Crochet button and bead necklace

I have fallen deeply in love with Pinterest. Pinterest is very much ooh look at this isn't it lovely/clever/useful/funny/cute and I get that, I really get it. I have found and made deodorant (exactly like the one I buy at Lush but cheaper), I've been inspired to do machine embroidery and I've discovered so much inspiration for bags, sewing, recipes, everything.

This morning I found myself at a loose end owing to the fact that I pinged something in my back on Friday whilst doing heavy gardening stuff (this is where my husband rolls his eyes and says I told you so because he did and I ignored him. I spent all of yesterday pretending I was okay because I just hated to prove him right...)

*sigh*

Anyway so I was lurking on Pinterest this morning while I waited for the Ibuprofen to take effect and found a lovely tutorial on how to make a crochet button necklace. I've repinned the pin to my craft tutorials board and the original is from the I'm Topsy Turvy blog (click the name for the link).

Then, having all the necessary things handily to hand, I made my version:

The crochet thread was some I was given in a big bag of useful stuff by Dad's wife Pat, and I pinched borrowed the crochet hook from Mum's sewing box.

It's mostly vintage shirt buttons with others culled from old garments over the years with some beads thrown in for good measure. I did a chain for 15, then a bead, chained 15, then a button etc, until the end. The trick is to put the buttons and beads on the thread in your preferred order before you start to crochet then you just pick them up as you go along. I haven't crocheted for years (at least 30!) and I've never made anything of note in crochet before. Despite that it didn't take long to make and it was huge fun to do. What I need now is many, many more buttons!

This is what it looks like as a necklace (I'm rubbish at photographing things on me, so you'll have to make do with my glamorous assistant). It can also be worn wrapped around the wrist as a bracelet (but he wouldn't pose for that picture).