My Recent DIY Stuff

What's up blog readers? Being on holidays means that I have a whole lot time for myself and freeeeedom! But also with this freedom, boredom tends to strike; however when it does I like to try something new. Something D.I.Y. :)

Recently I have done three DIY projects. Yeah, no. Wouldn't really call them projects... I just like how fancy it sounds. How about I show them in order starting from most difficult to least difficult, okay

1. DIY Bear Keychain

This was something I received in my KK present last year - 'Animal kit of wool felt'

How cute is it?! I'm not a very artsy/crafty person and even though I really admire DIY stuff (especially when I see people do it), I'm just not that motivated to go ahead and make something myself! This is an exception though, because it was gifted to me and I couldn't say no to this cute bear staring back at me ^^

And so the DIY mission began.

Never had I dealt with wool felt before and throughout this mission, I felt rather clumsy (sort-of pun intended). Poking the felt with a needle was a bit of a tedious task and I managed to poke myself a few times (ouch) but drew no blood (thank goodness).

I only took a picture after I was done, nothing at the start or in between as I was busy focusing on the instructions and frustratedly trying to piece the wool and everything together. Took me at least an hour to do and to me this wasn't that easy!

I looked up a tutorial because the sheet instructions weren't enough for me. This bear turned out looking so gorgeous *envies*

Credit: PaperPastels

Now to show you the outcome of mine and how it compares to the proper outcome:

Please don't laugh.

Actually, feel free to laugh. Because I am laughing as I am typing this xD

Firstly, the face/head is no where near as round like a ball - instead it's flat like a pancake! It kind of has a smile like the Joker's and the ears look like two hair buns. Would this count as a pass if I were in say, craft class?? I think this is a fail bahaha.

I did attach the chain part but it wasn't on securely and yeah... I took it off in the end.

I don't think that I was supposed to end up with spare wool felt but I did. And with that I decided to mold together a heart.

Aww, it's because I love you guys *cheesy grin*

Onto the second ~project~

2. DIY Dip-Dye (triple D's, lol whut)

To be honest, I'm not actually really into the dip-dye craze... hypocrite haha but seriously the only reason I decided to do this was purely for experimental purposes. Since it's summer here right now in Australia, people generally prefer to dye their hair lighter and so I thought, now would be the perfect time. I contemplated going blonde but was too afraid of how that would look on me. Mid last year I purchased a box of pre-lightener a.k.a bleach and after reading reviews and seeing pictures, I realised that my hair would turn orange if I only used this box of DIY bleach. And so, I was too afraid of going temporarily orange. I knew that I needed more products to get the perfect blonde but meh, went with bleach first.

This was what I used

If only these colour charts were accurate *le sigh*

Yes, I would have rather gone to a salon to go lighter but I just... I just need to save up first and have better cash flow. And I don't mind dyeing my own hair... been doing it for years and I wanted to see whether I could successfully go blonde on my own.

I was willing to potentially sacrifice my ends for the sake of experimenting.

Under bright, natural lighting

(Don't mind me -  was in my PJ's)

That above, is the result of bleaching my ends twice. The first time turned out more browny-orange and now it's more orange-blonde. Basically I just want to get rid of the orange undertones but yeah... I'll probably need to dye over it.

I have been using a toner shampoo however I haven't seen much of a difference since using it. It probably works best with pure blonde hair (something that I'd like).

Thankfully my ends aren't as bad as I thought they'd be after two rounds of bleaching

 I reckon it looks better curled.

It's really not that amazing but yeah, DIY hair dyes ain't so bad :) Much cheaper than salon dyeing at least!

The next thing I'll do is buy some ash blonde dye to hopefully further counteract the orange/yellow so that my ends look much prettier hehe, wish me luck! And if that turns out well... then maybe I'll go all blonde? Please let me know if I should or not!!

Now to the easiest out of the 3~

3. DIY Studded Headband

By far the simplest DIY

Basically all I used was a bracelet like this and an old headband, and glued together

However using a studded bracelet like so is not ideal because:

• It's studded inside and out - makes it harder to glue
• May require cutting, hence cannot be reversed (in case you want it as a bracelet again!)
• It's genuine leather! Again, would rather use a cheaper alternative/material

I ended up using a cheap $3 one that I remember buying from Sportsgirl, and I noticed how low-quality it was compared to the one above. The cheap one didn't have double-studding (studs only stuck on the strap) and wasn't made from the same material. And it was the perrrrfect length the wrap around the headband - no cutting required!

