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I’m writing this in between frantically packing things for Melbourne so do excuse me if I seem a little rushed!

Everyone has requested photos of my latest deco projects so here they are! There are a LOT of photos because I’m really proud of this one!

I bought a new leather phone case for my iphone Ruri and it’s taken me a while to settle on a design but here it is in all it’s glory

Front:

Close up of the front:

Gigantic feature piece which was originally a brooch:

Side view:

The back side thingy:

Heehee this is my little Yorshire Terrier doggie screen cleaner:

Crown charm:

The inside!

The closure which used to be a hair clip:

On the inside is a mirror for on the go touch ups ^_^

The side and the back:

Back:

Close up of the back with a cute cupcake charm that used to be a hair clip ^_^

Heehee I love this ribbon!

I’ve got to say that I am beyond happy with how this turned out, every time I look at it I get a huge smile! Makes me love using my iphone even more!

Last view of the back:

One of the other projects I’ve done lately is my glasses! That’s right all the hours I spent in front of the screen writing tutorials means I need glasses >_<

But how damn cute did they turn out?

Lastly if you were following me on Twitter you would have heard that I lost my absolute favorite scarf ever on the weekend I keep it tied to my hand bag and it fell off somewhere in a shopping centre, I didn’t even realize until we got home

But the good part of that is that I got to go scarf shopping again

What I bought:

Cute red scarf to match my bag- $3 from Footprints Op shop

Hand Painted silk scarf  from the Salvos- $2

Yay for new things! I also got a very interesting wallet at the same shop but that’s reserved for another post ^_^ I love op shops!

Hope you enjoyed my deco spam, I promise I’ll reply to all of your lovely comments as soon as I get a second to relax and ‘ll update again once we’re in Melbourne <3

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This is a super easy tutorial on how I modified some old sneakers. I find that I need shoes that I can just slip on to run to the petrol station for an ice cream or the corner store for supplies, for times when you just want to get going as fast as possible having complicated shoes really isn’t practical, no time for laces… but I still want to look cute!

Enter old beaten up leopard print sneakers.

Materials:
-Old crappy sneakers
-Ribbon
-Elastic
-Sewing thread

First off clean your sneakers if they are dirty, no one wants to handle muddy shoes.

Then remove the laces.

Now you need some elastic which is roughly the same width as your laces were. Colours are optional, I decided to go with plain because I’m probably going to be trekking through mud in these and I didn’t want to waste anything too nice!

Pull the elastic through a bottom hole and tie a knot at the bottom which is big enough to prevent it from slipping through.

Bring the elastic over the top and down through the other bottom hole.

Continue to the next hole, it should look like this once you get to the top…

When you get to the last hole cut off the excess elastic and then tie another knot. Before you cut the elastic off you should try the shoe on to make sure it’s not going to be too loose or too tight. You should be able to slide your foot in with no problems.

Repeat with the other shoe!

Now get some thick ribbon and thread your needle. Fold it in half with the join at the back and pleat the middle into a bow…

Sew it in place:

Now use some thin ribbon to cover the stitching and sew that in place.

Attach them to the elastic with a few tight stitches and you’re done! When you’re attaching the bows it’s a good idea to do it while you’re wearing the shoes so you know they will end up in the right position when the elastic is stretched out. Be very careful not to hurt yourself with the needle though!

And there you go!

Quick comfy shoes that are good in a hurry.

Very little effort involved, I think this took me around 20 minutes while I was watching a movie. It’s amazing what adding a bow can do

Hope you enjoyed the super quick tutorial, I’m off to take some photos of the deco I did over the weekend for you guys! Only 2 days left until we go to Melbourne so I’m in crazy packing/planning mode

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Oh wow it’s Friday already?! This week has just flown by! This is a drawing I did a little while back, nothing special just some practicing ^_^

I’m a little swamped with work today but this weekend I’m going to be shooting the photos for a whole bunch of new posts. And even more exciting news is that next Thursday James and I will be flying to Melbourne for a week! I’ll try to update while I’m away but I might just schedule a couple of posts just in case!

We’ve been thinking of moving to Melbourne for a while so we’re taking the chance to catch up with lots of old friends and check out the city a bit. If you’re in Melbourne and want to catch up drop me a line! Or if you have any suggestions to were we should go and check out or any “can’t miss” shops let me know!

I’m really looking forward to a week of hanging out with lovely people and taking a little bit of a break!

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Quite a while ago… well before Christmas in fact… Super Kawaii Mama aka Candice DeVille had the most awesome competition ever. It was her Perfect Vintage Christmas Competition and I made a video entry (you can watch it here). And guess what? After voting on a semi finalists… I won! HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!

Firstly I want to say a huuuuge thank you to Candice for holding the competition, I really enjoyed making the video and omg prizes!

So I wanted to show you the cool things I won!

Firstly a 30 Pound gift voucher from Notorious Kitsch!

I had SO much fun picking out everything from Notorious Kitsch, there were just so many things on their website that I couldn’t decide :O

What I ended up with waaaaas:

-I Married A Monster From Outer Space greeting card
-Looking for Trouble pouch
-Of Course it Buys Happiness business card holder
-No Reason Note book holder
-Sew n Save Tin
-Je T’aime Paris magnetic Address Book

All of that for 30 Pounds! One of the coolest parts? She threw in an awesome set of mini emery boards in the shape of an old hotel match book! SO COOL! I keep them in my purse now for emergencies Fiona was so delightful to deal with and she really went the extra mile to find cool things that were in stock for me Go check out her store now!

