A crap-ton of candles and a lot of cake

It is my birthday. Well it was my b-day on Sunday, but I like to take a whole week. This post has a dress refashion! Which I will get to at some point. Preview?

There's the "before." But, before I get to re-do, I'd like to address something...
Earlier this summer, Facebook showed me one of those "memories". From that wacky, manic, sexy summer of 2012; this picture:

So, Facebook asked me if I remembered when I shared this pic. I sure do. I lightly dented the Internet with this one! It generated some great buzz! Awesome! I was modeling a cute little vintage one-piece. I used to love those. I even made it a tag back then!
It was a grainy mirror pic, but if you see what I see, you see a fine young thing. I looked so thin and in such great shape!
It wasn't that long ago...four years. Well, I guess I've made some changes since then. Here's a more recent picture from earlier this year:

That's a "before" shot of a referee-like dress that I haven't refashioned yet. Not a flattering look, I know. Does anything stand out to you? Here's another.

Looks like I put on a couple of lbs! Rounded out a bit! Added an extra layer of fat! Look at this:

Can you believe I posted a pic of these short shorts in 2013?
Over my birthday weekend, Chris and I went out for breakfast where I had a big-ass Belgian waffle and some sides. Upon my return from the restaurant, I felt like taking a nap and Chris lagged on the couch. "Why are we so tired?" I asked. "Because we're old as fuck?"
"Old as fuck, fat as fuck, and lazy as fuck," Chris replied, listing off some reasons we were headed for a food coma. I LOLed because it was such an exaggeration. I mean, we both look fine.
It was back in the winter that I first noticed that much of my clothing was simply too tight. I was horrified, but it made sense. In recent years, I have done some serious gorging on goodies like donuts, cake, cookies, etc. Up until late 2013, I had a part time retail job which kept me more mobile than I currently am when I'm listing crap on Etsy. Look, things happen!
I've started doing better. I'll probably never be that young gal in that picture again, but I've cut way back on the morning donuts (like hardly every get one) and I've started drinking fruit smoothies for lunch. I've had less ice cream than I would've liked to have this summer.
So, that dress:

What is that? A muu muu? The picture doesn't quite do it justice. Look at all that room in the armpits, and it really didn't have much of a waist. I thought this would be an easy fix. For once, I was right! It was easy!
I'll spare you the process, because once I took it in on the sides, I felt like it was mostly fine just like that. I also shortened those arm straps, they were quite long.

It's not very noticeable, but whenever I'm doing something with pink flowers I'm afraid of not looking cool. So, I pulled the old BeDazzler out and put some little round studs along the top of the dress and on the straps. Added my favorite helper, the waist cincher belt too.

Now look:

The pictures came out a little soft, but doesn't that dress look perfectly cute with a rockabilly vibe? Did you also notice those lovely shoes? Aerosoles! Brand new from Savers, $7!

It's kind of cheating, because I really just made it smaller.