DIY sweater skirt

Recently I've really been getting into the holiday spirit. I try to pretend this is the "wintry" spirit but in all honesty, it's really just that I'm getting over-excited for Christmas. I've also been getting really crafty recently (particularly "wintry" crafts). So when my mom held up this hideous old sweater vest and asked me if I wanted it, I said yes! After my initial reaction of "ew no" that is.

 And now, I have a cute knit skirt to wear during the winter (and Christmas!) months :)

So now I'll share with you my DIY sweater skirt. Don't be judgemental of my very simple and bad sewing skills, I pretty much NEVER sew so this was one of my first real tries.

Materials:

-unwanted sweater/vest

-sewing machine (well I suppose you could do it by hand...)

-scissors (good scissors or they wont cut the fabric)

-thread in similar colour to you sweater

-elastic band that fits your waist snugly and is at least 2" thick

Lets begin!

Okay so first you begin with an unwanted sweater or vest. Here's mine below... As you can see it's not exactly what you'd call trendy.

So then you cut across below the arms or however long you want your skirt to be, allowing about 1" of seam allowance. I was restricted to how long I could make mine because of the arms being pretty low. 

Once you've done that, sew the top of your skirt to the elastic band using a zig-zag stretch stitch. Make sure the inside of your skirt is what's touching the elastic like below. I had to gather my skirt a little bit to match it to the elastic.

Now take your skirt and fold the elastic and seam inside so that your top is where you want it to be like this... After you've done that you can sew the skirt to the bottom of the elastic with another seam along the bottom of the elastic. Now your skirt should look like this :) 

And now you can wear it and be all cozy like this :) Good luck not getting excited for Christmas when you wear your new skirt...

Tell me what you guys think :)

Hard work

Hi everyone. I've gotten into a writing about what I'm thinking mood. That plus the fact that I found there is a blogger app so I can write things on my phone equals = me blathering on about what has been going through my head.
This morning it's hard work. Mostly related to dance. You see, dancers, but in particular ballet dancers work HARD. Take how much work a scientific PhD student does and then add physical stress and injuries. That is how hard a ballet dancer works, and I don't think most people realize that. Probably because ballet, being an art is meant to look completely effortless and easy. You don't want to see a dancer finish their dance and then sit down on the floor panting and drinking a sip of water between breaths.
Anyways, the point is, with all this hard work it's often very overwhelming. Often you're cursing all the hard work you put in to it and wondering if it's worth it. The past two days however, my mind has... Shifted. I woke up this morning and thought to myself with a smile "I'm working so hard" and "at this rate I'm going to improve so much". I even thought "I cant wait to get to dance today so I can keep working hard". My hard work has become something I'm proud of and excited about. Am I ranting too much? I feel like I'm probably boring you. Oh well, I guess that's the beauty of blogs. If people don't want to read it, they don't and you're none the worse from it.
Well, those of you who have made it through all that, I hope you find pride and eagerness in your hard work like I have.

Being healthy...

You know, I was thinking as I ate my supper tonight...

I love eating healthy. It was a weird thought because usually when you're on a diet, you're thinking about all the unhealthy or just undietary things you want. That Starbucks drink, that ever so yummy looking muffin at a cafe, carbs galore in the form of a heaping plate of spaghetti. Sometimes you get obsessed with the things you can't have and you forget about all the tasty and healthful things you do have.
But today as I sat down to eat my chicken breast (which somehow seemed to have shrunk substantially in the oven), steamed veggies and salad; I couldn't help smiling. It's times like these we need to remember more often when we're trying to lose weight. Everything is worth it.
I can't wait to have my breakfast tomorrow of yogurt, chopped mango, pomegranate seeds, strawberries, and granola. Healthy tastes so fresh and leaves you feeling bright and happy for the day ahead.

Halloween Treat :)

Hey guys I hope you all had a great Halloween :) I wasn't going to trick or treat this year because 1: I'm too old and 2: I'm trying to lose weight. But after everything I ended up taking my mom's friend's daughter out and so, I did end up getting a fair bit of candy and more importantly, chocolate. 

I was so proud of myself though because I only ate 2 1/2 pieces of chocolate that day!! This was a very large accomplishment for me and so far since, I've done good. But I got to thinking... I should do something different with all this chocolate and candy cause I don't really want to just pick at it day by day... That would take a long time. So I froze most of it but some of it I saved and decided to make... Da da da daaa!! Halloween popcorn squares!! Like rice crispie squares but with popcorn :) so here's the recipe I invented and am sharing with you. They are of course meant to be dietary so if that's not a concern for you, feel free to use as much chocolate and candy as you like. Halloween Popcorn Squares:

Makes 15 decent sized squares

Ingredients:-1 bag (250 g) of marshmallows minus 6 marshmallows -1 80g bag popcorn-300-400 calories worth of chopped candy and chocolate-1 tbsp butterSpray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray or butter it. Pop popcorn and remove un popped kernels. In medium pot, melt marshmallows and butter on low heat, stirring till smooth. Carefully not to burn! Fold in popcorn and chocolate/candy pieces. Press into greased pan and refrigerate for 15 minutes before cutting into squares.



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 I made 15 fairly large squares :)Calories per whole batch: 1470Each: 98