Sew in Love with Bags

Happy New Year to you! Wishing you health, wealth and happiness all year round.

Hmm .... what was the last thing you did in 2008? I was sewing this bag which I had unpicked 5 times! I saw a similar one from a magazine and found it looked rather sweet. I told myself I had to try to make it. I did some sketching and went ahead to do it. That explains the 5 amendments. ;P

I'm not sure if the draw-string part was attached to the bag. What I did was I sew a separate drawing string pouch. Handle is recycled (again) from some old bag I had. I had this funny habit of removing zippers, handles and those magnet buttons (or whatever you call them) from bags I intend to throw away. I guess they do come in handy. :)

I'm thinking of making a small bag next, for 妹妹 to go with her Chinese New Year outfit. Hopefully, I can make it in time.

It will be a busy year for me. School starts tomorrow for both of them, with 妹妹 in the morning session and 哥哥 in the afternoon. *pant* Hopefully, I will be able to manage my time well. And hopefully, they will be able to cope and adapt to the new school environment fast.

Thirty-Seven

Who is this? ;) No prize for the making the correct guess. :P

By the way, Happy Birthday to me! Yap! It's my 37th Birthday today! ^_^

I don't think I had a good year - Health-wise (My nose has been bleeding so often I'm seriously considering having the blood vessels cauterized and I've been coughing for more than a month liao. Haiz!) and especially with the kids.

I had a tough time with the kids. They were causing lots of troubles in school. Nothing much to said when they are at home too. Haiz! So the more problems I have, the more frequent my nose bleeds. Serious! 气到暴血管. in my case, the blood vessels in my nose. Haha ... Hopefully, when school starts and the 2 of them in different session, I will be able to concentrate of each of them more. And hopefully, things will change for the better.

So, my birthday wishes this year, as usual, are for everyone to be healthy (哥哥 has been falling sick every other month and me with the bloody nose), 爸爸's work to be smoother (he had a bad year too) and the kids to be more obedient and sensible.

365 days to make my wishes come true. ;)

Bag for school

I have just completed another hand-stitched bag. And the moment 妹妹 saw it, she asked if she can have it. :P

I had planned to make a bag for 妹妹 as she needs to bring extra set of clothes when she goes to school next year. So, it's hers even she didn't ask for it. After all it's made using her old dresses.

I think she won't mind having the bag as her Christmas present. It's like a messenger bag for her. (She is already carrying the bag everywhere she goes.) Killing 2 birds with 1 stone. :P

I was hoping she doesn't like it so I could use it. :P

Toy Machine

I found some spots on 哥哥's body on Friday night and thought he was allergic to something (cos it happened before) and fed him some medicine.

The next day, the spots became bigger and I thought I better bring him to the doctor before we go to 公公's house. The doctor confirmed it was chickenpox and even warn me that most likely 妹妹 might get it. ^_^" I have to keep a close watch for spots on 妹妹 2 weeks later.

And since we are going to be stuck at home for 2 weeks, 爸爸 bought us a toy to let us pass time. It's something all the 3 of us enjoy but of course this is much easier than the real thing. Thank you 爸爸, for being so thoughtful.

Lucky for me, 哥哥 enjoy playing with it and 妹妹 simply enjoys putting in the coin, cheering and collecting the prizes. ^_^" So no fighting. *phew*

If you like it too, you can get it from the (new) Jurong Point at About $40. Not sure of the exact location though but the shop is at the new extension. And it doesn't comes with the prizes and candies. We add those ourselves.


He bought me a nice bag too! Awww ... thank you 爸爸.

Sweet 爸爸 said he is going to take leave before the school starts and take over the kids so I can go shopping at the (new) Jurong Point. He said it's huge and my favourites Ding Tai Fung, Bakerzin and Haagen Dazs is there too. Wah, it's like my end-year bonus. I'll be waiting. ;)

Fishing time!

One of the kids' favourite past time during this school holidays is playing with water. I think both miss water-play which they had in school once a week.

