Spaceboy and robbie have been gifted

yesterday was my nephew's bday party. so now i can post the completed gifts and the cool recycled packaging we used.

this is the robot my daughter, C, drew and embroidered. i transferred the image onto fabric so that she could embroider it. i then sewed it up, and she helped to stuff it. so much love and care went into making this little robot stuffie, that it was hard to let go. but, in the end, it was made for the purpose of gifting it to my nephew from C. she was so proud of her work, as was i! her embroidery skills are improving so much!

and here is my nephew's finished spaceboy. it is cute, as are all of wee wonderful's doll patterns. but, i feel like C really outdid me, in originality. of course, she was inspired to make the robot stuffie after she saw what i was making for him, so the two gifts definitely go well together. and because we thought they were such a nice pair, we decided to package them together as a set. here is what we came up with:


as you can see, C named the embroidered robot stuffie, 'robbie'. i thought that was cute and more appropriate than her first choice, 'stephen'.

i found an empty cereal box in the recyclables and decided to make a box package. i was inspired by lizette greco's recycled box packaging tutorial. i didn't exactly follow her directions, but she was the main inspiration for my choice in packaging the presents. i opted for covering the box with brown paper bag and i didn't put any plastic in the windows, mainly because i was short on time and couldn't find any. i also pasted some cute space themed stickers from lotta bruhn. i thought they went so well with the dolls and overall theme. the stickers are a free pdf download, so go get some!

for some reason my printer was acting up, despite the fact that my husband had just replaced all the colors. that is why the blues came out striped. it didn't affect the cuteness factor, so i was okay with the way they turned out.

the birthday boy was very pleased with his present and we all had a wonderful time with family and ate yummy chocolate cupcakes, made by the best aunt ever, me! ;)

Difficult times

i'm still learning how to start an etsy shop. i know it's taking me a long time, but i guess it just doesn't click for me so easily. it's frustrating at times, but i am still determined to do this. i've never been more determined to start my own business than i am now.

my husband is on day 4 of unemployment, which isn't so bad. i like having him around, and even though we can't look at his stay at home as a vacation, cause we can't do anything that will cost us money, he has been spending a lot of quality time with our girls. right now they are working on making a movie, which i hope to post here as soon as it is finished. both of our girls are having a blast, acting and dressing up and watching the playbacks of what they recorded. it's really fun for them, and it gives me time to figure out this esty shop thing and try to get some craft work done.

along with me trying out this business thing, my husband continues to look for work. he also works on his resume and is now looking to apply for unemployment. all this worry of running out of money on mortgage and bills has made us be extremely frugal. now don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to get sympathy from anyone about our financial situation because i'm sure there are many families going through the same thing. i have hope that we'll work it through, and i try to see our obstacles as challenges.

it's made us so much more aware of how wasteful we've been and is making us appreciate everything handmade, homemade, and home cooked even more than we already did. i even plan to reuse any cardboard containers, like cereal boxes, and other boxed foods, for my etsy shop packaging, when before i would just put them in the recycling bin.

my husband is also using his time at home to work more on his hobby, which is cooking. he's careful to buy foods that are low priced, can be used in several different meals, and he gets to practice his cooking skills with what he has and comes up with the most delicious food i've ever tasted! i'm so proud of him! i keep hinting at him that he should start his own cooking blog, but he won't. oh well! maybe he'll change his mind later.

one thing that makes our situation so difficult to live with is my MIL. i won't go into details because it's just too much stuff to talk about, but i will say that my husband and i caught her in a lie and her reaction is to make herself the victim. she makes living in this house very difficult for us. we are definitely not in a place to try to sell the house because we have only co-owned it for about 3 years and so we don't have much, if any, equity in the house. if we were to sell it (and actually be able to sell it at this time!), we would be lucky if we could walk away without owing a thing. but the reality is that we would most likely have to sell it for less and still owe money on the house. we cannot afford that either.

needless to say, we are under a lot of stress. i hope that it doesn't take a toll on our health, because it's the last thing we need. fortunately, my husband decided on keeping our health insurance, despite that fact that it's expensive. but, i'm very grateful for that. i'm also grateful because a have a husband that is supportive and loving with his family. it makes it all worth fighting for.

