One Wedding, Three Languages and Lots of Handmade Goodies

I met a young lady over 10 years ago in Melbourne and she has become one of my dearest friends ever since. We have joint memories and some mutual friends. We used to go to different cafes to try something new whenever we had a chance, we had a great holiday together once, and she was the first person to introduce 'chai latte' to me. 

She is fun and smart, she is hardworking and responsible, and she is inspirational in many ways. Since I met my husband and formed my family, she has become a family friend and we would enjoy one another's company whenever we find a chance. She moved interstate a while back which made it hard for us to find the opportunity to get together much, however, she has always remained as a valuable person and a dear friend in my life. 

                                   

Over a year ago, she found a person that she knew she could see herself with for the rest of her life. They became best friends and partners soon after. As time went by, they decided that it was their time to form a family together.

My friend was understandably very excited about the news and when she shared at the time not-yet-publicly-announced news with me, I naturally and very happily shared her excitement and was very happy for her. You know how you say 'you deserve happiness' to some people at times, she is one of those people that really deserves to be happy and she surely has the right attitude to pursue it.

A few months ago, she was asked for a hand in marriage by this special person in her life and of course her answer was 'yes'. We were thrilled to hear the news and also be invited to share her special day with them. The big day was on the 26th of April, 2014.

As a family, we decided to drive to their current location, the city of churches, Adelaide (SA), a few days in advance to have a little holiday. We stayed at an apartment in the CBD and our children shared a room for the first time. It was also our daughter's first time to sleep in a 'big bed' too. It was so much fun hearing all that giggling in their room until late hours, especially the first night. They talked and giggled for hours, thinking we could not hear them. The giggling became much less the remaining nights as they couldn't fight off sleeplessness anymore. However, almost every morning, we found our little daughter, who is 3 years old, in her 5 year old brother's bed. It was such a heart-warming experience and a picture for us.

While in Adelaide, we had a chance to go around in the city a bit and also met the famous pandas, Wang Wang and Funi, at Adelaide Zoo too, of course. However, the highlights of the place weren't any of them for us. It was when we went to some surrounding suburbs such as the German town Hahndorf, we were quite impressed. We also enjoyed the local farmer's market at Willunga. I cannot explain how tasty the sultanas we bought from that particular market was! We so regretted not buying so much more of them after we tasted them on the way back to Melbourne!

The wedding was at a place in Clarendon, another beautiful place that reminds you of the words serenity and calm. The wedding started with an outdoor setting and everything felt so romantic, so well organised, so 'wedding-like'. After the ceremony and some photos etc, we went inside for some drinks followed by a meal and lots of fun. I must admit, I don't ever remember of laughing so much at a wedding before as much as we did at this wedding. It was pure fun!

The bride originally comes from Japan. The groom is Peruvian. The immediate families came all the way from Japan and Peru for the wedding and they knew almost no English. The speeches were made in three languages (there were interpreters to read the speeches in Japanese and Spanish). However, the family members communicated with us so much more successfully than many English speaking people that we get to meet at times in our lives. The communication is not limited to language, definitely not.

Throughout the whole wedding, I thought that they used their multilingual and multicultural backgrounds to their advantage very successfully. They acknowledged and valued them really well. 

Everything was planned well and their organisational skills were exceptional, yet everyone was very relaxed. In fact, I haven't seen so many professional, great to talk to and fun-loving people together for a long time. By the way, I still don't know how it happened but at some stage we were all on stage doing the 'macarena' dance. It was a great laugh! There were Japanese dancing, Latin dance shows, fun personal video clips and more. Who said wives don't come with a set of instructions? My friend did! The groom, who had a great sense of humour, had the pleasure (!) to read out the instructions in public (while sweating) and cannot claim that 'he didn't know' in the future. 

I have always found my friend to be talented. It looks like it runs in the family. Her dad is an ex-school principal and he surely knows how to communicate with kids well. My children's Japanese is pretty much limited to counting to 5 and saying a few words like hello and thank you. The father's English was quite limited also. Regardless, he made my children (and us) laugh so much so many times. He even taught my son some magic tricks and my daughter a few dance moves!

