Macau

back from macau with my family and i am now in my comfy cousin's place in hk :D where all 4 of us are busy toodling with our own laptops - all in the living room (me, my 2 bros & emeng). there aint nothing much to do in macau other than eat & gamble. we figured a day trip would be enough the next time.

we stayed in venetian macau for a night where my family of 5 squeezed into a room (compliments from cousin emeng ! thanks!). compared to the some of the hotels in macau, its a steal considering that we could comfortably fit all of us into the room - its a suite with 2 queen sized beds.

this time, other than playing at venetian, we went to check out some other casinos - wynn, sands, mgm. and i 'deposited' monies at each of the casino we went. yes, i lost monies.. :( and as a consolation prize, i had to grab some of the water bottles they were giving out to patrons free! surely i am entitlted to a few since i 'donated' some monies :D

And here's a picture of the famous must go place for sightseeing in macau - basically, a ruined wall.

and other than gamble, we had foodies. there's this restuarant which we went for dinner on both nights - its good and cheap food, we like :D cant remember the name, but its not easy to find, lucky my cousins brought us there the last time.
and this place sells delicious pork chop buns! its located near the famous ruined wall

lastly, the place to go if you wanna buy foodies back for family & frens

clay craft

i saw this very pretty book on making clay food crafts at kino few days back. although i dont or havent tried it before, i cant resist not buying it- i shall buy it first and when my mood strikes, i can try it out.

i havent tried using clay so far because clay normally comes in big packs and i cant finish using them all at one go for these minature food crafts. the tot of keeping them, storing them seems too troublesome but i am sure, one of these days, i will try it! in fact, i already bought a few packets of clay few months back, waiting for the right moment.

another bag gone wrong

seems to be losing the bag touch - cant make nice bags anymore?!!

in view of my eagerly anticipated japan trip end september, i wanted to do a pretty sling bag which i can use in japan (a particular fren told me not to buy any bags in singapore as there will be tons of bags to buy in japan). so here's it - made a bag using my favorite fabric prints in russian dolls. it din turn out the way i imagined it to be and its a great dissapointment because i spent lots of time & effort on this quilting it by hand instead of sewing machine. :( guess i will chuck it aside with the "failures" which will eventually end up in the rubbish dump again. sighh...

the front

the back

the inside

i tot the combination of fabrics was lovely though.

innovative idea

saw these pipes in the factory left lying around in the factory, i think.

someone then came up with the bright idea to reuse it but cutting it into nice shapes and turning it into pots for the plants!

cool eh! i like the idea of the recycling and beautifying at no costs :D

my favourite collection

inspired by haw's blog entry on her favorite corner which includes her collection of books, i decided to rearrange my room - book shelf to be specific.

the shelf was originally used for my radio and putting spare change & my various spectacles. now, its for my collection of craft books ranging from quilting to sewing to felt & paper crafts. it used to be stacked up inside the cupboard and it was difficult to find any book. now, there's easier access and i feel so shiok looking at it everytime. i wanna grow my collection - based on my rough count, its about 70+, and i am soooo looking forward to my japan trip to stock up on more!

bag & bag

its now close to 2am and the aircon's down - its weird.. we just got the aircon man to do some mantainence and cleaning work last week and it worked fine for a week and suddenly today, it started leaking... maybe aircon man planned this purposely so that he can come back again to repair and make some more money (my suspicious overactive mind at work).. its too hot in the room ... how to sleep??? :(

anyway, sent my laptop to the doctors last week for treatment and now its back!!! :D so here are the 2 projects which i did recently..

the first one below's a boxy pouch. din quite like the fabric and end results.. threw it away in the end.

and this one's a bag.. and i like it alot (as usual) and i brought it along for my tennis game! here's it sitting prettily at the net.

dinner @ wine connection

reversible bag

did this till 3am last night.. really need to get over this bag crafting addiction soon. the late nights are not good for me. its a reversible bag which turned out bigger than i expected - dun think i will be using this in the near future.

my fab bags!

spent many late nites for the past week doing these 2 pretty bags (from the book that eming sent!) ! and had so much fun doing it!
this ducky bag has a special shape almost like a fan with an oval bottom.

it can even stand on its own without toppling - its quite sturdy!

and this bag's fresh out from the 'oven' - i just completed it an hour ago :D love it as much! but cant decide whether to accessorize it with a flower or to keep it plain so i m posting 2 variations :D

and without flower

and the interior of the bag - with pretty rocking horses prints

i am going to do another new design later tonite! :D

fab book from eming!

my dear cousin sent me this from HK and its my favorite craft book now and i want to try out most of the stuffs inside. its beautiful - most of the books i have features the typical shaped bags but this one has bags in refreshing shapes and sizes! highly recommend this book if you are into crafting bags! thanks eming! :D

tank tops

tried to spruce up the plain tank tops by sewing on some stuffs. kinda like the end results :D but cant seem to take a good picture of them tho.

i love russian dolls bags

wanted to buy a bag with russian doll prints from lesportsac - admittedly, the prints werent pretty at all but i wanted to get it because its russian dolls related. anyway, didnt get it in the end cuz its pretty hideous so i made one for myself! :D

patchwork sling bag

love the way the colors came together nicely for the patchwork portion of the bag. the only glitch was the finishing touches - should have used plain pink fabric on the sides instead of cartoon/flowery prints. now, its a cluttered looking sling bag :( but still pretty nevertheless :D

pyramid pouch

been thinking of doing this for a long time, and finally, got around to doing it! its fun and easy to do ! might do more of these in different prints and colors in the near future :D

bali!