Spaceboy and embroidered robot for my nephew

my nephew, the only boy in our family, so far, will be turning 6 in august. he's a tough little boy with a sweet heart. he's very much into the typical things little boys like, like super heroes, robots, pirates, cars, etc., so i'm sure he will like the spaceboy, from wee wonderful's, that i'm in the process of making for him. he's still young enough to appreciate soft dolls, and he still has pretty much everything i've hand made for him. it's very touching to see the toys i've made for him throughout his life, very well loved and very well played with. the years in which he will play with these sorts of toys will soon be ending. i want to get a few more in before i have to come up with new gift ideas for a big kid. i plan on making him the robot, also from wee wonderful's pattern, for xmas.


C is very close to her cousin, N, so she insisted on making something, too. she decided on making him a robot to go with his spaceboy, so after doing some reseach on robot looks and designs, she came up with a cute drawing of a robot. to keep it simple for her, i copied her drawing onto fabric and let her color it with crayon so that she could embroider it. when she's done with the embroidery, i'll help her find a suitable backing fabric and help her sew the front and back together (right-sides facing), turn it out, stuff it and sew it closed for an easy stuffie robot to accompany the spaceboy doll. stay tuned for pics of the finished presents!

Mail-themed handcarved stamps

i have been working on some new hand carved stamps. they are mail-themed and were inspired by C, who is learning to write friendly letters and enjoying the anticipation of receiving a letter in return. this all came to be because my sister-in-law, who is a very good friend, recently moved to a different state with my niece. we both agreed to try to encourage our daughters, who are only four months apart, to write to each other. they are very close, so they will miss each other very much. i thought it would be nice for the girls to keep in touch and practice their writing by sending letters.

the stamps, of which there are six, are designed by me and would add charm to letters, envelopes, packages, etc. they can also be used to make fake mail so kids could play post office and mail carrier. the stamp set includes:

• 'to:'
  
• 'from:'
• postage mark
• stamp
• envelope
• snail (to be used with the envelope to say, 'snail mail'. cute, huh!?)

i'm almost done with them and i think they look really cute! as soon as i get some good pics of the stamps, i'll put them in my shop.

New banner!

i got the new banner up! for my first time making a banner, following some online instructions, i think it came out pretty good. as i get more practice doing this, i hope to get better at it. but, for now, i'm happy with it!

New blog name

for anyone who has read my blog before, and is still reading, you might have noticed that i changed the name. i changed it from 'ana lilia v.' to 'hoho+baba' to match my shop's name. this banner is only temporary while i work on a new design of my own.

why hoho+baba? 'hoho' is what my littlest girl called her big sister, back when she was learning to talk. 'baba' was also her word for baby, and that is what we used to call her then, too. M is now 3 years old, so we don't use either of these names anymore. i thought it was fitting to name my shop after them because my daughters are who inspire me to create; and without using their real names, this was a good compromise. also, i like the way it sounds!

Back after a 6-month break

i haven't blogged for almost 6 months. there is no single reason, other than the complexities of life. i went from feeling (at times) uninspired, to not having time to create. so i had nothing interesting to blog about.

my family and i also went through a difficult time with my MIL. it's difficult for two parties with different priorities, values, and goals to co-own a house. it got to the point where we were almost going to sell our house to try to get away from our problems, but that wasn't the smart or responsible thing to do. we're taking each day as it comes.

at this point we cannot afford to sell our house and each go our separate ways. the economy has affected us like so many other people. my husband's job will end this month. i hope he'll find something soon, but i fear some more stressful times ahead. i want to help out, so i'm working on an etsy shop, and i hope to have it ready soon.

i plan to make:

• dolls
  
• bags
  
• handcarved stamps
  
• knitted or crocheted hats and scarves
  
• freezer paper stenciled shirts
  
• embroidery
  
• pincushions
  
• and bunting
• pretty hairpins (and all sorts of cute things)

i'm so excited! but this will take some time; i've never had my own shop. in the next few weeks/months, i will write about the experience of starting my own business, as well as the fun things that i do with my family.

J's Birthday Present-Completed!

so, here are some more pics of my completed present to my niece, J. this is the bunny pillow i made for her, using missy balance's free pattern.

and this is the back, with the stamped letters that spell, "SOMEBUNNY LOVES YOU". you might have to click on the image to get a better view. sorry, my photography sucks! but luckily i had this really cute volunteer to model for me!


and here is a picture of the wrapped gift. i wanted to show my wrapping because i am especially proud of the finger knitted yarn that my oldest, C, made. she made it with rainbow colored yarn and i thought it looked really nice with the tissue flower i made to top off the gift.

i didn't get any pics of my niece opening her gifts as my camera had run out of batteries and i didn't have time to recharge them. but i can tell you that it was one of the first gifts that she opened. and when she saw the pillow, she stopped opening the rest of her gifts and just took off to her room to take a nap. she was so happy to have a small pillow and she loved the little rabbit! it took her a while before she finally let go of her bunny pillow and agreed to open the rest of her gifts. it made me so happy to see that my handmade gift was enough for her to make her happy! of course, she also liked her other presents, but mine was the only handmade present and i'm glad that it stood up to the competition!

