springtime plaid

Hat & belt - thrifted, scarf & gloves - vintage, dress - made by me, shoes - Urban Outfitters

Hello! It's been a while!

I know I've already talked about how much I love winter, and I do, but this time of year is always so exciting - spring is here!

I tend to get a wee bit sick of the cold by the last month of winter and find myself daydreaming of warmer weather, floaty dresses and picnics with friends. 

This year I'm determined to actually get my wardrobe sorted in advance, before the hot hot weather sets in, though I say this every year so who knows if I'll actually stick to it… That said I've made a bit of a start with this pretty dress I made - the fabric is a marvellous find from the op shop around the corner from my house that I knew what I'd do with as soon as I saw it. I used the same pattern as I did for my yellow flower dress (Simplicity 2539). I actually made it exactly to the pattern size that I have this time, which is for a 31 1/2 inch bust, despite my 34 inch bust since last time I made it a little bigger and it just ended up too roomy.. this time it is actually quite fitted (which I prefer). Just goes to show that ease is as much an issue in vintage patterns as it is in modern ones!

DIY: pet silhouette portraits

I completely adore my cats, Apollo and Disney. 

I also think the word "silhouette" is an awesome word. Seriously. Look at it. Say it. So great.

Anyway, I've been meaning to do this for a while. I actually want to do one for each member of our household eventually, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling with some cute silhouette portraits of my two favourite felines. 

You will need:

Photos of your pet(s), facing side on. 

A very good black marker or black paint

Scissors

Backing paper (I just used some lined paper ripped out of a notebook)

Frames

1. Print your photos so that they will fit in the frame you have chosen.

2. Outline the shape of your pets head, and a little way down their chest and back, closing off the bottom with a sloped line (it helps to google "silhouette portrait" to get an idea of the usual shape)

3. Colour in the outline with your black marker or paint

4. Carefully cut around your silhouette. I actually did this one earlier and I left some parts not-coloured so there was a bit more of an obvious shape around Disney's ears

5. Ensure your backing paper fits into your frame, or cut to shape if not

6. Stick the portrait cut out onto the backing paper, and put into your frame.

7. Display your finished portraits somewhere noticeable so that your guests can coo over them when the real things are feeling less than sociable!

busy weekend..

I don't have any real photos for you today - this weekend was such a whirlwind that I hardly had time to think, let alone shoot outfits :( in fact, I've taken today off just to catch up on all of the around the house stuff that just didn't get done (all week ugh).

But anyway, here are some snapshots from my weekend via my Instagram (and my boyfriend Eli's Instagram!)

I spent my Friday night furiously painting, gluing and stapling to finish our costumes for the 90's party we went to on Saturday...

I was SO happy with the finished costumes! Can you believe I only spent 2 nights on this!?!?

So Eli ended up as a box of nerds (or a nerd in a box of nerds), and I was Oblina from Ahh! Real Monsters which was one of my favourite cartoons growing up. The party was fun, and I was surprised by the amount of people who dressed up!

I had a brief lie-in with these two on Sunday morning before it was off to the city to help out with Eli's new video for his band Skyways Are Highways. It should be all ready to release by the end of next week so I will definitely share it here - from what we could see by watching the screen on the (incredibly expensive!) camera it looks to be amazing!!!

The intimidating, movie-grade $90,000 camera.. 

Front and centre and ready to dance! I think I'm going to make a couple of very brief appearances in the video :)

Eli and I - I wore a thrifted shirt over a dress that I made and my sisters creepers. I also tried bumper bangs for the second time and I LOVE them. It took me so long to figure out how they worked but now that I know it is so so easy and looks so cute!

Eli is wearing a hula-girl printed shirt from ASOS and Dr. Denim skinny jeans if anyone is interested :)

All in all a very productive, exciting and BUSY weekend!

make this - magnetic event count-down

As I briefly alluded to in my very first post, my boyfriend and I are saving up for a big overseas trip at the end of the year.

We are obviously SUPER excited about it, but since we have been planning and saving for this trip since mid last year, there have been times when it's just seemed too far away, too much money etc etc..

To be honest it was getting us down a bit thinking how long we had to wait (and the mundane day to day stuff we had to deal with in the meantime), so I decided to create this super easy countdown to help pep us up a bit!

The best part about this (apart from the glitter, of course), is that it's magnetic and so is stuck right on the front of our fridge where we can see it every day!

This could be a great way to count down to any event - birthday, christmas, wedding - basically anything that is exciting and important enough to want to get psyched up for!

You will need the following:

- thin cardboard

- craft letters (these can be bought from pretty much an craft store that sells scrapbooking supplies)

- Mod Podge or another strong glue

- different coloured glitter or paint

- stick-on magnets (I got these off ebay in a sheet, just search for "sticky magnets" or similar)

All you do is punch out the letters and numbers that you need, decorate them with glitter/paint/paper/washi tape etc. 

Stick them onto your cardboard pieces and cut to shape, then stick the adhesive magnets onto the back.

And you're done! If you wanted you could even decorate the cardboard and leave the letters plain..

I keep my spare number magnets on the side of my microwave (which is on top of my fridge) and just change them out each time we start a new month.

Easy peasy :)

(p)inspiration - diy

Some images from my 'DIY' Pinterest board that I'm feeling especially inspired by at the moment. I have so many images pinned on this board, I'd really love to actually get some of the projects happening!

Handkerchief Curtain -  I love the idea of using vintage handkerchiefs sewn together as curtains - it would make such lovely soft light in a room. Katie from Skunkboy has done something similar which also looks adorable.

Felt Billy Balls (Craspedia) - Craspedia is everywhere at the moment! These Aussie/NZ natives give a gorgeous pop of colour, but who wants to actually grow a live plant when you can make flowers that will live forever! This is actually something I should be attempting shortly (once the supplies are delivered), only I don't have the patience to follow the tutorial for those pictured, so I will be trying out my own method.

Cat Teepee - I can't even explain how badly I want one of these for Apollo! Unfortunately I don't have the funds to be spending $88 on a cat house, so I'm thinking of attempting one of my own. There are a few tutorials out there so it shouldn't be too difficult!

Bottle Cap Wind Chime - Recycling rules! I love wind chimes! That's pretty much all the reason I need to make one of these to hang out on my balcony!

Paint your Washing Machine - So many home appliances are very blah. Unless you can spend big bucks on fancy brand-name appliances, you generally have a choice between white, white, or stainless. So this tutorial rules in a big way. Imagine a floral washing machine!!!

Ice-Cream Pillow Case - Equal parts beautiful and quirky. I'm so inspired by this to paint my own (possibly food related) pillow cases!

I'm hoping to get a few of these things ticked off my "to make" list soon - Maybe I need to start a DIY challenge?

2013 in a jar

This is something I've been excited about doing for at least the last two months.. I found this on Pinterest (search "memory jar", there's heaps!) and thought it was such a cute and simple idea for keeping track of all the fun things you did or thought of throughout the year.

Also, Kate from Scathingly Brilliant wrote about her memory jar from last year along with a couple of tips and some thoughts about it all, if you needed any further convincing that this is an awesome idea.

I can't wait to open it up at the end of the year and remember all of the amazing things that have happened, and I'm thinking that a few of the little slips of memory will be a fantastic accompaniment to some of the photos I will put into a scrapbook for this year.