Chain and Feather Earring Tutorial

Because I'm still unwell and off work for another day, today you get a video tutorial I did a few weeks ago. It's been up on my youtube a few days and thought it was about time I posted it here. My little videos always seem to get a good response so I hope you enjoy this one too.

This is a tutorial on how to make my chain and feather earrings.

Its super simple! If you happen to try it out drop me a link and I shall post it here.

Daisymay X

Easy Peasy DIY skirt tutorial

Here is the very simple tutorial I promised yesterday. How to turn a vintage dress into a cute skirt.

Hope you enjoy and I look forward to seeing your creations.

If you do use this tutorial please link back to me and leave a comment here so I can see all your wonderful creations.

Daisymay X

Higgledy Piggledy post

As the title says this is going to be a bit of a higgledy piggledy post. Have lots of little things to say so thought I would put them all in one post instead of dragging them out all week. I have 7 things to say (I think!)

1. I turned this rather unshapely vintage dress into...

This cute skirt! I shall post a proper tutorial on how to do it at a later date.

2. My wonderfully hubby, Jon is now a member of the blogging world too! Find his blog here! He is slowly becoming a semi professional photographer so thought it would be a good way to show case his work. At the mo he specialises in Live Music and Me (don't think I'm very profitable though, lol) Please go check out his stuff!

3. I recently did a swap with Krystal from Village. Her parcel turned up yesterday and I loved it all so would like to say thanks to her for everything she sent! Its awesome!!

I got:

Stunning Scarf, Earrings and Necklace from Pieces

A knitted tank from Zebra

Boyfriend Shirt from H&M

Bow Tank from Fishbone

Plus a cute vintage esqu postcard

4. I am part of the Oh, My Darling, Dear Darlings Penpal exchange and a few weeks ago I did a post on daisy inspired stationary from Etsy. One of the shops I featured was Exquisite Inks and the lovely owner offered to send me some of the cards I liked for free!! So I would like to thank the lovely Amanda for her kind gesture and show you all the amazing cards she made me. Look their personalised with my blog name too!!

So that said I have just sent these to my lovely new penpals. I also recieved all 3 of my first penpal letters. Aren't they all fun! So thank you girls!

5. I have finally finished my Day Zero list. It took me a few weeks to compile it all. Day Zero is a life challenge. You set yourself 101 tasks to complete in 1001 days. I have completed 1 challenge already by seeing a shooting star during the meteor shower last week. Ok so the picture doesn't show many shooting stars but if you can just see the little line going off the bottom of the shot on the left, that is infact a shooting star! lol. I saw 5 or 6 in total and I wished on them all, hehe.

The next challenge I am starting to tackle is the 20 new recommended books. So ladies recommend away, what is your favourite book that you think I should read?

6. As we are on the topic of books I have just joined a book exchange! Yeah, I love reading so much so this will be fun. If you want to join just click here and sign up with Bethan.

7. This ones not so much fun. I haven't been feeling like blogging and taking outfit shots the last few days as I had to have my wisdom tooth pulled on Friday! It needed a little filling but the dentist said there wasn't any point as it wasn't a tooth I used, so she just pulled it instead! So I been in kinda a bit of aching pain and feeling sorry for myself quite alot!

Anyway that's all.

Please don't forget to Twitter 'Grow, Poppy! Grow! #CoachPoppy #daisydayz25 www.coach.com/poppyproject' to help my poppies grow. And keep checking for special prizes hidden in the flowers.

Daisymay X

30 for 30 challenge - Day 7

Here is my little outfit from day 7. 1 week down, kinda please with my progress so far. Im actually behind at posting outfits as have another 3 already done, may post them in one big post tomorrow. See how I feel and how much time I have. How are you other ladies enjoying doing this, or just seeing this challenge?

So Day 7/Night 7 as you can see

Outfit made up of 13+17+26

13. Dorothy Perkins

17. H&M

26. George at Asda

+

Peacocks Belt

Vintage Pearls (my bridal ones!)

