upcycled. crochet sandals.

Last week, I was cleaning out my closet and ran across these little guys.

They're not exactly ugly, but they've definitely seen better days. And it had been so long since I'd worn them, I didn't even remember breaking the left flip flop. Well a few days prior, I got a catalog from Alloy (really random, since I've never bought anything from them) and saw [these] sandals. cutee!! However, I have a strict don't-pay-over-$25-unless-they're-winter-boots policy.

The solution? upcycle!

I used materials that I already had, so the color of yarn (yes. yarn. when they wear out, maybe I'll get hemp.) was between a brown that absolutely did not match and white. Both fabrics used for the back were left over from previous projects. I also did not have any zippers, so I just went for the button-up look.

I kind of rushed through these, so I didn't do a lot of planning. In hindsight, I would have bought something a little sturdier to crochet with, and I would have put interfacing in the back (yes. I know. I can't believe I missed it.).

a whale of a cake.

Making this cake was a blast! It took a really long time, but it wasn't really difficult. To be honest, the hardest part was making the shape and putting the first layer of icing on him.

To start, I needed to make the shape. For the base, I used a plain circular cake pan. For his head/body, I used a glass bowl that was safe for the oven (that's super important!). For the tail, I didn't have anything shaped like that already, so I just put batter in a glass bread pan and cut it to the right shape after it was baked. It was actually fun carving out the shape, but it was really difficult, since cake is crumbly.

As you can see, if you plan on covering a cake with decorations, the base layer of icing doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.

For the decorating part, I covered the little guy with stars (which took forever), put a face on him. I had extra light blue icing, so I randomly decided to go back over the top part and make some waves crashing up alongside him. Then I added seashells and seaweed to the base.

Here's a close-up of his face:

cute stripes nail design

It's finals week and I'm stressed. I've been studying all weekend, so I took a break this morning and painted my nails while I made granola (more on that later).

It's super simple. Basically, here's the colors I used:

You can just ignore that gold one on the right. I didn't end up using it. Anyway, I just bought that Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polish the other day and was eager to use it. It's wonderful! It took one coat to get the purest opaque color ever! I also used Freja by Zoya (my favorite brand. ever.) which is actually a metallic polish, so it needs 2 coats. Here's a picture after the base coat and first coat of color:

I've found that when painting nails with two colors, it adds a nice accent if one nail is painted opposite of the others. Anyway, I let them dry, added a second coat to the silver, and painted the stripe. The Insta-Dri dried a little too quickly, so it ended up bumpy, but here's a picture:

As you can see, I just painted a thick stripe diagonally across the nail. This design is very forgiving and allows you to fix any wavy lines by going back over it or making it wider. Just as a general guideline: when you paint your nails with a design, it's best to leave one or two nails solid. Otherwise it might end up looking tacky.

Done! Personally, I prefer to not have symmetrical hands (accent nails and solid nails on the same fingers), but it's all in how you like it. Also, just ignore the nail polish I got on my fingers. I may have been a little careless, since it washes off easily =)