Jun 22, 2010 | From You
from formspring.me:
hi carly! it’s me judith chen 🙂 I have a plan to remake my bf’s Giordano plain tee with some patchwork.I have some black velvet leftofers I’d like to work with.do you have any ideas, and um..some kind of cat/wolf related design ideas, if possible. thanks
Hi Judith! Well…I have a FABULOUS idea that’s been sitting on my DIY’s To Do pile…how about a t-shirt with leopard “spots” that are cut out of black velvet? You could make each spot slightly abstract-shaped, and sew them onto the tee wherever you like (my choice would be on the shoulders or down one side).
It’s not *literally* a cat design…but somewhat “inspired by” if you will. If you want to go more literal, how about a silhouette of a wolf howling at the moon, done in black velvet a la Twilight?
 Anyone else have some ideas for Judith?
xoxox
Carly
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Jun 22, 2010 | Fashion, Score!
dress, earrings, and necklaces: courtesy of maurice’s
nautical sandals: Abaete for Payless
The kind folks over at maurices sent me a gift card a little while ago – and it was like my birthday in June! (My birthday’s in December…so half-birthday??)
I headed down to my local maurices to check it out – which means a drive down to the airport, since that’s the closest one.
It was somewhat deserted (being in a sort of remote location and all), but packed to the gills with affordable, trendy merchandise.
Though a lot of the styles and cuts were a little too young for me (but probably perfect for your average teen/college student!) I did find a number of items that would work on someone of my *ahem* somewhat advanced chronology. There was a super-friendly sales staff member who was so helpful…I tried on a pair of jeans, found them too big, and so she brought 7 different pairs in similar washes and fits for me to try on! And not even a frown when I finally decided to forgo the jeans and purchase the satin dress I had tried on instead. (I did find the jeans ran extremely large…I finally fit into the 1/2 in one cut, which is insane considering I’m closer to a 6 in most brands, [between a 5 and a 7 in Junior’s sizing], and a 4 in brands that skew large, like Gap, Old Navy, and White House/Black Market. In another cut I was a 3/4, which is still skewing waaaay to large – so ladies of smaller sizes be forewarned!)
Sorry – messy photos taken with my camera-phone.
I finally settled on this lovely white, black, and grey strapless number (I do love me some colorblocking!), and found the cutest wing-shaped earring set for a mere $1.99 on the sale rack.
I also saw a mannequin outfitted with two of their key necklaces around her neck – thought, “what a great idea!” and scooped up two necklaces for myself. (Buy one, get the other 50% off – SCORE!) I’m totally into layering necklaces this summer.
It’s a little wrinkly from being folded in my shopping bag. My real birthday wishlist item #1: a garment steamer!
I know these shoes don’t reeaaally match but I wanted something sandal-y and summer-y all the same.
Since it’s been unbearably cold here in Portland (it’s 51 degrees in June!!!! I’m still in my winter coat!!) I’ll probably wear the dress like this for now: over a long-sleeved top and boots to make it more casual. (Maybe over a tee shirt as it warms up.)
long-sleeved top & heeled boots: Forever 21
I love how this dress has this surprise edgy zipper detail up the back.
I don’t see any of the items I bought available on their website still, but you may find them at your local maurices…and here are a couple key necklaces they are selling that are similar to the ones I bought: here, here, and here.
Also, I am so excited to announce that maurices has partnered with me to do a giveaway here on Chic Steals! If any of you missed that promotion maurices was running over Memorial Day weekend [spend $60 and receive a free tote or sunglasses of your choice], well now here’s your chance to get a new tote…and just in time for the hot days of summer! (Even in Portland;-) Up for the giveaway is:
One patent-look white tote!
ARV: $14
Edit 6/29: Entry period is now over and winner has been chosen. Thank you!
How to Enter?
Leave a comment on this post with your EMAIL ADDRESS. (If your email address is linked to your Blogger profile – AND your Blogger profile allows all users to see it ****VERY IMPORTANT****, then you don’t need to leave your email address in your comment.)
That’s it!
*One comment per person, please. Multiple entries from the same person will be deleted.
