Harem Royal Jewelry: Beauty as a Weapon

Jewelry Etsy shop Harem Royal owned by Screwpulous Jewelry makes some of the most interesting combination jewelry. The earrings, necklaces and pendants they've put out are absolutely phenomenal to look at, they are a juxtaposition of hard and soft, organic and metallic. The butterflies represent delicacy and beauty while the modern edge is given by the metals in the shapes of weaponry. The rough edge is for the modern girl that wants to be independent and free with a touch of sensuality and prettiness from the butterflies and wings.

All of the butterflies are real and the shop specializes in taxidermy which raises the question, would you want to wear this jewelry? I would only wear the pieces that don't actually have organic parts, but I don't think I would be okay with a deceased creepy-crawly around my neck or dangling off my ears. Beautiful though they may be, sometimes I think we go too far in our mediums. The artist could have easily just used butterfly replicas and achieved the same effect, or created them out of resin. Either way, he's a look at the collection:

Lace nail art design

Are you looking for a fun and easy interesting nail trend to keep you away from the hum-drum same styles you're used to doing all the time? This is a simple and fun look involving lace that you can purchase anywhere (even at the dollar store). I stumbled upon this look and was absolutely shocked at how breath-taking these nails can look for how little effort it requires. What do you think about this look? You can choose to do the lace all over your nails, on fake or real nails, or you can choose to just do portions of lace randomly placed on your nails. I personally am a fan of the unique nails, each nail looking like a different lace portion of the same pattern, whichever piece strikes my fancy on each finger.

What you'll need:
- Base coat (any color you choose)
- Top coat (clear nail polish)
- Small-patterned lace (so it fits over your nails, honeycomb pattern is simplest to work with) in any color
- Small nail scissors
- Nail art pen (if you choose to draw more designs like swirls or dots over your lace to add intricacy)


This is actually a very simple process to do. First, you will want to cut out the portions of lace you want to use and measure them up with your fingernails. Once you've gotten all the pieces cut out (or you can go one by one if you choose), you want to apply a base coat (it can be clear nail polish or nude/colored opaque, you may even want to consider glitter polish if you're going somewhere fancy). This look doesn't require any extra glitz and glamour, however, because the lace will present so well on its own. After you apply your base coat, wait until it's dry and apply a clear coat of nail polish generously over top, gently use a tweezer and position your lace on top of the clear coat before it dries. This is important because you want the lace to tack onto your nail by sticking to that clear coat very well. After everything is dry, soak it up one more time with another clear coat of polish over top so that your lace won't frill or come off during hand-washing or rigorous activities! If you want your nails to be even more interesting,  you can draw on borders, swirls or dots (even cheetah prints with little 'c' shapes) with nail art pens. Remember to be creative and use different colors of lace, nail polish, and nail crystals over top to keep your nails looking very cool! Your friends will envy you for your expensive-looking manicure; you don't have to tell them you did it yourself!

Project Runway All-Stars

This new show premiered on Lifetime last week and it features contestants that were snubbed by Project Runway in various seasons, competing for a prize that totals $500,000 and a one-year guest editor position at Marie Claire magazine. You can watch Project Runway All-Stars episodes here. The competitors do seem to be of a higher quality than in the regular show, and they feature all your favorites from past seasons which is a bonus. The designers featured this time include Kenley Collins, Rami Kashou and Mondo Guerra, which are some of my all-time favorites that have been on the show. Kenley is mean but quirky and her design style always reflects a retro point of view, Mondo is completely out-of-the-box and surprises me with his designs which are wholly unique every week, and Rami just oozes classic couture and impeccable construction. I won't lie, some of the designers this season (like Mila and Austin) are some of the most annoying people that have ever been on the show, but I guess the point is to see if they can all co-exist for awhile and make some ridiculous reality drama.

