House of Blessings, Chiang Mai

I have been mentioning to you on House of Blessings since my first post. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to give you a short brief on what is HOB and to share with you some of my photos from my recent visits.

Housing of Blessings is situated in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is a Christian home for the orphans, poor and abandoned kids. It was through the contact of my colleague Chong Ho that we came to know HOB and since then, my company has been actively involved in helping the home to raise money to improve the infrastructure of the home so that the kids can have a better environment to live in and grow well. Money were also raised to buy baking equipment, sewing machines and building a motorcycle workshop etc to teach the children a skill of survival.

A few pictures on the lovely kids.

July 2011

July 2011

Apr 2013

Apr 2013

My first impression of the orphanage when I first visited them in July 2011.

2011

I was surprised with the vast change when I visited them in April this year. The houses were turned into concrete buildings!

2013

The entrance to the Chapel when I visited them in July 2011.

Chapel 2011

The entrance to the newly built Chapel when I visited them in April 2013.

Chapel 2013

Admin Office 2011

Admin Office 2013

The kids dormitory in year 2011. It really pained me to see this. 2 kids had to share 1 bed.

I was very heartened to see the vast improvement in the living condition of the kids. They even have matching pink cabinets to keep their stuffs.

Boys dormitory

Girls dormitory

Exterior of the dormitory

Lastly, a pic of me and 3 prettiest young ladies!

Rose, Rose, I Love You~~~

 

My first try on roses and I thought they turned out wonderful! (self praise, heehee)


It all started when one of my young male colleague quietly approached me to make him a bouquet of roses. (He is aware of my passion for crochet.)  I told him I did not have the experience of making flower.  He told me the bouquet of roses is for his girlfriend and he would like to have 6 stalks. I asked "why 6?" but he just smiled and did not answer my question. I thought to myself wth, there's always a first time and since it is for this young man's girlfriend, I agreed to help him.....but on the condition he must tell me the reason :D


I decided to try Plant June's basic rose pattern as it looked easy to follow and it came complete with the Calyx and Stem tutorial.


It took me one week to finish up the 6 stalks and since this will be a gift of love, I added a little heart to bundle up the roses. Isn't it sweet ?  I feel just great! Mission accomplished.

P.S.  Of course I did not forget to ask him "why 6 stalks?" I have been dying to know for the whole week! The answer is actually very simple, he is together with the girl for 6 weeks :)

A Gift For My Lunch Buddies - 01

Since my House of Blessings project is completed, I now have time to slow down my pace and take my time to think what I really want to do.

I thought of my lunch buddies. I am blessed with 3 lovely working lunch buddies. We lunch together almost everyday for countless years. We shared many stories, laughed and cry together and mostly, we enjoy gossiping together. They are always there for me so I wanted to do something for them.

Instantly I know what to do for Helen Teo. She loves plants!

I took K & J Dolls' Heart Cactus pattern as it represents Helen's love for the plants. K & J's pattern is easy to follow and full of picture tutorial.

(I have decided to drop the handle and turned the cup into a flower pot)

All wrapped up, ready to meet her new owner!

Ready to Fly!

After months of tedious and intense crocheting, now it is time to pack up all my completed ami and get ready to fly with them tomorrow to Chiang Mai to meet their new owners.

I have mixed feelings, kinda of sad to part with all my ami but at the same time, know they will be loved by their new little owners.

To this date, when I see this picture, it still bring back fond memory!

Little Green Dress

I have managed to rush out a simple dress for my first doll. It is not polite for my little doll to meet her new owner naked right? :P

I did not follow any pattern, just crocheted away madly, trying to put every minute in good use. If by any chance i could just rush out another ami, it would be added happiness for another child, stressed!
-__-"

I thought the green colour looked bright and nice on her!

Patrick Star!

My latest addition, introducing Patrick Star, from Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants.


I have actually disliked him a lot as I find him really dumb and irritating. One day while watching the Animal Planet, I came to realise that starfish actually does not have brain! Ok, that's explained why Patrick behaves that way and I turned to sympathise with him.


As I watched more of their animated series (yes, I still enjoy watching cartoon with my kids), I grew to love Patrick and SpongeBob and learned to appreciate their facts of life thinking. Through their idiotic and simple-minded ways, they lead a happy life, every little small life amused them. Now I envy them.

Ok, I chose to work on Patrick as I mentioned I grew to like him and I found Kalena's pattern was easy to follow.   I have not been able to link back to Kalena's site, she owns the blog name "Late Night Hooker".


I decided to miss out the flowers on Patrick's pants as you know, time is really not on my side (yes, I just have to emphasis this again and again).


Wonderful! Another project completed! More to go!

Little Ninja

I have done up quite a few ami and I realised I needed to do something for the boys! Boys are also entitled to have dolls you know :)

Was frantically searching the net for patterns and I found a few patterns on ninja.

Tiger Frogg

Sheep Dog's Fleece

Sheep of Delight

In the end, I decided to try out Sheep of Delight's pattern. I thought it would be more fun for the boys to be able to remove the hood or mask as you called.  Yes, it is definitely more challenging for a beginner like me as I must ensure that the hood fitted in nicely.


I was really, really pleased I managed to complete my little ninja. I have pushed my limit further by getting him a cool sword with a shoulder wrap.  Another pat on my shoulder *pat*  :D

Just by thinking some little boys enjoying playing with this ninja I have made. The double in fun in dressing and undressing him and putting on his sword, cool!