Wonders In God's Creation

 JJ and daddy went to the park this morning and came back with this pod.  It was as big as JJ's palm (1/3 of mine)!

We were all wondering what was inside.  JJ tried to break it apart with hands, but the shell was so hard that it would not budge.  She then tried to smash it against the computer table.  While the pod remained undamaged, the table did receive a few scratches.  Ummm, not a good idea.  Finally, I brought out the butter knife to crack it open.

The room was filled with oohs and ahhs as the seeds inside were revealed.  Who would have thought that inside the tough exterior shell were those fragile paper thin seeds?  They were light weight and as if they were "born with wings".   I could just image God's hand sending those seeds into the sky.  The girls blew on them gently and sure enough, they saw the seeds flying into the air.  As we have been studying the creation in Genesis, I could not help but marvel at the creativity of God and be in awe of our Creator.  This was no doubt, His handy work.

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Date Time with JJ

One of the advantages of having many people in our house is that we get to create meaningful one-on-one time with each other.  Anytime that just two of our family members get to hang out alone is precious time.  Since JJ had always stayed at home with me, we went everywhere together--to her siblings' classes, to the library, to the market, to the shops, to the mommies' prayer meetings, and to my Bible study group.   It was not until the beginning of this year as I thought about her attending school in the fall that I realized that I needed to take her out just for fun.  We went to kiddie parks, zoos, and even Chuck E Cheese's and did as many silly things as we could think of.  Going on the photo booth was a first for JJ.  The pictures are now on our wall, reminding us the good times we had this year.  Kids do grow up too quickly.  I cherish the moments when I could take silly pictures with the kids before they are too cool to pose anymore.  

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JJ's Party Prize

JJ's class had a holiday party this morning.  When I picked her up at dismissal, Ms. W notified me that JJ had won a prize playing the pin the nose on the witch game.  As Ms. W turned to me to hand me the prize, my eyes almost bulged out--it was a huge pumpkin which weighted 20 lbs. Many of JJ's classmates asked how I was going to get the pumpkin home once they knew I did not drive a car to school.  I could only shake my head and hope that I had enough strength to get this baby back home.  Our usual 5-minute walk home turned into 15, as I had to make frequent stops to rest my arms.  By the time we got home, my arms were shaking badly.  I could not even steady my hands for the photo shooting.  All this time, JJ was jumping up and down for the prize she mysteriously won (she kept saying, "I didn't even know how I won the game.")  If you come by our house for trick-or-treat tonight, you will see this guy sitting by the front door.  Have a safe evening!

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The Bag of My Eye...

I have not sewn for a few weeks.  With Halloween fast approaching, I need to get my mind off the costumes.  I need inspirations!  I had been eyeing this bag that Miss A carried to JJ's Sunday school class for weeks now.  Perhaps it was the color red, perhaps it was its size, or perhaps it was the shape that caught my attention.  I knew I had to take a picture of this beauty.  This bag will serve as my inspiration for my next sewing project.  Wonder if Miss A knew why I took my camera to church...

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JJ's Crazy Hat

This summer during VBS week, the kids were invited to create and wear their crazy hats to the assembly. Together, we came up with 3 different hats.  But, like Goldilocks, JJ would say, "It's too big; it's too heavy; it's too silly."  Finally, she pulled out her knitted winter hat and said, "how about this?  It's just right."  To make it "crazy", I sewed on the marshmallow bunny stuffy I made for Easter and wrapped pom-pom trims around the bunny ears (don't ask me why; it's supposed to be crazy...and, yes, I was aware that the bunny was as big as JJ's face...)  Ta-da! Crazy hat for JJ.
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Sleepy Lala

Lala is one funny cat.  He loves to cuddle and follows the person who feeds him (yap, that's usually me).  He enjoys interrupting me getting my attention by sitting in between me and the sewing machine or the computer monitor.  He loves to look out the window and sit under the warm afternoon sun.  But mostly, Lala loves a good nap.  After he's been fed, he would disappear for a good hour or so.  I need to really look for him to know where he naps.  The other day, I noticed that the dotted fabric curtain on top of my fabric bin was draped on the floor.  Odd, I thought.  I lifted the curtain and found this boy underneath.  Look at his sleepy glaring eyes!  Hahaha.  Lala, you are my kind of cat.  Glad to find that you love fabrics as much as I do.
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Backyard Surprise--Mini Rose

