fashion friday: arm party

Posted on August 17, 2012 by landofnams

Unless I’m attending an Indian wedding, I’m a less is more kind of woman. I like barely-there rings from catbird, that are a nice surprise when you notice them. But I gotta love a trend that allows me to buy bracelets like they’re going extinct and embrace my 7th grade self who wore a ring on every finger and thought I was The Shit (I wasn’t the shit. I looked like a boy and thus boys didn’t “like me like me” and the essays I wrote in Mr. Billing’s English class were far too serious for a 12 year old).

So I present my Arm Stack.

1. Stella and Dot Renegade Cluster Bracelet
2. & 3. Randoms from Arts on Main
4. YDE {Young Designer’s Emporium}
5. Adia Kibur from Shopbop

And, I gots me a manicure with Scotch Naturals in Leprechaun Lynch and for my party nail, Christian Dior in Paradise.

Continue reading →

fashion friday: diy first knuckle rings

Posted on July 6, 2012 by landofnams

After making some jewelry when Anna and Maureen came to visit, I had about 1,000 crimps left over and no ideas. So for this Fashion Friday, I’m combining some of my favorite things: first knuckle rings, j ewelry made of thin strings and DIY.

You’ll need:
Silk thread, or embroidery thread in the color of your choice
Crimps
Scissors
A pair of pliers

Simply follow the instructions above, except I forgot to add: TRIM OFF THE EXCESS THREAD after your clamp down on the crimps. You can make a whole stack or just a couple to add to the party on your hand. I used black thread, obvi but feel free to get crazy. For the pinky ring I just added a separator. Add anything you like!

The two thin bands on my hand are the catbird first knuckle ring in rose gold and their threadbare ring in yellow gold.

Fashion Friday: The Party (Nail) Train

Posted on June 15, 2012 by landofnams

partynailrollover

Since I’ve noticed my South African as well as expat friends wearing their engagement rings without seeming to be in constant terror that someone is going to run out and chop their fingers off, I decided the time was now (famous last words?) to start wearing mine again -thanks to Anna and Mo for bringing it to me from the States. To celebrate our reunion (me and my handsome art deco ring’s reunion, obv) I decided to jump on the party nail train. The train where you color-block, fluorescentize, glitterize or in some way make your ring finger(s) pop. I needed something to make me feel like I’m young and cool again. So, I had my nail lady paint Essie’s Borrowed and Blue (almost white, barely blue) and on my ring fingers and an additional layer of OPI for Sephora in Only Gold For Me only on my ring fingers. Unfortunately you can’t really see it in my pop art collage above, probably the most clearly in the black and white photo.

Last week I had a dark navy blue, Essie’s Midnight Cami on my fingers and a neon pink Essie’s Lights on my ring finger. I’m really keen to next time try dipping my ring finger in a pot of glitter and omg Sephora and Pantone made a color of the year inspired nail polish set, what???, (why isn’t there a god damn Sephora in South Africa??) so it seems there will be plenty of crap for me to order to my in-laws’ house so they can lug it to me when they visit us in August. How lucky for them!

I made my confetti brush using Pugly Pixel’s photoshop tutorial once again, long live PP!

want.

Posted on June 7, 2012 by landofnams

a half hearted blog post of things i full-heartedly want. don’t worry, i have a few lovely TERRARIUM POSTS coming. mini terrariums, medium terrariums, big terrariums. goldilocks and the three terrariums.

click on the links below each item above to be magically transported.

1. sparkly camera strap. there’s no reason my ever-present camera shouldn’t look adorbs. via bloomtheory.

2. metal thin hand cuff bracelet. need. NEED. via shopbop.

3. tiny turquoise ring to add to the growing stack on my wedding finger. via catbird.

4. metallic lace-up booties. OBVI. via shopbop.

DIY: Maison Martin Margiela Inspired Necklace

Posted on May 23, 2012 by landofnams

I love jewelry and I’ve been feeling lately that all of the crazy chunky stuff that is in is SO DIYable. Often I part with my money only too happily for jewelry but I feel wrong spending 300 dollars on some chains that were welded together, even if they were welded together quite beautifully. I had been admiring this necklace (sold out, sorry) a while ago from Maison Martin Margiela:

So I put together my own.

(Here, here, here, here and here are some similar necklaces)

You’ll need:

2 or 3 lengths of chain in progressively smaller sizes. You can find them at your local hardware store, just ask the nice man to cut them into the lengths that you want. As you can see I only did 2.

Ribbon for a closure

A subtley colored, strong thread or floss to hold the chains together

A lighter (optional)

Hex or other nuts (we only had quad lying around)

Find the middle of the biggest chain which will go around the neck. Weave the medium piece of chain through with your floss. Do the same thing with the third piece, or hex nuts or whatever you’re using.

I used a lighter to carefully ‘fuse’ my knots. Be careful though because you can burn through it if you’re not careful and you’ll have to start over, which is terrible.

Tada!

DIY Anthropologie Inspired Bracelets

Posted on May 15, 2012 by landofnams

I came across this adorable bracelet at Anthropologie and realized it was easy enough to make!

