The other day I was in the fabric store and I found the cutest print fabric and immediately thought of making an apron for my super adorable roommate Emma!

Isn't she mad cute? I kind of love her <3

I found this inspiration picture online that I decided to model my apron off of:

Inspo pic! If you can help me credit it, that'd be great - I don't remember where I found it anymore :(

I didn't have a pattern (or a printer to print the pattern with!) so I kind of just made it up as I went. To make the skirt flouncy, I decided to make a circle skirt to Emma's measurements. For the top, I literally cut out a heart and attached it to the waistband. I made the pocket with the extra circle that was cut out from the circle skirt. All in all, it was a pretty simple project and the result was pretty cute! (I omitted the lining. I'm a lazy piece of shit and lining is way too much effort for me. Also, I have no fabric for lining. That's a good excuse, right?)

Emma modeling the finished apron!

Striking a model pose

The apron in action!

Also, since I got two yards of fabric, I had plenty extra to make myself a circle skirt out of it too. Printed skirts for the win!

Guys, I have a desk now. I'm like, a real person now! (I'm mostly super excited about having a surface to use my sewing machine on. And to be able to have my double-screens with my monitor and computer, as I sit here typing away and watching Project Runway simultaneously.)

This past weekend, my daddy visited me in Boston! He was on his way from Ottawa to China, and decided (after a LOT of begging) to stop in Boston and visit me for a day.

"Dad, let's take a selfie!" "What?"

He ended up taking me to IKEA (which was the main point of his visit) to buy a desk, and can I just say - I'm a convert. I'm in love with IKEA. The showroom was so cute, and dad and I died a little inside with excitement when we went through the children's section. He kept telling me, "if you see anything cute for Hera, we should buy it!" (Hera's my now-6 year old baby sister and my favorite person ever.) We ended up buying two cloud pillows - one for me and one for Hera - and later that night he ended up having to take it back to the hotel himself and was a little bit embarrassed but it was actually so cute.

Matching cloud pillows for the sister and I

"Why are you taking a picture?" he says while laughing at himself and his cloud pillow

Dad and I also went and had ridiculous amounts of food (because what better way to bond?). We had lunch at the Galleria because dad was on a mission to find a new backpack (so now I have a new one too, because I got his old one!) and we ended up stuffing our faces with comfort food at the Cheesecake Factory.

Dynamite Shrimp small plate

Stuffed Mushrooms small plate

Shephard's Pie

Fish and Chips

And then dad took me grocery shopping in Chinatown for more food. All the food! My freezer is now fully stocked with my proteins for the coming semester. I also took dad to Tea-do for some boba and ordered us both some Lychee Black Tea with boba (best. drink. ever.)

Aaaand finally we went and got Emma's for dinner. Emma's is this tiny little pizza place down the street from my place, and the food is ridiculously good. Thin crust pizza's for the win, and the names are adorable! I mean, 364.4 Smoots? Study Break? Ugh. So cute.

We ordered 364.4 Smoots (the vegetarian one in the front) and RedLine (in the back)

All in all, it was a super fun to have my dad here (I miss him already!) and getting to spend time with him one-on-one in Boston. Although I also miss my sister. Ugh, baby cuddles. I need them all the time. Best kind of cuddle ever.

Have any of you been to the restaurants I mentioned? Do you also have a crush on IKEA? Let me know!

One of the big things I wanted to work on this IAP was decluttering my life. Before I left for Christmas Break, I realized that somehow over the past 6 and a half years (boarding school + college) of being in the States, I had accumulated a ridiculous amount of stuff: clothes, makeup, art supplies, pens.... and it was overwhelming.

So last weekend, I finally sat down and went through all my makeup. At some point in high school, I had gotten super into playing around with makeup (I did my final AP Painting and Drawing concentration on theatrical makeup! Examples can be seen in the photography section of my portfolio, and the artistic recreations in the studio art section) and because of that, had palettes and shadows and lipsticks just lying around waiting to be used, and since they were ridiculous bright colors, they really were just collecting dust. I ended up piling everything on the floor, sorting everything into categories (eyes, cheeks, powders, lips, etc), tossing all the stuff that had expired, and gave away most of the stuff I didn't use to my friends. After doing so, I felt awesome, and it's pretty refreshing to be able to reach into my little plastic drawers and pinpoint exactly what I want quickly and efficiently in the morning when I'm slapping my face on.

