An Indoor Picnic

     Oh Monday- you again?!  Back to the 9-5 grind for me, but at least its supposed to in the 70s all week.  That means when I ride my bike to work, its only about forty-five degrees instead of 30, hooray! Today I even wore sandals instead of boots, and my toes didn't even fall off!

    Anyway, I just wanted to share some pictures of a little indoor surprise picnic I made last week for R and I.  The weather wasn't so great and I wanted to do something a little fun and special.  Also, I only have a desk in my room and then the bed, so if I cook for more than just myself but want to eat in my room, there is nowhere to sit!   So here you have it:

     I laid a throw down on the ground and added all of the pillows from my bed lining the wall for comfy seating.  Then for a little decor I added a few candles and of course, a vase of faux flowers.  I would have preferred using real ones, but I am pretty sure R did not care either way.  Now that everything is starting to bloom perhaps I can "borrow" a few flowers from the creek path to spruce up my room a little bit. 
     For dinner, I whipped up some linguine, which is actually one of my least favorite pastas unless it is being used as a bed for some other food type (which it was). Then I heated up an easy loaf of garlic cheesy bread and baked some breaded flounder fillets in the oven.  While it was cooking, I made a Franchaise type sauce with butter, lemon juice, white wine, garlic, cream, and parsley.  Easy-peasy! The very lazy version of a meal, but hey, for me this is impressive.  We had the leftover wine with our little picnic and watched netflix- perfecto!
     I cannot wait for real outdoor picnic season which is just about here, but this was a fun and easy way to make dinner and a movie a little more fun, especially if its a surprise! Let me know if you are going to try it out, and make sure to take pictures- I would love to see them! 
xo Hannah

Small Business Sunday!

Hello!

     I have been such a terrible blogger, it's been over a week since I last posted.  I have a really fun outfit shoot that I have been wanting to share for almost two weeks now, but I wanted to get the dress up in the shop before I shared it, so you guys would have a chance to grab it up!   I am sitting at my desk ready to work all day on my shop for the first time in months, and it feels great! Probably because I am doing it with a fresh cup of coffee and this cute little cupcake by my side...

      So, I know I have been seeing posts around blogs for Small Business Sunday and I think its such a cool idea that bloggers with small businesses help each other out and support each other!  So, I am not actually featuring a small business today but I did want to share a groupon that I just bought that I think would be useful to basically any small business or blogger!  First I should say this is in no way sponsored post or anything, just something I personally just bought and am super excited about and thought it would be nice to share.   

      I am not sure if any of you have ever heard of Vista Print before, but its an online custom print service shop that I have used before for business cards.  The groupon today is you get $70 dollars worth of their print services for only $17.  I am not sure how this can possibly be true, its such an amazing deal!  Also, everything on their site is additionally 30% off for people who bought their groupon.  For example, for business cards, which are first on my list to get because mine are really outdated, you get 250 for $13.99 instead of the usual $19.99.  For every package I send out for my vintage Etsy shop, I usually hand make all of the packaging goodies such as clothing tags, personal thank you cards, and writing all of my new information on old business cards.  I CANNOT wait to design pretty new things to include in my packages and save a ton of time by having it all pre-made and ready to go when an order comes through!        

     Alright, I apologize for the lustful rave, I just thought this was a deal that could benefit a lot of people in this community! I hope everyone is having an absolutely beautiful and productive (or just relaxing) Sunday! I will be doing an exciting shop update post very soon!

xo Hannah

p.s. Groupon has a refer a friend program where if someone you refer buys their first groupon, you get groupon bucks towards your next purchase.  Here is my referral link, but I honestly don't care if you use it or just do it on your own, this post was just to share a great and useful small business find! :)

The luck of the Irish {a lust list}

Happy St. Patrick's day to all of us Irish folk, and to whoever else who wants to join in and be "Irish for a day" as well.  I am only a quarter Irish, but hey that counts! Green happens to be my favorite color anyway, and I do like beer quite a lot, so there you have it! I thought I would share some St. Patty's day inspired things I am lusting after.  I thought about keeping it classy, but the flask just slipped its way in their unbeknownst to me somehow ;) !  

