Some things are best unknown

like the price of a gallon of milk. I buy milk in 946ml cartons so that is about 1/4 gallon so when you do the math or is it maths (British say maths) and then convert it works out to . . . really I shouldn't do the math. But since I already did, I might as well tell you - $9.61 for a gallon of milk.

Guess who is now going to buy more powdered milk, it is about $8 for a big can of powdered milk and that is full cream, New Zealand powdered milk.

Okay, just had to share that bit of news. What do you pay a gallon?

Felt Food - Pop-Tarts

When I was looking for ideas for felt food. I found Pop-Tarts but decided not to make them as it is something that Miss K. We don't buy them because they are never in the stores, we don't buy much processed food, and they don't sell the kind I like (I don't even know if they still make the kind I like). Well, the other week I found them in the local store that I usually avoid because it is dark and crowded. They remodeled so it is not as dark but it is still crowded. Anyway, they had Pop-Tarts in the reduced cause no one knows what this foreign food is and so they are not buying it area. I bought them thinking I would give it to my friend cause I knew her kids would enjoy that taste of home but since they are home I have had them on my shelf. It was just a box on the shelf until yesterday. Someone discovered it, opened it, and enjoyed a treat. Yep, she is stuffing her mouth quick before mom sees it and cleans up the mess. I think she decided that she likes these and don't you dare think of giving them away.

I decided maybe I should make some Pop-Tart felt food. Here it is. I used beads on the top to give it the look of sprinkles.


Notes:
Off white - 5 x 3.5"
Pink icing - 2.75 x 4"

Sew the pink onto the off white with 1 layer of batting. Then sew the beads on. Sew the off white together with 2 layers of batting.

Enjoy!

Lunchtime

Well, after that delicious breakfast, we do need to think about lunch. We have simple lunches around here. A favourite is a cheese quesadilla or just noodles. Usually our noodles just have butter and cheese but we got fancy and added some spaghetti sauce. Here is a close-up of the bow-tie pasta. It was so easy to make.
For a change we can have ravioli. Use the same spaghetti sauce. I might need to make more sauce. I guess I should make a big batch of sauce.
Since we are here in Asia we will also have some dumplings. Hmm, that makes me hungry for Auntie LL's wonderful dumplings made with the Beijing recipe.

Notes: (mainly so I remember what I did)

The bow tie pasta was 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" trimmed with the pinking shears before gathering together.

The ravioli were 2 inch squares, trimmed with the pinking shears and then sewed and stuffed with fiberfill.

The dumplings were circles and the stuffed with fiberfill and sewn.

The spaghetti sauce had 2 to 3 layers of batting and then was hand sewn. I added the cheese before sewing the red pieces to gether.

Breakfast Food

I have recently made some food for Miss K. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. A stack of pancakes.
Now I am working on some lunch food.

Banana Pudding

First of all, I have to say I have never made banana pudding before. I don't think my mother ever made it so I never made it. For some reason Banana pudding is one of my husband's favourite desserts. We have been married for almost 5 years and I have never made it. Okay, maybe because I didn't have a recipe was one reason or maybe the fact that Vanilla Wafers are not a regular item on the supermarket shelves.

Well, I inherited a box of banana pudding so I decided to try to make banana pudding.

First of all, I had to make the vanilla wafers. I found this recipe. It has mixed reviews but I decided to try it. You really do need to make small balls to get small cookies.

Next I made the pudding. Okay, it was easy cause I used pudding mix. I did read the real recipe and learn that you make it from scratch.

I don't have a nice fancy dish to serve it in so I just put it in a casserole dish. I did whip some cream for the top but didn't bake it. I did sprinkle some crumbs on top. That was a good way to use a few that broke and the crumbs in the cookie container.
I learned a few things along the way and will improve the next time. It was nice to be able to give my husband something he really likes. Miss K loved it as well. She called it cake. Here she is enjoying it. I didn't bother to take a picture of my husband enjoying it. Maybe he ate it too fast.

Gift Bags

I am not sure where I originally got the idea for making fabric gift bags. I did find a website that sells them as well as a few others. I decided that the thing that makes the bags cute is the fabric. One of the reason I decided to make them is finding wrapping paper here is very difficult. The other reason is I got tired of wrapping gifts and then unwrapping and throwing the paper away.

I started by just using some fabric that I had around the house. Some of these prints are leftover fabric from my work days. The star fabric actually has "sample" stamped in big letters on the inside. I did buy ribbon to coordinate which is not a problem because I got to the notions market. Which is one of my favourite places to go. Here are some pictures. I made some Christmas bags as well. I found the "Merry Christmas" fabric on the $10 (local dollars) a meter table. That is like hitting the $1 a yard at Wal-Mart.

Here is a bag in action. She knew what to do. She untied it and dug in.
I love the gift bags and have found some more fun fabric on the $10 a meter table so I am going to make some more.

Birthday Cake

Since we were in Asia this year for Miss K's birthday, we couldn't just go order a Martin's Cake so that meant momma had to make one. It is funny I used to make cakes for my niece and nephew but have not yet made a birthday cake for Miss K.

Pooh is her favourite so we decided to have a Pooh party. I baked a 9x13 white cake. Do you know that the Betty Crocker cookbook does not have a basic plain cake recipe. I guess they assume that everyone uses a mix for the basic cake. Well, the other week my mother had sent me the recipe for a One Egg cake. That is what I made when I was learning to bake so I made a double recipe.

I needed S's help in drawing the head. Here it is ready to begin cutting out Pooh's head. While he was doing that I mixed the icing.
Here is the final product. Our desire was that Miss K would know who it was. She didn't see it until the party and said "Pooh".

Shh - the quiet family

I have recently grown tired of all the plastic in our life and in toys. Months ago I saw Simply Stork had a quiet family that she made. I decided to make a family for Miss K.

My first attempt was not so good. I tried to dress him up a bit and add a tie but it just made him look like Dilbert.

I then decided to email Simply Stork and she was kind enough to send me direction. Those sat in my inbox until my UFO (Unfinished Objects) project. I did them. Okay, after I took the picture I realized that momma's eyes were in the back of her head which I guess means she really is a momma. I ended up giving her hair extensions in the back and putting new eyes on the front.Here they are all wrapped up and ready to go.

Lessons about God from raising a 3 year old

The other day we were sitting at the table and Miss K was asking and asking for something. Honestly, I don't remember what it was and really that is not the important part. She wanted it and she was saying, "please, please". Finally, we gave it to her. She then had a very proud look on her face that she got what she wanted, what she had asked for. Then she looked at us and said, "thank you, bye, see you" and began enjoying whatever it was that she wanted. "Bye, see you" is her way of saying, leave me alone, I don't need you anymore.

Well, we look at each other and both remarked wondering how often we do that with God. We ask and ask for what we want. God gives it to us. We quickly say, "thank you" and then tell him to leave us alone until the next time we need something.

I want to focus more on being thankful and not pushing God aside after receiving his blessing.

Just a lesson we learned from our 3 year old who is soon to be 4 years old.

Spring Table Runner

One of the things that I have been doing is working to use some of the fabric scraps that I have. Some of them are very small but some are bigger. I decided that for our table I like table runners. Our table gets used for so many things that a table runner adds some colour but does not cover everything.

I made the binding from strips of fabric so it also has a patchwork look. I had some bigger pieces of fabric and so I was able to make some napkins to match this.
I just have to show you the back. I was quite pleased with the quilting. I enjoyed quilting it which is something new. I have always enjoyed the piecing but am learning to enjoy the quilting. I also enjoy the finished piece.Now I am ready to quilt Miss K's quilt that I pieced in the last weeks before she was born. Maybe I should quilt it in the last weeks before she turns four. I need white quilting thread and then I can begin.

Three Bags

One of the things on my UFO list was to make some bags for Miss K and siblings. I wanted something for when we go out to take treats, books, and other little fun things. So here they are using up fabric that I had except for the meter and half that I had to buy of navy canvas. Some of this is old stroller fabric which I have had in my fabric box for years.

I started with 2 11" x 11" pieces for the body. Made the bottom by pulling (might be a more technical term) 1 1/2" inches to make the bottom. I made a 7"x7" pocket but should measure again because it might have been reduced to 6"x6". The handles are 4" wide and then folded and folded to be 1". They are 14" long. The velcro closure strap is some of the handle strap just put there.

I wrote that out for me so the next time I made one of these bags. I will remember the sizes. Now I can get rid of the little post-it note that I had all that written on.`

Christmas Stockings

I needed to make some more Christmas stockings. That was a project the past few weeks. We now have 5 with different quilt type patterns at the top. They were easy to make and are roomy for all kinds of stocking treats. I am slowly getting ready for Christmas.

Packing and Unpacking

One of the challenges of living overseas is the packing and unpacking. Not just the moving but also every trip home. I am still mourning the loss of those 20 pounds when the airline baggage limit went from 70 to 50 pounds. Do you realize that means with 3 of us and 6 bags that I lost 120 pounds of things I can bring back? Now the weight limit is 50 pounds and so as I am packing I am putting the luggage on the scale. As I am packing, I am taking things out of boxes -- the toothpaste box has lots of filler space--and then I am filling in the space in boxes with other things. That is great especially for little things.

The one thing you need to do is remember what you put in those boxes and also unpack those boxes when you return.

Today I opened a box of cream and discovered 2 boxes of Calms Forte--we have thought we had more than the 1 box we were using--and some birthday brads for scrapbooking. That was not from our March trip either. That would have been last July. Maybe I should go look through some more boxes in my medicine drawer.

Bow Tie Quilt

This lap quilt, movie night quilt was started November 2005 when my mom came to visit. We peiced using various solid scraps that I had. We started to quilt it and I had grand plans of quilting just a bit every evening and it would quickly get done.

I am currently in the mode of finishing projects and this was one of those projects that has been hanging around here and needed to be finished. I am thrilled to have it finished.

It is hand quilted. It is not going to win any prizes but it will keep us warm.

We are fine

Yes, there was an earthquake in the area. I will admit that we did not feel it. I do know what earthquakes feel like. After the 9-21, from a few years ago I know.

Thanks for asking and being concerned.

Baby Shower Gifts

Years ago I made a pattern for a bib. I found one that I liked that was a nice size and traced that pattern. Since then I have been making bibs for baby gifts. They are easy to mail and just a little something to say congratulations! I have fun digging through my fabric boxes and finding fabric. The mom's group was having a triple shower and so I decided to make bibs. Of course, in the middle of sewing my machine needed to be repaired but a friend loaned me her machine so I was able to finish them.

This is a pink stripe with teacups. I got the pink stripe from a bathroom that I hemmed and it was cute and I just couldn't throw it away. I added the teacup fabric because it needed to be pieced.Then I made brup clothes and boy bibs for the ones having boys.
I opted for a simple gift tag and skipped the envelope because I am conserving envelopes. I am having so much fun with the onesie stamp. I stamped on printed paper, embossed, and cut it out and put it on the gift tag.

Three simple gifts. Well, we (my friend and I) divided up the diapers from the diaper cake and a few other things we had gotten and included the bibs and burp clothes and we had a gift or in this case three gifts.

Board Book to Scrapbook

I was inspired by someone on Craftster forum talking about making scrapbooks from board books. I decided to try it. Miss K had a book that had a little music button but the battery died but instead of just dying and no longer plays it died making a noise that is enough to drive a momma nuts so I pulled it off the book and decided to try and make a scrapbook.

The first thing you need to do is sand the pages a bit so the glue will stick.Then comes the point of gluing paper onto the book. I used some 8x8 paper that I had. I did learn that you need to leave some room so the pages will turn.
I then decorated the book. I used various pictures of the grandchildren from Easter including a picture of the momma with a baby bump.
Mom received it and loved it. She said she is going to look for bargain board books. This could be addicting.

A Hip Handbag

For Christmas I received a book called Hip Handbags. In there was a pattern for a bag made from silk and using chopsticks for handles. I had bought some silk last year when we were deep in China. I then bought chopsticks in the market in the capital city and I was ready to make the bag.

Working with silk was the difficult part. I did finish it and am happy with it. It was not lined and I am wondering if I would make it a lined bag if that would make working with silk easier. It was hard turning down the hem at the top.

It worked -- Cream of Tartar

Miss K received a magic book for Easter. The one where you use a special marker and the pictures appear. I decided that would be great to talk with us on Sundays except that the marker if it gets on clothing leaves a mark. I looked on the website and they said to use a rust remover that you can buy in the supermarket. That might work if you lived in America and had various kinds and brands of stain removers. I looked in a few supermarkets. There were various things from the UK, Japan and Australia but nothing that said removes rust. I tried baking soda because that will remove rust from some surfaces. That did nothing.

Someone on a forum suggested cream of tartar and sun. I had to wait a few days for the sun but I tried it and guess what -- it took the spots out. I am thrilled. That is a household hint to remember.

Only 3 days

not 10 for the lipstick to get 10 minutes south on the train. I received a call yesterday.

I actually know where my Club Clinique VIP card is. If I spend $5000 (US$650) I get a free gift. It amazes me how much money is spent on make-up and such here. There is no way I will spend that much money on Clinique in a million years not because I don't like Clinique but because I just don't spend that much money on make-up.