Do you waste time pawing through a clutter of necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and miscellaneous personal bling, every time you get dressed to go out?

Do you have jewelry you never wear because it’s buried in the bottom of a jewelry box or drawer, or the chains are so hopelessly tangled and knotted, you just never get up the ambition to untangle them all?

Nah, me neither.

But for those who can’t believe what a mess those accessories can get themselves into, here’s help to organize your jewelry in a way that really works. And no, you don’t have to move out and leave it behind and start over!

Check out this video I just caught over on PopSugarTV – well worth watching – in which Beth Ziegler of Bneato shares a few super tips on getting your bling in order.

Top 3 Tip to Organize Your Jewelry

1. Take Inventory: Get out all your jewelry and spread it out where you can see what you’ve really got. Sort it by type and style, by “love it” and “meh” and “must go” – set aside the toss-outs for donation to charity – so you’ll know what you’ve got to work with. Next, decide what you want to store and what you want to display.

2. Organize Storage: Drawer dividers and/or little containers to hold each type of jewelry item – that’s a no-brainer, of course, but the big trick is to get the right boxes and trays in sizes and shapes that work for the jewelry you own and the drawer dimensions.

3. Display, display, display! Did you catch that cool idea for necklaces? A picture frame to create a special wall space for those genius (reusable, no sticky gunk) 3M Command Hooks for display. It’s not jewelry storage, it’s personal art! Get a cheap wooden frame and paint it to match your room, or get a great over-the-top ornate picture frame at a yard sale and really personalize it.

Symphony 3-Tiered Server

I’m also loving the yes-this-is-how-real-life-works idea of using a beautiful tiered cake plate or something of the sort on your dresser or bureau to display (and keep close at hand) those items of jewelry you wear every day.

Less thinking and digging around in the mornings, less stress about getting dressed, and more of your great accessories will get their turn in the limelight.

Top photo: Jewelry Options by starmist1, on Flickr

Nothing can jazz up a simple outfit like the perfect scarf. And now we’re into the chilly season, the creatively flipped or knotted scarf is more than a mere fashion accessory.

Even a filmy little nothing of a 50s-style chiffon scarf can keep those unpleasant drafts off your neck, while it’s pulling your look together.

Ah, but how do you wear a scarf right — so the local fashionistas don’t point and laugh?

Solution: A quick instructional video that shows you how to wear a scarf 25 different ways…

Yes, twenty-five. Granted, an argument could be made that three or four of these “ways” are suspiciously similar, but that’s getting picky. Point is, there’s enough here to take you through a full month of work days, without ever once repeating exactly the same knot /flip /twist /loop / fling of your stylish-but-practical scarf.

See?

There’s no reason to look like a frump while you’re staying cosy; no need to resort to single-knotting your knock-off Hermes like a kindergarten kid’s knitted scarf, for lack of scarf-styling inspiration — not with the unfairly gorgeous Wendy to give expert guidance!

Next item on the agenda,
stock up on fabulous scarves!

Ideally, you will want to lay in a selection of scarves in different weights — Wendy recommends “light chiffon for Spring and Summer, cashmere for Fall, and wool for Winter.”

I’d add silk to that mix: a gossamer wisp of chiffon or light-weight silk satin, in trendy patterns like the leopard print that Wendy shows; and a slightly heavier raw silk scarf, all slubby-textured and rustic, in a solid colour: rich jewel tones seem to flatter most faces and are a real mood-lifter in mid-winter. Silk fabrics drape beautifully and a silk scarf adds warmth to the back of your neck without adding bulk to make you feel bundled up.

Satin charmeuse, in either silk or a synthetic is always a good choice for a dressier lightweight scarf. You’ll find quite reasonable prices on some fabulous prints in a satin charmeuse scarf too, from Old Masters artwork — think Monet, Degas, Van Gogh — to cool retro patterns, delicate Oriental-inspired prints, and tongue-in-cheek take-offs on the British horsey set.