Angela Lindvall, host

The new mentor, aka the position of Tim Gunn in the original, is Joanna Coles, a woman which pretty much embodies the Devil from 'The Devil Wears Prada'. She's a lot more stern than Tim Gunn and seems to be giving far less helpful advice, for the time being (there's time for her to redeem herself). The new hostess on this show is supermodel Angela Lindvall (which I've never heard of before but the show claims she's an extremely famous person) and she is fairly awkward in her delivery of the lines but tolerable and even comes across as being nice. It's definitely nice to see a fresh face on this show. I was sick of Molly Sims in the Project Runway Accessory show because she was always incredibly rude and she sounds like she has a speech impediment (not to be rude to people with speech impediments, but do they really have to host a TV show?). Is it just me or does Angela Lindvall remind you of a bootleg Taylor Swift? The show seems to be sticking to the same format but adding fresh faces with different points of view, maybe ones not as nasty as the previous show's. One major change this season is that nobody will ever get immunity, which means every week someone will be eliminated and it will be unexpected.

Georgina Chapman, judge

Either way, let's talk about the other new changes: the judges! Let me just say that Isaac Mizrahi is incredibly annoying, I dislike his fashion all together and I have no idea what makes him qualified to be a judge on the show. With that being said, Georgina Chapman is the other judge and she is the co-founder and designer of Marchesa but what is most shocking about her is that she is married to Harvey Weinstein (possibly the ugliest man in the world) and even bore his child. Georgina makes all the models on the Project Runway shows look like trolls because she's absolutely stunning and her dresses are very popular among the Hollywood elite on red carpets (this probably has something to do with her husband).

Style trend alert: The Neckalina

I came across this new accessory that I just have to share with you all by KaVatee called 'The Neckalina' and it combines my two loves of necklaces and scarves in one! This way you don't have to choose whether you'll wear a necklace or scarf or worry about them tangling if you pair them together. It's basically the marriage of a pashmina-looking scarf and a big, bold statement necklace. What an awesome concept. You get three looks for the price of one, it's one-size fits all and can be worn alone as a necklace, a scarf, or together as a necklace paired over a circle scarf. 

My only qualm with this accessory is that I think H&M or a less-expensive brand should remake it for a lower price because the price tag on this look is $88, which is entirely too much for my what the product is. If this was in the $30-$40 range, I would gladly spend the money on it, but for $88 I can think of many other things I would rather buy first. You can check out the different colors and styles here. 

These are the current existing looks that you can purchase online (my favorite one being the black):

Trend Alert: Peter Pan Collars

I've noticed a new trend lately that happens to be in all the stores I peruse: Peter Pan Collars. How do you define this trend, really? Wikipedia refers to it as 'a small, flat, round-cornered collar without a stand' and mentions that it is popular in children's and women's fashion as of the early and mid-20th century. A good accent to this look is either a brooch in the middle, a bow, or a dainty tie. I'm going to say that this definition should be expanded to include collars that are not necessarily round-edged, but can also be hard-edged because I found this particular dress which I believe suits the 'Peter Pan Collar' trend but isn't particularly rounded. I believe the main descriptive in the trend to be the fact that the collar doesn't have a stand and is slightly more gaped than in traditional collars, which gives it a feminine appeal.



Lately, this look has appeared in shirts, outerwear coats and sweaters, and most prominently in dresses. I particularly think it looks cute and conservative in a quirky, doll-like way. I'm a fan of this look, particularly if you're going to be showing a lot of leg in your outfit, keep the risque down below and cover up on top with this whimsical collar to draw attention one of your assets. Many times this collar comes with below-the-knee dresses, but that can look a little too much like nun-fashion, especially for a younger lady. Sleveless or cap-sleeved fashions with this collar are quite adorable and fun. I wouldn't wear this collar with completely long sleeves that go past your wrists because, again, you don't want to look too covered up, so unless the fabric is sheer, I would stick with three-quarter sleeves at the most. This fashion has even gone so far as to transfer onto shoes! That's right, they now have peter pan collars on shoes as well!


