Tyre alone in HK

Poor Tyre... he's going to be alone in HK again for this week cuz i am back in Singapore (again). Everytime i am away, he just either (a) eat mac (b) eat snacks or (c) simply skip meals. So this time, i decided and planned in advance to cook him alot of frozen meals so that he can just warm it up and having home cooked food. Here's the freezer filled up with foodies!

Boxes of soup, fried rice & bee hoon, frozen prawns, meatballs, burger patties etc. Had to label them so its easy for Tyre to differentiate. I learnt the 'trick' of storing soups in boxes from Aunty Teo. Its so neat. Had to top up with convenience food too la.. wanton and char siew pau

The Teos in HK

Two weeks ago, i got a sudden call at night from Jo. She spoke quickly and pretty excitedly... that goes something like "yiwan, will you be in hong kong during xx-xx? i am planning to coming hong kong with W during that time"

Wo ho ho!! "Yes yes yes! i am in hk!!! Come come come!! "

Finally.. we have been 'whatsapp-ing" about it for quite some time plus its going to be our first trip overseas together (well, sort of la...). It was a pretty short trip for 3D2N which means Day 2 is going to be reserved for intensive shopping!!

So, on Day 2, we met early (by my standards at 10am) and started shopping at TST, then adjourned to our fave street - Fa Yuen Street! Compared to ladies market, this place is more fun! More stuffs to buy especially clothes. And first thing we did as soon as we stepped into Fa Yuen Street? Was to take a picture.. together with the signage! hahahaha like "worshipping" the place :DDespite the excitement boiling inside us, we were quick to decide to grab a quick lunch first. Had a typical hongkong cha chan ting meal of wanton mee with oyster kai lan. And then we were off to shop till we drop for the next 3 hours plus. Then we ended off the day having dinner at Yung Kei , the place famous for its roast goose and century eggs. (It was the Kay who intro this place to us) The Husbands finally got to join us after their work. Lucky they aint around during shopping :D Wanted to buy some century eggs back home for friends but its all sold out! Out of Stock!! Its really yummy... firm on the outside, runny on the inside - with the sweet ginger.. yumz!!Well, this time, we managed to only 'conquer' Fa Yuen Street.. next time, Causeway Bay perhaps? Hope she manages to get time out again.

Bento for Tyre

Tyre's really getting sick of food at his cafeteria and i have been making him lunches to bring to work... It started with sandwiches only.. then burgers.. then fried rice... and lately, i have been trying to get more professional and experimental.. wanting to do those japanese style bentos.

So , i borrowed this bento book from Cousin - "The Just Benton CookBook" Its a fantastic book filled with lots of colorful pictures and lots of easy to prepare receipes with variations!!! I LOVE it!Last week, we went to Jusco HKD12 shop to get some lunch boxes for Tyre. Had made japanese curry for him for lunch which he re-heated in the microwave oven for 1.5 minutes.. after he's finished and wanted to bring back the lunch box, the top was a bit deformed. Scary!!! Imagine all the toxic stuff he may be eating from the 'melted' box. It was "made in japan" and "microwave safe" supossedly but that doesnt stop it from deforming. So... no more cheap boxes... i got a new one from proper shop which he shd be able to reuse without fear of 'chemical' poisoning. Its a two tiered box.. very japanese style! :P

And here's my first atempt at recreating a receipe from the book. Sukiyaki pork with onions and fried rice. The beancurd skin roll is bought from the store, merely to fill up the empty section. Had made mayo potato salad too but put it seperately in another casing. Looks good eh? Would be better without the carrots and peas but i needed to 'color' the food , else it will all be brownish and boring. And here's it.. wrapped and ready to go!!
I am already thinking of what to prepare for him tomorrow.. think it will be the braised pork which Cousin prepared, with japanese omelette and pickled vegetables! Yumz!!!

I wonder how long my new found interest will last !?!? :D

Kitty clasp pouch

Another new design for the clasp pouch. Been trying out new designs lately...This uses the same frame which i use for iphone pouch.============================================================
Seperately, was facetiming mummy last night and asked to see my darlings..i miss them!!! lots !!! Wished they are here with me in hong kong but cant la... it was be too traumatizing for them to travel by plane and too time consuming with those quarantine whatsoever. Plus haw told me that their dopey seemed changed after they brought him back from melbourne... apparently the plane ride may have been very traumatic for him.. poor dopey :( so will not subject my dogies to such experience.

