Passionate Fashion ???

I had to share this on Facebook and my Instagram today because it was just too good not to share!  At lunch today, the music teacher said to me, "Wow! Your fashion is passionate today!"

My co-teacher told me to take it as a compliment!  :)  Thanks H&M!

Mav for dinner!

Aaron and I were sitting at the kitchen table tonight and looked over and saw Maverick sitting, right on top of our stove!  We had to remind him that we didn't wanna eat him for dinner and then laughed at how cute he looked up there! :)

    

This beanie used to be a skirt!

It's true... This beanie used to be a skirt!

My sweet friend Jess, in Seoul, is just weeks away from having her 1st baby, which I KNOW is a boy!  (She and Mayo have chosen not to find out the sex, but I just know it's a boy!)  So, when we were in Seoul a couple weeks ago, Jess asked if I could sew a baby beanie out of this knit skirt she doesn't wear anymore!  I though, sure, why not?!  I was thrilled to have a project to work on and even more excited that it would be for the lil' one!

So, here's the original skirt I worked with.  Cute, huh?!

First, I measured the bottom and cut at the 13 inch mark.

Then I measured 7 inches from the bottom to the top and cut across, making a 7 inch by 13 inch rectangle.

Then, I took one of my own beanies and laid it on a piece of paper and traced the shape. I made sure to lay it 6 inches from the bottom of the paper, because that's how tall our lil newborn beanie will be.

Then, I folded the striped fabric over and laid my paper template on top.

I took a blue marker and traced a line around the paper template and then stapled the fabric together, so it didn't move when I was sewing along the line.

Then, I took some white thread and went to town, sewing along the line.  SO EASY, right?!

After I was finished with the original stitching, I cut all of the excess fabric off.  Then, I folded the beanie so that the two sewn edges were touching at the bottom and sewed a + shape into the top of the beanie.  This is imperative!!  If you skip this step, it'll fit really funny on the baby's head!

Then, I turned it right side out and wala - I had myself a newborn beanie, made from a knit skirt!

But wait, you can make it even MORE adorable!  Jess asked me to adorn it with a pom pom, which I thought was genius!  So, I cut these three strips of blue fabric (about a 1/4 inch wide and about 1 1/2 feet long.  They don't have to be perfectly straight. YAY!

Then I wrapped those strips around 3 fingers.

.... And gently pulled them off my hand, laid them on the floor, took some matching thread and tied them tightly in the middle.  Then, I cut the ends of the loops, fluffed them up a bit into a ball shape, and wala!  I had myself an adorable pom pom.  I grabbed the same blue thread, turned the beanie inside out and sewed it right on.  That's it!  I was finished!  How easy is that?!

Remember that original beanie I used to create my paper template?  Well, I cut that one down and created another newborn beanie for the lil'one!  This was perfect because I can knit, but not this type of pattern, so I could give him a knitted beanie without ever knitting anything! haha!

Last buy not least, I was going through my clothes, since Aaron and I will be finally leaving Korea next month (after 4 years) and found some Thai wrap around pants that Jess, Mayo and I all bought when we were in Thailand together back in 2009!  I have a couple different pairs, so I grabbed the blue ones and went to town, using the fabric to re-create a smaller version for the lil' one!    I think they turned out pretty darn cute! There's a draw string trype of thing under the fold over, so they'll fit him for at least the 1st year!

So, the next time you're pitching your sweaters, knit skirts and beanies, think again!  Everything can be recycled - or "up-cycled" as they say!  You just need to use your imagination, a little needle and thread and  a bit of patience! :)  

Countdown!

Breaking our vegetarian-ness!

Aaron and I were invited to lunch with Emo, Serry dog's mom, who owns a little teeny tiny convenience shop in our neighborhood.  How adorable is Serry?!  Man, we love this dog and she loves when we come to the store to see her! 

And man do we love our Emo (word for aunt in Korean).  She is just the sweetest, independent, gracious, giving, thankful, and inviting Korean woman!  We absolutely adore her and were really excited when she asked us to lunch!  We met in front of her shop at 1pm and walked over to a beef/pork restaurant down the street with two old men (who we've seen and talked to a bunch of times at her shop).

When we decided to be vegetarian, we decided that we wouldn't be obnoxious about 'it', and if people asked us to lunch or dinner for meat, we wouldn't say no!  We actually really enjoyed the samgyupsal (Korean pork) today!  It was the first time we'd had it in almost 6 months!  

The two old men who joined us are two of the nicest Korean men we've ever encountered!  This one is 78 years old and spent a lot of time in America over the years.  He works 7 DAYS A WEEK, on a ship in Yeongdo's harbor, and has traveled all over during his 78 years!  He speaks minimal English and usually mumbles so darn much we typically have no idea what he's saying and just nod yes and hope we're not saying yes to something we wouldn't never normally say yes too! lol

** I love that the servers cook the meat at your table for you if you can't do it (or don't want to do it) yourself!

I love how the drinking culture in Korea involves other people pouring/refilling your drink!  Not only do they pour YOUR drink, they hold their hand over their chest or arm, depending on the age difference between you and them.

My sweet Korean aunt!

This guy was saying over and over again that he really likes Aaron and I. haha

When we were leaving, we wanted to take a photo all together to commemorate the lunch, but the servers wouldn't touch my camera because they were afraid to use it, so Aaron had to take this one!  My favorite part about it is the old guy in the front who squatted down!  Aaron said, in plain English, "Why is he squatting like that?!"  There are perks to being with people who don't TOTALLY speak your language!

As we were walking out the door, the 78 year old man asked if he could take Emo, Aaron and I out to lunch on Feb 17th, before we leave for America!  I love how hospitable and generous he iis!  I was really blessed by all three of them today and had such a fun time!  My guess is that we'll probably never experience something like this from neighborhood store owners back home, so we're taking it all in and enjoying every moment before we say goodbye to Busan!