DIY Stuffed Animal/Toy Handbag

Luci said to me the other day, "Annika, you really are a fan of things that are other things." Well put, I thought. My favourite things that I own are a pair of ear muffs that look like hamburgers (which you can see on my instagram here). So I was enviously viewing pictures from the 15th Harajuku Fashion Walk (envious because I just missed out on getting to join in! Ahh!) and loving the bags a lot of the lolita girls were holding, which looked just like stuffed toy animals (and probably were). And then I thought it would be pretty easy to make one myself! So here's a cute little DIY for you all :) If you have a loved childhood toy that just sits all lonely at the back of a cupboard, then why not perform a little surgery on them, so you can carry them around with you everywhere you go but not look like a (completely) mad person for doing so? Alright, so I have to admit that I could actually never do this to a loved childhood toy, either. I ended up finding the most unloved toy in our house, making absolutely sure that no one had any kind of sentimental attachments to it whatsoever, and I still felt really bad doing this. I felt properly evil. Like I was destroying happy childhood memories. I think the best option for this DIY - if you've got weird guilt-problems like me - is to visit a thrift store/op-shop and pick something up there. ANYWAY that's enough neuroticism - here is the DIY! A plush toy Fabric for bag lining A belt/matching fabric for your bag strap Scissors Thread and a needle A zipper An evil heart that makes you okay with cutting up plush animals that did NOTHING WRONG (alright, I need to stop anthropomorphising my toys now or this is never going to get off the ground) 1. Using a pair of scissors, cut down the back of the toy, the same length the your zipper is. I cut down the seam that was already there. You can also take this time to remove any tags on the toy. 2. Remove the stuffing. You might want to leave some stuffing in so the bag maintains it's shape - I left the stuffing that was in the seal's head, arms and tail. Then, if you're a hoarder like me, keep that stuffing somewhere safe to use in a future project sometime :) 3. Now you're going to make the lining for the bag. I just used a scrap of left-over fabric I had - but you could also use an old shopping bag or lining from an old coat, etc. All you need to do is cut the fabric to the width of the slit you made in the toy, fold it over, and sew down both sides like this: ...so that you have created a pouch. Then turn it inside out. 4. Match the lining up with the edges of the opening in the toy. If you've been using a sewing machine thus far, you'll probably want to hand-stitch the lining on, especially when you do the second side (you'll see why when you get up to this point yourself). Hopefully you will end up with something like this... Which you then just need to push down back into the toy... And your bag is now taking shape! 5. This is probably the most difficult part - adding the zipper. Make sure that your zipper is the same length as the opening you made in the toy. Un-zip the zipper, and place it upside-down on one edge of the opening, like this: And hand-stitch it onto the very edge of the opening, right where the lining meets the material of the toy. Repeat this on both sides. 6. You're almost there! You just need to add some kind of a bag strap. I'm using an old belt for this part - but you could use a strip of fabric, straps off an old bag or backpack, a piece of cord - anything that you think could work! This is the belt I used (I cut off the bow before sewing it on): You just need to insert the belt ends into each end of the opening in the toy - there should be a small hole at either end of the zipper you inserted. Then you just need to sew the belt to the bag, using a (thick) needle and thread. What you do next is pair your new bag with your favourite novelty pieces, and pretend you live in Harajuku. sweater - c/o Koogal (10% off use ANNIKAVICTORIA) skirt - c/o Sheinside shoes and suspenders - Body Line headband and necklace - Claire's If anyone tries this out, please send me pictures! Love love love,

A $100 Giveaway with Koogal // CLOSED

So! I have an exciting giveaway today (to repay you for being so super dooper ridiculously nice and helpful with my new hair, and also because I pretty much love you all for being the most supportive, lovely bunch of people ever. Sorry - I just needed to get all that gushing done!) where you can win $100 to spend on whatever you like at Koogal. Koogal are an Australian-based brand who I started working with at the end of last year. They are stocked-full of very pretty, fun and colourful clothing. I particularly love their patterned, full-skirt dresses, like the Baroque-print one I am wearing in the above photo (which you can find here)! To win this $100, you need to follow the rules in the rafflecopter giveaway below (give it a second to load if you can't see it just yet). Competition is open internationally, until Wednesday the 20th of March.  And if you don't think random chance is particularly on your side (statistically, you would be correct), then you can get 10% off anything from Koogal by using the code ANNIKAVICTORIA. Gooooood luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

My new hairdo!

