Hello May!

We welcomed the first day of the 5th month of the year by staying indoors. When my siblings and I were kids, my late lola always welcomed the first day of May with great revelry. She always looked forward to May because of Flores De Mayo and Her 'Hello May' ritual was usually accompanied by a piping hot pot of arroz caldo or 'palutaw' (which is just like Ginataang Halo-halo). Oh the nostalgia that May brings. I would've wanted to replicate lola's ritual but I fondly remember too how May smelled of flowers and dew and cool air then. It was never like the May that I've been experiencing for the past years that I've been living in Manila and now here in Cavite.

Of late, the summer heat has been almost unbearable that every time we're out and exposed for more than 10 minutes under the scorching sun and Maia would become lethargic, I would shake her just to keep her conscious. (insert Tibs' stiffled laugh) YES, I have heat stroke paranoia. And yes, in my part of the world, the paranoia never goes away. 

So anyway because we couldn't stay out for long unless we're dipping in a pool of water, we instead welcomed the first day of May indoors. Well, to be honest, I was secretly wishing we would do just that because the past few days had kept me extremely busy with work and other activities totally unrelated to family life. I missed my two-some, cool-some duo.I miss storytime with Maia. I miss cuddletime with Tibs.  I miss playing referee to their fights. I miss cooking for them. I just missed my family a lot. So yesterday, we ditched previous plans the last minute and decided to just get lazy and do family time some justice.  We did all the things I missed. Told/exchanged stories, cuddled, tickled, ate tacos and quesadillas, did some crafts (this is fast becoming a favorite bonding activity too in our household)!

Here are some photos I posted at instagram to summarize our day:

Fluffy Bunnies book. One of Maia's favorites since she was a toddler.
This was a gift from Lola Joyce.

Quesadilla/Soft Tacos Galore!
(my cheese dip ingredients on the left, quesadilla in the making on the right)

Maia busy at work

We did a choo-choo train from paper tubes and egg trays. Maia did that one so fast, I got pressured of thinking what to do next. Good thing I kept a Pinterest board of Arts and Crafts activities so I was able to come up with another paper tube (which was the material that I had on hand yesterday) activity instantly. Maia enjoyed the paper tube flower stamping more and I reckon it's probably because she loves painting pictures. At first I thought that making the patterns was difficult but I turned out to be easier than I'd imagined. I made a separate post of these two paper tube craft activities in case you would want to make your own version. Please click here for the Egg Carton + Paper Tube Train and here for the Paper Tube Flower stamps. 

May 1st came and went. It drizzled slightly during the late afternoon just about the same time when Maia  decided to drag all of her stuffed friends outside to show them the stars. It's a good thing the sky cleared up as soon as she got herself and her stuffed friends seated comfortably so I could claim proudly how we had a tantrum-free day yesterday. That was a first! 

Can you please join me in saying - "YOU DID GOOD, MAIA!"

Update: My Holiday Project - More Handmade Ornaments

I have to warn you. This is just a photo post. I just feel so proud I was able to make all of these so I'm making a separate post for the other ornaments that I was able to finish for the past two weeks. These just got me hooked on sewing. Now I'm dreaming big and planning to make more hand-sewn items even after Christmas. (Thinking of making toys for the little girl actually)

These were really pretty easy to do.
The challenge is coming up with nice embellishments.
I really will have to give credit to Pinterest for all wonderful ideas being shared over there.

The christmas ball was really fun to make. I got the design inspiration after seeing the Mister Donut billboard over at EDSA. I wanted to make more but I had limited colors of the felt fabric and didn't want to duplicate each ornament so I settled for this.  At least this is all making me look forward to next Christmas! :)

This star ornament is one of Maia's favorites. 

These ones were fresh from this weekend. I recently stumbled upon the pattern for the bell, candycane and santa's hat and thought they'd make interesting ornaments too. Maia says we are almost complete with Santa's wardrobe and is asking for me to make Santa's beard as well. I might just reserve that one for next Christmas too. (making a mental note here)

So there! I don't think I'll be making more ornaments since the coming days are going to be busy already. I will be just showing photos of our tree on the next post :)

Thanks for taking time to look at my creations!

Making Progress: My Holiday Project

I'm happy to announce that I've made progress on the holiday project that I planned to do for this year. I bought a few supplies (just 3 yards of different colors each - Beige, Red and Green of felt fabric/cloth, a few packs of craft buttons and a few yards of satin ribbons) from the crafts store in SM Makati last week and started doing the handmade ornaments last Sunday while Tibs was setting up our tree.

I aimed to finish at least 10 ornaments in a day but I underestimated the hand-sewing that this activity entailed. Despite that, I'm really glad to report that I was able to finish 5 ornaments already! I've cut up a few more tree and star patterns last night and I'm hoping to finish at least 3 more tonight. I also need to get more supplies of lace, ribbons and buttons but so far, I'm really enjoying this craft thingy. I'm quite surprised to see that these hands are actually capable of creating something pretty. Maia also proudly claims that it's also her project and I'm very happy to be sharing it with her.

Anyways, without further ado, I present to you some of my handiwork :) I get my inspirations mostly from Pinterest but I was also able to pull a couple more cute designs and patterns from various websites in the internet.

These were the first 3 ornaments that I finished last Sunday.

Sorry I forgot to take step-by-step photos. But these are really pretty easy to do. Surprisingly. And I tell you, I'm really not the Martha Stewart-ish kind when it came to arts and crafts so if I can do it, you sure can too!

cardboard patterns at the bottom of the box and christmas tree cut outs
on top which are now ready to be sewn together.

The Basic Stuff - Felt Fabric and a print out of a pattern

Our Tiny Slim Tree (thanks again Marj for the inspiration)

Ornaments Up In The Tree! Yipee!

My Holiday Project

I've just recently discovered the beauty of this application called Pinterest. I'm starting to get the hand of it (as a matter of fact i'm starting to feel addiction creeping in) and what's great, I was able to create a board for my upcoming Holiday Project.

I'm so looking forward to completing my materials so Maia and I can finally start working on this project. Time to put these hands to good use!