Friday Favorite Links

– Proper and tattooed Victorian ladies in porcelain. (Laughing Squid)

– My favorite ongoing feature at Refinery 29 is the City Hall Weddings. I just love it. It’s always so sweet to just see the bride and groom on such a special day–and everyone’s fashion is so unique. (Refinery 29)

– I love me some Red Hot Chili Peppers and since I’ve always thought their drummer looks like Will Ferrell (or vice versa), this “long-awaited” drum-off between them is hilarious. (Funny or Die)

– Lately I’ve been liking the new algorithm or whatever is deciding who my Popular page on Instagram consists of. I’ve followed a bunch of new accounts lately based on some awesome curation. This company based in LA does beautiful leather goods. I kind of want this new Mod item–it’s like my dream wallet/notebook/life organizer thingy. (This Is Ground)

–  Bar carts are all the rage right now, but honestly, all I can think is having to dust and keep it organized. This cabinet version is such a cool alternative. (A Beautiful Mess)

 

-Cheers and Happy Weekend!

 

 

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:

 

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