If you want something of the heft of a featherweight wool but find your skin reacts to wool all up close and personal, a soft combed cotton or even a viscose scarf may fit the bill (though I find viscose gets limp after you have cleaned it a few times — your mileage may vary).

That said, one of my go-to favourite scarves is an ultra-fine wool Mexican rebozo in soft natural pastels I’m not normally drawn to, but couldn’t resist when I found it in a street market in Oaxaca.

Another scarf I wear often is a cobalt-blue length of heavy raw silk that I just cut to length and finished off with a hand-rolled hem (<-- instructions right there, if you'd like to try it yourself).

It would have been prohibitively expensive to buy a scarf like that in a boutique, but as a DIY craft job, it took less than 10 bucks and maybe an hour or so.

So here's a frugal little tip for ya — check the remnant bins at your local fabric shop. Especially just after prom and wedding dress season, you’ll often find all kinds of de luxe pieces on for a song, just waiting to be hemmed or fringed and made into a wonderful scarf… and you now know 25 ways to wear that scarf!

Rebozo photo: Textiles by angela7dreams on Flickr

In general, it’s women’s fashion that changes so dramatically from one year (or one season, even) to the next. Men’s clothing is much more difficult to pinpoint in time, for most of us, than women’s clothing.

One at-a-glance clue to nailing down the timeline on fashion is to look at the style of women’s hats, as well as the hemlines and the whole silhouette.

But the male of the species is not without the occasional mad phase of flaunting his plumage. Just think of the lace-ruffled Regency dandy, the well-fed Edwardian gent with his velvet lapels, the pin-striped mobster of the 1930s, the young slicked-back Elvis Presley, or those tight-trousered disco kings of Saturday Night fever…

100 years of East London style in 100 seconds

Quick — can you catch all the fashion trends of the century, as they dance by?

Nice touch, having the woman dance alone briefly in her Rosie-the-Riveter wartime gear, before her partner comes flying back into the scene in his spiffy, prosperous post-war civvies!

Don’t you find that the trends tend to blend together, and a look you might tend to associate with one decade turns out to be from a slightly earlier or slightly later period? Fascinating — both the costumes of the recent past, and our conceptions of them!

Pop quiz on fashion history aside, however, it’s just a whole lot of fun to watch the styles boogie (jitterbug, foxtrot, tango, bugoloo, bop, bump…) on by!

This really is quite a clever bit of advertising, well sugar-coated as a blend of entertainment and education. Advertising? Why, yes, in fact:

Directed by Jake Lunt with The Viral Factory, the film was shot over 4 days in east London locations with hundreds of costume changes. The music was commissioned from Oscar nominated genius Tristin Norwell who took a simple tune and interpreted it for each decade over 100 years.
~ 100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON: Westfield Stratford City

This video was posted on YouTube by “Europe’s largest urban shopping centre, Westfield Stratford City” in advance of its official opening on 13 September 2011.

Which explains the date given in bold red letters at the end.
And why “East London” in particular.
And why the century of fashion runs from 1911 to 2011, instead of even numbers.

Neat-o!

Some fashion trends are just so ridiculous, they can’t possibly be allowed to pass by without comment and an eye-roll. What next?

The new hot Bollywood fad could be diamond-encrusted contact lenses, if Indian optometrist Chandrashekhar Chawanha has his wish.

The contact lenses (La SER™ Eye Jewelry) are constructed with gold rings around the irises, with thousands of dollars worth of tiny diamonds — 18 diamonds per contact lens — embedded into the gold.

The effect is more freaky than fabulous, if you ask me.

The price tag for a pair?
A staggering $15,000 — and possibly your vision?

Ironically, proceeds from the sales of the diamond contacts will apparently go to underwrite treatment of poor people with Stevens Johnson Syndrome at the Shekhar Eye Research Center, where Dr. Chawanha developed the scary-shiny novelty contacts.

Can we talk about nail art for a minute?
Okay, stick with me — you’ll like this.

