Make Up Tips: Eye Shadow

Many special events are coming and everybody love to look wonderful in these Holidays´ parties.

I´ve been researching and I found some nice tips that may come handy when you want to look gorgeous.

Eyes are very important, you can make them look elegant, sophisticated or mysterious.

Found in Free-Make up tips:

How to Apply Eyeshadow
1. The first rule when applying eye shadow is to blend it well so there are no harsh edges. Put the very light shade (high lighter) on the space beneath the brows up to the crease of the eye lid.

2. Apply the medium shade on the upper eyelid only. Use a lighter shade under the browbone to highlight the eyes.
3. And the darkest shade on the crease of the eyelid that is the place almost in the middle of the total eye area-above the lashes and beneath the brows. Blend both the colors well.
4. With the tip of a fine brush, apply a little shadow beneath the eyes, along the lower lash line. Smudge it lightly to give your eyes a subtle, glamorous look.

Found in Make up tip:

Creating the sophisticated look

1. Apply a light eyeshadow over your entire eyelid from lash line to eyebrow bone, but not beyond.

2. Define the crease of your eyelid using a medium or dark shade. The deeper the shade, the more dramatic look.

3. To open up your eyes so that they appear livelier, place a dot of a light shade in the inner corner of each eye.

You can find a lot of more tips and make up ideas HERE and HERE.

Quick reminder: I´m having a special offer until Cyber Monday, read more here: http://lilbitof.blogspot.com/2008/11/special-offer-on-my-shop-only-this.html

Thanks for reading!

Festive Silver - Decor for the Holidays

RELIGION - Whether you're into Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, the Winter Solstice, Yuletide or New Years the "in colour" this year isn't really a colour. Its silver.

Move over red and green – neutrals, metallics and peacock shades are the hot holiday hues of 2008.

This year’s decor is taking a cue from the runways. PARA Paints chose a royal-inspired festive palette of plumy purple, flat silver, icy white and cream and, the season’s rising star, cobalt blue.

For traditionalists, deep blue paired with silver and white is stepping up as a wintry alternative for the now oh-so-passé combo of red and green.

Metallics, including classics like silver, gold and bronze, are also popular again this season. Metallics in a not-too-shiny, midtone finish are particularly hot this year and mixing metallics isn't as hard as it sounds.

For the more adventurous host or hostess you may want to embrace the monochromatic trend. A combination of white, cream and silver can evoke a warm but wintry feel, while copper, beige and brown creates a natural-yet-chic atmosphere.

You don’t have to spend a gazillion dollars

When money is tight, holiday decorating doesn’t have to mean placing a single white candle on the table. Getting the house ready for the holidays on a budget simply means being a little resourceful, decorating experts say.

Carefully revamping or creatively using what you already own can create lush looks in lean economic times. Objects found in the home can be used to create a sense of richness and warmth in a family room. The idea is to convey a sense of abundance.

ie. Find a clear glass bowl and fill it with ornaments of a single bright colour for an eye-catching display.

Set a budget and follow it closely, reuse your stash of decorations, bring in the great outdoors, and remember that it’s supposed to be fun. Paint or glitter can refresh the decorations pulled out of closets and basements and spray paint can be your best friend.

Try buying a large roll of wide ribbon and making bows that can be placed on trees, garlands on staircases and gifts. Making your own bows is cheaper than buying new ones.

You can make wreaths look new by attaching new fake berries, sprigs or pine cones.

Try using nature to update your decor, for example, by gathering twigs, pine cones, branches and pine boughs and arranging the items in a vase, as though they are part of a flower arrangement. Spray painting the cones festive silver can also work wonders.

Special Offer On My Shop Only This Weekend!

From Black Friday (11/28) to Cyber Monday (12/1), I´ll be having a special promo on my shop:

FREE SHIPPING EVERYWHERE!!!

And with your purchase you will also get:

> 1 FREE surprise pair of earrings

> 1 FREE surprise keychain made with crystal beads

This offer will last all weekend and it will be over on Monday.

I invite you to visit my shop: http://www.leelabijou.etsy.com/

Thanks for your visit and have a nice weekend!

Teenagers cutting back on Fashion

FASHION - American teenagers are being forced to cutback on fashion this holiday shopping season. Why? Because their parents are cutting back on spending, and this means allowances are being cut, parents are reining in on their children's credit cards and teens are being told to GET A JOB whenever they ask their parents for more money.

All of this is the result of the current recession and credit crisis in the United States.