Prize number 2 was a swimsuit from For Luna!

They make the most beautiful swim suits I’ve ever seen. They are all retro themed and have really flattering cuts. One thing that I *really* liked was that you can choose some of the designs to fit your bra cup size. As a girl who is slim but *cough*curvy*cough* I have a lot of trouble finding swim suits that well… fit. After chatting to Vicki about which style would suit my figure the best as well as be very supportive I picked one out

This is what arrived at my door… How cute is the packaging?!

And this is the swim suit, you can see it on the site here. It’s made of quite thick material and it has boning in the sides to give you a really nice shape.

Okokokokok after much debating I decided to post some pictures of me actually in it.. but I’m completely self conscious so be nice ok! I normally don’t even leave the house without stockings and a cardigan so this is quite out of the ordinary! I’m also a little paranoid that the photos will end up somewhere I don’t want so extra water marks today sorry!

Hahaha so pasty and white, I love being  pale! Epic tanning fail=

I really can’t say how much I LOVE this swimsuit, I used to hate swimming and going to the beach because I was always scared of having a “costume malfunction” but this is so supportive and nice that I go swimming with James all the time now

What you don’t check your false lashes while you’re swimming too?

James played with the colours here to make it look really pretty!

How cool does my hair look here? Next time I want to order this one and feed my leopard print obsession some more!

Last but definitely not least I got a $100 gift voucher from Blue Velvet Vintage.

I had a huge amount of fun trying to decide what to choose from Blue Velvet Vintage, there were so many pretty things on the site that I came very close to spending a lot of my own money too *_*

Adorable business card!

So what did I get? First I got this super cute bracelet by Sarah Coventry. Unfortunately a couple of the rhinestones had fallen off in transit but they were very easily fixed and Theresa was extremely apologetic. Anyway it looks so pretty on!

The other item I got was this super awesome purple pleated skirt from the 1950’s!

It was way too long on me so I took it up around 10 inches very carefully and taadaa:

Too cute right?

I absolutely love it!

Thank you so much to Notorious Kitsch, For Luna and Blue Velvet Vintage, I really appreciate all the wonderful gifts they made Christmas extra special!

Special thank you goes out to Super Kawaii Mama for being incredibly awesome and holding this competition! LOVE.

What do you guys think? Did I pick well?

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A while ago Eco Tools sent me a couple of things to test out and this bath set was one of them!

You can most likely guess from the name but Eco Tools claim to fame is beauty products that are also environmentally friendly. They also make things like make up brushes (which I previously reviewed) and other fun bits and pieces.

So let the review begin!

First thing’s first: packaging! The bath set comes in a reusable plastic bag which zips closed at the top. The zip has a little loop of cotton ribbon so you can hang it up. I really like the idea that the packaging is actually useful, I would totally use this as a bathroom bag when traveling. It would also be pretty useful to keep hair clips etc in because it’s clear so you don’t have to go searching to find things in it ^_^

So inside the bag you’ll find a loofah, a shower flower thingy, a bottle of shower gel and a bottle of body lotion. One interesting point on the bottles is that Eco Tools is a member of “1% For The Planet” which means that they donate 1% of sales to environmental causes.

Now the loofah! Ok firstly who the hell knew that a loofah was a vegetable? I always thought it was like a sea sponge kind of thingy… but apparently it’s a vegetable so that makes it sustainable too ^_^ So yes, I liked that it had a string to hang it in the shower, I can’t stand things that can’t be hung up in the shower. To start with it was really hard and rough but after adding water and using a few times it’s much softer.  James didn’t believe me that it actually gets squishy with water so I took this photo to prove him wrong hahaha!

The body wash! Omg I wish someone had invented a scratch and sniff computer because this smells so good that there aren’t words to describe it! It’s kind of like some kind of fruity cocktail of apple-kiwi-other-random-yummy-things.

I thought the viscocity was a little odd for body wash because rather than being like a gel it’s very runny. That said it lathered up really nicely and didn’t leave that icky soap feeling after. I’ve been using it since I received it and every time I step out of the shower James comments on the awesome smell hahaha!

The body lotion! This stuff has a really similar smell to the body wash so you really need to go to a Priceline and smell it because it’s seriously awesome :D  I found this to be a little bit thicker than other body lotion that I’ve used but it rubs in well and doesn’t feel heavy when you’re actually wearing it. It’s made from shea butter which feels really nice and it’s not hard to rub in like some other shea mousturisers I’ve used before.

Following on the eco friendly thing the lotion and body wash are also paraben free (YAY!), Phthalate free (if anyone knows how to pronounce that let me know!), recyclable, dermatologist and clinically tested (not on animals!) and hypoallergenic

I’m not a huge fan of shower flowers or whatever else they’re called so I gave it to James to test and his verdict was that is was much softer than his current non-eco friendly one.

So all in all I would say this set is well priced at RRP$24.95 from Priceline. I think it would make a really good gift too because of the cute bag! I sure wouldn’t complain if some one gave me one *cough*Valentines Day *cough*XD

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Hello!