*Contest open to residents of the U.S. only. (apologies to my international readers)
Winner will be chosen by Random.org.
Entry period is for 7 days only, ending Monday, June 28, 12 PM PST.
Good luck!
Yes, this is now de riguer for all my photoshoots – running rings around Mom.
Thank you so much, maurices – and happy start to the week to all!
xoxox
Carly
Disclosure: maurice’s furnished me a gift card, which partially covered my purchases with them above. They are also providing the tote, which will be given away to one lucky winner. For more information regarding my disclosure policy, go here.
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Jun 20, 2010 | From You
from formspring.me:
hi carly!love your blog 🙂 could you post how to make a casual lace dress? thanks 🙂
Sure – did you have a particular style or type in mind? Do you have an inspiration photo! Let me know~
Thanks-
Carly
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Jun 19, 2010 | Media
Awww, thanks! I’m sorry it’s taken me awhile to post them, but here they are:
from the amazing L ~DIY Diva~ at Avid Accents, the Versatile Blogger Award.
4 rules go along with this award:
Rule 1: Thank the person who gave you this award.Â
Done! Thanks L ~DIY Diva~!
Rule 2: Share 7 things about yourself.
Aren’t you gals sick of hearing about me yet???! 🙂
 1) One of my hobbies is filling my garden with unusual plants (as long as they don’t require too much upkeep), since I’ve always been bored by plain old red roses or white daisies. Hub has let me get away with blue roses and a sorbet peony so far, but has nixed the Dead Horsehead Lilies and Voodoo Lilies (I suggested planting them along the property line with our particular odious neighbors), and Venus Flytraps won’t grow wild in Oregon (who knew??). Hopefully my green Coneflowers will bloom soon and maybe this Fall I can sneak in an Arctic Kiwi and some black poppies.Â
(img of voodoo lilies from here)Â 2) I’ve never broken a bone, ever.
 Knock on wood! (img of cast from here) 3) I’ve kept every birthday card I’ve ever received – going back until the age of 2.
4) I’m a complete klutz and was never really “good” at any sport. I was passibly *okay* at volleyball, softball, and badminton, but that’s it!
5) I’ve always wished to be able to learn how to juggle, do an overhand serve in volleyball, ride a unicycle, and swim the crawl and backstroke properly. My greatest dream is to be able to get
en pointe (not necessarily dance in ballet, just do the exercises in pointe shoes), but at this point in my life that’s probably never going to happen.:-(
(pointe shoes img from here)Â 6) I have one brother who’s 2 years younger than me, who kind of looked like Brad Pitt when we were kids but now looks more like
Niels Bohr.Â
He was more popular with the ladies when he looked like Brad Pitt. (photo of Bohr from here)7) Whenever I fly, I actually read the safety information in the seat pocket in front of me, locate the nearest exits, memorize how many seats it is to the nearest exit, and watch the crew safety video. One time a man sitting next to me saw me reading the safety card, and said “In my 35 years of traveling on planes you’re the first person I’ve ever seen actually read that.” Hey, if the plane falls out of the sky, I at least want to know where the exit was. Just sayin.’
Rule 3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!Â
(in no particular order)
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.
Will do! (though it may take me a little while…)
From the lovely Shabna of < a href=”http://shabsy.blogspot.com/”>SHABNA Speaks comes this award. I love her editorial eye and the items she picks to showcase on her blog.
I have to nominate 10 people to pass this award on to!
So here it goes:
Whew! Thank you so much for the awards! I truly appreciate it:-)
xoxo
Carly
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Jun 18, 2010 | From You
 Did it ever! I moved there when I was eleven, and just starting to get interested in clothes. It was very jarring, moving to a foreign country where all the nationals looked pretty much the same to my naive Western eyes, and the “trendy” kids also dressed very similarly. The Japanese kids as a whole looked much more “put-together” than their Western counterparts; outfits seemed to be coordinated down to their toes. The young women (even 20 to 30-year-olds) would coordinate their hair accessories and nails to match their outfits. Everyone looked so *clean* and *groomed* I pretty much felt like the sloppy, messy foreigner regardless of what I was wearing (even though I did try to emulate what the cool kids wore). It was most certainly that attention to detail and accessorizing that really influenced me, and continues to even today.
