Painting with Acrylic

A few weeks ago, when I did my shopping in the supermarket, I saw Kid Canvas Art Sets. Inside there was 2 pcs of canvases (with giraffe and lion drawing on each) complete with the acrylic paints (6 pcs) and brushes (2 pcs). I immediately bought it because I knew that Lauri would love it. My guess was right. She was really excited and immediately wanted to paint them. Since this was the first time for her to paint using acrylic on canvas, I had to guide and to supervise her.

Fully concentrated

Painting the giraffe

The result

Update on Lace Sleeves Top

Remember my lace sleeves top? Last week, after I wore it the third times, I decided to add the bottom with lace edging. At first I was lazy to open the bind off, and just want to crochet the additional lace edging. However, after think about it further, I decided not to do that since I was afraid it will be too much. Another reason is that not everybody can knit and crochet. So why limit my market to only people that can knit and crochet? So in the end I decided to just use the same lace motifs as the lace on the sleeves. Since I still got 1 skein leftover, I just frogged the last 8 rows of the garter stitch bottom and replace it with the lace, plus I used up the whole 1 skein of yarn (I only have about a yard or so leftover). I think I like the result more now.

Miniature Gallery

My brother has a small shop back in Indonesia. Actually it is belong to my parents but he rent it from them. He sold magazines, stickers, jigsaw puzzle and stuff. The last time I went there, I saw that he imported some interesting miniature DIY items. I brought back some but never got a chance to do it. I still don’t, however, somehow my husband got the urge to do it when he was on leave recently. Thus, this is the result:

Not very neat since the whole things only measures 8” x 7” and need very delicate finger to do it, and his finger just not suitable for these things. LOL! However, if you look from a far, it still looks pretty.

I still have several more with different theme. One of them is fabric shop. Too bad there is no yarn shop available.

Funny Video About Addi Turbo

Moved

In the beginning of September, I moved to new house. That is why the last couple of months I was so busy that I barely got time to knit or crochet. We got too many stuff to move that made my head spin. Most of my stuffs are baby things. Lauri got so many toys. I already donated and threw away some of her toys, but she still have plenty left. The last time I moved 7 years ago, I only had little things to move. I did not know that having additional 2 littles ones can multiply my things so much.

To make it worse, my in-law got a lot more things than me. So combine together, our stuffs make the movers fainted. We were starting to move from noon until almost midnight. Even then, we only managed to put the furniture in place, but didn’t manage to open one single box. I was too tired and just managed to put the bed ready to sleep on. Even until now (2 months later), the house still looks untidy and there are still a few boxes have not opened yet. There are so many things that I want to do, and yet I don’t have enough time to do it. I guess I have to do it one at a time.

Happy Birthday, Lauri!

Last Saturday was Lauri's birthday. Like last year this year we also celebrated it in her kindy. However, since Saturday they had no class, we did it on Friday. Hard to believe that she's already 5 years old. I still vividly remember the first time I caught a glimpse of her when my gynea pulled her out from my tummy (I got C-Section after 24 hours in labor) and the first time I saw her face when the nurse presented her to me.

Singing happy birthday

Blowing the candle

Cutting the cake

Giving out goodies

We also had family dinner party to celebrate her birthday.

The ice cream cake almost melting by the time we finish our dinner

Birthday card from cousin Kayley


Fiori could not wait to eat it

I Need Testers

My lace sleeve top is finished and I wore it twice already while I wrote the pattern. Now, since I have finished written it, I am looking for testers. This pattern is written in 2 different weight yarns (fingering and DK) and bust sizes 32" - 44". If you are interested please email me at lprajogo@hotmail.com or you can leave a comment here (don't forget to tell me which size and which yarn weight you want to test and leave your email so I can contact you). I specially need testers that expert in knitting lace. I just afraid that I made a lot of mistake in writting the lace part and if you are beginners in knitting lace, my mistake can make you frustrated.

Sorry for the blur photo, since I took this photo without adequate lighting.

Here the details about this pattern:

Sizes: 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44" Bust. This top suppose to have negative ease (tight fitting). Thus if your size is M, you can go down 1 size to S.

Needle: Fingering: 3.00 mm (size 2) 80 cm long circular needle for the neck band, 3.50 mm (size 4) 80 cm long circular needle for the rest.
DK Weight: 3.50 mm (size 4) 80 cm long circular needle for the neck band, 4.00 mm (size 6) 80 cm long circular needle for the rest.

Yarn: Fingering or DK Weight

Yarn requirement:
Fingering Weight: 32": 1100 meter, 34": 1200 meter, 36": 1300 meter, 38": 1400 meter, 40": 1500 meter, 42": 1600 meter, 44": 1700 meter
DK Weight: 32": 900 meter, 34": 975 meter, 36": 1050 meter, 38": 1125 meter, 40": 1200 meter, 42": 1275 meter, 44": 1350 meter

Notion: Tapestry needle, Beads (2 pcs), markers, scrap yarn.

Difficulty: Intermediate - Advance.

Progress with My Knitting Project

I just started my fifth skein, and knitting the bottom part. Progress was very slow because I really did not have the time to knit, plus somehow I lost my interest to knit. I really hope that I could finish this before August was over, otherwise I could not meet my goal to publish 3 patterns in a year. It was almost finish actually, only a few inches in the bottom, and I could pick up and knit the sleeves. I planned to make long sleeves this time.

Progress on my knitting

I like the pattern on the waist part

Calendar

Recently, I bought some fabrics online. I plan to make some pillow cases and curtains. That is why when I received package from US, I thought it was my order arrived. Turn out it was my Knitting calendar. I didn’t buy it. However, since I got my Lauri Dress pattern accepted into their 2010 calendar, I got one copy of the calendar for free. This is my first time to get this calendar ever. Honestly, I really haven’t got the time to really look into the patterns one by one, so I could not tell you which one is my favorite (beside Lauri Dress, off course).

Then a month later, I got the check worth of USD 350,- for my second winner prize (not USD 250,- as I mentioned earlier). I immediately bank in the check and totally forgot to take the picture. So, I guess you have to satisfy with the photo of the envelope.

To Genting

Two month ago (4 and 5 July) we went to Genting and stay one night in First World Hotel. This is the first outstation trip for Fiori. I was afraid that Fiori would be tired and cranky during the 5 hours drive from Penang to Genting, but it turned out she was quite enjoying the drive and able to sleep about 2 hours in the car.

Lauri posing in the room

We bought 1 day pass for the indoor riding for Lauri, and her favorite ride was “Merry-Go-Round”. She rode it many many times.

Riding Merry-Go-Round

Lauri with her backpack

The Hotel we were staying

My Dahlia as Featured Pattern in Ravelry

In the beginning of this month I got an email from Mary-Heather from Ravelry. Here is what she wrote:

Hi there Lily!
I hope you are well!
Jess and I wanted to write to you because we wanted to feature your beautiful Dahlia Top pattern as the September “Jess’ and MH's Pick,” featured pattern, if you are interested.

This is a free promotional spot that Ravelry uses to highlight indie designers who are distributing patterns on Ravelry, and it appears on the main patterns page when you click on the "crochet" filter or when "knitting + crochet" (the default setting) is selected. The pattern will appear for all of September, not a half-month like the paid Featured Ads.

If you are interested, we will create the image for you using your pretty photo, and put the ad in for you and everything. We think Ravelry users will love the pattern and hope that you would like to highlight it in this spot!

Please let us know what you think! :)

Best regards,

Mary-Heather

And you know what my response was right? Of course I said YES! I AM INTERESTED. As the result you can see the my Dahlia pattern feature in the crochet pattern section.

Picking Up an Old Quilting Project

Suddenly I am in the mood to finish my old quilting project. I forgot exactly when I started this project, probably 2 or 3 years ago, but suddenly I lost interest and just put it aside and have never touched it until now.

Dr. Lauri in Action!

Dr Lauri gave Puppy medicine

Fiori's First Vitagen

Fiori is always curious when she sees other peoples drinking or eating. She wants to taste as well. Like this occasion when she saw her sister drinking from a straw. She started to make some noise and pulling whoever was near her. So, I gave her Vitagen to try. Guess what? She likes it. Once she sucked the straw and got the liquid she could not stop sucking. When I tried to take it back, she didn’t want to let it go.

Wahhh.. This is so niceeeee

Still have plenty

Hehehehehe.....

Wah! Finish...

Papa! I've finished it already…

And as usual, when Lauri saw me taking picture, she also wanted to pose.

Halooooo…!

"This is Fiori speaking, how are you?"

I think this was the line that she wanted to say, although she only managed to say “Alooo”. Nobody taught her to use the phone, but when the phone was presented to her, she immediately picked up the phone and tried to dial the number.

Washing My Quilt

Last week I decided to machine wash my quilt. Normally I dry clean it because when I make this quilt, I didn’t prewash the material, so I really didn’t know whether the material would shrink or the color would bleed. To be in the save side, I just dry cleaned it. However, since I rarely go out, I really didn’t have opportunity to bring the quilt to be dry cleaned (and when I finally had opportunity to go out, I forgot to bring it with me).

In the end, I just dropped it in the washing machine and hoping for the best. Thank God, everything was just fine. It looked as nice as can be and it smelled good.

I use cold water and I just let it dried under the fan. While drying, I just notice the date I embroidered on the backing. It was the date I finished this quilt, 28 September 2004. It was a mooncake festival night and it was 5 days before Lauri born.

The date on the backing

3D flower

Everything is fine

All the handstitches are still intact

I love the “crumpled up” effects

Photo Book

Finally I managed to compile all Lauri and Fiori’s photos into one photo book. Nothing fancy, since I really didn’t have the time to fiddle too much. I managed to compile all together 50 pages. At first I tried to put embellishments and also tried to make the background into different colors, but after one page I gave up since it took too much time. The title of this photo book is “Precious Moments”. I print 3 books, one for me, one for my in laws and one for my parents.

Actually I didn’t like the color of the hard cover, but it’s the only one available.
Phiew..!!! At least now I can cross out one of my ever growing to-do-list.

Here are some of the snapshot of the pages:

In The Garden......

Pomegranade plant in front of my house

Red Rose plant my MIL just bought from the botanical garden


Hmmm.... I am not sure what is the name of this flower

.... and this one is...... My new Clover Hooks!!! CLOVER SOFT TOUCH CROCHET HOOK SET C-J 2.5mm to 6.0mm

This hooks is my belated birthday gift from.... ME! I read so much about this hooks and I could not stand it and just have to ordered it from ebay. It cost me USD 29.99,- plus shipping cost USD 6.50,- I haven't used it yet, but I will soon.....!