December 15, 2013

5 Faux Pas To Avoid When Choosing Your Skating Dress

Today I wanted to write a little something related to dresses (and men's costumes) because it's an important subject, and seems to be one that my readers and other's in the skating blogosphere have seen as a central theme on my blog. In the run up to Christmas, with everything sparkling around us, you may be inspired to start thinking about your next skating costume (or just throw copious amounts of glitter over yourself -- both are equally acceptable in my opinion!), so here's a list of 5 faux pas (that's French for "mis-step" literally, i.e. something to avoid doing, ooh la la!) for when you're either choosing or designing your next skating outfit!


November 13, 2013

5 Figure Skating Dress Hacks You Need To Know

Hey guys and girls! Thanks for stopping by today for this post - the first I've written in quite a long while! If you're on Pinterest, you'll have seen the very popular "life hacks" styled posts (if you don't know what that means - it's essentially a list of easy tricks you never knew about that can make your life easier), and I thought it would be fun to adapt the concept to skating dresses! Because we all know sometimes you just need a quick fix! (psssst! If you are a Pinner, come check out my figure skating board)

November 9, 2013

Where Have I Been?!

Dear, lovely, readers! Hello! Yes FigureSkatingAdvice.com is still being maintained, even though it hasn't been updated in a while. If you are a "Fan" of the FigureSkatingAdvice Facebook page, you'll know that I decided to stop blogging for a little while when my family got some hard news relating to illness this summer. And taking some time off from both this and social media in general has been nourishing, and let me concentrate on the basics over the past few months. It was a good thing. It still is.

July 11, 2013

Inspirational Quotes For Skating

OK, so today I wanted to write a short post on inspirational quotes and visuals for figure skaters.

We've all seen these graphics across the internet, on Facebook pages, Tumblr, Pinterest, and even via chain emails, so I thought it would be fun to do a skating variation-on-a-theme!

June 24, 2013

10 Things A Skater Can't Live Without

I saw a similarly-named post on Tumblr the other day, and it got me thinking about those essential elements of a skater's life. Obviously this is a hugely personal list, so I'm going to be doing this with some nice obvious items and events, but I'd love to hear what your must-haves are on either the social media (see bottom of the post for links!) or as a comment on this post!

June 16, 2013

Storing Figure Skating Costumes

If you're anything like me, you don't have enough space in your closet as it is. Adding skating costumes to this is kind of a space-consuming nightmare, so I thought I'd write a post today on a few storage options for skating costumes, to liberate your wardrobe a new!

June 13, 2013

A New Keyboard For Easier Blogging

Well today's post has nothing to do with skating (although I do have a grandiose 5 skating posts in the works at the moment, so stay tuned!), but it is important to my blog anyway, so I thought I'd go ahead and share the news!

A little over 3 years ago I started getting wrist and hand pain, an injury which has only worsened over time. Eventually I had to give up writing, in lieu of typing, and even that has now become painful when I'm very active on my keyboard.

June 10, 2013

3 Ways With Strip Diamantés

Well I was taking a look at one of my favourite rhinestone seller's eBay page recently, and I came across beautiful rhinestone strips of all sizes, and colours! It instantly got me thinking of ways you could use this fantastic product in skating, and voila! a new post was born!

June 9, 2013

Sunday Skating Activities To Do At Home

So it's Sunday, and it's raining outside.

Perhaps you don't have a rink run today, and you aren't (or can't) running any errands, but fancy doing something skating related, either for practicality's sake, or for fun.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging, so I'm going to try and post little and often this week, to see if I can keep it up.

So today I thought I'd write a short post on some ideas for house-bound skating-related activities for a lazy Sunday!

June 8, 2013

A Complete Guide to Figure Skating Tights

Today I made a little graphic for the FigureSkatingAdvice Facebook page, having been inspired by my many hours traipsing through thousands of posts on Tumblr, and seeing many cute little graphics that had been handmade with free graphics software, simply displaying pretty typefaces, quotes, and wise words. My creation was based around a few of the things I used to do in the month of June, as the season pulls to an end and skaters across the world take stock, analyse how things are going, and where they want to be headed next season.

The summertime is the ideal opportunity for skaters to start concocting new programs, listening out for new pieces of music, and when the time is right, to start those important costume sketches. If you follow my blog, you'll know I have written quite extensively on the subject of costume design, and if you want to view some of my most-read materials on the subject, click here for a list of posts.


Although I've looked at the subject of skating dress and men's costume design many times, I realise that another hugely important accessory which should not be neglected and can contribute strongly to the over-all skater's look was as yet left neglected: tights. If you want to find out all about figure skating tights, then follow me! *jumps out of chair* (OK so when I say "follow me", I mean click the "keep reading" button...)

