Vintage at Heart

I used to cringe at my mom's old fashioned cooking appliances, table cloth, and even plastic cloth hanger that maybe she bought in the 70's. Now that I see Little Miss Heirloom store, I regret why didn't I rip my mom's vintage stuffs and dress my home with those. Pricilla, the owner of the store and mom of 2 great looking boys is providing authentic vintage pieces for nursery decor, playroom, party supplies and even books. Just look at these treasures.

This one is my favorite, vintage kitchen play set!! Not to mention the matching fridge!

I maybe fight Miss G to play with these first. Shame on you, you, you..shameless mother! *slapped myself* OK, now unto the fun part. Pricilla is being generous to us, she offers 25US$ gift certificate to the store! Visit her on her blog and tell her which is your favorite vintage treasury, and you might take home one. The giveaway ends Oct 17.

Halloweenies!

I told you I love Halloween. This October, expect lots of Halloween printables from me, so follow me if you can!

download

First, an invitation to print garnished with tiny little tags, or stickers, or anything you'd dream those circles to be. I find it really hard to get a not-so scary or not too gothic Halloween invitation, so moms of toddlers, this is for you. Fill in the empty dashes as instructed. For example; What .. Jason's Pumpkin Carving Gathering, Where ... Jason's Haunted Mansion (or your address or any address the party's held), When ... Friday night, sunset. I recommend to print this on the back of my Halloween pattern paper, so you won't get a white blank invitation.

Please feel free to use as you're not making money out of this and/or claim this as your own. Be nice, lovelies. And show me what you came up with this, I"ll be more than thankful!

*** October 2013 update : I'm expiring the Scribd uploaded link and move the file to Google docs, which is user friendly and more awesome, so click away on the newly updated link. It will directly take you to the google docs site! Or Visit this post for a full list of my Halloween printables. Thank you! *** 

October's best

Halloween is one of my favorite holiday, easy to know since my all time favorite movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas and Tim Burton being my favorite director. And it's not even religious nor I celebrate it big here in Indonesia. To tell you the truth, I have never put a single costume on my entire life! Because I would be considered very weird here. I wish I live in countries that put much effort in that festivity.

I know you love Halloween as much as I do. I designed a Halloween print for you to use. Use it as a candy bag (hint: here), bunting, paper bow, garland, candy wrapper, box, anything you can dream on!!

download.

Since the internet has grown into such a big scary place, I beg you for not to use it in any kind of commercial purposes, please, please, please. You can print this into fabric (or upload it to Spoonflower, but in case you were wondering, I have uploaded this to my Spoonflower account ), and sew a skirt for your little one, but please don't sell the skirt. And if people ask you, just say that you are very good with needle and make the skirt yourself but show them where you got the print. I know you're nice as a pumpkin. ;)

If you see this design on sale on anything (bag, shirt, stationary,etc), please report it to me. I will reward you greatly. Otherwise, just enjoy the design and have all the fun you want from it. (Don't forget to share your creation with me!)...ummm did you notice my new blog title?? It's Halloween's special!!

*** October 2013 update : I'm expiring the Scribd uploaded link and move the file to Google docs, which is user friendly and more awesome, so click away on the newly updated link. It will take you to the google docs site! Or Visit this post for a full list of my Halloween printables. Thank you! *** 

A little game for today, tag, with a twist. I'm so excited, as today's game of tag is pretty surprising. Dear Hollyrocks, the one who tagged me, is rarely predictable, I must say. Let's see the rules of the game now.

1. Open your first photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo on your blog and tell the story behind it.
4. Tag people to do the same.

mmm... mine is this.


Ha! I knew it must be Baby G's pic, since the first folder must be the "BabyG" one ( I have no folder started with "a")!! And I knew too that it must be her first days of life pic, since I always arrange it based on when the picture taken. So this is it. Baby G at around 10 days or so, sleeping soundly, while mommy took a picture of her monkey and bunny dolls. I love the matching crib bumper and sheets too, it's the first one I bought so the color is gender neutral. I missed her baby days.

Enough about the picture let's get tagging!! Here are the lucky (or not so lucky) people I wish to peek into their photo folder. Natsumi, Noomie, and Rosey, tag girls, you're all it!

And today is Indonesia national batik day. I'm wearing one while I am typing. :)

Practical Gift Bow How-to

I always love everything practical, because I'm a last minute person. That means I never spend half an hour, or more, to decorate my gifts. But what's a gift of box without a bow, eh? For you lazy crafters, like me, here's a cheat sheet.

First of all, like all good recipe, we start from the ingredients. Measure your 0.5" (standard) ribbon for around 8", twice, so you have two of them. I am using a blank white paper for this tutorial for easy viewing, but any ribbon will do, as long as they are not to silky. Gift wrapping ribbon works best, and that also reminds me, any scrap gift wrapping papers would do just fine. Find a 0.25" ribbon, or measure your first ribbon/paper and cute them half vertically, and make two of 8" each. You'll have 2 big ribbons and 2 thinner ones. You will also need a double sided tape (or any glue) and an office stapler nearby.

"Sandwich" the thinner ones among the big ones. Make sure they stay in the middle.

