Violet LeBeaux

Aaaaaand the winner is….

2009-12-22T15:05:27Z

Mirrored from .

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

A tiny absence…

2009-12-16T03:01:05Z

Mirrored from .

Sorry everyone for randomly disappearing for a while!

On Monday we can home from Christmas shopping to discover that we had no internet >_< James’ parents are changing internet providers and didn’t realize that it would take 5 working days for the switch to be made. For those 5 days we have no internet so no updating for me! I’ve snuck out to my Dad’s house to catch up with all my clients so just a quick update.

For those who haven’t yet make sure to enter my give away competition for the deco headphones, it ends this Friday! If I’m back online by then the winner will be announced on Monday, if not it will be the first chance I can get online. Any entries after midnight Friday won’t be counted.

I hope you are all doing really well and having fun!

See you next week (or see you tomorrow night if you’re coming to the Nuffnang party!)

Competition! Win Deco Headphones :D

2009-12-13T04:44:20Z

Mirrored from .

Well I promised you all a competition and here it is!

To celebrate relocating my blog to my own domain I’m offering you all a chance to win the headphones I deco’d for today’s tutorial, all you need to do is spread the word about my new blog!

About the prize:

These headphones are completely new, I tested them to make sure they worked but have never worn them. According to the box they are “HiFi Stereo” but I haven’t tested that. They have a standard 3.5mm jack. Other specs from the back of the box are available on request.

I used epoxy glue, acrylic diamantes, a large heart bead and a pink ribbon bow to decorate them. They are decorated by hand and are therefore unique and with the imperfections that come with hand made items.

The winner will receive a hand written letter from me as well

How to enter:

Because the site is quite new I want to get the word out about it so to enter for a chance of winning I need your help telling as many people about the new site as possible…

All you need to do to enter the draw is comment and leave an email address for me to contact you through. If you tweet or blog about it please leave another comment with links for me to see

Comment = 1 entry
Follow me via Google Friend Connect or RSS = 1 entry
Tweet about it = 2 extra entries
Blog about it = 5 extra entries

Eg.
If you follow me and comment to let me know you get 2 entries.
If you follow me, comment and write a blog entry you get 7 entries.

^_^

This competition is open to anyone no matter where you live.

The winner will be drawn randomly so the more entries you have the more chances to have to win.

This competition will close on Midnight Friday 18th of December 2009 (Brisbane, Australia time). The winner will be announced the following Monday and contacted by email.

Enjoy!

Good luck everyone!

Day 7- Deco Headphones Tutorial

2009-12-13T04:42:45Z

Mirrored from .

Hello! Wow I can’t believe it’s already the last day of my super awesome week of tutorials! It feels like I’ve been at my new address for much longer and I’m loving it!

I’ve been promising a deco tutorial for ages, it was going to be my laptop but I decided to go with a smaller design to start off some of you guys that are beginners

The fun part about this tutorial is that you can win the end product, but more on that later!

So first you need some headphones! I bought these ones to do, they are just fairly standard ear buds, the only thing special about them is that the coloured outside bit clips on and you can change colour… cool idea but they only included one of each colour so you can’t have a matching set >_< I didn’t even notice until I got home!

Apologies that these photos are a little dark, James was out when I did it so I didn’t have his lighting/camera expertise!

The deco technique I’ll be showing you today is called paving.

I decided to make one headphone pink and one blue so I attached the corresponding colour clip.

Gather all of your materials and decorations together. I suggest that you lay down some paper towel or tissues to work on so you can see everything easily and you don’t get your work surface all glue-y.

The type of glue I am using is called “Epoxy”, it comes in 2 tubes one is resin and one is hardener. There are other types of glue available for deco but epoxy is the strongest and most hard wearing, if you use a decent amount your jewels won’t be going anywhere! Epoxy is good for rigid surfaces (like plastic), it is not good for things that need to bend (like fabric). It comes in different formulas which take different lengths of time to dry, for a project like this use the 5min one. Also unlike some other glues it doesn’t smell bad so you won’t pass out from the fumes ^_^

We need to start with the largest items we’re going to glue. That’s an important rule of paving deco, put the big pieces in and then fill the gaps with everything else.

So squeeze out an even amount of glue from each tube onto a piece of plastic. I just used the packet that some of my diamantes came in.

Using an orange stick mix the two bubbles of glue together. Make sure the consistency is even and it’s mixed well.

I’m going to put a bow on my pink headphone first so using the orange stick I apply a little glue to the back of the bow and also to the headphone where it’s going.

Hold it in place until the glue becomes tacky then allow it to dry completely.

Repeat the process on the other side. I decided to use a bead shaped like a heart on this one. Apply the glue…

Hold the jewel in place.

For paving you need a lot of jewels in different sizes. Rather than buying 1000 of each size if you are doing a small project like this check the scrapbooking section of your local craft store for pre-stuck designs like the photo below. It has many different sizes.

Because they already have a sticky backing on them, they’re fairly useless to glue, you’ll find that if you use the provided sticky back they will eventually slide off your item or if you glue them with the backing on they will still fall off because the glue isn’t touching the actual jewel. So you need to gently pull the sticky backing off… I stick it to my finger and use my nail to pry them free.

And you should be left with this:

Now for this project you need some larger coloured diamantes too..

To pick up the diamantes one by one I find the easiest way is using a match stick with a piece of blutac on the end. New blutac is too sticky so roll it on carpet or fabric first so it picks up some dust and isn’t as sticky ^_^ Other people I know use tweezers but I find that awkward.

Starting with the pink bud add glue to a small strip down the back.

Starting with the largest jewels again place a line of 3mm pink diamantes straight down the back.

While the glue around it is still wet fill in around the edges with tiny clear diamantes. The key to this looking good is to try to fill in every single little gap as much as you can. Wait for it to dry before continuing.

Once the back is dry continue on the side,place a row of large pink diamantes and fill in around it with clear. It’s kind of like making a mosaic, trying to find the right gems to fit the right spot.

When that side is dry continue around to the other side until the jewels meet in the middle, the entire thing should be covered. When you’re done it should look a little like this:

Now let’s start on the other side! The principle is the same, but this time use blue jewels instead of pink ^_^

Do the sides first and then keep going until the jewels meet in the middle.

Once everything is completely dry it’s time to tackle that last little white bit where the cord comes from…

Holding it by the ear piece cover that in clear diamantes.

So then leave it to dry! If you think it needs it, you can give the entire jeweled area a clear top coat. I don’t generally do it because if you are using acrylic jewels it can melt the top layer and make the facets of the jewel less obvious. If you decide to top coat then go with a quick dry clear nail polish. This is what you end up with when you’re done…

Haha you can tell that James can home and took these pictures because they’re so arty!

I think pastel blue and pink look so cute together ^_^

You can see the paving a little more clearly here…

I hope you enjoyed this and it helped! If you have any questions feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer

Now if you love the ones I made and can’t be bothered making your own you have a chance to win them! Click here to see how you can get your pretty hands on them ^_^

Day 6- Part 1 of Setting Up Your Blogging Space- Inspiration

2009-12-12T01:52:15Z

Mirrored from .

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 1- Making an Inspiration Board

What you need:

-An old cork board, I stole mine from James
-Enough cute fabric to cover it
-Lots of ribbon
-Bows
-Lots of different kinds of lace
-Old brand bags (you know the ones that Lolita brands give out with cute designs?)
-Glue gun
-White paint
-Scissors
-Orange stick (optional)

So first thing’s first, gather all of your materials..

