Hand towel apron for my girlfriend

Hello all :) It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Southern California and I'm enjoying every moment of it.

I especially love Saturday mornings because our girls are off to their Japanese language school every Saturdays, and after I pack their lunches and send them off to school in the morning, I can have the house to myself, so peaceful and quiet... although I have to pick them up at a little past noon :P   (My hubby usually works on Saturdays.)

今日は土曜日。　南カリフォルニアは今日も良いお天気です。　

我が家では毎週土曜日の午前中は娘たちが日本語学校へ行くので、朝お弁当を作って送り出した後は一人でゆっくり家で過ごすことができます。　といっても、昼すぎには迎えに行かねばなりませんが、今はこの時間を満喫中です♪　

（夫は仕事です...。）

Anyways, today I want to show you the handmade apron that I recently whipped up for my girlfriend's house warming gift.  This apron is made of hand towel so it's super absorbent and very convenient to use. I use mine all the time when I cook in our kitchen.

お友達のお引越し祝いにこんなエプロンを作ってみました。タオルでできているのでとても便利なエプロンです。　私も炊事をするときにはいつも使っています。

The ties and the pocket are made of scrappy patchwork made from my stash. 

エプロンのポケットと紐部分はパッチワークでまとめてみました。

Do you remember this cherry stamp that I hand carved from an eraser recently? I stamped it onto the ribbon tape and sewed it on to the side of the pocket as "side tag".  I think it adds the *zakka* feel to the apron...

 先日けしごむはんこで彫ったばかりのさくらんぼはんこを綾テープにスタンプして、ポケット脇に縫い付けてみました。

  

I selected light blue and navy colors to match the light blue/white polka dots hand towel.  Hope my girlfriend likes my handmade apron :)

 水色ｘ白のタオルに合わせて、ポケットと紐部分も水色と紺色でまとめてみました。　お友達がこのエプロンを使ってくれたら嬉しいな。

Before I gift wrapped the apron, I took a quick pic of my twelve year old being a model here. 

ギフト用ラッピングをする前に、長女（１２才）にモデルになってもらいました。

BTW... her height is now the same as mine (5'1" or 153 cm) and she continues to grow like a weed everyday! My younger girl (ten year old) is also growing at a high pace, so I can see myself being the shortest girl in this house in the next few years (or even months)... :P  Shall I stop drinking wine and switch to milk all at once?   lol!

長女の身長は今では私とまったく同じ１５３センチ。次女（１０才）も日々成長中でこのままではあと数年で（あるいはあと数ヶ月で）この家の中で一番のチビは私になってしまいそうです・・・。 私もワインばかり飲んでないでそろそろ牛乳を飲むようにしたらいいのかな（笑）。

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Hope you are enjoyoing your Saturday morning.

今日も遊びに来てくださってありがとうございます。皆さんも良い週末をお過ごしくださいね。　

Colorful handmades

Just wanted to share you some of the colorful things that I made recently...

I made three sets of these puffy ribbon ponytail holders and matching covered button bobby pins in red, pink, and light blue.  They were made for our friend's three young daughters, ages ten, nine, and five (I think).

知人の3人姉妹のお嬢さんたちにカラフルなリボンヘアゴムとくるみぼたんのヘアピンセットを贈りました。　色は赤、ピンク、水色。　姉妹で仲良く使ってもらえたら嬉しいです。

And these are quick doilies / kitchen scrubbies / coasters that I crocheted from 100% acrylic yarns from Japan. I like the dusty colors of these yarns.

こちらは隙間時間にちょこちょこ編んだドイリー？アクリルたわし？コースター？

つまり何にでも使えるシロモノです。笑。　毛糸は日本製なのでアメリカの毛糸と比べると、少しくすんだ色合いが気に入っています。

 I used Japanese yarns that I got from our local Daiso, which is a popular dollar store from Japan. (Well, actually, because of the current JPY yen exchange rate to US dollar, most items cost $1.50 each at our local store).

アクリル毛糸は近所に出来たばかりのダイソーで購入しました。　ダイソーは日本では百円均一だと思いますが、こちらでは円高の関係でほとんどの商品は一点$1.50 の価格で売られています。

I enjoy making things that are colorful. It really works like therapy. I can feel my spirits go up as I create colorful items :)

カラフルな毛糸や布を使ってハンドメイドをするのは楽しいです♪　カラーセラピーとでもいうのでしょうか。作っているうちに気分がどんどん明るくなっていくのを感じます。　

Hope you continue to enjoy your weekend.

皆さんもひき続き良い週末をお過ごしくださいね。

Cherry stamps

This afternoon, I carved out a small cherry stamp from a piece of eraser using

X-ACTO knife.

今日は小さなさくらんぼの形のけしごむはんこを彫ってみました。

 The size of the stamp is quite small. It measures approximately 3/4" x 3/4" (2 cm x 2 cm) in size.

今回彫ったのは小さめサイズのはんこで、約2センチｘ2センチの大きさです。

And I was inspired by this to carve this cherry stamp...

今日、なぜさくらんぼのはんこを彫ったかというと・・・。

Yes, fresh rainier cherries!! It's that time of the year and I love these sweet, tasty, fresh cherries from our local farmer's market.  I like to put plenty of them in a bowl and keep it handy on my working desk so that I can munch all day long:)

こちらでは今がさくらんぼの旬！私は特にこのレイニア種（ワシントン州産でしょうか？）が大好きなので、この時期はボウル一杯にさくらんぼを盛って一日中食べ続けています♪

My hubby got these cherries, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and other fresh fruits from the farmer's market this morning and I can't be happier. (He likes to go shopping every weekend to please his family like this :)

毎週末、うちの夫は早朝から近所のファーマーズマーケット（朝市）へ一人で出かけて、さまざまな果物を買ってきてくれます。　今日もこのさくらんぼのほかに、苺、メロン、ブルーベリー、白桃、などなど買ってきてくれました。

 

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday afternoon! 

皆さんも楽しい日曜日の午後をお過ごしくださいね。

************************

Note: Starting this post, I decided to post in both English and Japanese. I know that majority of my blog readers do not read Japanese, but I figured that my mom (who lives in Japan) checks my blog regularly and I want to do this for my mom... So I hope you bear with me ;)

今日から、日英両語でブログ更新してみることにしました。　日本に住む母が当ブログをチェックしてくれているようなのですが、母は英語を読めないので、しばらくは日本語でも表示してみることにします。　

Tea time mug rug

Hello all! Sorry for the weeks of absence from the blog :(

 I had been busy... and I can't believe that we're already in June, which means that year 2012 is almost half way over... Talk about flying time!

To me, it seems like it was Christmas and New Year only a few weeks ago... Or even last September seems like yesterday when our girls' new school year began...

But in reality, there are only FOUR school days left till our girls' long summer vacation begins, and obviously, they are super excited about it.  While their momma is trying to finish her pile of work and errands as much as possible before the start of their summer... phew.

Anyway, what I need now is a good cup of tea to relax and rewind. This is a close up of the "tea time" mug rug that I whipped up a while ago.

The word "tea" and the steam lines from the cup are hand stitched with embroidery floss.

For backing, I used yummy cakes fabric and quilted with my sewing machine.

 I designed this tea pot and the cup myself and machine appliqued onto the linen front.

 After this mug rug was completed, I was totally happy with how it turned out, enjoying my cup of tea, looking at all the details of this project... Then I found out that I forgot to stitch around the inside of the pot handle!!  Awww... I did it again!

Can you see the unstitched lines below?

Well, it's too late to stitch these lines now, after the binding and everything is finished... (sighs).

But I guess that's okay, as long as I have my favorite chocolates to go with my cup of tea.

Would you like to join me for a cup of tea and a chocolate, and check out on my unstitched lines of my mug rug (lol)?  You are always welcomed to do so!!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you're enjoying the beautiful days of June :)

Baby bib and a softie gift set

I love making handmade gifts, and I especially love making gifts for the baby.

Recently, I whipped up this baby gift set for our friend's baby girl.  It's a matching set of baby bib and a bunny softie...

 

The reverse side of the bib is made of soft and comfy double gauze fabric, which I think is a perfect fabric for the baby :)

The small ribbon on the bib front is hand embroidered on linen. 

I'm truly happy with how this gift set turned out, EXCEPT for this bunny guy...

I mean, he (or she?) may be cute, but does it really look like a bunny to you?

Well, to me, it looks more like a badly made Totoro than a bunny... Awww!

For those of you who are not familiar with Totoro, he is one of the magical creatures featured in the Japanese animated film My Neighbor Totoro.  Our girls and I liked this movie so much that I remember watching it over and over when our girls were younger...

