Fashion Trend: Embroidered Jeans

 

 

Zara

 

 

Will you be surprised if I told you that I haven't been aware of the fashion trends being all the craze for months? Well, I have. Luckily I've got Eva to tell me all about the fashion yays or nays - not that I care too much, but I am fantastic at feigning interest :)

But this one really poked the romantic crouching in me! Embroidered jeans!
Eva sent me a photo -  trying on such in a fitting room and my jaw dropped - because they were gorgeous! I would gladly show you the photo, but for modesty's sake,  I'll show you some other examples of what companies offer on the market.

Zara

 Desigual

 

 

 

Topshop

Polyvore

 

What I really like is that most of them are high-waisted jeans - thank God for that. Call me old-fashioned, but I cannot stand and absolutely detest and shudder at seeing low-waisted jeans. As for the embroidery - personally I like the ones with a small embroidery on the side of the leg. The heavily embroidered ones are beautiful too, but definitely not something I would wear.

 

How about you? What do you think of this fashion trend? Yay or Nay? Would you wear such jeans yourself?

Happy 16th Valentine's Day!

 

Today is a special day in our household for Eva is turning 16 today! You can imagine the joy and happiness! Yesterday she couldn't fall asleep of all the excitement and now, when the day is finally here, we'll be having a blast. 

We wish you all a fantastic Valentine and pray for more love and understanding in the world!

Inspiration Monday: Lidia Puica - Sculptural Crochet Artist

 

Happy Monday all!

Today I want to present an artist that creates incredible sculptural jewelry. Her name is Lidia Puica and she comes from Romania. After graduating from the University of Arts & Design she focused on making jewelry and textile art, crochet and embroidery being her main techniques.

She loves accentuating volumes and working on mixing and matching different textures and colors, thus creating stunning new shapes and forms that evolves into little sculptures of art.

Main working materials include cotton yarn, glass beads, wooden elements, leather and fabric and the fuel for inspiration comes from the nature that surrounds her.

 

I love following the updates on her Facebook page, but you can also visit her on her blog or etsy shop.

 

Frida's Flowers Necklace Pattern

Here's my new Frida inspired necklace. The tutorial guides you in making the flowers and the leaves, but I also show you how to make the ribbons to hang the flower arrangement onto, if you feel like it – so this requires some light sewing.

What you need:
* sport yarn (leftover yarn is great for this project) and a steel 1.9 mm hook. Please consult hook recommendation on your yarn label if you decide on using thicker / thinner yarn.
*(optional) metal clams, metal chain, jump rings, lobster clasp, ribbon.
Used terms in American terminology: chain (ch), slip stitch (sl st), skip (sk), half double crochet (hdc), double crochet (dc), treble (tr).

Finished measurements: maker’s choice. Depending on the amount of flowers you decide to add and the size of flowers you make.

What we are going to make
- three types of flowers
- two types of leaves (+ a variation of one of them).
- a sewn ribbon (optional)
The pattern on etsy and ravelry.

There is also a small collection of scarves coming up inspired by her, so stay tuned.

Frida Kahlo's Iconic Style

 

 

I have always been deeply fascinated by Frida's unique fashion style as well as her struggle in life. In real life, as in her paintings, Kahlo used fashion to channel her physical and emotional insecurities into statements of strength, heritage, and beauty.

 

At the age of 6 she had polio that left her with one leg shorter than the other and then at 18 she had an almost fatal accident that left her body broken and to hide the physical scars and imperfections she started wearing long skirts and corset - style tops and blouses.

The clothes she used to wear were by no means chosen by accident.
She chose the Tehuana traditional dress. The Tehuana dress comes from the Tehuantepec Isthmus, which is in the southeast part of Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. Frida's mother was a Tehuana native, so naturally she found this style close to her origin and identity. Another interesting fact is that the Tehuantepec Isthmus is a matriarchal society, so this means she chose the style of dominant and powerful women.

