Shopping with a Little Different Perspective

I have been eyeing some little girl’s striped knit dresses for the summer. Some that I saw were 40 to 50 dollars! Well, you know me; I wasn't gonna pay that much for a kid’s dress; something she might only wear for one season.

Then, one day I was at Ross (boy, I love Ross and TJ Maxx! I can find pretty darn cute stuff for killer deals) checking out the teen dress section. Look what I found...


Aren't they cute? I especially love the orange one; I think the color combinations are super. I guess they are a dress or a tunic top, either way, I loved the colors.

The light bulb moment came to me (grin)...they are too tight or too short for my liking, if my daughter is in her teens, BUT they are perfect for her 6 years old frame. AND, they were $5.99 each!

We had a small summer fashion show that afternoon, and of course, a photo shoot...



She LOVEs it!


I simply adjusted the shoulder straps, and the dresses were perfect for her. With a little bit of imagination and perspective adjustment I scored big time. :)

Lego Chess Set

Michael had a fever and a cough and missed one day of school this week. When the medicine kicks in and the fever is gone, usually the kids act like nothing happened and they are all fine.

I told him that his body still needed to rest, so I wanted him to go to his room and get some sleep...

While I was working in my room, I heard small noises coming from his room.

I immediately knew he was going through his Lego bin and was making something. I wanted him to be in his bed, but hey, he is quiet, I can get some work done... I just let him be.

A while later, he came to me with his creation in his hand and proudly said;

"Mom, look what I made!"

I wanted to tease him a little, so I said “I thought you were supposed to be in bed." with a straight face; but laughing inside. I felt like I was Candice from Phineas and Ferb... and said this out loud "BUSTED!"

His eyes were swimming in the air and had that look on his face like, "Ah... what do I say to get out of this."

I giggled and said "I am just kidding...You did awesome on this (even though there are two rows too many :) ) He gave me a big smile exclaiming, "MOM!" then asked me "Can you put this on your blog?"

I happen to be just like many of you that think my kids are awesome... I wanted to make his wish come true. That is why you are looking at the Lego chess set today. :)

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If you haven't enter to win a $100 gift certificate to Olive Garden, go here to check it out!

Crochet & Sewing Colaboration Project

I shared my Spider Silk Scarf project a couple posts ago. I also crocheted this while I was in bed. It started out as something to do and just to practice. I had no plans in mind. It was just blue rectangle... then I thought ooh! What if I make a pouch for Rachel?

I couldn't wait to get somewhat mobile, so I could construct the pouch with lining, zipper and add some embellishments.



I usually have tons of flowers that are already made from various fabrics. It is so fun to make fabric folded flowers, yo-yo's, and fabric covered buttons from scraps. They become so handy when I want to decorate a project in no time (they are awesome projects to work on while I am waiting for my kids at the car pool or at their after school activity!)

It turned out to be a perfect size for her, and she LOVED it! Hmm... What else can I crochet with just basic crocheting skills?

One of Summer's Memories

As you all know I have been taking it easy lately. On my down time, I was going through my pictures from over the summer and found some pictures that I meant to share with you and had totally forgotten.

One day our family went to a park and we had such a fun time. While Mr. TRH was busy playing with other two, my oldest and I were having a blast taking his action shots with my new camera. He would do some stunts, and come back to take a look at the pictures and we both laughed our heads off.

Check them out...

He is gonna do it...


Combined with one of his martial arts kicks, awesome jump!


Beautiful landing!


Boys are so funny. When I found out I was having a boy, I was in mini-panic mode. I didn't know a thing about boys. I didn't know what to do with them. I was planning to play house, quietly read books, and sew together with a girl. After having two boys in a row, I feel like they really helped me to find a part of me that I didn't know existed. I also found out that boys are actually fitting to my personality. Funny thing is, my sister was a tomboy growing up, she always played with the boys, she loved catching bugs, reptiles (ugh!!), was good at any sport, she hated girly stuff... and guess what she is a mother of two girly girls. :)

Sometimes my sister and I talk on the phone and say how we wish we lived next door to each other, so we can trade the kids sometimes and do all sorts of activities with them. We can help cover the areas that we are not good at.

Looking at these pictures reminds me of one of my favorite quotes;

"We don't remember days, we remember moments"

The moment we played and laughed at the park was definitely a moment he and I will remember for years to come.

Lemonade Day

I decided that today is a good day to make lemonade...


By the way, the picture below is a little sneak peak for my new tutorial. I made the dress Rachel is wearing out of ordinary kitchen towels. I will have the tutorial ready sometime this week (hopefully...fingers crossed).




She has been busy painting this morning; do you see some paint on her hands?

Who knew that making lemonade can be so much fun? I basically taught them what to do, and they did most of the work. Maybe some of "Sachiko's cooking class" is paying off? I am proud of how he is holding the lemon.


We decided to make lemon limeade with some strawberries.
The results? Oh, it was so good!

New Tutorial with Free Downloadable Pattern ~Neapolitan Dress~

Lovely Kathleen over at Grosgrainhas been doing Free Pattern Month. There are new patterns every day from various awesome bloggers. It has been a very fun and exciting event!


I admire Kathleen’s work so much! She not only is an amazing designer and seamstress, she is a very talented photographer too. Browsing her blog is like looking through an Anthropology catalog, I forget the time (or housework like cooking, cleaning and pulling weeds...) for a while.

She asked me to be on the board and participate in the free pattern month! When I read that email, my heart skipped a beat. I wanted say yes right away, but I was so scared of messing things up for her. I have never done a DOWNLOADABLE PATTERN before. She told me it would ok, but I really really wanted to try it. Of course I dragged my sweet hubby into it to figure things out, but we (he) did it!! Tea Rose Home’s very first downloadable pattern!