went to bali with friends before going to shanghai and here are some picture highlights

Bubba Gump, a themed restuarant based on Forrest Gump movie. Very yummy, highly recommended!

ms vong doing her mountain song while enjoying coffee @ some plantation

Bali Mother Temple - the biggest temple in Bali, but not worth making the trip just to see this

we went for white water rafting. very fun with no danger factor. its a water theme ride in nature.

wan a pair of nike bali? had to buy these for the rafting

Kuta beach was littered with people who gathered there to watch the pretty sunset

patchwork blanket - balinese style

smouldering shanghai

was in shanghai for the past two weeks and it was hot hot hot there - temperatures went up to 40 degrees. at least that's what 'they' say. anyway, below are some pictures from the trip.

this was taken at some wholesale market that sells curtains, bedsheets, household stuffs, about 1 hr ride from puxi city. i bought a quilt cover there and its amazing - choose the fabric you like, they will sew and it will be ready within 10 minutes. it will probably take me an hour to do it.

the english translations are usually amusing. the picture below's just one of the many i have seen.

this is nanjing buxingjie - a vibrant pedestrian street filled with shops and people. somehow, buxingjies are very popluar all around in china (@ least i have been to a few already) and usually, there's a mini tram to ferry people up and down the long street for a small fee.

my favourite xiaolongbao, especially those filled soley with hairy crab yummies. this place's called JiaJia Tang Bao @ 62 Liyuan Road

these ppl make the best use of what's left. here's what i saw - the lift door opens, a construction works rolls out a cart and empties it on the floor. the people would then rush towards the rubbish and rummage through it for scrap metal or anything remotely valuable exchangeable for money and put into their own carts or boxes - first come first serve. its a sad sight, yet its amazing how ppl make full use of everything they have.

cleaners do not use modern machines, nor nice brooms to sweep the roadsides. they merely gather dried twigs into a bundle to become a broom. another money saving and environmentally friendly idea.

this place needs a revamp

Was at kallang today to support tyre's tennis game. While he was doing his warm up, i went over to KFC to have a drink. To my horror, the facade of the KFC was horrible - the paint was peeling and faded. It was in such stark contrast to clean and new MacDonalds opposite. Anyway, i had a craving for the cheesy fries so despite the unwelcoming entrance, i still chose KFC over MacDonalds.

And regretted - the interior was just as bad as the exterior. There was a horrible smell and the fittings were all old old old. Took a seat and the seats where dirt filled (at the gaps) and there were bits of chicken and crumbs littered on the seats. Also noticed that the staff merely wiped the crumbs off the table, and ignored the seats.

Yucks yucks yucks!

random thoughts on love

i read something someone wrote sometime back. here goes, not in the exact words, but the main idea holds:

you fell in love with him for who he is
yet you wan to change him after getting together
but then, would you still love him after he has changed
for he will be a different person

suitcase full of my shanghai buys

will post some of my shanghai trip pictures next time, but for now, here's the suitcase full of goodies which i brought back from shanghai!

forgotten crafts

spent the past 3 days packing my room. was in the mood to clean up and i came by these.

the first one was a box of paper cranes. i've forgotten why i did all these but i do remembered that i wanted to at least 1000 paper cranes because according to people - make 1000 cranes, make a wish and it will come true!

the second one was pieces of cross-stitches. before i discovered my interest in sewing, i had been doing cross-stitch instead and here are some of them. the thing about cross-stitch is that after finishing a piece, i could only do cushion covers or frame them up, both which i felt were pretty useless.. hahahahaha :D

surprise from tyre!

first thing i saw when i reached home (after a two week stay in shanghai) was this pretty huge box! its from tyre!! guess what's in it?

its my very own Bernina Activa 220 sewing machine! yay! had already ordered it more than a month ago and wanted to buy for it myself but tyre 'conspired' with the salesguy and went to buy/pay for it while i was in shanghai and had it delivered the day before i returned! :D now it sits prettily on my craft table! cant wait to use it!

i have given it a test run just now and it purls like a cat! finally! my very own bernina! :D

my own threads organiser & holder

I had been wanting to buy a threads holder similar to the one in the picture below but couldnt find it anywhere in Singapore and i couldnt bear to fork out US$20 just to buy one on ebay. hence, thought of doing a simple one myself.

Just need some nails, a wooden board (bought from ikea for only S$2) and a hammer!had wanted to paint the nails pink but that would take too long so here it - the end product!

flat tyre!

this is the second time our mini got a flat.

the first time was when i was driving to work on a rainy day and had to abruptly stop by the petro station to seek help in changing the tyre.

this time, it happened while brother was driving home. we tried our hands at changing tyres but the screws broke so we had to call for a tow truck in the end. brother stopped conveniently under a durian tree (Try to spot the fallen durian at the bottom center of the picture). ! :D

and this was the highlight of my first day unemployed!

the dreaded deodarant

deodarant is like a taboo word. to use deodarant = to have body odor.

but recently, ms vong put the use of it in a new light to it. i quote her "to use deodarant is a form of courtesy to others!" it may not read much, but the way she said it sounds good. :D

so, inspired by her form of courtesy, did a little research online on homemade deodarant and here's one of the commonly suggested formulation:

Combine a quarter cup baking soda, a quarter cup cornstarch, and 3 drops of tea tree oil . Mix thoroughly and viola, you have it ready to use! and according to reviews, it can be kept for months.

i'm going to buy the ingedients and make myself a pot of homemade deodarant!