Whether the softy looks more like Totoro or a bunny, I shall let the recipient and her mommy and daddy decide (lol)!

So...what do you think? ^^

Handmade Rilakkuma tote bag for my daughter

Hello all! Hope you're enjoying the beautiful month of May.

I had been quite busy lately, both at work and home, but I still managed to create handmade things for the people who I care...because that's what I enjoy doing the most!

Anyways, here's the tote bag that I made for my oldest daughter, who is twelve years old. As always, my daughter selected the fabrics from my stash in a picky manner :P  This one is a Rilakkuma fabric (Japanese lazy bear character) from Japan.

We are a bilingual family and our girls go to the Japanese language school on every Saturdays. This tote bag was specifically made for my girl to carry her textbooks, notebooks, pens, pencils, etc., to her Japanese school.

The lining of the bag is pink... as we all know by now (lol). She wanted a large inside pocket to hold her valuables...

Here she put her textbooks inside the bag.

And of course, she has to hang this large and puffy Rilakkuma bear and other dangly things to the bag handles...

It seems to me that the hanging bear may be a bit too big for the bag... but that's okay, as long as my girls is happy :D

Thanks for visiting my blog and I look forward to post again soon :)

***Love, Amy***

Sewing birthday gifts for the *tween* girls

As you may already know, I have two *tween* girls, ages twelve and ten. 

Besides making handmade items for my girls, I also enjoy making handmade birthday gifts to their friends. 

This is a ribbon pouch that I made recently for a ten year old girl.  Per request of my daughter, I (overly) decorated this one by attaching a detachable ribbon to the pouch front and clear dangly stars at the zipper pull.

Lining of the pouch is pink... of course! (lol)

We bought a couple of cute pencils and an eraser to go with the pouch and wrapped them altogether in a plastic cello bag. The gift is now ready to be delivered :)

This one is another birthday gift that I made for a tween girl who likes Rilakkuma (the lazy bear character from Japan).

Once again, I followed this this fun and crafter-friendly tutorial by Pink Penguin to make this bag.  

The reversible side of the bag is brown x white polka dots cotton prints.

Here, we placed more Rilakkuma goodies inside the matching handmade bag. 

According to my daughter, the birthday girl seemed to like our gift set which made all of us happy :)   

You see, tween girls can be a bit difficult to deal with at times (and I'm speaking about our tweens in our house :P) but sewing gifts for them is so rewarding and fun!

Handmade tennis racket bag for my daughter

Recently, our ten year old girl began taking tennis lessons with her friend so we got her a new junior size tennis racket.

It didn't come with a case, so what does a penny-saving-DIY-mom do???

Yes! I decided to make one for her :D

As I've mentioned in this blog a number of times, our girls are super picky with their fabric choices (and guess where they got it from? lol), so I had my daughter select fabrics for her racket bag.

The exterior fabric (in pink peace sign) is home decor weight heavy cotton. For the lining, soft fleece is used to protect the racket.  Batting was not necessary with this fabric combination.

 The racket fits perfectly inside this "custom ordered" racket bag.

The racket bag is finished and our daughter is off to the court!

But wait, I shall make another bag for her friend now :D

Hope my girl enjoys playing tennis with her new racket protected in her mom's handmade racket bag :)

Stamp carving fun!

Hello all :)

Today I'd like to show you some of the eraser stamps that I carved recently.



I designed my own motifs for these stamps. They are an apple, a pear,  a coffee cup with a saucer, and a square with a ribbon inside...

Here I used my stamp for packaging my shop item.

 I love stamp carving because it's fun and rewarding!  Just like sewing and crocheting, I lose concept of time when I'm carving these little ones ;)

Thanks for visiting and happy stamp carving!

What is your favorite pincushion?

This is one of my favorite pincushions. 

 It's my handmade flower shaped pincushion that is filled with a mixture of poly fill and  wool roving to prevent needles from rusting.

I like to place it in a cup like this to make it handy and user friendly :)

Most of my pins were getting bent from heavy and poor usage by me :( so I replaced them with the new ones.  I like to use thin needles with glass heads. 

But when I found these pins at our local Joann's notions wall, they were too cute to resist!!

It's so apparent that the heart pin to the left are too thick and I don't prefer thick pins...

But they go perfectly with my tiny pincushion with crocheted flower so that's okay ;)

So what is your favorite pincushion?