Today

I'm going to show you my current favourite thing.  

It's the large (a5) planner from Kikki K.  Isn't she pretty?

Now to show you what my today looks like.

Nothing pretty that's for sure.  I have heaps to do today because on Monday I am off on school camp. But I'm waiting until I get an update on the roads because with the rain comes flooding comes road closures.

I also need to set up my watering system before I go,  but I'm having issues with leaks!

Aussie Curves - Activewear

Work out wear!!! I have heaps of activewear - far too many to wear during the week but even then I still have trouble finding them when I need them.

Top - Lane Bryant

Bottom - made by me

Shoes - Mizuno

I made a heap of bottoms a while ago. Some of them are made from water wicking fabric but most are thick Lycra.

I actually need new shoes - I've had these for two years now and the padding is now too thin.

I think that the best sports bra for someone with larger cups is the Shock Absorber.  It still doesn't go up to my cup so I used a larger back size but they still keep the puppies in place for most work outs.  If I really need to jump a lot then I wear two.

They come in different colours and black.  I bought my first couple from Australian online shops but now go on eBay, getting them from overseas is cheaper and seems to take just as long!

The other sports bra that I use is the Elomi Energise bras, but the underwires are placed further back so they can be uncomfortable. I actually use this bra most days for everyday wear.

I hope this post has been helpful!

All my Christmases at once

It was as if the mail goddess decided I needed a pick me up today!

My first 'expensive' eye shadow purchase.

My new iPad!

A lovely parcel from Kikki K always make my day.

What going on?

Well this week has been a bit of a biggy, although technically not because Monday was a public holiday.

It has been a week of firsts:

- first day back at school. All hell breaks loose and everyone suddenly realises they need help - usually computer help.

- first week back at school. Where everybody is dead tired and there's still one more day to go.

- first water aerobic class. I missed going to Zumba last year - committing to go to classes unless I was sick or had to do something important.  It's on Tuesdays and Thursday and I should have went tonight but had to make a birthday cake for someone at work tomorrow.  It was nice playing in the water and although not cardio it did work my muscles.



Big purchases

- my new phone arrived today - I'm waiting for it to be activated but I suspect something has gone wrong.

- C bought me a new ipad which I can't wait to use.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my orginal ipad since mum now has her own tablet. It won't get here until next week.

- Filofax.  Don't you hate it when you bid on something on eBay and the next day someone puts the same thing up for way cheaper!  So anyway I won a Filofax today that I'm paying way to much for but I'm sure I will love it.  I also bought a Kikki K version because it was on sale.  I have plans for both!!!  I'm kind of thinking I should also buy the cheaper one as well.

- Make up.  I have had a haul arrive.  I'm excited to show you.

My current make up routine

Mascara

I put my mascara on before my eye shadow because I'm a lot messier with it and it's easier to remove with a cotton bud when I don't have to worry about ruining my shadow.  I've gotten a lot better because for the last few years I have used a piece of torn off cardboard or an old business card behind my lashes so I literally paint the mascara on.  I've now started using a spoon - watch this highly entertaining video:

I'm going to have to try using it to put on liquid eye liner but I think I'll skip the eyelash curling.

I tend to buy a variety of mascaras, usually waterproof and rotate through them, if I don't like it I will toss it straight away.  Today I'm using Essence Get Big Lashes and I have no complaints.

Eye Primer

I have a small tube of Napolean Perdis that doesn't seem to end.  It also does the job well.

Eye Shadow

Don't hate me but I love cream shadows. I find them so easy to use.  Powder shadow has too much fall out and I find that it irritates my eyes.

A lot of the cheaper creams don't have much lasting power or pigment but I can highly recommend Max Factor's Masterpiece Colour Precision Eyeshadow. At the moment I am wearing Pearl Beige as my brow and inner eye highlight and Coffee over my lid - blended together.  It's been on all day, and yes the colours aren't as strong as this morning but still noticeable.

Invisible Zinc

I smudge a bit of zinc on the areas that I worry about like where my glass sit, the tip of my nose, chin and around my lips.  I don't do all over because zinc is thick and heavy and because it sits on the skin I find it washes me out if I do.

Tinted Sunscreen

I usually wear Sun Sense 50+. It's light coloured and feels nice on.  I am trying Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinke SPF 15 which is oka but it is darker and doesn't protect me as long as Sun Sense. I bought it because it was in a smaller tube for carrying overseas.

Lip stick

I have a bit of a thing for lipstick.  I really love the ones that last for ages like Maybelline 14 hr Lipstick or the 24 hour type ones.  But I also like chubby sticks - I'm wearing Sally Hansen Colorfast but I also have Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains as well.  Like mascara I really haven't got a preference as long as the colour is nice, I even have a few Coral Colours - I use  a lip pencil under them and blot and they seem to say on for ages.

