chirping cheery birds

today's a happy crafting day. made these keys holder and they are pretty pretty pretty! chirp chirp!

what's the happiest thing today?

for me, it was getting a prime parking lot near the entrance to the shopping center once i drive into a full car park.
you know those days when you queue up to enter into a car park jam packed with cars and then u immediately get an empty lot! for me, it makes me HAPPY! very happy akin to striking lottery! :P

oh deery me pencil case

so sweety pink! it fits an aromatherapy pot, candles & bottle of essence oil perfectly! good for bringing overseas, just in case the room stinks ~ one of my travel essentials.

gingerbread man's day out @ forest

love this fabric! and tried to craft a wallet which can hold lots of cards. love the end results, with the red borders & crochet lace! pity its a bit flimsy to hold - shd have reinforced it with interface or quilted it. will try again next time :D

sweet brother

younger bro's so sweet i had to blog about it.

he's been doing some internet business thingy... selling clothes and this xmas, he used the profits made over the past year to get our family xmas presents - everyone got one of these in different colors and designs.the white one's for me and the black's for tyre. :D thanks bro!

crabby feast

had craving for crabs on xmas day so headed to eng seng @ joo chiat road for the famous crabs. "they" say its yummy & affordable. usually, the queue starts before six and by eight, all the crabs will be sold out. so we headed there for dinner early @ six to beat the queue but even then, we had to queue for half hour before getting seats and to make the wait worthwhile, we ordered 5 crabs - 2 chili crabs and 3 black pepper. "they" say its approx. $30 for 2 crabs or so i heard WRONGLY! (its actually $30 for 1 crab)

crabs came, we feasted and over-ate till we were darn full and sick of the crabs - an overdosage! anyway, when the bill came, we were shocked! $160 for 4 pax!*faint* and we had to empty our wallets together to pay for the bill!

what a way to spend xmas.

x'mas muffins

tried to bake a xmas 'cake' made up of many muffins. spent the morning doing it and here's the end results. somehow, it tastes better fresh out of the oven. somehow, it wasnt as popular as i would imagine it to be ~ everyone was vying to eat it .... as punishment!! :P

and these's commercialised log cakes were more popular than my freshly, lovingly handmade cupcakes. anyway, thanks to tonghui & joanne for sponsoring these log cakes for the party, else everyone had to make do with the miserable few cupcakes.

xmas eve @ tea's

as usual, tea throws a party with flair - only the good stuff! this time, its yummy lamb, beef, ribs, chicken & huge 7kg honey baked ham! few varieties but darn yummy.

shophouse for you?

S$3.2 million! that's what it will costs to buy a renovated Smashing new shophouse @ still road. took a peek into one of the houses and its soooo prettily modern. i would love to stay in one of these , but then again, maybe not.. too much history and 'baggage' within the house already. i think i prefer a brand new house built from scratch. :D plus its way toooo expensive.

russian tote bag

after 4D3N cruise filled with eating, eating and more eating, me & tyre needed some exercise badly.. so headed for the courts for a 'sweat it out' session. i brought my newly crafted bag for tennis today - the new bag looks happy amongst the tennis stuffs.

took me a week long of late nites to complete it as the quilting was done by hand instead of machine. love this bag alot & was very satisfied with the end results.

polka dot pocket bag

yay! its done! made this over the weekend! aint it sweet looking? :D up next, another bag creation using my favorite russian dolls prints!

cupcakes!

went to cousin's kid's birthday party last week and saw the prettiest looking cake - made with 15 cupcakes @ sky high price of $75. very sweet & pretty looking due to the pretty pastel icing colors , but taste-wise, its quite bland and hard.

inspired by those, i decided to try my hand at making cupcakes. so far so good. for the first batch of cupcakes, i baked it using Betty Crocker's ready mix blueberry muffin mix - just add oil, eggs and milk, then bake at its ready! not bad for my first attempt but felt tat the blueberry taste a bit too artificial. anyway, packed 3 for tyre to eat, but dropped it on his way home :(

and these, i made it today! chocolate chips cupcakes! yummy! toyed with the idea of decorating it with lots of pretty icing sugar, but better not cuz it will be too sweet.

new investment

have been thinking of baking for a long time but never got around to doing it till day. yes, i have invested into some equipment & raw materials today! the mixer's an early xmas present from mummy!

have been eyeing to try out the molten chocolate cake recipe for a long time and could finally do it today. look how yummy it looked on paper. and it claims to be "our very best - and easiest!" hmm... wat can go wrong?

how did it turned out? horrible! another failed project @ baking. the cake turned out a bit too charred and too dry despite following the recepie to the tee. should have used lesser flour and baked it at a lower temperature.

