A blog about fashion on a budget, DIYs, And living naturally

contact me at votefortennant@gmail.com

Friday 24 August 2012

Fair way to Leave

It was my last day in Minnesota today. I'm leaving with my dad to move into my dorm in Chicago in the morning! I had a great last week though. It was topped by the State fair, which I attended with some of the best friends a girl could ever hope to have. Photo credit to Alicia. Thank you dear for helping make my day so wonderful.

Wearing: ultra un--attractive backpack for fair going, thrifted blouse tied,  meteorite necklace from M, Black knit dress from I don't even remember, and Converse shoes because of Doctor who.

I'm sitting on a giant caterpillar outside the butterfly house

I'm a juggler, I spent most of the day playing with my lunastix, they're great! You can also see the cool shoulder detail on this shirt.
My favorite part of the fair, however was these four AMAZING, lovely ladies. They are lebanese belly dancers from the Festival of Nations which was performing at the international bazar in the fair. They were gorgeous, talented, and extremely friendly. I love seeing proof that you don't have to be thin as a rail to be totally beautiful. These four were perfect examples.

A last hurrah at the fireworks. In the rain. Beautiful.

Friday 17 August 2012

Bonfire

Hello Pretty! this is the casual outfit I wore for a beach party. thrifted everything except the butterfly top and the necklace, and those were on sale. Quick!post because my laptop is running out of battery. I'm currently in the waiting room at the hospital cause my sister broke her shoulder (see x-ray photo at the bottom) More later! send good mojo for Emily.






Wednesday 8 August 2012

Lazy Summer

Hello! Haven't been on here much because of summer getting to me. no reason to leave the house usually means I'm hanging out in my underwear. Yesterday it was a leotard....all day. I DID throw on a skirt though to make a quick trip to the dollar store. I am a cheapskate, so finding a nail polish brand that does a "good enough" job for only a dollar made me really happy, especially their white! I'm talking about L.A. Colors. My dollar store apparently carries all of their shades, and between my sister and I, I think we do too! I just can't justify spending 8+ dollars one one color when I can spend 5 on 5 colors!
Here is the L.A. colors section of my nail polish collection. The sisters and I did manicures while watching the olympics last night!

here's what I came up with, a slightly modified version of the french mani that TBD posted a fwe days ago. I used L.A. colors's top/base coat, nude, and white. I also added a little blue heart accent. You may notice I have ridiculously tiny nails. it's cause I have really far back nail beds, so even growing them to the tips of my fingers can result in chipping. Plus, not having nails makes picking for guitar much, MUCH easier.

that's the news from lake woebegone! More performances this weekend. OH! And one of my favorite people in the world is coming to visit me, we haven't seen each other in 2 years! more on that later. ciao!

Friday 3 August 2012

Cut offs and Ukuleles

Cutoffs and my new Ukulele, Beatrice, are my favorite items this week! for a guitar player, suddenly only having only 4 strings you have to play at any given point sounds amazingly easy, and beatrice was a cheap find too! I'm wearing a thrifted silk blouse, tucked into cut and rolled jeans with a strip of lace as a belt. 
 excuse my deep but hey! No makeup days are fun :) my skin can breathe before our show tonight

feathery earrings from the claire's haul a while back with my mom's vintage earrings...


and matching cameo necklace!

Thursday 26 July 2012

DIY lace shorts


Hello all! I promise next time I get around to doing a DIY I will take photos, but as I did this by hand sewing all the lace on the bus to Chicago, it simply didn't work to make a tutorial. BUT, I can show you the finished result! Here they are, inspired by pinterest, I cut up an old lady curtain from the thrift store and a pair of old navy jorts that were the wrong length, and now I have a new favorite pair!


Side panels are see through on both sides, cutoff is frayed. I accented with one lace trimmed front pocket, and a lace bow on the opposite back pocket. I'm really really pleased with how they look! and the lace panels gave me some room in the legs I didn't have before.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer, I haven't updated very much because I am in rehearsals for a show that opens this weekend. May I break ALL my limbs!

Saturday 21 July 2012

Chicago! Land of the Maxi Skirt

Hello! Guess why I haven't posted recently... I was in Chicago! I don't know the title may have given it away or something. I wanted to talk about travel clothes! It's so hard to know what to travel in. you want to be comfortable, but you don't want to show up at your destination looking like you rolled out of bed. well I have to tell you, my go to is the maxi skirt. preferably with shorts underneath. it's comfy, covering, and can provide a bit of warmth if the air conditioning is overly "helpful". I wore pleated white one from THIS post, and felt airy and chic even for 8 hours on a bus. The Megabus, by the way, is my new favorite mode of cheap travel, 25 dollar round trip!

And now for some maxi skirt inspo

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I'm liking the sheer thing going on, but I want to just wear a slip under mine, none of this underwear nonsense. ;) Source
This multi layered muted color semi sheer skirt is just the BEST. I need to get something like this going on in my closet ASAP.
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Monday 16 July 2012

Claire's haul

Today I went to claire's and they were having another of their 10 for ten dollars things, so I decided I was in need of earrings. (This is a lie. I have tons of earrings. But none like these!)
Several pairs of feather earrings, I also got black and white, and I'm already wearing those!

This faux-wood hair clip!

orange studs. I'm on an orange kick lately!

These orange sunglasses with green speckles. They match my nails!

