SHOPPING HAUL

Yesterday, I went to the mall with some friends and I got to see Sherlock Holmes 2 again! :D I also got some new clothing and I'm really happy with what I found. The after Christmas sales are so much better than the Black Friday sales in my opinion. H&M in particular, has the best deals right now!

Photo credit: Glamfull.com

I had been looking for another heavy duty, winter coat for a while. I ordered this one online but when it came, it was a little too long on me, so I returned it in store, hoping to buy this one instead, but I couldn't find it in store sadly :( I then went to H&M because I knew they were having a huge sale. I wasn't expecting to find a fur coat but I thought there would be no harm in trying. Immediately, my eyes zoned in on this furry thing peeking out amongst the racks. I'm telling you, it was meant to be! Lo and behold, it was a beautiful, faux fur coat, in my size, with only one left, for 50% off too! I could have died right then! :D It was originally $70, and I got it for $35. That purchase alone made me quite happy for the rest of the day!

Buy here for $22.80

My problem with shopping in store at Forever 21 is my eyes have no idea where to go! There's too many things coming at me at one time so instead of actually browsing, my eyes just glaze over everything and I give up, which is why I much prefer to shop online. Regardless, since I was with friends, I decided I might as well start in the front of the store and slowly work my way to the back. I had probably made 3 or 4 rounds in the store until I saw this top. I love the little building, leaf, and bird silhouettes! Plus I've been trying to add more prints, and blouses into my wardrobe.

Buy here for $12.80

This isn't something I'd normally pick up because I tend to buy things with more color, but I figured it would be a versatile and fun piece to mix and match with other prints! It's super soft and I can't wait to wear this with the skirt I got below!

Buy here for $19.90

I wasn't too sure with this skirt at first because I usually don't pay more than $15 for solid color skirts. But I couldn't resist the silky fabric or the gold zipper in the end. I wish it had a little more body but I'm sure I can fix that by wearing another poofy skirt underneath. I hope Forever 21 makes more skirts with this same fabric!

Buy the socks here for $2.80

I also picked up this pair of polka dotted, over the knee socks. They were a great price and I plan on wearing them scrunched down with a short pair of boots, or pulled up all the way with some wedges and a cute dress. I got these nude tights too, I need to make a mental note to buy more next time! I can't believe I never thought about wearing nude tights in the winter because I'm constantly complaining about how I can never wear some of my dresses in the winter, bare-legged. Supposedly, wearing nude tights is a fashion no-no but I think goosebump covered legs look worse than nude tights. I'm not sure how well this pair ($3.50) will hold up, but for now, it will do! Sorry, they sold out online so I can't give you a link, but there were still a ton in stock in store!

$2.50 at Target

Lastly, I bought these purple, knee high socks from Target. If I had more money left, I would have picked up a few more pairs. Target has a huge selection of really nice long socks in a variety of colors and patterns, and they are all relatively cheap :)

I hope you enjoyed this haul post! I won't be buying anything for a while now but I'm pretty sure I've satisfied my retail therapy craving. Hope all my readers are enjoying the winter holidays and that you all got great deals! I'd love to hear what amazing deals you got after Christmas in the comments too. :)

OLD PHOTOGRAPHY

Merry Christmas everyone! I haven't been posting my outfits lately because I quite frankly, have not actually left the house since school got out! :P (Sad, I know...) My excuse is that I've been working on putting together the designs for my collection for my school's fashion show in March, as well as my college art portfolio. But I will try to get out more often because I actually was unable to remember what day of the week it was today. I think that is a bad sign. But for now, I thought I would share with you some of my old photography from my sophomore year of taking Digital Photography. These photos were part of our "Nature" assignment. I hope you like them!

THE SUN WILL LIGHT A SEA OF SORROW

Today, I'm wearing a faux fur vest from Forever 21, and a vintage velvet dress that used to belong to my mom and it's 25 years old! It's a perfect example of how fashion cycles in and out. I had seen a similar velvet dress at American Apparel for $44 so I was ecstatic when my mom gave me hers :) The cuffs are from Forever 21, the tights ripped on their own (my dog scratched a hole into them), and the short, leather boots are also my mom's. In case you're wondering what the string is, it's actually a piece of twine that I tied around the vest to fit it to my waist.

