I'm back briefly while on my spring cleaning break!

Did you guys missed me on the blog? I was busy cleaning up my house for the coming Chinese New Year. Managed to finish the study-cum-sewing room this morning and went on to tidy up the Master bedroom. Only left the boxes to clear at the baywindow and I"m done. Have promised my girl that I'll clean up her room tomorrow. Yet to pack the new toys she received from her birthday! gasp.

If you are wondering how I get the time to do the spring cleaning. Well, actually I'm on medical leave since yesterday for 3 days. Had a major dental surgery yesterday that left me in tears and shed lots of blood. Okay, I'm not going in to the details cause it may freak you out. But I was in lots of pain. Took alot of pain killer. Cleaning up the house was good since it take my mind off the pain when I'm concentrating on other matters.

The reason why I took so long to clear up my study room was because I'm also sorting out the photos. We really took alot of photographs of my first girl but the second one really pales in comparison. I felt so guilty that I've 'neglected' her so.  My friends told me that this is really common for the 2nd child but I still feel very bad about it. Even though I carried my camera along with me everyday, I didn't really took much picture of her. For 2011, as she is now officially 1 year old, I will make a new year resolution to take more picture of her so that she can show her friends in future during her wedding dinners. I'm not sure about other countries but here in Singapore, the bride and groom usually will flash video of their childhood photos. It'll be really sad if there are too few a choice for her to make for this occasion.

Oh, want to look my my new table from Ikea?  It is really nice and is just the right size for both me and my husband. Not ideal but good for now. Notice my Singer sewing machine on the table and the serger on the side pedestral? I'm happy that I've a proper working space, even if this a shared table. I'll keep the laptop when I'm working with my sewing machines. If you are wondering what's that black thing next to my sewing machine, that's my hubby's computer monitor draped in a Monster versus Alien Monitor covering that came along when he bought the PC! The stacks of CDs next to it is waiting for him to sort and decide which ones to go and which to keep.

The table is Ikea's Galant table top (120m) with A legs. We chose the A legs over the T legs as this occupy less space and it has the choice of chrome instead of the dull silver coloured ones.  Did you see the floor protector below? It's also from Ikea's Colon Floor protector.  As we will be using a chair with rolling wheels, we thought it would be good to have the protector so that we will not scratch the parquet floor.

Well, since I'm still in the midst of cleaning up, no sewing. Have been itching to do some sewing but really can't find the time. The pain killer that I took may have some caffine in it cause I felt very energetic and not sleepy at all. So, that's why I'm taking a short break to update the blog. I felt so accomplished when I did all the clean up all my myself. My hubby did the ferrying of the girl to school and helped me to carry the toyogo boxes of the unwanted items to the store room. Thrown away lots of items. I realised that you can't really clean up without throwing away tons of things. There's a limit to how much you can hide in a tiny room with limited shelves.

So hopefully the next time I post, I'll have some sewing projects to show. : )

Spring cleaning in progress

Realised that it's been 1 week since my last post. I've really tried hard to post something every week but last week was really impossible. I had to do spring cleaning for my house.  In Singapore, when we approach the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year, it's a very busy month for the Chinese as we had to spring clean our house and buy lots of goodies and decorate our house. This is similar to the Christmas season but an oriental way.

So, last week we started our spring cleaning after my girls birthday party. It started from the study room and we are still stuck at that stage. Threw away our old bookcases as we really are hard pressed for space. It was sad to bring down the books as I love my books. We filter all the books and decided that books we love and would most likely to read to be reallocated to another book case while others are either brought to the office as reference books or thrown away (sob sob) or given away (not too bad if they are needed). I've a whole set of Inital D comic books which some are still in their plastic cover. It's really a pity to throw them away. Anyone interested?

But the good news is we have bought a new table from Ikea for our PC and my 2 sewing machines! Yeah! Althought the serger is placed at the corner, but it's ok since I'll bring them our when I need to. At least it's better than the dining table. : )

So I guess I'll be very busy with the spring cleaning till next week. So, not much sewing or crafting. But I'll definitely finish up 2 sewing projects for my colleagues at work. I've promised them to sew a TV cover and a tutu lining skirt for another colleague's daughter. Need to get them done before the Chinese New Year so that they can put them on for the celebrations.