Here they are .. caught on video.. funny thing is that they cant respond to me when i call out to them over the phone.. :( nor look at me on the ipad :(

Day trip to Stanley

Weather was great on Sunday in HK. It was bright sunny and warm (yet with a tinge of coolness).. just like summer time - quite rare for the past few many weeks. Cousin thought of going Stanley for lunch and off we go!
"Stanley Market is one of the must go touristy places in hik. There are many little shops selling silk garments, art, chinese costume jewellery and souveneirs. Other than shopping, there are also many nice cafes/restaurants facing the sea and always packed with people especialy over weekends!" Here's one of the very typical touristy shop seling t-shirts.We arrived around noon time and it was "peak' period so the road (one single lane each traffic way) were pretty jammed and parking was tough to find. Took us about 20 minutes to get a parking lot. Its very easily accessible by bus, else cab is good too.
Despite it being very touristy and crowded on Sunday, i kinda like the hustle and bustle. Many doggies were out for walks too. I wished my doggies were here with me too. I missed them!!We had lunch at Saigon @ Stanley. Its our second time there.. This place serves hearty vietnam/thai food - good sized portion for the pricing. And it was packed with people sitting outdoors instead of inside the air con part. Lucky Cousin made reservations in advance , else we would have to wait quite a while. A tip i learnt from them... better plan in advance for meals and make meal reservations instead of queueing.. :D

My Kitchen

Err.. bo liao post coming up!

The kitchen is possible the most 'decorate' place in the hk apartment. Somehow, having the kitchen decked out in pretty things makes cooking, eating a happier thing for me. So, here's the tiny kitchen at a glance... open concept kitchen with only 2 electronic cooking stove and no cooker hood! See those grills on the roof? It supposedly a vent i think its super ineffective. The place reeks of food every night.. well, have to make do :D At a glance, its spotted with red colors... i would have preferred white/pastel colors but somehow, red became the dominant color.

See the nespresso machine on the bottom right? It was a birthday present from tyre 3 years ago...We brought the nespresso machine all the way over from Singapore. Enjoied using it for the first few months but now, its a neglected toy. Under the influence of cousins, we have switched to UCC coffee with is milder. These "Coffee Tea Sugar" enamel tins sit on top of the fridge. I keep those 3-in-1 coffee sachets, and kopi O bags inside. I bought that chalkboard from Switzerland last year and brought it over to HK. I wanted to write down the menu for each meal but .... err.. its not feasible la. I like this part.. and think its one of the most useful feature that came with the rented apartment. It allows me to hang those commonly used utensils .. that way , i dont need to keep drying and keeping it into drawers. And the prettiest part that i like. Filled with things i like.. tho its pratically not smart to put all these right above the stove.. they get coated with a layer of oil all the time and i need to clean it often.. but that's the only display shelf around. Ms G gave the idea of putting the laces there. And this ... i tot its quite a smart trick.. i lined my kitchen with two ikea rugs... which i wash every few other days. That way, it feels like i kinda limit the dirt, oil, water to these two rugs only. But only works for very small spaces la. Well, that's all. :D

Doctor's Bag/Pouch

"The classic doctor's bag is flat-bottomed with rounded sides, slightly elongated. Two large handles come together over the top for easy carrying. The mouth of the bag has a collapsible metal frame that springs open when handles are separated and tugged. The gaping mouth makes it easy to see into the bag and extract items."

Always on the lookout to craft non-zipper pouches. So when i saw this doctor's pouch thingy frame, i knew i needed to try it out. Here's it!Opens up by pulling those two polka dot thingy apart...
Comes with D-rings by the sides so that i could add a handle to convert it into a wristlet if needed.

Patchwork Linen Pencil Case

Have seen on other blogs how crafters paired patchwork with linen to make pouches and look pretty so i decided to try one.Hmm... something's just not right... i am so not liking it :( .. nice try anyway.

HKD50million home?

Was taking the lift down from my place today and took this same lift with two other asian person - one older man, one younger girl.. both who knew each other and were conversing in english about buying a property in hong kong. i gather that the older man shd be the dad or someone of that seniority /rank la and that they are not mainland chinese. i tried as much as i can to eavesdrop .. trying to catch that distinctive singaporean slang but i cant seem to .. anyway.. here's the conversation...

OM: " you better look for the perfect property first before spending 50million on it"
YG: ... silence.. *keeps preening at the mirror in the lift*
OM: "you and xx look for the perfect one before deciding. take time. no hurry to find one"
YG:... silence still..
The lift came to the first floor and they walked out.

two things that came to my mind that i wanted to say out...

1) Hey man, my frens said that there's no such thing as perfect place la.

2) Hey man, if you have 50million cash to splurge, why stay here???! Sure its quite accessible to town, nice sea facing units but but but... if you have that much money, go stay like hyatt serviced apartment or something instead la. HKD 50million, i assume, would be equivalent to a cool S$8.3million!!! i could can my dream bungalow at that price with loads to spare for holidays! But then it set me wondering what can HKD50million get in HK? So i googled.. and did a bit of research at squarefoot.com.hk. Here's what i found.

Apparently there were more HKD50million properties listed for sale on Hong Kong Island instead of Kowloon or New Territories and typically those are all over 2000sqft - an amazing amount of space for hong kong apartments. I just copied a few for comparison.

