Sometimes a DIY project will take a very convoluted journey to get from Point A (inspiration) to Point Z (completion)...often visiting Point L (depression) and Point R (insanity) along the way. Case in point, after ogling the necklaces from Prada's holiday jewelry collection...and realizing that I wasn't going to be handing over the $800 that was necessary to procure one...I decided to make my own...or, to take the elements that I liked, add a few things of my own, and hope the end result was wearable.

The "likes" were easy...I'll always have a soft spot for jewels...especially those in any kind of close proximity to a fabric backing. Luckily I had a vintage paste brooch that I never wore and a scrap of tweed. Unfortunately when I combined the two they looked like just that...a brooch stuck onto a piece of fabric. So the project was laid to rest for a week or so...until I either came up with a better idea or unhitched tweed from brooch and pretended the whole incident had never happened.

Then a few days ago, while cleaning out my closet, I came across a hat which, quite frankly, I should have thrown out years ago. But it was one of those sentimental things. The hat was pure Little Bo Beep...a massive straw picture hat with long black silk ties. I bought it years ago at Joseph...wore it several times, most memorably at a riverside picnic where I probably looked insane but felt very floaty and feminine. That, however, was quite a while ago and a hat of that size is virtually impossible to pack or store...well, to do so and retain any of its form. Yes, my hat was squashed and deformed to the point of no return...but the black silk ties were still in good shape. So I cut off the silk...resigned the hat to the garbage...and used the silk as both an embellishment and a chain for my aborted necklace.

The end result is a combination of grandma, widow, and the English countryside...almost unrecognizable when compared to the piece which originally inspired it...but an interesting addition to my jewelry collection.