I love 60′s fashion. I love Zombies. Donning a 1960′s outfit might be make you look glamorous, but on some level I feel like I’m wimping out. 60′s dresses are acceptable to wear any time of the year. Go big or go home! Nubia was telling me one day (not related to Halloween) if you want to make a costume cool, Zombify it. So when our office building, WeWork, announced a Halloween costume competition, we all decided to be the MAD MEN ZOMBIES.

Yes, we all missed Mad Men this season, and… I have a ton of 60′s dresses in my closet, so putting on a bit of makeup and getting into the Halloween undead spirit  was the only thing to do today.

So, going as a Zombie this weekend will be cool, but why not combine your costume to make it extra scary? Zombify it!

Here is our lovely Zombie family at IFB…

Find out how blogging will help you survive the Zombie Apocalypse!

Photos by Nando Alvarez and Nathan Seven Scott, and me.

Last year I bought a pair of J Brand Waxed jeans. I loved the shiny leather look to them. Unfortunately the wax wore off over time and the jeans lost their luster. Getting another pair of waxed jeans seemed out of the question if they only had a lifespan of a year, so I picked up some fabric wax, called Otter Wax at a local store, and decided to give it a go.

If you have bought waxed jeans or are considering buying them… or even want to give the trend a go, this project takes about 10 minutes all together. Believe me, I’m not a DIY person anymore, and it has to be VERY EASY for me to make an attempt in doing something.

Watch this video (if you’re at work, no worries, it’s all in subtitles). And see for yourself how easy it is!

Now I’m considering waxing and waterproofing my canvas tote for winter. Oh yeah!

This post was inspired by the IFB Project #15… click here to take part!

Photos and Video Production by Nando Alvarez

The real reason why I was passing by the Marc Jacobs store the other day, was because I was on my way to Britex Fabrics. The magical fabric store, where you believe anything is possible if you know how to sew (which I don’t…but a girl can dream cant she?) So fabric nerdiness aside, I had a vintage straw hat picked up at the Alameda Flea Market that needed some TLC. It’s been crushed, which didn’t bother me so much as the crumpled and slightly dirty, yellow satin ribbon.  I love yellow, but this just wasn’t working for me. So at Britex, I agonized over the millions of ribbons they had, an finally settled on this pretty, hand-died silk ribbon.

I’m not sure what intrigued me most about this, the watery tones, the blue and green swirling together, the lightness of the silk. If I could have a whole dress made of this…oh man. Instead of going with a more vintage style ribbon, a solid classic, stripped or flower, this modernizes the hat, and with ribbons, you can always put something more ‘authentic’ later as you’ll just need tiny pieces of thread to secure the ribbon to the hat.

For the bow, one could look up bow techniques on the internet, but I just figured something out by ripping apart old gift bows. This one is quite simple actually as there is no knot involved… it’s called a tailored loop bow.

And wella! My new hat! Now I just have to figure out what to do with my hair to make this into a proper outfit!

Obtain a rotary cutter with caution. Once you get one, cutting up tee shirts become all too easy, as any old tee, long skirt, sleeve, piece of fabric becomes a candidate to be cut… roll happy. Like every Anyway, if you plan to deconstruct your tees this summer, a rotary cutter is a handy tool, so much easier than scissors.

Here I’ve slashed up a tee shirt that was never, ever going to see the light of day again, I mean this tee wasn’t even donation worthy, this ratty black tee was about to become a rag or maybe it would just decompose over time in the basement. The perfect candidate for experimenting with deconstruction. Admittedly I had been curious, but I really didn’t know how to make the whole slashy thing my own, until I envisioned cutting something up until it was almost not even a shirt anymore, something that could work with layering…

Oh! By the way, here I’m wearing an Inhabit tank and cardigan… they’re having a 70% off on tanks. And the Pour la Victoire shoes… they’ve passed the day in the city test… I can wear them all day without killing my feet.

I’ve always been fascinated with beauty treatments you can whip up yourself. When I was growing up, my mom would give herself a facial with a homemade mask made of raw egg yolks to soften and moisturize her skin. She had the softest, most beautiful skin – and still does. Personally, I love to make soothing, fragrant mixes of sea salt, baking soda, and essential oils for my bath.

In Spain, they apply thin slices of potato on their eyes to lighten the skin and fade dark circles.

And now there are lots and lots of DIY beauty recipes I want to try, because I’ve been reading Passport to Beauty, a brilliant book by celebrity makeup artist and gorgeous beauty expert Shalini Vadhera. Her book is a travel guide for beauty. As someone who has traveled all over the world, Shalini shares fascinating secrets she’s learned from women from just about everywhere, including Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Australia.

It’s a veritable international beauty cookbook with lots of simple, easy-to-make recipes for things like face masks and scrubs. If you want to learn how to make your own natural beauty treatments and learn about beauty around the world, definitely pick up a copy of this book.

