Mochi lately

Since I merged my craft blog with Mochi's blog, she has been a bit quiet, which obviously is not the case in her real life. So here it is. Mochi lately....

She's a girl. She loves flowers.

Can I eat these? (NO!!)

oh hello!

dreaming about playing in the real field, chasing real butterflies perhaps

Found her here when I woke up the other day

what?

Cards #1

I've made these to hone my card making skills. I borrowed a bunch of card making or papercraft books from my local library and made some that interested me. There are so many ideas and inspirations! I'm so happy I've finally decided to dive into this craft.

Here are a few of them:

I know - some lines are not very straight. practice. practice.
Made to learn layering.

Learned to use vellum paper and to layer cards with a string rather than glue.

These were just practice pieces and not so much of my style. But for the next two, I was able to show more of my tastes.

Made to practice a little peeking window in the front of the card. When it opens,

This card is for my husband's relatives who kindly gave us some baby gifts.

The next one is my favorite of all the cards I've made so far.

For a friend of mine who's having a baby soon.

I thought using black in a welcome baby card was uncommon but would make a cute and chic card, and I wasn't wrong. I learned to use buttons, ribbons and layered pieces of paper in this card - so fun! I hope she likes it.

I found that when I have a recipient (or at least a real occasion) in mind, the cards turn out to be more of my style, even for practice pieces. And it's way more fun!

The designs of these cards were inspired by the book I love card making: 25 projects that will show you how to make cards easily and quickly by Amy Gooda. It was a great introductory book to card mking. Not overwhelming but covers a wide variety of skills and ideas.

Summer Events

late June

It was Mr. J's birthday! This is the card I made for him. I basically followed a card I found in the summer issue of Paper Creations magazine, using the materials I had at hand and a little bit more I bought at Jo-Ann. I think it came out fitting to a summer birthday, didn't it?

The original card had a heart charm at the center of the scallop. But I found these charms with inspirational words at Jo-Ann, and thought "knowledge" was appropriate for Mr. J's goal this year, so that's what I chose. He liked it a lot :)

His "birthday pie", vegan coconut and cookies & cream no-bake pie. The coconut cream was so soft and silky, I loved the texture a lot. I thought it tasted better a day or two days later.

July 4th

Happy Birthday America!

We went to my in-laws' to watch fireworks. This was little J's first 4th of July, and a neighbor brought this 4th of July pinwheel for him Isn't that cute?

Check out Mochi, who's peeking in the background lol

At first, he was mesmerized by the twirling pinwheel, but then a few seconds later he got scared :( A lot of new experiences over the 4th of July weekend probably overstimulated him a bit. He enjoyed the fireworks, though. It was too loud to watch it outside, but he enjoyed seeing the colorful lights and booms through the window.

July 7th
On July 7th we celebrate Tanabata in Japan. This is the day when the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, who are lovers but separated by the Milky Way, are allowed to meet once a year. It represents the day their wishes come true. So we celebrate the day by making wishes.

I made a few pieces of paper that's 2" x 9", and we wrote our wishes on them - one for each of us and one for the family. Then those were hung on our (fake) bamboo tree. A real bamboo branch is used traditionally but we already happen to have this bamboo tree at home, so we use this instead. We could also hang other paper decorations like stars but we were too tired from the 4th of July trip so just made wishes. Maybe next year I can show you more decorations. It's a bit like a Christmas tree, isn't it? In the meantime, I hope our wishes come true! :)

baby food - 6 months old

Month 2 of starting vegetables and fruits!

This month we started bananas. I thought kids love bananas, but to my surprise, he didn't! He made this sour face like "what on earth are you giving me mama?!" lol Later, I learned that mixing avocado with banana will work when kids don't eat bananas, so I tried. It worked. It had an interesting taste to me, like melon cream? But he liked it. That all matters.

But he got constipated (bananas are known for causing constipation), so I didn't give him bananas any longer. I don't think it's necessary at this stage anyway.

We've also started barley tea (mugicha) this month. At this stage, I was instructed to give him some other fluid than breastmilk or formula. Little J, however, didn't take water as much as I'd like probably because it doesn't have much taste. I don't want to give him juice yet because I think juice contains too much sugar. I was wondering what would be a good alternative to water....

Then I remember. My twitter mommy friends back in Japan give their little ones barley tea! Barley tea does have some flavor (like roasted taste, which I love) and doesn't have sugar or caffeine. That would be perfect. I had a stock of barley tea bags at hand so I made a pot of it. I poured some into his newly introduced straw mug, thinned it down with water (about 1:1) and to my relief, he drank it more than water!

And now that he mastered drinking from a straw, he loves gulping his tea :)

Next month, we're going to try tofu (yay!), carrots, peaches, green beans and potatoes. I hope he'd love his veggies and tofu. He's a tofu loving veggie mom's son, he's gotta love tofu!

ps. Needless to say if you thought barley tea is a good idea too and are thinking about giving it to your little one, please make sure with your pediatrician first :)