a little update

Wow it's been a week since I've posted!

I think that's the longest it's been. I've been super busy and wrapped up in a bunch of things, I just haven't had the time.

Last week at work was busy and went fast. I do most of my blogging during my free time at work so that's mostly why it suffered.

I've also been such a baby about the heat and not much. I did some scrapbooking though! I did a two page spread for my mom's book and did one page for me and Ben's. I also bought this date Smash Stamp from K&Company at Blick this weekend and some Mod Podge gloss from Blick art stores.

I also bought this Canon photo printer on Amazon! I figured it'd be a good investment. It's wireless, I could download an App to sync and print pictures from my iPhone. Ben has a really good camera and we could finally print photos from it. It got good reviews and it was pretty cheap! And I got free shipping on it. I think it's worth it. Plus, if I really want to scrapbook and document and Project Life, a photo printer was necessary.

Ben and I have been going out to eat a lot lately! We went to Fire and Ice with some friends Thursday night.

Hahaha FAIL.

Fire and Ice with Chris, Mike, and Ben

My food before it was cooked

On the grill!

Ben and I went to the Franklin Park Zoo on Saturday

Ben entering the butterfly house!

The butterflies they had

Waiting to be beauuutiful butterflies

Tree kangaroo!

and we spent the day in his hometown yesterday!

Adam and the horses

Feeding the horse!!

Flowers I got from the farm :)

I had a really great weekend. Especially spending so much time outside.

Instagram!

Here are my photos from the last two weeks on my Instagram. I've been a slacker and there aren't too many, but here we go! :)

1. Tazo Chai tea latte made at home!
2. Institutional Researchers poster my boss hung up
3. Peanut shells
4. Peanuts!
5. Cup of noodles, my guilty pleasure :)
6. Sam and Dan from Sam's graduation
7. My sister and I from our vacation last summer
8. Ben catching butterflies
9. Shadow
10. Ben's kitty Lenny sleeping in my hamper :)
11. Pineapples growing in the Prudential Center!
12. Homemade dinner. Broccoli Cheddar soup baked with rice and chicken. It was eh.
13. My pretty new Vera
14. Wentworth crosswalk
15. Lucky shorts!
16. A house up the street I love
17. Ben's insects
18. I LOVE THESE! Ah, strawberry Pocky sticks! :)

a little (long) Friday update!

I was doing good with my posts and updates until yesterday!

Yesterday I was busy nonstop at work! I was able to fit in my shorts project only cause my boss was giving me a little break since he was on lunch and I was gonna have lunch right after him.

I also spent sometime with an old girlfriend yesterday! That was fun :) Then Ben's parents came in for a late dinner after Ben's night class and we went out to P.F. Chang's where I got this inspiring fortune:

I get the BEST fortunes from there! I am definitely passionate and determined about my vision :)

We got home late and I went straight to bed after. So here is my late update!

My calendar was rearranged! But of course I must rearrange it again. Today I'm gonna leave some days open, so if I miss a day then I don't have to completely change everything, every time. Also to plan to do something every day is a little much, considering I work full time and want a little bit of a life outside my craft room :P

I made two goals!! Make dinner twice a week and Read a Book. I made dinner once this week, so that's halfway done. I made broccoli cheddar soup, rice, and chicken. I prepared them all seperately and then layered the soup, rice, and chicken in a pan and baked it for 25 minutes. It was okkaayyy. The soup was from a packet and the rice was instant so I feel if I actually made it homemade, it would be really good! My standard for cooking dinner twice a week is to make something with meat, chicken, ground beef, ground turkey beef, anything with protein like that. Of course I make dinner for us every night, it's just that sometimes it's a pizza (frozen, ordered, or made), breakfast-for-dinner night, or we just make some mac and cheese. We just eat too much like college kids. We're getting older and the time to start making the food changes and good eating habits is now. And read a book is pretty loose... I just want to finish a book. I used to read sososoo much and always be in the book store picking out books. I need to get back into the reading habit again and will be happy with myself if I just get one book read!

My PostalPix order was shipped yesterday! That means I could do some scrap booking next week, yay! I will also be starting me and Ben's personal scrapbook :)

Which reminds me...  I have a shopping cart ready to be checked out for Project Life on Amazon. Except, I'm still waiting for the core kits to be available! I have my clear packets picked out (1, 2 and 3) and I already know what binder and set I want (I think I'm gonna go with the clementine :) buuuut maybe amber?! probably amber...) I really can't wait until I could check out on that order. Maybe I should order the clear packets just to be safe. We'll see. I really can't wait to start it!! I think I may have to invest in a photo printer for this... hmmmm

All my financial aid is set for the fall. Such a relief!