THE GOOD NEWS: The holiday sales this season are EXTREME. All the companies are DESPERATE for cash, afraid of going bankrupt and are offering 70% sales or better. This means for those of us who do have spending money we can stretch our budget a bit farther and buy more clothes (or more quality) than we normally do.

Did you know...?

Some days ago, I stopped by an interesting website which contained a lot of funny and curious facts.

Here, I show you some I specially liked.

"Pork is the world's most widely-eaten meat.

The world's smallest dog is the Chihuahua, which means "tiny dog in the sky."

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 50cm (20 in) tongue.

A crocodile's tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth and cannot move it.

Millions of trees are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them.

Ian Fleming's James Bond debuted in the novel "Casino Royale" in 1952.

The Statue of Liberty is the largest hammered copper statue in the world.

The largest statue in the world is Mount Rushmore, the heads of four US Presidents carved into the Black Hills near Keystone. The heads are 18 m (60 ft) tall.

When Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, 6 replicas were sold as the original, each at a huge price, in the 3 years before the original was recovered.

Hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the muscle that controls our breathing, becomes irritated and start to spasm and contract uncontrollably. With each contraction, air is pulled into the lungs very quickly, passes through the voice box, and then the epiglottis closes behind the rush of air, shaking the vocal chords, causing the "hic" sound. The irritation can be caused by rapid eating, emotional stress and even some diseases. The best cure? Breathing into a paper bag. This calms the diaphragm by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.

On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 15 minutes 2 seconds, by Tom Sietas

If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.

A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.

Men lose about 40 hairs a day. Women lose about 70 hairs a day.

If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

A green diamond is the rarest diamond.

On every continent there is a city called Rome.

Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbour Henri Nestlé.


To make one kilo of honey bees have to visit 4 million flowers, traveling a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.

Botanically speaking, the banana is a herb and the tomato is a fruit.

Bananas consistently are the number one compliant of grocery shoppers. Most people complain when bananas are overripe or even freckled. The fact is that spotted bananas are sweeter, with a sugar content of more than 20%, compared with 3% in a green banana.

Over the last 40 years food production actually increased faster than population.

US citizens watch the most TV. By age 65, an American would have watched the equivalent of 9 years uninterrupted screening, viewing more than 20,000 TV commercials per year.

In Terminator 2 - Judgement Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger received a salary of $15 million; the 700 words he spoke translates to $21,429 per word. "Hasta la vista, baby" thus cost $85,716.

In the West the most popular male names are James and John. The most popular female name is Mary.

Nessie, the Loch Ness monster is protected by the 1912 Protection of Animals Acts of Scotland. With good reason - Nessie is worth $40 million annually to Scottish tourism.

US and European expenditure on pet food is $17 billion per year."

If you liked these ones or you would love to read more, find them HERE.

Thanks for reading!

Featured on DZFANTASY´s blog!

Yesterday, I was featured on the blog of a great artist: DZFANTASY. She has a very nice blog, don´t forget to visit her!.

She makes lovely fiber fantasy sculptures, you can see her work HERE.

You can read the interview here: http://dzfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/11/featured-etsy-shop-leelabijou-jewlery.html

Thank you so much, DZFANTASY!

Australian Fashion Week dumps 14-year-old model

FASHION - Last April 14-year-old Polish girl was dumped from Australian Fashion Week (AFW) after organizers bowed to public pressure to adopt a minimum age of 16 for its fashion models.

The controversial decision to feature 14-year-old Monika Jagaciak in the major Sydney fashion event was reversed "in light of industry and community concern regarding the acceptable age for models".

"Effective immediately, both male and female models participating in Rosemount Australian Fashion Week will need to be at least 16 years of age and must be represented by a model agency," AFW said in a statement.

Monika, who was to have been flown to Sydney for the event which begins on April 28, has previously fronted a campaign for French fashion house Hermes and has been photographed in a white swimsuit being sprayed by a shower jet.

Vogue magazine added to the pressure for an age limit of 16 to be adopted, saying it would not feature Monika in its AFW coverage.

BUT WHAT ARE THE AGE STANDARDS IN OTHER FASHION SHOWS???

Trendy Pink

My "Coure" Ring

Pink. You love it or you hate it. In my case, I love it!

In my opinion, it´s a very chic color. You can find many funny items in pink, but also you can find the most elegant products in this color too.

Today, I was going to post lovely pink items I found in Etsy. But I was lucky and I could make a Treasury with them, so now I´m going to show you that finds through the Treasury.