 

{Ruche}

 

{Modcloth} 

 

{Urban Outfitters}

 

{Lulu*s}

 

{Marc Jacobs, Zappos}

{anthropologie}

 

{Ruche} 

 {Urban Outfitters}

Hope everyone has a terrific day filled with sunshine, friends, an good "spirits"! 

xo Hannah

COLO[RED]

Well, this is what I wore to work yesterday- pretty exciting right? Right.  I got these red pants a few weeks ago because I wanted to participate in the brightly colored jeans trend.  It is seriously difficult to find stuff on top that is neutral enough to wear with them though. I think next time I am going to just go for it with a bright pink top or something.  Tis' the season for adding color! 

 

Outfit Details:

Red Pants: Ross

White Tank: Forever21

Blazer: Thrifted

Shoes: Thrifted

Necklace: Gift from mom

 

The most exciting thing about this post is this awesome alleyway I found a few blocks from my work.  Its private enough to take pictures in and has an AMAZING painted brick wall.  It makes me instantly more cheery! Some of the bricks you can see are even painted gold, and some are black with gold specks!  I am going to live in a brick house one day painted rainbow colors.  It will probably be filled with lots of kitties too.  Also, I will obviously be really REALLY popular.  Alright, well this is just a short post to say hi.  Hope all of you are having a great week!  Do any of you wear colored jeans? If so, link to your posts so I can see how you styled them!

xo hannah

DIY Tree Branch Jewelry Rack

    Just wanted to share a quick and easy DIY I did a few weekends ago to try and organize all of my jewelry!  I basically just picked an already trimmed thick branch from a pile of tree trimmings on the side of the road, added nails, and hung it!  I love that not only does it provide a space to hang all of my bigger necklaces, but also acts as a piece of fun wall art on a previously bare wall space!  I would recommend finding a piece of wood with a little character, mine had some slight imperfectins and it made me like it all the better!

Supplies Needed:

Found Branch (about 3ft long, 2 in diameter)

Nails (15)

Hammer

Hemp (or wire)

White Plastic Wall Hooks (2)

The steps are pretty simple!
1. Find a suitable branch.  Look for one that has already been cut ideally!
2. Mark where you want your nails to go with a light marker.
3. Nail them into place, I did mine about every 2 inches or so.  You want to have room for your bulkier jewelry to not have to be on top of eachother when hanging.  Also make sure you are nailing them in so the nail head is at a slight upward angle so the necklaces don't slide off when it is hung. (see picture 2)
4. Only nail them about halfway in, you want to leave enough room for hanging the necklaces.
5. Now you are ready to hang the branch.  Mark the wall lightly with pencil where the branch ends will be.  Then, stick the plastic wall hangers (I used some from 3M brand) over these spots.  Follow the instructions, usually you should leave them for a few hours, or overnight, before anything is actually hung on them to let the stickies really take hold.
6. Take the branch and, with the row of nails facing forward and at a slight upwards, nail one more nail on the very top of the branch at each end. Nail these in so only about a centimeter is left out.
7.  Wrap hemp or wire around these top end nails, making tight knots around the nail and end in a loop (or more securely, a double loop), that you will use to hang your branch from the two wall hangers.  (see picture 3)
8. When you have waited the specified time to hang something from the sticky wall hangers, go ahead and attack your branch by the hemp loops!
9.  Add all your pretty jewelry, and voila, organization and a piece of wall art in one!

This whole project cost me about 5 dollars to make.  I already had hemp rope lying around and a hammer, so all I needed to do was buy a few nails and sticky-backed wall hangers.  Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I hope to add more DIY projects to the blog soon!  How do you organize your jewelry?
xo Hannah

Coconut husks and walrus tusks

Hump day.  After Wednesdays are over, the week just seems so much more manageable to me.  These pictures are from yesterday, which was the most beautiful day here in Colorado.  I think it was in the mid sixties and the sun was shining. I didn't even get into work until after 12, ahh, it was glorious.  Today however, is grey, rainy, and in the 30s.  It is also supposed to snow later.  At least I am using today as my one day of take out (or dining out) I am allowing myself per week, and it is movie night too!

