December Playlist

Since December is already here, I put together a little playlist of my favourite songs and artists for this hopefully soon snowy weather! (I included links to some of them!)

Sufjan Stevens

Casimir Pulaski Day

Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois

Chicago

Bon Iver

Flume

Skinny Love

Blood Bank

Death Cab For Cutie

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Band of Horses 

 The Funeral

Angus and Julia Stone

Big Jet Plane

Just a Boy

Okkervil River

A Girl In Port

Savannah Smiles

Unless It's Kicks

Hope you like them!

Late Autumn

The weather today felt perfect. It was slightly chilly, but not too bad, and everything was just so pretty. I can hardly believe that autumn is almost over. Christmas is right around the corner... crazy! I know I'll miss the leaves and the cold air, but I can't help but look forward to cozy nights listening to Bon Iver and watching the snow fall. 

I love this song so much, I think it's beautiful. I've been listening to it a lot this fall, especially at night    (you'll see, it's just a nighttime kind of song!)
Young Guns - Moonlight Bride

Here are some photos of my outfit today!

I love wearing my cardigan/blanket coat when it's a little chilly out. It's so snuggly and warm.

shirt - Urban Outfitters
cardigan - Urban Outfitters
shoes - Gojane.com
necklace - borrowed from a friend, Express

Hope everyone is having a lovely time!
xoxo
Emma

DIY Caviar Manicure

Texture lately is all the rage. So when I came across this "Caviar Manicure" by Ciate, I knew I had to find a way to give myself one. I wasn't up for spending 25 bucks on the kit, so I searched around for cheaper DIYs and came across a simple solution. Microbeads. 
You can buy them at pretty much any craft store. The ones I found were Martha Stewart brand and came with a set of 12 colours. There are other brands and sets, so search around a bit. (the how to is below, next to the third picture!: ) )

How to:
-First apply one coat of nail polish and then a thicker second coat.
-Sprinkle the beads onto the wet second coat and press them into it. You can put as many beads as you want and as many different colours too!
That's all!
I didn't use a top coat because I heard that it took the colour out of the beads, but I'm not really sure if that's true or not. I guess it could depend on the topcoat.

Give these nails a try, they're super simple and are reallllly cute! And a little bit weird. : D
(Nailpolish: Essie Exotic Liras, Beads: Martha Stewart Microbeads Garnet and Blue Topaz)

Beach Hair Spray

So this summer I was searching all over for ways to give your hair those perfect beachy waves. Since I live nowhere near the ocean, I had to find a way to get that wavy.. well.. messiness (yeah, okay, so I love messy hair).
I came across something called True Blue Malibu Waves Spray at Bath and Body. So of course.. I had to get some.
And it does work pretty well, giving your hair that scrumptious summery island smell as well.

However, if you don't want to spend anything, you can make a spray that in my opinion, is just as good.
I found several recipes on the internet for beach hair spray, and ended up just making my own spin of it.

There are three basic ingredients:
-water
-salt
-coconut oil
(oh and a spray bottle!)

Start out by filling the spray bottle about 3/4 of the way with water.
Then put 1 tablespoon of salt in. You can add more if you want. The more salt, the more waves (and also the drier your hair will be, so keep that in mind).
Now I didn't have any coconut oil sitting around, but I did have coconut scented oil (ha ha). I put a couple of drops of that in, mixed it up, and wala!
It takes hardly any ingredients, is easy to make, and makes your hair smell and look like you just came from the sea! So give it a try! (even if it is almost winter, I still love it)

< here's my crazy messy hair after I used the spray!

Sunday

I went on a hike through my woods on Sunday, and emerged into an empty cornfield. There was nothing around for miles, just a long stretch of land and behind me, trees upon trees. The weather was chilly and cloudy and all I could think of was the song Holocene by Bon Iver. Everything was so beautiful.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from my hike, but here are some from the rest of my day.

 


Holocene - Bon Iver

    

 

Fall Tunes

I love fall. But with the change in weather comes a change in my music playlists. I put away Girls and Beach Boys for awhile, and settle in with some other favourites. I love listening to Lana Del Rey and Bon Iver. They both have such beautiful, haunting voices that to me, fit autumn perfectly.

    Blue Velvet - cover by Lana Del Rey 

    For Emma - Bon Iver 

Red lips

I love red lips. It's a pop of colour and something different.
I'm only wearing red (Certainly Red by Revlon) in these pictures, but bright pink and
coral are some other colours I like to wear to spice up these
chilly days.

the fourth

The weather yesterday was terribly hot, but it was still beautiful out. I went over to my friend's house and we hiked around near her house taking photos. When we went to Bellflower later on for the fireworks, we couldn't help but go on a little photo adventure. There were so many cool buildings. Hopefully I'll put more of our pictures up later, but for now here are my favorites!

(photos of me are taken by her, and photos of her are taken by me)

xoxo

Emma

Teal and Orange

A few photos from my day : )
I redid my nails, dreamcatcher style.

My grandma's class ring is so pretty.






















On my way to Decatur, it was storming out and all the colours were so vivid. It was beautiful.

Sparkle Cards!

What you'll need:
-glitter (of course!)
-blank white cards (or you can cut card stock to whatever size you want)
-some kind of glue pen (I used the Stampin Up 2-way Glue)

Take the blank card, doodle or write something, and sprinkle on the glitter. Simple as that. :-)

 This one's my favourite!

^Hahaha, the glitter that was left on the pavement when I finished making the cards.

Polished Rock Ring

What you'll need:

-Polished rock, geode, or some lovely little stone

-ring blank

-e6000 glue (or I'm sure there are other types of glue you can use!)

How to make it:

Take the ring blank, put a dot of e6000 glue on it, and press the rock onto it! 

Then all you have to do is wait for it to dry and yay, you have a new ring!

I'm loving my new rings :-)

DIY Sun-catchers (or whatever you want them to be!)

What you'll need:
-plastic beads
-circular cake pan
1. Fill your cake pan with a layer of plastic beads. If you want the outcome to be a sun catcher, you should use a lot of transparent beads. If you just want it to be a little plate or decoration, you can use whatever kinds and colours of plastic beads you want.
2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and bake the beads for 20-30 minutes. (Mine took around 30 minutes)
3. Wait until it entirely cools. I put mine in front of a cold vent, and after a while they began to make a cracking sound which meant they were detaching from the bottom of the pan. Then you can just turn it upside down and tap the bottom of the pan a couple of times. It should come right out! Done!

By the way, the lemons in this photo are earrings! And you can get your own fruit earrings here!

My mom saw mine and decided to make one, too!

Flowers, flowers, flowers

It's been so nice outside, and I have been going crazy taking pictures of flowers. I was recently introduced to an iPhone app called Duomatic, and that's what I used to create the pictures below! You basically just select two photos and then the app turns them into one. It's really easy to use and is super fun!