Thursday, May 26, 2011

Our Ugly Brown Door

We live in a rented apartment where there is nothing much we can do when it comes to renovation. It's an old apartment and when we moved in about 3 years ago, there were already plenty of holes on the walls, stained wallpaper and dents here and there. Anyway, that's just the apartment, it's the people living inside that makes it a home. So here we are 3 years later, still quite happy living in here, though it is getting a little bit tight since the family has grown. But there is one item that gets at me like a small piece of stone in my shoe. The main door. It's brown, looks dirty and absolutely not welcoming at all.

I've been trying to make it look friendlier or cozier. So during Christmas we hang up wreath and put up Chinese New Year decorations at the start of the lunar year, but what about the period in between? After looking at the ugly door for some time, I just had to do something. And this was what I did!

I cut out some letters from a cardboard box, painted them...

While waiting for the letters to dry, I brought out my crochet needle and tried to crochet a heart without it looking like a circle...

After a few times, I think I kinda got it...

Once I'm satisfied (actually it's more like I have had enough and decided to just stop :P) with the heart, I pulled out my sewing machine, dug out an unused piece of lace and sewed 2 rings on both ends.

I also crocheted a small stuff heart to hang on one end...

Once the letters are dried, I glued on more lace...

Done! Untidy though... :P

Then I cut a small piece of cardboard and glued it behind the crocheted heart to make it less flimsy.

Finally it was just to glue the letters and heart onto the lace with the 2 rings!

There! Now I have something "home-y" to hang on my door!
It may not look very well-made (Well, if only I bother to measure and align the letters properly before I glued them on...!) but now I have something nice to look at, instead of the plain and brown door!^.^

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Gift From The Heart

The hot topic that crocheters in Sweden have been talking about lately must be "Hjärtekatten". This meaningful project is started by Therese and Susanne and the crochet cats will be delivered to the children who are hospitalized at the cardiac department at Queen Silivia’s children and youth hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, read more about their creative and heart warming project here.

I'm privileged to be able to contribute my small part. Introducing "Sötis", which means "Sweetie" in Swedish. We have to give our cat a name and trust me, that was the most difficult part and after thinking for about half a day, all I can come up with is "Sötis"... pathetic I know... :P


The heart with a few (ugly...sorry! I tried my best!) stitches symbolised the heart condition that each child has and reminds the child that the heart condition doesn't make him/her less perfect, it makes him/her special in his/her own way.

Sötis will be on a long journey today. It's a cat on a mission - To bring love and comfort to a child in need.


I'm confident that Sötis will do its best and I'm sending my warmest wishes and thoughts out to all the children who are suffering from heart conditions and the families, it's a difficult journey but believe that miracle happens and love comes in many different shapes and forms.