 

 

  

Outfit Details:

Top: thrifted/ vintage 80s

Skirt: thrifted/ vintage

Coat: thrifted/ J. Jill

Tights: Ross

Boots/Necklace/Ring: Gifts from mom!

(Necklace from Sister Lucy on Etsy)

Headband: Made by me

Earrings: from Puerto San Carlos, BCS, Mexico 

     I always start rambling and forget what I mean to say in the beginning of posts.  The weather, food, blah blah blah.  A few things about this outfit that I did want to mention.  First and foremost, it was built around this amazing necklace and ring I received in the mail from Hawai'i from mom on Monday! The necklace was made by someone who lives in our condo building there.  She has an Etsy shop called Sister Lucy which everyone should check out too. It is made out of pieces of coconut husks! Last night I was sitting in bed wondering, "What rhymes with husks?"  Then I thought "tusks!" and if you look at the fifth picture, I do resemble a walrus quite a lot! Though I guess those hairlike things on Walruses aren't the tusks.  Are they baleen, or are those only the hair-like things on whales?  Hmm, life is full of these important questions.

     The headband I am wearing I actually made a few years ago, and that is when I think I originally came up with my blog/ shop name The Braided Bandit.  I was thinking of selling these, but then I got really into vintage clothing and that idea progressed further than the handmade accessories one.  Since I am explaining the name, I may as well go into a little further detail since I have never really given an explanation before! Whether it is with headbands or with my actual hair, I can usually be found with some sort of braid, so that part is pretty self explanatory.  I also wanted my shop name to reflect on the great finds that you can discover while shopping second hand.  When I find and amazing piece of vintage or a spectacular price on something, I always end up thinking "I made out like a bandit!"  

     And Voila! There you have it ladies and gentleman! That is how The Braided Bandit was born! 

Happy hump day!

xo Hannah

     

 

Sunset at the Reservoir

Hello hello!  For once, a Monday where I do not hate the world!  The reason being, it is a balmy sixty degrees here in Colorado today and the sun is shining! It was so very nice to walk from my car to work this morning and not freeze my butt off.  I know March is usually the coldest and snowiest month here and it will be back in the 30s by Wednesday, but it is really nice to have a little sneak peak of Spring to have something to look forward to.

     These pictures were taken yesterday at the reservoir at sunset.  Growing up on the beach, I found this reservoir to be quite disappointing, but at least I know there is a place to go swimming in the summer.  I was going to try it out last summer, but there is a ten dollar fee or something to go there, which I think is ridiculous, so I turned around and did something else.  Maybe it was just disappointing because all the foliage is a monochromatic brown right now.  Or maybe the ocean has just spoiled me.  Probably both.

     Outfit Details:

Jacket: thrifted/ Nine West

Vest: thrifted/ vintage

Shoes: thrifted/ vintage

Dress: thrifted/ Old Navy

Tights: Sears

     I wore this outfit to a birthday brunch for R's mom and grandfather.  I really kind of love it when someone compliments what I am wearing and I can say every part of my outfit is either vintage, thrifted, or both.  Is that strange?  Most people probably enjoy getting outfit compliments and saying its from a coveted designer or fancy store.  I get a lot of pleasure knowing that I am recycling and not feeding into unsustainable consumerism more than I would from being able to say its made by so and so, and besides... this type of shopping is what I can afford right now! I got this little grey and white striped cotton dress at goodwill the other day for $3.50, and I know its nothing too exciting, but I think it is going to be making MANY appearances in my spring wardrobe-  so comfy!
     Sorry about the quality of these pictures.  My camera is having trouble focusing and it is also making everything look washed out.  It needs to be sent to the camera doctor, but I don't want to have to be without a camera! Alright, well I hope you week is off to a warm and sunny start!
xo Hannah
*Disclaimer: I love many designers and stores. I also do not think badly of the people who shop at these places, I just usually personally get more satisfaction when I get things second hand! :)