Charlie Tamara Piper

I've always had problematic nails. They chip and peel pretty easily which I addressed by keeping them short. For as much as I wanted to grow them out, I just couldn't figure out the best tricks to get length. I wanted to see if I could turn my nails around and, thanks to some research and putting together a great routing, I feel like I finally found products and a routine that really help my nails out.  Nov. 6 - Starting point Here are my nails at the starting point on November 6. My skin gets very dry in the fall and winter and my nails were certainly feeling it the most. I had peeling on my right ring and middle fingernails that I had to address. Here's how I started treating my nails: - I switched my nails to a rounded shape. For as much as I love square or squoval tips, a round nail shape does the best job at preventing snags and peels on nails. It's a great protective shape, particularly as I was trying to grow out damaged nails. ...

Gift wrapping projects are my favorite crafting projects! I so enjoy picking out gifts for loved ones and wrapping them up to make them all the more special. I think this year's holiday present recipients will get a kick of the gifts they're getting and the beautiful packaging. The Stuffed Animal There aren't too many ways to wrap up a stuffed animal, but I think a festive bow can really create a thoughtful presentation moment. I made a large bow around this little kitty's neck with some metallic fabric ribbon.  If you can tie a shoe, you can tie a bow like this. Tie a large bow and tighten the knot so the bow is secure. Then make another bow using the first one as a guide for how to properly shape the loops of the bow. Once you've completed the bows, take the longer side of the tail and wrap it around the knots to hide them. Secure the tail with a single tie (not a knot) and the bow will be perfectly secure until it's time to remove the bow, whic...

I love giving away baked good as gifts. It's a low-impact gift to prepare that has high impact for the person receiving it. Today I decided to make a batch of brownies to give away as a gift. And since I love gift wrap so much, I wanted to give it a little extra special touch with the packaging. The photo above are all the tools I used to create the special gift packaging, and as you can see, it's quite simple. I purchase cellophane bags from Target and use some yarn, card stock, decorative edging scissors, and a metallic marker to bring it all together. First, I made my thank you note. I used two different edging scissors to cut my card stock and nest them together. A simple glue stick does the trick. I used my metallic Sharpie to write a quick note of thanks on the card. Once dry, I used a hole puncher to create a hole for the yarn to go through to affix the card to the package. I placed the brownies inside the bag and tied the yarn and note around th...

I've been on a major foundation kick lately. As I get older and my skin changes, I'm always in the hunt for a foundation that'll work to meet my needs and the look I'm going for. Above, you'll see my foundation collection - and I'm completely aware that I have way more foundation than any one person possibly needs. I'll discuss them from left to right with my favorites highlighted in bold. Laura Mercier Candleglow Soft Luminous Foundation : This foundation is great for more natural days. I don't tend to grab for it too often because it does dry to a tacky finish which I immediately set with powder to stop my skin from feeling that way. Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide : While the shade range leaves something to be desired, you will find this foundation provides great coverage and blurs imperfections. I tend to use this foundation when I have a breakout I'm looking to hide. Laura Mercier Silk Creme Oil Free : Laura Mercier reform...

On my first day of college, and in my very first class at college, our professor gave us our semester project: we were to change the world. I've spent every day since working towards that goal. The results of last week's presidential election are most certainly disappointing, to say the least. Now more than ever we will be faced with doing exceedingly hard work to remove all manner of hatred and discrimination from our lives.  In our hurt and anger, we may find it hard to figure out the best place to start towards healing and creating a better tomorrow. We must be the change we want to see. Here are the organizations that will need our help - our donations, our time, our support and our effort - in order to succeed: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)   has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States gua...

Halloween is upon us! I wanted a cool Halloween costume that didn't break the bank and would be suitable for the family Halloween party I would be attending. Enter Rosie the Riveter: a super powerful costume that can be easily achieved with a little crafting. I spent $3 pulling off my costume! Here's how I did it. I first turned to my favorite artwork resource - Google Images - to get versions of the famous Rosie the Riveter poster with and without Rosie herself. I printed the Rosie-less version on card stock and laminated it to make it sturdier. Then I used mailing tape to fix a stick to the back of the poster. I printed and laminated the Rosie version to fit over the pocket on my denim shirt, using mounting tape to keep it secure. Next, it was on to the fun part - makeup! I couldn't help myself and wanted to use all of my fun makeup. After prepping my skin with Giorgio Armani Maestro UV Skin Defense primer , I used the products featured in the photo above...