The lovely and talented Orlica, who is a self-confessed manicure fanatic — “polishaholic” as she says — brings us this step-by-step tutorial for newspaper nails that we’re seeing everywhere right now. It’s newsprint as nail art, people! (I love this almost enough to wish I didn’t bite my fingernails.)

Newspaper Nails step by step

Nifty, no?

Basically, you’ll apply two coats of polish (let it dry very well) in your base colour of polish, then (doing one nail at a time) dip each fingernail into vodka or similar spirits. Press a small piece of newspaper firmly but carefully onto the nail, being careful not to move it around; wait 30 seconds; and peel off the paper. Repeat with the other nails, let dry, and paint on a protective top coat.

While it pains me to think of wasting, er, using up some perfectly good vodka or alcool by sticking my fingernails into it… I’m prepared to concede it might be worth it to get the New York Times crossword puzzle at my fingertips.

And, apparently, rubbing alcohol works just as well if you don’t have any spare booze on hand.

More Nail Art Ideas!

The nail-art-obsessed Orlica has a whole lot of tutorials for do-it-yourself nail art, actually, that you might like to look at.

Not only that, but — as I discovered while browsing the entries for the Disney Nail Art contest she ran recently (the 1001 Dalmations/Cruella DeVille theme fingernails won, by the way, which seems only appropriate), it would appear there’s a whole subculture of fingernail artists out there on the webs! Want more? You’ll find loads of nail art ideas from the funky to just fashionable at 365 Days of Nail Art on Nails magazine‘s blog.

Personally, there’s no way I’ll ever have the long elegant nails that are needed to show off these mani-creations, but it’s still a whole lot of fun to look at these miniature paintings, and to admire the steady hands that painted them.

(How does that work, anyway? Do you do nail art on someone else, or do you have to be ambidextrous, so both the left hand and the right hand fingernails turn out well?)

Angry Birds were all the rage at SXSW this year, I hear, with oodles of hip geeks spotted in the venue with an armload of plush toy characters from the popular (and highly addictive) game app.

A few lucky friends who got to go to SXSW (which I did not, pout!) came away without their own softies, and came to regret it later. Especially those with kids at home who were expecting to get cool souvenirs from Daddy’s trip!

No room in a suitcase?

Pshaw, you can always find room for an adorable stuffed bird with a hostile attitude…

And, fortunately, all of you late adopters, guilt-ridden parents, and miscellaneous game fans can now snag your own trendy plush at shop.angrybirds.com – three sizes: 5-inch, 8-inch, or 16 inches, with prices starting at US$11.99 (plus shipping) as of this writing. More good news, the official Angry Birds shop will deliver their toys worldwide.

(Not that I have ever played Angry Birds for a single second, or would ever want such a toy squatting on my desk.)

p.s. And yes, you can also get Pigs!

Usually, my dental hygienist and I have conversations that sound like a couple of pals getting together in a coffee shop to chat. But yesterday, our conversation sounded more like a poorly scripted television commercial from the 1970s or ’80s.

Usually, we talk about dogs and crafts and fitness, or whatever music’s being piped in to the dental office in the half-hour I’m there, or she tells me about the fall-out when her in-laws gave her 16-year-old a brand new car without consultation, that kind of thing…

Yesterday — wonder of wonders — we actually talked about clean teeth and healthy gums. Dental health, in fact — go figure!

Do you remember those TV ads where the uber-annoying Madge kept sticking her ditzy friend’s hand in a bowl of dishwashing liquid, while disclaiming about its virtues? A fly on the wall (not that there was one, but if there was — and if it could understand English — do flies even have ears?) would have heard something like this:

Me: You probably won’t have much cleaning to do this time.

She [with one dubious eyebrow raised]: Why’s that?

Me: I’ve been trying out an electric toothbrush for the past month, and my teeth seem pretty clean to me…

She: What kind of electric toothbrush are you using? Is it the Oral-B Vitality? We usually keep some of those around here, for sale.