Since I majorly slacked in picture taking this weekend from Bernadette's visit, the same went for Instagram pictures. I only had a few, and just decided to skip the update this week and put the few pictures of last week's Instagram photos with next week's. Whatever haha.

I have done nothing to change the blog, whatsoever. I've really been meaning to! But, work comes first. Perhaps today! My Fridays are usually easy :)

Alex moves in this weekend which is super exciting. And we talked to our landlord yesterday and she told us she had no problem signing a lease for the next year! YAY!!! Now we don't have to worry about moving out until next summer, andddd I want to ask if we could get a kitten :) Awwww it'll be me and Ben's first run as parents :P

Wellll that's about it for this length update! More posts to come today, I'm sure :)

xx
V

DIY Shorts Project!

So I've been on the search for high waisted cuffed shorts ALL summer.

That even sounds like an understatement.. Every time Ben and I passed Levi's on Newbury, I would check for shorts. I searched and searched and searched websites who sold Wildfox, trying to find the Jane Fonda shorts discounted (seriously they're perfect ahhh but I couldn't bring myself to pay 139 bucks for shorts... I did find them cheaper on a site, but they didn't have my size! >.<) Every single clothing store we went to that MIGHT have these shorts, I double and triple checked, and no luck.

This meant DIY!!!!

We have a HUGE Good Will near our apartment, and it's a favorite spot of mine. There are racks and racks of jeans. I just had to find the perfect pair. I was on the hunt and I found a pair of white Lucky Brand capris! They were size zero and in perfect condition and $6.99!!!! I tried them on and they fit perfect. I couldn't wait to cut them up!

Shout out to the sewing machine in the background :p

But they came out pretty good!!! I wanted them to be a bit longer because when you walk around a lot they ride up and they're just more comfortable a little longer.

Here's how I did it :

First I put them on. I didn't want to decide where to cut without seeing them on. Then I thought about how short (or long) I wanted them to be with the cuff. I was going to roll them up twice, So I added about two inches for each cuff. Then I drew a line with a pencil about half an inch longer than that.

Then I folded them in half (to make sure I cut each pant even) and cut across. Then I put them back on. The trick is, you could always keep cutting, but you can't make it longer. So then I cuffed them. I decided these were still too long and made a mark where to cut. I took them off, cut and put them back on. This time they were perfect! I had Ben make a line on the back of the shorts where the cuff ended so just incase they became unrolled, I still knew where to sew them.

I pinned them accordingly then went to sew!

The picture is a little difficult to see but it'll do. On the sides of the shorts, where the seem was showing, I decided is where I would sew. I flipped the seem the opposite way way and sewed right next to the factory stitching. I stitched and reverse stitched a few times. When I was done, I just flipped it back over! You couldn't even notice!

Next, I ironed them so they'd stay stiff and gain shape. I wasn't satisfied with how they were sewn, I felt that they wouldn't survive a wash. Then I decided to sew just a littttttle bit on the bottom of the cuff near the seem on the sizes and crotch of the shorts.

I stitched and reverse stitched from the seem to about an inch and a half out. This way it held the cuff where it'd get the most movement and since I sewed it on the bottom, you couldn't notice at all. It was perfect because the small stitch held the shape of the shorts and cuff and since it was sewn on the bottom, the top looked completely normal!

I love my new shorts! I can't wait to get a black pair and a light and dark wash jean. After I hair a pair of each, I'll probably do some fun stuff like adding fabrics and other things to my shorts :) yay!

DIY Flower Canvas Project

It's pretty awesome that I've been getting consistent page views the past few days. Usually I'd gain one or two when I made a new post... but now I feel like the number is different every time I log onto my dashboard. So exciting!! Thank you, thank you for visiting my space and seeing what I had to say.

I got all of the things I wanted to get done yesterday, and then some! So happy!

Yesterday I took on a little crafting project! Which I adapted from here.

I wanted to use my bigger canvas for some map transferring, so I used my medium sized canvas and made a simpler and smaller pattern.

Before I glued! I cut out some bigger sized petals and smaller sized petals out of some scrapbooking paper. I decided on a design and then put it on another piece of paper the exact way and started gluing!

