Dear diary: Look at what I bought shopping part 2

Part 2 here we go, I have literally spent hours on organising my beauty and makeup products, chucking things in boxes that I don’t need, making room to store some of the ridiculous products I have going on here. I am so tired right now.

Okay third purchase for that shopping trip was this cute little journal set I picked up at Kmart for $5.

Journal set

I've wanted a journal for ages now, I love writing so something I could just scribble my thoughts into and keep it just for myself to look back and reflect on, very old school but I love it.

Obviously blogs right now are great places for putting your thoughts out there, but sometimes nothing beats taking a journal and a pen and going outside on a beautiful, sunny day and sitting on a bench in a park or a garden, somewhere peaceful and just enjoy the art of writing. At least that’s how I see it.

Definitely can’t wait to start writing in this, it comes with a journal, a notepad and a matching pen and it’s got a picture of New York! (oh New York, one day I will visit you)

Fourth purchase is a goody, this was the reason for my shopping trip.

I’ve got a pretty good system of where I store my brushes and my products, but I thought it was time for a change, get rid of the old, in with the new. Know what I mean?

Compaca storage box

So here I got a Compaca storage box, as it is called, I was immediately sold on this because of where you could store the brushes and the 2 layer shelves. I’m looking at it right now and the reason I’m so tired is because I have way too many products, it’s so full I’m really surprised with how much I could fit into it and it just makes things look so much more neater.

Fifth buy was storage for my cosmetics and it was this cosmetic organiser.

Cosmetic organiser

This is just so handy and I actually should mention I purchased this and the compaca storage box at Target, I think that’s why I got it because it was sort of similar to the first one but I wanted it, I didn’t even think do I really need this, I just saw it picked it up and paid for it.

One side of this you can store brushes, moisturisers and on the other side your lipsticks, your eye primers anything you want that fits into it. Love it.

Lipstick organiser

Finally last purchase of the day and yes from target again and it’s a lipstick organiser, this was so cheap $3.50. Holds up to 9 lipsticks and I thought this would be great to have on makeup jobs with me or just to store the lipsticks I have that I use more of.

Very satisfied with the purchases I bought for this shopping trip and I didn’t even spend over $100. 

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A nifty gift idea

When it comes to birthdays and present giving in general, I get so excited because I love to make things. I like to get all artsy and just creative. The only downside I think about being too creative is you have way too many ideas that you just want to put out there all in one go and sometimes it just doesn’t work.

I decided this year as a gift to one of my closest friends, I would make slash buy her something and I haven’t done something like this in such a long time and making this gift for her reminded me of how much I love being creative and having wonderful friends that inspire me to make these things.

The theme for this gift is purple as it is her favourite colour. So I went to the shops and just bought a whole heap of little nick nacks that she might like and could be useful for her.

Here’s what I put in, rose clips, a compact mirror, powder puff, falsies, nail polish remover wipes, nailpolish, iphone case, lipgloss, bracelet, 3 piece baking tool set, chopsticks (random) and a nivea sample for her face.

These are the things that I bought to make this gift which cost me $10 and I had some craft stuff lying around as well.

-        Gift box ($4)

-        Tissue paper ($2)

-        Ribbons ($4)

First decide what fillers (that’s what I like to call them) that you’re going to add. For me I decided to put in

-        Lots and lots of ribbon

-        Some mini bells

-        Some dowels

-        Tissue paper

-        A bunch of sequins that say happy birthday or are purple

Think of a birds nest and when the person opens the gift they just start digging around to see what else there is and it’s something exciting because they don’t know what you’ve put in and don’t know how much stuff there is.

Second get the tissue paper and fold it so it fits inside the box ensuring that there is an excess amount at the ends. This excess will “wrap” the gifts.

Third place all the ribbons inside the box. Make sure you curl the ribbons as well and try to use different types of ribbon some curly maybe even add some shredded paper. The whole messy look gets the receiver of the gift more excited because they’re just going to keep looking. It’s like opening 12 gifts in 1 thing every time they find something.

Fourth, add in the fillers, sprinkle the sequins around the box, the bells, the dowels anything you want. Be creative. A lot of these things I already had from previous arts and crafts projects, it helps to keep them all in a box and pull it out whenever you need it.

Fifth, place the gifts inside the box, hiding some under the ribbons so they can keep looking for what else is in there.

Sixth, with the ends of the tissue paper, fold it over and seal it with a sticker. Here I chose to stick a little purple present sticker I thought looked really nice. It shows you’ve put a lot of thought even for the simplest of things.

Next, for that added touch or smell I should say, spray some perfume onto that tissue paper, the scent will be absorbed onto the tissue paper and close the lid on the box so the smell will be there when they open it.

With the gifts, I thought I’d make it even more personal and I wrote a little bit about what the product was and what she could use them for. For example, with the nail polish I wrote,

-        BYS nailpolish: Getting your nails in touch with the fashion world. Don’t forget the toes too, because feet are ugly.

That’s just a little inside joke between her and I because she knows I hate feet. Just something like that shows how much you value your friendship adding things about each other and why that product reminds you of that person.

So I wrote them onto little cards and just tied it up with ribbon, making it look like a parcel and it just adds something extra to the gift.

I know when you think of giving a gift, you think a card, you need to buy a card. I hate buying cards to be honest with you, I just like making them and coming up with my own nifty little sayings. Have you guys watched 500 days of summer? I should have a job like that.

But what I did instead was on the lid of the box on the inside, I placed a piece of ribbon across the box and slipped under a note that I wrote just for that person, saying happy birthday and how much they meant to me and all kinds of soppy stuff, like you would, especially if she’s your best friend. 

Finally, wrap the box around with a piece of ribbon and here I added a little musical tag with her name at the back which just gave the box some added décor and it looks pretty snazzy too if I say so myself.