Remember how I’ve been promising some big projects lately? Weeeeeell this is one of them! A never-before-been-attempted-triple-hair-tutorial! (Yeah, yeah I know someone else probably did it first but it took a long time to edit this so let me have my moment in the sun damn it!)

Candice, Cheesie and I were up late one night throwing around some fun ideas and this is what popped out ^_^ I’ve been wearing my hair like this lately on days when the heat is just unbearable!

So here is our tutorial on making a pretty side bun. I hope you enjoy it!

What did you think? I’m going to be visiting Candice in a few weeks and Cheesie is coming to visit in a few months, more video collaborations?

P.S. How cute are Cheesie and Candice? Serious love!

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Just a super quick post because I’m still working on something big for you guys that is going to be worth the wait!

Anyway in the mean time I just wanted to give you a heads up that the Skin MD moisturiser I did a review of here are having a Valentines Day give away thingy where you can win a bunch of moisturiser and other fun things.

I’m still waiting for a reply from them about the postage charges to Australia and whether we could get a stockist a little closer to home ^_^

Click here to have a look and enter.

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So the back story to this review is all about how for years and years and years of being teased with Lolita jewelery and dresses with macaron themes without ever tasting one… they were just so damn pretty but living in Brisbane I didn’t think that I would ever get the chance to try one so I stopped looking and tried to put the idea of deliciously cute sweet treats out of my head.

But I didn’t do a very good job and one day I was complaining on my second twitter account about how much I wanted some and one of my friends Roundragon did some research and found that there was a bakery called Twist n Roll who specialise in macarons! When I found out I almost fell off my chair in shock!!

They have a stall at the New Farm Farmer’s Markets (at the Power House) but it’s only on every 2 weeks so…. today we ventured out to New Farm to find them!

It felt like it was a million degrees out in the sun today so James and I kept cool with ice green tea with honey and mint and a lemon slushie thing. Yum!

After we explored for a while we managed to find the stall.

Cute right? I loved the little Eiffel Tower and the gigantic tree of macarons ^_^

I decided to be cautious and try a large Raspberry one for $3.50 so I could see if I liked them

Here is a nice close up…

And the insides…

So the verdict? OMG YUMMY!

The shell was crispy and the insides were gooey. It tasted very fresh and packed with raspberry flavor. The man and woman who were running the store were lovely and chatty, they were both French and super bubbly and friendly!

In fact I enjoyed it so much that I went back…

And bought 6 small ones ($2 each) in each flavor! They had sold out of caramel and pistachio so I got raspberry, chocolate, coconut, lavender, lemon and an orange one which had chocolate filling like a Jaffa.

They started out like this…

And very soon turned into this… I have to say that the only reason I didn’t take a bite out the raspberry one is because I took it home for James’ Mum to try!

James tried the coconut one and loved it and Oh and James got a German hotdog thingy which he greatly enjoyed…

So my final thought is that macarons are freaking awesome and I’m going to be visiting the Twist ‘n Roll bakery next time I’m over in Rocklea! If you are in Brisbane, you can see all the locations here. Looking at their website I’ve just found out they deliver… Oh this is going to be so bad for my bank balance!! ^_^

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Morning everyone! I’m working on some really big projects at the moment so today’s post is an outfit post ^_^

This was my outfit for James’ brother’s birthday. I love this dress because it’s so versatile!

Dress- Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Stockings- Swimmer

Shoes- Modified by me

Cameo on necklace- Little Waltz

Cardigan- From an op-shop

Jacket (seen below)- Peter Alexander

Other jewelery/hair stuff- Random places/made by me

I wish it was winter again so I could wear this more! It’s so nice and soft

Balloons make such pretty photos, I want to get like 1000 of them one day and just take photos… or more realistically make James take photos

And these were my nails for the day. I didn’t have time to finish them but not bad for a rush job none the less

Right now back to work on some special projects for you guys! What are you all working on this week?

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This post is for Esz who is awesome and won the name my camera competition. She asked for a post about how I turn something ordinary into something awesomely cute. I thought what better than turning something old and useless into something cute?

So today’s tutorial is going to be about how to turn some old socks and a pillow into…  cute bunny slippers!

What you need:

-3 old knee high socks
-1 pair of old ankle socks
-Cardboard
-Old pillow
-Pen
-Scissors
-Needle and thread

First put your foot on the cardboard and trace around it with your pen.

Do one for each foot:

Now draw around the shape you made, leave around a 1cm gap and make the shape more rounded and even. This will be the base of your slipper so you want room to wiggle and move around a bit ^_^

Cut out the larger shape.

This is what you end up with!

Now grab your old ankle socks, this works best if they are the thick and kind of squishy like those sports socks.

Put the cardboard bits you cut out into the socks.

You should fit the heel of the cardboard into the heel of the sock, it should end up like this:

Next you should cut up your pillow to get some stuffing out! If it’s a really old pillow it will look kind of gross like this…

So what you need to do is shove the stuffing into the bottom side of the cardboard. That means the side that doesn’t have the sock hole on it will end up thick and squishy.

This is what it should look like from the side…

The hole part of the sock is in the bottom of the picture above. Now take your needle and thread and sew up the hole ^_^

Just like this:

Now you have the bases of your slippers!

