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.....!

New Yarns

Finally, I got my hands of Rowan 4 ply yarn. Kitman was nice enough to buy me those yarns when they were on sale (50%) from her LYS. She brought them with her when she went back home to Malaysia and sent it to me by post (She was in KL and I am in Penang). I can’t wait to be able to use them. I guess they have to wait until I finish with my current project.

Yay! Package from Kitman!!!

Love the colors she chose for me!

Sleeping in Pink

Fiori was sleeping in Lauri’s cot. It happened at that day, she was also wearing pink shirt and skirt. So it’s kind of matching with the bed.

Fiori Was Bullied by Her Sister

Sometimes being the smallest is not fun.

Ama and Akong’s Visit

Last month, from 17 to 26 May, Ama and Akong came to celebrate Fiori’s first birthday. It was also the first time they saw Fiori. Lauri was very happy because she has another 2 persons to spoil her. My parents told me that Lauri was prettier than their last visit 1.5 years ago. They also marveled at Lauri’s good behavior and her ability to steal their heart.

Example:
Akong was teaching Lauri to write 1 to 10 in Chinese character.
Ama: Isn’t Akong very clever? Not like Ama.
Lauri: But, I love you….
Ama: Oooohhhh…. (heart melt)

Lauri also drew Ama and Akong.

Left to right: Castle, Princess Lauri, Akong, Ama (the one with curly hair)

At first my mom tought that she was drawing a flower, it turn out it was my mom’s curly hair. Hahahahaha!

Happy First Birthday, Fiori!

My Baby is a toddler now! How time flies to fast. Fiori’s birthday was actually on 21 May. However, since I was lazy to download the photos, I can only post about it today.

At 1 year old, Fiori was almost 10 kg (about 1 kg less than Lauri at the same age), however, length wise they are the same. Unlike Lauri, Fiori still could not say Mama and Papa yet, however, she could say “clap” and clapping her hand, pointing at things and said “duck” and she said “ba-ba” (instead of bye bye) and waved her hand.

Trying to touch the cake

Cutting the cake

Heart Applique

I am trying to make a patchwork tablecloth with heart applique. Here are the steps to sew the heart on (not sure whether this is the correct method, but this is the way I did it) :

1. Trace the heart shape on the right side of the cloth. Trim the fabric around the design leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance. Fold the seam allowance toward the wrong side of the fabric and do running stitch around.

2. Place the appliqué, right side up, on the right side of the background fabric and sew the appliqué piece to the background fabric.

3. Iron the finished result

4. With sewing machine I sew around the inside of the heart.

Patchwork

Sometimes after looking at nice looking quilt like in this photo below, I got the urge to make one myself. The problem is, I always got the problem finishing it.

In my life, I only managed to finish one patchwork (here is the link to the project). I still have one patchwork project that I have started long time ago and until today still unable to finish it (here is the link to the project). The main reason is because lack of time and also since it’s on the quilting stage, it’s very difficult to carry it around.

Since the temptation to start a patchwork project is still there, probably I will make small pillow case again like this one.

Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar

About a year ago, Susan Ripley contacted me and asking me whether I wanted to submit any of my patterns to Knitting and Crochet Pattern-A-Day Calendar. Since I can submit my existing pattern and still selling it in my website, I thought “why not”. So, I submitted my Lauri Dress knitting pattern for 2010 calendar. I forgot all about this until yesterday night I received notification email saying that I won the second prize winner! True enough, when I went to their website, I saw this:

As a second winner, I am about to get USD 250,- check from them. I can’t wait to get the check and the free calendar. If you order the Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar, don’t forget to check my Lauri Knitting Pattern on 15 March page.

Lauri Cut Her Finger

On last Wednesday (6 May), Lauri got a nasty cut in her finger. She used her grandma’s big and sharp scissors and accidently cut her left forefinger. The blood was everywhere and we quickly brought her to the ER.

Since she is below 10 years, it was impossible to keep her still in order to give her local anesthetic jab on the finger. She didn’t even let the doctor saw her wound. So the only choice was to give her full anestethic so the doctor was stitching the wound. It cost us about USD 600,- for total 4 stiches on her finger.

Lauri in the hospital room before the operation

On the wheel chair to go to operation room

In the recovery room

Back to the room

Smiling

Yellow Riding Hood?

When I told her to pose with the hood on, she was quite reluctant because she said that she would look like a boy. Does she look like a boy?

By the way, can you find "Lauri" word on the board?

Measurement Tape

Fiori likes to put everything inside her mouth, including the measurement tape :)

Wordless Wednesday

A Necklace From Lauri

This is Fiori wearing new neckace that Lauri made just for her. The necklace is Lauri’s first original design. Fiori was happy with the necklace. You can tell from the big smile in her face. Probably I should open one account in ETSY for Lauri to sell her necklaces! LOL!

Lauri Hairstyles

Lately I am having fun playing with Lauri’s long hair. I came across this blog, and inspired to try some of the hairstyles there.

These two below are my favorites so far. However, it took quite a long time to do it. I only do these styles when Lauri woke up early, otherwise she will be late to go to school.




I remember that I also had a long hair when I was at Lauri’s age, and my mom used to do my hair every morning before school. I sat down in front of her dressing table, and she would ask me what hairstyle I wanted to have that day. I always cherish that memory and I hope that Lauri will also cherish hers when she grows up.

Lacy Sleeves

After I published my Falling Leaves Top, on 15 Feb I was immediately starting to design a new knitting top. I know ….. It’s knitting project again. I am not in the mood to design something crochet because I haven’t finished my crocheted blanket yet. Also I don’t have enough spare time lately. I need more time to write crochet pattern. Drawing all those crochet chart really taking a lot of time.

I did not do a sketch for this new design as I really didn’t have a strong idea how it is going to look like. One thing for sure is that I want to have long lacy sleeves and a v neck. After that, well, I am not sure.

I am using Baby Georgia yarn. It’s fingering weight and it’s going to take forever. When I wrote this, I have already working on this project more than a month and yet I am only starting my third skein. I am planning to use up all 10 skeins, so I am only 20% finish. Like I said, I don’t have time to knit lately as both my daughters need my attention.