Pom Pom flower and Doodle Chalkboard

Tissue Pom Pom Flowers

 As promised, I've listed the 'how-to' below from the birthday parties. For the pom pom flower deco, it was actually an idea I got from Martha Stewart's tissue paper pom pom tutorial.  I've bought the tissue paper pack from Spotlight. It was sold at a pack of 4 colours with 6 sheets for each colour. Can't remember the price. My hubby did the tissue flower pom pom as I was really tied up with the chalkboard.

He used 6 sheets of the same colours and cut equally into half to make a total of 12 sheets. Fold about 1" wide accordion fold to make the crease. You can refer to the tutorial for the step by step guide at the Martha's website. The steps are quite easy but labour intensive as you got to peel open the tissue pieces to make it full.  The pink and green ones are made as above but the blue one was from 6 sheets without cutting. We made the blue one first so it was a trial piece. It was not as full. So I guess you will need at least 10 sheets for it to be full and fluffy.

Doodle Chalkboard

This I like. Had first saw this from Disney's blog on her doodle chalkboard she made for her daughter.  Thought it would be a great idea to give them away as a Thank you gifts for the children that came for her party since most of them are around the age of 3 to 7 years.  Bought 35 pieces of the 1 feet plywood from a shop at Jalan Beser Road. It cost at $1 per piece.

For the chalkboard paint, I initially had a hard time finding them. I first bought one "Ronseal" (the last one at the shop) from DIY shop at Marina Square at $22. But it was not enough, just managed to cover only 15 pieces after 2 coats. Finally found some at Spotlight at $16.95 -"Derivan". It's abit different as the Ronseal as it seems to be more thinner and dry matt. The Ronseal looks abit glossy when dried. But both are ok.  Later on, I found alot more with variety of colours at the Craft shops at Bras Basah Complex at $15! Ok, I was rushing for time and did my search on the net thinking that it would save me time. But realised that if I had just visit those craft shops at Bras Basah, it would have saved me time.

left one is from DIY and right one from Spotlight

My hubby helped to paint the plywood. Coat first layer and left to dry overnight. He finished the 2nd coat in the morning before he left for work each morning. Thank God for good husband : )



When they are dried, I've binded the 4 sides with tape that I bought from Spotlight (black binding tape) and Daiso (pink tape). The one from Spotlight was much stronger and thicker so it really binds well but it is only available in black, dark green and yellow. So I bought another similar tape (not the binding type) from Daiso at $2. I love Daiso. Everything here is $2. It's a similar concept to the 199 yen shop in Japan. The outlet at Plaza Singapura level 5 had the widest selection, besides the IMM Jurong outlet. Although it's not really a binding tape and abit thin, I can't help but bought them as the pink tape was so pretty.  As it was quite wide, I've cut them into 2 equal strips to bind the borders. Just tape them around the 4 borders to cover up the raw edges.

black border at left for the boys and pink border at right for the girls

I've used acrylic paint to draw free-hand on each board. Basically, flowers for girls and clouds, trees, fishes for the boys. Ok, I'm not very creative but I really love pink and can't stop using them to paint the flowers. Big ones, small ones, tulip etc. I've bought many boxes of multi-coloured chalks from Ikea and put them into set of 4 for each chalkboard. The plastic bag for the chalks and chalkboards were all from Daiso. The small plastic bags have Hello Kitty print on them and were $2 for 80 bags while the bigger ones for the chalkboards are at $2 for 7 bags.  I've pouch a hole on the bag and insert a ribbon of pink, blue or green over them.   

Added a special thank you note using the 3 colour scheme. The note will serve as an instruction on the use of the board as well. Do you like the font? It's the Pea Noodle Girlfriends font that I've downloaded free from fonts for peas. They have so many other cute fonts that you can download and use. I'm still exploring how to load up to my blog. Cute isn't it?

