Let's Make Lemon Bars

I made these lemon bars from All Recipes, using a few minor adjustments as mentioned in the comments and they came out delicious.  I used extra lemon juice (2/3 cup plus additional flour), added some zest, and baked it in a smaller tray. They're a really nice summer dessert and very simple and easy to make.

The crust:

The crust and filling take about 10 minutes longer to bake in the smaller tray (9x13 inch)

The filling:

Fresh lemons (I only needed 3)

I didn't add powdered sugar to the top. I like lemon bars a little on the tart side.

The Little Red Skater Dress-Sewing DIY

I made this dark red/almost maroon skater dress with a sort of sweetheart neckline out of a soft knit fabric I found at Joann's for only $6/yard (plus that 50% off coupon yay!). I lined the top part of the dress since the fabric was a little see-through. The neckline was inspired by a dress a saw from Forever 21's website, and I loosely based the method for sewing the dress again off of Annika Victoria's circle skirt video. This dress only needs about 1 1/2 yards of a stretchy knit fabric, matching thread, and a few hours!

Inspiration from the black Forever 21 dress in the middle. Other Dresses are from ModCloth/F21.

To make the top of the dress, I traced the shape of another knit dress that I like the fit of onto a piece of paper. From there, I free-handed the neckline (I went for a curvy v-neck/sweetheart neckline that reminds me of one of those fancy brackets now that I think about it } ). I added a little extra width because I made the front in two pieces so I would end up with a seam down the middle (just for aesthetics!).

After cutting out the pattern, I cut two pieces from the fabric (pre-washed) with it and sewed them together down the middle. The knit fabric I was using looked basically the same on both sides, so I didn't bother with trying to be consistent about which side was which, only with the grain of the fabric.

Using the new front piece, I pinned it face down onto the fabric, traced it, then cut around it to make the lining piece. This made it really easy to just carry over to the sewing machine to sew around the edges, excluding the bottom so you can turn it right side out. NOTE: I used white thread because I hadn't gone to the store yet to get matching thread and I already had the fabric and really wanted to start, but you really shouldn't do this.

For the back and its lining, I lightly traced the front piece onto the fabric (folded in half). I didn't have a specific idea in mind when I did this, but I ended up just drawing a deep V for something a little simpler than the front. Again, I pinned, cut, and then sewed along the all the edges except for the bottom.

Red thread has yet to be obtained at this point.

To complete the top, all that was left was to pin the front and back right sides together and then connect the shoulders and sides, making adjustments for fit before moving on.

For the circle skirt, I mostly just used an old knit circle skirt that I made to trace out the shape. (Annika's video shows very well how to make a circle skirt! I essentially did the same thing.)

I hemmed around the edge of the skirt by folding it in about a quarter of an inch as I sewed around (no pinning). Since it's knit, you don't need to fold it in twice (or at all if you're feeling lazy) because the fabric won't fray! I ironed the edges flat after to finish it off.

To make the waistband, I cut out two long rectangles from the fabric (they were about 5 in. x 20 in.). I folded them in half and sewed straight down the longest edge.

Progress check, these are the main components!

You're going to want two pieces about the length of the bottom of the shirt (one for the back and one for the front), and the rest can be used to make the tie for the back. I didn't bother turning the waist part around because I left lazy, but it actually worked in the end since it made the waist band wider than the tie which is helpful when it comes to putting everything together.

 For the ties, I added a diagonal seam at the ends, turned them out, iron them, and then finished it by top stitching the edge where the seams are.

Make the waistband by laying one waist piece down, then placing the two ties down on top of the first band with the edges lines up, and then sandwiching the other band on top. The ties should be centered vertically on the waistband with a little gap above and below it for seam allowances. Sew down the sides to connect the pieces.

Attach the band to the top by laying the shirt right side out inside the waistband (still wrong side out). Pin around the bottom edge of the shirt, making sure the side seams are matched up. In the middle picture you can see that I did this backwards! I didn't realize this until I finished sewing around and had to undo the entire thing :(, so I recommend not doing that.

