things that make me happy!

Clothespin Ribbon

2012-02-05T19:24:00.004+08:00

I was spring cleaning my room over the weekend and found a bagful of ribbons and simply chucked them all into a big plastic bag. It was so unsightly, untidy that i dont even wanna use any of it and even forgotten about it. Since i was in the mood for tidying, i decided to roll them up but i didnt have enough spools. Used these clothespin instead..so much neater now.

My New Machine!

2012-02-01T22:48:00.004+08:00

I have got a new machine!!! A Janome Memory Craft 6600!! On a nice date - 1.2.12!

My Bernina Activa 220 has been with me since 2008 (was one of the best surprise gift from tyre) and its perfect for my sewing crafts till now and will continue to be great! Its solid and sews beautifully & quietly.

Since tyre now works in hk, as the wife, i keep him company. It gets quite boring after some time (dvds and shopping overdose) so i needed to start crafting to pass time. Had bought a basic Brother sewing machine but quite regretted it after some time cuz its really for basic sewing and the stitches are pretty loose and weak looking.

So i started toying with the idea of getting a new machine. One in Singapore, another in hk. Ms G suggested for me to bring my Bernina over and when i needed to satisfy my crafting needs in singapore, i could borrow her juki. But but but... i just needed to own my own stuffs ! hahaha yeah.. wasteful.

My alternatives were Bernina, Elna or Janome.

Bernina is almost immediately out cuz its way to expensive for a more advanced model. I had used Elna few years back in Taiwan when we went on a crafting trip - the teacher used the Elna which sews perfectly and more importantly, it has a auto cutter function. This means, press one button and the strings cut perfectly. No need to pull and cut. I knew i had to have this crucial "auto cut" function in my next machine. As for Janome, its a foreign brand to me but Ms G said its popular among japanese crafters. Also, Elna machines are now made by Janome (so i was told by people in sewing industry) So being the sucker in me, i sort of decided on Janome.

And just before i confirmed my order, i did online research between Elna 7300 and Janome 6600. Seems like the features (which i look out for) are largely the same.

So... Janome it shall be!

And the best thing, they provide free delivery and home training! Compared to my Bernina after sales service support experience, Janome beats hands down! So friendly and patient! Bernina was more haughty in comparison.

Susan the trainer spent 2 hours going through in details how to use the machine. Here are some of the key functions i love - and with this machine, there's no need to use the 'step pedal' to sew - the start/stop button will do.
It comes with a boxful of footers for different types of sewing methods. Amazing! Without the training, all these would just be sitting at one corner collecting dust. I feel so inspired to start using the different types.
I havent started truly exploring and familiarizing with the functions, but i already feel very expert and professional and ready to tackle those big quilting projects! Sean kiddo - i will do your quilt first ... in hk!! :D

wish me luck!!!

Patchwork Zippy

2012-02-01T18:14:00.004+08:00

Its been long time since i did patchwork zippy pouches. For the past year or so, most of the focus of my crafting was on fabric prints - as long as fabric prints are pretty, the crafted items turns out equally pretty , if not, more.

Lately, i develop an interest in doing patchwork and quilting again. Started doing patchwork pillow cases in HK then in Singapore for frens. I planned to do more patchwork when i return to HK next week (cuz i need to be very very free in order to do patchwork), but i just couldnt resist a small project!

Colorful zippy! So colorful and bright! :D but but.. lak said its gaudy ! :( never mind.. i love it all the same !! :D Its patchworked, its hand-quilted!

Pink & Green Patchwork Pillows

2012-01-30T00:26:00.003+08:00

Lately, i have developed an interest in making patchwork pillows. It started from wanting to 'decorate' the hk apt with cushions in hope to make it more cosy and homely. So, i made matching blue and red patchwork pillows in different shapes - square, round and rectangle.

When i came back to Singapore for chinese new year holidays, i made some for Lak and Ms Vong.

Lak requested for bright pink and green pillows. When i first heard of the combi, i tot its kinda weird but then , to each his own, so i made it.

The end results was surprising - its soooo pretty!!!! Ok, it looks ok from the picture cuz i took it with the iphone (blame blame blame) - could have been better with proper camera but i didnt have it with me that day.

Easy peasy steam milk dessert

2012-01-21T23:39:00.005+08:00

Ms G and me stumbled upon the Australia Dairy Company in Jordan area during her last trip to visit me. I had earlier heard about this place from sis-in-law. She was raving about the superb runny scramble eggs with thick toast.

So as soon as i saw it, we had to try it. Since it was almost dinner time, we only had steam milk (they are also famous for that). Its delicious! Smooth and full of milk flavor.

Anyway, if you are at home, craving for steam milk or wanting to have a quick dessert - try this at home. It aint going to be as smooth as what you eat outside, but its good enough

Steam Milk Recipe (good for 1 pax)
one bowl of milk (rice bowl size? i never measure it before but my guess is its about 200ml?)
egg white (from one egg)
sugar (add according to sweetness preference)
Whisk or Beat with fork till lots of bubbles form on the top of the mixture. Then cling wrap the bowl and steam it over boiling water for 15 minutes.
(Tip: Do not open the lid for the entire duration during steaming)

Try it ! But if you still prefer store bought ones, try the one at Australia Diary Company located at 47 Parkes Street at Kowloon side.

I Heart Pancakes

2012-01-21T23:23:00.005+08:00

There are times when i crave for pancakes and i get my fix from macdonalds. Would love to do them myself but those store bought pancake mixes are usually too much to finish up.

I love my pancakes soaked with maple syrup topped with lots of butter. So sinful but so good.

Source: unkown

So, lucky for me, The Cousin made us some pancakes for breakfast lately and shared her receipe with me. Its simple and yummy.

Pancake Recipe (good for 2-3pax)
1 tablespoon butter (melted)
100g plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
125ml milk
pinch of salt
Simply mix them all up into a nice consistent batter, set aside for 10 minutes.

(Note: do not mix up baking powder with baking soda. I did that once and the pancake turned out soapy/alkaline like)
(A little tip: Flip over to the other side only when the batter starts to bubble on the top side - that way, you get nicely browned shaped pancakes which does not fall apart.

Daruma - Tasty Ramen House

2012-01-21T23:02:00.005+08:00

The Cousins brought us to this yummy ramen place at tung lo wan in hong kong island. its a small cozy japanese eatery specialising only in ramen - my guess is that it seats probably about 30 pax at maximum. Due to limited capacity, the place fills up very fast and so does the queue. Its best to go early, as soon as it opens at 12 noon to avoid queueing. We arrived a little later and had to wait a bit.

Pricing wise, its pretty affordable at HKD68-88. The soup is yummylicious with generous portion of charsiew! Thick and delicious! I had the house special which comes with a dollop of mentaiko sauce (see that orange globe) and I drank up all the soup! Slurp! So fantastic!

Daruma Ramen House is located at 92E Tung Lo Wan Road - its a short walk away from Victoria Park. Directions to the eatery can be found on its website at www.daruma.com.hk

Think will go there to satisfy my ramen craving during my next hk visit

Second half 2011 - HK!

2012-01-20T13:26:00.011+08:00

i havent been updating the blog for many reasons...mostly out of pure laziness
but also for excuses such as wanting to start a brand new one ... there are some blog styles that inspire me to 'imitate'

but that would be akin to erasing my past entries since 2007 which is a pity.

so after much procrastination, i decided ... just stick with the current one out of pure convenience and convinced myself that i dont need fancy layout, fancy writing nor contents. Just better photography and photoediting skills will do.

so, just a recap of what's going on in my life for the last half year in 2011...

i have upgraded/downgraded from miss to to mrs lim.

i have done a bit of shuttling between singapore & hong kong. The Husband (aka Tyre) is now working in hong kong and being the supportive and loving wife i am (*puke*), i tagged along. i spend my time cooking, washing and crafting in hk. its like a holiday/getaway for me and i am pretty much enjoying it :D time alone to indulge in me, myself and The Husband.

our home for now is this tiny apartment in ma on shan. view of the apartment facade.

i wiki-ed the description of ma on shan and its says "ma on shan is a new town along the eastern coast of tolo harbor in the new territories of hong kong". i tried to locate a spot on the map just to get a rough idea. its takes me about half hour to get to tsim tsa tsui via bus - not that far afterall.

but if i were to travel by mtr, its very very far.

but then again, there's no need to go to town everyday. i get my groceries and shopping fix from the nearby malls which is a 10 minutes stroll away. our place is located along the ma on shan promenade facing the tolo harbor. unfortunately, we do not get a full frontal view of the harbor. we only see it from a diagonal angle. the promenade's really nice long stretch of walkway - good for strolling , cycling but i only 'used' it twice in my months of stay there. just too lazy. luckily, The Husband is a bit more hardworking - he jogs along the promenade occassionally.

Kraze Burger

2011-08-15T22:31:00.004+08:00

Just another mindless entry ...

We were craving for burger and fries over the weekend so we went in search for macdonalds. Funnily - we cant seem to find it along nathan road. I am sure there is but we were just too hungry and lazy to look anymore. All we could find were starbucks. In the end, we saw this - Kraze Burgers and went in to try it.

Kraze Burgers is from korea and its also avaliable in Singapore. But never see it ard before and so i googled it to find its location - its at International Plaza @ tanjong pagar. On the website, it says "gourmet fusion burgers with Kraze's special sauces matched with delicious salads, pastas.. including famous chili fries". Reads good doesnt it?

We tried their chef recommendations - the Kraze burger and the chili fries.

Picture looks good but we thought it was rather bland. The beef patty was too thin and weak in flavor. Boring...

Holiday Part 3 - LA

2011-08-11T10:20:00.003+08:00

Nothing much to blog about LA. Just few pictures on the food we took.

True Food - a pretty, modern eatery located at Santa Monica. Instead of flowers at the tables, they used catus - i like tat idea and look. The food's good but its the ambience that's better.

Denny's . My must go place for good ole hearty american breakfast! Yumz!

PF Chang's a place to go for chinese food. Funny thing the whole plac is filled with ang mohs, even the waitresses and kitchen staff. We were the only handful asian customers ard.

That sums up our holiday !!

Holiday Part 2 - Vancouver

2011-08-11T09:43:00.006+08:00

I dont remember much about Vancouver actually. Between Seattle & Vancouver, i seemed to remember seattle better. But looking thru the pictures, vancouver seemed more interesting

We took a 3hours plus train to Vancouver from Seattle early morning. Its a nice train ride with free wifi on board. If you intend to do the same too, remember to go to the train station early to get the tickets cuz its hassle - First, queue to get physical ticket, then join the second queue to get seat number. Therafter, join the third queue to check in the luggage. Also, bring breakfast cuz there's no cafes at the train station, only coin operated snack machines.

===========================
Granville Island @ Vancouver! i love this place. Its basically a marketplace with fresh foods , eateries and buskers. Take the river taxi over to the 'island' which is like a 5 minutes leisurely ride.

Stanley Park - another major attraction. Its basically this huge nature reserve park. People over that side of the world seem to prefer hanging out at the parks /in nature rather than in malls. The city centre is pretty quiet on weekends and parks are filled with pple. We sighted racoons & squirrels - they are not scared of ppl it seems (there's tyre looking at the squirrel scurry by him)

While browsing at souvenir shops, i keep seeing figures (similar to the picture below on right). Was wondering what's that major attraction and must see. While strolling along stanely park, we finally chanced upon it. Aint much to look at.

Gastown is one of the historical places to visit in vancouver. Basically nice quaint shops lined the cobblestone streets. Quite a nice place to wander around with many souveneir shops. The famous steam clock (bottom right) is a major attraction in gastown - a small tower that emits steam. I would have missed if it not for the throng of crowd busy snapping pictures of it. Gastown is a few blocks away from the unsavory part of town, so be careful not to wander off tracks - we almost did but tyre spotted many dodgy looking pple and we u-turned.

The world trade center - the famous thing about this is the architecture - the building is modeled like a ship with sails.

Whistler moutains. This i enjoied the most in Vancouver. We took a day trip up to the moutains via the coach - took us about 2 hours to get there. Its beautiful & picturesque. Its a ski resort town actually but in the summertime, the slopes become a playground for cyclists. Its prettier and has better vibes than Zermatt in Switzerland.

We had some time to spare, in fact lots since we are not cycling, nor taking the cable car, so we took the ATV thingy - bascially, a 3 hours tour on the atv up into the moutains. Its pretty fun - we sighted a deer and bear.

