Miss Potter

My daughter loves crafting ~ and the latest craze she had is pottery making. We went shopping together and she picked her own Christmas gift supposedly from me lol. Yes, she picked up no less than a Potter's Wheel. Glad too the thing was on sale from 21usd down to 17usd.

Getting ready to explore her new toy!

Our little Miss potter!

Oh yes, getting her hands artistically dirty!

And I can't help joining the fun too lol!

Her first batch of colored pots!  Yes, she designed, made and colored it herself.

Overall, I'm so proud of my li'l girl. She made sure too she cleans her toys after using. Yes, she's growing up, becoming more creative and more responsible, at least with her own stuff. Such toy is really worth the buy. As for her Christmas gift for me, she said she's giving all her creations to me lol.  Ain't that the sweetest!

I'm linking for Judy's

 

Crafting a native costume

In time for our university's 92nd birthday, the foreign students were invited to join the event last Saturday, to be on our traditional clothes and represent our respective countries and flags. This year, only three students were from Philippines so I decided to let my daughter join the fun, who by the way loves joining events. Then I decided to let her wear our cultural local costume. The problem was, I only got the top/blouse so I needed to come up with a skirt and the accessories, which were not so easy to acquire being on a foreign land.

I just needed to remember the essential colors for our native costumes: red, yellow, black and white. Scouting nearby DIY shops, I bought necessary materials for her headdress and accessories (necklaces, bracelets, anklets and earrings). I know I'm not good at crafting but I took such task as a challenge.

beads: red, yellow, black, white,
other colors are optional; small
anklet bells, clasps,  nylon.

Wire sticks (I can't find black
though), yarns, steel wires.

Here's how I made our local headdress:

I arranged the wire sticks and tied them together with a thin steel wire.

Then added some layers of steel wires at the base.

And further added more layers of thicker steel wires on the top part.

However, due to my busy schedules at school, I finished the headdress just a night or actually a dawn before the event. I slept like 3 AM to finish everything. Hurrying up for the 8 AM event the next day, I forgot to take a photo of the final product but here's how the headdress looked like, as worn by my daughter. 

The last-minute made headdress. Basically, I just tied the yarns around the steel wires. Then I stitched a black garter to attach the headdress to her head and embellished it with few beads. 

This was how my daughter looked like in the event. I modified her wrap-around skirt. It was actually mine bought by my husband from Costa Rica 6 years ago. I decorated it with sheer red handkerchiefs on each side, and it fit her so well (my, she's really growing up fast). Then I made her simple necklaces and anklets out of the beads I bought. Back home, necklaces and bracelets are far thicker and grander. A good Filipina friend Cyd, helped me with the earrings and bracelets when she came to visit us one afternoon. I finished her look with a pair of Habagat slippers.

My own version of Kaamulan Festival costume yay! I say, not bad, right? (except for few falling yarns lol, which I managed to fix later on). 

Behold the pretty Filipinas on our traditional outfits. Both Cyd and my 9-yr old daughter were wearing our provincial native costumes, usually worn on our local celebration known as "Kaamulan Festival".

Us (me, 2nd from right, I wore our national costume) and some friends.

With some more friends...

and with more... My apologies! Just realized we might had handled our flags the wrong way, should not touch the ground right?  If so, this is out of pure ignorance... We will be mindful the next time...

Us on our flags.. 

My daughter was kind of enjoying the attention she's getting lol.

I really enjoyed crafting my daughter's attire. After all, such event only happen once in a blue moon. It's also a good way to bond with her. My daughter was so ecstatic and grateful about it.

So, what do you think of her costume? Do you like it?

Pink Fairy

For our Halloween party last year, I improvised a pink fairy costume for my daughter. She wanted so much to be a fairy, so I made her one. A frugal mom as I am, I didn't spend a dime for her costume (well, only 0.99$). Here's how she looked like:

 For her simple pink fairy wings, I made it out of recycled wire coat hangers and dressed it with her old pink sheer stockings. Then I sprinkled it with pink glitters and attached a golden colored ribbon for her back. I just made this few hours before the party. Here's what the simple pink fairy wing looked like:

For her dress, she wore her pink ballet leotard, pink ballet tights and pink ballet shoes. For her pink skirt, a good friend gave her this for her birthday, so she finally got the opportunity to wear this lovely fuschia pink belly dancing skirt. For her tiara, good thing she still had some left from her 8th birthday party, so we didn't have to buy one.

hail the pink fairy!

with her improvised fairy costume!

and she totally enjoyed her cute and simple pink attire!

 Indeed, everybody had a blast that fun night especially our little pink fairy!

Making up: Pomelo

As forgetful as I was, I left my little girl's school bag in our college library last Friday. When we realized the bag was not with us, it was too late. The library closed for the weekend and for the holiday Monday for Chinese Moon Festival. Hence, we don't know that she's supposed to bring a hat made out of pomelo rind the next Tuesday morning.

When I finally brought in my little girl's bag to her kindergarten school after my 8 am class that Tuesday morning, I was surprised to see almost all of her classmates got cute pomelo hats. My poor baby must have wondered where her hat was. I felt so terrible. Everybody danced and paraded with their funny hats on and got their photos taken. I had no idea. The Chinese tradition of wearing pomelo hats for kids never crossed my mind.

Then a thought hit me. I will definitely make it up to my baby. I will make a special pomelo hat for her. She will have her own pomelo hat. 

Back in our lab, my labmate coincidentally gave us the pomelos left from the Moon fest. Oh yeah, awesome! After dinner, my hubby and I made a cute pomelo hat for my baby. It only took us about 5 minutes to make one. Here's what we did:

Hail the Pomelo!

Opened it up in one minute.

A flower bud on the making lol

My baby looks so cute on this funny hat while holding the fruit :)

Now the hat was modified with a "hair bangs" lol.

Doesn't she look so cute and funny!

The final hat beauty!

My baby was indeed having fun and happy about the pomelo rind hat!

The big sister joined the fun too!

From Chinese culture, I just learned that wearing a pomelo rind hat helps the moon lady see the children better and hence answer their prayers. Interesting. And by the way, a pomelo or Chinese grapefruit is so delicious, juicy and rich in Vitamin C. Indeed, the fruit is both yummy and fun!


Do you like our Pomelo hat too?