Yeah, I DIY (Did It Yesterday)

Not having a full time job yet obviously gives me more free time than most. In between my two part-time jobs, I enjoy doing crafts. Pinterest, YouTube, Blogs and Tumblr make it very simple to connect with DIY(Do It Yourself) crafts that people are making all over the world.  The Internet, making it all possible, has allowed us to view and create similar artwork to which we have seen online. Most sites provide step-by-step instructions so we can construct remarkable pieces in our very own home.  Whether a video tutorial or a written tutorial, creating things on your own has become very simple because of these greatly accessible tools. 

The projects I have created over the past few weeks were very easy to do and only required minimal craft supplies. 

DECOUPAGED VASE

Materials:

·      An empty wine bottle

·      An old magazine/scrapbook paper

·      Mod podge

·      Scissors

·      Sponge brush

·      Fake flowers (if you want to use it as a vase)

DUCK TAPE WALLET

 

Materials:

·      Duck tape (preferably 3+ different colors)

·      Scissors

·      Clear piece of plastic for ID holder

·      Ruler

·      Refer to YouTube for detailed instructions

COASTERS

Materials:

·      4+ pieces of tile (Purchased at Home Depot)

·      Decoupage paper

·      Mod podge

Sponge brush

·      Scissors

·      Felt (to glue on the bottom of the tile)

LUGGAGE TAGS

Materials:

·      Luggage tag templets (purchased at craft store)

·      Mod podge

Sponge brush

·      Scissors

·      Decoupage paper

·      Stickers (optional)

·      String/Rope/Ribbon

DECORATED MASON JARS

Materials:

·      3+ regular mason jars

·      Different colored tissue paper

·      Mod podge

Sponge brush

·      Ribbon (optional)

·      Fake flowers (optional)

·      Other decorative things (optional)

        These all make for great presents anytime of the year! I made my mom and sister the coasters for Christmas this year, the luggage tags for our family vacation in April, and the vase for my college roommate who had just moved into a new place. The great part about decoupaging is that there are no rules; no two pieces can possibly look exactly the same. How often do you get to do things that have no rules or boundaries and require you to do whatever feels right? Not often. And that's why I have come to love doing crafts.   

Don't Chalk it Up. You'll be DYING to Do It!

For the past year I have desperately wanted to add an out-of-the-ordinary color to my hair. Ever since the feather trend went out of style, I feel as if my hair has been lacking spunk. Born a Gemini, I will absolutely adore something on Monday, and despise it by Friday. This is a major reason as to why I never followed through with permanently dying my hair with a bold color. I feared (and still do) I would love it for a couple of days and then quickly want it gone.

Hair Chalk is the perfect opportunity to dye your hair non-permanently (great for a person who constantly likes to change things up). This fun and TEMPORARY dye washes out with one shampoo. 

There are several different companies that sell Hair Chalk.  However, I purchased mine from Free People. Being the indecisive person I am, theirs included the most colors for the most affordable price. 

24 colors for $24

Some of the other options include:

Hair Color Chalk

   1 for $15.99

Nordstrom

   3 for $14.95

HOW IT WORKS

• Take the strand of hair that you want to color and separate it from the rest of your hair (use an elastic to tie back the hair that you are not coloring)
• Choose the color(s) you wish to use
• Put on a pair of plastic gloves if you do not want the dye to get all over your hands (it washes off with soap and water for the most part)
• Take the piece of chalk and dip it into a cup of water so the chalk itself gets wet (it tends to work better than wetting your hair and using the dry chalk)
• Rub the wet piece of chalk up and down the portion of your hair repeatedly until it has reached the shade you desire
• Let the hair air dry for 2 minutes
• Then immediately apply heat to the colored portion of hair by using a straightener (the heat from the device will help to lock the color in)
• After running the straightener through the hair several times, you may brush your hair so it isn't so tangled (note: when you brush it some of the color is going to come off)
• Lastly, apply hairspray to the colored portion of hair so it stays on longer 

I tried the product this past weekend with my college roommate, Kayla.  It took us a couple tries to get the color how we wanted it... without getting it all over everything in sight, that is. After a couple attempts, we got it to come out (and stay on) nicely.  

If it does not come out as well as you want the first time, don't get discouraged! I did green on my hair the first time, didn't do it dark enough, and it fell out in a few hours. A while later I noticed what happened to it... it was ALL over my neck. I looked like the HULK. That is when I realized the hairspray really helps to keep the color on your hair and not on your skin. 

