Crafted by Katie

I started another blog. It's an addiction, I tell you. It's called "Crafted by Katie." Why? Because I dream big, that's why. :) I haven't posted anything on it yet, but I'm hoping to be able to keep track of all my hand made things there. Could be anything from sewing projects to scrapbook pages, to home made bread. :) But for now, I'm going to post this here just because I'm too excited not to.

There's a point to this, I promise! Remember when I got my sewing machine a couple weeks ago? I've been a busy bee! First of all, I made my nativity advent calendar.

Now, before you are too impressed by it, it's just one of those prints that you buy off a roll of fabric. But here's what I did... All of those squares are little pockets. I had to cut them out individually, iron the seams down and then sew them on. After that, I layered some batting and backing fabric, pinned it all together, and then started "quilting" the layers together by sewing around some of the pockets and outlining the picture.

While I was doing that, though, I ran out of thread! (Don't judge... I'm a beginner). Luckily, my friend Charisse came to my rescue. She invited me over to work on our calendars together (she happened to buy the same one), and she was a huge help! First of all, she gave me a huge spool of thread (like serger machine size spool), gave me the blue fabric for the binding since the fabric I had didn't match very well, and showed me how to sew it on. I would have been lost without her!

Over the next few days I worked on hand stitching the back of the binding on. Yesterday I finally finished it! Now I just have to figure out how to hang it up..... I think I'll need to attach something to the back, but am not sure what just yet.

The second item on my sewing project list was making pajamma pants for my girls. On Monday, I went over to my friend Lynelle's house to talk over some things for an upcoming activity. She had mentioned that she had a lot of leftover fabric that she wasn't planning to use, and let me take whatever I wanted! When I saw this fabric, I immediately thought they would be perfect for jammy pants.

I followed THIS tutorial on the Made blog (minus the knee pads, obviously). It seemed simple enough, but my inexperienced brain could not quite follow along. I won't tell you how many times I had to rip out the seams before I got it right!! :) Finally, eventually, I got both pairs done. I know what to do in the future, and how I can modify them to fit better. When I went to pick up my sewing machine from the store, I bought some really cute red and white striped fabric to make Christmas jammy pants for my girls. This was good practice for me so I can get it right next time!

The girls insisted on doing some funny pictures, and who am I to say no??? :)

Next on my 'to do' list is the shirt dress, also from Made. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to attempt the shirring, as shown in THIS post. I've already bought the elastic thread, I just need to gather the courage to actually go for it! Wish me luck!

Big Wave Bay

Wow, I did not realize how long it had been since I last posted! That must be a record for me, a whole week and a half!! :) Well, I have excuses, and you'll soon see why. I'm going to play catch up here and write a couple different posts about what we've been up to. (WARNING: long post ahead!)

Let me start with Saturday, Nov. 7th.

The girls and I left the house around 9:25 am to take Maya to her drama class. Now if you remember in previous posts, I mentioned that it takes us at least 45 minutes to get there. So already we were running a little late, as the class starts at 10am. Somehow, thankfully, we managed to get there right on time. Zoe and I said goodbye to her and then we left to go back home.

Because it takes so long to travel to and from Maya's class, Zoe and I usually just go on a little outing during that time. On Saturday, though, we had plans to go to the beach in the afternoon with some friends. I didn't have time to gather all of our stuff together, though, before we left in the morning, which is why Zoe and I had to go back home.

I promise I didn't waste any time when we got home. I got right to work making a fruit salad, and then gathered all of our things together, and then maybe I did check my email... But the point is, we left the house with MORE than 45 minutes to get to Maya's drama class. Zoe and I got on the bus, but of course we hit traffic. It was SO. SLOW. I was trying to find a good place to get off and change to a taxi because I knew we were going to be cutting it close, but there was no good place to do it. Traffic was just bad all around. I'd rather sit on the bus and wait than paying a taxi meter.

We finally got to a place where I thought we could get in a taxi and bypass the traffic, so Zoe and I (and all our stuff) got off the bus. Taxi after taxi after taxi went by, but they were all taken. After about 10 minutes (and by this time we were late and I was having heart palpitations), I decided to walk back a block or two to see if I could get a taxi there, but after 5 minutes I still had no luck. I walked back a couple more blocks. Just then, I saw an empty taxi pull out of an apartment building ahead of me. I wasn't sure I could catch it, but then it stopped at a red light. I picked up Zoe and ran for it. I opened the door and jumped in right as the light turned green!