Secrets from Around the World

Here are just a few of beauty tips and tricks Shalini shares in Passport to Beauty.

• Under Eye Circles. In Spain, they apply thin slices of potato on their eyes for ten minutes to lighten the skin and fade dark circles after a night of partying.
• Reduce Puffiness. Scandinavian women banish puffiness with 15 to 20 splashes of ice-cold spring mineral water.
• Softer, More Youthful Skin. In France, they apply freshly cut and mashed grapes to make skin softer and more youthful, because grapes contain potent antioxidants and have moisturizing benefits.
• Instant Lip Conditioner and Gloss. Italian women rub olive oil on their lips to condition lips and add shine.
• Soothe Irritated Skin. Greek women massage olive oil onto their skin to soften dry, irritated skin and to treat sunburns.
• Get Rid of Stretchmarks. In Asia, women use white camellia nut oil to moisturize, condition, nourish, and soften skin. Shalini shares that she knows a few celebrities who swear by this oil for combating stretch marks while pregnant. Women also use it to promote hair growth, treat burns, and strengthen nails.
• A Cleansing Jumpstart. The women of Zimbabwe drink a cup of hot tea with lemon at the beginning of the day to cleanse the system and jumpstart the metabolism.
• Strong, Shiny Hair. In India, women massage coconut oil into their hair and scalp once a week to strengthen hair, promote growth, help with split ends, and make hair shiny.
• Dandruff Fighter. To get rid of dandruff, Australians add a few drops of eucalyptus or tea tree oil to shampoo.

Check out this video of Shalini on The View to see her share some easy beauty recipes that are in this book.

Next Time

Come back for my next post to learn more about Shalini and how she incorporates international beauty secrets into her Global Goddess makeup and skin care line.

Do Tell

What are your DIY beauty secrets? In this economy, are you opting more for DIY beauty? Do tell.

P.S. Check out our regularly updated Beauty Resources page for some amazing beauty deals from companies like amazon.com, beauty.com, and Sephora.

The feathers were calling me from down the street. I didn’t want just any pretty feather, but something darker… I had been marveling at the giant crows in the neighborhood as of late, their shiny black feathers and black beaks seem so contradictory to the delicate spring blossoms. I would guess, black feathers would be more of an autumnal thing, but leave it to me to be a little off step. Black feather jewelry is really hard to find… I personally like it because it seems less hippy-ish and more edgy while still highlighting the beautiful motif.

Over the weekend, I stopped in the local craft store and picked up a couple packets of black feathers, I wanted to make earrings out of them, as I haven’t been much inspired by any earrings I’ve been seeing lately, and the ones I am inspired by…welly they cost a pretty penny, so we’ll get them later. I found with some sterling silver earring hooks, some sliver plated copper wire and some wire cutters, I was able to make a few pairs of earrings and a few necklaces. I’m not a jewelry maker by any means, and my method is a bit rough… but I actually really like the visual effect of my lack of skill.

This is what you’ll need: 1. Feathers 2. Scissors 3. Wire cutters 4. Wire 5. Earring hooks, or necklace chain
So here’s a quick tutorial on how to make your own feather jewelry… I’m still learning how to do this whole video thing…

When fabric and haberdashery became more expensive… my grandmother told me to check the thrift stores first, sometimes she’d find a blouse for a few dollars she could scrap for parts…

Since I made opera length gloves, I’ve been on this diy kick. Especially going to the flea market every week, I see lots of clothes with great potential, it takes some looking, but they are there. It all started when I found this huge Irish cable knit sweater with really nice wool, for $1… I turned it down, but it was a shame to pass up such nice material. When fabric and haberdashery became more expensive than buying off the rack clothing, my grandmother always told me to check the thrift stores first, sometimes she’d find a blouse for a few dollars that she would scrap for parts, like silk or buttons… all very clever. So I took the flea markets looking for sweaters made with wool, cotton, or hand knit, with all the synthetics out there, it was more difficult than I thought, but I mangaged to find a few oversized sweaters to cut up. I just cut off the arms to use for legwarmers, and sewed the body into a neckwarmer. Right now I’m making these as gifts, but hopefully I’ll have enough energy at the end to keep one for myself, scratch that, the legwarmers I’m keeping… merino wool legwarmers aren’t cheap!

Earlier I wrote about frugal fitness, and offered tips on cheap ways to staying fit. Well, I’m doing it again! This time, I focus on using the Internet to start/maintain/achieve/shake up your exercise routine.

