Caramel Cupcakes

I was in the city the other day having dinner with my boyfriend, and I knew that I had to walk home from the train in the FREEZING COLD, and I didn’t have a cardigan. I also knew I would have to either spend $10 on a taxi, or $10 on a cardigan/coat so I could brave the cold walk home. I then found a $10-or-less pop-up-shop selling cute cardigans. So guess which one I chose? (Of course I chose the cardigan.) Such a better/wiser investment! It’s so damn cute, and warm, and it has the most adorable little elk on it, who are howling at a christmas tree or something, but oh my! It's so cute! You may also have noticed my amazing bag. In fact, the title of this look refers to my new satchel bag, c/o Mochi Beaucoup. How damn cute is it?? It’s actually ridiculously nice, deliciously so, and the little scalloped edges just push the cuteness factor over the edge (in a good way). Here's a nice close up of it (yeah, I'm also wearing a different dress. This photo is for a future outfit post actually, but I didn't get good close ups of the bag earlier, and I felt it needed some.): The name of the bag is actually "Salted Caramel Cupcake Satchel". I'm sure you can see why! If you want one for yourself (or anything else at Mochi Beacoup, for that matter), you can get it 20% cheaper than usual just for reading my blog, just use the code AVPNMB20 at the checkout. Wearing: Dress - Vintage from Osaka Bag - c/o Mochi Beaucoup Cardigan - No brand Belt - Vintage Socks - Vintage Shoes - Yesstyle Hair bow - I made it Have a lovely day! Annika xxxxx

A Stripey Skirt from a Vintage Dress

Whoever is leaving all these amazing dresses in my thrift stores - I can't thank you enough! This one I made into a high-waisted skirt, because the top part had a whole boob-tube thing going on - which I do not do. I also made this blouse all nice with some DIY - all I did was sew two lengths of black ribbon underneath each collar bit, but it has totally transformed the top. Who knew that I would get bored of peter pan collars? Well, this is a neat way to revitalise them. Wearing: Skirt - Vintage & DIY Blouse - Wholesaledress & DIY Tights - c/o Oasap Belt - Vintage Hat - Wholesaledress Shoes - Yesstyle Hope you're all feelin' fine and dandy! xxx Annika

Super Tricky Skirt Shorts

Have a look at the above picture. What you're probably thinking is "Oh! That's a quite lovely mustard skirt." FUNNY, THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT TOO! Oh, wait. It wasn't until I went to try on my new "skirt" at home, that I discovered this funny thing. They're actually weirdo giant pants, deceiving me with their skirty like appearance! Ahh, the joys of charity stores. (However, they were only $1. So I'm not too upset.) So now I have one of two options, and I need your help for this one. Whatever you guys decide, I will (probably) do! So, should I make these pants into a skirt (see top picture), or bubble-hem high-waisted short-shorts (see below)? YOU DECIDE. I relinquish to you, reader, the power to determine the fate of this garment of clothing! How exciting! I love you all, Annika xxx

Queen of Hearts Tights

Ahoy there! Bringing back the hand-painted tights! I was actually commissioned to paint these for a burlesque Tim Burton show happening this weekend, for a Queen of Hearts Costume. I took these photos "to show" the person who asked me to paint them, to make sure they were alright. I may have gotten a little carried away though... and taken a whole bunch of outfit photos with them as well. But, I managed not to rip them... so no harm done! (Unless they read my blog. Let's hope they don't read my blog.) Wearing: Shirt - Vintage Skirt - Wholesaledress Tights - DIY'd (originally vintage sheers) Bag - c/o Oasap Boots - Rubi Shoes Necklace - Stolen from boyfriend Cameo Brooch - Ebay Here's a little DIY... How to make "Queen of Hearts" tights What you will need: Sheer white tights Black fabric/acrylic paint (*Important: The paint must be fairly thick, ie not runny*) A stencil A pair of legs to paint on A paintbrush What you do: Making your stencil: Get a long length of cardboard and fold it in half. Draw half-lovehearts on the folded edge of one side of the cardboard, larger at the top and getting smaller gradually as you go down. Like this: Cut these out and unfold the cardboard. You should now have a nice stencil with some pretty love hearts. Use these stencils for painting your tights. Follow instructions on how to do this here. Don't forget to let them dry for a loooooong time on your legs! Wear them around for a few hours. I'm serious!! Love, Annika xxx

Sneak peek of my next DIY and a future outfit post...

Just finished painting these babies!
As seen on my new blog banner...
Stay tuned for an outfit post and DIY.

Tights - DIY

Skirt - Wholesale-dress

Shoes - Rubi Shoes

xxx

Cheap stuff!!! Coupon Codes!

Cheap stuff! I bring you all a knowledgeable little list of coupon and discount codes for you to use on online stores. Because I've just hit 500 followers which is absolutely incredible, and I can't thank you all enough! I love you guys! So here's some coupon codes that you can use on various online stores to get some cheap stuff as some thanks! Mochi Beaucoup Just whack AVPNMB20 in at the checkout and get 20% off Wholesale Dress o5crljy8lm9 at the checkout for some $$$ off your order (until the end of April) My Name Necklace for 8% a pretty necklace with your name on it, use "pineneed" at the checkout Sheinside 20% when you enter "Annika20" at the checkout It's far too bizarre to do a post without photos, so here's a pretty photo of a nebula. (source: howtogeek) Thank you all for your amazing and continued support of my blog! Annika xxx

