New Favorite Blog

Found this great blog yesterday. Thimbly ThingsLoving it! Lots of inspirations, and really well written. Already eyeing some of the projects I want to try, and my girl's closet is going to explode soon. =)

Mending

I am a pretty handy girl, who can handle lots of repairs around the house. But one thing I have absolutely no idea how to do is MENDING a sweater! That's why I kept all of our damaged sweaters in a bag, and handed them to my mom while she was here. She is really good at knitting and crochet, so naturally she is great at mending sweaters. Basically, if she can find a short piece of yarn from the sweater, she can make the hole disappear forever. She said I will be good at it too if I try, but I doubt it. It looks really complicated to me. So, yesterday, when I found this article about mending at Craftzine.com, I was quite excited. And then I found more. Maybe it's time for me to learn it. At least I can sew, so I can sew some modern patches on top of the holes to hide them. That counts as repair, right? Love this saved cardigan. Now, where can I find a sweater with holes to practice? My mom fixed all mine. I will have to remember to pick up one when thrifting next time. Oh, talking about thrifting, wait till you see what my mom and I bought a couple of weeks ago. It will be my next post, whenever that will be.

New Chandelier

The Chandelier finally arrived yesterday. WE LOVE IT! It's very sophisticated and romantic. I love straight drum shade. It's so modern, and a little bit curve makes it even more elegant. The chandelier inside is so gorgeous with the tear shaped crystals and flowers as details. The shiny chrome finish goes great with the sparkly clear crystals and creamy white shade. We have been looking for a traditional chandelier with modern twist for 4 years. THIS IS IT! Perfect size, and just as we imagined. It proves patience does pay off. Now we don't have to stare at that ugly builder grade $40 chandelier any more. Bye-bye ugly, and Hello gorgeous!

And look how perfect it matches our floor lamp in the living room! We found it several months ago at our local TJMaxx & Home Goods. Same straight drum shade, shiny chrome finish, plus some sparkly glass balls. We didn't even plan this, they just matched, without the matchy-matchy feeling. Guess this is our taste for now.

Just to show you how big the difference is, here is a picture of the old chandelier. It was that awful golden color I hated, so I spray painted it silver when we moved in.

Treasury List Rock!

3 days after my red monkey fist keychain was posted on a Treasury list, it was sold! I am soooo happy. This is my first sale after returning from maternity leave. This is going to make someone a great stocking stuffer. Need to list all the others in the store.

Orchids Update

Finally remembered to take pictures of my Hawaii, when the first two spikes started fading. Two of the flowers dropped off already, had to put them back for the picture. Anyway, it's so beautiful. It grew several new bulbs over the summer, and they all bloomed. Now I have 4 spikes, total 10 flowers! Guess it's finally settled in my house.

I also found another orchid ready to bloom. I got it from AK a couple of years back, and it has been quiet and small. I just repotted it a month ago, and guess it's happier. AK identified it as "Dendrobium bigibbum var compactum", and said it supposed to be purple. Cannot wait.

My First Treasury Listing

So excited! Just found out my red monkey fist keychain is in the "Holiday For Him" treasury listing. This is my first time been picked for a treasury. Doesn't it look great with all other red stuffs?

Shop Reopened

Just reopened my little shop! How exciting! My life is getting back to normal, hopefully. Oh, BTW, I am running a holiday sale, all nursing covers are $5 ~ $7 off! When I made them, I just thought they will be useful. Now I have a baby of my own, I truely appreciate the privacy it provides. It has been several times I needed to nurse my baby girl when we were out shopping. I just took her back to our car, or find a seat in the corner of the food court. We were both fully protected, and my girl could eat quietly without distractions. So, I kept three of my favorites from the pile of nursing cover I made for the shop. LOVING THEM!

First Day Back To Work

It's such a mixed feeling. I am sad to leave my baby girl home, but at the mean time, I am happy to have conversation with grownups, not all about baby issues. DH is home today, baby has a doctor appointment. He thought it's funny to put my crying baby on the phone. Not funny at all! It makes me feel so guilty, leaving her with other people. But I have to work. =( At least I'm not crying, yet.

Baby Nursery Update

Received lots of baby books as gifts recently. They were all over the room, made the already small nursery really cluttered. Finally made up my mind, and made a shallow bookshelf to custom fit the narrow space behind the door. My mom painted it white to match those floating shelves I made earlier. Now it looks so neat and organized.

I have looked everywhere for a perfect changing table or dresser, got lots of inspirations online. But it's so hard to find one in reality, which provides ample storage and matches our height better. Finally, we found a perfect solution. I have 3 elfa shelving units in the closets all over the house. Hubby tied two together, which made a perfect changing station, perfect height, fits our changing pad nicely, and has 8 drawers for storage. Now everything has its own spot, diapers, wipes, clean nipples and pacifiers, burp cloth, hand towels, medicines, and lots of toys. And not a penny spent. PERFECT!

Since there is only one window in the room, and that's the only spot my baby can get some sunshine, we placed the bouncer there, and moved the glider chair to the side, in front of the closet and changing station. I know, it's crowded, but we have no other choice. The room is just TOO TOO SMALL! At least it's working.

Coyote!

in my backyard? Just when I thought my neighborhood is super safe for young kids.

Happy Halloween

This is my baby girl's first holiday. She received a super cute gift earlier, a pumpkin pajamas, perfect for Halloween. Happy Halloween, my baby.

Getting Cold

Cannot really go anywhere to enjoy the foliage, but the color on my street is wonderful enough.

Pretty Boots

My best friend J had a baby boy several months before me, and her mom crocheted two pairs cute boots for him and my baby girl. Look how pretty they are! It maybe time for me to learn crochet. =)

I'm Full

My baby girl loves to have her feet crossed when she is really relaxed. This one was taken last night after feeding. Cannot stop kissing those cute toes.

Garden Updates

Took a walk in my garden yesterday after a whole night rain. After a month hiding inside the house, the air smells fresher, the sky looks more blue, and autumn started quietly. The leaves are turning all sorts of amazing colors, and the mums are blooming happily in the cool and crispy fall air. I just love the fall in New England.

Baby Girl Hair Clips

Suddenly thought I should make or buy a cute hair clip for my baby girl's "Man Yue" (one month birthday). Found a lot online, but this is my favorite so far. This cutie was found at My Baby Clothes Boutique.

Welcome My Baby Girl

My baby girl arrived about 10 days ago. We have been so busy, so didn't have time to announce it. We are all doing great, and trying our best to figure out the feeding and sleeping schedule. It's hard, but we are confident. Sorry if I cannot keep up with the blog for a while.

Still Here

I want her in my arms NOW! Nursery is ready, the whole house is ready, and all of us are ready! She is just taking her sweet time, and enjoying teasing us. Com'on alreay!

Store Updates

Finally found time to take some pictures last night, and here are some of the new keychains I made weeks back. They will be in store soon.

100 Sales, 200 Hearts

For the past several months, I didn't have much time to manage my little Etsy store because of the pregnancy and bed resting. Checked recently, and what a surprise! I reached the 100 sales and 200 hearts almost the same time! What a great baby gift! Thanks everyone! For the next month or so, the store will be even more quiet, because I will be "Zuo Yue Zi". In Chinese culture, women should stay in bed recovering for a month after delivery. So, I won't be able to make more pieces, or taking new pictures. Probably I should just temporarily close the store for a while. Anyway, I just want to tell everyone who purchased from my store before or have been reading my blog, how much I appreciate your supports. THANK YOU!!!

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!