Owl time!

I really have been missing my crafty activities. Ever since I had Julian I put that on the backburner, and happily so. Nothing makes me more happy than spending time with my baby and watching him grow up!

But now that he is older and has a good sleep schedule, I have been feeling the crafty itch again.

It started with all the cupcakes and muffins I have been baking recently, as well as buying some new items to decorate and package my goodies to give away or just to bring to work.

One of my bad habits is that I get obsessed with something and I just have to have it and need to start working on it.

I have been eyeing handmade fabric dolls for a while. They have been popping up everywhere, or I'm sure they have always been there but I just never paid attention.

Looking at them I thought I can surely make some of these... it doesn't look thaaaat hard!

So I bought some scrap fabric from Joann's and started looking at all kinds of pictures of dolls... until I settled on an owl.

Reason one, owls are just too cute, and reason two they looked pretty easy to make based on the easy round shape.

I got my inspiration from all kinds of images online but didn't download any template.

I just made my own template freehand and started sewing - no particular plans.

(Starting to sound familiar yet?? Yep, I'm not a planner! An idea pops into my head, I google it, and then just go and buy stuff and do!)

I am certain there are much easier and more efficient ways of making a fabric owl doll, but this worked for me for now.

Oh yes, I do have one of those machines called Sewing Machine in the closet.

Tucked away somewhere in our guest bedroom closet.

My inlaws gave it to us years ago... I think it was a Christmas gift? At least 5 years ago if not 6 or 7.

Oh the plans I had with that cute little machine.

But I have to admit it still sits in its original box, unopened!

So all of this is completely done by hand. Which takes longer, but that's ok.

For now.

I will break out the sewing machine soon, because now I have gotten midly obsessed with making my own fabric dolls for Julian :)

They are just so cute and surprisingly uncomplicated.

I would definitely need to research on Youtube how to use a sewing machine to sew on an applique (new word I learned this week).

Maybe I'll attend a sewing class at Joanns? If I can convince a friend to come with me :)

I actually like the homemade, not perfect machine kind of look. It has charm to me :)

I love that my own will be a unique once in a lifetime doll.

I didn't use any template... handdrew the shape of the owl on the fabric directly and got a little smarter already when I drew out the wings and feet on paper first, then cut them out and traced them on the fabric. But I threw those away.

I thought about just leaving the owl like this:

Julian was excited when he saw the owl and immediate asked "Mine????" and gave it a big hug.

But then he asked "Arms? Missing!"

So when I asked him if he wanted arms for his owl, he eagerly responded "Yes". And then daddy taught him that birds have wings, not arms.

After Julian went to bed I worked on attaching wings and little feet, and a heart.

Here is the final outcome!

Julian was very happy when he saw his finished owl!

He clapped his hand, jumped up and down yelling "Yay, yay, yay, my owl!!""

And then he happily said "Wings now? Can fly!"

(This was a 3 day process for me)

Oh the possibilities!

I can make him monsters, an owl family, a rabbit for Easter, an elephant, a tiger, etc.!

Electric cars are cool!

No, I'm not talking about the Toyota Prius, I'm talking about these adorable cars for kids!

Where were they when I was a child??

Not that my parents would have ever spent the money to indulge and buy us something like this!

We didn't grow up poor at all, not rich either, just normal middle class, but my parents never believed in wasting money or buying us cool toys just because other kids had them.

BTW I don't think they have these cars in Germany yet. But I'm not sure.

I just remember when we were in Thailand on one of our family vacations, I must have been around 12?

We visited my parents' friends and their kids had a kid electric motorcycle they rode around their house, and it was sooo much fun!

Hubby has been wanting to get Julian one of these cars, but I have put my foot down and said no - not until he's at least 3.

I know they have those toddler cars that only go about 3 mph but even those run around $100 or more and I don't want to waste money on something that slow that Julian will outgrow very quickly.

So he will just have to wait until his 3rd birthday in August until he gets a cool car like one of these!

I wish I were small enough to fit into it with him!!

There was a little police car that he actually really loved... but didn't take a picture of that.

Other than that I couldn't tell if he had an absolute favorite or not.

We went to dinner quickly at Cheddar's, then  ran over to Babies R Us to pick up Julian's crib converter kit.

He's going to have a big boy bed with rails soon!

 Which means whenever daddy finds time to put it together.

Sure I could do it myself, but what do I have a husband for??

More Vietnamese Food!

Last night I was busy packing a ton of things into boxes to mail off.

My best friend's little boy in Germany will turn 3 next week, so I got him a cute little shirt and jacket at Target (on sale here since winter time never showed up in Florida but hello... it's still cold in Germany, perfect!) and also some hex bugs. Julian loves these things, have you seen them?

You can check them out at http://www.hexbug.com/

We bought ours at Target, but you can get them at toystores or Amazon.

We first discovered these last year at my friend's house. I bought Julian his first two when we flew home to Thailand last October and he was entertained for hours.

My best friend and I were so thrilled when we found out we would have little boys just 5 months apart from each other.

A dream come true! Best friends, pregnant together, having kids at the same time.

But we were also so very sad that they won't grow up together... that we can't go on play dates together and really enjoy and grumble about motherhood together as we always had dreamed.

Pictures and emails of course help us stay connected, as well as videos and Facebook.

So every once in a while we see something that our son likes and we make sure the other "son" gets it as well :) Not overly often but this definitely made me think of my little man in Germany.

I also had a package for my friend in Mexico (they left their stuff in our stroller while at Disney), a birthday card for another friend in Germany, and a card that Julian made for grandma and grandpa.

And what did I discover when I got to the Post Office??

A new Vietnamese Restaurant!!

*Gasp*

Of course I had to head in there first, as I did not have any lunch yet.

Scanned the menu quickly, typical Pho and other items.

And yummy Banh Mi's!

Vietnamese sandwiches!

So I ordered one, as well as fresh springrolls, and then headed over to the Post Office to do my duty.

I didn't check the sandwich until I was back in the office... I was disappointed that the bread was kind of hard. I would have returned it at the store! But I have to admit, it was still very delicious.

I will be back to try out their Pho!