Bit of advice... DONT PLAY WITH YOUR HAIR (guilty). The more you touch it the more the color comes off. 

Celebrities are big supporters of Hair Chalk

Nicki Minaj

Lauren Conrad

 Selena Gomez

Lastly, Christina Aguilera

She supports a different Hair Chalk color almost every week on The Voice

Purple

Pink

Black

Blue

What do you think? Would you CHALK it up or give it a try???

It's definitely worth a shot if you are looking for temporary color, and it can serve as a great Christmas gift for young females! 

Be Bold or Italic, NEVER Regular

Too scared to wear colored denim? 

Don't know how to arrange bold pieces? 

How do you style bright denim the right way? 

The answer is incredibly simple. There is no right way. Colored denim allows endless possibilities which makes it very easy for YOU (the one putting together an outfit). I created a chart below to show some of the different ways to style an outfit based around colored denim. Remember, there's no wrong way to dress yourself... style is your particular preference.  There is no concrete answer to how your supposed to dress yourself--it is not an algebra problem that only has one solution.  There are endless solutions. 

Do you have all the pieces and you just don't know how to put them together? Here are some examples of how to dress similarly to celebrities without paying similar prices. 

Enjoy! 

I also designed a How to Dress Like Shenae Grimes diagram (shown below). This 90210 star's superb fashion sense does not go unnoticed. I quite often find myself rushing through the scenes in high anticipation of what her next outfit choice will be. She always seems to amaze me. 

Hope you enjoyed some style tips on this frigid Monday! 

Naked Dogs are the Worst

Why yes, Jules did consent to me writing a post about her no need to worry.

It wasn’t until Hurricane Sandy (having no power and no connection with the outside world) that I really noticed my persuasion of fashion on my poor Yorkshire Terrior, Jules.  At the age of ten, she has more to her wardrobe than most babies you know probably do. You would never know how much stuff she has because my mother has it all kept in a very small plastic bin in our front closet (there is no reason to be ashamed).  There is stuff hidden in it that she hasn’t worn since her toddler years (not exactly sure what that age range is, but we’ll go with it).  Not only does she have a variety of tee-shirts, she has costumes as well… to go with the different holidays.

My sister lives in New York, and is VERY fortunate to receive multiple pictures of Jules everyday, because she is obviously the cutest dog alive.  Also, to let her know that I am Jules’ favorite. Yesterday I sent her a picture of Jules laying on the couch, and her response to me was “Is it weird that when the dog is not wearing some sort of shirt or jacket, she looks naked to me now?” No Lindsay, it is not weird. Want to know why? Because Jules likes getting dressed. She has no fat on her body, therefore, she gets cold quite often. So DUH… clothing helps her to keep warm, for all of you that think it’s inappropriate and foolish. Would you put your baby outside with no clothes on in the winter? No. 

Now I will share with you a portion of her wardrobe. And yes, I said portion. 

1. Jules Wants Candy (no not chocolate, I am not trying to murder my dog-Treats)  

When you don’t have a little kid to dress up, Trick or Treatin is no fun anymore… unless you have a puppy you can show off. Jules has been many different things over the years, but here are some of her costumes that I happened to stumble upon recently.

 From left to right: banana, elephant, skeleton

2. Jules Wants to Spread Christmas Cheer By Singing Loud For All to Hear

When everyone else has their best holiday outfits on, Jules wants to look her best as well. That’s why she has an assortment of Christmas shirts. She also has a red velvet collar with bells but that happens to be packed away with the rest of our Christmas decorations. 

 But it doesn't stop there... she even has a reindeer costume

3. Jules Doesn't Want to Be an IcIcle or a Drowned Rat

She needs a winter coat for when it gets cold out so she doesn’t come in frozen to death and shivering. In addition, she has a raincoat to prevent her from getting soaking wet!

Let me tell you, this dog is quite the princess. She will not step off the rug by the door unless my mother wipes her paws when she comes inside. Hello, how do I get someone to do that for me? Guess I am not as cute.

Maybe that’s where these boots come in handy. They cover her feet from wetness without requiring my mother to do any work. However, they are a big pain to get on… and stay on. We don’t use them very often, heck, I even forgot we had them. I GUESS these are a little unnecessary.  Although, they did serve a purpose when she had to get stitches on her foot (poor little cripple).

4. Jules Follows the Shirt Before the Shirt Rule

You can never have enough graphic tee's. Hence why Jules has so many. 

