Three is Too Young for Raccoon Eyes

Anyone have a princess obsessed preschooler? Sophia is as girly as you can get. Princesses, pink, and now, make-up. I've bought her those 99cents sparkly clear flavored lip gloss from the local Target, but never anything else. And yes, I've even painted her nails for her.

I'm not a make-up kind of gal. Yes, I do own some. If I remember, I'll wear make-up to my Passion Parties. I have to throw most of my make-up away because it's too old.

But no real make-up. Not even kids play make-up. I mean, 3 is too young for make-up. Tonight she didn't want to go to sleep. Hubby checked in on her and instead of seeing our beautiful sleeping child, he saw a raccoon.


Thank God for washable Crayola markers. She thought she was pretty clever until I told her to look in a mirror. "Oh, it's horrible!" with the drama only a 3 year old can give.

Then, I remembered a very timely tip on Parent Hacks. Use old make-up cases and nail polish to make fake make-up. Unfortunately I purged my make-up collection back in March so all I had left was this clinic eye shadow case. Since I know I've owned it for waaaay too long, I scraped out all the eye shadow and filled it in with obnoxious nail polish colors.


Hopefully it'll dry by tomorrow and my little princess will have some pretend make-up. Keep your fingers crossed that she likes it.

Who Doesn't Love Baby Clothes?

I was in Target the other day and just happened to notice some super cute baby clothes. I almost bought something. But I didn't. My mother is a shopaholic, and she's called me with weekly updates about all the baby boy things she's been buying. Just like his sister, this baby will not have a shortage of clothes.

So I resisted buying baby clothes. Until I saw these baby kimono tops. I mean, look at this cute set by bookchiq, it's so dang cute! Can't you see a juicy little baby in one of these sets? (Check out this flickr group of them)

My sister gifted Sophia with a set when she returned from Japan a few years ago. Alas, she has completely outgrown it. But thanks to the tutorial by Habitual, I can make one for Sophia and her little brother! Sophia loves it so much, she actually still tries to squeeze into it. LOL.

I like the kimono tops better than a onesie. You don't have to pull the dang thing over the baby's head, and I hate those frigging crotch snaps on onesies.

The tutorial is printed, some boy fabric is on its way to me. Now to dig out a pants pattern so I can make an entire set.

Does this mean, I've hit the nesting phase of pregnancy already? If it's going to be this cute, I don't mind at all.

Don't forget that Friday is the last day to enter my book giveaway!

Dreaming About New Projects

Not much sewing lately, as I have been completely exhausted. And I am writing this at a friend`s house. Their keyboard is programmed for Japanese and I cannot find the damned apostrophe key. It also randomly decides to type in Japanese.

Apparently it is really hard for me to not use contractions. All I can find is the backwards apostrophe, like this <`>.

Okay, I`m totally giving up. Will try to blog another time. When I`m at my own damned computer.

My Trader Joe's Chocolate Feast

When the Trader Joe's opened less than a mile from me, I was ecstatic. I think I stop there at least once a week. Sometimes more.

I love dark chocolate, the darker the better! However, I was craving peanut butter cups. I used to like Reese's peanut butter cups, but I like my peanut butter smooth and creamy. Reese's isn't quite that creamy.

I picked up a small tub of Trader Joe's milk chocolate mini peanut butter cups. They are so cute! And a serving size is 27 mini cups. LOL. I maybe ate 10 of them. Sophia says they were the best dessert ever! I guess that means it passes the test. (See how tiny they are?) Their creamy centers just pop in your mouth. Fun to eat.

Since I'm pregnant, I have an excuse to buy more chocolate right? I also bought a bar of 73% cacao with almonds. After putting Sophia to bed, I treated myself to the chocolate and a glass of cold milk. (That's a Japanese mug I thrifted. There's 2 more in the set.)

What treasures will I find the next time I'm at Trader Joe's?

I'm just a fan of Trader Joe's. No one paid me or bought me chocolate for this post.

Wowie, My First Blog Award

Apparently I had several notices that I had comments on my blog. From last week. Thanks to Gmail improving their email settings, the folder I had them filtered to was out of sight. Whoops! Sorry if I didn't reply to your comments.

Anyhow, Miel from Reminder List awarded me the Let's Be Friends Award, started courtesy of Book Journey. Thank Miel! (I'm totally stealing the description and button from her blog)


"Blogs that receive the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and befriends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

Don't forget about my book giveaway! So far there's only 6 entries, so your chances are pretty good.

I'll be back later to spread the love for the Let's Be Friends Award.

I'm Such a Foodie

Yesterday I realized that we were out of imitation bacon bits (my kid loves them), so we headed to our local health food store--not Whole Foods, but a local, religiously based store.

I went into this store on a whim last year. Once I navigated past all the Jesus Loves You books, and the highly-breakable-but-cute-and-Christian gifts, I discovered a mecca of bulk foods. Pretty good prices. I could now get my bacon bits in bulk (I only buy like 0.20 pounds at a time), as well as organic quinoa, lentils, beans, you name it! Heaven for a foodie like me.

Well, it's been several months since I stopped in the store. Especially since it's an Adventist store, they close at 3pm on Fridays and all day on Saturdays. And when is it that I remember I need to go there? Saturdays or Friday at 2:35pm.

They have totally redone their bulk foods section! For the better. Now there's a wall of spices. (Can I get a hallelujah?) Usually I hit our food co-op for their bulk spices, but this place is way closer. I didn't get to peruse the spices, as I'm not low on anything at the moment. Don't buy your spices without a list--I bought more chili powder than I can use in 5 years. Anyone need some?

However, I did see some dried tomato flakes! I had no idea they existed. Immediately, I thought of all the possibilities! A pre-packaged container was only about a buck, so I thought why not? My first thought is bake bread and add the tomato flakes to the dough. Then the flakes would infuse their yummy goodness into the dough as it rises and bakes.

Or how about dip? I have some dried chopped garlic. I can mix garlic, tomato flakes, and other herbs/spices into plain yogurt (with a dollop of mayo for creamy fatty goodness). Let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours so the flavors can meld. Voila! Perfect dip for chips or veggies. Yum!

I'm thinking they'll be good in soup too. Or if I decide to make a pre-made soup mix as a gift. You know, one of those add water and boil recipes. I'll let you know what I decide to do with them.

I had a fabulous time doing the photo shoot with my tomato flakes. What about you? Have you ever used them?

Some New Book and A Giveaway

Just saying hi to those visiting from my friend's blog, Not Exactly Bento. She wrote a great post about the first time I took her out for tapas. Check it out!

Thanks to Paperbackswap, my mailman has been gifting me with some new books to read. I'm totally addicted to books, mostly collecting them since I don't have as much time to read as I'd like. (If you've never heard of Paperbackswap, it's a great way to swap your books, paperbacks and hardcovers, for FREE! Just pay for postage. If you decide to join, please use my link--I get a referral point. Thank!)

First, I just got a copy of Padma Lakshm's Tangy, Tart, Hot, & Sweet. I love watching Top Chef. Though the current Top Chef Masters is a bit lackluster. I totally have a girl crush on her. I love that Padma isn't afraid to eat. I've just lightly skimmed the cookbook, and it's everything I love in a cookbook. The pages are glossy, beautiful pictures and a picture of Padma biting into a piece of fried chicken! Now to clean my kitchen so I can try out one of the recipes.

I took Living Artfully by Sandra Magsamen to read while at my doctor's appointment. It's a fun book-inspiring without being too preachy. She believes that everyone is creative. We just all have to discover what calls each of us. I totally believe this too. She gave me a great idea. I've been wanting to host a gathering of my favorite women for a day of creativity and pampering. Reading this book has definitely kickstarted me!

Now onto the giveaway! Every now and again, I'm given the opportunity to review some books for Elle Magazine. I'm stalking my mailman for the August issue to see if they published any of my reviews for the Elle Lettres column.

After I read the books, I usually post them on Paperbackswap, but why not do a giveaway? Normally, I wouldn't even pick up books that pertain to the military, but I Love a Man in Uniform by Lily Buruna totally drew me in. Maintaining a marriage is tough enough, but maintaining a marriage while your husband is in Iraq. The writing isn't sappy or self-deprecating (one of my peeves), and kept me turning the pages.

So if you'd like a chance to win this book, there are 4 different ways to earn entries.

1. Just leave a comment with your email address. I'll randomly drawing a name on or about July 30th.

2. Tweet about the contest, then comment again for an extra entry. If you're feeling lazy, just use this tweet:

Not your usual beach read-book giveaway from @thienkim http://bit.ly/summerread

3. Follow me on Twitter, and just post another comment saying you did

4. Subscribe to my blog for another entry. That's right, leave another comment. If you're already subscribe, just let me know too!

Can You Guess the Asian?

Last night I attended the awesome Pre BlogHer DC party, organized by the fabulous Devra. I ate, drank, and met some great bloggers! As I was telling hubby about it this morning, he says, "You've found a great community." I agree! And thanks to Safety 1st and Giant Foods for sponsoring the party.

So what's with the Guess the Asian? There's about 5 Asian-American women who blog for DC Metro Moms. Whenever we go to blogging events, people get us mixed up. So why not quiz our friends? We're missing one of our friends, but don't worry, we'll get her in the picture the next time!

I also brought a bag of Passion Parties goodies for a giveaway, which Devra promptly dubbed "The Bag of Kink." Of course everyone was able to to take home a mini-Bag of Kink too.

Now that I've heard such great things about BlogHer, I'm planning to attend next year. Sounds like a lot of fun and great networking!

I'll leave you with some pictures from the evening. (Click through to flickr for a description). I think I have found most of the bloggers from the party on Twitter. If not, you can find me on Twitter.

Oh, bonus points if you can name the Asians!

To Sell or Not to Sell

Since I've been a sewing maniac the last couple of weeks, some of my friends have been telling me I need to sell the clothes I make. Or I should make and bunch of and sell them. I've had many people tell me I should sell my crafts.

It's something I've debated myself. My main question is, will people be willing the pay the prices befitting a handmade product? Not just any handmade product. As a seamstress, I charge $20+ an hour for custom clothing orders, plus materials. I have 5+ years of profession costume construction experience. I know I'm worth it. Will others think so too?

Will making mass quantities of any item take the joy out of creating for me? I get bored making multiples of items. Depending on what I'm making that could be copy #2 or copy #5. I've always defended my position on not selling mainly for this reason. I'm a Passion Consultant, and earn my income that way. The profits are great, and I don't have to manufacture any of the products.

Has that reason become my crutch? I've been enjoying sewing and crafting so much lately, why not get paid to do what I love? Or is it the pressure of society to be validated by money? It would be nice to make enough money to pay for the craft.

So far I have no answer. My girlfriend suggested that I teach a sewing class, like one on how to make the girl's drawstring top dress. I kind of like the idea of teaching others how to sew. I like teaching. My brain doesn't want to deal with the logistics of finding a space (my apt is too small), enough sewing machines, and trying to find enough people to take the class.

What's your take on it? How much would you want to pay for a high quality handmade children's clothes? Do you want to learn how to sew?

Ruffles and a Chopped T-shirt

I actually starting cleaning off my sewing table. I'll spare you the pics. It was like shopping. I rediscovered some of my fabric stash. I also found the mermaid T-shirt that I Gocco'd over a year ago. Shortly after I embroidered the face and seashells, Sophia got to it. She cut holes in one of the sleeves and the shoulders (opposite sides of course). It was totally my fault for leaving it out (with the scissors), but I was so upset, I didn't touch it until the other night.

Looking at the shirt again, I thought about this dress from Dana. I just discovered her blog last week via these cute ruffled skirts. I know Sophia would love a girlie skirt, but all those ruffles! Putting them on would drive me crazy.

After a long debate, I decided to make 2 separate pieces. I chopped up the t-shirt, turned it into a tank top. Cut off the sleeves & neckline ribbing. I also took in the sides and shorted the hem. I wanted to lettuce edge the hem with teal thread, but I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted. So I just serged everything.

T-shirt before the hacking.

T-shirt after.

The skirt is a simple A-line skirt with an elastic waistband. I just drafted a quick pattern. Normally I wouldn't draft a pattern. I'd just draw it on the fabric and cut it out. But since an A-line skirt has many uses, so the pattern will come in handy for other skirts. Thankfully, I had the perfect fabrics in my stash.

I stitched up the skirt, hemmed it, and finished the waistband except for inserting the elastic. Next, came all the ruffles. I hate doing ruffles, not because they're so feminine. They're just so repetitive and boring. Like hemming a really long curtain.

I wanted to the ruffles to make a wave pattern. Mermaid shirt, wavy ruffle, get it? So I pinned the ruffles on beforehand. If I were to put them straight on, I'd draw stitch lines and just add them on as I sewed.

It's not the lighting. The fabric is ombre. Darker at top than at bottom.

Originally I wanted to cover the entire skirt with ruffles, but after pinning 3 rows on, I thought it looked great. Too many more would've been overkill.

She like this outfit, though not her favorite color. Thank goodness she like mermaids. I was able to snap some pics of her at the playground before she got the outfit too dirty. One day I'll remember to take a close up of the embroidery while it's clean.


I'm really enjoying making clothes for Sophia. Partly because she's so small, the clothes come together fairly quickly, usually about an hour. Plus I don't want to invest too much time on making maternity clothes.

Now I need to make a sundress for my sister. She's feeling left out. (Hi Sis!) Check out the new zine she made!

Pink-tastic or Another Dress

I've really caught the sewing bug again! Ever since I saw this dress made by Astrid, I just HAD to make one for Sophia. She used a pattern from Ottobre, a European children's sewing magazine. I have yet to see one in person, but it gets lots of rave reviews. Maybe I'll try it out since it seems to have pretty cute patterns for boy.

So I used one of the fabrics I received from the swap. Since the dress is a pretty basic pattern, I drafted it myself. I just used one of Sophia's dresses to make sure the size and length were correct. From drafting to cutting to sewing, it took me about 1 hour to make. Now that I have the pattern it shouldn't take much time to make another one.

This morning, I also made matching scrunchies for her too. I haven't made a scrunchy since the 80s. LOL!

Sophia adored the dress! Thank goodness. She had already chosen this fabric when it arrived last week. When she spilled water on her dress this afternoon, I was instructed to wash and dry the dress immediately! I guess that means it's a winner.

I'll try to do a tutorial for drafting the pattern to this dress soon. The dress has a drawstring neckline (I want to find a fuchsia ribbon instead of the pink one I have now). The print is a stretch cotton, and the band is cut from an ugly fuchsia linen dress that I thrifted.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the dress. It's so cute on her and the length (that I guessed at) is perfect. Maybe I should make a grown-up version for me. Though I would definitely make a band or use a ribbon belt since it's a bit shapeless.

Hopefully I'll have some blueberry picking pics up soon!

New Fabric, New Ideas

As you can see, I've gotten the sewing bug again. Which means window shopping at online fabric stores and lurking at sewing forums.

I was lucky enough to do a trade with a fellow sewer. I had a pattern she wanted, and she had some bright but fun fabrics to swap. She was super generous. Just look at that gorgeous fabric! I'm thinking a dress or 2 for Sophia and maybe some skirts for me.

Now all I have to do is re-thread my serger (one of the threads broke at 3am the other night and I refused to re-thread it). Then I'll serge off all the raw edges and wash my fabrics! These are mostly cotton so I'm going to wash and dry them to pre-shrink them. Also it removes any treatments the factory adds to the fabric, so they'll soften up.

Did I mention that I have order from Fabric.com coming in tomorrow too? I ordered that before the swap happened. Some of that fabric will be a new baby carrier!

Have a great 4th of July weekend! We're headed out for blueberry picking tomorrow.

Stay Sane and Not Too Messy With Kid Crafts

This summer Sophia & I are staying busy by going to the park, meeting up at friends' homes, watching videos (while I hopefully nap), and CRAFTING!

I've been trying to keep Sophia busy all day. If she naps or falls asleep in the car, she won't go to sleep until 11pm. That usually means no time for me and hub to veg out together on the couch. For a while I felt bad because I hadn't been doing a lot of crafts with her. Monday, I vowed to start again!

We made cute little egg carton ants. First we painted. While the paint dried we snuck in a bit of lunch. I found some glue on jewels from Target's $1 section, so of course all the pink ones ended up on Sophia's bugs. After the jewels and eyes dried, we added pipe cleaner legs and antennae.

I know a lot of parents shy away from crafting because of the potential mess, but I'll share with you the ways I contain the mess.

How to keep kids crafts from becoming too messy:

1. To keep things from being too messy, I usually let her do things one step at a time. I only pull out the supplies necessary for that step. With kids' short attention spans, if the supplies for the next step are in sight, they want to get ahead of themselves.
2. Cover your work surface. Sometimes I use newspaper. Usually I use a large plastic tray (the blue thing in the pictures) It has a lip so it should catch major spills. I just wash the tray after we're done.
3. Use an egg carton to hold paint. Cut the egg carton in half. I just pour a little bit of paint into each well. If you're worried about colors mixing together, you can use every other well. Sophia eventually mixes up all the colors anyway so I don't bother. I give her between 4-6 colors at a time. Egg cartons are great short term storage for paints. Just close the lid, and the paint might be good tomorrow (depends on your paint).
4. Let the kids craft naked. Or without a shirt. I don't have a smock for Sophia. Sometimes I strip her naked and let her paint the walls of the tub. After you're done, the kids get a bath! It's a two-fer!
5. Let your child help clean up! It's Sophia's job to wash out her paint brushes while she washes her hand. Of course this would depend on your child. If she splashes a litte, no big deal. We play "Let's clean the sink" afterwards.
6. Don't be afraid to get messy!

As you can see, our craft project today was air dry clay. We use the Crayola brand, but I'm sure there's a recipe out there you can make your own. I love the quality of Crayola products and they don't smell funny. (They didn't pay me to say any of this). The clay is a bit hard right out of the bucket, but just knead it and mash it for a few minutes to soften it up (you the adult-might be a bit tough for little kids)

I love air dry clay! The first time we used it, we just used it like playdough. I explained to her that it would get hard if we let it sit out a couple of days. After it dries, we paint it. It's 2 projects in one! I always ask her at the beginning what she wants to make. Sometimes she makes it; sometimes it's some completely different. Other times she just plays with the clay. I'm ok with that. I don't want to limit her creativity.

Today, I also gave her a small cup of water and a brush with the clay. She loves using the water to mold the clay. As you can see, she also loves rubbing the wet clay on her arms. Today she made a worm and some lollipops (with craft sticks). I'm sure the huge balls will take several days to dry, but we have a busy weekend of blueberry picking and 4th of July festivities. We can paint it next week.

What are your kid crafting tips?