Hello, I blog!

I want to learn how to do a handstand.

I recall there used to have gym classes during the usual PE slots at some point way back in Secondary School where we were trained in stuff like these – backward flips, headstands, handstands and what-have-yous.

So, how I used to do a ‘handstand’ (in apostrophes, because I wouldn’t call those proper handstands) back then was to attempt a flip by supporting both hands on the ground and flinging both legs upwards – and two people will be on standby to grab them.

Unfortunately, due to the short duration of those ‘gym classes’ (they lasted only about 4-5 weeks, or 4-5 forty-minute PE sessions per week), we never ventured beyond attempting handstands without having anyone grabbing our legs.

What I can do now is err … I don’t know what to call it. It’s like a partial handstand – with one hand and one leg supporting my body weight instead of both hands.

Like so.

Taken in Perth, Australia in May 2009 – when I had short hair.

(No, don’t look at the bronze fella’s awesome handstand. Always pay attention to the underdog, I say!)

I attempt this all the time – at home when I’m bored, and especially in pictures when I’m in one of those quirky moods. You might have seen me attempt them in front of you, or you might also have seen me fall over in the process of doing one. (Pokes Ivy, Dayna and Cherlynn at this point.)

But, I want to do a proper handstand.

Just like that bronze fella you see in the above picture.

For obvious reasons, a couple of friends who have heard my plans are not too supportive (and rightly so too) about it, but I still want to try it anyway.

Just one successful handstand is enough to make me very happy.

Handstands, anyone?

I recently acquired a pair of plain black cotton track pants for the looong plane journey to Vancouver next month. (Apparently, jeans aren’t the best for long plane rides as it may lead to deep vein thrombosis.)

The pants was a little too plain for my liking and so I decided to jazz it up. Went around collecting materials galore – plain black cloth, shoelaces in brown and black, silver metal fasteners, golden buttons, and thread reels in a myriad of colours.

I initially wanted to do some contrast threading. Say for example, electric blue threading on the black-based pants. However, I threw that idea out of the window as it’d be difficult to match. Eventually settled for neutral colours.

Creating the pockets!

I started off by creating two little black pockets – one for each side, attached to the front of the pants at different heights.

The pockets were created from black squares of scrap cloth with the edges sewn in as shown. (Yes, folks! Everything was hand-sewn. The total process took about two hours in total because I am such a n00b at stitching. But I gave it a shot anyway because it’s really fun to customize your own stuff!)

The black pockets were then attached to the pants. Yes, with black thread. Hurhur, how boring. (; It’d be fun to do something with contrast threading in the future. Perhaps a t-shirt. I’ll see how it goes.

Attaching the pockets!

This was then followed by little golden buttons for some pizazz! (Not to mention how I was getting tired of seeing black, black, black!)