#MangoDIY, Barcelona

Photos with watermark + video – courtesy of Mango (shot by Cup of Couple). The rest by Park & Cube

I know, POTATO – I’ll explain later. About two weeks back I plastered up a couple white-charged outfits with little explanation for the more-than-usual palm trees and less-than-usual clouds in the backdrop, for which I do apologize. Not that it was much of a mystery – it was clearly Barcelona, in its sexy entirety, where I was called back to lead the second #MangoDIY sessions. Seriously, sometimes I wish these events were public attractions that I can recommend to anyone visiting – I’d pipe on about this DIY class held in a gazebo in the middle of Parc de la Ciutadella where you get to customize dungarees from Mango while listening to mambo records…the teacher is a total hippie and mostly seen making a mountain of pom-poms in the corner or chasing giant bubbles around the park with a toothpick from the lunch spread. But alas, it was a special occasion that brought together sweet bloggers (Anouska, Adenorah, Doina, Izortze) and one each of their lucky readers, around a table where everything related to DIY had blown up on. Including, yes – potatoes. Because 1) this teacher is a hobbit and always needs taters around for emergency fry-ups, and 2) potatoes were the best shape-stamps back in kindergarten, remember? All you need is a simple knife and paint.

What was probably the most interesting was seeing some of the girls try to interpret customization with the trending ‘minimalist’ flair, most of which just ended up in variations of marble-painting on white denim shorts…

Many thanks to our rockstar host Mango again for the great fun! Check out the first session here, and watch some of the mini tutorials filmed during the day.

Images from the previous #MangoDIY in November

It’s that time of year again when you realize just how many inspiration boards you’ve created over the past Winter, yearning for longer, warmer days – each filled to the brim with promise of travel, food and DIY. Although, let’s be honest, this was all done while cooked up at home wrapped in a cosy blanket with much time to burn (#Irony our evergreen hashtag). If this is you however, here’s a great opportunity to kick start summer: Mango is throwing another DIY bash – hosted once again by yours truly. They’re calling on all dreamers and DIY mavens for a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to Barcelona over May 13-15, which includes of course, sexy Spain, glorious Catalan food, and a spot at the #MangoDIY workshop tables. How to enter? Easy – simply share a pic on your Instagram account with with the hashtag #MangoDIY, and a choice of which bloggers you’d like to accompany: @Adenorah, @Clochet, @GoldenDiamonds or @Anouskapb.

Good luck, and see you in Barcelona!

Where? Barcelona, baby! What? Two days of DIY fun, with Mango and captain Stud (me, OBVIOUSLY) How? As above, but check here as well for full details. Winners will be chosen by the four bloggesrs and announced on the 2nd of May, so enter by the 1st! Extra: Open internationally, but full Terms & Conditions here.

Photos with watermark courtesy of Mango, shot by Carrie Harwood. The rest by moi.

This was sunny Barcelona earlier last month, with the rockstar host Mango who brought together five bloggers (Yara, Levi, Christina, Carrie, moi) and four competition winners to two whole days filled with peachy fashion DIY fun. I was to overlook the workshops with my so-called ‘veteran’ DIY skills, and get the party started with a couple of projects. The stage was set, the venue decked out in every possible craft materials and tools imaginable, and of course, Mango victims (denim shirts, boyfriend jeans, accessories) sheepishly stacked along a wall, ready to be polka-dotted to death. And to my relief, lots of little dark corners to hide in if the DIY went wrong (i.e toilet with the stringy lightbulb thing). I was terrified, in all honesty, because as much as I like to call myself a DIY enthusiast, every project is still new to me with equal chance of success or failure. I could either end up with an amazing pair of slashed jeans, or a denim ‘thing’ with what could be pockets. Alas, the many years of ‘I play teacher, you play student’ games with my younger brother were of some use, it transpires, although as far as I remember nobody from this DIY workshop drank glue out of the bottle and ran off to mummy crying about it. I instructed the girls how to do ‘ABC’, and the girls went and wrote rap-songs out of their projects. It was mind blowing, actually, and wow am I really not as creative as I like to think (derp). Yeah, and nobody ate glue. I mean, I ate glue, while the girls created masterpieces. You’ll believe me when you see this.

Thank you Mango for the good fun and the warm welcome to Barcelona!