D.I.Y Desk stationery

Hi All

I am currently helping my sister re-decorate my little nieces bedroom, she ain't that little anymore mind, she is getting older by the minute and it freaks me the hell out. Libby is eight now so she has out grown that happy story princess stage so it is time for a fun, bright practical space. I will be blogging  as I progress. I want to do projects for Libby to get involved so there are elements that she has created herself to make her room more personal. There are number of mini projects that I have planned and we completed one of them yesterday, desk stationary holders. We went all thrifty using baked bean cans which we saved over the past few weeks.They are pretty much self explanatory on how they are created however I have included some step by step images.

You will need: old tin cans, masking tape, spray paint in your choice of colours), safety goggles and protective face mask.

Peel off the label from the tin, this can be easily done when the label is wet. Also there may be areas on the can where the label has been glued so soak in warm water to remove.

 

Once the can is clean, you can either spray the whole can or create a band of colour. You can create any pattern you like. Libby used masking tape to create bands of colour at different height on the cans.

To keep the walls and tables spray paint free i would suggest to do this outside. We also used newspaper and a shoe box. I one most of the spraying although I did let Libby have a little try as after all these are all her projects for her room. I must stress she did wear both the goggles and protective mask and was assisted by myself at all times.

 

  

Ta da!!

 

Styling with Strange Case Collective's Wedding shoot

Hollie at Rivington Photography'

A couple of months ago I met the lovely founders, Sophie and Laura of Strange Case Collective,
who do an amazing job of making something look amazing! They invited me to help assist styling their wedding shoot.

I roll up right outside the venue at 6am (loads of car parking spaces at this time of the morning) of Liverpool’s Alma de Cuba on Seel street. Prior to the shoot they sent over a mood/theme board loaded with beautiful inspirational pictures and colours. The theme for the wedding was influenced by springs pastels with strong pops of colour from blooming flower wreaths  on a back drop of rustic walls and services that Alma de Cuba have to offer.

Hollie at Rivington Photography & Flowers by Flowerbarn

Armed with my kit, clips, pins, scissors and a bag full of paper crafted flowers no time was wasted on setting up the first shot of the day which was the wedding top table. It really was great to meet all the talented people who were involved to make this shoot look amazing. I could talk all day about how much I loved the shoot but the images speak for themselves of the love and time that went into it. 

Hollie at Rivington Photography & Flowers by Flowerbarn

 

 

 

Company Magazine & New Look Fashion Forum Event

I recently attended a fashion event hosted by Company Magazine & New Look in Manchester called 'The Fashion Forum'. Sharing drinks with fellow readers I met some inspirational women in the fashion and retail industry. The event started with drinks and networking then we had a talk from the fashion industry's front row runners on how they got to the top of the style ladder. I was keen to find out more about the visual side of the magazine i.e styling  photo shoots  and sourcing props.  Oh, and we received a free goody bag packed with amazing products and treats.

Styling & Events

Since a young age I have always loved interior design, when I was younger I would loan out books from the library and just look at the pictures for hours. Doing a BA honours in Visual merchandising and promotional design has given me the foundation to make this my career, which would be a dream come true!!

The images below are not mine, they are from my pinterest board, follow me :armstrong_la,  they are just examples of the types of styling I would love to do.  I would love to help style sets for home and lifestyle magazine as well as create beautiful settings for a special event.



From greenweddingshoes.com


www.anitakaushal.com

One book I love in particular is a book called 'home , family lifestyle' by Anita Kaushal who is a creative director. The images in this book are so beautiful, and inspirational. The books looks at how we use our homes and giving striking photos of how people have created the perfect home to suit their lifestyle. While other interior design books show you how to make use of space and how different colours effect our mood. This book demonstrates how we need to arrange our house by how we use it and making full use of every room. Love it and highly recommend it.



 

Edinburgh International Festival, Visual Merchandising

Hello

I have just got back from a week in Edinburgh, installing some visual merchandising windows and a
huge installation at some of the big stores. It has been a fantastic week and everyone at the Edinburgh International Festival office and the stores were all so nice and welcoming. Edinburgh is a beautiful place and we were lucky enough to be able to go to the city at the build up to one of its busiest times of the year.... festivals.

