Valentine's Day wreath

Well, Christmas is now officially over. Time to take down my Christmas wreath.

Yes, I know tomorrow is February. I still have my 3-foot tall Christmas tree up. Maybe I will turn it into a Valentine's Day tree.

Anyway, my red door look so plain now without my wreath.

But hey! Valentine's around the corner. I don't particularly like celebrating Valentine's Day because it's mainly commercial. Shouldn't you love your family and friends every day?!  But I do love the decorations everywhere. Makes me feel all happy and loved. Like Macy's REALLY LOVE me :)

Ok...I'll cut to the point. I haven't been able to sit down and "talk" for a while since Chase was born. Give me a break :)

Back to my story. So I want to make a Valentine's Day wreath, but I don't have any plain wreath to start with. Not to mention I already have three wreaths in my apartment. So instead of buying some more  to clutter my apartment I decided to just recycle the Christmas wreath.

Before:  Christmas Wreath

After: Valentine's Day Wreath

Funky wreath. Simple. Love.

Do not ask me what happened to the two heads. I found the "je t'aime" boy and girl at eat drink chic.   You can imagine your face and your significant other there. The bunting I created using Silhouette Cameo.

Happy Thursday. 

I CAN sew!

Yes, I'm finally doing it. I am sewing Chase his clothes.

First project: pants.

Here is a great tutorial video by the Crafty Gemini. I enjoyed watching this tutorial. Her instructions are very clear and she shows you every single step.  In this tutorial she recycled an old T-shirt and turned it into baby pants. Or if you want, shorts since Spring is almost here!

You don't need to know how to read patterns. Just grab one of your baby's pants and use that as a pattern instead.

Here is my finished product:

Front of pants

Back of pants

Note to self: attach applique first before sewing the pants. Less bulkiness and easier to manuever on the sewing machine. The applique was an afterthought.

Also need to try different elastic bands. This elastic has a tight stretch. Didn't realized there are so many types of elastics out there.

Took me about two hours to sew these pants because I had to intermittently go back and forth watching the Youtube video and sewing it.

Not so bad for a first trial. Grabbing more of my husband's t-shirts and turning them into pants and shorts!


Update: 02/09/2013

After finishing Chase's new pants I felt that they're missing something. Then I realized that I got these cool fabric paints called Ink Effects Fabric Paints that allow me to add some details on the pants really quickly.

Basically, you print out the image using regular printer's paper. Paint the image with the Ink Effects Fabric paint. Wait for 30 mins for it to dry. Iron the image on the pants and you are done!

Chase with his fishing hooks pants

Second pair of pants...actually made from scratch with a pattern using the T-shirt tutorial above:

Super hero pants

Cowboy Pants 

HAPPY SEWING!

Simple storage for small spaces...

Storage solutions that use every aspects of our apartment without taking up too much space.

Real Simple over-the-door shoe organizer as a stuff animal/toy storage.

Jewelry organizer serving as a socks/mittens storage. One side holds socks; the other side holds mittens and shoes.

Mesh pockets shower curtains to store baby shampoo/wash/bath toys. 

Scarf-hanger-organization

What are some of your storage solutions?

Chase's favorite books so far...

Look Look! by Peter Linenthal - We started reading this book to Chase at around 2 weeks old. He loves staring at the high contrast black and white images. 

Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach - Mr. T got this as a gift from his co-workers before he left on paternity leave. We love this book. It makes us laugh. It also gives me a chance to curse and people know I normally don't do that (at least before I met Mr. T). At times we look down at our wide eyed baby boy while we're reading the book to him and think to ourselves, "Yeah, why don't you go the f**k to sleep?!".  Chase enjoys the book as well as demonstrated from picture below. 

The 3rd book that he enjoys isn't really a book. It's the Chinese take-out menu. Just need to read it with lots of exaggeration and excitement. This is how much he loves hearing me read the menu to him. 

Update: 04/11/2013

Chase is now 4.5 months. Growing so fast and so is his reading list. 

His favorite books now are :

Thank you Bear  by Greg Foley - We love the illustrations in this book. It's very simple. Has neutral colors but done in such a way that really gets Chase's attention. 

The BIG Sleep Book by Guido Van Genechten - This is a big board book about different types of sleepers. The pictures are colorful and big hence the title :). Chase gets so excited when we read him this book. We change the child's name to Chase instead of Josh. When Mr. T reads the book he'll read it with Chase's name, but then say, "And it's spelled J-O-S-H". I hope Chase doesn't  end up spelling his name that way.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY  FAMILY AND FRIENDS  !

2012 has come and gone. Cheers to 2013. 

TOP 10 things I remember most about 2012:

10. Finding out I was pregnant in March. 

9. Watching my stomach grew into a huge watermelon. 

8. Feeling like I've been constipated my whole life. Realizing how wonderful it feels to actually have soft stool when I finally delivered Chase in November. 

7. The truckload of poop that can come out of a newborn!

6. The relentless crying at night that seems like it would never stop. Whoever coined the phrase, "Sleep like a baby" apparently did not have kids.

5. Feeling Chase kicking my stomach and wondering what part of his body is causing that bulge in my tummy.

4. Mr. T always being there to take care of me when I was pregnant and Chase when I need to get some zzz's. 

3. Seeing Chase's adorable feet and hands on the sonogram for the first time.

2. The first big toothless smile that says, "You know I'm worth all that pain for 9+ months!"

1. The birth of Chase after almost two hours of pushing. 

May your 2013 be filled with love, happiness and wonderful things! And may ours be a little bit quieter, especially at night :)