the boys are at the age where they start to specialize in a sport, as opposed to doing just general p.e. all the time: ryan has joined the cross country team and will continue to do track and field in the spring, while long has joined swimming! note: i didn't say that long joined the swim "team" because he refuses to compete! that's alright, we'll be having a little talkie talkie soon. since kids wouldn't be happy with just handmade gifts (sorry, but it's true! been there!), i got long a spiffy speedo deluxe sports towel (think shamwow, but towel sized)
and ryan a pedometer. 
i remember desperately wanting one of those speedo sports towels when i did swimming as a kid, but my mom never got it for me because she had no clue to what i was referring! sigh. and a pedometer?? so cool! always wanted one when i was on the track team! (ok maybe i'm living vicariously through them. hopefully they'll be better at both sports than i was!) for the homemade part of their gifts, i made ryan a sports bag for his sneakers (he's very particular about keeping his school shoes and running shoes separate) and long got a sports bag for his new speedo towel and swim trunks. 
on the fronts, i freezer paper stenciled a sports icon, their names (r. "last name" and l. "last name"! how french, non?) and their sports in le français. i blotted out their last names so you'll never be able to kidnap them (they are insanely cute)! the interior of the bag is made from the blue parachute fabric i got at the scrap exchange in durham, nc!! thus, it is relatively waterproof and just that much cooler! 
the straps of both bags are braided from this natural cotton string of which i had oodles. it was from my attempts in high school to weave myself a macramé belt (that failed!). i must say, creating a long strand of braiding is difficult because i had to wind the ends around spools and then braid by manipulating the spools rather than just the ends of the string (since they were sooo long). the grommets were leftover from when i made a new slipcover for my futon. i hammered my thumb while grommetting long's bag!! the fabric for the exterior of ryan's bag is actually from jimmy's high school graduation gown! here is ryan's bag, cinched: 
joyeux noël, mes amis!!
on the fronts, i freezer paper stenciled a sports icon, their names (r. "last name" and l. "last name"! how french, non?) and their sports in le français. i blotted out their last names so you'll never be able to kidnap them (they are insanely cute)! the interior of the bag is made from the blue parachute fabric i got at the scrap exchange in durham, nc!! thus, it is relatively waterproof and just that much cooler! the straps of both bags are braided from this natural cotton string of which i had oodles. it was from my attempts in high school to weave myself a macramé belt (that failed!). i must say, creating a long strand of braiding is difficult because i had to wind the ends around spools and then braid by manipulating the spools rather than just the ends of the string (since they were sooo long). the grommets were leftover from when i made a new slipcover for my futon. i hammered my thumb while grommetting long's bag!! the fabric for the exterior of ryan's bag is actually from jimmy's high school graduation gown! here is ryan's bag, cinched: joyeux noël, mes amis!!
thus, the cupcakes became spiced chocolate and nut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. hehe, or how about spicy chocolate nuts cupcakes? since mom and dad were coming to town this weekend to help me grout my shower, i saved them some of these improved cupcakes as well. dad's is the unfrosted one since he "HATES frosting" (note the rare usage of caps for emphasis)!
mom and dad arrived with 2 apples in tow, to add to my other 2 aging apples, so i had to bake something to use them up. apple almond crisp! not sure why some of the sugar did not get moist, but it was tasty despite how it looks. 
but the coolest feature of the weekend was this sweet buffet/sideboard that i scored from craigslist for 75 bones. it's currently chilling under the mirror in the dining room that has the black wrought iron trim. should i paint or not? i was thinking of painting it black and sanding some of the edges of the whole thing and of the square details in order to highlight the details and lines. yes? no?
bottoms up!
i made a gift tag for each with the gift tag craft punch i scored from joann's during thanksgiving break! the little angel is from another craft punch i got a while back at the dollar store. and the tags themselves are made from sample paint chips from hardware stores. hehe. i was helping my parents select colors for their bedroom and dining room and helped myself to many many extras in a wide variety of colors!