Me: Actually, I’ve been testing two different Oral-B toothbrushes. One’s the Vitality with a ProWhite head. The other one’s that super-dooper Triumph brush that does everything but pour the mouthwash for you…

[Dental hygienist nods knowingly]

Me: …the one with the wireless unit to monitor your brushing time and tells you when to move on to another quadrant, makes a smiley face when you brush your teeth properly?

[Dental hygienist nods knowingly]

Me: It’s got two different brush heads with it — ProWhite and Floss Action — they sound like dorky superheroes, don’t they? And different brushing modes for polishing and sensitive teeth and like that, base station, recharger that works in different countries with different power systems for when you travel, and a travel case, too… The flippin’ toothbrush has a bigger instruction manual than the one that came with my blender!

She: You do have a thing for gadgets, don’t you?

Me: Um, yeah…

She: My husband, too. He would probably be more fussy about brushing if he had one of those… but he just went out and bought himself a new phone, so he’s going to have to wait until Father’s Day to get a Triumph.

Me [mumbling because the dental hygienist has her hands in my mouth, poking about the molars with a pointy metal thing]: Mhmmphh.

She: You know, your teeth really are pretty clean — I really don’t have too much work to do here. Actually, I think we can skip your next appointment, if you’re going to keep using a power toothbrush.

Me: Mmm-hm-hmm-huh!

She: What’s that?

Me: I just saved 75 bucks!

She: Yeah, you can’t go wrong with Oral-B. Did you know that they’re the only ones who have that patented thing where the head of the brush oscillates and pulses, both at the same time? It oscillates and pulses! [I swear, those were her exact words -- told you, our conversation sounded a whole lot like a vintage TV ad!] And the small head on the brush makes it easier to get in there and do a good job on your back teeth, like this spot right here… see?

Me: Mhmm-hee!

She: Rechargeable, right?

Me: Mhmm. Yes, both of them.

She: What do you think about the vibration? Some people find it feels weird.

Me: The Vitality’s just got a nice little hum, kind of nice. But the Triumph has, I don’t know, the vibration is stronger or deeper or something…

She: Too much?

Me: No, not bad… but you wouldn’t want to use it with a wicked hangover.

She: Just a guess, but if someone’s that hungover, their dental hygiene may not be right at the top of their list, right at that moment. Coffee, more likely. Lots of coffee!

Me: At least they’d be able to get the coffee stains off their teeth. You know, later, when they felt up to it…

I’m pretty sure we’ll be back to the normal frivolous non-product-oriented chit-chat, next time I’m hanging with the dental hygienist — but here’s the bit that’s vitally important here, in case you glazed over and missed it:

I just saved $75 — being able to skip my next appointment for a professional cleaning, with the dental hygienist’s blessing — because the power toothbrushes do a better job of cleaning teeth than the old-faithful manual units that I grew up with.

Yes — like you — I laughed myself silly at the super-dooper Triumph when I first read about it — and rolled my eyes at the hefty price tag, too! (The suggested retail price is $179.99 — yikes! — but you can do much better if you shop around: Amazon has about the best prices I’ve seen, around US$107.)

Love gadgets as I do… honestly, I thought it was a case of Oral-B going mad with the microchips and accessories, trying to find a new-and-improved product that no one really needs all that badly. It seems that I may have been a tad hasty in that opinion, however… because it’s really quite something.

On a budget, however, or for those whose very souls revolt at the idea of over-the-top technological wizardry in the bathroom cabinet, the modestly priced and lightweight Oral-B Vitality Pro-White is the winner. It runs about $25 in stores in Canada; I’m not sure if this exact model of Vitality is available in the US yet, but I think you might be able to fake it quite nicely with the Precision Clean model and just sub in the Pro-White replacement heads for that spiffy tooth-polishing effect. For my money, it’s effective, efficient, and not too self-indulgent a personal-care tool for this thrifty gal to face down in the mirror each morning.