I don't know that this look would be so great on busty girls because it might make you look too top-heavy and out of balance with the rest of your body. However, I do know that petite and slim girls look tres chic in this fashion. This is an acceptable fashion for interviews if you're going for a job in fashion or really anywhere the dress code isn't too strict. Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure:

You can purchase this style here:

Festive Holiday Look - Emerald Green Peacock

For the holidays this year, many people will be tempted to pair red and green together for a merry and festive ensemble. However, I urge you not to simply combine those two extremely different colors together, without incorporating a neutral: brown, for example. If you add brown to red you would get burgundy and this color is far more complementary to emerald or pine green than a simple fire-truck red will ever be. I've created this inexpensive outfit for the holiday season. This beautiful Dorothy Perkins dress can be found for only $27 on her website. I added a touch of peacock accent with this super cheap shawl ($19 from bootlegger.com) and Lucky Brand earrings for $42. I love the way the Luisa Viaroma high heeled booties look with the rest of the peacock-themed accessories, but I absolutely loathe their price. So for those of us who don't have pockets that deep, I recommend the burgundy boots by Roberto Vianni for $110, or any boots you can find in a burgundy color. I would pair this with some simple brown fish net stockings that flatter your legs and a cute $7 H&M hat (which I personally own) to shield you from snow and rain, but also to make you look cool like Indiana Jones. The hat doesn't come with a peacock feather, as shown, but you can put any craft-store peacock feather inside the bow yourself and spruce up your hat!

Emerald Green Peacock by lethalglam featuring a pencil dress

Dorothy Perkins pencil dress
$27 - dorothyperkins.com

Roberto Vianni burgundy boots
£71 - debenhams.com

High heel boots
€739 - luisaviaroma.com

Lucky Brand drop earrings
$42 - piperlime.gap.com

Glitter Lurex Fishnet Stockings - ACCESSORIES A'GACI
$5.50 - agacistore.com

H M feather hat
£6.49 - hm.com

Kismet peacock shawl
$19 - bootlegger.com

Expensive holiday outfit

I made this outfit using Polyvore because I was inspired by my dear friend Angelica's blog (www.closetsandcocktails.com)!!!!

This is an adorable and extremely expensive dream outfit that I've put together for the holiday season. It's just an example of the ways I like to play with shapes and patterns that are in the same thematic narrative. For me, the guidelines when I put this together became clear when I chose the dress. This was my first pick because I absolutely adore this Jessica Simpson collection dress. It lends itself to the usage of many other old-world patterns and geometric as well as organic-feeling jewelry (the ring reminds me of a laurel wreath and ancient Greek gods) while the earrings and clutch bring the outfit into modern day. The scarf feels very antique and soft, it is in contrast to the hard-edged geometrical clutch, giving the outfit nice variety. You could pair this outfit with a slightly more masculine leather jacket, but for my hourglass body-shape, I prefer an A-line, mid-length coat. The booties are something I am in love with, the whole concept of lace-up boots during the winter makes me smile. I will attempt to make an inexpensive version of this outfit in the next post! Stay tuned!

Holiday outfit by lethalglam featuring

Jessica Simpson dress
$148 - jessicasimpsoncollection.com

Ryu a line coat
$120 - modcloth.com

Giambattista Valli suede lace up booties
$535 - net-a-porter.com

Kate Spade gold bag
$325 - katespade.com

Asha by ADM 14k jewelry
$495 - calypsostbarth.com

Alex Monroe feather jewelry
$225 - cultstatus.com.au

Bottega Veneta printed silk scarve
$595 - net-a-porter.com

How to make your own earring organizer!

This project is inspired by my mother-in-law because she's always making funky and weird household things with her own little touch of style to them. If you choose to do this project, I guarantee you that it will be uniquely you and nobody else will have one that looks the same. If you're not down to pay a pretty penny for most of those metal carousel hangars to put your earrings into, you may want to consider making your own earring organizer.

 This is better than placing your earrings in boxes, as you can forget which ones you own (if you have many like I do) and you might have a hard time finding the pair you want in the mornings. Having your earrings out in the open and on a wall, not taking up any space at all in your home, is an ingenius way to go about displaying them.