Of course we still had to sit in 4 blocks of traffic before we could start traveling at the speed limit. By this time, Maya's teacher had called me, wondering where I was. Thankfully, she was able to stay with Maya until I got there. We were 30 minutes late. NEVER AGAIN will I go home during her class! The stress is NOT worth it! I was seriously crying because I knew that Maya would be worried and sad that I wasn't there. She told me that she started crying at first when I wasn't there, but then one of the teachers gave her some paper to draw on, (which of course would make her happy), and another teacher gave her some candy.

Whew! It took me some time to calm down from that one!

We got some lunch, then stopped by a bookstore to browse for about 10 minutes, and found Maya some new sports shoes for school. By then it was time to head to the beach.

We had never been to Big Wave Bay before in Shek O, but we'd heard good things about it and were excited to try it out. The trip out there was a bit longer than I had anticipated. From where we were, it took about an hour to get there. We rode the MTR (subway) part way, and then switched to a bus.

Here's where things got interesting again. Apparently the bus we were on had two final destinations. It was the same number bus and had the same route until the very end where it comes to a fork in the road. You go one way and it takes you to Big Wave Beach, (our destination), or you go the other way and it takes you to Shek O beach. Well, silly me had no idea there were two beaches, so I didn't think to ask the driver which way he was going. We got off at the last stop and followed the crowd and found the beach. Maya, Zoe and I walked up and down the beach 3 times and couldn't find anyone we knew. I tried calling a few people, but didn't get much help. Thankfully, we finally found someone we knew and we figured out that we were at the wrong beach. We all hopped into a taxi together and went back the other way to Big Wave Bay. As soon as we got there, we found everyone.




The girls had such a fabulous time! The waves there were so big! (Hence the name of the beach). There were surfers our there having fun, tons of kids to play with, lots of friends to talk to, and good food to eat. It was a blast. Unfortunately, by the time Sam got there after work, it was just starting to get dark and most of the food was gone! He was only there about 45 minutes before everyone started packing up to leave. Poor guy. :( On the way home, both kids fell asleep. I don't blame them. It was hard for me to keep my eyes open, too.





A couple videos. In the first one, Maya is the pink dot in the water, lol. Zoe and I were playing in the sand. The second one is Zoe just running around in the puddles. She was too afraid of the big waves, but had fun just running around. The third one is just to show how big some of the waves were. (Ok, I know, they are tiny compared to some beaches around the world, but in HK these are big.) I was trying to capture the surfers riding the waves, but kept missing them.

(It was actually quite a beautiful day. It was just starting to get dark when I took these, which is why it looks like a grey day.)

But wait, you don't think the fun ends there, do you? Oh, no. I went to bed around 12:30am, (after cleaning up all the beach things), and Zoe woke up around 3:30am vomiting. She and I did not get any sleep that night. She threw up about 3 or 4 times before 7am. When Sam woke up, I told him that he and Maya would be on their own going to church as Zoe and I were staying home. Throughout the day, and the whole next day, Zoe was so sick. I felt so bad for my little girl. She was in so much pain and crying and crying. I kept trying to make sure she was getting enough fluids, but she couldn't even keep water down. She didn't have any fever, though, so we didn't take her to the doctor. We figured that it just needed to run it's course. We are wondering if she picked it up at the beach? We're on day 5 now, and she is finally getting better. She hasn't thrown up for 2 days, but she's still having a bit of other tummy issues. Hopefully tomorrow she will be all better.

Maya: "Why I'm so happy today..."

On Saturday morning, Maya woke up early and excited. Why? In her own words...

"First of all, because today is Saturday and I don't have to go to school! Second, because I get to go to Faust!" (Her drama class... they've had the last two weeks off.) "Third, because we get to go to Siu Lan's house, and lastly because it's Halloween!"

Oh yes, it was a very busy day. We dropped Maya off at her drama class at 10am. Then, since there isn't much sense in going all the way home and then coming all the way back (at least 45 min each way), Zoe and I had a little outing. We went down into Central and had a look around some of the shops, then stopped at a bakery to get a couple of buns for lunch. We walked to the Star Ferry and rode across Victoria Harbour to the TST side, and looked around Ocean Terminal, (where the cruise ships dock), and played with toys in the ginormous Toys R' Us they have over there.

