DIY Lucite Vanity Tray

I basically live out of traveling bags and suitcases. I don’t remember the last time I stayed home on the weekends for at least a whole month. John and I are either taking mini trips, I’m heading to LA, or some event or the other makes me vanish for another weekend. Personally, I don’t mind too much because it means we live a varied and somewhat exciting life. Though, it would be nice to just do nothing but read and relax all weekend–for at least three weekends in a row. Till then, I’m basically always half packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

This has only bothered me regarding cosmetics and toiletries. They always live dumped in mini bags inside a bigger case. Great for on-the-go living, not so much for when I’m home during the week and want to feel somewhat more stable regarding my daily habits. I finally created a home for my small army of facial products (I had to start somewhere). I picked the smaller products and kept the bigger bottles up in the cabinets so it didn’t feel like too cluttered or overwhelming. I really love the look of lucite or acrylic trays, but have found them to be unreasonably expensive. Thanks to this awesome DIY hack over at Rain on a Tin Roof, I saved myself a pretty penny. Thanks to a Michaels coupon, I scored an acrylic frame for less than $3 and found some pretty paper with gold dots to line it. I’m debating whether to laminate the paper but I just don’t want to lose the effect of the gold dots. You can buy the paper yourself, but a ton of other sites have free options that you can even custom.

Here’s a close-up of the paper. The tiny raised dots add a nice touch. I wanted to go with something simple.

Close up of gold dot paper

 

And here’s the tray with all my lovely products:

Vertical Alignment of the Tray

Initially I wasn’t thrilled with it lengthwise and had it out like the above. But let’s face it, all the products in tubes are going to be falling on a regular basis so I had a mini reality check and rearranged:

Horizontal alignment of the tray

That’s more like it! This was a fun, easy, little project. Next, I want to get a smaller tray with higher sides to hold all my clutches.

This was a nice start to a dream vanity project I’ve had on my mind for a while that also involves some Ikea hacks, but one project at a time. For now, it’s a nice little area of some fun girly stuff in an otherwise very simple restroom–got to use that counter space somehow!

And one more for good measure in all it’s Instagrammy worthy lighting:

 

Nail Art: Trends, Ideas, and Inspiration

Where’s the chase and when can we cut to it?

Yup. I’ve been awful about posting (and I won’t waste precious digital space apologizing and instead just get to the good stuff). On the plus side, I’ve been doing my nails  for the last couple of months so to make amends I’m just gonna post all of them here!

Heart Patch Nails

In preparation for Valentine’s Day, this was the heart freehand mani I did. Loved the way it came out and surprised it actually worked out. Painting on such small “canvases” can be difficult.

Essie/Lady Like
Essie/Miss Fancy Pants

Sweetheart and Lucky Love Nails

Simple design, but I did it so I could have something on both hands. My right hand often gets left out.

Essie/Mint Candy Apple
Essie/Miss Fancy Pants

Splatter Nail Art

Splatter nail art was something I had been wanting to do for a while. The result looks like mini Jackson Pollock paintings. The technique is so hard though! I kept taking mini straws meant for coffee drinks from our local supermarket. You have to swirl the paint at the end of the straw and blow really hard to make the nail polish “splatter.” It seems easy but I felt like I was inhaling paint all evening and it’s definitely a messy project. Turned out much better than I thought it would and I loved the color palette for this one.

Essie/Mint Candy Apple
Essie/Blanc
Essie/Carousel Coral
Sally Hansen/ Black Out

Argyle Nail Art/St. Patrick’s Day Nail Art

For Saint Patrick’s Day I incorporated shades of green for an argyle pattern. I love all things plaid and argyle so it was fun to see the design come out.

Essie/Mint Candy Apple
ULTA/Limelight
OPI/Thanks a Windmillion
Sinful Colors/Last Chance

Green and Gold Nail Art with Striping

This was a simple take on green and gold for Saint Patrick’s Day as well. Striping tape is a great way to amp up a mani and to create pattern without painting or drawing. It’s not a complicated design but I still found it elegant. Though, it may be the striping tape I use, but it doesn’t stick well and find myself having to peel the corner up and off.

