Designer Feature: Toby E Handmade Jewellery

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In the lead up to Canberra’s Food & Fashion Market and FASHFST in May, I will be featuring a number of unique Australian designers involved in these events. Toby E is a hand crafted jewellery label by Toby Eagle and has been worn by celebrities including popsta Kesha and tv host Amanda Keller. Wearers of Toby E Jewellery are able to 'express yourself, be bold and unique'.

Designer Feature - Gabrielle Everitt

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In the lead up to Canberra’s Food & Fashion Market and FASHFST in May, I will be featuring a number of unique Australian designers involved in these events. Canberran designer Gabrielle Everitt only commercialised her creations the end of last year, but her wearable pieces with neutral, soothing colour palettes and clean silhouettes have already been received highly favourably by local fashionistas. Gabrielle’s style is described as ‘women’s fashion with a rustic charm’ and ‘a subtle harmony of vintage and equestrian elements with a cheeky hint of nautical’. When I first came across her styles at her popup shop at the Lonsdale Street Roasters, I strongly felt all of these elements and also that her collection is approachable and straight forward to style.

Midweek outfit: Lemon sweater and DIY ombre shorts

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I wore: Lemon boat neck sweater (similar) – Reiss • DIY Ombre shorts (Or this one even) – Koom • Vintage Guess? back pack (similar) – Gifted • Boots (similar) – Zu Shoes

End of week outfit: Denim shirt and pastel leggings

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How to: DIY flower crown

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Ever since I saw that awesome flower crown on Lana Del Rey, I’ve been spending most nights making them, much like an 18th century Jane Austin style unmarried old maid. For me, the flower crown has got to be big, too big for your head, big.

I won’t be showing you how I did the crown I’m wearing, as it’s hard to get the flowers I used for it, but the technique is basically the same!

First, source some big artificial flowers. I’ve shopped around for good prices on artificial flowers and found them to be surprisingly pricy. You can buy bulk flowers on ebay for something like $10 for 20 flower heads. But then I visited the local dollar store, and found these bouquets for $2.50 each! I usually use at least two different types of flowers to make the flower crown look more interesting.

You don’t want the stalk, so the first thing we’re going to do is remove all the flowers.

To assemble the crown, you’ll need some flower arranging wire and tape. You can get these at any craft store. You can use any kind of wire or tape, but it works best if they are green. Also make sure you have a pair of pliers.

Make the base to connect the flowers to with two or three of the flower arranging wire, depending on how big you’re making the crown.

Using your head as a guide for the size, twist the wires together to form a ring. As we are making a big and full crown, make the base as small as you can, just big enough to sit on top of your head.

Next we’re going to make the stalks to mount the flowers. Using wire cutters or strong scissors, cut the wires into fours.

However, as the wires are too thin for the flower heads, bend over one end, flattening it as much as you can with pliers. Then insert the bent side into the tube at the bottom of the flower. Bend up any wire left showing underneath, and out of the way. For good measure, you can use a glue gun to glue the stalk firmly onto the flower.

Now we’re going to attach the flower to the crown. Hold the flower in place, then, using pliers, tightly wind the stalk of the flower around the crown.

With the next flower, places it as close to the first flower as you can and then wind the stalk like the first. To make it easy to work with, always wind the wire in the same direction.

Rinse and repeat until you have a complete crown!

Have fun!!

Storing your false lashes!

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Great eyelashes are expensive, so we all want to keep and reuse them for as long as possible. The challenge with that is, of course, a way to store these delicate little things so that they are kept pristine and easy to use, and most of all, doesn’t cost you the same as you pair for the lashes themselves. As a total false eyelash addict, I have lost count of how many designs I have at any time, and have tried all sorts of different ways of storing them. So this Cheap Thrills Thursday, I thought I might share with you guys what’s cheap and chic solution has worked for me.

So what if you just kept your eyelashes in the case they kept in? Well just a few of the problems I can name with this strategy is the tediousness of sticking the lashes back onto the mounts, the fact that the original packaging takes up so much space, and that it’s difficult to store packaging in a way that they are easy to find.

So the next thing you might have tried is one of those single or split compartment purpose made eyelash cases, like the popular Dolly Wink eyelash case. This would be great if you have just one or two sets of lashes. In fact the Dolly Wink case is designed with one big compartment for strip top lashes, and one small compartment for individual lower lashes. But guess what happens when you try to put a few sets of lashes in the same compartment together.

