Wolf Girl

One of the fun effects of being able to tie pigtails?

The Wolverine-esque hairdo at the end of the day!

She wasn't particularly impressed, but I was completely tickled by it!

Who's The Crazy In The Corner?

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Quilters are crazy.

 

The amount of effort and time it takes to make a quilt is enough to make my "Results Priority-Zone" personality go haywire. (But yet, I keep trying. So maybe I'm the crazy one)

If you've ever received a handmade quilt, rest assured that you're liked. Very much. I can't think of any other reason why someone would make someone else a quilt. (So, HM....Laura really likes you)

I finally ventured into making a "real" quilt. With an actual quilt pattern and with blocks that are smaller than the size of a table.

The quilt design, from Amy Butler, is aptly named the "Belle" quilt. I shall name mine the "Izzybelle" quilt. "Izzy" for the part where I winged it, as I'm hard press to follow a pattern word for word. Must be the rebellious side of me. =D

The fabric is girly, cheerful and hopeful...perfect for spring! And if the quilted part doesn't scream "I'm a GIRL" loud enough, the backing sure does.

Ruffly, fleece-y goodness.

I got tired of being attacked by 5 yards of fleece everytime I try to open my craft closet.

And because I love all you readers (all 5 of you, 80% of which are family members) so much, I'm dedicating this quilt to you.

 But I'm keeping it. =D

 (Besides, there's absolutely no reason why you'd need a quilt in the perpetually hot, gloriously sunny, breezy-balmy Malaysia!)

Springing Along!

Spring is finally popping her head in to say hello!

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous! And you know what happens when spring's here?

Spring-cleaning.

And spring picnics.

So while I worked on tackling one of the many packed and mostly overflowing closets...

My husband worked on preparing a lovely spring brunch at the picnic table he built, complete with beach umbrella!

Yummy sandwiches...

Isabel LOVED it outside. So much that she was too distracted to eat.

Unless we are talking about cheese crackers and other non-supermom-approved foodstuff.

Buddy loved it outside too...

Especially when he gets the scraps!

Cheers to a perfect, lazy spring day!

15 Mile Marker

Holy canoli...she's 15 months now. In the blink of an eye, you'll hear me say, "Holy canoli, she's 15 YEARS now". Eek!

Some "Milestones":

She's learning to pick up around the house. She knows that there are stuff that are meant for the trash and will walk over to the trash can, wait for you to open it up and she'll deposit it into the can and close the lid with a florish

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She drinks beautifully with a cup - although the initial sip is always overestimated, and she ends up dousing herself with water.

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She LOVES to play outside.

She knows that to go outside, she has to put on her shoes, her coat and her hat. And therefore will gather those said items first before trying to convince me to venture the brave outdoors. Either that, or I'll have to remind her, and she'll look at me with a puzzled expression, slowly process the words and will run around the house looking for them. Bonus points for her when the items are not in the "normal spot" (which it usually isn't)

And if I'm really slow, she'll try to put her shoes, coat and hat on by herself

And if I tell her that we are staying inside, this is what she thinks of it:

Yeah...can't wait for warmer weather, when we get to go through that every day.

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She's self sufficient now...meaning - she can feed herself yogurt with a spoon.

Look at her concentration!

And the mess!! But the food does get in the tummy, which is the only concern I have. And also, how can your heart (and OCD tendencies) not melt when you see how proud she is with herself?

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She runs around with the gusto of a herd of elephants. She sounds like a herd of elephants too. She must get that from me. (Yes, I'm all of 110 lbs, but I sound like a rhinoceros)

Image from allposters.com

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She has 6 teeth - 4 at the top, 2 at the bottom

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Her favourite words:

"Up!"

and

"Thank you"

So in other words, she's the most demanding child, but in a very well-mannered way.

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She reacts better to "no, thank you" than "no, please", or just plain "no" and will actually move on to another form of activity with minimal fuss.

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She can also cackle like a witch. Again, she learned that from me. There is no limit to the amount of odd behaviour I can pass on to her.

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She understands "throw", "coat", "shoes", "hat", "socks", "change your diaper", "toothbrush", "cheese", and other various odd words that act as prompts for her to either:

1) run away;

 2) scream her head off or

3) laugh maniacally excitedly until I provide said item.

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She loves the phone. Loves to put it to her ear and say "hiiiiiii" or "e-wow".

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She also conveys "bye bye" beautifully by waving and giving a smacking kiss. When her daddy leaves for work every morning, at the sound of the slamming of the glass door, she'll automatically wave and give a flying kiss.

