Nails: Fireworks and Glam

Here's a quick post, just to show you a very easy idea I had for new year nails.

First I had this very extravagant idea in my head, but when I executed it, that all it was...extravagant. And in my opinion, not in an all too cute way. So immediately I took em off...but not without shamelessly taking a picture first to show you guys. I mean...you have the right to see my fails too...-_-
Only thing about this idea...there was too much going on on one hand. Fireworks, wishes, champagne flute, glitters, polka dots... hmmmm waaaayyy tooooo much momma...way too much!

started well...

ended in fatality...

So the next I tried something more....basic and beautiful...black and glitter.
I covered my ring finger and my thumb in 'Circus Confetti' from Essence and the remaining nails are simply 'Black' from Jordana.
I opted for the 'Circus Confetti' because it's a multi-colored glitter shade. It gives the impression of a party, new year, fire works...happiness. But you can choose any glittery shade you like.

When the nails were dry, I did this wannabe gradient  diagonally on the pinky and the index finger using the 'Circus Confetti'. Notice that for a change, one gradient is coming down and the other one is going up.
On the middle finger, simply using white polish and a thin brush, I wrote 2013. Wait for it all to dry..top up with a shiny topcoat and boom...colorful, festive new year nails!

Hope you like it, lovebugs...

I still have make-up looks to share with you guys and an update to the no-bake dessert. But this'll be it for now.
I wish you a smashing 2013. Thank you for your love, trust and support throughout 2012. May the best of all the bests fall in your bosoms in this coming year and may you come to enjoy every second of it.
Hope to be able to count on you amid 2013 as well.
I very much appreciate each and every one of you!!!

1000 X's n' O's

Dazzled,

Sy

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Misc: January Photo Challenge...

In December there was this photo-A-day challenge by fashion guru Shirley B. Eniang (www.meek-n-mild.com ), which I wanted to participate in.
It looked mighty interesting. But then, when December started I totally forgot...and only remembered around Deember 3rd. BUMMER!!!
I didn't want to start late in the December Challenge, and decided with a fellow blogger (www.mybeautifulpieceofmind.com) to do a January Challenge instead.

And here it is...

Of Course we'd like you to participate too!!!!

The rules are simple; take a picture a day related to the topic of that day and post it (explaining shortly why you chose to photograph that). You can use just ANY photo-taking device to participate.
Of course it'll be more fun if you'd share the picture on your twitter as well using the included hashtag so we can all see each others journey...

I'm already excited to see yours, lovebugs!!! Tell your friends to participate as well...lets make this a fun and inspirational bunch of pictures this January...
Maybe in the end you can make a collage of how your 2013 started out.


X's n' O's

Dazzled,

Sy

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Craft: The unconventional Christmas tree

Traditionally our family never decorate our Christmas tree with the conventional ornaments.
It's been like this for YEARS. And this year we discovered some people like THIS exactly about our Christmas tree...the surprise factor.

I mean, let's be honest; we've decorated the tree with cardboard boxes, aluminium foil, ragged jeans, clothes pegs...last year we did news paper. So this year it was time for plastic cups and potato sacks.

Oh believe me, me and my little brother had a good laugh just thinking about the reaction of people when they're told what your Christmas tree was decorated with...
Imagine them say something like: "What? (giggle) How cheap is that?" or " You MUST be kidding me, right?"

But hey, I come from an artistically rich family...there's so much creativity going on, that we can't help but do it our own way. (take a look on www.omarsling.com or www.francissling.com. Both my older brothers, both creativity lovers)

So this is it...with plastic cups and old potato sack it is...

We used 1fl oz. sized cups and thread. We bought a pack of ornament hangers and spray paint cans in pink and gold in a cheap store and went on making our own ornaments.

The potato sack? Well, mom just bought a sack of potatoes at the supermarket this week. So we placed the potatoes in another bag so to use the sack they came in...

And THAT'S how we roll with the Christmas tree this year...
It surely look more beautiful in person than it looks on these pics. But it's only so you'd have an idea...

I'm in love, every time I step in the living room and see the beauty of creativity standing right there.

Well I hope you enjoyed your Christmas time as much as I did, lovebugs.
Now it's up to a fruitful 2013...

X's n' O's

Dazzled,


Sy

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In the Kitchen: No-bake Chocolate goodness

One of the things I did on this Christmas day was hitting the kitchen.

Part of the whole Christmas celebration is having delicious food, right?
Well I wanted to try my own take on a no-bake dessert...
And this is it...Chocolate goodness at its best.

Crushed oreo cookies on the bottom, vanilla ice cream, liquor cake, chocolate pudding, and crushed peanut on the top. I know you can't see there's so much going on on the pics...but believe me, it was delish!!

I served it with chocolate syrup and some more crushed peanut...

How to make it?

Easy!!

Crush a pack of Oreo cookies (enough to totally cover the bottom of the container you're going to use).
Once totally crushed, cover the bottom of the container with the cookies, melt some butter and pour it on the crushed cookies. This, will be the crust for our dessert.
Once dry I covered the crust with vanilla Ice cream. I bought a liquor cake from the store and sliced it up. With these slices I covered the ice cream completely.
Then I covered the cake in chocolate pudding and garnished it with crushed peanuts.

After all this, I put the whole dessert in the freezer for about 30-45 minutes to let all the ingredients set.
Cut, cover in chocolate syrup, garnish with more crushed peanuts and SERVE...

IT WAS YUMMMM...

You should definitely try it out!
I'm sure you'll love it!

X's n' O's

Dazzled,

Sy

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Nails: "Dear Rudolph"

Right before Christmas...another Christmas nail art.

This time it's 'Dear, Rudolph'. It seems Santa has been skipping my address for the past years. I have no idea why...I've been nice...yup...I've been the nicest of 'em all. So this year I wrote Rudolph a letter instead, to see if he can direct the sleigh my way...lol... And the letter goes: "Dear, Rudolph..."

Anyways, enough craziness...this is it....
With two accent fingers total!

On the ring fingers I used 'Brown' from Jordana, Honestly, I think I should have gone for a lighter shade of brown, you barely see the nose. On the middle finger I used 'Gold Sparkle' from LA Colors. And the remaining nails are in 'Red Sparkle' from Milani. Since it's Christmas and the environment is festive, I thought about using a lot of glittery shades for this look. Thou I was already worried sick about taking all the glitter off. Those of you co- nail-polish-lovers know what a pain it can be to take off glittery polish...

Once the accent nails were totally dry I added the eyes and nose of Rudolph on the ring finger and on the middle finger I added a little ornamental piece...especially because I missed some green in the whole art.

Let everything dry thoroughly and add your favorite topcoat. And show off some glittery Rudolph nails this Christmas time...

Hope you enjoyed it once more.
Merry Christmas, you Dazzler....lol

X's n' O's

Dazzled,

Sy

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Nails: "Snow, man!!"

Christmas is just around the corner. The season of joy, peace, sharing, loving...and SNOW (in certain continents).

Here on Curacao it never snows...and it probably never will, unless nature goes really 'kaboozles'. So I decided to do a snowy Christmas nail art...just for fun. And I called it "Snow, man!" just to portrait the irony of having "snow" in a particularly warm weather Island in the Caribbean.

I first started with two coats of 'Sassy Sparkle' from LA Colors (Color Craze) on both my ring fingers and 'Ciao Bella' from Sinful Colors on all remaining fingers. Let them dry thoroughly as this is going to be the background color for the nail art and if it's not dry you'll end up with messy nails.

Once it's dry I added two circles on my index fingers using a dotting tool. A larger circle as the snowman's belly and a smaller one for the head. In between the circles I left a small open space for mr. snowman's shawl.
On the remaining fingers I added a snowflake (Conad stamp nr m59) and three dots with the dotting tool.

When mr. snowman's body was dry I drew a red shawl using a fine brush in 'Hot Red' from Jordana and added a green accent with 'Dark Green' from Nabi. With the same brush a painted what would be the nose of mr. snowman using 'Perfect Sunset' from LA Colors (Color Craze).
Then with the dotting tool and 'Black' from Jordana, I added eyes and a set of buttons for the snowman...

Ready!

   

Wait until it's dry...add your favorite topcoat and you're ready to rock these totally COOL nails for Christmas.

 


You can try this with an elf instead, with mr. or mrs Claus, a Christmas tree or Gingerbread man... The whole idea is to have fun!

Here's wishing you the most colorful, creative and dazzling Holiday season ever...

X's and O's

Dazzled,

Sy

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Crafts: Pearly Jewelry Set

Those of you who know me personally also know that I love being creative, be it with my nails, my make up, my hair, writing, crafting...whatever...

So, last week we had this very cool lunch with some of my colleagues at work and we thought about doing a gift exchange during the lunch. AMAZING idea... only, your gifts wasn't allowed to exceed 5 guilders (local currency equivalent of $ 2,75 approximately). How EXCITING...
Challenge accepted!!! And mind you,  I even did a silly dance after we withdrew the names a week in advance, so to know who you'd be buying a gift for. Mine was supposed to be easy, and my mind was flowing with ideas... So much that I was doing little screams of excitement and could hardly wait until next Friday.

Right!!! My dancing didn't last... That weekend when I went on my quest I discovered that I HAD to rethink my idea drastically. Most of the things I sought exceeded the limit of 5 guilders. FRUSTRATING!!!
I even got laughed at in a store, when I told the sales girl that I couldn't buy it because it was 'too expensive'. hahahahaha...

So here's what I did in the end...
I bought a black waxed linen cord for Fls. 4,51 (incl. taxes)...the rest I would have to conjure from what I have at home.
I had this pearl necklace which I've never used. And personally, I don't even remember why I bought it in the first place. Well then why not pick a scissor and go right through it? As a result...I got beads for my master piece.

Then with needle and black thread from my mom...and a little bit of patience I got to these three beauties (even if I have to say it myself  TIHIHI).
One double wrap pearl bracelet, a simpler bracelet and a pair of earrings.
(Yes I disassembled an unused earring to make this)

Now, for the presentation. How do you present handmade gifts? Especially when you can't buy anything else? Well you MAKE a 'clutch'. I have colored paper and colored foam at home...so yeah...why not?
For the two bracelets I made two custom pouches out of  make-up brush pouches and inserted a quote about pearls.

It says...

I belive the nicest and sweetest days are not those where anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens. But just those that bring simple little pleasures following one another softly like pearls of a string.

Sewn in a diagonal stripe with the waxed linen to hang the earrings. The clutch's closure was also made out of pearls and the waxed linen. Made a foam flower with a pearl center for embelishment on the front and a slider from colored paper...

And THIS is the result...

Opened:

 Closed:

Uhm no that's not tape on the closure. It's a transparent bead

And for Fls 4,51, some material I owned myself and a drop of patience I could gladly hand this handmade gift to my friend and colleague, Claudia.
It was such a fun and meaningfull afternoon with my bunch of crazies...
We laughed, we cried, we sang, we danced and we had an amazing time.
Me? well after walking around screaming like a duck and singing 'Alelimo'in between chuckles and uncontrollable laughter, I got two of my favorites...Ritter Sport Chocolate and Cherry gummies in an oversized shredded paper filled hair drier  box. whahahaha...The craziest ideas...but I LOOOOOVVVEEEEDDD it...!

Here, some peeks...

All the gifts on the table in the morning...hidden in black plastic bags. To keep the mysterious touch aaaaall through the morning...

UNVEILEDDDD!!! Just before lunch!!! The red gift is the one I made. haha the real gift wasn't in it. Claudia opened a total of 12 wraps only to find that I still had the gift with me.

The peach one was for me...MINEEE!!

My delicous gift..unwrapped:

p.s. My gifts didn't see the light of the next day pfff...did you really expect them to? And Claudia wore the earrings and the simple bracelet yesterday and actually is wearing the double wrap bracelet as a necklace today lol

Sigh..

Well lovebugs, this has been it for today! I really hope you like it!

X's n' O's

Dazzled,

Sy


Been creative with your hair, make-up, nails or just crafty? want to do a feature post on Hello Dazzling? Contact me on hellodazzlingblog@gmail.com

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Hair: The AvoCocos Home-Made Treatment

So yeah...it's been quite a while since I last posted...am sorry...really really am.

Been super busy lately! And whenever I promised myself to write a blogpost at night when I got home, I usually reach home  SO tired that I can't even move my pinky finger.
But I've tried something here...and I thought it would be interesting to share with you guys.

I've been natural for 4 years now, and I'm still smitten! Aha, with my hair that is. One thing I love is, trying out new hair products to see how my hair responds. So I might still take a detour from my normal hair routines to try something totally new (to me).
My hair is naturally very dry, and I constantly find myself applying loads of oil moisturizing creams. Which tends to leave my hair completely grimy and nasty to the touch
Last weekend I decided upon a homemade treatment to try and aid in this whole moisture process.

I call it the AvoCocos Home-Made Treatment...and yes...it's plain avocado and coconut oil.
I chose an overripe avocado since it's easier when preparing the paste.

Hair benefits of both ingredients are countless. Here, just a few:

Avocado:

• helps moisturizing the hair
• Packed with healthy oils
• Vitamin E powerhouse
• Repairs damaged hair
• Strengthens brittle hair
• Aids in Hair Growth
• Helps treating dandruff

Coconut Oil:

• Known as one of the best hair nutritions out there since it penetrates right in the hair itself and not just supperficially shines
• Aids in a healthy hair growth
• Gives a shiny complexion
• Reduces protein loss
• Is an EXCELLENT conditioner
• Helps re-growth of damaged hair and nourishes them
• Treats dandruff, lice and lice eggs
• Gives protection against hygral fatique

Of course there are more benefits...but these are just a few.

So here's what I did. First I washed my hair to get rid of all the built-up products. (and YES i washed it with shampoo. Beautiful textures for the matter). Next I towel dried my hair and grinded the fruit of one avocado with the coconut oil until it has the concistency of a fine greeny paste. (Note: it depends on the length and amount of your hair how much of the paste yoú'll have to make and how much avocado and coconut oil you'll have to use)

I then parted my hear in four sections and applied this paste generously to each section meaking sure each strand of hair is totally covered.
Since I did the whole treatment by night, I tuck it all in a shower cap and wrapped my head in a shawl while letting the treatment work overnite.

In the morning I rinsed the treatment out and co-washed my hair. All I needed to do thereafter is apply a leave-in and I was ready to rock.
Did the treatment on Friday night and up until today it hasn't been necessary to apply one drop of oil moisturizer. I only re-apply the leave-in in the morning and leave the house.
My hair has been quite shiny to my opinion. All without the grimmy feels when I touch it.
I only need now one ingredient to help soften the hair a bit more, since the coconut oil "dries"my hair just a little bit and makes it feel rough to the touch.
Thought about using coconut milk or coconut cream next time instead of the oil...I'm only afraid I'd loose all the nutrients in a can.
But all by all...I love the AvoCocos and would definitely try it again..

Here's the paste...

A lump of damp hair before the application of the treatment

After the application (the next day and two days after)

So, what's your go-to home-made treatment? I'd love to try out more things and just see which one's a love at first application for my hair.

See you around lovebugs,


X's n'O's

Dazzled

Sy

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