I've Been a Bad Blogger

yeah, i have no excuse, other than i was caught up with our summer activities and daily life with my two girls and my husband at home all day for the whole summer. it was both lots of fun and lots of work. more cleaning up after the girls (and my husband!), more clothes to wash, meals to cook, dishes to wash, etc., etc. but it was also nice having our little family being so close and doing fun things together.


i also got to do more crafting with my husband being around to play and spend time with our girls. here is one thing that i made. it's an embroidery for my Aunt Josie, who recently renewed her vows with her husband of 10 years. i got the pattern from vintage transfer finds but i just checked and it seems that the pattern has been removed. and i'm glad to say that my aunt loved it! i wasn't there to see her and her husband open their presents, but i heard that it was ooohed and aaahhed a lot. my mom thought it was the nicest present, and i'm glad i decided to make that for her!

Sewing Kit Swap Is Done!

now that i know our swap partners, N from Balkan Style Bloggers and her daughter B received out package, i can show you some pics of what we sent to them.
as you can see, there were some fabric scraps, ric-rac and trim, a needle book, a tissue cozy, a felt bird softie kit, three sewing cards, yo-yo's, a hand carved stamp and stamp pad, a pincushion and heart shaped pins, an embroidery hoop, some buttons, some ribbon and a smaller pincushion. and we packed it in a cute green small luggage case.

here are some close-ups of both pincushions. the smaller one is below.

and i'm glad to hear that N and B are happy with the sewing kit we sent to them! i can't wait to see any projects they may work on with what we sent to them.
and here is the swap package they sent to us! as you can see, C was very excited to see what was inside.
luckily she was patient enough to let me take pictures before she took off with anything! N and B sent so many nice things! among our favorites are the buttons and fabric. they also included a pattern for making a ruby doll and i think we'll definitely use some of the fabric for that. C also liked all the embroidery floss in her favorite colors of pink and aqua. and i can't wait to teach C how to use the hand made knitting nancy! i think that is a wonderful way to get C started with knitting!

and here is my happy girl! thank you so much N and B! and thank you to Melissa of Day to Day for hosting this awesome swap!

Summer Fun, Weeks 5-7

just popping in to say 'hi!'. sorry for the unexpected blog break, but i've been preoccupied with so much stuff going on this summer.

for one thing, (and this is something that i forgot to mention here in my blog) i signed up for another swap! this one is hosted by Melissa Goodsell, from Day to Day. it is a sewing kit swap in which we make a sewing kit for our partner's child. my partner is N from Balkan Style Bloggers. i have already finished her daughter's sewing kit, but i won't show any pictures until i know she's received it. i will try to mail it out today or tomorrow.

that was the fun part, now for the not-so-fun part. my husband, my two girls, my MIL and i have all gotten sick this summer! it was some strange form of cold and it affected us all in very different ways. we are still trying to get over it, and i know it won't last forever, but it has been very uncomfortable and has dampened our fun this summer. there is still a month before C starts school, so i'm sure we'll have lots more fun before her vacation is over.

also, because my husband is taking a vacation, we decided to use it to try to DIY and fix things up around the house. i think the stress of the hard work and worry from not knowing how to go about doing some of the fixing is what made my husband take his illness harder. he only took a day or two off and is still working. our house will be under repair through most of the summer, so it will make things like entertaining at home nearly impossible. there go my birthday plans! oh well! i'm sure we can just go out for dinner. hopefully we can finish the home repairs in time to take a mini vacation and take the kids to sea world before the end of summer. (crossing fingers!)

other than that, i have some crafty projects i need to start working on. one is for my nephew's birthday present and the other one is for my cousin's quinceañera party favors. i'm really excited about working on these two projects and i can't wait to show some WIP photos! gotta get started!

Summer Fun, Week 4

this last weekend we went to santa monica beach. it was M's first time at the beach. we thought she would enjoy it as much as C did when we first took her, but we were surprised to see that she didn't like being in the water. i guess the waves were a bit scary to her.

so she preferred walking at the edge of the water, with dadda always watching nearby. she found a few tiny shells, lots of sea weed, but that scared her, too! and dadda showed her how to dig in the wet sand to find sand crabs. she didn't like those, either. you could see the pier in the background.

C was happy to play on her own. she was careful not to get too deep, but would carefully test herself to see how deep she could get. she definitely is a water baby!

