Life in AZ

It has been 6 weeks since we have moved here due to my hubby work. And I have been suffering from 'rotten hands disease' ever since. I'm not kidding k, both of my hands are full of broken skin, red bumps and dry like those ah ma hands. They are itchy 50% of the whole day, especially after in contact with the super duper harsh water here. Been applying hand cream vigorously for a few weeks, wearing gloves while washing the dishes but to no avail:( I wonder how long will the rotting continues and when will my precious hands be back to normal again. Thankfully, this only applies to my hands, if not I sure will age like hell here.

Other than my rotting hands, most of the changes and lifestyle here is brilliant! The sceneries are so beautiful here, especially the night sky, whereby you can enjoy the beauty of the stars, unlike in SG. And of course the outlets shopping! Branded items at super low prices. At just 100usd I managed to purchase 1 jean, 1 short, 2 tops, 1 dress at H&M for myself and 3 sets of boys clothing at carters! Not to mention how dirt cheap the cars are here. We brought our second hand 7 sitter @ a mere 3k. It's not even enough to pay the COE of a car in SG.

What I really love about living in US is the easy accessibility to craft items and fabrics at a much cheaper price than in SG. The beloved Joan craft store is a mere 10 mins drive away, and I can even do fabric shopping at the Wal-Mart supercenter as well! Every time we stop by Wal-Mart for grocery shopping, I will always sneak to the fabric department and grab some bargains:) They have clearance fabrics as low as 1usd per yard, I dun think I can ever get that kind of pricing in SG. And even if my hubby can't drive me out, I can still do fabric shopping online... Another way to overspend... Oh my, temptations are every where... Jialat. LOL!

Another thing about here is, one definitely need to drive in order to get around. Very seldom you get to see people walking out in the streets. So whenever I push my boys in their stroller and walk 20 mins to the nearest neighborhood Wal-Mart, I feel so weird and out of place. I have enrolled in driving school a few weeks back for a 6 hours lesson, but my steering sucks big time, and need more practice. Hopefully I can get my local driving license asap, so I no need to depend on my hubby to drive:)

Below are some of the snaps I took around my neighborhood and my boys.

 

 

My elder son: Aidan acting fierce...

 

 I trimmed Allan's fringe myself, n he looks so 'TUT"...

Funny posture right? He is actually shitting at this moment. Squeeze!

 

I shall end my post with this pic. This is the beautiful tree at the entrance of our neighborhood. Love the color of the flowers! (Although it is gonna turn botak soon)

 

My First Picnic Blanket Skirt

After seeing the many different styles of picnic blanket skirt on the sewing blogs, I was tempted to make 1 for myself as well:) I love polka dots but I figured if the entire skirt is made out of the polka dots, it will be a bit too busy for the placket n buttons details. So I used this thick black cotton blend fabric from my stash. This material is super difficult to iron down. I already put my iron on max heating and the gathers still puffs out a lot. But its ok, the puffiness of the skirt makes my waist looks smaller. (^v^) I just follows what the pattern instructions say, and just added a 5 inch polka dots strips on fold to the hem.

 

See how the skirt puffs out?

 

The pockets are made with the polka dots fabric as well. Sorry for not showing in the pics.

 

The buttons are brought from nearby Walmart super store. It actually has a small flora design in the middle, but my cam (or my skills) are too lousy to capture that:P

 

I am already planning to wear this beauty out tomorrow:) And here are some snips snaps of my smaller buddy: Allen is 15 months old, looks like an angel but behaves like a devil... Buahahhaha. Running after the 2 boys and cleaning up after them is no joke. They are too hyper! I am already trying to cut down their sugar intakes, hope that will helps in the long run. Couldn't get any nice pics of big brother today as I am using my DSLR, and whenever I took an aim at Aidan, he ran away at the speed of light. LOL! Next post then:)

 

He is watching his favourite Hi5 show on his ipad. He loves it so much and yet I couldn't get hold of any latest Hi5 DVD here. Have to ask my dearest sister back in SG to get hold of one for me and send it over. What to do? He loves it so much, even more than mickey mouse clubhouse...

