Call in the conquistadores, because we’re about to show them how to fiesta (the right way). Cinco de Mayo stands for celebration. Here in the studio, we honestly don’t know how to celebrate without color–and lots of it. Bright lipstick, authentic food, and decorative skirts; pair these with a selection of handmade papel picados and Joss & Main dinnerware and decor, and your fiesta will blow 1862 out of the water.
Joss & Main asked us to throw a Cinco de Mayo party, and we never turn down a good party! So, sit back, relax (with a Coca-Cola), and see how to create the brightest fiesta celebration in this century. Read on →
Announcement! It’s day 49 of Dress the Rainbow and I told you it was going to be 50 days but I LIED! I got so wrapped up in the excitement of posing with some of my favorite friends in front of colorful walls that I just couldn’t stop and I ended up shooting 10 extra days! SO, that means that YOU have 10 extra days to grab something from your closet and go and DRESS THE RAINBOW! As if I haven’t hammered it into your brain enough!
BUT, I also thought you might be able to use a hand. Because I spent hours trolling the area, I have a firm grasp on where all the colorful walls are in Utah Valley and a bit in Salt Lake City and a tiny bit more in NYC, where I shot all the photos. So, I’m providing a list for all you locals (others, sorry, you’re on your own!), in hopes that go for it! Several of these were shot at private residences. I don’t condone shooting at private residences…but…umm….I did always knock at doors to ask 🙂
A few tips to those not in Utah:
When looking for pink and purple: adult novelty stores, friends. That’s where they all are! Swearsies!
AND, industrial walls are great for floor to roof colors in general.
I find that parts of town that are dedicated to different cultures are more brightly painted.
If you can’t find full walls, doors work too! Shoot it from the waist up to capture it.
Without further ado, your complete list of colorful walls in Utah Valley.
Click below for the most color walls in Utah Valley
Light pink house | (private residence)
Blush pink house (please be respectful of owners) | 700 E 712 N, Provo, UT 84604
Pink wall | Mercado Latino de Utah (go around to the back) | 275 S University Avenue, Provo, UT
Bright pink wall | Lingerie shop across the street from Target on 300 West in Salt Lake City (I’m trying to locate the name) Bright pink wall | Asian Market (go around to the back on the East side) 24 N 500 W, Provo, UT Fuchsia wall | inside the Nena and Co. Warehouse in American Fork, UT
Sangria wall | Asian Market (the North Side) 24 N 500 W, Provo, UT Red wall | Big Kahuna Pizza | 470 S 700 E, Salt Lake City (next to Trolley Square) Red garage | 101 Powers Street, Brooklyn, NY (or any fire station!) Red barn door | Orem State Street Red garage door | Big Kahuna Pizza | 470 S 700 E, Salt Lake City (next to Trolley Square)
Burnt orange wall | 100 N about 50 W, Provo, UT
Shades of orange wall | 100 N about 50 W, Provo, UT
Bright orange wall | Boost Mobile | 514 S State Street, OremCantaloupe | Taco bell | EVERYWHERE | WORLD | GALAXY
Gold Yellow wall | Z Ultimate Self Defense Studios | 104 N 500 W, Provo, UT (EDIT: no longer painted this color) Mindy Gledhill’s yellow bus (check her Insta for announcements about tour dates!) Yellow hut | Snow Cone place | 816 N Main Street (near AutoZone and Discount Glass), Springville, UT
Bright blue wall | 600 S 450 W, Salt Lake City Periwinkle blue | State Street, Salt Lake city
Navy wall | Private residence | 500 or 400 E or 600 E and 400 N, Provo
Purple wall | Scera Pool Park | Orem
Purple wall | Pawn shop on 300 South and 50 W, Provo
Purple wall (on north side. The front side is a striped pink and purple wall). Adult novelty shop on either 400 W or 300 W and like 400 S, Salt Lake City
Lavender wall | Private residence | 100 E 300 N, Provo
Off white wall | 100 S 1oo W, Provo, behind Nuskin
Off white wall | 100 S 1oo W, Provo, behind Nuskin
I’ll update it as the rest of Dress the Rainbow unfolds. Muhaha! If anything is unclear here, let me know and I’d be happy to clarify. Now, get to dressing the rainbow!
Day 19 of Dress the Rainbow in bright yellow with my pal Nassari of Flor de Luz shop. Nassari is from Mexico and raised in San Diego and wanted to bring her her Mexican heritage to the US market. She travels often to find colorful Mexican dresses and accessories and has the best collection on the web!
I’ve been a fan of these hand-embroidered dresses for sometime and have gathered quite the collection. I love the bright colors and the waistband-less feature. It’s easy to tie a belt or sash around if you want to remember you have a waistline. I like to pair it with a tights and boots in the winter time and sandals in the summer. She’s giving Lars readers a 20% off discount on all orders with code FLOR20%. Check out her stash!
