Transform: Summer dress–> Apron

Do you have any particular shop you like to shop at?
I have a bunch. And ANTHROPOLOGIE is one of my favorites.
Their designs are so unique and pretty. Every time I go into their shop, I easily spend an hour or two to check all of their merchandise.
Of course I love their clothes, but I also adore their aprons.
You can see their great designs of their aprons if you click here –> http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/category.jsp?popId=&navAction=push&isSortBy=true&navCount=264&pushId=&id=HOME-KITCHEN-APRONS
It is very inspiring and would be fun to cook, wearing it.

Today I was cleaning the clutter out of my closet, and found a summer dress which has several holes. I guess I washed it in the washing machine many times, and it got holes.
That gave me an idea: “Why don’t I transform this dress into an apron?”
And here’s how it looks.

The bottom part was a summer dress originally.
I added the top on it with some vintage lace.

I wish I could have better matching fabric for the bottom… but this bird printed fabric was all I had that was close to the color of the bottom.

Tonight I started to cook, wearing this, and somehow it made me more motivated for cooking. Maybe my husband will be happier than I, because of this apron

Transform: T-shirts

Last week, I purchased something I've wanted for quite a long time.
That is a MANNEQUIN!!!!
Well, actually I wanted a dress form to do some sewing, but I found a second-hand mannequin of my size, so I thought, "Why not?"
To celebrate it, I transformed a T-shirt as follows:

BEFORE

AFTER

You may remember this T-shirt from “Tutorial: stencil on T-shirts”(http://hirokohandmade.blogspot.com/2011/05/tutorial-stencil-on-t-shirts.html),originally it was a plain, pale pink T-shirt.
I stenciled some birds with white paint on it about 2 weeks ago.

And today I cut out around the neck wider and attached a motif of a feather. Cutting wider around the neck is not easy to do on the table. Definitely having my mannequin helped me cut it out evenly, nice and round.

Now it’s my turn to wear it!

What do you think? Does it look good on me!?

More and more strawberries!

This year, the weather in LA is very strange. We had some rainy days in May. That is very unusual in LA.
I am still wearing long sleeve shirts every day. Why it's not quite hot yet!?
What is going on with the weather these days!? I really hope nothing's gonna happen in 2012...

Even though the weather is strange, my strawberries are growing very well :)
They are small but they are so beautiful, aren't they!?

The other happy thing that happened to me was: I bought a CD of Ingrid Michaelson, whom I discovered through the internet radio station, Pandora.

I loooooove listening to her CD while I am driving my car. Her CD makes me happy & stress free, even though I am stuck in the traffic. That's very important, when living in LA :)
Here's one of her songs I really love:

"You and I"

And here's the live version, which Jason Mraz joined her. How nice!!!!

The Lyrics are very cute and nice, too.
I would like to share the lyrics of the first verse and chorus with you ;) 

don't you worry, there my honey
we might not have any money
but we've got our love to pay the bills

maybe I think you're cute and funny,
maybe I wanna do what bunnies do with you,
if you know what I mean

Oh, let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the South of France
let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters
and teach them how to dance
let's get rich and build our house on a mountain
making everybody look like ants
from way up there, you and I, you and I, you and I,

 Check out the rest of her songs on her albums! You would like them!

Pirates of the Caribbean is back!!!!

Tomorrow Jack Sparrow will back on the screen!!!
Yes!!! "Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides" will be released tomorrow, 5/20 (Fri)!!!
I love this movie series, even though I have a hard time understanding what they're talking about... Ha ha.
Is it just only me!?

To celebrate this movie's release, I made a skeleton with wool:

Needle felted Skeleton

I am going to make a brooch with this, and wear when I go to see the movie :)
Not only a brooch for me, but I'll make one for my husband, too!!!! I hope he doesn't mind to wear it with me to share the excitement! (Pirate voice:) "Arrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!"

And next weekend, another movie that I am interested in will be released!!!

That is.... "Hangover 2"!!!!!

Should I make a needle felted beer bottle next time!?

Tutorial: Stencil on T-shirts

It’s getting warm and good season for T-shirts!!!
Have you ever thought “I want to have an original T-shirt!” or “I can’t find the T-shirt I really like!”?
Then why don’t you make one!

Here’s the easy way to create your original T-shirts.

1.Pick the T-shirts you like.

2.Draw whatever you want to stencil on the mat side of the freezer paper.

This time I draw some birds on it.

3. Cut it out.

4. Put the freezer paper to make glossy side attached on the T-shirts and press the iron from the mat side of the freezer paper.

5. Stencil must be attached by the heat of the iron like a following photo. You can put a cardboard in the T-shirts to prevent paint going through to the back of the T-shirts.

6. Apply the paint. Use ink for fablic.

7. DONE! When the ink is dried, you can take off the freezer paper. Enjoy your original T-shirt! (Before you wear it, I recommend to wash it one time to make paint stayed on it)

Report: Unique LA

Two days ago, on 5/8(Sun), my husband and I went to Unique LA (http://uniquela.com/).
Unique LA is the art & craft show gathers local artists here in LA.
It was really nice to see the one-of-a-kind clothes, jewelries, and artworks, etc.

To enter this event, you need to buy a $10 admission ticket.
But the cool thing is you can get a free tote bag which is designed by a local artist when you entered!

 There were many things to see!!!!! I was too busy to look around and forgot to take some photos for this blog... At least I took one photo :)

Next Unique LA will be held sometime in December according to one of the vendor.
I hope I can be a vendor next time :)

New cushion on our couch

The other day I purchased such a gorgeous fabric.

I loved the color, texture, and design.
And I decided to make a cushion out of it.

Here is the finishing product.

It took me about 1 hour and 30min. It was fun and very refreshing to add a new cushion on our couch!

Besides the cushion, I also finished one crochet scarf and added it on my Etsy shop.

It would be perfect for the chilly spring/summer day. Please check it out ;)

First strawberry of this year!

Yes! A first strawberry of this year is becoming red in my planter!!!
It's tiny, but I will eat tomorrow morning before squirrel eat it :-p