In short, Triumph rocks for sheer macho gadgety-goodness, and I’m irresistably attracted to that for some reason; but the low-key Vitality was simply electric love at first brush.

I’ll spare you the rant about how cold it’s been this winter, and how the wind never stops blowing, and how my hands are now a permanent frost-bitten mottled white and purple (not attractive at the best of times), and just say this…

If this cold weather keeps up, I’m investing in a Lippi Selk Bag.

Dental appointment?
Client meeting?
Night out with friends?

Sure… but I’m coming dressed as the Abominable Michelin Snow Man, but in tasteful eco-khaki green instead of white. Because I’ve just about had enough of white for the moment, what with all the snow…

Picture it. I’ll make one last half-frozen parka-wrapped dash down to the post box to grab my package, scuttle back home and rip into the wrapper, clamber into the sleeping-bag-suit… and never come out until spring. (Except for the call of nature, of course: you gotta unzip and pull down for that — they even say so in the FAQ.)

Fashion, thy name is padded comfort!

Laugh if you will, but I’m declaring a whole new Nordic fashion trend… and I’ll be the only one who’s not standing about turning blue from the cold.

The Big Discount Store is apparently taking a lesson from history, which teaches us that women get girly when money gets tight. For £9.99, they’ll fit you out with this little 1950s-inspired number called the Red Recession Dress.

Maybe not a totally new concept, creating fashion to match the mood of the times — Asda launched two versions of the classic “little black dress” for £12 in November, followed by its £20 little black “City Suit” — but, hey, it’s RED!!

Now, at first blush this would seem to be a brilliant idea, and I totally agree with Ladyblogger Wendy Sullivan:

Personally, I love that retro look. The 50s were a time of great beauty in women’s fashion, and I am bored to death with having the 70s come back every few years. It’s really refreshing to see a much classier decade return. And frankly, the prices are pretty close to the same as they were then.

But let’s look a tad more critically at this specific retro-fabulous red dress, shall we?
Ignoring for the moment the misspelled “seam” in the product description…

Fitted knee length dress with cap sleeves and shaped neck line, waist seem and back split. Concealed back zip fastening. Belt not included. 48% Polyester, 48% Vicose, 4% Elastane Dry Clean

… and assuming that we can find enough of a waistline, after the excesses of the holiday feast season, to rock a fitted dress, check out the fabric:

If you’ve ever made the mistake of trying to wash a polyester-viscose-something garment (hands up? yes, me, too…) — even if you hand-wash it carefully in cold water — you’ll know that forever afterwards your once-stunning poly-viscose fashion statement will droop like a sad dishrag. So, when they say “Dry Clean” — you’d better believe it, that does mean “Dry Clean only“!

Twenty bucks (ish) for the dress — but what will you spend on the dry-cleaning?

There’s a difference between cheap and frugal, that’s all I’m saying. And a bargain is only a bargain if (a) you can and will use the item, and (b) it won’t keep racking up a lot of extra cost for maintenance through its lifespan.

Ah, but it’s RED!!!

You know how at the start of each year we all seem to resolve to be better? (For some reason — although some of us really don’t like resolutions! — it just happens!) We’re going to be greener, more frugal, more efficient, free of clutter and confusion, and just generally a better human being?

Yeah.
Well.

I’ve got something like a Museum of Home Computing up in the back bedroom, and still haven’t found a solution. What do you do with an old 386 Acer, anyway? And that monitor that’s got a weird green glow. Oh, and the dot-matrix printer… In these parts, there’s no recycling depot for such stuff, and there’s no way I’m dumping them in the local landfill… so I’m still working on that issue.

But I did just come across a solution for all those smaller dead electronics that drift in odd corners of our lives. Sell them!

BuyMyTronics (I found it listed recently as one of the perky new business startups in trend-spotting Springwise‘s newsletter) will buy a whole bunch of your broken, used, and otherwise unwanted gadgets.

Anyone in the world can send ‘em in, gadgets in any condition, and get cold hard cash. Doesn’t that sound appealing?