Cut out a rectangle of fabric big enough to cover the whole thing.

Take it outside and paint the frame white. If you use white acrylic like I did, you’ll probably need a couple of coats. Make sure it’s completely dry before you go on to the next step…

Now there are two ways to do this next step depending on how you plan on decorating the frame part. What you want to do is cover the cork part of the board with your fabric. If you think you’re going to cover the edge with lace the the easiest way is just to hot glue it in place along the edge. If you think that this part will be visible then grab your orange stick and start poking the fabric into the frame. It is probably quite a tight fit but if you use the pointy end of the stick you should be able to force your way around the edges.

You should end up with something like this…

Now get your ribbon and mark out diagonal point on the frame, make sure they are all even, use a ruler if you have to because if you’re anything like me, having uneven ribbons at the end will annoy you every time you look at it!

Do the same thing in the other direction. You should use your glue gun to stick each end to the edge of the fabric and poke the edges under.

Now get a bunch of little ribbon bows!

Glue them where the ribbons overlap and glue that point to the fabric too. Basically you create a kind of grid ^_^

Now time for lace

It’s a good idea to lay out your lace before you glue it to make sure that you have enough and it look good. I decided to use ruffled cotton lace on the inside edge because it reminded me of a pretty shop window.

Now let’s fill it with things that inspire us! You know all of the plastic bags you get when you make a purchase from a Lolita brand, I’ve always thought that the designs were too pretty to throw away but I could never think of something to do with them. Until now I just stored them in a cupboard but that just seems like a waste!

So get all of your pretty bags and cut out the designs! You can find cute designs in the strangest places, this one was from some underwear store but it had flowers and actually said “Lolita” on it. I don’t know what your chances are for finding one that says “Hime Gyaru” though XD

You can decorate the bits you cut out too, I added some diamantes

Now pop them in your frame! You can see here that when I was doing this I forgot to glue all the bows to the fabric, this is a problem because when you hang it up there is nothing to keep the pictures up! I fixed it up later so you can see the completely finished version in part 3 ^_^

So there you have it!

There will be lots more pictures in the next post of this series so check back again for the next installment!

Oook

2009-12-09T02:19:57Z

I'm trying to get the new blog to update here automatically but it's taking a little more time than I thought! The plug ins that I used aren't working and they seem to crash my site *_* I'm going to try to find another one tonight but until then just head over to:

www.violetlebeaux.com

Chat soon!

Day 2- Review/Tutorial of Individual Eyelashes

2009-12-09T02:11:57Z

Originally published at Cross posted from www.VioletLeBeaux.com. You can comment here or there.

Quite a while ago I was sent a bunch of 1000Hour lashes to test out, I’ve shown you all of them except the individual ones:

To be honest I wasn’t really thrilled about the idea of individual lashes, it sounded like an awful lot of unnecessary effort to me. I mean who really wants to apply full eyelid’s worth lash by lash? Who has time for that either? It wasn’t until I did a bit of a rethink and took some inspiration from the lovely SuperKawaiiMama that I got some inspiration.

These lashes are perfect for a cute casual look. You don’t actually need to put lashes over the whole eye to get an adorable effect, these are perfect for a cat-flick at the side!

Ok so here is how to do it ^_^

These are my lashes to start with, I’ve applied some mascara and given them a little bit of a curl.

Before: cute and casual look.

This is the packet they come it, it’s a step up from 90% of other lashes available in Australia because the little tray they come in actually has a lid. I hate when you get lashes and they just come in the tray, it makes them useless for storage! This however is good and you get a lot of them in a pack so they last a while especially if you reuse them.

So to begin with get one of the little bunches.

And some scissors.

And cut the tip of the bunch on an angle. You need to do 2 of these (one for each eye so cut them in opposite directions). This is the part that will gradiat to the longest lashes on the ends. If you don’t have one of these it will look like you’ve just one a random flick on the edge.

This is what they should look like.

Now grab your lash glue. I would not recommend this brand unless you are allergic to others like me.

Add a tiny bit of glue to the base of the bunch. Depending on the glue you’re using you will probably need to wait for it to get tacky before applying.

Ok now apply it to you lash line, you should apply it a couple of mm before the end of your lashes. Once you apply the bunch, give it a little pinch to make sure it’s in line with your natural lashes.

Here is a photo of it applied to my lashes, you can barely see it because the shape blends into the length of my natural lashes. In the next photo I’ve highlighted where it it.

This is where it is placed, if you compare the below and above photos you’ll be able to see exactly what I mean and the angle of the cut.

This is how it looks when my eyes are open, it’s much easier to see here but you can still see how it blends.

And here it’s highlighted…

Ok! Now you want to get 2 more bunches per eye. These ones should be full sized. Do them one at a time so you have lots of control over the placement. Add the glue!

And this time we’re going to place this bunch next to the one we just did on the outside side (closer to the corner of the eye). You should make sure that the last one sits on the very edge of your lash line. By the time you’re finished you should have 3 bunches on each eye (2 full ones and 1 angled one).

Once you’ve placed them if you want you can add another coat of mascara to make all the lashes the same thickness or even curl them again. One other tip I have is that if you find they are sticking up at a different angle than your natural lashes, give them a coat of mascara and pinch them together with your natural lashes gently. The mascara will act like a light glue!

So this is what you should end up with:

And here is where the lashes are:

With eyes closed you can really see the difference:

And highlighted!

So there you go! This look is great as an everyday look because it’s not too heavy but the flick at the end is super cute.

Now as for a review of the actual lashes I found them to be really good. I was really surprised at how durable they were, I’ve used the same 6 for this look several times. The best thing that I found was that they were comfortable enough to sleep in… probably not something I need to worry about every day but great when you’re on a 7hr plane trip! I was worried that because they weren’t held on by much glue that they would be hard to keep on but I haven’t lost one so far. You can get them from Priceline, Kmart and other beauty supply stores for around AU$7.95 which is an average price for lashes here in Aus. I really like them and I’ll be buying them again… though with this many in a tray I probably won’t need to for a long time hahaha!

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] MOVED!

2009-12-07T00:01:27Z

This blog is no longer being updated, I have moved here:
www.VioletLeBeaux.com
Please click to see new tutorials, videos and other fun things. Don't
forget to update your browsers and friends lists!

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] Notice and ACEO Friday!

2009-12-04T00:57:53Z

Hello everyone :D

Today is the last day you can vote to name my new camera so head on
over to the side bar and cast your vote~

I thought this ACEO was quite fitting for today as I feel a little bit
like Alice running around everywhere *_*

It's a little strange, this is going to be my last post in this blog!
For the next post (on Monday) I'm officially moving over to:

VioletLeBeaux.com

Exciting! I think you guys will really like it in my new home, there is
a new layout and it's going to be more fun and interactive :D I've put
Google Friend Connect on the site so those of you who "follow" me here
just need to add yourselves using the sidebar on the new site again.
Everyone else just update your favorites!

To give you a bit of an incentive to move over to my new address I'll
be posting something awesome every day for the first week (starting on
Monday)! I'm going to have things you guys have been asking for like
the video tutorial on how to make the leopard nails, craft tutorials
and heaps more. There is even going to be a very cool competition... I
don't want to give it away yet because it's not quite finished but it
involves deco!

So come on over to the new site and let me know what you think of
everything ^_^

Love you all and I hope to see you at www.VioletLeBeaux.com!

