Meet my medium sponsors!

Hey everyone! Today I want to share with you my favorite posts from my medium sponsors. I'm so lucky to have such stylish and lovely sponsors :) please take a moment to take a look at their blogs and tell them how wonderful they are!

 Chloe from Lazy Explorers shares her adventure in the woods. I love her Augustus Wrinkle satchel.

Lauren from Old Red Boots celebrates her one year blogiversary by showing us her kick ass outfit. I want almost every outfit Lauren posts, and this one is no exception.

Jessa from Caked Vintage shows us her visit to Wassama Village. I love Jessa's ladylike style and how she always finds an outfit to compliment her surroundings too.

Billie Jean always wows me with her ability to style the most eyecatching outfits. I particularly love this one because I love the French Bulldogs on her top.

I found this article by Wild Beauty World very interesting. Meli always has something interesting to say about beauty and culture.

Lindsay from Hello, Mr Rabbit shares with us her day of thrifting and wondering in the woods. I love Linsdays outfit, especially her pink beret!

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An interview with PonyChops & a giveaway winner!

Last week Abigail from Buttercrumble approached me asking to interview me on her blog. Of course I said yes! Here's the interview. Abigail creates such adorable kawaii artwork, so I feel very honored that she chose to feature me on her blog.

On other news, I've been looking for some amazing stilettos to use for custom painted orders for some time. I think I've finally found some I'm happy with! What do you think of these? I ordered a sample pair last week and they are very comfy and good quality. I can't wait to get painting little kawaii things all over these babies!

I picked a winner for the Celine H20 giveaway today too! And it's the weirdest coincidence, Abigail from Buttercrumble is the winner!

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Etsy Shop Crush - Go Go Berlinette

I don't offer feature vintage shops in my Etsy Shop Crushes, It usually has to be a pretty special vintage decor shop to catch my eye.

Go Go Berlinette certainly is special. Not only do they present their finds in a clean, appealing way, but they also have a great variety of adorable and quirky vintage decor. Most of Go Go Berlinette's finds are West German mid century.

[Etsy] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Blog]

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Beautiful Forever - Temporary Tattoos

When I was a kid I was obsessed with temporary tattoos. I would cover my arms (and sometimes my face, much to my parents disapproval) in butterflies, spiders and unicorns. Temporary tattoos back then were pretty unoriginal and limited to ponies and fairies for girls and spiders and tribal for boys. We we starved of awesome grumpy cat and donut tattoos.

Recently, one of my fav bloggers & artists, Michelle from Creature Type told me about an exhibition she was taking part in: Beautiful Forever - A tribute to tattoos. You can check out Michelle's blog post about the exhibition here.

Beautiful Forever is a collection of temporary tattoos designs, designed by 40 contemporary illustrators. It's showing March 22, 2013 through April 12th, 2013 at Light Grey Art Lab Minneapolis, so if you're lucky enough to live close by, pop in and cover yourself in grumpy cat and lil bub tattoos! You can purchase the tattoos online here.

As a tattoo lover and also someone who's maybe a little too impulsive when it comes to permanent decisions, I love these temporary tattoos! What's better than wearable art that you can remove and replace when you want a different look?

Not only does this exhibition contain kick ass art work, but it's also for a great cause. Minneapolis tattoo artist Tom Strom was involved in a bad biking accident and needs back surgery. Proceeds of temporary tattoo sales will go towards Tom's recovery.

1. Michelle Volansky / 2. Matthew Hayton / 3. Lillian Joan Duermeier / 4. Jared Tuttle / 5. Alyssa Nassner / 6. Ulana Zahajkewycz / 7. Vero Navarro / 8. Katie Sanvick / 9. Delia Evin

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Vegan Apricot and Carrot Cupcakes

Every year me and Ash make each other birthday cakes, this year he asked for carrot cake - his favorite. I've already done a few vegan carrot cakes before and was bored of the old recipe I was using, so I decided to play around with ingredients and this is the result. The dried apricots add a great flavor to the cakes. I like to soak and simmer them in orange juice so when you bite into them you get a tangy, juicy taste of orange.

This recipe is based on this wonderful recipe from The Ethical Chef.

Ingredients:

• 225g Grated carrots
• 170g Dried apricots, cut into little pieces
• 280g Self raising flour
• 150g Cane sugar
• 80g Desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• 200g Vegan margarine
• 200ml Orange juice
• Pinch of salt
• A few walnuts to decorate (optional)

Frosting:
I used this recipe for the frosting.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (325F).
2. Simmer the orange juice and chopped dried apricots in a pan for 5-10 mins (until the apricots begin to soften). Allow to cool.
3. Mix the margarine and sugar together in a bowl. Add the grated carrots.
4. Add the cooled juice/apricot mixture, sift the flour, salt and spices in and mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cakes and bake for 12-18 mins.
6. Allow to cool before frosting & decorating.