Trip to vancouver's not complete without good food. We chanced upon this fantastic ramen shop along robson street (robson street is the main shopping street in city centre)

We also tried dim sum at Imperial - it was listed as one of the places to go for chinese food on the guidebook. Its was average only.

After seattle, we were craving very badly for chinese food and we went to Hon's. Tyre wanted chinese food so badly that he googled for this. Portions where huge and we finished them all!! Not bad for a hearty meal.

Next stop - LA!

Holiday Part 1 - Seattle

2011-08-10T23:05:00.006+08:00

This time, just the two of us - me and tyre. Its been ages since we went on holiday together - just the two of us and no one else. The last "two of us" holiday was like 4years ago - we went to phuket and we were bored of each other by nightfall. Since then, we always holiday with friends.

Anyway, since this time, its just the two of us, for a change - and it was planned by tyre! all by tyre! finally after being together for years, he finally planned a holiday for us!

Here's the big travel plan - Seattle, Vancouver and LA! Yeah.. we love LA so much we are going back again! All in 2 weeks!

Here's Seattle first! First tots of Seattle - Sleepless in Seattle (the movie starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) and Home of Starbucks!! Overall, Seattle's a really nice place to wander around. We opt to wander around by foot and not driving since we stayed in the city centre.

Pike Place Market - one of the Top 10 places to go in Seattle. Its basically a wet market but sooo bustling with locals, tourists, activities. The flowers sold there are soooo prettty and affordably priced - USD4 for a whole bunch. "they" say must look at the bronze pig while at pike market cuz its symbolic - what a let down, its located at a corner and quite forgettable.

The birthplace of Starbucks is located at Pike Place too! Its just a small shop that's quite easy to miss. Seattle's filled with busy Starbucks joints every other block or so in the city center! And its usually crowded!

Other sights around Seattle like the Seattle Center (top left picture - where u can pay to go up to see the view) , the Olympic Sculpture Park, the pier etc.

We were looking for breakfast and chanced upon this "The Crumpet Shop". Freshly baked ones - tasting somewhat like mufins except more moist. The first time i had crumpet was at HK cousin's place and so i wanted tyre to try it too. His order ham and egg was good but my egg with pesto is a waste of my calories intake.

THE CRAB POT! A MUST GO! its one of my world's best food! Super YUMZ! I drool as i type now. So good we had it twice! Its basically crabs, sausages, potatoes, corn, clams, mussels boiled with special spices, then served in a big pot!. Then they empty the pot onto the table for you to feast on! YUMZ! Dig out the crab meat, dip into melted butter and chew! slurp!!! Its pretty pricey @ about USD68++ for 2 pax but its definitely worth it! Its our best meal for the entire trip!

We took a 15-minute ferry ride to other side of seattle - Aki Beach. Its one of the recommended places to visit. We didnt like it much but it was overall relaxing and quite there. The cafe where we had lunch had interesting sugar sachets - with quotable quotes.

That's all for Seattle. I will always remember THE CRAB POT the most!

Next stop - Vancouver!

Switerland Part 6 - Zurich

2011-08-10T22:48:00.004+08:00

Greetings from HK!

Haven logged in for quite a long while and I have so much to blog about stuffs in the past month. Then i realised i haven finished switzerland. So here's it - the last leg of the trip - Zurich.

Nothing much in Zurich other than its a nice pretty city, as like other parts of Switzerland - its all really pretty, nice and clean, but awfully expensive :( Some sights around Zurich...

And , during summertime, they have this flea mart in the heart of the city. I love basking in the bustle of flea mart. And i chanced upon this! - Vintage laces!!! *love love love* to my parents, its a waste of money but to me, its gem!!! Pretties!!!

Our last and most fun meal in Switzerland. Raclett and Fondue! Yumz.

That sums up our whole trip ! :D

Switzerland Part 5 - Lucerne

2011-06-02T00:47:00.006+08:00

After 2days of fun in Milan, we returned to Zurichfor the night. The next morning, we were off to Lucerne - most tour groups would go there as part of the tour package.

Lucerne's also pretty and a nice walking city but a bit more crowded. One of the key highlights was to see the Water Tower which was used as a prison, archival library and treasury and also the Chapel Bridge that links it. The 14th century bridge was burnt down in 1993 (sigh.. why ppl do that so such a nice historical bridge?) and repoened in 1994.

Another attraction was the lion monument nested amongs the trees. Its very calming to be there and ppl hang around there with their sandwiches and drinks. The monument's in memory of 800 swiss meceneries who died during the french revolution in 1792. At a closer look, the lion's wounded with a blow of the lance carved in 1821.

Other sights around Lucerne...

Last and final place to explore - Zurich!

Milan!

2011-06-02T00:42:00.004+08:00

Milan was like a last minute thing. Mum was chatting with her fren who then suggested we pop by milan since its a short 3 hr train ride away - and so we go!

In comparison to Switzerland, its dirtier, more crowded but cheaper. We did minimal sightseeing - only the Duomo Church (its grand!) and spent rest of the time wandering around shops :D

Switzerland Part 4 - Bern

2011-06-02T00:27:00.004+08:00

Bern IS my favourite place to visit in Switzerland! I LOVE Bern!

Bern is the capital of Swiss Confederation and its considered one of the best preserved medieval cities and listed by UNESCO as one of the world's cultural treasures. I LOVE!

Its such a pretty place for walking and strolling along , exploring the alleys and quaint shops, taking a drink from the countless fountains to quench your thirst, great scenery of lakes , moutains and even bears!

I can go on and on about Bern but then i will never finish this post - so i shall let the picture do the talking! Enjoy!

Ooo.. i forgot a bit of interesting history about Bern -You will see bear everywhere - in statue, in flag and even alive in the Bear Pit. Legend has it that when Duke Berchtold V decided to build the city, he swore to name it after the first animal he brought back from th ehunt and the animal turned out to be a bear! Ooo... Dukes, medieval times, castles .. i LOVE!!

Next stop which i equally love - Milan!

Switzerland Part 3 - The Glacier Express

2011-06-02T00:05:00.005+08:00

After staying a night in Zermatt, we left in the morning via The Glacier Express. I think this is considered one of the highlights of the trip - you will see pictures of it featured in tour guide and such.

Here's how the train looks like. Full glass top and botom. Its good cuz it gives a good view but its darn sunny - me and mummy we trying desperately to avoid the sun in vain.

Its abt a 7.5hrs trip if you stay the entire ride and its free with the switz pass but have to pay a fee to reserve the seats. There's also option to pay to have a 3 course meal on the train - which we paid for in advance too (if you didnt, you could still order food from the ala carte menu which is slightly more expensive but the food's better). Here's picture of our food - salad, main course & chocolate cake. Lucky i brought my own hard boil egg - most yumy.

We departed Zermatt for the last station @ St. Moritz. On hindsight, we shd have done the other way round. Anyway, the first hour of the trip was very novel and fun and exciting for us. I was busying snapping pictures, drinking my coffee, enjoying the scenery, and crafting away. After that, the ride was just pure torture for me - the ride was windy and long. There was simply nothing to do other than greenery greenery and more greenery.

Other highlights of the ride includes going up the moutains ( i think up to 2000m) and all we see is dark , stark snow covered land. Its pretty!

The finale was this bridge with three arches (nearer to St. Moritz side) - everyone was filled with anticipation just to get a good shot of the bridge. See everyone busy snapping away -but the train moved pretty fast and from the collective groans of the passengers, i think most/all did not get good shots. Anyway, its such a let down for me. I came with high expectations, endured and then all i got was a good 10secs view and anticiaption? Lousy i say.

Was so glad that the ride's over! Seperately, i took some pictures of cuppa tea pouches which i crafted during the trip - so pweeety! I love ! Maybe i should explore doing matching teapots for it.

Switzerland Part 2 - Zermatt

2011-05-30T13:33:00.003+08:00

Was glad to have the Swiss pass. I think its about S$400+ for 5 day pass - gives unlimited train rides, local tram rides and also discounts to various attractions. So, quite value for money and must get - beats paying for each ride. The local tram rides costs at least S$3.50 per trip.

Zermatt

Its a pretty small village/town at the foot of the Matterhorn - nice cozy place with not accessible by cars only train.

Sights along the way from Geneva to Zermatt. The train system is sooo efficient and clean and nice. I like! if only the train system from singapore to malaysia was as good...

Arriving in Zermatt and immediatly checking into our apartment. The apartment had no reception, they merely left the keys on the tables with your name tagged to it. Self-service. Pple there must be really trusting to leave their keys lying around. We were so happy to see the kitchen for we can then have our own homecooked food!

Sights around Zermatt. Love the swiss house. So pretty and cottage like. If i had lots of money and land, i would want to build my house cottage style like these.

Purpose of going to zermatt's to see the Matterhorn - a higher peak or something like tat. And we can either view it from the village itself or take the tram up to like 2000m high to admire it at higher lands at same time experience the chiling weather up there. Due to the freezing weather, we stayed up there for only 15 minutes and took the next tram back down.

We then wandered around Zermatt. Its like dead town on Sunday. only a handful of shops are opened. Swiss ppl really value their leisure time. Good for them but bad for me and many other tourists who wanna shop. :P

Next stop: The Glacier Express

Switzerland Part 1

2011-05-27T11:58:00.007+08:00

Back from the switzerland trip. First tots on the trip - expensive !!! everything was so expensive. a mac meal costs about S$15.

Anyway, due to lack of frens to 'document' the trip (aka no Lak to blog about it), i will write about it here so i can 'remember' it. Briefly: 2D Geneva, 1D Zermatt, 1D on Train, 1D Berne, 2DMilan, 1D Lucerne and 2D Geneva.

Geneva

We arrived in Zurich early morning and immediately took a 3hr train ride to Geneva. Train ride was comfy with push cart food service. A mere can of coke costs S$5! Anyway, lucky audrey brought snacks from Singapore and Mum got ikan bilis to munch throughout the trip.

Geneva's a pretty city and easy to walk around and felt a bit laid back. The streets are big enough, clean and not way too crowded. We planned to spend 2 days but turns out 1 full day should suffice. Due to the ample time we had, we had to 'ration our sightseeing' to make sure it lasted two days.

The key attractions includes that huge chair with broken leg (UN something), the huge water jet that goes up to 120+metre, the flower clock, 3statues @ the park, flea mart, old town and patek museum (my dad enjoied this the most). Wished i could write down the exact names of these places but i cant remember.

We also visted this church, St Chapelle ( i think that's the name), in the old town. Its a beautiful church and worth the money paying entrance fee to enter the towers - climb the narrow winding steps up where the view is breathtaking!

And 'they' say when in switzerland, the fondue is a must try. There are two type of fondue i learnt - cheese type with bread and oil type with meat (somewhat similar to our chinese steamboat except instead of soup, oil is used). And so we tried. Turned out to be our most expensive and unsatisfying meal for the entire trip. Bummer!

Next stop - Zermatt! The town without cars.

cuppa tea anyone?

2011-05-11T13:44:00.004+08:00

experimented with a few new designs for the past few days and results were bad.. one failure after another. failure as in the completed craft was a pain to look at from the shape, size, fabrics etc.

i wanted to give up already ... take a break and start thinking of new designs when i return end of the month. and so i told myself.. ok , one last try, if it fails, it must be crafters block.. no problem.

and so... i have a success!!! Presenting the new cuppa tea zipper pouch!!!!!!

This time, instead of adding interface, i added a layer of soft cushioning to give it a nice soft touch. And added a 'teabag' at the zipper for additional realism - further stitched "tea" just in case its not so obvious.

its soooooo pwetttty!!!! i keep looking and admiring it. have shown it to my sample group - tyre, parents, brothers & sil and they all like it too!! YAY!!!!!

i will make this for the shoppe :D

Lak Cookout!

2011-05-11T13:22:00.006+08:00

I love love love it when my frens cook for me/us. So far, there's tea who's the bbq expert, kay the chinese food expert and now, lak the ang moh food expert. me? i nominate myself as the steamboat expert :P

Lak's newfound interest's cooking and she's been cooking up a storm. Always see pictures of her foodies on her facebook and blog but never tasted it. So finally, last friday, we went over to hang out at her place with her foodies. There was pizza, wings and luncheon meat pasta. It was kinda rush for her to cook these cuz she had to work but by 9, we were all ready to dig in ! And my fave were the wings! They were marinated nicely and very juicy! Yumz!! i wanna eat the wings again!!!

