Thainie Visits: Root Garden on Thonglor

I love living on Sukhumvit, it's a wonderful area to live in.  The people, shops and places around my neighborhood have become everyday fixtures in my life.  And every now and then, there will be something good that pops up and surprises you one day...

Just recently we came across "Root Garden" (a cozy little urban garden/farm) on Thonglor Soi 3, next to the Pridi Banomyong Institute.  For once, a plot of land that wasn't going to be a condo, a strip mall or forgotten dilapidated land.  Once you step in the garden, it's like you're really not on Thonglor anymore.  There's a little pond, a chicken and goat shack, a mushroom shack, a vegetable garden and other plants that have been labeled in English.  There's also a cute little coffee shop right in front serving some drinks and snacks.  

Here's an article more on Root Garden:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/461145/

And check out their FB Page too:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Root-Garden-At-Thong-Lor 

It's located in Sukhumvit 55 and at the top of Thonglor Soi 3.  About 5 minutes from BTS Thonglor Station.

Certainly worth a trip with the kiddies!

 

 

Thainie DIY: Soft Toys Basket/Display

I love, love, love these baskets!  

As you may know or will know now, I love to rearrange our home, it's amazing how a room can totally transform with just a move of a piece of furniture or some additions (or subtractions).  

I have been trying to find a nice and inexpensive way to display the kids' soft toys which were piled away in a toy box, since the ones that we keep usually have a sentimental value to either us or them.  Well I thought about these IKEA green baskets but always decided no since you can't really see the soft toys and it's just another place to pile them.  But I thought, why not cut them out? 

And so I took my IKEA membership card and cashed me out some coupons!!!  Little secret, it's nice to have friends that use your card and earn points for you!  These baskets were 199 baht each and they are very sturdy, we actually use one for our laundry (that's how after looking at it everyday I finally thought of a hack!).  


So all you have to do is just cut an opening out and there you go!  Easy hack but really cute display basket!   

WARNING::: Please be very, very, very, extra specially, very careful when using a cutter to cut this basket (or anything with a cutter, they actually terrify me greatly and I avoid using one at all cost but my scissors were just not cutting it **pun intended) and I almost gashed myself several times!  Also, always cut away from yourself!

And here's a close up, you can see it's not perfect (after cutting I also shaved away the sharp edges) but the soft toys will make up for that.

Salad Spinner Art & Other Uses!

Did you ever see those TOKIG salad spinners at IKEA?  Well did you know you can spin more than salad?  They're great for art and they're actually the great for your delicates (you know your over the shoulder, boulder holders?!)!

So I won't be showing you my bra spinning but I will show you how we do art with them.

Paint

We start with some paints.  I'm using acrylic paints mixed with a bit of water.  Those plastic paint bottles are actually from hair dying kits that I've washed out really well and they make great bottles for paints and glue for crafts.

Salad Spinner

Paper/Cardstock

Then you load your paper inside and squeeze a bit of paint where ever you want.

Then close and spin to your heart's content...

And you'll get some beautiful one of kind art pieces like these!

You might want to get one just for art projects and another for your delicates since it can get a bit messy!!!

Happy Crafting!!xx

24 Goods Things To Do Till Christmas

Our Elf on the Shelf arrives on the first day of December and along with his arrival he brings Santa's sack filled with Advent Calendar pouches and Christmas books.

 

In past years we usually filled the pouches with candy but the kids have been having way too much sweets lately so I thought we would do something new and a little bit more meaningful.  I got this idea from a fellow mommy friend and tweaked her (already amazing) list to suit our family a bit.  It's a list of 24 good things, so each day the kids will open a pouch and we'll do what is on the sheet of paper.   

 So here is our list for this year.... 

1.         Make popcorn and watch a holiday movie

2.       Bake cookies and bring them to friends at school

3.       Gather clothes to donate

4.       Sing Christmas songs and dance around a lot

5.       Make cards for your friends at school

6.       Donate books to your school

7.       Write a letter to Santa

8.       Make cards for all the grandparents and mail them

9.       Gather toys to donate

10.      Color a Christmas picture and hang paper snowflakes

11.        Make special cards and send to your cousins

12.       Have a campout by the Christmas tree

13.       Dress up and take silly Christmas pictures.   

14.      Make Olaf marshmallows and dip in hot chocolate!

15.       Bring coffee gift cards to your teacher and say thank you

16.      Give the guards some cookies and say thank you

17.       Do a Christmas song & dance show for your parents

18.       Make cards for all your teachers

19.      Give flowers to your teachers and say thank you

20.     Go look at Christmas lights

21.       Make bread dough ornaments

22.     Call grandparents and sing a Christmas song

23.     Draw a thank you note for Santa

24.     Leave a treat for Santa and his reindeer

So here's goes hopefully something special and hope this December brings you and your family a lot of somethings special too!!