The tools you will need for this fun and inexpensive project are:

- inexpensive picture frame (from a thrift store or new, it doesn't matter)
- scissors
- fabric large enough to fit behind your frame
- picture hanging kit (if the frame lacks the proper hanging ability)
- sandpaper (hard and soft grade sandpaper)
- paint
- paintbrush or painting sponge
- something to cover the area you're working over so you don't create a mess - like newspapers
- wire mesh or screen of some sort (window screen can be found at hardware stores)
- heavy duty stapler or hot glue gun (gorilla super glue may even do the trick)

The backing of your creation can be as interesting as you want it to be, you can use produce bags, several wires wrapped around each other, fabric in any array of patterns, or even lace! Make sure that your picture frame is free of any nails or anything that can hurt you while manipulating it, remove nails using hardware pliers. You won't be needing the glass associated with the frame, so you can toss that out or use it for something else, or the backing that comes with it. Make sure you lay down some newspaper or rags before continuing on. First you will want to start sanding with a very gritty sandpaper to get any excess paint or spliced wood off your wooden frame and then smooth it out using a soft grit sandpaper. You don't have to do the sanding if you love the way your frame looks to begin with, but if you want to change the color of it, make sure you sand down the old paint first, and paint on a new layer of whatever color you choose.

Turn your frame around and have the back facing you while it is laying flat. Using your hot glue gun or stapler, stretch the mesh and append it taught to the inlaid part of the frame, making sure you're pulling it apart so that it looks straight and doesn't create waves. Cut the excess of the screen off using your scissors after you have secured it on all sides to the frame.

 Then you will want to glue your fabric to the back of your frame, making sure that the pattern is facing away from you and to the face of the frame (it would be a shame to put it on the wrong way, wouldn't it?). Glue one side and then pull it taught after it has dried and get an even spread across the whole frame. Cut off the excess fabric so it doesn't pop out along the sides of the frame. if your frame doesn't have a hanging kit attached, wait for everything to dry and apply it to the back of the frame. Hang your frame on the wall where you want it to be or just prop it up on your desk if you don't want to hang it. And it's as easy as that! Now all you have left is to hang your earrings in a creative way on your frame.

Black Friday madness

So, after am enormous Thanksgiving meal, those of us dedicated to shopping, haul our fat butts out the door and waddle on to our store destinations. We do this, hoping against hope that we'll be amongst the first ones there. This is almost never the case, as people have been camping outside of the most popular stores (like Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy) for days in advance even in suburban localities outside of Seattle. So without any hope of ever reaching a cash-register within the next 12 hours at any of these stores, my husband and I moved onto ULTA. This store was the complete opposite, it had cutesy deals, very few ladies inside, no pushing or shoving, and we could easily reach the cash register. To me, the decision was simple, I'm a much larger fan of cosmetics than I am of technology anyway, so I picked up a few things.

They had this collection of items which were all just $1, so I grabbed 5 CHI Silk-infusions bottles for $5 because I love the way these make my hair feel (a small bottle usually retails for $14). Then, I purchased a mint lip-balm, swirl lipgloss and 3 ULTA nail polishes for another $5. Most of the items are $3 each, so the savings is of 66%. I purchased two Stila eyeliners in a pack, one being gold (named Koi) and one being silver (named Silver Dollar) as this was on special for $10 when the regular value is around $40, you can still get this deal here. I thought it was a great deal and Stila's smudge stick eyeliners are absolutely fabulous. The pigmentation is strong and they glide on very smooth and easily, they are absolutely perfect for the holiday season. I spent $20 in total on these items and ULTA gave me $5 Bonus Cash, which can be redeemed on the next $25+ purchase at their store. I was very happy with the overall experience.

Colors: The Jungle Look, Alter Ego, Scene Steel-er

I was drawn to the nail polish because the color was very pigmented and festive, also the price was right and I was looking for more colors to perform my 'water-marbled nails' look! This is a fun and funky way to set yourself apart from everyone else.

The next day, armed with new ambition and rigor, we headed out to Southcenter Mall in Renton, Washington. This place was controlled chaos. The parking lot was chock full of cars, there were tons of security guards throughout the mall, but if you can stand feeling claustrophobic, it was a fine shopping experience. The lines to cash out were not that long, especially at MAC. I went to use their BACK2MAC program where I recycled 12 containers and got 2 eyeshadows of my choice, in the colors Brown Script (matte2 finish) and Swish (frost finish). These colors are both very beautiful, and best of all, they were free! The color pay-off is great, as with all MAC eyeshadows and you can de-pot them (which I did) and then recycle these containers as well when you have 6. I only purchased a 15-color palette to house my colors.

