My Fossil knock-off

One of my favorite pasttimes is online window shopping--I look all I want, but seldom do I buy.  I suppose it's a sickness, really, but I just can't help myself.  If I have one weakness, however, it's for jewelry.  Fossil is one of my favorite places to look for cool and unique jewelry, and about a month or so ago  I found a necklace that I absolutely loved.  I wasn't even remotely tempted to try to find a place I could sneak it into our budget, though, as it cost a whopping $130. (!)  As it was mostly comprised of strand beads, I thought I could attempt to do my own take on it.  I first went to a little bead shop down the road from us and causually inquired about jewelry-making classes.  I didn't want to pay the $40+ for the instruction and supplies, however (plus I'm not really into the kind of jewelry they make in those things), so I figured I'd just wing it.  First I did a little reconnaissance by visiting the Fossil store in our mall so I could see the necklace in person, then I began to collect my materials.  I had quickly scratched off the bead store as the source for my supplies as each strand of beads was around $100!!  Lucky for me, Michaels has an extensive collection of strand beads, and I had access to a bunch of 40% off coupons. :)  After about a week or so of daily trips to Michaels due to the coupon stipulation of 1 coupon per customer per day (and a succession of returns and exchanges), I had all of my stuff.  After much trial and error on the technical side of things, and making constant changes to the artistic side of things, it was done.  Is it as nice as the Fossil necklace? Certainly not--the materials are cheaper, the crafstmanship a whole lot shoddier, and I'd trade it in a heartbeat for the real thing, but it was kind of fun to make, and a heck of a lot cheaper.  It's definitely not an everyday necklace, but I think it's a fun statement piece (and yes, it's kind of heavy).