Look Mom, I Made a Shirt!

See that pretty purple flowery skirt in the above photos? Do you like it? Well, I hope so, because whether you like it or love it or hate it, I made it! Sooo great, huh? I guess it just feels great to me to make my own clothes. The wonderful thing is that my grandma gave me a ton of fabric that she wasn't going to use, so this shirt was also FREE! Life doesn't get much better than this.

Storytime: When I was younger (aka junior high/high school) I hated sewing. I really did not like it at all. I was just pretty darn terrible at it, or so I thought. Like for Personal Progress (a goal program thing for girls 12-18 in the LDS church) I sewed a skirt as one of my projects and I am pretty sure that I needed help on that thing every step of the way. My mom probably did more work on it than I did (sorry, Mami!). And it wasn't a super enjoyable process for me because I just did not like sewing and I thought I was awful at it. The most enjoyable part was wearing it. And in sophomore year of high school my friends Courtney and Laura and I decided to sew matching cute bags to take to school. Well, they probably did a lot of the work on that bag because I was so clueless. I didn't even know one bit how to use a sewing machine! The funny thing is that I still use that bag all the time today and when people say "Oh that's so cute, where did you get it?!" I say "I made it," and they say, "Oh of course you did," because a lot of people know how much I love to sew. But I just smile because that bag is a remnant of my sewing-hatred days.

I'm not really sure what changed inside of me, but I have always been very crafty. I used to make cards and stuff all the time, I made pen pals (see below), then I moved on to fabric flowers (also see below) and eventually I just wanted to sew clothes and my love of sewing has blossomed since.

Pen Pals! I still love these. I got the idea from an American Girl magazine forever ago!

Fabric flowers--I apologize, these aren't the best flowers I've made, but they work

The funny thing with me is that I am a very obsessive person, so I really love some things (sewing, Carrie Underwood, purple, wearing coral, etc.) and I really hate others (vegetables, spiders, heights, any talk of blood or gross bodily stuff, and back when I hated sewing). So I am like super obsessive with something (sometimes more than one thing) at a time. I used to be a very avid reader. I'd take a book everywhere. My parents would come downstairs and tell me to go to bed so I'd turn off my light, and then when they were gone I'd turn the light on again and finish the book that night. I'd read during school while teachers were lecturing (and still get a good grade in the class! ha!). I'd take my book in the car or I'd take a book into a restaurant and read while waiting for my food or while I was eating my food (my parents got annoyed by that one) and all the time I would read. I was reading at a college level by 8th grade.

And now...I sew. People will ask me to hang out, and if I'm the middle of a sewing project, I always decline. My motivation to get my homework done during the week is so that I can sew on the weekend. I have to keep going until I finish and I will lock myself up in my room until I'm done. Basically, I'll see people in my ward and they say, "Where have you been? I haven't seen you for a while, did you go on vacation?" And my answer is always, "I've been sewing." Gah, I am sooo pathetic! But I'm a sewing hermit and I don't mind at all.

So that's my super long schpeel about my process of sewing going from a hatred to an obsession. It just goes to show that we really could probably love anything if we just let ourselves. :) Have a fab Tuesday!!

Princesses and Painting

Gah, I have the WORST allergies right now and I've had them all week. We're talking nose running, nose stuffing, sneezing, tongue itching, eyes watering and getting swollen and my back itching. My mom is getting me some new allergy medicine this morning that will hopefully work better. But most likely I'm gonna have to go to the doctor to get this checked out...poo. :( And even though last time turned out okay, I'd rather not have to keep going back..I guess as long as there are no needles involved!!

I got face paint with my aunt yesterday at the Princess Festival in Thanksgiving Point and another festival called West Fest. It was sooo fun! It was first time painting at a festival so I was a little nervous but I ended up getting the hang of most of the faces and going pretty fast. If you want your face painted, just come on by and I'd be glad to do it hehe. ;)

{My aunt's website is here if you want to find out more of what she does or just see more pictures of some cool face painting! In the face painting gallery, I'm in one of the pictures and my sisters (esp. Gracie) are in some too!}

The Princess Festival is this cute thing where all these little girls come and dress up as princess and get to go around and meet pretty much every princess there is--Rapunzel (the favorite), the Princess and the Pea, Cinderella, Jasmine, you name it. All the proceeds go to a good cause and its pretty much run by volunteers so its really cool! I needed a princess-y dress to wear for it so I went to Savers and got an old prom type dress that looked like this... (except I started hemming it and then remembered to take a picture so use your imagination and think of the top part as longer)

And then I fixed it to look like this...

Cute, right? I hemmed it, added a gold sash thing, ruched the sleeves, made a square neck, and then ruffled it at the bottom (which took a while I might add). But seriously for a $5 thrifted dress, you can't get much better than that! The only thing was that there were some snaps in the back that kept coming undone so I think I want to do something to fix those too.

But doing this gave me an idea that maybe it would be fun to just get old prom dresses from DI or Savers for super cheap when they have their sales, refashion the dresses, and then donate them to a prom dress drive or start my own drive! I think it would be so fun to do something like that for a good cause cuz then girls could have dresses for free and also the dresses would all be unique. I will have to look into it. Does anyone know of any prom dress drives that happen in Utah, Salt Lake, or Davis counties?

