About five years ago, I started thinking about making a butterbeer cork necklace, like Luna Lovegood's. This was before the Hollywood rendition, and I imagined the corks as being linked together somehow. So I started saving corks, but never figured out how to connect them without drilling hole, which seemed not quite the right look. Then one day, I was standing in a hardware store and looking for something useful, and found these neat metal things. With less than $10 of hardware, I had enough handy cork connectors for a whole necklace.

Definitely unusual, but I was dubious that a piece of eclectic jewelry would be particularly useful. But, it turns out that wearing something that reminds me of Luna and SFZero at the same time makes me feel zany. Like something fun might happen at anytime, and that I can make cool things happen by believing in things that I can't see. (I've never actually worn a mustache, but I imagine it might be similar.) This is useful, because I have a job that involves a fair amount of failure and rejection, and it can get discouraging. Now I can add a little extra zip and a waft of vanilla (attracts Snorkacks) to any day that needs it.