Conquering a Fear...And the Beautiful Result!

Once upon a time a sensitive mother purchased yards of expensive silk brocade for her daughter as a pre-wedding gift... mostly because said daughter had been fawning over the Asian design and rich royal blue color for a long time and this mother thought it would go a long way towards soothing her 'day-before-the-wedding' jitters...and a kimono pattern so that yardage would go to good use. (Wait, at this point the daughter didn't even own a sewing machine! What were they thinking?)

Sadly, GUILTILY, the fabric sat in the daughter's fabric stash for 9 1/2 years because this gal didn't know HOW to read a pattern and was terrified of destroying the gorgeous fabric.

Until last week.

I am that daughter. I do sew, but the only clothing I've made were very simple/forgiving projects for my kids (costumes, straight lines, online tutorials for easy things, ya know)... Until I decided enough is enough. After all, the logical accusation was that I was wasting the gift just as much by NOT using it as I would be if I messed up the sewing. Time to put on my big girl pants and JUMP IN!

I decided I would rarely use a kimono, so why not try something I could wear more regularly? The brocade lent itself to a fit-and-flare design because of the weight of the fabric. I bought a pattern (Simplicity 1418), made a mock up in muslin first so I could learn a few things, and read and reread those instructions! I am really proud that I stretched myself to a) figure out how to read a pattern, b) sew darts, c) sew pleats, d) sew fitted sleeves, e) sew in a zipper and f) make adjustments to the pattern so that it was a custom fit! Weight loss not-withstanding, I still have my original body shape with which to contend, so adjusting the pattern to my specs proved a challenge indeed! I'm happy to say, I conquered! (and I think my next dress will be even better!)

and you know what? I've really been bitten by the fashion sewing bug! I whipped up this argyle peasant dress for Gwen for Valentine's Day (free fabric from a friend! Thanks, Rach!) and I've already got fabric and plans for Easter dresses... and even a couple more projects that should keep me busy into summer! Wondered where I've gone? Check my sewing room! I'll be there for a while!

Moral of the story? In conquering a fear, I've unleashed a monster!

Lovely Valentines Decor Projects

I've had way too much fun sprucing up our home for Valentine's Day this year! I can't seem to stop doing little projects!

I made this cute wall of free V-tines printables using thrift store frames. Gwen decorated those doilies and I wanted to use them around the house! Printables from Yellowblissroad, 18twentyfive, the36thavenue, and theredheadedhostess.   

Completed this adorable free printable candy hearts banner from sandytoesandpopsicles.

Found this 'house' at the thrift store and new it would be adorable for the girls little pet shops and princesses to have a Valentine's cottage especially for them! Painted it white then added in scrapbook paper to each hole. 

Burlap and felt heart inspired by Embellishinglifeeveryday.

Speaking of embellishing, check out Gwen's work on that doily!

These pink rose topiaries were inspired by the Idearoom.

Now I just need to finish up the simple peasant dress I'm making for Gwen (pink and green argyle-- so cute!) since she doesn't have a good V-tines dress and I'll be 'set' on the projects! Then I can add some more, or start on my St.Patty's decor, or begin their Easter dresses, or work on my spring hexie quilt for our bed! So many options! I LOVE having a project (or projects!) in the works! What are YOU working on these days?

Asian Love

Eric and I got to celebrate Asia 2 weekends in a row! We had our monthly in-home date to Japan and then the next week was Lunar New Year so we had our annual Korean feast!

Japanese in-home date night. We are poor with no extra vacation flexibility but we both LOVE the idea of international travel! So we decided this year to have a monthly "trip" to a place of interest! We get take out, plan small activities for our date, and then enjoy our evening as though we took a quick vacation! For our kickoff date, Eric chose Japan! We had delicious sushi (not pictured) before we put the kids to bed. 

We made some fancy but sweet origami flowers together.

I put up some gorgeous light posters given to me by my mom's Japanese friend, Yoko, back when I was in 4th grade. I love them! 

We had a great evening of delicious food, music, movies, and entertainment and I am loving our travel dates! Some day we'll go there for real, but in the mean time, this was a ton of fun and nicely romantic. 

We had a great dinner celebration for Lunar New Year this past weekend!

Emmett loved the japchae noodles. He had a pile of them in his lap by the end of his efforts!

kimbap and ddeokbokki

Kasia was a natural at rolling the kimbaps!

