by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 28, 2010 | Notices
You’ve probably started to notice some of the changes I’ve been making around here ^_^
The smaller things I’ve done are…
- Revamp my Twitter widget image to make it cuter/load faster
- Moved all the widgets around
- Added a new “Popular Categories” section on the right sidebar
- Reworked the “Quick Links” section on the sidebar for easy access and quick loading
- Added a “Subscribe by email” option in the right sidebar
- Added “Cuties” section to menu bar (more on this below)
- Added awesome spam killing tool. Please note if your comment looks like spam (or has a couple of links) you will be asked to fill in a captcha code. I know they are irritating but having to go through 300+ spam comments a day was too time consuming for me to keep up with 🙁
Next on my list of things to do with the site are…
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- Update the Links, Tutorials, Snaps, and FAQ sections
- Make the layout equally friendly for people with small screens 🙂
- Make a new header
- If you have and comments or suggestions please let me know in the comments and I will look into them ^_^
So the biggest change is the addition of the “Violet’s Cuties” section!
As some of you will know, I’ve had a second Twitter account called VioletsCuties for a while now. So far I have been using it to post links to random cute things I find on the web but I’ve been wanting it to be more involved so I’ve set up a mobile blog via tumblr on my domain. Now I can update all the time with short fun posts without bothering everyone on this blog.
So what you will find there is:
- Things I think are adorable
- Cute shopping finds or bargains I stumble across on the web
- Random photos I’ve taken
- Links to articles or blog posts I’ve read and enjoyed
- Sneak previews of posts or upcoming tutorials
- Random sentences in Japanese as I try to practice and improve
I aim to update a couple of times a day so I hope you enjoy it ^_^
I know this isn’t going to be of interest to everyone and that’s why I’ve kept my regular blog and my mobile blog a little bit seperate, that way you can follow either, both or none of them. They have seperate RSS feeds as well as seperate Google Friend Connect accounts so how much you want to see is up to you 😀
I will still be updating this blog as frequently and with exactly the same kind of things you’ve all come to expect, the other account will just be extra stuff ^_^
You can visit my new mobile blog by clicking the “Cuties” link at the top, the side or click below!
If any of you guys have tumblr accounts let me know, I would love to follow you all!
Lastly a new free forum which is all about deco has opened up so for those of you who enjoy deco as much as I do have a look here ^_^
Well I’ve clearly still got lots of work to do so I better back to it! Hope you’re all having a really good night 😀
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by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 28, 2010 | Life
This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Panasonic.For more information on sponsored posts please click here.
Another addition of snapshots 😀 This has been quite a fun busy week, I actually got to leave the house a few times XD
Architecture first, this is one of the most awesome buildings I’ve seen here in terms of details. I think it’s a bank though, such a waste >_<
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Every single window has a ridiculous amount of detail!
And the doors are awesome, I want a house like this 😀
We also visited the Camberwell markets over the weekend. They are absolutely huge markets! It’s mostly vintage things and clothing as well as little bits and pieces. There were a lot of beautiful flowers too.
It was crazy busy!
More pretty flowers, I want to fill my window box with these ones!
James found some fancy walking sticks…
Of course he managed to pick up the manliest one there… with a dolphin on it XD
Posing with the delicious “wall of chewing gum”. Seriously there was about 10 times as much as you can see in the photo. Ick!
Our tour guide for the day was the lovely Super Kawaii Mama
I didn’t have any money to spend so I just took photos of all of the things I wanted to buy. The sad thing is I didn’t realise until we got home but everything I look photos of matched XD |
Cute little dress…
Matching handbag which is completely hand embroidered…
Lovely bowl that I would keep accessories in…
Heehee scotty doggie tin with little figurines XD
VERDICT: There was so much there that I wanted to buy, I definitely want to go back when I have more spending money. The only thing I ended up buying was a gigantic comfy sweater with flowers embroidered all over it, it was only $2! I’ll show you a photo next time 😀
James decided to try and make another of the recipes he really misses from the US. This time is was “Onion Blossoms”. Apparently this consists of cutting an onion so it looks like a flower and deep frying it. Then you eat it with ranch dip 😀 Hideous looking but quite yummy.
We also had a date night this week to try to relax. James cooked a lovely dinner and picked the movie… 1993 live action Super Mario Brothers XD Epically awesome and terrible! Who knew Luigi looked like this in real life….
Last thing for the week! James made me afternoon tea the other day, he said he was bringing cheese and crackers ^_^ I didn’t quite expect this…
He’s always going above and beyond the call of duty!! 
by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 27, 2010 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
A while ago I showed you how to make a cute flowery stand for your teapot.
Today I will show you how I decorated my actual teapot ^_^ Before I moved here none of my friends ever drank tea so there was really no need for me to have one. Here in Melbourne though, everyone drinks tea so it’s a must have when friends visit! I didn’t have much money to spend on anything fancy so I bought this one for $2 from a junk store. Since then, James’ Mum was lovely enough to donate me some teapot fun money and I’ve got my eye on one from the store we visited in the Dandenongs as soon as I can go back!
What you need:
- Teapot
- Paint brush
- Nail polish
Really you could use any kind of glossy paint as long as it’s water proof. I decided to use nail polish because that’s pretty much all I had at the time. Before you all ask… yes polish has yucky chemicals in it but because it’s not actually touching anything I am ingesting there isn’t a problem there. Yes I have also washed it several times since painting it and it’s not worse for wear. Hand washing obviously, it’s not dish washer safe.
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I started out with the lid to test how the colours I was using would look.
I decided to cover the whole thing in roses. So first I used a semi transparent pink and green to roughly lay out where I wanted the roses to go.
Next I added a little brighter green to the mix at the base of the leaves.
