This is another sewing project I made for my nephew. I have a bunch of fabric scraps (and I'm sure almost everyone who sews also has a stash) and I was trying to find a way to use them up. I browsed through Pinterest and saw a couple pins about making blocks like the ones you see above. The great thing about baby projects is that they use much less fabric so it's a great way to use up some scraps.

I am very happy with the result of this sewing project!! I became very drawn to the wool coat trend around the end of fall last year, in part because of the Korean dramas I've been watching. I went on the hunt all over the city for a light grey wool fabric; to my surprise, it was extremely hard to find. In the end, I found the fabric I needed downtown but it came at a cost.

For the second wedding of the season, the atmosphere was more casual so the wrap dress was the perfect style for it. The wrap dress is one of my favourite dress styles these past years so I wanted to take on the challenge of making my own. To say this project was hard is an understatement - it was difficult! I made a lot of errors along the way but learned new techniques through the process.

As I had multiple weddings this year, I thought it would be a fun challenge to make my own dresses and save some money while doing it. For the first wedding of the season, I saw this style of dress on Pinterest and knew that it was a style I wanted to wear for a "black tie optional" event. I don't have any good solo shots of me in the dress, so I hope these photos will suffice in giving you an idea of how the dress turned out.

Last summer, I was lucky enough to travel to Iceland with some friends to celebrate the end of our long journey to obtain our Master's degrees. Although delayed, here are some of my favourite pictures taken from our trip.

It's wedding season! This year is special for my family because my sister will be getting married! She's been trying to save on expenses where she can so I've been helping her DIY a few things, and this chalkboard sign is one of them. I have a lot of time this summer so I wanted to take on this challenge of making my own frame and chalkboard. As you can see from the written words, this sign will first be used for her bridal shower (the date shown is not real for privacy reasons) and reused for the ceremony, reception, and future events.

After doing a lot of research, I've come up with a way to make a cost-efficient chalkboard sign without compromising for the quality of material used. Depending on the dimensions you choose to make your sign, the amount of wood and the size of your chalkboard may vary.

Long time no see! Almost two months in and this is my first post of 2016. I haven't had the time or passion to blog for the past 5 months. A lot has been happening that I'll mention briefly about each below.

Winter has been interesting this year. Back in late December, I remember wearing my fall jacket and just last week, it was feeling like almost -40C. This outfit here has probably been the only "fashionable" thing I've worn this winter that keeps me warm enough under my jacket. These leggings probably don't look that warm but they're fleece lined and so comfortable. As you can see, the weather got better this week which is also why I was able to take pictures outside without freezing. In addition with my morning classes, I'm just so tired that I don't want to spend energy on picking out clothes to wear.

My final year of undergrad has officially begun! I'm not exactly excited about it just because it all seems too fast. Seriously, I'll be applying to my Master's starting in late October... it honestly feels like I've been in university for less than two years. Hopefully I'll get into my program and I'll have two more first days of school to look forward to!

I really can't believe this blog has survived 2 years... happy birthday to A Splash Of Tan! Although the blog suffered a bit of a hiatus during this year, it made it to this day. Last year, I talked a bit of my how I felt about blogging. That part hasn't changed much, and if you'd like to read about it, click here. This year, I'm going to reflect more on the recent year that passed, my vision for it, and why I don't spend as much time blogging now.

From mid-December 2014 to the end of April 2015, I took an approximate 4 month break from my blog. Ever since my "Blog Turns One" post, I haven't been updating much; a scarce 1 or 2 posts per month. Part of the excuse, and a common excuse, was that I couldn't balance school/volunteering with blogging. My field of study is nothing related to what I blog about so the extra load was hard to manage. There are also many moments when I just prefer not to share everything on the public domain. Another excuse is that I just didn't have any motivation to continue.

I have never been so proud of a sewing project in my life. This one took a lot of time to complete because of all the new techniques that I had to learn, but I'm extremely happy with the result. Something about backpacks with the front flap make it so attractive. It was also the fact that it had so many features like enough pockets that appealed to me. I used a pattern for this project and the instructions were a bit difficult to follow nor did I end up following everything, but the overall pattern was great.

