Sneakers are the best thing in the world and for those of your who have been following me on Twitter, you are probably really sick of me going on and on about something called “Sneaker Sunday”…
Sneaker Sunday is an invention by the super awesome Valerie from Dweam.com and the general idea is that for one day a week we all give our feet a rest from high heels and the ridiculously painful (but super pretty) shoes we tend to wear through out the week! I am totally on board with this because for the most part hime style demands over the top decorated heels, but I think that with the right outfit totally over the top decorated sneakers can be just as good!
I have been an advocate of sneakers for the longest of times, my livejournal username was even “Chucks_bitch” in homage to high top Converse Chuck Taylors which I practically lived in for several years. I even own Baby the Stars Shine Bright’s Lolita take on the high tops!!
So what’s Sneaker Sunday?
Basically each week Val and I will post something related to Sneakers each Sunday, we will also feature photos of our Sneakers and great ways to co-ordinate them, tips and tricks etc.
Our motto is “Looking cute without crippling foot pain!”
This is my first Sneaker Sunday Co-Ordinate!
My sneakers are plain old cheap ones from Big W, they were originally completely white but I wanted something cuter so I deco’d them! The pink sections are completely opaque with shiny shiny glitter now, there are diamantes, pearls, bows and ruffles. Perfect for when I’m on the run doing lots of things but still want to look adorable ^_^
This is where you girls come in, we want to see your Sneakers!
Every Sunday we want to see your posts involving Sneakers 😀 If you make a post about it we will add your photos to the new Sneaker Sunday Gallery (which also has a place on my Snapshots page) with links back to your blog. If you’ve got a Twitter account use the hashtag #sneakersunday so we can find your posts!
If you want to submit your own photos just email them to me at: [email protected]!
Blah storage problems, how to store hair accessories?
I get a whole lot of reader request for cute storage tips so today I’m going to share with you how I store my scarves and accessories. These are only going to be very rough tutorials because I made the items many many months ago ^_^
I have to apologize for the quality of these photos, James is wiping his computer today so I can’t use his fancy camera, these were all taken with my phone >_<
First question is about how to store scarves. I love scarves, they are completely awesome and super versatile. I always have one on my handbag for emergencies! But when you have this many it can be quite hard to store them. I previously had them in a drawer but it’s so hard to find the one you want without searching through all 7 million of them…
So I decided to make something and this is what came out of it:
This is super easy to make with junk you have around the house.
You need:
Toilet rolls
Old yarn/wool
Bows/decoration
Sticky tape
-First gather your materials!
-Cut the toilet rolls into sections that are around 5cm long. Cut as many sections as you have scarves (or maybe a few more so you can add to your collection later!)
-Sticky tape them together into a grid pattern.
-Get your yarn ready. I used some old scratchy pink and white acrylic yarn.
-Start wrapping around the rolls you stuck together. Keep wrapping until it’s all completely covered. Pay special attention to the places where the rolls join together so they are strong.
-After it’s completely covered add a strap out of plaited yarn to the top.
-And then hot glue/sew bows on if you want more decoration ^_^
Now you can add your scarves in. Loop the scarves through the holes so the ends stick out the back. Choose your favorite scarves for the bottom holes so their ends hang down. You can hang it in your bathroom or where ever you like!
Now on to the hair accessories ^_^
I have a lot of hair accessories. A lot. If they don’t have somewhere to live, they end up getting very messy and broken!
So I made myself a cute place to store them, I like it because it looks like a gigantic shopping bag 😀
So to make one you need the following:
Fabric in whatever size you want
Knitting needle or something to make the top rigid
Plastic handle
Lace
Glue gun
Needle and thread
Bows/decoration
-Gather your materials
-Cut out the fabric to the size you want.
-Hem the two sides and the bottom either with hot glue or sew it. You can see in the above photo how uneven my hems are because the fabric is slightly see through XD
-Hem the top in the same way but put the knitting needle in the fold of the fabric. This is going to make it nice and strong and give it structure rather than just being a floppy piece of fabric.
