M’s B-Day, Part 1

Posted on | January 9, 2010 | 6 Comments

M’s bday isn’t until Feb. 5th but because of our awesome moving schedule we decided to have a month of celebrating M’s bday. Today it was family day and she chose Dim Sum at Bo Ling’s in Kansas City… or actually Overland Park, a suburb of KC on the Kansas side. As always it was delicious. Then we grabbed a few things from Whole Foods and then ice skating. BUT, ice skating didn’t happen because it was an outside rink and our little princess did not want to be out in the 9 degrees Fahrenheit (-12-ish Celcius) weather (we don’t blame her). So instead we dropped the hubby off at Mercy Seat and us girls went to another known KC location, 39th st (close to the also known West Port), for some coffee/hot cocoa (Javanaut — we like local shops than chain if possible. The Starbucks is at the next block), and 2nd hand bookstore shopping. M got herself five chapter books. She loves to read like her parents.

No crafty goodness today but I want to post some photos to help me remember what we did this weekend.

For once my M dressed up like a normal girl. She still got layers of clothes but at least they were coordinated… although her rainbow color outfit sometimes makes her more adorable. Oh, check out them boots from Santa (they’re by Primigi if anybody wants to know), I want some!

Our two girls.

Our little shrimp. She’s only 13lbs some ounces at 7 months old. She’s in the 10th percentile in height and 5th in weight. Her head is normal tho, ha! My poor baby, 90-95% of babies her age are bigger than her!

And what hubby got after I picked up from Mercy Seat (suppose to be one of the best place to go in KC, Exile is another great one). This is one big reason why our marriage is still going well. We let each other do whatever and support each others’ wants. I’m not a tattoo person. I’d like one but I’m too chicken to. But, I let him ink up as long as they’re nice looking. This is his fourth.

M’s Present by Hubby and I

Posted on | December 9, 2009 | 14 Comments

Today the moving folks came to take part of our stuff. Even though it hasn’t really hit us, our (slow) big move to England is finally starting. We can’t wait and in my head I’m imagining all the places we’ll see and the food we’ll eat. You all know I LOVE to eat. You should have been there for our first date. I ate everything on my plate! My then not-even-boyfriend was in awe. It’s amazing that he called me up again the next day he he…

Today I took lots of naps and by late afternoon I was feeling better (thanks everybody for your well wishes). After my nap I started looking at felt gadget cases on Etsy. M’s big present this year is a camera. We decided on the Canon 1200 because it’s small, has a viewfinder, and has a lithium rechargeable battery. If it wasn’t for the viewfinder I’d have gone with a Panasonic (it has a Leica lens, wider angle, and did I say Leica glass?) but the viewfinder won. M likes taking pictures with my Canon dSLR but it’s just way too big and bulky for her to lug around. A lot of point-and-shoot doesn’t have a viewfinder and we want her to get use to looking at that little piece when taking pictures. Anyhow… I wanted a cute case for M’s new gadget and was actually ready to purchase this one from Suezybees:

when hubby said, “You can make one, you have all the stuff. You can die cut a cute bird or flower or something.” Hmmm, he’s got a point. So I gathered my butt load of felt and thread, needle, scissors, ruler, the crochet flowers Clouds made me, some PTI Christmas vintage buttons, and went to work. Two hours later (a pro can probably do this in 30 minutes) I got this:

Ignore the crookedness, ignore the bad corners, and just look at the big picture. You think she’ll like it? I hope so! Inside is an acrylic block which coincidentally is the size of the camera. For the flap, the flower was sewn on top of the button hole. This part was the hardest to do. It wasn’t hard, just nerve wreaking because it was the last thing and if I cut wrong then I’d have to rake my brain again to cover up my mistake or start over again.

I have to thank the hubby for pushing me to do this. I love felting but since I’m not so good at it I rarely do it. For this project hubby did more than motivate. He suggested hole + flowers + button flap instead of snaps and a button on top and that the button should be placed a bit to the side instead of centered. The best part of this project was that I made this while chit-chatting with him in the living room. We would have liked it better if we weren’t sick but we did make the best of it.

Instructions:

First the camera is 3.5×0.9×2.25. If your gadget is bigger/smaller, adjust accordingly.

For the tan felt: 4.5×3.5 which gave me .25″ on each side I’ll be stitching and an inch of space for the thickness of the camera. If you want it to be less snug, you can cut your felt to 4.5×3.75 or 4.5×4bag. The key is to remember your sewing space and the thickness of your gadget/case.

