Fabrics, and more!

Look what I've got over the weekend... yes, more fabrics!  Our local fabric store was having a fabric remnants sale and I got these fabrics for $1 each.  I think that most, if not all, of these fabrics are imported from Japan.  Some of these remnants are in fat quarter sizes, and some are smaller in size.   I washed and pressed all fabrics (which is my favorite part) and they're ready to be sewn!

And let me show you what I got from a generous and talented crafter from Singapore, Wynn, of zakkaart...

Yes! I won her giveaway (for the first time in my life)!

She sent me all of these goodies to me (in Southern California) all the way from Singapore... Thanks, Wynn, for the postage!

Beautiful fabrics.  I especially love the floral print on the top.

Buttons, ribbons, and more

Pastel colored yarns

Thanks, Wynn, for your generosity.  I can't wait to make use of all the goodies you sent me :)

And... last but not least, I have another exciting news to share with you.  
My previous eraser carving post (below) was introduced in the "5 Great Finds" by Meeks of Juggling Motherhood blog!!   Her blog is very informative and fun, so please go visit her blog if you have a chance.  Domo arigato, Meeks, for having me in your post! You made my day ;)

My Hand carved eraser post that was featured

Well, thanks for reading, and hope you have a great week!

Spool, key and a pair of scissors

Quick post today... Above is an image of a couple more eraser stamps that I carved this week... a pair of scissors, a spool, and an antique key... I personally like the way the key and the spool turned out.

And I also carved a smaller version of a matryoshka girl. 

The one to the right is the original one, and to the left is the new smaller version.  I love matryoshka!

Do you know Moomin?? ムーミンの消しゴムはんこ

I carved an eraser stamp of Moomin, a Finnish character from my favorite T.V. cartoon series.   I used to watch the Moomin cartoon series in T.V., back in Japan when I was little, and I just loved it!  

Moomin lives in the Moomin Valley, in the forests of Finland.    For a long time, I thought Moomin (the white hippo looking guy in the above image) was indeed a hippo, or even a gigantic horse or a donkey - but I recently learned that he belongs to a family of trolls!

The story of Moomin is written and illustrated by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson. 

 The Japanese cartoon series of Moomin was very popular in Japan when I was growing up (below image).

I recently found these Moomin candies at a local Japanese grocery store.   Inside the tin can are some colorful candies in different fruit flavors.  Yum!

I also found some Moomin images in this Japanese embroidery book that I own.

"Small Embroidery from Scandinavia"

ISBN-10: 4834728021

ISBN-13: 978-4834728026

Oh, the Moomins... so lovely and nostalgic!

Small gifts and our kids' "bento" lunch boxes

 I made these small gifts over the weekend... They are fabric covered magnets, individually wrapped with a bit of decoration using my hand carved "strawberry" eraser stamp.  

I love making these small gifts.   These are quick and simple projects, which normally takes less than an hour to make, yet still gives me a sense of accomplishment.

And by the way, below is an image of our girls'  Japanese style "bentos" or lunch boxes from last Saturday morning...

On regular school days, our girls' bring sandwiches, pastas, tacos, and all sorts of  "American style" lunches to their school from home.  However, when they go to the Japanese school on every Saturdays, they like to bring these Japanese style "bentos". 

 For this day's "bento", I filled their lunch boxes with "edamame" or boiled and lightly salted soy beans, "ta-ma-go-yaki" or lightly sweetened Japanese omelets, BBQ style beef, and some fresh cherries.  Besides these small portion of dishes, the girls also brought a couple of rice balls with sea weeds.  These are traditional style Japanese lunch box menu.

I used these colorful silicon cups normally used for baking cupcakes, to divide and fill different food in their bento boxes.  They're nice because it's washable and reusable.

The girls seemed to like their lunch, their bento boxes were empty when they returned home! 

Gift set to (my mom's) best friend

I made this drawstring bag and a pouch set for my mom's best friend's birthday.   Although she's a good friend of my mom, all of my siblings and myself  have known her all our life and we like her very much :) 

Here is the close up of the doilies that I sewed onto the bags.  These doilies are from local Joann store, and I simply machined sewed them onto the bags.

Actually, I made the drawstring bag recently, and this pouch was made a while ago by me.   You may remember from this earlier post...

Can you see the tiny "key" charm attached on to the zipper opening?  I just love the "key" charms!

My mom's friend is a frequent traveler, so I made this drawstring bag as shoes carrying bag.   Just to give you an idea of the size of the bag, I took a picture with my sandals next to it.

Inside of the drawstring bag looks like this.   Darker colored fabric is used for carrying shoes...

I hope she likes the gift! 

And the winners are...

Thanks so much for all of you who participated in my giveaway!  I enjoyed reading each and every one of your happy and exciting comments :)     And congratulations to the three lucky winners below...

1.  Reversible linen tote bag - Jessica of justenoughstyle.blogspot.com in UT (commenter # 78)

2.  Matryoshka lavender sachet -  Shirley of shirleyssalad.blogspot.com in Finland (commenter # 233)            

3. Matryoshka lavender sachet -  Jenny of  Fort Wayne, IN (commenter # 161)

Note: The numbers are randomly chosen by the Random Generator. 

For the three lucky winners, please look for my e-mails so that you can let me know your shipping address.   I will be shipping out the giveaway gifts by Monday, May 24th, to work by the rules of the Sew Mama Sew May giveaway guidelines.

Thanks again for playing, and happy crafting!!

New pillows for our girls and the peacock babies (hatched!)

Over the weekend, I whipped up these pink pillows for our girls.  I simply sewed together two layers of rectangular fabrics, with right sides together, and filled them with pillow fillings lightly (as our girls prefer "lower" pillows and dislike the "taller" ones).  It was a quick sewing job that it took me less than an hour to make these pillows.   When these need to be laundered, I will just toss them into our washing machine and dryer. 

Here is the close up of the fabric that our girls selected.  It's a fabric with a touch of  Paris, with prints of Eiffel tower,  scooters, and suit cases...  Isn't it lovely? 

By the way, I wanted to show you the pictures of the baby peacocks who just hatched in our backyard!!   There are three of them...   And they're only one day old...

It's so  fun to watch these baby birds follow their mommy wherever they go...

Hope you can see them from these images...

For those of you who are new to this blog, wild peacock laid eggs in our backyard several weeks ago, and we'd been anxiously waiting for the eggs to hatch...

And she is the proud mommy : )

There were four eggs in the nest, and our girls spotted one more egg remaining (unhatched) in the nest today.   We're crossing our fingers that this one will safely hatch soon...

And by the way, if you haven't left your comments on my giveaway post yet, do it now because it is open until this Thursday, May 20th midnight (U.S. Pacific Time).  Thanks to those of you who have already left comments!!

100th post and giveaway time!

Yay! This is my 100th post on this blog! Woo hoo!  I've been thinking about having a giveaway  on my 100th post for a long time, and right now, Sew Mama Sew! is hosting a May Giveaway Day blog event !  What a perfect timing! 

I will therefore participate in the Sew! Mama! Sew! giveaway event for the first time ever...  How exciting!!

And my giveaway item is... this reversible linen tote bag that is handmade by me :)

More images here.  The handles are made of sturdy canvas webbing.

And the reversible side looks like this.

I used this discontinued reproduction fabric to make this tote... which is one of my favorites.  These are the images of birds and flowers by the window.  Aren't they lovely?

It's a perfect size to store a letter pad (8 1/2 inches x 11 inches) or your daily belongings to carry everyday.

Side view

If you are interested in participating, simply leave a comment on this post.   I'd appreciate it if you could tell me know a little about yourself on the comment, so that we can get to know each other : )

I will ship internationally, and this giveaway will be open until May 20, 2010 midnight (U.S. Pacific Time).

One lucky winner will get this tote, and even if you're not the luckiest one, I will also giveaway this handmade matryoshka lavender sachet to 2 more individuals!!  (That's a total of 3 winners!)

Good luck and I'll be waiting for your comments!

Matryoshka lavender sachet

I'd been pretty busy lately with work, kids' activities, and other family matters, but making a small and simple project like this one in my crazy life really helps me keep my sanity.   Even a quick 30 minutes sewing at night makes a big difference for me to release my stress and be happy : )

Initially, I was planning to make a small pincushion out of this, but since I love the aroma of dried lavender so much, I decided to make a sachet instead.  I filled it with dried lavenders only, with no other fillings.

I stamped this cute Matryoshka Russian girl stamp that I hand carved a while ago.  And for the first time, I used "Versa Craft" stamps, in Burgundy and Poppy Red colors, for stamping.  These stamps are supposed to work well on fabrics.

By the way, last night, when I showed this Matryoshka sachet to my husband, guess what he thought this Russian doll was...  He thought this cute doll was a Japanese Jizo statues, or a standing Budda stone statues that are found in Japanese temples and towns everywhere (sample image below)...

How could he confuse himself with a  Jizo statue and a matryoshka?? Why would I make a sachet with a stamp of a standing Budda statue on it, embellished with ribbons and lace?   I was pretty shocked of his comments, although I couldn't stop laughing for a while...

Sometimes I really feel like my hubby is from another planet, away from ours...! lol

Well, anyways, the lavender sachet can be kept in the closet drawer, or in the car, or on the desk, or I can even hang it on my purse like this.  This way, every time I open my purse, it smells so nice, which makes me happy again and again during the day :)

Fabric covered magnets and a mother's day card

I did not have much time to craft over this weekend, but I somehow managed to make these fabric covered magnets.   These are really quick to make.  Using the glue gun, I simply attached magnets on the back sides of the fabric covered buttons that I made from my fabric scraps.

These magnets will be used on our refrigerator door.  I like these magnets because they are so colorful and fun, yet very practical to use.

For this one, I simply cut out the hand stamped linen and then glued it on to the magnet using the glue gun.

And by the way,  today was mother's day... and my eight year old girl made me a tulip pop up card.   It was so sweet of her!

My ten year old daughter also gave me a mother's day card today, but hers was an online card so I can't share it with you here... But it sure was a lovely one :)    Thank you, girls, for the heart warming cards!