Ok next part! Get one of your other socks and put your foot on the base you just made. Lay the leg part of the sock over your foot like the photo below and cut it out so you have enough of it to sew to the base.

Keep the fabric as a tube because later we’re going to stuff it. This is roughly the shape it should be:

Put a little stitch at the toe of base and the top part we’re about to sew on. This is just to keep it in place and make sure it doesn’t move around, if you would prefer just add some pins.

Put the top part on the side of the base that doesn’t have any stuffing on it. We are going to sew it on the wrong side so we can turn it inside out and hide the stitching later. So pick a side and start sewing around.

Keep sewing all the way around to the other side until you have around a 4cm gap left. Now grab some stuffing and shove it into the upper part.

Now sew up the last little part and you end up with something like this:

Turn it inside out and the padded bottom should be where your foot will go and the padded front should be enough to cover your toes.

Like this:

Now make the other one!

And now it’s time to make some ears for our bunny ^_^ Get another of the knee high socks and cut the top and bottom off so you’re just left with a tube.

Cut down the folds and then in half so you end up with 4 parts.

Take each of these and fold them in half and cut the top into a bunny ear shape.

Sew around the edges…

Then turn them inside out and stuff them too.

This is what you should end up with:

Decide how you want to place them on your slippers, I want them to be nice and pointy so I am going to put them close together.

Turn your slipper inside out and sew on the ears.

When you turn it back out the right way it should look like this:

Clean up any loose threads you have.

And decorate them! I embroidered little faces on to the bunnies and then using some stuffing I made a little cotton tail to sew on the back ^_^

And there you go! This is how they look when they’re on ^_^

So you just made slippers out of old junk around the house, congrats! Pretty cool huh?

And you know the best part? They are awesomely comfortable because of the padding and they stay on well because of the elasticity of the socks!

What do you think?

Thanks again Esz, I hope you like it

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Ok so normally today is reserved for ACEO’s but for Christmas I got new drawing software which I’ve been playing with non-stop so I haven’t actually done any ACEO’s for a while! So I thought I would share with you the first drawing I did with my new software, you can click for a big version to see all the details. Not bad for a first go right?

I’m so excited about this new program, the brush control is just awesome! As you can see I’ve been playing with textures quite a bit ^_^

What have you all got planned for the weekend? I’m going to be working and hopefully shooting a couple of new tutorials as well as painting some nails

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So those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know how I’ve had some troubles with allergies. One of the things I’ve discovered is that I’m allergic to parabens which are a common ingredient in make up and skin products… when I say common I mean when I checked the labels of the products in my bathroom there were only like 2 that didn’t have them >_< I’m not going to debate whether parabens are good/bad I just happen to be allergic so I’ve been looking for alternatives.

One thing that I’ve been especially looking for is moisturiser. The back story to this is that as long as I can remember I’ve had insanely itchy legs, I mean like drive you crazy itchy, worse than the worse mosquito bite you’ve ever had! What didn’t click until I started looking at the labels in my bathroom was that I’ve also been using a moisturiser with parabens on my legs for like 10 years now… Mystery solved.

Aaaaanyway a few weeks ago I was sent some moisturiser from a company called “Skin MD”. When I received the package it had some pamphlets which were a little infomercial-y for my tastes so I took the claims with a grain of salt.

The general idea is that this isn’t so much a moisturiser but a “shielding lotion” that creates a barrier on your skin to keep natural moisture in and bad things out. I decided to give it a try for 2 weeks and see how I went… here is my morning routine/review!

I have *very* sensitive skin on my face so this was where I decided to test it out.

The bottle is kind of… plain. Definitely not the prettiest bottle I have in my bathroom but hey it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

The bottle has one of those clicky top lids that you press down on one side to open. I have a personal hatred for these types of lids because they are *so* hard to open with long nails.

The smell of my moisturiser is really important to me, it’s the first thing that goes on my skin so I really have to like it. This has a really pleasant smell, not overpowering at all. Just kind of like generic cream smell. It actually really reminds me of the smell of the expensive cosmetics counters at David Jones/Myers which is really nice ^_^

The consistency is really runny, it’s super watery which I like because when you put it on it doesn’t take a lot of effort to rub in. It doesn’t feel like you’re wearing anything at all which is great because if you then layer foundation on you won’t have that heavy pancake make up feeling!

It feels very light and you need about 2/3rds of the amount I have here to do your whole face. I thought that the bottle was quite small when I first got it but after seeing how little you actually need I think the price tag of US$18 isn’t so bad especially when you compare it to the top level brands.

One thing that I was worried about with this moisturiser was it’s claims to be an effective treatment for eczema. As someone who suffered from eczema throughout high school I was weary of treatments that just plain don’t work. I still have mild eczema and after using this product for a few weeks I have definitely seen an improvement. I don’t think it is a miracle cure but the difference in texture is really there.

I start by dotting little bits all over my face.

Then starting at my nose I massage it in the directions of the arrows.

After rubbing it all in my skin feels nice and smooth. Also hearts totally appear everywhere

Taadaa!

So the verdict:

While I don’t think this is a miracle cure, I have noticed a significant difference in my skin since using it. I like the texture, the smell and how my face feels after using it. I actually recommended this to a friend with more severe eczema and they noticed an immediate difference too which is really exciting!