For the brown felt: 6.5×3.5

I think I should have done rounded corners. As you can see from my creation I’m not so smooth on them corners. Actually I’m not sure how to do corners. I’m a self taught stitcher. Any hints?

After all’s cut I sewed the buttons on to the flowers AND the tan felt. The button holes were right above the crochet flower holes and so it worked well for me. If you have crochet flowers with bigger holes I’d probably sew the flower to the felt first and then the button to the felt after.

Then comes the stitching. Now, since I’m no stitch expert I tried to use as long of a thread as I possibly could (I used two strands of thread tied together at the end making it into a four strand). Starting out is always tough for me for some reason so I try to avoid it as much as possible.

It’s not showing on the picture but the tan felt was stitched all around.

After the stitching comes the flap button, hole and flower. To do this close the flap. Place the flower on the flap to help visualize and after you’re happy with where it’ll be stick your needle to the center. Leave the needle there and place the button under it. Eye ball again, and again, and again. Sew this button on the to tan felt. Close the flap and place the flower on the brown felt on top of the button. Feel it again, and again, and again and cut. Cut as big as the button and stitch around it. Now, I’m not sure if you have to do this but I did it thinking it’ll make it last longer. I dunno tho for sure.

Last but not least with the white/light color thread sew the flower on. On my flap there’s no indication that the flower was sewn on. I did it very carefully.

That’s it!

I’m Thankful for…

Posted on | November 26, 2009 | 3 Comments

I am a VERY lucky person and I am grateful each and everyday. But every year on Thanksgiving I do think about it a bit more and still the best three things in my life are the folks above. Then my friends and a handful of extended families. I also have my health. I’m very lucky there. My dentist said I’m one of the 1% who still have their wisdom teeth and I rarely get sick. I have every single body part that I was born with. Everything else in my life… they’re wonderful bonuses. My education has been a wonderful gift. My job has been very fulfilling and fun. The second income has been a treat. Our travels have been joyous. And our future adventure across the pond will an experience to cherish.

So today we celebrate Thanksgiving and are very thankful that we have love, nutritional food, clean clothes, good health, a warm loving home and all the bonuses that we have been very fortunate to receive.

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!!

PS: Jovie moved, thus the blurriness. Still love the photo though.

Zoo Time

Posted on | November 24, 2009 | 10 Comments

NOTE: There’s still time to do M’s challenge! It’s so fun to see more kids playing!!!

It’s so nice to have some time off with the family! Today we went to the zoo… Jovie’s first zoo and stroller experience. We all had a great time even though the hubby, Jovie, and I ended up waiting at the cafe while the M and grandma went through the rest of the zoo.

I have some pics to share, but before that, here’s a simple card I made yesterday night. Remember I was crafting out of a small craft bag and I didn’t put any markers in there but I think this PTI stamp looks ok without any colors. What do you think? The ribbon flower I got from WalMart.

Thanks for All You Do

Here’s my little smiling girl. She has a little polar bear bodysuit and sitting on her finger cutting machine aka the recalled MacLaren. We’ve always owned a MacLaren and they’re great strollers — we love ours. It’s unfortunate that a few kids got their fingers amputated. But this was her first use of the stroller. She’s finally ok with it. Usually she rather me carry her around using the Beco. She was quiet when we… I meant M… was pushing and even took a couple naps. Now, this kid is NOT the quiet type. She doesn’t cry but she’ll scream and yell. She LOVES to hear her voice! I’ll share a video sometimes.

Jovie Smiling

Here’s our M laughing with dad about something. I was messing with my camera and was glad I caught this with it.

Laughing M

And another one of M… with dad…

M and Dad

K, hope you all will have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and/or friends. I might post again I might not before then… it’s been kind of nice to just lounge around even though there are a few sketches that looks fun {::SMILE}.

Another Plum Card

Posted on | November 7, 2009 | 6 Comments

Just a really quick post. Want to share a card I made today. It’s a birthday with the intention that whenever I get to giving this away I can add an age to the card. Most likely this will be given to one of M’s girl friend. It’s kind of kiddie looking don’t you think?

Then some pics of Jovie and daddy. I’ve been sharing M’s pics a lot lately and I thought today would be a great Jovie (she’s wearing dad’s hat on the first picture) and daddy share day. She’s 5-mo-old now and eating quite well. She finally got the hang of chewing two weeks ago. We’re now in squash. I just baked and mashed up a batch earlier today. Not my thing… I’m not into squash, sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, but I’ll feed them to my kids and husband.