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] N

2009-12-01T23:33:00Z

It has been quite a while since I did a post just on nail art hasn't
it?! I think that's probably because I've been so crazy busy with
moving house and everything else I just haven't had time to do anything
fun and time consuming like that. Now that we're all settled in I've
finally had a chance to have a little relax and do something for myself
^_^

Yep leopard print! I've been a little bit obsessed with leopard print
lately!

While I was doing this I videoed everything so if anyone's interested
I'll make a tutorial. It's a lot easier than it looks!

Everything was done freehand, I think that the black tips and orange
jewels really make it pop, and it looks amazing in the sunlight!

Also I want to give everyone the heads up that I'll be moving to my own
domain soon so you'll all have to update your RSS readers and favorites
etc. Don't worry I'm going to make it worth your while though... The
week that I move over I'm going to post something cool every single day
of the week that you guys have been requesting. Lots of tutorials and
things and a competition. It's not quite ready just yet but I hope
you'll all still visit me in my new home :D

Also don't forget to vote for my new camera's name on the side bar!
It's neck and neck at the moment ^_^

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] H

2009-11-30T00:22:19Z

Lately a couple of people have been asking about how I decorate my
hair, when I posted my make up tutorial Victoria Suzanne from Lolita
Charm asked:

"I'd love to know about the roses in your hair - did you make them and
how are they in such a cute little band? "

Here is a screen shot of my hair from the tutorial (the best one I
could find anyway!)

So I thought today that I would talk a little bit about hair and show
you how you can turn pretty much anything into a hair clip ^_^

So let's make the hair clips first. These are my favorite types of
roses. They are actually made from styrofoam which sounds strange but
they are very soft, durable and realistic. I got mine from Spotlight
but I imagine most craft store carry them.

So what you need is flowers (or whatever you want to make into a hair
clip), a hot glue gun and some bobby pins.

Using the glue gun you should put a good amount on both the rose and
the bobby pin. Press them together. A good tip is to make sure that hot
glue actually gets through the loop part of the bobby pin, this makes
sure that it can't pop out of the glue later.

You should hold the bobby pin where the stem on the flower would go.
Normal hair clips would put the clip on a right angle but I find that
it's easier to hide the pin amongst your hair like this. Be careful not
to burn yourself on the glue! When it's dry it should look like this:

If you want you can cover the ugly glue on the back with a small circle
of felt but seeing as it's going to be buried in my hair I don't mind
so much ^_^

You can really do this with anything. Here is a sneak peak at what I'm
going to be wearing in my hair at the Nuffnang Christmas party... I
bought these butterflies at a junk store.

Now I have an army of butterfly hair clippies!

They are going to look super cute!

So now that you've made your clips it's time to decorate your hair! How
you arrange them greatly depends on the look you want. For me I want a
hime style look but my other motivation is to cover my re-growth of
non-blonde hair so I can wait longer between dyes and damage my hair
less. So this is what I start out with:

When it's up like this, the regrowth is super obvious. I'm sure I could
cover it with a hat like a normal girl but with hime style hair it
doesn't go so well!

So to do the style I did in the video you need to start with a base
head band. I like to use one which is similar colour to the flowers and
has something interesting on it like a bow.

Everything about the style I'm making is lopsided so make sure you pick
your best side for the bow!

Now get your flowers, it's nice to use a few different types or shapes
of flowers to make the style more interesting.

So grab one of your flowers (I'm starting with the light pink ones) and
attach it. You should slide the flower under the headband because the
band will hide the metal bit. You really don't actually need to get
much hair to hold it in, just a tiny bit. I get a tiny bit of my fringe
in to it then push the whole way into my pouf.

This is how it looks all the way in. See how it hides everything nicely?

Now add another one on that side above the first.

And one on the other side... For this style I work with uneven numbers
of flowers to make it even more lopsided.

Now you have quite a good base to work with, start adding the other
kind of flower. You can add as many or few until you like how it looks.
I like a lot of flowers so this is what I ended up with :D

No regrowth to be seen ^_^

Now here are some variations on this look, it's very versatile...

This time instead of a head band I started with a row of flowers that
I've glued on a comb.

So add it to the side because it's going to be your feature piece.

This version requires more flowers if you want to cover up regrowth but
still looks cute.

If you are wearing awesome earrings you can pull the bits of hair on
the side backwards and pin them over the headband. Here is how it looks
with a different headband.

So I hope that answers some of your questions, if you'd like ore
information just leave me a comment :D Btw if you're interested in
Lolita fashion you should check out Victoria Suzanne's blog, it's full
of really interesting articles!

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] Name my camera finalists!

2009-11-29T22:55:54Z

Wow you guys all really came through with the entries for my name my
camera competition! So many entries :D

So here is a list of everyone's entries, scroll down to see the
finalists and vote for your favorite ^_^

Nixxy- Joey Jo-Jo Shabadoo!
Rumtumtigger- Naomi, Ayumi
Angel- Coco
Hear Mum Roar- Penelope
Karla- ickle
Dyra- kuchi-kuchi
TrayTable- Minnie, Handie
Jaede- Miss Indiana Jones
Naka- Pikachu, Kirby
Esz- Peko, Kichi, Beebi
Abby- Happy Days, Happy Damsel Inc, Heart Diamond (made out of
pictures), Just Violets Camera
Kara- Susan
Jillian- Equine, Jillian
Auroragyps- Blinky
Moon- Hontas
Lolitadewdrop- Finky/Francis

There were so many cute entries that it was quite hard to narrow it
down to 3... dun dun duuuuuuun dramatic pause...

Coco (suggested by Angel)
Kichi (suggestd by Esz)
Minnie (suggested by Traytables)

So if you want to cast your vote just do so on the side bar, votes
close at midnight my time on Friday and the winner will be announced
next Monday.

<3

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] N

2009-11-24T04:45:31Z

Hey everyone! I have something a bit fun for you all today :D So as you
would all know I've been doing some fun videos lately and to do them I
had to buy myself a new video camera. I wanted something HD but small
enough that I could just pop it into my handbag. After much umm-ing and
ah-ing and comparing of specs I decided to buy a JVC Picsio.

I think I made an awesome choice because not only is it cute, for a
tiny little thing it's good quality too. I'm going to leave the
technical review to James when he gets a chance but if you want to read
more here is a good review which compares all of the current mini HD
cameras on the market.

Now I have a habit of naming all of my appliances, my iphone is called
Ruri, my computer is called Sophie and my old laptop is called Edward
(no not after the stupid vampire!). I wanted to deco it but I've
decided to wait until it has a name...

And this is where you guys come in... my new camera needs a name!

The winner will get to request a tutorial/video/post about whatever
they like (within reason obviously eg. no I will not do a tutorial on
pole dancing).

So what you need to do is submit your favorite idea for a name in a
comment here or a message to me on twitter. I'll pick the best 3 and
then everyone will vote for a winner. You have until midnight this
Friday (Australian Eastern Standard Time) to submit your idea then
voting will start on Monday.

If you're stuck for ideas here is some information about it!

The camera is super tiny and super light, here it is next to my
iphone...

I bought one of those gorilla stand thingies so it can go anywhere and
likes to adventure... even hanging off the side of a table.

It lives in a little pink case in my hand bag and once we've picked a
name I'm going to cover it in deco goodness.

It has this cool finish on the front that kind of looks like quilting...

There are lots of fun buttons on the back...