Her mum was very talented too. She came up with so many origami objects and toys in such a short time using some of the paper that my children were using to draw on. She even asked for permission to use their paper using no English whatsoever. Beside the point, it was amazing to watch her fast moving fingers and determined face with a confident but warm smile. See the funny looking paper object above? It is one of the origami pieces that she made and when you throw it forward, it works like a propeller. Brilliant! Better yet, the little colourful bags in the first few pictures are also her work. They had some lollies in them and had our names on the back. Every guest had one and she had made them all by herself! I think we were about 60 or 70 people in total and she made one for each one of us. Incredible! Very precious!

The wedding was special. fun, relaxing, inspirational, and had lots of handmade goodies to enjoy (and I met two other friends of mine there too, what a bonus!). It was such a great pleasure to be there. Wishing the newly weds a 'happy ever after' ending!

From Mama to Bubba (2): A Favourite Top Turned into a Dress

Do you remember my 'From Mama to Bubba (1)' post? Well, this is another little handmade gift from me to my little beauty even though it is not necessarily the second in terms of order. However, just to make it easy to track on the blog, I have named it as the second. 

My daughter is a happy little girl. She loves her pink and she loves her tutus. She loves dancing and singing. She is clever and energetic. I wanted to make something that I believed she would love and luckily, my mother instinct was right! 

Using one of her favourite tops, which was becoming too small for her to wear especially in the next summer months, I made her a dress. It was actually my first time type of a project with a gathered skirt. The Internet is definitely not short on turning t-shirts to dresses, nor does it disappoint one in gathered skirt tutorials. I did not actually follow a particular tutorial as I had a clear idea on what I wanted to make with that top. I simply used my common sense and current ability to sew and put it all together.

I used a wide ribbon not only because it looks good but also to hide the unpleasant look of the joint where the pink top and the gathered skirt are sewn together. Even though my petite daughter can get in and out of the dress without much hassle for the moment, it is obvious that the dress will not last long for her as it is not flexible. I should have made the waist flexible. Well, lets take it as a note to self for the next time!

What I love about this project of mine is that first of all, it made my precious one happy and that is totally priceless. Secondly, it is an upcycling project and my daughter will get to use one of her favourite tops for a bit longer instead of having to say farewell to it very soon. Also, it is frilly, girly, handmade and my own effort for my daughter. It is also a part of a learning process too. To me, it is a win-win. What do you think?

A No-Sew Makeover in Half an Hour: DIY Chair Cover

Here is my no-sew project from the other day: a new DIY swirl chair cover. It took me less than half an hour to come up with this beauty!

The chair works perfectly fine but the cover on it was a bit boring and not in its best shape in my opinion. So, I decided to try my hand at re-upholstering it and I must admit, this has been one of my most favourite upcycling projects to date. I am just in love with the outcome!

What I used was a staple gun, a hammer (to hammer the staples down when/if they were not in properly), a screw driver and my choice of fabrics.  (Depending on how your existing chair is assembled, what you will need to use may differ. Eg. Allen key instead of a screwdriver).

The process was quite straight forward. I simply took the screws off the backing on the seat and the back support, separated them using some muscle power, stapled the new fabrics on them making sure that the fabrics were well stretched(I chose not to remove the original cover on it), attached the back pieces back on, put the pieces together again and voila!

The whole procedure took us approximately half an hour. It is a perfect and very affordable way of adding some colour to your home or jazzing up your room.  

There is nothing like having something that has your (or your loved ones') touches all over it at home. It just is so unique and special. 

Enjoy the beauty of some personal touches in your life today!

HANDMADE POTHOLDER

I have been pretty quiet recently as I have been even busier than usual and also had some temporary health issues. The exciting Melbourne weather continues to be surprising and it is almost inevitable to be not sick during these extremely inconsistent weather conditions. So, we have been having our share of the cold and flu as a family as well for a while now. 

