Saturday, August 30, 2014

Mexican Skirt, Strawberries Sweater, Headscarves and Spring!


The flowers have popped open so Spring must not be too far away!  Thank goodness. 
I am so over how cold this Winter has been!


50's embroidered Sweater: eBay
50's Mexican skirt: Long Gone and Back, Shepparton
Shoes: Miss L Fire
50's headscarf: Op Shopped

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Going Bananas!



 
Cause bananas are yummy.
 
3 coats each of: Face of Australis Easy Peasey Lemon Squeezy, Color Club Almost Famous and China Glaze Sun-Kissed.  Stamped with Cult Nails Fetish with a Cheeky plate. 

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Saving Money Buy DIY: Reupholstering Dining Chairs

I have mentioned a few times that we recently renovated our house.  We needed an over haul on the bathroom, the house needed repainting through out, Miss 13's bedroom needed updating, all ceiling lights needed replacing to energy efficient ones, and most of the furniture *had* to go.  This obviously all costs a lot of money.  So one way to dramatically cut our final costs was to do everything ourselves! 
 
 Yes, our weekends disappeared into a haze of jack hammering, being paint splattered and chaos, and it took about 6 months, but we literally saved tens of thousands of dollars.  We estimated we saved $30,000 just in the bathroom alone.  You can see bathroom pics HERE.
 
 
One of the recent updos was replacing our out dated dining table wooden chairs with something more retro inspired.  So I purchased the above Eames replicas online.  (Ignore the messy kitchen).  I loved them when they arrived but unfortunately they were complete and utter duds.

To start with, the white seat is actually an ultra thin covering of white paint over black.  So you just have to tap these the wrong way with a nail and the white comes off. 
Second, mess doesn't really wipe off them.  You would think being plastic they would be just wipe downs,  but NOPE.
Thirdly, it won't take a weigh over 80kg.  No where on the website does it actually state this.  So my husband and a couple of other visitors actually split and cracked them.

COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY and I was so upset!  What to do??  Well, buy chairs that were made to LAST forever and are still rock strong 50 years later.  So I searched for a few months before finally finding a matching set of 8 Chiswell teak chairs from the 1960's.

 
But they were an icky blechhy color! 

No problem, I'll just get them re covered by an upholsterer!  3 quotes later and I can't get a price for under $120 a chair!  $120 a CHAIR!  And I even picked a plain white vinyl which was the cheapest.

We had zero experience recovering anything and had no idea how to do it.  But my Mum said it was easy....so it must be easy!  A quick search on ebay got me more than enough white vinyl for a total of $87 delivered.  Dear husband already had a staple gun but we needed an extra $11 worth of staples from the hardware store.......and we got into it.

 
He is so cute.


I'm not going to lie.  It was a witch with a capital B of a job.  The back rests are curved and we had serious meltdowns trying to get that vinyl crease free across the curve.  I still shudder thinking about it.  It would have helped had we actually KNOWN what we were supposed to be doing.  And yes, by the end of chair number 7 we had got the hang of it and it looked pretty darn good! It took us 2 days but we saved $900.


The finished 8 chairs!
I still prefer the look of my pathetic Eames plastic ones, but these are so much more comfy....and SAFE to sit on.
 
Anybody else tackled the world of DIY upholstering?

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Kissy Kiss with OPI Bubblebath




OPI Bubblebath for the base, Revlon Red for my ring finger and Konad Red for the stamping.  Finished with Seche Vite Quick Dry, as always.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Ice-Cream Nails


I loved these nails and I thought I was so clever! 

Also big tip:  When posting your nails on Instagram, always hashtag the brand you are using.  I hashtagged #Illamasqua, they reposted them and I gained an insane amount of followers overnight!  I just wish my photo got over 3,000 likes like theirs did!  Check me out, I am @konadlicious.


I used Illamasqua Load for my Ice cream base, Ulta3 Earl Grey for the cones and cross hatched stamped Konad Brown.  I then placed Sportsgirl glitter for the sprinkles.  I got the drip effect by using Dead Set Babes drip decals.  Finished with a coat of Seche QD.


Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Wheels and Dollbaby Dita Cardigan


Who else has been looking at these blasted cardigans for absolutely ages and really, very badly wanted one?  Me too. 
So when ebay sent me a 25% off coupon for one day only, and then the eBay seller who is selling the Dita cardigans decided to have a sale on the exact same day.....well, it was kind of meant to be....right?
 
 
Now that I own one, the novelty wore off pretty quickly.  I probably ordered a size too snug and while it fits OK, I am used to a more loose fitting cardigan.  The buttons only *just* button up and I am always very self conscious about my boobies being contained.
 
The cardi is also very thin and elasticated.  I thought it would be a thicker weave and slightly more warm.....but that's the price you pay for ordering blindly on the Internet.  Overall I am happy with my purchase but I am very, very glad I did not pay full price for it.
 