So there you go! I'm looking forward to seeing what names you guys come
up with and what tutorials/posts you request ^_^

Now here are some posts that are coming up over the next few weeks just
so you don't request them ;)
-Craft tutorial: how to make a cute display for holding/organising
headbands
-Hair tips/how arrange flowers in hime style hair for maximum effect
-Ideas on organizing your space for blogging (including a tutorial on
customizing an ordinary lamp like this one from Buyster into something
adorable)
-Tip for decorating a cute Christmas tree

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] Violet V

2009-11-23T09:28:55Z

Good morning everyone, I've got another video for you all today!

The delightful Super Kawaii Mama is having a competition at the moment
and the winner will walk away with some absolutely beautiful prizes
including gifts from Blue Velvet Vintage, For Luna and Notorious Kitsch!

So all you needed to do to enter is show what your Perfect Vintage
Christmas would look like. Btw, how cute is the little banner she made
for the comp below?

So because I've been a bit obsessed with my video camera lately I
decided to make a video...

So I guess what I was trying to say is that my Perfect Vintage
Christmas takes a lesson from the cliche 50's and 60's values as well
as style ^_^

Hope you enjoyed!

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] ACEO Friday!

2009-11-19T23:53:04Z

Ok so this technically isn't an ACEO but I just finished it so too bad
you can all look at it XD

This one started as a joke between the hilarious Nixxy (if you love
nail polish you should totally check out her blog!) and I. At the time
I had just been told I might have Lupus so I decided that if someone
asked me what Lupus was I would just tell them I was a werewolf :D This
led to a discussion about a Hime style werewolf terrorizing the town in
search of brand and diamantes!

I probably should have spent a bit more time on this, I'm not 100%
happy with how it turned out. I think it needs a lot more details and
fine tuning. It really was quite a quick sketch... I've just been to
lazy/busy to finish it!

So if you wake in the dead of night and the moon is full, listen
closely you might hear the lone hime wolf's cry of... "Jesuuuuuuuus
Diiiimaaaaaaaaaaanteeeeeeeeeee! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] Dominos Update

2009-11-19T11:48:33Z

So you've probably all read my post on my Dominos experience here. A
couple of things have happened since that post so I thought I would
update you all...

After I made my post I forwarded it to the complaints department at
Dominos. They contacted me with the same copy-pasta (pun completely
intended) response about how they adhere to safety standards etc that
they anonymously commented with in the blog post. After a few emails
back and their complaints department said they would forward my
complaint to the franchise owner and send me a voucher.

Yesterday this turned up... It's a voucher for 2 pizzas, garlic bread
and a coke delivered free. The fine print says "A charge may apply to
Big Taste Pizzas, half 'n' half pizzas, additional toppings, indulgent
crusts and promotional pizzas. Valid for cash payment internet orders
only." They included a hand written note which says "Enjoy" which I
thought was pretty damn funny. I don't think I'll be using the voucher
but perhaps one of my friends would enjoy it.

Today I got a call from the franchise owner. We spoke for around 20
minutes and he was beyond apologetic. He explained that everyone
involved was going to be retrained and they were going to have a staff
meeting to discuss what they could do in future. He agreed that the guy
who took out phone call should have escalated the call to a manager and
I should have been offered a refund on the spot. He then sent a
delivery driver out to my house to refund the entire amount we spent
that night.

He also gave me his personal mobile phone number in case we had any
more problems.

This is the service I expected in the first place. And while I totally
appreciate that it *might* have taken this long for the owner to
actually find out about the situation, it really shouldn't have.

While I am happy to have my money back, I honestly don't think that
they would have taken any notice of my complaint at all had I not been
complaining very loudly on the internet. I know this because of all the
stories I heard from you guys with similar complaints that were never
settled!

Food for thought ;)

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] Video Mak

2009-11-16T23:32:29Z

Remember all that time ago when I promised you videos? Well today my
friends I deliver! Everyone kept asking about my make up so I have made
you all a video tutorial on how I do my basic every-day make up. I
really hope you all enjoy it, I'm not a pro at editing or shooting
things yet but I am learning so be gentle ^_^

P.S What do you guys think of the theme song James wrote for me? How
sweet of him!

Ok so the other half of this post is about the brushes I used in the
video. This is a list of all the products I used in the tutorial:
-Foundation- Innoxa Satin Sheen Buttermilk
-Concealer- Bourjois Brush Concealer
-Powder- Cover Girl Tru Blend Minerals 405
-Mascara- Cover Girl Lash Blast
-Blush/Pink eye shadow- Boujois blush 35 Rose D'or
-White/Black eyeshadow- Be Yourself Eyeshadow
-Eyelash curler- 1000 Hour Lashes Heated Eye Lash curler
-Eyelashes- 1000 Hour Lashes
-Eyelash glue- Lash Me Type 1
-Lip Tint- Bourjois Rouge Hi-tech 65-Cyber cassis
-Lip Gloss- Prestige Vinylwear High Shine

Just before the Nuffnang Awards I was sent a box of EcoTools make up
brushes to test out so here is my review...

As someone who is a beginner in make up techniques I am always looking
for the simplest, easiest ways to do things. Up until I got this set I
was using those little foam applicators that came with my eye shadow
pots. They always break and don't last very long and I found that quite
frustrating, I also didn't like the fact that it was quite hard to get
a precise line.

So when EcoTools send me this package I was quite excited to be able to
try out some brushes! In this pack there are 5 different brushes and a
matching bamboo container, you can also buy the brushes individually
and the prices range from AU$4.95 - $22.95 (available from Priceline
Kmart & Price Attack) which as I understand it is fairly run of the
mill for make up brushes of this level. The brushes in my pack are the
following:
-Blush applicator
-Angled Eyeliner brush
-Eyebrow brush
-Concealer Brush
-Eyeshadow brush

I tested them all out pretty well as you can see in the video! I gave
them a brief play with before we went to Singapore but the big test was
really my make up for the Nuffnang Awards and you can see by looking
back at the photos, they passed with flying colours ^_^

The thing with EcoTools is that it's made from all cruelty-free
sustainable materials (hence the bamboo holder). So you can feel like
you're doing your bit for the environment while you're doing your make
up XD When I read the back and discovered that the bristles were
synthetic I was a bit apprehensive about whether they would be scratchy
but I was pleasantly surprised, it's so soft it's kind of like rubbing
suede on your face! Also because they are made of bamboo and aluminum
they weight practically nothing. That's great if you're traveling so
you can pack in more copies of Japanese magazines!

My favorite brush is the angled eyeliner one. I don't use eyeliner
often but I've found it's really useful use for getting into to all
those annoying parts like the corner of my eyes with eyeshadow! Genius!

I thought the box thingy was quite a handy addition to the pack because
I would have no idea how to store something like this. Knowing my track
record with my bathroom mess they would probably just end up laying on
the counter somewhere ^_^ But now I have the box thingy I'll keep all
my pointy make up items like mascara, lash curler etc in there too!

So final thoughts? Well I've thrown out all the old foam applicators
and as I mention in the video, I really do like having a set of
brushes. I think it's enough to say I'm using them every day now! I
think it will enable me to be more adventurous with make up ideas in
future ^_^ I would give these 8/10 over all, they were quite easy to
use, the quality and price were good and the presentation was quite
cute. I bet they'll look even better after I deco them ;)

So what is your verdict on my video? Like/dislike? Anything in
particular you want to see me do next time? I'm open to suggestions
(within reason) ^_^

P.S. Can you totally tell James took these pictures for me because
they're all fancy and arty? If any of you and interested in amature
photography you should go and take a look at his blog because he's
started writing tutorials with tips and things now ^_^

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] ACEO Friday!

