SHIM + SONS

thank you

:: I'm in love with our local bookstore :: I find all sorts of cute things there like this red grid tape ::

:: and this rolling alphabet stamp ::

:: one of the mums at school let me borrow a stack of ku:nel + come home! magazines :: I've been in japanese magazine heaven! ::

:: and they came in this beautiful drawstring bag ::

:: I stick a handmade thank you card in the bag when I return it to her every week ::

:: and she brings me a new stack of magazines ::

:: we have a nice system going :: and it has reminds how everyone loves a good old fashioned thank you card ::

set design

A few weeks ago Big J's teacher asked me to make some decorations for their class assembly. I was so happy since long ago I toyed with the idea of becoming an elementary school teacher and one of the things that excited me about teaching was the thought of decorating my own classroom. Which is probably not the best reason to go into teaching and instead I switched gears and spent most of my 20's conducting research and writing papers to prepare myself for teaching college students. But life is full of unexpected twists and turns and here I am in Busan, South Korea making decorations for my son's class assembly.

Anyways, back to the decorations! The assembly was based upon their unit of inquiry this term--water. The first thing that came to mind were water drops. The children chose the phrase "Do Not Waste Water" so I made a few signs by printing + cutting out letters and affixing them on to foam board.  I took photographs of each of the children, cut out their faces with a circle cutter and glued them on to paper water drops. I also cut out water drops in various sizes and strung them on to a fishing line and hung them.

My favorite decoration to make were the clouds with falling raindrops. The raindrops are reminiscent of the linen leaf chains I used to make. The clouds were made out of white paper, embellished with black cardstock eyes + mouth, stuffed with tissue and machine stitched along the edges. I cut out water drops of varying sizes out of cardstock and then machine stitched them together, varying the length between each drop. Each water drop stream was then attached to the cloud using a needle. Lastly I strung some fishing line through the top of the cloud so that it could be hung from the rafters. I think a fabric version would be perfect for a child's room [this is on my to-do list!]. I had so much fun putting the decorations together and the children really liked them and now the decorations are stored away to be used for next year's assembly!

 

Sidenote: Big J + his classmates did a fantastic job expressing what they learned about water through music, dance, art, poetry and mini presentations. Here's my drummer boy in action!

teatowels + tassies

A few months ago I was looking around for some new teatowels but couldn't find any here in Busan. So when I saw this gold gingham linen in Leslie's shop I was inspired to make my own teatowels. The texture of the fabric is softer than a lot of the linens I have in my stash and this particular linen seems to soften with each washing. I cut the piece of fabric in half [50cm x 55 cm] and was planning to press and sew a 1/4" inch hem around the edges but noticed how nice the raw edges looked. So I opted to "fray" the edges [by pulling individual strings from each side] a bit more and in no time at all I had a set of teatowels.

And they happen to match the yummy pecan + lemon tassies I made over the weekend. [The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Cookies book.]

There is a lot more crafting and sewing I want to do, but I know it will have to wait until next month. Big J finishes up his second term in a few days and then we're heading off to Hong Kong + Macau for spring break. We seem to be burning through Appah's hotel points + frequent flyer miles, but it is totally worth it. If anyone has suggestions for places to go/eat/shop in Hong Kong or Macau, please let me know!

happy valentine's day

valentine's day cards

Last weekend I asked Big J what kind of Valentine's day cards he wanted to make for his friends. I suggested doing a repeat of last year since we're dealing with a new group of friends, but he was set on using some fabric from my stash. So we decided to go with some simple fabric heart cards. And unbeknownst to us 5000+ miles away our dear friends were working on the same project!

I printed out cards with "Happy Valentine's Day" on the front and "From:_______" on the back. Big J got to work writing his name on 32 cards [19 for classmates and 13 for other friends]. Baby J even got in on the action.

We then cut out a bunch of hearts out of fabric scraps. Actually after cutting out half a dozen hearts, Big J asked me to finish them up so he could focus on gluing the hearts to the cards.

