knitting for babies

 a few weeks ago, I knitted the vintage pixie hat and mary jane booties for my newest niece, Sophia.

she was born in July, and I had been wanting to send her something, but didn't decide what up until now...

  

 finally sent them out last weeks and I haven't heard from my sis-in-law that they have received the package yet, 

but I think they will be perfect little cozy things to keep little Sophia warm in Winnipeg fall.

hope she sends me some pictures of her wearing these!

and because I still had the leftover yarn from the projects above, decided to knit my little baby something.

little baby booties!  

it was probably an appropriate sock project for me as I have never knitted socks before 

and to  see if I even like knitting socks. 

the first one took me a little while to get going, 

but the second half went by quickly. 

although I kida liked knitting socks, I don’t think I am ready to knit socks for “big” people…

spilling the beans -long over due

okay, it's way over due to announce this here,

but I am pregnant!

I am not sure how the time went by so quickly this time, but I am almost 21weeks!!

geez!

 this is my second pregnancy and it often gets forgotten/ignored when you already have a little one to chase after.

finally, I made a point of taking some photos(first time!) of this pregnancy today.

I need to start documenting it more often since most likely this is going to be my last one.

my almost-three-yr-old girl is very excited to be a big sister, 

and she tells me she can't wait to hold the baby when he/she comes out. very cute :)

although we're not going to find out the sex of the baby until the baby comes out, and my little girl thinks it's a BOY,

I couldn't resist this baby sailor dress when I saw it at a local thrift store...

well, it costs only a few bucks!

also I found these awesome kids wooden clogs at the same store!

not sure who makes them. can't find a tag. perhaps handmade?

they are still too big for the little one. she has a few more years to grow into!

belated birthday post

last Wednesday was my 28th birthday.

here goes my belated birthday post.

I tried a new hairdo.

I had tried to do something like this a few times before, but it didn't stay up very well.

so had been wanting to figure out how to make it 'stay'.

 got a hint from Kathleen's recent post, and came up with the way to stay up.

unlike the tutorial, this has no hair band going all around the entire head. 

my husband came home with a bunch of (one of) my favorite flowers.

 it had been way to long since the last time I received flowers from him.

I kept giving him hints for the last five months or so.

and see, this is the result ;)

lastly(but not least, of course!),

I finally came to the realization that birthday isn't really about me.

I came into this world, grew bigger and older so I could stand on my own feet, and am still happy and healthy.

this is all because there are(were) people who loves(ed) me and care(d) about me.

it is a day to thank them all for that and to feel the gratefulness .

 I thank all for being a part of my life.
I am one very lucky girl to have you in my life!

loves!

xo

hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend :)

weekend bits

my mothers day was nothing super spectacular,

but rather a precious ordinary day.

on our way out the door, I received a package(from myself!).

perfect timing, anf nothing like starting a new day with a new pair of shoes.

there we went to a waffle window, down the street from our place.

 the place was pretty packed.

i guess everyone was taking their moms out for breakfast/brunch.

I had an hour of me-time, in the afternoon,

and got ourselves these cute tea balls(?).

the saucer is separate from the teacup, so that you can take it out and rest it on the saucer when tea is steep.

hope everyone had a lovely mothers day weekend,

and had a chance to tell your mom how much you love her!

homemade playdough

yesterday afternoon, I finally got a chance to make some playdough for my daughter.

I had been wanting to try out a recipe for homemade one.

I googled and checked out a few sites, and tried out a non-cooking one first.

that didn't turn out so well. the salt didn't melt and it was not so smooth as it should be.

then, decided to go with a traditional playdough recipe.

basic, simple, should work!

