dragon dance

its been a long time since i've seen such things up close. when i was young, i remember during chinese new year, these groupies will make their rounds in the estate and if you are interested to perform at your house, they will do it .. for a sum of $ of course. usually its lion dance, but this time, my neighbour invited them specially to do a lion dance follwed by a dragon dance. it was pretty noisy actually but all in the good festive mood of chinese new year! huat huat huat ah!

pearly controller

nowadays, its common to bling bling your handphone, camera etc.. basically decorate with those stickers. but if you get someone to do it professionally for you, its expensive. so i tot, why not do it myself? how difficult can it get right? just stick it on onli mah....

i was wrong.. my sad attempt at sprucing up my remote controller - urrrrggghhh *puke*

drawstring pouch

first time i tried to do a serious drawstring pouch.. love the combination of the yellow strips but the finishing touch of orange polka dot spoilt it all.. :( it looks ok in picture but its actually way too bright and the orange really cheapens it somehow .. sigh... will try again with other color combinations next time.

patchwork pouch

havent been doing these six sided patchwork pieces in a long time already cuz its really time consuming. anyway,saw a pattern of a bag which i really like and wanted to do and so did panels of it .. only to find out that its too small. i could have added a few more pieces to expand the panel but was too lazy to do it already.. so turned it into a pouch instead.. not bad too la.. can fit all my tech stuffs which i bring to work - my phone, my portable hard disc and my camera.

pink brown & white sling bag

new sling bag with quilting! pretty pretty! :D

dear bro's birthday!

younger bro's 20 yrs old & going army this year.... sobby ...

anyway, family tradition to get together to blow the birthday cake together with the birthday boy. usually its just the family, this time, its family (including doggies snowy & yuki) with his close friends!

happy birthday bro!

Almond cookies day

from this pile of dough ....

to these ...

and finally, the end products!

tomorrow, its corn flakes cookies! :D

(i did not bake these... its all suparni's hardwork and endurance... the last i checked at 10.30pm, she's still baking.. )

(i did not bake these, its all hardwork by suparni and when i last checked at 10.30pm, she's still baking)

winners of boxy pouches give away!

posted a blog entry on 12-jan-09 to give away some of my handmade pouches and here's the results of the draw... before annoucing the winners, here's a little background on how the draw's conducted.

initially wanted to do the draw alone in the comforts of my home but was out with the vongs & laky couple last nite for dinner, and they suggested strongly that we do the draw together to make it a fair one. so why not? we had auditors to ensure its a fair one, lucky draw participants to witness the process, sounds fun.

so here are alll the participants to the lucky draw...
yeah... six pple vying for 5 pouches... its almost a sure win already. there were few who dropped me an email instead of leaving comments on the blog - the auditors were adamant that they should not be entered into the draw because they did not follow the rules. so.. its still 6 of them!
and the list of pouches to be given away...

and here are the draw results....

and pictures of 2 of the happy winners...jellybelly...

and kayie!

i will be contacting the rest of the winners shortly for their addresses :D
thanks for leaving comments & reading my blog!! :D

cool coffee machine

damon got this cool nescafe machine and had the chance to play with it. its so fun and sleek that i am considering to get one just to play with it... tho i am not a coffee drinker at all.
the coffee, roast & ground (not instant coffee) comes in capsules forms at 90cents each. just pop the capsule into the machine, press the button, viola! freshly brewed coffee in less than a minute. so much better, sleeker, convenient compared to those conventional espresso machines!

and there are 12 flavors to choose from including decaff.

retail price of the machine ? $600+ . if onli i am a coffee addict, then i am sure to buy one. for now, i can onli drool.

coin pouches with lucky charms

my favorite craft item - handy sized, idiot proof and fun to make. its so versatile. can be used as camera pouch, sanitary pad pouch, card holder, coins, make up etc etc and fits easily into most bags :D

pencil cases

made 2 different variations of pencil cases. prefer the flat ones over the standing triangular ones. maybe that's cuz the prints are cuter.

homemade pineapple tarts

sometime around this time of the year (nearing chinese new year), my house will filled with the delicious smell of freshly baked cookies - pineapple cookies! i am not a great fan of them but mummy/suparni bakes lots of them to giveaway. in the past, we use ready-made pineapple filling bought from red man but those are very pasty like, not too nice. this time, suparni made the pineapple paste from scratch - it took like many pineapples & six hours of boiling over charcoal to get it done.

anyway, here's some pictures the cookies. i prefer those shaped like pineapples to those open top ones - they are more tedious to make.

