How To Keep Rings From Turning Your Fingers Green

So, who here is a fan of buying cheap trendy jewelry?
"Me! Me!" says the fashion magazine obsessed college girl writing this blog post.
And who is not a fan of the way cheap jewelry turns skin green? How about everyone who has ever bought cheap jewelry.
So here is a little trick to keep your inexpensive trendy jewels from making your fingers look like they belong to the Wicked Witch of the West.

COAT THE INSIDE OF YOUR RINGS WITH CLEAR NAIL POLISH

Yup, its that easy. I used Essie's Good to Go Top Coat, which is a great top coat by the way, but any clear top coat will work fine.

This isn't a permanent fix though, after a few wears the clear polish will peal and you'll need to reapply. Applying a couple coats of clear nail polish on your cheap rings still beats shoveling out the cash for real gold any day.

DIY: Wallet Transformation

Here's a little DIY for you; updating a wallet or clutch with saddle soap, a stone, gorilla glue, and a whole lot of love. 

This wallet is a hand me down courtesy of my grandmother, I saved it from the goodwill bag and have been loving it ever since. It doubles really easily as a clutch, big enough for my phone and a little lip gloss. I had been looking for a way to jazz it up when I came across this beautiful stone in a New Age store in Northampton Mass.  

For this project you'll need: an old wallet, a stone (or whatever you're using for embellishment), saddle soap, and Gorilla Glue. Adding an embellishment to old pieces is an easy way to reinvent and fall back in love with old pieces. So before you give or throw away anything, take a second look and ask what else can I do with this?

Ok lets get started!

the necessary supplies

 Step 1 - Clean it up!

Saddle soap is a great way to keep leather looking new. So before I started this I gave my wallet a nice little rub down with the saddle soap.

Step 2 - Glue it

Use Gorrila glue to stick down the stone, but be warned Gorilla Glue will ruin the leather you put it on so there is no going back. Damp the spot where the stone will be placed and squeeze out a spot of glue. Water activates the ingrediants in the glue and causes it to foam up, so you don't need to use too much glue.

Step 3 - Place it

Put the stone down on the glue and clamp it. Applying pressure while the glue dries will help it bond well and hold for a long time.

 Step 4 - Let it dry

The glue takes about an hour or two to dry, depending on how much you have used. Be sure to keep the clamp on it while the glue dries. 

 Step 5 - Rock it!

Voi-la, un nouvel clutch très chic!

I hope you enjoyed this little DIY, I know I did!

Valentine's is for Cat Lovers: Nail Art

Ah Valentine's Day... A day filled with pink, glitter, heart-shaped things, and chocolate. A time for romance and fuzzy feelings, a day to celebrate loooove with your boo de jour. And this year I have no boo to celebrate with... typical.

So what's a girl to do with no honey bunny on Valentine's Day? The normal thing for a single gal is to call up her BFF and ask "bestie will you be my valentine?" which we all know is code for "hey we're both single, let's be alone together so we seem less pathetic". The night would probably include eating your weight chocolate and watching movies like 16 Candles, The Prince's Bride, and if you're really hitting a low point maybe even Twilight (omg he glitters). 

This year, however, I don't really feel like doing that. So I have decided to accept the inevitable, that someday its just going to be me and my cats. While college housing prevents from getting a head start on my life as a crazy cat lady (damn you ResLife!), I have decided express my undying love for cats with nail art.  

pretty damn cute huh?

there are cats and hearts!

Doing these nails called for a bit more planning and detail then I am normally willing to under take for a manicure, but when I got the idea to put kitties on my nails I couldn't let it go.

I used a few different colors. Nude and red for base colors, black for the cats, green for the eyes, and pink for the hearts. 

This design also called for a few more tools: scissors, band aids, and a black nail pen.

Use the scissors to cut out hearts and cat shapes in the band aids. The using the band aids as stencils, fill them in with nail polish.

Using the band aid as a stencil worked flawlessly for the heart shapes, but when it came to do the cats the black polish bleed through the band aid and I could not get a clean line. I ended up free handing the cats with a nail art pen, then carefully went over it with my black polish.

Not perfect, but you get the idea. For the eyes I gently dabbed on a bit of the green, you can use a Q-tip for more precision. 

Voi-la! Nail art for cat lovers, festive and adorable!

I am definitely going to try again with the band aid stencil, it is a really clever idea I saw in this youtube video. 

I hope you enjoyed and if you're feeling lonely on Valentine's Day, send some love to your favorite feline!

