Super Bowl Passion Party

I'm hosting an online Super Bowl Passion Party! Everyone wins! Keep reading for the all the details:

Earn FREE products when you order. Place an order online Sunday Feb 1, 2009 and receive FREE products. When you place your orders online during:

1. 1st Quarter Receive a FREE Bustier Toy Bag.(Min Order $25.00)
2. 2nd Quarter Receive a FREE Body Lotion with Plumeria (Min Order $25.00)
3. 3rd Quarter Receive a FREE Shaving Cream (Min Order $25.00)
4. 4th quarter Receive A FREE Edible Chocolate Powder (Min Order $25.00)

***BONUS** Place your order online anytime during 1-31-09 and 2-02-09. And you will receive all 4 items for FREE (MINIMUM ORDER FOR THIS BONUS PROMOTION IS $50.00)

Refer A Friend If she makes a purchase and puts your name in the comments section as a referral, you both receive an extra surprise gift!

My Kid Is Adorable Too!

Since I live far away from most of my family (my sister lives near me) and my husband isn't Vietnamese, I try to expose Sophia to as much of my culture as possible. Thankfully, the DC area has a large Vietnamese population so food is easy to find.

Yesterday we attended a local Tết Festival. Tết is the name of Vietnamese Lunar Year. (Everyone calls it Chinese New Year, which is really annoying since other cultures celebrate it too. But I digress) Tết is a fun celebration. You get to wear new clothes, eat great food, and the best part, you get special red packets of money from your elders, called lì xì. At the festival we were able to buy bánh mi, egg rolls, and the lucky new year bánh chưng. All comfort foods for me and newly loved foods for my husband and daughter. YUM!

My mom even bought a traditional áo dài for Sophia to wear. For the Adorable Kids Contest. That's right. Adorable Kids Contest, cash prize of $50! Sounds fun and innocent enough right? So we registered for the contest, got our number tag (#12), and waited offstage for our turn. All the kids had to do was walk on stage and answer a few questions. What is your name? How old are you? Did you want to sing or show off your dress?

Sophia is a natural performer. If she sees a stage, she'll jump up and put on a show. She was very excited to walk on stage (all by herself, she told me). She did a great job and was very adorable. She decided to sing one of her favorite Vietnamese songs. Everyone laughed and applauded. She loved it! My mommy brain thought, oooh, she might have a chance at winning.

I guess I was a bit too naive about the "contest." It really was a mini-pageant. There were 4 and 5 year olds wearing make-up along with their áo dài. They even had props! Who knew carrying a basket of fake fruit made a kid more adorable? One girl even recited a long philosophical poem in Vietnamese! I doubt the 5 year old even understood what she was saying.

Don't forget the stage moms! As we waited, there are harshly whispered coaching (in Vietnamese of course). Smile! Don't step on your dress. Hold your fruit basket on the side so they can see your pretty dress. Don't step on your dress!
There were only 4 or 5 stage moms out of the 20 kids in the contest. Was I out of my element? I just wanted Sophia to have fun. Costumes? Props? Poetry? Thank good nothing had been choreographed.

Ever since Sophia was born, many people (strangers too) have told us to put her in modeling. DH and I decided that if she wants to model, she can decided when she's old enough to make a good decision. Participating in this contest reaffirms our decision. Even at 4 & 5, even 3, I think kids can totally sense that how they look to others is more important when they are in pageants (or "adorable contests"). Even more important than what their moms think. The judges decide if you are adorable or not.

That's too young for a child to evaluate her self-worth. Especially girls. What are we teaching our children by putting them in pageants? Your cuteness is what matters? Who cares if you're smart, artistic or can create the Eiffel Tower with your blocks? What does it teach our boys? Girls should be put on display and judged by their looks? I know that it's prevalent in our culture, but why not take these early years and instill in our children confidence and self-love?

Everywhere we go, people stop and tell Sophia (or me) how beautiful she is. They gush even. I've been teaching her to reply, "I'm smart too." Now she gets so excited when she learns something new. She runs to me, proudly proclaiming "I'm so smart mama!" I know that might change when she's a teenager, but I'm laying down the foundation now so it'll be easier for her.

