Splashing out on shoes

Hi all, thanks for your comments on my last two nightmarish posts!! What a WEEK!

Well I have been looking for some new black shoes that I can wear to work and also wear to drinks and other such exciting things as one occasionally attends. So I trawled the web today and finally found some beauties!

I bought these two pairs from Endless.com (I had to severely narrow it down. But hey, I might be back!!)

Leather shoe boots by Messeca (here)

Leather platforms by Jessica Simpson (here)
They also come in a gorgeous nude, but I need black shoes, not nude shoes.

Endless.com do pretty quick delivery (and FREE) to NZ so they should be within my little mitts very soon! Yay!

What have you bought lately?

Bad reactions to a DIY tutorial

Hi all, a different kind of post today.

Some of you may remember a DIY I blogged several months ago, how to make bones style Fimo bracelets. Well this week the designer of the bracelets (which I fully credited in the DIY) has sent me angry messages via Etsy, Facebook and this blog. I have also received comments and emails from other 'friends' of the designer too, accusing me of stealing her designs and profiting from them.

It began on Etsy when she accused me of selling these bracelets and demanded I stop. 

I replied asking WHERE AM I SELLING THEM? And sending a link to my DIY, saying I made them as a blog DIY and nothing else. By then, she had already posted on her Facebook page the same accusations, prompting several comments and posts on my Shh Facebook page accusing me of stealing designs.

I have today received more angry messages and so I have decided to remove the DIY tutorial.

It saddens me to do so, as I never set out to maliciously take business away from anyone. I wrote the tutorial in the trend of the many DIY blogs out there - PS I Made This, A Pair and a Spare, I Spy DIY, Honestly...WTF to name but a few.

I have been accused of taking business away from the designer. Well I apologise if I did so. However, seeing as it took the designer herself two months to notice the tutorial photos, I do not flatter myself as being a highly profiled blogger. And in fact, I know of only 2, sometimes 3, bloggers who read my blog and reside in New Zealand. The rest of my followers are global, and so in some way it could be said that within my relatively small following I actually made people aware of her work, people who otherwise may never have heard (or cared!) about these bracelets.

I was (and am) more than happy to discuss the matter with the designer, and had she wanted me to remove the blog DIY, she could have asked and I would have done so. Instead, she has not replied to my response to her original message and instead taken to using friends and anonymous comments to bully me into taking the DIY down. I think that's pretty uncool.

So from originally being WRONGFULLY accused of selling the bracelets, I am now being bombarded with abuse for creating a DIY!

C'est la vie.

I have removed the tutorial and hope she can move on. 

I will leave you with one particularly (grammatically interesting) anonymous message I received:

Ok so straight up - your a crafter - WHY would you do a tutorial on HOW to make someone else's work? what is WRONG With you???? Bedrock bones works so hard to so what she does and you are blatantly taking customers from her telling them how to do it themselves. This is not creative because its NOT your idea. You are copying someone else's hard work and encouraging people not to buy the OG ones. NZ is such a small place why would you take that away from her? I think this is absolute crap and really uncool of you - Don't call yourself a creative crafter if you do this kind of thing. Bedrock is all hand made by ONE person - and you should feel pretty ashamed of yourself dude. Her stuff isn't cheap $2 shop crap that is mass produced - its skillfully handmade with love and you should take this post down.

I've been maimed

Well not exactly. But I went for a haircut on Saturday and came out, four hours later, $300 bucks down, with the WORST hair cut I've ever actually seen. I struggled not to use an expletive there, so please give me credit!

I'm an impatient kinda person, and when I decide I want my hair done, I want it done straight away. For two weeks I'd been trying to get into my usual salon, so instead I went to another popular salon in town called Get Funkd. You can guess what I've now renamed it as.

I went in with a photo of this hair: 

Yeah, I'd take the body too, but that wasn't on offer. Neither was the hair in fact!

And came out with this hair:

It would be funny if it weren't so horrendous!

I spent Sunday in tears. The bf spent Sunday reassuring me it looked good.

I spent Monday morning in work with horrified colleagues exclaiming they'd never seen a haircut like it. My hair was butchered! 

So I have been back to the salon, asked for refund which they are apparently processing today. I also went to my usual salon for an independent opinion and they couldn't believe it. Basically my hair looks like a shoddy, wonky, half hacked, unfinished long bob, with wispy blond straggly bits poking out underneath like cheap extensions!

I am going to my usual salon on Thursday for them to re-colour my blonde 'bits' and blend the 'bob' into the straggly ends - and from then on I will just be waiting months and months for it to grow back.

I will get the bf to take pics of the horror tomorrow. It truly is hard to describe how bad it is, I'm genuinely not being over dramatic! I've never seen anything like it!!

Have you ever had a hair 'mare?!? What did you do?!

Easter break, part two!

Hi all, SO glad it's the weekend again - wouldn't it be nice to have three day work weeks all the time?!

Here are the remainder of the pictures of  my weekend in Auckland. We also had a couple of days of sightseeing, drinking and shopping in Wellington but I don't want to overload you with photos so I'll keep it short ;)

We caught the ferry to Waiheke Island - and check out the cruise ship that was moored up in the harbour!

Waiheke is BEAUTIFUL!

We had lunch with my friend who was there over Easter too - this was our view!

