Hand sewn embroidered heart Lavender sachet

Dear Family & Friends

Our teenage girl wanted her Japanese friend to know that she is thought of, on her special day, from as far as Bulgaria! She decided to make a handmade lavender sachet which she worked on for a few days.

Handmade Lavender sachet

Using a pink satin material, a heart shape form was prepared.

Step 1: cut material to sew a heart shape pattern

Two pieces of materials...one for the front and the other for the back.

Step 2: Make two identical form for one heart sachet pocket

She embroidered a lavender flowers for the front, and her friend's name at the back

Step 3: Before stitching it together, embroider your design 

I have gathered a lot of our home grown Lavender flowers and she used this to fill up her sachet.

Step 4: Stitch them together and leave a small gap to fill it with lavender flowers

With her patience and dedication, she hand stitch everything as neat as she could....almost as if it was done by a sewing machine...thus, it took her a while to accomplish this.

Step 6: sew up the filler hole

To embroider a tiny kanji character on, is a challenge... but she did it!

Step 7: The heart sachet is all done

The flowers are made of bullion stitches to make it resemble like lavender...I think she did well.

A nice little project that my daughter enjoyed putting together:)

Best of all, this project was made full of love for a friend who has been so kind and supportive to her in her language learning journey...a very talented blogger friend who cooks wonderful food, till she took a break to enjoy more time with her grand-babies.

Well, I'm off to go and make some lavender sachets too...they're good to put in clothes cupboards and ideal little gifts to cheer family and friends too:)

Hope you have a nice cheerful day today.

Yours

On Language Learning

Dear Family & Friends,

I've recently picked up a language book from our bookshelf...one that I found challenging years back...only to find that time has made me overcome them. In language learning, it is important to just get on and speak whatever little you know how. Practice is more important that pouring on grammar books!!

Re-reading a cyrillic book 

In our little family, we share the love of learning languages. Not so with the only male member...but he has improved...at least I can say he is bilingual. For us ladies, learning languages seems much easier. As a mother, I tried influencing our two girls on being multilingual from toddler age.  I have to admit that I couldn't MAKE them learn other language. It was only as they grew older (7 yrs up)...that I was able to convince them of the importance of learning other languages besides English. With our living in a foreign land...the concept and interest just developed even more.

Able to understand another language means you can order and understand snack labels

None of us go to language school for our learning...we just acquire it through self teaching. Once you got one....learning another is easy. We share several language interest but there are still a few that I know that the girls haven't picked up yet...but young as they are...their minds are quick in picking odd words that I utter now and again. Soon they will take lead!

and easily find your way as you look for the shop you intend to go to:)

If you're one of those that get stuck with grammar books...just don't dwell on it too much...go and practice speaking with what you think it is...learning is quicker that way. Don't be embarrass to learn or make mistake because that's the stepping stone:) Language study is a continual learning...we learn, we have a break, and we re-learn again. It can only get better and it's all fun:)

Keep life interesting and wishing you a good week.

Yours

Teaching children to knit

Dear Family & Friends

My ambition once before was to teach my little girls knitting, but I have one big problem...I do not know how to knit myself. I tried learning, but it just doesn't work with me, although I can crochet.

knitting project of one little girl

Eventually, we seek help from people who knew how to... it's not one of those things that you learn and be good at instantly. We had to refer to many many you tube tutorials, before we got it right.

crafting moment...knitting and quilting

In our house, we like crafting specially during winter season when we find ourselves indoor. While the garden is on dormant mode, I keep my two hands busy with crochet and even tried hand quilting.

multi-tasking: knitting and baby sitting at the same time

Whatever a mother does, little daughters always take note. This little girl here was mimicking her mother...she was knitting at the same time looking after her baby (doll).

Dolly got a homemade knitted hat and scarf

As you can see, in the end, her baby (doll) earned a knitted winter hat and a scarf. It was not perfectly knitted...but it was a good start for a 9 years old. Now as teenagers, they still knit for winter interest...but this time, they make fashionable scarf or hats for themselves:) As for me, I am still not good at knitting...so I continue on with crocheting:)

Well, whatever you are good at, aim for that and just keep your hands busy. Most of all, enjoy what you are working on and have a lovely day!

Yours

black and yellow stripes garden friends

Dear Family & Friends

This must be the last feature of summer scene in our garden. All the bright yellow flowers and insects of yellow stipes on display before the cool and then the cold days comes. 

honey bee on black eye susan flower

The spiders seems to have multiplied a lot this year...we see various species of it in our garden too. They are good garden friends...they eat and control pest and insects.

garden spider

OK, I must go back to mastering my German language...so far I only have 40% fluency...got a long way to go...we have set up a competing board recording the progress of our daily learning. Our family unit of four people take it as a way to push each other to excel. It's good fun...we've got one goal:) to speak Deutsch!

I hope you have an enjoyable day today too:)

Yours

Keeping Busy

Dear Family & Friends

We keep busy each day...finding things to do that would be productive. Every morning we all disperse into our individual work routine. The hardworking husband earns a living for the family, the two girls do their home schooling responsibilities like clockworks, and I usually start my day in the garden...harvest food, wash and clean the produce, and do a bit of 'this & that' outside before I go back indoor for meal preparation and 'this & that' :)

Our pet tortoise on his gardening patrol..when the weather is warm, that is!

Whilst in the garden, the Tortoise is usually my company. He always finds me where I am and he too roams around that part of the garden. It's all very peaceful working in the garden, with birds chirping, bees humming, and butterflies fluttering quietly around you too. Just nice working environment.

If not earning a living, he finds plenty odd jobs around the house too:)

By midday, I would have also finished cooking a balanced nutricious meal for the family. Everyone would be ready to have a break to gather around the table for the warm meal of the day. By afternoon, we all go back to our other works...usually the two girls go back to finish some more of their studies and then out for some outdoor activities or fresh air afterwards. The adults continously find other things to work on.

Little odd jobs around sometimes complete our day's work...till another day once again. How did your day went? 

Wishing you a good week :)

Yours

Fun Hiragana Flashcards

Dear Family & Friends

My two girls have been so diligent with their homeschooling programme, making a mother very proud:) A couple of months ago, the big girl submitted all her two years school work to the UK Education Board for a General Certificate requirement with grades all above 90. This is equivalent to Cambridge O level certificate.

As homeschoolers, we tend to do things together as family unit...including learning. There's non-stop studying a new language in our home. Aside from the ongoing: French, Spanish, German, Bulgarian, and Mandarin, recently we got a 3 months online language package compensation. The big girl decided for a Japanese language programme to add to the growing list.

Three months learning programme is not long...so, to help them with the Japanese hiragana characters, I spent a day making flashcards. These hiragana characters can be learned quicker because it got some picture story-sort of , to help the memory.

I certainly enjoyed making these flash cards, and also managed to learn all the hiragana characters myself! The grey matters up there is still working:)  OK....I ticked the list... and off I go to finish my "forever-on-going" crochet projects. I'll show them to you some other time.

A mother's job is never ending...but we all have this and that to tackle each day... Don't we? Just make sure you tackle them the enjoyable way:) It makes all the difference.

Yours