Artwork

Mei Li loves to draw.  Her pile of artwork can get overwhelming so I've been taking pictures of them.

 

This is our family.  I love how she drew Mi Na.  It made me laugh.

 Mei and Stephen playing baseball.  I just about died when I saw how tiny Mi Na was sitting right in the middle of their game.

 Mei Li and Mi Na playing in the backyard while the laundry hangs on a line beneath the sunshine.  That box on the ground is the hamper.  Mei Li seems to have a very romantic vision of laundry.  The only time I've done laundry like this was when I lived in China.  There was nothing romantic about that.

This is Rapunzel.  On roller skates.

Stephen is not as much into drawing and painting as Mei Li is, but he loves to take pictures.  It's funny what he chooses to capture.

 Checkerboard

Crockpot

Beloved blue bear blankie and adorable toes

 race car with summer school in the background

I love these little kiddos and their creativity.  I wonder what Mi Na will come up with.

Sewing update

So last Monday, I sent Mei Li upstairs to get dressed after breakfast.  She called to me from upstairs, and I went up to meet her.

She stood at the top of the stairs, still not dressed, and said, "Mom, all of my shirts are too short and I don't have anything to wear.  I guess I'm going to have to wear that red and white checked dress again!"

I felt horrible because it really was true.  She's growing like a weed so it's hard to keep her in clothes that are long enough for her.

Knowing that taking her shopping that very day was not in the cards, I decided to make her a dress.  It came together very quickly.

I had been meaning to try out this project, so I took a 3T t-shirt that fit her except in length and let Mei Li pick the fabric from my fabric stash for the bottom.  I followed steps for the Lazy Days skirt, and then just gathered the top of the skirt to fit the shirt and sewed the two pieces together.

 

I actually gathered the back of the t-shirt too to give it more of a cinched waist.  For the first time since taking Beginning Clothing Construction at BYU, I heeded the advice of my sewing instructor and used three rows of basting instead of two when gathering the skirt.  I love how it turned out.  More importantly, Mei Li loves it.

After I finished the dress and gave it to Mei that very same day, she asked for me to teach her how to sew.  Stephen and Mi Na were still sleeping so I gave Mei Li her first sewing lesson.  I am grateful that I have something like sewing to share with her.

 I've already posted a little peek of Mei Li's Easter dress, but thought I would go into a little more detail about what I did.  I fell in love with this pattern when I saw Mei Li's cousins wearing them on Made on Maple.

It's Simplicity Pattern #2825, with a few adjustments.  I made the sleeves elbow length and added a ribbon like Annee did, and then added belt loops so the ribbon could stay put.  The most challenging part of any project that has a zipper, is the zipper.  I consulted my old sewing textbook so I could figure out how to do a lapped zipper instead of a centered zipper.  It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with it.

 

I have also made a couple of the Lazy Days skirts, and they took me about 45 minutes each.  If you are a beginner seamstress, the Lazy Days skirt is the perfect project to start with.

Slowly but surely, I am making my way through my fabric stash.

Gal Pals

For an hour this afternoon, both Mi Na and Stephen were napping. I don't think this has ever happened before. It was very nice.

When Mi Na woke up, I nursed her in my comfy chair, and Mei Li played quietly in my room.

As I started to doze off, Mei jumped up and said, "Do you know what would be a good idea? If we made princess hats! TWO princess hats. One for me and one for Mi Na. We could roll up paper into a cone and THEN we could stick ribbons on the top! Wouldn't that be a great idea? Come on, Mom! Let's go make princess hats!"

I didn't feel one bit like doing anything but sleeping, but I got up and made her dreams come true with some paper, tape, and ribbon.


Sorta ghetto, right?

Mei Li asked me, "Mom, could you draw a heart on my hat that means you love me? Could you draw another heart that means I love you?" Then she asked for hearts to represent her love for Mi Na, her Papa, and Stephen. She drew butterflies on both hats and said, "I hope Mi Na loves butterflies." She also drew some flowers and one very special dancing flower.

