book indulgence

managed to pop by bras basah complex today before my facial to shop for books. headed straight to the corner second hand shop on the first floor next to the library to scour for bargains and here's wat i got

food magazines. they are so delicious looking i cant resist not buying them. only $2 per magazine
books by danielle steel. i love to read them where i was younger and these covers are so vintage looking so i bought them even tho they are yellowed and aged. only $1 each!

little bro gets crafty

we saw a shop in cineleisure selling a wallet for $40 - its made using envelops and scotch tape! we were shocked @ the price, then yifong suggested he try to do one himself just for fun so here's it!

weekend getaway

we went for a weekend getaway at singapore's most prestigious address ('tat's their tagline) - the St. Regis! and it was fabulous! so much i wanna rave about it, but guess, pictures says a thousand words.. here they are...

complementary drinks delivered to the room...they even offered free pressing services upon check-in if you require it.

and the sugar comes in pretty squarish shapes with holes in the middle...

some pictures of the room...

we brought our own snacks and tidbits just in case we get hungry

and we were too cheap to order room service or eat at the restaurant so we bought zi-char and sneaked it into the room.. but it not cheap either.. $50 for these zi-char spread for 2 pax - we over-ordered.

and one of the best part of the stay? unlimited, free use of the indoor AIR-Conditioned tennis court! this is tyre's favorite part of the stay!

they even stock up the tennis court with fresh towels, mineral water bottles, tennis rackets and balls! very totful!

we are so hoping to go back for another weekend stay in the near future but at close to $500 per night, its highly unlikely :I

mini camera

got anothe tech item - a mini digital leica camera which is smaller than my hands. its a handy size but realli basic and pretty user-unfriendly with no flash. guess i will still be using my handy lumix bulky camera for quite some time :D

new toy, new pouch

made a new pouch for my new toy.. guess what's inside?

its my new mini notebook.

its small & light about 1.2kg only, and PRETTY In PINK!! for the past few months, been lugging my big bulky compaq notebook to and fro work every day . with my new project, i finally have an excuse to buy a new one! the big bulky one will be for work and this pretty pinky's for bringing out and using @ home :D

the white one's going for $600 but according to them, the pink one's limited edition and need to pay $25 more... more likely they think i am a sucker so try to pull a fast one over me.. . anyway i ended up paying $625 happily for pink one! :D

blue elephant

this is the first time i attempted a keychain. love the end result.. so cute ! :D may do a few more of these with different fabrics

prototype wallet #1

been wanting to do a fold wallet for my own use for quite some time but never got around to doing it because i was too lazy to do the measurements etc. anyway, finally decided to try it today... horrible end results - got the dimensions wrong - the wallet's too long.

but love the way the coins compartment turned out as its expandable.

showed it to my bro for his comments and he found a novel way of using it - as armband and that him 'modelling' it for me on his arm :P

new bag

pretty shape, pretty size, pretty fabric and pretty good handicraft.. too bad the handle's too short to hang over the arms.

a sign?

7-11's having a promotion. collect 1 stamp with every $5 spent and collect 10 stamps (i think) and redeem a free hello kitty figurine..and ta da!! i have one now and i wonder what's in it...there's no way to know what's inside until you open it...

there's are 8 different figures .. pirate, magician, OL, cowgirl etc... i wonder which one i got?

...... i got THE MAID! bummer.. of all the figurines... i got THE MAID!??!?! hahah its a sign of my life in the year ahead?!!? on the bright side, its really kawaii looking :D

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