OOTD: These are a few of my favourite things...

 Top: Lands' End Canvas

Shorts: J.Crew Factory

Shoes: Sperry's

Purse: Kate Spade

Bracelet: Lilly Pulitzer

Necklace: Francesca's (similar)

New favourite top + favourite shorts + favourite necklace + favourite shoes = easiest outfit ever!
This outfit is just comfy, quick, cool and perfect! 

OOTD: garden menagerie

Top: Crewcuts

Skirt: Lilly Pulitzer 

Sandals: Birkenstock 

Belt: Lilly Pulitzer 

Purse: Kate Spade

Bow: Home made 

Am I the only one that for some strange reason loves the way my hair looks in this picture?

Ciate's Power dressing with Sally Hansen's Bejeweled layered over the top

Oh dear, I wear this top far to often. The truth is that other than my school uniform and athletic wear, this is pretty much the only top that I wear. I went all out with the bows for this outfit with the bow on my top, my belt and in my hair. This is quite possibly my favorite skirt, as I love the print, the fit and I always get compliments when I wear it. I wish I could have everything in this print...

Beach/sun essentials

During my vacation I found a handful of things to be quite essential for a hot, tropical climate or as you temperate dwellers like to call it, summer time.

My 5 indispensables are:

1. A hat is necessary if you spend as much time in the sun as I do. Unfortunately I learned this the hard way at Easter time. Not wearing a hat will result in a face of three different colours, a blackened forehead, pale eyes from a lovely sunglasses tan and a nice tan/sunburn on the remainder of your face. My personal favourite? A whale hat. Just be warned that your friends ARE going to try and steal your enviable hat. I wish the neon ones were available when I bought mine because if it's not neon it shouldn't be on!
2. Board shorts are essential for me because sailing in wet pants is pretty uncomfortable. I like running short style ones if I'm wearing them all day. The Hurley Beach riders are my favourite because they're soft, comfy and satisfy my inner hippy as they are made of recycled polyester. They are a bit on the pricey side, but you can score them for $15 or less at Hurley outlets and discount stores like Marshal's.
3. Any athlete needs a tech shirt or two, or ten. I mean,a tshirt works fine but when that heat hits you, you want something to wick away sweat. Then, when a peer pours water (or dumps a cooler full of ice water) down your back you want to dry out quickly. I have only tried the Under Armor and the Patagonia tech shirts but I find them to be quite essential.
4. It's a rarity if you catch me with something neutral or ordinary on my nails. I love bright colours and this mint polish is simply perfection. It's colourful but not bright and can match with a lot of things. Essie's First timer is a necessity for anyone!
5. My final indispensable is sunblock. Sunblock  not designed for your face can run in your eyes and block pores causing breakouts. I like the Cetaphil moisturizer with 50 SPF since I spend all day in the sun. It moisturizes and protects without leaving me oily like the Neutrogena sport (which I still like because it does somewhat prevent tan.) I can't tell you if it stops tan because I've reached the point where no sunblock prevents tan for me, only reduces it.

I hope you enjoyed my sunny time essentials!

OOTD: Anchors and Yellow

Top: Crewcuts

Skirt: Lands' End

Sandals: Lands' End

Purse: Kate Spade 

I am so fed up of wearing shorts, so anytime I'm going anywhere these days, I'm in a skirt or dress. Today I opted for this light yellow knit skirt and a tank top because it was super hot and humid. Since it was so  hot, I parted my hair to the side and swept it up into a messy side bun right behind my hair. I finished it off with  a yellow gingham Tsunami Kanzashi (flower clip). This is a go-to hair styles because it is quick but still looks cute and pollished. This tank top is one of my favourites, and I honestly believe that everyone should have it in their closets. Of course, got to have the usual navy flower sandals to complete any weekend look, because it was just too hot to wear Sperry's.

Easy daisy nail art

I came up with this über cute nail design that is reminiscent of daisies. It looks cool and is super easy to do. I can barley paint my nails on my right hand and i was still able to do the design on it without it coming out too bad. 

You will need:

a base coat

a top coat

a white/silver/light grey polish

two polishes of contrasting colours 

Turquoise: Ciate Headliner 
Silver: Revlon Aloof
Purple: Sally Hansen Be-jeweled 

white: Covergirl Outlast Snow Storm
Purple: Ciate cabaret
Pink: OPI meep meep meep

1. Start with a base coat to prevent staining and strengthen your nails.
2. Paint one to two coats of your first colour. I personally like to use a a darker or more subtle cream colour as my base colour.
3. Next you take your neutral colour and make three straight lines in one corner of your nail, a vertical, diagonal and horizontal one. Black can also be used but the lighter colour makes it look fresher in my opinion. 
4. Take your other colour, a bright one or a glitter works best, and repeat step three, this time starting slightly higher up so that you leave about 3 millimeters of the last colour exposed. If you are using a glitter, you may have to use a stippling motion or do two coats to make it opaque. 
5. Penultimately, take your neutral colour and make a dot where the three lines meet to form the centre of your flower.
6. The final step is to apply a top coat to seal in your hard work!