-Sew or glue on lace to the bottom and top of the fabric.
-Sew the plastic handle to the top, you should stitch it so it’s actually attached to the knitting needle. This way it won’t put stress on the fabric.
-Glue some bows to cover the stitches.
-Add accessories and hang it up!
I like to put all my accessories that are on bobby pins along the sides and the ones with pins/brooch backs in the middle 😀
So there you have it, I hope that all makes sense! It’s harder to write tutorials without pictures so if you have any questions just let me know!
If I ever make more of these I’ll make sure to take photos along the way ^_^
It’s about a wallet that took over my life for two whole days. It’s a story about greed, a story about recycling, an epic drama about craft… and one Prada wallet.
This silly little thing was the cause of many many hours of my life being wasted:
Jamesand I were at a thrift store one day looking for some bits and pieces. While we were waiting for the clerk to ring up our purchases it caught my eye from under the glass counter. It was barely noticeable… just a tiny corner of pink peaking out from under a mess of costume jewelery and decorative soaps.They lady brought it up for me to take a look at and I saw the price tag… as well as the gigantic Prada stamp on the front. I did need a new wallet, my previous Hello Kitty one was fairly thread bare… for only AU$5 even a fake was good value. But thinking of our budget I put it back.
Overnight, stories of friends finding pristine authentic Louis Vitton, Chanel and other high end brands among the thrift store junk floated through my brain. What if it was real, what if I had just missed out on the find of a lifetime? It was certainly decent quality leather whether it was a fake or not… it was just a bit beaten and up and dirty.
So I decided to venture back… and if it was still unsold I would take that as a sign from fate that it was meant to be.
And it was. And I bought it.
And thus started an obsession that lasted several hours.
I used Twitter to find out more about Prada and how to discern a fake. In the process I had a hilarious conversation with Cheesie and Audand was given lots of advice from others!
I googled and googled, finding number after number of “Signs to tell it’s real” websites. I’m sure an aficionado of high end brands would have spotted in a moment what I was searching for but as someone who has never handled anything of a high end brand it was an adventure for me. Had I stumbled onto the holy grail of thrift store finds?
Quality of the stitching…Check.
Quality of the lining…Check.
Leather stamp inside and out…Check
Correct establishment date… Check
Correct curve of the “R”… Check
Prada branded zip and closure… FAIL.
Ok so it failed the final test… I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. The day dreams of selling it to pay for a trip to Japan or a puppy suddenly plummeted just like the bank balance of someone who had just bought a real Prada wallet.
But then I thought for a little while… even if it wasn’t going to be buying me a pony it was still quite a nice wallet. I liked the leather even it was a bit dirty, I liked the colour, I liked the size and I liked the idea of having a new cute wallet.
So out came the leather cleaner, glue gun, ribbon and lace… and my new wallet was born!
I scrubbed the leather clean with a combination of leather cleaner and a moisture sealant to make it nice and tough again.
I hot glued lace all around the edges on both inside and out to strengthen and disguise the cracked edges.
I found some matching pink polka dot ribbon in my stash and added accents to cover damage and add strength. I think it accents the card holder spots beautifully.
And finished off with a bow.
Even though it turned out to be a fake this pre-loved $5 wallet was worth every penny. It entertained me for two days, it gave me great conversations with my friends online and offline, it brought out my creativity and thriftiness, it sharpened my google-fu skills and it’s now holding all of my money, cards and old receipts. 1 month on, it’s in better condition than when I found it. Now it is the ultimate hime style wallet!
Very pleased!
And my idea is catching on, when I was in Melbourne, Super Kawaii Mamathought the idea was so cool, she re-vamped her old wallet too!
The verdict= $5 for several days of entertainment and a fantastic wallet is a great deal ^_^
Real Prada wallet or not, I can’t say I really care!
Today is all about the double hair buns or as some have called it “Minnie Mouse hair”! So many of you girls requested this tutorial so I hope you enjoy it ^_^
This style works best with medium-long hair but if you used more hairspray you could probably do a version with short hair.