M decided she liked it better next to mommy where she could play with the dry sand.

when we had enough of the beach, we packed up and walked over to the pier where my husband and i took turns riding with C on the rides. M fell asleep as soon as we started packing and unfortunately missed out on the fun we had at the pier. and she had been asking to go there when she decided she didn't want to play in the water. sorry M! i rode on the roller coaster with C and dadda got to ride with her on the ferris wheel. we had lots of fun and hope we'll be able to make more trips to the beach before the end of summer. hopefully M will give the beach another chance!

Neice's Birthday Present Complete!

this is the front of the tote bag. i also decorated the gift bag with my own hand carved stamps. C made the birthday card.

this is the back of the tote bag. you can also see the hand carved stamp i made for my niece, outside of the little white envelope i packed it in.

here is a close up of the stamp i made for the birthday girl and the gift bag i decorated using my own stamps. note: C also made some mini brownies, shaped like hearts, with m&m's inside. we packed them up in a little box with printed wax paper (from the martha stewart craft line) and i wrote "to:" and "from:" on the front of the box and used the stamp i made for my niece and a new stamp i made that morning of C with her name on it. i didn't get a picture of it because C made them right before we had to leave to the party so i forgot. i also didn't get a picture of C's stamp, but i'll try to remember to post it along with any new stamps i may finish. right now all i want to do is carve my own stamps!

Still Working on Niece's Birthday Present

since my last post i've been trying to fit in some crafting time to finish this present. i've only had a few minutes here and there because i've had family visiting us, so this is all i have done. i added a few more pieces all around to make it large enough for a tote bag and to add more color.

and i've finished the back side of the purse! i wanted to sort of mimic what was going on in the front with the fabrics i used and made a large outside pocket using some of the left over scraps. i also decided to go with a more solid back and so i'm using a pink fabric with an all-over print with really small flowers. i also decided to put her first name initial, so i played around with some more fabric scraps and came up with this.

and if you look real close you could see my handmade tag i made using my own hand carved stamp. it's my first time putting a label onto anything i've made, except for some paper tags i made for the father's day presents i made. but this label is special because it will forever be a part of the tote bag. the ink is a bit too light, but the pastel stamp pads are all i have right now that print well on fabric and will resist coming off if it is washed. i really like being able to put my name on my hand made things!

i still need to add the strap and finish sewing the bag closed. i also need to get C to make a nice birthday card with one of her drawings. if i get it done in time and manage to get a nice pic, i'll try to put in in my next post. i'm also trying to add one other small, but nice, handmade addition to this tote bag gift. so i have to go now and try to finish everything!

Summer Fun, Week 3

what we've been up to this past week:

* more homework.
* lots of drawing time. i have now accumulated a year's worth of artwork in only three weeks! and many of C's works have amazed me so much that i want to save them and either make an art book for her as a gift or incorporate them into my projects. i've also been thinking of making her a quilt with some of her drawings embroidered onto plain, solid blocks. and part of me also wants to start an etsy shop and sell some of the things i can create using C's drawings, but i wonder if that would be fair to her. it is her artwork that is inspiring me, afterall. well, i guess i'll have to think it a bit more before i decide on that. either way, i really want to encourage C to continue with her drawing because i think that maybe she can grow up to be a children's book illustrator or something else in the field of art.
* reading to each other. we're still on the same books, but we've also borrowed a few more books on a recent trip to the library. we signed up for the library's summer reading program and we got C her first library card! she was so proud!
*we went to participate in an art class taught by an employee of lacma. C made her own story book and got to experiment using oil pastels. her book was about a fairy who saw her home in a tree and decided to go home. it was only four pages long and that included the title page, so there was not enough pages to be more elaborate. still, i think it was a good story because in those four pages C was able to draw the fairy looking at her home from afar, then flying over to her home, then sitting happily inside, which C colored pink with a purple door. i thought it was very imaginative!
* we're still playing hopscotch, using the hula hoop and having a game or two of tag, while we're outdoors. it hasn't been warm enough to bring out our kiddie pool since C's graduation party. but maybe we'll bring it out for the weekend. the pool is large enough for a family of four and so i hope to be able to enjoy the pool with my family.
* M decided to go pee-pee in her potty once this week, so that is a big accomplishment in the potty training area.
* we went to watch "wall-e" in a new movie theatre and it was a really nice experience because there were only a handful of other people watching the movie, so we didnt' have to bother with finding a seat for our family of four and dealing with other noisy movie watchers. the seating was also neat because the armrests could be pulled up, and so we could all sit much closer together or be able to lay M down if she wanted to take a nap. the movie was so touching! it even made me and my two year old cry! we'll definately get the movie when it goes out on dvd.