I hope you like it.

You can visit my treasury here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=22578

Obamachic and Obamamania

FASHION/POLITICS - Like Barack and Michelle Obama's fashion sense? You're not alone.

Barack Obama is not just the next president of the United States. He's also the new face of fashion.

Thanks in part to sightings of A-listers like Ryan Phillippe, Brad Pitt, Beyoncé and Kanye West wearing Obama T-shirts, as well as the constant and prominent display of the politician's handsome face on the big screen at the recent MTV Europe awards, his image has reached the status of an international pop culture icon.

So it shouldn't be surprising that Toronto designer Kingi Carpenter, of the quirky label Peach Berserk, is making stuff emblazoned with Obama's face. Carpenter makes silkscreened hoodies, dresses, T-shirts, skirts and scarves... all with Obama on them. One woman even bought Obama pillows for her house.

The designer, a self-admitted political junkie, follows American politics obsessively and is an Obama fan. But her inspiration for the Obama items arose out of Canadian history. She once saw a dress from the Trudeaumania era emblazoned with the image of the famously attractive prime minister and was fascinated with what it meant.


MICHELLE OBAMA

Every time Michelle Obama wears one of her unusual dress selections on television, the item flies off the shelves.

The famous $148 sundress she wore on The View and the J.Crew yellow suit she wore on Letterman were huge hits with shoppers, while the red dress she wore on her first visit to the White House sold out within a week.

For women it will be Michelle who will be setting fashion and cultural trends when the couple reaches the White House.

Michelle Obama also nixed getting a designer pooch like a stupid chihuahua, saying her kids would adopt a rescue dog, and will continue this thrifty, socially conscious pattern throughout the term.

Obama's American-made family car, a Ford Escape hybrid, is a perfect example of this, as it is both patriotic and environmentally responsible. It sets an example Americans can live by.

This doesn't always work: Jimmy Carter tried to get Americans to wear sweaters during the energy crisis of the '70s and, even though he happily sported a cardigan, the style was only adopted by a few. On the other hand, he says, Ronald Reagan's love affair with the colour brown was widely adopted in men's clothing.

When fashions were adopted, such as Jackie Kennedy's clothes and J.F.K's refusal to wear a hat, the fashion fads were widespread throughout the U.S., regardless of political affiliation.

Michelle Obama's wardrobe differs greatly from the "very European and Anglo Saxon" outfits worn by Cindy McCain and Laura Bush, but instead features a more globalized chic.

Barack Obama's preference for white shirts and dark suits sends a message that he's honest and straightforward. We can expect white dress shirts to get a popular surge. Everything about the new First Family will be scrutinized and copied by an adoring public. Together their White House style will fit in with the new era of austerity, but will still have sparkle and energy.

Its definitely an improvement over George W. Bush and his shoulder pads.

Fashion Riot for Comme des Garçons

FASHION - Imagine if you will going to an H&M store at Toronto's Eaton Centre and standing in line for 12 hours waiting for the store to open... and then when the store does open a riot breaks out and people start fighting over the clothes.

That is what on November 13th 2008.

210 people + Limited edition designs by avant garde Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo for fashion label Comme des Garçons = RIOT.

Kawakubo, the founder of Comme des Garçons, is often credited with being one of the first to introduce a predominant use of black, asymmetrical hems and frays seams when she first launched the label in Paris in the early 1980s.

Rei Kawakubo is untrained as a fashion designer, but studied fine arts and literature at Tokyo's prestigious Keio University. After graduation, Kawakubo worked in a textile company and began working as a freelance stylist in 1967.

In 1973, Rei Kawakubo established her own company, Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd in Tokyo and opened up her first boutique in Tokyo in 1975. Starting out with women's clothes, Kawakubo added a men's line in 1978. Three years later, she started presenting her fashion lines in Paris each season, opening up a boutique in Paris in 1982.

Comme des Garçons specialises in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes deconstructed garments. During the 1980s, Rei Kawakubo's garments were primarily in black, dark grey or white. The materials were often draped around the body and featured frayed, unfinished edges along with holes and a general asymmetrical shape. Challenging the established notions of beauty she created an uproar at her debut Paris fashion show where journalists labeled her clothes 'Hiroshima chic' amongst other things. Since the late 1980s her colour palette has grown somewhat.

