Too many things to finish

At the moment... scrambling to finish our first handmade advent calendar inspired by Inchmark, making presents for our neighbor who's going back to France for good, making Christmas presents for relatives, cooking, baking, and hectic days at the office.


Growing up in the Philippines, we had a lot of traditions but we never had an Advent calendar. I only found out about Advent calendars when my husband introduced it to the kids when they were 2. So the past couple years we've bought those which comes with a chocolate in each date. And now, I decided, it was time we had something that we will last for years to come and not so commercial hence all the late nights.

The kids keep asking when will it be Christmas and when can we start using the calendar... Audrey has already picked out which ornament goes into which date and pocket. Being a girly girl she likes pink stuff at the moment...


One thing I'm excited and can't wait to start sewing with is this recent purchase of vintage fabric. These are very traditional and are typically from the Dongbei Province in China. The level of detail are just amazing and is not anymore evident in the fabric you get at the market nowadays. Apparently these dates back to when you need to have a coupon to buy fabrics, probably around the time of the Cultural Revolution. I just love the goldfish motif. There's 2 fabric weights - lightweight corduroy and medium weight cotton.


Chinese characters mean 'double happiness'... goldfish or fish in general symbolize abundance.



The peonies in full bloom means: fortune comes with blooming flower. Peonies are always an auspicious element in a lot of Chinese paintings.

Latest Fabric Stash

The linen cottons...


The cottons...

Okay, after weeks of deliberation, decided to take the plunge and bought a few Heather Ross's Mendocino and Far Far Away fabrics and have some ideas floating in my head to what stuff I can make with them... so exciting.

I'm equally excited with a couple of finds on the local Taobao.com shops. I found some great new linen cotton blends in solids; dark plum and purple colours on the top. They feel really really nice!

Custom Fabric

oh la la! Just found Spoonflower via Fantastic Toys and so so so excited about the possibilities... The cool thing is they can ship to China! Okay, China may be the source for textile products but I cannot seem to be able to get customized fabric in small quantity... everyone I checked before can only make them in big orders.

Anyways, I've got some designs that I would love to get printed and just excited thinking about this... (he!he!he!)

Thank You for 4-day Weekends!

We just had a very enjoyable and productive 4-day weekend while kids had only 3 days off, back to school on Sunday.

Day 1: Thursday


Lots of walking around our neighborhood. Did a couple shorts using fabric bought from Ikea about 3 years ago! Quite happy with the result. Pattern from Betsey & Joey which was also something I purchased years ago and never got the chance to do anything with. I made the kids shots longer than pattern and added a cotton lace edging on Audrey's. They wore these the next day when we visited a family friend. These were my first ever sewing project and can't wait to do more...

Day 2: Friday

Spent almost all day at friend's apartment compound. We had lunch picnic, then kids played in the big sand pit which has real beach sand flown in (from somewhere), and more playing in the other playground area with climbing frames and more.

Day 3: Saturday



Went on sightseeing bus to check out Shanghai. Got a few new Japanese linens purchased on local 'ebay'. They are so yummy. Decided to immediately make another pair of shorts for Samuel from same pattern as Ikea shorts and a Lazy Day Skirt for Audrey from the Oliver+S, found via SouleMama.

Day 4: Sunday


Kids had school that day. Perfect as this gave me and Simon some personal time. Decided to check out my favourite hang-out, a very very local area of Shanghai that sells wholesale/retail stuff. This is what I ended up. The elastics on the left will go on kids clothes and I have another plan for these, too. The wide ribbons are from a new stall that just opened and had wall-to-wall of gross grain ribbons! Didn't know which one to buy. Buttons made of shells will be for some project I've been planning and will be selling on my Etsy shop shortly. This area of Shanghai is my equivalent to those craft stores you have in the West.