on the crafting front, i've been getting some work done, finally! here is a picture of the embroidery/appliqué i made using my niece's drawing. she actually only drew the horse, which is cute in itself, but because i didn't want it to be too plain, i added a few things, such as the sun, her name, the butterfly, the bird, the grass and the flowers. at this point i still wasn't sure what to do with the finished embroidery. i didn't want to frame it because i thought it would be enjoyed more by a child if it was something that could be held or touched. so the only two things i thought of were a small pillow or a tote bag.

after adding some pieces of fabric all around, log cabin-style, i decided that i wanted to add more to it and make it into a tote bag, so that it could have some usefulness and it can be seen. i guess you can say i was pretty proud of myself! the wet spots on the embroidery are where i had to make the water-soluble pen ink disappear. i don't know if i'll have the gift done in time, as the party will be on sunday, but we'll see!

Summer Fun, Week 2

this past week, we continued with the summertime fun. here is a list of what we did:
* C is continuing with her summer homework. i give her some math, handwriting, and spelling work.
* i have also continued with reading to both girls the pippi book and C reads to me from some early reader series of books we checked out of the library. right now she is reading "alone" from days with frog and toad, by arnold lobel. she reads to me and i help her sound out new words and add them to a list of words to practice reading.
* we are still enjoying or daily games of hopscotch. C is showing a lot of improvement on her hopping skills and as she progresses, i add more rules to the game to make it a little more challenging. when we first started playing i basically had no rules but to hop on all the squares and make sure to pick up their markers. M is still too little, so she does whatever she wants. and everyone has fun!* we poured a large container of bubble solution into a bucket and got our two badminton rackets to try to make lots of bubbles by waving the wands and using the wind. it was messy, but fun!
* we then turned on the sprinklers and let the girls rinse off all of the bubble solution.
* we invited the girls only boy cousin, N, to come over to play hopscotch, make giant bubbles, and run under the sprinklers. i think N had lots of fun that day!

* we took the girls to the museum of natural history. this was a reward for the girls because they have been doing their homework, playing well with each other and making my summer with them much more bearable!

C chose to go to the museum. here are the girls "digging" for fossils. next week, if they do well, the girls will get to have a sleepover party and invite their cousin N. i look forward to planning some fun activities for the kids!

as for me, i'm getting less time to craft for myself. i do have a project i'm working on for my niece's birthday coming up. the weekends seem to be the only time i have to craft because my husband is at home to help with the girls. so i have gotten some work done this weekend and i hope to finish it in time for the party. i was hoping C would help me with the project or make a gift for her cousin, but i'm finding little time to plan these things, so it hasn't been possible. the birthday is in a week, so i'll see if C and i can do something fast, simple and cute.

Fun For Nothin' Challenge: Hopscotch and Beanbag Markers

i was reading sew liberated's blog and in one of her latest posts she talks about her fun for nothin' challenge. i realized that some of the things my girls and i have been doing this summer would fit this challenge. one that stands out is the hopscotch game we played with the little bean bag markers we made.i know this isn't a new idea, in fact it was one of my favorite games as a kid, but i haven't seen anyone mention this game as an idea for a free or low cost game and source of entertainment for little ones, so i thought i would mention it here. we have since bought a new bucket of sidewalk chalk to use for this summer because when we first came up with the idea to play the game, i only had a piece about 1 inch thick, left over from last year. it was just enough to draw our first game on our cemented walkway in our front yard. but if you have to go buy some chalk, i'm sure they could easily be found in dollar stores everywhere at this time of year. we started out playing with rocks, we found nearby, as markers because we couldn't find anything else. after seeing how dangerous it was to throw the heavy rocks, as they bounced hap hazardously, we came up with the idea of making little bean bags. so off we went back inside to escape the heat for a while and make our markers. i had the girls go through my scraps to find colors or prints they liked and cut 2" x 5" pieces of fabric. i folded the piece right sides together and quickly sewed down two sides to leave a pocket. i then let the girls fill these little pockets with split peas. i recommend using small beans because the bags are so small. lentils and even rice would work as well. i had split peas on hand, so that is what i used. i then handstitched the last side closed using a blanket stitch. because the bags are so small and we filled them up as much as we could, i couldn't use the sewing machine for this step. so if you do as i do, i wouldn't recommend using the machine for this last step or else you might have a big mess and possibly ruin your machine if any small beans or rice get stuck in your dog feeds. and that is all! the bean bags should have a nice weight to them to make tossing them at long distances easier. they also don't bounce so they are safe to use.

i hope everyone likes this idea and i get to see more and more moms writing in their blogs and posting pictures of their kids playing hopscotch!