Thainie Craft: Spooky Haunted House Fill and Color Cut-It-Out

Another cute Halloween craft for the kiddies.  I got this creative idea from Sarah Jane's blog.  I tried to find a print and cut or any cuts from the Silhouette shop but couldn't find any so I used Sarah's cute template as a template for cutting on the Cameo.  Here's the outline and all you need to do is:
- Click this image and then it will give you the full size image

- Right click and save to your computer
- Open your Silhouette Studio
- Drag or open the image in your new file and according to your paper choice (i.e. A4, letter...)
- "Image trace" the entire house
- Select "Trace"
- Either resize now or you could resize when you first drag to the mat

OR if you don't have a cutting machine, it's easy to cut out with a cutter or exacto knife.

And you'll have a super spooky haunted house for your kids or you to decorate for Halloween.

Halloween: Monster High's Deuce Gorgon

This year my son wanted to be Deuce Gorgon from Monster High and so I looked at the Deuce doll that we had and noted what I needed to get together to make a costume for him.  It's quite an easy ensemble, this was my checklist for Deuce (some items we already had too).

- Red Tank (or a red tee and cut off the sleeves)

This was hard to find on the internet and so luckily we had the doll and so I took a hi res picture of the tee and then recolored the red area.  You can print on iron-on/T-shrit transfer paper and iron on the tank.

  - Striped Tee 

I was really lucky to have found a close enough pattern but it had this hideous embroidered cartoon **that you cannot remove even with patience and a thread cutter** and so I just cut it out and patched it up with the sleeves that were cut off.  Then you can just cut the middle of the tee and create the sleeveless jacket.  I also found the perfect image that I printed on T-shirt transfer paper so that I could iron on the patch.  Here's the image.

- Black Jeans

We had black jeans already and so I took a washable white fabric pencil then thought to use a Crayola white crayon and drew the little diamonds all over.  The crayon is washable (hopefully) so I hope it will wash off!

- Black Glove

We found a cheap pair at a party store, they were perfect.

- Belt

We had a metal buckle belt already and so I just printed the cassette image that I created and then laminated and used foam tape to attach to the buckle. 

- Black cuff piece (piece of felt)

I just cut a piece of felt and then ironed on another skull on it.

- Checkered Shoes 

Didn't have these so he'll just wear his black sneakers he has.  

- Snake Headpiece

This was the most daunting part of the costume to do but I was excited to create it. 

First I needed a head model, so I took a cap of his and stuffed it with clothes, then placed it on a stand  and saran wrapped all over it.

 Then I got modeling clay, the type where it will air dry light.  So I first worked on the

 After the snakes were done and left to dry (I forgot to mention that when you're doing the snakes, use another wire to make scores onto one side of the snake to create a scales look, do the same with headpiece too--I had used this iron grill thingy), I took a big ball of modeling clay and flattened it into a round piece and then put it over the head model and molded around the head then a placed each snake into place and added a bit more clay to help support some snakes but be sure to let your snakes dry before doing this since modeling clay is quite sticky.

Then let it dry completely for about 2-3 days, I took it off the head model on day 2 so that the inside could dry.  I sponge painted the headpiece with yellow and light green acrylic paints.  Then I use Mod Podge Matte all over and topped with Mod Podge Gloss.  The tongues are also made of red modeling clay, just do strips and let dry then cut off that triangular trip and glue into mouth.  The eyes are gold beads that I glued into the sockets.

 - Scales

I printed a bunch of these on tattoo paper.

 - Chain necklace and belt addition + Sunglasses

I found some plastic chains and red sunglasses at the 60 baht shop Daiso and they were perfect for this.

So I hope you will be able to create your own Deuce and hope that I didn't miss anything!!  Happy Crafting!

Stickers for the Stinkies

 I saw this just recently on my FB feed and knew I had to do this since we just swapped out my little stinkies' (my two younger kids) chest of drawers with my older stinkie's (my eldest daughter) ones.  The kids' loved it and were excited to get things organized (starting them young!) and even asked for a few more clothes silhouettes that weren't represented!

I also experimented with painting vinyl stickers with Mod Podge.  I tried one with just Mod Podge Extreme Glitter painted on but I thought it was a bit still tacky and it turned out that when you use transfer tape/masking tape to transfer your sticker and peel it off, the glue came off too.  And so I painted another vinyl sticker sheet with Mod Podge Extreme Glitter and a top coat of Mod Podge Matte and it turned out nicely. 

I have also posted these silhouettes if you would like to make them for your stinkies.  Just click to bring up the image and you can right click and save to your computer to use with the Silhouette software.  Once you're on Silhouette software, just use the Image Trace button and highlight the image and there should be no need to do anything since it's a simple image.

I also tried coating paper stickers and photographs with the Mod Podge and they turned out really nice and thinking to use it in an upcoming Christmas craft.  Stay tuned!

Happy Crafting!

Thainie Crafty Field Trip

I have been wanting to check these shops out for the longest time and finally got a chance a few weeks ago when I had to find some items for a project I'm working on.  Also any kind of craft/stationary shop, I'm in for an outing!  All these shops are located on the 5th Floor of Central Rama 9.

