Adding a sequined appliqué to a sweater

I bought a really simple white sweater from H&M not that long ago. One of those sweaters that can be dressed up with nice pants or a skirt, but can also be dressed down with jeans. The first time that I wore it, it got caught on something that pulled some of the threads out a little. The hole was so tiny, I thought that I could get away with wearing it anyways. That was until my 13 year old cousin pointed at my chest one night at dinner and said "you have a hole on your boob." That, I thought, was the last time I could ever wear that sweater.

I was really bummed because I had literally worn it twice. I didn't want to throw it away, but I didn't know what else to do with it. I had some sequined appliqués that I had bought for a previous DIY project, and a lightbulb went off. 

All I did was hand sew that appliqué onto the sweater, and voila! I now have a cute sweater with just the right amount of sparkle on it. The only thing is, I now have to hand wash it, or wash it in the gentle cycle.

My rose appliqué - I really like the white on white

How I trained for my first half marathon

I've been running seriously for about two years now. I've participated in the SunRun training program twice, this time around aiming for a faster time. The training worked, and my 10 km time was 53.38 minutes. Not too shabby for these little legs of mine. Since I was beginning to actually like running, I started thinking about pushing myself further and training for a half marathon.

For awhile, it was just talk. When anyone would ask me about my running, I would throw it out there that maybe one day I'd like to run a half marathon. I always thought I'd want to participate in a full training program for my first one, and kept coming up with excuses to myself about why I had to wait, perhaps a whole year. 

At the beginning of June, I overheard a coworker talking about a half marathon his sister was participating in. The run was the SeaWheeze half marathon put on by Lululemon. Being a fan of the clothing brand, I decided, this is it, this is going to be my first. In two minutes I had paid my registration, and was signed up to run 21.1 km. 

At that point, I had never run more than 10 km, so it was definitely going to be a challenge. I think that group training sessions for runs are very beneficial, and have seen it for myself with the SunRun, but for this one, I decided to go it alone. 

With just over two months to prepare, I didn't have a lot of time, so every day counted. I decided that I would do three 5-10 km runs during the week, depending on how much time I had (I like to wake up around 5-5:30 am and run before work). Then, on either Saturday or Sunday, I would do a long run. 

The amazing shoes I bought before my training.

I started with 12 km, then 15, then 17, all the way up to 24 km. Running that far was a bit unintentional as I didn't realize the lake trail I was running was longer than 20 km, and I ran it twice. Two weeks before the run, I knew I could do it! I did one last long run the Sunday before, and took the week off so as not to be sore and hurt myself. 

The day of the half marathon, I was so excited. I knew I was ready, and was just bursting with energy. As soon as I crossed the start line, I was off like a rocket, iPod on, headphones in, feeling good. 

I have to say, Lululemon put on a great event. Along the way there were people rappelling down the side of buildings, people dressed as mermaids along the Seawall, people dressed up on standup paddle boards, and so much more. There were also some amazing signs being held by volunteers. Some that come to mind are: "It smells like baking because you're a stud muffin"; "you've got the eye of the tiger and legs of Gisele"; and "your legs are sore from kicking so much butt!". 

It was all good until about the 15 km mark. At that point I started to feel some pain in my hips, forcing me to slow down a bit. But I kept on running. I just kept thinking to myself "one foot in front of the other."

I'm smiling, so it can't have been that bad!

I finished with a time of 2:11.17. I'm pretty proud of that time because, regardless of the pain, and the voices in my head telling me to stop, I pressed on and ran the whole way. 

Maybe next time I will partake in a group training program, but from this experience, I know that it can be done alone. Break it into small steps, and it becomes manageable. All it takes is perseverance and dedication. Believe me, if I can do it, you can do it.

Lace braids

I am completely obsessed with braids. French braids, dutch braids, waterfall braids, spiral staircase braids...I know how to do them all. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I may or may not have spent many a night watching braiding tutorials on YouTube instead of sleeping.

The only thing is, as much as I love my curly hair, braids do not show up very well in it. Because it is already so textured, the intricacy of the braid gets lost in it. I remember when I learned how to do a five-strand braid. I was so excited to do it in my hair, and when it was done, it looked nothing like in the picture. Almost like it was just a regular braid.

This is the reason that I love to braid other people's hair. I have lots of friends with straight, or slightly wavy hair, in which braids look absolutely gorgeous!

Here's a tutorial that I used to learn how to do lace braids:

It's actually quite simple to do. Practice a few times and you'll get the hang of it! I actually did not one, but two lace braids for my pretty friend Alannah. I was sitting next to her at her birthday dinner, and couldn't resist! 

I could braid her hair all day!

You caught me, I Instagrammed!

Once you're able to do a regular lace braid, the possibilities are endless!

Pac-Man and Blinky costumes

I was invited to a costume party a little while ago. The theme of the party of 8 bit adventure, and to fully participate in all of the awesomeness, guests were asked to dress as their favourite video game character. Since I was going with a friend of mine, we decided it would be cute to dress as Pac-Man and Blinky - one of the ghosts. 

And so my DIY cogs started turning. I did some Googling, and found this image. 

So cute, right? 