Sophia didn't win the contest, but she had no idea it was contest. She just wanted to sing and dance on stage, especially since there was a large audience for her. Guess who won? Not the girl with the fake fruit. The one who recited the long philosophical poem. And though there were other biracial contestants there, why did I get the feeling that Sophia never had a chance? But that's another blog post.

One girl even recited a poem in Vietnamese! I doubt the 5 year old even understood what she was saying.

Whirlwind Days

What an amazing two days! At the last minute, Leticia convinced me (no arm twisting required) to go to Hands on Kirtsy DC (HonK DC) this past Monday. Thankfully, Jessica picked us up and we metro'd to Rosslyn. It was fun seeing people in ballgowns and tuxedos on the train.

Thanks to HonK DC, I joined Kirtsy and Twitter. I have to say, Twitter is totally addicting. Especially since I had way too many glasses of wine. Not only did I get to hang out with some fellow DC Moms bloggers, I made some new friends too. Of course we had to go out for drinks afterwards too. (Thanks to Mammaloves for the patriotic gear)

Hanging out with these gals, I feel like such a newbie to the blogging scene. I've always had online friends, but they live far away. It's really cool to be able to hang out with your online friends. Of course if I had said that 10 years ago, I would have been labeled a geek. Being able to meet your blog friends is cool. It's an added bonus that they're just as awesome in real life as they are online.

The train ride back to Maryland took a while. The crowds were already crazy. I can't even imagine what it was like during the Inauguration. I admire all the people who trekked out to see it in person.

My sister, Sophia, and I headed out to McGinty's to watch the Inauguration festivities. Though I've lived in this area for 5 years, I'm not really into the political scene. The energy was electric! The crowds cheered, people popped champagne, my friend even brought an Obama cake. There was a guy who came all the way from England! I'm glad that I didn't just watch it at home. It's not very often you that everyone share the same feelings of hope and excitement.

How was your weekend?

photo via Mammaloves

Sleeping Beauty with an Attitude

We have the best library system ever in on Montgomery County. Amazon recommended Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox on my front page a few days ago. Lo and behold, I spotted it at my local branch! This is a non-traditional princess book that adults and children will enjoy.

It's written in rhyme and has fun illustrations. I'm a sucker for a well illustrated book. The princess discovers Sleeping Beauty because her snoring has bothered the kingdom for many years. The fairies try hard to tell how to wake her up, but of course he doesn't listen. He tries many hilarious ways of waking her up. My favorite part is what Sleeping Beauty does after he gives her the wake-up kiss.

It definitely wins the Sophia seal of approval. Leah Wilcox has another one, Falling For Rapunzel, not available at the library yet. But I'm sure I'll see it there soon.

Currently the book we're reading every day isn't a princess book (thank god!), but David Shannon's A Bad Case of Stripes & Pinkalicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kann. Something about kids changing colors amuses Sophia to no end. I have to admit, even though I don't like pink, Pinkalicious is pretty funny. Both of these have great messages too: Be true to yourself because you are beautiful.

Secret #1: Your Creative Self

I'm participating in Jamie's book blogging group, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin. It's not too late for you to join in! You might remember in November, I also did the Soul Coaching one.

Secret #1 is acknowledging that you are creative. This is a hard concept for most people; harder for women, I think. I truly believe that everyone is creative--you just need to find your passion.

I have been creative since I was young. I learned how to crochet and loved to craft. But I never thought I was creative. We lived in a small town with a small school system. You didn't take art classes unless you tested for "Gifted Art." My sister was spotted early on by her elementary school teacher. I was not. I was the academic one (perils of being the oldest child in a first generation Vietnamese family) and she was the artistic one.

Funny how easy it is to get boxed in by labels. My parents wholly supported my sister's artistic endeavors. They bought her art supplies, saved every single one of her art projects (the macaroni has been eaten off the pictures), and went to all of her art shows. They were even ok that she majored in photography in college!

I struggled with my love for theatre and the desire to please my parents by studying computer info systems. I double majored in both until I couldn't stand the business classes required by my CIS major. Telling them I dropped the CIS major was quite an ordeal. Theatre wasn't practical! As you know, every Asian family wants their children to be a doctor, lawyer, or computer nerd.

Where I am going with this? My senior year i college, I took an art class. In the art department. Never mind that it was a freshman level class. A real bona fide art class. I got to buy charcoal, 5 different kinds of drawing pencils and acrylics.

I took the evening class, so there were many non-traditional students. At first I felt like an idiot in the class. How was I supposed to hold my pencil? Mix my acrylics? My professor didn't tell how to use my art supplies. When he told us to paint a grayscale with our acrylics, I thought he was crazy! What kind of teacher was he? He didn't even tell me how to use the acrylics? What do I thin it with? Did I need gesso?

How was I supposed to learn how to use acrylic paints if he didn't tell me what do? What if I did it wrong? But he would just smile and tell me to do the project (he did explain a grayscale to us). So I just had to do it. Figure out how to use it.

It was the best decision I ever made. I realize now that our professor didn't limit us by telling us the right and wrong way to make art. He gave us the very basics (and color theory) and told us to create. Thanks his class I realized that I could be an artist. That I was creative! (Nevermind that my major was costume design for the theatre). Back then my definition of creativity and artistic was very traditional.

I promptly signed up for the next class in the series with the same professor. Since then, I knew I had always been creative. Recently, my struggle is finding balance for creativity amid work and family. The paintings above was my final project for my art class. It's based on color theory (if you ask me what I did, I have no idea!). It's called Windows to the Soul (they look like window panes, get it?)

What about you? Do you think you're creative? What keeps you going and creating?

Panties & Yogurt (not at the same time)

My word of the year, focus, is fresh in my mind since I finally chose it. That means, I'm getting some sewing done!

I finally finished the last of the Christmas pj bottoms. The only ones not done by Christmas day was mine and hubby's. All they needed was elastic in the waistband. Of course it took me 2 weeks to do that. But they are done and I'm wearing my comfy flannel pj bottoms as I type this.

My big accomplishment was last night I made my first pair of underwear! No, not your grandma's underwear. (It feels wrong to say panties on my blog.) Since I decided to starting making them at 1am this morning, I accidentally cut 1 size too big. I made them out of some fuchsia cotton knit I got off the clearance rack at Joanns about 3 months ago. I'll spare you the pictures of my underwear.

I used Stretch & Sew F829 (now discontinued I think). The pattern is very easy. 3 pieces. It gave me a chance to use foldover elastic. So the panties (yikes I said it) have a nice, commercial finished looked. I used purple elastic. I bought a huge grab bag of FOE from Kathy's for only $15 with shipping a while back and have been trying to use it every chance I get. You can read some reviews and see some pics of the pattern at Pattern Review.

Am I crazy for making my own panties? Maybe some of the moms in my moms group think it's a little crazy. It just feels good to say you made your own panties. It only took me an hour, from cutting to sewing. Not bad for the first one. Now that I know what I'm doing the rest will go much faster. I think it might be fun to make some and Gocco something cheeky on the backside. I'll save that for another day.

My Easiyo Yogurt Maker arrived from Amazon last week. I've made my second batch of yogurt last night. Yum! It's much easier than I expected. The Easiyo works like a thermos, so no plugging in required. My first batch was a bit runny as Easiyo doesn't provide directions for making your yogurt from scratch (they sell mixes--too expensive and full of sugar). I just googled for some recipes. You don't even need a starter. Just buy some plain yogurt from the grocery store that says "live cultures" on it. I used this recipe, just didn't have any heavy cream, so I left it out. I used 3 cups of 2% milk and 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt.

I had some with honey and granola this morning. I'll have to try Not Exactly Bento's yogurt with frozen blueberries next. While you're there, try the grilled cheese sandwich with apple she talks about. Yum!

Before I leave, I need some fun sayings I could Gocco on the backside of my panties (yet to be made of course). What do you think my butt should say?

My Word of the Year: Focus

True to my Libran self, I've been rather indecisive about my word for the year. I settled on the word mastery for a few days, but it just didn't feel right. Tonight as I was soaking on the tub, the word focus came to me.

