So thanks to ridiculous mother’s day sales I was able to get my hands on a new camera!
I’ve only barely found the time to test it out so far, but I like what I see!
WIP Wednesdays: New Camera
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Yet another WIP
I’ve been asked to make so grad invites, my entire idea hinges on one simple idea: I want to print in GOLD.
that’s it.
All I’m debating is if I should do my artwork digitally or by hand… I’m actually leaning towards by hand after making this digital sketch.
Manicure Monday: Magnetic Nail Polish!
So here’s me fiddling with some of China Glaze’s Magnetix Polish… I have to say this was a definite impluse buy cause I wasn’t sure about the price… but the results are pretty fun! I also used the DRK-A Plate for the first time. LOVE how big and bold the graphics are. More Photos to come!
Affordable Inspirations Part 2: Bridesmaid Options Under $50
Before I begin. Let me remind you of how terribly hard it is to find cute dresses under $50.
It’s terribly hard.
So with that in mind, here’s a couple places to look at that are near misses price wise:
-Target now has a line of bridesmaid dresses in sizes 2 to 28 available for 69.99, which is slightly higher than today’s target goal of under $50…
-Ruche has a bunch of beautiful bridesmaid dresses, some of which are barely above my set price of $50. (I almost wanted to bend the rules and make my target under $75!) All of the dresses at Ruche are under $150, with a good number under $100. Most dresses are sized S-M-L but they have a few that go up to size 18.
moving on to the MAIN EVENT!:
JC Penney is a goldmine as far as dresses go, especially if you like a more traditionally formal look:
Starting on the left, we have this lovely champagne colored dress that costs all of $15. Yes, you read that right, $15! Unbelievable!
Dress number 2, which is a lovely gunmetal number with a bow, which costs all of $25.
And, for $33 you can pick up this pretty off the shoulder number!
Next up this light and airy pink dress is $40, and if you switch out the gold belt it comes with for some matching ribbon to make this the perfect look for your maids at an outdoor wedding.
Want something longer? No problem, Penneys to the rescue with this one shoulder dress that comes in periwinkle, black, and coral, and costs just $35
Next up, this light pink dress from the MNG by Mango collection at JC Penney, which I really love, is just $40.
To round out our JC Penney pile we have this awesome dress that costs all of $35
Old Navy also has a few great options, they are not as formal as the JC Penney pieces, but they are comfortable and cute:
Up first we have this black dress, which would be perfect for beach ceremonies. $29.94
Then we have a super cute coral dress that would work great for a rustic vintage style summer weddings, with the ever popular coral color scheme. $34.94
My final Old Navy pick is this beauty, which is available for less than $20, just needs a proper belt or nice ribbon to jazz it up.
The last place I’m going to suggest looking is Khol’s, where I was able to find these three lovely dresses:
First up we have this tiered black dress which is currently on sale for only $21.60.
We follow that up with this super cute drape neck dress which would look great on the dance floor and costs just $25.
Ending it all we have this dress which yet another option for a rustic vintage style wedding, only this one is slightly more formal and less hippie than the previous dress. It’s currently on sale for $29.99
Well, that about wraps it up, see you all next time for more affordable inspirations!
WIP WEDNESDAY: Stuff, so much of it
I have been quite busy lately…
Here we see a mysterious art project, and next to it some things that I just printed, oooo
And then we have this, which is for a series of printables I’m working on 
That’s all for now, TA-TA!
Manicure Monday: Ozotic and some Decal-ing!
Last week is when I received my first Ozotic polish, and did I fall in love with it! I only bought two considering my stash is so massive, and I’m already planning on buying some other polishes. The ones I chose were 506 and 533. I have also been fiddling around with doing some polish decals. Every time I tried the tape manis no matter what tape or how long I wait for my polish to dry, they end in complete failure. When I stumbled upon this technique I had to give it a shot, and it works SO much better for me. Unfortunately I really couldn’t do the Ozotic justice today with my photographing, maybe one of these days I will find the perfect lighting I’m looking for…
I still have a lot to work on… Mostly my photo and decal-ing skills but they are slowly and surely getting better! Once I’ve mastered the polish decal technique I’ll post a tutorial!
