Dorami Keychain

Made a Dorami keychain for a good friend's birthday.  Hope she'll look pass my crude work and be able to sense all my good wishes instead!

Happy Birthday dear!

Granny Square Cushion Covers

My mum has been here since July and she'll be here for 3 months till October ('coz that's when the weather gets too unbearably cold for her).  Having mum here is great! She's helping with almost everything and we have fun doing stuff together and having small fights to spice up our otherwise super boring lives! :D

The problem is that Linköping is a small town, well, coming from Singapore, it IS small in comparison.  There is nothing much to do here and no where especially interesting to go to as well... okay, that's not so fair to say that... there are many things to do if you're into nature and the great outdoor but being typical Singaporeans, our greatest interests are finding new places to eat and window shopping.  Therefore, in order to keep my mum occupied (yeah, other then helping me with housework, preparing meals and fussing over the kids...), I got her to pick up the crochet hook again after many many years.  And thanks to internet, I'm able to teach her new ways of crocheting and some new stitches.  She almost broke into tears when she found out that I've become so domesticated! Okay, I was exaggerating, maybe she was just tearing up because of the onions I've asked her to help me chopped...

Being someone who is bored out of her mind all the time a crafter, I have a loooong list of projects I want to try, and crocheting cushion covers is one of them.  So I bought some yarns, showed my mum how to start a magic ring, told her the pattern, type of stitches to use and how many and told her "Now, crochet!" left her to finish the project. Except for some problem with changing of colours, I think she has done a great job!

Front

Back

And when she's done with one, she's eager to do another one....

And when she's done with the second one, she felt that she has had enough.... "...but mum, I have 3 cushions....", so she ploughed forward to finish the third one! :P

And I couldn't wait to try them on my cushions (which are kinda old and lumpy...) and to my horror, my 1-year old hooked his tiny fingers through the gaps in between the granny square and started lifting the cushions like weights!  >.<"

Hmmm... looks like this pattern is not so toddler-friendly, need to come up with a better pattern! =.="

Bean Bag for Baby

I promised a dear friend that I'll make her a bean bag for her new born little girl. All four of my kids have had bean bags when they were newly borned. The two smaller ones still have them, even though they are now 1 and 3! ^.^ The bean bag acts as a added weight on the baby's tummy, so they will not jump (ok, not literally since they're so small... but you know when I mean!) so much from sudden loud noise or when they're changing position while sleeping. I find that when I wrap my new born with the small hands bound tightly at the sides and a bean bag on the tummy, the baby sleeps better and longer. Hopefully my friend will find this tip useful so that she can gain a little bit more time to do other stuff.



So here it is! A bean bag filled with green beans and lots of love! ^.^





And since it's for a little princess, I can go crazy with girly decorations! Ok, I did control myself...



For a sweet heart...





And since it's for a princess, I HAVE to add in some lace!





I hope this bean bag will bring comfort and security to the little princess, so that she can sleep better. It's a tough job having to grow so fast in her first year, she needs all the beauty sleep she can get!

iPod Shuffle Cuffs

2 of the bigger kids received en iPod Shuffle each on their birthday last year. Since then, they've been walking around carrying the tiny thing either in their hands or in their pockets. When I saw that, my creative lightbulb (a really small one!) lit up and I made this!

A cuff for the wrist with a small bag...

...especially dedicated to put the tiny iPod Shuffle!
And it keeps the wrist warm! (well, kinda..)

And of course I made two!


And on to the next project...

Simple Shorts

Here in Sweden, we don't get to wear shorts so often. So the moment the temperature hits 20 degrees, we can't wait to dig out whatever shorts we have! ^.^ The 2 small babies in the family only have 1 pair of shorts each, so I decided to make some on my own!

It's not that difficult to draw your own pattern. Get a pair of shorts that fits and fold it into half and trace it on a piece paper, remember to leave seam allowance, do the same for front and back, cut it out and there you have it! You just made your own pattern!


Then I put the patterns on a big over-sized t-shirt which nobody can wear (don't ask me how we got it!) and cut them out. Next, sew the 2 front pieces together at the crotch and do the same for the 2 back pieces. After that, sew up the sides to join the front and back pieces together. This is my trial version which I hand sewed... except for the stupid mistake made in cutting the fabric, it looks quite good!


And I made another one for the youngest prince from an old blouse "donated" by a dear friend! ^.^


Added in a pocket just for fun!


Not forgetting a special touch...


Add in elastic bands and it's done!


And don't forget to iron them to give them a more "professional" look! :P

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!^.^

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.