It was cute to see how Big J really thought about which fabric heart he wanted to give to each of his friends.

Big J would say things like, "A really likes pink. I'll give her a pink heart" or "I'll give A + C the same hearts since they are friends."

Big J's favorite part was putting the candy inside the clear bags.

I actually wanted to include a non-candy treat for the kids, but we ran out of time. I'm thinking homemade kettle corn for next year.

The cards and candy were placed into clear resealable bags.

And we placed little personalized stickers on each bag.

Big J helped me make some fabric + cards for his teachers.

And then he wrote a little message on the back of each card.

All the cards were delivered today and it seems like they were a big hit. I have to say it really is fun seeing your child enjoy doing something you yourself love doing.

mobile making

:: I love mobiles :: I love making mobiles ::

 :: oak veneer :: backed with natural linen ::

:: walnut veneer ::

:: highly addictive ::

:: I'll be updating the shoppe with some new goodies over the next few days. :: fabric lovers check out Kathy's new online shop as well as Carly's new shop :: more graph paper love over here [thanks, Francesca!] and here and here and here [you get to choose your own colors!] ::

big j's lunch bag

:: before = regular ol' lunch bag ::

:: removed the label :: added a dinosaur fabric applique + alphabet ribbon ties [used Fray Check on the ends]::

:: after = Big J's new dinosaur lunch bag ::

:: he even helped handstitch a bit of the applique ::

:: handmade dinosaur stickers [used our handy Xyron] ::

a little easter egg hunt

:: for Big J's Sunday School class ::

:: or rather an egg + carrot hunt ::

:: sweets + non-sweet goodies :: like chalk ::

:: jacks ::

:: glitter bracelets ::

:: pencils + stickers ::

:: hope you all have a wonderful Easter! :: 

easter toolbox

I've been wanting to put together little craft boxes for the boys since last year. We have a cabinet in our kitchen that is designated for playdough, paper, crayons and miscellaneous craft supplies, which works out well since they used to do most of their crafting at the kitchen table. But recently the boys have been spending a lot of time in my studio, in fact they are taking over a little corner. So I thought it would be convenient to have most of their craft supplies in one bin, making it easy to transport from one room to the next and conducive to quick clean-ups.

I never got around to putting these craft boxes together in time for Christmas, but I realized last week that this gift could easily assume the role of an Easter basket.

Years ago Martha Stewart sold some really cute transparent plastic "toolboxes" in her Kmart line. I still use mine to hold various sewing notions. I couldn't find any of them in the stores, but I did come across these pretty cute toolboxes, which come in few different sizes, at The Home Depot. I chose the small one which was around $6. It has a nice clear flip-top lid that allows for easy access to supplies.

The only other thing I purchased for this gift was a month/day/year stamp from the office supply store which I think Big J will put to good use.

The rest of the goodies came from Sally's Craft Emporium [aka a box full of old/unused craft supplies in my studio]. So I filled up the compartments with paper punches, glass pebbles, glitter glue, popsicle sticks, clothespins and other goodies that I know two little boys would have fun playing around with.

I know they are going to love using the Xyron to make their own stickers.

I also made a few little notebooks for the boys since they love to doodle [inspired by Amy + Amanda]. I designed + printed covers on 8.5 x 11 cardstock, folded it in half, added some blank pages [regular ol' copy paper] inside, scored the covers so they fold back nicely and machine stitched them along the fold. Super easy and fun!

march :: finishing the unfinished

I've been feeling quite inspired to finish up a slew of projects that have been lying around my studio for the past month...or two...or, ok, year. My goal for March is to finish at least a dozen "unfinished" projects.

This is another calendar that has been in the works since last year. I lost steam and never finished it [gee, that sounds familiar]. I created a simple design using thin textured paper circles with some simple machine stitching. 

And although it is already March, I think I'm going to make a few more of these to stick in those belated birthday presents I've been working on.