Our Ang Pao Tree is Up! 红包树，迎新年！

Chinese New Year is only 2 weeks away, its time to dress up the house in happy and loud colors, in the spirit of CNY. Traditionally it is believe that the loud noises chase away the "Nian" monster, till today Chinese folks still carry the tradition of bursting fire crackers and wearing bright red during the new year.

So just like last year, instead of taking down the Christmas tree, I removed all the Christmas ornaments and replaced them with some handicraft Chinese New Year decoration:

Some oriental fans made from ang pao packets and wrapping paper,

fire crackers and some "gold nuggets" gotten from the CNY hampers.

Angpao lanterns made by my little boy..

Our CNY tree glowing under the morning sunshine...

I have the feeling this will be a good new year..


中文版

农历新年即将来临了，我和大个子也忙着为家里添新意好迎新年。

依旧传统，新年时节家里要红彤彤热烘烘的，就仿如小时候所读的童话故事，要吵吵闹闹敲锣打鼓的才可以把吃人的年兽吓跑。我不喜欢吵闹，但倒不介意为家中添一份红彤彤的新年意境。

一如往年，与其把已架起的圣诞树收起，我把圣诞装饰除去，换上新年饰物来参热闹。

看，我们红彤彤的红包树好啦，就等着迎新春。树上挂满自己手制的简易饰物 -- 用红包袋制成的扇子，小红炮，小哥哥的手工红包灯笼，和现有的“金银宝”。再加上个串着牡丹花的仿古木篮子和门口的一幅对联，新年气氛有够浓厚了吧！

期待中。。。




Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Quick Little Girl Cheongsam (the cheating way!) 快速小女孩旗袍 （走捷 径）

Did I mentioned I was on a mission to make Chinese New Year clothing for my baby girl? Well, instead of making a new cheongsam from scratch, I found a plain looking round neck English dress in her wardrobe, bought by grandma sometimes back and never worn. Looking at the flowery patterns in pink, I thought this could be transformed into cheongsam, the cheating way.

This was how I did it.

What you need:

• A Sewing machine, or needle and thread in matching color
• An existing round neck dress
• 1 pack of Bias tape in matching color (available in most tailoring supply shop, or you can make your own)
• 6-8 floral pattern buttons
• Some sewing pins

1. I drew a sketch of the desired design and started working on it by pinning bias tape onto the dress according to the design. Played around with the look and feel until I was finally satisfied.



2. Sewn both side of the bias tape onto the dress, be careful not to sew over the pin as you may risk breaking the needle. I added some tiny roses as decorative buttons, you can opt to use matching buttons too.

3. I then added 2 layers of the bias tape around the edge of the dress for a complete look. I also hemmed the dress to make it shorter so more convenient for my baby girl who had just learnt to walk and often roam around like a drunk driver.

Little Girl Cheongsam (the shortcut way)

Ta-Da! There you go, an adorable cheongsam for the coming CNY ready in just 3 simple steps... Even grandma was impressed with the altered result, couldn't believe this was the same dress she bought, so it's a success after all.. :)

If you have any enquiries, feel free to drop a comment or send me a picture of the cheongsam you have made using this method.. Alternatively, you may upload direct to the FunWithLittleOnes's Facebook page to share with others. :)


中文版

我知道我说过今年不打算裁制小孩旗袍，但当我在衣橱里找到妹妹的这件崭新的小花裙子时，觉得是时候给她穿上，毕竟是嬷嬷买给她的。只是当初还小不合身， 现在妹妹可是又高又大,刚好合身了。

我左看右看,总觉得裙子设计太单调了，穿了没什么看头。所以动了动脑筋，决定着手把它改装成西式旗袍。看，效果蛮不错吧？连嬷嬷也差点忍不住这是她当初买的那件裙子。 :)

因为用了现有的裙子,所以做起来很迅速，我在一个晚上就完工了，就这么几个步骤而已：

需要的工具如下：

• 一台缝纫机，或针线
• 一件圆领小裙
• 一包同色斜裁条子 (一般裁缝供应店均有售，自制也可）
• 6-8 颗花型纽扣
• 两打大头针

1. 策划你的设计大纲，然后就照着设计构图把bias tape 用大头针扣在裙子上。

2. 用针车或针线把bias tape 两面缝好，再缝上一对对的钮扣仿旗袍设计。我正巧有小粉红花朵，用来做装饰钮扣正合适。

3. 如果要达到更佳的效果，在裙角也车上一层（或双层）的同色斜裁条子。裙角如太长的话就乘机把它裁短, 好方便学习步行中的小女孩。

一条西式旗袍就那么轻易完工啦！

如果你也参考以上程序来制作西式旗袍的话，请给我来封电邮附上照片，或上载到FunWithLittleOnes 的面子书，我会在此与大家分享。



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Mommy-and-Mini-Me set: Spring Blossom Tops 锦绣花开新年衣裳

*this is my first bilingual post.

As Chinese New Year is approaching, I had planned to make some CNY dresses for baby C and myself, save me from shopping frenzy at the overly crowded malls and besides, I have lots of fabrics that I wanted to explore. :)

I was thinking to make cheongsam at first, but after some researching I dropped that idea, I couldn't decide on a design that is suitable for a sewing newbie like me and besides, grandma had bought baby C a few cheongsam so no point making extra. Must why hold that thought till next year :)

So, I made these instead. Spring blossom blouse for both mommy and my Mini-Me.

Baby C's top has a butterfly sleeve top with an opening in the front. I added a tiny ribbon to compliment the feminine look.

The back of the blouse.

Mommy has a top with elastic waist band, as the fabric is rather flowery I thought I should keep to a simple design.

A close up on the fabric.I just love the spring blossom print on this fabric... Such a sweet color combination. Set me into the right mood for this festive season

I refer to this site on tutorial to make the ruffled butterfly sleeves. I didn't use the pattern thou, just used an existing top as reference.


So look forward to wear this blouse with my Mini-Me. Hmm.. Perhaps I shall make her a matching hair clip to complete the look. Until then, ciao!


新年的步伐越来越近了，是时候筹备新年装饰和置新衣。我原本打算为妹妹和自己各做一套旗袍来应节，但一来因为我这菜鸟的功夫实在有限，二来妹妹的嬷嬷已为她买了两套小孩旗袍，所以最后我还是决定另作一款母女装设计来的好。

这一套PH妈妈和迷你我诞生啦，还不错吧？ （自夸，嘿嘿）

妹妹的上衣有对小蝴蝶衣袖，再加个小小蝴蝶结，希望让她看起来像只可爱小蝴蝶在人群中飞舞。 时间允许的话我会做一个发夹来配搭，那将会是景上添花吧？

妈妈的上衣就简单得多，反正这布身已经那么多姿彩，不需太多的装饰。

我很喜欢这匹布的颜色和设计，配搭的真美，我为它起名 ＂锦绣花开布＂，正好衬托这个春节的喜洋洋气氛。

有兴趣尝试自己当裁缝的，可以参考这个网页，有详细的图片教程。

这是我第一次写中英对照的部落客，可能因为这和农历新年有关，总觉得用中文来写这篇文章比较贴切。

预祝各位新年快乐，快快大扫除办年货去吧！


Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Fun with Water Color! The Beginning of Color Theory

Now that my little boy is 4, I figured its time to let him experience with water color, it's the ideal way to teach him color mixing theory that can't be done with color pencil nor crayon. So instead of all the fancy toys, I bought him a set of water color and color palette for his birthday.

This is his first time painting with water color, using the printouts of little pirates I prepared for his birthday :)

Little Pirate, first water color project with my boy

He was really determined to do a good job...

Learning the Basic
We started with these prime colors: blue, red, yellow; they are the base for creating any other colors. I taught him basic of color mixing using these 3 colors, where:

Blue + Yellow = Green
Yellow + Red = Orange
Red + Blue = Purple

(To make it more interesting, I actually told him I'm going to show him a magic ;))

Next, I introduced him to changing the depth of the colors by using white, where:

White + Red = Pink
White + Black = Grey
White + Green = Light Green

This let him understand the usage of white is to lighten up any other color when mixed.

Well, I probably should have taught him the secondary color and tertiary color mixing instead, but I just thought coloring with a 4 yo need to have more fun elements instead of just following the procedure, so I just did it my way.. :)


After he had understood the basic handling of water color painting, I just left it onto him to explore freely. For example:
- handling the color tube (squeeze just the right amount and must close tight after each use),
- mixing the colors (need to add just a little drop of water for the color to mix well),
- holding the paint brush properly (it's different from holding a color pencil),
- cleaning the paint brush after each use,
- any thing else I left out?? *thinking*

The color palette was full of colors, a result of his exploration.. :)

He painted the picture at the bottom all by himself as I took baby for a shower. I was pleasantly surprised by the result, good usage of colors and he managed to mix the brown color by himself, which was a good try!



Once the paintings are dried, we will hang them onto the Ethan's Wall - the wall in his room which features all his beautiful artwork.


Useful Tips...
1. If you are interested to try this out with your little ones too, the basic preparation you should have before beginning:

- Water color (non-toxic), a pointy brush and a color palette.
- A water proof apron for your kiddo to protect his shirt
- Some tissues for the hands and a clothe for wiping the brush after each wash.

