Crafting away!

Last year I did one of the Christmas gift for Samia, Carmelita her doll...so this year I decided to do more of their toys.  There are a few things that I have on mind one was felt food.  The girls love to play in their kitchen and there are certain foods that they always mention so I started searching for ideas to make them.  It took me a couple of days to come up with bread, tomatoes, lettuce, bologna, different types of cookies, doughnuts, eggs and strawberries.  I know Samia is going to love this.


I then wanted to do  this but as I was doing it, I notice it was not coming out that good so I decided to fill it it with the felt food, but once again I got excited and I started to decorated it the outside.  


I think I will make another one for Gamila just for doll stuff!

I also want to make this puppets they love playing with their puppet thing thanks to my friend Katherine she gave it to us.  I think I will start working on that soon!


Nenas is hard to do crafts when I have you two around although if Samia is doing her activities she let's me work, Milo you are a whole different story I have to keep you entertain in my little sewing closet...funny the other day baba mention how he thinks that in a couple of weeks with my belly I would not fit in there.  I have to take pictures of it.  He might be right it reminds me of the kitchen in a basement I used to live in NY.  

I remember this basement had no air conditioner neither and in the summer I would wet my blanket and sleep with it wet so I could keep cool, and I am not lying maybe 3 hours later I had to do it again because the blanket was dry by then...I still remember that summer....don't know how I jump from sewing room to new york basement, but nenas by the time you read this you will know mami is a bit hyperactive all around. 


About the baby we being trying to come up with a name..hard hard hard thing.


I like Kairos baba does not like it, althgough I am hoping I can convince him I still have 4 months!!!!!


We liked Adam but too common.

Baba has even mention of Yehia but I don't think so!!!!


Baba likes Gibril but this is Gabriel to us in Spanish and is hard for me to get used to saying Gibril instead of Gabriel...I have to admit I do like it but my tongue does a little dance when I say it and not only that I have to think about it...it does not came out naturally so imagine mami with la chancla trying to say Gibril, Gabriel No joda ven pa'ca pelado!!!!!

Mix and Match

This would be a post with a little bit of everything.

For starters I am excited Mio Dolls made it all the way to Egypt and to Singapore, can not wait to see the little girls faces when they have their dolls. Is nice how everything is falling in place almost a year to Amira's anniversary and we have started to make more girls happy. Inshallah with the help of my friend Bonnie we would get more dolls out to Guatemala. I am also currently working on trying to get a connection with Brazil thru a very nice man from Columbia, SC. So it is working little by little we are making other little girls happy , and also a chance to teach our girls that there are others that might not be so fortunate as they are.

As of today we still don't know where we would living however that has not stop me from growing my indoor garden I had hopes of my garden in the new house, but for now I am marry to my 7 plants like Samia calls them:

1 mint

2 tomatoes

1 strawberry

3 flowers

She is in charge of watering them everyday, and truly it has work she enjoys seeing her plants, and is a nice exercise to give her some sense of routine.

The days have being gloomy and lots of rain so we have being staying home, the girls are starting to play more and more together however that also includes a phone call to Poison Control..no puedo creer que tuve que llamar (I can not believe I had to call poison Control)

Nenas you guys go from one extreme to the other from two little dress up princess to two little demolition buddies and to top it off how about a drink of Johnson and Johnson detangler. One moment we are playing, mami runs to the kitchen to start lunch and I come backs to broken pieces, mami runs to the kitchen to grab a bag so I can grab all of the broken pieces and then I find Gamila with the bottle and Samia sucking the thing to spray.

mami calmly calls Poison control...WHAT a GREAT service, one more reason to LOVE this country. I am amaze the customer service, the patience, this people are great..I am telling you I don't even think they have this in my country and if they do, they would say something like Hi, Mami please let me have your form of payment before we start the dialog. The gentleman even had me call an hour later...this are the things that make this country great.

After the whole episode pass thank God we did not have any of the symptoms the poison control told me to expect just judge by their faces no side effects:

THIS IS WHAT A LITTLE JOHNSON AND JOHNSON CAN DO!

Okey nenas a couple of weeks back mami decided to sew for her, yes for big mami and I did it, I sew this nice boho, gypsy pants. I was a bit afraid for the sewing specially going out with them, what if I sit and the stitches go off and then my behind is exposed in the middle of the street. I know I am insane but that was my fear what if my sewing is not strong enough for my nice overproportion curves. So to avoid all of these I decided I will wear a long shirt to cover my derriere just in case and for plan B I had a sweater in my bag so if the unthinkable happen I could wrap it around my waist.

And to wrap this up, I saw this kind of art craft a couple of months back in a Spanish craft website and I had to do it. Is all made out of thread no sewing just tape and thread is a bit time consuming but I think is hard to find something like this. I was thinking of making some and selling them just to be able to pay for the postage charges to mail my dolls.

Cuadro o Mobil del alfabeto

This one took me a while to finally accomplish many nights trying to get it right and I still think that I have to do a couple to feel completely happy.