And thanks for the contest entries and to everyone that entered! I think I'm gonna have a poll and just post them on here because it might be easier than facebook. I'll do it tomorrow, so get ready to vote!

An Outfit A Day...
Jacket? Thrifted
Dress? Thrifted and Refashioned
Belt? Thrifted
Watch and Bracelets? Thrifted, random places
Headband? BYU Campus Craft and Floral
Shoes? Forever Young..unfortunately they are beginning to die! :(

...Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 7 (jacket was a little stiff and the dress just felt a tiny bit short)
Original? 8
Did I like it? 9
Overall? 8

P.S. Thanks for all the nice comments and such from my last post! I think I was just having a lonely day and it's nice to feel loved on those days. :)

P.P.S. I've been obsessed with this song and music video ever since I watched it! I'm totally gonna learn the dance from it.

P.P.P.S. I'm sorry you must be sick of these, but happy half birthday to my lovely four and a half year-old sister Gracie! She's my best friend and I love her. A LOT.

Haveawonderfulday. Bye. :)

La Dee Dum Fa La Ta Ta

 Well hi.

Yesterday was Monday. Today is Tuesday. The week is slowly coming. I stayed the weekend at home sweet home with my family because I had two receptions and I'm going back on Thursday night for Memorial Day weekend and another reception. And So You Think You Can Dance starts Thursday night! Soooo psyched!!! Remember this day when I got to watch the live auditions? Almost the best day of my life (the best day of my life was seeing Carrie Underwood in concert for the first time--and the second time too ha--it was so amazing). Sorry if I obsessively talk about CU way too much. Honestly, I can never talk about her too much and I really do think she is SO incredible and deserves all the fame and credibility that she has. Biggest fan right here, peeps.

So I realized that I wear a cardigan with everything. Ok, well this wasn't really realized, it was already known.  haha. But I took a picture of my outfit without the cardigan on and thought I'd share so you can see that I can pull off outfits without cardigans too! Be proud. :)

Hehe..something else random is that the shift key on the left side of the keyboard came completely off and not even my dad, the computer awesome genius whiz, couldn't fix it. So I've now been learning how to use the right shift key for all the capital letters. I'm gonna turn into a weird typist! At work today, I was only using the right shift key even though all the keys work perfectly on the keyboard. Goodness gracious, the things I get myself into.

One more random note. I found out today that this belt is Liz Claiborne from 1990! Cool, huh? It came out before I was even born. That is definitely considered vintage to me. Before I was born=old.

Anywho. Have a good day. Are you watching the Glee Season 2 finale tonight? You can bet I am and I can't WAIT!!!

An Outfit A Day...
Cardigan? Thrifted
Blouse? J.C. Penney, gifted
Belt? Thrifted
Jeans? Ross
Necklace? F21

...Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 7
Original? 6
Did I like it? 8
Overall? 7

P.S. The title's a bit random too. Sorry.

Being Happy Now

Welp, it's Friday. Thank goodness! I get to go home for the weekend and go to two receptions, one of which Katri talked about. I also get to see Kung Fu Panda 2 (sorry, the other day I said it was Cars 2, my bad ha) for free before it comes out! Yeah baby! I loooove receptions and free movies. I can't wait to show you the dress I'm wearing today. :)

Anyways, you what really stinks sometimes? Being single. Yeah. I am going to say now that I've never kissed anyone or had a boyfriend. :( And sometimes it's okay, but most of the time, it can be really hard, because here in Provo, it seems like everyone is in a relationship, engaged, married, or breaking up. Ugh! It's so frustrating! I guess I just want it to be my turn. Is there anyone else out there in my same position? All the single ladies? ;) I guess the lesson I'm trying to learn through all of this is how to be happy where I'm at. Because I know that if I'm not happy now being single, then I'm not going to be happy if/when I date someone. I've been learning a lot lately that life could be absolutely wonderful and everything could be going right, but if you aren't happy with yourself, then you're not going to be happy. And that's a fact. So my goal is to be happy right now in my current situation. I'll keep you updated. Until then...happy Friday!

An Outfit A Day...
Cardigan? Abercrombie and Fitch, secondhand
Blouse? Thrifted
Necklace? F21
Jeans? Ross
Shoes? Thrifted

...Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 7.5
Original? 6
Did I like it? 7.5
Overall? 7

Life is Grand

Sometimes life isn't always happy, or doesn't go the way we planned.
Sometimes our hearts get broken or we get hurt, and there's nothing we can do about it, because its their love to give and take how they please.
Sometimes we mess up and don't know what to do.
Sometimes we fall in love with the wrong person, or trust the wrong "friend."
Sometimes even if life is going super well and everything is right, nothing is right, and we aren't happy.
Sometimes we wake up and want to go right back to bed.
Sometimes we look in the mirror and hate what we see.
Sometimes, we feel like no one loves us and like no one in the world cares or knows what we're going through.