The nice thing about Finals Week is that we get out at noon everyday so I get to take my pictures earlier and the lighting is just so nice around midday. These photos were actually shot with a self timer instead of my remote because my remote battery died :( So I was running back and forth resetting the camera today haha but the pictures actually focused a lot more consistently without the remote- weird huh? Also I just now noticed that I have this obsession with talking about my camera. Anyways, thank you to all my new followers, I'll be making a flower headpiece and turban headband tutorial during the break for you all :)

DIY CHAIN HEADPIECE TUTORIAL

Make your own chain headpiece!

Hi guys! Today, I'm wearing a vintage beaded tunic that my mom gave me, a peachy/nude tank top which I'm wearing as a skirt (Forever 21, $3), and these Colin Stuart wedge sandals I got online from Victoria's Secret a year or two ago for $12.

I hope you guys like my new chain headpiece because I made it myself using only 3 of my old necklace chains! Here is a tutorial below if you would like to make your own. All you need are some old necklace chains, pliers, and jump rings (if you don't have any laying around, you can remove links off the chains and use those as substitute jump rings).

I would have taken pictures at each step while I was working, but I was afraid that the pictures wouldn't be clear explanations of what I was doing, so I drew some illustrations instead :) I would love to hear what you all think about this tutorial!

A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA

Semester finals are next week! There's a lot of work to be done in preparation but one of the pros is that we get out at minimum days, so I can have more time to photograph at home; and the weather is also on my side too! It's going to be sunny for the next few days :)

This blouse is from my Mom. The brown, corduroy pants are J Brand and I thrifted them for only $7! (Can you believe that?) The necklace is something I had laying around from Halloween 2 years ago, when I dressed up as a gypsy. Plus having just seen SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 last night (MIDNIGHT showing baby!), I'm especially loving the bohemian vibe. The costumes were great by the way, especially Holmes' coats; I'd wear them all. I'm a die hard RDJ fan and have waited over 450 days to see this movie, and I was not disappointed at all. I cried at some parts... it was just a romantic comedy, action, drama, mystery movie all in one. And while waiting for the movie to start, we went into the arcade and I nearly died when I saw the Iron Man pinball machine!!! What a great day! Even though I only got 3 and a half hours of sleep today, I was still riding the post-movie excitement so I managed to stay awake at school surprisingly.

 

 

HONEY

I love this outfit so much! I bought this skirt at H&M during the summer for $15 when they were having a sale, but for 4 months, I wasn't sure what to wear it with. I threw this on in about 5 minutes this morning; it's funny how sometimes the best outfits are the ones we don't put too much thought into. The beaded headband is a gift from one of my best friends, the cross necklace is one of the pieces of jewelry that my Mom gave me. The fur vest is from Forever 21, and was $21. Today, my sister helped me photograph, so thank you to her! <3

MAD AS A HATTER

This outfit is inspired by none other than the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland! I just loved his scarf so much and I had found this vintage lamé scarf at a thrift store for only $3! I really adore the way that scarves look when you tie them in bows; definitely going to be wearing them like this more often. The jacket is by Carmen Marc Valvo, also thrifted, for only $7! The print is just gorgeous and also reminds me of a jacket the Hatter might own. The skirt was actually my Mom's. It's made of a brown, faux suede material, and was originally a pencil skirt but I cut it shorter. And then I'm just wearing a plain blue cardigan underneath and some burgundy tights from Forever 21, to stay warm in the mornings. All I need to finish my look is a fun top hat! That would make a fun DIY project ;) I'll mentally add that to the endless list of DIY projects I wish to pursue in the future. Keep your eyes out for a DIY tutorial on a flower headdress soon!

I feel like my hands always look awkward whenever I use my wireless remote.

CHARCOAL

This week has been so crazy, there is literally a giant mound of clothing in the middle of my room of worn clothes, clean laundry, and stuff I've thrown out of my closet in the morning rush to school. The last time I was able to really sit down and draw on my own was in July and that finally changed last night! I really didn't know what to do for my next portfolio piece, but I always knew in the back of my head that I wanted to draw RDJ because he's my favorite actor. (BTW Sherlock Holmes 2 comes out in 13 days, and I'm going to the midnight premiere ;D) But I was always too scared I would mess up his face and never forgive myself.
I finished the drawing in 2 hours last night, but then I realized I made his face too short so I took another 2 hours today to fix little details since I started getting really OCD about making sure it was PERFECT. I'm planning to include this in my college art portfolio; it just wouldn't be an accurate representation of me without some type of drawing of RDJ :P Tell me what you guys think!