Sunday 15 July 2012

The Bralet

I'm currently obsessed with the BRALET, which appears to be sweeping around fashion everywhere. I haven't got the world's flattest tummy but I'm dying to get one so I can style the look. Unfortunately I am

a. Busty, It's going to be hard to find a nice fitting one for me that doesn't look trashy.
b. Stingy, I don't like spending much on a single item. which means even the 20-30 dollar versions of these out there has cringing.

What this means of course is that I've spent the last half hour searching them online. So, enjoy this bra let spam while I try to figure out if I could make one out of some recycled clothing or from just plain old fabric. If I succeed you can be sure it will be on the blog!

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This one is my favorite! Totally something I'd wear. Let's get on this!

Saturday 14 July 2012

Stage Makeup tutorial

Today, at the request of some fellow theater and dance folks, I made a tutorial on stage makeup application. Please enjoy! The basics of this tutorial can be used for anything you want some classy, stay-put makeup. Feel free to comment here or on youtube with any questions, I'd be delighted to answer.

Also, I had a tea party with my fellow bloggers Alicia and Shaadiah today! I bought a bunch of tea at Target yesterday and it was inevitable that the three of us would drink at least 2 cups each. (I had six, because I have an addiction to tea. Don't judge)
Pinkies UP!
Complete with gorgeous dresses, and classy attitudes.

Friday 13 July 2012

Let's talk about the face!

Ok, I consider myself a pretty average girl. Some days I wear makeup, some days I don't. Today we're going to talk about the days I do. Sometimes I just throw on eyeshadow or something from a travel palette, but occasionally I love to look like a pinup, with a close-to-flawless complexion, and classy eyes and lips.

To Start, moisturizing is very important. Not only does it keep your skin healthier, it helps the makeup stay on. I use:

 Olay Active Hydrating cream. It's scentless, light, and non-oily.


Followed by Clinique's redness solutions tinted green moisturizer. I have some very pink rosacea on my cheeks that is hard to cover up with just foundation. The green tint cancels out the red, and minimizes how much red shows through.

Finally, my new best friend, e.l.f's mineral face primer. It doesn't make me break out, and it lets my liquid foundation stick on evenly and smoothly.

On a day like today when I decide to wear foundation, My regimen could include any or all of the following items.

e.l.f's high definition powder in translucent, cover girl's light liquid concealer, neutrogena's healthy skin liquid foundation (with and without salicylic acid)on 10 Classic Ivory, wet and wild's solid stick concealer, and neutrogena's mineral sheers loose powder foundation.

to apply liquid foundation I use this brush. Unknown brand, natural fibers, bought on ebay. It's smooth and silky, and I love ow it erases any lines and applies smoothly over all areas of my skin. It's easily cleanable with baking soda or shampoo. I apply the liquid foundation with salicylic acid in my T-zone (forehead and nose area) while using the regular healthy skin formula on the rest of my face.

Next I can either use the translucent powder or the mineral powder depending on the look I am going for. Today I used the mineral foundation , which provides a smooth, matte look over the whole face. applied with this brand-less brush from ebay.
finally, for a summery look, I used a contouring brush to apply e.l.f's warm bronzer, focusing on the cheek bones. I don't use bronzer in the winter, but it helps you look fresher and not-washed-out in the summer months.
All that's left is to apply eyeshadow, this is coastal scent's 88 palette in original. I also used a small brush in one of the browns o use this as eyeliner. I used Covergirl's lash blast mascara in brown today.


And Lip stick. I always apply a moisturizing chapstick before applying lipstick to avoid the dry feeling. Today I used lip Vitamin's Almond chapstick. Topped off with Clinique's lipstick in Ginger Flower.

THERE! A classy, every day, yet oh-so-sophisticated look that can easily be worn on a regular day, or for a special event. Granted it's a little high maintenance, but if you want the look, I'd say this is the way to do it!

All done! There is no editing on this picture. Just makeup. And with my hair styled from TBD's tutorial HERE, I feel amazingly cool and classy

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Natural Hair

I don't use shampoo or conditioner. OK! Before you click away from my blog forever because "ew gross..." Let me tell you about how I take care of my hair, without product, and save money while doing so.

Think about the last bottle of shampoo or conditioner you bought. How much did it cost? Probably somewhere in the range of 12-30 dollars. Which is quite a bit of money. What if I told you that your shampoo is stripping your hair of the natural oils and protectants it provides for itself? I use a mix of baking soda and water in place of shampoo, and apple cider vinegar with water for conditioner. My hair has never felt healthier, or stronger, looked shinier, or been easier to style. It's a cheap and natural alternative. I use approximately one tablespoon of baking soda to one cup of water, and two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to one cup of water. Scrub, let sit, and rinse just as you would traditional products.

On the note of hair, I was so pleased with how mine turned out today! Styling my hair is one of my favorite ways to amp up an otherwise simple look. I was inspired by the intricate braiding in "Game of Thrones", both on the Kahleesi and the noble women. Amazing styles like

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I decided to combine the two, and came up with a style I was VERY happy with. Right here!

The back!
The side! And my little dragon, also in line
with the Game of Thrones theme here!





















Over all the braids work as a sort of cage for my hair, keeping it up and out of the way, while still long and lovely. I may do the braids thicker next time, but for now I feel like a Kahleesi!