Baby Shoes

My 3 attempts at sewing the Stardust Shoes... Yes, I did 3 pairs of these for friends who's had just given birth or is having a baby.

The pattern is quite easy and the tutorial very clear. My only problem was trying to add the elastic onto the shoes which was for me, a beginner, a bit tricky. Actually, I waited a couple weeks in between sewing the first pair and the second and third as I needed to 'be inspired' or otherwise I'll do a bad job. The waiting paid off and the 2nd 3rd pair turned out better.

Would I sew this again, I think most likely yes! I just wished I'd learn how to sew back when my twins were still tiny babies and I probably would have made dozens!

Freezer Paper Stenciling

A few weeks ago I read about how cool freezer papers are (have never heard of them before as these are not available in Asia) on Designing Moms, I knew I had to give this one a try. There is also clear instructions over at PanjoKids blog.

I went in search of freezer paper and found pre-cut US letter sizes at Avelis Quilts and General Store but they can only ship within the US. Ordered some and in the meantime, I decided I just had to check Etsy again to see if this has been listed. Was in luck when I found a big roll from RagaMuffin2006 and she fortunately shipped to Shanghai. Both arrived a couple weeks ago and last Sunday, finally managed to use them.

Got 2 bottles of the Pebeo Setacolor Shimmer Opaque fabric paint. Then got the kids to choose the shirts they wanted to paint on. And voila! We got our shirts.

These are just so cool that even Simon was keen to do more... We are so hooked on these. I just love the 'shimmer' of the paint. So now I'm thinking this could be something the kids can do at their birthday party...

Flower Power

Last night, I had an itch to do and finish projects before the weekend. Weekend evenings are typically impossible to do anything after the kids are in bed except flop down in front of the TV and knit or crochet and let my mind go 'blank'... So, I ended up doing this fabric ranunculus that I read about on House on Hill Road. Thanks for the tutorial, Erin.

Used Audrey's jersey blouse from H&M which I bought last year but has since been hardly worn... (she thinks it is not interesting enough as it doesn't have much on it...). With bits of extra fabric from another dress I made for her and a bead, voila! It was easy to do after I 'mastered' the zigzag part. And above all, she was very very pleased with it when she saw it this morning. I'm glad, too.

It's not 'perfect' and I definitely will be doing a couple more :-)

Evolving Art

A quick snapshot of the kids painting on the weekend. It's evolved from a muddle of colours all mixed together to this...

Shanghai Aquarium

After a long lapse since the last time we went to the Shanghai Aquarium, the kids requested that we go last Saturday. We managed to get out of the door early this time, which means we managed to beat the crowd and long queue. Unfortunately, the kids thought it was a lot more fun to run thru the exhibits and fish tanks since the place was still quite empty. A few pictures from that morning...


When they managed to actually stop and look at the fishes...


And admire the stingrays...


Staff cleaning the tank...

Knitted Summer Top

After a few interruptions, managed to finished this knitted top for Audrey in time for the hot weather in Shanghai. This Glamour Dress pattern was actually quite easy to knit and used double strand of aCloset's Bamboo Cotton Yarn. Perfect for the summer.

Just to add some interest, I added a crocheted edge in a contrasting colour. Quite happy with the way it turned out and now am doing another mini version for Audrey's dolly.

Sewing and Knitting

Found this post on SouleMama about Heather Ross's Mendocino SunDress and I knew I just had to try it. This is also sort of the current trend in Shanghai women wearing various summer dresses or tops with smocking. And it so happens I had a big big spool of elastic thread bought 4 years ago or a project which never materialized so it's never been used.

I found that House On Hill Road has an even better, more in-depth and detailed tutorial. ThreadBanger also has a video tutorial where I got the idea for the strap.

After Audrey's dress, I'm now working on a version for me using a really nice cotton poplin fabric (which I never really appreciated until just now) bought almost 5 years ago for only U$0.75 a metre, and never got a chance to use it until now.

Lessons learned: I've to sew slowly with the elastic thread to keep the stitches straight. And to add more spacing in between lines as I made them a bit more dense...

'Pretend' Tea Party

Today was way too hot to do much so after coming home after lunch, we thought we'd have a 'pretend' tea party. Got the kids to put together some buntings which I'd cut out of an old wedding gift wrapper. They folded the top of the triangle paper and attached it to the string plus added a tape to keep the paper from falling off.

Then they helped make some cupcakes. Actually, it was also for a me trial to see what sort of cupcakes I can make for the kids birthdays in September (I know it's still a long way away but for a very busy person like me, I need a long long long leadtime to plan stuff).

The cupcakes turned out great. The recipes were from Cupcake Bakeshop by Choclit using her Plain and Simple Chocolate Cupcake with the Vanilla frosting and Yellow Cupcake from Martha Stewart's Food Magazine. I especially loved the vanilla frosting because it used a lot less sugar than other recipes. I'm still in search of the 'perfect' frosting that uses even less sugar, if that even exists. So if anyone has any idea it would be greatly appreciated.

And finally, love these cute cupcake liners which I got from Cupcake Social and Bake It Pretty. They somehow just add a nice touch to the cupakes.