All that glitters

After seeing these glitter heels from Topshop I decided I wanted a pair of my own, I didn't think however, that I would get enough wear out of them to warrant the £55 price tag; So instead, one evening  I had a go at making my own, and I'm pretty pleased with the results!

You will need:

One pair of shoes 

Strong, waterproof glue (I used builders PVA)

Glitter (I got 10g of rose gold glitter for 99p from ebay)

Low tack masking tape

brush

sandpaper

The making bit

*First make sure your chosen shoes are clean, I used a suede Primark pair - so I just wiped them with a damp cloth.

*If using a PVA or leather pair slightly buff with a fine grain sandpaper, this helps the glue to stick to the shoes.

*Mask off the area you want to glitter with tape.

*Using the brush paste glue onto the shoes and then quickly pour over the glitter, I did this over a lot of newspaper to minimise mess and save as much glitter as possible.

*Leave to dry completely, then brush another layer of glue over the top of the glitter to make the shoes water proof and reduce glitter loss.

*Lastly, once the top layer of glue is dry buff off any glitter that has stuck onto the soles of the shoes with the sandpaper. 

And that's it, it really was that simple, and actually quite fun. Nothing takes you back to your childhood more than messing about with glitter and glue.

I'm planning on wearing them with my 60's party dress, or black cigarette pants next time I go out. I think they're going to be super fun to dance in.

The Skies.

 

Blue base: Topshop Stolen Sapphire
White Nebula and stars: Barry M Matte White
Peach and Pink highlights: Models Own Fuzzy Peach, Topshop nice'n'neutral
Glitter topcoat: Models Own Juicy Jules

Using this video, found on one of my daily blog reads, I decided to have a go at doing some galaxy nails. I've fancied doing some nail art for a while now but to be honest I think a lot of it looks pretty naff, I don't really want pictures of food, or love hearts on my nails, but galaxy nails seems like a good middle ground, quite abstract and interesting. It was actually much easier than I expected. It was a little time consuming, but also pretty fun.
I'm one of those disgusting people that bite their nails, so when I do have nails I try to make the most of it. I was obsessed with nail polish as a teenager (Glitz and Glam blue was my favourite) and I've kind of carried through that obsession through into adult hood. I've just invested in a Models Own nail art pen so might spend this week doing some experimenting with that...I'm currently sporting Aztec patterns.

I ♥ We Heart it....

Just what I needed, another way to procrastinate away my time. It is pretty fun though...

Find me on We Heart it at: weheartit.com/tinytelegram

The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Daytime.

Last week I spent the day with an old friend, Bysha. We have known each other since childhood ans she has always been someone I admire for her bravery, both in the way she dresses (she was one bad-ass punk back in the day) and the way she conducts her life, her opinions are always so refreshing. She is one of those friends that even though you might not speak everyday, or see them every week it's never awkward, and it could of been just yesterday you last saw each other.

 Anyway, we made a little beach date since the sun was out. And did something very Devon-ish (made up word?), had a cream tea. The best type of cream tea too. One with endless fruit (!) scones, massive Cath Kidston mugs of tea, and polka dot blankets to keep our legs warm when the sun started to go down (it was a marathon length cream tea). There was also a dog present that vacated its bladder at a particularly inappropriate time, but the less said about that the better.

Having just got herself a little house to call her own I prepared a little house-warming gift. Nothing special. Just some cookies I made from a new recipe I'm trying out (future post) and some little bits and pieces which ended up, for some unknown reason, centering around a heart-shaped theme. I think she liked it, If not I'm stealing that mixing bowl right back. It also gave me an opportunity to finally use the snowdrop tape I got from Habitat before Christmas. I um-ed and ah-ed over which roll to get for ages but I'm pretty glad I plumped for the snowdrop roll and not the Christmas pack, limited usage = less cost effective. We are in a recession after all.

There will be more of Bysha on the blog on the near future, a little while ago we did a little photo shoot which I plan to put up on here. I just need to do the editing and get proof approval from the lady herself, I don't want any costly lawsuits on my hands.

Dinner is Always Good When it's Cooked by People You Love.

 

I meant to do this post a couple of weeks ago, but I've got all blogging behind. I always seem to have something else to do and I haven't had much time to take any photos, or do any baking or making. I'm hoping to rectify that this weekend, if all goes to plan (which it hasn't so far). 

These are from a dinner a party my wonderful friends held for my Birthday a couple of Saturdays ago . The food was so good, Aaron is a truly great chef (which is probably why he does it for a living), he even made goats cheese taste amazing and I don't even like goats cheese. Kath also made the room look delightful, she has such an eye for interior design, she made some amazing bunting from some incredible paper (I will take a close up picture of the length she gave me), put candles and lights all over her little conservatory, and made place names for all of us. They had also gone to the trouble of making a really cool play-list of all my favourite songs, which I must get from her as I can never be bothered to make them myself. 

The best part however was the cake, which was the best Birthday cake I've ever had, it looked so pretty that I didn't want to cut it, luckily it tasted even better (lemon!) so it was worth spoiling the nice icing. Needless to say it had all gone by the Monday.

Some people are really special and they are definitely two of them.

I had been told that the dress code was black tie so I wore my favourite Vintage dress which I found in Oxfam and liked so much that I paid £30, even though it is broken at the back. Its got some really delicate blue lace at the top which is falling apart in places, and a chiffon over layered, pleated, knee length skirt. I think it is from the 1960's. I paired it with a pair of Topshop nude,chunky heel, Mary-Jane's which in the excitement of the night I forgot to take a picture of. Typical.

Too Ohh Won Won

Kathryn

A Beautiful lady from the 1960's.

Aaron, Better Known as Goose.

Your Pilot for the Evening, Garry...

And his Lovely Flight Assistant, Emily

Me/Peter.

To Die will be an awfully big adventure.

And so New Years Eve inevitably came around again. I am not a New Year fan, I hate the whole forced fun element of the night, this year was slightly different though. We decided to shun the cattle market which is our local town and go to a friends party in the village I live in. In New Year tradition it was fancy dress and this year I decided to put some effort in for a change. The original plan was to go as Red Riding Hood but after finding out someone else was going as the same (and it was much better then my attempt would of been) I decided to go as Peter Pan. I've recently been studying the play as part of my degree and its been particularly interesting.

I looked up some old illustrations from the various book versions of the play and from that decided what way to go with the style of the costume. I didn't want it to look to 'Disney' and instead went along the lines of  'mythical fairy'. I decided to make panpipes, a fairy dust pouch, a headband and some leaves to pin into my hair. To make the panpipes I rolled up some brown card into tubes and cut them to different lengths, then I attached it all together with some brown felt and wrapped string around it to tie it to my belt. To make the pouch I sewed together two pieces of brown felt and wove some string through the top to create a drawstring opening. I also decided to tie a big bell to my belt, in a Tinkerbell fashion, though I think I just sounded more like a large cat.
 My favourite part was the headband, all I did was cut out some leaves from felt and glue them onto a headband I already had using fabric glue.
 Overall I was pretty pleased with how it all came out. My best girl Kathryn did a totally amazing job of my hair and make up (I'm totally useless at both), and I was warm and comfortable all night.

Tunic: Topshop
Belt: River Island, it was free with a skirt I think
Shoes: New Look
Tights: Bargain bin from a department store.
Nail Polish: Revlon Emerald City Matt Finish
Tail: H&M

Photos by: Me and Kathryn.