I hope to write about the beautiful story of the top two fat quarters in the picture below as well as many other fabrics that will make your mouth water in another post in the future. Today, it is about a little quilting project of mine.

Since I was at home with a sore throat and was unable to do much, I thought it was a great opportunity to work on a new project to distract my attention from the pain and also do something that did not require using my voice. So, that is how I decided on working on a potholder. 

The inspiration came from the little pretty potholders by NanaCompany. Just like almost everything else she makes, Amy's potholders looked too pretty not to be inspired by. Her tutorial is pretty easy to follow even for a beginner. I changed a few details about it though to suit my needs better (made it smaller as I found the measurements used in Amy's tutorial to be too large for my liking and also used a lace instead of a ruffle. I also changed the back fabrics to calico and skipped any extra decoration as I love the blue floral fabric and wanted it to stand out). 

I don't have a walking foot to use for quilting. If you are like me, you can just sew straight lines in both directions as seen in pictures (they make diamonds) to hold the batting in place well. It also looks pretty in my opinion.

It was an enjoyable project for me. The most challenging part was adding the binding around it (not where the pocket to put your hand is, I am talking about the long one that covers all the raw edges around it).

I cannot wait to make more potholders as soon as I get my hands onto some insulated batting in the near future!

Have you ever quilted before? If yes and if you have it online, send us a link. Looking forward to seeing your quilt!

Our First DIY Greenhouse

My initial plan was to blog about the 30 second no-sew breastfeed cover tutorial that I had promised before but unfortunately, I haven't had the time to take photos for it yet. Therefore, it is still on the waiting list. However, I have got something else for you here today.

In Australia, we have happily opened our doors to the beautiful Spring and it has been quite generous to us already. Nice sunny days have definitely warmed us inside and out. There is always something to do in the garden and when it is nice and warm, the idea of gardening is very inviting, even though we've never stopped gardening throughout the whole year, even if it meant wearing a beanie, a scarf, a pair of gumboots, a few layers under a thick jacket and some nice gloves to be able to work outdoors.

Early in winter this year, we decided to build a greenhouse over one of our garden beds, our first-ever greenhouse! It was very exciting indeed. As a family, we worked hard regardless of how harsh the weather had been at times. We achieved building our greenhouse over two afternoons.

We tried to use recycled materials whenever possible and the most unusual recycled item we used was the rods that we saved from our old blinds in the house and used them to make the rooftop frame.

When we completed our greenhouse, we were very satisfied. However, soon after we noticed that it was too early to be happy as we started having many days with strong winds and the greenhouse had too much pressure in it. Some parts of it came undone and we had to find a solution to it. Our solution idea came from Mr. Hubby. As he suggested, we made several little so-called 'windows' on most sides of it and we used some strong tape to secure the ends of the cuts to make sure they would not keep ripping with strong winds. It seemed to be working well even though it was still not the ideal greenhouse. We also put some extra poles to support the frame and the plastic cover better. 

We planted some broad beans, peas, beans, lettuce mix and silver beet in it. However, soon we recognised that the silverbeet seeds were something else and to this date, we still don't know what they are. We have to be a bit more patient before we can make anything out of it. Hopefully it is something edible at least!

The plants started growing beautifully in the greenhouse until one day, one of our gorgeous girls (chickens) found a way to get in it on a windy day! We were happy that she had a feast and was quite a content girl when we found her but unfortunately, it came with a price: bean seeds were everywhere, there was almost no lettuce left, peas were mostly hidden under big piles of soil etc. The two lessons we learned from this experience were that making a greenhouse in a place where there are strong winds, you have to be extra cautious to make it nice and strong; and that chickens don't eat broad bean plants.

Towards the end of winter, we first opened the rooftop of the greenhouse and lessened the pressure even more for windy days and a few weeks ago, we took it down altogether to get the garden beds ready for Spring.

