Transient Expression

admin — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:21:24 +0000

Nearly everyone has colors that they favor more than others (for a lot of people it’s black, which still counts as a color). But most people also have colors that they never wear. For me one of those is yellow. It just doesn’t look good on me. But on that girl in the yellow dress in the middle row, it’s divine. What colors do you wear or avoid?

Top row: Streetstyle Aesthetic, Urban Weeds
Middle row: The Sartorialist, Stockholm Streetstyle
Bottom row: Streetstyle Aesthetic, The Sartorialist

Life in Photos

admin — Sat, 26 May 2012 03:35:04 +0000

Today I thought I’d share some photos of what I’ve been up to lately.

We stopped by Schoolhouse Electric the other day, mainly because I’d heard so much about it online and just wanted to check it out. As expected, it’s lovely, and full of amazing furniture and styling ideas.

Some genius turned this vintage Coca Cola drink refrigerator into a record turntable!

Steven bought this soap at Schoolhouse Electric, and while the packaging is great, the soap itself is even better. It has a totally refreshing scent, but it’s also made with sea salt, so it’s exfoliating. It makes your skin so soft!

These are my neighbor’s poppies. Aren’t they gorgeous? That color is so unusual for poppies.

For the most part our garden is pretty utilitarian. We’re growing strawberries, broccoli, cucumbers, and tomatoes, plus a bunch of herbs and other random vegetables scattered through the rest of the yard. This picture is from a week or two ago, and the plants are already much bigger.

This was our biggest strawberry, and it was starting to turn red, but then one morning I woke up and it was gone! I bought bird netting a few days later.

The prettiest part of our yard is probably this pot of succulents and ferns I planted. Most of the succulents were leftovers from our wedding last August that I found sitting in pots in my parents’ backyard, complete with moss that had taken root over the winter.

SlappyCakes is a restaurant in Portland where you can make your own pancakes on griddles at the table. You can order different types of batters and mix-ins. We went there for the first time last week, and it was pretty fun (and delicious).

This pathetic creature is our cat, Adventurous. She had (we assume) a little spat with a neighbor cat, and ended up getting her leg and chest shaved so the vet could find the wound (she never found it). So now she looks ridiculous, and we’ve taken to calling her poodle paw. She doesn’t seem to mind.

That was my week! How was yours?

Tutorial Tuesday: Turquoise Spike Earrings

admin — Fri, 25 May 2012 01:24:18 +0000

As promised, here’s another use I found for the turquoise spikes/spears I used for this necklace. I’m not sure what else to do with them, but I have a feeling this won’t be the last you’ll be seeing of these stones.

Materials:
Turquoise stone spikes/spears, top-drilled (mine are actually faux turquoise, made of dyed howlite.
Chain (about 4 inches)
Earring hooks
Jump rings
Wire
Wirecutters
Needle-nose pliers

Methods:

1. Pick out 4 stones that approximately match in size and color, and 2 larger ones of the same size. Line them up to create 2 matching sets of 3 stones each. Make sure that the tops of the stones still line up when they’re strung, since the hole placement might vary between your stones.

2. Cut a piece of wire of about 2 inches, and use the needle-nose pliers to create a small wire-wrapped loop.

3. Thread the wire through the beads.

4. Create a loop on the other end of the wire and trim off any excess wire.

5. Cut about 2 inches of chain and attach it in the center to the earring hook. Use jump rings to attach the ends of the chain to the wire loops on either side of the stones.

6. Repeat the above steps for both earrings.

Tutorial Tuesday: Turquoise Spike Necklace

admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:57:41 +0000

I’ve been wanting some turquoise spears for a while, and in fact I’ve had some favorited on Etsy, but when I saw these at a big craft store the other day I couldn’t resist. Turns out they’re somewhat tricky to find, as I hadn’t seen them anywhere else in person. And as with many of the offerings online, these aren’t real turquoise–they’re dyed howlite. No matter what stone they’re made of, I think they make for some pretty cool jewelry. In fact, I couldn’t stop at just one project. Check back later this week for another turquoise spike tutorial!

Materials:
Turquoise spike/spear
Chain (at least 15 inches, or longer, depending on how long you want your necklace)
Necklace clasp and jump ring
Wire
Wirecutters
Needle-nose pliers

Methods:
1. Select a long spike of turquoise that you’d like to use for your necklace and thread a length of wire through it, then bend the wire and wrap it around itself. Cut the wire, leaving a tail of about 2 inches.