Just a sweet vintage skirt

The purpose of this post today is to show off this sweet white linen pleated skirt I thrifted last week. This skirt makes me feel like a 1920s tennis star. Much like this lovely lady: (Source: The Painted Woman) Wearing (me, not the 1920s lady... although I do wonder): Skirt - Vintage Blouse - Vintage Bag - c/o Oasap Shoes - Wholesaledress Socks - Vintage Collar doo-dad - DIY Cameo Brooch - Ebay Hat - Wholesaledress Belt - Vintage Have a beautiful day, all! Love, Annika xxx

Fairy Floss

I am having the best luck vintage shopping lately - someone's amazingly well dressed grandma with an incredible pastel dress collection is going around getting rid of her clothes (I speculate). This beautiful dress was $2. And I found it just hanging there, all lonely and unloved, outside on the street on the cheap rack of my favourite op shop! I was near hyperventilation, believe me. I'm wearing: Dress - Vintage Tights - c/o Oasap Cameo Brooch - Ebay Sweater - Vintage (from Tokyo) Bag - Vintage Belt - Vintage Hat - Wholesaledress Ring - Ebay Pocketwatch Necklace - Markets in Sydney Shoes - Forever 21 And here is a picture of me from yesterday when I was on a date at Luna Park (an amusement park in Sydney), eating some Fairy Floss in a real ladylike way. Aw yeah, I have fairy floss hair. Annika xxx

Annika made a dress

I really like the style of dress with a high waist, a 60s style bodice and a poofy circle skirt. They go for $100 + on websites like Jones & Jones, but really they are so simple and easy to make yourself. All you need to do is find a cheap pattern from a charity store/op shop that you like the look of (any kind of basic dress is fine) and use this as the pattern for your bodice. As for the skirt, you can follow my circle skirt tutorial here (sans velvet), and then all you have to do is join the two together! And basically any combination of prints and colours will look nice as well, particularly if you work with a patterned/plain combination, I think. Or you could do the dress all the one colour. There's loads of possibilities! Wearing: Dress - DIY Bag - c/o Oasap Shoes - Yesstyle Tights - c/o Oasap Collar embellishment - DIY Cameo Brooch - Ebay Belt - Vintage Hat - Wholesale Hope you're all having a creative day, Annika xxx

DIY Scalloped Denim Shorts

What you need: some plain old denim shorts with a straight hem scissors cardboard a sewing machine a pen some pins What you do: 1. Cut out a scallop shape from some cardboard, like the one in the picture below. 2. Fold the edge on your shorts up approximately the height of your cardboard stencil, on the RIGHT side of the shorts.  3. Trace around the scallop shape, making scallops all the way around the cuff of your shorts. Pin the folded up bit to your shorts so it doesn't move when you start sewing. 4. Using a small straight stitch, sew around your drawn lines. Lift and readjust the foot as you go to make it easier! 5. Cut out your scallops, just outside the line you sewed. Now iron, flip the hem inside out, iron again, and you're done! xxx Annika

Pink Hair & Pony Print

I love love love printed animals on clothes!! So when I found this dress at a random pop-up "Everything for $10" shop in Sydney, I was insanely happy. It’s so damn cute. I also made a ribbon thingy to attach to the collar of the blouse I layered under the dress – I have no idea what these kind of bowties are called, but I like them. Do they have a name? Can anyone help me out? You can see better pictures of it below. I also bought this double moustache ring because it's unbelievably kitsch. And I'm just oh so hil-AR-ious, right? And my hair is pink. A bit too pink... You can't see it because I'm wearing a hat, but the top is very much fluorescent. That would be the fault of boyfriend who somehow managed to convince me that I need not dilute the hair dye with conditioner. And my fault because I listened to him full knowing that he has no experience with hair dye. But, it will fade! Wearing: Dress - No Brand from Chinatown Bag - c/o Oasap Blouse - Vintage Collar thingy - DIY Brooch - Ebay Ring - Ebay Belt - Vintage Socks - Vintage Hat - From Osaka Markets Shoes - Wholesaledress Hope you're all having a lovely day, xxx Annika

I love vintage, I am vintage (plus a sneaky DIY)

Basically I just wanted to show you this sweet embroidered vintage blouse that I got for $3 the other day. It was a size 16, so I fixed it a bit by bringing it in, and chopped off the long sleeves as well. I've never brought anything in so successfully before! Check it out! It doesn't even look too crappy, hooray! If you want to bring in a shirt that's just a little too large across the chest and along the shoulders like this, here's what you do: 1. Turn it inside out. Poke the sleeve inside the main body of the shirt. 2. Where the sleeve meets the main body of the shirt, you should noticed that there is a sewn seam all the way around. Sew around this again using a long, straight stitch, but where you want to sew is 1-2cm (0.5 - 1 inches) in from the seam. (Try 1cm first, try it on, and if its still too big then you can go further.) And look at my diagrams because I explained that terribly. Obviously, do this on both sleeves. 3. Still inside out, do a similar kind of thing on both sides down the body of the shirt. DONE. Too easy (hopefully!) xxx Annika

You remind me of the babe (what babe?)

Just what I wore to Uni the other day. Also, I did that to my hair. I need some new shoes. Would anyone like to send me a new pair of shoes? Particularly oxfords or black heels? I pretty much only own 3 pairs of shoes, and these ones here are getting pretty battered. Send me shoes and I'll wear them in every blog post ;) (out of necessity. As I said, I've got about 3 pairs so they'd be on high rotation). Haha anyway enough of this awkward begging for clothes thing, I promise not to do it again (maybe). How are you all doing? Did anything exciting or unusual happen to you this week? Let me know! OH! And of course, what I'm wearing: Shirt - Vintage (and fixed up) Skirt - I made it Socks - Vintage Shoes - Yesstyle Hat - Wholesale-dress Annika xxx