New year

Happy New year family

I know this is 9 days late and some but it would be rude if I just jumped into just talking about myself. 
This year I am hoping to grow my content and bring more original posts your way. My aim is not be a brand new me with brand new ideals. Instead I want to expand on the me I've been in the last 18 months. This year will of course be bigger and better. We can't change the past but we can certainly be better. 2015 is about expanding the Tiwi's Closet brand. I want to blog more about my hair, vintage fashion and lipstick. I want to do more hauls and share more about me. I want to meet new people and learn more about the fashion industry.

You know what they say speak words of life into your life and you will get all that goodness back. ( I just made that up)

A new year for me means reviewing my wardrobe , life , plans and everything in general. Adding new things and perhaps bringing old favourites back.

I believe I wrote about this topic last year but hey. I thought why not cover it again with a few new added twists ( maybe a lot of added twists and a few surprises).

Tiwi Tips and plans for 2015:

Vintage meets Modern

This is definitely an old favorite for me or even something I have been doing from the birth of Tiwi's closet. Mixing vintage and modern pieces to create my own statement. This year I want to say. Hi I am Tiwi and I'm sharing how I see the world with you. I have a lot of pieces that have not seen the light of day. I plan on doing a lot of lookbooks. If I can't wear it in an ootd or ootn then I can surely share my ideas on how I would style my pieces. 

I've starting out the year by investing in jewllery pieces that reflect the concept vintage meets modern. I love vintage pieces that look timeless and modern pieces that look vintage. can you tell which pieces are vintage or modern?

I guess I am trying to say in a round about way that I will be mixing a lot more vintage into my everyday looks. I want to leave my comfort zone and find some new things.

Decluttering for a fresh mindset

My decluttering process works like this. Things I am selling Vs Things I am giving away. This year anything I haven't worn that is vintage is getting sold on my etsy store.  The none vintage stuff is being sold on my ebay account. You can check it out here. I currently have more than 32 unique items up for sale. I have also given out alot of things and this includes furniture, books and much more.

Tiwi Tips for keeping a somewhat organised closet:
Decluterring creates room for new things. It also gives your unwanted items a new home. Every 6 months I have a wardrobe inventory to make sure I am not holding on to stuff I don't need. Try it to get a bit of cash and create space for new and better things. Watch the program hoarders if you have a problem letting go of stuff ,believe me you will get the motivation to let go and let new things flow. You don't want to accumulate a lot of stuff you don't use.

Change of environment

This year I am totally alone. My whole family has moved continents and I am on my own. I will be moving into my own apartment soon. I am excited and I have already started buying stuff to decorate my new place. I've discovered that I like my decor just like I like my clothing. Unique and vintage.

Tumblr and Pinterest have been a good source of information. It is helping me identify what my style is. What I like? I know that I love a lot of light and vintage pieces ( as you can see from the few things I have already invested in)

Health and Fitness

I've been singing this song for a while but I just couldn't get motivated or I would start and then stop with the exercising. At the end of 2014 I invested in this program called the Fitgirls program. It only cost $24.99 for the ebook which gives you a break down on food and exercise for achieving Fitgirlness. I will do a more indepth review about the program when I finally go through it. What it is is a 28 day jumpstart to living a healthy life. You can follow them on instagram to see how women and men have transformed their bodies and their lives.

My goal is to be a size 12/14. I am currently a size 16 and I have been slowly losing weight because I stopped inhaling junk food and soft drinks last year but I want to make a more active change this year. I have a Virgos lounge dress that I bought 3 years ago and I am dying to fit into that baby. The poor dress is sitting at the back of one of my closets crying out to be worn.

As part of my Health and fitness regiment I want to drink more water and detox as often as I am supposed to. I have invested in the Boo detox tea ( It's currently on special in Holland and Barrett's so do go and get it if you are interested in detoxing)

 I will be doing a follow up post on the results once I finish with the teatox.

Makeup ,Skin care and Hair 

Investing time in these things is about building on my knowledge and pampering myself. 2015 is about showing myself love inside and outside.

Make up

For those of you who don't know I don't wear a full face of my make up ever. ( that's a lie a wear a bad full face a handful of times a year). 2015 is more about learning the skill/art of applying makeup properly and investing in all the necessary tools for said application.I had a massive purge of the little collection I had so at the moment I am really low on make up. I only own concealers, eye liner , dying mascara and a handful of brushes. I do have a huge lipstick collection but I do want to learn about other make up things.