Thanks for your question!
xoxox
Carly
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Jun 17, 2010 | DIY, Life
So I’ve decided to forgo my “DIY Links of the Week” roundup since I honestly can’t keep up with all the great stuff out there, and by the time I come across it I’m often late to the game. So here’s something new! First off, please allow me to share a couple projects that have been on my radar that are just plain awesome.
These are embroidered, people. Embroidered. EMBROIDERED.
And then I must have had shoes on the brain because I became a little obsessed with the shoe makeovers.
Blogger Nurinia from shares her tutorial on making ribbon-tied wedge shoes with removable ribbon. I love her idea for securing the ribbons, and how you can change them out when you tire of them.
ItsaboutSarah added lace and pearls to a pair of black heels to make these fantastic ladylike shoes. Think of how well this would work on a pair of beat-up plain thrift store pumps!
Speaking of thrift stores, they almost never have shoes in my size (which is a very popular size 7.5). But now I can start foraging for shoes that are too big for me, too! Cut out the toes of a too-large boot and shave down the sole to create a peep-toe bootie, just like Lions, Tigers, and Fashion Oh My! did. Oh My! And she made some DIY Miu Miu maryjanes.
So now here’s what’s new…I’d love to see all the projects you’ve been working on. Here is my first…
DIY ROUNDUP
Can’t wait to see everyone’s projects!
xoxox
Carly
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Jun 16, 2010 | DIY
 While I am still distressing over our lost family pet (now missing for over a week), the only thing I have been able to do besides put up posters, hand out flyers, and spend hours staring outside and waiting for the phone to ring…has been to watch reruns of Law & Order. They always find the missing person in the end.
And blog-land wise, the only thing I have been able to do on the computer is indulge myself in a blog I cam across called Tea Rose Home. The writer of it, Sachiko, is a stay-at-home mom with 3 children, and she blogs about beautiful items: ruffles, quilts, t-shirt makeovers, children’s clothing, and home decoration projects that add beauty and happiness to her life. I’m amazed at the number of creations she makes, and the feminine quality to each one. Plus her attitude (in the face of 3 rare disorders that have had her in and out of the hospital her whole life) is inspiring and uplifting. Reading her words about how much she loves her family, the happiness she finds in crafting, and her positive attitude has really helped lend me strength in this dark time. Plus, her projects are just beautiful – and she loves forming baskets into handbags – something I love as well!
I made this basket after seeing something similar in a Japanese magazine awhile back. It is real fur, sadly – a rabbit fur that I had bought a long, long time ago and had put in my materials bag to try and figure out what to do with it. In the years after I began to feel disgusted about using real fur, and so couldn’t bring myself to use it in anything. But I also couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, which would be so disrespectful to the life of the animal.
Muffin [our lost cat] loved it, and often pulled it out of my bag, playing with it, stroking it, and sometimes sleeping with it. So I put it on a basket, kind of like a good-luck charm. It’s removable for when Muffin comes back, and now sits on my desk so I can stroke it and remember how much she loved it, while I am willing her quick return.
A cheap basket from Michael’s which didn’t have a lid was transformed into this by cutting two pieces of foamcore that would become a hinged lid inside. I added hinges and a latch from the hardware store, securing the screws I drilled into the foamcore with hot glue. The latch I secured onto the basket with thin wire from the jewelry-making section.
I then hot-glued a layer of lace around the edge of the lid from a lace table runner I found at Goodwill for $1. (Come to think of it, Goodwill had TONS of baskets there too – I should have bought there instead of spending $6.99 at Michael’s. Next time.)
Finally, I wound a lace ribbon around the handle, and added some lace bows on either side. I then added a muslin liner, and my pretty bag was done!
Once Muffin returns and wants her fur back, I will probably replace it with a layer of pretty fabric, or some faux fur on top instead.
Have any of you ever remade a basket before? Hope this gives you some ideas – and for more great ideas for basket makeovers, check out Tea Rose Home and all the beautiful basket handbags Sachiko creates there.
xoxox
Carly
linking to Tea Rose Home link party No. 12 and Avid Accents Make My Style Monday #6
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Jun 11, 2010 | Life
It’s been a pretty awful week.