 Ta-da!

Totally perfect for channeling SNSD's I Got a Boy style - Go Jessica, rockin' out her studded headband~

Of course hers is way more awesome

That concludes my DIY post - hope you either found it interesting or inspiring... actually it's probably more the former than the latter haha. Or neither D:

Thanks for reading! I'd love to ask you a questjen since I haven't in a really really long time~

What would you like to make yourself?

I wish I could make clothes! Or even jewellery :) Maybe one day haha, watch this space ^_<

♥ Jen xx

Meeting Bloggers in Melbourne

Ahhh, hi! My first post for 2013. Hope everyone had a fantastic new year's 'cause I surely did!

Starting off the new year with a 'lifestyle' post, a type of post that I haven't done in ages. Facebook friends would have already seen most of these pictures - they're all from my end-of-year Melbourne trip~

As the title of this post already states, I did indeed meet up with 5 gorgeous girls who I got to know through blogging. These are just some of my close blogging buddies :D

Me in the middle! And beside/behind from left to right:

Melody, Sue, Eleanor, Min and Shirley

It was so excitingggg to finally see these girls in person, especially as I had known them for 2-3 years!!! I always had plans to visit Melbourne and thankfully I was able to make my way up there at the end of 2012 - such an awesome way to end the year ^_^

Blogging has made an impact on my life in a very positive way and because of that I will continue to be the best blogger that I can possibly be for my readers and friends. Thank you all so much for the support and here's to another year!

We went and ate at Ito Japanese Noodle Cafe and what I had was quite nice - Tonkatsu Ramen :3

Afterwards they took me to a store that sells Kpop/Jpop/Cpop/Anime stuff and there isn't a store like that in my city which is pretty sad :( Then we went to Daiso where everything is $2.80. Again, there isn't a Daiso in my city. Gosh ADL lacks so much!!

I am an awkward model lolol. Thanks Eleanor for snapping the pic

Eleanor's outfit of the day - classy!

 Escalator shots are cool hehe

I would love to go back to Melbourne again, even if it's just to meet up with these girls! Thanks for hanging out with me for the day ^^ And even bigger thanks to Shirley who showed me around the city including Chinatown ♥

My city also doesn't have a Starbucks anymore so during my 4 days in Melbourne, I drank it 3 times ahaha, I swear I'm not addicted... I just wanted to make use of my privilege to drink it xD It was my first time too!

Chilling back at the hotel with my peppermint mocha frappuccino *_*

Bf and I went to Crown Casino, Australia's biggest and most famous casino. We're not gamblers haha, we only went to look and also have dinner there. 

One night we had dessert at Passionflower on Bourke Street. I was craving waffles and waddaya know, we got waffles!

Outfit of the night, taken in the hotel's ensuite

Full-length mirror on the wardrobe doors. I wish I had this at home - easier to take outfit pictures!

My meal from the Pancake Parlour

Itoya Japanese Cafe

From Corean House (I forgot what this was but it was super spicy!)

Other places we visited where I didn't take pictures at were DFO South Wharf and Bourke Street/Melbourne Central for shopping~

Oh yes and Pie Face. No Pie Face in ADL ;(

I had such a wonderful trip despite feeling a bit sick on the first day due to lack of sleep and having to catch an early morning flight but the following days were awesome. The hotel we stayed in was clean and quiet - nothing to complain about.

 The view at night from the 15th floor

And to our surprise, we could see the fireworks for new year from our room!

Hope you've all had a fab start to the year :) It's been rather hot here in Aus zzz, take care everyone and stay safe.

Questjen of the week:

What did you do on new year's eve?

I made the most of my last day in Melbourne - I came home on the morning of new year's day!

♥ Jen xx

PS: I've started the 365 photo challenge on a Tumblr blog! Everyday in 2013 I will upload a photo and share a bit about my day - http://questjen365.tumblr.com/