 
Dita Cardi: Wheels and Dollbaby
Skirt: Pinup Girl Clothing
Shoes: Hong Kong Ladies Market
Lipstick: MAC Riri Woo
Glitter earrings: Luxulite, Etsy

Monday, August 18, 2014

Playing with Neons, Crackles & Decals


This is not the best I have ever done.  The color is garish, the crackle is a bit blechhhh and the whole job was a bit amateurish.  But there was something about it that made me leave it on for 3 days.  I kept looking at the little line the crackle did around the decals and thought it looked rather cool. 



The base was Color Club's Peppermint Twist from the Poptastic collection, crackle from OPI and the chevron decals from Dead Set Babes.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

FNUG Futuristica



FNUG Futuristica with China Glaze Liquid Crystal on my ring finger.  I stuck some pale blue rhinestones on then finished with Seche Vite top coat.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

FNUG Psychedelic


In keeping with my self imposed ban on purchasing any more new nail polish, I am digging through and pulling out some beauties that I've only worn once.  How could I only have worn something this gorgeous only once?


This was 3 coats of FNUG Psychedelic.


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Irregular Choice BAMBI Deer Shoes!



So.  I have Bambi shoes.  Yep.
 
This recent shoe purchase was really a no brainer.  As soon as I saw Aberrant Sole's Instagram photo of them I just blindly tapped on their website and had them purchased within 2 minutes flat. 
Price?  I can't even remember seeing one.....the price was irrelevant.



 
Onto the shoe review.  The heel is higher than my other novelty Irregular Choice shoes, and probably my highest heeled shoe I own.  Because this heel is so chunky and wide, walking in them is not difficult.  You girls who are used to stiletto platforms will have no trouble with these at all.

The color is a baby blue, they are adorned with Bambi fabric and have cherries attached to the front.  These shoes cover everything I go nuts over....the color, the fabric and even cherries.  The placement of the Bambi's on the fabric is also even with both shoes looking similar, which is fabulous.

When I first pulled them out of the box I did have a panic as they looked so teeny tiny in size.  Because the heel is quite high and wide, it makes the shoe itself look small.  I am a standard size 37 and these did fit fine after wearing them in for a little while.  I write after 'a little while' because the right shoe was initially about a size too small, yet the left shoe fit fine.  I was quite perplexed as they obviously had not been used for a display purpose as the shoe is a website only sale.  After wearing them around the house for about half an hour, the right shoe did stretch and felt fine. 
Thank goodness.

As for a prolonged fit, the Velcro strap does wiggle slightly loose after a little while and I did need to stop and re-Velcro occasionally.  This happens to my IC Cat shoes too.


The inside is a holographic velveteen!  Being a lover of all things holographic I was very pleased!


And IC have detailed a pastel colored Griffin as their artwork of choice for this Season's heels and shoe box.  I display my IC shoe boxes and use them as hat boxes.  They are just too pretty to put inside the wardrobe.


Irregular Choice released 3 styles in the Bambi heels last week.  Mine are called 'Cherry Deer'.  If you can't find your size do not fret.  Modcloth usually get stocks of the novelty IC shoes as well as Aberrant Sole currently selling them.  I am not sure if IC plan on restocking....BUT....a little birdie told me there are more styles to come so keep your eyes peeled!


Shoes: Irregular Choice via Aberrant Sole
Cardi & Dress: Retail
Cherries Necklace: Handmade 

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Snow Calls For A Fabulous Leopard Coat



It never snows in my hometown.  It can get to MINUS WHATEVER degrees and freeze your boobies off but it won't snow.

But the other day it DID snow!  Well, more like slushy sleet actually, but it was SNOW nonetheless!  It was very exciting and I needed it as my Facebook status immediately!


 

See?  Snow!!
 
60's Maxi Leopard Coat: Garage Sale
Boots: RMK 10 years ago
60's Pop dress: eBay
Bakelite Mahjong bracelet: eBay
Glass rings: Made by Me and a friend.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Drip Drip Manicure


I'm still loving the Color Club Popstastics this week, in Mrs Robinson and Edie.  I think I am needing shots of neon in these dreary weather days...it's an average of ZERO degrees here!


The drip decals are from Dead Set Babes.  They are made from vinyl making them super smooth and easy to apply and remove.  I love them!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

New Hair and a Wiggle Dress

 

I went Violet last week but you can't really tell.  Only in full sunlight my hair looks Purple.  Which is probably just as well.  I don't like Purple.  I have absolutely no idea why I told the hairdresser to put a Violet through it.


 
And here is a bonus butt shot for you all:
 

50's vintage Wiggle Dress: Ebay
Shoes: Wittner

Monday, August 4, 2014

Neon Lightning Bolts with Deadset Babes Decals


The Australian distributor of Color Club announced their sellout of the brand recently, and discounted everything by 80%.  So, naturally, I forgot about my self polish ban for an hour and stocked up on all my favourite CC colors.  Which mainly was the Popstastic collection.  I use the Poptastics regularly, the colors are amazingly awesome.  The 18 color collection was reduced to $20!




I got this manicure with Deadset Babes decals.  Deadset also recently had a sale and I stocked up on squillions of decals for 25% off.  Make sure you sign up for sale notifications.

Simply, this was a white base manicure which was left to completely dry, then lightning bolt decals were draped onto the nails, color each side with a different colored Neon, whip off the decal, wait to dry then finish with a top coat.  Easy peasy!