::INGREDIENTS::

* 1 cup flour

* 1 cup warm water

* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar

* 1 teaspoon oil

* 1/4 cup salt

* food coloring

in addition to the original recipe, I added 1tbs of Alum.

it's supposed to keep the playdough fresh longer.

basically put all the ingredients in a sauce pan and mix it over medium heat until it becomes crumbly.

starts out like a cream sauce.

starts forming some lumps.
don't worry even if the mixture is uneven, and keep mixing.

in the recipe, it's said to heat and mix it it becomes a 'ball', 

but I think it doesn't really become like a ball at all.

it's more crumbly/lumpy.

take it out of the pan, and knead it till smooth.

taddaaa :)

  

my daughter was really digging it.

and she was playing with it for over an hour.

next time, I will try something different and weired, like jello playdough or peanut butter playdough.

has anyone tried them?

knitting up a storm!

I have been knitting up a storm since a little bit before Christmas, 

although I had not been posting about it(which I probably should, but too lazy).

one of my this year's new years reslutions was to knit my first big project, a sweater.

so, I had started my first sweater project in mid Feb and finished it a couple weeks ago while I was down in Ashland visiting friends.

which means, it took me a whole month to finish a big project.  

that isn't that bad for my first sweater project I think!

I used a free pattern I found on Ravelry, and used this superwash yarn in teal.

knitted a swatch first, I started knitting the actual pattern.

after knitting almost the whole back piece, realized it was too big, 

and unraveled it and went down one size in the needle.

 put all the pieces together using youtube clips as a reference on how to sew them together.

and taddaaa!  here it is!!  my very first sweater!!!

 my friend, Tiffany whom we were visiting when i was finishing up the sweater, kindly offered me to choose buttons from her huge button collection.

and I picked these pretty grayish shell buttons.  

it turned out being still TOO BIG for me... :(

so I decided to give it to my mother who used to knit for me when I was little.

My mother is a health nurse, living in Japan, 

and she recently told me that she would be sent to the earthquake/tsunami affected area to provide medical/health care and emotional support.

so, I am hoping she would bring this and it will protect her from whatever happening where she is sent to...

also here is another project I finished today for my little girl.

 pattern is also a free one from lion brand yarn.  

and I used the same yarn as the sweater above since I thought it was a pretty color for her.

finished up with the fabric covered buttons I made previously.

I knitted a T3 size so that she could wear it next winter.

however it turned out so HUGE on her and looks like it is for 5yr old...

ugh.  I guess there is so much to learn about gauging and sizing!!

I have another "small" project I wand finish before the warm weather hits here.

it may not be too long for the spring to come say hello, so I will see :)


p.s.  oh!  if you have a ravelry account, please let me know!
my username is Lunatepetal.  add me as a friend, I'd love to check your projects out :)

seven things about me...

received Stylish Blogger Award from Cecili of Sewing and so on.

upon the acceptance of the award, I am supposed to share SEVEN things about me with you here.

hm, kida hard to come up with seven facts...

let me see...

I used to wear baggy clothes.  casual street style, I guess...

now most of those clothes are happily inherited to my husband :)

I am a couscous omnivore, and eat mainly organic.

all the food we consume is sacred whether they have a face and feet or not.  

I am grateful and thankful for all the life-force that keeps us sustain.

I used to study to be a occupational therapist.  

but decided that carrier wasn't for me, and dropped out of school.

I still have textbooks from anatomy/physiology class -I though it was the best class ever! geeky.

I am very closed to my dad's side grandparents.

because we lived so close by, they are like my second parents.

my parents are somewhat conservative, and my mom didn't approve of piercing. 

but I got them done anyway, first time when I was nineteen. 

now I have three, one on each ear and nose.  nothing extreme. at all.  

I think my younger sis has six, and she wants to get a tattoo.(good luck sis!)

I have naturally lighter hair for Japanese. 

my middle/high school teachers thought it was dyed and gave me a couple warnings.  so silly!  

most of the Japanese schools has lots of rules regarding length of hair, length of uniform skirt/pants, etc...  

and no makeup rule of course.  

so conservative and surplussed!

my biggest bug enemy is cockroaches!  

they usually come flying by whenever I encounter.  oh, they KNOW!!  

I am so happy that (so far) I have never seen them over here in North America.  