Our cat Muffin (the one I like to call the Spawn of Satan but in reality I am somewhat fond of her), has gone missing and the past four days have seen me plastering the neighborhood in posters, handing out fliers, walking the nearest 5 miles calling her name until I am hoarse, driving the back roads nearby multiple times, inspecting all manner of roadkill I see, posting on numerous online lost pet boards, calling local shelters (did you know shelters in my county CHARGE a person dropping off a cat $10 and won’t accept a found cat unless they’re paid????!), updating her microchip registration, and wading through thigh-deep fields and brambles searching for a cat that when curled up is smaller than your average rock. Of course (since I used to do volunteer work rescuing feral and abused cats when we lived in Hawaii) I am envisioning all the worst-case scenarios, have barely slept since she disappeared, and am jumping out of my skin every time the phone rings, or rushing outside every time I hear the smallest noise.
I’ve been ignoring all unrelated emails and neglecting this blog and can barely even think about fashion-y stuff or DIY right now.
I’m really sorry – I don’t mean to let you guys down or anything; I’m still here…just otherwise preoccupied.
Muffin, if you’re reading this, please come home!! I’ll even give you a whole wad of nice tissues to munch on, promise!!
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Jun 9, 2010 | Life
Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, there have been a couple things I’ve implemented here that I just wanted to let you know about…
1. Custom Domain
Yeah, I bit the bullet and bought a hosting plan. Blogger is soooooo much cheaper than GoDaddy!! Anyway, chicsteals.blogspot.com now redirects to www.chic-steals.com. No worries, you don’t have to update your links or your feeds; they all should work fine. But if you’d like to in order to save the hassle of redirection, feel free! (And my Alexa rank is thus messed up for a time. C’est la vie:-(
2. Total site redesign and no more Blogger search bar
To those of you who’ve said you like it, thank you! It’s taking me little tweaks here and there, and mistakes galore, but it’s getting there. If the site looks especially weird, please let me know what browser you’re using and I’ll see if I can fix it. I’ve also gotten rid of the Blogger-hosted search bar at the top and relocated it to the right sidebar, but most searches turn up with no results. (Google-powered, my bum. More like powered by a single hamster on a rusty old wheel.) So if you’re looking for something, the Labels links are in the lower left sidebar, or maybe Google it from Google’s home page with “Chic Steals” in the keywords. So sorry but I have no idea what they’re feeding those hamsters over at Google and why this isn’t working properly – I’ve filled out the spreadsheet with Blogger, who say that’s the official way to bring it to Google’s attention. See rant-filled thread here if you’re interested in other users who are having the same problem.)
3. Chic Steals Facebook Page
I’ve also officially created a Facebook page for Chic Steals and I’d love to have your “Like” vote. Please join me there if you enjoying FB’ing! (And please feel free to post your own projects, thoughts, videos, etc.)
4. DIY Blogs Linky-Links
On the left-hand sidebar. If you have a blog that features a lot of DIY tutorials and I haven’t included it in the links, let me know and I’ll add it in there!
5. Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunitites
If you are an entrepreneur, sell on Etsy, have an online store, want to purchase advertising space, or want to donate product, coupons, or giveaways to Chic Steals, please drop me a line! My rates are affordable and small business-friendly.
6. Upcoming Contest
So many of you responded to my survey last month that you wanted a DIY contest. Well, it’s in the works! I’m currently reaching out to online businesses to provide the prizes – so if you would like to donate a prize and get great exposure for your site, a contest such as this would be a wonderful opportunity. Please email me and let me know!
Well, that’s about it! Also, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter and read my random musings you can do so here.
Thank you for your readership, and if there’s more stuff you’d like to see, please leave it in the comments!
xoxox
Carly
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Jun 7, 2010 | Fashion
From now until Tuesday at noon, get 30% off all apparel, and 50% off all sale items at CharlotteRusse.com and in Charlotte Russe stores! Here are some picks I might just have to snag for myself:
xoxox
Carly
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