Impromptu cruise trip

2011-05-11T12:55:00.004+08:00

Took a 3D2N cruise trip withe the family last week to KL on Star Virgo. It was an impromptu trip - book and paid for it in the morning, then left at night. Nothing very interesting happened other than eat sleep and shop at kl. Brought the camera but took only these miserable few.

lucky i brought my craft supplies onboard and that kept me occupied in the room. this time, instead of the usual hexagon shapes which i do whenever i trave, i did yoyos instead. intend to turn them into coasters.. many many of them. i have already cut out and prepared to craft many more of these on my next trip. :D

Crafty long weekend!

2011-05-03T17:42:00.006+08:00

I know i told myself to stay off crafting for the next two months and focus on the wedding and house things. But but... i just cant resist. I tried... the first night, i laze on my bed watching dvds thru the night... the second night, i did the same again ... soon, i felt so bored. I enjoy watching dvds especially those cantonese ones but i cant just sit and watch and do nothing else.

And so , i sucumb to crafting again. :D This time, i am back with a vengence - being more productive than ever. Plus, tyre's limping from strained leg so we were housebound. All the better to craft away day and night.

The first attempt was the failed boxy metal clasp pouch which i blogged about in earlier. And after that failed attempt, i decided to not waste efforts and go back to my favourite pattern.

This time, i crafted a range on fairytales for the card sized metal clasp purses. When i watched Kate & William got married on TV, i just tot " wow, this is like a fairytale come true. typically young girls grow up thinking they will marry a prince. And Kate did ! A Real Prince!"

So here's it, all 5 of them in fairytale prints. Can you identify them? Tyre cant :( .. and his excuse? " he had no childhood" :P so rubbishy.

(clockwise from top left: The Emperor's New Clothes, Pinnocchio, Hansel & Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood)

Then I also crafted metal clasp pouches slightly bigger than the card size purses. (It looks exactly the same other than the size.) I only made 5 of them cuz i realised i may not have enough of these frames to do much more. Anyway, i love the top right hand one the most - added a ribbon lace.

(clockwise from top left: The Nutcracker, Manuscript with ribbon lace, Alice in Wonderland, Kawaii shops, The Little Mermaid)

This size can fit those handy compact cameras, and even my 3gs iphone (a bit snug tho).

And just to share additional picture - i use the same sized pouch myself - been using this same one for like 2-3yrs? Its still in good condition :D i prob have like close to 20 cards inside, some receipts, some namecards and cash. Very handy!

This time, its really my last post on crafts for this month for i will be away again :D No way i can craft even if i want.. maybe i might just bring my hexagon patchies to do when i get bored on the journeys.

boxy metal clasp pouch gone wrong

2011-05-03T15:28:00.004+08:00

I had seen a boxy shaped metal clasp pouch while shopping sometime back and tot of doing it. looks pretty enough and roomy too.

but .... it turned out to be a total wreck. its U.G.L.Y! guess i must have used the wrong metal clasp - i need one where the height's longer but cant seem to find it anywhere so made do with whatever i have on hand....

aiyah... wat a waste of time and effort :( ..spent a day doing it in vain :(

tau huay with sugar

2011-05-03T15:23:00.004+08:00

another one of my fave's - tau huay with yellow sugar! YUMZ! Feel healthy eating it ... tho frens say its unhealthy and fattening eating it with sugar like that

Ms G introduced this way of eating tau huay while we were in HK. And so i bought extra packet of this yellow sugar back to have it with my tau huay. Unlike our normal white sugar that's crunchy and hard to bite, this has a nice coarse texture with a nice flavor.

the twins get crafty

2011-04-28T22:37:00.004+08:00

my hk cousin, west brother, came to singapore for a short holiday with his family, including his very cute twin daughters. they've got pretty fair, porcelain and rosy cheeks - wished i had complexion like theirs - darn chio.

they came by for dinner and i kept them entertained the night. they are fun to hang with -yakking away about their school, lame jokes, little boys they like and crafts they wanna do. they were so amazed with my collection of cloths and crafts that they wanted to sew something too. but they were pretty young and 'clumsy' for needles and sewing machine so i had to distract them into doing something else.

we crafted charm necklaces, fabric covered fridge magnets and scrapbooking. i think they enjoied the scrapbooking part the best. good thing i bought that useless polariod camera months back - cuz i could then take instant photos on the spot for them to do scrapbooking.

key cozy

2011-04-28T22:19:00.004+08:00

i first crafted key cozies early last year but never crafted any more after that i'm not a key person and dun find a need for it. i usually like to craft things which i personally find it useful. key pouches are more useful cuz they can double up as card holders or sometimes, coin pouch.

however, lately, increasingly , i think its good to use key pouch/cozies. i use mine to put my banking token - its easier to find it in my messy bag and protects the screen from being scratched.

here's my latest batch of key cozies. :D

easter day pigging out

2011-04-28T21:50:00.006+08:00

last friday was a public holidays and we hung out for pigging out session. hmm.. not exactly pigging out but we did get to try new foodies.

first, we went to The Plain @ tanjong pagar for bread for brunch - its packed with people! when kay said the place only serves bread and coffee, i tot it was a huge portion of bread, somewhat like what they serve at ps cafe. but i was wrong. the portions were quite small, for my stomach, considering that i had to combine 2 meals in 1 as its Brunch!

Notice the picture on the bottom left - the spoon does not sink into the foam for the coffee. According to tyre, only good barristas can do this. The other place which serves coffee with such dense foam is Jones the grocer. I had the bread in the middle - kinda like those i can make at home with fried eggs instead of poach eggs la. aiyoh... vely the not full at all :P

We went for korean fried chicken at night. Ms Vong's been wanting to try out this place for months and we finally went. Its also packed and we had to wait close to half hour for the seats. The portions were huge and satisfying. We had the chicken platter and i love the orignal one the best. The 'three layer' pork turned out to be surprisingly good, especially when paired with the fresh veggies. And the mussels 'hotpot' - "best"! Its like a never-ending pot of mussels. So much and so best that we overdosed on it and we had to force it down our throats.

epic meal time!

2011-04-28T21:33:00.004+08:00

time flies. last year that time, we were at shunjuu stuffing ourselves with yakitories and sake and the bill came up to about a horrendous $120++ per pax. shunjuu serves my world's best foie gras! slurp!

this year, she planned her birthday in advance, but inviting us to tea's place for bbq ... by tea too! haahah great idea of hers cuz i was drooling for the yummy lamb chops - tea bbq's yummy juicy chops always! my world's best lamb chops!

ray and tea were so 'excited' about the gathering tha they both did up posters! ray even went a step further to print flyers for the invitees! :D

bbq in progress.

good food, good beer, good company *thumbs up*

test run my future home look

2011-04-28T21:12:00.005+08:00

i like the shabby chic look, with lots of white. this will likely be how my future home with tyre be like. am doing a 'trial run' at our place which is to be rented out. hopefully, it makes it enticing enough for prospective tenants to want to move in fast :D

The living room. Made these matching pillow cases to 'soften' the look. Love the bay window which overlooks the pool - it would be good for reading a book and lazing the afternoon away .

The kitchen looks so inviting with the lightings and barang barang. Love it! :D

The electric box in the walk in wardrobe's quite an eyesore actually, so i made a cover for it - kinda blends in nicely with the white background.

And other things around the place which i like :D

mee soto

2011-04-20T19:57:00.004+08:00

i aint much of a fan of malay food - meaning if i'm at a foodcourt or have to choose an eatery, malay food usually aint my number one choice... all except this mee soto! Super duper yumz!

a mere $2 onli and super savoury soup with huge chunks of chicken thigh meat and beansprouts! YUM YUM YUM. I would usually slurp up allllll the soup! Only avaliable @ Toll Offshore Loyang. In fact, this malay staff at the canteen serves very very very yummy food - the bee hoon goreng, the malay pancake with chili - droolz!

cozy little corner

2011-04-20T10:56:00.005+08:00

Last year, around this time, we finally got our little place, which we then rented out without 'playing' with it.

This year, since the tenancy's up, we decided to take back the place to do a little maintenance and cleaning up before finding nice new tenants for it.

For the past few days, it was scrubbing, cleaning, patching, washing, troubleshooting, decorating etc. Its backbreaking work, it's all worth it after seeing it all cleaned up and nice.

We finally had time last evening to sit at the tiny balcony to enjoy a cuppa tea with my fave singer Babara and peeking at people swim in the pool. Shiok! :D Hope the next tenant loves this place as much as we do.

Here's all my pretty things in the balcony. The white wall lamp was a lucky find. I actually saw 2 of it displayed in a showroom last weekend and asked one of the salesgirl if its for sale. The salesgirl said no immediately. I find it baffling cuz i did see a price tag hanging on it but i dint probe further since i was rushing for dinner. Anyway, after dinner, i returned to the same place and saw one of it MISSING. So, i asked another salesgirl if the other is for sale. She said yes!. GRRRR.. my guess is the previous one was too lazy - cuz she would need to unscrew, unwire the lamp before selling and was lazy to do it! Anyway, i got it in the end! :D here's it .. pretty in white :D

Will take more pics of our little place when I am there the next time - we just need to add a new sofa to it and its good to go! :D

Birthdays and food

2011-04-16T13:19:00.004+08:00

April's a month of birthdays!!!

First there was Kyra's 1st year birthday, then Damon's 30+++ birthday and soon, it be shoutmatey Haw's birthday.

Here we are with Damon, eating at this pizza place at MBS, which was recommended by Haw. According to her, its her world's best pizza. Guessed she set my expectations too high cuz it turned out quite dissapointing for me. The portions were miserably small and pricey. The waitresses were a bit haughty too :(

Then there was Kyra's birthday. Love her cake! Sooooo pretty and yummy enuff - lychee flavor! Haw, i get u the same type of cake for ur birthday k? Cuz tea said no stoopid cakes like agar agar cuz that dun count as cake :P Kyra's so smiley! I love smiley babies.

And there's cool char .... i love cool babies as well!

Seperately, mummy brought us out for dinner last sunday to a new place which her 'idol' recommended. Not bad.. good food, good portions. How to diet when there's always good food?!?! :O

More large clasp pouches

2011-04-16T13:12:00.005+08:00

This is last post for the series of craft items, i think, for the next few months. I really have to start focusing on other stuffs for the next few months, instead of crafting - i.e. prep the wedding, prep the figure, prep the new house, prep the work, prep the travel etc etc. Had been procrastinating on these for the longest time... but now, its already almost end april and its time for to buck up.

Here are the large clasp pouches - all 11 of them. Enjoy :D

Bendy pouches for 2011

2011-04-16T12:53:00.008+08:00

I was looking through my previous craft posts and noticed that the last time i crafted these were in October 2010, or at least that my 'latest' records on blog.

Tyre's in KL these couple of days, and that leaves me with some free time to myself to craft into the wee hours of the morning. And so i 'rushed' these out :D So fun!

These, together with the round bendy pouches and iphone pouches will be avaliable at the shoppe soon, when Ms G returns end of the month :D Do get them if you like it :D

Round bendy pouches

2011-04-15T19:42:00.005+08:00

Tried to craft something different for the shoppe - consider this a novelty thing. Bendy pouches in round shape - these are softer than the normal bendy pouches but just as good to use.

And in view of my growing stash of left over odd shaped fabrics, i did simple patchwork for a different feel. They are sooooo pretty!!! :D

Crafting away - iphone pouches

2011-04-15T19:29:00.007+08:00

Since returning from the last trip, i have been busy... busy crafting away :D its so good to be able to indulge in crafting. Here's some of the iphone pouches i have done up.

* was thinking of how to take nice pictures of these iphone pouches and brother suggested i take it the above way. was quite skeptical at first... not really my style to put the item at a small corner - i usually focus directly on the craft item. anyway, it turned out pretty! :D something new.

HK Fun

2011-04-03T18:39:00.004+08:00

Was in HK with Ms G in March and just came back. Think i had over-exerted myself shopping, eating and fell sick when i returned. Feeling better now, luckily :D

HK was a series of eating eating eating and shopping shopping shopping. Ms G brought me to new places to try new foodies which is good cuz I usually go HK with parents and end up in the same ole places. Going with frens meant exploring new places new foodies.

Lan Fong Yuen @ Central, near the flight of escalators leading up to mid levels is an authentic HK cafe. Yummz xi-mut ice tea and maggi mee!!! THe place's pretty packed, with many taiwanese especially. Business must be good cuz they stipulate a minimum spend of HKD20 per pax - no free seats for free loaders :P

Left to right from top to down - healthly fishball beehoon soup @ some small side alley in mongkok, yummy smooth porridge with fluffy youtiao @ central near the escalator, traditional dim sum pushcarts @ maxim at the concert hall, fantastic braised meat bee hoon soup @ shamsuipo, mango delight dessert @ shuliusiang and yummy xi-mut milk tea and ice lemon tea.