Summer Fun, Week 1

it has been about a week into C's summer vacation and i have been trying to keep my girls busy, entertained, and active with fun crafts and activities. here is a list of what we've done since C's last day of school:

*C graduated from kindergarten! she was really sad to be leaving her school, teacher and classmates, but i'm sure she'll be looking forward to first grade by the end of the summer!
*we have started M's potty training. wish me luck on that one! M is really smart and communicative, but with trying to take care of two girls all day, everyday, i don't know how long it's gonna take me to accomplish that job!
*everyday i have C do some math, handwriting, and spelling home work before we play or do anything fun. at the same time i try to teach M her colors, abc's, numbers and shapes and sometimes C helps to teach M. she seems to really enjoy teaching her little sister!
* we went to the library and checked out a few books. amongst them is astrid lindgren's "pippi longstocking", which i plan to read to them. my girls love to watch the movies so much, i thought this would be a good way to wean them off the t.v. this summer.

*we played hopscotch and had to improvise by using found rocks as place markers. but then i got the idea to make some out of fabric scraps and some dried beans. with the help of my girls, we quickly sewed them up, filled them, and stitched them closed in time to play a few more rounds before the end of the day. we made enough place markers in case we have some visitors who would like to play with us. C is still working on keeping her balance while hopping, but i'm sure by the end of the summer she'll have it down pat! M just hops around on two feet and doesn't really follow the rules, but she looks so cute hopping around and she has so much fun playing with us!
*we played with a hula hoop. well, we tried to play with it. the hoop was too small for me, so i couldn't show the girls how to do it properly. C still needs some practice and M is just too small. she is only 2 years old, but she tries, and she looks adorable doing it! she holds the hula hoop over her head, with her body in the center, then lets it fall as she stomps in place and wiggles her little body. she really thinks she's doing it!
*we baked cookies. yum!

*we made homemade play dough using kool-aid for color and to give it a fruity smell. the girls love it when we make our own play dough because they get to help and the play dough is much softer and more fun to play with.

*C lost yet another tooth! now she has two missing front upper teeth! she looks so cute!
*we took C to get her first real haircut and it's a short bob that looks really cute on her face!
*we celebrated C's graduation from kindergarten with a pool party. we had most of our family over and all the little ones had so much fun in the kiddie pool!

*we went to a new park, while poor Dadda had a dentist appointment. but the girls enjoyed their outing!
*we made a makeshift house using a tarp we draped over our unused clothesline. we brought the girls' little table and their chairs and set them up in their little house. i made them pb&j sandwiches and they ate them in their little house. they had a nice time eating their snack in their temporary playhouse!

we have been having so much fun! and i have enjoyed watching my two girls laughing and playing together and learning to get along better. and i still have many things on my list to keep them busy, so i'm sure i won't run out of ideas any time soon. we have also done most of the things on the list more than once. i want to make this summer really fun and memorable for my girls, especially C, since it is her first vacation from school, other than xmas vacation, of course.

Latest Craft Hobby

i've been wanting to try out stamp carving. so a few weeks ago my husband was kind enough to indulge me in buying some supplies to get started. i've read many tutorials and with the clear information they gave i was able to get my first two stamps done with what i think are very good results.

these are the stamps that i carved. it took a little while to get the hang of it. i had to get used to keeping my hand steady and make sure not to cut too deep or cut too far into parts that i didn't want to cut out. i realize now that i could have tried an easier approach of just carving out the drawn lines and leaving the blank spaces solid, so that i could get a negative image. it would have been much easier, but still i think i did pretty good for my first try at stamp carving. i'm really excited about all the ideas i have sketched out and i can't wait to carve some more!

here are the supplies i got to start with. the most important, i think, is the speedball carving tool. it comes with several different cutting nibs that can be easily stored in the handle. that's important to me because i always have to worry about my girls getting into my craft supplies. i also bought a staedtler carving block, but i haven't used it, yet, so i don't know how well it handles my carving. instead, i used some cheap white erasers i bought in your typical office or school supply aisle in many stores. i thought i could use these erasers for practice because i don't want to spend too much money on my crafts. it might discourage my husband from giving me these kinds of indulgences! and last but not least, i got the tsukineko versa magic dew drop stamp pads. i got these mainly cause i liked the variety of colors. i really wanted to get the versa craft ink pads because i like the idea of being able to stamp on fabric so that i can make my own personalized labels on either fabric or twill tape. i also think a cute stamp on fabric would add a nice detail on plain looking sewn projects. i will post my progress as i continue to make stamps and experiment with using my stamps in combination with my other projects. i can't wait to see what i come up with!