Hi, I'm Cecile and I have (had!) a problem. This is most of the stuff I had, sorted in piles on the floor! I'm proud to say that I've reduced it by more than 50%

Today, I decided I should tackle my closet. I ended up sorting everything into 3 piles: keep, refashion, and donate. I just spent an hour and a half going through every item in my closet, trying things on, making my roommate help me decide (I put on my corset - I got it for a Bellatrix costume back in high school - for her to thank her for helping me), and throwing things into their respective piles. I now have two full plastic bags ready to bring to Goodwill, full of free tshirts and jackets and sweaters and things that I just have outgrown and/or don't wear. Hopefully they will find better homes.

I then also reorganized all my t-shirts and tank-tops by folding them and stacking them vertically, which helps me see all the items at once. (I usually keep my shirts folded like this, it just slowly deteriorates as the semester goes.) Hopefully this way I can show approximately equal amounts of love to all my clothes, instead of always reaching for that "They see me rolling, they hatin" narwhal t-shirt from the last career fair that's always on the top of the pile.

look at all my neatly folded tshirts! cross your fingers and hope it stays like that. Can you spot the narwhal t?

Lastly, I have a small pile of clothes chilling on the floor that will end up being refashioned. For those of you who don't know, I have a sewing machine that I traded my airline points for, and I've been learning how to sew with it. Look for a bunch of DIYs soon!

I've always been a bit of a hoarder - why throw something away when I paid money for it, right?? - but I've found that decluttering has really helped with my mental state - I guess living in a disordered room can lead to having a disordered mind. I'm also just kind of super OCD sometimes, so having everything in my environment super neat is really helpful. My next decluttering project is to go through all my pens and just throw stuff out.

How do you feel about decluttering, or are you secretly a hoarder too?

On Saturday, I finally decided (after 4 years of going back and forth on pros and cons) to get my first tattoo! I got it done at Chameleon, in Harvard Square, and overall it was a really great experience. (spoiler alert: it didn't hurt nearly as much as I expected it to.)

First things first: the pain. It's not really like anything I've ever felt, but I think the best way I can describe it is that it kind of feels like getting one of those vaccinations that leave a little bubble beneath your skin - the sharp little pain from the needle coupled with the burning sensation of the actual vaccination. So that, but like, a lot of times. And for longer. (I guess if you're super queasy about shots you might not want to get a tattoo? But it really wasn't a big deal, pain-wise.) Also, the after-care is super simple and so far, so good - it seems to be healing nicely and there's a tiny bit of scab on top of the tattoo but there isn't any itching or discomfort whatsoever. My long sleeves haven't been bothering it at all when they rub against it, so that's good too. (All in all I'm not very good to my hands/arms in general, so I'm actually pretty surprised that everything looks fine.)

tattoo! Sorry about the gunk around the tattoo - I think it's dried blood? In any case, it washed off

One of the most memorable things my best friend, Lydia, ever told me was during a discussion about what we thought our greatest strengths and weaknesses were. I came up short - didn't know what to say - not because I thought I had none of either, but because I didn't feel like an answer such as "art" and "English" and other academia would suffice or even be appropriate. Sure, I'm pretty good at a few hobbies like drawing and I'm decent at math, but I'm not exceptional at anything, I felt. At the same time, I don't really think I suck butt at anything in particular either. Except maybe music. I've never been good at music. Oh and sports. Sports can go die in a hole.

And then Lydia delivered this gem: "Your greatest strength is your capability to love." She said she'd never met anyone who could love so many people so much, and often right off the bat too. It brought us back to how we had met - two quiet little freshman at a new school during a day full of icebreakers, and I went up to her because we were both standing alone (and she looked friendly! and pretty!) and somehow that developed into the friendship we have today.

Okay guys, I know. I kind of maybe totally 100% forgot about this blog and disappeared into the depths of crazy college life (what life? I mean studio) and I'm sorry.

Over break and the beginning of January, I took some time to revamp the blog, got rid of the Whim of the Week / Coffee Buzz categories because I decided I didn't want to constrain myself to specific things to write about on specific days, and now I think I'm ready to plunge myself back into the blogging scene. I guess I can't really promise super consistent content - I know once classes start back up, I will get sucked into the studio vortex (again) whether I want to or not - but I'll try! For now, I'm trying to get into a Tuesday/Thursday weekly schedule.

So here goes nothing.

Let me know what you think about the blog revamp! Also, does anyone have any New Year's Resolutions they want to share?