Fake moustache craze

There's this weird fad going on. 

Moustaches.

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Fake ones, that is, in all kinds of photos online and in places you wouldn't normally see them. 

Even Paper Source has a campy set of fake moustaches that they sell in their store:

(my sister bought these)

I'm starting to see them pop up in wedding photos:

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And on pets...?

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The Moustache Blog is actually pretty awesome, haha.  Wonder what my husband will say if I decided to try to grow some facial hair...

My first dSLR!

I'm SO excited.  Our faithful Canon Powershot broke on Halloween, which finally gave me an excuse to retire it and purchase a new camera.  Since I've been coveting an SLR after seeing too many amazing photos from other bloggers, I promptly started my research on different cameras.  With so many choices out on the market, I quickly became a bit overwhelmed.  For an indecisive person, too many options can actually be a bad thing.  I rethought my strategy and began going through a more systematic process:

1.  Entry level, prosumer, or professional?  Immediately ruled out the professional models, which had a ton of features that I probably wouldn't use.  Plus they're super expensive!

2.  Price point?  Somewhere in the under $1000 range. 

3.  Brand?  Based on tons of reviews and my own experience with point-and-shoot digital cameras, I knew I wanted either a Nikon or Canon.  I've owned many Canon cameras (both film and digital) so my initial loyalty leaned that way, but Nikon SLRs have an esteemed reputation.  I was torn until...

4.  Lenses?  I had no clue as to how to choose these.  However, I learned that a good lens can be even more important than the camera body. A good lens consistently delivers quality photos and can be used for many years, even as you upgrade or change the camera body (assuming  you stay with the same brand, I think).  Nikon lenses have an awesome reputation for sharpness, color, clarity, and all-around reliability.  Ok, now I'm sold.

5.  Where to buy?  Fortunately, my brother-in-law happened to purchase a dSLR a few months back.  He sent me a great spreadsheet organized with information on cameras and accessories with their prices broken down by online stores.  I initially planned to purchase everything from Amazon, but ended up with a better deal at Buydig. 

After this exhausting but fruitful search, I chose (drumroll)....

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The Nikon D90!  It comes with an 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens, which I learned was a fairly good all-around lens for everyday photos and portraits. 

However, I was also told that a 50mm lens takes the coolest, funnest photos, so I bought this too:

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Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras  - only $124 on Amazon!

Orders have been placed, and now I have to wait 5-9 business days to start playing with them. 

Did I mention I'm SO excited?

DIY tweed leaves headband

My second DIY post is a headband to complement fall colors and fabric textures.  The material comes from an old tweed skirt I that couldn't part with since I was so attached to it.  What  better way to keep it a part of my wardrobe than to turn part of it into a headband!  So here we go:

Materials
tweed fabric (or any fabric with a similiar texture)
thin headband
scissors
glue gun

Instructions

Step 1: Cut out a piece of fabric for your leaves from a heavier fabric with a nice texture.  I really liked the green tweed of this skirt (will be using it for future projects for sure) and ended up using a piece about 6"x12".

Step 2:  Cut leaf-shaped pieces from your fabric.  I didn't bother drawing them on the fabric or anything, just cut free-form shapetoids.  Each were approximately 1.5-2" in length.  I didn't want to wrap the entire headband with them, so I only ended up cutting around 15 pieces.

Step 3:  Arrange them by size, and get your trusty headband purchased for under $4.00 for 2 at Forever 21.

Step 5: Start gluing pieces onto the headband.  I started with the largest leaves and worked my way up, overlapping the bottom ends as I made my way around the headband. 

I started on one side of the headband a few inches up, and went around until just past the halfway mark, using smaller leaves as I got toward the end.

Here's the final result:

The picture quality totally sucks in these photos, which I apologize for.  I'm currently shopping around for a dSLR to replace my old point-and-shoot, which is frustrating to use indoors, to say the least.  I think I'll try making another one of these headbands, using smaller leaves on my next try!

I give in to the Twilight fad...

I blame my sister.  We had a mini-sister day planned, so while I was waiting for her to come home, I picked up the book and started reading.  While the writing isn't exactly Nobel Prize-worthy, I found the book to me strangely addicting.

Back to my happy place

Where's that, you ask? Depends on my current mood, but the place I usually find something to cheer me up is Etsy. I'm constantly amazed by how many creative souls are out there and I'm happy to support entrepreneurs and independent artisans as much as possible. I have many of them to thank for various items purchased for my May wedding.

Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, and here are some special finds that would be great for the holiday season:

tiny quilted pumpkins 

mmm...pumpkin bread

festive thanksgiving bunting

amazing autumn garland

Happy Friday!

"Sweet" downloadable cup wrappers

So I'm having a housewarming party this Saturday and have been looking for ways to decorate without spending too much money.  On Eat Drink Chic, I came across a post on some super-simple DIY cup wrappers for candy or other little snacks.  Check it out!

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I think I'll fill these with all my leftover Halloween candy (someone other than myself needs to help eat these). 

Any other simple, hassle-free, and cost-friendly ideas for a housewarming party?  Let me know!

The cutest baby costumes - KAM party

Through the magic of Facebook and its links to tagged photos of friends, I came across pictures from a group called Korean-American Mommies (KAM) and a Halloween party they held last week, complete with a collection of photobooth pictures that will make anyone's heart melt.  Seriously, kids costumes have come a long way since my childhood in the 80's, where we wore plastic devil masks with matching plastic (and probably flammable) outfits, or repurposed old clothes and rags tied to sticks to dress up as hobos. 

Check out Youkeun's blog for highlights, and his Facebook gallery for the entire set of pics.  My favorites included a baby Hershey kiss, a Super Mario Brothers family, and an unhappy little flower.  What were yours?