You may or may not have noticed, but I have officially moved my blog to here. (I basically upgraded Wordpress to v2.9 and MySQL to v5.0, and then exported and imported my old posts to the new blog.)
So if you are still reading this now, then please update your bookmarks and/or RSS feeds!
Thanks 
.
My son and I had a really fun time yesterday decorating eggs for Easter. He is at an age where he enjoys crafts and making things with mommy. I love it!
I bought a really cheap egg dyeing kit from the dollar store (yup, it only cost $1!) that turns dyed eggs into these decorated eggs on wheels. Hence called VehEGGles. What a clever little kit! I am definitely going to buy more of these if I can still find them for $1.
We also had some plain styrofoam eggs that I got from the craft store which my son just randomly placed stickers on top. This is also a cheap and easy way to have toddlers decorate eggs (my son loves peeling the stickers and placing them on the foam eggs).
We turned old tissue boxes into Easter baskets by just cutting the top off and adding a strap out of construction paper. One of the tissue boxes already had a bunny on it so I didn’t even bother covering it with construction paper. We stuffed some coloured straw into the baskets and added our decorated eggs in there. Ta-da! What a fun and easy way to craft with a 2 year old.
Anyhow, if you’d like to see the pictures click here to see the Flickr set.
Happy Easter everybody!
Make a hot drink sleeve that you can use over and over again! (Of course it’s better if you could actually use a reusable mug, but sometimes you just cannot carry a spare mug around in your purse.)
Here is my 10 step tutorial below…
How to Make a Reversible Drink Cozy
Step 1 - Find an exisiting hot drink sleeve to use as to make your pattern.
Step 2 - Open and disassemble the cardboard sleeve, so that it looks like the picture above.
Step 3 - Trim off any excess cardboard that you may not want as part of your pattern.
Step 4 - Lay out the “modified” pattern. This modified cardboard sleeve will be used as your template.
Step 5 - Place your choice of fabric for the drink sleeve and lay them right sides up together. Trace your template on the wrong side of one of your fabric pieces.
Step 6 - Place a piece of felt at the back of your fabric pieces as additional insulation. (This extra piece of felt will really help to insulate your drink and keep your fingers safe from burns.)
Pin everything together and sew on the line that you drew with your template in the previous step. Don’t sew all the way around though, leave one of the side edges open for flipping!
Step 7 - Trim off the excess fabric edges with pinking shears.
Step 8 - Flip the drink cozy inside out. You may have to use something sharp (like a crochet needle) to get the tight corners flipped out properly.
Fold and tuck in the unsewn edges. Pin them down, and then topstitch around the edges.
Step 9 - Sew some velcro along the edges of the drink cozy. I used some special velcro made for doll dresses which worked really well because it is not as bulky as the regular velcro. Make sure you align one strip on one side, and place the other strip on the other side or you won’t be able to seal your cozy together!
Step 10 - Assemble the drink cozy together and you’re done!
You can reverse the look by using the other side of the fabric as the exterior. How versatile!
Don’t forget to enjoy your hot beverage carefully.
I found these patterns in a Japanese craft book on how to make some house slippers. I sort of modified them and did my own thing (I added my own straps) since I cannot read Japanese. I have not had the chance to scan in my version of the patterns, but hopefully I will have the chance to do that eventually.
Anyhow, below are my 10 steps tutorial on how I did this (it is more like 9 steps, but 10 just seems better).
How to Make Mary Jane Slippers
Step 1 - Cut out patterns from the fabric of your choice for the outside of the slippers. You will need 2 x bottom, 2 x side panels in the outer fabric.
Step 2 - Pin side panels to the bottom of the slipper.
Step 3 - Sew around the outside of the bottom of the slipper (what you pinned in step 2).
Step 4 - Where the back of the side panels meet, sew the back of the heel together. Trim excess.
If you flip the unfinished slipper inside out, you should have the results of the picture on the right.
Step 5 - Repeat steps 1-4 for the lining fabric.
Step 6 - Create the straps by placing one piece of the outer fabric and one piece of the lining fabric together. Sew around the sides, but make sure to leave an opening so that you can flip the strap inside out. Trim edges with pinking shears if you like.
You may want to use a chopstick of knitting needle to help “flip” the strap. (This was actually one of the hardest part of this project for me!)
Step 7 - Flip your outer fabric slipper with the right sides out and then pin the strap in place. Make sure the outside fabric of the strap is facing the outside fabric of the slipper when you pin.
Step 8 - Pin the lining of the slipper with the outside slipper. Make sure you have the right sides facing together when you pin. Then sew around the pin edges and leave an opening about 2 inches wide (don’t forget this or you won’t be able to flip your slipper inside out).
Flip your slipper inside out. Then tuck the unfinished edges and sew around edge to finish.
Step 9 - Add some buttons and decorate your slippers if you like. If you want to make then “non-slip” you can put some puffy paint on the bottom or hand sew some leather patches. Don’t forget to try them on!
Step 10 - Enjoy!
If any of you try this tutorial I would love to see some pictures. Thanks for reading!
My son has recently been reading a lot of Richard Scarry books. We bought some online and we also borrowed a few from the library. His favourite character is Lowly Worm (who doesn’t like him?). Then I saw this blog post that made me want to sew my own Lowly Worm doll and I was on the search for a Richard Scarry’s Best Make-It Book Ever! (apparently this is not that easy to find since it was printed in 1977). I finally found one on eBay and it’s the cutest thing ever. Lots of crafts and fun stuff to do, and all the pages are in colour.
Anyhow, I did end up making my son a Lowly Worm doll this week and when my hubby gave it to my son on Saturday morning, he’s been carrying his wormy friend around with him since then. So cute.
We also made some cupcakes this weekend. I think I added WAY too much confectioner’s sugar in the buttercream frosting so when I had out the cupcakes, people are totally going to have a sugar rush from eating them (whoops). Perhaps I should have tried to correct that by adding more butter… I made the cupcakes and frosting using the recipes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book.
♥ ♥ ♥
Well, it was 13 years ago that my hubby and I started dating. Wow, time flies. Now we have a son and are expecting our second child soon.
Have a Happy Valentine’s Day and a Happy Chinese New Year everybody!
