Cups As Holders

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

I totally agree. My need of having an easy access to and good storage for my artistic instruments led me to put my old coffee cups to some nice use.

How I Wore It

And this is how I donned my restyled Reebok sneakers . Clicked few snaps before leaving for my favorite biweekly indulgence - BADMINTON. 

D.I.Y. : Revitalizing your sneakers

Visit to Pathershet ruined my Reebok sneakers completely. I tried washing the mud stains off. But the damage was done. What did I do? I did this...

Wiped the sneakers clean. Well as much as I could...

Chose shades of blue and started to paint. 

TIP: Before starting with your painting job do remove the laces so that you can have uninterrupted area to color. Other advantage is that you won't stain the laces while coloring the sneakers.  

I have used Camel company's Artists' Acrylic Colours. These acrylic colors dry really fast. On top of the paints (after they dried) I have added two coats of Camel company's Picture Varnish. Its meant for oil paints but I use them on acrylic paints too. 

OR

I used satin ribbons instead of old laces. The ribbons' ends have been heat-sealed to stop them from fraying. Did you notice how the colors of the sneaker change because of the different ribbons used.

Dussera

The market place was blazing orange yesterday... MARIGOLDS every where. Lovely color and nice pungent fragrance. Wasn't able to resist and so got them home. Along with them came squirm of worms. Well these ones were simpletons as compared to the one who had visited my home few days back. Anyways this post is not about worms but the beautiful Marigolds. So without much ado here are the snaps.

Aren't the folds pretty? 

Rich burst of color.

Hey, did you know that the APTA tree leaves , exchanged as a dussera custom, have medicinal properties. They are excellent cure for diarrhoea and dysentry. Apart from this, they possess anti-tumor  qualities and hence helpful for curing cancer in its first stage. 

I have decided that from next year onwards I am not going to participate in this leaf exchanging custom of dussera. If nature has gifted us such wonderful trees then its really stupid of us to strip it naked every year for some idiotic custom. I have also decided that from next year I am not going to decorate my house with these Marigolds. I am still flinging worms out of my window.

I hope all those who do celebrate this festival had fun. 

D.I.Y. Dress: An old skirt and an old tee

Just a few days ago I went through my and my sister's old clothes so that I could find something that can be restyled. My floral skirt and my sister's floral t'shirt caught my attention. And look I found a new way to wear them together.

This earlier was a fish cut, below knee-length skirt with a nice frill as hem. Then I cut it to be a nice above knee-length skirt

This was a 3/4th sleeved tee. I shortened the length of the sleeves and didn't bother to stitch its ends as the fabric doesn't fray.

The length of the upper fabric of the skirt has been kept shorter so that layer effect can be achieved. I used the zigzag stitch to sew the ends of the inner fabric. This gave it a nice ruffled hemline. The upper fabric had to be hand stitched as it refused to get sewn by the machine due to its rubber floral prints.

Basted the tee 

 Stitched the skirt and the tee together with help of a elastic thread. The elastic thread is to be hand wound on the bobbin. While winding it up do not stretch the elastic thread.  Regular thread is to used for top stitch. Elastic threads allow the dress to be pulled on and off pretty easily. 

D.I.Y. : Simple and Plain TO Ornate and Showy

Today I will like to show you how to convert your plain, casual kurti to a nice embellished one by simply adding few laces and sequins and not to forget fabric paint.

Kurti - Cotton Cottage 

This was a plain kurti earlier. And now it looks like this. Lets see how to embellishment took place.

Mark the area which you wish to decorate. I chose rectangle shape. You can go for plenty of other shapes like this...

Now stitch a lace over the marked lines. 

Use tailor's chalk to draw the patterns. 

Use fabric paint tubes to draw the spikes. I have used copper color. As thats the color of the laces and sequins.

When done with neckline, take the same lace and attach it to the hem of the kurti. And add some lines of sequins.

Now the rest of the plain parts of the kurti is to be filled with small sequined flowers.

And your embellished and not-at-all-plain kurti is ready to be flaunted around.

I love to wear these accessories with this kurti. 