Lastly, attach the skirt to the bottom of the waistband by laying the shirt right side out inside the skirt (right sides facing together). Pin the skirt evenly around the edges, starting with the side seams, them the middle of the front and back, and then the mid-points between those four pins. Sew around the edges, making sure to not let the band get in the way! (Same goes for the previous part.) This is where having slightly smaller ties helps out a lot.

Turn everything right side out and that's it!

Strawberry Nail Art

Here are pictures of my nails which were inspired by strawberries! It was really easy to do and didn't take long. It's not that hard to do with your non-dominant hand either since it doesn't need to look perfect.

Spot the watermelon!

 I used an Urban Outfitters brand nail polish in the color Cupcake (light pink with a cream finish) for the base and added a pink glitter for a shimmery finish, and partially because the Urban Outfitters nail polish did not have a very smooth and opaque finish, even after multiple coats. I used a white nail art polish to ad some white dots and then made the leaves by making random strokes at different angles near the tips after everything dried. Lastly I topped everything off with Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength nail polish in Flawless.

LA Colors Art Deco in white, Urban Outfitters brand nail polish in Cupcake, Zoya in Josie, and Pure Ice in Lilac Mist (possibly this one now?).

Illamaqua Glitterati Nails

I recently painted my nails with Glitterati from an Illamasqua nail polish duo. Glitterati is a deep violet/maroon color with flecks of variously sized duo-chrome glitters. The nail polish needs about two coats to reach full opacity, although I went for three coats on some nails. The finish isn't as shiny or glossy as one might expect, and it isn't completely smooth either, although adding a top coat usually fixes this problem. I like Seche Vite as a top coat for this nail polish, however mine has almost dried out and is pretty stringy. I used Sally Hansen's diamond strength in Flawless for all most of my nails instead.

With one coat, the nail polish is almost opaque, but you can see where the color is thinner.

The duo also comes with a deep teal called Viridian. It's a really pretty deep teal/jade color with a very shiny slightly metallic finish, although I find that this one chips a little quicker than some other nail polishes. Glitterati tends to last pretty long, although that might partially be the result of always using extra top coat with it. 

This duo cost $25, although I believe this was a limited edition nail polish duo and is no longer available.

LA Times Festival of Books

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books for the first time this past weekend (conveniently located right on USC's campus, AKA my front lawn), and I had a wonderful time. I honestly wish I could have spent more time walking around and checking everything out as there was so much to take in. The weather was perfect for walking around the entire festival-everything from the book vendors to the food trucks, and everything in between, including the John Green's book signing line.

The festival was primarily comprised of various tents with vendors, primarily selling books, comic books, and other book related items, along with large stages set up for performances, talks, and panels. I briefly looked through the kid's area which had tons of families and children-the Natural History Museum and an ice cream truck. 

My first stop was at The Library Store truck which was full of cute souvenir-type items like Jane Austen tattoos and air fresheners (also found at the Jane Austen Society's booth) and these little zipper pouches. There's loads of merchandise at all of the tents other than books that are quite tempting to buy, and, while I thought limiting myself by only bringing some cash would be smart, most of the vendors take card as well.

I didn't get any pictures of the tons of food trucks that were there, but there was everything from boba to Thai food, funnel cakes to paella and everything in between. The lines were crazy long so I didn't get anything, but it all looked and smelled delicious. Instead of getting food I decided to jump into an even longer line for John Green's book signing. 

I didn't even realized he was going to be at the festival, let alone signing books, so upon discovering the book signing area, I ran and bought a copy of The Fault in Our Stars (the only thing I bought) and got in line. It took a good hour and a half, but luckily the weather was nice and I made friends with the person waiting in front of me. The book signing was probably one of the most popular events at the entire festival, so meeting him was pretty brief, but the wait was definitely worth it.

I got my own J scribble!

I found a lot of fun random merchandise among the hundreds and hundreds of books. One of my favorite finds was this Sherlock Holmes lavatory spray.

I also came across these handmade leather journals (the guy at the booth said it took him a couple of hours just to make one!) and some pretty handmade jewelry. 

Tote bags were also a popular item