I also use ChapStick with SPF 30.

What I would like

I only wear liquid eye liner when I'm going out somewhere special but I wouldn't mind trying it for day wear.

Sometimes I run a pencil liner under the top lid of my eye to make my lashes look thicker - it's apparently called tightlining.  I would like to buy a nude colour for my lower water line because white just doesn't seem to look good on me.

I'd also like to start lightly contouring my face but I don't really have anything to do it with anymore. 

The other thing that I really want to do is extend my eye shadow collection, with quality powder shadows, and maybe try some more creams.

So that's it.  I don't usually wear foundation and when I do I usually mix it with a bit of sorbolene cream. I don't use blush or powders either. I'm pretty lucky that I have nice skin and I don't want to hide it. 

My cleansing routine hasn't changed since I stopped using Clearasil in high school - face washer and warm water while I'm in the shower.  I will use eye make-up wipes in the evening but I find they sting my eyes so I want to find a nicer option.

New year's resolutions

I like making resolutions. 

I make a whole bunch and then tend to keep a few of them.

The most important one again this year is:

- Fitness

I don't really care if I gain or lose weight as long as I feel fit.  Actually I lie - I don't like fluctuating in weight because it means my clothes stop fitting. Towards the end of last year I didn't feel fit and right now I'm even worse.  Going on holiday does not help me!

- Create

Painting is on the cards again. I want to Zentangle.  I want to make paper beads.

- Sew

I am going to enter into Made by Me.  I will be pledging to wear something I have made or altered every day of May.

-Dolls

I'm also going to sew clothes for my dolls - because I have been so lax with this hobby. Now that I have had a little time away from my collection, I will also sell off a few dolls.

- Grow

Actually grow some plants.  I like having indoor plants but the last year I don't think I had one single plant.  Outside, I want to get a garden growing - only pot plants though.  I'm going to set up an irrigation system and everything.

- Make Up

I love make up.  For someone that doesn't wear a lot of it, I own a fair bit. I could spend an hour or two in Big W or Payless just swatching colours and selecting what I want. What I want to do is nail down a make-up routine that will take only a few minutes so that I will wear my make up! I also want to figure out what I really want and like to use. And then I really want to designate my own make-up space.  I started last year and it has worked well but I want to build on it.

Necklace

I didn't do heaps of shopping in Thailand because the protesting ramped up the first day we got there so no real big shopping complex trips :(

Instead we went to local shops near us including a few costume jewellery places. I actually went back and bought more.

This necklace was one that I bought - and I think the cats like it because they have how both tried to chew on it.

Aussie Curves - Breaking the Rules

Whenever I read this week's theme I got this song stuck in my head.  I'm not the only one right? Just to share that experience here is a YouTube vid of it:



I'm actually not following two of my own guidelines today.

- Tucked in
- Pleats on the belly

The tucked in guideline is one that I like to flirt with - I can sometimes pull off with a skinny t or a leotard.  I have a short torso and large bust which makes it look ridiculous with anything else. 

I could pull my waist band further down my body to elongate my torso, but I have heart/high/apple hips which means that my pants would fall down easily if I do.

A heart hip means that my high hip sticks out quickly and then comes back in again  before jutting out again for my thigh.  I used to be so conscious of it - when I was a teen I thought I was deformed. You can see these pictures if you still have no idea what I'm talking about.

http://www.lovelyish.com/2010/03/12/do-your-hips-have-the-dip

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2ilzxp3&s=3#.UtswSbQRWM8

And here is a sewing video as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGiYkkqBv0w

For one of my assignments at uni I made my own skirt pattern based upon my measurements and when I showed my sewing lecturer she made some snide comment about the fact that I had drawn my hip line wrong, but it was based on my measurements and fitted perfectly.

Because my heart hip is so pronounced it does make shopping for knickers a pain in the ass (literally) because you have to go all granny or skimpy string for your knickers to stay up and not bunch together into the dip. Too much info?

The other one is the no pleats on the belly.  I generally try not to have much going on over my tummy.  I even avoid pants/jeans with a fly wherever possible. I've got a round belly (don't we all?) so instead of flowing over the curve, pleats and zips kind of stick out.  I hate zips that make me look like I have a hard on - they are the worst.

Anyway - I've been dieing to buy some hammer pants - because they would work with a tucked in top and the fabric would be soft enough to drape.  I bought two while I was at the DFO City Chic in Brisbane on my way home from Thailand - I think were were $15 each.

top - Big W
pants - City Chic
necklace - City Chic

New Years Day

The saddest thing about New Years is that the Christmas decorations need to go away :(

At least I still have Christmas on Happy Street!