2009-11-13T05:25:12Z

Holy bajeebus is it again Friday already?? I so am not ready for the
weekend! Most of the move is done, so we're just settling into out new
home at the moment, putting clothes away and arranging my bathroom etc.

This quick sketch of a dragon was inspired by a tattoo I saw a long
time ago. Dragon tattoos are either very cool or very lame. Hopefully
this one turned out very cool ;)

I've been filming today for my video post on Monday! I can't wait to
show you all ^_^

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] I hate Dominos...

2009-11-12T06:31:20Z

Seeing as I've been really busy this week with the last of moving and
cleaning the old apartment I thought that I'd share an interesting
experience with you all. Normally on this blog I talk about stuff that
I love but today I want to talk about something that I hate: bad
customer service.

People on my Twitter has already heard this story but for the rest of
you... last Saturday we had spent the entire day cleaning and packing
boxes. James and I were pretty tired and my school friend Milissa was
staying with us so we all decided to get Pizza. The decision was to get
Dominos and I decided to try out their new Puff Pastry Pasta Bowls.

Sounds delicious right? That's what I thought too until I got 3 bites
in and discovered this in the box...

A squished COCKROACH!!

Up until this point I hadn't really been paying attention to my meal
but on closer inspection the fork that came with the meal had already
been used AND had a hair on it. EWWEWWEWWEWW!

SO DISGUSTING! I was so horrified with all of this that James had to
call Dominos for me *_* The manager didn't even apologize! WTF?! He
just said "You can either get sent another one sometime tonight or get
a free pizza next time". What am I expected to eat this one and get a
free pizza next time? How ridiculous!

So 40 minutes later the new one shows up and the delivery guy shoves it
through the door and walks off. By the time he got there I was feeling
like throwing up more than eating another pasta bowl *_*

Bad customer service makes me so mad and they are really only shooting
themselves in the foot. Had they been apologetic about it and offered
free garlic bread or refunded my money I wouldn't be nearly as angry as
I am! In fact I probably wouldn't have made this post or reported them
to the health department (anyone know where I can do this in Aus?).
Sincere apologies count for a surprising amount.

The lesson: if you own a company bad customer service will always come
back to bite you. Guess where I won't be ordering from again?

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue

2009-11-09T09:05:41Z

Well as promised here is my outfit for the Nuffnang awards in all of
it's minute details! I put so much time and effort into this outfit
that I think it deserves it's own post if only for my records heeheee!

The dress:
I was so torn on what dress design to go with. I wanted something Hime
Gyaru obviously but I wanted it to also feel like I was wearing a
million dollars rather than something I'd made. Originally I wanted to
buy a dress but I couldn't find anything I liked so I improvised.

This is how it all started out:

I cut one of my basic patterns out of a stretch cream satin for lining.

Then I added the pink flower silk chiffon over the top in the pattern I
wanted. I had no end of trouble with the chiffon, I wanted to throw it
out the window so many times!

I feel the need to tell you all that I hand pleated the ribbon for the
straps (and back up shoes). That's right hand pleated. No where that
could ship fast enough/was within driving distance sold pre-pleated
ribbon! WTF?? I really wanted it though so I stubbornly decided to do
it myself.

This is the neckline of the dress (yes blacked out the cleavage for
protection of your eyes :P) The flowers are all hand sewn on and made
of paper, in the middle is a giant heart shaped pink jewel which I just
LOVE. The bust has a slight sweetheart line with a row of gathering to
make it interesting.

There is also a 3 layer tiered petticoat which I made for this dress
specifically. It's out of cute dot tulle similar to my wrap. I wanted
it to have a slight bell shape but nothing as extreme as Lolita so I
kept it to 3 soft layers.

The whole outfit

I think this is one of the only photos of me without the wrap. I don't
normally show my shoulders or cleavage so I was a touch uncomfortable
without it ^_^ James is taking a photo of my nails.

I made my wrap from some lovely dot tulle (different from the
petticoat) which was edged with white pom pom fringing. The pom pom
fringing was a super large pain to get as well! I swear that all the
fabric shops in Brisbane keep a list of things that I desperately want
and all collude with each other to not stock them...

The bag

This is how my bag started out. I got it on sale at Charlie Brown for
around $20

I hated the ugly gold chain on the straps so I removed that and added a
rose to make it match the rest of the outfit. It's made of the softest
faux leather I think I've ever touched.

The alternate shoes:

I found 2 pairs of shoes on sale at Wittner. This first pair was my
back up pair, it took me forever to decide whether to wear these ones
or the others because these were more comfortable but they didn't go
with the dress well while the others were stunning but were half a size
too small *_*

Anyway these were $40 marked down from around $170. Before decoration...

After decoration... Notice the pleated ribbon again ;)

Detail shot: Yep I'm so detailed obsessed that I glued diamantes to the
buckles ^_^

The real shoes

Now this is how the shoes I actually wore started out... On sale for
$30 originally like $150ish.

After the Violet treatment...

They are so pretty but holy bajeebus are they painful! Seriously I
think I hobbled around for half the night but it was totally worth it XD

Detail shot:

Interestingly enough these shoes tested by deco abilities. I couldn't
use plain old epoxy glue because it was too brittle, every time I put
on the shoes a bunch of jewels cracked off. So I came up with the
solution of glueing with epoxy first and then doing 3 top coats of
plain old craft tacky glue. This gave it the flexibility to move with
my feet :D Totally interesting right?

The nails
I didn't get too many detail shots of my nails because I completely
forgot about them ^_^ The are a pink base with a touch of glitter,
white lace with ceramic flowers in pink and white on the very tips. The
white lace even has little roses on it!

Funny story- I ran out of nail glue so I had to rush and get some for
the flowers. They didn't have my usual brand so I just grabbed one
marked "Professional". Turns out what they meant by "proffessional" was
actually "rubbish and doesn't stick to anything". This lead to all kind
of shenanigans with little roses flying off and having to dig around
under heavy cabinets to get them back before the night. Lesson: Once
you find a good nail glue stick with it!

Thought I'd show you my other nails for the trip while I'm here :)
These are blue and blue glitter stripes with silver tips and
blue/silver diamantes.

Some of the small diamantes are heart shaped.

The jewelery

My choker, brooch and one of my bracelets were all custom made by the
beautiful Celeste from Little Waltz. I commissioned Celeste with a
jumble of ideas even before I had a dress and she made the most
beautiful pieces for me!

This was the package that arrived from Little Waltz. Everything was
packed super well.

The choker is pink pearls with a silver crown backing and a large
flower over the top. There is a little chain with more pearls hanging
down. The brooch has Swarofsky crystals dangling down in a vintage
metal base and a beautiful pink cameo. She also included 2 absolutely
beautiful bracelets with diamantes and little bells which jingle
whenever I move. When I wear them I feel like a fairy!

I would absolutely recommend Little Waltz for anyone needing custom or
off the shelf jewelery, the designs are wonderful and the craftsmanship
is just beautiful. Celeste handled all my panicky emails wonderfully
and couldn't have been easier to work with! The craftsmanship on the
jewelery is immaculate and the prices were really reasonable, I'd give
it all a 10/10!

