Fifteen Favorites on Friday v8

1. I love these Miu Miu sparkling shoes gif that I discovered via Moorea Seal.

2. Check out these pretty beach photos from The Girl Never Gets Older

3. Nicole of Gary Pepper Vintage looks so gorgeous in this rose sequin dress that she wore to the Cosmopolitan FFF Awards! Wow.

4. I love Keiko's "Southern belle" look! Her pigtails are so adorable, and I think I might try some pigtails in my look soon!

5. This new online class called This & That by Kara of I Just Might Explode sounds so magnificent! It goes on sale today, and you can sign-up until August 16th. I might just might have to reserve my spot!

6. I adore this How to Style a Summertime twist tutorial via Elsie of A Beautiful Mess.

7. I love the type and message of this image!

8. Isn't this bulldog puppy just too adorable in his little costume!?

9. How incredible is this dress?!

10. I absolutely love these sleep elevations photos. They take my breath away!

11. I really dig this elephant ring via Fleathers on etsy.

12. I adore this 1950s vintage Cinderella Wife Will Steinman dress.

13. This vintage black and white photograph of Lisa Fonssagrives at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, 1939 is amazing! I wish I could do that!

14. This 1950's pink peonies summer party dress is just the cutest thing!

15. This "I Love Foxes" print via Tevaeva on etsy makes me smile! It's just so darn cute!

Sponsored Giveaway: Midwest Vintage - CLOSED

**NOTE: Please do NOT comment on this entry, unless you are entering the giveaway.



My lovely large ad sponsor for the month of August, Midwest Vintage would like to give away a $25 credit certificate towards anything in the shop to one lucky winner! Oh, and you also get free shipping!

"Midwest Vintage is your source for the best variety of Men's and Women's vintage apparel at modest prices. We are committed to consistently bringing you the best vintage apparel worthy of your closet.
We have a passion for the quality and uniqueness vintage clothing offers and love traveling near and far to find it. We collectively have over 15 years of vintage buying experience and strive to find only the best vintage for the price. We travel the Midwest and west coast to find the best vintage finds to satisfy your unique style. Ordering online is easy.. and if you are local to Des Moines, feel free to contact us at MWVintage [!at] yahoo.com to set up an appointment to come by and shop" 

Here are some posts on my blog mentioning them: 1, 2, 3

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How do you enter?

• "Like" Midwest Vintage on facebook, then visit Midwest Vintage and comment below with what you would purchase if you won! Remember to leave your e-mail so I can contact you if you win!

Earn extra entries by...  (please leave a separate comment for each extra entry or it won't be counted!)

• Post about the giveaway on facebook, using this - Check out this awesome @Midwest Vintage Giveaway via @Koi Story: http://tinyurl.com/3pcl5zy
• Follow Midwest Vintage on twitter and tweet about the giveaway by using this - Check out this awesome @MWVintage Giveaway via @koi_story: http://tinyurl.com/3pcl5zy
• Follow my blog via bloglovin or google friend connect
• "Like" Koi Story on facebook

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NOTE: You HAVE to do the first entry ("Like" Midwest Vintage on facebook) in order to qualify for the extra entries.

**This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only and it ends on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 11:59PM.

DIY Market + Everyday bag

 What I used:

• sewing machine
• needle
• thread
• rug (or 17 x 36 in piece of fabric)
• pins
• thin double wrap belt

1. Lay out how you want your bag to look. Start off my measuring 30 inches, fold that 30 inches of fabric in half and that will be the body of your bag, the remaining six inches is going to be the flap.





2. (Optional) Pin down a half inch of the top of the flap from the inside. I only did it because the edge was rough I wanted it a little more refined. Then you sew!



3. Turn the bag inside out, pin down the sides of the body of the bag and sew! It doesn't look like it, but I ended up sewing it about an inch in.





4. On the inside of the flat fold down about an inch on each side and pin down. I used a hand sewed an invisible seam technique my mom showed me, I'm not sure what it's called. I didn't want the thread to be visible on the sides of the flap.

5. For the strap I used a black leather double wrap belt. I used the hand sewn invisible stitch along the belt, and as you can see I put the belt right where the opening and flap meet, and aligned it with the black stripe (I got lucky!).

6. (Optional) Tie the wrap belt in a bow.

Remember: You have the option of using any type of belt or strap for this bag!

Oh, and yes this bag does have a few defects, including a couple of wholes in the fabric, that's why I'm keeping it for myself! 



Voila! Your bag is finished. Now you have an everyday bag you can use to go to the market, shopping, the beach, the pool, or anything!

Here are some outfits I wore:



1, 2

Don't want to make one of your own? I am thinking about making some more bags out of different materials and selling them! Stay tuned. I will definitely post about this if it happens. Also, I will have a DIY studded denim shorts post coming up soon!

Will you make this bag? What have you DIYed lately?

Up on the rooftop

what i wore: Black Poppy fringe vest and Nollie High Low Hem Sweater tank in black from PacSun, Monroe cat eye sunnies from OC Shades, floral high waisted shorts and various rings from Forever 21, Southwestern style print bag DIY, black sandals from Target, and periwinkle bandana from Hobby Lobby, green crystal ring from Vitae Design Collective

So yesterday I had such a lovely day with my friends Carly and Anna, they are awesome! We met up at West End Architectural Salvage in Des Moines, which is a pretty great place with neat things as you can see above, I thought that little dresser was the cutest thing ever and I love those lamps that look like ice. Anyways, we snuck up to the roof and took these pictures! Anna is a really wonderful jumper! I had so much fun with these girls, I can't wait to help them get a blog set up so you can see just how wonderful they are!

Like, I've said, I've been super into vests lately, and once I saw this fringe vest, I knew I had to have it! I can't wait to wear it more often.

Have a wonderful day!

Garage Sale Haul

1. 10 patterns for 10 cents each, I could not resist!
2. A pretty floral scarf.
3. A lovely crochet decoration to lay over some furniture. 
4. An old Southwestern styled rug that I used to make a DIY reusable shopping bag.
5. A pretty abstract floral scarf.
6. I love pretty tins, and I adore this pin-up girl one! I can't wait to store some rings in there!
7. I really just love Campbell's soup, so at 25 cents this little darling was too adorable not to want!
8. This pretty tin will be a great place to store small sewing supplies that I've been accumulating!
9. I can't stop myself from buying cameras, even if they might not work!
10. Of course, I had to buy this James Dean poster, he's so dreamy!
11. I've been so lucky with prints lately! I stumbled upon Van Gogh's Starry Night print at a sale.
12. A lovely gold magazine rack that I am going to re-paint!
13. A Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook that I am going to use for collages.
14.The Complete Dog Book, it's going to be a part of my collage stockpile and oh, I love dogs.
15. Birds of North America, one again is a great book full of lovely bird images to use for collaging!
16. I was am a huge fan of Shel Silverstein and Where the Sidewalk Ends is one of my favorites!
18. This is my favorite purchase of the day, it is a lovely vintage Schwinn exercise bike I got for $5!

As you can see I made off pretty well on Friday with Megan. She got a lot of lovely things as well and we both didn't even spend that much. I think I am going to have a garage sale within the next two weeks to get rid of a lot of items and make way for the new things I've been getting. Maybe I'll finally redecorate the basement a little bit! It's really boring right now.


Hope you are having a wonderful Monday and first of August!

Tell me about your garage sale ventures (if you have any). What sort of things do you gravitate to first!?