Stacey's hubby was a missionary in Korea like I was (just different place and years), so she came along for the Korean market shopping and food prep. It was so much fun to have a friend in the kitchen with me! Thanks Stacey!

Caroline wasn't feeling so well. She fell asleep right there WHILE everyone was running around her!

an impromptu blanket peek-a-boo game was warmly received by all the kidlets!

Our lively game of Yutnori went down in favor of guys... TWICE... but we're saying that we just let them win. Twice. :)

I made Hoddeok for the first time and it was a smashing success! Adding it to the yearly menu for sure! Why have we never done it before? Oh yeah: because there is already so much food and we are always stuffed. Though it is traditionally essential for Lunar New Year, I think I'm going to remove ddeok guk from the menu. No one really enjoys that soup as much as the rest of the food. I'd rather have more room for other foods. Would that be heresy if I left it out? :)

We had a wonderful time! Thanks for celebrating Lunar New Year with us, folks!

Lovely Kiddo Projects

Did ya'll miss me?

I finally got a camera to replace our busted one. So now I can share my ordinarily entertaining days with you again!

First up: here are 2 projects I've done with the girls that I love! 

Doily Heart T-shirts

Original idea from cuttingtinybites. I bought solid colored shirts from a consignment store. I hoped to go cheapest and get them at Volunteers of America, but there weren't any shirts without designs on them. Oh well. It was still cheaper than brand new. :) I forgot to get a pic of the doily painting part. This is after the doilies are removed and we added pink 'jewel' accents.

Caroline got lots of help for this project. She couldn't squeeze the tubes with enough control to get the paint out in nice dots. 

Gwen wanted dots all over the place and even added a cute smiley face!

The hardest part was waiting the 24 hours to let the shirts dry! These girls were SO EAGER to try on their new shirts!

Dinosaur Valentines

These were so fun and easy! Adorable. The girls each got to keep one, the rest we sent on to Grandparents with lots of love. 

Gwen informed me that the baby is following her mommy and daddy dinosaur. 

Caroline loved em all!

I love all the fun things to do for holidays!

Extra Special Homemade Paper Dolls!

 Gwen and Caroline have paper dolls that they rarely play with. I thought paper dolls just weren't their thing. But we visited with Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho in early November and they discovered a set there that they played with for hours at a time! It was kind of miraculous! In trying to determine what made Grandma's paper dolls so much better than ours at home (besides the obvious fact that they are GRANDMA's and therefore AWESOME), Gwen indicated 3 things:

1- she liked that these dolls could share each others' clothes. They were all the exact same size and pose, so everyone could wear everything. 

2- she liked the fun backgrounds included in the set. 

3- she liked the pages for designing your own dolls and clothes, letting your imagination guide you.

Armed with this information, I determined to make her a set of awesome paper dolls for Christmas! I started with these free printable dolls from Babalisme that I'd been saving on Pinterest for years until just the right occasion. So cute and did I mention absolutely free?

I knew they would be perfect because she's designed all her dolls (boys included!) with the same size and pose, so all clothing would be mutually interchangeable! Plus, her designs are just adorable, the perfect small size that my girls obsess over!

I printed out each set from Babalisme, but wanted to expand her Elsa and Anna dolls to include Frozen Fever outfits. And I wanted a mermaid. And Sophia the First. and more princess clothes. and, HONEY, I wanted cool hair styles! Time to design my own!

I used tracing paper of Babalisme's dolls to make sure I got the shape just right, then used images I found on Google to get ideas for dress designs. I transferred my tracing paper designs to card stock using carbon paper. Time to add color!

I love how they turned out! I think the girls are going to love them too! I think my 3 favorites are Elsa's Frozen Fever dress, the blue princess inspired by a Ruth Sanderson illustration, and the blue butterfly gown! Do you have a favorite?

Next was cutting out, laminating, then cutting out again. We're going to try using sticky gluey-strips (the ones that attach credit cards to paper when they come in the mail?) to hold on clothes and accessories. 

and just to make sure I covered all the bases, I prepared backgrounds for them, a little box for storing everybody and their clothes, and 2 sheets of uncolored dresses and hair styles for the girls to color to their exact desires! We are going to have fun coloring together! (I think I'll be nice and let them use my set of colored pencils. :)

So excited for the grand unveiling tomorrow for Christmas! You'd think I was getting them myself, I'm that stoked!

Nutcracker: An Amazing First!