The part that I like the best is that it is free of parabens so I’m not allergic to it. After trialing on my face I started using it on my legs too and they haven’t been itchy in weeks now! After having itchy legs for the last 10 years I can’t tell you what an awesome feeling that is!

Another great point is that it comes in a version with sunscreen built in, for girls like me that live in sunny Australia that’s a huge plus! If you would like to read more just check out their website here.

So I’m going to give it an 9/10 (loosing a point because of the packaging and stupid clicky lid) I would definitely recommend it to others with skin problems or who just want yummy soft skin ^_^

Personally I love it and I am going to keep using it every day

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I’ve been wanting to do a proper update for a while but I just haven’t had the time >_< So I present you, the last couple of months in photos!

I made my Mum some Christmas themed nails for her work party:

I like the nails that look like presents!

And the stripey ones. Stripes are awesome

I made this cake when my Mum came over for dinner.

It didn’t turn out very well but it was pretty yummy! I think next time I need to just stick with icing because I tired to paint roses on the sides and it looked terrible!

One day I went to brush my teeth and there was a lizard in the sink who couldn’t get out. He was stuck because the sink was slippery >_<

He was scared of us (I named him Steven by the way) so I used the string on my pajamas to make a ladder for him. He got out and lived in our bathroom for a few days eating the ants.

One day he tried to venture into the lounge so we had to put him outside in case someone stepped on him

BYE STEVEN! He lives under our back steps now.

We discovered that there was a Japanese bakery that just opened up at one of our favorite shopping centers… and went a bit crazy. Turns out that as pretty as the below cake looked it was disgustingly stale >_< Luckily their other things are absolutely delicious so we’ve been going back almost every week!

These are the photos James took on Christmas Day. I didn’t get any of the morning when we went to my Dad’s house so here are the ones from lunch with James’ family. The food was so yummy!

And the table was very pretty ^_^

Candied yams… we don’t usually have this in Aus, it’s very American. I’d never heard of it until James introduced me but it’s sooo yummy!

Group shot!

I stole some of the decorations from the crackers to make my bow more Christmas-y.

For New Years we went to James’ Parent’s unit in Mooloolaba. There was such a pretty view from the balcony!

Oh course it always had a breeze in the most inappropriate times XD I still love this photo!

James wanted to try out lots of new camera settings so I got to do lots of cam-whoring.

And I wanted to show you how glittery my nails looked in the sun…

So glittery! I can’t believe I forgot to take a close up >_< They were seriously all pink and silver glitter with some cute black hearts.

For dinner that night I had Okonomiyaki from a street vendor, so over priced and not very nice. I give it a 5/10 because they didn’t have extras on top.

The view from that night, there were lots of street stalls there.

A kiss at midnight!

And the pretty fireworks.

It was a pity that half of them were behind that tree. Pretty anyway

So there you go! I’ll be back again with another tutorial soon ^_^

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Well this week has been all about nail art hasn’t it? Today I’m happy to announce the grand opening of my nail art for sale section ^_^

Scroll down to see some of the false nails I’ve got for sale or scroll to the bottom to see how to order!

Set 1. Princess Pink

Description:
These beautiful nails are fit for even the fussiest of princesses. They are striped in light pink, white and dark pink with a pearlised finish so they shimmer in the light. Two rows of pink, purple and red diamantes bejewel each nail, the tiny gaps between the dimantes are filled with small gold bullions. Perfect for any royal event.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a square tip. The largest size is 1.8cm wide and 1.9cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.2cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$30

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 2. Loving the Leopard

Sold!

Description:
There is no hiding from these nails, you won’t need to camouflage! With a bright purple base and fluro pink leopard spots these nails sure make a splash! The tips have been dipped in bright pink glitter and a matching pink diamante has been added to polish off. These are guaranteed to grab attention!

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a rounded tip. The largest size is 1.7cm wide and 2.3cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.4cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$15

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 3. Gilded Roses

Description:
A dark red base with tiny black flecks featuring a gold glitter wash and hand painted gold roses. They shimmer beautifully in the sunlight and make an eye catching addition to a day or evening outfit.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a rounded tip. The largest size is 1.7cm wide and 2.3cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.4cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$15

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 4. Cake Parade

Description:
Mmm Cake. Each nail in this set of 20 is individually decorated in the theme of strawberry cake. They even have yummy 3D icing! Some of the designs include: a slice of cake, a fork, and an icing heart. So yummy you might want to bite them off and eat them!

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a rounded tip. The largest size is 1.7cm wide and 2.3cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.4cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$20

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails. Particularly note the hand painted bow and delicious strawberry cake slice.

Set 5. A Midnight Rendezvous

Description:
The perfect nails for a night out on the town or a civilized evening waltzing on the dance floor. The deep blue background on these can’t be completely captured in photographs, it’s stunning in person! Gold glitter tips with strings of gold bullions falling from the sky adorn this set with hand painted stars and crescent moons accenting 8 of the 20 nails. Each gold bullions has been hand placed in it’s individual string.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a square tip. The largest size is 1.8cm wide and 1.9cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.2cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$30

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 6. Seeing Spots

Sold!