Hope

it's been a few days since the inauguration, but i wanted to write about how excited i am to have Obama be our new president. i am so proud to have witnessed him take the oath and i shared the experience with my littlest one, M. we watched it from the comfort of our home and even made some cupcakes to celebrate. my husband and oldest couldn't stay home with us, but he listened to npr on his way to work while C watched with her classmates in school. my children were able to see history in the making, even if they don't quite understand how having the first black president in our country is so important. i'm also glad that we recorded it so that we can watch it all over again and maybe a few years from now, my girls will better understand the great significance this election has had in our country.

i honestly have to say that i have restored hope for our country.

WIP: J's Birthday Present

i've been working on my niece's birthday present. she'll be turning 3 and will soon become a big sister, so i thought i would make her something to make her feel special.

it's a freezer paper stenciled shirt made using more than two fabric paints. it was really tricky to do this! and if i had started making this earlier, i probably would have had more time to allow the colors to dry before i went on to the next color. i tried to dry the paints with my blow dryer, but it didn't work too well. so if you zoom into the picture you can see all the imperfections. still, i like it and it's wonkiness. it definately has a handmade look to it and i think it makes it that more special. besides, i'm sure the birthday girl will like it, and won't notice those imperfections.


here is another freezer paper stenciled shirt. i hadn't thought out how i would embellish this shirt and since i already had all my materials for stencilling, i decided to look for a stencil online. i found this stencil design at stencilry. it's a website that offers free stencil designs and they have tons of cool ones that i would like to try out in the future! surprisingly, it took me less time to do this one, considering that i didn't have a stencil to begin with. i was able to quickly cut out my stencil and since i was only using one color, the application process was really easy. i thought this design was a good idea because she could use it for valentine's day and and anytime throughout the year.


and last but certainly not least, i'm making her a bunny pillow using missy balance's pattern from her blog crafty carnival. i'm still not done with it, which explains the lack of pictures. the picture above is of the back of the pillow. i wanted to embroider those words onto it, but again, because of lack of time, i decided to stamp the words using my letter stamps and the left over fabric paint from the stenciled shirt above.

she's a sweet little girl and i hope she likes what i made for her. her birthday is this sunday, so i'll try to post pics of the completed pillow and of the birthday girl with her presents, if i can remember!

Ferndell Park With the Family

last weekend we took our girls to ferndell park in griffith park. it was their first visit there, and it had been years since i last went there. it was beautiful and luckily, it wasn't touched by the fire at griffith park.


the sun cast such a lovely golden light!

this is the tumbling brook. my girls had fun tossing dead leaves and watching them float away down the stream. there were also several small bridges, and every time we went over one, the girls wanted to stop and play 'pooh sticks'. it was a really nice walk through the park!


my girls also recently watched the movie, "kung fu panda" and they loved it so much! this is M doing her kung fu pose. she's a toughy, so we're thinking she might like to take some kids' martial arts classes. we'll see!

Crying Like a Big Baby!

i've been having a couple of bad days. i'm still sick, mostly a cold and a little bit of hoarseness left from the laryngitis. and so i haven't done much but browse the internet.

i remembered a movie i saw on youtube a few months back. it took a while for me to find it, but here it is. it's a sad movie that touched my heart and made me cry. i thought i would share it with others because it's just too good not to.

History of a Sign



then i found another movie, which also made me cry, but in the end helped brighten my day, so i hope it does the same for you.

Validation



i hope you have a happy weekend!