Finished Gifts!

these are the paintings C made. one is for her teacher and the other two are for her grandfathers for father's day. they are acrylic on flat canvases. it was their first time using real paints and real canvases, so it was exciting for all of us to see the results. as you can see, they came out pretty good!

these are the paintings that M made for her dadda and her two grandfathers. you can see that on her first painting she started out really enthusiastic. she didn't want to stop painting on it, until i showed her that she had two more canvases to paint on and asked her if she was done. so she quickly continued on the next one and on this 2nd one she started mixing paints more, which caused me to get a bit worried about the colors getting all muddy. so i tried to discourage too much mixing and by the 3rd painting she wasn't having so much fun anymore. she started putting the brush onto the canvas and looking at me for approval and then moved on to the next color and repeated the process. i felt bad that i ruined her fun and she obviously did, too cause she didn't want to paint much more after that, which explains all that empty space. too bad. still, i'm really proud of the work she did and hopefully the next time we paint she will want to paint again and be more careful, too.

seeing as how father's day is tomorrow, i thought it would be safe enough to show what my girls and i made for their dadda.

first off, i decided to do a typical (read cheezy) father's day t-shirt. i chose to do this one with the words "this dad deserves a pat on the back" freezer paper stencilled because at the time we were working on this project my husband was also going through some work-related stress that was getting our whole family down, but it obviously affected him the most. and i think that despite all the worry he had, he was still taking care of his responsibilities and being a wonderful husband and father.here is the back where the three of us stamped our hand print as if giving him a pat on the back. i didn't have enough fabric paints and so i borrowed a few from my MIL. those are the ones that didn't show up so well because the paints she let me borrow were thinner and probably not meant for printing on knit shirts. i think they were more for painting on silk with paintbrushes. oh well! i know he probably wouldn't have worn this shirt anywhere but at home. i don't blame him either, but still, it was a nice project to do with my girls.

i still remember when i only had C and she was 2 years old that we did a similar father's day present with a t-shirt that said "my daughter walks all over me!" and i had C walk around the shirt with paint on her feet! it was very messy! but what i find amusing is that the next day we did that project she asked her father if she could paint with her feet and he was so confused! i had to explain it all to him after we gave him his present on father's day. we had a good laugh!

this is another t-shirt that i made using the silhouettes of my girls. i also did this with freezer paper stencils. i had to ask my husband for help with this project because i'm still not really good with using our drawing program. he usually doesn't ask any questions because he knows it will be a surprise for him, even if he does help me out. i hope these shirts don't fit him too big. i made the mistake of ordering them a size too big. we'll see!

and here is another project we made using pictures of my girls from M's birthday party. i printed the pictures on paper because i wasn't sure if the project would work out the way i wanted and so i didn't want to waste any of our photo paper. i cut the pictures into oval shapes glued the pictures onto wax paper. i then helped the girls glue the sequins because my glue bottle was really difficult to squeeze. and then had C make some crayon shavings and let the girls sprinkle glitter and crayon shavings as they pleased.

once they were satisfied i put another piece of wax paper on top and a layer of newspaper on top and below the project and ironed it just enough to melt the crayons and making a seal around the edge of the picture. after it cooled off, i cut it out using scalloped edge scissors, punched a hole on top and tied a piece of string for hanging.

More Progress and Feeling Better

this is where i'm at on my teacher gift. i embroidered the words "criss cross applesauce", "thank you!" and her name on the bottom (not shown). i remember when C first started saying "criss cross applesauce" and she would sit with her legs crossed on the floor, like a really good student. apparently my C is what you would call a teacher's pet. she strives to impress her teacher and always do her best. i admire that she tries to do her best and that she respects her teacher so much that she wants to get her approval. i'm glad that she has learned the importance of being a good student from what we've taught her. so, because her teacher says this a lot to her students when she wants them to sit and pay attention, i thought it would be nice to embroider it onto her present. i still need to finish embroidering and add the drawing that C made of herself. i'm working on it right now.

other than that, i have been really busy getting some cleaning done! my body is achey and sore, but i think it was well worth it because now i have nice, bright, clean floors! it had been ages since i last did a thorough cleaning of my kitchen, dining room and living room floors. i don't really like to clean cause i feel it takes away from all the crafting i could be doing, but since i've been getting a lot of crafting done, i thought it was time.

so, i guess i'm finally out of my depression. i feel good and i feel hope and i look forward to this summer! i need to start planning what trips or activities we would like to do this summer as a family and what new projects i want to start on. the future is looking bright and full of opportunities!