Its the first time i had my tau huay with yellow sugar instead of sugar syrup. Its sooo yummy that i bought back a pack of yellow sugar so that i can have my own sugar tau huay in singapore :D

Wandered around the small streets in Central - there were many interested small shops and eateries. And i finally found the elusive handicraft place which haw told me to look out for.

Todai Buffet

2011-04-03T18:12:00.006+08:00

Haw said excitedly" i am going for the mother of all buffets tonight!"

Nowadays, we rarely go for buffets but at tea's suggestion, we went to Todai @ Marina Bay Sands.

The place's pretty new so it aint that crowded. Was pretty impressed when i first entered the place cuz the food were nicely placed out with a great variety. My impression of buffets were that food were sloppily presented, and long queues snaking at the sashimi areas. But at Todai, it was very bright, comfy to move ard. Wanted to snap a few pictures of the foodies and chefs standing behind the counters but was too shy to do it. So , only these few miserable pictures of the food and a pictorial layout of the food area.

The best thing for the night has to be the company, not so much of the foodies.

And spotted in haw's bag! My own crafted little red riding hood pouch, one of the few which she asked me to do for her jie mei's after her wedding many many years ago and the card holder - she still using them!!! wo ho ho!!! :D

new large clasp pouches

2011-03-10T22:50:00.002+08:00

Donna Carmela @ Greenwood - a total letdown

2011-03-08T23:21:00.006+08:00

Brought family out for italian dinner today @ Donna Carmela, Greenwood. Was there few months back with tyre and loved the food! The most memorable dish was the signature pizza that had generous topping of rocket salad, parma ham and mozerella cheese. Yumz!

Its pretty pricey and had been thinking of going back to 'relive' the good food. So, the best way to enjoy good food would be to have it with love ones so decided to bring family there to enjoy good food. But this time, it was way below expectations - what a let down.

The service was lukewarm (they only focus on the ang mohs), the food was lukewarm when it reached our table.

The minestrone soup resembled more like a stew rather than a soup as it was probably 4/5 filled with vege and stuffs and little liquid. The pasta tasted a bit uncooked and not hot enough. The Vongole was so oily, even oilier than the alio olio pasta. The signature pizza was the worst - i had been drooling over it for ages and was thorougly dissappointed. The pizza was BURNT/CHARREd. Very very obviously overcook and burnt and yet they served it to ask. And when i told the waiter about it, he just took it back and replaced with a new one, without any explaination! Was pretty pissed with the whole experience.

Had been recommending this place to frens in the past, but after today, i only have negative reviews for it. tsk tsk. What a total waste of money and calories. :((

Seperately, dropped by Ms G's fair and snapped pictures of my stuffs @ her fair :D . Spot my signature metal clasp purses on the first shelf.

And those big clasp pouches, its down to only 4 pieces from more than 20 pieces before the fair. WO HO HO! Thanks to those who have bought my stuffs!! Thank you thank you for your support!!!! :D

iphone pouches

2011-03-07T12:53:00.005+08:00

when i first crafted these, i didnt think that it will be popular. Just wanted to do something different using metal clasp frames. Turns out, the iphone clasp pouches are a Hit! :)) Well, i guess cuz its different. So far, i have seen zipper iphone pouches, draw string ones, sock ones, plastic, leather etc etc but no metal clasp frame ones.

Anyway, Ms G's having her fair at Liang Court this week again and she said some customers were looking for the iphone clasp pouches. I have crafted some during my Shanghai trip but tot i better do up a bit more, just in case those fly right off the shelves!

I forgot to take pictures of those 'made in china' pouches but i have for these latest 6 pouches. Here they are.

My first love is for russian dolls. I like anything in russian doll prints - fabrics, pouches, cups, houseware etc. And my second fave has to be these kokeshii dolls from japan.

And between the animal prints, i heart the hedgehog ones. KK got this, amongst many others, from her japan trip last year and i snipped off a small bit of her pretty stash. So, i only have enough to make one iphone pouch with this hedgehog print, and maybe another small pouch. As for cheery bright red hippo print, it was discovered by Lak. I wouldnt have choosen it myself. She chose this print and tasked me to craft a big clasp pouch for her 2 yrs ago and she has been using it since then.

And in this last picture, these two prints are hot favourites and i have been using it repeatedly for quite a few pouches already. One's so sweet looking, another's very cute!

I should really take effort to photograph my crafts before selling them. I try i try....

To JB To JB

2011-03-06T23:47:00.006+08:00

The Vong's invited me to join them on a day trip to JB via the railway, the good ole fashion way. That got me excited cuz (1) it will soon be defunct come Jul-11 and (2) i havent taken it before.

The highly anticipated trip turned out to be rather... lukewarm at best. A one-way ticket to JB from the train station at cantonment costs S$12, while the return ticket costs merely RM3, but you have to get it in JB. Overall, we all agreed that it's better and more comfortable to take the train to JB instead of bus cuz its less crowded at customs and there's air con most ways.

The trip turned out to be more of a foodie trip rather than a shoe spree trip. We started off with my fave bak kut teh near the Vong's place, then nonya kueh once we reached JB and then, out of boredom, we ate assam laksa & rojak.

We initially planned to return after dinner, but after less than 2 hours of shopping, we were ready to go back to singapore. Train ticket back was really cheap at RM3, but i think its cheap for a reason - there's no air con !!! freaking hot and the cabins only had 4 small miserable windows to aerate it!! The journey back was more interesting as we paid more attention to the sights. We passed by some parts of Singapore which we would never have seen.

Tyre & Damon joined us after we returned to Singapore for dinner and we wandered around the tanjong pagar area by foot in search for some pretty eateries which were spotted before.

And then we ended up having chinese food - nothing very fanciful nor interesting but the restuarant was packed!!!

And that ends our day trip. Not bad , not bad after all! :D

Shanghai again

2011-03-04T14:11:00.006+08:00

Back to Shanghai again. This time, with Tyre - its his first time! Younger bro joined us towards the end of the trip too.

When i booked the tickets, i tot that timing's just right @ towards the end of winter. Shd be cooling. Cooling it wasnt. It was freaking cold - some days between 4-7degress in gloomy weather. Lucikly i was quite adequately armed with warm clothings but tyre was feeling pretty cold most times.

Explored a few more places this time, thanks to Tyre. For without him, i would just go back to the same old places. But with him ard, everyone felt compelled to bring him to places of interests and i got to tag along! :D

We went to Tian Zi Fang located near our place @ Da Pu Qiao Station. Its an area made up of alleys of small quaint shops and eateries. Pretty interesting to wander around and get lost in the maze of shops. Too bad the weather was too freaking cold, else it would have been pretty good for al fresco dining.

There's a wet market located right outside Tian Zi Fang and we decided to do some grocery shopping plus let tyre have a taste of 'local life'. Tyre got pretty turned off after less than five minutes and opt to wait outside for us to finish up. We also had our first shanghai home cooked food - prepared by cousin lili (see pictures in last row below)

Snapping pictures of a very unwilling tyre carrying foodies bought from the wet market. Love the right most picture ... looks cool yet comical with the bags of groceries! hehehe

Tyre's aunty is teaching in Shanghai and we managed to meet her for dinner. She brought us for yummy xin-jiang food - mainly made up of mutton.. yumz! i love mutton.

One of the sightseeing places we went to was Qi Bao - its located within Shanghai and accessible by mrt. It was so packed!!!

None of the food sighted along the food alleys look enticing enough but this cotton candy stall really caught my attention and i had to try it - multicolored flower shaped cotton candy. Only RMB6 (S$1.20). So pretty.

We also visited Suzhou. Nothing very interesting, except for those small chinese teapot shops where dad got quite a few for his collection.

That's all from the recent trip.

Next stop - Korea & HK! Yay!!! So looking forward to it!

Love To Wander goes public!

2011-02-16T14:24:00.002+08:00

I Lup My Friends

2011-02-16T14:08:00.004+08:00

I lup my friends. I lup having them around to keep me company, I lup having them around to make decisions for me, I lup having them around to help plan for me, I lup having them around to go to their house to chill out, I lup having them around to play with... the list goes on. I think I will be lost and bored without them.

Last week, went to Baba Jo's places for lo hei. I sort of tried to organise it at the beginning but gave up halfway and Baba Jo took over ... heeheehee. I am a starter, not a finisher i guess. Thanks for waiting for us for lo hei !

Then, on Saturday, Mr V cooked "cully kuay" for us.. also known as curry chicken! Yumz.. although he used the A1 curry mix, he said the difference was due to the secret additional ingredients which his mummy lovingly added. The curry was so good. If i werent watching my weight, i would have cooked some maggi noodles and eat it "curry maggi noodles" style. Lynn came and worn LTW owl earrings! So pweeettttyyy!!!

V-Day 2011

2011-02-16T13:55:00.004+08:00

I am not a fan of such occassions. No doubt i like them, but i am not a fan. Because I will feel compelled to celebrate it or at least do something just to fit into "social norms".

Ask me how i spent my last few v-days? I ponder.... and blank tots.. i cant remember. The only one i remember spending with Tyre was our first v-day which was eons ago too. That's when we first got together. He brought me to this place by the beach, had candlelight dinner, a stalk of rose (comes complimentary with the set dinner) and a trio of singers came and serenade us with the song "Besame".

So, how did i spend my v-day 2011? we had yong tau foo @ raffles city food court! tyre had planned for a nice dinner and actually made advance reservations but couldnt make it in time as i was shopping :P

raffles city was packed on that day, pretty usual given its a monday for its usually quiet. And littered with girls carry bouquets of flowers and most of the nicer eateries were packed. And in view of my rumbling stomach, we settled for yong tau foo. Its my world's best yong tau foo, which must be taken dry with bee hoon drizzled with lots of fried garlic, ikan billis, soyabeans and oil! YUMMYZ!! Super satisfying @ less than $10 for 2 pax!

Composition Companion

2011-02-16T12:09:00.004+08:00

Lately, i feel that i am 'selling' more on my blog rather than updating on my crafts it seems.

Anyway, here's another 'advertorial' - for my dear sis-in-law.. she didnt ask for it but i am just being a busybody as usual and told her i will do it :D

She has a tuition centre, Smartz Kidz, at Bedok North. And one of her tutors wrote a book aimed at helping primary school kids write better compositions. When I saw it, it brought back memories of my primary school days - my tutor back then, Mrs Yee, who taught me little composition tricks similar to what this book now offers. It helped me alot back then with my compositions - made it more flowery.

The book, Composition Companion, is written by Helena Paterson. She is also one of the tutors at Smartz Kidz. She's an amazing ang moh tutor from Scotland ( i think ) who has great passion in teaching and kids.

A peek into the book. It basically gives you nice flowery sentences for writing compositions. It not only adds "flavor" to the writing, but also contributes to the word count.

It also gives gives list of words u can use instead of the same old words. Example: instead of using [he said], you could replace with [he exclaimed] [he argued] [ he rebuked] - gives more emotion to the writing.

I feel its a very useful book. Alternatively, you could create a similar concept one for your kids to flip but for the lazy ones, this is good. :D Only $10 - cheap cheap!

LTW V-day Launch

2011-02-07T14:42:00.005+08:00

LTW V-day new collection is out. We decided to do a floral range cuz floral = romantic = v-day? Love is in the air.. :D

We have more new stuffs up our sleeves and will have them avaliable for sale @ our upcoming fair on 19th Feb.

Stay tuned! :D

I Heart Cotsworld!

2011-02-07T14:16:00.003+08:00

Went on a day trip to Cotsworld while we were in London in Dec-10. We had run out of places to go to and Yueling suggested that we go to Cotsworld. She then helped us to book a day trip, inclusive of lunch & afternoon tea for less than 80 pounds per pax.

Enjoied myself on this trip, partly due to the fact that we were chauffered around (by bus), instead of the usual transportation of subway and walking. Also, it was good to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Cotsworld's located about 1 hour ride away from London and its really a very picturesque place made up of many small towns and villages. The tour brought us to several villages where we stopped to take some pictures & shopped a bit. A tour is not complete without shopping :D We had a good tour guide this time who was very chatty and informative. She seemed to know everything and could even educate us on the difference between sheeps/lambs, types of stone walls etc. Pretty educational. Just did up collages of various sights around Cotsworld.Cant really go into details cuz i cant remember exactly where i went :D

We stopped by this town for lunch and discovered one of the prettiest shops i have seen around in UK during the trip (with exception to another similarly themed shop in Covent Square). Everything in the shop's just picture perfect.

