Blog Makeover

Long waited mother-daughter weekend finally came. Today, S and I talked about her creative plans and her aspirations. We decided to give this blog a makeover — it needs a new name, first and foremost. So, we decided to call it whimsical moon (as her name means “moon”). Voila! Now, please bookmark whimsical-moon.com 🙂

We are also going to use whimsical moon as our YouTube channel name as well. 😀 This name came to me this afternoon wben we drew a picture together. I realized how precious her ability is to make all her drawings look whimsical. She is not me who draws everything like computer work. She has her own style. Everything looks so vividly alive and vibrantly moving in her drawings. S loves this new name!

Then I started making the necessary changes on the blog and realized how sweet my old posts used to be and how desperate sounding my recent posts were. They sound like the desperate attempts of a busy working mom who wrote a few posts to “turn in homework”… So, I’ve decided to also rewrite those recent posts, so that they are sweet and loving, as our mother-daughter blog is intended to be. I am on it! 😉

My 4th “Recital”

Fading Letters

Well, it was my recital piece, but not a real recital. We decided on this piece before the spring semester started. Then, the virus came, so we couldn’t have a recital anymore. Luckily, I could still take piano lessons online with my teacher, who learned how to use all the high tech stuff because she really cares about our learning. I practiced this song anyways and loved it. At home we didn’t have a pedal extender when this was recorded. (After seeing my posture from taking the video, my mom bought me one!) So, I was playing without a pedal extender or a fancy dress or fancy hair do. But I enjoyed playing all the same! 🙂

Simplest Birthday Ever

This year’s birthday is the simplest ever… You got your birthday gift from mom and dad, had a BBQ picknick lunch, celebrated with a few friends on Zoom, and had mommy’s home made cake. You still had a great time, being the happy-go-lucky kid that you are!

But you know, sweetie, your birthday is still and always will be a most important event to me, ’cause it celebrates YOU! It is also one of the biggest opportunities for us to shower you with extra expressions of love. No earthly gift is better than a child is to a parent. I love you. We love you. Now and forever.

Love,

Mommy

A dress made from scratch

Hi, sweetie — Remember this dress? This one was made totally from scratch! And it is all hand-made, literally, down to every stitch. I didn’t use a sewing machine at all, just thread and needle. You loved this and still do! You’ve outgrown this outfit, but we put it in your time capsule. When you grow up and take a look, hope you will still admire this with adoration, like you did before and also do now 🙂

An important message from an award winning book

This award winning book by critically acclaimed author and artist, Arree Chung, has an important message, which is such a beautiful, kind, and thoughtful gift to the whole world. It goes above and beyond a little kid’s book. We love this book and the beautiful message that we need so much, especially now. (Read with Mr. Chung’s permission).

A Dress was Reborn

Hi, sweets — Remember you told me that you no longer liked the orginal flower dress and wanted Hello Kitty drawn by me instead? So, I did the old trick. I took off the tutu part and cut a blank T-shirt. On the other hand, the yellow flower looked really good, so good that I decided not to discard the top entirely. Instead, I cut it out, sealed the edge, sew it to the back of the blank T, and drew a stem and two leaves. On the front of the T, I drew Hello Kitty in ballet leo and slippers with wings, a bow and a heart-shaped wand. This blank T is really good for transferring images from paper to its fabric. I just searched pinterest, found the image, laid it under the front part of the T, and transferred it on the fabric. The result? A comfy pretty little girl’s dress, reborn and loved again 🙂

You loved this dress so so much until you outgrew it. So, by your request, it’s another dress put in the ever-growing time capsule 😀

Little Mermaid Dress

Hiya sweets — This dress has been your all time favorite until you outgrew it a couple of months ago. You reluctantly said that I could put this dress in your “Time Capsule” for you to look at when you grow up.

I found adapting white T-shirts into dress tops and then add a skirt part a really fun way to make dresses for little girls. Sometimes the stores just don’t have what you fancy. And not all moms have time to make or are good at making dresses from scratch, yours truly included LOL.

So one day I went to Target and bumped into these simple basic T-shirts. They come in different pastel colors and are so versitile. This dress is a good example of what can be done 🙂

Basically, I just cut the bottom 1/3 or 1/4 from the bottom (depending on the design of the dress) and use another piece of same color cotton cloth to make the skirt part. For this particular dress, I just drew the designs with fabric markers. There are different types of coloring that can be used on fabrics. This particular set is for drawing on light colored fabric. There are also glitter glues for fabric. Many stores have them, for example, Target, Meijer, Michaels, etc. For the dark pink tie-die frills, I just cut from another dress that you absolutely hated and wouldn’t put on. The rest of the fabric from the unwanted dress can be stored away for later use. So this way, I not only created something new, but also revived something unwanted.

You were so proud of this dress and wore it very often. It looks really woreout now LOL. But that’s what makes me feel proud and happy, too! :)))

Love always,

Mommy

New Dress for a Doll

Hi, sweets — This is one of your first dolls. You like the original rock star dress, but would like a fancier look for this doll. So, mommy made this spring looking flowery dress. All hand-made, down to every stitch. It’s relatively hard to find Asian looking dolls or dolls with Asian elements such as black/dark brown hair. So, whenever I see an Asian looking doll, I almost always snatch it for you. Now you have quite a few Asian looking dolls, along with blonde dolls, African American dolls, red hair dolls, brunette dolls… You enjoy the multicultural feel of your little “tribe” of different colors and sizes.

I hope you grow up to be both comfortable in your own skin, well rooted in your own culture, and embracing a multitude of cultures. You certainly do now. My sweetest, keep loving who you are and then, and only then, give the world the same love you’ve been giving yourself. Your love is and will always be genuine.

Love,

Mommy