I know, I know what you’re wondering:

What do you do with the broken electronics I send you?
Many wonderful things. We are actually building a utopian society and sanctuary for electronics from around the globe. Actually, if you must know, we take your broken electronics and swap out parts to fix others, then resell your gadgets…

And by gadgets they mean most kinds of cell phones, and every kind of iPods, iPhones, and Game Consoles. And did I mention, they’ll buy electronics in any condition? Drop your cell off a 6th floor balcony and watch your neighbour’s SUV drive over it? Well, it probably won’t be worth a mint, but these guys say they want to buy it anyway.

You get rid of crap. You get a bit of cash — or you can have it donated to the charity of your choice. The landfill gets to live a little longer. And the useful electronic thingummies get recycled and reused to make spiffy refurbished gadgets, bringing pleasure and convenience to others.

Perfect.

Well, maybe not quite perfect.

I have a GPS device, Laptop, digital camera and/or other electronic device. Do you take those too?
Soon, very soon. Keep checking out our site. We plan a steady and continued expansion into everything, then world domination. We will probably be adding a new gadget every month or so. So check back soon, and often.

So a lot of those wired retirees up in my back bedroom may have to wait a while before they’re back in demand — but I’ve got hope!

Part handbag, part animal (and I do mean, Animal… Do you recall the crazy-wild drummer from the Muppets Show? Like that) — here’s an accessory with a difference.

“Feathers” — This Bag that Bites will be a natural fit to perch off of your shoulder! Faux fur that has the appearance of an olive-colored finch will create a buzz wherever you two will go. Warm golden hand-painted eyes keep this sweet bag soulful, while the fat purple tongue will make sure that you give the right message whenever you need.

The best feature?
The tongue has a zipper in it, to be your secret change purse!

Unique, handmade, and hungry Bags That Bite are the handmade creations of Justine Pallace. She’s actually a jeweller by training and trade, but finds both “satisfaction and fun” in making these cuddlesome monsters. Justine lives and crafts in Rochester, New York, but you can find her furry character handbags at BagsThatBite.etsy.com… if you dare!

H/T to WordVixen and her Hand Crafted Bags and Purses obsession for sharing this great furry find.

Why pay big bucks for the same casual shoes you see in every park, schoolyard, gym, or dorm, when you can strut in custom kicks? And why toss out those tired old hightops, when they’ve still got good life left in them?

Give ‘em new life and express your creativity, with a custom design job!

If you can peel-and-stick, you can do Sneakart stickers. Or go for the full sheet patterns… there are about a kabillion designs to choose from, and you can mix and match to create the look of trendy (and expensive) hand-decorated sneakers.

Totally waterproof, these sneaker skins stand up to regular use for a couple of months — or you can peel them off and make a change, any time you like.

Is graphic design your gift?

You can even upload your own artwork to the Sneakart site, to make truly one-of-a-kind footwear stickers. But that’s not all — “Creative design deserves to be rewarded,” they say. So you can choose to keep your designs to yourself, or submit your art to the shop.

If it’s accepted for the design Gallery, each time someone buys your design to customize their shoes, Sneakart will credit your account with 10% of the sale price. You can cash out your royalties payments via Paypal or roll it over to get more Sneakart stuff for yourself.

Puma Sneaker Art Contest

And here’s a sneaker art contest that’s running right now, for another chance to make your artistic talents pay off — or at least to win a free pair of customized Baskets:

Sneakart is running a competition with in conjunction with PUMATALK to find the freshest new designs around. Design exactly what you want to see on a sneaker and then you can make it real with sneakskin. All good artwork will be accepted to the Sneakart library and will earn royalties on any sales made. The winner will be chosen by PUMATALK and sneakart and will receive a pair of baskets exclusively customized with sneakskin in their design.

Your custom sneaker design can be created with any software or hand drawn, as long as you use the templates provided. Check out the sneakart tutorial for more information.