So starting from the beginning we ( a team of 4 from university, we have just graduated in visual merchandising and promotional design) were approached by EIF (Edinburgh International Festival) back in April to design and install windows for three of the city's stores, these were Waterstones, John Lewis and Edinburgh's famous department store, Jenners.

We arranged to visit in June to take a look at the spaces and talk through our concepts, this trip clarified what was required and the message that needed to be conveyed. With this we went away and created a design that could run into a window scheme throughout the stores. The design demonstrates the uplifting feeling that was discussed in our first meeting through the use of doves, which is the theme for the festival this year. Surrounding the birds are the festivals brand colours through a skyline of Edinburgh and graphics etc.

The festival starts on the 9th August so we travelled up to Edinburgh last week to install our designs. We started the week by installing Waterstones window on Princes Street and the John Lewis at St James centre off Princes Street the following day.

Waterstones, Princes St

John Lewis, St James centre.

On Thursday we went to Jenners to decorate the Atrium, this area is a huge beautiful landing at the centre of the store. This store is so beautiful and I can see why a lot of people in Edinburgh have a soft spot for it. The interior has so much character and you see it plays a huge role in Edinburgh's history. Also this store is huge,  there are so many ways that lead you to different parts of the store, I thought I had seen it all then I would find another doorway leading to another huge department. It would be easy to get lost in here. We had made up all the decorations before the trip, so we followed a plan to where all the doves decorations were to be placed. Doing this allowed us to put the installation up quickly ready for the store opening for customers to see. 

I was so happy with the way the installation turned out, the doves flying from one side of the atrium to the other looked really effective.

Next we moved on to install our window at the front of the store at Princes street. this was the biggest of all the windows and consisted of two large graphic posters at the background and at the front is a skyline with merchandise on show. Jenners are selling EIF merchandise in the store on the second floor which is exciting  so we were able to include some of the merchandise in the window. 

I will put an image of the finished Jenners window at a later date as it was taken on another team members camera.

On Friday the local press came to take photographs of the atrium, also Jenners are the sponsors for the festivals performance, Tatyana. What made this so exciting is that customers were taking pictures of the installation, we even seen a young boy take a picture. The fact that people from all over the world were in Edinburgh for the festivals were taking pictures of our installation is something to be proud of. The staff at Jenners were all so lovely and helpful too, they gave us some great advice about the window and the industry. 

After a long, busy but exciting week we went to catch our 3 hour train ride home at around 4pm. I would like to thank EIF and all the three stores for being so helpful and welcoming. I would  definitely like to return to Edinburgh to spend some time enjoying the lovely surroundings as we didn't get to see some of the cities beautiful sites once we had  finished our windows we would go for tea then straight to the accommodation and was in bed by 8pm every night as we were so tired. Visual Merchandising is definitely hard physical work. 

This project is so valuable to the my future in the industry as I was able to experience every aspect of visual merchandising, from meeting the client, designing, problem solving, working with the organisers and printers to installing the designs from my computer into the full scale windows.

Edinburgh update

Heellloooo!!!

Sorry its been a while since I last posted, I have been so busy getting everything organised for my Edinburgh trip at the end of the month ( Visual Merchandising for the Edinburgh International Festival). The picture is a sneak peek at the props and decorations that will be used in the windows and stores. I am really looking forward to the trip, I went up a couple of weeks ago but only for the day so it will be nice to spend a few days there to really explore the city.

HELLO

I have never been very good at creating the french nail manicure, the white tip always ends up looking messy and all over the place. I was watching a you tube video with makeup guru (fleur de force) who suggested 'Rimmel' nail top whitener which claims top last up to 10 days. I didn't count the days but this lasted a good while, this nails tip whitener is great especially for those who struggle to get a nice clean white line. The good aspect of this nail tip whitener is that it has a extra thin brush to allow for an easy application.

The nails products I used for the french nail manicure were

Base: L'Oreal in number: 201

White tip: Rimmel nail tip whitener

Top coat: Rimmel Pro superwear Ultra shine topcoat in clear