Don't forget to let the polish dry between each step.

Another cool combination I think would be a black base with a white and silver flower for a monochromatic look.

The sea and such

My new camera goes where I go. Lately the only place I've been going is the Sailing Association so here are just some pictures I took on Friday Funday at camp and our "down de islands" lime on Saturday. 

OOTD: Whale hat!

Sorry I haven't been posting, I've been busy with sailing and such. I'll be at camp 5 days a week until school starts back on September 2nd. Here is my OOTD from today with a bonus outfit from my brother Christian.

 Tech shirt: Patagonia

Board shorts: Hurley

Hat: Vineyard Vines (new best friend!) 

*BONUS*

Tshirt: Nautica

Shorts: J.Crew

Love this photo of us!

Hey, did you notice a difference in picture quality? These photos were taken with a Nikon 1 J2, my new baby and gift to myself

P.S. Follow me on Instagram to see more of my crazy antics @mimmyums

OOTD: Highlighter pink!

Tank top: Target
Shorts: J.Crew

Sandals: Birkenstock (similar colour)

Cardigan: Talbots (similar)
Bag: Roxy (they have great, cheap totes)

Flower clip was DIY-ed

Watch: Timex Ironman
Bracelet: DIY-ed (want a tutorial?)

Necklace: Forever 21 

Today I went back to my primary school just to help out for the day. I was being a rebel since I actually still have school (it ends on Thursday), but I exams are done and we really don't do anything. Plus I like it a lot more there. I was glad to see that my legacy of the socks has lived on and surprisingly a lot of the kids remembered me. Needless to say, I only remembered a handful of them. I want to go back to primary school days...

OOTD: pants?!?!

What sorcery is this? I'm wearing actual pants without complaining in today's OOTD.

Top: Lilly Pulitzer (keep your eye open for it on Rue La La)

Polka dot chinos: Lands' End

Shoes: Sperry Top-Sider

Sally Hansen nail strips Check it out, Ciate Headliner layered under Sally Hansen HD spectrum 

Jewellry: All DIY-ed 

Purse: Kate Spade

Key chain: Lilly Pulitzer free gift

Surprise! I went to the cinema, with friends. Who would have seen that coming. I had on jeans (GASP!) and a stripe top. I was waiting on Mum, then gave in to the discomfort and ran upstairs to change into something more comfortable. I hate pants because they never fit me right, thighs too tight, waist too big and sometimes too short. These pants are the closest thing to fitting i have ever owned. I like the length, fit and best of all, they are super duper comfy. Of course the waist is still too big but it's smaller than most. I paired it with a go-to Lilly top that's super comfy and my grey Patagonia since I am always freezing.

OOTD: Orange and aqua

Hey girl hey! I have another OOTD and as you can see, Bella snuck into it. 

Dress: Roxy
Cardigan: Talbots (similar)

Sandals: Lands' End

Belt: Lands' End

Bracelets: DIY-ed and Forever 21

Purse: Kate Spade

This dress has sat in my cupboard for maybe the past few years and I only started wearing it this year. I must say, I absolutely love it! It cute, comfy and breezy! Roxy makes, in my opinion, the best casual dresses. I have 4 Roxy girls dresses and love them all. Much more affordable than Lilly Pulitzer as well. It just had to be paired with my staple navy sandals and my new everyday purse from Kate Spade, I love it. 

Latest obsession: necklaces

I go through "phases" in my style. I have obsessions with a certain kind of bracelet, wearing t-shirts or maybe buying only one print. This time it's these simple necklaces.

There's something about that uniform line of charms resting delicately around your neck that I just love the look of. For me, these necklaces just complete an outfit. Sometimes, it's the only piece of jewellery I'm wearing and I just feel complete.

I only have two, but I feel almost like they are the only two I need.

Dress: Roxy girls
Necklace: Forever 21 (similar, but I think I actually prefer this one!)

 This first one I got at Forever 21. It's a simple strand of daisies. The necklace itself is gold, the petals for the flowers are a pearly sort of bead and the centre is made with a little rhinestone. It's dainty, girly and looks great with plain tops, v-necks and spaghetti strap style tops as shown in the picture. This necklace is pretty dressy, and can transform a look from day to night. This was a steal at $6.80.

