Learning to sew at SEW EASY Studio

I remember my Lola was amazing at sewing. She would make clothes for me and my cousins when we were kids, entire dresses with ruffles, puffed sleeves, and aprons! I wish I had asked her to teach me back then, but I guess it wasn't interesting to me when I was younger.

We then had sewing classes when I was in High School and I remember the machines were not as easy to use as they are now. Parang un hand wheel that you turn on the side reminds me of Sleeping Beauty's spindle haha! Joke lang, I'm not that old ha! ;p But it was more of just passing the class rather than really learning and understanding how to sew.

Fast forward many years later and now using a sewing machine is a skill I wish I had. I would just hand sew everything when adjusting hems on clothes to curtains and it takes so long! And sometimes, I would think I can make pillow cases or even a simple dress if I just had a sewing machine.

So it was just luck when I chanced upon Sew Easy's Facebook page and saw that they were having "June Half Price Saturday” promo classes for adults. It was for one session only (the usual is 2) and cost P2,500 for a 2.5 hour class. I quickly signed up for the last slot just in time.

A day at Sta. Elena Fun Farm

One of my daughter's BFFs celebrated her birthday at Sta. Elena Fun Farm last month and I was really excited about it since I've never been here before! My daughter's field trip was actually held here 3 years ago but I had just given birth to my youngest that time, so it was hubby who accompanied her. They had such a great time and the pictures looked awesome, but we somehow never got around to planning a visit. So now, finally, we were able to go as a family (and for free lol!) ;p

DIY Diaper Snow

It's officially summer for the kids! I'm so glad school is finally out, but at the same time dreading hearing these 2 words over and over again - "I'M BOOOOORED!" Anyway, here's an easy and quick activity that will surely keep your kids occupied for a couple of hours.

DIY Tie-Dye

My son had a 70's themed activity in school and I thought it would be fun for the kids to do their own tie-dyed shirts! I remember loving this activity when I was younger, plus tie-dye was all the rage back then right? I even had this bright tie-dye shirt I wore all the time when I was in grade school. ;p

DIY No-Bake Cake

With all the Christmas celebrations, get-togethers, and reunions this December, here's a quick and easy dessert idea you can bring to any party, brought to you by MoneyMax.ph.

Delightful DIY with Dutch Mill Delight

DIY Rainbow Crayons

Do you have a lot of broken crayons which you end up just throwing away? Well, this easy craft can help you recycle those pieces in a snap!

Summer classes at LUNA Art Workshop

I'm sure most parents will agree that summer is usually more busy and hectic than when the kids are in school. We end up taking them to different camps or workshops, plus they're always begging to be entertained when they're at home! Aside from swimming, I made sure to enroll my 6 year old daughter in art classes since I can see that she's very creative. We're from the south so I found a couple in the Alabang area, but they were quite expensive. Good thing a fellow mom recommended this place, LUNA Art Workshop, which is located in Phase 1 of BF Homes.

DIY: Popsicle Stick Characters

Now that it's the summer break, I sometimes feel like I'm busier than when the kids were in school. Between driving and accompanying them to their different activities/workshops/playdates, I also have to think of ways to keep them entertained at home.

Blow Painting for Kids

I've been looking at Art Workshops I can enroll my daughter in this summer, but honestly they can be quite expensive. And for her age (she's 6), most of the activities are still for beginners like finger painting, collage making, paper folding, molding clay, etc. So I figured, why not just do art activities with her at home? So off we went to National Bookstore and bought a bunch of materials (which cost a fraction of what one class would have cost!). And for our first activity, we did blow painting!

DIY Crayon Lipsticks

My 5-year old daughter loves watching YouTube makeup tutorials and her favorite gurus are Michelle Phan, Promise Phan, and Charisma Star. She actually showed me this video of Promise Phan making her own lipsticks out of crayons, so of course we had to try it out too! :)

Frozen Toys Rescue Mission!

I have to thank my friend Ange for giving me this idea when she posted a photo on Facebook of her boys doing this activity. All you have to do is freeze some toys in water and and have your kids find a way to "rescue" or get them out. It looked super easy to do and something I knew my own kids would love playing!

How to make your own playdough (no cook recipe)

My 5 year old daughter: Mom, I'm bored. What can I do?!

Me: Your homework!

Her: What???!!! I want something fun!

Haaay good luck to me when she gets to big school! Anyway, it's getting harder and harder to entertain her these days so I'm thankful for blogs and YouTube for giving me lots of ideas. My daughter loves mixing ingredients and as you know, I need a lot of help in the kitchen department. That's why when I saw this video she was watching, I knew instantly that we can make it since 1) it looked super easy, 2) all the ingredients were something I had on hand, and of course 3) who doesn't love playdough?

Sensory play with Gulaman

Are you looking for a fun activity your kids can do that can keep them entertained for a long time? Then just head on over to the grocery and buy a couple of packs of these jelly powder mixes! They're super cheap too at just P10 each.