MAC's Brown Script (Matte2)

MAC's Swish (Frost)

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and I would love to hear about your Black Friday deals! Stay tuned for our IKEA haul in an upcoming post!

Screen printing our own shirts!

Screen for flat one-color shirts

I happened to be in the Superfad office in Seattle on Saturday and, to my surprise, one of my friends and an employee of Superfad, was there getting ready to screen print the company t-shirts. I found the idea utterly phenomenal because how amazing is it to make your own shirts? Armed with his amazing design, 60 blank shirts, the printed screens and buckets of paint, we began. I had no idea what the foundations of screen printing even were, but I trusted Sean because he said "it's easy" in a completely non-chalant way, as if he'd done it a million times before (he hadn't). I was just eager to help because it's just about the most awesome thing I can think of to make your own shirts. It combines very technical and precise principles of how-to with the fun and creativity involved in making the design and choosing the colors.

A. ink. B. squeegee. C. image. D. photo-emulsion.
E. screen. F. printed image.

The basic principles of screen printing are as follows: you push the squeegee across the screen and it draws your chosen color of ink over the photo-emulsion (housed inside the screen) and a printed image is transferred onto your shirt. That means if your shirt has multiple colors in different places on the shirt, you have to use multiple screens. We used as many as four, which is overwhelming because the base of the screen-printing machine has to be rotated each time and the registration (or calibration) of the position must be precise. The machine used to screen-print is extremely primitive and only consists of nuts, bolts and knobs that can be tightened to stay in place. Needless to say, it took hours just to get the screens in the right place but the good news is that once it is done, you can mass-produce shirts in that one pattern. So much problem-solving is involved in the entire production of shirts that it really is a wise idea to send away for your shirts to be screen-printed professionally because those companies will have a team of specialized individuals doing this. That being said, you will miss out on the opportunity to gain the fulfillment that we will get that everyone at the company's going to be wearing shirts we made!

The pile of 60 American Apparel blank shirts in all different sizes that we had to begin with

Colors for 4-shades of green/blue shirts

Before we could print, we had to spend time doing labor-intensive color-mixing, we began with flat one-colored shirts in black, white, and cyan. The colors are very specific and we had to match a pre-approved template mock-up off the computer and let me tell you, it is much more difficult to get colors to match than you would think without causing waste or making too little of each. We were also starting out from just base colors of green, blue, yellow, white, black and red (the latter color gave us tons of problems because it was old and cakey and would clog up our screen).

The maestro perfecting the process

Then when we finished these shirts, we dove straight into the most complex design: the 3D shirt. This design was by far the hardest for us to accomplish because the red paint was tripping us up to the point where we had to clean the red-screen each time we did a shirt on both sides with a screen opener solution. Then we had to be careful that the screen was completely dry each time so that it did not smear the shirts. The placement of the colors in this design is absolutely crucial because the red and blue dye slightly overlap and this overlap is made up of a dark grayish tone, to simulate a faux 3D effect. After each color pass, it is vital to 'cook' the shirt or place it under an industrial heater for a few seconds (but not too much because it would burn the shirt) to let the color set before going onto the next one so you do not create a mess on the under-side of each screen. This hiccup would then be transferred on each subsequent shirt, rendering it messy and useless.

Completed 3D design Superfad shirt

Completed four-shade design in green

The next day, we braved another tough design, this one included four-shades of cyan or green, creating two different tones of the pattern. By now, we had become pros, a well-oiled machine making beautiful and memorable t-shirts. I'm extremely happy with the way they all turned out, and with t-shirts we found lying around in a box around the office from previous passes at t-shirt making, we created so many different options of shirts that nobody in the office will be dressed the same. These shirts have a real authenticity to them, you can feel the logo and it makes a lasting impression like beautiful graffiti designed by one of my favorite artists. I had so much fun doing this, I think if you have the opportunity to do it, everyone should experience it at least once, so you know what you're paying for every time you buy a screen-printed t-shirt.

Piles of varied styles when we finished

Piles of one-color t-shirts