NYFW Spring 2014 Ready-To-Wear Favorites

So just for fun I thought that I'd put together my favorite New York Fashion Week looks for those of you who haven't had the chance to look through more than a few shows. Before every look is the designer's name, if you click this link it will bring you to the designer's profile on style.com.

Kaelen

Joie

L.A.M.B.

Red Valentino

Kate Spade

Rachel Roy

Rebecca Minkoff

Lacoste

Rebecca Taylor

Cynthia Rowley

Victoria Beckham

Derek Lam

Zac Posen

The Row

Victoria, Victoria Beckham

3.1 Phillip Lim

Alice + Olivia

Tory Burch

J.Crew

Oscar de la Renta

Michael Kors

Diane von Furstenberg

Honor

Gary Graham

Erin Fetherston

Donna Karen

Nicole Miller

Ralph Lauren

Milly

Elizabeth and James

style.com

What was your favorite look?

Senior Pictures...

Just for fun I thought I'd share some of my senior pictures. I had them taken by Carlie Evans. She was so great to work with. It's weird to think that I'm a senior, I'm wondering when the graduation goggles are going to be put on (a little reference to "How I Met Your Mother," and if you're not familiar check here).

Headband Holder DIY

The number of times that I've heard "treat your jewelry as though it were art" is so large that I don't even want to try to figure out what it is. I do, however, truly believe this. I love finding new ways to store and display jewelry. This time, I was searching for a way to display my headbands. Many may not consider headbands to be jewelry, but I think that they can really enhance an outfit and work as jewelry. And this is the perfect way to store that jewelry.

Guess what is the perfect container to use? An oatmeal cylinder. It fits headbands very nicely and is not hard to come across. You'll also needs magazines (I don't think I used all of these, my favorite magazines to use are Vogue and Instyle whenever searching for fashion images), mod podge, a foam paint brush, and 4 different sized cardboard squares, 1", 2", 3", and 4" squares are the sizes that I used.

I went through some of the magazines and picked out black and white images that I like. I chose to use only black and white so that it fit better with my decor, but you can use any colors or all the colors you like! Then on that image, pick out your favorite square and the size of the square.

Trace on the square using a sharpie. Then cut out the square and repeat.

I cut out quite a few squares just because there were so many good images! I ended up using about thirty of them so feel free to cut out as you plan out where they will go on the cylinder.

Using the dimensions of your container, mine was 16" by 9", lay out your images and plan where they will go.

Then using the mod podge, paste the images onto your cylinder. TIP: Put your image on from one side and smooth and you put it down, don't put the whole thing down at once or else you will get wrinkles. Also, I started all around the top and then moved down layer by layer. Don't worry if they over lap, just as long as the lines are straight and you can't see the background.

Then put another layer of mod podge on top of those images. In case if you have never used mod podge before, it dries clear don't worry. I ended up using three coats just so that it was completely smooth.

And you're finished!

The headbands that fit best on it are those that are not elastic at all. However any that are elastic and go completely around your head, I used a clip on the back to hold them in place seeing as they are larger than the cylinder.

Miniature Cactus Garden

This is probably the simplest and cutest little thing ever. The DIY took me literally five minutes. It may have taken me a little bit longer to get all of the materials and supplies, but I finally did it!

The only supplies that you need are some cacti and/or succulents, river rocks, and a dish. I found this cute vintage one. You could also use a teacup or any other small dish as long as it fits all of your plants. That was my biggest issue. I had the idea of using a teacup but then I found myself with three plants that would not fit in any of the teacups that I found.  

The first and probably most important step is to put some rocks in the bottom of the dish. This helps with the draining of water because the plants are much more likely to drown than "dehydrate" (I have no idea if you can actually use that word to describe a plant..). Keep this in mind when watering, they only will need to be watered about once a month. (I've decided that I will water them when I change my contacts.)

The next step is to transplant the cacti into your dish. There may be too much soil with all of them together, this happened to me but I just dumped a little out.