It's a good idea to make the snake's tongue end now. (this is optional)

Glue your ribbon sandwich at the top only (around 0.5" from the top), make sure all ribbons, thick and thin, are secured at the top.

Now this is the tricky part, staple the thick ribbon together, at around the red part I'm showing here. No precise measurement necessary, just remember not to staple along the thin ribbons inside, make the two of them stay in the middle.

See the red lines? There's where your staples go.

Yep, stapled it diagonally, at around 45 degree, downward, upward, downward, upward. Once again, don't staple the thin ribbons inside (you'll know why soon)

OK, now place your hand on the last staple, hold still, but not too tight, and pull down both thin ribbons with your other hands, automatically your staple will go upwards. See? Are you making the bump like shown here? Keep pulling.

Pull it until the top and you can't go no more. Voila. It's looking good, we're almost there.

Spread the remaining thick ribbons and now you got yourself a bow. Easy, no?

What do you do with the thin ribbon, you ask? Well, tie it around your gifts, your daughter's head, or simply curl it (with the back of scissors). Hint: You can always alter the length of your bows according to your needs.

I keep a lot of un-pulled practical bows around my house. I mean I love putting an effort to decorate a gift but there's always the time when a 1 minute bow might be needed. I hope this is helpful.

Fabric Covered Buttons

Aren't they the sweetest? While I was browsing at Etsy today, I found this wonderful shop that offers fabric covered buttons, and only them, seriously. BlueManatee Button specialized on one thing and one thing only to be craved about. Well, the owner seems to have another shops selling craft supplies, gifts, and even tutorials, but the button shop is one very special dedication, I must say. Just take a peek at these babies, and oh, I love the fairy tale set.

They're not expensive either!! Well, if you're a big cheapskate or have an abundant pile of scrap fabrics lying around, you can always rely on our favorite bloggers for your own DIY fabric covered buttons.

from the always resourceful HowAboutOrange.

from the entertaining crafter, Lollychops.

from (hey, have you checked out her hand carved stamps?) CraftPudding.

Happy button covering.

Room I am currently obsessed about.

If you thought it was Cath Kidston's wallpapers, guess again, because it's PiP Studio's, an Amsterdam based home products store. I spent my whole day browsing their beautiful site.

I thank ishandchi big time for showing me Helena's girls' rooms.

I wish I were Helena's girl.

Hello, Blogosphere!

Seriously, why does baby has to be sick on national holidays? The reason of my prolonged absent was of course, Baby G needed my full attention again, she had diarrhea, lost of appetite, and fever. I felt extremely worried and exhausted at the same time. I am currently suffering a flu. sigh. so...

What national holiday, you asked? It's Ied 'ul Fitr day!! I'm not a moslem so I can't give you any trustworthy information about the origin of the celebration but I'm sure Wiki can. :) It's huge in Indonesia (where the majority of the people are moslems), almost like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled into one.

I don't know much about the philosophy, but like all non-Christians living in US and other Chrsitian inhabited countries, I do know a lot about the culture and the festivities. You can't
ignore all those gorgeous Christmas decorations and songs and foods, can you? Same here, I'm carried away too. Basically it's about the joy of loving and forgiving. So people, after the annually fasting duty (yes, they do fast the whole month before!!) naturally reunite with their families and loved ones, asking for forgiveness and forgive those who may have hurt them all year round. But none was done without good food, merry singing, and gifts. Sound familiar? We're not that different at all, aren't we? :)

Yes, that Ied card is free to download and print, give it to someone you know celebrating (although a little bit late). I just think that veiled moslem girls look a lot like matryoshkas.

My first Wordless Wednesday

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Ok. I can't help it. It's officially not wordless. I try to keep up with the blog trend but I think I failed. It's Baby G, with a headband, in case you were wondering. Shhheeesh, now can this post go back to wordless again?

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All About Rice Babbies.

No, I'm not encouraging you to be a cannibal eating rice with babies (uugh) nor I'll be talking about farming, because I believe that's not my expertise either. But I do enjoy rice in my every meal as much as I enjoy ...dolls! Yep, that's what I'm talking about. Rice Babies is a name of a blog and an etsy shop of Kellie, an art teacher by day, doll maker by night, and a 24/7 mom of two boys. What? Do the boys play with pretty dolls? Relax, ladies, she has a lot of nieces and other customers, so her boys are doing just fine with dinasours and superheroes.

Kellie started out the business by, being an art teacher, she saw plenty of blond hair with blue eyes images coming up now and then from the hands of litte girls who don't possess those quality. (As a matter of fact, my mother in law just bought Baby G a doll that looks like Sherly Temple, and I let her play with it, so this issue knows no boundaries! I even experienced this!) Kellie then determines to have all girls growing up seeing more of themselves, so she started to make custom dolls under the name of Rice Babies. She's so nice to let me bother her with (silly) questions, so I'll let you know her and Rice Babies better. Here go..

If you have to choose (say, I put a really sharp knife on your most expensive fabric), which one will it be, being a full time mom, a doll-maker or a teacher?
I would have to choose being a full time mom over anything, because with my kids I am actually all three mom, teacher and they help me stay creative. My kids inspire me to create and also to be the best me I can be everyday.


