deondergangvanmijnouders

Before it gets too New Years-y around the internet, I thought I’d quickly post my DIY Christmas Tree, made from cardboard boxes, and perfectly petite for our small apartment living. Being in Shanghai, Christmas is a little Christmassy, but considering that the day is a normal work day some traditions around town are just WESTERN traditions, so while there are Christmas Trees for sale here, they’re the plastic kind or they’re some strange kind of tree that aren’t pine trees, they just look like Christmas Trees do. I’m not sure, but they’re SUPER expensive. SO, throwing my thriftiness around isn’t hard… especially when there’s oodles of cardboard around. Last year, I made the tree with these same strips of cardboard (groceries can arrive in very stable awesome cardboard boxes that you can return, use or recycle) but don’t think I posted it, and it was strung up with rope from a coat hanger, each piece was tied by threads and it looked like a large mobile … and I tried to do the same t...

Happy Holidays! Wishing you a happy holiday & merry festivus time, from us Darlings in Shanghai! We're zonked out - Husbie has worked nonstop for 6 weeks - and so we've quickly partied ourselves out... enjoying the luxuries of gorgeous friends in this city & the wonderful Internet this weekend. We shared a French family Christmas Eve dinner, exchanging presents with the children... then woke up to any other Friday! In China, this time of year isn't really significant for locals, apart from all the decorations and markets and ironic Santa clad couriers all around town ... (or maybe I'm the only one who think it's ironic) ... but my Husband's company is UK owned, so all the deadlines finished on Christmas Eve like in the western world. YAY But, as Husbie finally getting a rest and with no family with us in China... it's a bit lonely. Thank goodness for our lovely friends here in Shanghai, it's made being so far away from Mum & Dad that bit bett...

A simple sewing project, but so darling for the Christmas Table! We set up an outside table for our Christmas Breakfast, Lunch & Tea (we don't have one set dinner, we make up several (!) small plates of food all day long on Christmas) and I quickly made some new placemats for us to dine with. I've never made them before as we are gifted so many over the years, but a new holiday season needs a few new touches and the other ones were a bit shabby and not in a shabby chic way. LOL. The fabric I've had for a very long time... so long because I WON a voucher from a fabric shop on Myspace and bought this fabric probably in 2006? I know we lived in Sydney when it arrived. But I just didn't know what to sew with it. I adore the orange flowers, so they will be our placemats now. I made them reversible, but forgot to take a photo of the underside, but they're just small orange circles on a darker orange background. Here's t he DIY tutorial I followed , using thick ...

Happy Chrimbo to you! How have you spent the week? Working? Not working? Travelling? Whatever, where-ever and however you celebrate, I'm hoping you have had a relaxing holiday time! Wishing you all the best for the rest of 2013, and if I don't see you again here, a Happy New Years! We've been very busy this week! My parents are house sitting around the corner, and we've had lots of celebratory 'CHEERS' (Baby Darling can 'ker-chink' his water bottle with us now!) and cooked up lots of yummy meals and relaxed around the house dreaming of what to do next. My apron isn't made by me, unfort, it was a birthday gift from my brother & family as I'm pretty much a domestic goddess these days. (HAHA) I started and finished By Hand London 's Anna Dress earlier in the week, and I love it! First up, I drew up a Full Bust Adjustment for the front bodice piece, following their steps in the Sewalong Blog Posts (how HANDY are Sewalongs, even AFTER the fac...