DIY Jean Vest

Have you noticed how one of the great up and coming spring trends is the jean vest? I love them; they're so versatile and add a nice splash of chic to almost any outfit.

Here's a great way to look fabulous in your own jean vest while saving CASH!!

DIY Jean Vest

You will need:
-An old jean jacket
-Fabric scissors (found at craft and fabric stores)

Carefully use fabric scissors to cut the arms off of the jean jacket. Be sure to cut as close to the seam as possible without cutting the actual seam. Voila! You have a totally stylish jean vest!

Suggestion: if making this for a child, don't use a jean jacket that still fits well and is used frequently. For my jean vest, I used an old hand-me-down jacket that still fit fine in the width and length, but the arms were too short.

Pair your jean vest with a simple white top and fun-colored shorts for a classic, airy look. My shorts have floral eyelet details that looks really cool and feminine.

 Wear your jean vest over a flowy sundress with bold colors and metallic silver sandals for a tough-but-girly look.

A loose, pleated skirt with a simple floral pattern and a plain tank top look really sweet with the vest. I used the same metallic silver sandals that I wore with the previous fashion. You can wear your vest unbuttoned with this outfit, but I recommend wearing it buttoned about halfway up.

You don't have to copy my outfits to be stylish in this vest. Wear it the way you like, and that's when it'll look the best! Stay stylish!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

In my last post I mentioned trying origami for the first time, and it has officially become one of my many wacky obsessions. Yesterday I basically spent the entire day doing origami, and so far I have made ten cranes, a cat, a pig, two swans, a water lily, an owl, a peacock, a teeny-tiny tulip, and a very dilapidated dolphin.

Just for fun, (and also because I'm dreadfully bored) I'm going to give you a list of some of my obsessions.

Obsession #1: Tea

I have mentioned in past posts that I'm a tea nut, and it's true. In fact I'm drinking tea as I type. Here's a list of my top five favorite teas:

1: Matcha, a Japanese powdered green tea that is super-duper healthy.

2: Pomegranate Raspberry with Matcha, by Stash (fruity and delicious)

3: Zen, by Tazo (herbal and calming)

4: Spiced Chai, by Stash (rich and flavorful)

5: Earl Grey, by Bigelow (What can I say? It's a classic!)

I definitely recommend trying these teas ASAP!!

Obsession #2: Making Lists

I'm pretty sure that the first obsession with a list inside this list explains this. 

Obsession #3: My Cat, Jewels

Everyone thinks that their pet is the best in the universe, but I know for a fact that mine is. Jewels is my best friend, and she goes by many names. My Dad calls her Stupidcat, Mom calls her Nuisance
when she barfs on the rug, and Sister and I just call her Kitty, which strangely, she responds to better than her actual name, Jewels. 

Obsession #4: Pasta 

When I was little, I ate nothing but noodles, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I still have not outgrown this, but I do eat other foods now, haha! My favorite type of pasta is mac and cheese, and the best mac and cheese on the face of the earth is a tie between three places: Panera Bread's, Noodles and Company's, and our homemade family recipe. 

Obsession #5: Minions from Universal Studio's Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2

Who can resist a chubby, yellow, overall-wearing, blabber-talking little thing? They are so funny and full of mischief! I literally crack up at every single minion scene in these two movies and have a picture of them as the background for my phone.

Obsession #6: Nail Polish

This one is the kind of embarrassing one, that people would be surprised to know about me. I may be a bit rough and tough, hey, every girl has a flair for fashion deep down, right?

Obsession #7: Dancing!

This one is a biggie. I've always LOVED dancing, every since I was three. Actually, I didn't start dancing because I was interested, but because I had HORRIBLE pigeon toes and had leg braces until I was three. Once I got out of the braces, my therapists recommended ballet because it would help me keep me toes pointed outward. I now dance a little ballet and Irish Step, and not to brag, but my Irish Step dance team has won a competition.  Just sayin'. 

Obsession #8: Reading

I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading!!!!! My favorite book is The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer. Some of my recipes that I've posted on here are from this book.

Obsession #9: Disney's Frozen

Sister and I went to see this on Christmas Eve, and it was SPECTACULAR!!!! It was by far the best movie my eyeballs have ever witnessed.

Obsession #10: Julia Child/cooking/baking/anything that has to do with those subjects

While most kids dream about getting video games or bracelets or whatever for Christmas, I dream about a KitchenAid stand mixer and Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle.

Obsession #11: Violin Music
I play the violin, and I really enjoy it! I like classical music a lot, but I really like when violin is put with modern music, such as dubstep. The two couldn't be more different, and I think that's what makes it sound so awesome!!

I told you I had a lot of obsessions. 

Valentine's Day 2014

Happy Valentine's Day! As you can see, I made some updates on here
for this holiday. Snazzy, huh?

Some people celebrate Valentine's Day by giving their loved ones boxes of candy and flowers and adorable fluffy teddy bears holding squishy hearts and say "I love you!" when you squeeze it's paw, and those things are great, (who doesn't love a big ol' thing of chocolate and a teddy?) but I did something pretty wacky, and I have to say, awesome! 

ORIGAMI!!

For those of you who don't know what origami is, it's a Japanese "sculpture" made by folding paper. It's really complex and several times throughout the making of my very first origami that I did this afternoon I found myself saying, "How the heck is this mangled wad of paper supposed to turn into a bird?!"

But it did, and it turned out ADORABLE!! I made a little bird out of light pink paper and drew hearts on the wings with a red pen.

Totally cute, right?

Another winter storm has come. I swear if we get ANY MORE SNOW I will punch something. Maybe I could go outside and punch the snow. Maybe not, it would go POOF  and I get a face full of snow. 

Anyway, with all of the snow days that our local school system has been having, I've been getting creative.  I was outside the other day, trying to make a snowman like every other kid that's outside in the snow. It really wasn't working, so I sat down. I noticed how pretty our neighborhood is in the snow and I was tired from my unsuccessful snowman effort, so just sitting and enjoying the scenery seemed like it would be nice.  I couldn't reach the lawn chairs and everyone else was doing something, so I brainstormed! 

I decided to make a snow couch.

I worked and worked on it, and finally it was to the point where I could sit on it, but it was more of a snow chair than a snow couch. I went outside and finished it a couple days later. Not to brag, but it's pretty darn awesome.

The Marvelous Snow Couch, complete with footstool

Stay warm, everyone!

February 4, 2014

Aaah! I haven't been on here in forever! Between being sick and my overly demanding school schedule, I haven't had much spare time. (And the time that I have, I'm pretty much brain-dead from aforesaid demanding school schedule.)

Well, all of Indiana is holding their breath. A huge snowstorm is about to hit us, and everyone has been going a little COOKOO over this. People have been talking for the past two weeks, "I heard that we are getting thirty inches of snow!" "I heard that we were going to have forty..." My mother went to the grocery store this morning and came back bearing news of people rushing around in frenzies to get their milk and eggs, but other people count Krispy Kreme doughnuts and beer as their snow-in essentials. School has been let out early, and I find it hard to believe that Sister would be skipping off to school without at least a delay. We obviously aren't going to have thirty inches of snow, (we're not in Minnesota, for Pete's sake) but it sounds that whenever this hits, it's going to be fast and furious. We could be getting two inches of snow an hour!

More later. Stay warm, everybody! ;)