looking up, down & out

Some mornings Kaeden and I love to hang out around the front porch of our place. After breakfast and Kaeden still in his pyjamas. We used to walk around the area outside but these days we prefer to just sit by our "pond", check on the tricycle and walk in circles around. It helps eliminate the feeling of being coup up indoors all day.

Here's a barn owl purse (my latest owl pattern) completed for Kaeden's cousin in Singapore. A very belated birthday present. She is going to start the year in a new Secondary school next year. All grown up.

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Unrelated:

I feel compelled to share about this new magazine, Extra Curricular in the market, after reading my favourite blog and knowing that Melissa's featured in there. I'm always curious about other people's business. I do like to read biographies. What more discovering new crafty people in magazines? I'll to have to get one copy.

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Even more unrelated:

Cartoons.
I'm rediscovering Chibi Maruko-chan on tv. The wacky faces of her classmates always have me baffled. and I'm excited about a new cartoon series about to show on Cartoon Network here. Chowder in Marzipan city.

add on

Kaeden likes bears among other things. Maybe not the animal yet, but more like its non-living affiliates. He has a Bedtime Care Bear, a teddy bear harness with a tail leash, his choice of toothbrush in a plastic bear holder and er-hm, bear shaped biscuits. I made this keychain for him to add on to his possessions.

As mentioned before I 'd camera woes and Brian had the "monster" camera with him, I took a photo of this bear keychain made earlier using my mobile phone. We have a vacation lined up for next week and I'm thinking and starting on filling up two bags of surprises for my little one for the trip. Why two? One for the carry-on and one for the luggage to take. The keychain will be one of the stuffers. The trip to Bandung will take an hour of air ride and then about three hours of car ride, that's one way. Kaeden definitely needs aplenty of distractions and so the bags of surprises (a new stack of picture books and possibly new small toys and definitely some handmade of recyclables). Essentially little presents for him, are important - for my sanity.

The bear keychain is made of the old T (used here), stuffing and small pieces of felt. I found a box of fabric markers the other day and had a go at using it. Attached are a pair of old keys (remembering to wash the metal ring and keys) which didn't belong anywhere.

friendship bag

There were some years when I'd meet my two closest girlfriends, we'd exchange gifts to mark the end of that particular year. It wasn't even arranged, it just would happen that each one of us would prepare something for the other. Some other times, one would give me a little something; soap; a treat, just because. Irregardless of the time of the year or of no special reason. In the spirit of that, I made this bag (made of a part of a vintage new old stock pillow case, lined with some thick bluish fabric) for this oldest known friend of mine. To mark this year and the total number of years of our friendship.

delicate purses & a giveaway!

Over the weekend, I made eight purses for an order from my dear friend, Christie. They are made out of mostly vintage new old stock handkerchiefs. Remember these? The purses with purple and yellow roses are made of a handkerchief I received from a swap. Hence, my collection of handkerchiefs have been greatly depleted and I'm feeling a strange sensation of insecurity. Need to top up my meagre collection, soon.

Do you know of a giveaway day (on Dec 2) all over blog land? Since I was in the making purses mojo, I made one more out of vintage yellow checks, lace purse lined with reclaimed soft green cotton, new brown zip and attached to the fastening's holder, is a filigree charm. I'll put this up as my giveaway item.

Anyone who would like to have this purse, please leave me a comment in this post, your e-mail address and if possible after, add me to your reading blog list/be my blog follower (check out the left bar of this blog). I'll pick a winner on 6 Dec, Sunday morning JKT time. I'll ship this purse anywhere in the world.
Good luck!

green & white dough

The weather is cool and we're staying in this morning. A good opportunity for me to try making dough for the first time while the father and son duo watched. They did their part by popping by the nearby warung for more salt before I started making. As I only have green food coloring in the pantry, we end up with green and white coloured homemade play dough.

Kaeden had a "pau" in his hands for awhile and Brian let his creativity flowed too. I like the 'a man, a dog & a bird' figurines.

kitchen linen week :: roosters

I remembered having some pictures of feathered animals in my iPhoto portfolio. Turned out they were ducks in an area which was the recipient of a charity drive organized by our friends months ago. Some houses in that area are built on stilts over a rather unclean swamp and these ducks, probably some families' livestock, roamed around there.

Finally, my last two bags for marking the self designated week of kitchen linen. 'roosters'. I used the two seed(?) buttons, given to me by my sis-in-law for fastening, for I thought it to be rather apt for these two bags.

All four of these bags made out of kitchen linen will be put up for sale at Doinky Doodles!, 33 Bali Lane (Singapore).

kitchen linen week :: reindeers

The second bag for this week, marking my dedication for kitchen linen towels. Reindeers. I'm thinking of the upcoming season's celebration.

I caught the movie 'Twilight' on tv, Sunday evening. My mind is still swooning over the romanticism of it. I never thought I would be like this. I first heard of the written novel from a friend and upon recognizing that the target readers are mainly youngsters, I put my intention of reading it back on hold. Not because I think I'm all adult-y, really. I love the Harry Potter's series. I just thought I won't be able to connect much with the storyline. Looks like I'm wrong and I'm considering borrowing the book from somewhere. I'd seen the book in the local library before, I'm going to try looking there.

When the movies are good, I'm sure the novels are better. I believe in reading more than watching. The other movie I watched on tv and moved me deeply was 'The Kite Runner'. I thought I should pick the book up sometime too.