HAPPY CANADA DAY! In celebration of Canada's 148th birthday today, I thought I would turn this post into a bit of a festive one by throwing some red into it.

I actually started this project last year but after many sewing mistakes, I decided to stop. After about a year of getting some self-confidence back in my sewing ability, I finally got the motivation to complete it. Even after sewing so many things, you would think I can avoid silly mistakes like sewing into a layer of fabric I didn't want. The amount of seam ripping I do is unimaginable.

If you're like me, you never bother to clean your shoes. It either takes up too much time or you don't think it's necessary to do. I wear sneakers almost everyday and I trudge them through sun, snow, and rain so the dirt collects fast. Cleaning my shoes is not something I normally do, but after all that they have gone through these past years, I think they deserved some TLC. And now they look like I can wear them for a few more years!

Although this method isn't exactly "new" out there, I wanted to share this because I have never seen my shoes looking this nice, and I was so impressed by the outcome that I thought you may want to try it out too. I also don't like getting the entire shoe wet so this way worked out well for me. I picked up a few tips from Melissa at Clean My Space and altered them a bit, and used them on a wider range of shoe surfaces.

If you're looking for squeaky clean shoes, then this may not be the DIY for you. It gets a lot of stains out, but if you never clean your shoes like me and have stains from things other than dirt, the solution used below won't be able to get out everything.

Hello! I want to start posting some of the sewing projects that I have done in the past so here's my first one! Many things I make are usually done by following other people's tutorials with an added bit of freehanding; the tutorials that I use for each project will be linked in the end.

I am so in love with longer skirts now. I've been into this more "sophisticated/modest" style lately so the extra length has become a favourite. I'm not a huge fan of midi skirts though because they make my legs look shorter when they hit around my calf, especially since I don't wear heels. Knee length is perfect for me and I don't have to worry about my bum showing too hehe.

This summer, I'm volunteering as a research assistant/helper/you name it in a lab at my school. I have to go through many training sessions and rat handling training is one of them. The day of training arrived and I was emailed to meet in a room outside the vivarium (the room where they keep the live animals). When the time came, I went to the specified floor in the building but the room was no where to be found.

Hello! I hope you didn't forget about me. I've been gone from the blog for quite some time now but with good reason. School just took over and along with volunteering and the snow, I just couldn't find the time and motivation to update. Luckily, school is finally done for this year so I'll be blogging a bit more.

The forecast this week is looking so nice which means it's time to break out the skirts. I've been waiting forever to start wearing them again (without leggings) but it never got warmer until now. No joke, I've been planning to wear this outfit probably since January because I was so in love with the skirt and the oxfords.

Hello there! Today, I have a fun DIY project to share with you and it's on how to make a flip-cover case for your tablet or eReader. My sister has a fairly old version of a Sony eReader (not a popular brand for eReaders either) so she wasn't able to find any case online for it.

For this tutorial, you'll be able to make a case that flips open and stand on it's side if necessary. Of course it won't be as sturdy as the ones you buy in stores because of the material we will be using but it will be designed to your liking!

Here is another set of photos from my vacation this past summer. You can anticipate 2 more after this one LOL. Right after Seoul, my family and I flew to Jeju Island and let me tell you, I was pretty excited; this is like the getaway place that you always see in Korean dramas. If you like nature, this is the place for you to go. Oh, and if there's one thing you must eat in Jeju, it's their oranges! DELICIOUS.

This nature-filled photo set contains snapshots from Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak, Samseunghyeol, Yongduam Rock, Sangumburi Cave, Jeju Folk Village, and Manjanggul Cave.

Here is the long overdue part 2 post about my trip in Seoul, Korea this summer. If you would like to look at pictures from part 1 of the trip, click here.

This photo set contains pictures from Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, Banpo Bridge, FOOOOD, and some random snapshots.

It rained quite a bit during the last few days I spent in Seoul. I just remember my shoes getting so soaked in the rain and still having to walk in them for most of the day. Squishy, cold water between your toes and the soles of your feet is horrible. I think what I miss most about Seoul is the food... gamjatang, seoulleongtang, jajangmyeon, bulgolgi, soondubu jigae, samgyetang, kimchi, and the list goes on yummm :D