And a brighter more opaque pink to the centers of the roses…
To make these roses I really didn’t use any fancy techniques. It’s basically a big spotch of pink with sprial lines to create the illusion of petals. I will show you how to do this in details when I film that nail polish tutorial you’ve all been waiting for ^_^ |
I added some more light pink around the edges to give the roses more depth.
Then I used a red polish to carefully add in some definition to the petals. I also used a dark green polish to add a vein to each leaf. Getting cuter right?
Lastly I used a thin white polish do the same thing as the dark red, this creates highlights which defines the leaves even more and makes them look more realistic.
Aaaaaaan we’re done 😀
Ok so it’s not Royal Doulon but pretty good for $2 right? ^_^
What do you guys think?
Next in this series will be about the mechanics of holding a teaparty!
by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 24, 2010 | Art, Competition
First thing today…
Thank you so much for everyone who entered the Easy A competition! I really enjoyed reading your entries, a lot of them were really heart felt and had so much effort put in. I also now have a long list of books which I want to read too!
So the winners have all been contacted by email and here they are:
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Bec
Hi Violet,
It’s weird, but I just got off the phone to my sister who mentioned this film to me.
Which film most resembled my life in high school?
I’d have to say Mean Girls. Quite often in school you forget who you really are and become someone you are not purely for popularity’s sake. I was quite like Cady. Before I became a “Queen Bee”, I was a person who did things because they excited me, not because it was something I should be seen doing. I had friends who made me laugh and not just people who made me look good. You learn a lot of hard lessons in high school and just after you finish it and I was no exception to that. Luckily I figured out who I was before I became a total “Mean Girl”.
Sefie
Sounds silly, but I felt Ender’s Game reflected what high school was like for me. I was in a gifted student program, and dreaming that we were all being groomed for an epic space fighter program was what got me out of bed some days X
BGDino
When I’m working next year my life will be like House of God, I’m sure…
TsuYeul
I’m still in highschool, just finishing this year. But this kinda struck a chord. In year five we read through Bridge to Terabithia, about a boy meeting a new girl in school who’s very unconventional and creating an imaginary world of their own until her untimely death. Now, this sounds childish, but from year four onwards I’ve always been put down and bullied for not following the crowd, being artistic or just simply being shy. What made it worse, was that I never said anything to anyone, instead I created in my head a world of my own filled with characters that interacted with me and so on. I then began to draw this world and honestly to this day it’s still growing and expanding because even now, in year twelve, I’m still shy, still different, still being bullied and still without many friends. Except, like Leslie, I have my own world.
I can imagine that it’s weird to clutch onto fantasies and imaginary friends at this age, and it probably just adds to my social failings, however, I’m so attached to this world it’s like a safety blanket and thanks to it I’m now generally unaffected by what any one says. I guess then, my life is my own, but somewhere it’s reflected in Bridge to Terabithia C:
Haha, that was kinda long. Sorry ^^”
Kimberly Grace
Violet, I have thought long and hard about the book that reflects my life. And it’s not the nicest of stories, but I would have to say the Picture of Dorian Grey. This reflects the struggle I had with my mother and her Demons for so many years. I could see all that was happening to her, getting worse and worse (due to alcohol abuse) where to the outside world she was this pretty normal, loveable excentric mother, but behind closed doors she unfortunately had this demon brewing. It made school life and relationships hard for me. And she unfortunately like Dorian in the novel finally lost her fight with her demons. I have since been able to develop a relationship with an amazing guy, and although I have lost a mother and alot of time, I now am moving forward with a beautiful boy and learning from her lesson.
Now the second part of my post today is even more exciting for me! Writing this blog has allowed me to meet some lovely people over the last few years and one of the people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing is Shouri.
Shouri is an insanely talented artist who writes an adorable webcomic called Springiette. It’s been one of the blogs that I always read when I’m feeling down because it’s so sweet it cheers me up!
A long time ago she mentioned that she wanted to draw a picture of me… this is what arrived in my inbox this morning…
I LOVE IT! Seriously I couldn’t believe how much detail she went in to, I wish I could show you some of the tiny details but the original file is massive. Every single eyelash is in place 😀
So thank you so much Shou you completely made my day with this! I am so lucky!
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by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 23, 2010 | Craft, Hime Gyaru, Shoe-Tutorials, Tutorial
Following on from yesterday’s tutorial, remember these Bodyline shoes?
These were the originals:
So what you need for this Bodyline modification:
- Shoes (obviously)
- Fabric to make bows with
- Ribbon in pink and white
- Lace
- Needle and thread
- Glue gun
- Scissors
- Flowers
Really you only need all of those things if you’re going to try and make these *exact* shoes. I think that the idea of these tutorials is to show you all that modifying shoes like these is really easy so you can use your imagination on shoes you already have!
First thing I did was remove the bow on the front.
I played around for a while with different materials I had before finally deciding on a design.
I cut a couple of rectangles of fabric to make large bows:
After folding them:
Using a small amount of glue I attached the bow to the strap of the shoe and sewed it in place. I also added a piece of white ribbon to this area and attached it to a pink ribbon strap to go around the ankle.
I then covered the white ribbon with two rows of lace 😀
After taking apart the bows that came with the shoes I noticed that when you removed the bit that was tied around it they were kind of cute. So I added flowers 😀 You can never have enough flowers!
After attaching it to cover the join in the ribbons they were all finished 😀
Taadaa!
And there you have it! $12 shoes turning into something a bit cuter! You’re only ever going to have as good quality as your base is so these shoes are probably not going to last you forever but still not bad right?
I hope some of you feel inspired enough to go do something with your shoes!
Ugh this is reminding me that I need to clean out my shoe collection… it’s getting a little crazy! But there’s pretty much always room for more Bodyline Shoes.