I took one of my favourite new Shh pieces with me - coral and pink of course ;)

We dined at the Orbit revolving restaurant again. It was my third time there, and actually the service was the worst we'd encountered. Sad face. :(
This is the glass walkway at the top of the tower....scary!!

Views of the city

Rosy cheeked after dinner, wine and cocktails! Oh and high altitude! ;)

Let's hope this weekend is as fun - what do you have planned?

What I did with five days off work - part one

Hey all, glad to hear that you all had fab Easter weekends! The uni I work for shut for three days, so in total I had a five day weekend - noice!!! :D

My time off involved a little bit of this and that...

As mentioned, the bf and I flew to Auckland. We stayed there Friday - Monday.

And had Mexican and margaritas on Friday night! Ole!

We ALWAYS take a trip to the Sky Tower when we stay in Auckland. It's the rules.

We lunched at the harbour....

And I was reacquainted with an old friend....

This was us in 2011 :)

I received a $60 Easter egg - that was DARK CHOCOLATE. I don't eat dark chocolate!!! Naughty bf!!

We went out for cocktails and dinner and found some very cool bars...

I wore a super huge quiff....

And ended in the Sky City casino :)

Something that makes me smile :D

Happy Easter weekend everyone, I'm still in Auckland.

I wanted to share some photos of my jewellery that's being stocked in a few independent boutiques in Wellington. It's also being stocked in a fancy design shop, Vesta, in Queenstown - but as that's in the South Island I haven't managed to take pics yet ;)

In the last month two awesome boutiques have stocked my jewellery. The first is Rex Royale, a funky shop on Cuba Street. I was REALLY pleased to have them accept my items as it's one of those trendy, cool shops with a bit of edge to it.

As I mentioned last week, I spotted my pieces in the shop window on my way past one evening!

Some of my items in the shop counter :)

The second of the shops (also on Cuba Street) that stocks my jewellery is independent designer 'emma'. The Cuba Street store is a really interesting space with cutesy furniture and ornaments, as well as fabulous clothes.

I love the furnishings in emma, and they sell other fun handmade jewellery too.

My Nothing But Bones necklace also made it to the shop window! Whoop!

I wanted to show some photos of my pieces in these shops as it is soooper-dooper exciting for me. Considering I started making jewellery (self-taught!!) not even 12 months ago, on a complete whim, I'm amazed that it's now for sale in some of Wellington's coolest shops. Yay!

What makes you smile?

Off to Auckland! And a winner!

Howdy and happy Good Friday everyone. Here at work we get FIVE WHOLE DAYS OFF (yay!) so the bf and I are flying to Auckland tomorrow evening. I love Auckland and can't wait to go! It's the biggest city in New Zealand and I know a shop there that had some cool beads there last year, so I'll be making a bee-line for that!

The bf and I went to Auckland at Easter last year too - see here and here. :)

AND I have drawn the winner of the Shh By Sadie Nothing But Skulls necklace!

Thanks for all your entries - I actually picked TWO winners, one from all of the Facebook page entrants, and one from the blog entrants.....

Congratulations Shasie!!!! Please send me your address so that I can post it to you! 

And if you didn't win, and are still desperate to get your mitts on this necklace, they're available in my Etsy shop - use the code ShhShh for 30% off in the next seven days :D

Chocolate massage + Cakes = Easter

Hi all, thanks for your kind words about my breathing difficulties....this week Monday was still pretty bad, but since then it's been getting a LOT better. So far, today is the first day that *touch wood* I haven't been breathing funny! So hopefully I'm on the mend!

In my attempt to 'relax' (in case my breathing WAS caused by stress) I last night had the MOST AMAZING body treatment - it was an Easter special at Bodyscape spa in town and involved a full body scrub with organic cocoa, moisturising, a massage and a mini pedicure. I smelt good enough to eat afterwards! 

I chose a bright coral for my toes <3

If you ever come across this organic cocoa range - I highly recommend it!

I also organised an Easter themed morning tea for work this morning and baked some quick and simple cupcakes to bring with me...The bf had to buy a whole Mini Eggs Easter egg so that I could decorate them, as we couldn't find Mini Eggs in NZ otherwise! So I'm sure he'll 'dispose' of (read: eat) the rest of the chocolate egg afterwards!

 Here's a peek at some of the morning tea goodies:

Some man-handled ginger bread men!

Poor chap!!

My cupcakes...

Fresh hot cross buns...

Home made cookies...

Some of my colleagues enjoying the morning tea- and J wearing her "Easter bonner" hahaha!

Do you celebrate Easter?

24 hours left to enter my giveaway!

Hi all! THERE'S JUST 24 HOURS LEFT TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!

Up for grabs is your very own "Nothing But Bones" necklace from my new Shh By Sadie range!

This necklace is up for grabs!!

 

To be in to win, all you have to do is be a follower of What Sadie Did on GFC or Bloglovin and comment below. It's that easy!

And for extra entries:

Like Shh By Sadie on Facebook

Tweet about the giveaway, adding @sadiesadiesadie so I know about it!

Blog about the giveaway

Facebook about the giveaway

Please comment for each of these so I know you've got extra entries!

And while the competition is running everyone else can save 20% at Shh By Sadie with the coupon code

"blogaversary"

Competition is open worldwide and will run for two weeks and closes 5th April.

Whoop! :)