I guess their preferred inhabitant is humid and warmer(tropical) climate...?

well, it was fun getting to re-know myself.

now I am suppose to pass it down to seven bloggers.

hm it's even harder to pick so few out of many!!

grainline

clever nettle

esther-fromthesticks

Sew I Thought

all dressed up and nowhere to go

Jorth

A Beautiful Mess

Kennedy Holmes

cheated little, and I listed eight, instead of seven...haha

no pressure, but hope to read more about you ladies!!

my mother in law sent my husband these old pictures.

most of the pictures from his childhood burned in a fire.

and these are a few of remaining... so precious.

Anniversary/Sweet Valentine Giveaway!

last Saturday was our 5th (married) anniversary.

we didn't do too much, but had rather a relaxing day.

I got him a small gift, and he took me out for dinner @ Pok Pok, Thai restaurant, on Division 

since he 'looked bad'(so he says) having not prepared me a gift.

also took an offer on baby sitting from our housemate, and went out for a drink after our little one went to bed.

we had never really gone out just two of us since this girl was born,

but it is nice to be able to do that every once in a while!

anyhow,,,

I decided to have a giveaway for this occasion, 

combined with an upcoming cerebration of love event, Valentine's day!

-SWEET VALENTINE GIVEAWAY-

here is the prize

-earring/necklace traveling case-

nice to keep your earrings and necklaces from getting tangled and damaged, don't you think?

this little pouch will help you a big time!

so convenient for traveling, or carry a 'backup' jewelry in your bag,

or just for daily uses! 

-knotted bracelet-

you even get to pick a color!

please pick one of the colors from the above right picture, and state in your comment.

for more details about the bracelet, please visit my etsy shop!

******************************************how it works******************************************

please leave a comment with your e-mail address(if I can't reach you via blogger account),

also with your choice of color for the bracelet.

★bonus entry 1- if you follow my blog, you may leave another comment for an extra entry!

★bonus entry 2 -if you follow me on Twitter, you will also get another entry!! please leave a separate comment.

(up to THREE entries per person!!)

this giveaway ends @ FEB 12th, 11:59pm pacific time.

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GOOD LUCK :)!

P.S. a little apology...

I have so much to blog, but since we only have one computer and my hubby has been using it a lot lately for  work, I have not been able to update it often...
I am little behind, but I will find a time and post more!

happy holidays!

.hope everyone is having a nice warm happy christmas with your loved ones!

we're here on Quadra Island, BC, to spend the holiday with my hubby's family.

had a delicious turkey dinner last night and opened gifts this morning...

a lot of eating, sitting around and socializing, but quite chill christmas here.

I had been wanting to get myself a DSLR for a quite sometime now.

doing a little bit of research, but haven't had much to familiarize myself to the world of DSLR...

a friend of mine who is way into photography recommended me this one below.

<pic>

but as I said before I am a real beginner at camera/photography.

so, if you own a DSLR, I have a few of questions for you!

-which one(maker/model) do you have?

-what was selling point of your DSLR?

-any good site to visit to read up on DSLR, and to buy one? 

and any input/recommendation are more than welcome, and I really appreciate that :)

wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year!!

xo

japan trip part2

Hi, everyone!

hope you haven't completely forgotten about me... :I

I know it's been way too long since the last time I really blogged!!

we came back five days ago, and finally jet lag is fading away.

I always find it harder to get use to the time difference back home...  wonder why that is...

anyhow, I know I have to post about LOTS of things, but still not so motivated...  sorry... :(

I will post pictures from the second half of the trip to hold you over for now!

hope you enjoy them!!

at a local beach.

she had a blast! 

that we had to go back!

 with her great grandpa & great grandma watching birds eating tangerines on the tree

 her friend came back to play again :)

right before the loooong plane ride back home...

ahhh, good to be back home and get back to the regular routine, called life!

I will try to post a how-to on the passport case in the next few days.

so please stay tuned!!

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P.S.  I am having a LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SALE over at my ETSY shop! 

please go visit my site, order, and receive 20% off via Paypal after purchase.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

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