The last two chicks we've adopted turned out to have very different personalities than the ones we had before. We had a White Leghorn Rooster (Fluffy), an Orpington (Yellow) hen and an Austrolorp (Chick Vader) hen before. From what I've read, these are heavier, more domestic, humand-friendly breeds. We usually let them roam in the backyard instead … [Read more...]
DIY Garage Ball Storage Rack
The number of balls in our house increases over the summer. The football ball, basketball ball, soccer ball. The little kids' sizes for my daughter, regular-sized ones for my son. We needed to organize all the balls and get them out of the way. I found this idea on Pinterest and it worked perfectly in our unfinished garage.This project is … [Read more...]
DIY: Wall-mounted book display shelf for my cookbooks
I am extremely excited to share my new cookbook display shelf in my kitchen. We don't have plenty of cabinets in our kitchen. I have been looking for a solution to place my cookbooks in a visible and easily reachable location instead of hiding them in a cabinet up high. After seeing a shelf similar to this in a photo on instagram, I set out to find … [Read more...]
Little Purple Riding Hood
Red is so overrated. This purple velvet fabric was to be a regular cape but my customer changed her mind to a "Little Red Riding Hood" style hooded cape afterwards. I used Fleece Fun's Red Riding Hood Pattern for child. You can print her children's red riding hood pattern at home and and easily put it together with her instructions. Once I cut the … [Read more...]
DIY: Batman cape costume for children
When I was buying fabric for my daughter's Butterfly Wing Cape, I got two pieces of velvet fabrics for capes. My son asked for black fabric for his cape. Initially, I was going for a plain cape. Then I decided do sew him a Batman Cape costume for pretend play. I googled for resources and found Vanilla Joy's "The Nearly No-Sew Batman Cape" … [Read more...]
Backyard Chickens 2014
We've had drastic changes with our backyard chickens since I wrote my last post about winterizing chicken coop. We've had a really harsh winter with two weeks of sub zero temperatures. Yellow and Chick Vader handled the cold temperatures during the day pretty fairly. We took them in when especially windchill was at its worst and at nights just in … [Read more...]
Vegetable Garden 2014 – Update
Another year of gardening, filled with organic and fresh greens and vegetables in my backyard gives me joy and peace during this hectic summer. This year the harvest is quite delayed due to excessive rains, overcast skies and low temperatures. We have abundance of tomato plants but very low yield with beans and corns. This is late spring, when … [Read more...]
Product Review: Divided bowl for ceral, soup or dips
My son likes his cereal crispy. It's really tricky not to make it soggy and mushy once you pour the milk. If he doesn't eat fast enough then the cereal will start getting mushy, he'll complain and even not eat it.I found this divided bowl on LTD Commodities website, which had lots of interesting items. You put the liquid food in one section and … [Read more...]
Easy butterfly wing cape for children
I had no plans to sew a butterfly wing cape for my daughter, until I came along with this amazing fabric at Hancock Fabrics. It is a sheer fabric with eye catching rainbow colors. All my materials were rainbow colored, including fabric, ric rac border and the thread.Materials: 3/4 yards sheer / light fabric (60" width) Ric Rac … [Read more...]
Cake Tutu for Ballerina themed birthday party
A friend of mine baked the birthday cake for my daughter's ballerina themed birthday party. I sew a tutu for the cake. The inspiration is from Pinterest. It's very easy to make. I sewed it with my sewing machine. If you are patient enough, you can sew it by hand as well.First order of business: Know the circumference of the cake, in order to … [Read more...]
Organizing entryway clutter
We mainly use our back door to get in house arriving from the garage. This entryway is very limited in terms of space. It's right by the kitchen and the stairs that go to the upper floor. That small area has been a mess for a long time. Our major issue with that mess was finding the stuff kids needed getting out of the house, especially on school … [Read more...]
How to winterize your chicken coop
Once we rodent proofed our coop, I wanted to insulate the coop to get ready for Chicago winter. I am really glad I set out early because I made some mistakes in my initial design and had to redo the whole insulation before temperatures went down. I purchased 1" white Styrofoam sheets. They might have it at hardware stores in the insulation … [Read more...]
Product Review: Luckybums ski and bike trainer for children
I taught my children how to swim, ski, and ride a 2-wheel bike. Last year, I was teaching my younger one skiing. It's a little bit tricky to teach one and keep an eye on the other one who can ski by himself. Everything was easy and good when we were on the bunny hill together. Then my son wanted to upgrade from the bunny hill to bigger hills.For … [Read more...]
Last 2 weeks for Chicago’s Sustainable Backyards Program Rebates
We've had our compost bin for the last 5 years, but it's been opening at the seams and duct tape isn't holding it together anymore. So I've been eyeing tumbling compost bins for a long time. I purchased this 80-gallon tumbling compost bin from Walmart. It's not as big as the old one. Hopefully, if it holds to its promise, it should compost … [Read more...]
Rodent proofing the chicken coop and the first egg
When we setup the coop initially, I've read about putting chicken wire down in the soil around the perimeter but I got lazy and skipped it at the time. As it started to get colder, I've heard about rats from the neighbors so I decided to install wire underneath the coop. The coop wasn't fixed to the ground and it is light, so we just moved it. … [Read more...]
DIY – LEGO table and storage
Our new LEGO table or workstation was really easy to put together. The main item is the large IKEA Linmonn table that gives enough space to work on for 2 children. We have LEGO 10 x 10 baseplates but I don't have any plans to glue them down. IKEA Adde chairs are better fit than their old IKEA Mammut chairs. (On the table: Organizing LEGO … [Read more...]
Redesigning our playroom
I have been working on a lengthy project in our basement, which is our children's playroom. It's been quite a while since we set up for early learning, then preschool and kindergarten, while my son already outgrew a lot of stuff, including games, toys and furniture. This summer, I decided to take on a complete overhaul and update the … [Read more...]
Our backyard chickens and new coop
It's been more than 2 months since we brought Fluffy and Yellow home. They were merely 4-day-old chicks when we got them. (Read how we got them here) We kept them in a brooder at home for a while. We knew we were going to keep them so I set out to find a proper coop. I found one that I felt is the best setup for our backyard on eBay and ordered. I … [Read more...]
DIY shirts, Father’s Day gift for Simpsons fans
This is the gift we, I and the kids, gave to my husband last year as Father's day gift. I think he's tired of the Homer Simpson themed shirts, I buy for him. So this time, I decided to make a matching set of t-shirts for him and the kids.I purchased iron-on fabric transfer sheets and plain shirts to design the t-shirts. I found the images … [Read more...]
Raising Baby Chicks, Chicago Style
Last month, (April) my son's class setup an incubator in the class. They were learning about the eggs, life cycle of eggs and chickens. The eggs hatched on April 29th, as my son dutifully informed me. He was very excited. Few fays later, we got a notification letter asking for parents' permission to hold the chicks. He held the chicks. That Friday, … [Read more...]