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Custom Wedding Dress & Kimono Upcycled Clothes | オーダーメイドウェディングドレス&着物ドレス

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kids

Mommy’s Diary: Potty Training

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mommy's diarykiko pigtails3kiko pigtails2 kiko pigtails420130606kiko11 20130606kiko12We have been inactively working on Kiko’s potty training for the past few months, and I am proud to say that she can go out in big girl underwear during the day without accidents! I think there are two major approaches to potty training; the short term, boot camp style training or long term organic training. We chose the latter. I don’t remember when exactly we started potty training Kiko, but she was trained to poop in the toilet first, and slowly got used to peeing as well. When she first started pooping in the toilet, we gave her a treat – small snack like a candy or cookie. Once she got used to pooping in the toilet, we took away the treat and put her on a toilet every hour for peeing. During this time, she was wearing diapers. We just recently started using big girl underwear when we realized that she can keep her diaper dry the entire day.

It was a slow process but we found it much less painful than going hard in a short period of time! She still wears diapers at night, mostly because I am too lazy to clean up when an accident happens. What is your potty training style? ChieSignature

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Mommy’s Diary: Cat Applique T-shirt and Easy Shorts

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mommy's diarycat applique tshirt

When Kiko was first born, we had more clothes than she could ever wear. Our friends and family generously provided us with many clothes, shoes and hand-me-downs. But now Kiko is a little over two, she obviously has grown out of all of her baby clothes. For the first time since becoming a mother, I am finding that Kiko is low on outfits and I need to make her clothes to wear.

Kid’s clothes’ making is fun. I have a lot of scraps that I am dying to get rid off, and she can basically wear whatever and still be acceptable in public, as opposed to me, I shouldn’t be wearing a dress with elephant an motifs. Kiko is really into animals now like all kids, and she loves pointing at different animals and demonstrating her ability to say the name of them. So I added the little kitty applique on handmade t-shirt that I made out of a non-wearable muslin.

cat applique process1 cat applique process2collage cat tshit

These shorts are made by me too. As usual, I used the scraps but didn’t have enough length, so I added the gingham check fabric as a hem details to cover the lack of fabric.
ChieSignature

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Mommy’s Diary: Kiko’s Room Tour

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mommy's diarykikos nursery6 Unlike sewing, I don’t think you are ever done with home decorating. I think home decor is something that is always changing and evolving as you live and change your life style. I don’t feel completely ready to share Kiko’s nursery, but I don’t think I ever will finish decorating the room, so here it is! Many of the stuff in her room were made by me.

As a starter, the window seat cushion was made using an old mattress. Japanese mattresses are thinner than what they call mattress in the U.S., and can be easily cut with scissors. I cut the mattress to fit in the window seat size, and made the cover. I accented the cover with the red piping all around the seam lines.The polka dot curtain was also made by me as I blogged here.

My current favorite is the princess castle! It was given to us by my friend for Kiko’s second birthday. You might notice that Kiko doesn’t have a bed. She sleeps in the castle now. It’s a girl’s dream! I wish I could sleep in a castle. I folded a futon mattress in half and laid it in the castle. kikos nursery3I experienced many trials in decorating Kiko’s room. Her room is a Japanese room, which means it is small, has tatami mat floor with ugly green divider lines and fake wood ceiling. The ceiling is particularly ugly as it pretends to be wood but really not, it is paper with wood print. When I taped something on the ceiling and later peeled off the tape, the wood print came off. We can’t paint since we are renting. So, in order to make the ugly ceiling as cheerful as possible, I added several garlands. The lace one is made by me (tutorial here) and the washi paper triangle shaped one was a gift from Taren of Oslo and Alfred. kikos nursery5
The wood molding is another unique feature of Japanese room, which I think is unattractive. I try to distract from its ugliness as much as possible by hanging stuff up on it. kikos nursery4 kikos nursery9kikos nursery7

The princess wall decal is from Abbys Vinyl Wall Decal on etsy. The light is from IKEA, thrifted for 10 bucks. Andy absolutely hates this light. I initially put it up in the kitchen, but since he hates it so much (he calls it an ugly pinapple) we moved it to Kiko’s room. I like it, regardless of what he says about it. kikos nursery10

This rocking chair is one of my best thrift finds! You can’t really find rocking chairs in Japan, but we happened to find this one at the local thrift shop for 10 bucks! We immediately took it home. I am not sure about the fabric though. I considered reupholstering it many times but just haven’t found the right fabric for it.kikos roomThe bunting was made by me. The pig wall hanging was a sweet gift from a blog reader, Ingrida. The mama and baby bunny embridery wall hanging is from a vintage shop, the White Pepper on etsy. I like that each small thing in her room has a story.

kikos nursery8Andy’s grandmother made us the embroiderer of Kiko’s life verse, Romans 12:2. Such a precious gift.

How do you guys deal with the disadvantages of a room, like small, ugly etc?

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