Are you a Book Lover?

Ever since I was young, I have always been a reader of books. Regardless of how thin or thick, big or small it is, I would always love to read a book. As I grew older, I have started to become aware of the different book genre, and now I have narrowed down my favorites to YA Books, Horror and Suspense, Romance, Romance-Comedy and Chic lit as the usual books that I read.

Here in my place, its hard to buy a book. Not only is it expensive, but most of the books that I want to read are available in the US/Canada only, and if I'd have them shipped, it would double the cost. And so I was so happy when e-books were introduced. Now I can finally read them on the computer. And through the time technology has evolved, and now reading books has become so easy with e-book readers and smartphones and tablets.

But even though e-books are becoming more and more popular and many chooses them because they are more convenient and cheaper, hard copies and paperbacks will always be the best. For me, I would love to turn the pages of actual books that I am reading, and the feel of the book gives me satisfaction too. It is really different when you are reading paperbacks and e-books. The only negative thing about hardcopies is that they are more expensive. But if you know how to look for cheaper books, then it won't be a problem. Today, many online book stores sell both e-book and hard copies. Amazon and Goodreads are two of the most popular online shopping place for books. Most shops also sell discount textbooks, so if you are buying a book for school, then you don't have to worry about its price.

I have always wanted to build up my own mini library. And with the help of the books that I have bought at cheaper prices, as well as ones that I get from the authors themselves, I am now slowly building my own library of books. And while it may take time for me to completely fill my shelf, I am just happy and contented looking at my book collection.

Latest DIYs - Beauty and Fashion

Sayings/Framed Words

First up are these sayings or phrases that I printed out and framed. I got the idea from watching many room photos on weheartit, and since we will be moving to a new house soon, that would give me an opportunity to redecorate my room from scratch. Meaning.. I'll have total control of everything, from colors to style to furniture and all. And I specifically want to make a collage or something on my headboard.

awww there's dirt o_O

As you can see, i have printed two phrases on colored paper and framed them with colored frames too. These are quite easy to make, and you can even just put the printed output on the wall or have it laminated instead of framing them.

personal fave! haha

Bracelets

I have also been watching tutorials on Tumblr on how to make simple bracelets. Although the materials were quite hard to find here in the Philippines (sucks!), I was able to improvise some of them and managed to create two bracelets from scratch. They're not really flashy or something, just simple braided ones which are of course, my style.

This button bracelet is my favorite because I love the vintage look on the button (its just made of plastic though, not wood). Also, I love my bracelets to be of the garter types so that I can just put them on and off easily.

Makeup Box

I know that there are better make up box tutorial on the internet, but I choose this one because its really so simple and quite unique, in my opinion. All you need is just a piece of box (with cover or none), glue and different colored yarn. For the body of the box, I applied glue all over and then started covering the sides using the colored yarns. I alternated the yarn colors to give it a cute design (fail, haha), and its already done in a matter of minutes. You can then just cover the insides with colored paper if you want :) I used my finished make up box to store my lippies (sadly, i only have like 7 lip products).

Cut offs/Shorts

I was really bored and out of my mind when I saw my old pair of jeans on my closet. I have been looking for ways on how to dispose them because I no longer have space on my closet. And then I chance upon some cute shorts on the internet. That gave me the idea of cutting my jeans and making them into shorts. Of course, I dont have the skills for sewing, but yeah I managed. Haha.

This bow pocket shorts was my latest DIY. I saw something like this online and thought that it looks cute, so I made my own. The bow was easy to make, but attaching them on the pocket of the shorts was quite difficult for me. But in the end, the hard work really paid off because I love the result.

kawaii bow

This pink and purple ombre shorts was my very first DIY shorts. I really was not sure how to make it, and so I had to experiment on how to do it. First I had my shorts bleached, and then colored the upper half purple and the lower half pink. The resulting color was not so vivid, I guess because I only used a small amount of dye. Hmm maybe next time I'll know how the coloring thing works.

ombre shorts! pink and purple yay.

T-Shirt Printing

I have always wanted to do my own shirt designs, but my lack of talent is stopping me. Haha. But then I finally started making my own band shirts, starting with simple designs. Here are two of my latest shirts that I "painted" myself.

My first shirt happens to be the one on my current fave band! Yay Vic Fuentes and Pierce the Veil. I even changed my twitter username into @piercethejel hahahahaha.

Fan Girl Much?? HAHA I so love Pierce the Veil

This Blink 182 shirt is a combination of "painting" and "writing". Yep, I wrote the design on the shirt, literally. I had to buy laundry markers for me to be able to finish this thing, and the result was really nice. I am happy that I was able to pull of this design.

Fave line from this song <3

 Deconstructed Shirt

Just like the ombre shorts, I made an ombre t-shirt. This wasnt originally my plan, but seeing the nail polish stain on the sleeves made me angry with the shirt. I was about to throw it when I decided to dye it. But then again when I saw that the dye didnt cover the nail polish stain, I was angry again. I was thinking of throwing it out when I suddenly saw my laundry marker... Long story short, I drew designs on the stains.

And thank God the markers were able to hide the stupid stains. Forgive the uhm very elementary drawing. My mind was totally blank and the first thing that came to mind was music, thus the musical notes on the sleeves. Haha. But I dont really mind because I am just happy that the stains can no longer be seen, unless you look for it closely. Lol.

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And thats it! I know these are just petty stuffs but I really did enjoy making them. As of now I am still on the process of creating more DIYs. I'll show them again next time. Also, if you have any DIY ideas or tutorials that you would like to share, pls do tell me. Id' love to see them and try recreating them too. I think this will be my goal for 2013, recycling and creating DIY stuffs out of old items. I dont mind wearing clothes made out of my old ones, for me they are very practical and fashionable too.