And finally, cover the soil with river rocks!

I love my new little cactus garden! It's so fun. Will you add some low maintenance plants to your home?

Tribal Print Nail Tutorial

nail art. 

These graphic nails have gotten me many compliments and many questions on whether they're stickers or a stamp. And then I have to say "I painted them," which is just followed by confusion and disbelief. The thing is, they aren't even very difficult if you just take it step by step. Which, conveniently, I can show you.

First, paint your base coat. I chose to use black and white because I love the contrast and how striking it makes them, but you can use whatever colors float your little boat. Second, paint two intersecting corners. Just a little tip, make sure that you go past center because you want the little square created to be in the center. Sometimes I overlooked this just a little. Third, paint another "corner" (I really don't know what else to call this). Then paint a triangle inside of this and fill. Repeat both on bottom. Then paint little "M's" on the sides. Paint two triangles on each side inside of these. Finally, paint the dots (you could leave it without the dots if you wanted a little bit simpler of a design, I might try this in the future). And now, just repeat on the other nine fingers!

Ta-da! As you can see, on my ring finger I turned the design ninety degrees just to add a little bit of interest.  I also did this on the pointer finger of my right hand. I am sorry to not be showing you a picture of my right hand, this is not because it looks bad but because I had a little mishap while playing volleyball, SIX HOURS after I painted them (before taking the pictures of my whole hand) and so my pointer finger is smudged...but only the pointer finger got messed up. If I stop being lazy and fix it, I will take a picture of both hands together and update the post. 

Another side note, the whole time I was taking the pictures for the step-by-step tutorial, I was using my middle finger because that's the easiest one for me to paint so the whole time I was flicking off the camera. Oops. Just thought you might find that funny.

Inspired By...

YELLOW!

Okay, so lately, I've really been into the color yellow. Don't ask me why because I couldn't tell you. I actually used to hate yellow. Again, don't ask me why. However, I've become obsessed with it; it's so fresh and vibrant. It's so happy too, literally always smiling. Try and find a shade of yellow that doesn't look happy, I dare you. My toes are so much happier now that their no longer the dark purple they had been, even though my sister and friends claim that they look like a fungus or that I have jaundice. And the lemon drops that are in all of my gardens are in full bloom. I even found myself buying a new nightgown, in yellow of course.

I hope you're all enjoying that happiness that summer and the sun are bringing. What inspires you?

Lamp Shade Restyle

This lamp has been in my sister's room for as long as I can remember. She recently redecorated and loved the base of the lamp, however the shade did not quite fit the new style (to say the least). For many months, we shopped around for a new shade, yet we were unable to find the right top. She needed one that just hooked onto the bulb but every one we found had to screw onto the lamp under the bulb. So finally, she decided she would just try to restyle to old one.

For supplies all that you'll need is a lampshade (obviously), a hot glue gun and glue sticks, scissors, and ribbon, we needed two rolls of ribbon. We also used relatively thick ribbon and I would recommend using thick ribbon but that's not to say you can use smaller ribbon, it just would be a bit more tedious.

1. For the first step, begin by measuring a piece of ribbon that is a couple inches longer than your lamp, and cut. 2. Then glue down the top of the ribbon on the inside of the lamp shade.

3. On the other side of the lampshade, glue the bottom of the ribbon. Don't use any glue on the outside of the lampshade because it will show through when the lamp is on because the ribbon is not very thick and can sometimes be transparent. 4. Then glue a second ribbon three fourths of the way on the previous ribbon at the top, however at the bottom, do not overlap, lay next to each other so that you can't see any of the lampshade. You'll need to do this because the top is smaller than the bottom and without this step, there will be gaps in the ribbon.

5. Continue around the lampshade.

Ta-da! You now have a "new-looking" lampshade.

If you lamp needs a little more help that just a new lampshade, I always suggest just spray painting the base white because everyone knows everything looks better in white :)