***

Her favourite activites are to draw, to play the piano (gosh, she loves music), to go through books, to play outside, to play hide and seek, to cuddle with Momma, to meddle around with stuff that she's not technically suppose to meddle with, but I let her, so it's not really her fault (i.e. "reading" my books, playing with my makeup, etc. Nothing harmful or dangerous)

***

She's pretty...obsessive by the way she holds a pen. She'll manipulate it until just-so before she'll attempt to draw or scribble anything. She's more observant than we give her credit for.

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She knows her name - all versions of it. (Isabel, Izzy and Iz....if the daycare people shorten it anymore than they already have, it'll just be "I")

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She still loves her yogurt, and her cheese (which sadly, is taken out of rotation, since that was the culprit that caused her little mouth rash), and her vegetables.

Additionally, she also likes Girl Scout cookies.

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She's completely on whole milk now...I feel sad. 

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These days, I am constantly being told "So it's time for the next one". Unless someone is willing to share the next winning lottery ticket numbers, I say that the probability of a little wee sibling for Isabel to bully is next to none in the near future. Come back in 5 years time.

What A Lady!

Bro - if you're working on anything that requires a witch's cackle, look no further:

Or maybe even a monster's walk?

Oh, the lady-like behaviors I'm teaching her...

When The Cat Is Gone...

The mice will miss him very, very much. But, the play must go on, I suppose!

My husband is on his way out on a super-duper secret trip out to Michigan --- It's his great-grandmother's 100th birthday (that's her on the top right - that's who Isabel got her middle name from), and we were originally not going to go because it's not something that is financially responsible for us right now. But, it's a very special celebration and he should definitely be there. So, the trip was planned and the ticket was bought, but we chose to keep it a secret from his immediate family members.

So, I'm home alone with Isabel for the weekend. First time. Scary stuff.

It's going to be a rainy, rainy weekend here in the East Coast

So there goes my plans of playing outside with Isabel

Next best thing is to buy some crayons and bust out those coloring books that I bought way back when...

Hopefully there'll be lots of snuggling in bed, and watching cartoons too

And perhaps, if I'm really adventurous, I might stop by the library with her. We'll see.

Wish me luck!

Nerd Alert...

I was strolling through Walmart during lunch today to pick up some foam rollers so I can finish painting my reclaimed armoire, and guess what I saw?

Image from newmoonmovie.org

New Moon DVD is being released March 20th. Woo hoo.

Yes, I'm a dork.

Pinch Me...

I think I've died and gone to curry heaven. (ok, ew, that sounds gross...or at least, will smell gross after 2 hours)

And the best part is that it really only took 5 minutes of actual "work", thanks to this:

Image from teans.com.au

And the glutinous rice wrapped in pandan leaves came frozen from the Chinese grocery store

I am so going to try their curry laksa paste next.

Ruffly Stuff...

Tried my hand at altering a pattern

And jumping on the ruffly bandwagon

It's big on her now...(and especially considering that it's suppose to be a jumper, not a dress). Hopefully it'll fit better in the spring/summer

I do apologize for all these sewing posts...I'll get it out of my system soon enough, and you won't hear about it for another few months!

And I really need to lay off dressing my kid in my curtain fabrics! This matches my kitchen shades

On a slightly different note, her Babylegs are fitting much better these days, compared to when she was an infant...they don't seem to be cutting off her circulation anymore!

And So, We Meet Again...

Last year, I found out too late about the scrumptious factor of Cadbury's Caramel Creme Eggs...This year, I am ready for them...

Hello, my lovelies!

On a slightly different note, I think my mother lives in fear that I don't eat (because I'm too lazy to cook) and therefore, will significantly malnourish my kid, and I think my grandmother probably thinks that we survive on hamburgers and fries. 

I have to be honest here, if it weren't for my daughter, both will probably be right. But again, I'm hellbent on ensuring that she grows up to be more than a "meat and potatoes" girl. So I have to say that I've been quite ambitious (for me) when I do make it over to the Chinese grocery store.

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would have bothered making Char Chai Tau Kueh. I'm not sure that I was even that much of a fan of it. However, years away from the mamak stalls and the pasar malam have made me appreciate ALL types of hawker-style food. 

Although, again, if I'm honest, Ms Lily, and probably my mother and my grandmother, would shake their heads if they were aware of my substitutions and omissions of the recipe. Hey, I gotta work with what I got!