Top: Lilly Pulitzer
Necklace: Francesca's (similar at forever 21)

This one was purchased at Francesca's. I didn't love it as much when I bought it as I do now. Again, it's gold   with a row of pink triangles. The triangles alternate between a hot pink and a paler shade of pink. Meggyums is convinced that if I fall with this necklace on, the tip of the triangles might stab me, but they are far from sharp so that is very unlikely! I feel like this necklace goes with anything, and also gives a slightly edgy look to an outfit. I found this on sale for $10, which for me is slightly pricey for costume, but it feels like a much better quality than Forever 21 and I love it, so it was more than worth it.

P.S. Big up to Big Ben in the background of the second picture

Two great reads (book reviews)

I love reading! So I thought today I would talk about two books that I read this year. You may or may not have noticed that at the side of my page, I have a list of books I read this year. If you want to know about any of them, feel free to leave a comment asking!

Summer at Tiffany

-by Marjorie Hart

This book was a memoir written by the first female sales page at Tiffany. The book documents the Summer of two young university student as they work in Manhattan at the famous Tiffany's. It also intertwines with the end of the war and what it was like to experience it in New York.  The book was really good, well written and easy to read. It's language is simple and does not require too much concentration. It's not one of those books that ropes you in and you can't stop reading, but it's not one that you have to force yourself to finish. It was funny, interesting and overall very enjoyable. Might be a good book to read on the plane. 

Seraphina

-by Rachel Hartman

Set in medieval times, this book is definitely one of my favourite books. It deals with a teen leaving her home to work as a music assistant in the court. Her father urges her too stay out of the lime light, for good reasons too, but her exceptional talent gains interest. Seraphina lives in a world where humans and dragons have an  alliance, and neither species trusts the other. Dragons can take the form of humans. This protagonist is half-dragon, half-human in a world where interbreeding is taboo. She does not believe that any others like her exist until visions in her "mind garden" lead her to others like her. There is an evil plot within the castle and dragons are suspected. She works to try and stop it, uncovering many secrets along the way. This book was very gripping and well written. My only complaint is that it contains talk of all their saints, it was confusing and not vital to the plot. Beware, the book will seem strange when you begin to read it, but you will soon get into it. All in all, it was a fantastic book.

Hectic month

Ahhhh! I can't believe five months have already gone by this year. To top it off, I have barely blogged this whole month. I have an excuse.

Let me just give you a break down of my entire month...
At the beginning of the month, I left home to celebrate Meggyums' graduation up in Texas. I was there for two weeks, and when I came back midnight last Sunday, I was overwhelmed by school work. My entire last week of living has been filled with school work. I went to sailing on Friday, and ended up sitting in the restaurant copying History notes. I woke upon Saturday to copy more notes, then left to go rankings. There was a bad squall when we were launching, but we launched anyway. The squall sucked out all the wind so our racing was not very effective. I sat in the same place for about 20 minutes. Whatever wind that pushed me forward, was going against the strong current.
We went to a "beach house" down the islands right after rankings. That was fun. Dad shot a little baby eel with his spear gun while we were snorkeling that night. We came back on Sunday evening, after which I proceeded to copy the last bit of my history notes. I made no progress on my science notes this weekend.
This week I only have school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I think I am spending Thursday, Friday  and Saturday sailing/doing sailing related this since we have a regatta over the long weekend. I haven't been to gymnastics in almost a month! Tomorrow hopefully.

A little sneak peek at our trip. Photos to come soon!

OOTD: roses and turquoise

Sorry for my absence. I was extremely busy with school and such.
This ootd was just from when I went to lunch with my family.

Also, lets wish Happy Birthday to my cousin Vana! Love you!

Dress: Roxy (similar)
Cardigan: Talbots
Shoes: Birkenstocks
Please ignore my face

Earrings: Etsy

Headband: Forever 21

DIY bow clips + fun ways to wear them

Bows are clips such a cute accessory and so easy to make, so I thought I would show you how to make them two different ways.

