Playgrounds & Lollipops - Pleats & Animals

{Leopard umbrella: giveaway from my St. John days; Leather Jacket: Nordstrom Savvy department; T-Shirt: James Perse; Pleated skirt: Trouve; Snakeskin Shoes: Stuart Weitzman; Jewelry: Forever 21 & Vintage}

Adding some real glamour to my day because after Monday's events, a dose of the real thing is in order.  Fall has officially arrived in Southern California and I couldn't be happier.  Have a lovely week friends.  

Linking up to Bloggers Do It Better Animal Print Challenge , Amber for Real Girl Glam  and of course Lindsey for WIWW

Make Your Own Arm Party - DIY Time!

It was fun putting together all the arm party looks I've sported in yesterday's post, and I'm now even more excited to send out my friendship bracelets to my swap partners.  I hope it inspired you to get creative with your arm gear and have a party of your own.  If so, I've created 3 new friendship bracelet/arm party tutorials to share with you all.  The best thing about these bracelets is that they're easy, cheap and fast to make.  Feels so good to have some creative juices flowing again, but I've gotta tell you my fingers are sore!  I think I'll be putting the bracelet making supplies away for a little bit and give my fingers a rest.  In the meantime, here's some ideas to help you get your party started.

For this one all you'll need is your leftover chain link & cording from this tutorial.  Cut 2 pieces of cording (per bracelet) about 12" in length so that you have plenty of room to work with.  FYI, total cost breakdown for this project was less than $6 and so far I've made 6 bracelets with my supplies!  Total time spent on each bracelet is less than 5 minutes.

 

This bracelet is my personal favorite because I was finally able to find a way to use these geometric square beads I picked up a while ago.  This bracelet is just as simple as the first one, requiring you to just do some knotting.  You'll need about 22" of cording and some cool beads, but make sure the bead opening is large enough to fit the cording through.  I gave mine a cleaner look by attaching a lobster claw & jump ring closure to the end, but this is purely optional.  You can just use the same loop and knot technique as seen in tutorial #1 above.  Total time spent on each bracelet was about 15 minutes and total cost was less than $3 each.

 

Using the same wrapping technique from this tutorial, I added these round beads to some leather cording for more of a clean look.  You'll just need some beads, embroidery floss and leather cording.  Of course you can just as well use the cording from the previous tutorials, but I love the color and texture of the leather against the smooth & shiny beads.  I cut my cording & embroidery floss 24" long.  Total time spent on this bracelet was about 20 minutes (it takes a little longer to carefully wrap the string of beads) and total cost was less than $3 each.

So which one is your favorite and are you most likely to try?  I made a total of 8 bracelets in less than 2 hours, and that's with me taking photos along the way, so you can easily have a few of these done in a weekend afternoon.  I hope you enjoyed these DIY's and please let me know if you try any!  

Linking up to Today's Creative Blog Get Your Craft On Tuesday

Arm Party - The Best Of

What a difference an adjustment in attitude makes!  After a few weeks of being unmotivated and uninspired, it seems yesterday's post helped me spin my attitude around a bit.  I've had bracelets on my mind, with Jen's Friendship Bracelet Swap & the Bloggers Do It Better Arm Party challenge coming up, but I've been paralyzed in being able to create anything.  Well it seems last night creativity sparked and while sitting down to watch a little RHONY Reunion part deux, I came up with about 5 new bracelet ideas; pictures and tutorials coming up tomorrow! *UPDATED TO ADD TUTORIAL LINK HERE!!

I also started looking through my pictures and found plenty of arm party inspiration shots that I've already worn in the past few months.  So instead of creating a whole new look for the BDIB challenge, I decided to just gather up the best of the best for a little look at all the ways I've been having an arm party lately.  What is an arm party you ask?  Really it's just the idea of throwing on a stack of bracelets, sometimes worn with your watch to create a multilayer, textured way of accessorizing.  So here we go...

I wore this look with a very lady-like jacket seen here so I didn't want to get too crazy with the arm party.  I'm wearing bracelets from Forever 21 and a Michelle watch.

Pretty much the same look as above, but I added the sequin leather wrap cuff to glitz up the camo.  All bracelets from Forever 21 and watch by Michelle.

Ahh, my first bracelet tutorial pieces that I love so much!  Just a simple stack of satin and sequins wrapped bangles add instant glam to any look, and is a fun juxtaposition to the masculine camo.

Another fun tutorial, this friendship bracelet was inspired by the ones I have from Forever 21.  Surprisingly, I got almost as many comments on my nail polish as I did on my tutorial (polish is Mermaid's Tears btw from OPI :)

I love this stack for the EBEW lace challenge look last month.  Bracelets are a mix of Stella & Dot, DIY by me, Forever 21 and J. Crew.  Watch is by Michael Kors

Simple look for a very preppy and casual outfit.  Sometimes you have to know when to hold back a little on the arm party, and this look was definitely one to go easy on.  

Again, I wanted to keep the arm party simple here to highlight the fun brightly colored shorts, so I just added my leather wrap cuff from J. Crew and my gold Stella & Dot chain link bracelet.  The gold Michael Kors watch is chunky and heavy, so you have to keep functionality in mind when getting ready for your arm party.

The best thing to do when assembling your arm party is to just have fun.  If you're feeling adventurous and your day allows your arm to be a little more weighted down, add a few more bracelets.  But if you start to feel ridiculous and are afraid you'll never be able to get through the day taking care of kids and/or work, minimize the look.  It's all about making it your own.

So with that, I'm off to take some shots of the bracelets I have in store for you tomorrow.  They are all cheap to make, and can be made in a matter of MINUTES!  I'm so excited!!  Have a great day everyone.  BTW, I'm also linking up to Lindsey's WIWW!

P.S. If my over use of !!! and positive attitude starts to annoy you, go ahead and tell me.  I'm a big girl, I can take it ;)

Playgrounds & Lollipops - Maxis For Everyone

{Top: Refashioned from a romper; Tank & Maxi Skirt: James Perse; Sandals: Sam Edelman; 

Necklace: DIY by me; Watch: Michelle; Bracelets: Forever 21}

While this look isn't exactly the most bright and cheerful of summer looks, sometimes nothing feels better than a bit of black, especially for a breezy night at the Hollywood Bowl.  We went to our first Summer Concert Series at the Bowl on Sunday and I wanted to feel comfortable and stay warm.  This soft maxi skirt served the purpose perfectly.  This isn't the typical flowy maxi skirt that I'm used to wearing; it has more of a mermaid feel to it, so I always layer it with a long tank for a bit of coverage.

Before we get off the subject of maxi skirts and dresses, can I just tell you something?  It drives me crazy when petite girls say they can't wear maxi skirts and/or dresses.  YES YOU CAN!  Maxis elongate the frame and actually make you look even taller.  I promise!  In fact I think maxis sometimes look EVEN better on petite girls.  I actually have a difficult time finding ones that are long enough for me and they end up looking like a faux maxi.  In fact I have to wear this skirt super low so that it will trail on the ground just a bit.  Bottom line, petite girls, don't always rule out the maxi.
   
Let's move onto the leopard top.  Anyone remember it from my Shop Your Own Closet Challenge I started a couple months back?  I chopped that sucker in half and landed up with a perfect little layering top.  I'll reveal a bit more of how I hemmed the edges and pinned the back on Monday's post.  I'm really happy with how both the top and shorts turned out.

Linking up with Pretty Shiny Sparkly's Bloggers Do It Better Maxi Challenge