Via

The Tehuana dress is composed of three parts. There is a heavy headpiece made with pleats and flowers and ribbons, so the adornment is concentrated around the head. Then there is a short blouse heavily adorned with jewelry and a long skirt ending in elaborate lace. The dresses she wore were mostly cottons, silks and laces, although Tehuana women also wear velvet dresses for more formal occasions, Frida actually had just one such set because velvet was very hard to wear - her body couldn't sustain it.
Wearing these dresses, she showed how proud was she of her Mexican heritage and her style gave her strength to endure the constant pain of life.

In my research of Frida's style I acquired valuable information from this article. If you love Frida, reading this is a must.

Valentine's Gift Ideas

 

 

Eliza Inspiration

 

 

It's a pleasure to present to you these phenomenal Valentine's gifts from our designers - something exquisite and unique. Quite an unorthodox selection, but pleasing to the eye - I hope! Enjoy browsing!

 

 

Art Fantasy Jewelry

 

 

Sofija Filigranska

 

Farina's Handmade

 

 

Inspiration Monday: Olga Orlova Masterful Beadwork Artist

 

 

In my spare time I love browsing the internet, especially pinterest and fuel my inspiration. That's how I happened upon master extraordinaire Olga Orlova. And I was mesmerized because her beadwork is stunning and not something you can see every day.

In my pursuit to find out more about Olga's work I found out that she is a native of Russia and lives in St. Petersburg. Being raised in a culture-enhancing and enriching household, among art books, museums and exhibitions, she had a steadfast path to becoming an artist herself. She employs ancient embroidery techniques combining silk embroidery, gold-work embroidery, pearl and bead sewing. Her embroidery has the quality of a priceless painting. The usual time she needs to create a piece of artful beadwork is two months and her palette includes jewelry, handbags, purses, dolls and icons.

To learn more about Olga and her work firsthand, read this article.  
If you want to buy one of Olga's masterpieces, inquire here.

 

Dragon Tail Crochet Scarf

 

 

 

 

So recently I made myself a Dragon tail crochet scarf using a schematic I found on pinterest, and I knew from the start it would be a perfect match with my self-striping yarn.

And I was right. The pattern is easy to follow and works up fast if you are willing to try it yourself. The only thing is that I've worn it excessively these past weeks and you can properly see the "scales" because it is curled up.

 

Here it is.

Enjoy it!

 

 

 

Valentine's Day Ideas

 

 

 

As it has become a tradition here on my blog, I am sharing decorating, food and gift ideas for Valentine's Day. A  selection of those tutorials on the internet that caught my eye. And there will be a couple of more posts until Valentine's, so stay in the loop.

 

 

I recently discovered the shop LaMiaCasa on etsy and fell for their incredibly romantic garlands and buntings. Something that can be easily done to decorate your place.

 

 

 

A beautiful jewelry holder that makes one incredible gift.

 

 

 

A jar of chocolate hearts for those with a tooth for the sweet.

 

 

 

 

Pomegranate filled heart ice cubes for making your drinks enchanting.

 

 



 

 

Make your Valentine dinner more luxurious with this recipe - Strawberries Stuffed with Mascarpone Cheese

 



 

 

Give Valentine a sweet taste and interesting texture making these Marshmallow Pops

 

 

And for the end, some ideas for an attractive gift wrapping.

 

 

 

DIY The Room - Iris Simpkins' Living Room

 

 

Recently, Cat from Cut Out + Keep asked me if I be willing to DIY a room for their series, which I must say is an incredible one. The idea behind the DIY a Room is that bloggers and members put together style-boards for what they'd imagine celebrities, fictional characters or their own dream homes would look like and use tutorials on the site to recreate those rooms.

 

 

I jumped up at the request, knowing immediately what room I was going to recreate. You see, the minute I saw the film "The Holiday" I fell mortally in love with Iris Simpkins's (played by Kate Winslet) English cottage. If you haven't seen it - I recommend it. It is a nice, lovely romantic comedy.

So I recreated her living room using tutorials I found on the site. See the tutorials I selected here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What inspired me to choose this room?

As I previously said, I immediately fell in love with the warm and captivating English style that this room breathes with. I can imagine myself in one of the big and cozy armchairs, all snuggled up, with a good book and a cup of tea or hot chocolate, while the wood in the fireplace crackles away long into the night. Can you?