Next time I’ll be featuring the DRK-A plate and maybe even more recent polish purchases! -Kate
Adventures in Organizing: Color Coding Your Knitting Needles with Nail Polish!
I don’t think I’m alone when I say I LOVE my bamboo knitting needles, they’re light and just slippery enough to let yarn slide but for things to not completely slide out of your knitting. There’s only two drawbacks is that the ends are made of unpolished wood… which come only slightly sanded so things like this happen every so often:
GROSS! The worst part is it will grab your knitting, while your knitting sometimes, and being that the act of knitting requires two hands, you need a third hand to unstick things. Then the secondary problem is if you keep all your needles together it takes forever to find your matching needles! It drove me nuts so finally I decided that nail polish was the answer!
I looked through my stash and found some coordinating colors to make them all pretty together. (Two sets of colors actually: One for the smaller needles, the other for the chunkier ones) Here’s a bit of a tutorial of how I did mine. First find your pair of needles and get your polish ready! (It’s ideal to work on a tiny table you don’t care about getting some polish on.) It’s best to use some blue painters tape, but seeing as my tape keeps going missing I opted for blue “painters”… post its! They worked just as well I just made sure to secure them with hair band. 
It’s important to get the edge right next to the end of the needle. Above I did a pretty poor job, but I remedied that before I began to paint. You want to paint the entire end it won’t be opaque, so it’s best to let the first coat dry over the end of a table and go for other layers after it’s dried a bit.
Above is a picture I took after the first coat, pretty transparent so I went for another…
Much better! Now I let the two coats dry over night, and add a third coat if needed. Make sure it’s no longer tacky before you use them.
Ahhh so much better! Now I can quickly find which needles I need AND they no longer catch on yarn….
Till next time! -Kate
Friday Inspirations: Grey Pleats with a Bit of Yellow
I’ve done a couple of these wedding posts, but so far this one is my favorite! I found the Bridal Gown on bhldn.com and absolutely adored it. However I couldn’t think of how it would look with other wedding decor. So I did some searching found things that would look just lovely! Completely changed my thoughts of what I would want if I ever got married… Enjoy!
1. Invites by Veva Steva 2. Flowers by Pollen Floral Design 3. Instead of carrying the rings on ring pillows, the ring bearers brought out rocks wrapped in ribbon. 4. Pleated Fantasy Gown 5. Geometric Cake 6. Custom Pleated Collar Dress by Ananya
Not sure which one of these things I love more! The bridesmaid dress is simply fab, it has pockets and is only $60. Sorta ties in with KP’s affordable weddings. Till next time! -Kate
Manicure Monday… I mean Thursday…
So I did my nails on Monday as usual but then there was a melty incident involving a burnt Quesadilla… They are back to new now, but I was so frustrated since I spent so much time on them that I didn’t get to making them all “blog ready” till today. I tried two new things out this week! The first being layered dots, the second applying a sort of polish skin as stripes. There were mixed results but I think there is great potential! See for yourself!
Bottom Coat: OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI? First Layer Dot: OPI Meet Me on the Star Ferry Second Layer Dot: China Glaze Passion
I think this dotted layering looks pretty cool, and could look even better with different colors… but onto the next thing!
Base Coat: OPI It’s My Year First Stripe:OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI? Second Stripe: China Glaze Passion
There’s a bit of streaking but not too bad! I’ll have to do some tutorials one day about these techniques… but I received some exciting things in the mail this week! Two Bottle of Ozotic and the DRK-A Plate! I’m excited to fiddling with these so tune in next week! -Kate
WIP Wednesday: just a watercolor
Nothing much to see here:
Living dangerously:
