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we are hosting a giveaway on our new site. You won’t want to miss it!
(thought I’d share…just in case you’re still subscribed here)
big sis
Yes, we finally did it! We took the plunge and now have our very own site. Please unsubscribe here and subscribe to our new blog.
Nothing will change except you’ll be *seeing* alot more of lil sis and I. We hope to blog a bit more frequently…about our crafts, our crafty mishaps, our daily happenings, our kids, the parties that we love/hate to throw. So come on over!
big sis
I didn’t realize that our last post was on Jan 6! Where does the time go? I FINALLY get a week of nothing to do! My goodness, how I longed/missed these moments! The last week was super busy for me. My girlfriend from junior high school got married this past Saturday and since we had a friend flying in for the wedding, we had a small get together at my house Friday night. Forget about grocery shopping and getting the house in order, my main focus was finishing up that blanket! With 3 kids, 5 year old twins and a 4 month old infant, I must say that I was able to finish up this blanket in a reasonable amount of time.
My girlfriend had her son a week after I had my daughter and seeing that it took almost a week to finish this for my girl (granted, I was 8 or 9 months pregnant), I lost hope and kept the fabrics tucked away. This is the perfect baby gift! Too bad it is so time consuming and just drains you 🙂 I’m telling you, I had to emotionally prep for this project!
I finally purchased the Olfa Chenille Cutter to speed things along this time around. My review: It definitely cuts back on time and saves your hands/fingers from cutting every. single. channel. Unfortunately, I found that after cutting a few channels, the lint from the flannel fabrics would get stuck in the blade hindering the tool from cutting smoothly.
I had to pull out the lint with tweezers! So really at the end, did it really save me that much time? Another thing I found was the blade would get dull after a few rows so I needed to turn the dial to expose a different part of the blade quite frequently. You could make approximately 3-4 blankets with one blade before having to purchase another one. Just some things to consider before investing in the tool…
Anyways, I hear my baby cooing so I am off to spend some time with her before picking up the big kids. Lil sis and I will be moving soon…rather this site. It’s been something we’ve been wanting to do for awhile…another reason why we’ve been so quiet here. We hope to have the new site up and running in the next 2 weeks *fingers crossed*
Talk to you soon!
big sis
Happy New Year!!!
Not too long ago we celebrated baby #3’s 100 days (aka baek-il). Without going into too much history, Koreans celebrate 100 days because infant mortality was such an issue waaaay back in the days. It was a time of celebration where a family would gather, feast, and eat/share rice cakes (dduk). It is is still very much celebrated these days and lil sis and I, although born and raised here, still follow many of the Korean traditions. You can see what lil sis did for her 2nd daughter’s baek-il here.
With so much going on around the holidays I had little time to think of decorations. All I knew was that there was going to be some kind of bunting for the top of the rice cake. Lil sis, as she always does, talked me into adding an animal-face-cut-out-of-a-piece-of-fruit decor. Seriously, I have no idea what to call it so you can imagine how difficult it was to google it and find images!
I made a different banner this time around. You know I love the itty bitty bunting but this one was seriously the fastest banner I have ever made!
Well…minus the itty bitty felt ball ornaments! But aren’t they SO adorbs?! Truth be told, they are tedious and time consuming to make but so cute that I will have to find another use for them. Directions on how to make them can be found here.
And since Sisi is born in the year of the rabbit…
my animal-face-cut-out-of-a-piece-of-fruit!
Surprisingly, this was also super easy to put together. I did it 30 minutes before leaving for the luncheon. Needed: one firm cantaloupe, skewers, toothpicks, olives or dried cherries, carrots, sharp knife, and a steady hand.
I am very much looking forward to some down time. The big kids start school next Monday, which gives me 4 days of intermittent sewing time so that I can FINALLY start and finish up my friend’s faux chenille blanket! Sure, her baby is 4 months old but since he’s not crawling, I figured I’m safe to gift her the blanket 🙂 Let’s see if I can finish this one in record time.
big sis
I did it! Just in the nick of time too! All 60 felt mice now have their tails, have been tagged, and strung with baker’s twine or silver embroidery thread. I was getting annoyed with myself, wondering why in the heck did I decide to make them and then got more annoyed thinking that the only thing the Kindergarteners want are the candy canes. So lil sis suggested I add a string of some sorts so they can be kept as ornaments! Perfect idea! Hey, whatever to help me sleep at night! 🙂 Then my crazy mind got to thinking “will the kids know what that string is for?” I didn’t want to string 60 of them all in haste so I quizzed my daughter.
Crazy mom, aka me: If you saw this mouse and it had a string attached to it, what would you think it could be used for?
5 year old daughter: An ornament!
Could I be any prouder?
In stages…
I needed to save time so I used googly eyes and black tiny pom poms for the nose. So much quicker! TIP: My daughter helped me by gluing on the ears with Elmer’s glue. Well, after gluing together almost 20! we noticed that the felt ears were NOT adhering to the body. Panic! I switched glues and used tacky glue. It stuck perfectly! HUGE sigh of relief!
Of course, I didn’t make it any easier on myself by asking the twins what colors they wanted the mice to be…my boy picked blues and greens, and my daughter picked pinks and purples.
Final step
Done! Done shopping, done wrapping, done crafting. The only thing left on my list is to make gingerbread cookies with the big kids tomorrow on their 1st day of winter break.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas. We’ve got 2 parties back to back and I’m hoping that my baby doesn’t lose it on me! AT 3 months old, she knows when she’s done for the day!