Dorothy Perkins Earrings (£1 in sale a few weeks ago!)

Armwarmers (can't remember where they are from)

A simple outfit made a little edgier with my leather jacket, which I love!

A few people asked about my denim vest after my last post. I said it was DIY studded although you couldn't see that in the pics, so here is a close up on my DIYing. It isn't finished yet, it's a work in progress.

Some studding on the shoulder.

And some star studs on the front. I still have a plan to eyelet 2 rows up the back and then lace them with ribbon, like a faux corset. I was also gonna dip bleach it so it has a faded gradient colour, but I'm not so sure on that bit at the mo.

Anywhoo...

Here are my fav few remixers from yesterday

Gospel of Style

One Room School House

Proficiscamuri

The Trickle Effect

I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw this dress, is it not totally amazing? Like seriously? The colour, the flowing fabric, just everything about it is perfect! I want it, please!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway ladies. I have some Lancome, Nars and Eyeko products up for grabs.

Please vote for my outfit on Weardrobe, here, here or here. I would love to win some modcloth stuff!

I would also like to ask every one again if they could possibly sponsor me for the Race For Life. Just read my post here to see what I am on about. I shall be running on sunday and am miles away from my £100 target at only £22, which is clearly awful! If everyone of my readers just sponsored my £1 I would hit that £100 in no time at all. I don't like to beg but this is for a really good cause!

Thanks

Daisymay X

30 for 30 challenge - Day 5

Well onto day 5, this seems to be going fairly well so far, although I have managed to repeat stuff already. This is mainly because today was just a day of food shopping and clothes washing so no need to wear anything to smart, plus the weather has been horrible, all wet and windy so I need to keep warm and dry.

Outfit made up of 4+11+22+30

4. Bianca Nygard

11. Pink Soda

22. Apple Bottoms

30. Jasper Conran (I wear these alot!!)

+

New Look Mirrored Necklace

Plus check out these lovely ladies who are part of the 30x30 challenge too.

Holly from Flora-topia

Frances Joy of Mad Dress Game

Liz of LizzyPunch

Linda of Little Tin Soldier

Gee of Sock Monkey and Gee

Today I also baked bread! I love my bread maker and usually mix the dough myself but this time I was lazy and just picked up a ready mixed bread mix from Tesco. The flour smelt great so within an hour my whole flat smelt amazingly of sundried tomato fresh bread. Yummy!! And for 98p its the best loaf of bread ever!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway and check out my '7 Wonders' feature.

Daisymay X

My sewing skills are improving!

Most of you know I had my first sewing machine for xmas, and most of you know I have yet to use it. Until this week that is. So here are my first 2 creations!

A playsuit from one of the vintage patterns I won. It looks really cute on, but I shant be wearing it until it gets a bit warmer here! I am gonna make a few more in some other fabrics though.

Then I made this lovely new cushion cover for the living room. It will be a pair when I have time to stitch the other one, lol. Think I did a damn good job though!

That's all for today

Daisymay X

DIY inspiration for us all!

Just a quick post from me tonight guys as Im all curled up with the other half, watching some more Band of Brothers. Last night I couldn't sleep so went in search of some DIY tutorials I could try. So many of us bloggers want to try more DIY stuff this year so I though I would share my find.

And boy did I find, first check out Threadbanger. They have great tutorials and DIY ideas for your wardrobe and your home! Plus the forums are jam packed with creative people, ideas and encouraging talk! They also have a you tube channel with lots of videos and easy tutorials. I am so trying the home screen printing ideas, I've been trying to work out how to do this for a while because I loved screen printing in school for my Art GCSE. Expect to see some nice printed T's in the future.

I also found OutsaPop blog which is full of some amazing and creative DIY's and ways to recycle garments. (Photos belong to OutsaPop blog)

And lastly I found Chic Steals blog. Who has done a round up of all her DIY tutorials from 2009 and boy has she been busy. Some of her ideas are truly brilliant.