(This all used to be water... Hong Kong calls it "land reclamation." I call it a tragedy.)

(Riding the Star Ferry)

We then rode the Star Ferry back across the harbour, and because we were a tad behind schedule, (what else is new?), we took a taxi up to Island School to pick up Maya from her class. (She had a fabulous time.)

I got a phone call a few days earlier that my sewing machine was in stock and I could pick it up any time. So against my better judgement, I took both kids with me all the way out to Spotlight (took about an hour from where we were) to pick it up. It was much bigger and heavier than I remembered, but since we were already there I wasn't going to leave without it. I also bought some cute fabric to make Christmas jammie pants for my girls. Somehow I managed to lug it, while pushing Zoe in the stroller (she had fallen asleep, otherwise I would have made her walk and put the sewing machine in the stroller, haha) back to that MTR station. Altogether, it took about an hour and a half to get home, and we arrived somewhere around 4:30pm.

At about 5pm, we got ready to go to our friend Siu Lan's house for a Halloween party and trick-or-treating! The place we live doesn't do T-or-Ting, so we were happy to tag along to our friend's place. It's interesting doing that here because it's not like going house to house. We all live in high rise apartment buildings, so what we did was ride the elevator to the top (30th floor), and walk down the stairs stopping at each floor. BUT there are two stairwells. One only goes to the even floors, and the other goes to the odd floors. So we went down the whole building twice! There is a 2nd building in her complex, but we didn't have the energy to do that again! haha.

Name that princess... don't let the pumpkin hat fool you!

Snow White, Siu Lan the cheerleader, and Maya is a Veterinarian. (You can tell because she's carrying a couple animals around in her doctor kit, haha)

Party time!

Maya and Zoe were very happy with their spoils, and we had a great time.

It's heeeeeeerrrrrreeeee!

First project is in progress. Photos to come soon!!!

Amazing what a little paint can do

I needed to repaint my toenails today. Not a glamerous job, but someone had to do it. :)

I was digging through my box of polish and found a sparkly silver that I forgot I had. I tried it on my thumbnail to see how it looked, and I liked it so much that I painted my whole left hand's nails before I realized what was happening! Well, of course I couldn't just paint one hand, so I painted my right as well. I can't remember the last time I painted my fingernails, but it was fun! This sparkly silver makes me feel young and alive and spunky! I can't remember the last time I felt spunky, either. Like a teenager getting ready to go to an 'N SYNC concert or something. :) I like it.

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Where I've been...

I realize that I haven't been the best at keeping my blog updated lately. But since my last post, I've been trying to stay busy. I've realized that it's when I'm sitting around, wasting time, not going outside, etc, is when I start to feel down. I'm trying to spend more quality time with my kids, too. As you well know, I tend to get long winded when I'm playing "catch up", so I hope you'll bear with me!! :)

So, after I posted last Wednesday, I did indeed turn off the computer, read my scriptures, and take Zoe for a hike. Funnily enough, we ran into my friend Nadine on the trail! It was fun to huff and puff with her up the hill for a few minutes. Zoe and I didn't go all the way up to the peak, but we went about halfway before we needed to head back down towards home. It felt really good to go out, and was fun to have a friend to chat with along the way. When we reached the Pokfulam Reservoir, Zoe was hoping to see a lot of turtles and fishies swimming around, but unfortunately, there were a couple of "fishermen" with about half a dozen poles laid out, and the fishies and turtles were nowhere in sight. A consolation prize, though, was that when we passed by the Pokfulam Riding School, there were actually a couple of horses out. Zoe loves watching the horses.

After lunch, the wheat bread did get baked (though it took a lot longer to rise than I had planned), and the kids loved it. I've still got a lot of room for improvement in the bread-baking area, though. Unfortunately, I didn't get to scrapping until the kids were in bed later that night, but I did manage to finish a 2-page layout. I'm now up to Zoe at 4 months old. Slowly, but surely...

On Thursday, I had a really good day. My friend Karen offered to watch Zoe for me all day so that I could go to the temple and have a day to myself. It was fabulous. It's been a few months since I've been to the temple, and it was a much needed respite.