Description:
With a mixture of gold, purple and pink these nails are perfect for an every day look. They are classy and have just enough bling to keep everyone’s attention firmly on your nails. They have a mixture of french tips and moons. The diamantes used are complimentary colour in the shapes of circles, flowers, hearts and stars.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a square tip. The largest size is 1.8cm wide and 1.9cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.2cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$15

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 7. Tea for Two

Description:
These nails would go beautifully with a Lolita co-ordinate. Pastel pink and blue themed they are each individually hand painted with items such as lace, bows, lollipops and even a portrait or two! Please view them close up to fully appreciate the details. The perfect accessory to top off any outfit!

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a rounded tip. The largest size is 1.7cm wide and 2.3cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.4cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$35

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 8. Koi Pond

Description:
Koi fish splishing and splashing their way through the waves on your nails. These koi have all been painstakingly hand painted. They have gold metallic scales and the waves have silver metallic accents to make them shimmer in the sunlight. Please view them up close to see all of the little details.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly long nails with a rounded tip. Please note that these particular nails have been hand filed to shape, as such they are not completely even. Please examine the photos carefully before ordering. The largest size is 1.9cm wide and 2.7cm long. The smallest size is 0.9cm wide and 1.8cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$35

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 9. Tartan Icing

Description:
These nails feature hand painted tartan style pointed french tips and tiny silver bullions. The base are frosted white with silver glitter to make them extra shiny. The tartan is made with 4 different shades of pink and white.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a square tip. The largest size is 1.8cm wide and 1.9cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.2cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$20

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Set 10. Frosted Fruit Candy

Description:
This set just screams summer to me! Each nail has a summery base colour with a thin white french tip. The tips have gradated silver glitter so they really catch the light and a slice of fruit to top it all off! These nails would look great sipping cocktails by the pool.

Measurements:
Included in each set sold are 20 individual nails in 10 different sizes. These are fairly short nails with a rounded tip. The largest size is 1.7cm wide and 2.3cm long. The smallest size is 0.8cm wide and 1.4cm long. They will arrive on cardboard backing wrapped in pink fabric with ribbon details as pictured below. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

Price: US$15

Please click on the photos for a larger version to see all of the details.

A close up of the first 10 nails.

Extra Information!

Custom Orders:

I will take custom orders, please comment with what you are interested for a quote

Ordering:

Before you order please take the time to read all of the information.
You can order by either commenting here or by emailing me using my Contact Page to let me know which set you would like to buy and your email address so I can send you a Paypal Invoice. Please note that the email address you put in the comment form can only be seen by me so if you are uncomfortable publishing your email either put it there or order via the Contact Page. Anything that doesn’t sell here is going to be put up in my Etsy shop, if you would prefer to buy via Etsy let me know and I will create a listing for you

Payment:

Payment must be made via Paypal. All prices are in US Dollars.
Australian buyers have the option of doing a direct bank transfer in Australian Dollars but must contact me for details.

Postage:

Shipping fees are included in the listed prices. Shipping is via Australia Post. International shipping will be by standard Airmail (unless you want to pay extra for express).
Insurance is not included in the price, if you would like to buy insurance please contact me. If you do not opt to buy insurance I cannot be held responsible for lost packages.

Notes:

Please note that these nails are all hand painted and as such they are all unique. They are not mass produced and therefore they have small irregularities. Please view the pictures carefully to be sure before you place your order as I will not accept refunds if you just change your mind. Larger photos are available upon request.

Thank you so much for looking!

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I know I know I know I’ve been promising this forever! I finally finished it

Apologies for the crappy film quality, originally I wasn’t planning on making this into a tutorial so I wasn’t very careful when I filmed it. I have new software which I’m now learning to use so this is the last of my badly edited/made videos ^_^ So the quality is not great this time but hopefully you can at least get a good idea of the techniques and try it out yourself.

Make sure you let me know if you give it a try, I’d love to start a “Readers Photos” section! Anyway I hope this has helped a bit!

Today James took the photos of the first batch of cool nail art that I’m going to sell so expect a post about it very soon I’m so excited about this!

I’ve been a bit sick today so I’m off to bed. Night night

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I have a couple of little announcements before the main post!

Firstly I’ve done an interview with the lovely Hollie from Mermaid’s Closet click here if you’d like to have a look

Secondly, I’ve been planning on doing an FAQ about Hime Gyaru styles for a while now and I’ve actually gotten around to starting to write it ^_^ So if there are any questions you have about my style or Hime Gyaru in general I’d love to hear them. You can put them in the comments or go to my contact page if you’d like to do it more privately

Lastly I’m going away for a few days to the beach for New Years (I hope my new swim suit arrives today or else that’s going to suck!)… anyway that means I’ll probably be missing Art Friday this week but I’m taking a sketch book so I might post something on Sat. I’ve just gotten Wordpress on my phone so I might test it out and try to post some snap shots

But back to the important bits…

I’ve had a lot of questions about the mechanics of blogging lately so I’ve decided to make a series of posts with tips on setting up a productive blogging space ^_^

Part 1- Tutorial on making an inspiration board

Part 2- Tutorial on decorating a mirror and lamp

Part 3- Putting it all together and what else do you need?

So today is

Part 3- Putting it all together and what else do you need?