Some businesses will never make that much money in a lifetime... its horrendous amount of money to spend on properties! i wonder if that man was just 'talking big' or really meant it. Anyway, if it was true, good luck at finding your Perfect Place! It shouldnt be difficult with that much budget!! :D

Handphone cozy custom order

Cousin called over the weekend... her friend, D, just got a gadget recently and needed a cover to protect it. But D couldnt seem to find any commercially avaliable cover. Hence ... Cousin tot of me :D Her gadget, the Sony Xperia S, is a cool slim looking smartphone that's lauched only this year.
So, over facetime, Cousins and I searched for an acceptable fabric for D. D had few requirements in terms of fabric which were suppose to be easy to satisfy as she knows what she does not like - no floral, no pinky, no girly, no cartoon, no letterings, no landmarks. Sounds like any easy one right? But no... cuz i only have limited fabric stash made up of all she does not like! Hahaha.

Anyway, D finally settled on a blue gridlines linen checkered fabric paired with black & white chekered fabric. She also settled on a cute hedgehog applique.

Once that's done, i had to get working on the measurements to create a template.
Then sew up a mock up casing. I usually skip this step and go straight to doing up the actual product but cuz i only had a small piece of black and white checkered fabric left which means no room for any mistake. So , in order to be on the safe side, i did up a mock up casing. And since i did not have the actual product itself, i had to create a mock up phone. The mock up phone looks like a joke but its necessary for getting the whole thing right. Slip the mock up phone into the mock up casing and it fits perfectly! :D On the first try.. lucky me. Trying to complete the whole look and feel. Looks good and now i amready to start on actual product.And so, from mock up to actual final product! Happy the way it turned out!! Its not too kiddy and fits the mock up phone nicely. YAY!!! Hope that it fits the actual product nicely too and that D likes it!!

New Girly Clasp Pouch

After that very happy luggage tag, i felt like i could conquer any craft.. i was on the roll. anything i sew will turn out prettiy. i had it in me to make fantastic crafts... u get the drift of the high i am feeling.

So the very next day, on saturday i started on my new project... a new clasp pouch!Looks good too right? Looks girly too with those gathers, lace and ribbon. But ... not so user friendly cuz the opening is a bit small. Not so convenient to use as a coins pouch etc. Good to look at but not so good to use.. pity pity.

All in a Friday's work

Tyre was out late on Friday night.. he had some company dinner to attend so that leaves me free and alone the entire day from morning till night to indulge in myself.. no need to clean house, do grocery shopping nor cook!

So.. spent the whole day trying out various crafts and looking for inspiration. So it started out with this early in the morning...the concept is good but end product aint too user friendly. Its a 'pop up' pouch thingy. Its rather fast and easy to do since its suppose to be a prototype... there's no need to be too exact.When you open it, the sides pop up and it becomes a box like pouch.. its suppose to be easier to find things in this manner.. supposedly a japanses style like pouch which i have seen some time back. But then, the whole pouch was abit too flimsy and cant really fit as much
Anyway, one dissapointing pouch.. and it was only noon time... i still have lots of time to play with other ideas.. so i tried doing this pleated pouch thingy which i saw on one of the blogs last time. Once again, it turned out wrong.. somehow the proportions were a bit off and the fabrics were a bit mismatched. Waste of time and effort again. Was pretty ready to give up already - two dissapointments in a day is too much to bear. But it was still pretty early at ard 4+pm. So i went in search for more inspiration... and it hit me!!!! i needed a luggage tag!! Its long overdue. And i have seen some applique styles i really like on some blogs and decided to do one! I really need a luggage tag soon.. in a few weeks time when i return to Singapore, i need to personalise my generic luggage.

I have seen some amazing bloggers who first draft out their ideas first before tackling the actual task so i first went abt conceptualizing my tag...drawing, mixing and matching different materialsAnd so , after more than 6 hours of almost non-stop crafting, here's the end product! Its just soooooooooooo pretty!!! i think i have outdone myself!!!! I love it!! It may be a small tag but there's alot of handstitching.. each of those small pieces of cloth/appliques have been to ironed on first then handstitched to prevent it from falling off and fraying.

Typically, luggage tags shd include address and contact. But i just stitched my name (Ms Vong said i shdnt call myself miss anymore..but but but... can la hor? ) and country. Not too keen on putting my contact and address on it. If my luggage's missing and airline needs to contact me, surely they can thru my name? :D Love it! Wish to do some for my travelling frens ... in due course... :D

And so that's it.. that's all done in one crazy crafting friday with a happy ending :D

Large Clasp Pouch 6

Large Clasp Pouch 5

One of my all time favourite fairy tale is " Alice in Wonderland". When the movie directed by Tim Burton was released in 2010, i watched it a couple of times... very nice, colorful and whimsical in some ways. Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway were my faves.

So, when i saw this "Alice in Wonderland" print, i had to have it for my crafts. Made a large clasp pouch using the fabric.