Hope you are all inspired to be extra creative and frugal this year!

Don't forget to check out my giveaway for an awesome Audrey Hepburn print from The Canvas House, who sent me a beautiful dainty locket pin brooch as a thank you for hosting this giveaway. (shall get some pics of it tomorrow for you all to see)

Daisymay XOXO

What I did with my first day of my week off

So today I start my blissful week off from the pub, yippee. It is well deserved after working so many hours on the lead up to the holidays. So today I slept in late (really late!), watched some Buffy (season 2), Band of Brothers (episode 1 and 2) and Top Gear, had a Pizza delivered for tea and made this:

Ive been playing with ideas of what I wanted to do with the bow since I picked some up in Primark (only 5op each). I have 2 white, 2 deep purple and 2 black to play with as well as 2 heavily chained gold necklaces (£1 each). I finally decided this was the best design. And I am so pleased with how it turned out! What do you think. The bow has a brooch pin on the back and the necklace chain can be detached so it can be used as a brooch as well as a necklace. I intend to do the same with the black and purple only with different coloured beads and silver chains. Would anyone buy one of these if I listed them in my shop (which you can find here) because I'm thinking of taking a trip to Primark to pick up some more bows, if they have any more there!

Thats all I really have to say for today as I have no outfit post as I have not got dresses all day! lol!

Oh but don't forget to enter my Audrey Hepburn competition here as it will be ending on Thursday night!

Daisymay XOXO

Alphabet city - D

D is for DIY Fashion

I think this is definitely an up and coming trend as far as individual fashionistas go. Many of us, especially fashion bloggers, try to make our look our own by DIY-ing pieces. I think I have found 2 main reasons for this. 1. So we can get designer looking pieces at a fraction of the cost and 2. So we can stand out from the crowd. For this post I have figured as we as fashion bloggers are the stars I shall post my favourite blogs which feature DIY pieces. That way I hope I can get you all a little bit inspired to do some or some more DIY-ing.

Ilse of Stijlkind makes some great chain jewellery.

Maria of Lulu Letty has a lovely little etsy shop for her very cute hair bows, that I love!!

Rascal Kosher of Little Rascal is a cute vintage inspired lovely and makes awesome fascinators and hair pieces, as well as managing to change children's clothing into funky items for herself.

MJ of dreaming spires and old car tyres is a really edgy dresser and has customised some awesome pieces. She is big into the shredded look at the mo and I totally adore her shredded leggings!

Maegan of lovemaegan.com is an amazing DIY-er. So amazing in fact that her stuff has been featured in magazines. For example the Christian Louboutin style shoes she made were featured in an Irish Wedding Magazine. I think they are amazing and I am so gonna try making them. I also love the ruffle collar below that she has made in the style of Chanel's A/W09 collection.

Some of you will know I also love to DIY, mainly jewellery, but I have found a few pieces of clothing that I think I can make pretty easily, so hopefully I will get round to making them soon. Here is just one of the items I'm gonna make, embellished socks!! How difficult can they really be, socks + sequiny bits = cool socks! yay!

And this amazing original 1920's necklace isn't completely out of the realm of my abilities, Thank god as it is stunning, but I cannot afford the real one. Now just to find the right beads!!

Hope this has inspired you all to get DIY-ing and customizing a bit.

Check back for the next part of Alphabet city or click the letters below to see my previous posts.

A, B, C

Daisymay XOXO

Match day madness

Sorry for having not posted for nearly 3 days it has been a bit chaotic my end, and worse luck the chaos is set to continue for at least another week! Its rugby match season here and as I work in a pub that is right next to the stadium it means I have to work long and tiring and completely mad shifts! Argh! So at the mo, I'm incredibly tired having worked Thursday and Friday night then all day Saturday for the match (14 hour shift=not fun!) and then the day shift today to cover someone else. And I still have to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights this week. And working means I don't often get to wear many clothes other than my uniform (dull, dull, dull) When I do get up the morning after my shift I'm usually tired and can't be bothered to get dressed until I have to leave for work again, unless I really have to.