SparkPeople

What: SparkPeople is a health website with a dizzying array of tools, content, widgets and community features. Of course what makes it so great also makes it overwhelming, so check out their “Getting Started” guide after registering. Here’s a taste of what you get:

• Personalized diet & fitness plans
• Calorie counters & exercise tracker
• Fitness demons & videos
• 100,000+ articles, recipes, & tips
• Active lifestyle communities, message boards & blogs

Why: It’s totally free! Plus, there’s something for everybody. Personally, I hate tracking calories and logging my workouts, but lots of people seem to love/need the structure. I’m more into the articles and community message boards – like 30somethings with 10-24 lbs to lose.

Glisten

What: Glisten bills itself as “your in-the-know workout partner.” It’s basically an e-newsletter that delivers complete workouts to your inbox three times a week. And if you’d rather not receive even more email, most of the workouts are archived on the site. I must confess that I the word ‘glisten’ gives me the creeps. It reminds me of ‘moist.’ Still, it’s a wonderful resource.

Why: Again, it’s free! You can print out the workouts and take them with you to the gym (or living room). There’s a good mix of cardio, upper body, lower body and total body workouts. There are also options for equipment-free exercisers. Each workout links to a brief, easy-to-follow video demonstration — great for iPods with video.

Netflix

Got a Netflix membership? I do. It’s totally my guilty pleasure. I’ve got every episode of Law & Order ever made in queue — plus many other crime/police dramas. But I digress. Netflix also has hundreds of workout DVDs, from classic to cutting edge.

My friend Kim’s husband, Erik, raves about Workout: One-On-One Training With Jackie:

“No over the top lingo or silly exaggerated toughness. Very simple, basic work outs. Her helpers are all good looking but not over the top. Chatter between them is pretty minimal. Great combination of cardio and weights that you can do in your living room.”

Why: Membership isn’t free, but you have access to a well-stocked library of DVDs — without buying anything. Perfect for commitophobes.

3-Month Podfitness Membership

What: Podfitness builds custom audio workouts based on your fitness profile – downloaded to your iPod, Zune or other MP3 player, and mixed with your music.

Why: Costs less than a personal trainer ($19.98 for a 3-month membership) and you get access to a database of 2,000 exercises.

top image still from Nagi Noda video, middle from sparkpeople.com and last walmart.com

One day I realized all my gloves had holes in the fingers. So I’ve pretty much been looking around from gloves, and with my budget, all the gloves I can afford suck. I’ve had this idea that I wanted leather opera length gloves, but again, out of my budget. And it didn’t help that since Susie Bubble posted about Glovedup Gloves I’ve been drooling over the opera length gloves so much it’s become an obsession. I was going to crochet some, but my crochet skills are nil.

So what to do? Sweater Surgery (the idea of making new things with old sweaters). I have picked up all kinds of sweaters at the flea market, mostly because I like one aspect of it, like texture, material, pattern, but in reality, I can’t wear it. Since my sewing machine is broken, I was afraid of hand sewing the sweaters, but what I didn’t realize, is that sweaters tend to be more forgiving than regular fabric, and the stitch can be bigger so it doesn’t take as long to sew. I made a few things over the weekend, one was a pair of fingerless opera gloves, and they all but took maybe two hours to make.  While getting excited over transforming sweaters, an angora sweater with a horrid collar got transformed into a scarf tube.

How to Make Sweater Opera Gloves

The Scarf Tube

I’m sorry about not getting the ‘before’ photos of this sweater, but the sweater wasn’t very cool, I liked the fuzziness of the angora so that’s why I got it. Also as this is my first attempt, it’s rather lumpy, and there are different widths throughout the tube. I’ll be going back to the market next week for some more sweaters as there is no shortage of gigantic sweaters just waiting to become scarf tubes.

Yesterday I missed out on the Green Glamour Blog Parade… though I thought it was a great idea, it was for the German bloggers to express their green fashion sense. But it certainly got me thinking about what I could do to express my own Green Glamour.

Part of being green is buying organic, sustainable fabrics, vintage, recycled…getting the most wear between washes. You can be the most green by buying nothing at all. How do you keep up when you aren’t buying anything new? Like an artist turning the canvas to get new perspective, I’ve seemed to taken a liking to turning my clothes around, like last week’s one shoulder dress, Samantha suggested working with a blouse with a large collar, where I’m almost certain the likes of Susie Bubble has gone to such realms… I’ve not, until this morning. Where I spent the majority of the morning trying on every blouse, sweater and dress upside down.

Getting new perspective on the clothes you already have, not only saves you money, it rewires your brain, elevating your IQ by encouraging experimentation.* It gives your wardrobe more depth… a boring cardigan like the one I’m wearing here, becomes an interesting wrap sweater… and of course, I’m wearing my Jil Sander skirt as a dress, maybe next week I’ll be shamelessly copying Style Rookie and wear all my dresses as skirts. Who knows where this road will lead?

*Like almost everything else I write… pure speculation.