Thank you again!

Last year, when my mom came to visit, she gave Ella this easel with blackboard as a present which at the beginning was fun for her because she could use it to draw, color, play charades but lately we have been finding it very useful too. Recently I have been giving Ella short lessons of reading and writing and the board came in very handy. 

I thanked my sister because she surprised me for mothers day with a box of flowers at my doorstep, but I have to thank her again because we were still enjoying these flowers until yesterday when they finally began to lose their petals, thanks again for those flowers Louie! 

And last but not least, I want to thank my mother in law because she finally found (in the Dominican Republic) the dining table for Ella's toy house. She and my mom have been looking for furniture and family members to complete Ella's toy house.

I'm known for repeating myself but I felt that these thank yous* where necessary. THANKS AGAIN!

Rainy days

It has been raining a lot lately here in our area and I feel that besides wearing my rain-boots the days are appropriate to drinking hot chocolate, and for some reason... draw, draw, draw! Is that or that I'm still going through the drawing tablet fever? 

Anyways, all this rain brings many positive things like plants ad flowers watered naturally. Our grass and outdoor plants are growing faster than in other seasons. I've had to trim all the small plants a couple of times because they have grown so much.

There is a small beehive in this climbing plant.

 I love rainy days! Not so much for the seasonal inhabitants in the garage. You must know which inhabitants I'm referring to...

Making a simple cover

Last month was Ramon and I's anniversary. When the day was starting he surprised me with a very cool gift, something that I wanted for a long time. It was a Bamboo tablet and pen to draw directly in the computer and not having to go through the process of scanning every drawing or sketch that I make.

This little gadget is very fragile so I wanted to make a sleeve for it, to keep it a little more protected. 

I bought three super cheap 9" by 12"  felt squares and sewed them together to make a cover. 

Not bad for a 2 dollar project!

Playdate

Being an only child, Ella has a very stretch relationship with Ramon and I. We do many things together, have special family time, do different activities and even play together. But despite our attention she also needs to spend time with children her age. She plays with her friends at school but at home she mostly plays by herself.

These last weeks she and her best friends have been having several playdates and it has been a lot of fun for them. They have snacks, watch movies, play games, enjoy themselves. Whether is in their house or ours, they end up having a blast!

For snacks they had jello and popcorn.

This was a circus tea, dress up, party.

Good eater

Ramon and I have been having a rough time lately trying to make Ella eat different things. She eats a very limited variety of foods and this is concerning us more every day. I love to see how other children eat almost everything, sometimes foods that even some adults wouldn't dare to try. Today I spent the day developing a design idea I had a while ago for a t-shirt. Its called "The good eater". These shirts will be worn by those kids that eat their broccoli, all ye celery eaters, those that can't stop munching and crunching!   

For testing I'm using transfer. First I designed the characters, then printed on transfer paper and finally ironed the design on the fabric. 

Here are three different designs for different ages.

Hopefully soon we will see Ella wearing her own "Good eater shirt".

A mother's love

Mothers day is approaching and everyone is talking about it. Moms play the leading part and act as main characters on this special day. But what about our co-stars? Our children who make cards, clean up, sneak out of the house with dad to find a little something for mom, they also play a very important role on this day. 

Mothers day is this Sunday, so happy mothers day to my dear Mom and Grandma and all the mom friends and family I know who are all great mothers! 

The afternoon snack

Usually after lunch most children expect an afternoon snack. Ella gets really hungry after 2:00 P.M, that's also when she feels more helpful in the kitchen and wants to be part of the process of  meal or snack preparation.  

Cookies made by Ella and Me.

She likes to bake cookies because she is in charge of most of the process and when they're done she feels very accomplished. We like to do this since we work together like a team and spend good quality time. Plus when the cookies are in the oven and almost done the entire house smells like a bakery.

Speaking of smells, another snack we love and gives the house a movie theater aroma is popcorn. We make it in our vintage popcorn machine which I love also as a prop in the kitchen.

Sewing for Ella

Well... I've finally sewn my first piece of clothing. I wanted to make outfits for Ella and I thought that a good way to start was making a skirt and a headband. 

Ella chose the butterflies and ladybugs fabric.

Not too bad for a beginner, although I had another idea in my head of how it was going to suit her but now I know the mistakes I shouldn't make for the next time. 

Pretty girl with a headband.

Another empty wall is dressed up!

We had two empty frames just waiting for their pictures but we finally selected, retouched and went out to print the ones we wanted. The best thing is that both pictures 11.5'' by 11.5'' cost us almost $3.00 dollars in total. What a bargain! The trick was that instead of a poster Ramon ordered them as two album pages which are much cheaper... smart guy!

That cute blouse doesn't fit me

Whether is that you love the pattern or it reminds you of a special occasion, sometimes is hard to get rid of old clothes we love. Here is a dress Ella used to wear when she was smaller, then it turned into a blouse and now it doesn't fit her at all. This dress was really special for us so we still wanted it to hang around the house. 

My solution was to turn it into a bag closing the bottom and sewing the shoulder straps together to make only one strap. Now Ella can use it to transport her books from the library or whatever thingamajig it occurs to her to carry in her bag. 

Easter egg hunt at home

Yesterday Ella and I painted Easter eggs. Thanks to our great friend Silvia who encouraged me to paint eggs with Ella and even provided me with a whole carton of eggs, half of them were empty shells ready to be painted. 

We had never done this before so they didn't come out so great. I had a litttle trouble holding the eggs without putting my fingers on the areas that were already painted but overall we think they came out great!

Thank you Silvia!

A hat for the Diana Mini

With leftover string from Ramon's hat I made a mini hat for my Diana Mini. The thing is that the lens cover the camera came with kept falling off, so I made this kind of hat to cover the lens. Is very practical and at the same time it looks nice and personalized. 

Good thing that the leftover string was blue, so it matches the camera.

Welcome spring

A couple of days ago began spring. Finally the rain will return to water the grass and the trees. We wanted to make a picnic to give spring a welcome, and here are the pictures of this nice day! Oh! And Laura (my sister) was here so we all shared together.

By the way... did you guys notice my hairband? I made it!

A happy kid!

We are very glad to say that we have a happy daughter. Ella has been raised in an environment of love, a love which sometimes I think it has been a little too close to indulgence, but fortunately we still manage to keep that under control.  

I think you can tell a child is happy if she or he communicates with you, expresses herself/himself, laughs, doesn't need much to have fun, enjoys simple things and loves you back! Other signs could be singing, dancing, hugging and kissing. That's Ella.

Ella's own craft

Yesterday Ella saw someone making a craft on TV and she said right away -Mom, can we make this craft pleeease?- with a very funny voice. It was called "stained glass jar" but actually consisted in cutting tissue paper with different colors and sticking them on a jar. She was very proud of herself because she didn't need my help for this one. 

Way to go Ella, that came out great!

I love old glass jars, you can use them for so many things. Here's another old glass jar craft I made a time ago. Just put a nice looking piece of paper inside a transparent jar and that's it!