and last night, in keeping with the holiday spirit, i made spiced chocolate raspberry and nut cupcakes! they were way more spiced than anticipated (cloves will do that to ya), but i like the chocolatey flavor. here they are frosted (sorry, still suck at spreading the frosting)...
even though we only have 4 ornaments on it so far, the tree does have a cute glass angel as a tree topper. i snagged it from my fav dollar store next to h mart, the korean store i frequent. growing up, our trees at home always were topped by angels who my mom believed would protect us. this little angel is a little risque- her dress is transparent! gasp!
here's one of our 4 ornaments: it's the birdie ornament i made for julia and marcus, her bf. so i lied earlier when i said that the birdies post would be next because i still haven't finished my last batch of them... so i'm going to wait until then (hopefully tonight!) before i take pics of the whole set.
i finished the first of my christmas presents last night. mommy has the most ridiculous flannel pj sets from hong kong, so a while back she asked me to make her a summery pair. i found this really pretty raspberry and light blue striped thin cotton cloth from g street fabrics in the clearance section (!!!), and using the pj bottoms pattern from the 
i ripped off the sequins and cut off the embroidery that was the tree stump and made a little faux button placket to cover up the residual glue from the sequins. the extra bold raspberry stripe was actually this ribbon that i found at home that mommy had bought in a big packet of ribbons. it was just what i needed for a background so that the buttons stood out more and were not lost in the light blue of the cloth. mommy tends to forget her belongings all over the house, so i made a kangaroo pocket to store her goods. and for the collar, i made my own bias tape from the leftover fabric. i hear there's this little tool that helps you fold bias tape easily. it looks quite like a seam ripper. everyone keep your eyes out for it for me, because it would make my life so much easier. bias tape is such a pain to make on your own. 
and for the bottoms, even though there was an elastic, i wanted to add a drawstring just in case the pants didn't fit mommy quite right. so, i made my own drawstring from leftover fabric and used the raspberry ribbon to cover up the seams. i love how well the ribbon goes with the fabric!
as mentioned earlier, mommy gets my blog updates in her email, so i'm sure you're all wondering how i could be posting this! i was so thrilled with the results of the project that i temporarily took her off the email list just so i could make this blog post! yes, call me a dork, but i know you're wishing you had a pair of these pjs!
the next morning, with jimmy and bunks in tow, i continued our travels home to ct. (in just one week, bunks has driven to durham, pittsburgh, and ct! poor bunny!) one of us always sat in the back seat to keep him company and he was much more calm. at home, bunkins would spend the days in the kitchen with us and the nights in my bedroom. his favorite place to keep warm (my rents keep the house fairly cold) is behind jimmy's butt at the kitchen table!
mom cooked up a feast every night! we had turkey, ham, lobster, and steamed fish! for dessert, i made pumpkin pie squares! mom had made a pie with half a can of pumpkin, so i used the rest to make pie squares since we didn't have crisco to make a proper pie crust (i don't approve of frozen crusts like she does, sorry). 
and since i was home, i took the opportunity to take some pics of this baby animal series of cross-stitching that i made my parents to help them decorate their bare walls. (i grew up in a very white house. not white as in caucasian, but white as in all white walls!) this series lines the long wall leading to the kitchen door. the first that i made was a pair of baby tigers because dad loves tigers. 
the 2nd was a pair of baby brown bears because i went to brown university! go brown bears! (actually what i liked most about the bears was the little dab of purple in the violets next to the left bear!)
too bad you can't always zoom on the pics by clicking them. i don't know how to make that work more consistently on this page. trust that the details are intricate (i'm a fiend for detail)! 
and here he is after the journey. notice he didn't touch his beloved veggies at all. or move!
but no worries, because we set up a home for him in erin and henry's guest bedroom (complete with his zebra doormat!)
and he had a blast exploring the room all night (including pouncing on the bed to hop around while i slept). oh, my bunks...
while bunks explored, erin and i checked out the local thrift craft store, the scrap exchange! it had more than just fabric and knitting notions and was stocked by distributors of random industrial leftover goods, store closings, and donations. heaven!!!