And i had the best scones in my life so far! Freshly baked paired with clotted cream and jam! YUMMZ!!!! I DROOLZZZ...

Its a Dogs World !

2011-02-07T13:32:00.005+08:00

Lak's cozy place has officially turned into a dog house! It smells of dog pee & food now :D

Mr P's out on a family holiday and has left FiFi in her care for the week. Poor FiFi. She must have thought that her family has abandoned her and she was terribly insecure and jittery at Lak's place.

I brought Yuki & Snowy over for a visit yesterday, thinking that FiFi may brighten up after 'playing' with other doggies. Turned out i was wrong. They ignored one another. In fact, i think FiFi was more terrified of Yuki & Snowy. There's motherly Lak protecting & comforting FiFi.

And the very naughty and 'act innocent' snowy enjoied herself so much that she treated Lak's place like her home and peed everywhere to mark her territory. There's Tyre washing off the pee and a very sheepish looking Snowy in the background.

********************************************

Snowy's keeping me company while i blogged away. Snapped a picture of her next to me :D That was half hour ago. Just minutes ago, Suparni came in and carried her to the bed - she said snowy's feeling warm on the table and told me to put her there. Makes me feel bad :(

I heart Palace of Versailles!

2011-02-07T00:47:00.004+08:00

Palace of Versailles was the capital of France from 1682 to 1789 and it is located about 40 minutes train ride away from Paris city. We were there for a day trip and i loved it. I guess it must be due to the influence of the movie Marie Antoinette. The movie, released in 2006 was base loosely on the life of the queen leading up to the French Revolution. I love the movie and have watched it maybe 4 times?!? I am a sucker for movies from those era.

Anyway, i felt that i could connect better to the palace after watching the show cuz i got to see the actual venue which was filmed. The palace was a very tour friendly place and audio guides was provided for every tourist to the place for free! It gives me a better understanding of the palace tho at many times, i do get tired of concentrating on the explaination. The interior of the palace was really grand and pretty.

And the exterior and gardens were equally pretty! In the movie, it showed the queen staying at her own retreat and we got to visit it too. It was a longgg walk from the palace about 1 hour, i think, but i was glad that we took the stroll despite the cold freezing weather. Her retreat was a stark difference to the palace in its simplicity.

I wouldnt mind going there again, perhaps in the summer when the trees are green and flowers are blooming!

I heart Korea!

2011-02-07T00:09:00.005+08:00

It was my first time to korea and i love love love it! The country, the cafes, the shopping, the weather, the food - i heart all! Lak had blogged about it in her Seoul Searching entry & it seemed pretty redundant for me to re-blog about it but i wanted to write my summarized version so here goes...

Was there on a free & easy tour with the Vong's and Lak in early Nov-10 and we stayed at Hotel the Sunbee @ Insa-dong area. Very nice, clean and conveniently located hotel to stay in if you are going on a budget. We had intially contemplated taking the subways but taxi rides turned out to be pretty affordable when shared among four of us, so we ended taking taxis all the time. Be warn, however, do NOT take the black cabs! Their fares are way way higher than the normal cabs.

We did the touristy thing on the first day. Visited Changdeokgung Palace and spent a few hours doing the walking tour. Lucky the weather was cooling, else it would have been torture, i think :P

We also went to this Samcheongdong area. Its a nice area with narow streets flanked by houses by the sides on the 'hillside'. We spent some time wandering around and taking picture perfect pictures.

We found our picture perfect wall as backdrop for a mini photosession.

According to forumers, the Nanta show is a must watch in Seoul and i second that. It was extremely entertaining show and i was awake throughout. :D Amazing feat considering the fact that i was very tired that night.

Lak found this graffiti street. Its good to have lak around :D

And we went for this day trip to DMZ. A must go trip when in Seoul too, according to forumers. Overall, its not bad, if only we had a better guide. Our guide's very fresh and spoke in limited sentences. I remembered quite clearly one of her 'punch' lines : we were passing this bridge that goes over a river and she said :" sometimes, dead bodies are found here. " then silence.. no more explaination why there's dead bodies etc. Got us stunned for a while.

Food was fantastic! I love the 'ban mian' equivalent there and the korean bbq meat! droolz... the korean bbq was sooooo good that we had it 3 nights in a row, complete with beer & shaojiu.

Here's us looking red and tipsy from too much beer! :D

Ooo.. and i spotted my crafts! hahahaha yeah.. kay and myself brought some of my ever so useful pouches out on the trip together :D Always happy to see my handmade crafts in use :D

Love To Wander !

2011-01-09T22:41:00.006+08:00

Finally, after months of preparation, we are ready to GO LIVE! Yes, Love to Wander goes live!

What's that?

Love to Wander's our online shoppe - you can buy clothes!! Our being me, Lak & Kay's brainchild. Lak & Kay have always been my top travel mates. For the past few years, we are bound to take at least an overseas trip together. Each of us complemented well - lak being the planner, executer, researcher, map reader - kay being the entertainer - and me being the $ controller (simply cuz that's probably the easiest no-brainer thing to do (but when a guy joins for the trip, he takes over).

Sometime late last year, we decided to combine our passion for travelling and shopping to start an online shoppe. As always, the easiest is to decide what to sell, the hardest at the initial phase is the name. We decided to use our initials to Lak , To & Wong and combine it with our wanderlust ... and ta da! Love To Wander!

I guess everyone would have at some point in time tried shopping and buying clothes online. I have done my fair share but often ended up being dissappointed. Very often, the clothes looks darn good in pictures and the actual product turns out horrible, or the sizes dont seem to fit or the delivery time is way too long. I understand many blogshops locally do back-to-back delivery - meaning, they order only when they get confirmed orders from customers and that will increase delivery lead time. Also, the postage charges are artifically high.

So what do i love about Love To Wander? And how are we different?

- We only sell what we have in stock locally. Meaning, if u dont have to wait few weeks to a month for the delivery. You get it almost within a week.

- Our prices are NET prices, inclusive of postage charges. This means no hidden costs at checkout. But if you require registered mail, we have that option at $2.24 only, which is what Singpost charges - we do not charge mark up on that.

- We QC our stuffs before selling. Meaning, if there are loose strings around, we cut them etc.

- We only sell what we would want to wear ourselves - this would mean it may not be the latest fashionable item but its definitely still pretty & wearable.

So, after many months of prepartion, we are finally ready to launch our first collection on 12.1.11, Wednesday at LoveToWander!!! Please do keep a lookout for it and buy buy buy if any catches your fancy. And feedback pls!!! :D

Here are some sneaks! :D

Patchwork hexagon purses

2011-01-02T22:15:00.004+08:00

My last crafts for 2010 - patchwork hexagon purses. I have been patching them together over the past few months whenever i travel. Made enough, finally, to make six of these purses. Here are four of them. I have only completed the other 2 yesterday and they will be avaliable in the shoppe soon. Get these one-of-a-kind purses quick if it catches your fancy :D

A closer look at them individually. The red+blue one is custom order for one of my fave supporter of my crafts- she bought it before and wanted more. Ms M - if you are reading this, hope you like it (sorry i took so longggggg to craft it) :D

X'mas trip to Malaysia 2010

2011-01-02T21:05:00.005+08:00

my 2010 x'mas was spent in Pangkor with family and bro's frens. We were in Malaysia for a 4D3N trip covering Pangkor, Ipoh & KL. Its a short and hurried trip - the main intention was to go Ipoh for bro & audrey's wedding lunch. They held their dinner in Singapore back in Nov-10 but audrey's dad wanted to have one in Ipoh so that his relatives need not come down all the way to Singapore. So, since we are all going up, we might as well do some 'touring'. We chartered a coach and hence begun our customised trip.

We took an overnight coach and headed straight for Pangkor. We reached the jetty at about 7am, about 10 hrs after we left singapore - that included time for supper and toilet breaks in between. Had expected it to be a very tiring one but its better than expected. Whew.

Since Pangkor is a stand alone island about half hour ride away from the mainland. We took a ferry over and started our tour straight away early in the morning.

First stop was breakfast at the town centre. Pangkor town is made up of a short row of shops - very basic. I had the prawn noodles which was yummy. Piping hot cooked food is always good, especially after two weeks of ang moh food in europe.

After the breakfast, we started our sightseeing trip. First stop was to the famed ruins on the island. The old dutch fort. I tot it was really amusing cus it seemed to me like a really small unfinished building, which was conveniently turned into a sad toursit attraction. There was some history behind this but i didnt pay attention to what the tour guide was saying. We took our only group picture for the trip here. There were quite a few kids which made the group livelier.

Then we went off to one of the 2 temples around. Cant remember what temple this is though.

After that temple, we went off to another temple, this time, its by the seaside. Its the Guanyin templet. Got my bro & audrey to take a picture with the word "Pangkor Island".

After the boring sighseeing, we checked into our hotel where we had free & easy for the next few hours before we go boating. So, me, tyre & bro decided to laze by the boring beach - just so that we indulge in the 'beach' culture. i really wasnt into the beach after a long coach ride, but just had to go through the motion of hanging by the beach.

We gathered for the boat ride where Mr Boatman brought us round the island, pointing out sights to us such as what the rocks resembles etc. The highlight of the boat ride was when he dived into the waters to pick up sea-life for us to see. There was the sea urchin, the sea cucumber and corals.

I must admit, Pangkor was quite a let down. I have read about some good reviews about Pangkor island, where one of the world's best resort resides in. But its really a dissappointment. Its even worse than Tioman. I was glad to get off the island the following day.

After Pangkor, we headed straight for the restuarant for the wedding lunch. Wedding lunch was pretty good, Fuzhou cuisine, first time i am eating it. Very filing very tasty. 2 of audrey's frens had a harrowing experience here. Before lunch started, they were loitering outside the restuarant. When they were walking back, a motorist tried to drive inbetween them and tried to snatch one of the girl's handbag. Luckily, she was quick enough to hold on tightly to the bag. So tightly that she fell and the motorist rode away empty-handed. Well, i have heard of stories of fren's fren who got pickpocketed, who got stuffs stolen but never so close.

After lunch, we headed off to KL for our shopping trip & one-night stay. Nothing intersting in KL other than to loiter around aimlessly. The following day, we shopped a bit more and headed home for Singapore. But before that, we have to celebrate Audrey's birthday which falls on boxing day :D

So this concludes the x'mas trip. I think it will be quite a long time before i go back to KL, and likely never to Pangkor.

Steaming 2010

2011-01-02T18:53:00.005+08:00

Did our last steaming for the year at the Vong's place on the last day of 2010. For the past few years, we have been steaming. Seems like steaming is sort of a tradition meal for the last day of the year yearly.

Thanks to the Vong's for opening up their place for us to do steaming. And good thing their table & place is big enough for 10+1. +1 = to little ella. nowadays, it seems kids are invading our adult space. every place, or gathering which we go to, there's always a kid ard. guess we have reached the age to have kids already!??!?! in the past, it was about who has new boyfren/girlfren but now, its about who has kids, how old the kid is etc etc.

that's cute ella. She started off being very quiet and shy. but as soon as she warmed up, she was busy showing off her facial tricks and handing out foodies to us. joee has taught her daughter well!

ella had to sleep early so yaozhong and joee left early. and so, its left to us couples without kids. snapping some pictures before the stroke of midnight.

and i chanced upon some crafts. First on the left is the large metal clasp purse which i made for Lynn about 1.5 yrs ago. She has been using it for her knick knacks since. Its still in good condition, looking as good as new :D The one on the left is made by Ms Vong's sis-in-law - a gift for x'mas. Its pretty!