And it's finished! Doesn't look too much different, ahaha. But it's okay. It may be upside down but what's awesome is that it could go any way you want! It'd even work if I held it landscape.

For this project, I used

• Utrecht Gloss Medium (instead of Mod Podge)
• Different kinds of scrapbooking paper
• Scissors
• Utrecht Foam Brush (disposable, use a size proportional to your canvas
• Utrecht Stretched Cotton Canvas (any size you'd like! I bought a few when they were on sale at the store so I had a couple to chose from. I can't remember it's exact size at the moment D: )
• Utrecht acrylic paint

First I painted the background to my canvas using Utrecht acrylic paint. You could use any color that you'd like! I used Ben's old paint, and this was the only color he had, which completely worked for me.  I liked the neutral background and it looked good with my darker scrapbooking paper.

Then I cut out my petals. I used four different papers, but all from the same packet of paper (it was a gift so I don't know where it was purchased or the name of the brand, sorry!) and cut different sized petals. I played with the positioning for awhile.

After I got everything where I wanted it to be, I took a piece of paper and placed my pieces one by one to the other paper so I could easily glue them on place on the canvas. I also took a picture of how everything was positioned (obviously) so if something got messed up, I still had my plan in handy.

Then I glued! I used the gloss medium like glue. It also works as a sealer. I placed all my petals in their spots and waited a few minutes for them to settle. After, I painted a layer of the gloss over the entire canvas to seal it in place. Then I let it dry!

That's it!

I can't wait to decorate my room with my own decor :p

Monday Update!

Okay so maybe I should have considered how busy I'd be with my Mom's visit when I was making my schedule. I guess I should of just had planned to start it on an even day, like August 1st instead of... June 25th? Guess I was just anxious.

I got a few of my things done here and there. But mostly I was just so happy to be with my mom and the blog kind of went to the back of my mind.

But I had an amazing weekend.

We got some great food, went thrifting, shopping, flea markets, watched the Olympics, and just bonded and talked. I actually cried saying goodbye to Bernadette at the airport. And usually it's me yelling at her to stop crying and she's sobbing. Yesterday was the opposite. I guess that I've just grown up so much in the past couple of months that I just missed having my mom take care of me. Now instead of me telling her about stupid girl dramas, I'm talking about the bills and grocery shopping and cleaning and my work schedule and this and that. Instead of arguing about stupid things, we both fought over washing the dishes.

I didn't even take pictures! The weather wasn't the greatest so I wasn't too motivated to do that. But, like I said, I was just so into the moment and hanging with my mom.

I showed her the scrapbook I was making for her. She couldn't stop looking at the three pages I made and told her that made her night and she couldn't wait for me to finish it. She's going to mail up some baby pictures she loves, too. She wants a little of everything in her scrapbook and I think that's an awesome idea.

My mom was also so impressed and interested in my little craft life! She was asking me questions and really into it when I showed her some of my favorite blogs. She actually asked me to email her the links!! It was so great to have her behind me with all of this. Usually she's like "oh you won't do that" and now she's like "oh can you make me something like that?!" and I love it! I even showed her Project Life and she thought the idea was really cool. She doesn't think I'll be able to keep up week to week but also agrees it's pretty simple to document each week so she has some faith in me. I can't wait till the new products are available to buy! Ah!

My boss is so good to me. He let me have Monday off so I could spend the day with my mom. He even made sure I got a pay for it :) So thankful how lucky I've been. Except now my week is a day behind. My Tuesday feels like Monday. But that's okay, I can't complain :)

SO! For the UpDaTe!
Today, before I go home from work, I plan to....

• Rearrange the Calendar
• Create 2 goals for the month
• PostalPix order
• Finalize Financial Aid things for the Fall 2012 semester
• Insta update
• Work on some formatting of the blog

 For after work I plan to...

• Catch up on some at home projects 
• Work out "What I Wore" for the first post on Friday
• Clean
• BE PRODUCTIVE!

I can do this!
I know I've been slacking and not doing everything I've wanted, but it's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing. I've just been so busy with things I just need to take care of first. That's life. I know when classes start I'll have way more free time to do all the things I want.

As for home life, there's good news!!! Alex is moving in! So I'm so glad I sacrificed one of my days last week to spend the day with him and Ben and talk to him about moving in. I love Jack but I'm over living with him... I'm excited that the house is about to change up a little bit. Yay!

