I'm back....for now

It's been over two months since I said it was too hot to blog, and it's still very warm - a bit over 80 - but at least not over 100 as it was for what seemed like forever. 
A few days ago a friend put the idea into my head that instead of buying two hanging lampshades and six wall sconces - something I have put off for almost a year - I should make my own. 
I started looking at how to videos on youtube, and of course I became addicted, spending hours every day, for the last four days, looking at everything from DIY doily shades, to bottle cap shades, to infinity scarves, button bracelets (which I've made before), and on and on, including chocolate cake in a cup demos! 
I used to dye and paint silk scarves that I ordered by the box-full from the Dharma Trading company in California so, needless to say, even after giving many away as gifts and selling a few, I still had too many, particularly considering I never wear silk scarves! Strangely enough I couldn't find much on repurposing silk scarves, except for making them into bed covers or curtains, and one very cool video in which the silk is torn into strips and woven on a loom. 
I have trouble making longterm commitments, even though I've been married twice, or maybe because of that, so, if at all possible, I like to do stuff I can take apart again if I change my mind.
With that in mind last night I pulled out all my silk scarves, set aside the square ones and a couple of rectangular ones I particularly like and started messing around with braiding the rest. 
I braided some tightly...

Then I fiddled endlessly with tying the ends in different ways.

I eventually took apart the one pictured above and re-braided it more loosely, leaving the ends dangling, as you will see in a photo at the end. 

These three I braided loosely. The scarf on the left is purchased, the other two I dyed. The result is in the "group" photo.

Here I took one long scarf and tied another one folded in half to it.

And here is the "group" photo, minus one that I was wearing.  

The lavender and pink one is braided tightly and tied together at the end with a twisty tie. I plan on putting a few beads on an elastic cord to hold it in place (the size of a ponytail tie), since it's too thick for a brooch. I finished the purple one by making three knots in the purple end and tying both ends together. 

For the final one, coming up next, I tied two scarves together with a knot in the middle and two more equally spaced knots, one on either side of the middle one, and tied the loose ends in a sort of bow. I wore it out to market this morning like a necklace with the bow in the back.

Or you could wear the bow in front or on the side. 

If I were younger or had the b...s, I'd wear it with the bow on top of my head. I always did like that look.

Or you could use it to pull back your hair. 

While I was at the market, at the used clothes stall I bought an XL t-shirt to make a fringed scarf and 22 doilies (and to think that I got rid of tons of t-shirts and doilies before moving here....) Now I better make those dang lampshades!