2. I only introduced 3 colors at a time to avoid him from getting confused, let the little brain has some time to digest and absorb. :)

3. It's important to teach the kiddo to wash their hands using soup after each painting session, you wouldn't want them to eat any of the water color accidentally! ;)

4. To encouraging creativity, refrain from giving too much inputs and instructions. If he wants the hair to be blue, then so be it. It's the creativity that leads to new invention after all.

5. If you think you are not ready to handle the potential mess with water color (yes, water may spills, he may have accidentally painted onto your sofa etc), here is an alternative to introducing water color to your little ones, read on here for the shortcut method I found.


More Tips!
Want to understand more about color mixing theory? The chart below gives a good reference guide. Every color begins with that 3 prime colors in the center...

Color Mixing Chart

Alternatively, I came across this website, artintegrity.wordpress.com which gives good examples only color theory, like the one below..

I don't expect my little boy to became a great artist, nor am I a good artist myself, I just want him to enjoy learning and have the passion to explore new things. I do think that exposing little ones to drawing and playing with colors encourages them to see the world around them with a different view and life may just be a little bit more fun and interesting that way :)


Thanks for reading, have fun!


Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Party Special: My Little Boy Turned 4!

My little boy turned 4 years old today.. From a chubby baby, he had grown into a little handsome who is more than half my height now and often offer me protection when daddy is not around, it's a blessing to watch him grow.

After experiencing a recent car accident myself (thank God it was only me in the car!), I just pray that God will continue to bless us with his protection, especially on my little ones.
Anyway, about the birthday, this year the theme is about Captain, as in Captain Ethan who sailed the sea with his crews.

Here is my little captain in his Captain Hat and top made by mommy and his handsome sailor crews. Unfortunately some of the little pirates had fallen sick hence not able to make it to the party, but it was still a fun day nonetheless.

These are some of of the party decorations or food preparations that made I have prepared to make a real pirate theme party.

First, the Pirates & Treasure Island birthday cake I designed and baked with him. The 4 pirate candles resembles his age and the little treasure chest full of M&Ms was definitely his favorite. He actually ate up the whole treasure chest :)

You may refer here for the making of this cake.

Little Pirates On Treasure Island Cake, made by Ethan & mommy PH

Little Pirate's Corner
Party bags, pirate coloring templates, pirate maze and binoculars to keep the little ones busy. Color pencils provided of course..

The finger foods for the little pirates.. Even the adults could not resist the marshmallow sticks and they were all grabbed up :) Little fish cookies and cheerios were just perfect for the little hands.

The Fruity Pirate Ship, in different spectrum of reds. Just perfect to combat the hot tropical weather.

The Octopus Spaghetti was another big hit at the party, everyone was amused by the presentation and wanted to give it a try. To make it child friendly I used homemade spaghetti sauce instead of canned purée and it was well liked by all. You may get the recipe here.

The dining table was all filled with good food... Some were contribution from grandma.

It certainly helped to have a theme for the party as the kids have something to look forward to and it certainly helped with the visual effect during photo session. And look what other pirates's parents made for the party?

Custom pirate hat, isn't it cute? :)

Lovely kids & creative moms we had today.


My little girl was wearing the simple pirate ship dress I made for her, simple but simply sweet looking with the little bow in front. :)

It was a great party with sporting kids, wonderful people, good food and beautiful weather. Thank God for blessing us with another happy day.

Thanks for reading, hope this post give you some idea on your kiddos' party too!


Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Birthday Special: Baking Together - Little Pirates Cake! 一起来做生日蛋 糕

Ever since I started exploring fondant cake decoration 2 months ago, I got really fascinated and will try to start a tradition by baking a special designed cake for my little ones for every birthday, until they decide that they had enough or my idea run dry (hopefully not so soon :)

As we are celebrating Ethan's birthday tomorrow, I started baking the cake today. Just in case I flopped still have time to order a backup cake from nearby bakery. But I'm glad it turned out well... *relief*

Allow me to present to you... Our Little Pirates on Treasure Island Cake

My little captain helped me throughout the whole process without me asking. The moment he saw me took out the scale and flour out onto kitchen top, he took his kiddie-size whisker and offered to help. And I must say he did a good job. :)

All ingredients and tools for the cake decoration were nicely arranged before we began. I also got ready hand towels and kitchen tissues so can clean our hands easily. My little boy happily took my seat.

Ethan learnt to crack the eggs for the first time. Succeeded on 2nd try!

He then helped to add orange rinds into the batter and squeezed the orange too. Seemed like he really enjoyed helping in the kitchen.

