DIY From Halter to Cross-Back

Ever since I got pregnant with Smasher, I cannot STAND having things on my neck. Turtlenecks, long hair, heavy necklaces, or halter tops. They make me nauseous and give me a headache within 15 minutes. 

As you can imagine, combined with my now-saggy post-nursing bewbs, this makes bathing suit shopping EXCRUCIATING. Every thing that isn't a halter, gives no support, or if it DOES have support, it looks like a bra. 

My pre-pregnancy bathing suits, I have discovered, are ALL halters. So I decided to see if I can convert my old halter into a cross-back top. Not only was it a success, it was SUPER simple!

My results: 

Ignore my not-bikini-readiness, please. I'm working on that.

The top had my girls hanging a bit low and wide, so I also added a quick (supposedly) seam up the front to close them in just a bit. I folded the bikini in half, right sides facing, then put a seam up the front of the cups perpendicular to the bottom band. If your bathing suit is fairly thin, you should be able to do this on your sewing machine, but if it is thick, you may want to just hand sew it. I wound up having to do both, because my machine didn't want to stitch through the thickest part where the cups met the band. Then I just trimmed the seam allowance (swimsuit fabric doesn't ravel, so you don't have to  secure the allowance).

Please also ignore my horrendous hand-stitching. 

Now for the Cross-back. My suits straps were long enough to just stretch down and cross, but if yours are not, you can just make some quick new straps from corresponding swimsuit fabric and attach those. 

You can either put on your suit and have a friend cross the straps in the back and pin them for you, or you can pin them first with safety pins and try the top on. You want to stretch the straps when you pull them down, because swimsuits are supposed to stretch to fit your body and they wont support the girls if you don't stretch them any. Just don't stretch the straps to the max or they will pull up your bottom strap in the back and look a bit funky. You don't have to make the straps match, just find a position you like. Then pick whichever strap you like best and remove the pin or pins from the other strap.

Pull off your suit and mark the shoulder strap and the bottom strap you liked with pins at the inside of where they intersect. Put the pins in each strap separately. Remove the pin that had them connected together. It doesn't have to be perfect, the stretch fabric makes this project very forgiving.

See how the pins follow the inside edges of the other straps?

Then, separate the pinned straps and fold the top in half. Line up the cups and bottom straps together evenly and insert a pin in the remaining strap at the same distance from the cups as the pin you already have marked. Repeat for shoulder straps.

Then, lay out your top flat and cross your shoulder straps. Match the meeting points of the pins with the shoulder straps to the inside of the bottom straps, and pin each shoulder strap to its corresponding bottom strap.

Sew straps together with a box, crossing the insides of the box to make an "X". NOTE: If you're doing this with a string bikini, it may be easier just to hand-sew this part. You don't have to make the box and X, just make sure the straps are secure.

Then try it on, and if you like it, trim the ends of the shoulder straps. And, voila! You now have a wonderfully comfortable cross-back bikini top!

Sprouts in Disguise

I hate brussels sprouts. 

Blech.

I have, however, found a way to turn them into a wholly different, delicious thing!!

 

Seriously. Look at this deliciousness. LOOK. AT. IT.

And ignore the slightly burned pork chop and crappy photography.

Even if you don't like brussels sprouts (which I don't), you'll love this. It's very easy to make, too. Believe me, if I can do it, ANYONE can. I'm really not much of a chef (or even a cook), so I won't share recipes here often. But this is awesome, and I really feel it needs to be shared. I crave this dish. It is the only way I'll eat brussels sprouts (that I've found- I'm always willing to try new ways, though). 

Ingredients:

1 lb Brussels sprouts

Olive oil

BAM. Only 2 ingredients (unless you feel like adding salt).

Use your food processor or grater to shred the brussels sprouts. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When oil is hot, add brussels sprouts and saute until soft and just starting to brown. Add more oil if you have to, but don't over load it. It usually takes about 10 minutes for us to start browning. Add salt if you want (I never do). And enjoy while warm!

It's not particularly good cold, just fyi. Not bad, just better deliciously warm.

Also, a pound may seem like a lot, but it shrinks a bit while cooking. We always make a pound, and never have leftovers. Smasher loves this recipe, too.

 

I love this recipe because I am all about finding new ways to cook veggies. I'm just a bit of a picky eater when it comes to vegetables, so I love it when I find a recipe that makes a gross thing delicious.

 

Off Like a Herd of Turtles!

I went running tonight again... Finally.