The face
I decided to keep my make up fairly simple for the night with some
false lashes and a hint of pink eye shadow. Lip gloss was of course a
must too! 1000 Hour sent me some lashes to test out so I decided it was
the perfect night to take one of the sets for a test run.

This was the set I was wearing, "Wild Damsel" you can buy them at
Priceline for RRP $7.95. I used a different glue because of my allergy.

Of course here are some shots of them in action...

I found the application of these to be very easy, they held their shape
quite well so it wasn't a pain to reuse them next time. They were very
easy to clean with warm water and with the help of my heated curler
they were the perfect shape. I think if you wanted them more or less
curled it would be quite easy to achieve. 1000 Hour sent me a couple of
other products so I'll be reviewing them soon for you all too!

Shot to see the length...

Well that's a wrap everyone! I'll be back to blogging as normal now
that most of the move is out of the way :D

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] ACEO Friday!

2009-11-06T01:49:07Z

So this is a regular old ACEO Friday post but I also have to let you
all know that I'll be without internet for a few days while we move in
with James' parents so I won't be able to reply to comments until I get
my internet connection back.

Everything is a mad house here at the moment! I'm knee deep in boxes
and packing tape at the moment which is fun. I've got around half of
the house done but the rest looks like a bomb has hit it ^_^

There is row upon row of bejeweled bits and pieces in piles of "Keep"
and "Throw out". I went through all my hair and make up bits and pieces
yesterday... here is a snap shot of the carnage!

So when I see you all next week I'll be living with James' parents ^_^
Have a great weekend!

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] H

2009-11-04T02:02:23Z

I've done quite a bit of traveling in my time and I love exploring new
and interesting places. I try to make my everyday life as beautiful as
possible and traveling is no different. You won't find me in sweat
pants and thongs (or flip flops for my American readers), I want to
feel as pretty leaving a 7 hour flight as I do going out to dinner!

So with my recent trip to Singapore I thought it was the perfect time
to show you all how I travel in style. This is a compilation of tips
I've picked up on my travels and my "must have" items for along the way.

First thing's first...

Take something lucky
I'm not a superstitious person by nature but there's a story behind
this one! The day before we went to Singapore James and I were doing
some last minute shopping in the city. I was feeling a little light
headed so we stopped at McDonalds for some fries. As I was walking away
I checked my change and what should be there but a Singaporean 10 cent
piece!!

I was so surprised, normally if I get anything foriegn in my change
it's New Zealand currency. This seemed so random and fateful that I
kept it in a special compartment in my bag the whole trip!

On the plane:

Take some good headphones (and an ipod if you want to listen to *good*
music). I hate airplane headphones, they are usually uncomfortable and
don't block outside sounds. Also they aren't anywhere near as cute as
mine! Headphones are super easy to deco, even if you have little ear
bud ones a few diamantes will jazz them up nicely!

Keep hair and make up simple but elegant.
If you want to do make up, take a kit with everything you need for
touch ups before landing. Keep in mind that you might need to sleep in
what you're wearing. I love false eye lashes because they are hard to
mess up even in your sleep! On flights to and from SG I wore little
individual lashes on the corners of my eyes for a little punch with no
effort (review on the lashes soon). I did my hair in Kitty Rolls which
were comfortable, survived sleeping but still looked cute.

Below are some of my travel essentials. Clear zip pouch with make up
and liquids, letter writing kit, wet naps, face washer, mini sewing kit
and bag tags for checked in luggage.

A cute travel document holder is an essential.
I would be forever loosing my boarding pass or passport if I didn't
have something this bright to remind me! I deco'd this one myself.

And of course a matching passport holder helps too ;) These are all
made of suede so they feel soft enough to be used as a pillow if it's
an emergency!

A sleeping mask
Something overly cute suits best! I want to be adorable even when I'm
asleep so I picked the sugariest thing I could possibly find ^_^

A jacket
Take it on the plane with you, seriously. Even if you're going to a hot
destination the plane is always freezing and those little blankets
don't help. Good protection against the rain too.

Things to keep you entertained.
I take pens, note book, DS and games and well as my little UFO hand
massager which is awesome for when you just want to relax. I am a very
fidgety person so I take as many little things to play with as
possible. With this I can continue my Japanese lessons on the DS then
practice kanji or sentence structure in my note book.

Candy!
Candy is good to pop your ears in the plane and also tastes great. And
they are a good conversation starter if a cute boy is sitting next to
you ;)

Beating the climate bug

- Pick clothes that are appropriate for your situation. Fabrics that
don't wrinkle or require ironing are great for long flights but
synthetic fabrics are horrible in hot climates! On the plane to SG I
wore a cotton printed cord dress with a lace cardigan over the top.
- Fabric choice is important. While in the heat in SG I wore thin
stockings, cotton dresses and cardigans. Everyone was sweltering in the
heat, even though I was wearing more layers I was cool because I was
wearing fabric that could breathe.
- Layering is the key to being ready for any weather! Cardigans are
awesome, you can dress them up or down, take them off if you're hot or
add a jacket if you're cold.

Weapons of choice:
A fan
I picked this one up for $0.70 and added bows, diamantes and lace. They
are compact and can be invaluable in the heat. They can also be used to
hide yawns behind in boring situations, keep your coughs or sneezes to
yourself or whisper gossip to a friend ;) Keep it in your hand bag!

A singlet
Singlets are the ultimate versatile piece of travel clothing. Wear
during the day if it's hot, layer with a cardigan to go out to dinner,
use as pajamas or as swimmers if you're in a pinch. Cute pajamas are
surprisingly important, if you have luck like mine you'll end up
outside at 2am for a fire drill chatting to the other hotel patrons so
this is probably not the right time to sleep in the nude ;) Be prepared
for anything because holidays are all about going with the flow!

Sun protection eg. a sun hat, sunscreen etc.
The sun is mean and evil, stay away from it! No one likes sun burn,
it's icky. Don't stop protecting your skin just because you're on
holiday. 'Nuff said.

Sunglasses
... ok maybe not "'Nuff said"... These are only half for the sun
protection though. The other half is looking damn good! There is
nothing classier that popping on some nice sunglasses when you're not
feeling 100%. Hide the bags under your eyes from the 7hr flight and
look like a rock star ;)

A handbag sized umbrella.
These fold down so tiny there's not much of an excuse not to have one.
This one has an aluminum frame so it's super light and is perfect in
unpredictable weather or in place of a parasol.

A scarf
I carry a scarf and a face washer with me pretty much all the time. The
face washer was a gift from a friend in Japan, the lady's bathrooms
there don't have hand towels so most girls carry their own but it's
also useful for mopping up spills on nice dresses, fixing make up,
using as a small pillow and the list goes on!

The scarf is not only useful but looks damn stylish hanging off a
handbag! Did your hair get ruined? Then wear it like a 50's movie star.
Forget the hot rollers? Use it for pin curls. Sudden hay fever attack
and not a tissue in sight? Well you get the idea...

Other travel musts:
Gifts for the new friends you meet!
I didn't get to hand any of these little babies out because we were
just so busy but I really wanted to give them to the organizers at
Nuffnang. It's a really great idea to take something from your home
country. These little kangaroo and koala toys didn't cost much but I
hand glued a bow and diamante to each to personalize them. That way
your friends will have something cute to remember you by :) And you
won't feel awkward if someone gets you something nice because you'll
have something give back!