I came up with the Neapolitan Dress, the tutorials for sashing and babushka too. So, I hate to kick you out, but please head over to Grosgrain to check out what I did. I would love to hear from you!

1 of the 12 pains of Christmas

How was your Christmas? Over all, my family and I had a wonderful Christmas.
Wait, did you catch that? Are you wondering why I said "Over all"? Well, let me tell you what happend to my little girl on Christmas Eve.

Tada...



No, the "thing" around her head is neither an exercise head band from the 80s' nor a part of her outfit. That is a bandage.

The morning of Christmas Eve, my husband and I were still in bed and enjoying that we didn’t have to get up so early... we could hear the kids playing at the hall by the stairs. Then there was a

"BANG!!!" followed by Rachel's loud cry.

"WHAT THE!!" We thought that Rachel fell down the stairs.

But, this is what happened. There was an exercise device hanging over boys’ bedroom door. Christopher didn't want Rachel to come in to their room, so he closed the door on her. That caused the exercise device to fall on her head.

She was screaming and crying, so I held her and rocked her for a while. It was after she calmed down that I found out she had a cut on her head. It was small, but deep...so I said to my husband.

"We are going to the emergency room!!"

Yup, that's how she got 4 staples.

There were several things that went through my mind when Rachel came out from the doctor’s office with my husband (I waited with boys in the waiting room) after she got treated with the bright head band on her head. First I thought;

"What is that?" then, my mind processed that that is a bandage. The next thought;

"I am a maniac, a maniac..." then some reason, the 80s' music video came to my mind. Another thought;

The famous Christmas song "The 12 pains of Christmas" popped into my head. Then I thought, oh, Rachel got 4 staples in her head from her brother...

I know it is not funny, but sometimes that's how my mind works to find the humor in bad situations...

I am so glad that she didn't get seriously hurt, and I am crossing my fingers that we get through this year (one week left!) with NO STITCHES AND STAPLES, unless they are for sewing and crafting...

NOTE: I am sorry; I have been so busy and didn't have time to go through the link list. I will post the link love next time. :)

Advent Calendar

I am so excited about the new look for my link party! Don't you think it's better to have pictures for the links showing? I hope you can visit each other and have fun. :)

Well, it is December; the countdown to Christmas has started in our household. Several years ago I started an advent calendar for my kids. The first year, I didn't have a fancy little house like you see in the picture. I made 25 small envelopes with a little note inside and taped them on the wall. The kids had no idea what I was trying to do at first, but soon they realized that "This is fun!”

For those small notes, I wrote down stuff like "Three golden coins"(they were chocolate candies), "Christmas movie with hot chocolate", "Bake cookies"; the list goes on.
Sometimes they will get a small gift from the dollar store.

Since there are three kids, they each take turns opening the door to see what the surprise is each morning. They get soo excited and giggly. I love watching their happy faces!

This year I have decided to do something different. I will write the usual list of things, but since they are older now, I added a couple "service" activities on the list. I know they will be so excited to be a secret Santa for someone, or shovel the drive way for our neighbor. I truly believe that "giving" gives us ultimate joy, especially around Christmas. I can't wait to see their reaction to the "service" notes.

Also, there is something different that happened this year to our advent calendar. My son Christopher came to me and said,

"Mom, when you open the calendar to get ready… DON’T OPEN the 3rd."

I was busy cooking and totally spaced that that is my birthday. Michael and Rachel were behind Christopher giggling.

"That's your birthday! Don't open and peek ok?"

I smiled and said, "Ok, I can't wait!"

I was so surprised and excited to see that my kids are growing up enough to care and do something for someone. Sometimes being a mom can be hard and exhausting (I don't know about you, but it is for me, ha! I said it!). Because of moments like this, all the hard work, time and love invested in them are totally worth it.

I shall see what they are planning for me on my birthday. :)

T-Shirt + Legging Makeover for a Little Girl

Note: Don't forget to enter for the Thanksgiving giveaway!

Couple weeks ago, I was guest posting at Sew Dang Cute. I will post the tutorial I did here today, just in case anybody missed it. This is a really fun repurpose project, especially, if your child outgrows a few clothes so fast that the cloth still looks new, but too small to wear them as is. :)

My little girl used to wear a t-shirt and leggings like this... but the leggings are too tight now, and the t-shirt works ok for now, but by next summer, it will be too small for her. I decided to combine them together, and make something for this fall & winter. Here are the steps that I followed...


1. I used one of her 5T t-shirts as a sample to measure how long I needed for the sleeves and made the cut.


2. The legging was wider than the opening of the sleeves of the shirt. I had to sew the side of the sleeves to match the opening of the shirt.


3. Pin the long sleeve to the t-shirt. Sew, Turn.


4. I wanted to make a hat with the leftover fabric, but my little girl strongly resisted and said "I don't want to wear my butt!"...so, I decided to accessorize the shirt.


5. Cut 3 - 1" X 7" strips. Using the largest setting for stitches sew in the middle of the strips. Pull one thread to make ruffles.


6. Sew a ruffle in the middle of the t-shirt. Repeat the process and add ruffles on the both sides. I added decorative trims between the ruffles.


We did a photo shoot in the nice sunny fall weather. She loved the shirt (she didn't have to wear her butt, so that made her even happier), the shirt was perfect. :)


When I think about the possibilities, I have hard time throwing old clothes away. I have a pile of out grown kids clothes sitting here in my sewing room taking up some precious space... I hope I can introduce "REBORN" clothes in a future post.

Guest Post at I am Momma Hear Me Roar!

Cheri over at I am Momma Hear Me Roar asked me to be her guest blogger for her Refashionista week a while ago. I am posting a fun refashion project, head over to check out her amazing blog!

A little sneak picture...


Tempted?