All you’ll need is:

Metal findings (I used a part of an old necklace as well as some pressed separators)

Embroidery floss, or a type of cord you’ll feel comfortable using

Dexterity

First knot your cord on each side of your metal finding using a slip knot. Maybe you want to spray paint your metal finding first for some color.

Measure your bracelet to the right length, and make a closure sliding knot or perhaps you would like to add a real bracelet closure.

Wear several on your wrist. Voila!

*Bottom picture from Anthropologie.

Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Posted on May 10, 2012 by landofnams

With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday in the US and South Africa I did some digging around for some lovely Mom presents. Maybe you have a good friend (or a good daughter?!) that’s a new mom, or your partner just gave birth and deserves something extra special, or you want to find something incredible for your mom this year (and surely you do, with all of the blood, sweat, and tears she put into you).

From the top:

*Tiny gold staple earrings by Kathleen Whitaker at Alder & Co.

These are usually sold as single earrings, and I thought it was more mom-appropriate to give a pair of earrings.

*Linen Whale by Tamar Mogendorff at Alder & Co

This is not a gift for a child but for a mom, maybe a mom that’s really into decorating her baby’s nursery. Because for 295usd there’s no way I would let a child play with that thing.

*Ancienne Infinite Love Ring by Elisa Solomon at catbird

This is an extra special gift, but it’s a Mother’s Day gift that can one day be a {very stylish} family heirloom.

*White and Gold container by Mark Braun at Alder & Co

Perfect for storing those rings on a dresser or night stand, or just something pretty to look at in the living room.

DIY: DANNIJO inspired necklace

Posted on April 25, 2012 by landofnams

It’s a well-documented fact that I know my way around a spray paint can. After salivating over DANNIJO‘s and other sufficiently loud necklaces at Shopbop and deciding 400 USD was more than even someone with a completely insane weakness for every kind of jewelry such as myself was willing to spend, I was inspired by this pin and decided a trip to Chinatown and Builder’s Warehouse could get me something in the vicinity for only 10 USD.

I bought a god-awful necklace from Chinatown with a nice shape and proceeded to spray paint it within an inch of it’s life.

I daresay, I think it turned out quite nicely. I wore it to work already this week and I’m kind of in love. Beware of the color of your original piece, it will affect the end result: check out how different the spray paint looks when it’s sprayed on black plastic sheeting verses white rhinestones.

Catbird

Posted on March 6, 2012 by landofnams

While in nyc I made my annual pilgrimage to my favorite jewelry store, which I’ve talked about several times on this blog so much so that I now have officially declared myself a Catbird Evangelist. I’ve ~~forced P to~~ purchased several things from there but my favorite thing to get is their first knuckle ring. I routinely give them out as presents because they are the best thing ever. A hammered band that sits just below your knuckle. I now get it in the size xxs, because I’ve owned a few xs bands that have sadly fallen off into oblivion- and this time I got it in rose gold. I don’t think that xxs is available on their website but you could write it in the ‘notes’ section of your order. I also picked up their threadbare ring, which is a very very thin hammered gold band. They have the best customer service, and it’s a small woman-owned independent jewelry store that sells MOST FABULOUS designers. Can’t get much better than that.

Catbird is located at 219 Bedford Ave, just take the L train to the Bedford stop. Or shop online, for all you expats they do international shipping. Wahoo!

DIY: Adia Kibur Inspired Necklace

Posted on February 13, 2012 by landofnams

Sorry for the no-post Friday but things got too crazy around here! I have some good news to share, but only after I’ve dotted my I’s and crossed my T’s. On Sunday I worked till my fingers bled (literally) doing DIY projects, sanding and spray painting the crap out of a bunch of pieces of furniture I kept meaning to re-do but never did. I’ve finally made a few decisions about how I want our bedroom to look (a mere 6 months after moving here) so this week I’ll have a big post with pictures about that. Today I have an Adia Kibur inspired DIY. I’ve been trolling Shopbop every spare minute for a dress to wear to an upcoming wedding of two good friends (in NYC at the Plaza, hoody hoo!) and though I just can’t seem to pull the trigger on a dress I came upon this necklace. I’m a sucker for flourescent but 145USD + customs is a bit steep for something I could make after a cheap trip to Builder’s Warehouse (the South African Home Depot).

For this project you will need:

2 lengths of chain which add up to anywhere that fits around your head up to a metre (can be the same or different, you decide) These are available by the metre/yard at your local hardware store.

1 flourescent spray paint color (I used the one from my credit card necklace)

2 jump rings

Take one of the lengths of chain outside or to a garage (or if you have a balcony spread out some garbage bags and cover everything) and spray paint it. Let it dry for an hour, turn it over and spray paint the other side. After it has dried for at least 24 hours (er, um 5 hours in the sun if you’re lazy) use your jump rings to attach it to the other chain length so that it is one giant necklace. You can wear it long or short, or take ribbon and tie it through the jump rings and wear it in half like pictured above. Enjoy your awesome necklace and the money you didn’t spend!

land of nams

all things beautiful: fashion, food, interiors, travel & more

Tag Archives: baubles