 

His mouth is really small n cute.  And he got his Daddy special droopy eyes. Bet he will grow up to be a charming guy in future. Dun u think so?

He just recovered from a fever yesterday, so still a bit grumpy. Fever is due to the 4 vaccinations given to him 2 days ago. Singapore vaccinations for kids are really different from here. In SG, the kids are given maximum 2 vaccinations per visit while in United States they can go up to 6 jabs in a visit! Wow! (Culture shock in progress...) Luckily the nurses here are very skilled, 4 jabs given to him in less than 1 minute. Good job!

 

Kushina Uzumaki Tailoring Comission

 

Took on this tailoring job a few months back offered by one of my regular customer in SG. Yes, i'm really sorry to take so long to finish it, the delay is due to us moving to AZ and so on. Since now I finally set up my sewing space, my sewing motivation is back in full blast!

 

I used cotton poplin for the apron and a polyester blend cotton for the inner shirt. Altered the patterns from existing sewing patterns from my collection of sewing magazines.

 

So sorry for the poor photo quality, been using my iphone to snap the pics as I am too lazy to go dig out my DSLR and charge the batteries:P I like how the center front is closed with invisible zipper as shown in the character anime. Turns out really nice:) Hope Amaya Kaida will like it:)

 

Now I am still cutting out her other character costume. They are just basic shirt n OL style skirt. I am thinking of uploading the basic shirt pattern n skirt pattern onto my blog to share with all of you. But that will take a while as I am quite a computer noob and my scanner is still somewhere in the garage...

Past sewing projects

I started venturing into sewing many years back when I started to become a cosplayer. Mostly learnt sewing from Japanese sewing magazines and cosplay sewing magazines like COSMODE. I got 2 big boxes of magazines and books the years:) Plenty of references. Here are some of my works.

 

This gown is actually modified from a SIMPLICITY 1728 sewing pattern. For the back portion, I modified it into a corset drawstring style as what the character requires and added skirt overlays for the front n back . Took me quite a bit of hand sewing for the pearls and frills. But when everything is done for the gown for my customer, (yes I also tailor cosplay costumes for fellow friends) it looks gorgeous:) Materials used are more than 10m of silk satin in light blue n navy n white. Organza for the skirt overlays and lots of pearls n beads. This is definitely one of my most extensive project so far.

 

Planning to use this pattern n modify it into Ariel Mermaid Pink Gown for myself as well:)

 

This person is my friend n cosplay buddy. We always cos at events together. N I am in charge of sewing all her costumes as well. This Mulan cos is the last cos I made for her before I left SG and came to Phoenix for 2 years due to my hubby work. Miss her lots! Dun you think she really suits the character Mulan?

 

 

 

And this is a past pic of us cosing together at an event as Ranka Lee n Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier. Using Simplicity 3878, I added a big bow for the front bust and frills along the mid skirting. Tada!

 

I also sew apparels for myself as well. This the versatile butterick 3 ways dress. I made it using purple silk satin (sorry that the color came out as blue in pic~.~") And I actually wanted to add Swarovski crystals to the front bust portion, but I ended up gluing them to the back without realizing until I finished. Oh bummers.... Heck, I still wear it to attend a wedding and got compliments for it:)

 

And many many more... Too lazy to post them up. Now having just settled down in our new house in Goodyear, I am still trying to set up my sewing studio on the second floor in the midst of looking after my 2 hyperactive boys. They are really hyper! Got the genes from their daddy I think. I am working on my tilly picnic button skirt and 2 sets of cosplay costume for my SG customer, Amaya. And thinking of quilting a hexagon flower quilt and refashioning a old shirt dress just donated to me by my hubby to play with :p Arghh! so many projects but not enough time:( Do any of you have any tips of managing the kids n housework n cooking n still be able to sew as well?