Rei Kawakubo likes to have input in all the various aspects of her business. Rather than just focussing on clothes and accessories. She is greatly involved in graphic design, advertising and shop interiors believing that all these things are a part of one vision and are inextricably linked. Her Aoyama, Tokyo store is known for its sloping glass facade decorated with little blue dots. This was designed in collaboration between Rei and a Japanese architect. Rei published her own bi-annual magazine, 'Six' (standing for 'sixth sense'), in the early 1990s. It featured very little text and consisted mainly for photographs and images that she deemed inspiring. In 1996 Rei was guest editor of the high art publication Visionaire.

Rei Kawakubo is known to be quite reclusive and media shy, preferring her innovative creations to speak for themselves.

Rice With Milk - A Delicious Dessert

Rice with milk (AKA Arroz con Leche) is a very easy to make dessert and it tastes great.

Every country has its own version of the recipe and I´m going to share with you the one I had for years.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of rice

2 cups of milk

2 cups of water

2 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

In a heavy-bottomed saucepot put rice, and water. Bring to a boil.
When the water is boiling, reduce heat to a low simmer; (an occasional bubble around the edges) add milk and cinnamon sticks. Stir often during cooking. Do not allow bottom of pan to scorch.

Add vanilla after 15 minutes. When rice becomes tender at the end of the cooking time, stir in the sugar. Don't allow the sugar to stick to the bottom of the pan (Keep stirring until sugar dissolves).

Perfect for Winter!

I hope you like it.

Boots, Boots, Boots!

I love boots, specially high heel boots. I think they stilize our legs and make us look glamorous.

Warm and comfy boots are my favorites, although they are not easy to find. When buying shoes, everybody should be picky: bad ones can really hurt your feet and make you feel a lot of pain.

I found a good article about advices on buying walking boots, you can read it HERE.

I hope you like the photos of these gorgeous boots I post today!

My treasury made Front Page on Etsy!

Some days ago, I blogged about a Treasury I made. I haven´t made many treasuries, that´s why I´m really surprised it made Front Page!

The great artists featured on the Treasury were these, don´t forget to check their lovely shops ;) :

missindie

Jlife

Foolmoon

susanholland

aBreathofFrenchair

abushelandapeck

seabreezestudio

moxy

soapychica

ellembee

DesignsbyDanna

toybreaker

Curator: LeelaBijou

Thanks!

What Animal Are You?

I found this funny test that tells you what animal are you. It´s very quick to do.

If you are curious about what animal you could be, here´s the link: http://www.gotoquiz.com/animology_what_animal_are_you

I got "Blue Fox" as result, which is an Arctic Fox.

Christmas Lights on the Streets

Every year, the streets of my city look beautiful with the Christmas decorations. Especially, with the bright lights they use.

I want to share with you some photos of my city at Holidays.

Here, you can also see some wonderful pictures of Madrid.

Thanks for looking!

My New Treasury on Etsy

I made this treasury featuring great artists of Etsy. I love their items, they do a great job.

If you want to visit my treasury: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=21015

On the other hand, I´m included on this lovely treasury (thanks for the honor!).

If you want to take a look at this one: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=20866

Thanks!

How to Convert a T-shirt into a Dress

FASHION - Ever wanted to turn an old t-shirt into a dress? Well, with a little help from a Fashion MacGyver (GiannyL.com) you can, and its not that hard.




OR A BIKINI



OR A BABY-DOLL SHIRT



OR A MINI-SKIRT

A delightful pleasure for your mouth: Tiramisú

This wonderful Italian dessert is one of the most sweet and delightful cakes I´ve ever tried.

It´s the perfect ending for a nice dinner. It is a great combination of sponge cake combined with sweet whipped cream, mascarpone cheese, coffee and coffee liqueur.

Here I show you a recipe I found some time ago:

INGREDIENTS

6 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups mascarpone cheese
1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 (12 ounce) packages ladyfingers
1/3 cup coffee flavored liqueur
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting
1 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Combine egg yolks and sugar in the top of a double boiler, over boiling water. Reduce heat to low, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whip yolks until thick and lemon colored.
Add mascarpone to whipped yolks. Beat until combined. In a separate bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold into yolk mixture and set aside.
Split the lady fingers in half, and line the bottom and sides of a large glass bowl. Brush with coffee liqueur. Spoon half of the cream filling over the lady fingers. Repeat ladyfingers, coffee liqueur and filling layers. Garnish with cocoa and chocolate curls. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

New Bracelets

Weeks ago, I received a custom order from a shop here in my country.

They wanted me to design bracelets with charms. I ended up making almost twenty different models!

These are some of those bracelets. They are made with Italian crystals and metal beads.