Now for the organisation photos-

As much as possible I keep the original packaging but keep the little bits together using ziplock bags.

These boxes are for the random things like the tree decorations and smaller decorations.  I had to make two more for this year and I also have an Easter box kit pictured.  They are made from old postal boxes.

Top 5 of 2013

I love reading through other people's top 5s for sewing, but this will be a first for me to actually do a round up.

Thanks to Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow's talents I now bring you my Top 5 of 2013!


Misses:
1
Hummingbird... oh how I wished that we had gotten along.  Someday I will return to you but not anytime soon... two tries were enough for now.  I'm not even going to share the first attempt, it was truely horrific.

2
Beautiful top made from my now modified beyond belief Rachel Comey V1247.  Alas, my love of food and of sleeping in has allowed me to gain in girth! So it didn't fit, fits my mum though... I will be making you again... just bigger.

3
I really wanted this year to be the year of the return of painting and drawing.  It wasn't.  Only two abstract splashes of colour. Will be working on this again for 2014.

   

4
Not being on a Home Ec this year has really allowed me to be lazy in the kitchen.  I think these are the only experimental recipes I tried.  Basically done so I could copy something I already knew I loved,,, actually there is one more for Korean sweet and spicy chicken.  So the fail was that I didn't try as many new recipes as much I would have liked, but it's a winner because the recipes I did try are on regular rotation.

   

Hits:
1
I finally bought myself a huge cutting mat.  So I can now pop on a movie, sit on the lounge floor and I cut out all my fabric.

 2
After buying above mat I promptly made a PJs bottom pattern from my old pair.  These are so comfy. I made the slouch pants last week and I have a few more to come.

   

   

3
Meat and potatoes sewing was my goal for the year.  I think I did pretty well.  I've perfected two t-shirt patterns.

The Kirsten Kimono from Maria Denmark as seen in white above and grey below.  I have now made another in magenta, and a black and white striped t-dress using the pattern.

The other pattern was traced last year from a Big W top, but I've used it so much this year.  The biggest hit was this t-shirt... black and white striped.  What I find interesting about the 'stripe phenomena' that has been occurring in the plus sized community is that there never has been a rule about horizontal stripes,,, I've been teaching the elements and principals of fashion design for over 10 years now and I have never told my students they can't wear stripes if they are large.  But we have learnt about how different line widths and the angle of the stripe can be used for optical allusions. I personally don't like thin stripes.  I'll get off my soap box.

4
Leggings and yoga pants. Made from McCall's 6360. I've lengthened the pattern to make long leggings, and really tapered the legs because they were ROOOOOMMY!

   

5
Crochet - another blanket done. This is becoming a yearly thing.

   

5
Finishing what I started.


I often buy something that it's quite perfect and promise myself that I will deal with it later... and then I find that top in the back of my cupboard in my yearly clear out, barely worn.  So this year I either refused to buy it or I actually did the work.

   

No more gaps!

 
I am a serial project starter.  Often I will start a something just to prove to myself that I can do it, learning something new and once I've got the hang of it I'll move onto something else.  I've really tried this year to nail down this habit. Not allowing myself to start a new sewing project until I finished the last.

I got the idea (probably from Gillian but also from Pinterest), I had the fabric, I had it cut out for months. I got it done, and even though it's just a skirt, I also learnt how to use interlining (with silk cotton) and matched up those fricken dots perfectly and hand sewed the zipper within the white dots and hand hemmed. It's an awesome skirt.  I then went on to make my final hit of the year...

    

5 (shhh! It's really 7)
Sewing for others.  I made five dresses for our singing group.  You can find my review here for Vogue 8787. I'm a bit over them myself but there were my biggest hit for the year.

 

Reflections:

Jeez this post is taking so long to finish...

I am feeling more and more confident in talking and posting photos of myself.  I can be my goofy self and crack a smile.  I limit the amount of photographs I take to at most 10 and pick the best ones. 

   

Just drinking some tea during class... don't mind me... I swear it was for educational purposes.

I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished this year - sure my sewing is pretty boring compared to others, but I don't care.  What I care about is that I'm comfortable when I wear it, and most people don't even realise I've made it until they give me a compliment. The crowd's reaction to our outfits was amazing and will be something that I will remember forever... well longer then the lyrics to the songs anyway.

Goals:

I will enter in Made by Me May
I will make a green skirt.
I will make more t-shirts - duh!
I will try at least 2 new patterns
I will crochet another blanket
I will paint and draw
I will play with dolls