A little organization....

Honestly, I'm a little all over the place. I have so much I want to do that I'm just being completely sporadic. So time to change!

I decided that I work the best with calendars. I like physically seeing the month ahead of me and seeing my tasks written throughout. So I made a calendar.

I made one for July 25th - August 25th.

My process:

1. What do I want to get completed this month? I made a list of things I want to do, projects I have to work on, TV show schedules I want to watch, etc... I made note of everything.

2. What types of tasks do I want on my calendar? Then I decided what my calendar would show. I decided on everything! I thought if I had separate calendars for different things, I would probably favor one schedule or just completely forget about one. I decided I wanted everything together on the same page.

3. How should I format my calendar? Hand make it? Microsoft Excel? Find a website that helps you organize things? Microsoft Project? Buy a daily planner? Get a desk calendar? Buy a graphic wall calendar? So many options! I wanted mine to be tangible, as well as cleanly edited or revised. The best option for me was Microsoft Excel. You could easily move around ideas, change format, change anything! and it doesn't have to be permanent and you can't ever mess it up. You could always resave and reprint. After I decided on making it on Excel, I decided to color code my tasks. I would just simply write, or type, the task I had planned in the appropriate box, with it's assigned color.

• TV Show
• Craft
• Sewing
• Scrapbook
• Blog Posts
• House/General

Then, specific dates like birthdays and visits were written on the top of the date box in black ink but italicized. For the TV shows, they're written in a smaller font at the bottom of the box as a little reminder.

4. How should I assign my tasks? This was the hard part for me. I was thinking about how my weeks usually go, how much free time I have on what days, what days I'm most productive, things like that. I didn't just want to write things to do on the calendar. I wanted to assign them so they'd be realistic for me to get done. First I thought about which projects I wanted to get done the most, what days they'd best fit in, how long they'd take, how many breaks I will or won't take... it depends! When I sew, I take a lot of breaks. My room doesn't have an AC so when I get too hot or frustrated (which happens a lot) I take a couple minutes of just sitting in Ben's room collecting myself in the cold. Or I'll sit outside for a smoke break and try to clear my head. But when I scrapbook, my head is just stuck looking down, positioning and repositioning and gluing and cutting. I work different depending on what it is. I made sure I thought about this when I picked the days of what to work on. I really feel that I did good on this. I spent a good amount of time thinking about it.


5. Well, did it work?! Too early to tell! Today is the first day of my self-assigned project schedule. Today I have Clean kitchen, Scrapbook Flower Canvas, and Currently Post on my to-do list. Then in little font on the bottom, is 10 PM - Virgin Diaries. I'll have one down by the end 3PM today, the Currently blog post!


6. What are other ways to stay on top of things? The calendar isn't enough for me. I really am trying to push myself into a more productive habit. I decided to put the Reminders App on the iPhone to use. I always use this App when I'm taking classes, to keep track of homework and classwork. I decided to put it to use for my projects! In the morning I'm going to put in my daily tasks and set reminders for the timeblock I want to work on them. I'll probably try and clean the kitchen within a half hour of being home from work, shower, eat, and get ready to start the scrapbook flower canvas project shortly after. With, of course, my Reminders going off every fifteen minutes. I need to be more disciplined and less lazy! On with the crafting! I also am going to start embracing post it notes a lot more. At work, I run through post-its. I want to get some colored ones to hang reminders in my room and on my laptop to have little motivators. My other secret weapon is Ben. Whenever I try to break a habit, I always have Ben as my backbone. I'll tell him "don't let me have ____ if I do _____" or "make me _____ if I don't _____" and Ben usually sticks to it. Permission to annoy me and keep me from something I want? Ben is usually up for it.

7. Anything else I want to add? The best thing about doing it on Excel, is that I could open up the document and move around everything and change my entire month around. Or I could add to my already packed schedule or delete it all! Last night I thought a lot about my calendar. How if I had tasks to do today how long would they take and when would I have fit them in, but also, what else should I add? Last night I made myself soup for dinner and made some apple crisp for dessert. Ben got home from class and ordered Chinese. Then I thought, I should put goals on my calendar. First one being, COOK dinner (with real food) at least twice a week. Twice a week sounds like a low expectation, but I'd be setting myself up for a downfall if I try anything more. I consider cooking dinner as making a meal with meat and preparing everything myself. Usually it's store bought pizza dough and we make pizza or grilled cheese or frozen things. Ah! We're getting older and it'll be sooner than later that our bodies change and we can't eat the crap like we do now. I also considered adding future blog features, and other little things to my calendar.

