Mutated Cucumber Flower

Found this one the other day. Can you tell the difference?
How about now? This one is the normal flower. Can you tell the difference now?
There are supposed to be only 5 petals, and the tiny cucumber at the base supposed to be skinny. But this new one looks like two female flowers merged, 10 petals, and pretty fat base. Cannot wait to see what it will look like when fully developed.

ThankYou Cards

DH's coworkers threw us a baby shower yesterday. Too bad I am bed resting, couldn't go. They are so nice, gave us tons of cute gifts and some really nice homemade special gifts. To show our appreciation, I decided to send them homemade Thankyou cards individually, which means I had to make 44 cards! Guess we can just send them a group email, but I think that's kind of rude. Lucky I started preparing days back, so far I made about 50. Enough for this time.

Made these from scratch, including the envelopes. Didn't want to use real button, it will be too thick to mail. Found a cute scrapbook paper of buttons. Perfect!

These are easier. Bought lots of plain notes a while back, just glue some scrapbook paper and cute cutouts. Ta-Daa!

Birthday Gift

DH's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, I surprised him with a unique gift. Sorry about the picture quality. I will try to take a better one later.
We were at my father-in-law's house two years ago. We helped decluttering the house, and threw away 3 generations worth of stuffs. Some of the really old trunks were from DH's grandmother's wedding, they were made of leather, very old (about 90 years old, assuming they were new for the wedding) and deteriorated. Before we threw them out, I saw those gorgeous, rusty hardware. They all have wonderful old fashion design. The trash guy was waiting outside, so I didn't have time to get all of them off. They were really hard to take off, so I only got two pieces off, and they were not from the same trunk. =( I took them back to the states, and thought I would do something with them. While DH was in China a couple of months ago, I thought these will be wonderful art for his home office. I know he misses his family a lot, this will be that something special, from his family, and from the bottom of my heart, just for him. And no surprise there, he absolutely loved it!

Encyclia radiata

This baby finally fully opened. AK was right. He told me it has very strong fragrance, but it didn't at first. But just as he said, after about a week, the smell came out. It's sweet like milk candy, that's if you have all the windows and doors open. I turned on the AC for the past several days, because it's pretty hot, and I get heat exhaustion pretty easily. The smell was SOOOO strong, kind of stank the whole dining room. I even got headache from it. So, it has to go out, back onto the deck. Too bad we cannot enjoy it inside. But at least I put it in a little bit shady spot, so the flowers can last a little bit longer.

Cute Shop

Cynthia from The Baby Panda contacted me several weeks back. After some nice chatting, guess what, now my items are proudly displayed in her shop. Too bad I don't have the energy to take more pictures of the new items, otherwise there will be more in both my shop and hers. Anyway, this is my first drop shipping opportunity. So excited! Hope this will be a great start for a new beginning.

Nursery, Finally Done!

What do you think? Sorry about the light quality, the window was too bright.

This is the left corner, where I put the glider, under the floating shelves and right in front of the closet. Well, this is the only spot I can fit it in. The room is just too small. This glider was picked up on the side of the road years ago. The chair itself is in perfect condition, just the cushions were in a horrible shape. Guess the old owner had some naughty cats. So, bought some nice fabric, and recovered both cushions, and added two small pillows for neck and back support. It looks brand new! And the best part is, it only cost me about $10!

The crib is in the right corner of the room, and a twin size bed next to it. So I can sleep next to my baby during the first several months, it will be great for night feeding.

The closet is good size, but only have one builder standard shelf, not really functioning for me. And since I am the handy one in the house, and I am really pregnant, cannot do any heavy work, I decided to use what I have. Half of my metal shelf, some of the canvas bins bought months ago, and some homemade tags. Tadaaa! Customized closet, just for my girl!

And here is the baby bouncer for my little 'monkey'. Inherited it from a friend years ago, and made this fun monkey cover right after I got pregnant. Now it's ready for action.

DIY Nursery Art

Bought some simple frames a while back, planned to put some of my baby's pictures in there. Then after I installed all the floating shelves in the nursery, it suddenly hit me. I should make some simple art pieces for the room. Concerning about my baby's safety, I won't hang them above the crib, where they could fall and hit my baby on the head. They will be displayed on the shelves, which has ledges to hold everything in place.


Here is how I did it. A box of super cute "yoga goddess" note cards,
some scrapbook paper, a scissor, glue stick and double sided tape. That's it!

Ocean of Flowers

Maybe not that dramatic, but good enough for me. My little garden might not be even close to the professional landscaped gardens, but it provide me different colors and scents throughout the seasons, and lots of delicious vegetables.

My lilies.

My nicotiana.

My flower beds and vegetable bed.

Nursery Update

Finally installed all the floating shelves for the nursery. The room is so small, there is basically no space for any bookshelf or dresser. Plus I have always loved floating shelves, I decided to make some myself, so they will be the perfect size for the room. Mom helped me painting them white, since I should not touch any chemical now. I think they look great! What do you think?

And what do you think about the comforters my mom and I made for my baby girl? I made the blue and green one, and my mom made the pink one. Check out the fabric, very special. The dragon, phoenix, butterfly, and peony are all very meaningful Chinese symbols. Dragon and phoenix are traditional animals symbolic of auspiciousness, and along with the lin and the tortoise, they were known as the "Four Supernatural Spirits." The butterfly represents love and longevity, and peonies embody romance and prosperity and are regarded as an omen of good fortune and a happy marriage. See why I chose this fabric for my baby? All these will protect and bless my baby girl, and she will grow up happy and healthy.

My Closet Office Updates

Remember how my closet office area looked like? One word, messy. Finally got enough energy to fix the shelves, and put everything back inside. Didn't want to spend tons of money on this tiny closet, so I used the stuffs I 'collected' over the years, some from yard sales, some from the curb, and the rest were bought on sale. Nothing fancy here, only the practical ones. With a baby on the way, I cannot 'waste' money on those fancy organizers I wanted now. And this way, I can be creative and frugal at the same time.

Bought the spice organizer 9 years ago at a church thrift store in NH. Painted it warm white, and the bottles and drawers will hold some tiny scrapbooking materials. Got the display shelf free at a yard sale 3 years ago. Painted it the same white, and it's holding my stamps and the metal jars.

Don't have a place or special organizer to hold my scrapbook paper and albums. So they are sitting on top of a yard sale side table, underneath the desk. I think it's a good way to use a dead space, and it also holds some of my plastic paper/file holders.

Found these office magazine holders in recycle bin outside my office one day. Great, free organizers! After some scrapbook paper and tape, they look good enough for my small office. Now they are holding my BHG magazines.

Need some organizers to hold my color pens, brushes, and other small tools. So, I went to the basement, and found some metal cans I saved a while ago. Just tape some leftover scrapbook paper on and here they are.

Something Smells Really Good

in my yard, that is. It's my oriental lilies and nicotiana flowers. I planted some oriental lilies last year, and they are even stronger and bigger this time. Interestingly, there are some light pink ones I don't remember planting! What happened there? Where did they come from? And I thought I planted the white ones at the front, but they are hiding in the back now. Hmm!? Guess I cannot trust my memory. Better start writing some gardening diary.

And here are my nicotiana flowers. They look simple yet elegant, smell lovely, and most importantly, they attract cucumber beetles. How wonderful! Perfect decoy! Now my favorite Chinese cucumber plants are much safer.