Puzzle Board

This is not a tutorial as this is so easy. I downloaded 7 pictures from Disney.com on some Toy Story and Pixie characters and cut them into 6 pieces.  Had intended to use my inkjet printer to print but printer ink just ran out. So, I dropped by at Bras Basah and make use of the printing service there to save me the time. Cost $2 per piece since I've used a thicker paper. I've use the 3M Post-it Cut-to-fit Display board for this puzzle. It's very sticky so the kids could paste the puzzle ontop and resort if they have finish and paste another one on them. After the party, I could use this board in my girls' room to display her painting and drawing too.

The possibilities are endless when you come to the ideas for children parties. Just have to go along with the theme and do what you fancy. I'm actually looking forward to my niece's birthday coming in September as I'll get to plan and organise it!

Happy Birthday Girls!

I finally got a chance to update my blog. The BIG celebration for the girls' birthday was finally over and it was really chaotic, exhausting, exciting, busy busy but very very satisfying. Lots of smiles and laughters and some tears even. (well, some children were crying as they are obssessed with the toys but thank God, it was short-lived and everyone enjoyed themselves.

There's a snap shots of the happing on that day. I didn't take alot of photos as we were really swamped by the events and so many people turned up! The tutorials and links where I got the ideas are in the next post. as this may be a rather long one...

The theme of the day was "Toy Party" so we brought out alot of toys and set up games at different corners for the children.  My girl has requested to have blue, pink and green as the colour theme. So I've used the 3 colours and design an invitation cards for her schoolmates and church friends that she invited.

We did a mad rush to finish up the last touch to the chalkboards which we are giving to the children.

My hubby did the 3 pom pom flowers deco in pink, blue and green and tie them on top of the children tables as the centre piece. Don't they look beautiful? I've rented children tables and chairs from the caterer - Smiling orchid. It was a good thing as we had more than 30 children running around. I've placed some marsmallows and chocolate in the 3 colour shades in the middle. Oh, I also later added the potato chips which were a great hit with the kids and adults alike.





closeup of the pompom flowers

Oh, I've clip the photos of my 2 girls from birth till now as a growth charts. The grandmas, aunts and friends who had known the girls were admiring the photos and talking about the past when they recall those memories. It was a nice touch to the glass wall that is also a backdrop of the kids buffet table.



closeup on the photo garland

 I've used 3M post-it pad in pink and green to form the words 'Happy Birthday'. Had intend to sew or cut the letters but really had no time. Anyway, I don't think I'll use them next year, so I just use a marker and write out the letter on each piece and stick them on the glasswall.

I've placed the names of my 2 girls as backdrop at the back of the room and arrange the chalkboards at the right corners. The snow white pinata is a special request from my girl which was quite expensive. I bought them at Leisure Park level 2, one of the gift shop at $25? I can't really recall the prize. At first I thought it would be very tramatic for the children to hit Snow White but realised that it was a pull-pinata. So there are many strings attached at the bottom of the pinata and the children take turn to pull one string at a time. Only one lead to the key to pull out the tab for the sweets and goodies to fall out. So, I'll be passing this to my sister for her to organise her daughter's coming birthday party. 

As there are boys and girls coming to the party, age ranging from 3 to 7 years, I had to prepare games to entertain all. So this is what I did in line with the party theme.

I've placed large 'majong' papers ontop of the children tables and brought out a big set of drawing pens/markets/crayons for those who like to draw to doodle on the table. It was quite nice to see the girls flocking to draw their art.



Here's the beyblade corner where my girl was stuck there with they boys. I had no idea why children here like it so much. They were all shouting 'I challenge you', 'I win' etc etc.  For those who are as clueless as me as to what beyblade is, it is actually a modern-day spinning top toy. Some of the children brought their beyblade and there was an intense competitions among them throughout the whole party. As with all competitions, there was some tears and angry words but all soon was resolved.

Beyblade corner

Some prefer to build things at the Lego corner. I brought out a whole box and they had fun fixing them to cars, toys and houses.

lego corner

And I've prepared something special for those who like puzzle. A tinker bell and toy story theme puzzle. I've used a 3M board that is gives temporary self-adhesive as a board and the children sorted out the cut-up puzzle and stick them on the board. Since it was removable, they can easily pull them out if it's wrong and stick them back again. I've printed the picture from Disney.com on thicker paper and cut them into 6 pieces. It was suppose to be a game between 2 teams but the boys were too engaged in their beyblade and ignore my plead. But it was still a hit with the girls.

puzzle corner



This is another picture of the children playing the beyblade at the far corner and the girls doodling at the tables.