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-02T18:16:00.004+08:00

Happy New 2011 Year to us all!!!! Time flies and another year has gone by!. This year will be just as good as last year, if not, better :D

Looking back at 2010, its been a great year. Did quite a bit of travelling with family and friends, started to sell my crafts at Belle_Maison_zakka, renewed friendship with some old friends through common crafting interests, made new friends, bought our first apartment, brother finally got married and this year, it be my turn :D

1.1.11 - its my dad's birthday. Did the usual on his birthday, nothing fanciful - had dinner outside, blow birthday cake and home sweet home.

doggies @ reservoir

2010-12-07T00:46:00.008+08:00

brought doggies out to the reservoir last weekend. its kinda once in a blue moon thing for me to do. tyre's occasionally bugging me to bring them out to the reservoir especially in the mornings but i pretty dread bringing them out to crowded places or outside cuz i become the ultimate control freak and it tires me out trying to keep them totally in control, wihich is also impossible.

anyway, good thing i did it cuz they were so happy prancing ard and exploring the new environment. so much so that snowy was sooo tired that she merely plopped down on the grass and refused to walk/run anymore. here are some pictures of my darlings...

managed to catch them smiling! look at the curl of snowy's tongue! :D

my three darlings posing for the picture. snowy was actually sitting with yuki but she jumped down and plopped onto the grass. i was momentarily worried/freaking out cuz she's acting a bit wonky but i guessed that's cuz she's tired

them on their way home. they are still smiling. :D

busy bug

2010-12-07T00:28:00.002+08:00

Its been more than a month since my last post. Been busy with some serious data entry work to meet some deadlines, did some travelling to bangkok and korea, then preparing for bro's wedding end of Nov. And right after wedding, been busy clearing up backlog @ work and then crafting goodies for Ms G's upcoming fair again in Dec. Since i will be away from tomorrow onwards till end of the year, i had better craft more in case there are orders for my goodies, which are great as xmas gifts (yeah... i am 'advertising' my own products here). Handmade gifts will be a good change from those store bought ones - tho I will be giving store bought ones to my friends (i just finished wrapping the gifts! And realised i left out some... hope to find some time to buy before flying off tomorrow)

First to London, then to Paris with usual travel girl mates and then to Ipoh/Pangkor/KL with family. A bit sad cuz I wun be spending xmas eve in Singapore with the usual gang with the gift exchanges. Its has been a yearly ritual for as long as i can remember and i cant join in this time :(.

I really enjoied last year's gift exchange and was looking forward to it again this year but guess its not possible.

Anyway, if you are having a party with no idea for organising gift exchanges party - try this for a change. We call it the "Booby Gift Exchange". Its just like recycling - Bring a gift which you have recieved before but didnt like it and havent used it before. The idea was - what u dont like may be what the other like. Few of the memorable booby gifts last year were the glass trinket box (which i got in the end :( ) , the mouse pad, the comp speaker and an umbrella. The umbrella was actually one of the most useful booby gift.

On a seperate topic, Do look out for some of my new handmade goodies at the shoppe. Had wanted to take pictures of those but no time to do it today and i have already passed it to Ms G to post online. There are bendy pouches, large metal clasp pouches, small metal clasp purses and iphone pouches.

So, here's MERRY X'MAS in advance!!!

New New New!

2010-11-02T09:59:00.004+08:00

Here's the prototype of the new purse! Its nicely-sized to hold in the hands, measuring approximately 12cm by 10cm. Been thinking of doing up something like that for a very long time but didnt know how to do the 'accordian-like' compartments.

I think, this is another useful, multi-tasker creation. The compartments allow you to categorise the cards. I am thinking - 2 slots for cards, 1 slot for dollar notes (have to fold it into half before slotting in). And the zipper compartment allows for coins.

Wanted to do a few for the shoppe and for the upcoming fair but I cant find the correctly sized zippers yet. I wanted the color of the zippers to match the purse but i could onli find black, navy blue and white so far. Anyway, stay tuned for these if you are interested.

Seperately - i do miss crafting. Have not been indulging in my daily dosage of crafting for these 2 weks, after the latest batch of carpark/cheque book coupon holders. Been busy with the house, doing some travelling and bro's upcoming wedding by month end. Hope to catch up on crafting when i am back from Korea next week! :D

Carpark Coupon/Cheque book holders

2010-11-02T09:34:00.004+08:00

Made these about 2 weeks back and wanted to post them as soon as its done before listing in the shoppe. But dad brought my camera along for his holidays so i had to wait till he's back with it.

So, he's back now and here are the pictures. They have already been listed in the shoppe and some have been sold since then. :D

I have this little game i 'play' with tyre, my younger brother and mummy. Whenever my crafts are done, i will show it to them and ask them to arrange in accordance to their preference. And then we will 'discuss' the rankings. Tyre will usually rank the floral ones last, while mummy will rank those higher. Ha ha ha. I am quite bo liao :P

cooking workshop by 8days

2010-10-22T14:21:00.005+08:00

the hazy weather in singapore's really bad, reaching over 100 pts yesterday evening. that explains the fogginess. its really gloomy in the normally bright and sunny island. despite the gloom, the weather's still hot hot hot. and its so easy to fall sick in this lousy weather.

it started my bro, then audrey, and me. i was down with fever early this week and am still plague by the intense headache cum giddiness for the past 3 days. normally 1 pandaol will do the trick but this time round, it doesnt :*(. kk said the weather's giving her bad headache too. @ least i feel better after hearing that knowing that i am not alone.

my head's giving out the 'wong wong wong' feeling as i type. i shld head home to rest well before my bangkok trip tomorrow. hoping that all the headaches & giddiness will go away by tonite - i dun wan it to follow me to bangkok! :(

back to the main topic of this post :

last weekend, we went to a cooking workshop organised by 8days, held @ marriott hotel where they will show us how to prepare easy desserts for parties @ home. cukoo haw signed up for it expecting a hands-on session only to be dissappointed for it is a sit down and watch from afar. hot mama hui-ee joined us too. She's looking really pretty for a mama-to-be with a pretty glow - pregannt and pretty ! - that's what i will be too when its my time :P

the 2-3 hour session would have been very boring if not for the entertaining host - michelle cheong and my excellent companions haw & huiee. and we were photographed by the event photographer! and many others were too. its pretend pretend cuz the photographer had to ask us to put up the 'twist' sign, smile and then put some advertisers products in front of us casually and look like we enjoied ourselves.

ask me if i would go for another such events again? hmm.. with the right company, why not , even tho its pretty lame :P

Ms G key pouch

2010-10-20T11:51:00.003+08:00

was happy to see Ms G using one of my key pouch and had to take a picture of it. so pretty!!

bendy bendy again

2010-10-20T11:42:00.004+08:00

did more bendys for the shoppe. get them if any catches your fancy.

wish i had more time so that i could craft more and newer products. I have one prototype done already.. will update soon.

Ten.Ten.Ten - Part 2

2010-10-12T13:16:00.006+08:00

Here are un-professional pictures which i took for the day. It takes too long for the professional wedding photographers & videographers to do their editing, plus taking pictures helped to keep me occupied - so here's mine! :D

here's the happily married couple! pretty audrey & my brother (who lost quite a bit of weight for the wedding) :D

Sights spotted ard the venue

Food food food. Catered food for the day - not that bad.

Snapshots of the guests for the day , made up mostly of my bro & audrey's frens.

Kids galore! All girls and only 1 boy.

sold sold sold!

2010-10-12T11:20:00.004+08:00

Sold Sold Sold! All these sold (and many others not pictured here, including 9 clutch purses) during Ms G's fair @ Thomson Plaza last week. Thanks to all those who have bought my crafts! Thank you thank you!

So how did i get to know Ms G and how did my crafts end up @ her fair? Briefly - earlier this year, i chanced upon her fair @ thomson plaza. It was hard to ignore her shop as its really prettily displayed with lots of goodies (very japanese zakka), I remembered spending a long time at her shop looking from top to bottom to look for good bargains and I remembered spending quite a lot of $$$. And it was not enuff to just buy @ her fair, i even bought some from her online store - which was delivered personally to my place. When she came by to drop off my purchases, i gave her one of my craft items, the bendy pouch. On that same day ( i think...), she dropped me an sms asking if i wanted to sell my craft items at her fair and the rest is history...

Yay! :D Happy to sell my crafts, Happy to know that pple are buying & using them. Happy that the money i get from my crafts goes to buying more pretty fabrics for more crafts.. and the cycle goes on and on.

Ten.Ten.Ten - Part 1

2010-10-11T14:01:00.004+08:00

10.10.10 - a once in a century date. In singapore, a total of 830 couples exchanged marriage vows, out of which, my brother's one of them! :D He had his solemnization @ One-degree Fifteen Marina Club @ Sentosa Cove. A pretty place to get married in front of the sea, yatches and sun with a party of about 40pax.

Yeah, my brother of 34yrs finally got married to audrey after more than 7 years ( i think it 7 years). Its the first xi shi of the family. Dad must have beeen the most excited of the lot.

Helped to do up wedding favors for the day. Audrey came up with the contents while i helped with the cutting and packing. She chose a "Poker" theme with poker cards & chips in a black/red/white color scheme.

The wedding favor is includes a bottle of hard candy with "hearts" and "thank you", a stick of blowingi bubbles and ice cube thingy which lights up. All packed into a pretty white satin drawstring pouch.

Audrey ordered these handmade candies from a shop @ United Square. It comes in a pretty sized glass bottle and costs only $3.50. Pretty good priced, i think. We had to stick on our own thematic labels.

And we did up matching gift tags to match.

Will post pictures of the solemnization day itself later...

Russian Dolls Bendys

2010-10-08T12:06:00.004+08:00

Kawaii russian dolls! :D Am using the red one for my camera - have been using my bulky camera without any pouch and its full of scratches. Didnt want to use the camera pouch that came with the camera's is heavy and boring in black. Fits perfectly! :D

Shiro comes to play

2010-10-08T11:53:00.004+08:00

Shiro came over to my place for the night, together with her owner, cheryl of course. Such a sweet doggy who sticks to cheryl the whole night and rolls over @ a bang. Pity yuki & snowy wouldnt mix/play with shiro. Must be the territorial instincts kicking in - my doggies prob dun like shiro to intrude /vie for our attention.

Got shiro to pose the round pouch , 'fresh out of the oven'.

A funny trumatic incident happened to Shiro the next morning - Mum brought Shiro down to the garden in the morning to 'play'/shit/pee. Since Shiro had no lease, she couldnt bring her out together with my doggies for their daily walk and so left Shiro in the garden. Dad came down shortly and saw this strange unfamiliar dog in the garden. He tot shiro was an intruder and tried to chase her out of the house. Poor shiro - she must have been traumatised and refused to leave the house despite all the chasing. Lucky mummy came back in time to 'save' shiro and it all ends well. Shiro went back and stayed by cheryl side for the rest of the time she was @ my place. Must have been scared silly. :P

Making disposable chopsticks

2010-10-06T13:36:00.004+08:00

Ms G told me during our taipei trip that disposable chopsticks arent that hygenic and clean after all. I didnt really understand it till i seen this clip. Its a pretty long clip but rather interesting. Take some time to finish watching it if you are interested.

Clutch Purse Spotted!

2010-10-06T10:50:00.006+08:00

Spotted!

Kay carrying the "handmade by yiwan" clutch purse last friday! I was so surprised and happy to see that she's still using it! After all, I gave it to her like about 3 yrs ago!?!? And its still kept in good condition. It was one of the first batch of clutch purses which i did back then when i first started crafting. And it was like seeing an old friend again!

This vintage looking newsprint clutch purse was machine quilted. Kay added her own disney pushpins to add some character to it. There's this stain mark next to the word "Tigger", which she JUST stained it during dinner that night ! :(

And the interior. According to her, she dislike the fabrics used for the interior, including the rick racs. At that time when i crafted it, i tot it matched pretty well, but now, on hindsight, i must agree with her unwillingly that it is rather mis-matched. But still pretty nevertheless cuz its lovingly handmade by ME!! :D

And, I think this beats any branded pLada, or LB wallet! :D

La Villa

2010-10-05T17:32:00.004+08:00

Had saturday lunch with the usual gang last weekend - sort of a belated birthday thingy for both me and tyre. we love PS Cafe @ dempsey for the laid back atmosphere and greenery but wanted a change and try out something new so Lak suggested La Villa, which was also V's old primary school. Its located along River Valley Road, next to ERC institute.

The ambience was quite good. Love the setting and that they serve warm bread with vinger & olive oil. Yumz..

The main course was at best, average. The burger was flat and dry with very thin patty, the gnocchi (Lak's all-time fave food) had a too mushy texture and my handmade fettucini had more of a chinese stir fry noodle taste to it. The seafood pasta was the best among the average. On top of the average food, the service was very average and the place was understaffed - maybe that explains the lack of smile on their faces and words.

Well, @ least there's free parking but you have to ask for the complimentary ticket yourself. They do not offer it to you upfront.

iphone pouch

2010-10-05T11:40:00.003+08:00

made these quite some time back - fits an iphone perfectly. well, something different from the usual silicon casing, sock-like casing or drawstring type of pouch.

it may not be the most practical one to use but at least its special and different. and if u do not wish to use it as iphone pouch, it can double up as a card holder again! :D or maybe fits one lipstick, comb and mascara nicely.

Why daughters are better?

