sunday DIY: the cute.

i saw this DIY last week (i wish i could credit it) and knew i had to make some myself.  i had all the materials on hand except for the mini animal figures so i knew the cost would be minimal.  there's one thing montpelier does not lack and that's places that sell tiny plastic animals... even the hardware store sells them so this morning z and i took a walk and picked out our favorites.  i wanted all woodland creatures in varying sizes and heights and wound up with these:

the things you'll need are simple: mason jars (or pickle jars or jam jars or anything you want!), your choice of silly creatures, glue gun, and metallic gold spray paint (krylon gold is my very favorite).

then spray them with at least 2 coats, although i did 3.

glue those tiny feet onto the lid once they are all dry and you are donezo!

 fill them up with whatever you want but i'm thinking of filling them with tons of buttons.  yeah!

diy balayage.

DIY dip dye/ombre/balayage hair. this trend has been around for quite awhile.  i remember first seeing it on ashlee simpson and drew barrymore.  see:

seemed easy enough so i gave it a shot.  I bought an at-home highlight kit ($10).  I then sectioned off my hair and painted the bleach on the bottom 2-3 inches.  I left it on a good, long time then rinsed it out in the sink with warm water.  I dried it then applied more bleach to just the tips of my hair and left it on for about 30 minutes.  it's subtle and i love it.  

NYE party.

the handmade photobooth turned out pretty great.  looking back, our apartment is just too small for it to be perfect but we had fun with it.  and that's all i wanted. 

the above shot is the backdrop which i LOVE.  since you all know i do everything on a tiny budget, i staked out some 50% off fringe at rite-aid and bought all they had in gold, silver and white.  this came to about $12.  i chopped it up and added sparkly gold ribbon i had on hand.  free!  then i made the props by printing images out, cutting them, adhering them to cardboard backing and added sticks. free! so for $12, we had a fun little addition to our party.  here are my favorite shots:

ps. i have another DIY coming up for you later.  inspired by maggie (z's sis), i gave myself ombre hair.  i LOVE how it came out:

photobooth backdrop inspiration

we're back from our trip to scottsdale.  we had a great time, we really did.   in all honesty, it was gift enough to see zach's family and spend time with them so i was especially taken aback by their incredibly generous gifts.  zach's sister maggie absolutely hit it out of the park with the christmas gifts she gave me.  tomorrow i'll show you photos of the gifts but my favorite of all my gifts was the polaroid camera maggie gave me.  it was her grandfather's so it came right from her personal collection.  i cried when i unwrapped it because it is so special. 

so now that we're back and looking forward to new year's eve, i have the perfect plan for putting the camera to good use.  my plan is to invite some friends to our apartment for champagne cocktails before heading to the bar but when they walk in, they'll be subjected to polaroid photos in front of a killer backdrop i plan on making between now and then.  below are some photos of the look i'm going for:

 this shiny fringe is actually my favorite.  simple. tacky. pretty and sparkly for nye.

gotta get to work!

shiny things.

as i've said many, many times, i LOVE glitter... all things glitter glitter glitter. i've been seeing it everywhere and most coveted it when it's on shoes!  since i'm saving all my money for christmas gifts and vacation, i didn't want to spend cash on something frivolous.  so i decided to buy some very fine MS glitter in gold for$1.25 and make em myself.  they came out PERFECT.  I had a cheap pair of boots, followed this tutorial and voila!  you like?

more wrapped presents!

love the plaid look of these.  

stick it to me

since i'm not in a place to purchase art for the walls, lately i've been making my own.  last week i gathered some interesting branches/twigs on my walk home from work.  i pulled out all of my embroidery floss and while we watched survivor i wrapped the twigs and placed them in a colorful vase.  well, wouldn't you know that today as i was catching up on blog-reading i noticed some blog-love for free people's recent wall/store displays.  it's fabric wrapped branches! i love what free people does with their catalogs, web design and store displays and i am so happy to see i was on point.  i think i'm going to add to my own collection by painting some branches with my new acrylic paints. 

Free People windows and displays:

copycat

if you thought i wouldn't try the lauren conrad colored hair tips, then you don't know me.  colored tips are running into "feather extension" territory but i still think they're pretty alright.  the first photo is lauren's hair, the second few are my hair.  let me know what you think and it you would like a tutorial.  

my version: