Five year old hair stylist looking for work.  Has A LOT of experience styling Barbie's hair! Loves braids, ponytails, and clips.  (She was so proud of this--it was just too funny not to post!)

Sewing Again...Finally

I've had no time to sew until recently.  I used some fabulous batik brought from Singapore. You can't see it, but the material has gold foil that reflects the light beautifully.  This tutorial from Noodlehead is what I used (although, mine looks nothing like hers).  I reduced the width quite a bit and made it longer than hers.  How did it turn out?  I love it!  It's going to be a great summer skirt.  I'm making different skirts for Ana and Mitike...stay tuned.

It's COLD!

When cheeks come in this pink from riding a scooter outside for a few minutes you know... it's COLD!  So much for this being a temperate city!  Lucky for us this next week looks to be warmer.  Hopefully they can play outside at school!

H & M

As I hate bargaining, going shopping in the local markets isn't a lot of fun for me.  I need to learn how to say, "What's your best price?"  really badly!  We live right down the road from one of the nicest malls in Qingdao.  In it are quite a few "foreign" stores.  My new favorite is the British

H & M.  Although their original prices are pretty high, their markdowns are amazing.  I just picked up this dress coat for around 30 US dollars.  So much simpler than getting something tailored and NO BARGAINING involved!

Here's Matt's handiwork.  It's actually a lot of work because the walls are plaster covered cement.  Whoever moves in here next is going to hate us--we've hung up so much stuff!  Now I just need to get them all filled with more recent pictures!



Sorry!

Blogger is not letting me upload pictures!  I'll be posting as soon as they get it fixed!  Three more days 'til school starts! 

In LOVE!

My new phone takes pictures! (I know I'm only a decade or so behind!)  They changed out all the flags in the olympic circle to Chinese flags.  Eye Catching!

The Designer

Ana has been at it again.  She wanted to make a flower pillow.  She picked out the fabric, drew me a sketch, and stuffed it all.  I can't wait until she can use the sewing machine by herself!!

In other news, we've been filling up the freezer with breads and different burritos so that we have food when we can't get around to cooking.  Matt also hung up all the frames in the bedroom!  If it wasn't so cold (hovering around 0 F!!!)  we'd be out and about more!