They say that good things come in small packages, and with a little gift wrapping magic, you can make small packages have a big impact! Here's how to do it: I started by wrapping this small box in metallic purple paper. The recipient loves purple and so do I, so the paper was a natural choice. I didn't want to add a ribbon because I felt it would be too large for such a small gift. Instead, I created an embellishment to mimic the look of a ribbon without overpowering the gift. I used a decorative punch and some black card stock to cut out a floral string. I then used some clear adhesive to wrap the floral string snugly around the box. To create a custom gift bag, I cut the remaining black card stock to a 6 in. x 6 in. square and used a decorative punch to create a scrolled circle. I then took some purple card stock and used edging shears to give it a festive border. I then assembled everything over a small brown gift bag. The purpl...

Shoe storage is tricky. They take up a good deal of space and it's hard to sort out how to accommodate the different shapes and sizes of each shoe. For years I swore by the plastic shoe boxes by the Container Store , and I still recommend them. They're a fabulous storage solution and multifunctional - I currently use many of them as drawer dividers. My shoe closet was always neat and organized. Here's an old shot of my shoe closet. I stored all of my flats and sneakers in the center boxes and vertically stacked my boot boxes along each side. While everything was certainly neat and visible, it was a bear to get to my shoes. I found myself wearing the same pairs of shoes repeatedly because I didn't want to pull a box out from the lower levels. And grabbing a single pair of boots was no easy task. Storing my purses on the shelf above my shoes was a great idea but really needed to make better use of that shelf for shoe storage. I spent a lot of time online loo...

I love clothing, and carefully storing your clothing is the best way to take care of your clothes to make sure they last as long as they can.  This was my closet on Thursday night. I loved using wooden hangers, but as you can see, my closet was simply bursting at the seams. Clothing fell off the hangers regularly because the closet was so jam-packed. Closet organization is tough - especially in New York City, where your closets are super tiny. I had already added additional space by adding a hanging closet rod  but I knew that my hangers were getting in the way.  I caught an amazing sale at Macy's for Huggable Hangers and immediately ordered up a few boxes. I'd heard so many positive things about them over the years and with my closet in complete chaos, it was time to give them a shot. And the results speak for themselves! I switched out my wooden hangers for my new Huggable Hangers and gained so much space. I was even able to add a few additi...

Fall is here! Fall is my absolute favorite season and I enjoy the darker colors of autumn. I'll wear a dark manicure any time of the year but it's clear that you can get away with it more in fall. While at my local Walgreens I found this dark, vampy shade called Nemesis from CoverGirls's Outlast Stay Brilliant line of nail polish. I have a ton of dark polishes - each one that I believe is somehow unique! - but this one had enough of a purple undertone in it to seem more unique than many of my other darker polishes, with a black, brown or red base to them. And at $6.50 for the bottle, it was worth a shot. CoverGirl claims this polish contains a base coat, pigment and top coat in one bottle so that no additional products are necessary. Customer reviews indicate that the polish has great wear to it, which I'm particularly keen on - by day three, I usually touch up or even redo my nails because I don't like the way they look anymore. My first impressions of th...

I love home organization, and a few months back I found two teal organization pieces at TJ Maxx that I knew would be perfect in my home office. The only trouble? I needed to find a way to make the teal pieces work with my purple color scheme in my home office. I'd shown the results on my Instagram page ( @charlietpiper ) and I got a few requests for the details on how I completed the transformation. When I found a third teal piece at Marshall's, I knew I had a fantastic way to organize my crafting supplies and I could finally show the super quick process for how you can make pieces work for you with a little bit of crafting. To the left is the desktop organizer I picked up at Marshall's. It's just a shade or two off from the original piece I customized but it's a negligible difference for me. In this case, I didn't much care for the pictures inside the frames of organizer, but I knew that it would be easy enough to fix it up. To the right is the o...