June 2, 2013

Dealing With Trophy Hunters

Hey guys!! I'm back!! *waves*

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I realise it's been a while since my last post, and for good reason(s): I've seen the hand surgeon and it turns out I'm going to need some more tests (this may mean that blogging slows down again in the near future... boo); I was going through my end-of-year-3 (out of 4! Woohoo!) exams at university; we've been cleaning out our house (and oh yes, that means emptying that last moving box from 2 years ago... *hides in shame*). So as you can see a lot has been going on! I'd love to know how you've been spending the start of summer, so don't hesitate to drop a comment or come say hi via Facebook or Twitter!

Now, on to today's post. I was going through some old skating photos and thinking back to my childhood in the rink, and I must admit that my mind did wander to that feeling of going into a competition, knowing you weren't going to win it. Of course this happens 99% of the time (if not more), but usually for a ton of reasons. It happened to me quite a bit simply by glimpsing at the competitor list however: if a trophy-hunting skater was participating, I knew the top spot was as good as already taken.

March 30, 2013

3 Ways You Can Save Money On Your Skating Starting Right Now

OK, so another budget post today. Because you can never know too many ways to save your hard earned cash, right? Like it or not, skating is a very financially demanding sport, and there are some expenses that we just can't cut corners on (skates, for one thing!). But how many of these skating expenditures are you shelling out too much for?

Read on for 3 ways you can save your cash, starting right now!

March 29, 2013

Ashley Wagner Answers My Question On Disappointment

Yesterday espnW held a Q&A session on Twitter with USA's Ashley Wagner, and called out for questions to Tweet to Ashley. Of course, never one to miss an opportunity to get insight into the workings of a champion's mind (for both myself, and my readers!) I went ahead and Tweeted a question, knowing that the chances of being picked for these things are kind of slim.

March 24, 2013

3 Great Rinkside Recipes To Make Your Life Easier!

So first of all, I want to say YAY! I'm managing to type little and often now, so naturally one of the first things I wanted to do on my computer was get down a new blog post for all you lovely readers who are being patient with me and my on-going hand injury.

Today I was warming some soup (as you do when it's so cold outside you actually avoid going out. At all), and as the seemingly-mystical vapours of Heinz's Cream of Chicken wafted up into my nostrils, it hit me that cooking recipes for busy skaters (read: skating people, especially parents) might make for an interesting topic of discussion. So here we go!

March 16, 2013

Update from FigureSkatingAdvice

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by today.

I thought I'd give you all a little update, seeing as this is now the second week that I haven't been able to post due to my hand/wrist injury.

March 10, 2013

FigureSkatingAdvice Facebook Page Reaches 100 Likes!

Ok so today I've got a post that's dear to my heart, because a couple of weeks ago, we made it past the 100 Likes milestone over on the FigureSkatingAdvice Facebook page!

Needless to say I am incredibly thrilled and thankful to all my wonderful readers for their support, so in celebration of this, I decided I wanted to put together a special post featuring some of my readers who also Like the Facebook page, as a THANK YOU for their support!

March 9, 2013

Time Out!

Hi there readers! Thanks for popping by today. You've either visited today because you know my weekly post happens on a Saturday, or you're here by chance. In any case, let me say: Welcome!

Unfortunately today there won't be a new post, and next week isn't looking good either. I have been suffering for almost 2 years now with chronic tendinitis in my right (dominant) hand, and wrist. It flares up in fits and spurts, and for the past two weeks it has definitely been in angry mode. This equals lots of anti-inflammatories, pain-killers, and a lot of rest (which is super difficult with your dominant hand, let me tell you!).

March 4, 2013

Figure Skating "Tips Of The Day" Now On Twitter

Have you seen those images across the internet, entitled "life hacks", which seem to be exponentially proliferating lately, and which illustrate all manner of quick short-cuts, tips, and tricks you can apply to your everyday life to make things just a little easier, and more pleasurable? If you haven't you only have to Google the term to see how massive a "thing" life hacks have become. And it got me thinking. Why not "skating hacks"?! Imagine having those little insider nuggets of information that would make your skating life a little bit easier?

March 2, 2013

Training Without A Figure Skating Coach

The idea from this post came from one of my Facebook "Likers", who is currently training on her own and asked for some tips on keeping up without a coach.

Now this, I must admit, is an area I have very little experience in. I've always taken lessons during my skating life, but I have been surrounded by many who didn't. So today I'm hoping to pull on those observations and make some savvy common-sense suggestions for getting on the ice coach-less!

Note that these tips also apply to skaters out-width their regular lesson time! If you want to read on how to stay focused and maximise your ice time when not in lessons, then read right on!

February 26, 2013

Be Featured on This Blog!

About a week ago I posted on my social media outlets (find us here: FigureSkatingAdvice @ Facebook, and Twitter) that to celebrate passing the 100 Like mark on Facebook, I was putting together a special little post featuring those people who made it happen!

