Monday, February 27, 2012

Photo Post: the weekend

Had lots of fun this weekend! I went to Star Bar for the first time, I ran into an old friend from high school AND met a MySpace-er in person! That right, MySpace. Whatchu know about dat

Ocha la Rocha

Setting up Ocha la Rocha Lauren 57/366: In a world of my own 56/366: Tweedle Dope & Tweedle Dupe Needle Mailbox

Can I just say that I'm still in awe of how great the camera is on the iPhone 4S?! I'm loving the picture quality! Too bad my lens kit doesn't fit since I originally bought it for my 3GS. Luckily they make a set for the 4S! Hooray! But it looks like I'll have to wait for them to get back in stock...

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Saturday Morning Craft

Because I can't sleep in on Saturday mornings, I sometimes get the urge to make stuff. Eh - that's a pretty regular emotion for me, actually.
Today's craft was a simple bow.
Following Marlena's tutorial here, I grabbed my most Mondo-esque fabric and got to cutting. The end result is quite adorable and now, all I want to do is make bows. Go figure.
  

Friday, February 24, 2012

Project Runway All-Stars: O Say, Can You Sew - The Recap

Last night, the designers visited the U.N. for their challenge - an outfit inspired by a flag.  Okay, random.  It sounds kind of half-assed but the results were hilarious.

Austin picked the Seychelles.  I would've loved it if he had gone literal with the flag.  He could have and been totally safe!


Maybe a little too safe but still - it wouldn't have been this

There's nothing really wrong with this dress but Isaac did call the front V-neck "tortured" and upclose, it's very tortured.  The colours don't really match the flag colours either.  Not a big deal to me but I would've preferred something like Michael's - one-shouldered and drapey with all the flag's colours meeting at the shoulder.  Much better.

Speaking of Michael, here's his Greek flag dress

I agree with not-Heidi about the bow: it would look better on a Christmas present.  I was hoping he'd use the shoes from last week as a pop of colour but he didn't understand subtlety this week with that bow.  I do like the dress though.  It's very Michael.

Jerell thought we were still stuck in last week's challenge: a stage costume.  I mean, what the eff is this mess?

Yes, Jerell, you picked India.  And yes, I totally called it by saying, "Jerell has India which means a lot of gold and a lot of tacky".  I might've been wrong about the gold but, girl, this is tacky.  And so costumey!  How did he take this outfit seriously?!  He should've taken the Kenley route and done the "anti" version of this.
What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the State of Kenley Collins where the national colour is polka dots and the uniform has a Peter Pan collar and white gloves.


I have no idea how she thinks long sleeves are a good thing in Chile but whatever.  And she somehow got her polka dots in there as well, so...whatever.  Isaac, who I love more and more each week, told her to STOP making the same silhouette over and over.  THANK YOU ISAAC.  I'm glad you said something because it seems as though everyone else is afraid to say it.  Back to the "anti" thing - one of the judges (I think it was Georgina) said that when she thinks of Chile, she sees ponchos but this girl that Kenley designed for is the opposite of what you would think - and that works.  Okay.  It does but how on earth do you get heart-shaped polka dots and candy stripes from the Chilean flag?!

MOVING ON

Mila took us on a split personality Russian adventure.  So you'd think she has the Russian flag, yes?  NO.  She has New Guinea.

I get it.  The hint of yellow, the construction on the short dress, the construction on the long dress...but why?  Why the split personalities?  Why not put a bird on it?  Hiiiyoooo.  But seriously - why?  This outfit looks like all she's missing in the bear in a fez and the rest of her traveling Russian circus.  And although I'm not a Mila fan, I would've preferred her staying over Jerell.  Yes, Jerell stays.  BARF.
 
Now, can I just say - Mondo's mitering is lovely. Just so lovely. He could've had a boring black dress but no. Not on his watch.
 
LOVE IT.  Subtle.  Sweet.  Mondo.  I'm not too crazy about the headwrap thing but that pop of colour on the back is gorgeous.  Not too literal with the flag and it works.  Another Mondo win!  YES!!  How am I celebrating this Mondo win?  By successfully executing a Mondo pouf!
Working on my #mondoguerra pouf...I WILL have it right for the #projectrunwayallstars finale!
WHAT WHAT!
It's not as neat as Mondo's since I didn't gel it and I don't have a trusty barrel roller.  Also it's super humid outside.  Eww.  I basically started teasing my hair and when I got all frustrated, I started twisting my hair and it magically fell into place.  I'm not kidding.  I'm so proud of this.  I can't wait for my next attempt since I'll be ready for it.

You know what else I'm ready for?

PHARRELL WILLIAMS NEXT WEEK!
 


Finally! In fact, I had *almost* forgotten he was a judge on PRAS until I saw the preview - which came on AFTER After The Runway - which was a little boring since Mila talked shit via pre-recorded message and they recapped every single thing we had JUST seen. Yawn.  But I liked how pretty much everyone said that Mila should've stayed over Jerell.  And they all said it IN FRONT of Jerell.  Get over yourself, Boo.  Your designs are barf-o-rama.

BACK TO PHARRELL.



He's going to make the designers do some crazy-ass light show next week and I can't wait!!!  Kenley will probably find little lights to make her own light up polka dot pattern and Isaac will take her over his knee and spank her.  Austin will probably come up with some weirdo rich-lady-fell-into-a-glow-in-the-dark-paint-pit evening gown.  Jerell will make something tacky AS USUAL.  Michael will drape some lights on it.  Mondo will make technicolour magic.  At least, that's what I'm hoping for next week!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Project Runway All-Stars: O! Say, Can You Sew? The Live-Blog

My attempt at the Cinemagraph

I don't know if you you know but there's this new(-ish) craze sweeping the Fashion-O-Sphere.  It's the Cinemagraph.  I'm kidding.  Of course you already know.
Part photo, part gif, the Cinemagraph was developed by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg with amazing results at New York Fashion Week last year.
I first saw this Cinemagraph of Coco Rocha and fell in love


Since then, I've been seeing altered gifs resembling these photo / video hybrids.  Especially at a gif's favourite party place: Tumblr.  I've also read a few articles on them and how to make them.
While the technique seems easy enough, it's harder to come up with actual ideas for them.  My friends and I collaborated and we shot some footage for some but they just turned out as glorified gifs.  Bummer.  We really wanted to create images like this




I think because we were limited with our location, we ended up with this glorified gif:

Nothing too fancy or exciting but dammit, we did it.  I still need to figure out how to make it work properly but until then, this will do.
Naturally, because the Cinemagraph is super hot, there's an app for that.  No seriously, there's an app called Cinemagram.  You KNOW I downloaded that shit too, right?  Here are some of my gems:







This app kind of makes me want to get a nifty tripod / stabilizer for my phone just so I can shoot these ALL THE TIME!  LOL.  But seriously.

They're so pretty!  Once you get a proper idea into place, the results can be amazing!  And with all the lovely Cinemagraphs out there, this one is by far, my ultimate favourite:


Stunning.  I'm not sure of the source since I reblogged it on Tumblr but dammit this is gorgeous!

Have you attempted a Cinemagraph?  I'd love to see it!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Last night's Glee: On My Way

Oh my goodness.  Last night's Glee was intense.  Like, really intense.

**If you haven't seen it, don't read ahead!
If you have, click right on in...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Fave Photo of You Photo Post

Today's February Photo-A-Day Challenge is a funny one.  The topic: Favourite photo of you.
I might have to do a few posts because I have so many!  Here's the first one I posted earlier:

#favpic #febphotoaday #collage

So many great memories here! 
The first one is me with Grant Wilson of The Smugglers (and my friend Jimmy in the background).  They opened up for The Donnas in 2000 and had a dance contest.  I won with the help of my friends and I got a sweet hockey trophy!  That night was awesome but it ended terribly.  Jimmy's car got stolen (this was before East Atlanta was what it is now) and we had to wait for my Mom to pick us up.  Embarrassing.  But the guys at Echo Lounge gave Jimmy an Iron Maiden box set (I think) and I emailed with Danny Panic for awhile.  I wonder if he remembers...

Under that photo is a photo of Carter and me at one (of many) Lazy Indians shows at (old) Lenny's.  His sister took the photo and, yes, that's how it's framed.  See more photos from other Lazy Indians shows here

Under that is a photo of me with my old man and my best friend Damien outside our cabin in Tennessee.  We were ungodly late to another friends' wedding and I was *still* hungover from Halloween the night before...Good times!

The Chainsaw photo is one of my favourites because I'm holding an actual chainsaw and I'm wearing my friends' fireman clothes.  They smelled like smoke and burnt trees.  After the shoot, I got to keep the clothes.  They don't smell like burning anymore but they always remind me of this!  Billy did the tattoo letters on my stomach.  I thought I had wanted to get that tattooed on me at some point but good thing I didn't actually do it because I've kinda sorta grown out of my Nurse Chainsaw persona.  Kinda sorta not really...

The bottom photo is my ultimate favourite because that's me with Aubrey Graham (aka Drake) and Mike Lobel from Degrassi: The Next Generation.  They were doing a series of mall tours with the cast of Degrassi and Alpharetta just so happened to get Aubrey and Mike!  Lucky me!  I'll never forget that signing because Aubrey asked me about my "Duck Plucker" shirt.  I jokingly said it was a clothing line my friend and I were coming up with and he said, "That's cool.  I'm about put out some music".  I thought it was a nice thing until he said, "Yeah, I'm a rapper".  Jimmy?  Wheelchair Jimmy?  A rapper?  Nah...

Hopefully I'll be able to find the rest to make another collage!
Are there any photos of you that you love?


Monday, February 20, 2012

Nail Art!

If you know me, you know I like to have little pops of WTF in my daily life.  A place where you will most certainly see that is with my nails!  I always try to mix it up with a different colour on each nail or with some weird design.  Lately, A LOT of my inspiration has been coming from Nailside.  Her tape mani tutorials are great and I've learned a lot from checking her tutorials out!
Along with Nailside, there a bah-zillion other blogs out there dedicated to nail art.  Some are fantastic sources of inspiration!  I'll give you a short list of my faves:
Nailside
The Illustrated Nail
Wah Nails
Madeline Poole Nails
Daaaang Girl!
Pretty Nail Swag
So So Fly Nails 
Love The Nails
Rebecca Likes Nails
SuPa Nails
Disco Nails

There are many MANY more but these are the ones I remember off the top of my head.  And that's a lot of good stuff right there!  Here are some great (and not-so-great) photos of nail art I've attempted.

  Finally found what I wanted for my Thanksgiving manicure! Galaxy nails 42/366: To outer space again... Triangles
1. A two-toned french tip mani based off of a mani I got when I attended my Goddaughter's Communion.
2. My 3 favourite Glee by Sephora colours (Blue: Slushied, Glitter: Celibacy club, Pink: Miss Bossy Pants)
3. Gold with OPI's black crackle
4. The most fun lightning bolts ever!  Based off of a black/gold lightning bolt I saw at The Illustrated Nail.  I call it the "Robin Hood" since I remember I was watching the BBC series while doing these...
5. Blood splattered
6. Rainbow splatter
7. I was attempting a Nailside explosion design but it didn't quite come out right...so I dubbed them Birthday Crowns since I did them for my birthday last year
8. Some lovely Butter London nail skins I got at Ulta
9. Hello Kitty bow fakesters I got at Target
10. 1st attempt at galaxy nails (based off of a You Tube tutorial I saw)
11. 2nd attempt at galaxy nails
12. Current mani - purple-pink triangles with blue glitter accent nail

Nail art is fun!  Sometimes I'll zone out and do my nails while watching TV or I'll see a design on a nail blog and I'll want to try it right away.  Lauren and I have talked about maybe having a nail art party in the Spring - which would be awesome because I'd LOVE to try and see some new designs!  When we do, I'll be sure to post lots and lots of photos!

Do you have any favourite nail art blogs or inspiration?