A Weekend Adventure... Shinsegae!

The other day my husband and I decided to get out of this town and do something since he actually had this weekend off of work.  We were headed to Namdaemun Market up in Seoul... but as soon as we hopped off the Subway I needed to find a bathroom ASAP (baby likes to use my bladder for her kickboxing workout it seems!).  Well the first thing I saw when we got off the subway was the entrance to some store, so we wandered in there to find the restrooms... and I'm pretty sure we hit a gold mine!  I wasn't sure what the place was at first, because the entrance was underground by the subway, but it was the biggest department store I've ever seen. 

Apparently it's called Shinsegae Department Store.  Fourteen floors of sheer goodness (FOURTEEN!).  You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

We spent most of our time on the first floor, though.. that's where all the delicious food was!  We walked through a lot of the floors, though.  Clothes (men's and women's), handbags, makeup, shoes, food.. oh my.  They had all the expensive stores... Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Chanel, Tiffany & Co., etc, etc... you know, all the stuff I would never waste my money on, but it's fun to look at!  Then they had some Korean designers, and some stores that were more my taste... Calvin Klein, Gap, Banana Republic, etc, and some cute Korean stores.

They had an amazing home goods section, too.  I fell in love with a set of Andy Warhol dishes... oh my, they were so amazing.  A tad pricey for my taste ($50 for ONE dinner plate?!).  But amazing nonetheless.. good eye candy!  But my most favorite floor of all was the floor with all the food on it!

I have been craving Auntie Anne's since we left Virginia.  Literally.  LOOK WHAT I FOUND.  Heaven on earth!  I was a very happy pregnant woman that day..

They had an super cute bakery in there as well, and we came home with a few goodies.  Including this deeeelicious chocolate chip bread.  Addictive! 

This was on the 11th floor.. they had a little 'Sky Garden' as they called it.  Can you see the baby belly?  It's there.. I should have had the lady stand back a little more while taking the picture.  ;)  We had such a great day.. even though we never made to Namdaemun Market.  But that's okay, it's fun to find such neat things by surprise!

Handmade Baby Goodies!

A very special friend of mine is due to have a baby girl any day now.  I just had to make some goodies for the little beauty that's about to be born - baby things are so fun to make!  I crocheted a baby beanie and a few washcloths, and I also sewed up a receiving blanket (that wasn't in my original plans, but when I saw the bright, beautiful fabric at Happy Quilt, I just couldn't resist!).

Materials

• 2 yards of flannel material.  I used 1 yard of print, and 1 yard of solid white.  You can use whatever you want.
• Coordinating thread.

Prep

• Wash and dry the fabric.  Iron if necessary.
• Place one piece of flannel right side up, and lay the second piece of flannel on top of the first, right side down.
• Pin the layers together, every inch or so, the whole way around.  

Sewing

• Being sewing in the middle of one side.  Do not start at a corner.  Using a straight stitch and a 1/4-inch seam allowance, sew all the way around the blanket, but leave about a 6-inch hole in the side where you started, or big enough to put your hand through.
• Turn the blanket right side out.  Use your fingers to poke the corners into points.  Smooth out blanket edges so they're smooth, or press them flat with an iron.
• Pin the 6-inch hole together so the edges stay tucked inside while you finish the blanket.
• Then, sew around the edge of the blanket a second time.  Do not start on the side where you have the hole pinned shut.  Start anywhere else except there.
• Use a very small seam allowance when sewing the second time.  1/8-inch, if possible.  Sew the whole way around the blanket, and back stitch a the beginning and end.

That's it.  Your blanket is finished!!  Fairly easy and basic, right?  It should be about 36 inches by 45 inches.

And here are the few other goodies I made for her.  A few washcloths, and an adorable beanie.  I just love that flower on there!

I had so much fun making all of these things... I hope she enjoys them!  :)

Nursery: No-Sew Custom Crib Skirt

So I decided to make our baby girl's crib skirt out of the same material I used for the curtains.  And I think it turned out very nicely!

I followed a tutorial I found at an awesome website called Young House Love.  I won't waste my time writing it out for you -- you can just go check out that tutorial yourself if you're interested.  Actually you should just go check out that website anyways, it's awesome!  And I totally want their living room.  Just sayin'.

The material for the curtains & crib skirt only cost me about $18.  I used 2 rolls of heavy duty hem tape, which cost about $1.50 per roll, and a little bit of velcro.  So all in all, I spent roughly $21.00.  I'm pretty sure I saved us some money!  Wahoo!  Not only that, but I think they look 100x better than anything I could just go out and buy, because I was able to make them exactly how I wanted them (I didn't really want anything with animals all over it, and I didn't see anything else that caught my eye).  I think that deserves an iced white chocolate mocha from Starbucks... right?  I thought so too.

Here are a couple photos.  One is without the flash, and one is with the flash.. because, once again, the lighting in there just awesome.  Not.

The crib sheet is actually a really light pink, if you can't tell from the photos.  It's from Target, and it's so soft... I need to get a few more!  The crib is coming along nicely, I think!  The nursery is definitely starting to look like a nursery.  :)

A BIG Crochet Project...

... but not much time to do it!  I'm working on something for our beautiful little niece who is about to turn TWO!