2. Bend the wire tail into a loop, then wrap it around itself a few times and trim the excess wire. Make sure to make the loop big enough for your chain to fit through.

3. String the chain through the wire loop.

4. Add a clasp and jump ring to the ends of the chain.

That’s it, you’re done!

I decided mine looks cute over a shirt collar (and sweater–after a warm spell, it got cold again!).

Sunday Street Style

admin — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:23:34 +0000

In order to pick out street style photos for these weekly round-ups, I subscribe to a couple dozen street style blogs in Google Reader (not all of them update every week). As I scroll through the photos, I often get frustrated at seeing the same fashion-insiders over and over. Don’t get me wrong, many times I love the looks that models and fashion magazine editors put together, but they’re not why I like street style. I like to see what (relatively) ordinary people wear, people who aren’t model-thin or working with clothing budgets larger than my rent. It seems like street style blogs started as a way to celebrate the fashion outside the magazine pages, on the streets, but more and more the people being photographed are just recognizable faces who wear outlandish trends ripped from the headlines of the very magazines they edit or style. Yes, I can (and do) just skip over the photos of the same lady with the black bowlcut or the off-duty model/dj, but I just wish there was a lot more diversity in some of the street style sites out there.
That’s my rant for the week. Surely I can’t be the only one who feels this way?

Top row: Stockholm Streetstyle, The Locals
Middle row: Streetstyle Aesthetic, Fashionist
Bottom row: Facehunter, Stockholm Streetstyle

Friday Favorites: Spring/Summer Shoes

admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:09:52 +0000

If you ask me, one of the best things about a new season is the new shoes. So I tackled the arduous task of finding some fun spring/summer shoes for this edition of Friday Favorites. I certainly wouldn’t mind if any of these colorful beauties showed up in my closet.

1. Anthropologie Stitched Chevron Wedges
2. Loeffler Randall platform sandals
3. Ecote peep-toe wedge
4. Betsey Johnson sandals
5. Versus patent leather and mesh slingbacks
6. Sam Edelman low wedge sandals
7. B Brian Atwood suede pumps
8. Chloé crystal embellished ballet flats
9. Madewell patent gladiator sandal

Links I Like

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:40:31 +0000

I’m kind of secretly looking forward to running out of blush so I have an excuse to make blush from beets.

Aren’t these doodled shoes cute? If I had any drawing talent, I’d be all over this project.

We had super warm weather last week, and these Prosecco Rose Petal Pops sound like they’d be perfect for keeping cool the next time it heats up. Plus, they’re so pretty!

Check out these amazing hair braiding tutorials! Who wants to have a slumber party with me and braid each others’ hair?

I love these geode bottle stoppers SO MUCH. These are going on my “must make” list.

These twig garden markers are another home DIY project that I can’t wait to try. In fact I just might tackle it tomorrow, especially since I just found the vintage Girl Scout pocket knife that my grandma used when she was a girl.

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:02:21 +0000

I’m loving these images by photographer Benajamin Kanarek from Vogue Portugal so much. Aren’t the colors just amazing?

Via Design for Mankind.

Sunday Street Style

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:46:04 +0000

Top row: Glamcanyon, Hel Looks
Middle row: The Sartorialist, WDUGT Street
Bottom row: Hel Looks, Facehunter

Thrift Scores

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:10:27 +0000

It’s been a long time since I shared any thrift scores, so I thought I’d share a few things I found lately. For a while I wasn’t thrifting at all, but when we moved into a new house we found there were a lot of things that we were missing. So I’ve been on the hunt again, and here are some of my finds:
1. A cute little canister. In case you can’t quite make it out, it says, “GREASE” on the side. You know, for all that grease people used to cook with (and re-use). Gross! I’m using it for cotton balls in my bathroom.

2. I can’t resist things with deer on them. This guy is part of an embroidered table runner. He has a twin on the other end, and yep, he’s making the same face. When I found this it had a few stains, but oxygen bleach, lemon juice, and sunlight worked wonders.

3. I’d been on the search for colored denim, so I was pretty happy to find the purple jeans I wore in my last post.

4. One of my favorite scores, a vintage Coach purse. For some reason there were several of them at the Goodwill that day, all pretty reasonably priced. It was kind of a struggle not to bring any more home, but I think I got the best of the bunch.

Have you thrifted anything awesome lately? Please share!