Well isn’t that the just longest title in the universe? Very important though. One quick disclaimer, this isn’t actually my blogging space at the moment. Because we’re living in a room at James’ parent’s place for a few months to save for our mortgage deposit, my current blogging place is in bed with a tray table holding my lap top… and it sucks. James has a big computer so he gets the desk in our room, nuts to him I want the desk! In our new house when I’ve stolen my desk back this is how I’ll be setting it up Oooow it’s like you’re seeing into the future! *cool sci fi music*

So this is *my* blogging space:

I’ll go through it bit by bit but the most important part of the whole thing is the laptop! You can’t blog without a computer ^_^ My laptop of choice is a big Mac Book Pro with lots of useful programs. You can see my pink twitter page on the screen heehee! If at all possible you should have a desk and a really comfy chair with lots of back and neck support. When you spend a large amount of time in front of a computer screen you really need to have a supportive chair which doesn’t hurt your back! Trust me, blogging in bed is not as comfy as it sounds.

From the picture below you can see that I’ve set up my inspiration board up right in front of the window. This way I can see outside (natural light is really important fr your eyes too) but I have lots of things to inspire me.

Here is a close up of the right side of my desk. Here is a list of what’s there:

-Decorated mirror (to check I look cute before photos)
-Wacom graphics tablet (for work and to draw all the cute graphics fr my blog)
-Nail up magazine (INSPIRATION! God I love this mag so much but on any given day it could be replaced with some other book or mag. Inspiration is so important!)
-Cake eyelash holder, ok see the little thing that looks like a cake on my graphics tablet? It’s actually a false eyelash holder I made. I’m going to do a tutorial soon, but the point it that I keep recent or current projects close by so I can remember what I’m talking about when I write up the tutorials. That an false eyelashes are awesome
-Water bottle/soft drink (Always keep yourself well hydrated, when you’re using a computer time can run away from you and all of a sudden you haven’t had a drink in 7 hours >_< Very important!)

And for the right side:
-My lamp (For when it’s night time or I’m decorating something small and need extra light)
-Cute headphones (For when you want to watch videos and it’s like 2am and you don’t want to wake up your boyfriend who is asleep right next to you.)
-Video Camera, case and mini tripod (Very important for video blogging obviously…)
-Phone (Important for taking calls from clients and also for quick photos etc)
-Kinder Chocolate or Bueno (Snacks! Chocolaty delicious snacks! Very, very important to remember to eat. Snacks are fantastic, especially Bueno shaped snacks. Damn would Bueno hurry up and sponsor me? I give them enough advertising!)

Not pictured here but also important:
-Fancy or at least reliable camera. I use my phone and my video camera when James doesn’t have his awesome DSLR handy.
-Boyfriend who’s good with his fancy DSLR camera to take photos for you

Having lots of power points around your area is handy too so you can plug everything in.

I think colour and decoration are very important to putting me in a good mood for blogging. I find pink and other pastel colours make me happy so I’ve decorated accordingly. You really don’t need to spend much money on decorating, the table cloth is just a scrap of fabric ^_^

So there you go! That’s the series, I hope you guys found that a bit helpful. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them, if there are lots I might even do a reader Q&A post

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Before I get into today’s post I just want to let you all know that I’ve started a second Twitter account called Violet’s Cuties which will basically be me posting cute things that I’ve found along my internet travels. I’ll be posting pretty much anything I think is adorable from clothes to puppies to Hello Kitty shaped sushi makers. Click here to follow me if you’re interested

I’ve had a lot of questions about the mechanics of blogging lately so I’ve decided to make a series of posts with tips on setting up a productive blogging space ^_^

Part 1- Tutorial on making an inspiration board

Part 2- Tutorial on decorating a mirror and lamp

Part 3- Putting it all together and what else do you need?

So today is

Part 2- Decorating a Mirror and Lamp

Ok so now you’ve got an inspiration board to look at, you are going to need a few other things to reach optimum blogging potential I’ll show you the rest in the next post but today we’ll focus on 2 very important parts: 1. A cute mirror and 2. a really good, cute light source.

Let’s start with the mirror. You’re probably wondering why you need a mirror, well you want to look good for all the photos you’re going to be posting right? Well having one next in your blogging space is very handy when you’re doing a last minute post or twittering photos. Now you won’t have the problem of taking 109281 photos trying to get your hair right etc. Also useful for taking self portrait photos  so you can see if you are in frame and watching tv in the reflection if your desk doesn’t face it!

Materials:

-Glue gun
-Cheap mirror (mine was $3 from a discount store)
-2 kinds of lace
-Ribbon is optional

My mirror has a thin plastic frame around it so I’m going to glue to that but if yours doesn’t then just glue straight to the glass. Ok starting with one end of your lace (the rufflier the better in my opinion) put a spot of glue in the middle of the bottom edge of the mirror frame. Don’t start at the corners otherwise you will have one corner that is slightly different from the others… and that would bother me.

Slowly continue gluing the lace until you reach a corner, glue right up to the edge like the picture below.

Now put a little dot of glue on top of the lace right on the corner.

While it’s still wet fold the lace over so it forms a right angle, it should look like below. Please be very careful when you do this, the glue is very hot and if you touch it it will burn you!

Keep going until you’ve done every side!