 

 I have a long ways to go on this thing... but I'm confident that I'll have it done (err, or at least most of it) by my deadline.  Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Nursery: Easy No-Sew Curtains

This past weekend I was able to get the curtains finished for our baby girls' nursery.  I love these curtains because they are so simple!  Anyone can do them (as long as you know how to use an iron... which I hope you do).  Making them is so much more fun than just going out and buying curtains, imo, because you get to pick out exactly what you want.

For these, all I needed was a fabric of my choice (after I measured my window for exactly what I needed, adding on 1 inch on the top and bottom for the hem), scissors, iron on hem tape, and an iron.  Totally simple, right?  Hem all the way around your fabric, and wah-la, you have curtains!

 

I chose this beautiful deep pink fabric and it compliments the light blue walls SO well!  The fabric is light and breezy - I wasn't concerned about them being thick and room darkening because this particular room in our apartment gets practically no natural light because it's in the very corner of the building (it doesn't help that it was cloudy out when I took these photos!).  Which is why some of the pictures are so off.. sorry about that.. hard to take a good picture with my camera without any natural light!  My flash made the blue walls look a little more of a bright blue than they actually are.

 

I used 2 packs of clip-on curtain rings to hold the curtain to the rod, and it gives the curtains that folded effect at the top, which I love.  And they're long and flowy. 

Again, these are SO EASY.  Absolutely anyone can do this.  In fact, I may even whip some up for the master bedroom.  :)  Next up on my nursery to-do list is the crib skirt.  It's going to be another no-sew project!

EDIT:  Wanted to add a better picture of the wall/curtain color combo.  While the quality is still eh, this picture gives you a better idea of the actual colors.  :)  

Korean Folk Village Adventure!

This week my Aunt and Uncle "stopped by" to visit us on the Korean peninsula while on their way to Japan.  They were here for a few days, so it was nice to visit and show them around the base and surrounding area.  

Yesterday they really wanted to visit the Korean Folk Village in Suwon, about 30 minutes away.  I had never been, so I thought it would be a good experience for all of us (unfortunately, my husband had to work, so it was just the three of us).  That was more of an adventure than I bargained for.  I drove - and getting there wasn't so bad, but coming home was a whole other story.  Me + GPS = Not Good.  Me + GPS + Korea = Really Not Good.  Add construction into the mix and, well, you can only imagine the outcome.  We got lost for a good HOUR on the way back home - the place isn't even an hour away, mind you!  The fact that I can't read any of the signs, and none of the people at the toll booths spoke English did not help.  I have never been so stressed out in my life.  It was straight to the bubble bath for me when we got home.

The actual Folk Village was good.  It was pretty windy out that day, though.. I'd like to take Coleman back there once it's nice outside. 

 

The Korean Restaurant we ate at for lunch.

Grated mung bean pancake that I had.

 

This is what my Uncle had for lunch.  Yeeeeuck.

Oh and this lady at the Folk Village showed me how to do my hair Korean-style... she was very sweet... it was kind of fun!

Nursery: Paint Walls... check!

We are finally making a little more progress on the nursery.  This past week we chose a color to paint the walls.  We wanted to stick with the theme that I had previously thought about, so it wasn't too difficult.  I mean, it shouldn't be, right?  I knew I wanted a lighter blue color.  Well there are way too many 'light blue colors' to choose from.  Like, waaay too many for an indecisive person like me.  So my husband helped me out and I'm super pleased with our choice!

It's perfect.  If we would have gone any darker, it would have been just too dark.  It will work really well with the plans I have for the curtains.  Oh I'm so excited to work on those next weekend!  Everything is coming together nicely.  We only painted two walls, because we will have to paint it back before we move next year (ah, life of living in rentals..) and we wanted our baby to have a beautiful nursery, but keep the work to a minimum.

I accidentally gave myself a few blue hair highlights as well.. whoops!  You can see them in the picture;)

I'm so happy with the way it turned out (excuse the streaks in the background.. it's still drying!).  My hubby did all the back-breaking work, of course.  And for all his hard work (and because he has a long work week ahead of him) we are going to one of our favorite Brazilian steakhouse restaurants tonight... Ceia!  He's pretty excited.  And I am too because my favorite part is their slow cooked pineapple glazed with cinnamon and sugar.  To. Die. For.

This week is going to be a busy week for us, but we will definitely make more progress on the nursery by the weekend.  Keep checking back to see us get our nursery ready for our baby girl, one thing at a time.  :)

Project: Command Center Organization, Pt. 3 (FINISHED!)

Finally finished with my "home office" organization.  I feel great now that it's done, and I'm much happier every time I sit down to do grocery lists, budgeting, go through the mail, etc.  Check out my before and after pictures...

Much better, right?  Right.  I even have a before and after of the drawer... a lot easier to find things..

So, first I went through all of our papers (financial documents, etc, etc) and made a pile of things to shred and then sorted the rest and put them in their respective hanging file folders (here).

Second, I found a way to organize everything on top of the desk.  A little storage box worked really well for me.  I also bought a couple $1 jars to put in tacks and paperclips. (here).

Finally, I organized the drawer, cleaned up the rest of the clutter on the hutch and added a few new touches for now (like a few pictures that really make me smile).  Oh yeah, I also added my little coupon book.. helps me keep them organized when I go shopping!

I feel like I can breathe a little bit better now that this is done.  And I don't cringe every time I pass this area - always a plus.  How does everyone else keep their 'home office' space or papers and such in order?