Great Website

Found this website after some google searching. I was just curious about how my internal organs look like during pregnancy. This picture is very interesting, 28 weeks pregnant. See how the small intestines are pushed to the top and sides. And the stomach is way up, almost into the ribcage. And the lungs got pushed up a lot, that explains why I feel short of breath just after one flight of stairs. Amazing how human body can adapt to such a huge change. The website provides all kinds of information one need to know about pregnancy and labor. Guess more reading for me.

Lots of Monkey Fist Keychains

Just got some new color satin cords, so I made a bunch of monkey fist knot keychains with the 3mm cords. Love how they turned out! They will be in the shop soon.

Oh, finally we got some sunshine last weekend. So I got some chance to take pictures of my beautiful flowers. Here are some updates. Enjoy!

Enough Rain Already!!!

Cannot believe it's still raining! It has been raining or drizzling for about 3 weeks already. How much water can the sky hold?! This is Boston, not Seattle, why all the rain? Mold and mushroom are growing everywhere, and half of my strawberries are rotted or covered with grey mold! And my flowers drop faster because of all these moisture. The only good thing is I didn't have to water my garden and my outdoor plants (orchids and jasmines) for 3 weeks and most of them look quite happy! But still, enough is enough! Again this morning, we woke up to this heavy rain/T storm, the sky is so dark, like nighttime. It's just crazy! Hope this weekend will be better, so I can at least take some pictures of my beautiful lilies, which opened 4 days ago!

Skunk Likes Bleach???

I think we have a weird skunk in our neighborhood. A while ago I noticed a small hole on the ground right outside of my basement door, next to my flower bed. I didn't pay much attention to it. Then on Sat, I saw lots of bees (don't know what kind) flying in and out of that hole all the time. Obviously that's their nest! I never knew bees can live underground. I normally don't kill bees, but this time they are just too close to my house, especially we don't have a screen door for the basement, so they can accidentally get inside and might sting us. So, I had to scare them away, or kill some of them. I drove away some ants last month by pouring bleach on their path, so I thought the same method will work on the bees. I poured some bleach down their nest, but the bees just hesitated a little bit, then kept flying into the hole. Maybe they don't really care. So, I gave up. Then on Sun morning, when I was checking my garden, I was surprised to see a huge hole right where the bee nest entrance was. I thought some animal came during the night and had a dinner party there. Then around dusk, my neighbor knocked on my door nervously. She dragged me over to their side, (we live in a two family townhouse), and clearly there it is, a big skunk, digging at that hole again. I almost freaked out. Still remember the huge skunk made home under my deck and vegetable garden? I couldn't get out of my house or open any window for a very long time. So, I ran back to my house, bravely went out to the deck, and clapped loudly and walked towards the skunk. Lucky for me, even though this skunk didn't like loud noise, it was not scared. So instead of spraying me, it just turned around and left quickly. My nice neighbor then came out with a big bottle of some sort of organic stuff, maybe animal repellent, and poured a lot in that hole and around it. I didn't know what else can keep the skunk away. So, I took out all the chilly powder I have, and dumped it all around the deck and my garden. Don't know which one worked, the skunk didn't come back. Then I tried very hard to figure out why the skunk was digging there. That bee nest has been there for a while, but the skunk only came digging after I poured bleach there. So, is it possible this skunk happen to like the smell of bleach? But base on the research I did online, skunk and raccoon suppose to hate that smell, and that's why bleach can be used as repellent when you have a skunk or raccoon problem. Why on earth is this skunk loving it then??? Now I have to go buy more chilly powder, in case it come back again. =(

Thrift Finds

Went to some yard sale and a couple of thrift stores last weekend. Even though I didn't get what I wanted, I did get some pretty good stuffs, a hand painted plate with my favorite color, a brand new photo album, a beautiful window curtain panel, a set of small casserole dish, a couple of baking pans, and an almost new Teddy bear.

Look at that beautiful painting on the plate. Don't you just love the color? It's so fresh, and perfect for a summer table. And it was only $.99! Oh, can you see the curtain panel underneath it? Again blue! It matches the nursery's wall color perfectly. I am going to make it into a tie-up curtain, and if there is any left over, I will make a pillow cover to match the curtain. I decided instead of framed arts (which is normally with glass and could fall on my baby and hurt her) I will make some butterfly cutouts, and tape them to the wall behind the crib, in a fun pattern. And there are blue, lavender, and white butterfly on this curtain. How perfect is that! So, $2, definitely worth it. Just wish there were two of them, then I could make more matching stuffs for the nursery, maybe a bedskirt for the crib, or a baby quilt.

I don't really know what to do with these casserole dishes, but they are so cute, and at $2 for a set of 6, how can I resist it? I will just use them to hold some dessert, or make some mini cake in them. I will think of a way to use these babies.

Oh, I was so excited when I found the right size floating shelf in white at Target, and they were only $10 each! I bought 4! The nursery is tiny, with the crib, twin bed and the glider, there is no more space left for a bookshelf. And I always loved floating shelves, so I was beyond happy to find them at such low price. BUT, when I tried to install them last night, I was SOOOOO disappointed. The drywall anchors and the screws just won't hold up. The shelf started leaning forward as soom as I put it up, even without anything on top. Now I know why they are so cheap! Have to return them tonight. And now I am left with two big holes on my wall! =( I will just have to build some ledge kind of shelves myself, and then I can secure them anywhere I want. Just need to ask DH to paint them white, since I am not supposed to touch paint now. Still I will buy a big can of those NO VOC paint, since I want to paint every piece of furniture in that nursery white later.

Amazing Miltoniopsis Jean Sabourin

Remember this baby? AK rescued it last year, for $5!!! It exploded under AK's gentle care, and blooms twice a year. And let me tell you, everytime it blooms, it's such a stunning show! Not only the flowers are huge, the colors are dramatic, that heavenly rose scent is unbelievably strong. AK has it on a desk in the corner of our big office, and every morning when I walk in, it's like walking into a blooming rose garden! It's getting quite big though, ready to burst out of its small pot. AK is going to devide it after the flowers gone, and he is going to give me some! I AM SO LUCKY! I bet even DH will love this one. Just hope I can take care of it as good as AK, with a new baby in the house.

Two More Sale!

Just sold two more, actually it should count as three more, since one of the listing is for two child size bracelets. And these babies will be on their way to France today. How exciting! The bracelets are custom orders for a 3yr old girl and her baby sister. So I made them both for the 3yr old, so she can choose the color she likes, and keep the other for her sister for later.
And I love this earrings design, and the color combination. Actually thought about keeping it for myself. But it's going to be loved by someone else, I am ok with that too. I will just make myself another pair someday.

Pantry Inspirations

A couple of friends came over on Sun. We had a great time chatting and catching up. As I was showing them my house, I have never given them official 'tour' before, they both got really interested in my organizing skills. One of them actually wanted to go out shopping for some cute baskets right away. =) She has a normal size pantry closet in her kitchen, which we don't have, so I went to flickr searching for some inspirations for her. Found two great ones.

This first one is from Chez Larsson. I totally fell in love with her style, with all those white china and other kitchen stuffs, her house looks sparkling clean! Isn't that everyone wants, a clean house? Wish I had a pantry like that to organize. Our kitchen is kind of small, just some cabinets! Big enough for two of us, but I know for sure, once the baby comes out, there will be much more stuffs. That will be a good test for all the organizing skills I picked up over these several years. We'll see.
This second one is also really pretty. It's from Door Sixteen. Guess she spent a little bit more money than Chez, for those new beadboard and pretty wallpaper. The result is simple and yet elegant. Love how she combined the old rusty looking cabinet and the new white shelves. Smart! Just wish she took a picture of the entire pantry to give us a better idea.
OK, my dear friend, do you think these will work for your pantry? Cannot wait for you to finish it and show me some pictures. I SO want to help you with it (I have almost nothing in my house to organize any more), but you know I cannot touch paint now, and I cannot get too close to your two CUTE CUTE cats. =( Good luck!

Red Tailed Hawk?

Yesterday morning, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I noticed the birds in my backyard were acting strangely. So, I went to the sliding door to take a better look. There was a hawk chasing all the birds! He/she moved too fast for me grab my camera. So, I found a picture of similar hawk on New York Daily Photo. I think this one looks pretty close. But my hawk did catch anything, at least I didn't see him/her catch any bird. We have lots of birds in our neighborhood, blue jay, robin, cardinal, chickadee, goldfinch, mocking bird, sparrow, and maybe owls. But rarely any hawks. I saw one about 3 years ago, different color though. He was so awesome, caught a bird right in the sky, and ate it right in my backyard. It was amazing! OK, not for that poor bird who got caught. We don't see these kind of wild life activities so often in suburb or city, so I enjoyed every single minute of it. I probably should stayed in the house, but I was curious enough to went out on to the deck for more action and better view. Guess that hawk didn't like to be so close to human, so it left as soon as he/she saw me. Too bad! Next time, stay inside, and grab my camera asap.

Birdie Mobile

My sister gave me the mobile she used years ago in my niece's room. It still works, just the plastic arms turned yellowish, and the small stuffed animals hanging there looked old and tired. So, I thought about the bird mobile tutorial I found on Spool Sewing a while ago. I fell in love with the birds immediately, so made some of them with my scrap fabrics. I didn't really know what to do with them at that time, but now I think they will be perfect for the mobile. I sewed some silver ribbon to their back, and tied them to where the old small animals were. And I found more scrap fabric to cover the plastic arm and the music box / motor thing. Now I think it looks great! Forgot to take the before picture of the whole thing, just a picture of the old stuffed animals.

And here is the end result! LOVE IT! And I am sure my baby will love it too. See, I even found some bird fabric for that music box. And the arms actually matches the bedding I made. PERFECT!

Love This Jade Fish!

This one is sold again! I loved it so much, and was lucky enough found a company in US selling this jade fish. So far I sold 3 of them, 2 in traditional China red, 1 in deep purple. They all looked great. Then last night, I was designing a piece for a charity event, thought it might look good with some modern twist. So, here is what I came up with. LOVE IT! I wanted to make a whole set, with matching bracelet and earrings, but ran out of the black satin cord last night. And I like it a lot, probably will keep it for myself, and make them a different design.

Deck, rearranged!

Bought a new outdoor table and umbrella last week, and they happen to match our old chairs perfectly. Now we can enjoy our deck much more, and I don't have to worry about fainting under the sun (a new pregnancy symptom for me). And when we are not on the deck, my plants can still enjoy the full sun they love. The table and umbrella were on sale, but the biggest bargain on the deck are the chairs. I found them on the sidewalk 1 mile away from our house 3 years ago. They were a little bit rusty, but otherwise in perfect condition. I brought them home, my dad (was visiting at the time) cleaned, sanded and spray painted them. Then I bought some outdoor fabric (on clearance) and foam, made those cushions. (The third one is still in basement) So, all 3 chairs costed me no more than $20! Of course I want those gorgeous expensive outdoor furniture, but since we live in a townhouse, with no fence, I don't want to risk losing them.

And what's happening in my garden? My strawberries are finally turning red! I have been picking them every evening now. Home grown ones are just SOOOOO SWEET! Of course, some of them got half eaten by the birds, but most of them are in great shape.
My cucumbers and yard long beans are doing great. I spent a couple of hours last Sun to tie the strings on the trellis, so they will have the climbing support they need. Look at my cucumber plants, so strong, so green, even have tiny femal flower buds when they are just 8 inches tall! Amazing! Crossing my fingers now, there won't be that many cucumber beetles this season.
My foxglove is finally ready to bloom! I started it 3 years ago from seeds, only one survived. It looked so sad for years, but finally accumulated enough energy to send out 2 flower spikes this year. The flowers are just starting to open, but you can already see the amazing colors! Cannot wait for it to fully open.
My columbines are at their peak. I actually have four different colors, white, lavender, purple, and wine red. But a couple of them need some support now, the flowers are too heavy to stand up straight in the wind and rain.
My lavenders started blooming too. Cannot wait to cut the flowers and dry them up for the closets.
I didn't plant any bachelor buttons this year, this one is just a volunteer. But it reminded me how much I used to love them. I planted lots of them along the driveway for two years, and they looked amazing. Just too much maintenance, the grass tried to take over, and mulch I used always got washed all over the driveway in heavy rain. So, I gave up. No more flower beds along the driveway!
And last, but not least, my lilies and purple coneflowers are ready to bloom. Love these perennials, they come back year after year, providing me striking colors and beauty, and the best of all, I don't need to do anything for them!

Bugs

How many bugs can a small garden have?
Last month, it was the Red Lily Leaf Beetle. They were having a buffet party on my poor lily plants every morning. So, I had to get up early, and catch then by hand. They look pretty, but man, they eat like pigs. There were holes in my lily's young leaves, some of them got 80% eatten! And they lay eggs on the under side of the leaves, so I have to kill those as well. Don't really like to smash the bugs, I like to use my nails to pull their little head off! (Muwhahaha, that's my evil laugh!)

Then after I transplanted my cucumber, celtuce, and eggplant seedlings, it was the slugs, eating them away during the night. We don't drink at all, so cannot use the beer bait method. Besides, that might attract all the slugs from my neighbors' yard over. And since I am not using any chemical in my garden, had to find organic ways to keep them away. So far, I found crashed eggshell works pretty good. Just hope the weather stays warm, so my baby vegetables can grow bigger faster. Oh, now, the slugs found another tasty food source, my strawberry! I have to pick them before they fully ripe, otherwise, the slugs will eat at least half of the berries. So annoying!

This weekend, I found some snails, eating my purple coneflower leaves! This is the first time I found them in my garden, heard they are pretty bad too. Need to do more research on this topic. My purple coneflowers are really strong, so I am not worried about them. Just don't know what else in my garden will be the snails' next victim.

But this is my worst enemy ever! The Cucumber Beetle! There are two different type, striped and spotted. They both look cute, but they are just equally evil! They attacted my cucumber, wintermelon, squash, and anything else has yellow flowers! It's not their bites hurt the plants, they spread the bacterial wilt disease. During the past 2 years, I lost most of my cucumber plants to these devils. So far, haven't found a single one, but one of my cucumber seedlings had a wilted leaf a week ago. Pinched it off, but it still doesn't look so good. It might be the beetle's work. It's so frustrating.

But I am still NOT going to use any chemicals on my vegetable and flowers. I don't want to accidentally kill the good bugs and the birds. Most importantly, I am not going to poison my own family with those stuffs. I might lose some plants or harvest to the bugs, but at least I know for sure what I put on my dining table will be 100% organic. In fact, we should all stop using chemicals in our yard, so our poor earth will have a fighting chance.

Yard Sale Goals

Summer is here, and yard sales are like mushrooms, poping up everywhere. Don't know about you guys, I have always been excited about it. DH doesn't like driving around and buying other people's used stuffs. He has no imagination, about how great one item will turned out after just a little bit elbow greece. I am thinking about having some fun this summer, before the baby comes. Even though our house is kind of full, and we have been donating our old or unwanted stuffs, I still have some things on my mind, that I rather buy from a yard sale.

We already have enough china for our family, but who can resist some beauty like these. They will look wonderful on our new outdoor table. Dreaming about holding my baby girl, all dressed in pink, and drinking some hot tea from a set like this. Sweet!
Oh, I also want to find a great quilt like this one. I hate carpet, no matter how hard I clean it, I still think it's dirty. Thinking about having my baby crawling on a carpet or area rug makes me sick. I cannot ripe out the carpet and install hard wood to the entire second floor now either. So, my solution is buying some of these wonderful quilts, and use them as area rugs. I can always throw them in my big new washer, and don't have to worry about allergen or dust mites that much.
I probably mentioned this before, I want to find a old dresser, just right height and width, as the changing table for the nursery. Got lots of inspiration from 7 Layer Studio. Love what she did to these great old dressers.
And I also need a side table or night stand in the nursery, preferably a matching one.
I am thinking about putting some arts on the wall. But concerned about my baby's safety, I will only use light frames without glass for above the crib, in case she throw some toy up at the frame and it fall on her head. So maybe I should find some super cute kids fabric, and make some canvas like this one. Or like this one.
And I also want to install some floating shelves, and display some cute toys or flowers or something. And how about these cuties? Don't think I can find something like these, but I do have some special ones already.
And I really like to have some cute lamps for the nursery. Love this idea from The City Sage.

Planting Done

All my eggplant and tomato seedlings are in the garden now. Glad I transplanted them Friday evening, because we were home the entire weekend, so I could provide the young plants some shade during the mid day. Today will be their first day without my protection. They looked OK this morning, just hope when I get home at the end of the day, they will still be alive. Kept some seedlings in their pots. They are for Elaine and Jackie, but one of them cancelled our little get together, so I have to take care of these babies for them, for one or two more weeks.

AK gave me some bareroot lily of the valley and dwarf iris. I planted them in the empty spots in my shade flower beds. But they looked so aweful and dried up, don't know whether they can survive. AK also brought me some gorgeous siberian iris, he dug them out of his friend's yard for me. You know, we share plants all the time, I gave his friends some of my hostas, columbines, and geraniums recently. Plant exchanging is a great way to add new member to your garden, and share your extra with other people. None of us has the heart to kill the overgrown but very healthy plants. Will take pictures of the siberian iris after I plant them tonight. Now, where should I plant them?

Sun Is On Vacation

I guess. It has been raining for days here. Don't get me wrong. I love rain. It washes away most of the pollen in the air, and give us a little break from the allergy. I love the smell of the rain, so fresh and clean. And all my plants are happily soaking up the rain, it must taste much better than the tap water. And all the trees and grasses are just loving it too, showing off their lush green leaves. Cannot believe they were almost all bare branches just a short month ago. But it did stop me from gardening for several days now. Heard the weekend is going to be better. Cannot wait to transplant my tomato and eggplant seedlings into the garden. The tomato plants Karen gave me this year are mostly orange and red cherry, plus a couple of whatever big ones. I was kind of diappointed, since I love the yellow ones much better. But saw several volunteers in my garden the other day, just hoping they are yellow ones. I will have to gave some seedlings to my girl friend, since I am running out of space. Have to do lot of rearranging this weekend in the raised beds to squeeze all the rest of them in.

Two More Custom Orders!

Finished two new custom orders during the long weekend! Really love how they turned out. You know sometimes, these customers give me great design ideas, by choosing different color combinations, choosing a new knot for a certain design, etc. I really appreciate these very creative customers, they are my motivation and inspiration for new designs, and they open my eyes to some new opportunities. I just want to say "Thank You!" here to all my customers, from the bottom of my heart.

Late Spring Harvest

Checked my vegetable garden on Sat, and noticed the radish probably is ready. And some of my ShangHai Choy started bolting, so have to harvest them too. I sowed the seeds in the asparagus bed early spring, thought I might get some extra use of that soil before asparagus grow big and block all the sunshine. Growing some radish and Shanghai Choy are definitely better than letting weeds to take over. And my chive and Chinese chive (garlic chive) are growing nicely too. Cut a big bunch of chive for AK, and some Chinese chive for DH. I love it, but cannot eat it, since it will definitely trigger my terrible heartburn. The Chinese chive in the red basket is just half of what I harvested, the other half went to AK's bag.
And here are some pictures of my early summer flowers, aka. my Columbines. They grew stronger every year. I started them 3 years ago from seed, and ended up with 8 gorgeous plants, in 3 different colors, red, purple and white. I planted them in different spots in the yard, sunny, semi shade, and shady, and amazingly they are all doing great.

Ready For The Long Weekend

I am so tired these days! My legs and feet have been swollen for a couple days, and couldn't get some decent sleep during the night. Getting up every 2 or 3 hours is just exhausting. But at least I don't have any big plan for this long weekend, maybe I can get more rest. The raised bed is fixed, cucumber seedlings has been transplanted and survived, Beans are germinated, The Chinese eggplant seedlings are still too small for transplanting, and I am going to pick up some nice tomato plants from a coworker next week. No more asparagus to harvest, and the strawberries are still blooming, no fruit to collect yet. So, not much yard work to do. Guess I will just relax on the deck, put my feet up, and nap. Wonderful plan.

Oh, We trimmed our two big oak tree several weeks ago, and I planned to clean some of the long branches and use them as tomato supports later. But yesterday, our landscaper came to mow the lawn, and thought they will do me a favor, so they took all the branches I have been saving on the driveway, along with all the rotted wood board from the old raised bed! I was totally surprised when I got home at the end of the day. Guess they are going to make them into mulch or compost or something. Well, at least they are not going to the landfill somewhere. Just need to figure out what I can use for the tomato plants.

Busy Day

I was quite energetic yesterday, found time to post 7 items, 4 new ones and 3 renew! I actually made lots of stuffs before I got pregnant, just didn't have the energy or time to photograph and list them. Now I just take pictures of several new items at night, and post them the next day. Here are the 4 new items I listed yesterday.

Red Stone Chime Knot Wall Hanging / DecorationBlack and Silver PanChang Knot Keychain with Metal "Journey" CharmMidnight Garden PincushionPurple PanChang Knot and Purple Hearts Bookmark
And here are the 3 renewed items.
Blue Panchang Knot Keychain with Longevity BeadLavender PanChang Knot Zipperpull with Smily FaceRed PanChang Knot Decoration with Porcelain Gourd

Kitchen Tour Continued

Yesterday, I showed you all the kitchen cabinets and the island. Today I will show you what I did with my freezer and how I organized the drawers in the china cabinet. There are not as many pictures, so I can show you the before and after. Hope you are not bored already.

My freezer was like most people's, everything piled up and something always got stuck in the back and forgotten for a while. Not any more. I was inspired by Biggie, and decided to use plastic baskets to help me organize everything. I took out all the contents, sorted and grouped them, and put each group in its own basket. The right basket on the top shelf holds all the frozen dumplings, popcorn shrimp, chicken breast strips, all ready for cooking or baking. The one to its left holds all frozen vegetable, corn, green bean, etc. The basket on the bottom shelf holds all raw meat, chicken, fish and shrimp. And obviously icecream and frozen pizza occupied the rest of the space. Still need to label the baskets though. Inside each basket, you can pile things up pretty high without worrying some small ones falling into other basket/group. And when you want to look for something you can take the entire basket out and really dig in without keeping the freezer door open for a long time.
Still don't really know what to put on the freezer door though. The only stuffs on there are those ice packs. Any suggestion?
And here are some before and after pictures of the drawers in my china cabinet. Same concept here, some small baskets or containers divided each drawer into sections, and everything in its own group and in clear view. This first drawer was actually like a junk drawer before. This second drawer didn't need any help. I keep two sets of placemats in there, and not very messy.The third drawer holds all my napkins and aprons. I used to stack them vertically, which looked fine, but when I try to look for something, I have to dig through a pile, and you know what happens if you pull something from the bottom of the pile, everything else got flipped, and I sometimes have to fold them again. But recently, I found a better way. Tried this method in our dresser, and DH is no longer making big messes in his undershirt drawer. I stack items horizontally. This way, you can see all the color and design at once, and nothing else will be disturbed when you pull one from the back. I like it!
The bottom drawer holds all my candles and matches, and some candle holders. I didn't know candle wax can stain wood. But now, all the candles are stored in a plastic box, no more rolling around and no more wax stain.

Kitchen Reorganizing, DONE!

My favorite part of the morning recently is to go to my kitchen, open some cabinet doors, and admire what I have accomplished. My kitchen is not fancy at all, just standard builder grade cabinets. But after this reorganizing, I feel so happy! We actually have some free space! We don't have tons of stuffs compare to other families. Of course, only two of us, and lived in small apartments for years before move in here, we tried to keep it down. But things got piled up, not horrible, but messy. You will see what I mean. There are so many pictures, so I am only showing the after shots here. To see all the before and after pictures, please go to my flickr account. Sorry about the light though, I only have time to take pictures after dinner.

First of all, is my pantry cabinet next to the fridge. It is much better now. Finally bought more baskets, and now I can see and reach all the way to the back.
Upper cabinet above the dishwasher, on the left side of the sink. It's kind of empty, since some of the bowls and cups are still in the dishwasher. But you get the idea. I did use some small baskets on the upper shelf to hold most of our tea.

Upper cabinet on the right side of the sink, holding most of our drinking glasses. But we actually only use the ones on the bottom shelf. The green set was from DH's family, don't really know the maker, but pretty old. I love the color, they look like jade. The set on the second shelf was from a yardsale years ago, I use them for dessert.
Upper cabinet in the corner. Lots of space, but kind of hard to reach the back. So we only keep big plates and bowls in there. The upper shelf is kind of empty, only holding some seasonal stuffs.
Upper cabinet on the left side of the stove. I keep all my seasonings there, most are Chinese.
The small cabinet above the stove and vent, holding all my plastic containers. Was half empty, but since I tried to switch to glass containers, ended up with more of these plastic ones in this cabinet. Probably will use them somewhere else in the house, maybe the basement.
Upper cabinet on the right side of the stove, next to the kitchen door. I keep most of my dry food in there, all kinds of dried beans, and Chinese herbs for cooking. Will need to buy more of those big mason/canning jars, so I can switch out all the plastic ones. And really need to label everything nicely, DH has no idea what I have in these jars. Oh, that's my radio/CD player underneath it, I like to play some music when I am cooking.
We don't have much lower cabinet space for pots and pans, so we bought an island with similar finish. The lower cabinet on the right of the oven, holds some big pots and the fire extinguisher.
We only have one drawer in our kitchen, I know, rediculous!
The lower cabinet in the corner was always a big headache. I cannot really put anything big on that lazy susan, and smaller things tend to fall out, and I was always afraid that something will stuck in there and I won't be able to open that door at all. Until I found some inspiration online. Bought some smaller baskets, and problem solved.
The cabinet space under the sink has always been like this. It works for me, so why change it.
Here are most of my pots and pans. I made the devices on the door to hold all the lids and some other big flat things that won't fit in a drawer, very convenient. Got the inspiration from a handman book I bought years ago.
We also bought a small microwave oven cart to save some valuable counter space. The cabinet underneath holds my recipe books, baking supplies and kitchen towels. All the baking pans and sheets are in the warming drawer underneath the oven.

OK, it's already a super long post. I will continue with the freezer (yeah, finally) and the China cabinet tomorrow.

Busy Weekend

Had some time to clean, update and promote my shop last week, and it really paid off. Not only I got a customer order, someone else bought 3 more items on Sat. Yeepee! They will be on their way today. Finally some activities in my shop after 6 months ignorance. Here are pics of the ones sold this weekend.

And I did another 'huge' job on Sat. Two weeks ago, the landscape company we hired for this year mowed our lawn for the first time, and they destroyed one of my raised bed. I knew the wood boarder were all rotted, so it's time to replace them anyway. DH and I wanted to build a stone boarder this time, but gave up the idea after realizing that will cost us more than $200! No way! So, we just bought some 2 by 6 instead. I thought my old 1 by 6 boarder lasted 4 years, so this new one will last at least that time. DH helped me loaded the wood to the top of our car, we tied them up, and slowly drove home. Lucky for us, Lowe's is just 5 minutes local drive away. Then DH helped me put the wood on driveway, and brought out my miter saw (it's kind of too heavy to me to carry) and all my other tools. It took me total 5 hours to tear up the old one, and install the new one. Actually breaking the old one took longer than I thought. I didn't want the garbage guy to hurt his fingers, so I carefully removed all rusted screws. I actually reused most of them on the new boarder. Well, they were rusted, but still strong enough, so why waste them? And I was out of 2" screws, so this saved me another trip to Lowe's. Totally forgot to take a before picture, so only can show you the after. Still need to fill the gaps between the new boarder and the old soil, that's a bag of compost there on the side. And here are a couple of pictures of the old boarder, the wood boards were totally rotted.
Oh, here are some pictures of the hostas I divided a week ago. They were just tiny eyes just poked out to the surface at that time. And look at them now. The ones in the soil are actually 1/4 of what used to be. I divided them and planted others around the base of my two oak tree. I also potted up two clusters for AK's friend, he doesn't have variegated ones. Still need to get some colorful annuals to put in between the hostas under the tree. Will be really pretty soon.

Calanthe Rubens

This is one of AK's favorite orchid. I didn't like it, because it was an ugly bulb with no leaf. But look at the flowers!

New Fabric Scraps Box

Since I started setting up the nursery, I took all the baby clothes down from the attic, and washed and sorted them, and put everything into the nursery closet. So, I have at least 5 big empty plastic boxes. Great for all the other organizing projects I am going to do around the house. I took one down to store all my fabric scraps. They were all over the place, in shoe boxes and bags. Now they are all folded nicely and stacked neatly in the big box. As you can see from the pictures, I didn't really sort them by color, but at least I can see every single one of them. In that shoebox in the lower left corner are those smaller size scraps, and all the bigger ones are outside. And the real tiny pieces are inside a zipper bag on top of them. Hmm, I thought I had more scraps, it doesn't look so bad now! Well, once I start making dresses for my little girl, there will be much more.

What is next on my list? I really want to organize all my craft supplies, but probably I should finish the living spaces first. OK, my next target is the kitchen, all cabinets, the island and the china cabinet. See how long this will take me.

A Break From Kitchen Organizing

I was going to organize the freezer, right after I finished the fridge, but don't have enough baskets or organizers and didn't have time to go shopping for them last weekend. So, the freezer just has to wait. And at the mean time, I easily found some new targets in the house, as you know I cannot really sit down and do nothing. So, I am targetting the biggest mess in the house, or should I say in the basement, (and some parts of the first floor), my crafts area. Ever since I got pregnant, I stopped crafting, since I didn't want to sit in the cold basement any more. So, everything just piled up. And the recent nesting/organizing fever didn't help either. Since I needed organizers for other part of the house, and I had a lot for my craft supplies, I ended up piling the contents on my craft tables, and just took the boxes and baskets. So, as you can imagine, how messy my crafting / sewing area looks now. Of cource, I cannot finish this whole 'project' in one day, I decided to divide and conquer.

First on the list, is my fabric collection. I have collected a shelf full of fabric over time. Right now, they are all folded, just need to be sort by color and material. My biggest headache though is the scrap fabrics, which are all over the sewing table and in some bags too. As usual, I went online looking for ideas, and found most of people keep their scraps in plastic boxes, or bins, like these.

From Stitches and Scissors.
From SweetJessie

It took me about an hour to organize mine, will show you some pictures tomorrow. It was too dark to take any picture last night. While I was folding and sorting, I was thinking what I can do with all these small, some even tiny, pieces of fabric. The common ideas are scrap quilting, or sew some small items with it, like potholder, towel, small bags, coasters, even scarfs. Here are some interesting ideas I found, and planning to try sometimes.

Fabric flowers, from Posie Gets Cozy.
Fabric basket, from The Sometimes Crafter.
With the real tiny pieces, you can make some fabric covered buttons like these. Won't they look cute on your other projects? If you don't want to buy the kit, you can just do it the old fashion way like CraftPudding. You can even play with it, and make it into push pins, or Ponytail Holder, or even a ring.

Bye-bye plants

of course, I am only talking about some of my plants. As I said before, I am downsizing, my plant collection that is. So far, I gave two orchids to one of my best friend, lots of strawberry plants to a close friend who recently bought a house, and want to start their own veggie garden, and I also potted up some chives for AK. He loves chives, I have so many in my garden, and we don't really eat them that much, so I chop some off every week and give to AK to eat. And I thought he should have a pot of it, just to eat when my supply runs low. He is very happy about that.

I also gave this baby to our electrician at work. He loves bonsai, and I thought my chili pepper looks like a great bonsai material. It's small size, and bloom all the times. Actually, when I gave him the plant, it was loaded with cute little flowers, and some tiny peppers were forming too. I saved some seeds from it, in case I ever want it back.
I also divided my two big hosta plants, and potted two clusters for AK's friend. It was super hard work! The root balls were huge, and very tough to cut through. I actually had to stab the root ball with my small shovel, about 30 times to break off a small section. My right arm was so painful that night, I couldn't even fall asleep. And I potted up some purple coneflower seedlings for another friend. They were much easier than the mature plants, which have tough long roots. They were just volunteers, and I really don't need that many of them. And of course, I cannot kill them either. So, they are in their own 'nursery', and ready for pick up.
I also trimmed my jade plant, donkey's tail, gardenia, jasmines, spider plants and philodendron. The jade, donkey's tail and philodendron cuttings were potted up and they are for friends too. I will use the spider plant babies as annuals in my garden again. Last year, they did great in the hanging baskets. After all these, I should have a managable size of collection for the winter, that is if I can stop buying more new ones. We'll see.

Oh, here are more pics of spring flowers in my garden.

Two New Badgeholders

An old customer placed an order for two more badgeholders, so I had to stop the cleaning for a couple of days to finish the order. Here they are. She loved the butterfly design on some of my necklaces, so I added it to the badgeholder chain. The blue color one is for her friend, and the other one is for herself. She bought a red and dark green one before Xmas, it was perfect for winter. But now summer is coming, she wants some bright light colors. I really like how they turned out, probably will make another blue one for myself later.

Fridge, cleaned!

It took me almost 2 hours to sort, clean and organize the fridge yesterday after dinner. All the expired food got throw away, some of those bottles weren't even opened. Makes me wonder why I bought them at the first place. Didn't find many good size baskets around the house, so definitely need to go visit the local dollar store this weekend. Also need to go buy some of those square glass containers with lids, for leftovers. So I can stack them and save some space. Now the fridge looks half empty. Of course, how much food can two of us consume. We do have lots of vegetable though. Oh, and we don't drink beer or soda, so that save us some space too. Plus the only type of food I know how to cook is Chinese food, so not much sauces from different cuisine either. Here are the before and after pictuers. I know, it doesn't look very different, but I know from my heart that everything are sparkling clean, and the whole fridge smells VERY VERY fresh. I will take more pictures after I get all the organizers and containers I wanted.

Fridge - before.
Fridge - after.
Fridge door - before.
Fridge door - after.
Next target, the freezer! Cannot wait to see what's hiding all the way back there.

Nesting Instinct

I think my nesting instinct finally kicked in, in full gear. Maybe it's also because spring is finally here, I have spring fever every year. I finally kicked all my plants out onto the deck, without hardening, so of course some of them got terribly sunburnt. But they will recover. My secret goal is to find the toughest plants among them, and either kill the weakest ones or give them away. The keepers have to be able to tolerate ignorance, since I won't have more time taking care of them once the baby come out. And it's very hard to downsize without some kind of guidelines. I normally don't have the heart to kill any plants. Also I gave most of my plants a good 'haircut'. Potted up the cuttings from my jade plant and the donkey's tail. Told you I don't have the heart to kill anything, I tend to save all the cuttings. But don't worry, these new babies are all for my friends. And since I almost got all my energy back, finally reached the honeymoon stage (during pregnancy), I have been carrying plants to office, to give them away. So, finally, there is no more plants in the future nursery, and only some tender orchids in the dining room. I GOT MY HOUSE BACK!

I told DH the other night that my nesting instinct kicked in, guess what his response was! He was watching some NBA playoff game. He is a big sports fan, and during his games, his eyes and mind normally locked on the TV screen completely, won't be able to see or hear anything else. BUT this time, he heard me, turned his head, looked at me, with a huge smile on his face! "GREAT!" That's what he said! Yeah, I am always the packrat in the house, DH used to complain about it all the time. He is your typical simple guy, just need the basic stuffs, don't care about decoration, or anything fancy. I, on the contrary, like to change the decor according to season and holidays, and also base on my mood. So, I buy and keep lots of stuffs. He can never understand why we need at least two sets of curtains for each room! Anyway! I know how to clean, and love organizing. I only clean when I cannot stand the mess I made any more. But since I have so many hobbies, and lots of gardening to do, I normally don't have time to do the deep clean. BUT this time is different. I just want to clean and re-organize every inch of the house, and the yard.

As you know, it's the playoff time for NBA and NHL, and baseball season started too. So, I lost the TV, to DH that is! I used to fight hard for it, but now, my mind is on other things. I found myself going to the bathroom, then ended up reorganizing the medicine cabinet, the vanity, the closet, and hands and knees down on the floor deep cleaning the baseboard heater, and the floor tiles. DH clean the toilet, really well, so I don't worry about that. And same thing happened when I was in the kitchen. I went to get a cup of water, ended up reorganizing all the upper cabinets, cleaning the stove, the vent, backsplash, the window, the top of the fridge, the sink, and deodorizing the garbage desposal with backing soad and white vinegar, then freshing the smell with some orange peels. I found some great inspiration for kitchen and fridge organizing on flickr, so the fridge will be my next 'victim' tonight. I am so glad I found Biggie and The Fridge Fetish! There are so many great ideas, here are just some of my favorites!

Look at this upper cabinet! She does have lots of stuffs, way more than I do, but look how organized she is!
And here is a picture of a lower cabinet! Smart way to use those magazine files.
And this one is my favorite, her fridge! Her fridge looks identical to ours, but with all those great containers, it's way more organized and I bet it's easy to clean too. No more sticky spills.
If I cannot find enough of those plastic bins and baskets around the house tonight, I will just deep clean the fridge, toss all the expired stuffs, and stop by the dollar store this weekend. I got lots of hand-me-down baby clothes, furniture and toys from family and friends, saved a lot of money there. So, I got to spend some of that saving on something else. My goal, lots of organizers and anything that will make our life easier, and most importantly, make me smile!