Slippers
You never know where you're going to have to walk in your hotel.
Whether it's for that proverbial 2am fire drill or you want to visit a
friend down the hall, you never know who's icky feet have been there
before you. Cute little ones like these only cost me $10 and they fold
up to practically nothing in your suitcase.

Nail repair kit
I am a big believer in preparing for any situation, James says I should
have been a girl scout. That's why I carry a nail repair kit with spare
nails, glue clear polish and anything else you might need.

Bags within bags within bags within bags...
This is important because it keeps everything nice and separate in your
suitcase, no searching through the make up bag for a hair band because
they have their own bags! Being organized is key to a fantastic
wardrobe, if you are well organized you can find all the right
accessories at a glance... and there are is always room somewhere in
here for more little bits and pieces you buy along the way.

Tiny cute bottles.
These cost $1.50 per pair and they are some of the best things I've
ever bought. This way you can take all of your usual bathroom liquids
with you. You can even get ones with spray lids for things like curl
enhancer. Very cleaver.

Business cards:
You never know who you're going to meet while out and about and if
you've got a blog or business then it's a great idea to have a couple
of business cards with you. Mine are double layered so there is my blog
card on top and by graphic design card on bottom. They stand out
because they are fastened with a bow in the top corner ^_^

Foreign currency
Don't go anywhere without it. Some places don't accept credit cards etc
so make sure you check before you go, it's always useful to have some
foreign currency on hand for taxis etc anyway.

A bag full of cables for your various gadgets.
Definitely important so you can charge your ipod/laptop/phone etc. A
power point converter is also a great idea. The most important part of
this is the bag, don't bother going searching through your whole
suitcase just grab the bag. On the way home the bag also be used as
carry on luggage for all that extra shopping ;)

Luggage:

I hate not being able to find my luggage at the other end. I'm also
paranoid because I've had luggage stolen before and no matter what
compensation you get there are some things which can't be replaced. So
if it can't be replaced, don't pack it. I also hate that all luggage
pretty much looks the same. Ideally I would have liked one of these
babies by Hideo Wakamatsu but as we only discovered how broken our old
cases were the day before we left, I didn't really have time to shop
for a new one :(... It's made my dream list for next time though, in
fact I would go as far as to say that this is my dream suitcase! (click
the image for the specs)

So in lue of one of those beauties we borrowed plan old suit cases from
James' parents. To make it more memorable I tied some old crappy
acrylic lace around it several times. James laughed at me but it
worked, we spotted our bags in like 2 seconds at the other end and were
out of there!

Super bright bag tags help too if you can't afford a whole new suitcase.

When you get home...

Unpack everything as quickly as possible otherwise you'll get lazy and
it will never get done! I've left a suitcase for weeks before because I
was tired when I got home and then got busy at work, don't fall into
the trap! It only took me like half an hour to unpack both of our cases
this time.

So hopefully you've enjoyed some of my silly tips and they make your
next trip even more fun!

Do you have some fun tips to share with me?

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue]

2009-11-02T08:58:25Z

So remember when I said that I'd have a surprise when I reached 100
followers? Well today I reached 109! How exciting! My surprise is I'm
going to start video blogging :D

Because I'm still working on some real videos I thought I'd share with
you a video of the fun Candice aka Super Kawaii Mama had while we were
over in Singapore. This is why I was holding back the photos of us over
the weekend. It's so funny when you meet someone for the first time and
feel like you've known them for years, I couldn't have asked for better
traveling buddies ^_^

So enjoy and let me know what you want to see in my future videos ;)

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] Just

2009-10-31T11:54:42Z

A warning that there are a lot of photos in this post so be warned :D
If these photos just aren't enough, I've uploaded a large selection of
everything we took over at my Flickr account. Hey it's not everyday
that someone flies you to Singapore for free so I took a lot of photos!

So starting on Thursday night, our flight was at like 11:45pm so James'
Dad drove us to the airport and we chatted before going through
security and customs and doing a little shopping. We were keeping an
eye out for Erica from Girl With a Satchel who was the only other
blogger coming from Brisbane. We travel in style baby!

This is a kind of silly inside joke but ever since we started going out
like 2 and 1/5 years ago James has been promising to buy me a mood ring
and he finally did! Hahaha guess what I'm feeling!

The food and service on the plane was lovely, we flew with Singapore
Airlines. They gave us little travel packs with socks and tooth
brushes, how cute! For dinner we had yummy noodles.

We arrived at the Link Hotel at around 5am and we were all so tired
that we piled into bed! Erica was only a couple of rooms down the hall
from us which was awesome! She was such a wonderful traveling
companion, we had lots of fun together! Here is our hotel room...

To give you an idea of the size, that's a double bed and the wall is
behind the desk on the right. My little laptop Edward lived there but
the internet connection was very sketchy so I couldn't post :(

After a few hours napping we met up with Erica, Candice and her husband
Craig for an... interesting breakfast. Erica ordered coffee with skim
milk and they brought her a cup of frothed milk. I ordered tea and they
brought warm milk tea like you would have with pearl in it... it was
very pretty though!

After breakfast we headed out to a shopping center and shopped around,
the girls were super excited that there was a Zara! We met up with
Grace and Dave here and she introduced herself by sneaking up behind
me, poking me in the back and whispering in my ear "GIMME ALL YOUR
MONEY!!" she managed to scare the hell out of me XD

I bought a pair of earrings and Candice bought me a shiny pink bling
ring, the shop assistants kept telling I looked like a Barbie Doll so
we took a photo together XD

Erica was sleepy so she went back to the hotel while Candice and I got
pedicures! Ah felt so good and so much nicer than the places here in
Aus! Woo for deco iphones!

After that we went back to the hotel to get ready for the awards, which
you saw last post so I'll skip to the next morning which was Friday. I
stayed up after the awards and got up early so I could pin curl my
hair. I was going to take hot rollers but they were too heavy so I
learned to pin curl instead. I was super happy with the results and
they lasted all that day and night! James and I met up with Candice and
Craig for breakfast at the hotel before the tour started.

Our first stop was the Mint Toy Museum... which is exactly what it
implies: a museum for old toys in mint condition. Our tour guide was
hilarious, this kind of sums the whole thing up:

I got to pose with a life size model my childhood hero Tintin and his
dog Snowy as well as Captain Haddock so I was happy!

We were litterally like kids in a toy shop amongst all of the
memorabilia! Old favorites like Strawberry Shortcake brought back
childhood memories and it made me sad to see the new slutty version
they're trying to pedal now.

Next we went to the Museum of Early Chinese Settlers. You should all
note that I'm saving the cutest girliest photos for a special treat on
Monday or Tuesday ;) You're going to love it!

We stopped for lunch at an insanely busy crowded pavilion. Everything
was so cheap and there were so many smells in one small area!

It was so awesome to be with other people who understand the importance
of photos XD

Our next stop was the Singapore Planning Museum. They had a replica of
all of inner Singapore in miniature! Oh what's that I spy down there?

ZOMG IT'S GIANT VIOLET ATTACKING THE CITY!

We stopped off for a spot of shopping but the museum of planning kept
reminding me to look at the architecture XD There were so many pretty
buildings, I wish my windows were rainbow!

The next stop was Merlion park which I was totally looking forward to!

We spent ages just being silly and taking photos, most of those will be
in the post on Mon/Tues.

Lots of posing!

Our next stop was the Singapore Flier which is basically a very fancy
ferris wheel.

The view from the top was great!

