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our birthday cake tradition continues

semi-homemade birthday cupcakes

When my daughter turned three, I started a little mother-daughter birthday cake tradition: she gets to choose the cake mix, icing and decorations, then we make the cake together. This year she wanted cupcakes and chose Trader Joe’s cake mix and frosting, along with rainbow sprinkles.

A lot of people seemed surprised that I used a cake mix. They just assumed I make everything from scratch. Not so! Although, I hear it’s pretty simple. Maybe next year we’ll give it a try.

I’m delighted that my daughter is still interested in mother-daughter cakes, even after seeing some of the amazing store bought cakes her friends have. I hope our tradition lasts for many years.

Do you bake with your kids?

semi-homemade: last year’s dinosaur cake

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savoring the last days of summer

this moment

I find this time of year difficult. I love Autumn. I can’t wait for bright red and yellow leaves, crisp breezes, wool scarves and pumpkin soup. I have to stop and remind myself that the last few weeks of summer are also wonderful:

  • warm, sunny days without the oppressive heat
  • cool evenings with chirping crickets
  • long daylight hours, which are slowly getting shorter!
  • a three-day weekend with “daddy home!”

I’m noticing the soft grass between my toes, the lush green trees on the horizon and the brilliantly colored flowers that are still in bloom. I’m trying not to wish it all away in anticipation of the next season. It will be here soon enough.

I made a desktop background with my little mantra as a daily reminder. You are welcome to download it here.

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after: hello kitty lunch bag + some helpful tips

lunch bag refashion

So, I survived this crazy project. Actually, the only thing that was really difficult was the bias trim, especially around the corners. But I’m not very good at bias trim to begin with, so there’s that.

I was surprised how easy this insulated-plastic-foil material is to sew. I picked out the original trim stitches and all of the pieces fell apart. I cut everything down to size and serged around all of the edges, then I serged the pieces back together. I know that sounds like overkill, but the material was made up of three layers and I didn’t want manipulate six layers of slippery stuff when I did the trim.

Some very important things to keep in mind for a project like this:

  • Remind yourself how much you love your child. I found this especially helpful sewing around those corners with the trim.
  • Have a friend close by via text for encouragement. Send her pictures of your bent sewing machine needle just for fun.
  • Keep chanting the mantra: It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to make my child happy.
  • Embrace your organic style as breaking the rules and your wonky stitches as a design element.
  • Remind yourself that some kid in China probably put this together the first time. If she could do it, so can you.
  • Let go of the little things, like matching the black and pink trim in the handle. It’s just another design element.

That’s about all I’ve got to say about this lunch bag. My daughter loves the pink and she stuffed it in her backpack this morning with no problem.

stash: Finally digging into my thrifted stash of bias trim. It’s about time!

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before: hello kitty lunch bag

lunch bag refashion

I am crazy. I normally have no problem taking a seam ripper to anything. I cut up stuff and turn it into something new all the time.

Except for this lunch bag.

It fits a little too snug in my daughter’s backpack. Her teacher mentioned a bigger backpack or smaller lunch bag would be helpful. We actually have a Hello Kitty metal lunch box that she can use, but she wants this bag.

“You can fix it, Mama. Just make it a little smaller. Please?”

I texted a picture to my friend Kelly. “You can do it!” she said. I told my daughter it might not look exactly the same and I’d have to cut into the picture of the kittens on the back. “That’s ok, Mama. You can do it.” she said.

So I guess tomorrow I’ll be cutting up this cute little bag so it will fit in her backpack. Why won’t she just use the metal Hello Kitty lunch box you ask? Because that’s what she uses for her toy food, silly.

Wish me luck!

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wardrobe refashion: t-shirt to bike shorts

wardrobe refashion

My daughter loves wearing dresses. She also loves to climb tall jungle gyms and roll around in the grass with her feet in the air. She understands the concept of modesty, but she’s too busy running, jumping and playing to be worried about such things right now. I get it. I want her to have fun and not be self conscious. So the new rule: bike shorts under dresses.

A few years ago, I posted a pattern for easy kids shorts. I followed the same basic steps to come up with the bike short pattern. I had also planned to share the template with you, but it’s gone missing. Whoops!

I have a few more to make, so I guess I’ll be redrawing the pattern. I’ll let you know when it’s posted. In the meantime, I’ll be outside teaching my daughter how to do cartwheels.

stash: One of my t-shirts rescued from the donation bag. Thrifted elastic.

A seriously fast, easy and inexpensive project. Plus, they go under a dress, so they don’t have to be perfect!

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my creative space

this moment

In my creative space today I’m working on the border for the wagon wheel baby blanket. It’s been almost a year since I started this project. Yikes! I really lost momentum when it came to seaming the squares.

Now they’re all together and the first round of the border is finished. I’m just hdc-ing around until I run out of black yarn, which was reclaimed from a different sweater. I hope to have a finished pic very soon!

What’s in your creative space? Join in the fun here!

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bento lunch

First-day-of-school bento: homemade banana muffin, strawberries, crispy snap peas, banana chips, wheat thins, pita crisps and cheddar cheese.

bento lunch

The past few days have been busy! Over the weekend we tried to squeeze in as much summertime fun as possible. Then, on Monday we got organized for my daughter’s first day of school.

Laundry that was ignored over the weekend had to be done so she could wear her ladybug dress. Lists of favorite lunch foods were made and taken to Trader Joe’s for a special shopping spree. And she practiced, practiced, practiced reassembling her lunch bento box. (We cheated and labeled the pieces with a sharpie: B lid goes on B tray, which goes on the Bottom.)

I was really worried about lunchtime. About half of her class buys lunch, but she just doesn’t eat the things on the menu. Today went fine, though. She ate everything, told me it was awesome and she wants to take lunch every day. Phew!

Do you pack a lunch for yourself or your kids? What are your favorite foods?

I promise you her lunch was much more colorful in real life. The washed-out, artistic photo is courtesy of Instagram. If you have the app, connect with me! I’m jkundhi, of course.