Holiday crafting

Although I had only one off day just before Christmas, I managed to get in a bit of sewing and crafting. I made a paper Christmas wreath and it came out really well. I need to thank Shannon from luvinthemommyhood for sharing it.

My son was in need of some indoor footwear. The weather is rainy and cold here in Kandy (and everywhere else in the country apparently) and he hates wearing socks or sandals inside. I tried elastic backstraps on his flip flops but even that is not worn very enthusiastically.

So I got this free pdf tutorial for Reversible fabric baby shoes from http://www.maked.ca/ and it turned out really well.

Here is my son wearing them. He looks quite thrilled here but it is quite an effort to get him toactually wear them! I think maybe they're not very comfy inside and have decided to make another pair using some soft flannel material.

That's all for the moment. I am still working on my siter's quilt. Plan to make another pair of indoor slippers for next door baby and a toiletry bag for Dulmini, our pre-intern who is about to leave for her internship.

Sewing fever

I suffered from a bout of sewng fever the last few weeks and kept making things, one after the other. First of all I finished the party frock for my niece which I made from some cotton mixed silky material. It was a combination of light pink and cream. I told her over the phone that it looks like strawberry and vanilla icecream and she was satisfied. I decorated the skirt border with small roses made from pink, purple and cream baby ribbon and for the sash I attached 3 of the larger roses I had made last week along with some ribbon leaves.

Some close ups:

And then there was this huge wrap around skirt which I recievd as a gift from India from my inlaws. It made me look like a tent and I thought I'd alter it to suit me. I did do a little altering but then another fever overtook me and I started making covers for the following things I own:

My new CD player, some CDs I own and the new phone my hubs got me for my birthday.

I used an old pair of shorts which I cannot get into now to make a dust cover for the CD player. And leftover scraps from the Indian skirt to make covers for the CDs and phone.:

They are not perfect I know but it gave me enormous pleasure to make these last weekend. I really enjoyed my weekend at home with my son and my parents.

Now I am working on the series of 3 panel paintings that I promised for my husband and also a coverlet for my sister's birthday. I will upload pictures of them one day soon. Till then, tata!

Of teddy bears and ribbon roses..

I am writing after a long time. Have been busy with various things including working on some new crafts.

These are some ribbon roses that I made for my niece's party dress. I learnt the method some years back from a local TV program but I also refreshed my memory from a video which was available on the internet at this site: videojug.com

And this is the cake I iced for my son's 1st birthday which was in June. My mother in law made 2 rectangular cakes and I cut them in the shape of this teddy which I got from the Wilton 2010 year book. I used cake mixed with buttercream to mould his facial features. This was pretty exhausting. Took me the good part of one day to finish icing the whole cake. But it was really satisfying to see the results at the end.

And this is the dreamy petticoat that I sewed for my niece to wear under the party dress that I am sewing for her. I got the pattern from http://sugardale.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-petticoat.html

and

http://fabricateandmira.wordpress.com/

Thank you both Dale and Annette and I hope you see this.

New things in my life.

6th August 2010. A Friday
Thank God Its Friday type of Friday.

Haven't written anything since I started the blog. I am still uncertain how this blogging thingummy works too. Anyway going to give it a try.

We started a Tea Club in our workplace and now some staff members from Micro and Parasit meet up regularly to share a cup of tea around 10 am. It is such FUN! Devika Madam, Dr.Ru, Dr. Fasiah, Veranja and Dulmini and myself are the regular tea drinkers who meet up thus. It is nice to get away from the routine work and just chat about anything "unacedemic" once in a while. We have some Hi magazines which I used to buy as a routine during my intern year and we catch up with the latest fashion trends they do, mostly in fashionable Colombo. Some of their ensembles shock us Kandy lamissi's to our very toes :-)

We also want to organize an outing from the club once a month or so but this idea is a bit slow on the uptake. No idea why. What we suggested was we will go on a picnic/outing on a weekday (start around 11.30am and get back to the department around 2pm). Suggested location was somewhere near Udaperadeniya. Each member can bring an item to eat. So if its lunch someone will bring kahabath (yellowrice), someone else will bring chicken curry and so on and so forth till we have a sumptuous feast to eat at the picnic. Dessert could be anything from yoghurt to fruit or we might even be able to pick some mangoes fallen under a tree. But then again we do not want to contract Toxoplasmosis...being from the department of Parasit and all...heheheh...

On another vein, I have taken up a new hobby. I am doing cross stitch now and am totally enthralled by it. I downloaded a free pattern from http://www.free-cross-stitch-pattern.com/ and am now working on it day and night. Because my one year old son keeps me fully occupied after I go home I start on my project after he goes to bed and that is around 9pm. I stitch till about 11.30pm and then get up around 5 am to have another go at it till he wakes up at six. And I think, I never showed this much enthusiasm and tenacity even when I was studying for my finals!

My son is now just beginning to walk and that really keeps us all on out toes. He can manage to waddle drunkenly from one point to the next but on occasions he gets impatient of his slow progress and tries to hurry which makes him fall down. We are using the ice pack a lot these days.

The second week of our workshop organized by the Medical Education Unit is at the end of August and am now thinking of preparing my micro lecture to present at it. I am very much looking forward to the workshop and have already put to use some of what they taught us.

I will bid good bye now. Au revoir!

Hello, I just opened a Blog as an exercise for our Staff Development Programme. I hope I will become an enthusiastic blogger!