I used filled up a big container with water and let they enjoy themselves. They love fishing for plastic fishes. Just like catching long kang fish at Qianhu. ;)

I didn't waste the water too. I got them to water the plants and wash the floor after playing. Killing 3 birds with 1 stones. :)

Recycled Bag

What can you do with 2 pieces of table mats that you no longer use? I turned them into a bag. ;) The handles were saved from an old bag (I think). I like how the folds of the table mats make 2 big pockets in front and the back. So basically, this a recycled bag. ;)

I just had to steal time in between 'breaks' to sew just to complete this. So it took a bit longer for me. It will be so much easier if it's done by machine, takes maybe only 5 minutes? *hint hint 爸爸, again*

Bye School

It was both 哥哥 and 妹妹 will be going to new schools next year. They both have parties in school on the last day of school.

I decided to baked some cookies for 妹妹's teachers to thank them for being such nice and patient teachers and I prepared cookies for her classmates too.

哥哥 did some bookmarks for his classmates and for his teachers, I helped him with the shells magnets.

Both of them were giving problems in school this year and like what their teachers said, hopefully they will change in their new schools. I'm keeping my fingers crossed too.

Pre-School Graduate Concert

哥哥's school graduation ceremony and concert was last Thursday. 爸爸 couldn't make it last minute as something really serious happened at work and he had to go back to his office. He was more disappointed than 哥哥 for not being to attend.

Me, being a kiasu mum and wife brought the camera stand along so I can tape his performance while I run after 妹妹. Yup, I can be a fortunate teller. I can foresee things that's going to happen and true enough I did had to stop 妹妹 from running all over the place. At least, this time round I was prepared and bought along some of her favourite food. So she was much better than last year.

This year's concert is much simplier compared to last year which was very colourful and lively but still we could see that the teachers and children had put in a lot of hard work in making the concert a success.

In our appreciation for the teachers' hard work, 哥哥 and I did some little craft for his teachers. I had bought a tub of plastic beads from Ikea a few months ago with the intention of making little gifts for his classmates as Xmas Presents. I'll have to think what to do for his teacher then. Any ideas, anyone?

Anyway, his teachers must be glad to be able to 'get rid' of this problematic boy (I get complains quite often. Haiz!) in another few more days time. :P

My Sweet Pea

Everytime I want to get the kids, especially 妹妹, to eat veggies, I had to resort to 'tricks'.

The other day, I sliced some sweet peas (like sticks) and add them to her favourite bean sprout. Of course, she was able to spot them and didn't want them but I told her they are nice and are like bean sprout; only the colour is different I told her. :P She ate them and like them. *phew*

I had to show her the 'original' other she might thought sweet peas looked like bean sprout! So after her dinner, I showed her the actually sweet peas and let her open up the pod to uncover the peas inside. She had so much fun with them and ask for a few more. And she is really good with choosing those that will have big and fat peas. ;)

Poor me had to cook and eat those after she had enough with them. :P At least, it's one more veggie that she will eat. :)

No more diaper!

Yeah! 妹妹 is diaper free!

It all started when she fell asleep last Saturday late evening. Not wanting to awake up in the middle of the night after having enough sleep, I woke her up an hour later.

When it's time to sleep, she refused to change into her pyjamas. To her wear pyjamas = wearing diaper. She wanted to wear her dress to bed and didn't want diaper as well. I hesitated at first as I did not have a mat to protect her mattress but let her be anyway. I bought her to the toilet just before I go to bed and the next morning she was still dry.

I told her I was very proud of her that she didn't wet her bed the next morning. All she said was no urinate on the bed. Go toilet urinate. :P

Last nigh, I asked her if it okay for her no to wear diaper. She didn't want at first but agreed after I kept praising her. :P This time, she called me in the middle of the night when she wanted to go the the toilet, twice. I was quite impressed with her. I think she was too tired to walk over to my room. (She sleep on her own in her room) She was so dreamy and when I carried her to the toilet. Her eyes were still closed and she was swaying when she sat on the toilet bowl. LOL I'm impressed with myself too cos I could hear her calling me too.

Now, I can save $7.50 a month for diaper liao. :P

Tambourine

I planned to do this craft with my kids a long time ago but if you remembered me saying the shop that sells these bells had run out of stock. More like no longer selling them to me.

Anyway, I found Daiso selling the bells (much bigger and cheaper!) , 20 a pack for $2. I bought a pack. :)

My daughter fell asleep in the late evening today and was not able to sleep at her usual bedtime. So I decided to do this with her without my son. He can always do it on his own tomorrow. :)



Materials needed:

• 1 Paper Plate
• 10 Bells or any quatity you like
• 10 Pipe Cleaners or according to the no. of bells you have
• Colouring Medium (optional)

How to do it:

1. If you like, draw a picture on the bottom of the plate for your child to colour.
2. 'String' the bells with the pipe cleaners.
3. Punch holes on the edge of the plate leaving a side free for your child to hold later.
4. Twist pipe cleaner with the bell through the punched hole to secure it.
5. If your child is very young, you might want to tape the lose end of the pipe cleaners to the plate (side without the picture), so as not to poke him.
6. Now make so music!
   

Hello, Kitty!

Remember I said 妹妹 'chuop' one of my crochet bags? I had wanted to modified it to fit her but I find that it looked too 'adult' and decided to make a brand new one for her instead. This time round I used felt to make a bag for her instead and with one of her favourite characters, Hello Kitty, on it. :) One of my favourites too. ;P


Since she is always trying to button her clothes on her own now, I thought she will prefer a button with tab instead of the usual zipper and velcro. And I was right. :)

I'm not sure how long the bag will last but at the moment she carries everywhere even to bed. :)

Button Flowers

This is an alternative to the craft I did with my daughter much earlier. We had intended to make these flowers for her teachers but the shop selling the bells had ran out of bells.


So I used buttons instead of bells. We gave each teacher 2 flowers of Bell and Button Flowers in a stalk each. It looked a lot more nicer.

I'm repeating the instructions here for easy reference.

Materials needed:

• Cardboard Paper (We used index card)
• Pipe Cleaner/Wire (We used wire)
• Button
• Colouring Medium (We used colour pens)

How to do it:

1. Draw the outline of a flower on the cardboard.
2. Cut out the flower.
3. Colour the flower.
4. Use a pencil to poke 2 small holes in the center of the flower.
5. Fold the wire into half.
6. Thread the wire through the holes of the button and through the holes on the paper.
7. The button should be in the middle of the pipe cleaner.
8. Twist the wire together.
9. Bent the flower forward and it's done.
   

Veggie Rose Card

This is part 2 of my son's Teachers' Day Gift and is soooo overdue.

I happened to cook xiao bai cai and kept the ends to do this. My son said it looked like a rose.

I had my son use it to stamp on cards and my daughter was just having a little fun stamping away on a piece of drawing paper.



Materials needed:

• End of Xiao Bai Cai
• Assorted Paints, acrylic paint preferred if you intend to colour over it.
• Assorted Colour Pencils
• Cardboard

How to do it:

1. Use a paper plate to hold the paints.
2. Dip veggie into paint.
3. Transfer to paper and stamp away.
4. Set aside to dry.
5. Colour using colour pencils over if you like.
   

Bags, bags, bags ...

Lately I have been making bags when I have time. These are a few of what I have made. Some of the crochet pieces have already been recycled because I didn't quite like it in the end. :P

妹妹 has already 'chuop' the piece above with the pearl handles, right after I complete it. ^_^" I will have the find time to modify for her as it difficult for her to carry it. :P

I have just completed the one below last Friday and it's my current favourite. 爸爸 asked me if I intend to make a identical one for 妹妹. I told him I would, if him buys me a sewing machine because it's bored (for me) to hand stitch a duplicate. :P (No more hinting liao.) But it's still a 'anything but no sewing machine' from him. Darn!

I guess I won't be making this bag for 妹妹 BUT I have plans to make her something else. :) For the time being I'm back to felting. :)

* My 2 tone bag *

* Matching thingy for zipper *

Children's Day

This blog is turning into a photo blog soon! Yeah, more photos of the kids. These were taken during Children's Day. Both of them had celebrations in school that day and brought back big bags of gifts from friends and teachers. 哥哥's school even had a mini sport day on that day!

Since both of them finished school much early that day, I brought them out to IMM (their favourite place) to have lunch. I bought them little toys, titbits and stationery from Diaso (me cheapo :P) and they have a few of their favourite animal rides.

I guess with only me around, they are easily satisfied. ;)

* The kids enjoying the animal rides *

Old Friend

This is another very late post. :P

My best friend came to visit me on 30 August. (It's that long liao!) 2 other friends (ex-classmates) were supposed to come to but didn't make it in the end. Aww, I was a little disappointed but there's always a next time.

I had prepared a couple of little gifts for my friend. Ai ya, you know lah, people like me who don't work got no money to buy gifts. So mine are hand-made (from recycled stuff!) :P Yeah, I unpicked an old bag I did long ago which I no longer use, washed the thread (so it's not like badly permed hair LOL), dried it and reused it. If you recall this, they are from the same family. ;) I had some left over clothes pegs and suction cups from 哥哥's Teachers' Day's gift, so I did some Memo Clips too. I hope she finds them useful.

I had intended to cook lunch on that day but since there will only be 2 of us and the kids, I made BBQ wings using the same ingredients for this instead and we made chocolate chips cupcakes together which my friend brought home later. We ate and chat so much (cos we haven't meet formonths!). Luckily, the kids didn't give us much problems. They were either playing or watching the TV. We went to MOF in the evening and 爸爸 joined us after work.

I wish we were able to meet up more often. There is just too much to keep updated. I'm already looking forward to our next meeting!

* Coin purse and Suction Memo Clip for my dear friend *

Friend, if you are reading this, thanks for visiting me and the kids and your wonderful gift!. Thank you for still keeping in touch with me. It has been .... *counting* .... 20 years! since we've been friends. I want to let you know, I proud of you for what you have attained. It's not easy to be where you are now and I know how much effort and hardwork you had put in and the sacrifices you made. Good luck with your new career and I'm still hoping to hear more 'important good news' from you soon. You know what I'm referring too. ;)

Kids in September

I haven't been updating this blog for a looooong time. For the past few months, I have been very upset. Mainly with 哥哥. He has been giving my a lot of problems at home as well as in school.

I didn't want to remember all the bad things and hence I just blog about it. I glad things are getting back this week and I hope it stays this way.

These were taken in September. They didn't change much, did they?

Animals Attack ... again

If you want to know how these are made, hop over here to have look. There is still time to made them for Teachers' Day!

Pipe Cleaner Bird

For this year's Teachers' Day gift, I'm helping my son do Memo Animal Clips for his teachers.

How they were done was purely accidental. I meant to do something else using straight pipe cleaners but the shops at my place here doesn't carry them anymore so I bought a similar one; those you use to tie on your plants during Chinese New Year. But I'm not able to use it to make the craft i intend to do.

However, after some twisting an twirling, the pipe cleaners became a ball. After adding some animal parts, the animal became visible. I think it's rather cute. My son's favourite is the Bird and mine is the Bee.

For this craft, I prepared the 'ball' as the head, cut all the parts required for the individual animals and my son did the bending and sticking. (Video instructions is at the end of this post)

click on the photo to enlarge

Materials required:

• Clothes pegs
• Wiggle eyes
• 'Bumpy' pipe cleaners
• Straight pipe cleaners (optional for some animals)
• Glue

Parts required for Bee:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as body
• 2 straight pipe cleaner long enough to go round the ball as strip on bee
• 2 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, bend to form wings
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Mouse:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as body
• 2 straight pipe cleaner, bend half as whiskers
• 1 straight pipe cleaner, twisted round a pencil as tail
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Bunny:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as head
• 2 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, bend to form ears
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Cat:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as head
• 2 straight pipe cleaner, bend half as whiskers
• 1 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, half and bend to ears
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Spider:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as body
• 8 straight pipe cleaner, bend 30 degrees angle to form legs
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Duck:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as head
• 1 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, bend like a 'C' to form beak
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Elephant:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as head
• 2 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, bend to form ears
• 1 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, bend like a 'S' to form trunk
• 2 wiggle eyes

Parts required for Dog:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as head
• 2 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, bend to form ears
• 2 wiggle eyes

I know you will wonder what the materials looked like and how the ball is form. So here my video (my first!!) on how to assemble the bird, my son's favourite.

Parts required for the Bird are:

• 1 bumpy pipe cleaner ball, as body
• 1 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, half and bend to form wings
  
• 1 bump of bumpy pipe cleaner, cut 1/4 from tip to form beak
• 1 straight pipe cleaner, twisted round a pencil as tail
• 2 wiggle eyes

There isn't any rule to how you twist the pipe cleaner into a ball. You just need to cross it so it will not become a spring. After removing it from the pencil, all you need to do is to gently shape to make it rounder and for the mouse and bee, more oblong.

Hope you like this craft and have fun!

The old me or the young me?

I uploaded some of my old family photo, which we were teenagers , in Facebook and my cousins asked if I could find photos when we were babies. I promised I'll go back home to check with my father.

My father was a news photographer (till he retired recently). He took lots of photos of the family and developed the photos himself at home (he has the machine). My cousins were always at my place as they were all being taken cared by my grandmother who was staying with us. My mother said out house was full of children that time. So I guess I had the most collection of everyone compared them. :)

The kids and I went back last Saturday and yeah, I remembered my "mission". While looking at really old photos which had my aunts before they were married, I stumbled upon this photo of me! Hehehe ... Ah! The PAP uniform were so much nicer then (but no the hair!). But my mother said the skirt was so much longer, below the knees. She altered it short cause she said it looked nicer. LOL I think I'll do the same too. :P Hmm ... I think I'm going to get a tailor replicate this uniform. :P It's cute lah.

Anyway, some of my friend who had seen this photo and my father said 妹妹 did looked like me. ;) Look like meh?

Animals Attack

Sneak preview of 哥哥's Teachers' Day gift.

They are made from pipe cleaners, those you use to tie your plants during Chinese New Year. They are not quite completed yet as we are planning to wire them to suction cups so they can be 'stick on'. I'm sure we still have time to finish it. Hopefully, the teachers can recognize what we did :P

妹妹's gift is easier. She will be making these flowers for her teachers. I think they are rather cute especially with the bells.

So have you decided what to make for Teachers' Day?

Why you never show face one ah?

Yesterday, I was chatting with my friend who is new to blogging and she asked me why I never visit her blog. I was like ... huh? I asked her how she know if I haven't visited her. Her answer was 'my face never show'.

She was referring to MyBlogLog. How I can forget since I was the one who showed her how to setup her blog. :P

My answer to her was ... I'm a lazy person. I never bother to login to MyBlogLog (unless someone send me a message and I had to reply). So when I go blog hopping, my face won't show up in the visitor widget. And I seldom leave my remarks too. :P


**Oei friend,

I, not 'hao-lian' okay. I just don't want people to feel oblige to visit me because I visited them mah. I prefer to be a lurker mah. I'm a lazy lurker, can?

I shall check if your face appeared in my visitor widget or not huh. hehehe ...

Paper Cup Daffodil

This is another easy flower craft I did with my daughter when my son is having tuition. But be warn first as it so easy and fast to make, your kid might pester you to make a dozen! :P

Does it look like a Daffodil to you? :P At least it looks like a flower. ;)



Materials Needed:

• 1 Large Pleated Paper Cup
• 2 Smaller Pleated Paper Cups
• 1 Ice cream stick
• Glue

How to do it:

1. Flatten the larger cup slightly.
2. Put glue in the center.
3. Place the smaller cups in it.
4. Put glue on the one end of the ice cream stick.
5. Stick the paper cups on it.
6. Put some glue on the edge of the remaining paper cups and fold it in half.
7. Continue the above step till you get a small triangle.
8. Put some glue on the tip part and stick it to the ice cream stick.

Here, Kittty! Kitty! Kitty!

Last month, when I met up with an overseas friend, I bought little gifts for her daughters as well as the girls of some of the mommies she was planning to meet when she went to Malaysia. Thanks for carrying the whole load to Malaysia yah. :P

The other day, we were 'talking' about her gathering in Malaysia, she mentioned that we should take a photo of the girls with the bag, so here's mine. ;) Told you she bought it to school. whahaha ...







Took this (and the first pic) before the kids left for school this morning. First time 哥哥 looks so much 'bigger' than 妹妹 in photo. :P Eat more lah. If not 妹妹 is going to catch up liao lah.