 

Yup. One black clump of indistinguishable fur.

 

The most challenging thing about storing lashes this way is that tiny lower lashes stick to the strip lashes, and once stuck together, it’s almost impossible to find them again! Of course, you could get multiple eyelash cases, and separate your lashes out that way, but then, unless you label each one of your eyelash cases, you’ll be opening each box to find the lashes you want on any particular day. And the other problem? Price. Dedicated eyelash cases like this super kawaii Dolly Wink one can set you back up to $7!

My solution?

Clear nail art storage boxes!

These are generally designed and sold for storing acrylic nail tips, rhinestones etc. But it just so happens that a particular design for these cases is the perfect size for storing false eyelashes. When I was looking for one of these cases online, I looked at the measurements of the compartments and found that these were the perfect dimensions for extra long Asian lashes like Dolly Wink.

With this 10 compartment case, you can store 10 pairs of strip top lashes or individual lower lashes in individual compartments. The dividers fit snuggly into the lid (as it’s designed to keep tiny bits) so there is no risk of your tiny individual lashes falling into the other compartments when the case is shaken. It also comes with one big compartment you can fit in extra long strip lashes, or store your essential tools.

The case is clear, so you can immediately see what’s stored inside. So you could have any number of these and would always be able to find the eyelash you want.

The best part? You can buy one of these cases for as little as $0.99 on ebay!!

It’s funny, but my friend once asked me how I can tell which eyelash is which when I’ve already thrown away the packaging. But I think you would agree with me, when you really love false eyelashes, you can tell! For example, my current case is holding, from left to right, Dolly Wink No.7, Dolly Wink No.6,Dolly Wink No.14, Dolly Wink No.8, Melliesh No.1, Dolly Wink No.1, Dolly Wink No. 10, Dolly Wink No.3, Diamond Lash Angel Eye…wow I have a lot of Dolly Wink lashes!!

How many pairs of false eyelashes do you own, and how do you store them?

Warning, highly addictive–felt miniature craft

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Apparently children ‘play house’ to mimic their parents. So then I guess our natural affinity for life-like miniature foods must be based, at some level, on nostalgia for our childhood.

What ever the reason. Felt miniature crafting is hella fun!

I first encountered this while I was living in Japan. I saw a felt cake making ‘kit’ in the 100 yen store and almost wet myself right there in the store from the cuteness overload. It’s surprising that I stuck with this hobby because I am actually extremely sucky at sewing! But felt is the perfect medium for someone me because even if you make a mistake the end product is still incredibly cute!

A few months ago my friend Serra asked me to teach her how to make felt miniatures to make into rings. Since then I’ve begun replenishing my sewing supplies (I had to leave everything in Japan when I left). Unfortunately felt craft is really unheard of in Australia, so it’s been hard to find some really important colours. They usually come in gaudy primary and secondary colours. To make realistic miniatures you really need the tertiary colours. I think the colours most craft stores stock cater for people making mundane things like cushions or bags. To me this is a total waste, because felt is really perfect for making 3D figures.

Ok enough blab. Now for pictures!

Lime cheesecake

Coffee plunger and cup

It really plunges teehee!

Raisen sandwitch cookie

Berry biscuit cake

There were all made using patterns books I bought from Japan :)

DIY - Re-colouring my boring shoes!!

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On a whim, my housemate bought some gold spray paint and asked me to bring out any items I would like to be made gold. So I decided to make a pair of gold shoes…

I bought these Basque shoes because they were hugely discounted. And they turned out to be the most uncomfortable and plain pair of shoes I’ve ever owned. I wore them to work once and they hurt my feet so much I changed shoes and kept these under my desk for about 6 months!

So on to the oh-so-fun painting process!

I didn’t want any paint on the inside of the shoe so we taped up the inside edges. It’s important that the tape is completely flush because spray paint is so thin and runs everywhere until it dries!

Then to further protect the inside, we stuffed the shoe with rags.

Spray paint is an enamel and behaves a lot like nail polish. It sprays on unevenly and then quickly evens itself out, so we let it sit on each surface before turning the shoe over.

Sit to dry overnight, and tada~

 

                          Before                                     After