Her Thanksgiving shirt cracks me up the most. 
Dogs aren’t even supposed to eat Turkey, they can't digest it. 

She's my little good luck charm when it comes to the PATRIOTS. She's their number one cheerleader! Well, okay, maybe not. She does tend to doze off every once in a while. Cant blame her, she's seventy years old. My papa does the same thing... 

Every dog also needs a Ralph Lauren collared shirt, right? They enjoy designer fashion as much as we do. Hence why she has to have a stylish POLO she can put on (especially when trying to impress company).

5. Jules Enjoys Layering (I told you she was a fashionista)

Since my parents rarely put on the heat, and repeatedly tell me to put more clothes on (when I happen to already be wearing two sweatshirts, sweatpants, socks, and a hat) Jules needs an assortment of sweaters. She does need them, trust me—they don’t believe in heat here at 23 Sycamore.  

6. Jules Likes To Snuggle

This is just for the comedy of it, but she even has a SNUGGIE. It was given to her as a joke gift, but she honestly fights me to wear it over anything else... no lie. She has joined the Snuggie cult. Yikes.

Trendiest dog on the block right here!

MK (Michael Kors)= My Keeper

Have you ever wondered how to get designer fashion for less? Much less? Marshall’s and TJ MAXX have the answers. It all becomes possible through what we call off-price retailing.  

Somehow twenty minutes of my interview the other day was devoted to discussing Marshalls and how the company is able to sell high-end brands for much cheaper than department stores. It allowed me to take note that most people have a strong misconception about these corporate businesses (I know I did when I first started shopping there). People who are unfamiliar with TJX Companies and off-price retailing tend to think that the merchandise is sewn defectively, the fabric is distorted, or something of the sort. That is NOT the case (I will get into that a little later). 

Department stores count on their buyers to purchase seasonal inventory; buyers are to predict what the upcoming season’s hottest trends will be and purchase as much stock as they believe necessary. However, a majority of the time, these buyers purchase too much and end up having a large bulk of past-season inventory.  This then raises the question of where they are supposed to store all of the new merchandise, when they have so much old inventory. That’s where TJX Companies steps in. TJX knows how to be in the right place at exactly the right time. They buy the merchandise that department stores have sent back. This gives customers the opportunity to buy this high-end merchandise without the high price.

A majority of the things a customer finds at Marshalls and TJ MAXX are the EXACT products being sold somewhere else (as I am going to show you in the latter part of the post).

There are other cases in which products can end up at Marshalls and TJ MAXX as well. For example, if a designer for a high-end brand requests dark blue buttons for their upcoming jacket and the finished products have light blue ones, it is not going to meet the expectations of the designer. This gives Marshalls and TJ MAXX the opportunity to buy the merchandise that did not meet the standards of the designer (instead of throwing away all of the imperfect creations).  The price tag used on this merchandise will clearly be labeled “IRREGULAR,” not because it is deformed, but because it is not made exactly how the designer envisioned it. In addition, if the item is something from a past-season, the price tag will clearly be labeled "Past-Season" so the customer is aware.

Now I am going to share with you some great deals that I have recently found at Marshalls and TJ MAXX.

TAHARI Dress Pants 

Retail price: $178  

Marshalls price: $10 

BELLA COLORE Mineral Eye Shadow

Retail price: $96  

Marshalls price: $16.99

#1 New York Times and International Best Seller 

Retail price: $10.99

Marshalls price: $7.99

CASWELL MASSEY Cucumber Eye Pads 

Retail price: $12  

Marshalls price: $3

PATRIOTS Dog Jersey 

Retail price: $29.99  

Marshalls price: $14.99

ESSIE Nailpolish 

Retail price: $8  

TJ MAXX price: $3.99

 N.Y.L.A Sneaker Wedges 

Retail price: $69  

TJ MAXX price: $34.99

They say you always remember your first love... so I thank god everyday for Michael Kors. I was so pleased to score the next two finds. Marshalls and TJ MAXX make it possible for middle class individuals to own designer brands without having to pay the high price.  

MICHAEL KORS Dress 

Retail price: $120  

Marshalls price: $49.99

MICHAEL KORS iPhone Case 

Retail price: $79.95  

TJ MAXX price: $39.99

I have found that anytime I go into Marshalls or TJMAXX for something specific, I end up filling a carriage of things I had no intention of buying. Impulse buying is HUGE at stores like these because there seems to be something for everyone!

What have you found lately at either one of these stores??