Hubby's Christmas Present!

I always find it tough to buy presents for my hubby. The stuff that he wants, I can't afford them. The stuff that I can afford, he already has loads of them... Last year I thought I did a good job getting him an electronic photo frame, one which you can put in a memory card and it'll just flashes pictures randomly from the memory card. He was surprised and was very happy with that. This year I've really been cracking my head on what to buy for him... Since budget is an issue here, I decided to crochet him something!

And this is what I came up with!

Mythbusters - Jamie and Adam!

Hubby is a great fan of "Mythbusters" and has always been saying how fun it will be to be working in the same team together with those guys. Well, it's beyond my contacts to get him a job on the show, but I brought the main characters to him! (well, at least I tried...)

Adam's shirt says "Mythbusters"! (sorry for my poor embroidery skills! :P)

And Jamie's says "Rotosub", which is my hubby's company! ^.^

I thought they are quite cute! ^.^ And I really hope that hubby will like them!

St. Lucia Day

Here in Sweden, the schools celebrate St. Lucia Day. On 13th December, there will be a procession in schools. There will also be procession done in the church early in the morning and broadcast on tv. Usually a girl will be selected to be Lucia and a few more to be her maids. And in school, there will be boys selected to be "Stjärngoosar" ("Star boys")and "Pepparkaksgubber" ("Gingerbread boys") or "Tomtenissar" ("Santa's elves") .

And in my children's elementary school, the Lucia procession is always done by the kids in Year 3. Last year, my eldest prince was a star boy. This year was my princess's turn and she was to be one of the maid to Lucia. Princess A has got an old costume which she wore 3 years ago during the Lucia procession in the kindergarten. Thinking that she'll only wear the costume once, I was very reluctant to buy a new one. So I took out the costume which Prince J wore last year and announced bravely that I would try to modify it into a maid's costume! And if it fails, then we'll shop for a new one....

So this was how the star boy costume looked like before I started taking some stuff apart...

I started by removing the standing collar...

Took out the collar from Princess's maid costume from 3 years ago and attached to the "new" costume...
Took out the lace from the sleeves of the old costume and attached to the "new" costume...

Sewed in elastic bands close to the end of both sleeves...

Ta-dah! There you have it, a "new" maid costume!

And of course this has to get an okay from Princess A, who was the one wearing it. She was very happy with the result! A little DIY and we saved 199kr! Yippee!

Happy Birthday Little Brother!

Was cracking my brain on what to get for my little brother's birthday. Since we're trying to budget our expenditure nowadays, I decided to make him something. And he has been a true Doraemon fan since young, so I decided to brave the uncertainties and make him a Doraemon keychain.

And this is the result. Not perfect, I know. There are so many places I need to improve on if I'm gonna make this again. I hope he receives my best wishes and warm thoughts though...

See I even remembered to put on his tail!

Happy Birthday my little brother! *hug*

A Little Coin Purse

This is my first attempt in crocheting a coin purse, so I stick to the basic shape without any pattern. I've also crocheted a butterfly appliqué to make it look a little more interesting.

I think I'll try to sew a lining the next time so it looks more finished.

But I'm happy with this for now! And like most of my prototypes, this one has already been adopted by my princess! ^.^

Hmmm....

These are a little misleading from this angle....

and they are really cute!

Don't you think? Go spread a little love today!

Annoying missing pieces!

I love jigsaw puzzles. I love how time just flies by while I get lost in concentrating in scrutinizing each piece, and trying to figure out where it fits. When I was young, I remember owning a 500-pieces puzzle, which I completed and took apart countless time. I did it so often that I could do the puzzle row by row, or work from the borders and move inwards - round by round. When I got older and started working, I could afford to buy more puzzles but not that often coz the good quality ones are quite pricey. I put my jigsaw passion aside since I had my first baby. I really miss that but simply do not have the time to do any, especially now when I have 4 + 1 babies at home! (4 small and 1 really big one! ^.^)

I have started to buy wooden jigsaw for my 3-year old Prince, hoping to improve his concentration and coordination. So it is understandable that I get very annoyed with there is a missing piece or heavens forbid, more than 1!