We continued decorating the cake hours later, as we took a break for lunch and did some party grocery shopping. He offered to help with decorating as well, and chipped in a lot of ideas, eg to make a gold color treasure chest (which i filled up with lots of M&Ms later), made me a giant blue candy (loaded onto the ship) and made a green sea monster (but it was too ugly that I didn't add that onto the cake, oops..)


Ethan was busy rolling the fondant and flattening it. I took this opportunity to teach him the color theory. Mix blue with yellow to get green; mix red wit green to get brown... He was so amazed and called it magic :)

Here's the cake again under the yellow lighting effect. Honestly I quite like this cake, it may be simple but full of love.

This was my initial designs for the cake, supposed to be a 2 layer cakes but since I was short of self rising floor I had to make last minute change to the design to suit a single layer cake. The little pirates candles and little decorative trees I bought few months back came in just handy. :)

Anyway, to cut the story short, we both had fun baking and decorating the cake together while baby Claire watched on in her high chair next to us or playing with her toys on the floor. At the same time, I managed to save a few hundred bucks on buying a store make fondant decorated cake. So I am definitely going to continue baking!

Next I shall post about the party decoration for my Little Captain's big day, so do stay tuned.

I had my first birthday party only when I was 18, I just wish with a little effort, my little ones will have great memories of their childhood and of course, birthdays. :)


Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Little Captain's Birthday Hat 自制小船长帽子

My little boy is turning 4, he is so looking forward to become a bigger boy, so is mommy :)

Look what I've made for him, a Captain Ethan's hat, designed according to my little customer's request - blue base with bright yellow stars.

I used the blue stripes fabric for internal lining for extra comfort and durability, so the hat is now ready for reversible wear.

My little captain absolutely loving his new hat, yay.. Can't wait for his birthday party tomorrow!

Interested to make one too? It's too easy to have a tutorial for this, basically just to assemble all 3 layers of fabric / interfacing / felt together and sew them on at the edge. The picture below says it all :)

Once done, just use a hair clip to clip both edges to form a hat, and it's ready to for your little captain; alternatively, sew on a layer of Velcro on both end and ready to wear on (I obviously took the short cut ;).

Happy Crafting!

Amino Educational Game: Tournament （Amino育智游戏)

Good morning there!

Here's introduction to another education series - Amino's Tournament cardboard game, it's an interesting game that encourages pattern recognition & positioning, observation and concentration skill in young kids. I would recommend to start this from 8 months onwards.


Note: I made a mistake in my previous post, these game sets are called Amino, not Phinken, and they were designed and printed in France. The Phinken Primar set comes with with different types of material and this particular set is called Amino. Sorry for the confusion.


It comes in the standard card box for easy storage.

Like Space Magician, you can find the instructions on the reverse of the box.

It has a base templates with 9 square boxes and over 18 different pattern templates for you to use as challenge. Get little ones to arrange the 22 geometrical shape cards into the respective boxes, according to the chosen pattern.



I shall leave it to the photos to do the explanation..


1. Here are the pattern cards and the various shape cards - consist of "X", "O", "N","Z", "L", diamond in 4 different colors. Pick any one pattern card to begin the challenge.

2. Start arranging the different shapes until you got the matching pattern. If little one is stuck, just give hints, eg tell him he needs a red X, or need to turn the N around to become a Z etc. Refrain from doing it for him coz its him who is playing and learning, not you ;)

This game has became too easy for Ethan as he has grasped a good understanding on the concept... He completed the challenge below within 1 minute.

In order to make it more challenging for him, I set a timer on my phone and both of us took turn to compete on the same pattern. Guess which was mommy's timing? (hint: mommy won, hehe)

We moved on to play a few more challenges before he proceeded to watch his Mickey Mouse clubhouse programme. At least we had 10 minutes of right brain stimulation time, better than pure TV or PS game. :)

This game may seem difficult at first but once your little one understand the concept and gain the ability to recognize patterns and position them, you'll be amazed how fast he or she progress. Just remember to give your little one positive encouragement and praise him if he gets a correct move. Please don't loose your temper if he or she got it wrong or not paying attention, just attempt again on another day. Learning is suppose to be fun and not pressuring..


For Young Infant
For younger baby, you may change the game plan slightly but still using the same materials - flash each card and read the color or shape aloud. For example, "one red X", or just "Red".

Flash max of 5 different cards each time and repeat for 2-3 rounds. No point doing too many cards or repetitions as young babies has much shorter attention span. They probably would have crawl away or try to grab the cards from your hands. Try to practice this 1 time a day with your little one, and you'll be surprised by their ability to learn.


Well, that's all about this Tournament game. Have a great day with your little ones!



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.