Sinful Colors/Last Chance

Easter Bunny Nail Art

Easter Bunny nail art! Fun to do, but I actually liked the carrot best. I was going for softer pastels but for some reason the colors came out looking dark.

Essie/Turquoise and Caicos
Essie/Under Where?
ULTA/Creme of the Crop
ULTA/Maine Attraction

Floral Nail Art

Probably one of my favorite paint jobs yet. Took a lot of time and patience to get the details right. I was inspired by the floral Doc Marten boot  nails that have been going around. It was at this point I realized I needed to buy thinner brushes for more detailed looks.

Sally Hansen/Black Out
Sally Hansen/Lightening
OPI/Thanks a Windmillion
ULTA/Vintage Violet

Strawberry Nail Art

This was a fun summer nail art mani. I love the bold red of this Essie and how a simple design can still feel joyful.

Essie/Garnet
Sally Hansen/Lightening
ULTA/Limelight

Leopard Print Nail Art

Leopard Print nails are kind of the go-to design for newbie nail artists. It’s taken me a long time to do them just because I’m more of a fan of the print in small doses. I know doing a leopard print mani makes sense, but I just hadn’t been excited to try it. I originally wanted to do a mint colored base with the leopard spots on top, but I realized mint was kind of the standard color for this summer whenever I was painting my nails. I went with lavender instead and kind of fell in love. I was even able to paint my right hand! The design itself starts off not looking like much but as you continue to paint and accent the spots, it really does come together to make a cool pattern. The upside is you can switch colors around to make it feel fresh each time.

Essie/Nice is Nice
Essie/Hot Coco

Gradient Silhouette Nail ArtSo, we got a new dog who I love. His name is Canelo and I’ll have to dedicate an entirely separate entry on him because I could go on…and on. I love him but he chewed one of my brushes! I was left with wider ones so the detail work on the one above is not the greatest. Let’s just say it’s a “full-on Monet” ;)This was fun to do and just paint on but it was a long process as you have to do the gradient and wait to paint on after.  I had tried a gradient design in the past and on it’s own it’s still cool, but adding a silhouette scene adds drama. We live near the beach and go nearly everyday so it was easy to pick the scene. This was kind of my goodbye-to-summer look, but we are currently sitting pretty at 76 degrees so I’m mostly likely going to play around with summer looks into October. I’ve bought neon pink and green recently.

Sinful Colors/Snow Me White
Essie/Where’s My Chauffeur
Essie/Avenue Maintain

I think this kind of makes up for the lack of posts–it doesn’t really, but I’m making amends! Nail art is something I’m getting into mostly because it’s a great stress relief. Plus, buying new nail polish is like back-to-school shopping. So exciting!

Halloween DIY Couple Costume: Let’s Play Legos!

Candy is my second favorite part of Halloween. I know, what could possibly be my first favorite part?

But I love Halloween costumes. Love ’em.

I could gladly sit and watch people and guess their costumes (which makes the West Hollywood Costume Carnaval the best place to people watch because people go nuts!) I especially love creative ones that are either DIY or really original. John and I try to do couples costumes and this year on short notice did LEGOs!

Took about two hours to make them and all we needed were the following:

• Large Cardboard boxes
• Plastic red and blue bowls (worked out in our favor since those were the colors we wanted)
• Masking Tape
• Spray Paint

I would definitely get white bowls if you decide to go as other colors and to make the costumes at least a week in advance. We kept smelling the fumes from the spray paint throughout the night. Not unbearable, but not comfortable either.

Some progress pics below:

Cutting out the holes and taping the edges. Then, taping the bowls down and prepping them for their spray paint bath.

We went out to downtown Santa Barbara and it was fun seeing so many costumes. My favorite was an Ace Ventura when he pretended to be a mental patient and another DIY costume–a Loofa! She said it took two hours to put together and there were safety pins everywhere.

All in all, a fun night out. Even with the slight struggle trying to get through crowds as box form.

And just for giggles, some of my favorite costumes from the past few years:

Bacon and Eggs – Halloween 2009

Woody and Jessie – Halloween 2010