Hence I came up with this:

First, get some scrap fabric and cut up according to the necessary measurement (don't forget to add seams!). I've also cut up some fabric to make a flap for the bag.

I embroidered a little label so we know what should be inside.

Then, sew everything up...

And you have it, a bag to store that elusive jigsaw pieces together!

And now...

all I have to do is to find all the missing pieces.... *sigh*

Crochet Earrings

I had been thinking of making these quite some time ago but didn't really get down to doing because of one reason or the other (procrastination and laziness is a lethal combination!).

A few weeks ago, I was thinking of what to send for a friend's birthday and these earrings came into mind. So I made a prototype to help me see how I can make a good-looking pair. This is the trial version.

It doesn't look so bad. And so I proceed to make these, which I really like.

This is not any expensive gift but it's the thought that really counts, isn't it? ^.^

Pimping Up Shorts Made From Old Jeans

Found 1 pair of eldest prince old jeans which was torn (as usual) at the knees. The tear were so big, they were beyond repair. So I asked princess if she could fit in them and they fit!

So I cut off the legs up till the torn areas...


Flip the jeans over to the wrong side and fold up about 1cm at the hem...


Measure the circumference of the hems and cut out 2 pieces of scrap fabric...


Fold about 1 cm on both sides (lengthwise) of the fabric....


Pin on the fabric around the hem...


Fold where the fabric joins...


Sew around the hems...


Flip the jeans over to the right side and fold up the hem...


There you have it, another way to add interest to a pair of old-made-new shorts!

Snappy Zipper Fix!

I'm sure a lot of us have this same problem once in awhile, you bought a new pair of jeans and realised that the zipper's slide is too loose and the zipper unzip itself when you move. This is a very annoying situation and an embarrassing one to say the least.

I face this problem very often, since I have 2 children whose main dress code consists of mostly jeans. And when they come to me complaining that their zippers are unzipping themselves, I get frustrated just thinking about the hassle of replacing new zippers. I have tried putting a rubber band through the zipper head and then, hooking it over the button of the jeans. I usually have to go over several round before it's tight enough to not slip down again, and if the rubber band is too old and too elastic, that means I basically have to wrap the button up with rubber band... Not only is it unreliable, the kids lose the rubber bands very easily and if I forget to remove them before I throw them into the washing machine....and then I have to find new rubber bands.

So yesterday, when my princess came to me again with a "self-unzipping" zipper, I decided that there must be a solution to this problem without having to change the whole zipper. So I did a small research on the internet and found a comment left on a thread (forgot where I found it) by a guy named "Mike" and God bless him for his brilliant solution! And this is how you solve this "slippery" problem:

First you find a key ring which is not so big but enough to hook it through your button.

Next, hook the ring through the zipper head. And you're done!


Unbelievable! And it works! Pull up the zipper, hook the ring through the button...


and button up your jeans like usual. And you can't even see the ring!


And if you really want to see the ring in action, you'll have to lift up the flap a little and angle yourself.... you see, it's just there doing its job!


I'm so happy with this solution and I yelled at my eldest prince if he has a similar problem and I fixed his jeans within 2 seconds and he was just amazed at how simple it is!

I wish it was me who thought of this smart solution and now I'm sharing it with all the sufferers out there who need a snappy zipper fix!

Blast From The Past - Five Stones!

Having 4 kids in a small apartment on a raining day can get quite tortuous sometimes. So after I managed to get my youngest prince to take a nap, I came up with a crafting project for the older kids. I decided to introduce them to the game which I enjoyed playing when I was small - Five Stones

We began by cutting scrap fabric to get 5 5cm x 10cm rectangular pieces. And since both Prince J and my princess wanted to have their own, I cut 10 pieces. Then we fold the rectangular piece into half so that it look like a square. I taught them to do simple, small and straight stitches around 2 sides of the square to make a small bag.