Over a few afternoons, we made our three main vegie patches chicken-proof. The kids just loved being a part of the whole process and also playing in the dirt, of course. As for the girls (our chickens), they had a feast every time we turned the soil upside down or dug a hole on the ground. In fact, at times, it was so hard to work for us as they would not leave our sight for a second and their heads were always around our feet. We had to fight for space!

I plan to update you on the progress of our plants and trees in time as well as posting on other topics. Until my next post, make the most of the nature you are in regardless of the season you have there!

Cotton: Nature's Wonder Fiber

Recently, a mother of a young boy with eczema was in desperate need for some tips and recommendations from other parents with similar experiences on a social media group that I am a part of. In her post, she told us that she had already made an appointment with her son's paediatrician but she felt awful just sitting at home and waiting for the appointment day to come that was in a few days while watching her baby in discomfort and pain. This post is not exactly about eczema but that post of hers has inspired me to write about one aspect of our choices as individuals, parents, consumers and makers; fabrics.

Photo Credit

Whenever we need to choose some clothing for our kids, we pay extra attention to use natural fibers, such as cotton. Our now-almost-5-year-old son suffers from a mild case of eczema and we were reminded by his doctor at the time to use %100 cotton wherever and whenever possible even for his bedsheets at the time as synthetic fabrics and wool can irritate but it has always been our preference even before then.

I almost always use only 100% cotton fabrics for main fabrics for my kids and at my shop as I believe in cotton because it is natural and I am a believer of 'goodness comes from nature'. Cotton is a natural fiber that comes from the seedpod of the cotton plant and is used to make many fabric types. It is  used for virtually every type of clothing; you name it, it has it. However, as it is stated here, most of its
apparel usage is for men and boys’ clothing.

some cotton products by MADE BY Y

Cotton fiber has been cultivated for more than 8,000 years. Cotton accounts for 40% of the world's fiber production and generates a $40 billion a year textile market according to this source. It is mentioned by the same source that approximately 80% of the cotton farms are small, and many are family owned.

It is stated here that no other fiber comes close to duplicating all of the desirable characteristics combined in cotton. Cotton can be woven or knit into cloth.

%100 cotton fabrics are breathable. They do not trap the air and allow the skin to breathe. They are smooth and cool which is important for the prevention of overheating. Cotton is very absorbent therefore, it will absorb moist and sweat easily (it evaporates; releases the moist on the surface of the fabric) In fact, as it is claimed here, it absorbs up to 27 times its own weight in water. It is non-irritating. Regardless of the heat or the humidity, cotton fabrics feel good against the skin. Cotton is comfortable. Unlike some synthetic fabrics, cotton fabrics do not rub against the skin, which is bad for eczema as well.

Additionally, cotton is easy to clean. It can be laundered or dry-cleaned (just be wary of the colours and other chemicals that may be added to certain cotton fabrics though). As a general rule, cotton can be boiled, therefore sterilised. As a fabric, cotton is normally durable and strong.

Last but not least, here are some great tips by sewing.org on how to look for a good quality cotton fabric for you:
- look for closely woven fabric with long, 1/2"fibers and even yarns.
- Scrape the fabric with your finger nail, if the threads separate, the fabric won’t wear well.
- To check the fiber length, pull a thread from the fabric and untwist it; if the fibers are at least 1/2"long, the fabric will wear well.
- Rub two fabric scraps together to see if the fabric pills.
- To check for colorfastness, rub the colored fabric with a piece of white fabric; no dye should come off on the white fabric.

Enjoy something natural today!

Sleeping Bag: An Upcycling Project

I have been longing to make a sleeping bag for Miss Junior for a while but it took me some time before I could find the time and courage to work on it. When I saw the gorgeous Abby's sleeping bags for her beautiful son and the tutorial she has put together on her page, thingsforboys.com, I thought it was the time I made an extra effort to make one for my daughter as well.

