handmade logo labels

I've been working on some handmade goods to add to my Etsy site.. then i realized i need label. After researching few places that i can have it made, i decided to make them myself.

What you need: 
1. iron- i used hair iron since ironing surface was tiny.
2. cotton grosgrain: I used herringbone textured natural color 1.5" wide.
3. Avery Fabric Transfer sheets

You can follow the instruction in Avery packet to print your logo. You must make sure to print them in "reverse." Then, I cut small squares, placed it on grosgrain and carefully pressed down in between hair iron. press for 3 sec then, let it cool, and repeat 4-5 times and peel off. I had to try few to get the hang of it. but it worked really well! very happy with the result. I can't wait to sew it onto my new product.

Home Office

I recently left my full time job and am now working from home 3days a week. I created a little office space in our extra upstair room. 

The cork boards were on sale at Michael's for $10. it had adhesives so it was super easy to set up. I wish it can be thicker but it does its job for weightless paper. I brought out my old sewing machine. not sure what i'll be sewing but it's nice to have it out to remind myself. A cute little plant from my ex-co-worker definitely adds warmth. Frame above my new iMac is from Skip Hop with everyone's signature on it. It inspires me everyday to keep up the good work!

Of course, there's always a visitor at my office. he likes to pretend like he's working for me.

cardboard project 1: car playground

William is now 3. His favorite thing to do is to play with cars. When he looks up at me and says, "mom, play car", I sometimes don't know what to do. so I started to create fun environment for him to play his cars in. Today, he was really into speed bumps so we created lots of bumps and ramps. 

There's no right or wrong way to make this. Just grab a box, open it up, cut all the flaps and be creative with each flap. below is how we made it. We had lots of fun!

onesie design

This is my first entry since William was born. I have a lot blank white bodysuits that I've been meaning to put cute designs on. I finally found some time to work on this. I used textile paint and stencils. bye bye boring white onesies! 

nursery 3D wall art

I've been searching online to find patterns or wall art that stimulates baby. There are tons of cute artwork you can hang on the wall for a sake of nursery decor but your infant really can't see anything that is not contrasting. I was told that they like black and white patterns... something very contrasting. So my original plan was to print out bunch of black and white patterns for the wall, but then, I thought, what if the wall art is partially 3D?

I quickly drew some simple graphics on illustrator, printed it out and taped on 3D flaps. I absolutely fell in love with its look.

lamp shade makeover

All nice lamps out there that I want were so expensive so I just decided to make my own. I bought a very simple and cheap lamp from Target for $12 then thought about wrapping the shade with knitted twine. I had bought this natural color twine from Home Depot for something awhile back and had two rolls left which was perfect amount to make a crochet cover for this lamp shade.

Single crochet around with I/9 needle. I used 2 twines together to give thicker texture.
I haven't crocheted in so long that I had to look up few youtube tutorials to remind myself how to crochet.

I was very happy with the end result. The shade created nice natural-feeling dim light that is very ideal for night time breastfeeding.

Also looks great during the day!

knitted letters

I didn't want to buy ordinary wooden or fabric letters that are out in the market. I wanted something that my son can play with when he's little older. something soft and plush-like. This was perfect project to use up my left over yarn colors! Knitting letters were something new to me so I followed patterns from this book. I love how these soft shaped letters bring playful and whimsical feel to the room. These are super light so simple pinboard is all you need to hang them.

polaroid magnets

I saw this idea on a blog and I thought it would be fun to make it for Skip Hop fridge. We've been hiring many new people and it could be a great tool for them to learn everyone's faces and nameㄴ (but really, it was for me to learn). I put these up today at work and everyone seemed to love it! It definitely makes our fridge look less boring.

recycled ipad cover

Somebody at work told me that one of our customers told her about reusing Skip Hop changing pad as an ipad cover. I thought it was a brilliant idea so i decided to make one for myself. It really took 3 minutes to make. The pad was slightly bigger than my ipad so i added a little pocket for USB cord.

sweet elephant

My least favorite is when i have to stitch up knitted seams. I knitted this elephant awhile back (even before i was conceived) and never finished it. I thought it was time to wrap it up. Even though it's fully stuffed, it's super soft because this wool is super stretchy. This will be a perfect cuddly toy for my newborn.

baby sweater

Finally finished my boy's sweater after 4 months of struggle. I never knew how many components and work goes into making a sweater. it started with back piece, then right front, left front, right sleeve, left sleeve, then neck trim, right trim, left trim and finally sewing pieces together. I will never take a handknit sweater for granted.

placemat

My dining table was looking very lonely in a new location we just moved in. I thought placemats would be a nice addition so I decided to sew up placemats this weekend. I think these definitely added some warmth. I'm going to have to make one for my baby soon as well.

nursery so far

I always thought that the nursery will need a theme to make it look complete but after coming across this nursery photo, I realized it's perfectly okay not to be tied to a theme. This cozy naturely feel is exactly what i want for my boy.

I'm not a huge fan of colored wall and i like to keep the wall white like this. This room is so simple and basic, yet so perfect...