End Of School Year Teacher Gift

as i'm finishing father's day gifts a lot quicker than i had anticipated, i started working on an end of the year teacher gift. i wanted to continue with the embroidery/appliqué kick i've been on for a while in gift making. i've loved every piece of work i've made and given away and i'm starting to think that one day i'll have to make something that i'll be able to keep for myself. especially if they are embroideries of my daughters' drawings. so, i decided to go with the typical 'apple for the teacher' gift. i know many people think that this is done so much that most teachers are probably tired of gifts with apples. but, i think (and i might be wrong!) that in my child's school very few parents, if none, actually remember to thank their child's teacher at the end of the year. my guess is that C's kindergarten teacher hasn't received many gifts, so i'm sure she will appreciate my gift, even if it does have the typical apple. i hope she likes it because of the hand work that i'm putting into it and because it will also be a cooperative project with C. as you can see my appliquéd patchwork apple is complete with embroidered stem and appliquéd leaf. like i said, i still have some more details to add, but i thought i would show my work in progress.

i asked C to make me a drawing that i could add to the appliquéd apple and she made me a small drawing of herself. she asked me if she should draw herself with her missing tooth and i thought it was a good idea, so this is what she came up with. actually, the picture is of the embroidered version. her drawing was actually a lot cuter. but i guess i wasn't getting the stitches to cover well, so i kept adding stitches until i made her mouth look like she had botox and some invisaligns! seeing as how i wasn't doing a good job, i decided to not add this piece to her teacher's gift. she made me another drawing with a simple line smile. i think the new drawing will be easier for me to embroider. we'll see! but, i decided to keep this piece for myself because although i think it doesn't really do her drawing justice, it is a reminder of this time in her childhood. i hope to do a lot more embroideries of my girls' drawings and someday make a quilt out of them. i think this piece will look quite nice in C's embroidery quilt.

C Lost Another Tooth!

c lost her third tooth this past weekend. this tooth is special because it's her first upper tooth she's lost. i think it makes her look so cute! and she's very happy with her cute look! of course it didn't come without the usual freaking out she does every time she looses a tooth. but i guess most kids would freak out with the sight of blood coming from their own mouths. it happened while she was eating. she took a bite of her food and it became so loose that it was just dangling by a piece of her gums. she was running around screaming and crying with her mouth open and blood spreading around her gums and teeth. it was a sight to see! i tried to calm her down and asked her if she would like me to help by pulling it off. she said 'no' but she approached me anyway. i guess she really wanted to get it over with but was afraid of the pain. i got a piece of paper towel and took hold of the dangling tooth and when she freaked out and started running, it was all over! soon after it was pulled out she was fine, again. i chuckle even now as i remember the events! but i do feel bad that she was so scared. i'm sure it will get easier as she continues to lose her baby teeth.

this is her tooth fairy pillow i made for her in late fall, when i first found out she had a loose tooth and she would soon be losing her first tooth. i made it using crafty carnival's tutorial. it was a very easy tutorial to follow and my daughter loved the cute tooth stuffie.

i made both the pillow and tooth stuffie because i wasn't sure when she would lose her tooth. so i thought that the stuffie would be a good idea to keep in her backpack. it has a heart pocket on the back so that she could stick her tooth in it. c loves her tooth stuffie and pillow and she carries one or the other around with her as soon as she thinks she might be losing her next tooth.

A Present For My Father

i finished my father's present for father's day. i made him a passport sleeve with an embroidery of one of C's drawings. i followed sewbunnybum's tutorial found here. (Thanks to sewbunnybum for answering my question!) i decided to make him a passport sleeve because he has recently become a U.S. citizen and has also recently acquired his passport and is planning on taking a trip back home. (obviously i didn't actually sew the flaps closed when i took these pictures. but these pics show the details i added to this present much better this way. i have since sewn the flaps.)

the tutorial was really easy to follow. i have yet to see if it fits because i don't have a passport of my own and so i'll have to wait until father's day when i give this present to my father.