It took some time and I thought that they would run out of patience!


but surprisingly, both of them finished stitching all the pieces!

Next we flipped the bags over to show the right side of the fabric.


And I put in the beans...


Fold down about 0.5cm and stitched the opening up (stitch it up so that it becomes a pyramid shape) and voila!


In anticipation of the future fights and arguments on which is whose, I've also made 2 small bags and stitched on the first letter of the names onto the bags for easy identification.


Now the kids have a new game (which needs lots of practice!) which they can bring around easily!

Here is a video to show how it is play.

New Character Keychain

I have been working on my orders recently and one of them is a request for a special character keychain. So as always I was sitting on the sofa, "listening" to the tv and crocheting. Hubby, while on his way to fetch something to drink from the kitchen, stopped by to "check-in" on me.

"So what are you working on now?"
"Oh, it's a character from Korea." I replied without looking up.
"Oh... It's a small guy stuffed in a small hat?"
"What?!" I was clueless about what he was talking about until I looked up and saw what he was looking at...

"I have a head and two arms to go with that..." I was slightly amused. "Oh, ok, so it's not done yet huh?" and off he went, continue making his way to the kitchen...

After more intense crocheting, I was finally done! A Pucca keychain!

I like Pucca! ^.^

Exciting News!

After a period of struggling to set up my own website, I gave up! I realised that it is not worth all my brain cells when easier alternative is readily available - on Esty.com!

So after 2 nights of working on it, I hereby announce that I am the proud owner of a small esty store "Village Inspired"!! *clap clap clap*



I don't ask for too much, just a steady stream of customers! (Is this too much? ^_^)

Also, look what came with the mail!



My own labels!

After some consideration, I've decided to invest a small amount of money on my own labels. The result is not as good as I thought it would be, but it is still quite alright. I think I should select white background and black text next time, or maybe black background with white text...? Oh well, I have to use up all 100 pieces of this before I can make a new order!

Take A Break keychains - Singaporean Style!

I have made new variations for the "Take-A-Break" keychain! These are pastries which all Singaporeans are familiar with and it is common to have some of these for breakfast, with a nice hot cup of coffee!

Curry puff with coffee.

Egg tart with coffee.

Looking at these pictures now gives me craving!!!! I'll make the edible version this weekend!

Adopted A Westie!

No, we haven't expand our family by getting a new pet. It’s the new appliqué I did for my youngest prince.



Westies are energetic dogs and they look so cute with their white (almost silvery) fur. We have been talking about getting a dog, however, we have 2 pre-teens, 1 toddler, 1 baby and a slightly unstable mom (well, if you spend most of your days listening to the constant squabbles of 2 pre-teens, fighting with a toddler over everything from changing his diaper to fixing him a glass of milk, and having lengthy conversations with a 6 months old baby, you will be quite unstable too!) at home now and bring in a new puppy will just add more chaos to the current situation.

So I think I’ll just stick to appliqué for now!

For A Little Princess

Today is the wedding day of the Swedish Crown Princess. And oh, so beautiful she was, walking down the isle with grace and elegance towards her Prince Daniel... The Swedish royal family is well-loved by the people, especially the warm-hearted and sincere Crown Princess Victoria.

We attended a birthday party for a little princess today, who turned 2. I asked her mommy several weeks ago for some "hints" as to what kind of presents we should get and she said that book is always nice to have. So we bought 2 nice storybooks, which my princess wrapped and she also made a "name" card.



The other present standing at the back is a "Miffy-inspired" doll I made for little princess, Tuva.



I've also stitched her name and a small heart to personalize it and as you can see, my stitching needs major improvement...



I hope princess Tuva likes her new friend.

Happy 2nd Birthday, little Miss Sunshine!