Wednesday Art Feature: Jill Colbert

I first came across Jill Colbert's art on her Deviantart page. I was instantly mesmerised by her imaginative, colourful, almost hypnotic work. Not only are her finished pieces amazing, but she always shares the most amazing sketchbook work too.

Jill also has an etsy shop, where you can buy her work for very decent prices! Even the originals are really afforable.

What I wore #1 - Mustard Madness

I've never done one of these posts before! Mainly because most days I'm a bit of a slob and can't be bothered to put an effort into my make up and hair. My new resolution is to try and do an outfit post at least once a week from now on.

I like this outfit because I love how well mustard goes with my lilac hair. I think I'm going to have to get some lilac tights to go with this dress. I also got some lovely new fake gauge earrings and couldn't wait to show them off!

Dress & Belt: ModCloth

Leggings & Cardi: H&M

Scarf: ChopStitch

Earrings: DewiDesign

Shoes: PonyChops (duh!)

If you want to find out how to do my mushroom nails, check out this post.

Mushroom Nail Art Tutorial

It's been a while since I've done a nail art tutorial, it's probably been almost as long since I've painted my nails! I'm aiming to post more of these over the next few weeks. I thought I'd get back into the swing of things by doing one of my favourite easy nail designs: Mushrooms.

You will need:
Green, red & white or cream nail varnishes
A hair grip with a small rounded end (like in photo 3)
A small black nail art pen or a black fine marker pen

1. Paint the bottom half of your nails green (This dosn't have to be very neat as the top half will be covered). Apply as many coats as you need.

2. Once the first step has dried, paint a cream or white fattish line down the centre of each nail.

3. Neatly paint the top half of your nail red, apply as many coats as needed and leave to dry.

4. Once the red has dried, dip your hair grip into the cream or white nail narnish and apply polka dots onto the red parts of the nail.

5. Paint little smiley faces onto the bottom of your white stripe of nails and your friendly mushrooms are finished! Add a clear top coat if desired.

Don't be afraid to play around with colours! Pink mushrooms with a baby blue background look pretty groovy too.

Skully Bow Heels

A creepy Skully Heels custom order just in time for Halloween. The customer wanted skulls with bows in a green and purple colour scheme. I love those colours together! They really stand out.

Strawberry Milkshake Bubble Tea

I've been playing around with Bubble tea recipes yet again! I can't seem to stop drinking the stuff. This milky strawberry bubble tea is perfect for satisfying those sweet craving.! It didn't turn out as pink as I'd hoped (I guess I'm just used to artificially dyed milkshakes!). But it tastes delicious.

Ingredients (serves 2 people):
1/2 cup quick cook tapioca pearls

400ml Rice milk (you can use almond, soy, normal milk too)
100ml coconut cream
100ml coconut milk (for a lighter recipe omit the cream and use 200ml coconut milk)
2 bags of black tea
5 tbsp agave nectar (you can use honey instead)
1 cup frozen strawberries

Method:

1. Boil 5 cups of water in a saucepan. Once boiled add the tapioca pearls & stir gently. When the tapioca pearls fatten up cover the saucepan and leave to simmer for 5 mins. For none quick cook tapioca pearls follow instructions on packet.

2. Once the tapioca pearls are cooked, drain them & mix with 2 tablespoons agave and 2 tablespoons hot water. Leave to cool

3. Heat the rice milk, coconut milk & cream in a saucepan until simmering.

4. Add the black tea bags, 3 tbsps agave & strawberries and let simmer for another 5 mins.

5. Once the milky mixture has been simmered for 5 mins, take out the tea bags and leave to simmer for another 10 mins.

6. After 10 mins leave the strawberry milk mixture to cool. Once cooled drain out the strawberries.

7. Divide the cooled tapioca pearls into two glasses. Add a few ice cubes and pour the strawberry milk mixture on top. Serve with a large bubble tea straw.

Click here for more of my bubble tea recipes.

Baby Blue Mushroomy Cuties

Remember the Work In Progress post I did on Wednesday? Well here are the finished brogues. They were a custom order, the customer sent me her lovely office baby blue brogues for me to paint.

There's something about painting mushroom shoes that makes me so happy. I think this is the 4th or 5th mushroomy pair I've done so far. I just love how different each pair has turned out.

The Busy Bee Giveaway

Autumn Bee from The Busy Bee is holding a giveaway to celebrate her birthday (Happy Birthday Autumn!!!).
She has some pretty awesome things up for grabs, and I've decided to include a customised digital portrait done by me.

Click here to check out the giveaway

And don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a brooch by Young Explorer Stuff. Click here to get entering. There's only one day left!!