I'm back from my birthday trip to the beach!!  It was so fun & a much-needed moment with the ocean that I am still recovering from.  I swear I have been a level of tired that seems impossible, but I have been falling asleep every chance I get.  Not because I want to necessarily; I'm not really a napper.  I've been falling asleep because my body is in desperate need of recovery.  I sleep or I sit in pain and cry.  Such is life with a chronic illness.  I can fight my way to having fun, but you bet your sweet caboose I am going to be paying for it!

Anyway, one of the fun things I demanded my friends and I do for my festivities was to dress up and take photos on the beach.  I bought this lovely Eloquii maxi that inspired my themed shoot.  I ended up making a tiara out of seashells, crystals, and beads to go along with it, and it has been really hard waiting to reveal it to you!!  I busted my butt to get these photos ready this week, so please enjoy this look at our beachy fun!  (The rest of the trip photos will be on their way soon.)

First things first, let's talk about this tiara!  I scoured Etsy and eBay looking to just buy what I wanted, but nothing really met all the requirements I had for what I wanted to wear.  I liked certain elements of the tiaras I saw, but none of them had everything I liked.  

So I decided to make one myself.

I bought all the shells and crystals on Etsy, found the wire and beads in the craft store, and managed to find a couple of YouTube tutorials that inspired the techniques I used to actually make the crown.  Mostly, I was winging it.  I restarted it again and again.  The largest shell got a hole in it because they are still fragile objects.  I completely gutted my fingernails as the wire scratched and broke and split them.  It was a month's worth of work, but it was totally worth it!

I ended up with exactly what I had envisioned, for the most part.  This tiara makes me really happy and I am very proud of the finished result!

I didn't film any real tutorial for this because I honestly had no idea how it was going to turn out or if I was even going to be able to make it happen.  But here are a few tips if you want to make one yourself:

The dress itself is very lightweight and perfect for summer weather.  The elasticized waist and arms aren't tight at all, which is always a plus.  I tied the front of the dress around my strapless bra so it didn't budge or move around too much while taking photos and fighting the wind.  Eloquii also carries this dress in five other solid colors and prints!

I envisioned us all dressed like we were going to a nice luau or dinner at a beach resort for the photoshoot.  I titled this theme "Eleganza Na Mara" (because we enjoy watching Drag Race together and "na mara" means "of the sea" in Gaelic.)

And then my friend Julian pulled out this "sexy sea witch" costume and purple face makeup because that was how he interpreted the theme.  At first, I was a bit miffed about it because I had a specific vision in my head and I am not good at managing expectations about how I think something will go and how it actually goes.  

I've also been working on myself a LOT over Quarantine, so I didn't even get all that upset about it.  I rolled with it, which is something I would have had a really hard time doing even a couple years ago.

But it turns out, Julian makes a super cute sea witch, purple face and all.  I think he looks adorable in the photos and it makes it that much more fun to look at them and remember people taking photos with him and telling him he was "going viral".  (Although I did bitch at him for trying to upstage me and also wearing a tiara. 😉)

The weather also worked with us because the day we planned to take the photos was the only somewhat sunny day and the only day that had a distinguishable sunset the entire weekend.  It was cloudy the rest of the time.  Rest assured it was still hella cold and we were all freezing, but I give my friends mad props for humoring me and hanging in there, and making my vision come to life!

Also, the people out and about were really nice!  I am sure they thought we were better suited to be in Hawaii than in 50-degree Pacific Northwest weather, but they were at least entertained.  Obviously, we haven't been around people that much the last year and a half, so I expected sour folks.  But people would ask what we were celebrating, tell me happy birthday, and give me compliments on the whole look and my tiara.  I almost forgot there was still a pandemic going on because people were really nice.  They still kept their distance, but it just felt refreshing to have fun interactions with people where I could see their smiles and feel their positive energy.

Now that all the explaining is out of the way, enjoy our photoshoot!!