So far I've invested in a eye shadow palette and a handful of lipglosses. So far I hate the lipglosses because they smell of sickly sweet. I am very particular about the smell of things. I will probably give these away. I thought they would be a good start as they came in a set ( they were £2.99 probably should've known better). I bought this particular makeup palette because a girl on YouTube convinced me Makeup revolution do good eye shadow palettes. I will let you guys know in a review of the product 
( Woowee I am making all these promises already)

Skin Care
 My current regiment is ok but sometimes I feel like it isn't working especially when I have random break outs. Also towards then end of 2014 I was having weird rashes on my face I'd like to see the end of that in my life. I am aiming for a great skin regiment not just an OK one. Of course I will be keeping you guys updated ( another promise fingers crossed).

Hair

My hair isn't growing guys and I am not happy. Or should I say it is growing but I'm not retaining any of that new length and it is annoying. So I am on a mission to find out what I'm not doing properly. It's been four years and I still feel like I don't know what I am doing ( Jesus take the wheel with my hair growth). 

This year you will see me trying out a different hair styles and some new products. You will have to watch and wait for the updates. 

Trying New Things

a) Day time heels
Yes my people I want to wear heels during the day. It's something that honestly scares me but I have such a extensive collection of heels and I don't go out at all these days that I need to start wearing some of them out and about. It is a skill I want to master ( even if it means me carrying flat shoes in my hand bag for when I just can't take it anymore). I just can't justify having shoes I wear once a year! It goes against every efficient saving gene in my body.

b) Investing in more slips on, plimsolls and other funky day time shoes.

I started the mission of building up a reputable day time shoe collection 2 years ago and I must say I am happy with the progress so far.  Good shoes take your outfit to the next level. This year it's all about saying bye bye to some old favorites ( see my eBay account) and hello to the different and funky. I am currently in love with over the knee peep toe heeled boots ( quite a mouthful for a simple pair of shoes). I have found my perfect pair. I am just waiting to afford them. I did however find some knee length peep toe heeled boots in the New look January sale. They were only £14.99 and I love them.

c) Music
I want to go to more concerts. I missed Dwele in London last year because I suck at saving and planning ahead of time. That will have to change this year because I can't keep missing amazing concerts. Experiencing live music will be a new experience for me and I can't wait.  I especially love Afro jazz , soul . jazz and gospel so I will most definitely be on the look out for those type of concerts. I also want to pick up the acoustic guitar. I've been saying this for the last 3 years. I at least have to buy the damn guitar this year. My dream is to play the song ' In my Head' by India Arie and sing along. The live version in Brazil ( see video below) really speaks to me. 



d) Travelling

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I really would love to visit Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam this year. I am not much of a traveler. ( If shopping malls or fashion are not involved then I ain't doing it). 2015 is about challenging myself and become a tourist who loves old buildings and art O_o . I want to explore new places and broaden my horizon. I always seem to meet pretty interesting people when I travel so who knows what these places will bring for me.

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f) New Skills

I did home economics in high school and I hated it. Therefore I never paid attention during the dressmaking lessons. 10 years later and I need those skills. So I've signed up to do a sewing class. Yes I've set myself a goal. I want to make my own dress by the end of this year. My year is packed y'all. I will also be signing up for a photography class as soon as I find £70. I am one of those people who needs structure to learn a new skill. So signing up for an actual classes that teaches me how to use my camera and sew are right up my alley.

g) Reading more informative books

Yes I am already a big reader. However it's 98% racy romance novels ( My secret vice). I have been working on building a library of informative and educational books. I especially want to invest in African Literature. Here are some books I've already bought/ found in my house. 

As you can see from this post 2015 will be and interesting year. Here is to better content and self exploration. ( you might need a glass of wine to make this toast with me) 

At the end of this year I want to achieve this and more. I want to be a better version of me. A me I trust and am proud of. I want to achieve so many things. If I had to write about each goal in full detail Lord knows how long this blog post would be!

Here is to you and your year.( Another glass) May you be blessed and may you be the best you you can be.

Love and light

Reasons to get thrifty

Hello Lovelies

I am loving my new lease on blogging.

Whenever I go thrifting I want to share what I've got with you guys and how I would style it. One of the reasons I started blogging was to encourage people to thrift and look in different places for fashion inspiration. I am happy that I will be able to share some of my finds with you guys and I hope this will inspire you to find the next flea market, charity shop or car boot sale and start finding cool stuff.

I would say that about 60% of my wardrobe is from odd shops and I love the things I have. Recently I've been finding beautiful things. I will probably have to do a couple of these ' Reason to get thrifty' look books.

