thrifting finds

I'm back with my thrifted finds! I went to 2 Goodwills and a Salvation Army yesterday and emerged with what's pictured below + 2 more sweaters + some pink costume butterfly wings for less than $20. Good deal, right?

From top left to right: Mossino striped sweater, vintage turtleneck, New York & Co. cardigan, LL Bean light plaid button down, strapless sundress, TwentyOne plaid dress & leather belt

This happens to be my favorite purchase of the day, a Liz Claiborne shoulder bag for only $6.00! I'm in love with this color leather and I've been going crazy for shoulder bags lately so this find really thrilled me.

I'm so glad to be back home with free time to thrift again. Find anything cool lately?

marble nail art experiment

I had a fantastic day today thrifting with my best friend, wandering the mall in search of post-Christmas deals and (most importantly) searching for hair bleach and dye! I'm gonna be dying the tips blue once I get everything together, which is another project I'm super excited to do and share with the lovely world of the internet :3


I'll post my thrifting finds with photos tomorrow (I got some really cute pieces and paid less than $20 for all of it) but I wanted to share a nail experiment I tried out tonight- the results, well, you can judge them yourselves.

I used binder paper reinforcers to make the tips and crescents after I painted the blue base coat on 4 of my nails.

The marble effect (that I found through this post and this tutorial) is pretty messy, it'll probably take another day for the polish to completely come off my skin. It was a bit tricky to work with since poking the polish to make designs in the water didn't go so well, my toothpick kept getting twisted and stuck in the polish and I'd have to start over.

I used 130 by Sally Hansen (Blue Me Away!), 358 Nicole by OPI (Make a Comet-ment), and an unnamed purpley-pink from Urban Outfitters.

Not too bad for a first time effort, but I'll definitely try to keep my nails neater next time around.

Be back tomorrow with my thrift finds!

xmas haul

Happy Holidays! I've been enjoying mine to the maximum, it's so nice to know I have no commitments or work to do until I'm back at school mid-January. I thought I'd show you a few pictures of some things I got for Christmas, mostly from my parents:

I can't wait to try out all those polishes! I was a bit worried when I learned my dad picked them out but it turns out I quite like the colors :3

Hope you're all having a peaceful & relaxing holiday,

nail experiment: snow & ice

I don't exactly know what I was aiming for with this combination but I really like the way it came out :3 I could have used another layer of the white polish as the base though, and that would have fixed the opacity problem. I did one layer of each polish, in the order they appear, and this is how it came out:

Kind of reminds you of icy wintery days, no? My polish collection here at college isn't very complete so I'll probably be experimenting with layers/mixing more often. 


Until next time, 
~ Hannah

happy fall & fashion

Greetings all, I hope you're all enjoying fall as much as I am. About a week ago I found out I won Samantha from Simple Delights' giveaway- a ring I'm excitingly awaiting the arrival of (: Pictures to come!

Happy November! I've been m.i.a. lately, busy with schoolwork as usual, but I thought I'd do a quick post about what I wore yesterday.

Wednesdays are the days I don't have to walk 500 miles to class so I figured it was a good day for heels! I got the shirt & skirt from Forever 21, the shoes from a trip to London this past summer, and the turkey courtesy of a care package from my mom :3

The weather here has been fluctuating lots lately, on Halloween we had snow and this past week it's been in the 60s and 70s. I didn't even have to wear a jacket or tights with this skirt yesterday.

Thoughts, comments, questions? Leave them below!

~ Hannah

gradient nails

I've been meaning to try this on my nails for the LONGEST time and I finally got some free time last night. I didn't have the best sponge so it came out a little uneven, but not so bad for my first time (:

The contrast between the colors is bolder in person, and there's more sparkles but the flash kinda killed them in the pictures.  How did I do? I'd love feedback/tips/more suggestions for nail art?

crayon art

I went home this Columbus Day weekend missing the crafty part of my life college has so far deprived me of, so I decided to try out this crayon melting project the hipsters of the world have been tumbling about lately. The directions are simple; hot glue and start melting, although the crayon can splatter a bit if you do this too quickly or use a hairdryer with a higher setting. 

Voila! It'll just be hanging in my dorm room for the rest of the year but it was so simple to make I might experiment a bit more the next time I have a chance. Red and green christmas themed gifts perhaps?

finished tie-dye

I'm really impressed with the way my tie-dye came out! The orange I used on the long sleeve shirt was a little funky but it fades after I wash it once, so the color near the neck shouldn't be so vibrant. The green shirt was already green but it had a few spots on it so I tie-dyed a spiral to cover them up. The other two are Gilly Hicks shirts that didn't fit a friend of mine any more, so I figured I could try to make them wearable again. 

tie-dye DIY for beginners

I'm gonna let the shirts sit outside overnight so the colors sink in, but here's a walkthrough of the dying process. I soaked the shirts in warm saltwater for about 20 minutes before I started, I've bought and used soda ash previously and there isn't a noticeable difference in the quality of the dye later on. 

Then I tied the shirts with rubber bands, sometimes I follow video tutorials if I want to go for a specific look but this time I folded one into stripes, one the traditional spiral, one a bull's eye, and the last one was a bit random. 

Then comes the fun part! I don't use buckets of dye, rather I saved a bunch of plastic water bottles and I've been re-using those for a while. They're easy to store when I'm not in the dyeing mood (the dye doesn't go bad or anything, I just leave the bottles in my garage so they don't make a mess in the house). 

Then simple pour as much as your heart desires! I don't wear gloves since semi-dyed hands don't really bother me, but I would definitely suggest wearing old clothes for this type of project. I'll post pictures of the finished product some time tomorrow!