Afterward, I picked up a bun from a local bakery for lunch, and headed out to Megabox (a giant shopping mall shaped like a big red box. Really.) to visit Spotlight. Spotlight is a little piece of heaven for me in Hong Kong because it's like a giant Linen's & Things + Joann's + Michaels all rolled into one. Unfortunately it is a bit of a trek to get there, so this was only the third time I've ever gone. When I got out there, I was walking through the fabric/sewing section and found out that they were having a sale on sewing machines, and it was the last day! I'd been talking to my hubby about getting one for awhile, so after I tried it out and asked the sales lady a bunch of questions, I called him up and said, "please, please, please, please, please!" lol. Thankfully he agreed. :) They were back ordered, though, so I didn't get to bring it home with me that day, but it should be here in a few weeks. They said that any fabric I bought along with the sewing machine would be 30% off. I was kind of bummed that I didn't already have a project planned, but saw a really nice nativity advent calendar that I thought didn't look too complicated for a first project. I bought the material for that. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks. :)

On Friday, Maya was out of school, so she came along with Zoe and I to our friend Vanessa's house. Vanessa just started a sign language play group where she will teach 10-15 signs each week. At first I thought that would be quite a lot, but we picked it up pretty well and Maya and Zoe have both loved practicing them every day. We learned: milk, water, drink, thirsty, hungry, crackers, cookies, ice cream, bread, cheese, apple, and banana. We also picked up please, thank you, yes, no, and practiced the alphabet. It sounds like a lot, but when learned in context, it flowed really well. We are really excited for the next playgroup!

I'm drawing a blank for what I did on Saturday... Oh, it's quickly coming back to me, lol. I spent the morning doing a lot of cleaning. I washed all the windows and caught up on laundry, and scrubbed the bathroom and other "fun" things like that. I baked another loaf of bread, and I made sugar cookies to take to church the next day for an activity. In the afternoon, I took the girls out to find a Halloween costume for Maya. Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck. Everything she liked was out of our price range, and I couldn't convince her on some of the things that didn't cost so much. So we'll have to figure it out this week... (Zoe is going to be Snow White, since we already have the costume that Maya wore a couple of years ago.)

This was the inspiration for the cookies I made. Picture from The Decorated Cookie.

Unfortunately, this is how mine turned out. lol. Maya thought they were pretty cool, but as you can see, my piping skills have a lot to be desired. :)

Sunday was pretty laid back. Sam and I both subbed in Primary, and our home teachers came over in the afternoon. I read the whole book "Gifted Hands" by Ben Carson. (It's for my book group which is meeting this Tuesday). I really enjoyed the book and gleened some things from it. It's autobiographical about the author who grew up dirt poor in the ghetto of Detroit, and with a lot of encouragement from his mother, a strong desire to succeed, and a good work ethic, was able to achieve incredible things. He was awarded a 90% scholarship to Yale, went on to medical school at U of Michigan, and a Neurosurgery residency at Johns Hopkins. Today is one of the foremost pediatric neruosurgeons in the world. From the experiences he shares, it's hard not to believe that you can also acheive great things if you just put your mind to it. One part that stood out to me is this:

"Today I try to emphasize this point when I speak to young people. "There isn't anybody in the world who isn't worth something," I say. "If you're nice to them, they'll be nice to you. The same people you meet on the way up are the same kind of people you meet on the way down. Besides that, every person you meet is one of God's children.

I truly believe that being a successful neurosurgeon doesn't mean I'm better than anybody else. It means I'm fortunate because God gave me the talent to do this job well. I also believe that what talents I have I need to be willing to share with others."

Today, I slipped back into my old habits just a bit. It's a public holiday here in HK, Chung Yeung Festival. I really wanted to do something fun with the family, but we all slept in a bit, and took our time getting ready. By the time we could go out, it was lunch time, and then Zoe fell asleep, and then Sam fell asleep, and then I needed to get more chores done and on and on and on. Sadly, we didn't go out and do anything fun, but Sam did take the girls out to the playground for awhile and I got to finish another book I was working on, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See. I also got caught up on some of my shows online, lol.

Well, thanks if you got through this whole posting. I know it's not the most exciting thing for you to read, but it's therapeutic for me to write. :)

A new direction...

I always let Zoe pick one or two (or three or four) books for me to read to her at nap time. Yesterday, she picked "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss. It has been awhile since we read it, and so I was actually excited to read it again. As always, Dr. Seuss had some important words to share with me...

"I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done."