Happy Holidays!!!
big sis
(as my husband rolls his eyes)…
So the twins’ last day of Kinder before winter break is the 22nd. Both teachers asked if I could make a batch of gingerbread dough for their classes by this Monday. Still left on my list of things to do before Xmas: few gifts, few cards, trips to 3 different markets…all while taking care of my baby. So, am I setting myself up for failure and my kids up for dissappointment when I say we (and really me) want to make these for the kids’ classmates?
image via Martha Stewart. Directions here
What to do…sigh. 72 candy canes have been purchased, which means I’m definitely going to attempt it. C’mon, I can make 56 by the 22nd right?
big sis
Thanks, Kristen! Hope the girls love them! Happy holidays!
big sis
So many things…where to start.
Lil sis just threw her 2nd daughter’s 1st b-day party. 1st birthdays are a big deal in our culture (remember Lila‘s). It takes months of thought and prep and if you are like lil sis, no detail gets forgotten. There were many conversations between her and I where we wondered…”What’s wrong with me/you?” (referring to lil sis). haha! I know she has tons of pictures so you’ll have to wait for her posts. As much as I wanted to bring my camera, to take pictures of the event and try to get our 1st family picture (can you believe? we do NOT have 1 family picture with the five of us. sad, I tell ya!), it has been a struggle to pack light for outings, and I was not able to justify bringing another bag for the camera. ugh! Not to worry…lil sis just gifted me a photo session for the fam!
I did it. I finally moved my baby girl to her room. It was a sad day. A. Very. Sad. Day. And it def has been a struggle. Not to mention, she has a bit of a cold so as much as I want to scoop her up and bring her into my bed, I stop myself b/c it would break my heart to start all over.
I still feel like I am adjusting to this new role of mine, despite it being almost 3 months. I almost feel like life is moving fast and I’m trying to keep up with it all. I cannot believe that the twins are half way done with Kinder and I have yet to volunteer one day (can you detect the guilt?). I cannot believe that my baby is almost 3 months! I cannot believe I have not crafted in so long! haha!
Things I am sooo looking forward to:
1. to have some kind of schedule back in my life. It’s very OCD, I know…but I’m a planner and I like things to be organized. All this craziness (mainly in the evenings when I become a single parent to the twins and infant) is messing up my mojo 🙂
2. to be able to muster up enough energy to hit the gym! I am SO missing my cardio kick boxing classes. Choice: use the remainder of whatever energy I have to work out or rest? So hard to choose.
3. sleep. sigh…
So during late night feedings, I am glued to my phone and I came across these stickers. Must have for new mommies!
image via Sticky Bellies
Sticky Bellies sell these stickers that you can peel on and off for your baby’s monthly pictures. Such a cute idea!
So that’s what’s been going on in my life. I took on a custom order while lil sis was prepping for the bday party. But it turns out that I actually need a bit more me time before I start making things for the shop. So this one will probably be it for me until I return some time next year.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I have SO MUCH to be thankful for and I am so glad I get to share my thoughts here with you. And if you’ve gotten to this point and read all my ramblings, thank you 🙂
big sis
image via the purl bee
I have been wanting to knit this lil number up ever since I saw it. Isn’t it beautiful? Although I have never heard of the herringbone stitch, it doesn’t seem too hard. I may have to watch a few youtube videos on the stitch but it definitely seems doable. Here’s the tutorial if you’re interested in tackling the project with me. Now, if only I could get to my yarn shop…
The baby is now a lil over 7 weeks old; I was eagerly waiting for this week as they say that babies seems to settle around the 2-3 month mark. We have our ups and downs (and by ups and downs, I mean the length of time she is asleep at night. haha!) but I am fortunate that she is no longer waking every 1.5 hours! woo hoo!
Things I love at the moment:
1. LOVE that I can be home with the baby. alone.
2. love how my twins LOVE school. from the minute I (we) pick them up from school, they tell me about their day, who they played with, who stepped on dog poop (yes, dog poop! and my son was lucky enough to get it all over both shoes!), who got a sad face for misbehaving, who cries (thank goodness neither of them do)
3. love how we live so close to school that we can walk and I don’t have to make the baby scream and cry in her car seat (so far, she’s not a fan of her seat)
4. love the cool weather. downside: both kids have already gotten sick and still recovering
5. love that Christmas is nearing!!! Although can you believe that this year is almost over?!
Thanks for listening to random thoughts from a tired mom…
big sis
My baby girl is a month old. I know…1 month already! Sheesh! At this point, I can now say “time really does fly”!
It is SO different having a singleton. Oh. My. Gosh! so different!
She has been sleeping in a co-sleeper next to my bed but ends up in my bed by the morning. My goal was to move her into her room when she is 5-6 weeks old. Well…we are approaching that time frame, and I can’t help but feel really sad. I’m sure the hormones have something to do with how I’m feeling but when I think about not being able to check on her whenever I want, I wonder if I’m ready to move her out of my room. Yes, I can stare at her through our monitor but you know…not the same. I won’t be able to hear all her grunts, her sucking on her hands, her lil cries.
I have issues, yes?
I am in complete love with her. and NOT to say I wasn’t with my twins but again, I think b/c of the challenges of raising multiples, I just didn’t get to appreciate every minute…every second…
Here is a “head shot” of my baby girl.
As for me, I’m itching to start something…anything…should I sew up a diaper pouch? should I make a quilt with my twins’ baby clothes? should I scrapbook? All things I look forward to doing but probably should just nap when the baby naps 🙂 A mom from my son’s Kindergarten class kindly mentioned to me that every morning I look tired! Umm…thanks? So until I look a bit more refreshed, I shall stay away from my machine.
Have a great week!
big sis
lil sprinkles 