Kracie Popin' Cookin' Bento Making Kit

Kracie Popin' Cookin' is a series of Japanese Do-It-Yourself candy making kits using just powder and water. I first encountered this when I saw my daughter watching a tutorial video on YouTube. It seemed so fun to do so when I saw some in a local bazaar, I just had to buy her one!

Make your own colors with the Crayola Marker Maker

My kids have so much toys already that whenever someone asks me what they can give them as a gift, I immediately think of arts and crafts stuff. So for Miley's birthday, we gave her this Crayola Marker Maker. She loves to draw and write using markers (not so much crayons) so I knew she would love this.

I love the whole DIY concept and creating your own custom colors. And if you ever wondered how markers are made, I can now tell you that it's so simple and fun! :)

The kit comes with only 3 ink bottles - red, yellow, and blue. But you can make so many colors by using the mixing guide provided, or just creating your own.

Here's the "core" of the markers which will be filled with color later on. It's like a sponge so it absorbs the ink really quickly (reminds me of a tampon lol! ;p).

And there are all kinds of wacky tips to choose from!

Here's the assembled kit with all the parts:

At first, hubby and I were the ones putting the ink in the measuring tubes. But it really is so easy to do that after a while, Miley was the one doing all the steps!

look at that intense concentration

Our favorite part was putting the core in the tube and watching the ink get absorbed. You can see the ink quickly spreading upward the entire white core which was pretty cool hehe! ;p

After, you just use the tweezers provided to transfer the core to the plastic barrel. Then use the machine to snap it shut inside the pen.

You just have to wait a few minutes for the color to completely spread out, then the markers are ready to use!

I also love how the markers came with labels which you can write the color you made on. And there was also a box which you can further color and personalize.

Of course, this is so much cheaper in the States (almost half the price) but it is also available here for P1,700. I even saw a girl version in Toys R Us, which I wish was the one I had bought for Miley. But either way, I really think this is such a great gift idea for any kid since it's something the whole family can enjoy too. And don't worry if you finish up the ink or made all the pens already. You can buy refills as well! :)

DIY Fruit Pops

My kids are picky when it comes to food so I try to think of ways to make it more interesting for them. Miley and Sabe are not so fond of fruit so I thought of making these cute popsicles which are fun and healthy at the same time. They're so easy to make and your kids will enjoy eating them too!

Just choose whatever fruits you like and cut them up into little pieces. I had kiwi, pineapple, papaya, and oranges.

Then fill your popsicle mold with fruits all the way to the top. Miley even had fun dividing the fruits, making sure each mold had equal amounts. :)

Then pour enough water or juice into each mold to cover the fruit. I used coconut water, but I'd like to try using a different juice next time (maybe orange or dalandan?). I guess depends also on the combination of fruits you used and what would taste good with it.

Then insert the popsicle sticks into the molds and place in the freezer until solid.

It was a bit hard getting the popsicles out of the mold though! I had to wait a few minutes and make it melt a little since it was really stuck at first. But it was so exciting to see all the frozen fruits! So pretty and refreshing to look at. :)

The kids were so excited to eat it, even little Skyler had a bite! :)

This really is the perfect treat to cool off especially when the weather is really hot, don't you think? Fun, fresh and fruity! :)

DIY: String Laser Maze

My kids get so active sometimes, it's hard to think of ways to keep them entertained at home. They're at that age where they love playing pretend and using their imaginations. I find it so cute when I catch them talking to themselves while playing with their toys, making up different scenarios and characters! :)

One afternoon, Miley was telling me how she was bored and wanted to do arts and crafts. I honestly wasn't in the mood to take out all their painting materials again since they had just made a huge mess in our room the day before. So I thought of doing this activity I read about - a String Laser Maze!

It's super fast and easy to do but you're kids will spend hours having so much fun, guaranteed! All you need is yarn (or any type of long string) and masking tape!

Just tape the end of the yarn to the wall and then start weaving it in a criss-cross pattern across the room at varying heights...

I also threaded the yarn through the cabinet handles...

And also through the chairs...

In the end, you'll have something that looks like this! It's ideal to do this in a hallway, in your garden, or any area where you don't have to worry about breaking anything. In our case, we used the dining room and just pushed the table and chairs to one side so we had more floor space.

Needless to say, the kids were so excited to play spy agents, Mission Impossible style! We made up this whole story where they had to get the treasure at the other end of the maze. If they touched the string, an "alarm" would go off (basically me just making a siren sound lol!) and then the cops (me again) would have to bring them to jail! Haha! ;p

I swear this was so much fun, and it was a great workout for the kids too. You'd be amazed at how a simple piece of string could provide so much excitement! This was a great experience and we've done it a number of times again since the kids couldn't get enough. Go ahead and try it too and have your own spy adventure with the whole family! :)