Simple Holiday Decorating: DIY Photo Art

Faaaa La La La La Lala La Laaaa....

More holiday decorating DIY ideas. Did anyone try the cake dome centerpiece idea from my last Holiday post? Well, this next Holiday idea is even more fun and a bit more interactive.

Photo Art - For my wedding, one special gift my husband and I received was our (my new) last name put into art. Here is an example of what we got:

"Smith" Photo

I think this is such a unique and fun way to convey any message or showcase any name or word you find special. I love taking pictures and immediately thought I could create something similar, whether for a friend's wedding or our own home. I decided to applied this idea to Holiday decorating.

I walked around town, my neighborhood, to near by shops and even looked in my own yard for inspiration. I took pictures of letters, the natural environment that resembled letters and even formed letters when possible. I did this over time, as I was out and about and if I saw a letter I needed or one that looked cool - I'd snap a picture. I keep all the pictures on file and try to get 3 or 4 of each letter. Over time, I hope to get the entire alphabet and refresh the letters to keep each new thing I do fresh.

For the Holidays, I created HAPPY HOLIDAYS photo art. I included personal pictures of my husband, dog and I in the extra spaces. Here's how I created my Holiday Art in color and black and white (which way do you like it?):



You could also form the letters in a long way:

H A P
P Y
H O L
I D A
Y S

or any other hodge podge way you want - or use another Holiday salutation (e.g. Merry Christmas) or one word (e.g. Peace).

Fill any blank spots with pictures of your family, or a Christmas tree, star or other timely photo.

Framing it: Use a panoramic photo frame or go to your local hobby store to get one custom made to fit whatever shape you create. To find the size of the frame you'll need, you can times how ever many photos across the length of the Photo Collage by 4 inches (for 4x6 picture sizes) to get the width you'll need for your frame. Then times the number of photos you have going down by 6 for the frame length.

For example, the one I created has eight 4x6 photos across the top (32 inches) and two 4x6 photos down the side (12 inches). You can save inches by overlapping photos as well - which I plan on doing.

I found some panoramic frames at Hobby Lobby, and they are currently 50% off.

So, after printing out my pictures in Black and White, I spread them out on the floor.


I need a new second "Y" - it printed horizonal instead of vertical. So I'll be working on my "Y" and framing it this weekend. I'll update you once it's done next week! Check back!

Elizabeth And James

This is the Elizabeth and James spring 2010 Lookbook

This is definitely in my top 5 lookbooks of the year

I love the black and white photography

I think the clothes looks simple and chic

And the styling is just perfect

But it is the Olsen's we are talking about here

So I'm not surprised at how wonderful the collection looks

I think the guys and girls clothes are as equally as nice as each other

The girls tie dye shirt looks awesome and so does the guys rolled up chino style trouser

I really do love this collection and I think Mary-Kate and Ashley have got a lot of must have pieces here

Would do you guys think

Are you a fan?

Mascara Reviews - Dior vs. Drugstore Brands

My most important beauty product is mascara. That's the one thing I'd bring with me if I could only chose one beauty product.

My friend and I were having a discussion about mascara and thus, inspired this post.

First, what brands of mascara do you love?

During the Sephora F&F sale, I got the Dior Show Mascara. I've been using it for the last month...and I'm not impressed. It's not any better than cheaper brands I use. This mascara provides a medium strength length, but little volume and poor color (in total, on a scale of 1-10, a 5). When combined with my cheaper favorites, one that was better at thickness, it was ok (a 6). So, In my opinion - not worth the money.

The "cheaper" brands I do think are totally worth the money and a try:

My Fav - L'Oreal Extra Volume Collagen

This mascara provides awesome (9) volume, a rich glossy black color and a pretty good (7.5) amount of volume. The wand is a bit short and stout, so not the easiest to apply, but not bad.


Another good one to have on hand - Maybelline Lash Stiletto Ultimate Length Washable Mascara

This mascara has a great wand - long and easy to handle around your eye lashes. It provides excellent length (9), but lacks a bit in the rich black color and volume (5).

So that leads to the second part of our conversation:

I bet you can guess how I use my two favs. I combined them. I first put on a full coverage 1-2 swipes, depending on how the mascara takes to my eye lashes, of the Lash Stiletto to get length. Then I put on 2 full swipes of the L'Oreal Collagen on over the Lash Stiletto. This plumps up my lashes and leaves the great glossy color behind.

When I use the Dior Mascara, I swap out Lash Stiletto for Dior - I can't really tell a difference.

My friend, that helped inspire this post, said she uses two swipes of Define-a-Lash and then one swipe of the Colossal, both by Maybelline.

How do you wear your mascara? Combine two brands or just stick to one? What's your favorite?

My next Sephora purchase (which will be soon, because I just got a $15 gift card on a purchase of $35 or more from Sephora for being a Beauty Insider) I am going to get this LashStash Mascara Deluxe Sampler and find the mascara of my dreams (a 10)!

If you could dress up like Candy

We say that we identify ourselves through our friends. Indeed, I identify myself through them. They are few, chosen few who share my interests and who reflect the big part of me.

I love fashion and I am addicted to it. Thus basically, my very close friends share this love too.

And for today's post, I am featuring the style of my good old friend Candy. We were college friends. We used to trade outfits and run sack one's closet. We were of the same size for clothes and shoes. We were an exact reflection of taste. But as we matured, each has developed her own better style and identity.

We have not seen each other for five years now. But thanks to facebook we got connected again.

This photo was taken when we were in our second year college. This was the magic five [I and Candy were both in white]. I am not the shortest, mind you, but in this photo, I was bare footed because I played Titania, the queen of fairies in Shakespear's "Amidst Summer Night's Dream". The others were in high heels.

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