What is the best part of being a mom-trepreneur?
The best part of having your own business is having creative control and also flexible working hours.

What's the most challenging thing you have to face in this business?
The most challenging obstacle I face, is the same reason I made my dolls, there weren't enough choices for Asian dolls. My market is small and so it can be hard to reach people looking for what I offer. I have made dolls for halfies and a few other non Asian dolls, and its always fun, but I would like people to know my dark haired beauties are out there.

How do you juggle your time and thoughts between your princes and doll-making?
I juggle everything by putting my kids first, when they are happy and healthy, I have more time to create. I daydream and sketch ALL the time. I sew and design as I lay in bed at night, if I need to I get up and make it when all are asleep. Like most moms, I am a so called "mid night crafter", when the kids are asleep, I get to sew, and design.

As a child, what doll do you spend a lot of time with?
As a child, I had a prized doll, a My Friend Mandy, I recently saw one one the Wee Wonderfuls site.


What's the most funny/embarrassing moment as an art teacher?
One of the funniest moments as an art teacher was a day when I was teaching my students to make dino bones out of clay. It was close to end of school so all the kids were excited and talking a lot. I told them to raise their hands but I wouldn't answer any question until after the demo. I answered the question of a boy who had his hand up for the longest. He said, "how come sometimes when you talk , you sound like a cowgirl?" I laughed, and replied , "because I am originally from Texas".

What's the best reaction you have ever received from satisfied customer?
So far I have been touched by all my reactions, but a comment one lady made, was the point where I decided that however slowly, people will find my dolls when they need them. She said "I would have loved to have had a doll I could play with that looked like me as a child. Not dressed in a kimono or cheongsam, either, just a little girl doll wearing every day clothes that happened to be Asian or half Asian like me."
It was an awesome feeling.

I agree with the cheongsam thing, it's a really big misunderstanding, really. So, thank you Kellie for your time and passion!! I hope more Rice Babies are in the hands of tiny little girls of any races anywhere in the world. Want on yourself? Your welcome to take a look around the shop!

drip. drop.

April has long gone, but there's always an excuse to get lost in the melancholy of rain. You can always tell that I'm a big sucker for rain (no, not the Korean artist, the water-y thing falls from the sky, he's fine, but..oh well, you know what I mean). Yes, you can tell I'm a fan from the blog header, even if you're a reader from the very first babalisme's post, here's my header back then..

Rainy, eh? So, if you're in the mood of some shower, I just found this great site with a huge dedication to melody, Lullatone . Shawn, the owner, is a very nice young man (now I sound like an old granny) and he has this very cute little baby, Niko! You should drop by sometimes. Also recommended is Lullatone's raindrop melody maker game, trust me, you wouldn't stop!! I think it's a good game to play on rainy day (or not) with the kids too! I play and listen to this all day.

here.

Am I not getting you in the mood enough? Well, let's feast ourselves into these raindrop beauties.. and a little shopping of rain related stuffs doesn't hurt either!

mobile rain in various colors by leptitpapillon
raincloud print by GollyBard

how cute is this little raindrop felt from CocolocosFeltDesign?

Raindrop girl, anyone? What a doll! by thepoppytree

Phew.

I'm so much exhausted (and excited as well) after Baby G's birthday party I caught a flu, yes, now I'm a TB positive mom who also have a flu. Great. I wear mask everyday worrying if I can pass those horrible things to Baby G. So, I'm still processing photos of the party, you guys might want to be patient for a while.

And I just came to realize that, Baby G's, technically, graduated to toddler stage!! Yaaay!
She has taken her first steps, been toilet trained (poo only, pee still misses occasionally), and babbled her first words (bab-bab for balloons and mamam for makan, Indonesian for "eat"), but I must admit there are some things I miss from her baby stage. That's life, afterall.

Being a mom, successfully (hey, at least she grows taller!) over the baby phase, I'd like to conclude 5 things I love the most from little babies;

1. Their smiles, and the fact that it takes an effort to make them smile, it just make the smiles much much more precious.
2. Their smell. Have you ever wonder, even if you use the same baby products on toddlers and older children, they don't smell the same way again. mm...
   
3. Their dependencies to you. Someone's life solely depends on you and you only, at least for the first months. I never feel this much important in my life.
4. Their faces. I'm not against adoption, it's a very important option to save many children's lives, but nothing beats a resemblance. You look at a face and how much it looks like you and/or your spouse. It's so magical!
5. Their chubby arms and legs and tiny little fingers.
   

If you have one or two, or even three, you'll know what I am talking about. If you haven't got any, please consider having one after reading this. :)

Baby G's Invitation sent out!

Finally!


The material used are heavy stock paper to print the invitation, double sided, and pink colored tissue paper for the envelope. I'm not very good in writing a process, so I hope you'll get the equation helpful.


This is what I made with the tissue paper leftover. Full tutorial here. The party itself will be held on Sunday, so I'll be back with more photos. Busy, busy, busy.

PS. My brother has just welcomed the newest member of the family, exactly 1 year apart from Baby G. I am so full of joy!