I wasn't done adding holiday spirit to my room yet. Apparently my method is "more lights, more sparkle!" until everything feels appropriately cheerful but still doesn't involve too much stuff (mostly because I don't want to have to put a million things away after Christmas, because that's depressing).
MORE LIGHTS
I needed to add some more lights because the room was a little lopsided -- all the lights and all the blue on one side, and all the pink and...lack of lights? on the other. So I wrapped another strand of blue lights up with some sheer shiny ribbon and blue tinsel to create a garland to drape over my desk, and added a short strand of white lights to my mini-tree (because obviously the tree needed lights. This is a fact).
Ahhh yes. That's the cozy glow I was looking for.
MORE SPARKLE
First I did a simple switch-out of the decorations on my wreath, re-using the white flowers that were on it before and adding a few festive bits and bobs to give it a frosty winter look.
I have a weird affinity for things like those little silver glittery grass-like sprigs because they remind me of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. That's the only part of that story that really stuck with me, actually. I couldn't care less about the sneaking out to dance with cute princes or whatever, but I always loved the trees with silver and gold leaves.
The final addition to my room came in the form of a box of 12 glittery blue snowflakes (I feel like there's a clever segue to be made here based on the number twelve, but I can't find it, so...just pretend I'm cleverer than I am). I sat in the floor with these in my lap for a good long while, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with them, until finally inspiration struck. Ten minutes and a bit of tape later...
I love this so much! The snowflakes tucked geometrically into the polka dots remind me of a Nordic sweater somehow. It also vaguely reminded me for a dark second of how in the nineties everyone had horrible wallpaper borders all over their houses. Why was that a thing? Bleh.
Anyway, with the snowflakes up and the lights a-glowing, this room is really starting to feel cheerful and festive! I'll have to enjoy it while I can, because Christmas is coming up way faster than it has any right to. Or maybe that's just me getting older and inheriting the grand tradition of insisting that time goes by too quickly.
So I was perusing a magazine the other day and came across this picture...
Ooooh. So shiny, so pretty! The problem is that these are almost 400 dollars. Hahahahahahaohgodhelpme. I can't even imagine a world in which spending that much on something that you're almost certainly going to sit on or lose or drop in the toilet makes sense. So I decided that I would take inspiration from these and make something similar for myself -- but on a much more reasonable budget. Aka free, because my budget is just the phrase "DON'T SPEND MONEY, EVER" written in blood on a piece of paper where the spreadsheets and shit would normally be. Remember those free sunglasses I got a while ago? Another pair of those is getting the makeover treatment today! To make these sparkly specs I first gathered my supplies.
If you want to make a pair of these yourself you'll need: a pair of sunglasses (obviously), some glitter in a color of your choosing (I chose black, because I wanted it to be subtle -- well, as subtle as glitter can get), Mod Podge or Elmer's glue, and a paintbrush.
To glitter the glasses, all you need to do is brush the frame with some Mod Podge, then sprinkle some glitter on top. If you're worried about gluing glitter on the actual lenses, you could tape them off or even pop the lenses out if it's an especially cheap pair. I wasn't particularly worried about it, so I just took the gluing slowly and carefully. Mod Podge takes a bit to set and dry, so you can afford to take it slow and do pretty big chunks before you need to get the glitter on there.
A tip for those that perhaps do not do a lot of be-glittering in their day-to-day lives: always do your glittering over a piece of paper or a magazine. That way you can be really liberal in the application of your glitter, and when you're done you can fold the paper over and use it as a funnel to put the extra back into the original container, so you don't waste any of that precious sparkly goodness.
That's really all there is to this project: glue, then glitter. Full disclosure so you can learn from my mistakes: after the glitter had dried, I thought it would be a good idea to do a coat of clear enamel to hold the glitter on more securely and lock in the shine. Don't do that. It doesn't work. It somehow managed to mattify big sections of the glitter, making it look like the glasses were just oddly textured, like maybe I sat them too close to a flat-iron or something. It was not a good look. If you're worried about glitter falling off onto your face (I am not, there's usually glitter somewhere on my face anyway. Crafter problems), a thin coat of clear nail polish is the way to go. It holds the glitter on firmly without mattifying the sparkle and negating the whole purpose of this shenanigan.
Ta-da! These are such a fun way to spice up an otherwise plain pair of sunglasses. And the whole thing only took about half an hour! Granted, I'd probably advise leaving these to dry overnight before you wore them, lest you smudge them up or, I dunno, glue them to your face, rendering you permanently cool, though somewhat disadvantaged in dim settings. But the actual crafting part is super quick and easy, and with results this spangly, I'd say you should definitely give it a shot!
