It's the last but not the last

Yupe...it's my last project of 2010 but not the last for sure for there are more and more ideas will flow in 2011...

A sweet friend interested with aprons I sewed for my niece and nephew.  She wanted two sets of apron and the hat chef for her two cute daughters, Tiffany and Cindy.  These two little girls love those Disney princesses and for sure like other girls, they love pink color.  I chose this pink fabric for both of them and tried to combined with different appliques and apron designs.  Thus, I have two different styles of apron.  Check them out....

Here's for Tiffany, really love the cupcake with its colorful sequins detail as the sweet sprinkles.

This one is for Cindy, simple but really cute watermelon with black seed that matches the black chain embroidery for the name on the hat.

I sent it yesterday and hope will reach them today, and really really hope the aprons will fit them and they love to wear it while helping their mom.  Oh yeah, this dear friend is a real cook, she loves to cook and she really can cook ;)

Fabric Origami on Cushion Cover

I bought the fabrics from local supermarket.  Well, I won't say a fabric, because this shop sometimes sells cut & piece of Bombay Dyeing fabric in a form of big pillow cover.  So, if I open the stitches up it will be a yard fabric :p The fabric is so beautiful even I have to think twice sometimes to cut it off heheheh stingy mode on :D

But this time since I got a flower origami book of a Japanese designer, Kumiko Sudo, I happily cut the fabrics.  It's just a simple origami like what we did in kindergarten, that I still love to do until now but this time you have to use a fabric.  I made stem and leave appliques and blind stitched it carefully.  Really love to do it and want to do more soon.  Here's the picture. 

handmade on them

I think I have to show off my niece and nephew photos when they wearing my handmade.
These are Tiza and Jascha in their apron, well forget about the size, I was a real amateur even didn't call home for their size heheheh ... what an aunty :D but they love it and now always willing to help their moms to cook just for the sake of wearing the apron and chef hat. 

Below is Tiza wearing my first peasant blouse, it fits her perfectly.

Tiza again, she's wearing my first properly stitched dress when I joined a month sewing course nearby my home ;)

Then, it's Jascha, he's wearing his PJ ... well I sewed this PJ because my online tutor heheh I meant friend, Phiphi kept on asking me to try sewing one ;) well not bad I think.

More from 2010 before it ends ;)

Yuhuuu....highly in spirit still but not that "spirit" of course.
I really really try to walk my talk to prepare 2011 hihihih...have started my 2011 resolution on this December itself, will share about it later...I am afraid if I tell it now I won't be able to stick into the list hehehe *excuses*

Well, I got A4 felt fabric from mbak Phiphi last year, but too stingy to use it since I couldn't find any of this material out there in Mumbai market :( until last July when I back to my country sweet country I brought back some half meter of colors of felt fabric.  And tadaa....here's the result so far....I made this strawberry chocolate cake for dear friend Wulan, she got her b'day last September, hope she'll back to sewing again and use it as a pin cushion :)   Check here for the strawberry tute, someone has been so nice to share it :)

Then...another friend wanted it and here she got, another cake but this time it's strawberry vanilla cake? heheheh dunno..I thought she would use it for pin cushion, well what to do she got two adorable daughters and the elder one won it ....

But....the younger one called me she said,"Aunty I want also one because my sister won't share it with me to play, can you make a pizza for me?" Ohh noooo...How can I say no?  So...here's for the little one...

Pizza corner was not my final place to visit...I continued my journey at the field....and here I found this cute rabbit tried to catch the ladybug ;)  They are hairbands, of course I only put the applique, I bought the hairband from a local shop downtown in Mumbai.

I will smurf more of my felt...since mbak Phiphi sent me more colors, red, green, brown, and white...thanks to her, I dunno why she never accept money for those crafty things, ummm maybe she want it with the interest wkwkwkwk....thanks sista ;)

Preparing 2011

It's so easy to get sucked into other things that distract you.
Play your own game.
Go deep in your own game.
Don't get sucked into the external first.
Look within and build from there. ~ Brian Kim ~

Well for short, he wants to say be FOCUS!
It's so hard for me to do that...today wanna smurf the apron but end up with my drawing, or else almost finish with the pouch but the final result is googling for ideas :(
Before the 2011 starts, let me upload some of the crafts I did in the past :) to keep the spirit up for the coming new year :)

I made the above grabbag for my dear friend, Kak Lisna, she said she's so happy with it and even posted the bag's picture on her facebook with her favorite book for now, Eat Pray Love and some stuffs.  I love that she loves it.  What I like the most is the sequins, I googled the peacock image and drew it there myself.

