My First Handmade Dress

So I decided to make this dress for my friend Val's wedding because all of the dresses on the market are babydoll dresses...and you other "well endowed" ladies out there know that wearing those just makes you look pregnant. I'm not really down for that, and I hate that I couldn't find a dress that flattered my lovely hour glass figure. The flip side of that is that I was motivated to make a dress for myself, which turned out quite like I imagined it. Here's the sketch so you can see what I envisioned before I started:



This is a crocheted dress (in case you're not familiar with my craft) and it is made with Caron's Simply Soft yarn in Heather Gray. I used about 6 skeins to complete this dress. In creating this dress, I didn't use a pattern, but knew I wanted something warm and beautiful. I didn't want to look like a 5th grader in my dad's sweater.

I crocheted from the bottom up and tried it on as I went. I used my own measurements for waist and bust shaping and used a nice lace pattern from The Crochet Bible for the back details and bottom edging. I'm in love with this piece and trying to think of a reason to wear it again!

Yarn Club

So me and my girls got together this Sunday for our first Yarn Club. I've wanted to do this since I found out that all these ladies that I knew could knit and crochet...who would have thought! I thought I was the lone old soul among my friends, but this turns out not to be true. So we got together (in true New York style) at a bar on Sunday afternoon to sip hot spiced apple cider and knit and crochet to our hearts content. It turned out really well and inspired a lot of us to start new projects and come back to the art after a long hiatus. Success all around. Above is a photo of all of us and our projects (minus me...I'm taking the picture). We're meeting every other Sunday so if you're interested give me a shout, we'd love to have you!

I'm also planning on keeping you updated on my projects (mostly free form and modifications of other patterns to fit "the girls") via photos and short descriptions so you can see what I'm up to. Hope you enjoy!

Resolutions

I have only in the past couple of years started to make New Year's Resolutions. You can find my post here on my resolutions for last year. Most of them were successful...well, now that I re-read them, only two were successful and three were not. I am adopting the three unsuccessful one's for this year again:

1) Take advantage of the gym membership that I already pay for (either by working out 5 days a week or taking a class at the gym)

2) Tone my arms and abs

3) Work on having a more positive outlook on life and not being soo "snarky".

And adding a couple:

4) Not getting so stressed out/moderating that stress better (via breathing exercises or yoga at home)

5) No more swearing

6) No whining

I'm hoping I can stick better to these this year. I think I have caused myself a lot of grief by not moderating my own stress levels. I'm trying to stay healthy to avoid getting type 2 diabetes and heart disease and I realized that staying stressed so much can cause high blood pressure and lead to a heart attack. I don't want that either, so I have to live my life better. I'm trying and it feels like I'm trying soo hard, but I bet I could try harder.

Working out for me is a HUGE release, so I'm going to try to do that more, especially when I get worked up or stressed out. I want to focus on my abs and toning my arms also. I have noticed in the past year that my body has changed shape...crazy, I know, but it's true. I used to have trouble getting my athletic thighs into jeans (always made for girls with non-muscular legs), then the waist would always be too big. Now, I can fit into jeans that I couldn't even pull over my thighs, but I have a hard time buttoning them. I think my thighs and legs have gotten smaller and my middle-section has gotten larger....poo! It's weird. I just need to workout more.

Anyway, those are my New Year's Resolutions. If you're my buddy and you're reading this, please help me to keep them in whatever way you can. I'll help you with yours too if you share them with me.

Until another day!