We are aiming for this style:
What you need for double hair buns:
Brush
Bobby Pins
2 Hair Ties
Any decorations you want, I’m using leopard print bows I made ^_^
First brush your hair so it’s nice and free of tangles. Divide it into two sections on either side of your head.
Take the first section and make a really high pony tail on the side of your head. I tend to turn my head upside down so I can get it extra high.
This is what we’re aiming for:
Now take a minute to relive your childhood fantasy of being one of the Spice Girls. Please don’t make me feel old by telling me you don’t know who they are >_<‘
Back to it! Take one of the piggy tails and tease the hell out of it.
Mwahaha you’re ready for a night on the town!
Ok seriously hair spray all over your piggy tail.
Hold on to the very end of it and twist it towards the front a few times.
Now let’s make a bun out of it! Following the twist you just made, curl the bun around the base of the pig tail. Don’t do it too tightly or else you’ll squish all the teasing you just did.
Get your bobby pins ready to pin the ends in place. Should look something like this:
Using the pins secure the ends into your head. Don’t make the mistake of just pining towards the middle, you need to make sure you are actually pinning to the hair which is not part of the bun to give it a good anchor.
Once it’s fairly secure you can squish the bun into the shape you want. If you find bits sticking up out of the middle, just carefully stick a pin in towards the middle.
Repeat on the other side and then add hairspray.
Time for decorations! I’m using two leopard print hair bands that I made, but you can use anything from flowers to tiaras!
Because the bows are on bands I just pull it over the top of the bun
And taadaaa! We’re all done ^_^
This style is really great for summer because it’s totally cute but it still gets the hair off of your neck!
Hope you enjoyed and let me know if any of you guys try your own double hair buns!
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I mentioned last time that I wanted to try different colours… especially violet! E-CircleLens.netwere lovely enough to send me some 😀 I was so excited for them to arrive! This was the cute package that came!
Whenever you purchase they send a travel contact case, last time I got one shaped like a puppy and this time I got this one:
How cute is that? I think it’s very Anna Sui inspired 😀
These are a light violet colour with yellow flecks in around the center. They are 14mm diameter.
Because these ones are quite transparent I found they didn’t make a strong colour over the top of my green eyes but the effect was really pretty anyway. One lens in the left eye, nothing on the right:
Because I naturally have yellow around the pupil of my eye they really bring that out too 😀 With them both in:
Comfort-wise I thought they were really great, I’ve been wearing them quite a bit for the whole day and by the end of the day there’s no discomfort. Verdict- These ones are really good for a subtle look, they purple isn’t overpowering and it looks quite natural. Love them!
These ones are a really bright violet with a black outside ring. They are 14.5mm in diameter.
These ones are my favorites out of all the lenses I own now! They are absolutely HUGE! It’s funny because they are only 0.5mm bigger than the Marie pair but they look soooo much bigger because of the black ring. Lens on the right side, none on the left:
I’ve been wearing these ones pretty much non-stop since they arrived because they give such a cool effect. They are dark enough to cover the green in my eyes and because they are this dark I can wear more/darker eye make up without looking washed out. LOVE IT! They really do give a huge dolly style eye, perfect for hime style!
These were the lenses I was wearing the other day in the curly pigtail hair tutorial and there were lots of comments about them! Verdict: LOVE. Super comfortable, pretty, bright and the colour is awesome!
Mwahaha this is my growing lens collection… I think I’m addicted now!
Now the second part of this post! Quite a few of you have been asking questions about caring for your lenses and how to clean them etc. I’m by no means an expert on the subject but after researching and talking to the very helpful staff at E-CircleLens.netI wanted to try answer your questions… so I’ve made a super quick video about it. On anything more complicated than this I though I would suggest you talk to your doctor or optometrist 🙂 Before you do anything I suggest buying a decent sized bottle of lens solution so you can keep everything clean and hygienic. This is the lens solution I’m using in the video:
And here’s the quick video ^_^
So I hope that helped and answered some questions!
Next time I’m going to be doing the hair and make up tutorials you’ve been requesting ^_^ Let me know about your circle lens tips! <
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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