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Be My Trash

I've been wanting to start posting about fashion a little more lately. Fashion is probably my biggest passion. I want to start sharing some of the eccentric brands and trends that inspire me and make me work harder towards a future in fashion design.

I wanted to start off my fashion inspiration posts with a brand I only discovered last week, Trash. When I first saw Trash's website it was love at first sight. They have such an in your face style, the kind of style that you either love or hate. I think this brand is definitely one to look out for in the future! Oh gosh, how I would love to design shoes to match these wonderful clothes!

Trash was created by Angela Brejt, who works closely with talented graphic designers who often don't have a formal education. Angela is a vegetarian (Is it possible for me to love this brand any more??) and strives to ensure she never uses any animal skin or furr in her collections.

Trash focuses on creating clothing that will flatter women of all shapes and often only produces 4 to 5 copies of each piece.

My favorite pieces from this collection are the all seeing eye, reptilian inspired dresses and leggings. I'm a little obsessed with conspiracy theories, I find them inspiring and entertaining, so I love that these pieces don't just contain the fashion of the all seeing eye, and that they also include the reptilian element.

Check out Trash's Online shop and their Facebook page.

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Etsy Shop Crush - Hello Dodo

Hello Dodo is such a fun shop. It's vibrant and full of witty and playful prints, bags & vests.

Hello Dodo are based in Brighton, England, anyone who's been to Brighton will know it's a totally rad and fun place to be, I think Brighton definitely shines through in Hello Dodo's prints.

[Etsy] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Blog]

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Wednesday Art Feature: Hannakin

I first came across Hannakin's (Hanna Mancini's) work when I found her ridiculously cute plushies on etsy. I soon realised just how multi talented Hanna was when I saw her adorable original artwork.

Hanna's work is full of imagination, whimsy and fun. Each of her illustrations seems to tell a story of it's own. I love that she paints on recyled paper, envelopes, labels and books.

[DeviantArt] [Etsy]

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Mermaids & Goldfish Russian Dolls

This is a custom order I finished last week of some mermaid Russian Dolls. They're based on my original Mermaid Matryoshka but personalised to look like the customer - as a present for her penpal. The customer wanted open eyes instead of my usual closed eyed dolls - I think the new open eyed look is super cute, I also love the brunette hair colour too. She also wanted some little goldfish including in the design.

Want some of your own personalised Russian Dolls? Contact me through my Etsy Shop or at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

Don't forget to enter my Celine H20 Giveaway!

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A life update, Giveaways & Happy Birthday to me!

 
Hi guys! I thought I best update you all on my uni/Dr Martens situation! Basically, I didn't get the docs job, which I'm absolutely gutted about. But at the same time, it's really nice to know that I'll be going to uni this year. I can't wait to move to London and start a new adventure in life!

In other news, I turned 26 on Saturday. I don't feel any more grown up or mature, I still apparently have teenage (read, spotty and unco-operative) skin. Ash turned 29 on Friday too so we had a joint Birthday night out which resulted in lots of screaming 80s songs at the top of our voices in a local bar. My bestie, Ginge, from Chopstitch me this awesome avocado bag for my birthday. She's the best!!

Apparently GFC will no longer be working for none google blogger, which sucks! You can follow me instead with Bloglovin if you want to keep up with my posts.

Beth from Arrow In The Eye is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 1 year blogiversary, you can win loads of awesome goodies including a large advertising spot on PonyChops the blog! So go check it out and Enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Also, don't forget to enter my Celine H20 Giveaway!

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CelinaH20 Giveaway

I'm so excited to share this giveaway with you all! CelineH20 is a new Etsy shop that sells eclectic, boho and unique jewellery. CelineH20 was created by Celine, an art and culture graduate who loves to travel. Her jewellery is inspired by tribal and ethnic style and is often created using vintage finds so each piece is more special and unique.

[Etsy] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Blog]

To enter you must be following PonyChops the blog via GFC or Bloglovin. The lucky winner will get to choose a piece of jewellery from the following collection:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Fashion Favs Friday - 15/03/13

1. By Beep - Whimsical and beautifully designed jewellery. It's so intricate, cute and tiny.
2. Maria Handmade - Beautiful & bold jewellery that's full of texture. I love the way the jewellery is photographed too.
3. Vera Vague - Beautiful vintage items at great prices. I could buy my whole wardrobe here.
4. Now Voyager - Stunning and super fun hair clips at great prices. Perfect for fancy dress or to make a statement!
5. Fuzzy Ink - Great quality hand printed t-shirts in loads of cool designs. I bought this mustache one about 2 years ago and it's still going strong.
 

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