gizzypooh

IMG_5741, originally uploaded by gizzypooh.

Hello friends!

The boys and I went to Maui for a family vacation last week. It was my little boy’s first vacation and first plane ride. The plane ride (there and back) was not so pleasant but once we were in Hawaii, my son really enjoyed it. He loves the sand and the ocean! He just cannot get enough of the beach.

Even though it was a nice vacation, I have to be honest and say that I am somewhat relieved to be home again. Traveling with a 15 month old can be quite exhausting. We had to bring so much “gear” just for him (from the stroller, to a portable booster seat, to the car seat, etc.). I think if we had to go away on a family vacation again, I would wait until my boy is big enough that he does not need all that “stuff”, or go somewhere close by without the long plane ride.

We stayed in Kaanapali which is along the North West coast of the island of Maui. We mostly went to the beach (we went every day except on our last day since we had to check out of our hotel by noon) and strolled along Front Street in Lahaina. Activities can be a bit limiting when you are traveling with a small toddler. We also visited the beach at Kihei and spent an evening at the Hyatt for a nice luau.

Hawaii is such a pretty place, but I have to say that I think I like Vancouver better. Home sweet home…

Recycle an old sweater and make something cute!

An easy 10 step tutorial for making a softie.

1. Find an old sweater to recycle (or you can use any other fabrics you wish). I used a nice wool sweater that got shrunk too many times in the dryer.

2. Place your the template of your softie on top of sweater (make sure you flip the sweater inside out so that the good side is on the inside) and outline the template with a fabric pen or marker.

3. After the outline has been traced, pin the top and bottom parts of the sweater together.

4. With a sewing machine, sew around the marked outline, but leave about 1 or 2 inches of the outline unsewn (this is important or you won’t be able to flip your softie to stuff it!). Remove pins as you sew as they are there to keep the top and bottom layers together.

*** Remember to leave an opening so that you can flip the softie inside out! ***

You can also sew by hand but the sewing machine is much faster!

5. After sewing the outline (and leaving an opening unsewn), cut around the outline leaving about a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

6. Flip your softie inside out.

7. Add any details you want before stuffing. I added some eyes, a felt nose, and hand sewn a mouth with some pink thread.

8. Stuff the softie with some polyfil. You can use a chopstick or a pen (with cap on) to stuff the hard to reach spots like the arms, legs, and ears.

9. Neatly tuck in the opening raw edges and hand sew the opening to close it off.

10. TA-DA! Now you have a cute softie!

You may also wish to make clothing for your softie which will be covered in another tutorial later…

Enjoy!

P.S. OK, so maybe I missed a step in how to create a template for the outline tracing. FYI, I hand drew the template and then folded a piece of paper in half (vertically) and then cut it out so that it is symmetrical. You can easily make any softie shape and size that you want using this method.

P.P.S. If you tried this tutorial, I would to love to see/hear about your results. I love feedback!

Now that my son is older, I have more time for crafts again. Yay! Since he is quite the messy toddler, I decided to sew a stroller cover for him. Now rather than having to wash the stroller pad (which is rather cumbersome to take apart and then put back together again after the wash), I can simply wash the stroller cover that I made. I am happy with the results and I am thinking of making one for the car seat too.

I have also been working on a few other sewing projects. I am hoping to post a small tutorial on how to make an easy bunny softie later.

I have also realized that my knitting has not progressed much. I never managed to finish that baby sweater I was supposed to start on before the baby was born. I also have an unfinished baby scarf lying around in my knitting bag. Hopefully I can finish the scarf before winter rolls around and maybe I will eventually start on the baby sweater for kid #2 (whenever that will happen).

We gave my son a buzz cut today. He looks so much older with his new hairdo! It’s hard to believe that he’s already 14 months now. Kids grow so fast! I cannot believe that he was a tiny little baby a year ago, and now he’s an overactive toddler that just cannot stop moving. He’s a totally fun kid, but he can also throw some pretty bad tantrums when he is in a bad mood. I hope he grows out of them eventually *_*. BTW, anybody know of any good books on disciplining small children?

Anyhow, I will end this post with a picture of my son “before” his haircut, and another picture of him getting his hair cut by his daddy. Thanks for reading!

We submitted a picture of Solomon and his “licked toy” to LickedToys and won a free eco-toy from PawLuxury. The toy arrived in a hurry and also came with some nice treats for the dog. Thank you PawLuxury for making a little dog very happy!

He may not look like it, but Solomon is actually a very happy dog with his new toy. He likes how it squeaks, and we like how it’s friendly to the environment!

P.S. I have noticed that I have a bug in my Wordpress blog where entries are duped when you try to comment or view the entry in a separate page (the About Me page is also messed up). I’ve tried looking at the PHP code in the theme editor but I do not see anything obvious. Argh. I will perhaps get the hubby to fix it for me since he is the PHP pro.

I’m going to the New Kids on the Block concert in November with some of my girlfriends!

I feel like a high school girl again. It’s going to be so fun .