This year I was looking for even simpler idea for in-house plants. It caught my eyes immediately when I saw mustard and water cress seeds in the pack the other day in the shop. On the pack, it doesn’t seem that they would need any soil or a lot of care. I decided to give them a go, now you can see the result from the photos, except no progression photos at different growth stage.

I used a long shallow ceramic tray for water cress, with a piece of kitchen paper towel which I wet it and folded several times to make it a few layers to fit into the shape of the bottom of the tray. There is no need to SOAK seeds, and please DO NOT SOAK THEM if you want them to survive. Just spread seeds into single layer on the top of paper towel. No worries about seeds being too crowded.

All I did other than the above was to wait. Just a little bit sprinkle of water once a day which is ample enough. I think it took a little bit longer time for them to germinate, than wheat grass, but very similar time frame I would say. Initially the seeds developed some gelatine liked water shell around each seed. Here is what I learned from my failure. Gelatinous seeds do not drain well and may decay from too much moisture. That’s why you do not need to soak them, otherwise you will kill them from the beginning. This happened to my mustard seed, sadly:-(

I guess it took about a week to see the little shoots coming up, then another week to have them grow into about 3-4 cm length. The brown seed shell eventually fell off from the leaves, and fresh green colour came out. They are very pretty with interesting curled leaves, and I left them on the bedroom window sill for a bit of lively decoration.

I think the beauty of water cress is they can grow in any small and shallow containers, even in a broken egg shell. Because they don’t need soil, it is really a no-mess and stress-free gardening project.

The only question left here is “how long they are going to last?” I am curious to find out. Hold my breath……

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Just recently I got so drawn into Country Road canvas bags, that my old problem sort of came back. I am out of control.

On this Saturday, we went to the Country Road shop in Woden Plaza. I tried almost all the canvas bags available in the shop, with Vivian playing aside and my husband waiting by side too. I ended up getting two bags home. One was woollen felt grey colour with white belt, more for the winter scene; another is classic denim with brown belt. I was also very indecisive between this denim one and another stripy black and white one in the shop. I went to Denim one just because I felt like it at that moment. But I did believe that I probably will come back very soon and get another one just to make a collection.

Apart from these two new bags, I was given by my colleague an old black one. I washed and scrubbed it and it came out quite nicely. So I have 3 Country Road Canvas Bags now. I am not a person who is into brands at all, but I really like its shape, material and colour design, except there is not enough pockets. They look equally trendy and in-style no matter you have the bag full or kind of empty. And I haven’t seen any one which can compare to it. 

So I am pretty happy. Now all my outfits would be built around my bags, not the other way around:-)

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My God, I wish I had more fabric, so I didn’t need to feel so pressured to space the strips out vertically and horizontally, and the outcome would be much shaggy; I wish I had a softer (or floppy) cushion insert, as this one is a bit rigid and kind of not very cosy and homey; Also I wish I had a rotary cutter to cut the fabric. The scissors are just not
efficient enough to get quick and straight cut for lots of small pieces, though the project is very forgiving. See, I don’t do quilting at all, that’s why I am a bit hesitant to invest on a good rotary cutter, as they are normally fairly expensive.

Overall I enjoyed this project, except the cutting part. It took me a very long time to have 160 pieces cut up. Fortunately I wasn’t thatimpatient as I always was. I knew it would take time, so I took the casual relaxing approach and just did the cutting whenever I can, not trying to focusing the cutting all on one night. I didn’t realise that the fabric is a bit of fluffy until I was cutting it. I bought it from a thrifty shop with $1.5 dollars. It is velvet, doesn’t fray but has wrong side and right side different looks.

The actual machine sewing only took me about an hour, including stitching the strips on and seaming the pillow case. I altered the pattern and left an opening for the insert at the back, as I really need to be able to wash the outside case which is very important in this house.

I would like to make another one, but with a bit of more intensive bright coloured fabric, like red, purple or spring green like the one in the tutorial. And I would like to use jersey knits next time (of course bigger fabric next time), as they have the same look in right side and wrong side.

This shag pillow goes to Vivian’ day bed and sits with others now. I like its rectangle shape very much. It is just a good complementary part to other cushions.

I hope she likes whatever her crazy mother creates

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We had a couple of other things on our schedule today, plus any time between 10am to 4pm is really not good time as high risk to get sun burnt, so I had to tell her that she had to wait until late of this afternoon.

She nodded her head and said “好” , but to be honest I really don’t know if she understood the concept of “waiting” or “afternoon” or any of my reasons that I tried to explain. The only thing I can see was when we passed by the playground in the morning, she saw it and got excited then she was kind of disappointed as we didn’t stop or head to that way.

This is where you can’t help thinking and wondering how their little mind is working, how frustrating they would feel as they couldn’t talk (with such limited language skills), get other people to understand them or make their own decisions.

How would they feel? Do they complain or oppose in their little heart? Do they remember the lies or excuses the adult said to them? If they don’t understand the logic behind what they were told, how do they get over those hard feelings that they just don’t get what they want?

At that point, you just feel that they are so vulnerable and innocent and you feel that you are responsible for not messing up their minds and looking after them well as much as you can.

So I took V to the playground after 4:15pm in the afternoon and spent about an hour there. She was trying every single thing in the park. I was like always, doing my guessing game, trying to figure out what she wanted to do or not wanted to do. I suppose that if it was not easy to me, imagine how hard it would be for her?

I think even the best parents in the world can’t say that they have 100% accuracy about understanding their toddlers, but we seems never bothered by this. Isn’t this a shame?

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So here they are…all up on the wall, with paper butterflies that I made for Vivian initially to decorate the bedroom when she was born. I got sick of staring at them on the ceiling in the last 18 months. It is the time to give them new missions to fulfil.

I used clear silicone glue dots for photos, which I got them from the dollar shop yesterday. These dots don’t leave residues on the wall or photos. You just rub them off if you don’t want them anymore.

I was happy with the result, even though I think I could have done it better with photo arrangement. This morning after Vivian woke up, she immediately noticed the changes on the wall. She was pointing to them and calling her own name, as she knows that’s all about her J

Ok, one bit is done. What’s the next? I really want to fix up that messy desk underneath.

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