Why focus? I've always been a self-professed ADD (attention deficit disorder) crafter. I love learning new things so I'm always trying new crafts. It's fun, but that means lots of unfinished projects and wasted money. Heck sometimes, I'll even buy supplies for a new craft and never touch it. Maybe decluttering my craft supplies will help too.

This past year, I've been meandering back to sewing. I'm going to pick a few areas I enjoy crafting and focus on mastering the skills in them. I want to be really good at a few crafts instead of a beginner in many. Sewing is definitely one of these. I'm not going to pick what other crafts I want to focus in. I think they'll present themselves to me.

Focus will be a good intention for my Passion Parties business too. I'm ready to take it to the next level. I just need to be consistent and to stay on task. I'm going to keep doing my mantras since they worked really well for me this past fall.

Other than that, I haven't really thought about what I want to accomplish in 2009. Setting my business goals are on the to-do list.

What about you? What's on your list?

photo by ihtatho via Flicker

Five Minute Headband Tutorial

Sophia has great hair. Sometimes it's a bit unruly. Headbands are the easiest way to keep it out of her face. I bought some ribbon & elastic headbands at the dollar store, but of course, the pink one is missing. The world is not right in Sophialand if everything isn't pink.

Luckily, I scored some pink grosgrain ribbon at a Joann's that was closing. (As well as some corset and underwear patterns! Woohoo). I just used the dollar store headband as a model to make the new ones. It's super easy. I recommend making one straight through and then you can just make the rest assembly line.

You'll need:

• ribbon long enough to go around your head- I recommend grosgrain as it's stronger. But you can use anything. Just don't use anything slippery as it'll slide out of your hair.
• thin elastic- I used elastic 1/4" but you can go up to 1/2" without being to obtrusive. It doesn't even have to match the ribbon. I used white because that's what I had. Black would've blended in with Sophia's hair better
• thread
• a sewing machine isn't necessary to make these. You can hand sew them but it might take longer than 5 minutes

First, measure your head (or whoever you're making the headband for) just like how you're going to wear it. Measure all the way around your head. Subtract 2" from that number. Cut your elastic 4" long. Whatever measurement is left, cut the ribbon at that length.

Line up your elastic to one end of your ribbon. Place the elastic on the right side of the ribbon (if there is one). Fold the sides of the ribbon over the elastic and pin. Like this:


Do the same to the other end, making sure the elastic isn't twisted.


Place your pinned ribbon and elastic under your presser foot, with the pin still in. Once I lower the presser foot, then I'll pull the pin out. When it's folded, it's too small for me to put it under the foot the way I want it. I don't recommend sewing over the pin in this case. Since my elastic isn't very wide, I put my machine on a smaller stitch setting.


Stitch over the folded ribbon and elastic. Back stitch and go over back and forth a 3-5 times. Sometimes, my vintage sewing machine doesn't like elastic, so the back of my stitching looks like a bad hair day.


All you do is take your trusty snips and trim it all off. Like a haircut. Go ahead. No one has to know. Besides it'll take way too long to take the stitches out. Then it won't take 5 minutes to make right? I know, it's not pretty, but no one will see it when you're done.

Go ahead and stitch the other end the same way. Hopefully your stitches will come out better this time around. Mine did. Thank goodness. After it's all stitched, grab the elastic and pull so that it turns inside out. The ribbon might need a bit of help to turn inside out. Do the same to the other side.


This is what it'll look like after you turn your seam inside out. The folded part of the ribbon hides your stitching.


Voila, now you have a ribbon headband! Or in my case, a lot of headbands! (Don't you love my new ironing board cover?)


You can also embellish your ribbon with buttons, fabric or silk flowers, beads, whatever your want! Pull out the hot glue gun or needle and thread. Go to town! If Sophia wasn't at my side pulling on the headbands, I might have done that.

So for about 15 minutes of my time (including Sophia's help cutting down the ribbon), I now have 8 new headbands! Thankfully she didn't mind that I sneaked in a lavender one.

Let me if you make one! I'd love to see some pictures.