It's Zara again!

Hello dear cyber readers, I'm sick today :-( Thats why i finally decided to take a break from my hectic packing and blog. This one is so so long overdue but it really is one of my most adorable collections to-date. These were commissioned again for my niece Zara by her lovely mom for the past Eid. A bit unorthodox for Eid, but the mommy just fell in love with the cute Japanese pattern books, who wouldn't ?!

So here they are , ta-ra !

Set 1

Pattern from this look, she loved the simple Sunday School look, so i tried to keep the choice of material from being too garish.

Set 2,

I just love the itsy bitsy shorts, cuteness personified. I couldn't resist making the 2nd one from pink, Zara is just so cute! These from this original photo:

These two patterns are taken from this book. Its definitely worth it, the patterns are modern, fresh and so very boutique. Does take some fiddling to do but the results are so gorgeous!

And here, the last, a simple peasant long sleeve tunic

Met Zara's mommy ( Intan) recently and she wants more! Well, not a problem except that postage will later cost a bomb :-)

The movers are supposed to be here in the next week and there's still tons that I need to sort out. The kids toys are giving me a headache, I'm telling them, thats it, no more toys from now on. Its amazing how much trash 3 little tykes can horde in their bedrooms! At least now, Adam has moved away from toys and into collecting books and he has become such an organised little person, its scary! Have a feeling it skipped a generation and he's getting it from my mom's side of the family :-)

Thats it dear readers, the kids are hollering for their dinner , sigh, a mom's work is never done.

Happy Birthday My Boys :-)

My Adam turned 10 recently whilst Danny was a while back in May. It would have been unfair to just make a party for Adam and not little Danny, so here Ibu went all out to make a party her boys will hopefully remember.

Adam next to his best friend Danish and the brother Didi ( matching outfits, so cute!) My niece Hani and nephew Eiman just refused to budge.

I used Nigella's Buttermilk cake from The Domestic Goddess. Turned out really well. A blue vanilla buttercream frosting for Danny and Choc buttercream for Adam. The tops are ready made icing stickers that you just stick on top of the cake and its edible, what an invention, made my job so much easier! The boys were awed and so were my guests :) You can find them at good baking shops.

Danny with his buddies, Irfan and Amir, they all wanted Spongebob ! They're so cute at this age!

I love making deserts, I can skip the mains and go straight to desert! From top, hotdogs wrapped in puff pastry and sprinkled with sesame seeds ( kids n adults loved them and easy as pie), coconut macaroons, rocky road, peanut butter jam drops and choc macaroons. Made mushroom voul-il-vent, but they were gone as soon as they were out! Managed to pop one before I got them out :) Maybe will post the recipe here.

Aren't these cute? These were all that were left! Made some stars and gingerbread boys too. I used Donna Hays butter biscuit recipe from her Magazine kids party series (still on the shelves). They turned out really buttery but not too crumbly, perfect. Used stiff royal icing to outline the shapes, then thinned it down with lemon juice, gave some color and filled in the gaps.

I'm glad the day went well with friends and neigbours all dropping in, and the kids had fun with their friends. It was worth the hours of baking and cooking I think to see that I made their day. Shasha is already planning for hers in October, 'groannnnn'!

Pants Made By Mommy

Its fun being a girl, that goes without question, especially when it comes to clothes! Just look at the stores, rows and rows of girls clothes all sorts of designs and colors, mommys, you feel like you want them all. But boys, alas, t-shirt, shirt and pants. Its lucky I guess that by nature boys do not go mad by fashion :) After churning out so many girls clothes, I began to feel guilty about my 2 boys. Both of them have even come to the point of flipping through my pattern books and asking if a particular shirt or pants are for boys. Which mother’s heart would not feel that twitch? So I went to my local fabric store nagoya and asked for denim fabric, and they just happened to be on sale, 1mtr only costs me RM18, and I only needed 1.75mtrs for both the boys. So here they are, ta-da! saturday at KLCC.

I’ve been searching for elasticated long pants for Danny (5yr old) everywhere and its funny that when it comes to boys, all pants are zippered. I did find one that went for rm80! I prefer elastic waists cos its much more comfy and easier to pull off and on. I made extra long hem which I can let down as they grow. Adam, my number 1 is going to be 10 but he’s just growing by leaps and bounds! Already 137cm tall and I end up buying new pants for him every 6 months, phew, tough on the wallet! I added a felt patch of a baseball on Danny’s knee, he loved it, he asked “where’s the bat”? Adam was just too macho, didn’t want any embelishments! They were just so happy and I felt proud to see them strutting about town in their pants! Shasha’s pants is cute too right? Used the same pattern as Danny’s. Her’s is from stretch cotton that I had bought from Cairo aeons ago. Adam’s pants I had to draft myself since Jap patterns rarely go above 130cm, but Danny’s and Shasha’s are from the Spring 2010 CUCITO. Perfect I must say and only took me a day. Examples of the pictoral instructions are like this :

And here are some patterns from the book to entice you :) Too flipping cute, makes me go oooh and aaah!

You can find further write-up of Japanese Pattern Books from Zura’s post here. Oh and I did get a new pattern book from Kino while I was there, but lets save that for next time :) Till next time, take care.