Nenas mami always fights two issues when she does craft, I have a hard time understanding that they are crafts meaning no two are the same and they can have its flaws, little flaws makes the ending product prettier and unique.

For the alphabet I first draw them and cut them, but then I realize that it was easier for me to just cut the shape as I went along, I guess this would depend on how comfortable the two of you feel.

Fabric
Stuffing
Wire
Sewing Machine
Sticks of wood
Yarn or ribbon
Imagination

-So cut 26 fabric strips of different fabric make the strips like 6 inches long by 4 inches wide since you are going to fold them in half to cut out each letter

-Once all the letters are cut sew them leaving the ends open

-Once the letters are sewn stuff them, you can use the wire to help you push the stuffing around

-Sew the ends

-Cortar los arrededores para que luzcan limpias

-Take a needle with yarn and make hoops so you can hang them like ornaments or you could use ribbon

-Use your imagination to decorated in the sticks

If the two of you would be smaller most likely I would had done mobil for the cribs, but not that you guys are older I would just hang it on the wall.

Barrette Tutorial

Nenas I was thinking I should show the two of you how I make my crafts this way when the two of you grow up if you want to do some crafts you just follow what mami did.

Barrette I got this from a website and I was impress on how easy it is made, I have made it with felt and fabric.

Materials
Barrettes
Felt or fabric
Sewing Machine or needle
Lots of imagination

-Take the barrette and trace it in top of the felt

-Cut the piece
-Then cut another felt in the same shape of the barrette however make sure this second one you cut a bit shorter.



-Sew around the edges
-Stick the barrette in the little pocket you have just created



-Run your imagination to decorate, you can use buttons, felt made flowers or shapes, leather,
beads, etc, etc.
.

Listo!

Nuevos descubrimientos, Pensamientos!

So my baby is growing meaning Samia sometimes I look at her and I wonder where has time go, now she can sit and do some crafts..we have being working in staying still and drawing for a while, today we played Memory for the first time I wanted to buy her the game but today I knew she was ready. Today I bought Gamila some new sippy cups I had never purchase those for Samia. So after Gamila finish her lunch, I brought out the new sippy cup, when Samia saw it she said Carson's and I did not understand till after I realize those are the sippy cups her friend Carson uses, at that point I knew she was ready for the memory game.
The only thing I can recommend for any mami that is going to start doing that with their child is patience and more patience...she got the concept of turns after maybe 4 games...she does not really how the game goes but she understands that she has to match the cards. I will keep on playing it with her till she learns.

After that I teach her to glue things, so after we went around the house looking for things to glue from the newspaper, paper, cotton, little fur balls the only thing she saw and told me we could use was tela (fabric), I though that was good is a start.

She is also starting to trace her hand, it amazes me to see her, maybe I am just one of those mami's that drools over their children sometimes I have come to realize that I have to sit down for a second and just observe her to realize how much she has grown.

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Oh on another note I made a tutu for the girls well mainly for Samia it fit her great the two of them were happy wearing it, Samia call it her princess skirt. Gamila just wanted to pull it apart, I guess I should make Gamila a tool belt, just kidding Milo. For all we know Milo turns out to be more feminine than Samia.

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This weekend coming up we would be going to Tio Cesar's wedding in SC is going to be a fast and very long trip but we would see everybody, las nenas don't realize it but I know all of us the grown up are very excited to spend at least 2 days together, knowing we would not see each other para Navidad...is so sad how the holidays come and we can not be with our love ones, I think when we are young we don't realize how important it is, but as we grow older and have a family of our own we realize how important the company of the family is and how much stronger it makes us. I always think how I was not able to grow up with my Abuela and here are my girls with Abu, Zetu, Suzzu, Guido, Nono, Abuelo and they can not spend more time with them because of life circumstances, but I never loose hope Inshallah one day the whole family can be together. I always wonder how that would be my mom with Zetu so different in so many ways but have so much in common just the love of my two nenas. I have seeing Nono and Guido together and although they have a language barrier, they even cried when they said goodbye not sure how they communicated but I guess is all the love they have for us and for the girls that just makes them know what each other want.

Actually remembering a few years back Amira and Abuela were in our house at the same time and they had a language barrier, but the two of them would go out shopping together when I was at work, they would cook together and best of all would even share the same room don't ask me how they understood each other. The only thing I know is that as the years went by they always asked for each other and Abuela would always send things for Mio and viceversa, and to this day Abu cries when she remembers Mio. Well the truth I still cry everyday when I see her picture in las nenas room. I keep a picture of Mio in the nenas room with a fresh flower, she loved flowers that is the least I can do for her since I can not go to visit her. Nenas that is the first person that die while mami was an adult when Andres Felipe my little brother die I was too young to remember. There is really no words that I could say to you guys so things would be easier when something like this happens in any of your lives, the only thing I can say is always remember that person in its happiest moments, and I have to be sincere baba teach me that. Also know that Dios, God, Allah always have a plan for us, don't question him he knows best. The day we are born we have our destine, destino, maktoob.