blogs

Made:: Mint Peplum Top

April 18, 2013 By Chie

I love buying small things during my travels to remind myself of the place I visited (we all get souvenirs, right). While I was in NY in February, I met up with Sonja of Ginger Makes at Garment District (more update later on our meetup!). I didn’t buy a lot, but one of the things I bought was one yard of this mint green cotton. The fabric is very soft. It feels like a gauze fabric. I also bought the same color elastic, hoping to launch into making lingerie.

Recently I have been busy making clothes for the customers and just did not have enough time to make things for myself. Then I realized whenever I went out, I am wearing some clothes that I either thrifted or bought at forever 21, which is okay, but I get asked why I don’t wear what I make. I needed to update my own wardrobe to better represent my brand.

I only had one yard of this fabric, so what I could make was limited. I wanted to make a long flowy dress, but I didn’t have enough fabric. So, I used the same pattern as this dress, just added a peplum below the waist band.

And guess who took these photos….{find me elsewhere: shop, facebook, etsy, twitter, pinterest}

DIY:: Linen Yarn Plant Holder

April 17, 2013 By Chie

I love having plants and flowers in the house. It has become my weekly routine to stop at a nearby flower shop to buy some fresh flowers for the house. I love how much difference it makes to the house’s ambiance and my mood in general to have flowers around:)

The other day, I found this pot of anemone on sale for 100 yen ($1). I usually stay away from plants and pots because I have a black thumb. When I first got married, I really wanted to fill our new apartment with greens. I had aloe, a palm tree, and a cactice. They all died. I don’t know what I did to kill them, but they all turned brown… so I had been staying away from plants but I could not resist these pretty pink flowers. Also the guy at the flower shop said that anemone flower season is ending, so I would not feel bad about myself when these flowers die.

Anyway, I wanted to hang this pretty near the window so it receives a ton of light. With a linen yarn and crochet hook, I made this plant holder. I am not terribly good at crocheting, so I made it up as I went. First I made a circle big enough to cover the bottom of the plant pot. After I made the circle, I kept crocheting without increasing the stitches, so it naturally rolled and made a shape like a bowl. After that, I added long strings on four corners at the top, and made a simple knot to hold the strings together. I inserted a S hook in the knot to hang it on the window. {find me elsewhere: shop, facebook, etsy, twitter, pinterest}

Mommy’s Diary: Rainy Day Activity

April 12, 2013 By Chie

Kiko’s apron is handmade – blogged here.

What do you do with your kids on rainy days? I have the biggest struggle of my parenting life finding things to do on rainy days for Kiko. Today was one of those days. It was cold and rainy out, and I was tired after work. I know Kiko likes to go to the community center to play with other kids and it is indoors, but sometimes I just am not in the mood for sitting there and watching her play, or worse, if she happens to want to exclusively play with me rather than playing with other kids..what’s the point of taking her to the community center!

Anyway, instead of the community center, we baked today. It was a lot of fun! We made banana muffins, and I used an easy recipe I found online that uses pancake mix, so I was able to skip the baking powder and flower mixture part.

Kiko “helped” a lot, from peeling the banana skin, stirring the dough, bringing the dishes to the sink and finally, helping with cleaning the bowl.

I wish my story ends here. It was all fun until then, but eventually I had to ask her to give the bowl back to me so we could move on to the next activity. I thought I gave her enough time. I talked with her, that she spent enough time licking the bowl and I wanted her to give the bowl back. She eventually gave it back to me, but with a whine and cry. Oh that wasn’t fun. I feel like it ruined all the fun time we had baking together. How would you deal with this kind of situation?

{find me elsewhere: shop, facebook, etsy, twitter, pinterest}