Gifting and Lifting

Gifting: I always love to give gifts. Now I like to wrap gifts, too. Here is what I wrapped up for a boy and girl this weekend. Hope they like the stuff (girl book and boy book) inside.
Lifting: It's a sewing lifting, I lift the idea of a Japanese craft book and made this little black canvas bag. My original design was more closer to the the sample, 3 flowers. But I decided to do only one flower. The result? Simple is good.

My version

Original Version

Grow out of, and grow into

When I just started sleeping training for Sophia, about 6 to 8 weeks ago, the last step of our routine was reading "Bed time for baby bop", then after a few weeks, her favorite bed time books were "Frosty the snowman" and "Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?", I read many times of these two books. Sometimes Sophia can even "read" most part of the story.
Since this week, she lost interest in all of those books, and start to pick books with more pages for bedtime. Now her favorite is "Snow white", "Care bear" and "Calling all engines".
This is truly a sign of growing.

Reading, Shopping and Making

Reading lots of books and getting tons of inspirations.

Shopping lots of vintage (I think they're vintage but don't know how to tell) buttons.

Making an apron for Sophia (her first one) with some fresh yummy fabric.

Before I was a Mom

I love this poem and feel exact the same:

Before I was a Mom

Author Unknown

Before I was a Mom
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.

Before I was a Mom,
I slept as late as I wanted
And never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

Before I was Mom
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys or forgot words of lullabies.

Before I was a Mom
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom
I had never been puked on
Pooped on
Spit on
Chewed on
Peed on
Or pinched by tiny fingers

Before I was a Mom
I had complete control of:
My thoughts
My body
And my mind.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child
So that doctors could do tests
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
When I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
Could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a Mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
Could make me feel so important.

Before I was a Mom
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay
I had never known the warmth
The joy
The love
The heartache
The wonder
Or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

PJs day tomorrow

Tomorrow is PJs day. Sophia's favorite bed time book "Frosty the snowman" and her soft slippers will go with her. I'm even more exited than her, because the new slipper bag I just finished today will be put in use. And the whole set looks very cute to me.

认识影子

妈妈:宁宁, 这是谁的影子?
宁宁:宁宁的.
长大了!宁宁认识影子了, 不再害怕影子了.

A corner of our house (9)

This is a picture of my working in progress.

Weebles found their home

This is a super small project to use up some my small scraps.

Smocket

I love the simple idea of smocket made by Mayfly and she is super nice to give away her pattern. Luckily Sophia is the same size of her daughter, so I don't need to work with my brain to shrink it or enlarge it. It took me about two hours making it while Sophia was napping yesterday.
I used a purple polka dot new fabric and a piece cut from my old jean dress. It was quite easy to make and turned out more like an apron than smocket.

Work in progress

Finished

I revised the original design a little bit by changing the knot on shoulder to hook and loop which is more convenient.

Front

Back

Yummy fabric

I went fabric shopping on Friday, got these yummy fabric. And had a dream of making lots of stuff out of them last night.

Weekly schedule and to do list

Do you still remember one of my favorite buys, happy face weekly planner? I only used it for the first two weeks as it designed to be, then it's been Sophia's toy, a soothing toy. Whenever I pull it out of my purse Sophia feels happy. I should have done my weekly schedule and to do list in that happy book.

To do list
Organize and print pictures;
Make 2006 fall scrapbook album;
Finish Sophia's baby book (should have finished one year ago);
Paint snoopy canvas;
Make bunny bags and bunny aprons, maybe some bunny bibs;
Make quilt bags;
Try a soft animal;
Decorate all of my empty frames (lots of work);

Am I getting crafty? Hope someday I can open a small store at etsy to sell my handmade creations.

New hobby

Sophia's new hobby is making ice cream for her baby doll. Green ice cream made out of playdough. Sophia however calls playdough "turtle", I'm not so smart to figure out why.

Problem solved

Finished the green bag today and solved the problems, hopefully.
Added a layer made of old jeans as interface so that the bag has stronger structure;
Took all the red felt off the bag, put on dark brown canvas as handles, perfect!
Now I need to figure out when I can use this bag?????

A corner of our house (8)

When green meets red?

What do you think when green meets red? Christmas? Funky? What else?
I did a big test on my bag making. I combined green retro print cotton and vivid red felt with a touch of hand stiches. Almost finished, but with some problems. The structure of the bag isn't sturdy enough (need interface), the hand stiches are not perfect looking (inperfect is okay to me), the handles which is conposed of cotton and felt are not sewed very straight. And the biggest problem is I'm not sure if the green and red are working together to make a funky bag (wzg thinks it's ugly).

Fabric flower

I was inspired by Wise Craft's Fabric flower and made this set. I felt great after using the last inch of that beautiful fabric. Now I need to figure out what to do with the bags. I can't use so many.

Addicted again...

Since I finished my first sewing project on weekend I'm addicted. In last four days, I made a skirt for Sophia and a handbag. And a matching cosmetic bag is almost finished.
I went fabric shopping yesterday and scored lots of beautiful things.Now I'm dreaming of what to make on weekend.
More creations are coming soon, stay tune.