2010-10-05T11:18:00.002+08:00

2 person having a chat on a talkshow about kids. Person A has 2 sons and Person B has 3 daughters. So Person A was very proud and arrogant and boosted about how good it is to have sons. But Person B quickly reacted ...

你知道吗?

儿子是路人
媳妇是敌人

女儿是亲人
女婿是佣人

我家有三个亲人, 三个佣人
你家有两个路人, 两个敌人!

哈哈哈哈哈

Senseless Fun

2010-10-01T22:48:00.005+08:00

Was @ the office yesterday feeling bored. Saw a spool of strings and stack of colorful post-stick. What to do with it? Hmm..

Yay! Make it into a string of those triangular hanging thingy (dunno wat to call them).

Then, hang it up and hold a get together for Ms Labbit & Ms Red :D

(duh!)

Spotted

2010-10-01T22:38:00.004+08:00

Spotted Mr Star Tortise in my garden. He has been living there for many many years already - wandering around the garden, feeing on plants and vegetables which we feed him with from time to time. He used to have another tortise fren but he disappeared somehow and now he's left alone. Once, we even 'caught' him at the far corner in our study room - it baffles us - how he could get there without being spotted.

Lately, dad did a little 're-landscaping' of the garden and planted new greens. If i am not wrong, these new greens are suppose to repel mosquitos, according to the description i saw at the nursery. Looks like Mr Star Tortise found them and finds it delicious. Yummz.

So yummy that he continues to chew on the the last piece of greens even after we picked him up.

Tie me up!

2010-09-29T14:31:00.009+08:00

Lately, weather in singapore's really too hot and too humid (but then again, it has always been hot) . Anyway, I pretty much dread to step out of my nice cool room/office and am really thankful that the air con has been invented. Without it, i think i will be practically damp all day long - damp from pespiration. Ewww.

Anyway, enough talk about mundane stuffs as boring weather. "Inspired" by the hot weather and bored from crafting pouches, I decided to make some scrunchies to accesorize the hair! And since good things usually come in pairs, i made them in sets of twos.

KK: E1, the pictures u post are too small, cannot see
E1: isit? but its nice when its all small and many.
KK: but cannot see?
E1: Isit?

ok ok .. kk .. i get the hint. So, here are the closer-up pictures. Since it comes in matched pairs, i have bundled them up together already! Pretty enough to use on its on or together. :D (the one on the left matches the one on the right)

key pouches - new design

2010-09-24T14:56:00.005+08:00

crafted these sometime back but only gotten around to posting them today. i digress abit first - I should be updating my blog with more of my crafts more often but i get lazy at the thought of having to take pictures and then loading them online.

now, back to key pouches. the reason for these key pouches cuz i think there's not enough variety out there. I have only seen plain leather key pouches in manly brown, black colors or cheap transparent plastic ones. have not seen much or any fabric/handmade key pouches till date except in craft books. although i dont use one, i tot there may be a demand for pretty handmade key pouches. here's my 2 prototypes - one with bias tape for keys & a pocket for cards (that the pinky one) and another just for keys only and smaller in size.

As usual, asked my family & frens to vote for the prettier size/format and the pink one came out tops. So, I will make key pouches using this style! :D Please do buy one or two or many from the shoppe or @ Ms G's upcoming fair @ Thomson Plaza! :D

Highlights of Taiwan trip!

2010-09-24T13:43:00.009+08:00

I went to Taiwan again! Yes, its my second trip to the same country again and it may seem a bit excessive. But its with different company and agenda this time - went with Ms G to indulge in handicraft, fabrics, crafting and zakka related things.

So, what's the most memorable part of my taiwan trip this time? It has to be "Sew Easy", The Young Hotel and Toilet Food. All in that order.

(1) SEW EASY
"Sew Easy" that's the place where we went to 'bai4 shi1 xue2 yi4' aka learn crafting from a very experienced teacher Ms Yeats. We wouldnt be there if not for Ms G who actually chanced upon a magazine featuring this place many years back. She then filed the pages, waiting for the time to come when she can finally pay 'pilgrammage' to the place - and the time has come after many years! Sew Easy is located in Hsinchu, which is about 40 minutes bullet train ride away from Taipei. Briefly - Sew Easy has 2 shops and we visited both shops and we spent 2 days making our own "Made in Taipei" bags.

Here's the first shop we went to. Its also the one which was featured on the magazine. Lucky we had the address for its located out of no where and there's no way we would have gotten there/ chancing upon it by wandering around. Loved crafting here - the students here were very warm and friendly and chatting away like old friends and made us feel very welcomed.

And here's the second shop. The second shop has more interesting stuffs on display but more 'cold'.

And proudly presented our prized handmade in taiwan bags! Ms G's in light color,mine's in dark. and Teacher Ms Yeats standing in between us in the picture! :D We had all those patchwork pieces individually sewn onto the fabric which took us a long timeeee. The opening for this bag works somewhat like that of metal clasp purse except there's no 'knob' on top to secure it. Had wanted to buy a few more of these frames back to craft but due to the need for a very heavy duty sewing machine in order to craft this, i didnt. Super pretty and one and only! :D Beats having branded bag... :P at least for now la.

THE YOUNG HOTEL
It sure looked pretty decent on the website. But turned out pretty dodgy. I sense it was weird (not in the supernatural sense) when we were checking in - another couple came for a 3 hour stay and it was only afternoon then!?!?!? And the receptionist was pretty discreet in giving them the keys. Anyway, then when we went up to the room, it was weird to see all the doors to the empty rooms opened except ours. Anyway, we still went ahead to stay there for the night cuz its paid for and there's lack of alternative accomodation. The most sleazy of it all was when we were at the lift landing waiting for the lift, we hear noises from one of the rooms and when a guy stepped out of the lift, he gave us a head to toe lookover.. .ewwww.. anyway , all ends well & lucky thing we only stayed for a night.

TOILET FOOD
I remember watching news some time back and they introduced this novetly-styled eatery in Taipei, near XiMenTing. Ms G reminded me of it and suggested going there for dinner since we were around the area. Well, rather than to eat the same food which i do on every trip, why not try something different. On hindsight, wrong choice! Its the first time in many many years that i left my food almost untouched!! Food served in toilet bowls, urinal, sinks, bath tubs CANNOT be good! Do not be fooled by our seemingly happy faces. We are actually suffering inside. I highly reccommend that you avoid this place at all costs! ahhaha learn from our mistake :P

Well, this summarises my latest trip! And since i came back, i have been busy crafting again! See my latest batch of bendys @ the shoppe! Comes with pretty lace this time!

New bendy designs

2010-08-23T23:03:00.003+08:00

Same shape, different style. Used to do then in a single piece of design/fabric for the shoppe but guessed pple must be tired of seeing the same style always. So, this time, will do up the bendys in matchy fabrics complete with laces for a nice feminine touch! Hope i can rush out some in time for Ms G's fair starting this friday @ liang court.

I like "The Young Victoria"

2010-08-23T22:39:00.004+08:00

Always have a soft spot for those movies of kings & queens, duke and duchess type of era. So borrowed this movie "The Young Victoria" to watch last nite and i love love love it! Its a relatively easy plot to follow and based roughly on the life of Queen Victoria - queen of great britian , the longest reigning britsh monarch. A synopsis - "A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule and her enduring romance with prince albert".

Catch it if you like such shows too. I also like "The Other Bolyen Girl" , "The Duchess" and the likes of these type of shows.

Boosting readership!

2010-08-18T13:10:00.003+08:00

This post will boost readership @ my blog! I think WE believe so. We being me, kay and lak. Hahaha. A couple of weeks back, we were invited to kay's place for dinner - sort of a pre-kay's birthday celebration dinner where she cooked for us again :D

As usual, after dinner, we got around to doing our own stuffs - me preparing template for sewing my own dress, lak surfing the net and kay hanging ard. Lak was surfing for those blogshops featuring pretty girls modelling their own clothes. Anyway, then somehow then we talked about my blog and how to boost readership @ my blog... and we concluded cuz there's no interesting pictures and i am quite reluctant to post my face... dun wanna scare readers away la. but very often, THE blogger's face shd be in it in order for readers to relate to her...

Anyway, we got excited when lak showed us some of her frequently visited blogs featuring pretty girls with exciting life of shopping, drinks, cool crowd etc. And we decided to do the same! We then started taking pictures of ourselves in 'cool' poses, using whatever props we can equip ourselves with.The fun lasted about 2 hours and the other halves all thought we were mad with all the posing and weird props - lucky they were keeping themselves occupied with games while tyre was sleeping in his blue room as usual :D

Here goes! Pictures to boost readership! Enjoy!

This is the first set of pictures which kay & lak took ... sort of like a warming up thing.

Then we started getting excited . I edited this picture a bit and our skins turned out yellowish. Dunno how to re-do the edits so here's it

we saw this pose on one of the blogs and decided to recreate it. one of us deliberately created a puffy hair look just so its not so normal.

Then we decided to play around with ribbons and flowers. We have seen pple used ribbons as hair accesories so we tried it out too. Not bad i think.

I think this is cute with us labelling ourselves. Tho, i do think its meant more to mock ourselves :P .. kay = elegant? me = pretty? lak = sassy? errrr.... *awkard silence*.. well lak can be quite sassy at times tho.

That about concludes our photosession. We tried to relived it again for the next two weeks but somehow, good things happen when its unplanned. When u try to plan for it, it never seemed to happen.

Hope to see a huge spike in readership! :PPP

kawaii zippies!

2010-08-18T12:26:00.004+08:00

Custom order! Audrey's fren, Georgina, ordered 10 zippy pouches She intends to give it to her daughter's teachers for the upcoming Teachers' Day on 1 September. She gave me a free reign on what i wanna sew/match - only specification she gave was that she wanted a standing pouch with a rectangle base.

So, since i tot its a kid's gift to her teachers, it has to be cute and colorful. Here they are - all 10 of them!

getting specky with bendy specs pouch

2010-08-16T00:40:00.004+08:00

getting specky's the trend nowadays it seemed. those nerdy black plastic ones are the perfect ones. its funny i think - i really hate wearing specs and yet there are ppl out there embracing specs as a fashion statement.

anyway, i remember my specky days. i had developed an allergic reaction to contact lens and could only wear specs. those days, my 'fashion pieces' are my specs - have them in loud colors like purple, red ... nothing boring. i even have a 'blind man' style sunglasses which i insist on wearing despite it looking really bad cuz its the only pair of blackies with prescribed lens. after i did my lasik, i dun need to carry specs ard anymore and have since thrown away all my specs cases and specs (only left one for memory sake). i do hope for the longest time in future, i will not wear any more specs. but if i do wear specs, it has to be cuz it makes me pretty but not cuz i need to.

anyway, mummy was always using this very very old grey specs pouch for the longest time like years and years - she use it to house her sunglasses or 'lao hua' specs. she really likes that cuz its light, not bulky and easy to use. she said she cant find a new one anymore cuz specs shops nowadays do not give out such pouches. they give away zippered 'pencil case' like spec cases or those hard cases nowadays. those hard cases are good cuz it protects the specs from getting squashed but pretty impractical to carrry around.

so, this weekend, i crafted a new one for her (slighted padded for protection) :D now she has a new pretty ballerina prints bendy specs pouch! :D

it fits a pair of sunnies perfectly! :D

and here's a picture of the old versu new bendy pouch.

tyre the cook

2010-08-16T00:09:00.003+08:00

last weekend, out of boredom over the long weekend, we decided to cook our own dinner and i suggested luncheon meat alio olio - since Mr V cooked it for us once and we loved it. it seemed relatively simple.

so we dragged ourselves out of bed, went for a quick grocery shopping trip and came back home to start cooking. tyre did most of the chopping, dicing, frying which i supervised! har har. anyway, i think he has been watching too much cooking shows and he tried to toss and turn the ingredients up in the air many many times. at some point in time, suparni wanted to take over and helped cooked but we firmly said no. i think she was slightly offended cuz she then promptly brought the doggies out for a walk leaving us the whole kitchen to ourselves. unknown to her, we were actually happy that she left us alone to 'play' cooking. :D

and here's it.spam luncheon meat alio olio with campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

when its ready, picture taken, we tucked into our food greedily. after taking a few mouthfuls, tyre commented that Mr V's version taste nicer! har har. and we concluded (with confirmation from Lak) that we have added too little oil and no salt, which is a likely explaination of the bland taste.

think we will try pasta in tomato paste next time.

blotched attempts @ sewing

2010-08-15T23:45:00.003+08:00

i finally attempted to make my own clothes! not once but twice. as the saying goes, once bitten, twice shy. i think i am going to lay off sewing clothes for quite some time.

