DIY LV lock necklace by bakeacookie

As I mentioned before, I'm part of a wonderful online community of people who love to chat about fashion, bags, life, and everything in between! One such lovely member had a great idea to re-purpose LV locks into necklaces - it was such a great idea that I had to ask her to share! Below is a guide from bakeacookie on how she did it, and the supplies she used. Many thanks to bakeacookie for taking the time to share with us!

Some LV bags come with these gorgeous brass or silver toned locks. But despite carrying my Speedy Bandoliere and Alma, I never used these pretty little locks.

After checking out a few posts at the Purseforum, I took note of a Chanel lock necklace. Pinterest had examples, and my search even yielded a one of a kind vintage lock necklace using LV locks.

Convinced I could do this myself, I set off. I plucked the locks out from their dust bags and made a trip to the craft store, Joanns in my case.

Items needed:

• Chain of desired length. I prefer a 28-inch chain. 
• This allows me to place it over my head, rather than have to attach a clasp.

• Jump rings

• Jewelry/needle nose pliers.

• LV lock and key

Directions:

Open the jump ring with the plier, and insert them through the loop of the chain. Close the jump ring, getting the ends as close together as possible for a secure connection.

Repeat for the opposite end.

Open the lock and thread the lock through the jump rings.

Close the lock and voila, an LV lock necklace in less than 5 minutes.

To my surprise, there are (at least) two types of jump rings!

I preferred the easy to use single loop jump ring, shown in the silver lock necklace. It was easy to use, and it feels secure with the weight of the lock on it.

But there are double loop jump rings, similar to a key ring. These were much, much harder to work with, and somehow I pried them open enough to string them onto the gold chain. These are really really secure, there's no way for the jump ring to part at all without much prying.

Because I used the double loop on the gold necklace, it took 20 minutes (and assistance of my brother to pry them open) to make this necklace. 

The price for both the gold and silver chain, plus gold and silver jump rings came out to about $6.00.

The locks came with my bag, but can be purchased as a replacement part at Louis Vuitton for $39 each.

Jewelry purge and goal

Jewelry is an area where I personally find easy to own a lot of yet difficult to work into my daily outfits. I know a lot of fashion advice tells us that by changing up our jewelry, we can easily change up our look. This is really difficult for me as I'm admittedly lazy and rushed in the mornings and can't imagine having to add more brainpower to getting myself out the door. 

I have my daily jewelry which consist of my wedding and engagement rings, two bracelets on my left arm, two Pandora rings on my right hand, diamond studs, and a necklace with a family charm and a jade Buddha hanging from them. I wear these every day and only change them when I have an event that requires a little bit more. 

The 'little bit more' is where I plan to focus my attention - I did a major purge of my jewelry (not including fine jewelry or family pieces) at the beginning of the year and even tried to re-purpose a few items into bag fobs or other pieces that I may wear more. Now that I've minimized my collection, I'm trying to incorporate one piece into my outfits and force myself to change up my daily pieces. 

I still get lazy some days but I have noticed that a necklace really does spruce up an outfit and take it to the next level. Below are some of the pieces I've been able to use on a more regular basis. 

Left to right: navy and silver link 'Guess' necklace, a blue smoothed glass necklace (gift from husband from his latest trip to Nova Scotia), black 'J Crew' bangle, rose gold 'Coach' bangle, silver Tiffany & Co. mesh bracelet) 

FINALLY!!! - Knee high boots that fit me!!!

This post may be THE most exciting one for me because I'm so so SO happy to share that I have been able to find knee high boots that will zip up over my calves. I kid you not, I have been searching for almost 10 years - every knee high boot I've ever tried on would never zip up over my calves (even at my skinniest at 125lbs). 

I was commuting to work on Thursday when I came across an ad for the Hudson Bay's "Bay Days" where they have one day sales on selected items, which on that day were 50% off all boots. I never paid much attention to these but for some reason decided to check it out during lunch and thought, "maybe I'll see if I can find knee high boots," which is something I stopped even dreaming about. It must have been fate because I found beauties: 

With a little oomph, they zipped up all the way, and when on, did not feel tight at all. I unzipped them and tried again (just to be sure I wasn't just forcing them too much) and they were actually easier to zip than the first time. 

Black. Gold hardware. Leather. FIT ME. Everything I could ask for. Also, I was happy that they were Lauren by Ralph Lauren so I do have some comfort that the quality will be relatively good and hold up for a while as it may be the only time I will ever find knee high boots that fit again. The icing on the cake was that they were half off, so I paid only $95 for these!!!

I already inputted them into my Stylebook App and began making outfits with them. These are a few of my favourites:

No turtlenecks or crewnecks for me

When I was purging, two types of clothing that were very easy for me to get rid of were turtlenecks and crewneck. Again, because of my short mid-section, the proportions of turtlenecks and crewnecks don't work for me and even make my upper body look shorter than it really is - not flattering at all.

Of course there are always exceptions such as some crewneck sweatshirts and decorative tops, and the occasional turtleneck dress, but for the most part, I know I need to stick to V-necks and cowl necks, or larger/lower scoop necks (but even some sccop necks can be iffy from piece to piece).

November count

In November I sold one of my bags and did not purchase any bags or small leather goods (SLGs). I ALSO did not buy anything this month =) 

I also added a pair of gloves, 1 sweatshirt, and 4 shirts to my donations pile.