Some fabric of your choice ( <1 yard)
Hot glue gun
Pinking sheers
Clip of your choice

 1- Decide how wide and tall you want your bow to be. Double the width and add an inch, and triple the height and add an inch.
2- With the wrong side up, fold the bottom up to the middle, and let the top overlap the edge of the bottom. Glue down this flap to make something like a tube.
3- decide how wide you want your center to be and triple it. I like mine about ¾ inch so my width will be
3 ¼ inches. Cut a rectangle 3 inches × 3 ¼

  inches.
4- Create a tube using this piece of fabric the same way you did in step 2.
4½ (Forgot to take a picture)- With your larger "tube", fold the left side into the middle of your tube and  fold the right into the center, overlapping the left side. Using a dot of glue in the middle, glue it down.
5- Glue the end of the smaller tube onto the seam you glued in step 4½. Fold as shown in picture 5, wrap the tube around tightly and glue over the other end of the tube. Trim off the remainder of the smaller tube.
6- Glue your clip onto the back and enjoy!

front and back of the completed bow

two different ribbons, one 1½ inches wide and one ¾ inches wide
glue gun
pinking sheers
clip of your choice

 Using ribbon is a lot easier as the ends do not have to be "finished"
The length of the wider ribbon needs to be three times the width you want your bow to be. The wider ribbon   is about three inches long.
1- With your wider ribbon, fold the left side into the middle of your ribbon and  fold the right into the center, overlapping the left side. Glue the ends together.
2- Glue the end of the thinner ribbon onto the seam you glued in step 1. Pinch the center where the seam is together, wrap the ribbon around tightly and glue over the other end of the ribbon. Trim off the remainder of the thinner tube.
3- Glue your clip onto the back and enjoy!

Here are a few cute ways to style them!

On the side if a high bun looks adorable

I love how bows look tucked under a bun. I saw this on
@monogrammedprep 's instagram. I love her instagram and
recommend that you go follow her. Follow me too
@mimmyums

bows also look cute when you clip them onto a strap on your purse!




I thought it might be cool to include the songs I listened to while making these bows! I just put my iPod on shuffle, so it's a little peek into what's on my iPod
Twilight Omens- Franz Ferdinand
Send him away- Franz Ferdinand
Carried away- Passion Pit
Little talks- Of Monsters and Men
Red Paint- Matt and Kim
Rolling in the Deep- Adele
Golden Skans- Klaxons
Milk and Money- The Fratellis

sailing camp- where memories are made

Hello! The week past and next week I am on Easter vacation. I've been assistant instructor-ing at the Easter sailing camp and it's been pretty funny for others, not so much for me. Just a break down of my week.

Tuesday: This was the first day of camp (Monday was a public holiday). After lunch, one of the 420s capsized too close to shore and the mast got stuck in the mud. Add to that the fact that this is an old 420 with leaks in the hull that takes around 10 minutes to right. The two adult instructors went out to right it, leaving me (14) and Noah (13) with around 15 miserable under-12 boys to teach. One boy tried playing cricket with an almond and a piece of wood, hit another one in his face with both the almond and the wood. He had to get NINE stitches.  Oh, I had gymnastics right after!

Wednesday: During the camp itself was ok, it was after that was bad. Some of the other monitors and I decided to go in the pool after camp. I left my towel on a bench by the pool and when I came out, it was gone! I walked around the club looking for it for about half an hour in a bikini. I was cold. By the way, I still haven't gotten my towel back.

Thursday: This was the normal-est day of the week. I almost ran over a mark with the power boat and the campers in the boat thought they were going to die. They didn't. I was supposed to go sailing afterwards, but Mum got sick so I couldn't stay back. :(

Friday: Last Easter camp I told a guy in 420 he wasn't evolved enough to learn to sail. He came back this year and threw me in the pool about three times. I was supposed to go to gymnastics afterwards but Mum got sick again so dad had to come pick me up. He would come too late for me to go so I went sailing in my opti. There was so much nice wind! (18-20 knots) I tacked and went to hike, but my foot wasn't under the hiking strap and I fell head-first into the water. Noah stopped his boat to laugh. When we came back in, some of the 420 campers and two of the instructors were still there, playing with fire. (Dumb!) One of the instructors tried it, got scared, fell back and broke a table in the restaurant. They got in trouble. It was pretty funny.

P.S. The Suave leave-in conditioner has been saving my hair and making it easier to brush when I come home too late to wash it. I put it in in the morning before I go sailing, or if I wash it the night before, I will just shampoo and put this in when it's dry. It really strengthens my hair and protects it from the chlorine and salt. I found it in the grocery. 

Easter outfits

Hello everyone and happy Easter and holi to you. I hope you have a fantastic and blessed day. I just thought I would share my two Easter outfits with you today, and look forward to some extra blogs this week!

I went to church this morning and I am about to leave to go for Easter lunch at my aunt. I may post photos tomorrow!

Church Outfit
Tank top: J.Crew
Skirt: Lilly Pulitzer
Cardigan: Lands' End
Shoes: Anne Klein
Earrings: H. Stern
Headband: Home made

Lunch Outfit
Tank top: J.Crew
Shorts: J.Crew
Sash: Kidnapped from a Lilly Pulitzer skirt
Shoes: Birkenstock (mine are an aqua colour)