The following pouch, I made for another dear friend, Mbok Gung, she loves it I believe heheheh, she's not that expressive one but she appreciates my handmade and asks me to start selling my works :)  I really like the embroidery, it's called kamal kadai, chemanthy, it's the correct term, thanks to Deepa.  I got the tutorial from Deepa's blog, I randomly found from google image for embroidery as the keyword.  Thanks to her generosity for sharing her talent :)

And here's my cute pouch, really love the cute busy grazing sheeps.  I want to give it to mbak Phiphi, she's my online tutor for sewing heheheh....I want her to check my pouch, what's to improve and so on.  Thanks before dear :)

Back to smurfing time :)

OMG...it's been almost six months I haven't updated my blog...huhuhuh :(
I was two months in my home country and as usual the after holiday lazyness was around...but it's too much...Actually I did my crafting activities...enough number to be posted online but so lazy to do it :(

Now not anymore...2011 is coming no more lazyness *while praying to make it happen* heheheh

Yooo...here's my first post after my last post last May....

I brought below Indian style pouches for my mom, sister, and grandmom when I visited Indonesia last July-August :)

Pisang Molen anyone?

Banana is pisang in my languange, and molen is Dutch that means mechanical device that grinds or mill or maybe something that rotates :D .... so Pisang Molen means yummy snack to accompany your evening tea time...heheheheh.  I've made pisang molen several time and my hubby really enjoyed it.  Once, I fried them for lunch with my lady friends, I think they like it too :) Just take a look at the picture, forgive the not too good shape, it needs practices to have proper shapes :D

Thanks to Rita for sharing her recipe online and for the good rating I got it in the first page of google :)  Oh ya I think she's a good cook, she got better pisang molen than me for sure :p  She wrote in Indonesian so let me rewrite the recipe in English.

Things you'll need :

• 250 gr flour
• 50 gr sugar
• 5 bananas cut each into 4 long pieces
• cheddar cheese cut into long pieces with same numbers as the banana
• 60 gr butter, melt it off
• 50 ml warm water
• 2 tbsp milk powder
• 1 eggyolk (I prefer to use the whole egg)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tsp of vanilla powder (if you don't have it, it's okay)
• oil to fry

 How to cook:

1. Mix thouroughly flour, sugar, salt, vanilla powder, milk powder
2. Put the egg and melted butter, and slowly add warm water while beating the dough until thick and not sticky to your hand
3. Cover the dough with plastic or clean wet napkin for more or less 20 minutes
4. Roll the dough until about half an inch thick into a square shape on a floured surface. Cut the dough equals to the numbers of the banana
5. Take the cut dough and roll it into a long thin shape. In a swirl move, wrap the banana & cheese until they're all covered
6. Deep fry the pisang molen on each side until golden brown
7. Enjoy your pisang molen with hot tea in the evening :)

Upcycling for Earth Day :D

Celebrating Earth Day?  It's late a little bit maybe but I will say, why not?  You can do it everyday too if you want too :)  Well, I really love to upcycling things, before my hubby laughed at me for doing that, some friends thought I am stingy to spend money to buy proper items for my house.  Since we're still living in a rent house, I don't see any points to spend too much for home accessories :D stingy? Maybe!  Give respect for mother earth? Maybe! Hehehhe....

If you see around my house, I cut a used mineral bottle to keep some pencils.  I cover a fan carton box with a table cloth and use it as a small table.  I broke the mug's handle and glued it again and now I reuse it to keep the toothbrushes.

And I don't stop there, since I have my sewing machine, I've started upcycling old clothes, t-shirt into a doll, jeans into some pouches :)  Today, I have a new peasant blouse out of my hubby's old shirt :)  I made a little bit mistake because I forgot that the shirt got a pocket.  When I realized I had cut it out :(   If I removed the pocket, it won't be good, the fabric behind the pocket will be darker than the other part of the cloth (a dear friend said).  So I chose to keep it and I stitch the pocket so if only if you really look at it closely, you will find out that there's a pocket there.

Joining a Sewing Class

It’s been more than a week since I’ve joined a sewing class with Wulan, a friend of mine. We’ve been searching for sewing class to join with but any classes we found were just too far from our home. Then one day, Wulan’s hubby saw the sign board about sewing class at the opposite of traditional market a mile from our house, he told us to go there and check. We’re so excited and went there to figure out that the class is conducted in Hindi language so the teacher was afraid we couldn’t catch up the class. Luckily there’s one girl who can speak English, who’s a student there, she became the translator during the admission. Then, Wulan assured the teacher that she can understand Hindi well enough to follow the class and I said I just need to know how to do it and maybe it gives me an exposure to learn Hindi language :)

The sewing class monthly fee is so cheap that when the teacher mentioned it made my jaw almost dropped :p I told my hubby about it and he said,”Mostly the class is funded by an NGO so just enjoy the benefit and learn something from there".

The course place is close, it’s cheap, I have a chance to learn Hindi, the teacher is so patient and sweet, and the girls there are so nice.  Well, lucky us :) 

Oh yeah, our first project is baby’s stuffs, and we’ve stitched a frock, a panty, and a bonnet in the first week. I will post the pictures soon and update my blog with other good news from our sewing class :)

I joined Modish Vintage Giveaway

I joined Modish Vintage Giveaway.  A vintage giveaway for the 2nd year having shop at etsy.com
She's going to giveaway six beautiful vintage fabrics, a cool round vintage tin, and a candlestick...ooohh and $20 gift certificate ... Check her blog and join me for a chance to win it ;)

I smurfed the banner ;)

What I like most of India is the people don't hunt or put the birds in a cage, you can find peacocks, eagles, parrots fly happily even in big and crowded city like Mumbai, so imagine if you're in rural area, it's heaven!  While in my home country people love to have beautiful birds or singing birds in a cage in the verandah of their house.  They tought having the singing birds is like a prestige and having better taste of luxury :( ... Well well, enough complaining Agnes!

I love this picture...My hubby took it but because it was too far the result is not that great.  However, I still like it because of the black and white robin, a beautiful creature.  One of the beautiful birds that fly around the my in-laws house that become one of the reasons for me to wake up early and salute the mother earth for her blessing :)

Look at the picture, I've been kept it in my blog folder in my PC for weeks to smurf it into a blog banner.   But the picture is not that sharp :(  I tried to edit here and there but still unhappy with the result.  So I sharpened the image of the robin and the twigs and changed the background into white and you can see the result above... Well you may like it, you may not, of course because we have different explanation and experience of good things :)  Wait for the next robin image, you might won't see him black and white anymore!

What I've smurfed in the past

Well, below are craft I made when I had to content myself being alone in the daytime or while my hubby had to travel out of town.  Get used to be so active working before and suddenly have to be a full housewife in foreign country forces me to be more creative and not being restless in my idle times.  Actually some of them I made long time back but had no time to upload the pics and story on this blog, so I put all of them together to make the story short ;)

Sarubobo, isn't it cute?  faceless but from the way we put the body make it more expressive than any doll heheheh... I am crazy about it, thanks for the Japanese lady who's very creative for sharing the tutorial.  I wanted to make it for a talented friend, who said she dosn't have a proper pin cushion, and it's so funny in my ears since she's crazy about crafting heheheh... So since she had her b'day as well in February, so I tried to make one with my green patchwork fabric, not that perfect and decided to use it for my own pin cushion.  Then confident enough, I made another one with better details by putting cloth and hat on it. 

I made this ball for the little princess of my dear friend,  last February the next day after I finished and sent the sarubobo to my friend.  I didn't know the idea was just pop-up into my mind and I searched the exact tutorial for it.  She agreed and so interested with the ball and gave me some cut & piece of blue and pink flowery fabric to be combined with the blue polka-dot and red stripe one I had already.  To make the ball more interesting, I put some mini bells inside, but they don't ring loud enough :( 

This purse I made for my niece from my hubby's side who's living in Kerala.  It's still far from perfect since I made it in a hurry while packing my suitcase before we went home to Kerala last December.  However, she was so happy and put some coins and notes of Rs.10 inside whenever she's going to church.  She said, "Now, I can be like Amma (mother), opening my purse and give some donation for church."

I made this Mother Mary with baby Jesus purposefully as a Christmas gift 2007 for my dearest mother-in-law. I bought a set of cross stitch kits set from my hometown in Surabaya, Indonesia.  I was planing to do it when I had to stay at home at that time.  But for one or another reason, I had to back to Indonesia only after a month landed to Mumbai :(  So I brought it back again and continued the stitching at home.  It took almost 5 months to finish it since I had to work also in the morning at that time.  Once I finished it I sent it through post to my hubby.  But he prefer we keep it until we both can go home together to Kerala.  Thus, it became a super belated Christmas gift and was put on the wall of my in-laws house last 2010 Christmas holiday :D  Check it out, it has 50x40 cm size and my father-in-law delightfully put it on the wall where they usually face for praying time.  I am now thinking to make a cross stitch design of Sacred Heart Jesus for the next Christmas gift :)  

Owl on my Cushion Cover

Being so excited with my fabric paint, I smurfed my blank cushion covers that were planned for different stitching project into hand painted one.  Wonder what cute animal I might draw there, I finally drew an owl on each of them.  I googled "owl" as the keyword on google image and found two cute owls.  Then instead of drawing the serious color of owl, I tried to encourage myself to sketch a colorful one.  I drew the first sketch for the creme cushion cover on my drawing book using my wax crayons ( huhuhu I want to finish them a.s.a.p so that I have a good reason to buy the oil one ).  The next sketch I tried to visualize it on photoshop with a hope that it would be easier to get the perfect color. 

But unfortunately the orange casement fabric unable to absorb the yellow color :(  So I had to changed into black & white owl, which my friends prefer than the other one :D  Yipee! here's my second adventure with fabric paint, don't think will give it up soon ;)

Ben10's Effect

The next day I've finished the Ben10 doll for Phiphi's sons, I got a set of fabric paint yipeeee!  My hubby went home with a plastic bag of Landmark (a local bookstore) and he said,"Don't cry for what I have for you inside." Hahahah...he knows me well, I was so happy and couldn't wait to do the creative things with the fabric paint he bought for me. 

But wait....I want fabric pen too, was thinking to use it to make an outline for the picture I made.  Look what I got finally from Hobby Ideas, a craft store I love to visit just to drool for things I want to smurf.  I bought stencil too :D Actually I prefer to draw things by myself but a dear friend convinced me by saying, "Sometimes if the stencil is good, why don't you buy it."  So, I chose two stencils of cute hummingbird and pretty butterfly ;) Another stencil is a bonus from the set of fabric paint :)

More Upcycled Jeans

It's a continued story of old jeans project being upcycled into new one ;)  I finished the boxy and wrislet purses more than two weeks ago but so lazy to take the pictures...huhh bother!  My hubby was out of town so what else should I do, didn't need to cook much so I ended up in front of my PC and sewing machine.

My dear friend made her boxy pouch before and show it off to me and it challenged me to make one too.  But instead of using interface and for the sake of practicing how to stitch a zipper, I used the old jeans.  I was thinking if it failed nothing to lose heheheh...*stingy mode on*.  I got the tute from this blog.  It's so easy to follow and you can see the result below.  Trying to have my touch on it, I cut the middle part of fabric into heart shape and put red/white stripes fabric then did running stitch with white thread.

It's easy to dare me, once I want to do something than I will try my best to make or finish it.  Finished with the boxy one, I continued with the wrislet.  This time I don't have any tute.  I used the cuff of the jeans as the handle to be hassle free from stitching the thick jeans - broke two needles for this wrislet project :(   Then again I cut the jeans to make several flower petals and did running stitch on it with red thread.  For the anther I stitched red beads on it.  I sew two pockets inside it, one for my Ipod another for my cellphone.  Check out their pics.

Ben10 plush challenge

My online dear friend :D who's my masterji in crafting and sewing said that her two little boys loves Ben10 cartoon very much.  She wanted me to make a Ben10 doll for them, she explained and showed a simple painted doll from a magazine and begged me to make for the boys.  She said I am good in making that kind of craft *ohhh nooo my head is getting bigger*. 

I started googling Ben10 image and found a good one.  I bought fabric paint and mistakenly my hubby chose the silk paint one :(  Honestly, it's my first time I am playing around with fabric paint that's why I didn't know which one I should have bought.  I was so unhappy with the result because the media is a poplin fabric and using the silk paint is a little bit complicated.  Again, I went to a hobby and craft shop nearby and bought only the basic color for Ben10. 

I made the pattern of Ben10's body outline on a carton board (I always keep the cartoon of cookies that I bought to make pattern).  Then, I started coloring every inch of the Ben10 on the fabric, cut them, stitched, put the dacron fibre as the filling and voila ...

Hope that Rizqi and his brother, Raihan, are happy to play and have a soft and unpainful war while everyonepretending to be Ben10.  I think your hard work is nothing and you'll feel satisfied if you make something and people who receive it so happy to have it.  Here's Rizqi's expression while holding his Ben10, he chose the dark green one ;)   So do you think he's happy with the Ben10?  Or maybe he's still hoping that his mom will buy the real doll at the toy shop :D

I Joined Animal Plush Swap on swap-bot.com

This was my second swap and I joined swap-bot.com, Animal Plush Swap Newbie & International Friendly. So it was my first swap with swap-bot.com and I love to make plush and here is the doll I made for my partner, Jeri, who's living in Texas, USA. She said she would like to have a monster, a giraffe, a dragon or an alligator. So I decided to make a dragon as a new challenge. It was difficult to get the dragon doll pattern like in children book but luckily I got a pattern of suffolk wyvern dragon. I used the head pattern only with a little bit modification here and there and shape the body like a dinosaur's, and here's the result:

Jeri rated me 5 hearts (that's the best rate yeehaw!) and here's her comment:

"You sent me some wonderful items! The workmanship on the dragon is very professional and I love the earrings. A super swap!" Thanks, Jeri

I was so delighted to know that she got my dragon doll and she loves it. I put extra gift for her since she loves dangling earrings, I got Indian style one for her.

What I am afraid now is that I might be addicted to do swapping heheheh.

Old Jeans Craft

Checking the wardrobe, full of old clothes, and I found some pairs of my husband' jeans. He said, "I want to cut and get knee length jeans to wear at home." Heheheh, he returned from the tailor with three pairs of jeans cut-off, yeehaw!

So, I cut here and there wanted to make a sewing machine cover, after so many thinking and mistakes, I ended up made the simple plan into complicated one. It took almost three days to finish it, since I had to check my farm in between :D and did the house chores. What I like from this project is that I learned to make patchwork and hand stitch applique at the same time, ohh and also learned to change and use different kind of needles for my sewing machine ;) Check it out!

My First Swap

It's been quite sometimes I never update my blog though actually I had some stuffs done before.

Well, I joined a swap conducted by my Masterji :D at her blog and it was my first swap. The swap name is "Celebrate Your Friendship", so I have a new friend now :)

I got these two beautiful things from mbak Wawan, a muffler and a bead pouch. She's my swap partner, who's living in Kalimantan, Indonesia. I love the muffler's color, soft colors that will match with any sweater. The bead pouch is a tribal design, Dayak design! She said it's a b'day gift for me, what a sweet thought! Thanks a lot for the swap mbak! Hope we can do again next time! For sure she's very good swap partner, if you want a crocheting swap, do it with her! Oh ya, I will take a pic of me with the muffler around my neck and upload it here :) very soon, I promise!

And I made this Knitting Tools Organizer for her. She's an expert in crocheting and eager to learn knitting, so I thought a knitting tools organizer would be a great swap for her. The picture is not that great because I had to take it with my mobile phone. She said she like it though a little bit confuse what to do with it before :D