I hope this could help some other overwhelmed future crafter. Haha. I know it helped me spelling out what I expected from myself and typing it and rereading it here. This blog is helping me so much. Just being able to keep a record of what I've been doing, it just helps me stay motivated and just want to fill this blogs' archive with awesome content and watch myself grow as a woman, adult, and a crafty lady.

Yay! :)

As much as I wanted to be productive this weekend...

I wasn't. Sigh.
It was more of a

• sleep
• relax
• be with friends
• prepare
• and clean

sort of weekend.

Friday - I worked while Ben went out catching butterflies with his friends. Luckily, I was able to leave at lunch time! So while Ben was out and I was home alone, I cleaned the bathroom, hallway, and tidied up the kitchen. I then rewarded myself with a much needed nap! I woke up around the time Ben came home. Then our friends came to visit! We all went out to the Cheesecake Factory. No one ever cares about the bill and we all just order whatever sounds good and share. It's the best time. We always plan on dessert after but everyone is always beyond stuffed. We got home pretty late and I crashed.

Saturday - Ben had lots of homework! He was in the last stretch of finishing up his portfolio (Ben studies Industrial Design at Wentworth. Last semester he had a Co-Op at Puma! He's so good, I'm so proud of him) but since no quality print places were open, so it was okay if he finished his work on Sunday, Ben and I hung out. We filled the day with Dexter, darts, and relaxing. I did a little shopping! I went to Utrecht Art Store to get some supplies. They had a big summer sale going on, and I really wanted to start making my own wall art and experimenting and getting crafty. I bought Utrecht's version of Mod Podge, a couple of different sized canvases on sale, and a brush! I started my first project that day, but got side tracked...That night we saw Savages. It was pretty good! We got home pretty late that night too and, of course, I passed out right after.

Sunday - Ben's Dad, Bruno, came to visit for lunch. We went to my favorite place to eat, Victoria's Diner. They seriously have the best breakfast, EVER! And, I have a big love for diners since New Jersey is filled with them and they were a common meeting place for my friends and I back in the day. Ben worked on his portfolio while I relaxed. I really wanted to clean my room and rearrange our pantry (that sounds so sad but seriously it's a mess and there are just boxes of food all over the shelves, in no order whatsoever... and it drives me crazy!) and sew and do one of my canvas projects, but I really have just felt so spent lately I just needed the weekend to relax. I thought about what I wanted to do with the canvases, though!!! That's good enough.. right????

So now, I left myself with a ton of things to do for this week. I feel overwhelmed, but as Ben as told me, "don't stress! these are personal projects, you're doing them for you. Take your time and do it how you want it and when you want it. Stop rushing and trying to get all of these things done." It was good advice. Obvious... but what I actually needed to hear. Ben has been slaving away on his portfolio, and he just kept telling me how he was jealous he couldn't work on any of his personal things because he he had so much work that he needed to do. That made me realize I'm very lucky to have an open as a schedule I have (despite my 38 hour work week). He was right! It made me take a breath and kind of put my projects into a different perspective.

My room is a mess, and each corner is evidence of a different project. Today I NEED to clean my room and organize all my little to-dos.. Then I need to finish all my half done projects. I don't have the space to work on multiple things at once and need to concentration on ONE until I'M DONE.

new motto? one until I'm done?
Hmm....

Currently Post

So I had an urge to do an update, but had nothing for an entire post. So I decided to do a Currently post! I always read Danielle's of Sometimes Sweet blog and wanted to give it a go myself. A little personal and a little update, yay!

Loving: My job! As much fun as an internship is, it could super boring. Especially since I have a desk job. My boss was on vacation last week and only left me a few tasks to complete. I went crazy with all my free time! This week he's been keeping me super busy and the days have been flying by. I'm done today within the hour so I'm just organizing my things and getting ready for tomorrow's tasks. Always keeping busy keeps me awake and alert and I actually am motivated to work on things I need to get done at home when I get out of work. It keeps my work flow consistent. Otherwise I just want to go home and take a nap. Isn't it weird how actually doing a whole bunch of nothing makes you tired and lazy? Hm!