I have been running pretty regularly for several months now, with the longest break being a week when I was in Houston on vacation. As I was making progress, I really started to love it. About a month ago, though, I started having some foot pain and my knees started to hurt. At the time, I was about 2-3 weeks into a training program that was supposed to increase my distance from 3 miles to about 5.5 miles in 6 weeks. I had just started running 4 miles when I started having this pain, so I decided to take a bit of a break until my foot was feeling better.

This break was supposed to last for 1 or 2 days... But after my foot stopped hurting, I got sick, then I had some issues with my ID so I couldn't get on base to run (our roads are horrible, so I run on a track on base). Every day that I skipped just made it harder to start again.

My one or two day break turned into... 2 weeks.

As mentioned here, I had built up my running in my head to this horrible, involved ordeal and I just didn't want to do it any more. Maybe it was because of how steep my running plan was, or how strict the plan was, or just how much I had started hurting. But in my head, running just plain sucked.

Logically, though, I knew it didn't. For months, I have run multiple times a week and LOVED my runs! I loved the progress I made, I loved how I actually started to feel like a "Runner", everything! I looked forward to getting up and racing myself, and to having that time where I'm doing something just. for. myself.

So I know there are good things about running. And I knew, during this whole break, that if I just went out and did it, it wouldn't be so bad. I would get it out of the way, get over my roadblock, and get back in the groove. I would finish my run, red-faced and grinning, and smack myself on the forehead for waiting so long.

Well, I FINALLY got my a$$ out and ran today.

Aaaaaaaaaand....

Meh.
I started hurting within the first minute. Once one ache stopped, another would start. My knee, my side, my other knee, my shoulder... On and on until they finally stopped, or I just got better at ignoring them. I reached my 3 miles, but it wasn't any fun. I was bored the whole time as well. Maybe it's because I'm still missing my superfantastic running partner. Then, by the time I got home, both of my knees were swollen and my foot had started hurting again... After ONE run! (I think it's due to inflammation, and I'm researching how to fix it). The run wasn't horrible, but it wasn't easy, and it wasn't good, either.

I just don't know about running any more. I think the bloom is off that rose. I need to either find the love again, or find something else to love. Because, after only two weeks of laziness, The Grump has already mentioned that I've started looking chubby. 

And no, I won't let that go. -_-

The plan now is no running until I finish the Mud Run on Saturday. Then, I think I'm just going to run 2-3 times a week. I also think I'm going to switch it up. Instead of distance, I think I may work on shorter sprint sessions. My favorite part of my run has always been that last minute, or 200 meters where I give it everything I have. Maybe sprinting sessions wont allow me the time to get bored. PLUS, I'm a pretty slow runner; I know I need to work on my speed. 

Seems like a win-win there.

BONUS: This is how Smasher looked when I went to wake him up yesterday. These bunny suits are killing me.

I think this is a pretty good representation of my laziness level the past two weeks.

This Foot is Made for Walkin'

I finally started to quilt my quilt today. I didn't get very far because my family got home and I didn't want to be all antisocial, hiding in the back room stitching away.

My rig.

<--- I tried out my walking foot. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I had to tweak tension a bit, but that could have been because of the ridiculous amount of fabric under the needle. 


Wrestling with the copious amount of fabric on all sides of the needle wasn't too bad either. I may revise this opinion when I'm smack dab in the middle of the quilt, however. I'm definitely glad this quilt is on the smaller side.

I did have to break out my handy-dandy seam ripper. Both because of user error and also because I started to quilt "in the ditch" (sewing right on the seam between the connected fabrics) and I really didn't like the way it turned out. I don't trust myself to sew a straight enough line to make "in the ditch" look really good. 

To be fair, I wouldn't trust myself to sew a straight stitch to save my life. 

Please ignore the wonky lines and toddler foot.

In light of this, I've decided to do a sort of baseball stitching (I'm not sure what this is called in quilting). It's just stitching slightly to each side of every seam. I'm really liking it so far. It really makes the stripes pop without disrupting them. I don't trust myself to quilt any sort of designs yet, and I think any more lines would be distracting.

 I constantly have to remind myself to slow down when I start to move fast. It's just too easy for me to slip up a hand and shoot off  in the wrong direction. I'm just not comfortable enough with quilting specifically and sewing in general to move as fast as my impatience insists on moving.

Smasher smashing.

Smasher loves this thing. Every time I lay it out to look at it on the whole - or baste it, or fold it, or any number of things - he runs over to stand on it or sit on it. He cracks me up. I hope he still likes it as much when it is finished.


Sorry about all the crappy pictures. For some reason that room is always dark. I wish you could see better detail in the pictures. Oh wait... Then you might be able to spot my more subtle disasters... Never mind! Enjoy the dim (or overexposed), small pictures.

Total progress today.