Since Gwen has taken ballet for going on 2 years now and has shown a love for expanding her abilities in dance, AND since she gets an ever-so-slight discount for being a Balletmet student (meaning, she takes her lessons in a school staffed by the same professional ballet company that astounds all of Columbus with their amazing performances year after year!), we decided she should see her first live ballet performance!

And what better first ballet than that of The Nutcracker?

We surprised her with our plans just a few days before the event, mostly so she could become very absorbed in our copy of the story, memorize all the various dances, and be prepared to inform me that they switched up the order on a couple things or whisper anxiously "that wasn't in the book!" when a character like Grandma was introduced or when Mother Ginger was played by a man!

So excited! The rest of these photos are courtesy of my friend, Wendy, who can be credited for suggesting the outing for our daughters, driving our party downtown, bringing chocolate graham crackers to share, and just being excellent company for the production. She also had a camera where I did not. :)

The Grand Theatre downtown is VERY late Baroque, very ornate, and even had people taking photos in the bathrooms because of the fancy tapestry and chandelier! Gwen was duly impressed with all of it. A little too much gold and brocade for my personal tastes, but it contributed to the 'specialness' of the occasion for Gwen. She really thought she was at a pretty fancy princess event!

She got to have her picture taken with the Mouse King and the Sugar Plum Fairy! 

Actually, OUR Sugar Plum Fairy was Asian, but I didn't point out this fact to Gwen, who didn't notice the discrepancy.
I loved Herr Drosselmeier's mechanical doll (the interpretation of dance as a mechanized toy was really fabulous!), the snowflakes with their handfuls of glittery snow, and the brilliant use of a huge silk sheet during the Arabian dance that created such interesting compositions!
But for the record, I have to say our Sugar Plum Fairy performed the most stunning solo dance I've ever seen! I get the impression that matinees are usually the less-prominent dancers and that the big stars are saved for the evening performances (which would make sense), but I honestly can't imagine a more artfully done performance than the one that our SPF gave us! Well done, bravo! I'm incredibly glad I got to see this lovely ballet! (Let's be honest, taking Gwen was really just a cover so I had an excuse to go! lol!)

Sweet Sugary Christmas Goodness!

I LOVE gingerbread houses! They are quaint, lovely, cute yet beautiful... and they remind me of all that is delicious at Christmas time!

 I did not grow up making them with my family as a child; my mom was all about the sugar cookie decorating! She'd have bowls and bowls of toppings, bags and bags of perfectly flavored buttercream icing in all different hues, and we'd just go to town on those cookies! Confession: I would load up those cookies with so many candies, you couldn't see ANY cookie, the icing was nearly a half inch thick contributing to a full inch of sugary goodness on TOP of the sugar cookie itself, and a single bite could induce a sugar coma! I never could quite understand why Santa didn't eat all of my cookie, if he ate any at all. Sometimes my 'gorgeous monstrosities' were the only cookie NOT consumed, and I thought it was because I didn't put on enough decoration! 

Well. Now I understand. I was meant to use my decoration desires on GINGERBREAD HOUSES rather than sugar cookies because I needn't feel compelled to consume the house! 

Caroline's designs tend to be minimalist. She goes for silly stories like putting a tree and a bear inside because he's hiding behind the Christmas tree, a bear upside down because he fell off the roof, or a bear standing on another bear's head because he is trying to reach the chimney!

Gwen, on the other hand, clearly has the same tendency towards excessive candy use that I had as a child! Check out her work of art! She spent a couple of hours on hers, perfecting each detail! Long after all the rest of us had moved on to other activities, she was still sitting at the kitchen table, content with her icing and goodies! I'm going to call it the "Rococo" house!

She would call it the "dragon" house, because she put little dragons all over the exterior. The green one there nestled between the white spice drops has his smarties wings folded behind him. The orange one in the photo above has landed clinging to the wall with his(?) wings spread out to the sides. Gwen used every color of gummy bear for her collection of dragon specimens. 

She was very proud of her heavy-laden house!

Emmett was just happy to sit at the table with us and chow down on smarties, jelly beans, chocolate balls, and raisins! 

and on a side note to self: making the houses for the first time this year wasn't as challenging as everyone makes it sound. What was troublesome was the way the dough curled up at the edges where they lay on the slight curl of the parchment paper during baking. It made for less-than-ideal right angle alignment when constructing the houses. Nothing that a good royal icing couldn't solve, but I think next year we'll just go back to the reliability of graham crackers. They look just as lovely under the adornment of candies!

Isn't Christmas delicious? :)