I’ve always wanted to host a “come dressed as your favorite artist” party and I found Halloween the perfect opportunity to do so. We invited everyone to come dressed as their favorite tortured artist for our Halloween party. Some of the costumes we’ll show you are a bit more “tortured” than others, but all are easy to make from your existing closets with a little help from the fabric and craft stores.
A must for any Tortured Artist party is Frida Kahlo, who, as a person, was quite a tortured soul. We decided to go with her double self-portrait, The 2 Fridas, which is a great choice if you’re wanting a costume for two people. A lot of the costume came from my own closet, but you know me, I like my clothes bright and waistband-less.
To give you a bit of background, this particular painting depicts Frida in the midst of her divorce from Diego Rivera. She left the two hearts exposed showing one broken and the other hole, the one that Diego loved. She depicted surgical pincers to show that she was cutting off the emotional ties.
Materials: 3 silk flowers (1 large and 2 medium), 6 silk leaves, headband, black ribbon or fabric strip, scissors, hot glue gun, pliers with wire cutting section (depending on your flowers)
Step 1: Cut 3 silk flowers and 6 silk leaves from flower stems. If your flowers have wire in the stems you’ll want to use wire cutters for this. Leave about 2 inches of stem on the flowers to make gluing the flowers to the headband easier.
Step 2: Cut about 1.5″ of ribbon or fabric strip. Fold piece over one end of the headband and hot glue it into place. Glue end of ribbon to other end of headband. Start wrapping ribbon tightly around headband and add a bit of hot glue to secure ribbon to headband. Continue wrapping until headband is completely covered. Cut end of ribbon and hot glue end to headband.
Step 3: Hot glue 2 leaves (one on either side) to back of large flower. Squirt hot glue on middle of headband. Attach large flower (angling flower forward) and hold in place until hot glue dries.
Step 4: Turn medium flower over. Bend stem to one side of flower. Hot glue 2 leaves on opposite side. Repeat with other medium flower.
Step 5: Lift right leaf of large flower up and squirt hot glue on underside of leaf and along headband. Place one of the medium flowers in this space, making sure that leaves on medium flower are pointing away from center large flower. Angle flower forward slightly while glue dries. On back side of headband hot glue stem of medium flower to back of large flower to secure. Repeat (in opposite direction) with other medium flower.
ANATOMICAL HEART by Ashley Isenhour
Materials: 1/4 yard cream or muslin fabric, embroidery needle, red embroidery thread, embroidery hoop, scissors, white glue, scotch tape, water soluble fabric marker (like this), template (get it here)
Step 1: Print out embroidery pattern. Cut piece of fabric large enough to fit your embroidery hoop. Tape pattern to a sun-lit window. Tape fabric over pattern and trace heart onto fabric with a water soluble fabric marker.
Step 2: Stretch fabric in embroidery hoop. Stitch over heart pattern using a chain stitch (see a great tutorial here) or backstitch. (Good tutorials here.
Step 3: Rinse fabric with water to erase fabric marker. Allow to dry.
Step 4: Trim fabric about 1/4″ all the way around outline of heart. Dab a tiny bit of white glue around edge of fabric and let dry. This will prevent fraying.
Note: If you don’t want to embroider, you can paint or draw it with a marker.
MAKE UP TUTORIAL by Rubie Huber
These two girlies were fun to work with, and I was able to express my love for one of the most beautiful female artists with their make up.
Of course the main job with Frida was the eyebrows. Don’t be afraid to go crazy here! You gotta go even bolder than your boldest brow to really get that Frida look.
First brush your brows up and out and every which way you can to make them fuller and more prominant. I used some eyebrow gel (get it here) to set them at all sorts of angles. Darken them out with dark brown matte eyeshadow. To make them more intense. Spread the same dark eyeshadow between the brows. Using a super thin tiny brush (this one worked great) get the same eyeshadow wet with water and draw a few lines in between the brows and all over the edges.
Keep the rest of the face really clean, only adding nude cream eyeshadow and black mascara.
For the cheeks I used a deep liquid blush more on the red or purple side than the pink; Frida was all about the rich reds. Blend it out on the apples of the cheeks.
You need a deep oxblood red to get the Frida drama. I love the Kate Moss line by Rimmel London #11 (from here). It’s intense.
Finish off the look with a little bronzing around the edges of the face with a non shimmery bronzer.
If you’ve been following along on social media (are you there?! You’re missing out on so much) you’ll know that I traveled to Cologne, Germany a couple of weeks ago to speak at the Cewe event at the Photokina conference put on by the lovely ladies of Sister Mag, Thea and Toni. I first met Thea and Toni at the first blogger conference in Europe in Berlin of 2012. They gave a great presentation and looked adorable in their custom made clothing (by their mother who designs all the clothes in their magazine) and we’ve been good friends ever since. I would do anything for them! Including jump across the pond for a quick trip to Europe (I know! So tough to do 😉 Read on →