But it's times like these when we're our strongest...when we can still put on a smile and get out of bed and put on a cute dress and get ready. When we can take our camera out and take a gazillion pictures, because life is too short to forget the memories. These are the times when we need to find someone else who needs the love more, because when we give it, we find it. This is when we can let ourselves cry our eyes out for five minutes and then stop. Because who likes feeling sad anyways? Without times like these, we wouldn't be able to find the deep strength in ourselves to go on....the strength that brings us happiness in others, in life, and in ourselves. :)



An Outfit A Day...
Dress? Thrifted and refashioned (sorry, I forgot to take a before pic!)
Cardi? (I realized that I wore this the other day, sorry again ha) Thrifted
Necklace? F21
Slip? Cut from a Rue 21 skirt
Shoes? Walmart
Bag? Target

Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 9
Original? 9
Did I like it? 9.5
Overall? 9

P.S. I have the BEST followers ever! Thanks to each and every person who reads this blog. My heart leaps every time I get a new follower and it makes me so happy to get comments. I appreciate every single one of you and I hope you know that. Thank you soooooo much! I'm so lucky :) I love this bloggy blog. :)

THE Dress

About time I blogged, huh? Haha sorry about that..I took a [nother] break, which was needed I think. But let's not dwell on the past, shall we?

So do you love this dress? Because I do! I think it might be my new favorite. And the best part? I made it from a dress I got at DI. I saw this Kate Spade dress in Lucky magazine...

...and immediately wanted it! Unfortunately, I don't have--nor want to spend--$355 for a dress. So I made my own...for $6! :) I've had this floral dress...

(The only difference is that I already hemmed the dress a little and then remembered to take a  "before" picture!)

...for a while and was only going to hem it and then just belt it, but after seeing that Kate Spade dress, I had bigger and better things planned! So I hemmed the dress, took the excess fabric from the bottom and made it into a bow. Then I put the dress on me and pinched a little bit of fabric from each side and pulled it over and then sewed it (sorry I should have taken pictures because this probably doesn't make a ton of sense). And then I hand-sewed the bow on.

I think it turned out super cute and I'm sooo excited to have it! I'll probably be wearing this dress a lot for...oh, idk, MY LIFE. That's how much I love it. :) And now it's inspired me to be more creative when I refashion dresses rather than just hemming them and belting them (although that's cute too ha).

Tell me what you think! Do you like it? Hate it (I hope not, please don't be mean!)? Does it look like the KS dress or not at all?

Do you like to refashion clothes? Link me to your posts/blog if you do! I love seeing what other people do and seeing their ideas!

Forever Ago

So this outfit pictured is actually something I wore back in March! I just never posted it because I guess I got lazy haha. Surprise.. ;) The skirt I'm wearing is one of my favorite skirts of all time! I made it from an old dress I got at DI (a thrift store in Utah) and I really love how it turned out. The floral pattern is just beautiful and I think it's so cute. :)

Not having classes has been the best thing of my life. I'm sooooo excited for this summer, because I'll be working, but I'll really be having time for me, which is what I need right now. I'm going to take lots of pictures, read a ton of books, sew cute things, go shopping, write all the time, dance, and take up new hobbies like swimming, video making, and family history. And just having lots of fun. I really want to be happy and it's definitely gonna happen this summer. Ahh..I'm so excited!!

An Outfit A Day...
Cardigan? F21
Gray tee? Rue 21
Necklace? F21
Belt? Thrifted
Skirt? Refashioned from a DI dress
Shoes? Target
Bag? Target

...Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 8
Original? 7
Did I like it? 8.5
Overall? 8

My Cute and Happy Dress :)

Haha my sister was being silly and was doing interesting photography perspectives ;)

Not much time to write, but I just have to say that I had a wonderful Easter! I'll be posting on my other blog more about it but I just didn't have time currently. I guess I just really love Easter because it makes me so happy. Celebrating the resurrection of Christ, sunshine, new birth, cute colors, SPRING!--they're all just wonderful. I celebrated by wearing my dress all day ;), going to church and playing Mary Magdalene for all the kids in primary (in my church primary is where the kids aged 3-11 go), jumping on the trampoline with my sister Gracie in our dresses, taking pictures, doing puzzles with my siblings, going to dinner at my grandparents' house (where the pictures are located) and coming home and watching the Amazing Race with my family. I love Easter. :)

my wonderful family! :)

Speaking of love, how much do you love this dress? ;) Pretty sure I'd have to say that I love it a lot! Isn't it sooooo cute?! I got it at Ross for like $22 and I think it is the perfect Easter/spring dress. I'm soooooo happy I bought it! Oh and I actually added the lace at the bottom of the dress just to make it a little bit longer and more modest. I think I like it more with the lace anyways.

How was everyone's Easter? Any cute clothes? Spending time with family? Tell me about it!!

An Outfit A Day...
White tee? Down East Basics
Dress? Ross
Shoes? Forever Young

...Keeps the Fashion Police Away
Comfort? 9.5 (because of the ruffly itchy stuff under..not too bad, but still)
Original? 9
Did I like it? 10
Overall? 9.5