DIY Ombre Shorts

Holy cow! It's twenty minutes before I leave for work and I just remembered that I had promised to post how to make those shorts I wore in my last post! It's actually very simple, and you could use just about any pair of shorts you like. I used a pair of high waisted Calvin Klein cut offs that I nicked from a thrift store a while back that I just didn't ever feel were snazzy enough. This spruced them up quite nicely :) So without further a-do, here are some instructions + pictures.

Materials:

1. Old jeans or cut offs

2. Hair tie

3. Something to hold your bleach/water (I used a milk jug)

4. Bleach

I literally just cut off the top of a milk jug and filled it about half full with hot water and just dumped bleach in. I have no idea how much other than I know the water turned a little bit green/yellow and it smelled! So just get a good amount in. More bleach = less color.

These are the shorts I used (plus a little corner of my knee ^^). 

Next, I gathered up my shorts in one spot and tied a hair band around them. Make sure that it's a pretty even line all the way around your shorts and that the bleach isn't going to be higher up on the back of your shorts. I had to even that out and play around with it until I felt like the line would wrap around evenly.

Next was the easy part. I just stuck the jeans inside of the jug and let them sit. Make sure your bleach/water mixture comes up as far as your hair band does, otherwise the "ombré" effect wont be as apparent. I let these sit for about 45 mins. They were a fairly light wash denim, however, so I would leave it sit longer if you are using a dark wash. 

Voila! Now you have your very own custom pair of ombre denim shorts. They were pretty easy to make, wouldn't you say? Make sure that when you wash them afterwards that you wash them alone, even if you rinse them out before hand, because you don't want any residual bleach messing up the rest of your clothes. Next time I think I'll use a darker wash denim and let the line a little bit down so it's more half/half in terms of coloring, but these still look great! Well, now I'm pretty sure that I'm officially going to be late for work, and I can't let those little kiddies down! Happy bleaching, guys :)

PS- Ignore the gross, brown, crunchy grass in the pictures. It has been so awful hot here, and combined with no rain for weeks now, so the poor grass is suffering. Maybe I should do a rain dance later on...

I'm on the Edge

 Whew! As I'm writing this I'm eating some cherries and thinking "This might be the first time I've had time to sit down this week". I've been picking up shifts at work like crazy, and I actually had to get sent home yesterday because I was going to go over 40 hours and they can't pay us overtime, haha. So here I am to update you on all that's been going on since I last posted at the beginning of the week! 

Tuesday I got this necklace in the mail (finally!). I'd been waiting on it for three weeks, but we've been getting our house painted and a new roof, so the mailman hadn't been able to deliver mail in a long time. And then the very next day, BAM! I get my shoes in the mail! It only took them a week and a half to ship all the way from the UK, and I absolutely adore them.

This outfit is just one big ball of stardom. These shorts are a pair that I bleach ombré-d on Wednesday, and I must say I quite like them! I think that next time I do them, I'll make the line a little lower so there is more of the denim color left, but I think they turned out pretty great for a first try. I took pictures too, so I'm going to put a tutorial pretty soon.

I know that a couple of shots are kind of fuzzy, and it wasn't until I got them loaded on to my computer that I found out there was a smudge on the lens and I'd already dropped my sister off at driver's ed (gah!). So sorry for any of them looking funny. I'll be sure to tell Hannah not to put her fingers on the lens next time...

The Lust List

1. "The Disco Pant" -American Apparel

2. Gold collar necklace

3. Light wash distressed boyfriend crop jeans

4. Skinny black belt (rectangular buckle)

5. Hot pink lipstick

6. Frilly white socks

7. Red long sleeved chiffon button-up

8. Straw fedora

9. Chunky colorful sandals

These are all items that I've been lusting after, be it for a long time or just a short period. The first and most important item on the list is the disco pant in black from American Apparel. I've already signed up to work a double shift on Thursday just to pay for these pants. I realize that I'm kind of behind on the trend of getting these, but better late than never! I can just imagine so many wonderful outfits with them on that my mind is going crazy without them...

The same goes for most of these items. I'm just coming up with outfits in my head that involve all of these and I just haven't been able to find the perfect item yet (or they are out of my price range at the moment). I'm so particular about items being exactly what I have in my head once I get so stuck on them, so sometimes I will go months and months searching for the perfect piece, even when similar items have been found. I know I can't be the only one who does this right?! Because I've been on the lookout fot the perfect red chiffon button up for a few months now. If anyone knows where to get a great one (or would like to gift one to me ;) ), just shoot me an email! My contact is listed on my about page, but just in case you don't want to click up there, here it is:

thestyleduckling@hotmail.com

So now that we all know my Lust List, what are some of the items on your's?

Apricot Florals

And now I must come down from the high *sigh* Tyler left earlier today and I'm fairly certain I haven't left my bed except for once. The one time that I did get up was because I knew I would need something to occupy my time while he was at football practice this evening so I was able to corral my sister into taking some photos for me to work on later. And so, this blog post was born!

Now, if you are a loyal reader of this blog (don't burst my bubble by telling me no one is!), you'll recognize this outfit from the video that I posted on Friday. Since my necklace I ordered almost three weeks ago and my new shoes still haven't arrived, the creative part of my brain has been on strike, complete with picket signs and the always clever "What do we want? Accessories! When do we want 'em? Now!" (ok, maybe my chanting brain isn't as clever as it thinks it is). Regardless, it seemed silly to let the perfectly good outfit go to waste on such a poorly done video. Next time I pluck up the courage to do another one of those, I'll be much more aware of what could (and probably will) go wrong.

It was so sunny outside today! It did not match my mood at all. Unless I looked down at the ground or covered my eyes, I couldn't see. The sun was just burning through them. So if the faces I'm making in a couple of these seem strange, you've been warned.

Top: Gift

Shorts: Goodwill

Bracelets/Watch: Thrifted

Loafers: Kohl's

Bag: For Love

Nail Polish: OPI "Mermaid Tears"

Cute little gif right?! I just slipped this in here for fun:)

This tragic mood that I'm in is giving me plenty of fuel to keep myself busy and what better way than to create blog posts! So this week expect to see some updates. My work schedule has been pretty packed lately, however, but I know that I'll be preferring this over that ;)