Silent

i have laryngitis. i've never had it before so it is a weird experience for me. i first got it on sunday night, but i didn't think it was more than just hoarseness from having sung several songs in a row while playing rock band with my husband. but when i woke up on monday morning with the same hoarseness, i knew it was laryngitis. so now i'm just trying to keep silent and let my throat heal. don't really know what i can do for it, but i don't think a trip to the doctor is necessary right now because it doesn't hurt anymore. it did hurt last night and was accompanied by a cough, but i think that's cause i decided to take a late night shower and was too lazy to blow dry my hair, so i slept with a cold, damp head. i hope nothing worse comes from that. right now i feel much better, but i still can't talk, so i'm going to try to take it easy and take better care of myself from now on.

i did get to go buy some new materials to get started on my advent calendar. i got red embroidery floss, a pink fabric with tiny polka dots and linen. i'm still not sure about the pink fabric. maybe i'll add some other colors or maybe i'll keep it simple with just linen and red, with a little bit of white for interest. i guess i'm still very indecisive. but, i did decide to go with the banner advent calendar with pockets. i'm going to use linaloo's advent calendar and lululollylegs doll quilt (which looks like an advent calendar) as inspiration. you can also see pictures of these two calendars in the previous post. i'm also thinking of incorporting some of my girls' artwork in the calendar. maybe i'll have them do little sketches for me that i can embroider in the different pockets. we'll see how it goes, but i can't wait to get over this illness so i can get started! right now i just don't feel like doing much.

Advent Calendar Inspirations

1. Advent dangles, 2. Advent Calendar - Finally Done!, 3. DQS5 Christmas Advent Calendar, 4. advent calendar, 5. Advent calendar, 6. advent calendar, 7. advent calendar, 8. Advent Calendar 3, 9. Homemade advent calendar

okay, so these are some of the advent calendars that i like. i think it is pretty obvious that i prefer the kind that hangs like a banner, with little ornaments inside the pockets that are taken out of the pocket each day. i think i can easily slip a small chocolate or piece of paper with an activity, if i want to do any activities with my girls. i can imagine sitting with my family in the evenings and hand-stitching and embroidering numbers and decorations for each pocket. but, i also like allsort's advent calendar pockets pattern. i like it because it is cute, seems simple to make while watching a movie and because it drapes like a garland and could easily be used as decoration for our fireplace mantel. i also like oliver + s's mitten ornament as an advent calendar and stardust shoe's mini stocking advent calendar, but because it doesn't really get cold enough where i live, we don't use mittens, and so i don't think the mittens will make much sense to my kids. and since i'm already planning on making all new stockings for my husband, my kids and myself for xmas 2009, i don't think a stocking advent calendar will be necessary.

i still haven't decided which one i'll do. and maybe i'll make two different kinds, once i finish the first one. as soon as i make up my mind, i'll make a trip out to my local craft store to buy the necessary materials, and get started. if there is anyone out there who actually reads my blog, wish me luck! i hope you can delurk yourself and give me a bit of encouragement!

Xmas Crafting Throughout the Year

the xmas season is one i look forward to every year. i try to make it special and memorable for my family and i get inspired from all the other craft blogs i read to make my own decorations, advent calendar, ornaments and gifts. but my life starts getting busy starting from october with family birthdays and all the holidays that happen from then till xmas. so by the time my husband's birthday is over, which is december 9, i have only 3 weeks to make anything xmas related. it's a lot of pressure and stress and yet i push myself because i want to make so many things. so by the time it's xmas eve, i'm so pooped that i don't get to enjoy it as much as i'd like to. this past xmas i got so sick that i missed my own xmas eve dinner with relatives coming over to our home. my poor husband had to be a host to family and nurse to me. i stayed in bed in my bedroom all evening and missed out on all the fun. it really brought sadness to my family. my little girls missed me, so they kept coming to see me and my husband was so tired that he also got sick. well, to make a long story short, i've decided to start preparing for xmas earlier in the year.



craft apple and stardust shoes are starting an advent calendar sew along and they're starting in january. so, i decided to join this sew along in hopes that i'll be inspired to continue making all the wonderful things i've been meaning to make for xmas and get them done in time! and hopefully when the holiday comes around, all i have to do is set up my decorations, buy a xmas tree, wrap my presents and spend more time with my family.

if anyone else is interested you can join and post your progress at the 2009 advent calendar sew along flickr group.

