Native Madridian: Making Happiness Happen

I read an article that a friend posted to Facebook that really got me thinking and inspired me. (You can find it here.)

My take away from the article included a few simple ideas:

1. We are in charge of our happiness and we can choose to be happier people.

2. Building a life out of quality relationships and life experiences can make your life richer than working crazy hours at your job.

3. Accumulating more "stuff" in our lives truly doesn't make us more happy. There will always be more "stuff" to buy, so maybe it makes more sense to simply appreciate what you've already got and refurbish when possible.

So, what the heck does all this have to do with crafting?!? In a word, simplification. I have a need to make things in my life more streamlined and and more simple.

To support this idea, I decided to try my hand at refashioning this weekend. I figured it would be a refurbish on something I already own, so I'm not buying anything new or throwing anything away--It's cost neutral, yet if all goes well, I'll have something else to wear in my closet. It's also something I could do inside since it's so dang hot out, and a cool, breezy dress will be just what the doctor ordered once I do need to head out to run errands on the weekend.

This time last year, while I was happily pregnant, I purchased a few items of clothing that were incredibly comfortable. In this batch of clothing that -- thankfully -- is now too roomy in the belly, I had two sundresses that I'd love to be able to put to use this summer. My idea was to blend something like this dress:

with this:

I wanted to better define a waistline and make the dress appropriate for my non-maternity self. So here's what I did:

I turned the outfit inside out and measured the length of elastic that was already sewn into the dress below the bustline. I then cut a few pieces of 1/4" elastic at the same length and pinned it into the dress about 1 1/4" below the original elastic.