Mom Says : Getting Children To Understand Our Message?

With Jasper being my first and only child, I didn't quite know what to do when he started becoming too active and would run about VERY fast in public places. As a first time mom, I'd naturally set high standards for myself and vowed to be teaching him by love and never threats. (Which sooner or later the standard gotten lower and lower, haha)

The thing is, with him running all about a shopping mall with his high speed, I got myself to try different ways to let him know it is not okay for him to run away alone and leave us chasing him from behind. Going down to his level and telling him I would worry, pulling him back to me every single time he tries to escape my grip, hitting him on his legs whenever he runs away,praising him for staying beside me longer than 5 minutes...No, they didn't quite work for my son. He just continue running off every single time he sees something attractive!

So, come and go 2 months since his behaviour, and I finally got too mad to stay calm when he ran away so far I hardly caught up with him. I decided then and there and told him the 'scary story' to see if that would keep him from running away on his own.

'Jasper, you know why mama say you cannot run away by yourself?'

"NO!" (That's the only thing he always replies when he didn't wanna listen)

'If you run away, there will be a bad guy, the bad guy will chase and catch Jasper and take Jasper far far away! Then Jasper won't be able to see mama FOREVER already. You want that?'

"....no.." (The difference between two no-s is that this one, you can see him lowering his head and pouting his lips, hesitating before answering)

'Okay, then you MUST hold onto mama's hand when we come out to play, otherwise bad guy will come and catch you and you cannot see mama forever you know?'

"..k.." (Still pouting and nods his head)

'Okay, promise already huh? Mama is going to put you down now, you know what happens if you run away yourself right? The bad guy will come and catch you!'

"K.." (Nodded his head again and looking sad)

And then it works! As soon as I place him down again, he hold onto my hands tightly and I never had a problem with him running away again! I didn't know if it would work long term, but when we went out again the next few days, he continues to hold onto my hand or make sure I'm nearby him. Whenever I see him starting to run away too far again, I just need to mention to him 'You remember what mama say about the bad guy right?' and I'll be able to expect him running back to me quickly and holding onto my hands again.

I do feel guilty for threatening him  this way and making him understand through fear, I ran out of ideas and to protect him (there is really plenty of bad guys out there now isn't it?) I assume this is the best choice I made. What about you, do you threaten your children to get them to understand?

Talk Craft : Felt Recycle Bag Tutorial

Gift wrapping had always been a tough task for someone like me...I don't really fancy paper, so I naturally don't hoard on them like I do for my love for fabric. So every single time I need to attend an occasion bearing gifts, I usually will need to remind myself to buy wrapping paper...which I also usually conveniently forget about them. I guess I'm really not a paper person.

But I do have lots of fabric, especially recently when I just finish sewing felt envelopes with velcro attach for my cousin's event and they didn't need the extra felt back, I naturally thought about using them for my upcoming gift bearing event!

My lovely friend, Patty from Lullabelle Handmade Soap recently welcomed a baby boy into her life and I'm very excited in attending his full moon's party. I bought a set of NUK baby bottles for him but I forgotten about the paper wrapping parts, thus this felt bag idea came into mind.

Initially, I just thought of patching up the felts to make it as a wrapper, but then I thought why not make it into something useful so it can be used again by my friend?

I loved the outcome and thought it's a great use for leftover fabric, felt or not!

First , I picked the colors I wanted for felt bag, I pick neutral to boyish colors since I'm welcoming a baby boy! And then I sew along the sides to patch them up. It's easy for this bag since the leftovers from the felt envelopes I sewn are of the same sizes. (which will led us to the discussion of planning ahead for the size of your leftovers. haha)

I get this patched felt fabric when I'm done, measure your gift ahead to know how big piece of patched fabric you'll need!

I then fold my fabric into half, with the wrong side (the seams showing side) facing out. I sew both ends of fabric together.

To create a box pleat bag, you'll just need to sew 45degree (triangular shape) like the photo above.

Then trim off  the excess fabric, this will make it easier for you to turn over the bag with a nicer shape later on.

Now, keep your finger crossed while you try to fit in your gift. :P (Or you can just be extra careful with measurements, something I neglected since a kid)

Next, I cut out two rectangle sizes for the handles.

I fold them in halves, then sew the sides.

Once done, I turn them inside out.

I fit them onto the bag and place them to my liking, since the bag have horizontal seams, I made them as my reference, it would be harder if your patch fabric isn't made with symmetrical shapes.

I then sew a box shape to secure the handle to the bag, do the same for all four sides.

And done! It took me half an hour to complete this bag. I then tie on a little card and glue on a pink felt heart onto the bag!

One thing though, I should've sewn a line across the top of the bag seams to make it look finished.

Hope you enjoyed my felt recycle bag tutorial!

Felt Food Ham & Cheese Bun

I'm a little felt food crazy recently, I've always wanted to create those crazy, over the top headgears using felt food , although knowing there won't be much buyers around...but still they would be fun, no?

So anyway, I haven't create any into headgears yet, but am already enjoying making fun stuff like these every now and then :3 This one is ham and cheese bun sandwich and with lots of vege on!

I thought about giving them to Jasper to play with, but then again they seems too fragile for his rough movements now! Maybe, when he's a little older :)

Rainbow Hood

I've always loved Love&Craft collection of colorful knit fabrics, I previously bought a star printed knit from them and sewn this outfit for Jasper.

During Supplies Surprise! Bazaar 5, I went fabric crazy in their stall again! I initially bought the rainbow and orange/grey stripes to make two different outfit but I decided to go a little crazy since it's for my little boy...hey, how long can they be so carefree right? :)

I also bought plain blue jersey from them, so I made those as bias tape for the finishing, they all turn out quite the way I expected it to be, so hooray!

I used another shirt to cut out the size I wanted for Jasper, and then go on to cut out the shape of neckline I wanted, I also cut freehand for the hoodie shape, only trying to make sure that the measurements at the end match the neckline's. Other than that it was pretty much freestyle!

I'm really happy with the outcome and it really made me happy looking at all the colors going around my boy's smile :D Now, I'm just so excited to sew another outfit using another fabric I bought from them too!

P/S : If you notice one raw sleeve at the first photo, that's because I was too excited to complete the top before having Jasper try it on, hehe

Mr Uhu

It's the second day bringing Jasper to work!

Since my mother in law is feeling way too tired to take care of him, I'll need to make this work.

I have no intentions of sending him to daycare or a nanny now, not with so many bad news about little babies being tortured...so I'm gonna need to test and figure out a way to make it work for the both of us.

Currently the little boy just keep saying no when I ask to tuck him in for a nap and is playing with everything I have for him. Still quite cheerful, but probably lack of nap is not a good sign.

Lucky for me, he's willing to play with his little figurine toys and go wild with his imagination alone.

There will be a moment or two when he decided he needs more attention and come give me a bite on my fats...(just got one while typing this!) So meanwhile, I'll go on figuring out how this would work for the both of us and hopefully we'll both score flying colors doing this!

Sundae Waffles

I've always wanted to sew an ice cream shaped like these for awhile, so when I bought a felt crafting book and they taught how to make these, I'm more than delighted to give them a try!

The shape turn out great, I prefer the choco one more than the pink one, since they were made from different type of felt, the softer ones were shaped and filled with polyfibre easily and fluffier too!

One thing though, these were really time consuming since we are required to fill up the polyfibre along when we sew! 

Have you tried sewing these shapes before?

2012 : A Year For Upgrades!

I know I'm a tad late, but Happy New Year and Happy Chinese New Year!!!

The end of 2011 and the start of 2012 had kept me very busy and occupied, filled with stress yet very joyful events! It kept me so busy I didn't realize I never gotten around to post my new year resolutions! But many of them had been swimming around my head, ideas that might or might not be born...but had kept me very excited to kickstart my year! (So sorry I seems to always kickstart new years a little late than a normal person should! haha)

Anyway, I've never gotten around to update about my new gadget, but I finally gotten an iPhone! I'm enjoying downloading all the free apps, and taking photos with it....needless to say, my camera probably felt abandoned... but then again, I'm not sure why some of the photos resolution don't seem to be clear, while others are crystal clear, so I guess I'll still need my trustworthy camera to snap photos for clear details !

So anyway, here's photos as summary of people I hung out with and stuff that had happen until today! I'm looking forward to plant more of my time into this blog, hoping to make more tutorials and revamping the blog! Another promise I made to myself for year 2012! 

This kinda photo probably comes once a year, because my elder sister is working in Australia with her husband (newly wed!) I've spend most of the last month in 2011 with her, since we'll only get to hang out once a year!

And end of this year, my little brother will be flying off to London to further his studies...I certainly hope our 'once a year' photos tradition can be kept and we can continue taking photos with all three of us inside as years passes by!

And since my sister is back, it usually means we are pampered to good food by her or her husband (lucky us!) So here's a random photo of me and my brother gloating over the high tea set she bought us at Delicious!

Jasper also got close to the both of them, but sadly they had to bid their goodbyes, and hopefully Jasper will be able to remember the both of them when they come home this year end! 

My son's growing very fast, and since I haven't been posting much photos of him lately,especially full length photos, I am surprised myself when I realize how tall he'd grown! The photo above is taken in KLIA, you can see how my son loves cold drink...(please don't nag about how bad they are, I know it already!)

And then a few days after the departure of my sister, it's Chinese New Year already!

I sure does come by as a bit of a shock...and I realized how I'm not used to giving ang pows yet, because I conveniently forgot to go to the bank for small change AGAIN! I really need to make this a new year resolution for 2012...

Jasper welcome the Chinese New Year in a whole suit of red! :D It's Dragon year this year, and since I'm a dragon...babies born this year are like,2 decades younger than I am! FML

While attending our friend, Sue's open house, I figure out how Jasper figure out how adults look like when they take photos......hmmm...

Met an old friend whom attended the same kindergarten with me!

And got a little younger by playing with the cute app in my iPhone...lol

We're visited by many friends and relative back in Klang, and this is one memorable photo of Jasper's granduncle with him..both topless and in red pants! Photo Of The Year seems to appear abit too soon! :P

And this is his youngest aunt who'd pampered him as if she's an adult already!

Since we had a little change in plan, we only went back to my hub's hometown in Malacca on the fourth day of Chinese New Year this year, and the relatives are more than delighted to see Jasper again! That is his great grandma kissing him! One of the precious photo I manage to capture this new year!

The little boy also copied how his grandaunt sweep the floor, but only with the wrong tool of course!

Met with a cute princess when we attend another open house for dinner together! My mom decided she'll be Jasper's wife...yes, I guess older people thinks of the future too much! 

And of the last day of our week long holiday, we went for a walk at Ikea and The Curve and although it is a little later than others, we manage to take photos with oriental backdrops to mark our 2012 Chinese New Year celebration! That is my mother in law, who'd been helping me out and guiding me along the way, a very awesome mother in law I would say! :D

So, there goes my Chinese New Year celebration, I was very happy and relaxed this year, unlike the past few years where I just felt plain stress...haha! but anyway, I enjoyed mine, and I hoped you enjoyed yours too!

2012 shall be filled with many more exciting journeys for me to discover, with many more challenges I'll try to conquer, but all in all, I'll never be this strong and excited if it's not for my family and friends who've been cheering for me 365 days, all year long!