This is a tiny rose (the size of a nickle) that JJ picked for me from our garden.  I did not even know we had this in our backyard and could not even find a vase small enough to displace it.  So cute.
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Funny Friday

Garden Gift From School Friend

It's been an interesting Friday.  This morning, I managed to attend 2 meetings and finished both within half an hour.  Talk about being productive!  At noon, I was gifted with these beautiful home grown goodies from JJ's classmate (well, more like the friend's grandpa).  Funny thing is that I chatted more with the grandpa than JJ with her classmate.  Very grateful for this garden gift.

All was well until earlier this afternoon.  I realized that I MUST take down some of the pictures/posts I posted earlier in the year.  Life is complicated.  This is what I have to say about it.  I am just a simple person who loves people around me and enjoys sharing through blogging.   This is my online scrap booking. I post pictures of things and people that are dear to me.  When I learned that some pictures I posted really bothered a certain someone, my first reaction was "What about my freedom to blog?"  Then, I remembered those words from 1 Corinthians 8:13:

"Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall."

 and in 13:6-7:

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

My love for others should always come before my rights.  

Sorry to disappoint some of you who might be searching for those pictures or posts on my blog.  But I have decided to take them off the blog.   

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Do the Natural Thing

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Penguin Face Off

The One-Eye Penguin got a face off!  I ripped the entire old face off and replaced it with white linen.  This time, the eyes were freezer paper stenciled.  There's no way this penguin would ever suffer from missing an eye (...again).  Take care, little penguin.  Hope you could see better from now on.

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Key chain for Ms. S

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Granny's Bag

Grandma (H's mom) was visiting the past two months.  We spent a week as a family in Hawaii, listened to grandma's stories when she was young, experimented different food and had grandma cheered the kids on during their swim meets.  Grandma was so gracious. H and I were able to go on a beautiful two-day trip at Monterey while she helped with the kids at home.  JJ enjoyed walking to school with grandma in the morning; F loved baking with grandma; Maxie received yummy treats and had great walks with her; and the room that needed to have the floor uncovered was finally able to see the daylight again.  Grandma is awesome!  

I made this bag and key chain for my beloved mother-in-law with thankfulness.  She'd always have a special place in our heart.  We love you, grandma!  Look forward to having you again next year.  God bless you.

         

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The "In and Out" Sides of My Pocket Bible

No, it's not my makeup bag.  This is my Bible pouch.  I have had this pocket Bible for exactly 19 years now.  Recently, I have added two "pages" to it.  The 1st has all the verses of "The Wordless Book".  There is also a bookmark with 6 different colored ribbons to mark all these verses.  The 2nd one has a list of questions published by CEF (leading children to Christ).  I pray that my new learned skills will be blessing others in helping them know my Savior and His plan.

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Harvests

H's uncle and auntie have a beautiful garden full of good things.  We received from them three LARGE zucchinis and one Japanese pumpkin (really do not know the name of this guy.  Anyone who knows the correct term, please let me know!!)  Fresh and sweet.  They were so delicious!

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Tutorial: T-shirt Refashion--New Neckline for T

 When I first experienced mail shopping years and years ago, my eyes were set on this white T.  It looked so cute on the catalog and would be a perfect fit for a petite gal like me.  But upon receiving the package, I was beyond words disappointed to find that this T was not even wearable with the crazy low neck line.

 Anyone in her right mind would have just thrown it in the donation bin.  But I have had a really hard time tossing it away.  Every time I looked at this T, I thought, perhaps I could fix this one day.  So, it stayed in my closet for years and years.  Until...
I was taking the bags of donated clothing to the curb to be collected the next morning, and I saw a brand new oversize white T-shirt that my son put in the bag.  Ah-ha!

A. Fold the strip over to wrap the raw edge of gathered line (as a bias tape) and baste.

B. Stitch in place.

C. Lay the finished piece on top of T to determine the placement for the new neckline.

D. Tug the piece inside the T and pin in place.  Sew along the original neck line seam to secure it.

Now I could finally put this T on!

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One-Eyed Penguin

Remember the Penguin Pouch from my 2010 post Something Penguin?  Well, I have just received a very sad email from Ms. Che that the Penguin has been suffering from missing an eye.  