If any queries regarding this D.I.Y. please drop a mail at platinumdivinity@gmail.com

Look Who Visited

This caterpillar visited our home today. I don't know where it came from. My first reaction was EWWWW... But I was mesmerized by this one while cajoling it to get on a piece of paper so that I could throw it out of my window. I had a closer look and I loved it. I mean Loved its colors. Ain't they lovely... a brilliant combination.

The green caterpillars don't even get one look before they are thrown out. But this one was an exception. I googled for the images of 'yellow caterpillar with black spots' but none of them had orange feet.

I guess its a devoted fashion follower.

After getting it to pose for me, I did threw it out of the window. I hope it had a safe landing. 

Tried-Tested-Loved : Eye serum

Today's review is of a product by The Body Shop : Moisture White Shiso Eye Serum.

I had purchased this one in Bangalore, India. The eye serum is from TheBodyShop's Japanese Formula series. After returning from Japan, everything which has something to do with Japan gets my unbiased favor... Heehee. Anyway, I have got this horrible dark circles who are completely in love with my eyes and hence refuse to leave them alone. And hence the purchase.

The product comes in a tiny bottle and is a bit expensive. At first I thought it will be over within 10 applications. But I was proved wrong. Two small dots of the serum is required and suffices for both the eyes. I generally use this at night, before going to bed. I used it religiously when I was in Bangalore as I had to attend my cousins wedding and I surely didn't wish to look like a zombie. Am still not sure about its claim of reducing dark circles as my sleeping habits are mighty erratic. But it has surely made the skin surrounding my eyes, soft and hydrated. My mom swears by the old coconut oil thing for reducing  dark circles and wrinkles. But after a week of this coconut oil therapy I started getting milia on my lower eyelids. So I immediately stopped using the coconut oil. From that time on I haven't used any serum or oil. The milia issue has been tackled.
Since I am writing this post I feel like committing to the eye serum regime again. I will also try to get in the bed by 10 PM. And get my 7 hour sleep. After 4 weeks I will post how the Moisture White Shiso Eye Serum worked.

Price: Rs.1495/-

P.S. I haven't written about the product's ingredients and its claimed magical powers. People please do  visit your near by THE BODY SHOP store. There are ample products to check out from. Right from toiletries to make-up to fragrances. They even have nice gift kits and boxes. Real saviour while gifting your girlfriends. Sales people at the store guide really well to choose products which are meant for your age group as well as your skin type. 

GUEST D.I.Y. POST

Have done a guest D.I.Y. post for my BFF Renu. She blogs at RENEW-IT. 

And HERE you will find my guest post. Hope you like this one...

D.I.Y. : Turning knit top into Bolero

I LOOOOOOVE Shrugs and Boleros. They give perfect layering to my outfits. They also help me to hide my nice healthy arms. And of course its a good option during fall.
I have turned plenty of my tops into shrugs and Boleros. I will be posting about it soon. But now being fall season, what better option than having some DIY knit/sweater shrugs?Boleros as posts, right?
I had bought this green knit top from Globus in 2009. Wore it like crazy when I was residing in Japan. One Thing I really appreciate about Globus is that they use good quality fabrics. The fabrics are soft yet sturdy ones. Even after three years of use my knit top's color haven't faded even a bit and not a bobble has shown up.
Anyway, lets check how to restyle your old knit top...

Cut the front vertically as shown in the picture below. If you are not confident about your scissor-use then draw guidelines with help of tailor's chalk. 

Decide the length of your Bolero and accordingly cut the entire lower half of the knit top. While cutting do keep in mind to add 1 and half inch more to the length you desire. This 1 and half inch is required for sewing the hem. 

Hand stitch the hem of your knit top before taking it to the sewing machine. 

I had taken out the buttons before machine-stitching the Bolero. Since knit wear can easily expand, I stitched a portion at the front and added two buttons on top. This detail gives it a button down look but in actual I have to wear it like a pullover.

Wow... so from now on I will call it THE GREEN PULLOVER BOLERO

I generally wear this one with my racerback tank tops and capris or with LBD's.