Somjai http://www.somjai.co.th/

(website in Thai only)

I love this shop, it reminds me of the stationary shops when I was growing up in San Francisco.  They have a good selection of paints, pens, stamps, paper, the list goes on.  

Doesn't the shop front already look inviting??  

  Sharpies!!!!  And not Sharkies or Starpies!!

 *** Update, you can now find an assorted array of Sharpies at most B2S stores!

 Assorted craft paints, glues, glitter, etc...

More paint, vinyl stickers, papers, canvases, etc...

Cheap assortment of stamps. 

Mind Memory http://www.mindmemorystore.com/

(website in Thai and English) 

 A very nice store for your scrapbooking needs, has a good selection of Martha Stewart items, Cricut and other brands.  But the most important....they have Mod Podge!!!!

 Now if you're not acquainted with Mod Podge, try doing a search and if you are interested in experimenting with it, I suggest you get the originals to play with, which is the Mod Podge Matte or Gloss.

Komonoya http://www.watts-th.com/ 

(website in Thai and Japanese) 

I'm always torn between Daiso and Komonoya but they both have their own items distinctive in their stores.  But at this Komonoya, I found some really nice felt items.

Happy Crafting!

Masking Tape

Did you know you can use masking tape for sticker transferring?  Here are some pictures showing how easy it is and a cheaper solution.

I also found wider masking tape at B2S, and it's come in real handy. And while we're talking masking tape, check out these from Scotch.  They have them at most B2S.  A cheaper option to washi tape too.

 ***Unfortunately, I'm not sponsored by Scotch and this post are just my random finds.

Thainie Decor: Playing with Mirrors

Looking for a quick weekend project that will brighten up your place?

We have a lot of walls in our condo and they're mostly concrete so putting nails in them is not the easiest thing to do.  There are already a lot of frames hanging on the other walls and so I knew I wanted mirrors.  

I had been eyeing these IKEA HÖNEFOSS mirrors and decided to get 2 packs.  At first, I thought of just doing small clusters but then thought to do a cascading design with them so that it would cover most of the wall.

So this is how it turned out. 

I didn't measure anything but they came out all pretty straight except maybe the last one to the left but I like it anyways!

Thainie Places: Elvira (and not the Princess of Darkness)

A lot of people always ask when and how did I get into sewing, well I started sewing about 5 years ago, just after my daughter was born.  I wanted to make Halloween costumes for her as well as other crafty projects.  I looked around and checked out Elvira's sewing center at Taisin Square (right off the Phra Khanong BTS Station).

A couple of years ago the cheapest machine was 4,000 baht but now they start at 8,000 baht, other brands in the malls are cheaper but the thing about buying Elvira is that it comes with a membership that gives you discounts off sewing supplies, a subscription to their sewing magazines (with patterns and projects) and the best thing is you can get free lessons there as much as you like, they are very happy to help, even in English --- since it's more seeing than saying anyways.  I still remember breastfeeding and then popping out to an hour sewing lesson.  Other brands are usually the same with giving lessons but at times (also when there's only one staff attending) in the malls the space is not adequate for lessons so it's nice that you can pop into here anytime.

So I suggest if you want to give sewing a try, research the machine you want and also look at your budget.  You really don't need an expensive all automated machine (even though they're really cool and easy to use), you can even bring in a project that you want to work on and test the machine out with it.  

There's also so many videos and how to's online nowadays when I didn't have the time or when I needed a refresher course on sewing different projects.  Let me know if you have any more questions, happy to help!  Happy crafting!  

Thainie Finds: Transparent Thread

Did you know about a little wonder called "invisible thread"?  It is really useful for when you do machine quilting and also using it with embroidery.  It can even create a hand stitched seam that looks really nice without actually hand stitching yourself---when machine stitching, you're top and bottom thread is a color thread and so if you pop this invisible thread in your bobbin, you can create a hand stitched seam!  Here's more info on invisible thread.  I will have to post a pic of invisible thread in action but for now I have only used it to hem some pants and also sew some shopping bags.  Another use is when you're working with a really colorful print and you don't want to use color thread to distract from the print.  Try checking it out!

Sold at most department stores in the sewing section, I got mine at Siam Paragon on the 5th floor where all the sewing/knitting supplies are.  Price 90 baht.

Thainie Reads: More Mo Please

I have always been a book lover and I knew that when I had kids I wanted them to love reading as much as I did.  Well, having kids now and especially in this age of high tech gadgets like their toys and the iPad, I'm relieved that they still prefer a night of reading books than clicking on their iPad.  

Lately, my 5 year old daughter has been crazy about reading Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie book series.  They are absolutely delightful and perfect for emergent readers.  He is also the author of the Pigeon books that my kids think are hilarious, especially when my hubby narrates them in funny accents!

Try checking them out by visiting Mo's website here.

Books can be found at all Asia Books and Kinokuniya bookstores, prices range from 200 baht upwards.