totally fustrating. i am turning to crafting for comfort. look what came out of it. pretty useless stones :D but pretty and satisfying. i am making these into magnets for the fridge.

defunct water feature @ home

this small waterfall at the corner of my house used to be home to many koi fishes. one day, the motor for the waterfall broke down and it never got repaired since then.

now, its home to ... guess wat? lots of tadpoles!! yucky! soon, my house will be swamped with froggies! eewwwww

stack of colorful patchwork zippies

made these over the weekend! had fun doing them but now, my neck's aching from tolling over the table for long hours :D plus the saturday mid day tedious jog i had with frens, i am aching all over but happyyyyy !! :D

i love russians dolls!

got this in moscow few years back - there's papa, mama, son, cat & chicky - very prettyyyy! :D

owls go hoot hoot pouch

hand-quilted this pouch & spent considerable time on it only to fail ... it turned out.. yucky! everything just seems so mismatched! yucks yucks!

with love from hk

i love mail, especially so when i return from overseas, i would take some time to tear open all my mails. And to receive presents via mail makes it even more fun! thanks eman sister! :D

Shanghai again!

back from shangahi.. my 2nd trip there this year. this time, mummy's friends were there too.. for about a week and i joined them for all days for shopping, eating, sightseeing etc etc. it was pretty interesting hanging out with the aunties - all 8 of them. one of the aunties bought things like its free - she's almost sure to get at least 1 item from every shop she visits. anyway, here are some of the pictures.

we took a day trip to Hangzhou.. about 1 hour train ride away.I had visited Hangzhou like 10+ yrs ago and all i could recall was taking tat dirty old train. this time, its different, the train's nice, clean and modern and the place's pretty commercialised. Below's a group shot with all mummy's frens.

it was pretty cold tat day (prob about 10degrees) but lots of couples are out in full force taking their wedding pictures - there were more than 5 couples taking pictures ard the west lake. it was freezing cold for me (being dressed in layers of clothings) and yet, the couples were dressed sparingly. the power of love i guesss.hahaha

dad did this lifelike clay model for RMB150 (S$30+ equivalent). The guy's really talented, he was able to mould it from scratch within 15 minutes.

and Shanghai's very own factory outlet!!! reminds me for the premium factory outlet at gotemba japan.

weekend trip to batu pahat

went to batu pahat, malaysia with parents over the weekend. they were there to attend a wedding dinner, and i was there to keep them company together with bro. its been years since i went there. when i was younger, we used to go at least once a year during chinese new year as some of our relatives stay there - it was always fun as we could play fireworks. it was good to go back, brought back memories and was a refreshing change.

my all-time favorite mee hoon kway stall. a must go when in batu pahat. its a small roadside stall and err.... not too sanitary... but the food tastes great and cheap - RM3 for a bowl.

the house where we used to go to every year - everything is still the same after all these years from the interior, to the furniture and the popular mahjong area . its just opposite the mee hoon kway stall.

took a trip to the local wet market

one of the many unslightly drains ard in batu pahat...

and as usual, i cant resist it - had to indulge in my book hoarding hobby! bought a few :D

chengcheng birthday party

tea's kid chengcheng's TWO! first time i attended a party with so many kids... felt like i couldnt blend in.. hahahah. anyway, here are some pictures from his birthday party.

the happy family of three

the foodies

the birthday boy playing the 'pinada' (dunno how to spell) but basically you hit that odd shape thingy countless times till it disintegrates and toys would fall out.

the presents! love the red rocking horse that haw got for him prettily wrapped with ribbon.

and here's haw & kk trying to blend in with the kids with their temporary tatoos

stamps!

inspired by ciyou @ http://www.ciyoucolorscity.blogspot.com/ with her pretty stamp carvings, i decided to try some. here's sample of my first tries - instead of carving it on the table, i stupidly carve it on my leg and accidentally cut myself. lucky its only a small cut. pretty pretty - i am going to do more of these when i go to shanghai next week :D

i heart curtain straps

made these today! have been using rubber bands, clips to bundle my curtains together for a long time and finally, the mood struck and i did these for my curtains! sooooo pretty. it took longer than expected to do cuz of wrong sewing .. had to unpick, sew, unpick sew a couple times. pretty fustrating! but so glad its done and pretty!

new bendy pouches @ etsy

finally, i have made a range of bendy pouches for my etsy shop - visit www.onebowl.etsy.com
i havent been posting any items for sale on etsy for a long long time because there's no inspiration to craft anything functional & pretty. well, anyhow, its done! here's it - buy them if it catches your fancy!

ribbon towel

to turn a boring plain towel into something prettier, simply sew a ribbon onto the towel & now it looks better! a cheap thrill craft project.