By the way, if you are thinking about ordering from Smiling Orchid, the Cupcake station is a hit with the kid. This is part of the kids tea menu. They provided cupcakes, cream and toppings. So the children had fun putting their own toppings and that brought some temporary peace as they queue up to decorate their cupcakes.

And how can I forget the birthday cake. It was really beautiful. We had a great time taking picture of it unless we tasted it. sigh. It was a tad too dry for my liking. I took the tiara from the cake and we had fun taking picture with it.

And lastly, birthday presents!

Happy birthday my darlings! Love you much much much : )

Fabricholic

Gosh, I never knew coordinating a child birthday party can be so so tiring. Had wanted to make all the items required for the party myself but had to take short cuts and rope in hubby. Phew! Still in the midst of making her party hats and making a surprise gifts for the children coming to her party. It's alot of work and I'm only half way through, but I can see that it's going to be a beauty. I'll post the full party details after Saturday cause it's a surprise : ) (in case any of the kids' mummies are reading my post).

Well, almost every other day I had to pop in the local bookstore "Popular" to buy the card stocks or glue gun or clips etc etc. Did a round to "Spotlight" too and they are having sale now. Not sure till when but I bought some knit fabric at a steal $5/metre! I'm going to make me and my 2 girls knit dresses to wear, sometime after the party maybe.

Oh, I also did some fabric shopping at Chinatown - People's Park Centre. It was supposed to be a 5min stop over after lunch but guess what, I was stuck there for 20minutes. My hubby was quite mad at me but what can I say, I can't resist pretty fabric. Guess what I've found? Nice japanese fabric!

so pretty! $15/metre

So sweet. $16/metre

Saw these 2 japanese fabric at the back of this shop at level 2 - think the shop name is "Malin". Bought 1 metre of each as I was going to make a pouch and bag for my girl. I also bought these fat quarters at the same shop.

Then, I pop over to the shop, i think about 2 stores away, that sell nice tulle. My friends at office had asked me to teach them to sew tutu skirts for their kid/niece. There are so many colours to choose from. It's $5/yard. I've picked out 6 yards of pale pink tulle and 3 yards of pale purple tulle for my girl. Who can have too many tutu? The shop even have lining that is a steal at $2.80 per metre! I last time I bought from Spotlight was $12. So, grab 1 yard of each matching colours for the tulle as I wanted to sew the underskirt for the tulle so that the girls can wear them with it. Will be bringing my sewing machine to work tomorrow and conduct a hands-on session during lunch.

Ok, got to stop now. Back to crafting for this Sat's party. And after that, I'll do more sewing and hopefully can post some tutorials soon : )

Happy 2011!

Can't believe that it's 2011 already. Since my last post, I've been rather busy.

Had not been sewing much lately cause I'm focus on preparing for my daughters' birthday bash this Sat.  Finished the alphabet for their names that I'll display.

Book the tea reception for the kids party. It's abit expensive but it save the hassle of me running around with the cooking and running the show. It's from Smiling Orchid Kids Tea party set at $10 per pax. So, I'll still be ordering some Fried Bee Hoon (noodle) and sandwiches for the adults. One thing about not choosing the regular menu is that the kids usually don't eat much of the dishes so finger food might be better.

Bought a Snow White pinata for her as she couldn't take her eyes of it when we went to buy a birthday present for my friend's son last week. It was from a gift shop at Leisure Park at level 2.  I'll need to buy some sweets and little things to stuff them in before the party.

Oh, also order a cake for her. It's a Princess tiara cake. Did a few surveys on the net. Was deciding if I should go for e-creative, cupcake momma or cherylshuen (which I did order last year but it was really very X $200+). This cake that I order from Sweetest Moment is a 10" cake costing $99.

only order the cake, hope that it'll looks as nice as the picture

so nice right. pity that they are not available one the day that I need : (

Oh, how she has grown from a tiny baby to a big 6 now. My baby is almost 1.


Big sister at 3 months




my baby is all grown up!





the day the 2 sisters met!




11 months later...