Right sorry about my little rant just had to get it off my chest and explain why I have been all boring this weekend. But I do promise and outfit post tomorrow as I have already decided what I'm wearing as me and the other half are off into town to run some errands before our shift.

So while I was at home with my rents I decided to work on a necklace I had started a while ago. I love beaded necklaces and love to reinvent old ones. I had bought an old necklace which was a long strand of blue and white marble effect beads. Now I liked it as it was but thought I could do more with it if I took it apart... so I did. My new necklace is using these blue beads to separate strands of white, black and silver seed beads. It took hours to thread all the tiny beads but I love the finished product. I can wear it as one long strand or wrap it around to make a two strand choker.

I still have loads of the beads left so I'm thinking of making a bracelet to match or possibly another necklace that I could sell. Anyone out there want to buy a beaded necklace??

When I got home from the rents I was very excited to find not one but two parcels for me! The scarf, THE SCARF had arrived and I have worn it to work everyday to keep me warm as the cold nights draw in. It is gorgeous, so so gorgeous! The pattern is really fun and the material is really soft. I was also amazed to see how long it was. Free scarves often turn out to be kinda short but this one is huge and lovely. And in my second parcel was a dress I had won on ebay a few days before. I got it at a bargain price so was really please. Its from the 80's and has some funky shoulder pads. Its got a long-ish skirt which I am going to shorter as it is at the slightly unflattering length, just below my knees. It also came with a thick black belt, which is why there are loops, it was just hard to photograph with the belt attached. But I'm really pleased with it.

I've been thinking lately about doing some more professional type pieces. I have some ideas written down: like up and coming designers, new models, history of certain designer and stuff like that. What do you think, would you like some more professional articles?

Well I think that is all I have for tonight but will blog my outfit tomorrow and anything else interesting I find during my day out.

Daisymay XOXO

Vogueing it up!! And Teatime Jewellery!

I went for my very first proper wedding dress fitting today (twas very exciting!!). The amazing dress maker, Julie Mayers (from Silk in Skewen)has done some awsome sketches for mine and the bridesmaids dress, and found stunning material which is going to be perfect, so I'm very very pleased. But she also had some big exciting news for us!! Drumroll please... one of her One-of-a-kind bespoke evening dresses was spotted in cardiff by someone who works for Vogue!! And they asked if Julie wanted to have an ad piece in the December issue!! Yay! So my dress maker will have been in Vogue, hehe!! Excitment (again!) So after getting all that off her chest she finally got around to measurement taking. Although I still hope to shed a few more pounds by the wedding, she is boning and corseting all the tops to make us all look super slim and sexy. Here is the Pixie dress!! Worn by its rightful owner.

So here is todays outfit! (Not quite as exciting as the Pixie dress!! Sorry)

Red Dress: TKMaxx

White ruffle blouse: H&M

Leggings and Bangles: Primark

Red bead necklace, 2 Gold Chains: All Vintage!

Wrap-around Waist Belt: Matalan (came with another dress)

Worn with black pumps (borrowed from my mother)

Finally my Teatime Jewellery.

I don't think I have mentioned before but I love to make my own jewellery. I use new beads and findings or I upcycling or recycling old ones, the latter being my favourite! So when I was out in Canada this summer I found some rather cute dolls house pieces and decided they would make awsome jewellery. Today I finally got around to putting the piece together and here is the finished outcome.

Pictures aren't great as my camera didn't want to focus properly on them (can't wait till I can afford a nice new digital SLR!!!) Made from metal dolls house teapot and teacups, plus some brown 'teadrops'. I love the outcome and it looks so cute on!! Shall be looking for some more dolls house pieces I think.

Thats all for tonight

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Daisymay XOXO