Dr. Seuss then took me on a journey through darkened streets where I could sprain both my elbow and chin and I had to decide if I would stay out or go in. He then showed me the waiting place... For people just Waiting for the train to go or a bus to come, or the phone to ring or the snow to snow or a pot to boil or a Better Break... But Dr. Seuss was very reassuring when he said:

"On and on you will hike.
And I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember the Life's a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!"

I'm going to be quite honest here... I hope it doesn't scare you away. I've been making life much harder for myself than it really needs to be. I've been complaining about where we are and how long it's taking and what we're doing rather than making the changes necessary to make life happier. I've been daydreaming about the future (and the past) rather than living in the present. I've been letting the tv babysit rather than being a mother. It hasn't been a very good few months for me, or our family.

Therefore, I am heeding the wise words of Dr. Seuss, along with the even wiser words of Dallin H. Oaks, Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

"We are accountable and will be judged for how we use what we have received. This eternal principle applies to all we have been given. In the parable of the talents (see Matt. 25:14–30), the Savior taught this principle with reference to the use of property. The principle of accountability also applies to the spiritual resources conferred in the teachings we have been given and to the precious hours and days allotted to each of us during our time in mortality.

Jesus taught about priorities when He said, “Seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:38). “Seek … first to build up the kingdom of God” means to assign first priority to God and to His work. The work of God is to bring to pass the eternal life of His children (see Moses 1:39), and all that this entails in the birth, nurturing, teaching, and sealing of our Heavenly Father’s children. Everything else is lower in priority. Think about that reality as we consider some teachings and some examples on priorities. As someone has said, if we do not choose the kingdom of God first, it will make little difference in the long run what we have chosen instead of it.

Our priorities are most visible in how we use our time. Someone has said, “Three things never come back—the spent arrow, the spoken word, and the lost opportunity.” We cannot recycle or save the time allotted to us each day. With time, we have only one opportunity for choice, and then it is gone forever."

I could quote his whole message. It's packed full of things that I needed to hear. Just this past Sunday, I was priviledged to hear another address from Elder Oaks in a special Asia Area conference broadcasted from Salt Lake City, and he again reiterated the importance of how we use our time and the choices we make.

This message has really hit home to me for various reasons. I'm not going to go into all the icky and gory details of my flawed personality, but I can tell you that it has inspired me to make some changes in my life.

And the first step is that in exactly two minutes from now, I am turing off the computer and the TV. I am going to read my scriptures, and then take Zoe for a nice long hike around the Pokfulam Reservoir. When we come home, we're going to bake some wheat bread. And while she's napping, I'm going to pound out a few more scrapbook pages.

I have a lot of goals in my life, but I can honestly say that not a one of them is going to be met if I stay in this chair.

While I'm at it...

Since I just posted an office video, I thought I'd also post this "Office" video. It's my favorite. :) I tear up every time.

Laughter... the best medicine

One of my friends posted this video on facebook and I just had to share it here because I was litterally laughing so hard that I started crying. I think it all started when the guy was climbing on his desk..........

Food, Friends, Fun

During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday weekend, we were able to get together with a couple of other families that we enjoy hanging out with. All together, there were 6 adults, and 9 kids. And as you can imagine, LOTS of food. (Good thing, as most of you know how much Sam can EAT!) ;)

We had hot pot, which is basically the Chinese version of fondue. You have a pot of boiling water, (a lot of people use a soup base or seasonings to give it flavor), and then just dump in a bunch of meat/vegetables/shrimp/ noodles/dumplings etc etc and let it boil for a few minutes, then scoop it out and enjoy. I'll be honest, I was NOT impressed the first time I had hot pot, but I've grown to love it.

On Mid-Autumn Festival night, which falls on the full moon/harvest moon, the tradition is for children to stay up late, and take their lanterns out and gaze at the moon. :) We were out especially late, it was after midnight when we got home from hanging out with our friends. The girls insisted that they still wanted to take their lanterns out, so we went to our playground and played for about 10 minutes before they were both ready to go home and go to bed.

I'm just grateful that the trend now is more toward battery operated lanterns now vs. paper lanterns with candles in them. We've used both kinds, but the paper/candle lanterns always really worried me, especially with all the kids running around like crazy.

One Mid-Autumn Festival tradition that I don't really care for, is the eating of mooncakes. We have to have a bite every year, just because, but none of us would be able to eat a whole one.