So, last Friday night, I get a text from my friend, Ashley.

“Are you going to the senior place bazaar tomorrow?”

Twice a year, a retirement community in town has a HUGE Bazaar, where they sell everything from sheets to china to dishwashers. (Lots and lots of dishwashers. Ours is broken. I seriously considered buying one.) I stumbled on it last year when BB and I were hitting up garage sales, looking for a bike for him. I got some really great vintage jewelry last time, so I was eager to attend this year.

“I’ll pick your *** up at 7:45,” she texts. “Second thought we need your car, more room. LOL”

Love the way she thinks.

So, in yoga pants, sans makeup and possibly a good tooth brushing, armed with coffee, we head out. It’s the first cold day of the year (and later, it was the first rain of Fall in these parts), and we stand in line, waiting our turn to hit the jackpot.

I scored on this day. I kind of felt bad for Ashley at first. I ended up with an amazing bar cart (that Husband has said Ashley needs to come pick up and take to her house – more on that later), a vintage mirror printed with a double-decker bus, and, of course, some great vintage jewelry pieces. (Ashley went on to find vintage Pyrex, table linens, and the most AMAZING vintage ice cream scoop, so I didn’t feel so guilty about my wins. And the bar cart may still go live with her. We’ll see.)

This was my favorite. I remember, growing up, my mom had something similar to this. (Right, Mom? Or am I thinking of that giant hound dog necklace instead? Speaking of which, can I have that giant hound dog necklace? I always loved that thing.) I’ve been looking for a long gold necklace with some sort of pendant, and this could totally work.

Except it came like this, short chain with owl and longer, chunky gangsta chain attached below. Not quite.

I removed the big chain, but that wasn’t really an improvement.

I started digging through my jewelry supplies (after I started digging through the garage to find the box labeled “jewelry supplies” from the move – it took a while). I didn’t have anything in my thrifted miscellaneous section that would work, but I did have some gold plated chain that I had bought at Jo-Ann last spring, but no jump rings to connect it.

So I played around with it and figured out a way to use wire I had to create connectors instead. I wanted to keep the original clasp that came with the necklace (a lovely vintage detail that reminds me of other pieces of jewelry I used to borrow from my mom). I added a tiny gold bead to the wire, and it all turned out beautifully, I think.

So here’s the new necklace.

Exactly the length I wanted.

And I was able to use what I had to make it work. One the biggest parts of creativity for me is being able to find a solution to a problem. I feel my most successful, creatively speaking, when I’ve taken something that doesn’t work or isn’t quite right and made it into something functional and beautiful. I believe that developing this “creative habit” will make me better able to tackle problems in new and inventive ways. Just like this funky old necklace.

P.S. About half an hour after I finished this project (spent some time on Facebook), I walked into the dining room to find this:

What? I haven’t cleaned this up yet? I could hear my own voice, talking to BB and BG many MANY times today about cleaning up after themselves. (Awkward pause and nervous cough here.) My friend, Mary, is doing 31 Days on Things I Say to My Kids That I Should Really Be Saying to Myself. Clearly, this is going to be a good and highly applicable read for me this month.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

This post is part of a 31 day series. Find all the posts in this series here.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —