Tranquility Spot

Cute Fish Purse

2012-01-25T13:29:00.005-05:00

The day I saw this amazing fish purse, I knew I will make it one day. When Chinese New Year approaching, I needed to make a gift for a friend's granddaughter. She was adopted in China when she was a baby, now she is the love of the family and very healthy happy young lady (7yr old). I thought a cute fish purse is the perfect gift. Fish in Chinese culture is a wonderful symbol, especially around new year time, it represents abundant wealth and fortune and bless the family. What do you think of my version?
I just got a phone call from my friend the other day, and said her grand daughter loves the purse so much, asked whether she could bring it to school the next day! That totally made my day! What a wonderful way to use some of the small scraps! I didn't show it to little Caterpillar and Stubborn, knowing they would love it too much and won't let me mail it out. Now I know how it goes, I will make a smaller, yet even cuter one for my girl. Probably use some of my nice Chinese fabric.

I said before that I am in full nesting mood now. A couple of weeks ago, I brought out little Caterpillar's carseat, and decided to make a boyish cover for it. It was all pink and brown, very girly. So I got some sample fabric pieces from my stash, and made this simple cover. Finally I finished the edge with bias tape, and sewed the openings for the harnesses. Doesn't it look cute for a baby boy?

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-23T09:10:00.006-05:00

Happy Dragon Year to all of you! Yay! I kept my baby inside long enough and he is actually a dragon now! =)

Even though I am on bedrest, I couldn't hold the urge to celebrate this most important Chinese holiday the traditional way. Well, I cannot really clean the house inside out, but I could do the laundry (even though I am not supposed to, according to my OB). Man, why did I let them sit for a week? I had to wash 3 big bags while cooking. Too much! But I really cannot let the dirty laundry gets to a brand new year. Traditionally, new year's eve dinner is the biggest. Family gathers together, eat delicious food and watch the parties on TV, and enjoy the fireworks around midnight. We normally have at least 4 cold dishes, 4 warm dishes, and dumplings. And we have to have fish, which represents abundant wealth in the coming year. My mom and my aunt normally cook some shrimps, slow cooked pork, fish and lots of different vegetable dishes. Sooooo good!

Well, I don't have enough energy to cook that much, and we didn't invite any friends over. So this is what I came up with after 4 hours hard work in the kitchen. Oh, don't worry, those are not wine, just some cranberry juice. Here are the cold dishes. These are just store bought smoked saugages, sliced and arranged nicely. Pan roasted peanutsThousand year eggs and hardboiled eggs (slow cooked with soy sauce, tea leaves and other seasonings). I appologize for this mess. This is what happens when you have a toddler helping you set up the table! At least she loved the tealeaf eggs.
Here are the hot dishes. To cut the stress down, I baked the baby back ribs the day before, and started preparing dumplings in the early afternoon. Don't these ribs look delicious? My friend came up with this recipe, and everyone loves it, now we all cook it. This flunder came out surprisingly good. I used the marinating sauce for the ribs instead of soy sauce. It has more flavor and the fish is not overcooked and kept its shape. Yeah!Here is just some simple stirfried vegetable. Not my favorite, but Stubborn loves it! Isn't that the point? To feed and satisfy your family?And here are the dumplings. For the new year, I made them from scratch. Lots of great stuffs in there, Chinese cabbage, green scallion, ground pork, shrimp, eggs, smoked mushrooms, with soy sauces, five spices, and sesame oil. I made the skins too, they don't look that good, but so delicious! I put so much energy in them, so imagine how sad I was when little caterpillar won't even try them! Well, what can I do? She is a very stubborn toddler. At least she loved the ribs and fish.
And here is a pic of my little girl with mommy! Such a rare oppotunity, Stubborn offered to take a picture of us. Sorry I cannot show you the faces.
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, holiday or not. And hope you all enjoyed your dinner like we did. Wish you didn't have to cook as much. I was exhausted! But it all worth it!

Everyone Is OK

2012-01-20T11:51:00.003-05:00

We had to go to hospital last night. My baby boy normally is a very active and great kicker, so when he didn't kick much for 24 hours, we freaked out! He normally kicks happy and hard when I wake up, after every meal, and when I lie on my side. But he didn't kick until 2pm, after hours of me walking around, petting him, talking to him, drinking lots of cold juice, etc. Even when he finally kicked, he only kicked less than 2 minutes, then hours of quiet again! Finally I couldn't take it any more, and called the hospital after dinner. We had to wake up little caterpillar to drive to Boston, she was such a good sport, didn't cry, just jumped up and happy to "go out". Well, what you know, as soon as they put the monitors on my belly, he started kicking! WHAT?! It turned out he did a 180 on me, totally changed his position. Maybe he was tired from that, or he was kicking different spots which are less sensitive. I was so relieved to hear his heart beats and see him happy as a clam on the ultrasound. I even saw him practicing breathing. What a good boy! Even though you made all of us worry and went to hospital for nothing, we are all so glad you are ok. Oh, did I mention it was snowing very hard when we left the hospital? Stubborn drove so carefully. Lucky I didn't insist to drive to hospital by myself. He is a much better driver in these stormy situation. We couldn't even see beyond 50 yards on highway. Everyone was driving in single line, since the highway was cleaned up yet, we could barely see the marks on the ground. Anyway, we are all safe and happy, and life back to normal again. Hopefully he will stop scarying mommy and daddy again.

Wonderful Tutorial

2012-01-19T12:55:00.003-05:00

Found this wonderful Continuous Bias Tape tutorial on No Big Dill today. This lady is absolutely genius and classically stylish. Just love her and all her beautiful girls and that precious new baby boy. OK, back to the topic. I made my own bias tapes most of the times, but they are not really bias, since I didn't want to waste any fabric. While when your tape is not really on bias, it's hard to turn corner. I will definitely try this technique and make tons of colorful bias tapes. Too bad I don't have the machine she used, guess I just have to stand in front of the ironing board and slowly iron them with my manual tools. Well, that machine will be on my next birthday wish list.

Pregnancy Glucose Tolerance Test Side Effect

2012-01-15T22:30:00.002-05:00

Had my 1 hour glucose tolerance test lasf Friday. It was a new one, I didn't need to fast! Had early lunch and went for the test and my OB visit. I felt completely normally after the test, even spent a couple of hours chatting with co-workers and friends at the office. The drive back home was very slow, but I thought I was just tired. But the next morning when I woke up, I felt like crap. I noticed some of my joints started getting painful, I had that with little Caterpillar too. But Sat morning, the pain in my hips area was almost unbelievable! And I felt nauseated, exhausted, headache, and depressed! As a matter of fact, I cried so hard thoughout the whole day! Stubborn didn't get it at first, but then I told him I got so worried that our baby boy might come out too early! At only 30wks, he will survive, but probably will have to spend months in NICU, and might get lots of problems. I have never felt so bad and depressed ever, not even when they told me I was 2cm dilated at 31wk pregnant with little caterpillar. I was so tired, took long long naps, and went to bed much earlier. Today I woke up felt much better, so happily I went downstairs and cooked some nice breakfast for the family. But 2 hours after breakfast, I collapsed in the sofa again, feeling like carrying tons of bricks. Ended up taking an 4 hours nap without lunch. Then had only 1 slice of pizza for dinner, and felt like dying again.

After some research online, I feel a little better knowing that I am not the only one had these kind of side effects after these tests. But most women had the symptoms within hours after drinking that orange stuff, while I was fine that day, and having these long effects for 2 days so far. Stubborn just checked my result online, guess I failed. Now I am terrified I will hear from my OB's office to schedule the 3 hour test this week. I almost collapsed in the waiting room during the 3hr test when I was pregnant with little caterpillar. So, if I have to go back for it, Stubborn has to go with me, so I won't collapse while driving.

I am still feeling so bad now, but at least I know what it is now, I am not as worried. And my boy has been kicking strong and hard throughout the day, so I know he's doing just fine. Just feeling guilty that I cannot keep up with my little girl, and had to ignore her calling. Even videotaping her playing and singing for 5 minutes made me exhausted. At least 6 more weeks before my boy reach full term, my girl might feel lonely for a long time. How on earth do other moms handle them during pregnancy?

Orchid Update

2012-01-13T10:23:00.006-05:00

More of my orchids opened up! Aren't they just precious?
This one is about to open in just several days. It will be so lovely, all bright yellow dancing ladies!
This is not orchid, but my little gold fish. It's just so cute, and has been blooming for a long time. Small, but cute!
And all my Dendrobiums are still going strong, so is my Hawaii.
It's so nice to have something so pretty to look at when it's cold and gray outside. So now, do you want to grow some orchids now?

Living Room Update

2012-01-09T10:35:00.014-05:00

Even though I am supposed to be on bedrest, I still cannot control my nesting urge sometimes. Months ago, I bought enough materials for two toy shelfs for the living room, but only had energy to build one. But now I cannot stand the toy mess in the living room any more, I had to finish the second one. Since I cannot lift heavy stuffs, I just painted the boards in the basement, then brought them upstairs one by one, and finish building it right in the living room. Here is the before picture of the west wall of the living room. What a mess! When did I get all these toys for just one girl!
We don't have a family room or a separate room to set up as little caterpillar's playroom, so I have to make this small living room a multi-functional room. Here is the after picture, kind of. Well, it's not all done yet, but it does look more organized. Now everything has its own spot. The shelf on the left is the new one. Look closely, you can see it's not done yet. I need to trim the sides a little bit to make it even with the first shelf, paint the raw edges, and polyurethane it. Look at the height difference here, it doesn't bother Stubborn or little caterpillar, but it really bugs me! But I am exhausted, and it doesn't worth risking having my baby premature. So, it just have to stay this way until this baby is out.
Here is what the left side looks like now. I made that alphabet art a couple of nights ago. I found it online, and printed out the individual letters, cut them out, and taped them to a piece of white board. So easy! Cannot remmeber where I found it online though, it was months ago. Whoever created this art originally, THANK YOU! My girl loves it! The blue floral bins on the upper right shelf are so easy to make also. They were just these boxes from BJ's. I built these toy shelves 18" deep to accommodate her music table and some other big toys, and these free boxes are the perfect size. Some self-adhesive shelf lining paper and several minutes later, this is how it looks like! Much better! And each of these bins costs me about 50 cents! I just need to make some pretty labels for them. They each hold a different type of toys, like building blocks, musical toys, pulling toys, teaparty toys, etc.
This is the right shelf. As you can see, her favorite toys are on top of the shelf, so she can play with them anytime she likes, without digging or pulling them out of big boxes. And notice I removed the horse painting, and tied a piece of yarn to display her arts. Aren't they cute? Little caterpillar is very happy to see her masterpieces proudly displayed on the wall!

Before I show you the other side of the living room, I have to show you some of her toys! I just love wooden toys! Almost all those plastic toys came from friends! Look at these, my girl is more into cars, airplanes and dinosaurs than dolls!
She loves that cashier machine, and sings to that microphone all the time. And everytime she sees someone playing piano on the TV, she starts playing along on her little piano. So cute! We might need to get her a real piano in a couple of years.
These globes are my favorites. I can show her where grandparents and other relatives live. The big and midium ones are from thrift store, the tiny glass one was a party favor from a wedding.

OK, now the east side of the living room. This is how that tiny corner looked like during the holidays. I wanted to set up a painting table there, so I took down the xmas tree 2 days after. Moved the animal alphabet art up a little bit, so I could hang the little DIY blackboard and some buckets right under it. Now she can do coloring, finger printing, and draw with chalks on the blackboard, right at one table! The activity bag hanging on the wall holds her coloring books. All I need is a walllamp above it. It's kind of dark. I love this ikea lamp very much, but not enough to drive 1hr to get it. I will get it next time we go there for more stuffs.

There you have it, my living room is taken over by my girl! And I am happy about it and supporting it. This is the exact situation I said I won't allow before I had her. But you know what, my love to my baby totally won! I don't mind toys in the living room any more, just need to have them under control!

Garden Updates

2011-12-22T23:22:00.006-05:00

This might sound strange to some people, but if you read my other garden posts, you knew I have lots of orchids, and lots of them bloom in winter. Right now, I have 3 den., 1 catt., 1 hawaii blooming, and two more others ready to open any day now.
These two are about to open.

This is a strange one to me. For several weeks now, I have noticed a weird seedpod looking thingy growing out after a flower faded on my pink jasmine plant! I didn't know jasmine does this! Anyone has any idea what this is?

This last one is beautiful also, just totally out of season. My forthysia and winter jasmine normally bloom in Feb or Mar, when the winter is ending. But this time they got fooled by mother nature. We had our cold weather and first snow before Halloween, then two months of unbelievable warm weather. Lots of plants got fooled, some daffodils and plum flowers have been reported. Poor things may die next time we have a snow storm. I don't care so much of the forthysia, but I do hope my winter jasmine can survive!

Having Fun With Toddler

2011-12-19T16:01:00.005-05:00

Little caterpillar is growing up so fast, learning a lot from daycare, which makes me happy and sad at the same time. I am happy she is enjoying all the activities, like finger painting, crafting, and singing and dancing. At the mean time, I am sad that I am not the one that teaching her those. Don't get me wrong. Even with all my education, I don't think I am qualified to teach toddler, since I don't know a thing when it comes to early education, and I am a very impatient person when it comes to teaching. And I am supposed to be bedresting, so cannot enjoy any exciting activities with her. But I promised myself I will at least try and apply all my crafty skills.

Yesterday, I took out some paper and paint, and did some fun finger painting with little caterpillar. It was lots of fun, I don't believe I ever did finger painting as a child. Kids growing up in China, at least during our time, you are told to follow strict rules, you cannot make a mess, you have to color inside the lines, and you are supposed to use painting brush not your fingers. So, you guessed, I enjoyed it too. We painted a nice xmas tree together, with lots of ornaments. It's drying on the wall, I will show it to you as soon as it's totally dry. But of course, I was not prepared enough, so got a huge mess to clean up. Even when I cleaned up immediately, some paint dried up on our dining table, so hard to get off! After some reading online, I learned that I supposed to put down some newspaper on the table first! We used so much paint, it was going to break the bank, I thought. So, I mixed some homemade fingerpaint following online recipes (3 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup corn starch, 2 cups water, food coloring). I didn't have food coloring, and little caterpillar never tried eating paints, so I just used the paints I have on hand. They look pretty good, I will let you know how their performance is.

Then while I was making some fun pillows, I all of a sudden thought of a puppet theater! Little caterpillar has 10 finger puppets (animal set from Ikea), and two hand puppets, and she loves playing them with me. Think how much fun it will be to playing them in a real 'theater'. This way, I can also encourage her story telling and pretend playing. The puppet theaters are so easy for me to make, I have so many fabric, ribbons and sewing machine. But I have no idea to make more hand puppets. Got to do more research on that. Here is just one tutorial I found. Will show you my creation later.

Scored Again!

2011-12-05T13:42:00.009-05:00

Went thrifting this past weekend, and MAN, was I in luck! Here are everything I got, for just $24 and some changes. Can you believe that? It's about the price of one pair of those baby shoes, or that sweater dress!

I actually went to look for some nice bowls. We don't have enough bowls in the house right now. We are Chinese, so we use bowls rather than plates. Little caterpillar has been naughty, broke lots of them. So, I cannot really leave dirty dishes in the sink or dishwasher, simply because we got nothing to eat out of. I am not running the dishwasher half full, wasting energy. Being pregnant and bedresting, I am not going hand wash them either. So solution? Get more bowls! It does not really fit in my declutter plan, but I have to survive this pregnancy first. I was so excited when I spotted these big IKEA soup bowls! I was hoping to find some of the smaller ones, I have seen one small IKEA bowl there before. Well, big ones will do just fine. And the $.89 price tag made it even sweeter.

Oh, I also found a small IKEA bowl, a CORELL cereal bowl, and 3 more cereal bowls. $.69 each!

Then some nice white mugs caught my eyes. Simple, yet elegant. And the best of all, all white. Then I found a stack of little plates, matching the mugs! All from JCP Home. Even though there were only 7 mugs, I still got 8 plates, hoping next time I will find the last mug. There were lots of IKEA plates too, but like I said we don't use plates as much, I just passed them by. The mugs were $.69 each, while the little saucer plates are $.35 each!

I already got some shoes for my baby boy, but when I saw the shoe shelves full, I just had to check them out. There were so many cute ones for a girl, but too small. What a pity! But my boy is not born yet, so I can buy any size I want. And just my luck, all 3 pairs were white tag, which means $1 each!!! Sweet! Just that one pair of Strike Rite retails for more than $40! Ha!

Also found this beautiful Old Navy sweater dress for my girl. Well, it's a little bit too big for little caterpillar now, but she will grow into it. It looks like brand new, and only $3.99! I also picked up a coral red cardigan for myself, white tag, so only $1!

One hat for me also, just $.99, and a super cute one for my girl, only $1.99.

This pair of GAP pants for my boy is only $3.99! So cute! They normally sells for at least $25 in store. I am not spending that kind of money for something my kids only going to wear for one season at best.

There you have it. All 24 dollars of them! Are you tired of my thrifting posts yet? Well, if I continue to find whatever I had my mind on, I will continue bragging about it. Kids are expensive, all the daycare cost and other activities, I have to save any place I can. How is your thrifting luck lately?

Commute Time Sewing

2011-12-02T14:51:00.004-05:00

Since I am working from home now, I got to use my old commute time to do something I really like, sewing for my family.

Little caterpillar is growing up so fast, and lately she just wants nothing to do with the footed PJs (is that what they are called?), keeps saying it hurts! Maybe her feet are getting too big, even though the PJ itself still fits. So I decided to make her some new flannel PJ pants for this winter. I used the free kids pants pattern from Dona (MADE). She is the best, and this pattern is so fabulous, and fits my girl perfectly. Although the first pair I made was a little bit too big, the other three were perfect, just an inch too long.
This is the first one, made from one of my old PJs, with a big side pocket. I meant to make it wider, so more comfortable for my girl to lounge in, but clearly I went too far. Well, it will fit her in a couple of years.
This is the second one I made. I bought this small piece of remnant from Joann's lately, just enough for a pair of pants. Isn't it soooo cute? Love the little whales. If the remnant is bigger, I could have saved it for myself.
The third pair is made from a beautiful blue rose flannel I got years ago from yardsale. I was going to make a crib sheet out of it, but it is big enough for an extra pair pants for my girl. I sewed my label on the back of all of them. Stubborn joked these are brand name now! Ha! The last pair is also made from yardsale fabric. These fabric was about $.50 each, which means I spent less than $5 for all four PJ pants, plus enough left overs for some crib sheets. Don't you just love such a great deal?

I also bought a big piece of super soft winter fleece, with the cutest apple green polka dots. It was another remnant piece, only costed me about $5! I just rounded the corners with a small bowl as template, and zigzagged all around. Simple and quick baby blanket for my new baby boy.
I also started making reusable fabric diapers for my baby boy. Found this wonderfully simple tutorial online, and it says this diaper will fit a baby from 3 months to 2 year old. I just changed it a little bit, using a layer of flannel and breathable diaper fabric I got from Joann. It has this layer of plastic kind of thing on the wrong side of it, makes sewing a nightmare. These little diapers has an opening on the back, for the prefold inserts. Stubborn doesn't like the idea of using safty pins near our baby, so I just have to sew on some velcros. I can make one in 30 minutes, which is what I have in the morning. It will take me a while to make enough. Maybe I should just make some, and wait till my baby is here to try them on. And in case he grows up too fast, I can make some bigger ones. Let's see how long I can stick to this fabric diaper plan.

Finally Some Fall Pictures

2011-11-18T10:40:00.005-05:00

I am so behind on photo processing. So many things happened lately, I didn't even have a second for myself. Now everything back to normal, I am finally catching up. About two weeks ago, when little caterpillar was sick (pneumonia) and staying home with me, I took her out to the yard for some fresh air. Of course when she was not having fever. She has been sick a lot this fall, so we cancelled our foliage trip. So, when fall came to my own backyard, I just have to take some pictures of my little girl with all that wonderful colors.
We had such a great time. But I noticed it's getting harder and harder to get good pictures of her. She either runs right into the camera, or runs around so fast, or fake a smile for mommy.
The poor thing was still quite sick, within half an hour, she was exhausted. Couple of minutes lying in sofa watching cartoon, she fell asleep. My poor baby. Thank goodness she is much better now. No more fever, coughing or even running nose.

Orchid Update

2011-11-17T09:35:00.003-05:00

Haven't really pay attention to my plants lately. But I am trying to do better. After moving them back inside, I have been watering them more frequently, and mist them. Now here are my rewards.

My Hawaii is in full bloom again. There are four spikes, I have been waiting for more flower to open to take a better picture, but the first spike faded. Well, it's not that bad, I still have 3 spikes and they have 3 to 5 flowers each. And this is the first time I ever noticed they even have a little bit minty smell. LOVELY!

And all 3 of my dendrobiums are sending out spikes at the same time. The biggest is my Singapore Girl, it was a rescue from a coworker, and it has been doing pretty well. Yeah I know the older ones all lost their leaves, but the new one always bloom for me. This flower just opened up yesterday. Love how intense the color is, and that white edge highlight is wonderful. Cannot wait for all 3 to open, so I can show you a better view.

Exhausted

2011-11-16T10:54:00.005-05:00

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. Lots of things happened. First we found out it's a boy! Yay! Then 2 minutes later we were told I had cervical insufficiency, had to have an emergency surgery the next day, otherwise I could miscarry. Glad Stubborn was there with me that day, I was so nervous. My surgery went pretty well, but it took me more than 5 hours to recover from the spinal. Little caterpillar was such a champ, stayed with stubborn in the waiting room for all that time. After the surgery, I was supposed to be on bedrest for the rest of my pregnancy. Well, that was not going to happen. 2 days later, little caterpillar got really bad diarrhea, pooping more than a dozen times a day for 4 days straight. Even though Stubborn was there taking care of her, I still had to clean up and doing laundry. Then there was about a week wonderful time, she was healthy again, eating great, and gaining back the weight she lost. Then all of a sudden last Mon, after I picked her up from daycare, she started acting strange. 20 minutes later, I realized she was having fever, almost 104F! How could the daycare teacher telling me everything was fine? You don't get a 104F fever in 20 minutes. Anyway. I called the nurse, and of course all of us thought she caught the cold or flu, so I was told to give her some ibuprofen and watch her for 24 hrs. By the third morning (about 36 hrs later), I couldn't wait any more. I took her to the doctor's office. And lucky we went, because she was diagnosed with Pneumonia! Poor thing had fever up to 103F for several days, finally 3 days after taking antibiotics her fever came down. I have to sleep in her room, since Stubborn normally won't wake up at night, so wouldn't know if her temperature goes up again. Then he had to go to a conference out of town for several days! Imagine how busy and tired I have been. But at least my girl is much better now, and went back to daycare again. Finally I can get some rest. She is still on antibiotics, but I can tell she is recovering. She has no more fever, just a little bit coughing and running nose, and she has been sleeping and napping like a hibernating little bear! Well after all these, now I am coming down with something. Hopefully it's just a cold, and I can tough it out without using any antibiotics or anything that might hurts my baby boy.

OK, enough complaining, here is something else has been going on. I went thrifting the other day, and found some cute winter clothes for my boy. I thought boy clothes are boring, but they can be quite cute. Don't you think?
These two little jackets are so cute. I just love that little bear, it made me smile everytime I look at it.

The shirt/sweater vest set to the left was from Children's Place, and brand new! The green shirt was brand new also, and from Gap!!! The blue vest has a fun fishing applique on the front. I can see my boy wobbling around in these, looking like a little gentleman. How cute will that be?

The Elmo overall was from my last thrifting trip, this front one is the new found. It's hard to see in this picture, there are dinosaur design all over it.

The smaller pants is from Gap, and very thick. It will be perfect for his first winter. The green one has a little monkey applique, it supposed to be for 2T, but I am sure I will fold the legs shorter and let him wear it early on. Well, I want to try fabric diaper this time, so he needs some of those big butt pants. =)

Found some fabric from my stash that can be used for boys. Surprise! I cannot wait to make some summer shorts or pants for my little guy.

The best part is some of these are brand new, babies grow up so fast, even if they did wear some clothes, they all look pretty good. And most of the ones I bought are nice brands, they will be quite expensive to buy from the stores. All above clothes were about $2-3 each, so I spent total about $16 for all these, less than the cost of that Children's Place shirt vest set! Am I done with stocking up for this little boy? Maybe not. I am sure there will be more cute boy stuffs waiting for me next time I go to our local Salvation Army.

Homemade Kids Birthday Gifts

2011-11-07T09:16:00.004-05:00

This is what I finally came up with, of course combining some of the ideas I mentioned before. I just love making little shoulder bags for kids, it's so easy, and versatile, and practical.

For Linus, the little boy in little caterpillar's class, I made this cute dinosaur playmat, following this tutorial. I changed the colors a little bit, had to deal with whatever I had in my felt box. The whole point of this homemade gifts idea is to save money, I got to use up my scraps before buying new materials. I think it turned out pretty cute. Actually his bag is also a coloring bag, has those crayon holders on the outside. So, if for some reason he doesn't like dinosaurs, he can still use this bag. I also sewed some pockets inside, for carrying some small toys. The dino mat can be folded and put in the bag, and the little dinos go into the pockets. Well, I knew that green nursery fabric is not really working for a 2-yr-old boy, but again I didn't want to buy new fabric and this one is the only green scraps I had that's big enough. I also used some leftover green felt and made his name to attach to the front of the bag.

For the big sis Hazel, I made her the same coloring bag, just slightly bigger. Putting some crayons in the front pockets, and a couple of coloring books inside along with the rest of the crayons. I think she will like to have her own personal bag too.

Of course each kid got my unique name zipperpulls. These zipperpulls sell really well in my store, so I think they will love it too. (image coming)

It's A Boy!

2011-11-04T10:37:00.008-04:00

Oh yeah! We are having one of each, a girl and a boy! What a wonderful news! We all went to my big ultrasound last week. Little caterpillar was excited about all the equipments in the hospital, she wanted to touch everything! When I laid down on the bed, she had to climb up and sit on my legs. These days she just wants to be close to mommy! We were so excited when the sonographer told us "it's a boy!" Caterpillar had been asking for a baby brother for several days, even though she has been saying "no baby sister, no baby brother" for quite a while. Guess she figured it out way before us. And you know what, right after we told her she is going to have a baby brother, she looked at us seriously and said "baby sister"! What?! Well sweetie, you just have to accept the fact that you are stuck with a little brother for ever! Mommy is not having any more munchkins! Two is absolutely the limit. And you don't really want to have one more siblings to share the attentions. There were other no so good news that day, but that's another post. Oh, it's not the baby boy, he is active and strong.

Anyway, I had been eagerly waiting for this news, so I could start preparing. We have way too many clothes and toys for little caterpillar, mostly from my sister and friends. I just love hand-me-downs, they are so soft and loved. We also have some brand new baby girl clothes from family and friends, that little caterpillar never got chance to wear them, wrong season or due to the fact she grew up too fast. We thought we were having another girl, and she can wear those cuties. Well, not any more. We just have to box them up and hope one of our friends will have a girl soon. (Most of them have boys!) Some of little caterpillar's clothes were gender neutral, so they are fine. And since the new baby will stay in the house with me most of the time, I think he won't mind to wear some of big sis's girly clothes. But I do need to get some cute boy clothes that he can go out with. Stubborn and I had reached an agreement, (very rare) that we are not buying new clothes for kids any more. They just grow out of it too fast, and frankly quite a waste of money. So I hit my local Salvation Army the other day, hoping to find some good stuffs.

And I hit the jackpot. I found 9 onesies for our baby boy and 4 pairs of shoes for little caterpillar. Oh, and a super cute nursery lamp, a brand new king-size flat sheet, a elmo jumper, and two very boyish books.
Just look at these onesies, aren't they the cutest? All of them looked like new, I guess whoever donated these must have a little boy grew so fast he didn't even have chance to wear them.
I just love these cute dinosaur onesies. The front two are from Carter's, have the same "dino allstars" design, with dinos playing football, basketball and soccer. And the one on the back is from Gymboree. This one is long sleeves, perfect for the cold New England late winter early spring days.
These two are so darling. One says "Daddy's #1 draft pick", the other says "dad's team"! Well, Stubborn didn't like the first one that much, since our little girl was his first pick, this boy will only be #2 pick. Haha!He just loves our girl too much. But at least they are both on daddy's team.
This Elmo jumper is just so cute. Even though it's quite big (for 12 months), I am pretty sure our boy will fit in it pretty soon. Look at these tiny metal buttons, they even have Elmo's face on them. And I love those cute little pockets with "A"(ant) and "B"(bee) on them, I can just see my little boy putting some his favorite little toys in there. And the fact this jumper has 1" roll-ups (is that what they are called) makes it even more practical. I can just open the stitches when he outgrown it, and he can wear it for a couple of more months.
Oh, the books. One is all about dinosaurs, which is little caterpillar's interest right now. A girl likes dinosaurs? Go figure. But it does have some bloody drawings, my girl is very sensitive, so she almost cried when she saw those. Guess this book will be on the high shelf for a couple more years.
But this airplane book is so wonderful, we can play with it right away. Yeah, my girl is also into airplanes, cars, trucks, buses, and trains. We probably will have a townboy in our hand. This book is actually a big puzzle book, has 5 24-piece puzzles, all in mint condition, not a single piece missing! Once little caterpillar improves her puzzle skills a little bit, we will have so much fun with it.
I also found 4 pairs of shoes and boots for little caterpillar. I have been looking for a pair of sneakers to replace the pair she just outgrown, and a bigger snowboots. Well, I don't have a picture of the cute sneakers I bought for her, she is wearing them right now. They are those lit-up ones, the lights blink when you step on it. Little caterpillar loved them so much, she refuse to take them off for almost 3 days! I was a little bit disappointed with the boots. It says size 9 on the bottom, but when I got them home, they are about the same size as her size 6 boots! What?! These two were not on my hunting list, but they are just too cute to pass up. And they are a size bigger, so she will still fit in next year.
The lamp and sheet are gender friendly colors, so they can be used for either kid's room. I just have to decide the themes. Already have the design for the boy's corner in mind, yeah, he will be in the master bedroom with me. I have a list of items on my thrifting list, not spending hundreds of dollars on some decorations.

All in all, I did pretty good that day! Total about $30 for all of these. Here is the detailed prices:
lamp - $2.99
king size flat sheet - $3.99
boy jumper - $1.99
onesies - $.49 each
books - $.75 each
shoes - $2.99 to $4.99 each pair

How is your thrifting luck lately?

Homemade Birthday Gifts

2011-10-24T10:55:00.017-04:00

Last week, little caterpillar came home with her first birthday party invitation from daycare. Woohoo! My girl is fitting in and having some little friends there. I am pretty sure all the kids got it, but I still felt very happy for my girl. The party is for a little boy in her class, and his sister. Guess their birthday is really close, so they can celebrate together. Since this is little caterpillar first daycare friend's party, I know I have to work hard to help her making more friends. After some research online about what kinds of gifts are suitable for 2-yr-old and 4-yr-old nowadays, and considering how many more kids in her class, plus all the parties coming up during the holiday seasons among our own friends, I decided to make most the gifts for all the kids from now on to keep the cost low. We have to think twice about how we spend our money now that our little family is growing.

Here are some of the ideas I came up with, after lots of researching of course. Well, first of all they have to be functional and fun, and every kids will like it, AND it has to be EASY to make. I am not taking on time-consuming projects, since I have very limited energy nowadays.
1. first thing came up my mind are these little shoulder bags I made for our friends' kids before. They are fun to make and relatively easy. And I can use up some of my scraps. I can also make them the matching bowtie, like this one.

2. coloring bag with crayon holders or crayon rolls. I have seen these around the internet for a while, and thought about making them for my girl. I am sure her little friends all love coloring with crayons too. Forgot where I found this picture though. Of course, I cannot just give them a bag without filling it up with lots of crayons and some fun coloring books.

3. draw string bags. They are so easy to make and kids need lots of them to organize their tiny toys, like legos. I bookmarked this wonderful tutorial before, now it's time to make some. I can collect some small toys from dollar store or Target dollar section to fill them up.

4. an activity mat. I made this car mat kit for my best friend's little boy earlier this year,
it's so cute, but too big and time-consuming. I didn't mind making it for him, but not practical to make for too many kids. So, I probably will make some smaller ones like this,
or a dinosaur mat like this one, (tutorial here)
or a doll house mat for a little girl.Of course, I will put some matchbox cars, or dinosaurs, or tiny dolls in there, so they can play with it immediately.

5. a set of felt alphabet or numbers in their own bags. I tried making some just like this following picture, but all that embroidery took too long, I ran out of patience. So, if making these for other kids, I will have to make the plain ones instead. Guess this one only fits younger kids.

6. a tic-tac-toe set. can be made with fabric or felt. So simple and lots of fun. Of course you can buy this set online, but $60 isn't exactly in my budget. So, I will be stealing their idea and make some myself. And again, there won't be fancy embroidery either.

7. I can also make lots of cute hair clips or pins for girls, or those dress up hats (like the one I made for littler caterpillar's birthday last month).

There are still so many ideas, but I have to be careful not get too excited and spending too much money or energy on these. Otherwise it will be totally against my goal. I already made the gifts for this party, will show you some pictures later.

First Pregnancy Photo

2011-10-16T16:40:00.002-04:00

Well, for this pregnancy it is. Since Stubborn isn't really so hot about the idea of documenting one of the most important time in my life, or should I say our life, I kind of lost the mood. So, instead of creating a wonderful shirt like this, I just went with a very simple one I got from Old Navy recently. And since I think he has been deliberately taking unfocused pictures of me to get out of the photographer's job, I just set up my tripot and took these pictures myself. So, no time to pose, and very unhappy faces. I am ok with being the one behind those lenses all the time when we are out having fun, and I love to document the love between two most important person in my life, so most of the time, I don't regret not being in any pictures. I know I will always remember how I felt when I took those pictures. BUT how many times can a woman get pregnant in her life? I really want to document my miracle pregnancy last time, Stubborn took some pictures for me, but all very random, bad lighting, and not even every other week. I really thought he could understand how I feel this time. I was so excited when I found out about this baby, had all these wonderful plan about documenting the pregnancy and the first two years of the baby. I even found some great inspirations online. Well, guess I will just have to settle with so-so pictures again. Forget about the sweet moments of little Caterpillar kissing the baby brother or sister in my big belly. But I will definitely do my best for my baby! I will not let my babies have this regret later knowing mommy didn't love them enough to document their lifes. So far, I did a pretty good job with little caterpillar. I know this time it will be harder, two babies under the age of 3 plus a full time job and a house, but I will try my best! I promise to you, my dear baby!

Perfect Weekend Wasted

2011-10-10T11:04:00.002-04:00

Had some wonderful plan for the past weekend, since it supposed to be in the 80s! Rare for this time of the year, and big change from last week 50s weather. I felt normal Sat morning, but by that afternoon, I started to feel exhausted. OK, so I thought, I will just take it easy today, and gather enough energy for tomorrow's trip. We planned to drive all the way up to White Mountains to see the foliage. It will be little caterpillar's first time, and last time being the only child. The trip will be at least 3 hours one way, so I didn't really cook or do the dishes, and relaxed for hours. But when I woke up Sun morning, I was totally surprised with this totally drained feeling! stubborn also felt tired, and little caterpillar wanted to sleep in. So, I thought we will just rest a little more and leave the house later. But then I got this very uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, like stomache ache plus heart burn, not too sharp, but enough to knock me down. I took some Zantac, but still feeling sad and down. We had to cancel the trip, we still have time though, most area in NH the leaves just started changing. Maybe we can go next weekend, maybe we can see better colors then. I was in such a mess, I didn't even go to YMCA with stubborn and little caterpillar. I really wanted to take some pictures of her swimming, stubborn said she can swim by herself now, doggie style. And she loves to jump into the pool now! Well, I just have to take care of myself first, and there are still plenty chances for those pictures. I am really curious to know the gender of this baby, my body and mood is totally different than last time, I am guessing it might be a boy! But, who knows!

Big News

2011-10-05T10:18:00.004-04:00

I have been hiding a big secret from you guys, but I think it's time to let you know that I am pregnant with our second baby! This baby is nothing short of a miracle! Remember I had a couple of really bad falls in July? I didn't even know I was already pregnant! Lucky the doctor only ordered foot X-ray on me, and I told the X-ray doctor to double shield my belly just in case. I still cannot totally believe this baby held on during those two falls! This pregnancy so far is nothing like my last, which was so smooth, no morning sickness, great appetite, and happy all the way. This time, I got not only morning sickness, but also some bleeding, had fever a couple of times, got some germs from little caterpillar and coughed like crazy for a week, and I seem to lost my appetite! Thank goodness I can still tolerate cooking, I cannot eat the stuffs Stubborn cooks. Every evening, I cook for about an hour, 4 dishes and a soup, so there might be one dish that little caterpillar likes. Yeah, we have been having hard time feeding her as well. I have been so tired too, well, last time I didn't have to deal with a super active toddler. Now every night after dinner, I just want to collapse in the couch and watch some TV. Stubborn has been really helpful, giving little caterpillar bath, giving her a bottle and then putting her to bed. She won't sleep if I am upstairs, she will play with me (even if I pretend to sleep) till midnight. So, while they are upstairs, I have to gather all my energy to clean up the dinning room and kitchen, pack up our lunch for the next day, and take out the trash. Thank goodness we have dishwasher! Since I cook a lot, I basically have to run it every night! I am so missing our nanny, but we cannot afford having her and sending our girl to daycare at the same time. Pretty soon though, we will have her back (or another nanny) once I had this baby. That will be a tremendous help physically, but financially we might have to work harder.

Anyway, now that I am out of first trimester, I can be sure this baby is here to stay, so I can start letting my friends know. And I can start planning somethings. Well, since we don't know the gender yet, I cannot really buy any new clothes for the baby, but what I can do is to re-arrange the furniture and set up the crib. Last pregnancy, stubborn didn't take good pictures of me, which was always one of my biggest regrets. So this time, he has to do a better job. I want weekly pictures to show my progress, and I want to have some fun with it.

I found this amazing idea online lately, has been looking out for similar shirt ever since. Miranda from One Little Minute shared with us the amazing idea of Maternity Calendar Shirt. Love how simple this project is, and Miranda and her hubby are hilarious! I think I have seen this idea somewhere else, but don't remember where. In that tutorial I saw before there was a collage picture of all 40 weeks of the pregnancy. That's exact what I want this time. Well, I won't have 40 weeks pictures, since I didn't want any pictures in the first trimester, in case I jinx it. But still I will start this project asap, maybe this weekend. I already bought a maternity shirt I think will be perfect for this project. Let's see how good I am at freezer paper stencilling.

I also have so many other ideas about documenting the new baby's growth, but that will be another post.

Topsfield Fair, Part I

2011-10-04T10:50:00.004-04:00

We took little caterpillar to the famous Topsfield Fair last Sun. My friend told me about it when we were discussing fall activities for kids. There are tons of information on their website. You want to get there early as the traffic and parking will get pretty bad around lunch time. There are so many wonderful activities for all ages, so read their website for the daily schedules and announcements. Oh, if you buy the tickets online, it only takes them a couple of days to send it to your home. The ride tickets from online are 11 for $20, and each tickets good for any one ride. The ones you get at the fair are $1.25 each (I think), but you need 3-5 tickets to get on most of the rides, so it's actually way more expensive. You also can buy food tickets online as well. We didn't, because Stubborn had other plans.

Anyway, we got there right after 10Am (opening time), parked near the entrance, very convenient. And just beyond the entrance are those kiddie rides (36"-42"), perfect for little caterpillar. She went on one after another, very excited. Oh, some rides are too small for daddy to tag along, but they do have seatbelts or ropes to protect kids, and they were slow, so no problem at all. Here are just some of the pictures I took at the kiddie rides area. The rest of the pictures have to be processed and posted later, since our little girl got sick after we came home from the fair, and we have been too busy taking care of her.

Here is my girl on her favorite ride, the merry-go-round. She actually insisted to ride this one and the bigger one several times.

This little train was so cute. There was the engine, two open carts and one bigger closed cart at the end. But all kids want to ride in the engine cart, hence the crowded view. Little caterpillar was a little uncomfortable having other kids sitting so close, and it was her first train ride, so she looked very concerned, no smile for mommy, nor those excited "choo choo" other kids were making.

Then she went on the little elephant ride. I didn't think it was dumbo ride since they all had normal size ears. Nonetheless, she was having so much fun as the elephants flew around and around, up and down. But not enough fun for her to request another ride though.

Then daddy took her aboard the crazy bus. Guess she felt much safer having daddy sitting next to her and holding her, she actually looked around for mommy and waved. Yay!

Then it's her turn to ride the cute cars. She was in the front of the line, so daddy got to pick any car she liked. Of course, a pink floral car! It was so funny she drove with only left hand on the wheel, just as her daddy and mommy.

After these rides, we went to see the animals. There were so many other exciting places there, you just have to wait till I post the pictures later. Or, if you live in MA or NH or ME area, you should just go there and see for yourself. Oh, did I mention they also have elephant and camel ride? Amazing!

Fall Garden Updates

2011-09-30T10:24:00.005-04:00

Although I haven't really been taking care of my garden these couple of years, most plants are doing just fine. My purple cone flowers stopped blooming way earlier than normal, now they are just whole bunch of seedheads on dried stems. I normally keep them till spring, so the hungry birds will have some food in the cold snow covered winter.

Some other of my summer flowers are still doing great, I am pretty sure they will continue giving me bundle of colors till first frost. Here are my Balsam and Four O'clock Flower.

My little Chinese dogwood "Wolf's Eye" grew a lot this year, well, compared to the previous 4 years, not comparing to other type of trees. I finally decided to help it out a little bit by tying it to a couple of stakes. It was leaning to one side just a little bit, but after hurricane Irene, it was at a 45 degree angle. NOT GOOD! Now look at it, so proudly standing straight, and showing off the curvy leaves and just a hint of that pink edges. Oh BTW, it is not that tall, only about 4 ft, I took this picture from the ground.

Most of the mums in my yard are blooming. Haven't seen the purple ones yet. But don't you just love that warm autumn color? Even my little girl knows to stop once a while to smell the flowers. When was the last time you enjoyed your garden?

Farm Pictures Comparison

2011-09-29T11:09:00.005-04:00

Just processed some pictures from our apple picking trip, so here are some comparison of same activities from last year and this year. Sorry I still cannot show you her face. But you get the idea, how much she has grown during this past year. Oh, the weather this time is much warmer than last year, but they are taken around the same time, I promise.

Here is my baby sitting on a big pumpkin. Yeah, she totally faked that smile for mommy!

She got mobbed by the goats again and again.

She loved feeding the big animals with daddy, especially the llama and cow.

She enjoyed picking apples, especially this year she is old enough to enjoy eatting it.

This is how she looked on daddy's shoulder. Still so sweet!

There are so many cute pictures, they will be posted on my flickr soon.

Hayride Accident

2011-09-27T10:54:00.004-04:00

Some of you in MA or NH area might already seen this on the news, there was a hayride accident at Applecrest Farm, Hampton Falls, NH. When Stubborn called me yesterday about it, I was totally shocked. We were there that day, and Stubborn and little caterpillar took that ride just 2 hours before the accident. I couldn't get the horrible question out of my mind, "What if they were on that ride?" We were both in denial, those horses looked so nice and calm, what on earth spooked them? You can read more about the accident here on the news. They say the woman who got seriously injuryed saved lots of people. I kept thinking I might talked to her while waiting for Stubborn and little caterpillar's wagon to come back. There were two ladies there, and they were both very nice. So sad. I truely wish she can get well soon.

We have been to that farm twice so far, and we love it. Last year, little caterpillar was just one, and didn't know any fear, so she enjoyed feeding the animals with daddy. This year though, she got so scared and cried so hard every time daddy put her down. Oh, they were in the fence with the animals, not outside. Those goats were bigger than her! Some of them were very aggressive! One of them was so aggressive, in order to get to the little cup of food in Stubborn's hand, he/she used my baby as stepping stone! He put his hoof on my baby's shoulder or head, then climbed up on my husband's chest! Totally stood up! I was in shock and outside the fence, didn't notice where it hit my girl, but she was crying so hard, telling us the goat poked her left eye! I checked closely, there was no damage, but she must got so traumatized. Even the next day, whenever we mentioned goat, she would poke her own left eye and cry. So, it's safe to say that she won't get anywhere near those goats anytime soon. We never thought goats or sheep can be this dangerous! Next time, we have to protect her more, maybe just feeding them from outside of the fence.

We really enjoyed apple picking this time. Last year, she did pick some apples, but she didn't even know what they were. Now she's old enough to pick her own apple, and enjoyed eatting them in the orchard. She accidentally dropped her apple on the tractor ride back, almost cried. Overall, our applepicking experience was great. The weather was great, much warmer than last year. Once I processed the pictures, I will show you some comparisons.

Have you gone apple picking this year? What's you experience with petting zoo? Do you think hayride is safe in general?

Thrifting Scores

2011-09-26T10:48:00.007-04:00

Well, technically, these are not really thrifted, but bought brand new. The reason I think they should be in the thrifting section is because I paid less than thrift store price for them. You don't believe it? I paid $1.90! Not each, but total! Total $1.90 for 6 pieces of new clothing for my girl! 4 shorts and 2 tshirts for next summer. Can you believe that? Stubborn actually felt embrassed and waited for me in the car. Ha!

Here is how I got this deal, in case you are interested. I get those $10 gift card from Kohl's sometimes in the mail, and it's a real $10 card, not $10 off $50 kind of deal. Even though I don't shop at Kohl's normally, I cannot just throw $10 away. My original plan was to find something for myself, but well, if you have kids you will understand, sometimes you just cannot resist those cute kids stuffs. So, I ended up digging through the clearance racks for little caterpillar. Not that she needs anything, just thought I couldn't pass on a sale. We got her this year's Halloween custome for about $5, which is selling for $38 right now! I was disappointed first, didn't find anything that I liked or her size (next summer). Then I saw some short on a shelf nearby. They were originally $13 each, on clearance for just $1.30 (90% off). I all of sudden got excited. I found 4 shorts (3T and 4T).I also found a couple of shirts which surprisingly Stubborn liked them too. So, the total plus tax minus $10 gift card was $1.90!!! How great is that!

I think now we are all set with her next summer's wardrobe. No, not just these 6 pieces, I also got her some tshirts and shorts from Target on clearance recently, and Stubborn's friend gave us a bag full of cute little dresses too. All I need to do is to add some embelishments to the dresses to make them unique for my girl! I love hand-me-downs, saves me tons of money (I didn't need to buy a thing for the first year!), but I don't want my baby to be just a copy of other kids. So, I have to put my touches on them. And since some of them has a little bit of stains here and there, if I cannot get them out, I will just have to cover them up. What's better than cover them up with some flowers or appliques or ruffles. I am sensing lots of before and after simple sewing projects coming up.

Bento, Anyone?

2011-09-23T11:18:00.006-04:00

I have seen those super cute japanese bento boxes in magazines when I was just a little girl, and always wondered who makes them and how hard it is to make. A couple years ago, I found lots of amazing bento pictures on flickr, so I started reading some of the bento blogs. (Source: Happy Little Bento)

(Source: Happy Little Bento)

(Source: Lunch In A Box)

These moms are AMAZING! I don't know where they got the energy and time to make these every morning. When we looked for daycare center for little caterpillar, we went for the one that provides breakfast and lunch, so I don't have to stress too much in the morning. I know my homemade food will always be more nutritious than theirs, but I just don't think I can handle it. We had nanny for almost two years, she cooks and cleans and takes care of our baby. I always complained (to my family, not to the nanny) her cooking is not so good (I help her with dinner every day), and sometimes she misplaces stuffs. But once she was gone, I struggled very hard the first month, just to keep with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. I didn't even have time to sanitize the floor every day, like I required her to do. But I work full time and have a two and half hour commute! I have my excuses. OK, where was I? Back to bento box. I just admire those moms who have the talent and skills to pack super cute and nutritious bento boxes for their kids. One day I will have to try it out. Once we get a bigger kitchen (the next house), I will buy a cabinet full of cute bento boxes and accessories. Then I will try out every single recipe from sherimiya and Biggie. Where can I find a nice Japanese market here in Boston area?

Birthday Tea Party

2011-09-19T13:44:00.006-04:00

Happy 2nd birthday, my beautiful girl!

I have to process the pictures faster now. Now fall is here, there will be tons of new pictures oppotunity coming up soon, apple picking, hay rides, petting zoo, trick or treating, and of course christmas. Anyway, I will show you more pictures from my baby's birthday tea party photoshoot later.

BTW, that cute table and chair set was a curb find from several months ago. They were really disgustingly dirty and original paints were falling apart. It took me a lot of work to sand them and repaint. Well, you might notice some of the area are not done (missing those lavender plum purple rings), but I just ran out of time before the photoshoot. They look pretty cute to me anyway. If I can find the original pictures, I will show you a better before and after.

Oh, another reason this post is in the DIY section too, is because I also made the little tablecloth, those cupcakes and the cute cake toppers. Those cupcakes are delicious, but I have to confess, this is my first time making cupcakes, so I bought the cake mix and icing. Look closer, you might be able to tell how bad my icing looks. But it didn't matter to little caterpillar at all, she just simply couldn't resist them. Almost in all pictures, she has a cupcake in her hands or in her mouth. I have to show you those pictures soon, too funny.

What's Your Comfort Food?

2011-09-15T10:48:00.005-04:00

I have been sick lately, some baby germ my girl brought back from daycare. She was fine within 3 days, but she gave it to us. You know, she is at the age that's so cute and cuddly, always climbs up you lap and kisses you and coughes right in your face. Oh yeah, sometimes, even licks your nose! Very sweet, but super germy! Stubborn got it first, but he took some pills and got over it quite quick. I don't like drugs, so I normally try to avoid them as much as I could. Plus my immune system seems stronger than his, so normally I don't get sick at all. Well, guess I was not so lucky this time. I have been sick for a week now, stuffy and runny nose, and crazy coughing. I am a big girl, I can handle coughing during the day, but when it bothers me too much at night, makes me sit up and cough violently night after night, I gave in. Some Robitussin later, I finally got a good night sleep. Funny how a good night sleep can make you feel so good!

OK, back to toady's topic. When I am sick, I normally lose my appetite. And somehow even with my stuffed nose, I could still smell a nice hot bowel of soup! My all time favorite comfort food is New England style clam chowder! A nice bowel of it, with some warm fresh bread! I can feel the energy pumping back into my body. Well, I am kind of picky when it comes to taste. My hospital cafe does have clam chowder everyday, but somehow it just doesn't taste right. I love the one from Souper Salad! There is a Souper Salad in a nearby building, so that's where I have to go when I crave for it.

If for some reason I cannot go, I will settle for a nice bowel of chicken noodle soup in our cafe, it's a bit salty, but pretty good in general. When I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Cottage Home yesterday, I saw this mouth watering picture above. I just have to read it, and write down her recipe, Tortellini Chicken Soup. Why haven't I try cooking these soup at home when I am sick? I am pretty good at cooking. Guess it has something to do with I only cook Chinese food! I have been living in this country for almost 12 years, yet I never learned to cook American style, never even tried. Don't laugh, I don't even know how to make macaroni and cheese! Maybe because we Chinese people don't eat cheese?! The only time I will have some cheese is in cheeseburger or on a pizza. With little caterpillar growing up quickly, I will have to learn to cook some typical American kids meals. Lots of learning ahead of me. But for now, I would love to try making some chicken noodle soup or clam chowder first. Comfort first, right?

PS, found a recipe for New England style Clam Chowder on allrecipes.com. Looks simpler than I thought. It will be really nice to curl up in the sofa with a soft blanket and a big bowel of my favorite soup. Oh, how I wish we have a fireplace!

What's your favorite comfort food? Is it soup, or chocolate?

There Is Always A First Time

2011-09-07T10:46:00.002-04:00

Yeah, it finally happened. I TOOK THE WRONG TRAIN! Ta-dah!

I take commuter rail trains everyday, for almost 6 years, I only missed trains (due to traffic), never got on a wrong train. Once a while you hear someone sitting next to you say "Darn it!", you know they got on the wrong train. I always felt sorry for those people. Well it happens! Especially when they have two trains boarding next to each other at the same time, or you have less than 1 minute to run to your train.

But yesterday, it was different for me. I had to take a later train because of a late doctor appointment. So, I didn't know the conductors or other passengers. Well, I noticed the Rockport train was sitting on Track 6, didn't leave on time. There were several other trains at the station, so I soon forgot about it. I was talking to a lady, while they announced "Lowell train" on track 6. Without any doubt, lots of people walked to that track and we all got on. I remember thinking for a second, "Wow, so many people already on this train, they must saw the conductor earlier". Well, experienced commuter always do that, follow their conductor onto the train, before the announcement. So, I quickly found a seat and closed my eyes. Within a minute, the conductor on the train announced that the train is not working, so we all need to switch to track 7! OK, I thought "how nice of them letting us know the problem immediately". So, I followed the crowd and got on the next train. Got myself a good seat, started sorting my receipts and writing to-do lists. They didn't announce anything on this train, no destination or all the stops. But that happens. The train left station 3 minutes later than my schedule, I actually thought it was not too bad, I would be home in 40 minutes. 10 minutes later, I heard "Chelsea"! I was shocked! "What!?" I looked out of the windows, oops, I didn't know the surroundings. Asked the guy next to me what train is this, hoping he will say Lowell train, but instead he said Rockport! "OMG! I am on the wrong train!"

Long story short, I had to get off that train, wait for the inbound train, and get back to North Station (Boston). To my surprise, I was the only one got off that train (well, for this reason). "Where are the other Lowell people? Was I the only one took this wrong train? Or they just haven't noticed yet?" Well, maybe I heard the announcer wrong at North Station. We all knew he pronounce "Rockport" and "Lowell" almost identical for whatever reason. Stubborn did offer to pick me up, but that station was too far away from our home, and it was raining, I didn't want him to drag little caterpillar out so late in this condition. So I took the train. Anyway, base on the information I got from Stubborn (he was telling me train schedules over the phone. Yeah, I don't have iPhone), if the inbound train arrives ontime, I will have less than 2 minutes to get on the next Lowell train. Unfortunately, the engineer was in no hurry. The train was sooooo slow, even made a couple of stops in the middle of nowhere. Before we even reached North Station, I watched my train left. "OK, still not too bad. At least this gives me some time to grab some dinner". So, finally I got on the 7:30 train, and got home after 8pm. I was exhausted. Well, I planned to go for a little shopping, but I have to save my precious energy to deal with little caterpillar. And there was an armed rubbery in the area I planned to go, police basically locked down the entire neighborhood, everyone had to go inside and lock their doors and windows. No car can get in or out of that area. Police officers were doing door to door search. Guess I was lucky to miss my train!

Well, that's my advanture last night! Do you take buses or trains? Have you ever got on the wrong one before? Did you get off immediately or went all the way without noticing?

It's Fun To Be Sick

2011-09-06T11:28:00.013-04:00

for our lucky little girl. That's because daddy loves her so much and took several days off staying home with her, and took her to lots of fun places! Well, Stubborn always tries his best to entertain our girl with different kind of activities. Sometimes I joke it's because he doesn't know how to entertain her at home, with some simple toys and games. Nonetheless, I am glad he always pushes us, especially me, to go out and find some new place to explore. If it's up to me, I rather stay home with little caterpillar, play her favorite games, read some books, while I multitask and get all the chores done. Maybe I am just too lazy, or maybe men never worry about how and when the laundry is done. Anyway, since Stubborn has more vacation days than I do (I always ran out for whatever reason), he normally is the one taking our girl to doctor appointments, staying home when she was sick, and he is also the one dropping her off and picking her up everyday! I know, I am a lucky woman, that my hubby is a terrific daddy. Even though I don't say it out loud often, I do appreciate his love and effort.

So during last week, when little caterpillar had just a little bit coughing and runny nose, they had so much fun together, besides swimming at YMCA every afternoon. He took her to nearby Stone Zoo last Wed. They didn't see many large animals, but she still had fun touching the skulls,
riding whatever it was,
and spent some wiggly time in a big net.

Then they went to Boston harbor on Friday.

Visited New England Aquarium. We have a membership, and it has been very convenient. She got to watch the giant fish and sea turtle at the big tank,
touch the baby ray and shark,
and had so much fun watching the seals.

When he called me at work around lunch time telling me that he was going to take her on a whale watch, I panicked. Well, she was still sick, if Stubbron sat on deck with her the whole trip, she might get pneumonia. So, I quickly finished lunch, took the rest of the day off, ran out of office, hoping I could get to the harbor in time. Lucky for me, I didn't wait too long for the bus, then subway, and got there 30 minutes before the departure time.
Once we left the harbor, we both really glad that I made it. At beginning, everyone was having fun,
especially the kids, running around the deck in the strong wind. Even little caterpillar loved it. But as you can see, she cannot really stand still without daddy's strong support.
It was so windy, the boat ride was very very uncomfortable. Even though I don't have motion sickness, the wind, speed and 3ft waves made me very nauseated. I had to focus my eyes on the horizon, so I wouldn't end up like the half of the passengers, throwing up in bags and collapsed in their seats. Stubborn has motion sickness, he had to stay in the back, and threw up a couple of times. Even though little caterpillar kept telling me she was not afraid, her legs were shaking everytime the boat bounced. And as I expected she fell asleep pretty soon, just like the five times she was on a airplane, she fell asleep before the plane approaching the destination and landing. I guess this is her defense machanism. Lucky she woke up when we arrived the whale feeding area. And got to see the two young humpback whales. First we spotted the spout, just a burst of water in the air. Then one of them flipped his tail! Amazing!Too bad they were feeding, not playing, so we didn't get to see any jump. But still, that was quite amazing to see them in their natural environment. And besides, where else can you see a big whale in person? They don't have the big ones in aquariums, not even Sea World. The ride back was way more comfortable because the wind died down. We also got to see a couple of lighthouses out in the ocean.

So far, little caterpillar is still coughing, no fever or pneumonia. Kids are so different than us adults. When we get sick, we just rest and hope it will over soon. But kids, as long as they still have some energy left, they will keep running and playing. Guess they don't have to worry about going back to work soon. Hope she will remember these fun sick days when she grows up.

It Never Ends

2011-09-02T10:24:00.007-04:00

Little caterpillar has been sick a lot lately. First, she had 3 weeks diarrhea! Weekends and Mondays fine, diarrhea from Tues to Fri. Makes you think what they feed her at daycare, or how clean they keep the place. But then, she still put everything into her mouth, even the woodchips in the backyard! And she just started daycare this June, her little body is still getting use to the germs at daycare.

After about 2 weeks quiet time, the poor thing got the hand foot mouth disease! Saw some small rash on her palm on Monday, and by Tuesday night, blisters popped up everywhere. Well, even though she got the mild case, didn't have any fever, and only some blisters on her palms and heels, she got 4 big blisters on her tongue, which became ulcers the next day, and she had some big blisters on both her thrumbs. The poor thing was in so much pain, couldn't eat or drink, rejected her bottle, and couldn't sleep! She still sucks her thrumbs when sleeping, imagine the pain when you have ulcers in your mouth and blisters on your thrumb! She woke up every 30 minutes and cried like mad. Thank goodness she got it not too bad, not as those horrifing pictures online when you google HMFD. We took turn to stay home with her since she couldn't go to school. Well, even though she was in so much pain, she was still very happy and energetic! Kids are weird! She recovered faster than doctor predicted, and went back to school this monday.

Then comes Tuesday. Teacher called Stubborn to pick her up at lunch time, said she was having diarrhea! WHAT? She was fine in the morning. It turned out she pooped once, and then short after, she felt the urge again. She pulled down her pants, and took off her diaper, pooped right on the playground! The teacher said if they poop twice in one hour, they are having diarrhea, and have to go home! That's rediculous! I just think she didn't finish the first time, and had to continue. Maybe the teacher was angry at the fact she pooped on the playground. Com'on! She is not even two! I think she is ready for potty training now. She use potty in the morning at home and on the weekends, and took off her diapers and pooped on the floor a couple of times. OK, if you are telling me to take my kid home just because she pooped twice, I am going to ask you to potty training my kid with us. Then you have to take her to the bathroom every hour! Ok, slow down. Just got carried away a little bit. We were so lucky Stubborn took the week off (his company's policy, he had to use it or lose it, the rest of his vacation days), so he picked her up within 10 minutes. Well, she just pooped one more time that day, not too bad. But she started cough a little bit that night. Stubborn decided he wants to spend some quality time with his girl, so kept her home the day after. Lucky he did that. Little caterpillar is really sick now, runny nose and coughing! The poor thing! She lost her appetite since she had that HFMD, so she hasn't been eating much. Now this!? She already lost almost 2lbs! Everytime I pick her up now, she felt so light! My poor baby! When is this going to end?

How long were your kids sick after they started daycare? This is really frustrating!

Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time

2011-08-31T10:56:00.002-04:00

Have you ever being frustrated by this too? I read lots of blogs, mostly crafting and sewing related, and mostly about kids. Well, I love crafting and sewing, and I have a baby girl. So, whenever I ran into a great idea, or wonderful tutorial that makes everything looks so simple, I always think "if they can make it, so can I", "Oh, I got to make that cute dress for my girl", "what a wonderful party idea, I should do that for next holiday or birthday", etc. After my to-do and wish lists get longer and longer, and materials piled up all around the house, they just simply became clutters, both physically and mentally. Ok, why suddenly thinking about this? I was reading one of my favorite blog, Small Notebook, and saw this old post, How to protect your time from too many good ideas. It's like Rachel is talking about me too. Let's face the facts, how many hours do I have every day for crafting or sewing, or anything creative. Well, I do have a full-time job, more than two hours commute daily, all the cleaning and cooking (I got used to cook a lot for dinner, because we both bring lunch to work. so dinner normally takes about an hour to cook, rice, four dishes and a soup), getting a two year old ready for daycare in the morning, make sure she eats her dinner (takes forever), give her a bath at night, play time with her before bed, then doing all the laundry, after all these, I probably have about one hour free time. But by then, I am normally very tired, and rather climb up into the sofa and watch some TV. So, when will I ever have time for some serious sewing? Besides, little caterpillar already has a full closet of clothes, enough for twin girls I think.

From now on, I should carefully evaluate each idea before I add it to my to-do list, and really organize my time better. Just because I know how to do it, doesn't mean I have to do it. If I can buy something really cheap, cheaper than the labor and materials I will have to put into it, I should definitely support the economy. And I need to treat myself to some quality me-time, and more sleep. I am so tired and sleepy all the time!

How about you? Are you ambitious when it comes crafting and sewing?

What A Fun Party!

2011-08-30T14:27:00.005-04:00

I was reading one of my favorite blog Sarah Janes Studios Blog today, and saw this cute little birthday party done by one of her fan. I love her Children at play fabrics, so I had to jump over and read the entire post. Seriously, you guys should read it too, so many great ideas, fun games, yummy food and drinks, and the best part is the decoration! Oh, how I want to throw a bday party for my little girl, just like this! BUT, Stubborn insisted no party this year! He thinks only the first birthday worth celebrating. Hmmm! Well, maybe I can just decorate the house a little bit, even if there won't be any guests. It is so hard to not copy everything from this party. Nobody likes a copycat, but who can resist all that cuteness!? Seriously!

When Was The Last Time You Slept Like A Baby?

2011-08-29T14:46:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I am so jealous of her! I think the last time I had a solid night sleep was years before I was pregnant with her!

We Got A Little Monkey

2011-08-26T12:22:00.008-04:00

Too pretty and nice to be a little monkey? Look again!

Yeah, she can climb that rock wall so easily now. But daddy is always just an arm's reach away, in case she slips.

Well, she wanted to try out the big kid swing! STANDING UP! Let's just say she didn't like it as much. Whew!

So, does she look like a little monkey to you now, or what? This little girl got amazing upper body power. She could hold on to it for a couple of minutes!

And the big slide is not challenging enough any more, she has to go on that tallest, curved slide, just like the big kids. She had a pony tail that day, otherwise, you could see all her fine hair standing up. Very funny!

At the bottom of the slide, she always tries to jump off. But she hasn't figure out how to jump with both feet yet, so it's more like just walk off it, very dangerous! So, daddy has to be there, holding her hands, and lifting her up, trying to teach her the two-feet-together jump. I am pretty sure, she will figure it out soon, and jump right off, and land face down on the ground. I am telling you, we have to constantly keep our eyes on this little monkey, she has no sense of danger!

Recent Thrifting Finds

2011-08-23T14:56:00.010-04:00

I have been kind of busy this summer, so didn't stop by many yardsales. But I tried to find time to visit local Salvation Army a couple times a month. Here are just some of the cool stuffs I found lately.

Fisrt, I have to show you this adorable Mickey clock! Isn't it the cutest you've seen? I was wondering around SA, checking random stuffs, the guy was putting new items on the shelves. Then I spotted this. Snapped it immediately, since there were several other ladies checking the same area. They didn't have battery for me to test it out, but for $2.99, I just couldn't resist. I tested it as soon as I got home, and was so thrilled that it works just fine. Little caterpillar loves her Mickey book collection, so she was more than happy to have a moving Mickey in her room. Also, it's not as loud as the clock I bought before (I had to take that one off, because Stubborn couldn't sleep). And I love the pop of red in her blue nursery.

I found this little jar on the same shelf where the clock was. Fell in love with the simple and vintage design. It was made in Finland. Once I clean up my sewing area, I will use this one to hold my bobbins, instead of the clear sauce jar I was using. This is how I knew it was made in Finland. Hey, just found a similar one (same size) on eBay, and it's about $70! And according to this listing, it was designed by Ulla Procopé & Raija Uosikkinen, and produced in January 1969, and is selling for $80! And this price is because it has a chip! Wow! Mine is in perfect condition! I think I bought it for only $1.69 + tax! I am not selling it though. This baby is too cute, it's mine!

I also bought this little creamer for $1.69 as well. I love white and blue, and this one is so lovely, I just couldn't resist it, even though we have no use for a creamer. There were two actually, similar style, the other one was all aqua blue inside. Very pretty, but had a chip at the tip area. I thought mine was perfect, but found a small chip inside the handle when I was cleaning it. Well, it still worth it. I am trying to collect enough cute tea cups, tea pots, little dessert plates, and all things related to a tea party for my little girl. The tea party table chair set I have been refinishing for her is almost done. They will be my secret bday gift to her. Look how pretty it is even from the back.

This set of coasters was purchased earlier this summer. We don't really use coasters in the house, but they are so interesting, and I was curious about their origin. I think the whole set was about $1. The coasters were separated by these old newspaper, but I couldn't tell what language is that. Anyone has any ideas?

(picture here later)
This little girl was purchased earlier this year. It was only $.69. It's just too cute. Immediately after I showed it to my girl, she claimed it as her new chewing toy! (she was younger then) Well, she was not chewing on it, just drool all over it. This girl was made in Japan.

Quiet Bday

2011-08-19T10:59:00.004-04:00

We don't really celebrate our (adults) birthday too seriously here. By here, I mean in our house, and among most our Chinese friends. Our culture is just to have longevity noodle on your birthday, the cake thing came from western culture, and really old generation still don't like it. We have a phrase that symbolize death is "blow out the candles and unplug them from the candlesticks". So, you can guess what the older generation think about blowing out the candles on your cake and take them out. Anyway, back to our sort of bday celebration. Stubborn didn't want anything big for his bday, no gifts either. So, I surprised him at work (he had to do some work that weekend), by bring little caterpillar over to his company, all dressed up like a baby doll, handing him a flower bouquet. Stubborn is a man of few words, so the only responds we got from him was a simple "Thank you". But then he took us out for a seafood buffet! WE LOVE SNOWCRABS! There were tons of snowcrabs, fish, lots of different flavor of shrimp dishes, and sushi. Little caterpillar's favorite, tons of fruits and cakes! We had a blast, well minus a bruised head (bumped on the table) and unbelievably dirty dress.

His company throws summer beach party every year, and this year is his bday week. So, that kind of counts as bday activity. It was kind of cloudy, but perfectly warm and the water was so amazing!Little caterpillar got to dig a shallow pool with the big girls,And got to play with one of the girls' surfboard. And best of all for her, she got to drive daddy's car. Joking! She loves to pretend to drive, both hands on the steering wheel, sometimes worked on the stick shift and the parking brake, just like daddy. Oh no, honey, daddy never drove standing up in the seat before! Silly!

Key Situation

2011-08-18T10:21:00.006-04:00

We always had a key bowl by the front door, even before we moved into this house. Ever since we got our beloved console table, it has been sitting on it proudly, and super conveniently. I even have a special Christmas bowl to swap out every year. Isn't it cute? Well, technically it's a candy bowl, but hey, a bowl is a bowl, and it's perfect size for our keys.
OK, back to the normal key bowl situation. You see, now our little caterpillar is growing up, there has been lots of new toddler proofing to do around the house. Apparently, tall and curious is not a very safe combination. She can reach almost anywhere, including the higher countertop in the kitchen. So, she has been grabbing keys and changes and other small objects (I drop my earrings in there sometimes too, bad mom) from our keybowl. Stubborn got really fed up one day, and cleared out all things dangerous from the top of the little console table, and the tiny drawer (yeah, she can open everything too). We also really need more space for mails and magazines. So, sadly the little keybowl has to go. The only free space right by the front door is this tiny wall space between the door and the windows. A short trip to Lowe's, some measuring and drilling later, we got two new shiny keyhooks. Nothing fancy, just practical. Enough space for all our keys (backup ones are in a box in the home office).See how nice and clean they look now? Not covered by the curtain, and not bothering the light switch. The color is not matching the curtain rod, but this is just a quick solution, and I am more into nickel finish these years anyway. One more look at the less cluttered console table. Now I don't need to worry about mails and magazines falling off the table any more. Just hope my little girl won't suddenly love to tore apart our mails.

Not A Baby Any More

2011-08-09T10:21:00.006-04:00

It's amazing how fast babies grow up! My little caterpillar is not even two, yet sometimes she just surprises us with her determination and ambition. Like a couple of weeks ago, (is it really that long since I last processed any pictures? how lazy am I?) we were swimming at our local city pool (so convenient for us, only 2 minutes driving distance). She has been swimming (more like soaking) there ever since the beginning of the season. At first, she cried and screamed everytime, but once the water temperature went up, she really started to enjoy it. But this time, I was totally shocked that she was brave enough to actually swim by herself. Of course, Stubborn was an arm length away, no danger at all. Actually, Stubborn has been taking her to the pool almost everyday after school, while I stayed home cooking. So apperantly this is not the first time she did this, but first time I saw it, and caught it on camera. I was so excited and wanted to jump in and swim with her. But where was I really, and what was I doing?You see, I was still recovering from the terrible falls that happened three weeks ago. And plus I just wanted to be the paparazzi mom sometimes. And I knew what will happen if I get any closer. She just all of a sudden wants to be mommy's little baby again. Well, maybe she was just tired. She did climbed out of the pool by herself, that's not a baby move!

Did you think she was done for the day? Oh no! Five minutes later, she was running around the playground next door. And of course, those baby stuffs were not interesting to her any more. She wanted to try the big kid's games, like rock climbing. I felt really scared for her, that wall is almost totally vertical, and it's so high that Stubborn could barely touch her feet when she reached the top. I wanted to scream so many times, but worried that I would distract her and make her fall. So, I quickly snapped a couple of pictures, then ran up to the top to catch her and help her. Look how concentrated she was! No wonder why people always ask me whether she is 3-yr-old. You don't see the concentration and determination on a baby's face, not like this!And you think she will just walked down the stairs from there? Wrong again. She chose the highest slide, and went down even without turning around and checking with mommy! She just let go! What a brave little girl! Mommy is so proud of you. And if you are anything like your mommy when she was little, which surely look like the case, mommy's in for a lots of troubles! Guess it's karma, I did scared my mom a lot by doing crazily dangerous stuffs that even older boys didn't dare to. Well, pay back time.

Curious Girl

2011-08-03T11:10:00.004-04:00

I found this tiny baby grasshopper on the bench on our front porch the other morning, it's so green and very fragile looking. Little caterpillar was facinated by it. Even though she really wanted to grab it, she listened to mommy and was very gentle. She put her hand up close, hoped it would climb up to her hand. Unfortunately, I think the little guy was dead already, so it fell off the bench. This is my curious little girl went down to check on it. Before she realised it was dead, I picked it up and throw it into the yard, and told her that little guy went back home. Little white lie to make sure she won't feel the sadness. It's too early to teach her life and death.

Since I had my camera in hand, I walked around the yard quickly and snapped some new pictures of my flowers. You got to love perennial garden, not much work needed, and the plants just bloom one after another. It's quite a show in my backyard now. Oh, actually this first one is annual (Balsam), but it self seeds, so I didn't do a thing to get these pretty flowers. That's totally welcome in my low maintenance garden.

Baby Meets Lobster

2011-08-01T10:33:00.005-04:00

Last week, I bought some lobsters for dinner one night, as Stubborn requested. Little caterpillar had lobster last summer, but she was too young to understand it or even remember it. So, this counts as her first time meets Mr. Lobster. She was facinated by them, so big, and moving around, very strange "big shrimp". Yeah, that's what she called them, Big Shrimp! She really wanted to play with them, but being 'bad' parents as we are, we couldn't risk her losing a finger. So, I dumped them in the boiling water and closed the lid! Oh, she was not happy about that at all. You cannot really see it in the picture since I blurred her face, she still had some tears on her face when the lobsters finally came to the table. See her fingers in the mouth? Like she was confused and saying "what should I do with you?"
Then she tried to bite the antenna.
We peeled the lobsters and gave her some of those tender meat from the claws, but she refused it. Hmm? But when Stubborn showed her the peeled tail part, she acted like a little shark, mouth opened as big as possible, almost bit off half of that tail! So funny! I guess she liked the tail shape much better. What happened to the big heads? This is soooo funny. She was pushing them on the table like cars! Engine sound and all! How on earth did she think of that? You got to love little kid's imaginations! Too bad I only have a mental picture of this. You see, my camera was right next to me, but my fingers were way too "stinky", there is no way I was going to jeopardize my camera's future by touching it. Guess we need to buy more lobsters and try to catch that moment again.

Great Trick

2011-07-29T10:24:00.010-04:00

I just love that braided collar on this darling little dress Ashley made for her little girl. It's so unique, refreshing, and the best part, it stretches! (my little caterpillar has a huge head!) I will definitely try this one someday. Actually I recently repurposed one of my old t-shirt into a halter dress for my girl, the print is almost identical to this one! Love it how great minds (mine is not as great, but does have some great ideas once a while) work the same way! I will show you mine once I finish the matching capris I made from the cut off sleeves. Want to make Ashley's darling little dress? Don't know how to make the braid? Don't worry! Ashley also has a tutorial on that. Ashley's blog Make It Love It is one of my favorites. She is insanely talented, and so generous, she shares tons of great tutorials on her blog. Check out what she did to a simple flip-flop!
She also inspired me to recover our jogging stroller. Look at this amazing tutorial on recovering a carseat.
She made everything look so easy! And she has fabulous taste on fabric and everything else! Wish I had time to copy everything on her tutorials. Jump over and see what inspires you for your next DIY project.

Garden Updates

2011-07-27T11:05:00.004-04:00

No word needed here! Just enjoy!
Side of our deck. No pink Nicotiana this year! Sad! But the white ones are strong, and very fragrant.
Side of the driveway. Should take some close up pics of those gorgeous purple-cone-flowers.

Behold Our New Jogging Stroller

2011-07-25T10:17:00.006-04:00

Ta-Dah! Our brand new jogging stroller! Or should we say, brand new stroller cover! Isn't she a beauty! Yeah, I decided this jogging stroller is a girl, it has cute black and white floral fabric for my little caterpillar. Well, I wanted to take some in progress pictures, but there is nothing special about making this cover. I just took the old one apart, using them as pattern to cut new fabric and batting, then sew them back just like the old one! Not hard, just tedious! But it's absolutely worth all my efforts, both Stubborn and little caterpillar loved it! She even climbed up and sat in it while I was still installing it. Stubborn worried about me making it too girly (won't match the black frame), or screwing up entirely, so I was very happy that he liked my fabric choice. Although I had a totally different color combination in mind, I couldn't convince myself to buy new fabric, while I have a huge stash in the basement already. I wanted this new seat to be as strong as it could possibly be, so that ruled out all my lovely cotton and linen. I bought lots of those sample square upholstery fabric ($.50 each) at the old FabricPlace before it closed down. I loved that place, and was devastated when I heard the news, but I seized the opportunity and bought tons of fabric on super deep sales. Anyway, I think I used about $10 worth of my fabric (plus some new batting) to make this new cover. Still have some leftovers for the shade, if I can figure out how to take it apart. For now, our lovely "new" jogging stroller just have to stick to the ugly old shade! But at least it's blackish (very faded), so not so obvious. I reused the original straps and buckles, so I don't destroy the integrity. I also reused the old mesh for ventilation. I couldn't reuse the old bias tape, so I made my own with the same stipe fabric. Some extra batting, and Wa-lah! This is how it looks like when the back is totally lowered. Remember I said some extra batting? That sounded like a great idea, provides extra comfort for my girl. But it's not that great at the end of the process. The last step I did was fold the bottom and fold it again to create a pocket to hold the seat frame. There are 2 layers of fabric and 2 layers of batting before folding, and there were 4 times that after all the folding! I couldn't even feed them into my sewing machine! The result, I squeezed and pushed and pulled one side through, and broke my needle! I couldn't find all my sewing machine attachments (all in one small bag), I had to finish it by hand. See, not so good looking, but it will hold until I find a new needle.
There you have it, story about our new "old" jogging stroller. If I ever figure out about the shade there will be another post for that, otherwise, this is it! I am done! Finally one item off my to do list. Again, here is the before and after picture! I just love to staring at it, and feel proud of myself!

Projects That Teasing Me Now

2011-07-22T14:19:00.005-04:00

I have been surfing the blog world like usual, did I tell you that I am addicted to reading about other people's life, looking at other people's babies, and admiring their brilliant crafting or sewing projects? OK, you probably knew this already. Here are just some new ones I found, and so desperately want to go home and make them for my little caterpillar. Not that she really need more clothes, she might have enough clothes to rotate a month already. Hehe!

Found this at Girl Inspired. Just by looking at the picture, you can never guess this adorable boutique style outfit is made from a adult T-shirt! Check out the amazingly simple tutorial on how to make this adorable top and matching pants.

How about this cute Button Top from Shwin and Shwin? I love dress my little caterpillar with those very girly dresses, but I love these earthy color paired with simple design (kind of like those Japanese sewing books) even more. I thrifted some linen shirts before, this might be the perfect project for them. Oh, while you are there, you should check out all her other tutorials as well! I am drooling over these super cute outfits now! I can literally hear Stubborn calling for me at the basement door (my sewing place is in the basement) "Time For Bed!!!"

And there was another sew-along dress I saw earlier this week. Just cannot find it now. It's so simple, yet so darling. I actually dream about making it! Well, this should be enough eye candy for today. Go get inspired, and make something beautiful this weekend.

Jogging Stroller WIP

2011-07-21T15:50:00.008-04:00

Remember the "new" jogging stroller I showed you last time? Did I tell you we were so excited, didn't even check the fabric for damage? Let me tell you, there are a lot. First thing I saw was how dingy the seat was, then all the torn seams! Like these,
It's not only too dirty, but also unsafe for my baby to ride it. So, I did what I never thought I'd dare to, took it apart! Well, there is nothing to worry about, I found a great tutorial on how to recover a baby carseat! OK, it's not about jogging stroller, but it covers all the basics, and there is not much difference between covering a carseat and a stroller. So, this is what the stroller seat looked like after 2 hours.
Am I brave or crazy? Will show you more process later. Hope I won't totally screw up, because that jogging stroller is useless without a seat! Which means $50 down the drain. Well, let's just consider we donated that money to charity (that yardsale was for charity).

Perfect Weekend

2011-07-18T10:10:00.006-04:00

OK, did you had enough of negativity on my blog lately? I sure did. This past weekend was the perfect chance to bring some happiness back to our life.

First thing first, you got to go thrifting on a warm sunny Sat! Am I right? I saw a couple of postings on Craig's list last week about this yardsale, or should we say items there were going to be at this yardsale. We have been thinking about getting a jogging stroller, so Stubborn can take little caterpillar out running more often, so he will get more exercise and she will have more fresh air. Of course, that means some quiet time for me to cook or clean. Well, it's not that we couldn't afford a new jogging stroller, it's just we really don't know how often we are going to use it, and whether little caterpillar will like it or not. So, we decided to thrift one first. Ta-Dah! Isn't it great? Another angle. Oh yeah, the deck floor I refinished last year still holding up really well. And see my new deck gate in action?

OK, enough with the stroller, there are more to that story, I will tell you all about that another time. Well, Stubborn heard about this sand sculpture event at Revere Beach, and we decide to take this "new" stroller for a test run. Yeah, I washed it already, so we packed a wet stroller in the trunk with all our other beach stuffs. Didn't have enough space for all 3 beach chairs, so we decided to take none! A beach hut, big beach towel should be plenty. Oh, we were so happy we went there. Those sand sculptures are amazing, and those artists (from all over the country) are just so talented. See more pictures at my flickr.

And there were live music
mary go round
and lots of playing in the water
and again,
and again!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend as well. I am working on multiple projects at the same time, will share them with you as soon as they are done.

Bad Luck Spreaded

2011-07-15T09:19:00.003-04:00

Oh no, I didn't fall again! Thank goodness. My back and foot is actually getting better, very slowly, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. It's little caterpillar and Stubborn. They are both sick!

Little caterpillar had running nose for several days, we thought it was just those "daycare nose" thing. So we were still kissing her all the time. Then Stubborn got it from her, plus more. Yeah, running nose, sore throat and coughing! He is a big guy, looks very strong, but everytime there is something around, he will pick it up. And you know what, whenever he gets just a little bit temperature or cough a little bit, he will complain non-stop, saying he feels like dying! OK, suck it up! I almost broke my back and my toe, and I have been in so much pain for the past week, yet I still had to do the laundry, cook dinner (normally 4 dishes and a soup, but down to 2 or 3 dishes and a soup this week), and clean the house! Who was helping me? And did you hear me complaining like that? Sometimes he can be such a baby!

Then little caterpillar started diarrhea yesterday. The poor thing pooped every hour! The daycare called Stubborn to pick her up earlier, and she has to stay home today. But at least she was and still is in good mood, and very playful. Her poor little bottom is so red, looks like a monkey's behind. We started giving her some traditional Chinese herb medicine, lots of Pedialyte and water, and soft food, oh yeah, yogurt. Hope this is just a stomach bug, and will go away fast. Little caterpillar is still picking up everything and then putting them in her mouth! How long will this stage last!?

Anyway, looks like this weekend will be another "relaxed" one. We cannot really go out with her like this. Oh, did I mention that I was having diarrhea as well, also my throat hurts too. But I have to suck it up, and be a good mom and wife, take care of those two! So miss the days I was still my mom's daughter, not someone else's wife. Sorry about the complaining! I really needed to vent it out. There are some refashion and sewing projects coming up soon. Yes, I have been sewing with a almost broken back.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Bad Luck Weekend

2011-07-13T11:25:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we had pretty bad luck over here. It all started great. Stubborn went back to lab for some experiment that has to be done on a weekend, I did another happy photoshot of my little caterpillar right in their lobby. Did I mention their company has a lobby that looks like a tropical jungle? After a great lunch, we came home. We let her playing in the yard wearing that gorgeous dress. Bad idea. The dress was too wide, she ended up stepping on it and fell. The poor thing's knee was bleeding! Not too bad though, she didn't even want to stop playing.

Anyway, I found myself a bit restless during her nap. I washed both cars. Then I thougth why waste all these car wash detergent? I can clean the porch railing and floor with it. Well, the railing part went pretty well. I got rid off all those bird poops and layers of dirt. I sprayed them clean with the garden hoes. I also wet the floor. Of course, I was holding the garden hoes. Then I turned around to get the bucket, I slipped and went flying. I fell down the stairs, landed on my lowerback on the wooden stairs. I was in shock, and a lot of pain. I didn't dare to get up by myself, so I quietly screamed for Stubborn (didn't want to wake up my girl). I felt so embarrassed! I had never fell in my life! Even though I was in lots of pain, I thought I could just walk it off. So, I still did some gardening after that. An hour later, when I finally got back inside, the pain was too much. I laid face down on sofa, so Stubborn could put some oil on my back. Well, little caterpillar was very playful after a long nap. She decided that was a great chance to ride mommy! YOu can imagine how loud I screamed. I was crying uncontrollable, Stubborn had to grab her and run upstairs.

The next day, Stubborn left for work again. Since I was in too much pain, I stayed home with my little girl. We were coming down from the second floor, I didn't want to carry her, worrying about dropping her. She was playing on the stairs, so I turned around to make sure she was not going to fall. Well, I slipped again! This time, my left big toe prevented me from falling all the way down. I thought I broke it. When I called Stubborn telling him that I fell again, he thought I was joking.

So, for the past several days, I have been walking around like an old lady, couldn't sit down or get up easily. Couldn't sleep well either. So I got really dizzy and couldn't go to work yesterday. Well, at least the x-ray result says I didn't break any bones. But how long will these bruises last? Now little caterpillar knows about my pain, she tried to comforting me everytime I screamed and cried. She said "mommy's in pain", "mommy's crying", while making the pain and crying sad faces. What a sweetheart! Hopefully my back can recover fast, so I can pick her up again.

The Kelleher Rose Garden

2011-07-11T13:42:00.005-04:00

Everyday my shuttle passes by this wonderful place near Museum of Fine Arts and Fenway. Finally went there with AK last week. It's much better than I thought, and much bigger too. They have over 10 classes and 200 varieties of roses. Almost 1500 plants! Wish you can smell them while reading this post. For more pictures, please go to my flickr set The Kelleher Rose Garden.

The End?

2011-07-08T10:15:00.005-04:00

Oh no, not the end of this blog. The End Of Diapers!? This is going to be very weird and boring for those of you who have no children, so skip this posting if you like.

This morning, my little caterpillar successfully did her business sitting on a real toilet! Well, this is not my girl, I was too busy holding her and encouraging her. No time to grab a camera. So, this one will do.

Stubborn was changing her diaper this morning, and then he decided to let her run FREE for a while, to air dry that sweet little tushy. Well, before he knew it, she squatted down, and peed a little on the carpet. Yeah, that's how I woke up this morning, by Stubborn's scream. So, I just jumped out of the bed, and ran to the bathroom to grab her potty. Just like this one, but the insert part is pink of course.

She played with it for weeks now, so she knew it's for sitting. What a good girl! Sat down, and peed a little more within a couple of minutes! Then she got up. OK, are you done? She said yes, then climbed back onto her bed, butt naked, then said "Poop"! Imagine what my reaction was? Grabbed her as quick as I could, put her back on the frog potty, which she refused this time. 'I am not sitting on that, it has pee in it. Ewww!' Ok, she didn't really say that, that was my guess. So, plan B. Since she likes to watch me sitting on the real toilet,and she loves her Elmo toilet seat (just for playing, sitting on it on carpet), we just had to give that a try. Ours is very similar to this one, but instead of Elmo and his friends all swimming, it just has Elmo swimming with the fish and seahorses. I sat next to her, holding her while telling her one of her favorite story, "the little bear who went to the bathroom by himself". It is a famous Japanese story book translated into Chinese. My friend's son potty trained with it. Even before I could finish the story, little caterpillar did it! I was so excited, yelling to Stubborn, "She did it! She did it!" Then I said if you can do it again, mommy will give you some toilet paper and applause. Oh, she loved it! And she did it again! This time she was really done. I wiped her clean, and flushed while holding her. She was so excited to watch the flush. Everything happened just like that little bear book! Of course according to the book, you have to wash your hands afterward. She loved the whole process! Maybe this is the beginning of the end?

Did you read this post even after I warned you not to? What? I am weird? No I am not weird. I am just too happy! We will definitely try this again. Next time, I will take some pictures. Oh, I will have to show you that cute little Japanese potty training book. It's so simple and colorful, very darling. Wish us luck!

Happy 4th!

2011-07-05T13:52:00.005-04:00

How was your 4th of July weekend? We were totally relaxed, had so much fun with our friends, playdate and BBQ. Remember our new new pool? It held up pretty well for the party. Ignore that wrinkle in the middle of the top layer, I accidentally kicked one of the little cover thingy off, so it was leaking air for a while before we noticed it. Stubborn went and bought a small air pump, and he and his best friend fixed the problem while we were playing upstairs. Anyway, littler caterpillar cannot get enough of the pool,
while her little friend screamed for his dear life! He was so scared, won't even let mommy and grandma to change his clothes! They finally got him dressed, and put him down in the water, he just refused to let go mommy's leg. Eventually he climbed up that leg like a little money! See, that's my girl trying to help him out.
So we thought she is a natural swimmer, we had to take her to a big pool. There happen to be a city pool near our home, Stubborn purchased the bracelets last Thur. So, we just had to take her there and try it out. The second she saw that bigger pool, she became that scared little boy!
But once she found those floating ball thingy (I don't know what they are called), she started to have some fun.
After swimming, we took her to the playground next door. I guess she was happy about standing on dry land, she took off like a little bird.

See that cute little capris she is wearing, I refashioned it from a big shirt of mine earlier. The top is still a little bit too big, but this capris fits her perfectly now. Anyway, we had so much fun on Sat, we went back again on the 4th before we went out for dinner. BTW, we were surprised to see many stores and restaurants closed door on 4th!
Our timing couldn't be better. While we were at the restaurant, it started pouring outside! But when we came out, it was all gone! We got to go home, take a hot shower, and enjoy the fireworks comfortably in our own home. Our city's fireworks is not that far away from our home, so we got to watch that some pretty amazing fireworks in person, without the crowd and driving. Little caterpillar loved it so much, this is the first time she saw it and acturally understood it. Even though she was really tired, she stayed up through the whole thing, and asked for more when it stopped. Then we got to enjoy three more fireworks on TV, Boston, NY, and DC, while eating some cold sweet watermelon.
Happy 4th everyone!

New Favorite Blog

2011-07-01T10:13:00.005-04:00

I found this amazing blog Sewing In No Man's Land yesterday. Well, I read some posts on there a while back, but this is the first time I really paid attention, and read tons of it at once. Well, for me, it's very sweet and family oriented. Kelly is such a energetic lady, raising 3 cutie pies, making all those fashionable clothes, while working as a professional photographer! Any single one of these jobs is a full time commitment for most of us, and she is doing all three wonderfully. I am so inspired by all her sewing projects, and her pictures are out of this world good. Well of course those cute models really helps too. I love all her tutorials, so nicely explained, all the details and tips, just makes me want to go home and make all of them for my little caterpillar. Not that she needs any more clothes, she has a big closet full of clothes already. But all her creations are soooooo cute, I think every mother will love to put their babies in them.

Like this Button Up Bloomers, I would never imagine it's so easy to make!

And this adorable Butterfly Dress and Headband, it's so perfect for a hot summer day on the beach, or anywhere else. I only wish my girl is cooperative like hers, she could never keep anything on her head for more than 5 seconds! Oh, how I just love her pictures! Oh yeah, I said that already. Wish I could take pictures like that, or even close to that. Yeah, Stubborn bought me a very nice camera, but I never sat down and read the manual or watch those DVDs about how to use it, so I definitely wasting it! Kelly was nice enough to offer some professional tips on photography, telling us what kind of lens to use. I never really paid much attention to my 50mm F1.4, only used it in darker rooms. But I will practice with it this weekend, see whether I can improve my pictures. Also she shoots only in manual! That got to be really hard! Oh, how I dream to become a great photographer one day! Seriously, you guys just have to jump over to her blog to see all those amazing pictures.

Another Pool

2011-06-30T10:02:00.003-04:00

While the play center pool was drying out on the deck, I stopped by Target and picked up a new pool. This one is rectangle shape, and can hold much more water. Worrying about its final weight when it's full, we decided we will put it on the driveway instead. We also have a garden hoe right there, and the end of our driveway is unused anyway. I will have to remember to put the foam pads down first this time. Oh yeah, it will be closer to the cars, so we don't have to carry it to the deck, not that it's that much further. Best part, when we drain this baby, most water will follow the slope of the driveway and go to the drain on the street. No more worrying about too much water too close to the foundation. Let's just hope this one will hold the air and water, so we don't have to go through this searching process again.

Bad News About The New Pool

2011-06-29T13:01:00.003-04:00

It leaks! Imagine what our faces looked like when we got home yesterday, and saw the big section of the pool totally empty! We were so disappointed! Little caterpillar didn't really care. As long as there is a drop of water, she will have some fun with it. Too bad! I really liked this one. Guess we have to spend a little bit more than just $30 to get some good quality. Now I have to search online really hard, since I already sort of invited our friends over for a pool party this weekend. OK, worst case scenario, they can bring over their personal pool (they bought the same one we had), and we can let the kids swim in their own tiny pool. Totally separated, but still swimming. Hmm, that will be weird.

Big Kid Pool

2011-06-28T10:43:00.007-04:00

Last year, little caterpillar had so much fun with this personal baby pool my friend gave me. That might be too small for her now. We need something much bigger, and can provide much more activities to her and her little friends. Yeah, gotta teach them the idea of sharing. We also have to share the water with a certain big 'kid'. Look how tight it was when Stubborn decided to jump in that baby pool last year. So bad I cannot show you their faces, but imagine a tiny baby staring at the relaxed daddy, very unhappily! This picture cracks me up everytime.
So, this past Sunday, when we were shopping at BJs, right after Stubborn vetoed my kiddy pool (those 30" ones) idea, we saw this one. It's 90" by 90", big enough for several kids and adults. At only $30, we had to grab one. I was so eager to set it up, but little caterpillar fell asleep on our way home. That air pump was too loud, just pumping up the two flower thingy already almost woke her up. So, I had to stop and wait, and wait, and wait.
When little caterpillar finally woke up, she was very excited to 'help' mommy set up the pool. Well, before I started the air pump, I had to convince her it's ok, not to be afraid. I cranked up the music (that air pump can only be plugged in the car), and little caterpillar just grabbed two little balls and danced. So cute. Stubborn and I carried it to the deck, started adding water to it. It was almost 6pm, and water from garden hoes was so cold, I had to bring some hot water from the kitchen with a big pot to make it just bearable. Little caterpillar didn't care about the temperature, jumped right in. Looks like we are going to have a great summer here!

Finishing Up Some Projects

2011-06-27T13:43:00.007-04:00

Stubborn had enough of my messes everywhere in the basement, demanded me clean up his half. Well, you see, my half is smaller because of the utility stuffs and lots of shelves, and my crafting and sewing tables, and wook bench. Also it's very crowded with some of my future projects. So, when I want to build something, I just take over his side (wide open, with just a sofa, TV and a treadmill). Since I don't have the time to finish projects immediately, they ended up all over his side. Anyway, while I was cleaning up, I realized how rediculous it is to have so many half done projects still hanging around. So, I took some time, and managed to cross two items off my to-do list, and move them out of the basement.

I found this metal art deco vanity bench at local Salvation Army several months ago. I thought I took the before pictures, but cannot find them right now. Yeah, that's how organized I am. Anyway, it was the those shiny brass one, with some rust here and there. The seat cushion might be white originally, but when I saw it, it was really disgusting. So, I took the seat off, spray painted the frame white. I tore off the old fabric, added some padding and stapled it down. But then I couldn't decide which fabric I want to use! So, it just sat there for months collecting dust. Now I am glad I didn't finish it then, I totally don't like that fabric now. I chose a fun piece instead, after all, this one is going in to my little girl's future bathroom. How do you like it now?

This second item was not taking up too much space. But it was on my sewing table for a while, and I really want little caterpillar to wear it this season. Nothing wrong with it, just a little bit boring. So, I just grabbed a long piece from a jelly roll I got from a swap, 10 minutes later, it's like this.
Very cute, don't you think? My kind of project, fast and easy. Again, before:And after:

Refashioned T-shirt Dress

2011-06-24T12:35:00.007-04:00

Remember this dress I refashioned for my girl in winter? It's finally warm enough for her to wear it, and pose for mommy. Well if you call standing while watching TV 'posing'. It's a perfect fit! Before I have time to make some matching hair bows, these orange elastics will do.
Have a great weekend, everyone! I am so excited for our first daycare BBQ party, cannot wait to meet other kids and their parents, and make some new friends. Just hope the rain won't interrupt our fun. Now what dessert should I bring?

BTW, for those of you who loving sewing and making clothes for your little ones, I just saw this wonderful news on MADE. Dana was nice enough to inform us that Joanns is running a seersucker sale, only $3/yard! Amazing! Oh how I want to ran right over there and grab all colors they have! Then I remembered that I have about 10 years worth of fabric sitting in my basement, including some very cute seersucker fabric (big sis gave me tons of fabric this time while we were visiting my parents). I have to keep my promise to use up those first! But if you love seersucker on kids, you should definitely go! The sale ends tomorrow! Let the summer begin!

Thrifting Finds

2011-06-23T10:27:00.011-04:00

Ever since we came back from China, I have been thrifting every Sat morning. I had very good luck finding these shirts, really thought I used all luck for this whole year! But fortunately, I didn't. Look what I found during the past couple of weeks!

I have been looking for these lotus bowls ever since I saw these on flickr. I fell in love at first sight, but never thought I could have the luck to find one. So, when I spotted this familar shape on the bottom shelf at my local Salvation Army, I held my breath. I couldn't believe I found not one, but five, creamy white lotus bowls, in perfect shape! And they were just $.69 each!

I was so excited about the bowls, went directly to the cashier without spending time looking around for other stuffs. Just as I was paying for my perfect bowls, I saw a lonely shoe on counter. It was a toddler girl shoe, looked brand new. Of course I asked for the other one, and no one knew where it was. Then I thought, let me check their shoe shelf, it might be there. Well, it wasn't there! There were lots of kids shoes on that shelf, but they were all very disappointing looking. But as I turned around, I saw something at the corner of my eyes. There they were, three pairs of girl shoes, so beautiful, almost never worn. Quickly, I grabbed them and ran to the cashier again. One pair was even on sale for 1/2 off. So I got all my girl's shoes for next summer for about $8! Just the day before, I saw similar ones sold at Payless for $20! Aren't they just adorable!

A week later, I found this little guy on their bottom shelf. I am not so sure, but I think it's pure silver. It has that tarnished silver shine, very soft, and look closely, there is a strange mark on one of the candleholder. I will have to polish it and then tell you whether that $2 was wasted or not.

Then last weekend, I went to a different Salvation Army on Rt 1. They have a bigger furniture section, and I am still looking for a cute little desk or vanity for little caterpillar. I didn't see anything interested me. Well, there are lots of amazing pieces, but they are too big, we simply don't have any space for them. A nice dresser for the guest room will be great, but I didn't see anything in the right size. Anyway, after walking around the front store a couple of times, I was kind of disappointed, until I spotted these two cups in the corner. I think I have seen this type of cups in stores, but don't remember their price. The guy who was arranging the items told me he just took them out of their box, they are brand new. Well, I have been looking for some tea cups for my girl, future tea parties. So, at $.59 each, they have to go home with me. Aren't they cute? Even the inside is beautiful.This is the mark on the bottom.

How is your thrifting luck lately?

Garden Updates

2011-06-22T14:45:00.004-04:00

I am so lucky! I didn't even lift a finger this year to get all these gorgeous flowers! Hooray for perennial garden! Perfect garden for lazy gardeners!
And my potted plants are doing pretty good too! Before I had little caterpillar, I gave away half of my plants, only kept my orchids and jasmines, and some air filtering plants. I don't have time to take care them as before, but they are still rewarding me with some amazing flowers. This pink jasmine was a gift from AK a couple years back. This one is the first flower of this season, and the color is more intense and flower is bigger! Looks like there are more buds coming, going to be quite a show!
And this baby (Encyclia radiata) just 'enjoying' my ignorance. It blooms every year, and 3 or 4 spikes at a time! The sweet scent is so strong, I normally cannot have it inside.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-20T14:19:00.014-04:00

How was your Father's Day? We had a fun and relaxing weekend! We almost went to the Bruins parade in Boston. Stubborn is a big sports fan, loves almost all Boston teams. Even though he hasn't follow Bruins for too long, he really wanted to go, and share this experience with his little girl. But I was not too enthusiastic about the idea bring my baby to such a huge crowd! Lucky we didn't go, there were more than 1 million fans there by the time we planned to leave home. And later we heard the commuter rail train didn't even stop at most of the train station, because the trains were all packed after the first couple of stops! The ones got on the 9:30Am train finally got to Boston around 2Pm! Missed it all! We were so lucky that little caterpillar decided to sleep in. Stubborn got to watched the entire parade on TV, much better than standing outside the Garden, behind hundreds of people, and only can see about 5 minutes of the parade! He had a great time, while little caterpillar and I had a nice long brunch. Afterward, we went to an old friend's new house for a informal gathering. So great to go to a party with some store-bought dessert, I didn't need to work hard at all! We had a wonderful time there! Kids always love other people's toys! That's so true! Little caterpillar got to play with four bigger kids (5 to 7 years old), and was fascinated by the big kid's toys!
See, feeding their baby doll was more fun than feeding her own at home! Of course, she got to dig in their toy closet, while the bigger kids played some non-toddler-friendly game. She looked like she was on a treasure island!
Yeah, even other kid's dirty shoes were more attractive! She is really into shoes and accessories lately, has been wearing my shoes and carrying my bags a lot.
See, even other people's staircase was more fun! Too much fun, she forgot about safety. Lucky me and the other moms were chatting right there, when she decided to bend down and roll in the middle of the stairs! We were fast enough to catch her, my friend grabbed her arm, while I supported her head. Even though she was not hurt, she got really scared! Screamed and cried for 5 minutes! Then she went right back to the stairs! Lesson learned?! Crazy girl!
Once the whole front of that gorgeous dress was wet (she is probably teething again), my friend found a new dress that was too small for their daughter. It fits little caterpillar perfectly! Thanks, Fang! Don't they look like sisters? So cute!
We then spent about an hour at a nearby elementary school playground. So many new stuffs, little caterpillar tried really hard to play them all. Look how silly she was! Even though there was no baby swing, we still gave it a try. After several minutes swing on mommy's lap, she decided to swing like a big girl! My friend helped me hold on to her while I took this picture! I probably pushed her for good half an hour, while holding tightly on her arm! She had so much fun, that she got really mad at me when I took her down. She totally skipped her nap, so as soon as we put her in the car, she just felt right to sleep.

What happened on actual Father's Day, after her long beauty sleep? More fun! She got to play with her water toys on the deck. Why was she wearing raincoat and rainboots on such a sunny day? Well, it was sunny and warm, but not hot enough to wear swimming suit. She kept pouring water on herself, so I had to do something. Once she figured out she could not open that new deck gate any more (I simply put a plastic ring thingy through the hole), she really enjoyed her homemade water table (a plastic box on a patio chair, filled with water toys). She even had a drink of that dirty water! Hmmm, yum!
We also went for a bike ride in the afternoon. Little caterpillar was too little last year, she was actually afraid of that little chair. But this time, she had a great time, even buckled up herself. She really liked poking mommy on the back while kicking mommy's legs. We spent an hour at a playground we passed by, so she got to play with some big kids equipment again, and followed a 5-yr-old boy around like a little tail. The boy had to play everything the "safe" way, so she won't try some dangerous moves. They were so cute together.

So, how was your father's day? Hope you all had fun. We sure did!

Upgraded Deck Gate

2011-06-16T09:54:00.007-04:00

This was what we used to block the deck staircase. Ignore the opened new gate in the picture, I totally forgot to take a real before picture. This is just showing you how it was used to be. It was just to block my girl from getting off the deck and wander off (our yard is not fenced in). It's too heavy for her to move out of the way, so it was functioning, but when other kids pushed it away to get their balls that fell on my deck, it scratched the deck floor, a lot! And of course, I want something looks more attractive, and we need that chair now summer is here.

Now look at the shiny new gate! It fits like a glove! I am so proud of myself for a good measurement for a change. I am so tired of stupid measurement mistakes, really crossed my fingers hoping I don't have to take it apart and redo it.

This is what it all started with, parts of a broken crib! Yes, I picked them up from my neighbor's curb, but I asked for permission first. I was not stealing my neighbor's trash. They were sitting there collecting dust for more than a year. Yeah, that's how lazy I was. It took me more than a year to start, but the building process was as easy as it could possibly be. I measured the two 2 by 2 I had, they were going to be the side for the gate. I measured the opening, minus the two 2by2s and 1/2" so the door won't stuck when swing open. Now transfer the measurement to the crib railing, cut the top and bottom frame with my miter saw. Predrill some holes, and screw the side pieces (2by2s) to the top and bottom frame. It's basically done! Now some hinges, a gate lock hardware, a couple of coats of outdoor paint (leftover from last year deck refinish job). I made myself a simple deck gate,all for less than $5! So, if you have a deck and super active baby or toddler, go find a broken old crib and some 2by2s, you can build it too. Oh, if you cannot find an old crib, a couple of old shutters will do. Just saw them to size, place two of them side by side, and screw the side to them, you will have a gate. A little bit different looking, but very nautical! You can paint any fun color you like, I just want it to blend in, so white it is.

Happy DIYing! And let the summer begin!

Why I Never Blog On Weekends

2011-06-13T10:21:00.005-04:00

Because of this little missy! Ever since little caterpillar was big enough to go outside the house, we have been taking her out and play every weekend! To local mall's playgroud, playdates with her little friends, and tons of seasonal activities! We both work full time, and plus my commute, it only leaves us very little time everyday for her. Since our nannies didn't like to take her out, she basically stuck home until daddy and mommy came back. So we felt that she was missing out too much, the poor girl was so lonely. We tried our best to make it up to her, by taking her to places, to see facinating things, to have fun. Which means less time for me to clean the house, or doing laundry.

We came back from China a couple of weeks ago, so understandable the house was a mess for a while. Extremely mess after I tossed everything out of the living room closet. OK, that will be another post, as soon as I upload the pictures. Since it was raining the whole weekend, I finally got time to do some much needed cleaning and organizing, while doing laundry. Stubborn and I had a little argument because of the condition the house was in. He complained we have too many stuffs, and suggested we should throw them out or donate them all! I thought he was being irresponsible, and we do need most of the stuffs to run the household. He loves me and wants me to take a nap while little caterpillar was napping, but he always manages to use the most hurting words to say it! Everytime I spend sometime in the basement working on some projects, he would come down and nag! He thinks all my projects are unnecessary, we can hire someone else to do it, or we can buy it instead of building it. By now, you might figured it out that he is not handy at all. All those power tools in the basement are mine! Anyway. All this was triggered by me building a safety gate for the deck! He thinks little caterpillar is old enough to walk down those stairs so we don't have to close the deck with a gate, and the big patio chair we are using to block the stairs right now is still working, so I should not wasting my time and energy build this gate. But I have my own reasons. We can move that big chair by lifting it, but our neighbors' little boys cannot. They sometimes throw their balls up to my deck by accident, and they just push the chair to the side, which scratch my deck floor. I spent all my energy cleaning, sanding, refinishing that deck last summer, I am not doing that again this year just because of the scratches. It's not that I want my deck to be the most beautifully maintained one on the street, I don't want any splinter on the deck to hurt my baby! Then he complained about the time I spent to build this toy shelf. At that time both Stubborn and our nanny thought it was rediculous that I worked for so long just built one shelf, instead of two as I planned. And he still thinking we can go out just buy one. Well, we can buy a custom built one, which will probably cost us an arm and a leg! Yeah, we can afford it, but I wanted to make something for my girl, with my own hands! He doesn't understand the proud feeling after you finish a project and it's working just as you planned! He was also mad because I am using his side of the basement for building all these stuffs, and the fact I left some wood on his treadmill! But my side is too small, all the storage shelves, several big tables , all my tools and fabric, and a couple of chairs that need reupholstering. And he could always move the wood to the side if he need that treadmill, which he never use during the warmer months! He just wants his side to be clean and empty, for the exercising he possibly does once every 6 month! He is so unfair sometimes!

Sorry about all these negative stuffs here, I just needed to vent it out before I explode. But don't get me wrong, Stubborn is a very good man, great father, and "ok" husband. =) Ever since we let our nanny go, he has been helping me by dropping off and picking up little caterpillar from daycare, doing the dishes, preparing the vegetable, and cooking the rice everyday. He takes care of little caterpillar half of the time, gives her bath sometimes, and sits down and teaches her and reads to her all the time. I guess I just need more! Not more help, but more understanding, more supports! I don't mind to work hard, just want him to appreciate it once a while! OK, I am done nagging. I will show you the finished deck gate, as soon as the rain stops and I can finally install it and test it out.

Happy Monday!

Tough Week

2011-06-10T10:57:00.003-04:00

When I told my friends that going to daycare in the morning was so easy for us, little caterpillar was very happy to go, I knew I probably jinxed it. Either that or she figured out this is not a playdate or temporary thing, this entire week has been so hard! Every morning, she refused to get up, or leave her bed, or put on her clothes, or even get downstairs. But once she was downstairs, she was fine for a short while. I had to distract her with some fruits or drinks that she likes. Then she would let us put on her shoes, she even waved goodbye to mommy calmly when she walked up to daddy's car. But Stubborn told me that she cried so hard everytime they just pulled up to their parking lot. She wrapped her little arms around his neck, refused to let go, and kept screaming "daddy, don't go!" Of course, the teachers and other kids didn't know what she was saying since she is still speaking Chinese. I went there with them on Wed, only making things harder! The teachers actually joked that I am not allowed to drop her off any more. Well, as least we were prepared for this to happen, so neither of us cried.

And yesterday, there was a storm right around evening commute time, so the traffic was really bad on highway. As young parents who have no experience of daycare thing, we didn't monitor weather and traffic online. Well, for me, I just assumed Stubborn had everything under control since he is the one picking her up and he has been doing a pretty good job. Since my office doesn't even have a window, I didn't even know it was raining outside. Stubborn didn't understand why his coworkers left work much earlier (they all have kids in daycare for a while, so they knows when to leave work earlier), until he got out and stuck in traffic. When he called me, I just got on my train. There was no way I could get home faster to pick her up. So we panicked! Well, we are so new to this daycare thing, we haven't even figure out this drop-off/pick-up thing, so no back up at all! I went a little crazy, calling my neighbors, at least I have their numbers on my cellphone. Finally one of them picked up, but she was not home either. Very lucky for us, her mom staying at their home now, and she can drive! The grandmom ran out the house with their 5 year old boy, and picked up little caterpillar before the rain really started pouring. I got home about 15 minutes later, just picked her up from their home, and she was having so much fun in their playroom playing with little boy's cars. Stubborn got home 5 minutes later than I did, we were both very grateful. I gave the little boy a bowl of strawberry fresh from my garden.

Then we got to thinking seriously about what happened. We actually thought it's scary that that grandma was able to pick her up. I did call the daycare letting them know that someone else is coming to pick up my girl. But they didn't ask any security questions, just trusted me when I said I was her mom! That grandma doesn't speak English, but I guess that 5-yr-old boy talked to the teacher. He is very smart. And little caterpillar just went with them!? She doesn't know that grandma very well, but she knows that little boy! And the daycare didn't even call me back telling me my girl was picked up, I had to call them. We probably should talk to the daycare and help them increase their security measures. And how did they get home? I forgot to ask them about that, because I was too excited to see my girl safe and sound. They do have a carseat in the car, but if their little boy was sitting in it, where was my girl sitting? Even just 5 minutes driving, I don't even want to think about what could happen. When we were in China, there is no carseat. So whenever we take taxi, she would sit on the backseat next to me. She always stood up, or even try to open the doors! So many times, I had to hold on to her so she won't fell down when the car came to a stop. Oh man! We really need to come up with a bullet proof plan for pickups, so this will never happen again! NEVER EVER! We felt like we are such bad parents!

Now we are worried that weekend is coming, she will think life is back to normal, daddy and mommy will stay with me the whole day, just like they did in China. Me spending 3 weeks with her before sending her to daycare, BAD IDEA! This coming Monday she might even struggle harder! My friends told me this phase lasts about 2 weeks to a month! We'll see how lucky we are. Oh, I worry about her so much during the day, I cannot really get any work done. NOT GOOD! I wonder how other parents do this? Having a kid is so hard and tricky sometimes!

My Lovely Peony "Gardenia"

2011-06-07T12:32:00.003-04:00

When we came back a week ago, I was surprised to see my peony still budding. I noticed the buds before I left, and thought it will definitely finish blooming while we were in China. What a nice surprise. Then with all the unpacking and house chores, and a baby and full-time job, I didn't check on them for a whole week. Look what I found this past weekend! Amazing! The color, size, and fragrant! Last year, it bloomed the first time for me, 7 or 8 flowers. I thought it was already a dramatic show. But this year, it has 18 buds! Think about 18 big flowers, at least 6" in diameter, how heavy they could be! I better stake them right away. Talk about staking, my siberian iris are in bloom too. But after last week's storm, they just fell all directions. I have to stake them as well, before I could take any picture. And I better do it fast, the flowers are fading already. Also AK gave me two tomato plants ("yellow pear"), they are quite big already. I pinched off the lower leaves this morning, as soon as they adapt to my yard, I will plant them into the garden. Look like I have a busy weekend again.

Scored Big This Weekend

2011-06-06T14:06:00.007-04:00

Saturday was my first thrifting day after our China trip. I didn't expect much, but I was over the roof thrilled within 5 minutes after walked in my local Salvation Army! As always, after reading which color tags are on sale, I stopped by the women shirts racks. I did find a couple of good ones for myself in the past, but most of the time, I buy a piece because I like the fabric or embroidery, thinking I could make something for my little girl. But on the second rack, I spotted a nice shirt, looks like new. So, I picked it up. OK, it's my size! Ohhh, it's Brooks Brothers, very nice brand. Then after closer inspection, I realized it's brand new! Never been worn, still has the original factory folding lines. Amazingly, only $3.99! After I happily put it in my shopping cart, I looked up and saw a whole bunch of them a few shirt away! I was very excited! Grabbed them before anyone else noticed them. Unbelievably, they are all my size! What the odds?! Who donate these brand new Brooks Brothers shirts, and this many? Whoever it was, THANK YOU! I ran to the fitting room, tried them all on, perfect fit! Thought about buying only a couple, then I thought when will I ever run into deals like this again? Probably NEVER! And if I left them there, they will be gone in an hour, and I would have to kick my own behind very hard for it. So, I grabbed all of them, except two that really don't go with my really tanned skin color. I also found a very cute shirt from GAP, also brand new, with the original tag and size sticker still on! So, for total $32 and some change, I bought 9 brand name new dress shirts! $32! That's even less than the retail price for one! I had to control myself really hard when handed the cashier the money! Look at them, all washed and hang nicely in my closet!Now imagine me doing my silly happy dance while doing laundry!

I also got a nice 3-tiered serving tray. I am pretty sure it's not silver, maybe just plated, but at $1.99 and 50% off, I just had to have it. I am thinking spray painting it to some fun color, and use it to hold little caterpillar's hair accessories and pins, or small toys. But if it cleans up really well and shiny, I might just leave it as is, and really use it for treats. We'll see.

On my way home, I stopped by a random yardsale. By random, I meant there was no sign anywhere, I just drove by and saw several cars parked on the side of the road, where normally empty. It was not very big, well, what do you expect going to a yardsale after 11Am? But I did find something interesting. My friend AK loves owls, so I kept that in mind while thrifting. And when the lady saw me picking up the white owl piggy-bank (should I still call it piggy-bank?), she said there might be something else I would like. A very nice wooden box, with an owl carved in the lid! And the homeowner originally bought it in Egypt! For just $1 a piece, I didn't even want to bargaining. Aren't they cute?
Less than $40, for all of these! I really scored big! Now the weather is so nice and warm, we probably will take little caterpillar out thrifting alot. Cannot wait to put her in the little seat I installed last year, and go for a bike ride. Oh, why is today only Monday?

My Baby's New Adventure

2011-06-02T10:18:00.006-04:00

Today is my baby girl's first day of daycare. We planned it so carefully to let the nanny go before our China trip, then Stubborn spend 3 days with her at home to adjust, then start full time daycare. We chose for her to start on Thursday, so if she has a hard time adjusting, she will have a chance to take a break during the weekend. Stubborn doesn't say much, but I can tell he is very nervous too! He tried to plan every single detail, who will drop off and pick up her, who is going to do the housework and cooking. It is a good thing he took her to the daycare for another visit yesterday, we totally forgot to buy her a sleeping bag! I got up really early today, try to do some cleaning, and pack everything for her. We are still a little bit jet lagged, so all collapsed right after dinner, no time to do anything. I packed an extra set of cloth and some sunblock in the little backpack I made for her. Look how grown up she looks! Mommy is so proud of her! Oh yeah, that's our luggages in the background. We still unpacking! After working all day, cooking dinner, and cleaning the house, I don't have any energy left to unpack the rest of the stuffs.

I offered to go with them to drop her off, but Stubborn thought she probably won't let go of mommy! So, I just had to suck it up, and took some pictures and videos of my baby girl leaving the house! Even thougth we have been talking about this daycare thing with her for days, the poor thing still have no clue. She waved goodbye to me, probably thinking she is just going out for a walk!
Look at her sitting in the car, ready to take off, and start her new adventure! Oh that's her backpack, sleeping bag and jacket on the side.
Then they just took off, left me standing in the front yard, all alone, wondering how her first day will be. I don't even get to meet with her teachers, and the rest of the kids. Stubborn said there is a little boy there yesterday, very aggressive with little caterpillar, took the toy out of her hands and pushed her. Can she handle that? Well, if that little boy keeps doing this to her, he is definitely asking for trouble. My little caterpillar BITES! Well, so far she only bit me, but if she is pushed too far, she might defend herself by biting! I know it's not good to bite other kids, but what else could she do? It's going to be so hard for her at the beginning. She speaks Chinese, only knows several English words (apple, banana, cookie, etc). Oh, I should have taught her some basic English words first, like hungry, thirsty, pain, hot, pee, poop. And she doesn't even response to her English name, and they didn't ask Stubborn what we call her. Sooo many worries! We haven't got any calls from the daycare, it's a good thing, right? Should I call them instead? Oh, this daycare thing is killing me! Hope my girl is doing better than her mommy. Oh, I miss her so much!

Long Distance Travel With Baby

2011-06-01T12:19:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the long break, we were on vacation. I took my little caterpillar back to China to visit my parents, then we flew to Shanghai to meet with Stubborn and visited his family and friends. It was such a big deal, I was totally freaked out before the trip. I want to share with you my experience and tips & lessons I learned from this trip. I will tell you more about our stay in China and show you some fun pictures in the future posts.

Weeks before our travel, I read so many blogs and articles about travelling with babies, what to pack for long distance flight, where to find organic food in big cities in China, what medicine to pack for baby, etc. Spent many weekends shopping for gifts. I didn't pack too many clothes for me and the baby, since my mom said we could always buy new ones there if needed. Even with less clothing, my luggage still went over the weight limit. I know, I could check two luggages, but the thought of pushing the stroller and pulling the carry-on and two big luggages at the same time just frightened me. Well, Stubborn drove us to the airport, helped us until the security check point, and my parents picked us up at the Beijing airport, but I still had to manage everything myself for a short while, even with the help of those luggage cart, it still sounds like a nightmare. So, I decided just take one luggage and buy a backpack carry-on. Man, I am so in love with my backpack carry-on! It's so convenient, perfect size, tons of conpartments, genius organizing design, and best of all, it frees both my hands to handle my baby or push the stroller. It has to be the best gift Stubborn bought for me!

Here is the list of stuffs I packed for our trip:
- For me: 3 tops, 1 jean (wearing on the plane), 1 capris, 1 shorts, 1 set of PJs, 3 sets of underwear, 4 pairs of socks, and 1 pair of slippers.
- For little caterpillar: 3 long sleeve tShirts, 2 jackets, 3 pants, 2 dresses, 2 sets of PJs, 4 pairs fo socks, and bath towels.
- my homemade portable fabric high chair, a.k.a. a chair sling.
- lots of gifts for family and friends (including a big heavy 12 by 12 scrapbook I made for my niece)
- enough diapers and wipes for a week (bought more there for the rest of the trip)
- medicines for both of us
- 2 big cans of formula, toys and favorite fruit and snacks for little caterpillar
- my camera and lenses, my old Sony camera set (gift for my niece), and a point and shot camera (my friend's gift for his mom)
- my cell phone, laptop, and all kinds of chargers
- portable DVD player for the long flight

Doesn't look like too much, right? Well, my luggage was 14.5 lbs overweight, which translate to about $200 fine! No way I was going to pay for that. So, we pull the heavy items out of the luggage and put them all in my backpack carry-on, which means there was no space for that DVD player we bought just for this trip. Don't worry, I didn't throw away a new DVD player! Stubborn was not flying with us, so he brought it back home. We managed to get it down to exactly 50 lbs with just one try, very exciting! But the result, my backpack was super super heavy! I could barely push it in the overhead compartment on the plane, and before boarding the next plane at DC, I went down to pick up my boarding pass from the floor, lost balance, fell down. Two college boys tried to help me stand up, and it took 3 of us several tries! That's how heavy that backpack was! Not very smart thing to do, especially when you have to chase a super active toddler around the airport!

Another lesson learned, not only pack an extra set of cloth for the baby, but also pack a set for yourself in your carry on luggage! I ordered orange juice on the flight from Boston to DC, thought we need that extra VitC to fight the germs on the plane. Within five minutes, little caterpillar accidentally kicked that little tray table, and pour almost two full cups of juice on my lap! I felt so bad about making a mess on the plane and ruined their seat cushion, also I was so embarassed and uncomfortable about the all that juice on my jeans! Felt like I peed myself! I literally sat there with wet jeans until it's dried by my bodyheat! So, REMEMBER to pack a set of cloth for yourself too!

Lots of toys and snacks are a must for long flight with small children. Also, it helps to have an extra seat for themselves. My girl loves to sit down and buckle up like mommy, so holding her on my lap was a nightmare. Lucky for us, people next to me always willingly gave up their seat and looked for empty seat somewhere else. There are so many little things to consider when travelling with small children. I couldn't write it any better than Rachel from Small Notebook, please read her Tips to Travel Overseas With Babies and Kids and all the related posts linked from it.

What "Upgrades" I Want For Our Umbrella Stroller

2011-05-04T12:35:00.002-04:00

Remember the stroller accessories I wanted from this post last month? I made a couple of bottle holders instead of cup holders. We always carry our stainless steel bottle and a sippy cup with us, so no need for those heavy duty plastic cupholders. These bottle holders are so easy to make, used just a couple of small scraps, and about 10 minutes to cut and make. I used them for our entire stay in Orlando, and they are just perfect! I didn't have time to make a cute stroller bag like the one I showed in that post, just hang a canvas shopping bag (I got from our hospital benefit fair for free) on the handles. I used it to hold any other liquidy/wet stuffs, and little caterpillar's snacks (for easy access). I kept her extra clothes and other dry stuffs in my backpack, along with my camera and lenses. Didn't want to carry an extra camera bag, learnt my lesson from the first day. So, what else I could do to improve my stroller experience for the future? OK, stubborn did offer to buy a fancier stroller for our next big trip to China, but the usual DIYer in me kindly said no. I believe what my friend told me, get the cheaper ones, so when they broke down, you won't be broke as well. She went through 3 already! Maybe that won't happen with a higher end one, but who knows. We gate checked ours this time, and one handle cover was badly damaged.

Anyway, here are some issues I had with our umbrella stroller, and I really want some "upgrades".First of all, both Stubborn and I are tall, so pushing a umbrella stroller around for a whole day became a backbreaking chore! I want to stand up straight when pushing it! Found this while googling. So easy and affective! Next time I will keep my eyes open for a old/broken umbrella stroller while thrifting.

The third day we were at Orlando, there was a big thunder storm. We had to stay at hotel waiting for it to stop. I decided not to wait till it stops (predicted after 3pm) to go to Seaworld across the street. We never used a stroller in rain before, so the only thing I could do was covering it with a beach towel, pushing it with one hand and holding my umbrella with the other! It was so hard! Then little caterpillar was so bored sitting in there cannot see anything, she decided to pull the towel down. She loved my umbrella though. So, she ended up holding my umbrella handle, while I hold the edge with my both hands on stroller handles and wearing the towel on my head and shoulder. We must looked rediculous! The towel was wet even before we sat down for the shamu show! I saw other people had those rain cover thing,and their kids didn't miss a thing while getting pushed around. Well, that rain cover is not expensive at all, but you guessed, I had to search for tutorials on how to make one! I know it doesn't worth the effort to make one, but I really want one that I can easily access my girl. Maybe I can come up with a design that I can use for both a raincover and a mosqito net.

While googling for umbrella stroller upgrade, found this blog Baby Porting. It's full of interesting ideas, I am sure I can find some inspirations.

Oh, this is a totally unrelated topic. I also found a couple of tutorials about toy stroller. One is how to make this cute DIY Doll Stroller Liner.
And this amazing transformation from a broken doll stroller to this vintage-y baby buggy.

DIY Toy Shelf

2011-05-03T10:54:00.006-04:00

I should have said "shelves", since I planned to make two matching ones. But since I don't have time to make the second one this month, and the first one is so fresh and lovely, I have to post it now, standing there proudly, but very lonely. Don't worry, your twin brother will join you soon, I promise!
Well, I drew this plan in my little pocket book, like months ago. Finally got the courage to get started. Once the wood was cut, there is no turning back. Oh, I have to remember to post pictures of my plan for the shelves, and measurements and cutting plan to the original post. I measured all her toys, so even the big ones have their own spots in this new system. I love how crispy clean the white is, plus a couple of coats of polyurethane, it should hold pretty good. One thing I do regret is painting the inside aqua-blue. What can I say, mommy loves blue! Remember her room? It's blue! And the dresses I refashioned for her recently were also blue! But now seeing how many of her toys are blue, I should have just left it white, or painted it apple green? Anyway, I am getting some white plastic bins or baskets for the top shelves, so I can group toys, and it will look less messy. If I cannot find bins big enough, I just have to make some myself. To utilize every inch of the shelf space, I will need bins that's long and narrow, like 10" by 18". That's very odd measurement!

Here are the before pictures. It's hard to tell, but it's kind of messy before. Toys all over the floor, above and under her little table, so she got nowhere to doodle. And most of her smaller toys and stuffed animals are piled up in that big canvas bin. Of course there were toys in other rooms too. And do you see all those pillows on top of the sofa back? No one sit in that corner, it's taking up too much space, just to hold some pillows and toys sometimes. Yeah, it was our fault buying such a huge sectional sofa for such a small room. But it didn't look so big in the big bright showroom! We didn't even have space for a sidetable or shoe rack! So, to make space for the twin toy shelves, I removed that corner sofa! Look how much space we got! That metal shelf came out of little caterpillar's closet, and it's there only temporarily, holding the space for the second toy shelf. We also got more than enough space for a shoe cabinet! No more piled up shoes in front of the door. And we still have enough sofa for 3! OK, take another look at my new 'old' shoe cabinet!
It holds so many pairs of shoes, ours and little caterpillars. The door stucks a little, so you have to wiggle it to open. But it can be a good thing, so little caterpillar won't open it all the time and pull every single one of them out. I got it from my best friend, who moved away two months ago. It's still in good shape, but just dingy. Nothing some fresh paint couldn't fix. Now we have a spot to put our bags. And I am eyeing the narrow wall next to it for a cute coat hanger, so our coats and jackets won't pile up on the sofa again. OK, there is still much to be done for this room. Some are simple, like hanging some more modern arts, but others are very big job, like reconfiguring the living room closet. Those will be posts of their own, one day. For now, I just like to sit back and admire my handy work. Oh, did I mention this before? Little caterpilalr loves this new arrangement, she can get to all her toys now.

Revisit One of My Older Favorite

2011-05-03T10:46:00.001-04:00

I meant older favorite blog! I revisited Grosgrain today, and found some new inspiration. Found some tutorials I'd like to try.

Sprocket Pillow. Have been thinking about adding some interestin pillows to littler caterpillar's room. This one will be perfect! And the best part, a perfect scrap sewing opportunity.

Sleep Over Pillow. How lovely is this pillow case. We always had miss-matching beddings, so a couple of new pillow cases that matches nothing really won't bother any of us. I might need to choose some different colors, Stubborn won't be happy to use these.

For some reason I could not open the link to find the tutorial for this! But I have the exact same sweater in my closet, it's just a bit too tight for me, but I just love the embroidery too much to throw it away. I should try to make it into a cardigan like this. Maybe not with those colorful buttons. If I wear a belt with it, not buttoned up, it won't be too small any more. OK, I am definitely going to dig it out of my do-something-with-this pile.

Nursery Closet Reconfiguration

2011-05-02T10:45:00.008-04:00

We all know that babies grow up too fast. I used to wish little caterpillar can grow faster, but now I want her to slow down. I really miss the feeling of holding that soft little baby in my arms. Anyway. As she grows, our needs for storage in the nursery has been changing. CONSTANTLY! It was quite simple, like this. Then there were more cloth and toys, so we added a sweater organizer (for blankets) and more hangers. This worked fine for a long time. But now that she is much bigger, she wants to help mommy to hang the clothes up. Also, Stubborn wants the clothes sorted and set up the way he could understand, since he will be the one drop her off at daycare. And it became very hard to hold her still on the changing station. So it's time for our elfa shelves to go back into the closets again. Base on all the reasons above, mommy had to reconfigure her closet, a total transformation.

The actual plan involves painting the inside of the closet pink, and building a narrow shelving unit for the left end of the closet to hold accessories and small items. But I didn't want to paint it while all the windows are still closed, and I didn't have time to build shelf yet, so these will the in progress pictures. First, I removed the sliding doors. I like they don't take any extra space, but hate that we can only access half of the closet at a time. So, they had to go! Now that the doors gone, you can see better how the closet was set up. A metal shelving unit inside a builder standard closet. Oh, plus some canvas bins and a hanging sweater organizer. And this is the changing station made with two elfa shelves. Oh, I already removed the changing pad.
After some measuring, cutting, and painting, here is the new shelf and rod. Also, one elfa unit inside the closet. I had to remove the wheels, since they are not very stable, and we won't be moving it for a long time. This is when I noticed that the new shelf may not be level! I couldn't find my level, so trusted the baseboard. Stubborn thinks it's not a big deal, but it really bugs me. I will fix it one day. Oh, that little box on that new shelf holds all her socks and tights.Look, little caterpillar was inspecting the new closet. She was very excited to find the new rod at her level. To the left of the new shelf is where the narrow accessory shelf would be. For now I just hang a canvas shoe organizer there. Once the shelf installed, I will somehow change this organizer to a 2 by 5 (two columns of 5 next to each other), instead of a single column of 10. So, one column will hold her entire sets of outfits from Mon to Fri, while the second column holds the backup outfits.
I will paint her closet before our next vacation and leave the window open, so it will have time to air out. I will never let my baby sleep in a freshly painted room, even if I use the no VOC paint. I will post the updates once all are done, probably in a couple of months.

What To Do On A Rainy Day?

2011-04-28T22:21:00.007-04:00

Stubborn and I both took a sick day today. I still think we are having different problems. For me, it's the cough! Painful, breath taking kind of cough, makes me want to throw up everytime! But for Stubborn and little caterpillar, it's the running nose! Anyway! Don't really know what other people in the house did the whole day, since I was mostly in bed. But after I finally got up before dinner time, we did end up having some fun. This little hallway is right off the dining room, leads to the basement (door to the left) and the half bath (door on the right). Perfect little bowling alley! Well, stubborn had more fun than little caterpillar. She really liked these little pins, all standing, and nicely arranged. So when daddy told her to throw the ball and knock them down, she did not really get the idea. Yeah, this is her first bowling game. So, naturally when daddy took the ball and showed her what to do, she was not happy at all. As soon as the ball hit the pins, she started saying "Don't be scared!". She says that when she is scared. Then she picked up a blue pin, hugged it, rubbed on the body of it, and told the pin not to cry! She even tried to help all the pins to stand back up. So guess what happened when daddy tried to show her the game again. Yeah, she cried! She must thought daddy was being really mean! Oh, such a compassionate girl!

Enough with the painful bowling game, little caterpillar demanded to go outside. Even though the rain already stopped, it was still very windy out there, not mention all the puddles. Mommy just have to put raincoat and boots on her! Yeah, mommy has been looking for this oppotunity ever since she accidentally found this raincoat that matches her little boots perfectly. What a pretty sight! A cute little pink cheetah in a spring garden!

While little caterpillar and stubborn wondering around the street, mommy got a chance to take some pictures of the spring. Not so bright, all wet, but still pretty!

What's Going On?

2011-04-27T11:38:00.004-04:00

All of a sudden, everything in the house started breaking down! First, all of us got sick! Lots of coughing, nose blowing, and tons of tissues in the trash. Then our humidifier stopped working, only blinking! Then the coffee maker started leaking! Then our not too old (6 years) electric range's glass top cracked while we were cooking! What's going on? Stubborn joked we have to be extra careful now, there might be more coming! What else can go wrong? Oh yeah, another small one, a couple of light bulbs died around the house, and the one in the freezer too. It must be bad fengshui or something. Maybe I need to burn some insense tonight. Did we forget to pray to our ancestors earlier this month? Oops, we did forget!

More About Ikea Trip

2011-04-26T10:51:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, I was focusing on the exciting play kitchen, so didn't mention other interesting things happened at Ikea. I thought they deserve a post of their own, so the play kitchen won't steal their thunder.

We got to Ikea around lunch time, remember we went to Wrentham first? And secretly, I think one of the reason Stubborn stopped by Ikea was because I "accidentally" mentioned the famous Switish Meatball. So, of course he ordered that meatball combo, and I just have to try their baby backrib. Look at the portion, quite nice! And very tasty as well! But someone was not as enthusiastic about trying new food!
Since Stubborn is very "focused" when it comes to shopping, we just went directly to the Children section. Oh, little caterpillar had so much fun, crawing through the tunnel, rocking on the red rocking thing, and down the slide, again and again and again! That actually gave mommy some time to write down all the numbers needed. When we walked around the corner and saw all those beds, she was already very tired. How sweet is that! Resting on daddy's shoulder!
Then when she saw this cute little bedroom, she just couldn't resist any more. Climbed right in, pulled up the blanket, and pretended to snore.
And look at this tired little thing, thumb in her mouth, blankie in the other hand, she was ready to doze off when daddy was paying for her toys! She had no idea what was in that big box at the moment! Otherwise, you probably will see a totally different picture, with a little monkey all over that box!
Overall, this Ikea trip was quite short, yet very efficient. Better than all the other times we were there. I think the key is to stay on track with your plan, focus on the section that you are interested, and use the shortcuts! If we followed the path and went through all the displays, we probably would end up buying lots of stuffs we don't really need, just because they are too cute! Focus! Focus! And Focus! Guess this should work with all other stores as well.

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T10:38:00.005-04:00

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter yesterday! The weather was amazingly warm and bright, well, some clouds moved in and threatened to pour, instead just a couple of drizzle. But hey, here in Boston, you cannot ask for a better day than this for April! Anyway, since we cancelled our Easter party due to little caterpillar's running nose and coughing, we had to do something else! We went to Wrentham on Sat! Yes, the very wet, cold, rainy Sat! We thought there will be less people on a bad day, and if we get there early enough, we won't need to wait in line. And we were right! Little caterpillar had a great there, grabbing colorful new clothes, and toys, even tried a fancy bag on her little shoulder. So adorable!

Then on our way back, Stubborn made a surprise stop at Ikea! Oh, can you imagine how happy I was? And guess what we bought?
Yes, a DUKTIG Play Kitchen! I planned to build one for her, but it's never reach the top of the to-do list! Now I am off the hook. The best part is the instant gratification! I only spent about an hour putting it together. I could do it in half an hour, but I had to constantly push over-excited little caterpillar away while assembling it. As soon as I finished it, she just jumped right in, started washing hands, and cooking! How cute! Oh, she also got these cookware, utensil and felt veggie from Ikea. I just need to make some more felt food once I have time.
Here is a picture of little caterpillar enjoying her new favorite toy, stir frying some veggie dish for mommy.

Perfect Easter Crafts For Kids

2011-04-22T10:22:00.009-04:00

What do you do with the plastic easter eggs after the egg hunt? Sunghee from Creativity In Progress posted some seriously delicious solutions! So creative, and so yummy! What do I mean? Take a look yourself! And don't forget to check out other super creative projects on her blog.

Yummy cupcake with frosting. My mouth is drooling just looking at them.

You cannot have a teaparty serving just cupcakes. You got to have some cute teacup to serve some delicious tea!

What? You still have more plastic egg left? How about a Teacup Carousel?

Since we cancelled our easter egg hunting party because little caterpillar is sick, we do have lots of these plastic eggs. I could make some garlands out of them, but that's kind of seasonal, only appropriate for Easter, not the rest of the year. But these teacups and cupcakes are great for as long as your little girl enjoys tea parties. That could be many many years. I have been hunting for some perfect tea party necessities. I do have several sets of real teacups, but little caterpillar is still too little, and she probably will break some and hence break my sets. And I don't like to buy those plastic tea party set, they are either too blah, or always decorated with princesses! I want toys that's cute, and not covered with advertisements! This is the cutest recycling solution ever! Oh, I definitely can see these cups and cupcakes on my refinished teaparty table, right in front of the window in my girl's room! Oh oh, I cannot wait till Easter's over and steal all the eggs from my girl! Imagine my crafty fingers wiggling in the air!

Poor Little Caterpillar

2011-04-21T10:26:00.004-04:00

Poor thing has been sick since Monday! Something is happening in her mouth, she refuse to eat or drink! Even affraid of her favorite grapes! Mommy had to take a day off yesterday, since she was having fever! The only way to calm her down was playing her Seaworld videos repeatedly!

But I didn't managed to sneak out to Lowe's during her naptime! I have been planning a shelving system for her toys in the living room! (image here later) Finally bought all the boards. The guy at Lowe's was nice enough to cut them to size for me, for FREE! I know it's supposed to be free, but there are so many cuts, I was totally willing to pay them! Even though the cuts were not exact measurement I wanted, about 1/4" variation, I think I can make it work! If it's really not going to fit, I think I can handle it with my jigsaw. Now I have one shelf half made, with a whole bunch of board on the side. (image here later) Once it's done and painted (white), I will show you some pictures. One problem I could see now, it looks huge putting together! I might made it too big! Well, that means we have extra space to grow into, potentially more toys? Hmm, maybe educational toys and books! Hopefully, this won't make our already small living room too crowded! I might need to move the corner of the sectional sofa down to the basement to make some space for the new shelves! But hey, nobody was sitting in that corner anyway!