lifeonplanetmum.com

Today is Father’s Day in America, Canada and UK, but for NZ and Australia, it is in September.  I saw an idea on the Better Homes and Garden website for a personalised apron for Matt so unknown to him, we ordered a white apron from ebay.

We got some felt and the boys started designing their own pictures on a piece of paper, pining the paper to the felt and cutting them out. They did not get pricked by a pin even once! Good job, boys!

Since I had packed up all the craft glue, I used a hot glue gun, which was a mistake because it did not adhere well to fabric. I had to sew them all on and the hot glue had hardened, making it difficult for the needle to pass through.  Sewing it when Matt was around was a challenge, I had to sew in the toilet several times and maybe he was wondering why I was there so long!

This morning, he is not awake yet and we are preparing him a breakfast in bed. Making him this dish.

Matt, you are a wonderful father to our boys, I love how you spend so much time with them, how you are always looking at parenting courses or books or ways to improve yourself with them.  You are a selfless Dad, you put yourself before the boys - your “Me Time” is basically always spent with the boys and I, sometimes doing things that I don’t really like doing, like physical activities - swimming, basketball, etc. You encourage them to go farther than I could ever do so because I am always so terrified of them hurting themselves by falling. They gain so much confidence with you and their eyes are always happy and dancing when they play with you.

I would also like to remember my own father who lives in Malaysia. My Dad is the cornerstone of our family, he is so wise and taught us many values from young. The one that stands out the most is,   family comes first, no matter what.  I have always valued his advice and when we had to leave for the USA, we turned to him for direction.  He has the most practical of minds and I think it comes with experience from being a General Manager of a tyre company for so many years.  He has always provided for us all as a family. My fondest memories of my Dad is when we, as young children, would travel in the car to Malacca to see my cousins. He would take us to the Klebang Besar Beach, sometimes every weekend and in those days, without highways, it was a 60 mile drive there.

The boys have really benefitted from staying so close to them while we lived in Singapore, they got to develop a strong bond with him and my mother. Skype really helps to bridge the distance between us now and I am blessed that the boys can continue their bond with them.

I want to start some of the traditions for the boys, just like my father started for us. Weekend getaways that the boys can enjoy, but building lifelong memories and relationships with each other.

Happy Father’s Day!

The school year is coming to an end and it is always sad to say goodbye to teachers and friends. Especially more so that James and Cameron are not returning to this great school.  We have so enjoyed being able to walk to school, all the neighbourhood kids go to the same school and catching the free yellow bus.

Cameron’s class had a party on Friday where they were taken outside to play some games. They had a pizza for lunch, courtesy of the teacher, then they were given tickets to play games, like bowling, basketball, ring toss. When they earned tickets, they could go and spend it on popsicle sticks, face painting, tattoos or making your own visor.

Cameron’s kindergarten teacher. She is the nicest, sweetest teacher, very firm with the kids but also full of fun, energy and compassion.  She really cares for the children.

Cameron’s classmates.  The girl on Cameron’s right was fighting with another girl over Cameron last week.  She said, “Cameron is mine, I love him!” But being kindergartners, they fight and forget that they were ever friends.

Some of the games they had.  It was all run by parents. I love how much parents get involved here!

I don’t know what he was supposed to be. More like an American football or baseball team colours here.

At the very end, they had a water balloon game and parents were given balloons to pelt their children with. Cameron and all the kids were soaked.  Fortunately, it was a very hot day, over 32 deg C!

Cameron, soaking wet afterwards!

James’ party will be on Tuesday!

Also, go here to see what the boys made for the teachers’ presents for the year end.

I converted this picture frame I bought from a thrift store to a serving tray.  Read about it here.

Hi, I have been really busy lately, no time to tell you right now but I have started a new blog with my craft stuff so that it is separate from my private life. That way, when I want to refer people to my blog, I can just send them to the craft one.

www.craftonplanetmum.blogspot.com

Sorry, it is a mouthful but I am taking all my previous projects and posting them one by one. Updates in progress….

It was Reva’s birthday in October and I wanted to make her something practical. When I found out she does yoga, I decided to make her a yoga mat bag. I used Amy Butler’s free pattern and it was really easy to follow.  I am not too sure about the fabric though but the pattern called for heavier home decor fabric so my choices were rather limited.  What do you think? Should I have gone for something more neutral?

It feels great to start sewing again after a break. I think I will be making a quilt next…

Ok here is my first woodworking project. As I mentioned before, it is something so small but I never imagined I had to use so many tools to get it done. I thought it was just a saw some nails and perhaps a drill.  Shows how much I know about woodworking.

I love the natural colours of the wood. I did not paint it, it was oak (the lighter one on the outside) and walnut. I just put oil and polyurethane on it to seal it.

Love the grain of the wood.  Fine woodworking apparently involves no nails.  I wanted to sign up for the furniture making course which was the next event but it starts at night, just before Matt gets back from work and I have no one to help babysit the kids.  See the top left hand corner with the faint burn mark?

These pegs and the curved part of the bookshelf were sanded down with a disc sanding machine - not your normal random orbit sander and I had to move fast because when I lingered, it caught fire! It got so hot that the wood just burned. I was also scared to go too fast lest my fingers get caught in the machine and break my fingers! That was why we had so many to make, just in case one did not work out.

So anyway, I bought a single bed, totally raw and unfinished so that I could do my own staining. I appreciated the lesson that I learnt in order to use some of the tools in the right way. I gained enough confidence to buy myself a Dewalt Random Orbit Sander at Home Depot! I got to use it today but the whole place was filled with yucky sawdust.

I have some projects I want to repurpose! It’s not exactly woodworking but it’s a start.

I went for a Fundamentals of Woodworking class during the weekend and I am so glad I attended the course. We had to make a small book shelf out of beautiful walnut and oak wood. Even though it was small, I got to use some major machines that I had never even heard of.

This was a bandsaw. It is great for cutting circles, straight lines.

This is a mortiser. It was probably the most difficult to use because we had to be very precise where we wanted to cut holes in the wood.

Of course, the scariest was the table saw. The blade was running at 90 miles per hour and we were advised not to stand directly behind it because at times, it does run out of its catchment area and jumps out behind the person.  They had pictures of people’s mangled fingers and legs just to scare us a little. I was very careful while operating the machines but I don’t think I dare to use them on my own.

My book shelf is drying at the moment so when it is ready, I will post a picture of it here!

We have been looking around for furniture and although there are a ton of shops in DC, nothing has really jumped out at us. We have started looking at second hand furniture and we both really like the clean Scandinavian lines such as furniture from Hans Olsen, Eames, Peter Hvidt - etc.

Just look at some of these pictures. They were taken from ebay - I am watching them at the moment and bidding for one of them.

Eames Table

Table and Chairs By Hans Olsen. These are all antique pieces but they look like they were made for today.

This Hans Olsen one is my favourite. If I knew where to buy it, I would get it in a heartbeat.

This one isn’t Scandinavian but I like it anyway. They are 1950s club chairs (from China?) and I have been looking everywhere for them.  Fortunately, I found a place - in China, that sells them and will ship to the USA for a reasonable price.

I have been following The Censational Girl’s blog since I was in Singapore and she is a real inspiration to me.  I did not have much of a chance to do any of the projects because we lived in a small flat and didn’t have a garage to do a lot of the toxic stuff, so I drooled a lot over her beautiful and clever makeovers.  Now that I am here and not finding what I want, I have turned to Craiglist and found some excellent condition Danish furniture. Some have tear and wear but I am wondering if I have the courage to get a whole dining set and work on it??? I would have to do my own upholstery and re-staining!  I will let you know because it has been a few days since I contacted the seller and he might have sold it. I am dying to do this but not sure how the furniture will fit in with our Chinese furniture.

J came back two days ago with an autographed fish - all the students in his class had one and they were given a fabric marker to sign with.  Isn’t that just a fabulous idea? The fish represents the Primary School, gecko represents the Intermediate, etc..

So C is also interested, he wants to write on the fish but big brother says “No! It is for friends who are leaving or people whom I won’t see again - I will still see you!” C then asked me to make one for him as it is also his last week at school. So last night, in a panic, I looked around on the internet for some ideas of cat pictures and saw one which seemed easy to sew.  So I drafted up my own pattern and made this in a few hours.  I would have liked black buttons for eyes but I didn’t have any. I also did not put in a tail until everyone complained that it seemed like a naked cat so I had to unpick it to sew in a tail. Let’s see what it looks like tomorrow after everyone has written on it!

I made this really cute basket based on Ayumill’s tutorial. However, I did not follow the measurements entirely and the insides are all out of shape. When I followed the instructions, I found that the handles were too long, probably something I did wrong, that they touched the ground so I had to snip at least 3 inches off.   If you don’t look too hard, it looks cute from the outside though. I would like to try another one! I have been sewing for many years but I make a lot of errors each time, eg, crooked sewing, wrong measurements or just being untidy. Even when I try hard, it doesn’t seem to go straight. Maybe the speed of my machining is too fast.