Now if you want you could leave it like this but I like over the top things so I want more lace! Flat lace works best for the next step. With this part it’s best to start at the corner because the pattern in the lace makes it easy to hide corners. Before deciding to start in the middle/corner check your own lace and see how it looks as some work better than others. You can use ribbon for this step if you prefer or put a strip of ribbon at the bottom etc. What are you waiting for? Be creative and get gluing!

Aaaaaand you’re done!

Time to test it out

Now part 2 of this! Decorating a lamp!

This is what I ended up with:

Lighting is super important plain and simple. If you don’t have good lighting you can ruin your eyes trying to squint and read tiny fonts online. When you look for a lamp (as well as being cute) you should look for something with an easily replaceable bulb, variable brightnesses and the ability to adjust which way it’s facing. Being so adjustable means you can not only use it for reading online but also for different lighting effects in photos. A while ago I was sent this lamp from Buyster which was exactly what I was looking for (being very adjustable etc) but it was quite plain. So It was time to start decorating!

Materials:

-Lace
-Ribbon bows
-Diamantes in various sizes
-Fake flowers
-Epoxy glue (make sure you check the packet for what temperature the glue is stable until as lamps can get very hot when left on for a long period of time)

Before you start test how hot your lamp gets when left on for a long time, if it get very hot in some places it’s best not to decorate there.

I decided to stick to a flowery theme and not go too over the top because James wanted to use the lamp too XD First roughly lay out what you want to do with your lamp, using epoxy glue means you only get one shot at the final product because once it’s stuck it’s not going anywhere. I decided to put lace around the bottom of the lamp.

After gluing my lace I added some large pink diamantes and pre-made ribbon bows.

Using a match stick with some old blue tack I dipped the back of each in glue and placed them. Be careful to hold them in place for a few minutes otherwise the glue will just run off and you’ll have a bunch of diamantes all over your lace.

I decided to cover where the neck and base meet with flowers. Because this part bends it’s not a good idea to use glue in this area so instead it’s better to thread a needle and sew the flowers in a circle around it.

Taadaa flowers…

As a bit of an after thought I added some diamantes to the top part. This part gets *very* hot if you leave it on for a while so my original idea of turning it into a gigantic hungry face of diamantes went out the window.

And there you have it, finished lamp! If you want to make one exactly like mine you can get this kind of lamp here.

Hope this was kind of helpful and stay tuned next time for Part 3- Putting it all together and what else do you need?

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<3 Have a great day!

Mirrored from .

So while I was away the Nuffnang Christmas Party and my gosh did we party!

The night started off with me being in a grumpy mood because I couldn’t get my hair or outfit to work I had planned to do this huge awesome gigantic ball of hair but it didn’t go so well so I desperately had to scrape it into hime style in like 2 minutes before we left ;_;

We were running very late and there was no parking near by so we had to run up a gigantic hill (yes I was wearing heels) to get to Bohemia. So when we finally arrived we met the lovely Miss Sharon (above).

And my Mum (above left). That’s right my Mum has started her own blog! As soon as she starts posting I’ll give you all the link

We waited for others to show up (around 15 people RSVP’d) but no one did! So we made the best of it and had an awesome night!

James was driving but Sharon, my Mum and I decided to order a bunch of cocktails to try. To be perfectly honest none of us usually drink so we only had a sip of each one LOL.

Most of them looked very pretty but holy bajeebus were they disgusting! I can’t STAND the taste of alcohol! YUK!

James was clearly the star of the night! I can’t believe he can hold up that heavy camera to take photos of himself >_< This next one is such a terrible photo but I like it for some reason anyway:

Of course being a typical blogger I can twitter with one hand and take delicate sips of some disgusting green tea concoction with the other…

There was sooooooo much food! We decided to only get 1 platter in the end but there was still so much! We each ended up taking home a doggy bag XD

How cute is Sharon!? Her dress was so pretty and she even had matching blue earrings!

James thought this would be hilarious…

My outfit for the night… Ok it’s mostly white but the blue sailor top I was planning had a gigantic pink stain on it I didn’t know about until last minute

My Mum was wearing the Christmas nails I made for her and she was being the perfect blogger taking photos of everything XD

Our lovely photographer for the night:

Bohemia has a free Nintendo Wii with a big screen so we played bowling!

Next time we want to go bowling at a really alley

Nuffnang sent me a package with yummy blue candy canes:

We put them to good use!

And I had a fancy little name tag, everyone else got name stickers and they put them on their arms so they looked like gigantic bandaids >_<

The whole party! There might not have been many of us but we had a great time anyway! Next time all of you guys who RSVP’d better show up!!

We had so much fun, thanks Nuffnang!

Cheers and Merry Christmas everyone!

Have you guys been to any awesome holiday parties yet?

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Ok everyone sorry for the delay but I’m back online now and better than ever!

Now it’s a few days late but here is the official announcement of the winner of the deco headbands

I had my lovely assistant James help with drawing a winner.

We made cut outs for all of the entries, put them in a mixing bowl and stirred.

While looking the other way James picked a name out and it was…..

Stretching out the dramatic pause just a little bit mooooore……….

SAMANTHA!

Congrats to Samantha, I’ve already emailed and as soon as she gets back to me with her address I’ll have them posted off in no time ^_^

Thanks to everyone who entered and thanks for being patient while I’ve been away! I promise more cool updates soon