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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

Back to Work

well, i don't have much to show for myself right now, but it's mainly cause my camera is not working. i'm still not feeling so good, and i guess my husband is feeling out of sorts, as well, so because i don't want to make it worse for our little family i decided to try to be more positive, active and productive. and i'm happy to say that i'm finally crafting again!

one of the projects i'm working on is a father's day present for my husband. of course, it wouldn't be a father's day present if it wasn't done in collaboration with my two daughters. i won't say anymore on that because i would like it to be a surprise for him.

another project i'm working on is a father's day present for my own father. he just recently became a U.S. citizen and so he just got his new passport and is planning to go back to his home for a visit. so i thought it would be nice to make a protective sleeve for his passport and maybe a bright luggage tag to make finding his luggage at the airport much easier. i am embroidering a little drawing C made on the passport sleeve and i'm letting M decorate the luggage tag with fabric markers. i think i may also embroider over the decorations M makes, but i'm still not sure. and i also plan on embroidering my dad's initials on his luggage tag. i'm guessing that he would probably need more than one, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to make more than one, so for now that will have to make do. maybe i'll make more for him for his birthday when it comes up in sept.

i was also going to do the same for my FIL but i decided against it because i'm pressed for time. he is also planning on making a trip to his homeland and he will probably be staying there for about 6 months, so i decided to just make him a little gift set of a box of homemade green tea cookies with a box of tea and a flat canvas painting from each of his granddaughters. i also plan on letting the girls make paintings for their dad and for my father.

all in all, i feel better about what i decided to make for the fathers in our lives. and i feel confident that i will get them done on time and that they will be appreciated. so it makes me feel good knowing that; and it makes me look forward to completing the gifts and presenting them.

the picture i added has nothing to do with my post, other than showing how much M loves to be with her daddy. it's a picture of M with her daddy on her birthday. in most of the pictures of her birthday party she was not smiling, but in the ones with her daddy, she was. i guess she was happiest that day being with her dad.

just seeing how much my girls love their dad makes me love him even more. and because he's currently having a stressful time, i really want to help make him feel better, more appreciated and loved. so i'm also trying to do more for him any way that i can to make his days a bit more cheerful. i think sometimes we forget that we should celebrate each other and celebrate life in everyday, rather than just on the days that we're told to. so i'm gonna try to do that with my husband and my children more often. hopefully that will help us deal with our stress and depression.