the front of the store had tons of blue bins filled with these random industrial notions. you could fill one of these plastic bedsheet packaging bags with all the stuff you could jam in it for $3.75! erin and i scored some really interesting fabric scraps (one i will mat and frame for art in the dining room!), canvas (to make tote bags!), and parachute fabric to make lan's boys their christmas presents!
in the back of the store was the fabric and "notions" section. they had tons of fabric, ribbons, buttons, beads, sequins (!!!!! i bought a ton because i have never successfully found loose sequins on sale for cheap and here i found 700-900 for just $0.75!), bias trim (so i don't have to laboriously make my own!). eeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! so exciting!
here's all the stuff i scored for less than $30! the yellow fabric actually has metallic stars on it. jimmy ended up stealing the space jam pj shorts before i could give it to nathan, so i'm going to make nathan another pair. it's so ridiculous!
we went to a really authentic thai restaurant for dinner friday night. henry and erin belong to a csa for seafood and we had the freshest fried flounder sandwiches for lunch (erin's cooking!) and shrimp scampi for dinner (henry's cooking!) on saturday!!! and on sunday for brunch, we went to dimsum and the dimsum was fresher than the dimsum in the dc area!!!!! erin and i created a crafting storm saturday night where she sewed baggies with which she was planning to wrap holiday presents while i worked on a christmas present for mommy. (pics will not be posted until after christmas, since she gets my blog updates as well!) i had so much fun and it was great to be able to go somewhere without having to find someone to watch bunkins! i will most certainly be back!!!
i then resewed the edge of the collar so that it wouldn't fray, and together with this striped scrap fabric and an old pink silk scarf...
i made this collar!
here's a closeup:
essentially i made a long 1.5" wide ribbon with the stripey fabric and added 1" pleats all along it (i put my perfectionism to good use!) and then added a ruffled strip of the scarf. i wisely cut the scarf along the side hem so that at least one side wouldn't fray, but allowed the other side to fray so it would be less feminine. the collar gaped open initially until i made tucks at select places throughout it. the middle of the collar had an ugly seam on the pink ruffle from me having to join 2 shorter pieces together, so i put a pearly button in the middle to hide it. here's the back.
my favorite part about this sweater is the juxtaposition of the manly striped fabric with the girly pink silk and also the architectural-ness of the pleats versus the flowy ruffles! i love intricate and minute details (hence why i also love math), so of course i made coordinating faux button plackets! also with pleating and ruffles of course.
and the dressform was sooo useful! i was able to pin things to it and finish the product without having to constantly try it on to see how things lay. it saved me from getting stabbed all the time. 
and on back, i handstitched their last name on top in white jersey and machine sewed jersey sticks and an ball, both of which were beaded! this girl's shirt had her nickname because her last name is so long. with 6 seniors, i had to speed up the process as much as possible!
unfortunately the mini bundt molds were so small and had so many angles and corners that the cakes got stuck!!! robert, lan's husband who is a brilliant engineer, froze the cakes so they would shrink. then, following the advice from the joy of cooking, we had to bang the bundt tin against the countertop until finally they all popped out. isn't that great advice? bang and dent the counters until the cakes are unmolded! hahaha. it was worth it though because aren't they cute?!?!?!? robert's family is not big on dessert, but everyone asked for seconds (we served each cake in quarters)!
lan shared the pictures she took of the boys on their birthdays in the dart gun jerseys that i made! naturally long is the one who is aiming the gun AT the camera. hehehe. and that's the limiting reagent himself on the far right!
and paired it with a sequined clubbing top i bought in miami with sarah during one of our spring break outings. i also made a sash that said "why, tonya harding, why???" and cut out ice skates from some cardstock and slung it over my shoulder attached to a shoelace. 
of course i forgot to take pics while i was out, so here are pics from when i got home. i had colored on my bruises with a marker to accentuate the bruising but washed it off before i got home, so imagine my right knee as being blue and purple.
and last night i was intending to make brownies for the last jv field hockey practice of today, but didn't make enough, so alas, more for me! these are cheesecake-less and still decadent!