...pineapple balls

....finished products shaped like pineapples

open-top pineapple tarts - easier to make

new bank account

finally got around to doing this.. i must have been thinking of doing this for like 3 yrs...

today, i finally opened the iSAVvy savings account with Maybank. Why Maybank ? Because of the following reasons:

- attractive interest rates for account balance between $5k to $50k of 1.08%. Sounds high enuff for me.
-easy access to ATM & Online banking. For ATM networks, you can withdraw from Maybank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Citibank & ABN Amro ATM machines at no admin charges involved.
- no paper statement so do tat tiny bit to save earth
- no passbook to mantain
- and when u go overseas & withdraw cash, its $5 per transaction. tat sounds affordable enuff.

all will be done online and if you need over the counter transactions, then a charge of $5-$10 applies. f

for an internet cukoo like me, this is a big step :P i hope i remember my pin, id etc etc.. :D

On swimming

was contemplating whether to swim or not to swim yesterday.. was feeling really lazy but felt the real need to exercise to keep fit

finally decided to drag myself to the pool to swim. swam for 10 minutes and it started to drizzle.

then contemplated whether to get out of the pool for fear of lightning and thunder (tho there wasnt & it was only a light shower)

finally decided to get out of the pool to the bath

then got out of the changing room after bathing only to find out that the rain has stopped and all's bright and sunny again.

guess its a sign to tell me avoid the pool going forward! :D

boxy pouches give away!

made these 5 quilted boxy pouches a few weeks back. some turned out in nice proportions while some turned out .. err.. a bit out of shape (the pink russian doll prints & the button prints) . i am giving these 5 away :D simply leave a comment on preference and i will do a lucky draw this saturday 17Jan09 to pick the lucky winners (assuming there's more than 5 comments :P )

actualli, i am doing this for 2 reaons - to see who reads my blog (i am amazed when i visit other blogs and they have like 100+ over comments usually but for me.. usually, its Zero! :D) and reason 2 - just wanna give away my craft creations to those who appreciate it

a closer view of the boxy pouch.

my new cosy corner

i finally got my own place in the office. went to 69 boon keng road (i think tat's the address) - its a red building at the corner of boon keng road, recommended by haw. its pretty hard to miss it & sells 2nd hand office furniture. good place to go to to get cheap buys. the stuff there are in pretty good condition and affordable. i got a chair, table, drawer & huge 6ft white board all for onli S$220.

the sail is now ready!

yes, its ready and its gorgeous. its located right smack in the financial hub with swanky architecture and facilities. i wish it was mine but at $1,200psft (they say this is current market price. at the peak, it was going for $2,500psft) i can onli drool :)~

view of the pool with the apartment as backdrop.

a seperate pool overlooking the IR dedicated as aqua-gym where u can cycle, do the treadmill, water massage in the pool. cool & impressive!

its own comprehensive gym facilities with its very own rock climbing wall, which's a bit gimmicky but gives a nice twist to the boring type of gym.

and here's a picture of us all childhood friends. our dads are fellow mates from shanghai. the function room was located on 44th floor with an amazing view of the IR, the marina square area, esplanade.

lastly, on a seperate note, if you thought my bro's fat, look! he's actually pretty small size next to the zhang brothers! :D

makeup pouches for the new year

just the right size for putting makeup stuffs like powder, blusher etc etc. had fun doing these and the hardest part what doing the cuvrvey part of the pouches.

little red riding hood goes shopping