It occurred to me that I hadn't spoken about it on the blog yet, and seeing as I want as many people involved as possible I thought I'd better write up a post! If you want to be featured on the blog, just head over to the Facebook page, Like it, and then fill in the blanks to this question:

"I got into skating because_____________, and the biggest thing skating taught me is _____________"

Let me know your answers (on the Facebook page) and also where you're from and I'll include you in the milestone post!

Until next time, thanks for your continued support of FigureSkatingAdvice.com!
XOXO
♥ Leaving a comment below 
♥ Visiting & Liking my Facebook page 
♥ Tweeting to me: @skating_howto 
♥ "Liking" this page on Facebook for all to see:

February 23, 2013

Ideas For Perfect Spirals & Biellmanns: Flexbility & Strength

Now more than ever, having amazing spirals is a points scorer, especially with the COP system in place. More and more ladies are exhibiting stunning spirals in their programs, and as such it's becoming expected on the competitive scene, no matter the level. So how can you work on getting yourself to that standard of spiral?

February 21, 2013

Stunning Figure Skating Manga

Hi guys! I know I don't usually write mid-week, mainly due to the fact that I don't get time (Saturday's post may or may not already be written... *looks guilty*) but today I had to post these stunning images, because who doesn't like a little skating related pick-me-up before the week's end, right?

For a little moment of awesomeness and relaxation, read on!

February 16, 2013

10 Things I Wish I'd Known As A Competitive Skater

You know how sometimes you think back on a situation and just think "ohh... with hindsight!"? Having a mature perspective on situations you have been through after the fact can be a frustrating feeling, so I thought that I'd put my hindsight to work for you guys today!

Read on for 10 things I wish I could've told myself as a competitive skater!

February 9, 2013

You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile

You know when the world's very best skaters step on to the ice, dazzle us with a sensational array of technical skills, passion-driven artistry, and a nice flat facial expression? Yeah, me neither. The smile is something we all take for granted in top level skaters, but every now and again someone forgets about it, and it really breaks something within the performance. That old adage "you don't miss something until it's gone" comes to mind. Read on if you want to find out why smiling isn't just important for world-class athletes, but for everyone!

February 2, 2013

A Skating Career: An Introduction To Jobs In Skating

Hi guys, I hope you're doing great this weekend. A young woman recently messaged me asking for some advice with regard to her options within the skating industry, and it got me thinking about the skating career path. I put a lot of though in to my reply, and the more I read over what I wrote, the more I thought there may be others out there who are doing some soul/job searching, and who might also benefit from an introduction to all things skating-career. So if you want to read about the 5 major ways you can craft a professional life in the world of figure skating, then read on!

January 26, 2013

Getting Kitted-Out: What To Buy At The Skate Store

Making sure you have all the essentials you need for a full and brimming skate bag is an important part of skating life, and something you'll encounter when you're starting out. This post is for all you lovely skaters who are just getting started, and hopefully it's come at an ideal time: perhaps you've been gifted things over the festive period, or maybe you plan on making full use of the slashed prices in the post-holiday sales. Either way, read on to get the low down on all the essentials!

January 25, 2013

Meryl Davis & Charlie White Answer My Question On Motivation

Hi lovely readers! Just a little post tonight before my usual weekly post tomorrow, to share with you all a wonderful piece of news I received today! A week ago I participated in an appeal for questions via Twitter for Meryl Davis & Charlie White of the USA (aka my biggest ice dance crush, ever), that they would answer during a Skype video interview with Olympic bobsled champion Steve Mesler.

January 19, 2013

Dry & Dehydrated Skin In The Rink: The Low Down & How To Protect Yourself *Guest Post*

Hi there lovely readers. No doubt if you're reading this, you're spending your fair share of time in the ice rink, and perhaps you've started to feel the effects on your skin, as many do. If this is your case, today you're in luck!


I've got a wonderful guest post for you today by Katie Dubarry, the founder of Endrick Esthetique, and skin expert extraordinaire, who has international experience working as a skin therapist specialising in helping her clients create and maintain healthy skin.

So if you're wondering how to protect yourself against the cold environment and keep your face looking tip-top, read on!

January 12, 2013

Which Sewing Tools For Skating Dresses & Outfits?

Following on from my recent post regarding the choice of sewing machines for the manufacture of skating apparel, today I want to expand on a small note that I wrote at the bottom of the aforementioned post: the matter of the tools that will greatly enhance your dress making experience.

January 5, 2013

Soakers, Guards, & Drying: How To Look After Your Blades

Although seasoned skaters will know the drill when it comes to keeping their skates in the best state possible during everyday use, beginner skaters may be wondering what the deal is with blades, protection, and storage. This post is for you guys, and I hope it clears some things up!
© Figure Skating Advice | All rights reserved | Header photo by PinkFloyd88 under CC BY-SA 3.0
built by pipdig