Feb 27, 2012 | Beauty, Fashion
Do you use a flat iron to straighten your hair?
For the longest time, I didn’t…not until my late twenties, at least. In fact, I was mostly just a get-out-of-bed-pull-my-hair-into-a-ponytail kinda gal. It’s only as I’ve gotten older – and begun to look at myself and how I look as a complete picture, that I finally realized that the make-it-or-break-it component to any stylish outfit is what you wear on your head. Yes folks (as probably everybody else already knows;-) it’s your hairstyle (or lack thereof) that truly ties everything together and makes your look chic…or not. So I’ve added flat ironing into my repertoire of hair styling techniques, and as my hair’s growing out longer, there’s a lot more to play with. So awhile ago I bought myself a $29 iron (a national, well-known brand) from my local discount store, thinking that there was no reason to spend money on what was the equivalent of just a couple of hotplates stuck on a pair of tongs. Boy was I wrong. (more…)
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Feb 25, 2012 | Fashion
I just love it when a company takes something fairly entrenched in our culture – and makes a design improvement upon it. Case in point: these Goody DoubleWear hair elastics and headbands I recently spied at my local Target.
I’ve been growing my hair out for awhile, and it seems almost every day I’m wandering around with a hair elastic around my wrist and a headband on, since I just like having my hair up and off my face most of the time (but I’m determined to wear it down since I went to all the trouble of growing it out). But yes, the elastic around my wrist looks like precisely that…a boring black bit of elastic…and my headband often hurts my head after awhile but I can’t just slip it off when I’m out and about and stick it in my pocket or something. (I go through plastic headbands like candy because I always misplace them somewhere and then sit on them or snap them in half somehow.)
Enter these lovely things – actually chic, affordable (around $4.99 for a set!), surprisingly well-made elastics that sport a thin metal tube. The headbands come in a set of gold and silver – and the hair elastics come in black with silver, black with gold, or shades of blue with silver. (There may be more, I just haven’t found them yet!) They look amazing with a plain white blouse, or even dressy when worn with an LBD. A
nd they look fabulous stacked with other jewelry too! I can easily pull my hair back with them when I want things off my face. And then drop them back onto my neck or my wrist when my hair needs to come down for awhile.
They’re just brilliant. And you can buy them anywhere that Goody is sold. (Like Target!)
I’m just loving their minimalist, chic sleekness!!
xoxox
Carly
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Feb 22, 2012 | DIY
scanned from Lucky Magazine ad, March 2012
This is so reminiscent of all the hardware-inspired necklaces from Fall/Winter 2009…and the hardware necklace I made using plumbing couplings that same year. Though Banana Republic isn’t that expensive to begin with, getting the look requires only a trip to your local hardware store. 
So glad to see chunky metallic necklaces are in for Spring!!
xoxoxo
Carly
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Feb 21, 2012 | DIY
Hope everyone’s been having a great February so far! Already 3/4 over and Spring is hopefully on its heels soon. I’m feeling renewed by a changing in the seasons, and am recently inspired to get my craft on again after combing through the recaps of the NYFW shows. So what has the Internet been up to in these past couple weeks…?
LookUnderHere created a great tutorial on Youtube for transforming any skirt into something lovely, gathered, and asymmetrical.
How about a lovely Painted Leather Geometric Necklace from Oh the Lovely Things? I had to look twice to figure out how it was constructed and what it was made of; the metallic leather shapes are amazing.
If you’re looking to add a pop of color into your life (that’s totally revertable if/when you tire of it, Make It and Fake It has the solution with her DIY Reversible Neon Heels. (Also check out her archive for a number of other great and fashionable DIY projects!!)
DIY Heart Print Tights from The Pineneedle Collective need not just be for Valentine’s Day! Amazingly, acrylic paint will work fairly well on sheer hose. Who knew??
A Beautiful Mess made some fabulous DIY Suspenders for a guy…but you could easily make them girly with the usage of different printed elastics!
Chictopians Lipglossandblack posted their DIY Fishtail-Hem Skirt, which is so on-trend and perfect for those in-between days when it’s neither warm nor cold. Show off some leg and still look demure!
How cute is this Pompon-Edged Scarf from The Purl Bee?? Done up in pretty fabrics, with bright (or pastel) pompon trim, this is such a unique take on the neck-scarf that everyone, from celebs to teens, is sporting lately.
Though I usually don’t post crafts done by Martha Stewart (since craft tutorials from there are re-posted and shared all over the place), I couldn’t help myself with this chunky Dyed Wooden Beads Necklace. I love how you can vary the colors to make this couture-like look all your own!
If your project was featured above, feel free to grab a button and share the DIY!
<a href=”https://chiccreativelife.com/category/links-of-the-week”><img src=”https://chiccreativelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/diylotwfeaturedbutton-2.png” /></a>
If you have a DIY how-to or tutorial that you’d like to see featured on Chic Steals, please email me at carlyjcais at chic-steals dot com – and I’ll try to squeeze it in to one of my Links of the Week posts! (Tutorials/how-to’s with steps and photos included please! So everyone can share in the DIY goodness:-)
xoxox
Carly
-all photos copyright their respective authors; photo array by me-
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Feb 20, 2012 | DIY
Bib-style and collar-style, multi-tiered, embellished, spiky, organic, tribal necklaces have been all over the runways for a couple seasons, and it’s high time to add one into regular rotation in one’s wardrobe. But it’s so easy to make one out of bits and pieces floating around in your craft drawer!! This particular project utilizes craft foam that, once covered in paint, studs, buttons, and beads – looks high-fashion and “artsy” without the high price tag.
You Need: (more…)
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