Miss you kitty!

Stud Cushion

Looking for a different way to store and display your stud earrings that always seem to be rolling around/away? Try this a stud cushion!

Hello lovely!

The idea for this petit projet came to me quite randomly, as I was cleaning and reorganizing my shelves for the millionth time (I do this almost weekly) I came across a foam hockey puck... wait what?

I got the squishy puck from the last UVM hockey game I went to and had not been able to find a use for it. So there it has been sitting on my book/make-up/jewelry/random junk shelf  for the past few months adding clutter to a space I can't manage  to keep clean. My initial instinct was to get rid of it, but eight years at a school run by hippies and three semesters in Vermont have taught me that the answer is always to reduce, reuse, and recycle (Jack Johnson would be proud).

So here we have it, a stud cushion. Inspired from the red tomato shaped pin cushion that has lived in my mothers sewing kit since I was a kid. I even jazzed it up with some gold nail polish around the sides because all jewelry storage requires a small amount of glitter.

I really like it so far, I can actually see all of my beautiful sparkly earrings when I get ready in the mornings.  Just be sure to keep a small dish near by for the earring backs.

Taking these guys out of the boxes and bags I had them hidden in has lead me to rediscover my Great Grandmother's garnet earrings. I have been wearing these almost non stop since, by the way there is a matching broach.

I may be making some improvements to the stud cushion eventually, perhaps more paint or a fabric cover, but this is working pretty splendidly in the meantime.

For anyone who doesn't have a foam hockey puck lying around (i.e. most people) I found a few cool pin cushions on Etsy.

Apparently there is a pin cushion for everyone....

one for cat lovers,

for cupcake lovers,

If you're pre-med,

or if you never matured past your middle school emo phase (voodoo)  

The most functional one I found isn't as quirky, but it definitely works for earring storage. 

mini mason jar!

A small mason jar topped with a pin cushion, perfection! Studs on top and earring backs in the jar. I may have to track down some mini mason jars for this!

Hope you enjoyed!

-Catherine

Insta Rebelle

So January has been busy, busy, busy and life has no sign of slowing down in February. I have a pretty full class schedule and I am working three days a week, this has been leaving little time to blog. Luckily though, I am a member of generation y and am subsequently attached to my smart phone with Instagram to share every news worthy aspect of my life. From lipstick to nail polish, from nom-able treats to the shoes on my feet, I feel the insatiable need to document and share it all. So here are some of my favorite recent instagramed pics...

My favorite oxblood (*trendy term for dark red*) lipstick and hat

Sheep skin boots and thick wool sweater, I thought I left the cold weather in VT

Cat flats at Urban Outfitters...
I may be going back for these

Rebelle at work

waiting for the subway... in my mom clogs

My favorite shiny things: perfume bottles, studs, my great
grandmother's broach, and nail polish

Happy Saturday!

Color Blocking

Sorry about the hiatus, this rebelle gal needed a bit of a break, but now I'm back to blogging! I thought I'd get back in the game with my old stand by of nail art, this time we're color blocking.

like the Kate Spade Iphone case?

I have been having a lot of fun working this trend, especially on the nails. I am a big fan of color and this is great way to mix bright colors and neutrals. I also decided to do a sparkly accent nail (block?) to jazz it up.

OPI Never Enough Shoes, Essie Tarte Deco, OPI Glitzerland

Start with painting your nails whatever color you want for the lower block, let them dry completely. Then place a piece of tape where you want the line to be, use this as a guide for painting the top color.

Hope you enjoyed!

Red and Gold Holiday Nails

Today I have some rocking red and gold holiday-inspired nail art, and it is about time I start expressing my enthusiasm for the season with my nails! This art nail is pretty yet subtle, I loved the half moon shape at the base of the nail, it is elegant and a bit decadent, especially in gold.

Holiday Nails and Holiday Coffee

This manicure is really easy to do. All you need is two different nail polish colors and a few ringed paper reinforcers, you know the ones that were on your school supplies list in middle school that you used as decorative stickers (no, was that just me?).

OPI's Glitzerland and Color So Hot It Berns (both from the Swedish Collection)

Start by painting your nails what ever color you want the half moon to be, then let it dry completely. Then put your reinforcer at the base of your nail and paint over it with your top color. Wait until your nails start to dry and peel off the reinforcers. Et voila! Your nails are finished!

I am definitely going to be repeating this technique during the non-holiday seasons.

Hope you enjoy!

My favorite holiday drink, peppermint mochas from starbucks. What's yours?