Happy New Year!

well, that was a really long break from blogging! not from crafting, though. i made many things during my long break. maybe i'll post some of them in future posts. maybe i won't. i'm probably going to ramble from one subject to another, because i have so much to talk about. so, if i get confusing, please excuse me; i'm not a good writer and i've been out of practice for a while.

i don't like making new year's resolutions, but i'm always thinking of things i need to do to better myself, so i decided to start now in the new year. there are several things i want to focus on. here they are, in no particular order:

• to be more positive
• to be more productive
• to take better care of myself
• to take better care of my family
• to take better care of my home
• to date my husband more often
• to not let stress get to me
• to not be too critical of myself if i fail at any of these resolutions
  
• and always keep trying

so, what has happened during my long break? well, let's start from where i left off... in early october we had our yearly visit to disneyland. we all had lots of fun and now it saddens me to think that it may be our last visit for a while because we don't know if we'll be able to afford doing that next year. we'll see.

we also had an old, rotted tree fall on the front fence of our house. the city was supposed to cut it down because it had a fungus that was killing it, but they only removed the tree next to it, which also had a fungus growing on it. so it finally toppled over and broke our fence. it was quickly removed by the city and our fence was fixed a week or two later.

in late october my oldest daughter dressed up as supergirl and my little one dressed up as the tooth fairy for halloween. she was supposed to go as tinkerbell, using the same costume as last year, but i didn't realize till the day of that it didn't fit her anymore, so i had to improvise. i found a nice easter dress that my aunt had given to her for her 2nd birthday. we added some fairy wings we had from that same party and a wand and voila! they both looked very cute and got tons of candy! here they are while trick-or-treating with their cousin J, who is dressed as a pirate girl. so cute! the glowing eyes in the background are my husband, his sister and i. even though we didn't dress up for halloween, we kind of look like zombies in all of our pics. and unfortunately, this was the best pic i could find. oh well!

in november we celebrated C's 6th birthday. we had a fairy tea party theme and it was pretty awesome, if i do say so myself! i made most of the pastry and cupcake stands by gluing various plates to candle holders or fancy candy dishes. they looked very nice! i also made a new table cover and curtains, which i decorated with hand-stamped roses. i made lots of different sweet and savory tea sandwiches, three different teas, and pink cupcakes. i found lots of tea sets from thrift stores. and i made pink and light blue sugar for the kids to mix into their lemonade or tea. i also made shrinky dink charm necklaces, key chains, and cell phone charms as party favors. we only invited C's cousins, which included one little boy (we couldn't leave him out just cause he was a boy!) and all of her aunts, and her two grandmas. it was very girly and very fun!

we also had a very traumatic event happen in late november. my littlest, M, was running around a department store and after yelling at her for the nth time to settle down, she fell and landed chin first on the edge of a display shelf, splitting her chin open. it was a pretty bad injury, but M handled it pretty well. she held a paper towel onto her chin, through the ride to the hospital and was very cooperative right up until it was time to stitch her chin up. my poor little baby was so scared and because she refused to take any ibuprofen, i don't know how much the topical pain killer helped her. the doctor had to put her in a restraint to keep her little arms from flailing and getting in the way. she got 7 or 8 stitches. then she had to go back to the doctor to have those stitches removed a week later. again, she cried and pleaded with my husband and the doctors to stop. it was too difficult for me to be in the room with her both times, but she was loud enough that i heard everything! she is better now and the scar is underneath her chin, so if it doesn't fade (which i doubt will be a problem) it won't be very visible. she was a good sport throught it all. very patient and very understanding for a 2 year old. she amazes me so much!

in early december we celebrated my husband, Mark's birthday. i made him a carrot cake, which is his favorite! he's not much of a cake person, which is unfortunate for me cause i LOVE cakes! he's more of a pie person, but i don't know how to make pies, so we both settled on carrot cake as a compromise. it turned out to be very delicious and he actually liked it! i was very happy about that! later that same month was xmas! i made most of the presents i gave. i was really proud of that because it was a pledge that i made. there were a few that i bought, but they were so small and so inexpensive that i don't feel guilty about it. there were also some that i didn't get to finish on time. i still plan on finishing them, but now that xmas is over, i don't feel that nagging pressure to get them done by a certain time. i know i should, but right now i just want to relax for a few days before i start crafting again. one of the gifts i made was a scarf for my mom. this picture is from when i had just started it. i didn't get a pic of the completed project, but i did like the end result and so did my mom.

part of the reason why i haven't been blogging much is because i find the process of taking pics and then editing them (cause i'm really bad with photography!) so that i can post them and then write about them, just too time consuming. obviously, i'm not good at this blogging thing, but i do hope to try to get better. one thing i want to improve on is how much i write. most of my blog posts are just too darn long! i can't help it! but i do notice it and after going through the whole writing and uploading pics, i don't want to invest more time in editing. it kind of takes the fun out of blogging. so i'm going to try to post more often but not write too much.

i hope we all have a wonderful new year! here's to a fresh start!