here's the first one. i saw this pattern in one of the books and loved the way it looked on the model. the instructions seemed pretty easy enough to follow - simple round collar with cap sleeves. here's the end product -

its like a baby doll dress and it looks pretty ok on picture. i just need to accessorise it abit with buttons or lace perhaps then its pretty. but its way too big for me. har har. i've got the measurements wrong ! :P

and this is my second HORRENDOUS one. its so ugly i cringe looking @ it. its supposed to be a simple drawstring skirt with 2 front pockets. but everything turned out so wrong. i had an negative inkling that it would turned out bad cuz the dirty green color fabric's really not my type plus the big pockets. dirty green with bright orange. omg! it simply screams ugly ugly ugly. but being a freshie @ sewing clothes, i decided to just follow the template blindly using whatever ugly fabrics i have on hand. and oh, how blind i am for its really U.G.L.Y!! the pockets are supposed to be worn in the front but in the picture, i worn it at the back in hope of making it lo0k better. sigh... my 4+ hours effort gone down the drain.

when i do try to sew my own clothes again in future, i will try out the first one again, this time, in the correct measurements with pretty fabric.

bag charms that come with bag charms

2010-08-05T16:01:00.004+08:00

decided to try something new - hence these bag charms... literally bag charms cuz its mini tote bag . tot it may look too plain so further added bag charms for these bag charms. and the end results? seriously PRETTY! intend to turn them in bag charms in the near future. but for now, just pictures of the mini tote bag with bag charms (hmmm.. quite a mouthful).

this is my favorite one! the whole combination came out super pretty! from the small flowers print with linen cloth, to the mini pocket to hold the mini gold scissors and the gold chain which blends in perfectly with the whole combi. i drool...

and since i love newsprints fabric, i had to make one using tat. added pockets at the bottom complete with mini white button. And for bag charm, i added a mini bicycle.. seems to fit the whole theme.. of lesiurely holiday in paris & NY :D

somehow, this comes across very japanese zakka like from the brownish tones with cotton lace and dog&bone bag charm.

this is very girly in pink mini tote bag. feels very candy like .

kk's first crafting lesson

2010-08-05T14:53:00.005+08:00

took quite alot of pictures during the crafting lesson with kk and had wanted to sort them out nicely with labels etc before posting. but then again, got a bit lazy so decided to do photo collage :D

it was a fun session for both of us. for me, its more the catching up with an dear old fren and chance to be more aware of crafting. 'they' say when u teach, u learn something new and enforce your skills further. and for her, its the ability to create pretty stuffs and conquering the 'scary' sewing machine (or at least that's what i think if i am in her shoes). anyway, kk's so into this sewing thing that she went to arm herself with lots of fresh fabrics and crafting tools over last weekend - in preparation of our next lesson together :D

here's pictures of her hard at work and taking time out occassionally to pose for the camera.

and here are the finished products! 2 round bendy frame pouches! sooo pretty. i like the flower prints one. (once again, bad lighting and bad photography skills makes the pouches looks less pretty. i must really pick up photoshop some time in near future)

we survived our first crafting lessons!

2010-07-30T14:53:00.003+08:00

yes! we both survived our first crafting lessons together - me teaching & kk learning sewing basics. and for memory sake, i made her pose with the 'signboard' which reads : "i survived my first crafting lesson 9pm -2am".

will blog more about this later...

mini broke down again

2010-07-30T14:25:00.004+08:00

my mini suffered from punctured tyre again. this time, its another mini, on a wet rainy gloomy friday morning. wat a bummer :(

was on my way zipping around quickly through the traffic when i heard a beep sound and then saw this sign huge (!) on my dashboard. sigh.. this cant be a good thing but optimistic me tried to ignore it. hoping optimistically for it to go away by itself! i am a fool. it doesnt work that way ! ahhahaahah i am just deluding myself, as usual.

after 5 minutes of driving and hoping that the sign will miraculously go away, i gave up. i stopped by the roadside and went down to inspect the tyres in the rain. cant seem to spot any problem. nevertheless, bro told me to bring to the nearest tyre shop for a checkup. the technician took one look and spotted the slightly deflated tyre and went ahead to repair it.

the whole procedure was very fast. took less than 10 minutes. in a nutshell, he merely located the 'tear', poked in a mushroom shaped rubber tubing, pulled it out to stopper the tear, sprayed some magic liquid (i say magic cuz i dunno wat's it) then its good to go. he said my tyre's a run flat tyre type,and there's no need to change new tyres. After his healing touch, it shd be able to last a long time without changing new tyres.

and the best part!??! its free! he's not charging me for the repair!! wah.. i must be looking really pretty this morning *puke puke* but as a rough guide (in case anyone out there reading this post runs into similar situations), such quick repair solutions usually costs about $10 only.

and so all ends well. i just need to reset the digital display on my dashboard so that the (!) dont appear anymore. :DD

cedarian goodies

2010-07-30T14:05:00.003+08:00

they say - once a cedarian, always a cedarian. hmm..saying tat gives me goosepimples actually. cant say i've got strong loyalty to my alma mater (is tat how u use it in context?) but when kk asked me if i wanna to buy cedar-related goodies, i jumped at it. despite the fact that i dun like or keep soft toys and it will likely end up in some corner of the store room collecting dust.

anyway, i bought a towel, a bear with uniform and a bear in pe kit.

and for decency sake, the bear wore undies! cute they way they pay attention to this detail,

used, used and overused

2010-07-30T13:35:00.003+08:00

i made these some time back.. omg! almost 3 years ago. anyway i gave one to kk and gave another to sabrina.

was delighted to know when kk told me she loved it and was using it but the delight turned into"ewww feeling" when she showed me earlier this week that she IS still using it 2years down the road....yes! the craftsmanship is soo good that its still useable till now but but but... couldnt resist it and had to take a picture of the current state of pouch.

maybe the picture above aint that bad yet. so i put another one beside it for comparison. the little flowers strips used to be in white or slight yellow tinge , it has now turned into a consistent shade of greyish-ness.

kk said the square size's perfect for her little knick knacks. and she cant bear to throw it away cuz its still use-able.

and so i decided - kk, if you are reading this, i love it that you love my handcrafted goodies. But all good things must come to an end. I am going to make a new one for you this weekend and force you to change out of it and throw it away or wash it!!

Round bendy purse

2010-07-27T10:27:00.002+08:00

ooo...i made this round bendy purse - patchwork with lace!its so prettily sweet and the shape's really unique. made it on sunday night while watching one of those 80's movie on cable. only thing - what can it be used for or fit nicely?

did a close up view of the patchwork. love the texture of the fabrics especially the white one and the lace. it all blends so nicely. thanks to brother for 'approving' the combination again! :D

handmade pretty tote bag

2010-07-25T17:49:00.005+08:00

After failed attempts at pouches earlier this week, i decided to stop crafting pouches for the moment. Wanna try something different - a bag, a coaster etc. So here's my freshly crafted tote bag. Haven crafted this kinda bag in a long while. The last time i did something similar was in August 2008 . Its in similar shape except this time, its smaller. Its really sweet looking!

It measures about 22cm by 20cm (LxB) and that's about a stretched out palm size. It aint too big but it is very roomy. I think this makes a good lunch bag for office ladies (OL) to bring out. I've put in some commonly used items for illustration. It comfortably fits my small metal clasp purse, tissue paper, handphone, umbrella and my kawaii small camera. :D

And the interior is pretty enough to use inside out too as there are no raw edges. Have also sewn a small pocket with lace.

So sweet looking i can melt.. hahahah. I think i will do a few more with different fabrics.

handmade coasters

2010-07-25T11:50:00.003+08:00

lately, i got into the habit of using coasters. likely cuz of influence from ms k.. she has pretty coasters at home. so i bought some plus ms k's mother-in-law did some for ms k's new place and gave me some.. haha ok ok.... i took them myself, she did not give it to me.

perhaps i should have started using coasters long time back. look at all the cup stains on my table. i think it has to be a mix of me not wiping my table properly and lousy ikea table quality. anyway, the stains are here to stay for as long as i use this table.

and so , i made some coasters over the weekend. bought this piece of fabric with large squares of prints in japan 2 years ago but never got around to using it. now, it comes in handy for this coasters for its regular shape and ideal size (about 13cm by 13cm). i have used linen for the base (not shown in picture).

And since there are four different prints on the fabric, i made a set of 4 which looks like this! pretty!

next time, i will make some patchwork coasters :D

peek into my bag today!

2010-07-23T11:19:00.004+08:00

My bag's usually in a mess despite all the pouches/compartments i have. I never seem to be able to keep stuffs in the respective pouches properly. Haw used to look thru my bag and helped me pack my stuffs and it irked her that its so messy. She's a 'compartmentalization freak'.

Anyway, today in office, as i was rummaging thru my bag looking for some stuffs, i realised - hey.. i actually do segregate my stuffs into pouches, just not in the neat & conscious way. So i neaten up my stuffs and took a picture of it. It will probably remain this neat for today only. and i also realised - i am the greatest fan of "handmade by yiwan" goodies cuz all my pouches are handmade! *roll eyes* i have to be cuz i crafted them myself :P here's what is in my bag ...

out of those pouches above, 3 of them are new crafts items for this week! picture below shows 2 different version of pouches i was trying to create - both are of commercially common shape & size. i normally dont craft such items cuz its i feel there's nothing special about these and some of those commercially produced ones are even better. anyway, i have custom order from brother's girlfriend fren and she gave me specific measurements and so i am trying it out. love the kawaii look & cheerful colors but maybe i have to accesorize it for a more complete and unique touch. The first pouch has a rectangle base and its stiff enough to stand on its own. As for the second one, its a flat pouch with rounded edges.

The round metal clasp pouch below is a craft gone wrong! :( the entire feel & look came out way below expectations. its not symmentrical, the shape's not pretty and it looks like a wreck. the only thing pretty about this is the fabrics used but what a waste of good fabric :*(

anyway, weekend's here! happy weekend to whoever's reading this! :D

Cheese from Russia!

2010-07-22T18:41:00.003+08:00

Ms G gave me some cheese which came all the way from russia. Eating them bring back fond memories of my russian days. The first time i tried this type of cheese was in some restaurant eating russian food and having ice cold beer! Yumz! This type of cheese goes very well with beer & vodka! I didnt believe it was cheese initially - Its stringy in texture (somewhat like those dried octupus) , very salty and has a smoky taste & smell. Its totally unlike what I am used to having in this part of the world.

It would be too induglent and lonely to have beer in the afternoon, so I made myself a cuppa tea and had my fill of cheese! :D

(the cheese dont look too appetising in the pictures but it sure it!)

Thanks Ms G! :D

More large clasp purses

2010-07-22T18:33:00.005+08:00

Ok. Finally done after a week long of crafting. Here are sneaks of the large clasp purses - all pretty 10 of them.

Here's a closer look of the kawaii range for the kid in you.

And here's the flora raange for the feminine side of you

and these dont belong to the above ranges :P. First time i am using iron-on patch for craft. Have bought this kawaii elephant iron on patchy during my last japan trip quite some time back and finally got to use it. its matchy with denim.

For prettier pictures including the interior, check out the shoppe :D

Pretty Patchwork Ironing Board Cover

2010-07-20T17:12:00.004+08:00

Had been busy crafting the large metal clasp purses the whole of last week and finally finished all 10 of them on Sunday. Now that those have been completed, that leaves me free this week to do some housekeeping crafting.

Been thinking of doing a patchwork ironing board for quite some time but never got around to doing it. So here goes - first i need to sort thru the fabric scraps to take out the colors & suitable sizes. Have been saving up/accumulating these fabric scraps for my patchworking mood to catch on.

After choosingthe fabrics, I drew out squares measuring 8cm by 8cm and cutting them out. Luckily younger bro was around to help do the cutting, and that helped saved alot of time :D

Then laying them out randomly.

And when the arrangement's ok, I started sewing them together. The old boring ironing board cover's in the background and the new wip cover is in foreground. I had added fusible interfacing too in order to make the patchwork fabric more sturdy.

In order to make the cover fit the ironing board, i could either use an elastic band or string to tie up the ends. In my case, I used string cuz i have no elastic band. So, first, i had to sew bias tape round the raw edges to neaten it, then draw a string thru.

And here's the back view with neaten edges, fitted snugly.

And here's the final product! My very own pretty & colorful patchwork ironing board cover, just the way i like it :D OOO.. and not forgetting the very pretty pink vintage-like iron! :D