Before the kids went to bed, I put some clean sheets on Mei's bed. She has the top bunk and it is difficult to put sheets on up there. Mei Li did her best to help me.

Mei: Do you know why I'm helping you, Mom?
Me: Why?
Mei: Because I love to hang out with you.

Mei is my BFF. This one too:


P.S. Do you see that double chin?! I can't stand the cuteness.

Doodling

How cute is this?

Dare to Design

I designed a dress for Shabby Apple's "Dare to Design" contest, which calls for a dress design for spring 2010. I've had this dress in my head for months. I was first inspired by one of the dresses that Maria wore in The Sound of Music. It had a rounded collar and a knee-length a-line skirt.

My final design actually doesn't look much like my initial inspiration, but it is much more appropriate for spring. My dear friend, Wendy H., drew this design for me. Wendy, you are the best.

This is my dress design for Shabby Apple Dresses, the "Soda Pop" dress:

I can just imagine wearing this on a spring date night with Steve to an old-fashioned soda fountain, wearing sweet sunny yellow round-toe heels and a headband.

Did you notice the lace peeking out from underneath the dress's skirt? The buttons are tiny white fabric buttons.

My vision for the color of the dress is cerulean, navy, or robin's egg blue with tiny white polkadots.

There is a thin white belt at the waist, but I think that a sunny yellow belt or sash would be pretty as well.

I'm thinking that the fabric should be a lightweight, but opaque cotton/silk blend. The silk will keep it from wrinkling.

There you go! Thank you so much for your help, Wendy!

Can't you see that it's just rainin'? There ain't no need to go outside.

My kids were sick on this rainy day, so we stayed inside in our pajamas all day long.

My sister-in-law Rachel has been our temporary tenant for the past few days and the kids adore her, as do I. Each day, Rachel is their first request of the morning. She'll be living in the area permanently and we couldn't be happier.

Mei Li missed her art class yesterday and joy school today and might miss a birthday party tomorrow because of her cold. Lame. I'm praying that she'll be better by tomorrow.

Today, I tried to make up for her missed art class by doing some art projects at home. Mei Li has been wanting to make snowflakes, and Stephen's nap time was the perfect time for such a project.


Do you know how nervous it makes me to watch a 3-year-old use scissors?
Her scissors were not quite strong enough to cut through several layers of paper so she just cut up a scrap of paper.

She wanted to hang up the snowflakes, but since it's not winter yet, I suggested that we cut up fall leaves to stick on our window.

I cut out a bunch of leaves and let her do the sticking. I thought that letting a 3-year-old do it would ensure pure randomness.

I was so wrong:



It turned into more of a leaf filing system.


It reminded me of my attempt at a totally random and asymmetrical photo wall collage:


She is indeed my daughter.

Like I said before, we were in our pajamas all day long. It felt good, especially since my pajama pants were expertly made by a seamstress in Korea. They are comfortable and beautiful and perfect for rainy sick days.


Tonight, Stephen played "burger stand" like he does every night. He pokes his head out through the mini blinds and asks "a burger?" If you say yes, then he'll turn around and pretend to fix up your burger. THEN, he doesn't just hand you the burger, but he walks out from behind his stand and hands it to you. What great customer service!

Mei Li played it cool just before bed.


And now I just want to be with Steve. Good night.

Homemade gifts.

OK! So this is how this works...The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me for you. My choice made especially for you. Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:~

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Of course, I will try to make something that I think you would like.)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3 It will be done sometime this year.
4. You have no clue what it will be... it may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure. ;-)
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (Although, I'm not really the sort of person to make something strange.)
6. I will send it anywhere! It doesn't matter where you live!

The catch? The catch is that you must repost this on your own blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. The first five people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!

I really wanted something homemade by the talented Tiffany so I'm on the hook. I won't be hurt if no one wants a homemade gift from me, but I am offering.