We were fortunate that our capsule was full of awesome people!

Group shot! James, Me, Candice, Craig, Christie with little Immy and
Erica.

It was such an action packed tour that Nuffnang had planned at this
point we took some time out to just chill with some cocktails at the
bay. I had a mocktail version of the "Sinagpore Sling" and it was yummy!

Little Immy was so adorable she had herself a bunch of admirers when
the day was done. Here she is with Martin from Nuffnang, she was eating
ice cream, too cute!

James made me take this picture of him next to the bus. Low brow
humor...

That night we went to a crazy shopping center called Mustafa. There is
no way to describe it other than insane. So huge, sold everything from
cosmetics to diamonds to cheap shoes to frozen goods to ANYTHING. It
was so hard just to find the exit once we were in *_* The lights
outside were beautiful though.

We had dinner at a celebrity hot spot (apparently) and out the front
there was the ultimate deco project... a motorbike!

I had the most disgusting grass jelly drink for dinner. It was like
frozen rice noodles in sugar water. ICK.

After a good night's sleep we were ready for shopping again :D Quick
breakfast and some photos.

We headed off to Orchard Rd for fancy upmarket shopping.

I bought a bunch of Japanese magazines, I was so happy! They are like
1/3rd of the price compared to Australia!

The boys played Wii Sports Resort while we all shopped.

Then it was our last shopping stop for the trip.... SIM LIM SQUARE!
Everyone had been waiting so long to get here, it's basically a whole
shopping center devoted to gadgets and cameras :D I wanted to get a
video camera (mission unsuccessful) and James wanted to look at lenses.
We ended up spending 3 hours there because everyone wanted to bargain
for things! Some of the guys got really good deals too :D I had a
hilarious experience with Grace as she put on her famous Singaporean
accent to try and bargain on my behalf XD The shop keeper was a nut job
and he was yelling at us not to leave! Grace's bargaining skills were
so awesome she even got $5 off a steam iron which was supposed to be
set price!

While we were wandering around waiting for the boys to finish haggling
Kruppy took us on his magical tour of the past and educated us on the
subtlties of the landline phone XD

Apparently his tour made him so tired that he felt the need to try out
a magic eye massaging gadget... hahaha! I sure hope he didn't sustain
any lasting damage ^_^

Oh and I couldn't help but share the signs we could see from the
hotel... Frog porridge sounds interesting! We were all daring each
other to try it but there just wasn't time!

After all that there was time for one last hurrah online and then a
dash to the airport!

Erica can testify to the fact that our taxi driver was the funniest man
in the universe! He was giving us the good old cab driver philosophy
and saying we should work less and enjoy life before our retirements!
We were convinced he should write a book.

At the airport we grabbed some dinner and did a dash to the plane
(almost missed it oops!). James couldn't believe there was a Burger
King, he was so excited! In Australia Burger King is called Hungry
Jacks because when it first arrived the name was already taken, so it's
a novelty.

On the plane back I managed to get some sleep, dinner was some kind of
fish which was icky but smelled good.

The best part was desert which was chocolate covered icecream bites!

James really enjoyed his hahahaha!

And that was our lovely trip! Now what you really want to see... the
loot XD
Here's the candy!

Things that I bought:

Nuffnang Australia had these awesome shirts made up for us, I love the
one I got!!

And look... FOREIGN BUENO! And yes it tasted just as good :D Damn
Kinder, just sponsor me already ;)

To say thank you very much to Nuffnang and all the sponsors James and I
made this photo <3

I had such a wonderful time, I wish it had lasted longer but it was
lovely and it all feels like a dream now :)

[Violet ~ Tales of an Ingénue] The

2009-10-29T10:34:19Z

Hey everyone! I've recovered a little bit now so I wanted to show you
what I got up to on the night of the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards!
I'm going to do another post tomorrow with all of the other days, this
is just about the awards night it's self. I had the time of my life and
it was so wonderful meeting everyone in person!

So on to what you've all been waiting for...

That night we gave ourselves 2 hours to get ready. I didn't want to
rush at all I just wanted to chill out and enjoy myself.

Everything went really smoothly. My theme for the night was flowers and
the jewelery that Celeste from Little Waltz made for me suited
everything beautifully! I'm going to do a blow by blow of the whole
outfit in another post because other than the jewelery I made
everything myself!

After I was ready Candice aka Super Kawaii Mama who we had been hanging
out with all day invited us to her room so we could arrive together.

All ready to go! This is my outfit:
Dress- Hand made
Petticoat- Hand made
Wrap- Hand made
Jewelery- Little Waltz
Eyelashes- 1000Hour Lashes
Hair accessories- Hand made
Shoes- Witner but decorated by me
Bag- from DFO but decorated by me hahaha!
Nails- surprise! Decorated by me!

Candice, her husband Craig and I put the last touches on our outfits
before heading downstairs. They looked so elegant!

Downstairs we met up with Erica from Girl With a Satchel, who was the
other blogger from Brisbane. We traveled together and she is just too
lovely!

While we were taking photos in the lobby of the hotel, everyone started
taking our photos too! I felt like a celebrity!

There was literally a wall of other blogger snapping us!

We traveled by bus to the event and around half way there Craig (who
was sitting behind me) tapped me on the shoulder and pointed outside to
the car full of kids who were waving and cheering at me! XD So cute!

When we arrived we were greeted with an explosion of camera flashes! We
all walked the red carpet to the official photographer and got some
shots done.

Aussie bloggers for the win!

Here I am posing with the program. It was a lovely souvenir! The
enternainment for the night was Alan Woo (a Singaporean tv celebrity),
JC Sum and Magic Babe Ning and the band Electro. I felt bad for Alan
Woo, he was doing his best to keep everyone on track but with a room
full of bloggers everyone kind of does their own thing!

We shared our table with the adorable Valerie from Dweam and her
friends. Here we are making silly Mickey Mouse faces with the ears she
borrowed from one of the fashion bloggers!

Valerie and her friends (who's names I couldn't hear over the loud
music sorry!)

James chilling with some water looking suave ;)

Reading about the nominees...

Our view of the stage.

Each person got a little jar of hard candy which actually have
Nuffnang's initials/logo in the candy! They were really yummy@

It was funny how many people wanted my photo, I didn't realize so many
people actually read my blog! I felt so much like a celebrity, I think
I took photos with everyone there!!!

Here I am with Ringo from Cheeerland who had super cute make up.

James' Pringles video CAME SECOND!!!! They picked the two best ones and
played them both on the big screen! He was so excited! Here he is with
the winner Jayden (who's video was super professional). James was so
happy to meet him!

This is to give you an idea of the number of people there... it was a
massive event! We didn't realize how big blogging was in Asia *_*

I was taking photos with Audrey from FourFeetNine when who should jump
into our photo but Grace from Living Footprints!

Of course Grace and I had to start taking stupid photos, Audrey
couldn't help looking adorable in them :P

The food that night was delicious, it was absolutely 5 star!

The desert was my favorite, it was some kind of chocolatey cheese cake
(maybe?) which tasted like Bueno... Perfect! And it gave me the perfect
chance to show off my cute new eyelashes courtesy of 1000Hour Lashes ;)

After all of that excitement I was pretty tired so I settled into bed
to wake up early for the tour day in the morning.

I had such a wonderful night, I really can't thank Nuffnang enough.
This was an opportunity of a lifetime and I couldn't be happier. Look
out for me next year on the nominee's list ;)