As usual, I actually tried to find more tutorials on it online but unfortunately there weren't many that I thought was great. I think Abby's tutorial was still the best option of them all even though there were some page navigations to be done at times and I was hoping to avoid that. Regardless, I set my mind to it and voila! My little beauty now has a new sleeping sack!

Before moving on to the sleeping bag project of mine, I will share a few photos from my precious new fat quarter stash. Aren't they just amazing? I can look at them with a smiley face and some wildly running ideas in mind for hours and wouldn't even recognise it has been hours!

Now, this much drooling over the gorgeous fabrics of mine should be enough. Lets move on to the actual topic of this post: an upcycling project of turning some baby blankets into a sleeping bag.

Here is how I have made it. I first made a rough pattern on some newspaper pages using one of Miss Junior's sleeping bags. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of making the neck too big at this stage and I only noticed it after I pretty much completed the project. Too late to change it but it is still OK for me as even Mr. Junior wants to wear it at times. It fits him as well. Also, it is all about learning, isn't it? It has taught me a lesson and I am happy to take it. I now know what not to do next time.

Then, I pinned the paper pattern onto some of my children's baby blankets that weren't in much use anymore. I particularly chose the warm materials. I had a pink and a small blue fleece blanket for the outer, and some soft thick 100% cotton blankets for the lining inside.

I must say, for me, the trickiest part was the decision of how to place the zipper and also make it reversible. After a few trials, I think the zipper worked well, but not so reversible (the installation of the zipper was easy, it was the planning of it that was challenging for me). For the ones who have dreaded working with a zip, don't! It is actually surprisingly easy to install one. If you don't believe people who say 'trust me', then just do a quick search online and you will find lots of tutorials on it. Here is only one of the videos that you may find useful (it has brief information on different types of 'feet' for a particular branded sewing machine but also explains how to install a zipper as well). Otherwise, if you would rather prefer pictorial tutorials, you can try this link.

Unlike the tutorial, I cut the two front fabrics (both the pink fleece and also the cotton lining) in half upto the point where my zip was going to end as the zip I had was shorter than the whole length of the sleeping bag but was definitely a good size for my daughter to get in and out easily. Then, I tried to follow the tutorial with the rest of the project.

I was hoping to make it reversible initially, just like the very skillful Abby has made it, but I couldn't (I had to go back and forth to another site here and I didn't have that much time for it). So, I kept going and instead, used some bias tape around the neck and the armholes to give it a professional finish. I must also admit that it was also because I actually really like this finish. It just gives it a more character and adds value to it.

I may also add some fabric cover over the zipper on top of the sleeping bag to make it harder for my daughter to open it. I can close it with a snap fastener or a button.

Since my pink blanket was larger than what I needed at the front and my blue piece was not big enough for the back, I simply used a bit of both at the back.

Here are a few notes for myself for the next time:

* Your daughter is petite. This sleeping bag will possibly fit her until she is at least a teenager. You can aim for a smaller fit next time.

* As you have noticed after trying it on yourself, the neck suits you perfectly well. Since it is originally made for your 2 year old daughter, not for yourself, make sure you make the neck-hole much smaller next time. 

* Follow instructions well. Do not get lazy. Otherwise, be happy with your 'not-so-reversible' sleeping bag. 

Make something that you enjoy making today!

DIY KIDS: Bucket Stilt Balancing Fun

Here, it is the second week of school holidays. In my opinion, it is a great time to stock up on some easy and affordable activity/toy ideas to keep the little ones happily busy. Busy kids, happy parents!

Stilt walking challenge will not only amaze your child(ren) during their school-free time but is sure to make a great party activity too.



What you need for this stilt fun is as follows:

- a drill to make holes with, 

- some rope, 

- two buckets, strong enough to carry your child(ren).

Simply, drill two holes on the bottom of your buckets across from each other just large enough for your rope to go through. Secure each side of the rope with a knot inside the bucket, where the holes are. Make another knot less than halfway through the rope on the outside and voila! That is all there is to it. 

Have a joyful day!