Earth Tones

 Dress - 2nd hand shop; Wedges - Jet; Belt - Mr. Price; Jewellery - Maasai Market

{Is this the longest neck ever or what?}

The ruffles and soft layers at the front of the dress makes me think that this would be a perfect outfit for a first date! And to think I initially wasn't keen on buying it but my mother who was with me at the time insisted that I do. I'm glad I did because it's (1) relaxed and comfortable; (2) well fitting and (3) orange! I love the colour and the gold detailing on the dress. Very few things beat a fun, flirty, orange dress I tell ya. Decided to keep the jewellery at a minimal and stay with the earth tones that the dress already carried by adding a brown belt and wedges.

Hope you're having a great start to the week so far!

A Quickie DIY

There's so much I want to share about the short trip my family and I took to Tsavo! I took about 1,000 photos (quite literally) so  I'll have to divide the posts into some kind of order so that I don't bombard you with too many photos at one go.

In the meantime, here's a little DIY for ya!

I got this idea from A's Fashion Files which is a blog run by Allison. Her version is a lot fancier than mine but to my defence she does this kind of stuff often! You can take a looky at her DIY here. 

So let's start.You need:

1. The shoes that you want to DIY

2. Tape

3. Paint

4. Paint brushes

5. A pair of scissors

I got the paint from a friend and ended up using the bottle to the left which he mixed up for me. It wasn't labelled so I don't know what brand it is but I know that it's the kind that you can use on fabric. The bottle to the right is Fevicryl and I know you can get that from Textbook Centre or any crafts store in town.

 Shoes from Bata for only Shs350!

 To make it easier for me, I followed the seam around the back of the shoe. I also cut the tape into smaller strips which made it easier to follow the round shape.

 Then it was time to paint the town gold! Which was definitely the most fun part.

 Tadaa! 

 I think I'll buy like three more pairs and create different designs. 

And there you have it! 

Happy Father's Day!

Ever since I can remember my dad's been one of the strongest pillars in my life. He's always there to give me advice about how I should spend my money on solid investments instead of shoes. And how my shorts may be a little too short (typical dad huh?). He's always the first to support my business ventures and ideas and the first to point out when I'm slacking with my salads and veggies. He really is the bombdiggity. So muchos appreciatos papa!

And a Happy Father's Day to all the other fathers out there :)

Thumbs up to ya.

Neutral

When putting together this outfit I had initially wanted to colour block using the light blueish/greyish  jeans as the base of the outfit. But something about the simplicity of the jeans and its pastel undertones led me towards neutrals and gold accents.

Blazer - 2nd hand market; Top - Meltz; Jeans - 2nd hand market; Wedges - Jet; Necklace & Earrings - Woolworths; Bracelet - Maasai Market. 

I'm so excited because this Friday my family and I are headed out of town for a little vacation! A much, much needed vacation too. 

Hope you guys have exciting plans for your weekend :)

Finally

After months and months of dreaming, wishing, visualising, saving and budgeting, I was finally able to get my little baby this past Saturday. Finally. It's a Canon Rebel EOS T3i, also known as the Canon D600. I call her... Binti. If you follow me on twitter (@ThisisEss) or instagram (this_is_ess), then you already know all this cos I must have bombarded you with my excitement. I should apologise for that now. Sorry. In all honesty though, I'm the happiest girl in East Africa!! Counting my blessings, click by click. 

Needless to say I got a little trigger happy over the weekend. These are some of the pictures that were taken  with the camera by either myself or my brother Jeff. A lot of manual reading, inappropriate shots at the most random times and mentorship needs to take place before I can call myself a decent photographer. But I'm excited for the journey!

 This is by far the best red velvet chocolate in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

By. Far. 

And this I exaggerate not. 

Black Lace

 I almost didn't think I'd pull off this challenge. Nany from Nany's Klozet challenged us to wear Lace or Crochet which you can view here. I don't own anything that's lace so this bad boy was bought a couple days ago for the amazing price of Shs50. Boom. Boy do I love second hand markets. If you want to see Nany's response to the challenge you can do so here. 

Wishing you the best week ever!!

 Lace top - 2nd hand market; skirt worn as top inside - Cotton on; Bag - Vendor at The Mall; Shorts - Edgars; Flats - Mr. Price; Necklace - near Toi Market.

Thank you for being good to me

Dear week, 

We started out on an odd note you and I. I remember Monday morning just like it was yesterday - starting with the overwhelming feeling of dread that crept up the moment I realised that the annoying repetitive sound coming from my dream was actually the alarm. I remember rolling over, pressing 'snooze' instead of 'dismiss' and going back to bed for 10 minutes. And then doing that two more times. But what I remember most, and that I am most grateful for, was when I finally got out of bed to grab my towel and shower cap  and realised that I had the choice of making this the best week. That I was going to make it the best week. I remember being in the shower and repeating it over and over again - because let's face it, it was a Monday morning. And I needed that extra convincing. And just like that, you became my friend. Monday blues became Monday bliss. And the rest of the week went from pretty good to OH MY GOD IS THIS FOR REAL?! So thank you week, for being pretty darn good to me. Can't wait to see what you bring my way next. 

Yours, 

Me.