If you're a new or not-so-regular reader of this blog, you may not be aware that I had given up on my real hair and taken to wearing wigs all the time. Unfortunately, my real hair is not so super long and curly and luscious as this. In fact, my real-life-hair had become very brittle, thin and damaged due to a combination of medications and trying to maintain a near-white colour so that it could be bright pink and blue (and green and lilac) all through the first half of last year. It was getting to the point where if I wasn't wearing a wig, I'd feel really awful about my appearance all day. And that's no good. I haven't been to a hairdresser in such a loooong time, but yesterday I thought I'd finally go and get them to try and replicate, if at all possible, this particular hair cut from a magazine I picked up in Japan. (By the way, if you follow me on facebook, this hair cut is your doing because you all told me to go for it! And I thank you for that.) Trying to do the same pose as the girl in the magazine.. haha. I took myself along to Japanese hairdresser Allure Hair in Sydney and they did an awesome job! I love my new haircut, and even better, I finally like my real hair. I have noticed, however, that having shorter hair does require a slightly different way of dressing - so I'm going to start trying to wear my wigs less in outfit posts (after the few I've got already lined up), and attempt to suit my clothes more to a short hair style. So, another reason for this post is that I'm embarrassingly bad (for a fashion blogger) at hair styling, and I was actually hoping for some tips... my hair is super thin and just getting it to look this "full" required about half a can of hairspray, half-an-hour with a hairdryer and a whole lot of curling with a curling iron (edit: my fringe didn't need this, but the rest of my hair did) - which I want to avoid having to do every day or I'll be back at damaged hair again. Mousse doesn't give it enough lift either. And I wasn't really able to style it like it looks in the photo, which I would like to be able to do as well. If anyone has any tips for me on styling my hair like the photo, without too much heat damage, I'd be super happy to hear them :)

Back to School!

It's back to uni time for me! But don't worry, I'll still be making lots of time to blog! As well as moving closer to uni (*fingers crossed*), I'm going to be having a pretty busy year! I kept it simple with this outfit, wearing my brand new clear rainboots which I am absolutely in love with! These shoes took three months to arrive, which was the only downside - because they're very well made for the price, and the sender included a whole rainbow's worth of other shoelaces so I can mix and match them. I can't stop staring at my feet when I have these on, it's weird being able to see inside your boots! The awesome thing about these shoes is that you can just change your socks and BAM you've got a new pair of boots! I got mine from Alibaba but you can also find them on Ebay (search for "clear rainboots"). dress - c/o Rire Boutique socks - Tutuanna shoes - Alibaba backpack - Asos (sadly no longer in stock) necklace - Claire's hat - c/o Wholesale I also have to highly recommend this dress gifted to me from Rire Boutique! The shape of the dress is super dooper flattering, plus the nautical stripes are very summery and sailor-esque, and I've been complimented on it whenever I wear it. That's it from me today. I hope you're all doing great!

$4 Vintage Dresses / Science Fiction #2

I found this dress in a "Thank You Mart" in Osaka for.. wait for it.. $4 (that's 390円). And I feel like a prairie princess wearing it. The collar is perfectly over-the-top and it also features a gorgeous v-shaped (google tells me "basque" is the technical term) waistline. I always feel a little bit rude bragging about my thrift store finds (but not enough to stop me doing it haha), because it's not exactly like you can click a link and buy the same dress if you like it. So, while these aren't exactly $4 thrift store finds, here's a list of my favourite etsy stores who also do vintage on the cheap. (I see way too many shops that get away with selling vintage for hundreds of dollars. That isn't for me. $30 max is what I'll pay for a really nice, second-hand dress!) Bonne Chance | The Floral Prince | KooKooKachoo | Strawberry Koi | Some Underground | Bloom Bandit | Castle In Air |  Very Vintage Ivy dress - Thank You Mart (vintage) socks - c/o Sock Dreams shoes - Shoe Store in Tokyo Headband - Claire's (Japan) If you all recall, back in January I wrote about the books that I was currently reading - which all happened to be of the Science Fiction genre because I am somewhat of a gigantic nerd. I just wanted to do a quick update on the books I've read lately - and I should also note that I highly recommend them all. 'In the year 2000 all household tasks will be carried out by robots...' Image Source Firstly, in January I wrote that I was reading WWW.Wake by Robert Sawyer. I read the whole series, and I really liked it, even if it was a little far-fetched in parts. The main character is a blind-from-birth teenage girl/blogger who is the first recipient of an experimental implant which allows her to see, but which also inadvertently plugs her brain into the internet and leads to her discovering an artificial intelligence on the web. Other good books I have read in the past two months: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (cyborg Cinderella story, aw yeah!) Wired and Amped by Douglas E. Richards Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan Have you guys read any good books lately? I would love to know, as I took on board some recommendations from last time and they were spectacular (but unfortunately I was never able to find a few! :( Darn amazon!)