I love thrifting, charity shop trolling or whatever you call it because I love standing out and being and individual. I can own an outfit and be 100% original with my my thrifted pieces. It's like art for me. I can't describe the joy I get from piecing outfits together.

As for today I will be sharing 3 looks . An office look, casual everyday look and something a bit dressy. I want to show you guys a few things with this look book : How small details count , How to hide problem areas, mixing prints and finding the perfect white pants.

1) The Office look 

This look will feature 3 outerwear options. This is definitely something I would wear to the office.  I decide to go with very bold lips to be more adventurous. I'm usually a pink and red lipstick girl but this time round I decided to fierce up the look. The pencil skirt , all the outerwear and white shirt are all charity shop finds. I would say I spent roughly £20 on all 5 items. Isn't that awesome?  I added an extra detail to make the outfit pop : the blouse pin. Blouse pins where very fashionable in Victorian times and in the early 1900s. The blouse pin trend was resurrected in the 80s.The pencil Skirt is made out of woolen material,it gray and has animal print. I love the print on it. It's these small details that count. In my opinion this is how to do animal print in a professional setting. 

 2) Everyday look

This look features a full skirt these were very popular in the 1950s.  The full skirt is a must have for every woman because it flatters all figures. If your slim it gives you the illusion of curves. If you are full figured a full skirt can hide problem areas. I find the full skirt particularly flattering on my body because I have big thighs and skinny legs. The full skirt disguises my problem area. As the full skirt is high waist I can hide my tummy which is another problem area for me. This outfit was a mixture of patterns and textures, it works for me. The Skirt, cardigan, lace top and bag are all thrifted. Once again these items all together cost less than £20. Try mixing and matching today instead of matching and colour co-ordination. 

3. Dressy : Something special

I didn't know what to call this look. This look features High waist pants. I rarely wear pants and I finally found the right pants for moi and they are white. This entire outfit is thirfted. The peach jacket is from a flea market. I love it. Gold hard ware is a big part of this outfit, the earrings, the trousers details, the clutch bag chain and the buttons on the jacket are all gold. The shoes are stolen from my mum's closet. They add the animal print flavor.  They are not her thing so I don't understand why she bought them ? One loss for mumkind is a gain for Tiwi's Closet. I love this look because it accentuates my shape. Believe it or not this is the cheapest outfit at under £15 all together. I believe that every lady should have a pair of white trouser in her closet. They key is finding the right cut for your body. The cat eye sunglasses give the outfit a chic finish.

I hope you are having a blessed week so far. I hope you have been inspired.

Love

Tiwi xx

Photographer and model for a day.

Hey everyone and welcome to my new blog.

So I finally uped and bought my first tripod. The plan on the day  was to create a thrifted look book. Little did I know it takes more time and planning to come up with a whole look book. Directing is a challenging task especially when you can't shout at yourself.

For anyone interested. I got the tripod on eBay for less than £10. So far I am happy with the results. The only thing I would say is that I have to constantly adjust it and the tripod itself is quite short ( not up to a meter) So I have to fiddle with the camera for good results.

Things to consider when taking your own pictures :

1) Lighting and angles: Believe me this is very important. This is something that is relativily a new concept to me. I've realised from blogging that in the process of writing about fashion we become photographers at the same time.
Natural light is the best for taking good quality photographs. I am still learning about taking pictures from the right angles. I have 2 photography magazines I bought in Singapore on photographer and I am making Google my new best friend ( seriously she knows everything).

2) Planning : One thing I am currently working on is making detailed schedules of the day and trying to plan outfits in advance. A few things I would include when brainstorming are : hair and makeup, rough idea of outfits and perhaps do a few test shots a day before to find the best lighting.

The Looks

Look 1
This is an office friendly look. I love my red lipstick but to make it office friendly I went for a nude pink lipstick ( Heather simmers). I call the first look the Power look.  This is a very 80s look when pencils skirts, court shoes and shoulder pads were all the rage. I've realised that I love the power look. It is one of my signature looks. I remixed my power look by not matching ( I never do that) Instead I used different prints and textures and threw in a bit of fur.

I will be doing a separate post on how to do 'The power look'
Look 2 
The second look is an 80s meets 90s looks. I kept the blouse and statement necklace the same and this time I added a denim pencil skirt , a jumper and some ankle boots. A more comfortable look for a casual outing.

Well I hope you have found this post informative and interesting.

Thank you for reading

Tiwi xx