Here's the picture of the now one-eyed penguin.  It reminded me of the teddy bear ransom note postcard I had years ago.  Poor penguin.  I am so sorry.  

I am embarrassed to say that it was my fault.  I was eager to finish the pouch in time to give the teacher, I did not take enough time to make sure the eyes were secure enough.  Good news is that I have a chance for redemption.  The penguin is returning to my repair shop to get a new eye in a week. Hopefully it will enjoy its new eye sight soon. 

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My Craft Notebook

If I ever publish a comic book,  Z's "Dr. Hot Dog" and "Peanut Man" would be the superheros in it.
I'd like to make an octopus stuffie base on F's drawing someday. (top right)

This notebook keeps all the little secrets of sewing, knitting and crafting I've learned along the way (bottom left) and sketches by me and my kids (top right).  If I have successfully created something, I'd write down all the measurements and materials here so I could reproduce it in the future.  I also take notes of things I could improve on of certain projects here.   With my Montessori training background, I often use illustrations as much as word descriptions.  Besides my sewing machine, this notebook is the best thing I have on my craft table.

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Meeting Lala (by F)

F wrote a narrative earlier this year.  It's interesting to read from her perspective on her first encounter of Lala.  One thing to note is that she misspelled my friend Jiin's name...sorry, Jiin.

Meeting Lala

     "Well, are you coming, F?"  My mom asked. "Oh, sure."  I wiped my feet on the squishy mat and walked in the door. At once, a fat and adorable tabby  cat with stunning orange fur came to greet us.  "Aw, he's so cute!"  I knelt down beside him.  "What is his name?"  I asked. "His name is Lala."  Jean answered with a wink.  I watched as Lala's fur brushed against my face.  It felt as if I was his old friend coming to visit him.  It seemed to me the cat was saying, "Take me home!" 

     I was at Jean's house because my mom wanted to give Jean some tips on how to take care of babies. I was so delighted that I came.  If I did not, I would not have met Lala. 

     I waited until Jean was finished talking to my mom, and asked, "Can we keep the cat?" Cutting in, my mom answered, "No, honey, this is Jean's cat."  Aw, man, I thought she would have given me a chance to keep him.  Jean looked at my mom and gave her a tiny smile, "Actually," Jean said, "I am too busy to take care of the cat, and I`m going to send him to the shelter anyway." My eyes bulged, this was the most terrifying thing I have heard of! I hugged Lala closer to my chest. "It`s okay, I will save you ." I whispered into his ear.

As my mom and I got into the car, the cat's face kept flashing back into my mind. The name Lala kept on ringing in my head. I sank my toes back into my fuzzy socks and tried to stay cool. Rocks crackled under the wheels of the car as we pulled out of the driveway.  There was an awkward silence between my mom and I. I felt uncomfortable, so I asked, "Can we keep Lala?"  My mom laughed her "maybe laugh" and said, "I'll talk it over with your dad." Maybe she will want to help Jean, and keep the cat,  I thought to myself.  I sighed heavily, as puffs of smoke came out of my mouth.  Was I ever going to save Lala? Unexpectedly, my mom started talking into the phone, as her voice dissolved into a whisper. Not knowing what to do I cupped my hand over my ear to hear what she was saying.  She  whispered to my dad, "Well, it's F's birthday."  I screamed in my head "Yes, yes, yes!" maybe I did have a chance! 

                                                                 

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Casting On Again

Some friends have asked me how I find time to do sew, craft and knit.  This is how:

1. Resist the urge to finish a project in one chunk of time (I don't have that luxury anyway). 

2. Utilize any 10-minute break from house chores, teaching, driving, eating...etc. and sneak in some project time.

3. If I need to wait for the kids to finish their sports activities, I take along a project with me.  Yes, even if it means to wait in the car for just 5 minutes.

4. Have a project in a bag ready to take along on a car ride.  I sketch ideas, hand stitch small projects or sew in the car.

I have started knitting this poncho for a few weeks now just because I need to wait for JJ twice a week outside her swimming class.  For each lesson, I probably get to knit 2-4 rows (200 st. each).  But see how far I have gone?  I'd say by this rate, I could get this poncho at least 3/4 way done at the end of this summer.

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