An Early Christmas Gift

My second son has been to his daycare since June. He gets used to his new friends and teachers, and he learns a lot of things every day. Now it's Christmas season, right? His teacher told me that a mom has to prepare a gift for their daughter or son for their Christmas party. However, the gift is super secret for the kids because Santa Clause is coming to the daycare and he will give the gift to the kids. The kids will think it's form Santa Clause but not from their mom! Every mom has to prepare a handmade small purse before the party.  The size of the purse is specified that should be 17cm X 15cm with a button.  The kids will learn how to use a button later.

Last night, I finally finished it!  Since it's a small project, I didn't use a sewing machine.  It's all HAND-SEWN!  I knew it would not take long if I used a sewing machine, but somehow I like sew by hand.  It's easy to fix it even if you make a mistake for there is only one thread.  However, if you use a machine, there are two threads to take out.  It also looks better where you made a mistake after you take out the threads.  The needle holes are bigger with a sewing machine but if you sew by hand, the holes seem smaller.  

One more merit for sewing by hand!  You can hide stitches!(depending one the parts though…)  In my case, all the stitches are not seen except the belt and the bottom of the flap(where it's connected to the body.).  

Here is the inside.  There are the top stitches sewn by hand.  

"Santa Clause" is coming to his daycare soon!

Handmade Mango Scones and A Rainy Sunday

Oh…It's rainy today.  The rainy season has started last week so that we haven't seen clear blue sky so often since then.   I don't mind having a rainy day once in a while but  not on weekends…  I can't take my kids to a park!

Since there weren't much bread for all of us and I was a bit disappointed at this weather, I decided to bake some scones for everyone.

The recipe recalled for heavy cream but there was no heavy cream in my refrigerator.  So, I mixed melted butter and regular milk.

It went great.  I really liked the flavor!  And there were some dried mango, so I chopped it up and kneaded with the dough!  Hmmm…yum yum...

Saturday Lunch (curry)

I like Harumi Kurihara.  Her recipes are always awesome and this is one of the best.    Today, I felt a bit tired so that I decided to make curry to cheer me up.  And it helped a lot!

It was a little hot for my daughter but my older son ate a lot.  He even asked me for the refill next day even though the pot was already empty!

Kid's Tank Top

My son has just started his kindergarten since April.  So far, he enjoys his new life!  I've been kind of felt sorry for him because lots of his clothes is second-hand.   Somebody gave them to him or I bought those at a garage sale but on the other hand, we bought lots of new things for my daughter for she was our first child.   So, I decided to make some new tank top for him for his new life.

This time I used double gauze fabric.  It's more comfortable and able to keep cooler than knit fabric in the summer time.  However, the only demerit to use this type of fabric is that gauze is not stretchy!  so I gave them more room than I make it with knit fabric.

How does it look?

Orange!

This is the front.

And the back!

Lime!

Blunch on One Nice Sunny Day

The other day I realized there wasn't enough bread for my sons and me to share at  lunch.  Oh no… but  I didn't feel like buying some at the nearest supermarket but wanted to eat waffles!  In the last a few years, the price of butter, especially unsalted, in Japan has been raised.  It's insane!  The government decided to import some amount immediately before the Christmas season in 2014.  Still, there isn't enough butter in store and some stores restrict that a customer can purchase just one pack!

Anyway, I try not to waste it for those reasons but I had been craving waffles or anything butter rich food.  So, I baked some.   Oh, you know what, these waffles are healthier because I added some oats.  Also this recipe calls for less sugar and salt because I don't like too-sweet waffles.  Worried about your diabetes?  This is much better than store-bought waffles! 

I made a quick salad; chopped tomatoes, rucola, mizuna(water greens), fried onion chips and mayonnaise. 

I made a small gift for my best friend.  A sakura season is coming soon, so that I put some sakura stickers over the ribbon.  Isn't it cute?

Here is the recipe;

Sweet Snow Flakes' Oats Waffles (approximately 8 waffles)

bread flour          200g

rolled oats           50g

yogurt                 110-150g (please adjust it.)

butter                  50g

sugar                  15g

instant yeast        3g

salt                      1.5g

egg                      1g

1) Mix them all and kneed the dough for 10mins.

2) Rest it in a warm place for 1 hour.

3) Divid them into 8 pieces.

4) Bake them!

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Cream Puffs!

When I'm stressed out, somehow baking makes me relaxed.  These days lots of things give me a headache and those make me want to bake some more.  You know what, I baked cream puffs.  They didn't grow big in the oven as much as I expected because, I think, I added too much  egg in it.  

Well, I cut them in half and put whip cream and frozen cut strawberries!  Don't they look yummy?