Clo.DIY: Neon.Shoe.Makeover

 

These sandals have been sitting in my closet for the past 2 years!! They are comfortable and I like how they look, but they just don't seem to pair up well with anything I own. Spring and Summer are around the corner and I want to sport open-toed colorful, bright shoes. So instead of spending on a new pair, I gave these shoes a new look. The makeover took less than an hour since I used materials I already had. See below for a before and after and the nitty-gritties. :)

The original look. 

Got rid of the embellishments.

Cut a piece of felt and played around with size, shape and scale until I liked what I saw.

In-progress shot.

Took a neon yellow thread and stitched the felt pieces to the sandal strap.

Viola!

Ho.Handmade: Cushion Covers

This post has been a long time coming. A LONG time. I designed and made these cushions during January. However I never got a chance to photograph the finished product. Can you believe that? I wanted to photograph them during the day and somehow I was barely at home in the mornings these past few weeks. Anyhoo, I got my *bleep* together and I am pleased to present to you: handmade cushion covers.

As many of you know, we moved to a new apartment a few months back and ever since then, I have been trying to design it project by project. The first (and fairly easy) project was finding/making some bright cushion covers for my two sofas. After window shopping for a bit, I could not find designs I liked or stuff I liked was way too expensive (almost always the case!). So I started hunting for fabric with one design idea in mind: the covers should be up-down; front back and left-right flip-able, so I could play with them as I fancied. For this concept to work, I would need a variety of fabric.

My first (and last) destination was Purl Soho. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that shop. It's like walking into wonderland! My brain kicks into high gear every time I go here. I found this lovely pre-cut fabric bundle (18"x 24"). I fell for the colors and patterns and I had the "this is it!!!" moment! :)

I also bought smaller pre-cut fabric bundles for accents and other projects.

 And then, I got to work:

 After a few hours, this happened: 

 A few more hours later, these happened:

Flip up, flip down; front the back or back the front; go right or left; play till your heart's content

Clo.Outfit: Handmade Multi-Way Shrug

I'm sooooo excited to show y'all this shrug! It is the first garment I designed and made*! I kept it simple in terms of cut and finishing (as I'm not all that good at it, yet). This fabric has great fall and I wanted to portray that quality through design - hence the long billowing sleeves. Almost gives it an ethereal feel. 

I love designs that are versatile and can be worn in many ways. On the front, I can leave it open (as in the pic above), or overlap the panels, or tie a front knot or wear it as a halter. The sleeves can also be draped in multiple ways: leave them as is, tie them at the end and give it that peasant sleeve look, wrap it around my arm, or tie them short...the possibilities are endless. 

I'm loving it! :)

* With help from my mum (a fashion design professor). She used to sew most of my dresses until high school. Now I want to make my own clothes whenever possible, so I asked her to teach me drafting and pattern making.

Notice the exposed darts? How cute are those!

What I'm Wearing:

Jacket: Kenneth Cole (Vegan)

Shrug: Handmade

Dress: French Connection

Tights: Eco-friendly; 80% bamboo fiber (sockdreams.com)

Shoes: Vivienne Westwood for Melissa (Vegan, Made of recycled plastic, 100% recyclable; Ethical company)

Foo.Review: Dirt Candy

The menu: short, easy to choose. Everything can be made vegan, just ask.

No complicated names here. Do you want to have carrot or cauliflower?

The Starters. On the left is warm bread with olive oil and to the right - Jalapeno Hush Puppies served with maple butter

Alright, so those hush puppies were the most amazing fried snack I've had in recent years. They reminded me of "pulibongaralu" from Telugu cuisine.

K's appetizer - Pepper. Smoky red pepper mousse, yellow pepper soup and jalapeno chips

In K's words: has the perfect amount of crunchy, smoky and creamy. I tasted it and it was like pepper fireworks on your palate. Very nice!

The pepper soup comes in a separate beaker. You pour it in yourself.

Almost there...

Now, it's ready to eat.

My appetizer: Carrot. The buns to the right are steamed carrot buns and each is made of puree from a different type of carrot and yes, you can easily distinguish the three types. To the left is a cucumber and sesame ginger salad.

K's entree: Chard; Again, a great combination of flavors and textures. Each bite had a minimum of three textures and you could distinctly taste each ingredient that went into it. Yumm!

My entree: Cauliflower. I could easily taste each and every ingredient on the plate. I like! I also discovered that horse radish and arugula make an awesome combo.

Dessert. You'll have to excuse me for not presenting you with a picture of the dessert. After eating all those above dishes we were so blown over that we were waiting like hungry kids for the dessert and when it was served, it did not even occur to me to take a picture (I had been telling myself that I should take a pic before digging in). Anywhoo, we ordered Chocolate Beet Cake. The chocolate was warm and when we cut into it, warm oozy beet/pear lather oozed out and the combo was unbelievably awesome. Home run!

Overall,

• Simple vegetarian/vegan food with focus on the veggies. No extra frills and pretentious dishes
• Subtle ambiance
• The place gets very full, reserve in advance
• The place is lively with conversation
• Perfect for dates/smaller groups
• Good service; friendly and smiling wait staff

Chef & owner: Amanda Cohen

Must try? YES

http://www.dirtcandynyc.com/

Clo.Outfit: A Bright Start to the New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

I'm totally loving this outfit and I'll tell you why: For one, I'm wearing a shirt backwards; two, I'm wearing two hats. I was totally craving a stand up collar shirt and I couldn't find any in my wardrobe, I figured I could just wear a shirt backwards. I wore this beanie but the outfit did not seem to fall in place so I borrowed my mom's hat and wore it on top of it, so the colorful beanie just shows as a trim. Perfect amount of multi-color :)

What I'm Wearing:

Black hat: Borrowed from Mum

Colorful Beanie: Handwoven by Nepalese tribesmen (c/o mum's travels)

Black Long Sleeve Shirt: Uniqlo

Red Button-Up: Express

Wrap Around Skirt: Jaipur Block Printed, 100% Cotton (c/o mum's travels)

Tights: Eco-friendly, 80% Bamboo fiber (sockdreams.com)

Shoes: Vegan (Endless.com)

Accessories: 

Big Metal Pendant: c/o mum's travels (Kolkata)

Red Indian Dream Catcher: From Arizona

Silver bangle: c/o mum's travels (Bihar)

Wide metal bangle: From Hyderabad