Reading: What the rest of the world is reading... 50 Shades. Ah, this book. First I read the Twilight series because a good girlfriend loved them and wanted someone to discuss it with and see the movies with. I hate Bella as a character because she is so weak and dependent on Edward, so it made it difficult for me to read. But honestly, I was just waiting for the sex scene which was incredibly disappointing (I know it's a tween series, but still! Their sexual tension was ridiculous and just ugh.) But then, I heard about 50 Shades... then I heard about how it was banned in libraries which immediately sparked my interest What can be that bad that it's banned in a library?! and then I heard it was Twilight fan fiction. So, I was interested. I wasn't expecting to get anything out of it and honestly it wasn't as crazy as I thought it'd be. I got threw the first book, and was interested enough to get the second, but I can't get into it. It's just blah. It's too much Twilight and not enough sex. I know it's Twilight fan fiction, but I wanted it to live up to it's banned in libraries rep!!! Oh well. I gave up on that book and I'm about to start Lolita. Ben's sister, Lauren, gave me her copy. Can't wait to get into that.

Watching: BREAKING BAD!!! The finale season just premiered on AMC this past Sunday night. I could talk about this show for hours. Ben and I are so obsessed. It's about a high school chemistry teacher who gets diagnosed with terminal lung cancer with a prognosis of two years and he decides to cook meth and be a drug dealer to get money for his family before he passes. It gets crazy and super intense. Ben and I are also watching Dexter. He's never seen it before and I'm rewatching the entire series before the 7th season premieres. Ben has gotten addicted to that, too. We're currently on the 4th season. I can't wait until he's caught up and he could finally watch the first two minute sneak peak of the new season, ahh!!

Anticipating: Dinner tonight. Ben is cooking the fish that I caught on Sunday! I always cook for us, he even convinces me to take lunch at home some days so I could make it for him, so I'm pretty excited to be catered to a little bit. Ben is all about his fish so it should be delicious and I can't wait to watch my man cook for me!

Listening to: Lots of Lily Allen! She's back in the studio so I got in a Lily kick. My sister and I used to listen to her all of the time and saw her in concert a couple years ago. I just love her :)

Planning: My next project and ASB! For a short term plan, I'm deciding on what shorts and dress I'd like to start tonight. I'm done with work early today so I want to finish at least one of the two by the weekend! I could definitely get them both done if I start one tonight! And for a long term plan, last year I went on an Alternative Spring Break trip to Homestead, Florida to do volunteer environmental work in the Everglades. I applied to be a coordinator for next year, and I got picked! My co-coordinator and I are already starting to plan out details. We both were on the trip last year and are so excited to plan a similar trip this year. We'll be able to eliminate all the bad parts of last year, too! Not that there were many significant ones, but we could of planned better for dinner for 15 kids every night. As you could imagine that was difficult!

Working on: A student survey for work. Every freshman during orientation fills out a survey of what they expect college life to be like. My job is to organize the survey raw data and get it formatted and ready for my boss. It's pretty interesting to see the college from this perspective. It's also interesting to see where all those things we do as students go within the college and what the college actually does with the results. But I'm done with that for today and have the last stretch to complete for tomorrow!

Wishing: It was July 27th! My mom is flying in from New Jersey! Ben's dad has a ton of frequent flyer miles and offered to fly my mom from Newark to Boston for a weekend. Of course we had to take advantage of this!! I can't wait to have some quality time with my mom. She's my best friend! My sister's birthday is also the 28th, and since she'll be in Hawaii and spending it without us, it's kind of like we're celebrating in spirit. We're glad we could be together even though Sam is away. I can't wait to see my Mom and these weeks have been going so fast, she should be here in no time!

I loved doing this! Probably something I'll have to keep up :)
Tomorrow I'll post an update with some pictures of the things I start working on tonight!

I made my sister's dress!!

Yes!! Saturday I was super productive and made my sister's maxi dress. When I went to the fabric store on Friday, I forgot to buy a zipper for the dress (of course) so after I cut my fabric and had it all ready to go, I walked to Chinatown to get my zippers. On the way I stopped at Boloco for a Mango Passion Smoothie. It was so delicious and perfect to beat the heat.

I didn't completely finish the dress, it still needs to be hemmed and I need to adjust the zipper a bit and had a hook and eye.

I had so much fun making it and felt so good after I finally finished.

So happy with how it came out! Of course there's a few rough areas, but they'll only improve and go away as my skills improve. But for my first garment, I'm pretty proud of myself. I strayed from the pattern a little bit but I like how it came out.