The price for the dresses you see above is $32. I thought that I could do better. The tutorial below shows you how to make two similar dresses for approximately $8 each. The process for making both of these costumes was relatively simple, and believe me, if I could do it, anyone can do it. 
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Tutorial:

1. Find a dress that fits you well and lay it on your jersey fabric. Kill two birds with one stone by folding the fabric in half so you only have to trace and cut once. This is my favourite way to make simple dresses such as these two because it means not needing to create a pattern. 
2. Trace around the dress. I turn the dress inside out, and then give another quarter to half inch seam allowance. If the seam allowance is too much at the end, it can always be trimmed. 
3. Pin, pin, pin! Put pins through both sides of the fabric to ensure they stay together when you sew them together. 
4. Sew. I used a half inch seam allowance, which was fine. When it comes to jersey fabric, I use a special needle. The needle I use is not as sharp, which allows it to pass through the fibres instead of cutting them. Also, use a zigzag stitch when sewing jersey, as it stretches with the fabric. A straight stitch will break. 
5. The one step I forgot to take a picture of was when I rounded the bottom of the dress. I wanted to include a picture of Lite Steam-A-Seam2, which is something that I discovered just recently. It's fusible webbing for adding trim, lace, or even hemming delicate fabrics. What I love about jersey is that it doesn't have to be hemmed. It doesn't fray, and rolls at the end. However, when I rounded the bottom of the dress, this quality did not come in handy. In order to give the bottom some weight, I added fusible webbing, and ironed the hem. 
6. Cut out the eyes and mouth out of black fabric scraps. 
7. Sew the eyes and mouth onto the front of the fabric. In hindsight, I probably should have sewn them on before I sewed the front and the back of the dress together. However, I wanted to make sure the dress fit before I continued, so that's why I sewed them on last. The challenge with that is making sure to only sew through the front of the dress, and not the back as well. 
8. You now have a cute Pac-Man dress! 

Below are some pictures documenting the steps I took to make the Blinky costume. It was basically the same as the Pac-Man dress, so I won't repeat the descriptions of the steps again. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask! 

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In total, I think each dress took me about an hour, which isn't bad at all. Minus the fact that Blinky's eyes are a bit googly, I think they turned out great! And the party was a blast!

Aren't we cute? 

Blinky

Pac-Man. Or Pac-Woman? 

Blinky chases Pac-Man constantly, and is known to have a temper!

Getting revenge!

Birthday card with mini bunting

I love making my own birthday cards. I can't remember the last time I bought a birthday card, or any card for that matter, to give someone. Whether it's designing one on the computer, or using scissors and glue, I like to give my cards that special, personal touch. 

My boyfriend's birthday was this week, and I wanted to make him a cute birthday card. I also wanted it to be a bit unique since this is the third birthday card I have given him. A little Google image search led me to a picture from a blog called How About Orange. 

The tutorial is super simple, and the card was quite easy to make, and only took me about 45 minutes to make (I was a bit slow because I was watching TV and cutting little triangles out of construction paper). 

All you need is:

1. Coloured construction paper
2. Thread, or very thin string
3. Card stock for the actual card (I used a recipe card because that's all I had)
4. A glue stick (I actually used Mod Podge because my glue stick had dried out)

Kind of cute, isn't it?

How to get perfect ringlets with naturally curly hair

I love my curly hair. But it hasn't always been this way. When I was younger I had a really hard time with it because I simply did not know what to do with the birds nest on my head. I did the crunchy curls thing with too much gel (worst hairstyle ever), and sometimes I would just slick it back into a tight ponytail.

As I got older, I started trying every curl crème, styling gel, mousse and spray out there. If you could find it at a Shoppers Drug Mart, you could find it in my bathroom cabinet. A few years ago, I finally came across the perfect combination of products: argan oil and mousse designed for curly hair. Then air dry. That's it! Basically I've found that although having curly hair appears to be complicated, it is actually so easy to manage with the right products.

On days where I feel like being a little bit fancy, I will twirl small sections of hair around my finger while they are wet after I have put product in.

Some tips:

1. Make sure your hair is quite wet when you do this, but not dripping
2. Separate your hair into at least two sections: bottom and top
3. Twirl the hair away from your face
4. Save your bangs for last
5. If you really need to, you can use a diffuser. I prefer to let air dry
6. As your hair dries, you may notice some of the sections get a little bit crunchy. Simply scrunch your hair with your hands to get rid of the crunch

Ooh shiny!

Don't you just want to sproing them?

Hopefully that explanation was clear. Ringlets look great down, but also make for gorgeous updos.

Fun tassely t-shirt scarf

I'm just going to come out and say it. I love t-shirt crafts. Especially scarves made out of t-shirts. They're cheap, fun, and usually fairly easy. 

I saw an awesome roundup of t-shirt scarf tutorials recently on My Blessed Life. I decided to make number seven - the fringe scarf. Since summer is finally here in Vancouver (it's about time, right?), I thought that this scarf would be light enough to pair with a cute shirt and jean shorts or a skirt. 

The tutorial itself comes from Lakeland Local. But I've taken pictures so you can see exactly how I did it. 

a. Grab any ol' XL t-shirt. I chose white. Cut it just under the armpits. I used a rotary cutter for all of my cutting in this project, but you can totally use scissors if you prefer. 

b. Save the scraps!! You never know when you will need scrap fabric for another project. 

c. Cut small strips about halfway up the tube of fabric. Not too small though, or you risk them breaking. 

d. Now for the fun part! Pull on each strip until it rolls up on itself. Jersey fabric is great for this. 

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That's all there is to it! Now put it over your head and rock your new scarf! As you can see in the pictures I took, I added my own little twist and knotted all of the jersey strings. I think if I made another one, I'd add beads to it as well.