my hands are stained a smurf blue

These days, I feel like I'm going on some sort of adventure that I had not bargained for. And before I get old, too old for this sort of thing, I'm glad that I have had the time to live it up a little.

Unexpectedly, I lost my job. Or rather, it was expected, just that I had not expected it to be so abrupt. For weeks, I had already been anticipating the changes, so I can say that I was not unprepared. However, it was still a blow, to lose something that has already become familiar to you.

So on that very next day I found myself booking a one-way ticket for the first time. I knew where he was, and I knew we would not have many days together. I guess we needed each other, we needed to cheer each other up.

Then, without much thought, I did what people have been doing for ages, traveling through places. After Penang we went to KL, and now in Melaka for the week. I'm glad I'm here. Melaka always provides me with a deep, good sleep, perhaps it's the air or else the sun zaps my energy and I don't have burdensome thoughts, just walking around happily here.

It was a blessing to my heart that I found kind people who helped me along the way, to lift my spirits. I persuaded Uncle Clay to teach me pottery for a day; despite my wonderful art degree, I had never known how to manage a pottery wheel and fashion a lump of clay into a usable object. It was tougher than it looks and my hands were trembling from the day's work. I made two small seaturtles in memory of our huge sandcastle seaturtle we made on our last trip - we did not bring cameras to the beach, so this will serve as a longer keepsake.

Then, I kept speaking to different people in Melaka. A secondhand bookshop owner pointed me to a place I could paint. A shoemaker pointed me to a papercutter I could learn from. I went to paint. The guy who owns the art cafe gave me a piece of wood, surfboard length and half the width. He also gave me oil paints, to my delight. A Penang Uncle who painted on canvases, learnt that I wanted to paint, and generously brought a blank canvas for me, the next day. I did not need to pay a single cent for all these and I was humbled and touched. The canvas was quite a big size and in Singapore we would need to pay a 3 digit amount for it. Yet, he just gave it to me, not even wanting my gratitude. So, for the first time in my life, I started oil painting. I really like to be creative, only it's so expensive and ... I guess we do not really have the time to find time to do it. I painted in silence for hours, while people ate their lunches, drank with their friends. And I loved every single minute of it. The oil colors just melted into the canvas, and each day I couldn't wait to get up and continue my masterpiece. I'm using tones of blue, teal blue to smurf blue. Feeling the paint on the canvas, blending and painting the oils, I did this for hours and it is the best feeling in the world, which I discovered by chance, and I'm so thankful, for having these people in my life. My hair is frizzled here, my skin is dry and tanned, but I have such lovely toned legs, and when I look at the paint stains on my hands (oil is hard to wash out), a smurf blue, I think that I am glad to be here on a two-week paid vacation (my company paid me out, it lessens the pain), and having such an adventure.

scrapbooking: Love Theme envelope album

I was so charmed by using brown envelopes to create an accordion album that I decided to do one more! This round a 6 page album! I had in mind a love-theme, vintage mini-photo album for my lady friend's birthday!

For basic steps on how to join the envelopes together, please click here:
http://spiritedly3.blogspot.com/2011/01/scrapbooking-diy-accordion-album-by.html

Also, if you are looking for ideas there is the right hand column (click! click!) of previous scrapbooking projects posts.

Color theme: Pink hues, vintage yellowed print papers, gold glitter, turquoise and green highlights.

Materials: 6 small brown envelopes (the smallest size), laces, glitter ribbon, wooden numbers, thicker alphabets, tag, diamantes, cutouts, rosettes, pearl elements, bubble sticker.

Here are the blank pages without embellishments. First 2: Vintage newsprint and floral paper; Vintage print and math-book print. Vintage is tricky, once you have the 'yellowed' paper theme you have to make sure the rest fits in.

Before embellishments are added.
The front which I decided not to cover up with paper but add cutouts to it. Pasted nice papers on it and used a gold glitter ribbon to 'hold it down, creating the effect that everything's being held together by it.
Took a really long time to decide the layout... here it is almost complete.

The turquoise card can be removed and I've added a 'pocket' of flowers (can put a small note inside) and some jewels thrifted from a past necklace. Seems to just go together so well!

How it looks like completed with embellishments.

I love the shiny gold ribbon! I only bought one yard to test, but so far looks like it will be featured in several projects.

Cut out the flowers from a theme set paper and used glossy elements which reflects in the other photos with artificial light!

Top view, spy the word 'remember'
My sister says this is her favorite page and I also like the clean and sweet feel of it. Again, used glossy elements on the flower petals and glued on diamantes and the tag.

Back view. I only covered the back page with scrap paper.

This time round, I spent a really long time working on this project due to the busyness in Jan-Feb period. You can say I took my own sweet time!

Also wanted to print out the photos, it's printed at Shalom Colorlab at the ground floor of Bras Basah Complex. They have great service and I love the quality and the colors of the printout (waiting time varies on the crowded-ness, anytime from 2 hours to next day collection), my photos were all low-res photos clipped from fb and phone cam, so I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Also happened to have some interesting caption stickers, so wittily sarcastic and hilarious!

Here are the pages with photos.
Hope you enjoyed this step by step scrapbooking an envelope-accordion mini photo album project. I am a really impatient person, so am quite surprised that I can actually sit down and enjoy doing something like this. And I have a high standard for craft too, so usually I'd not attempt it for fear of it looking too rudimentary and lacking spatial design nice-ness. But baby steps, I'm really keen on making this hobby a longer lasting one.

somebunny somebunny somebunny

Here are some cute photos of bunnies.
Somehow bunnies are sooooo adorable. I hope those abandoned ones (silly consumeristic people who just buy them because they are cute and let them go when they become fat...) find a good home...and get rescued in time... fingers crossed!





Random cat. And I would buy this mullberry shirt if not for the pricetag.




Oops, I don't know how those few photos got in here.... Mushroom does like to camwhore...! All bunnies are vain that way!

florals and stripes

I was complaining to MsBestFriend the other day about how clothes prices seem to be shooting up the ceilings... There used to be a time where one could trial-and-error and not try on tops and just go shopping and even forget about the pieces in the wardrobe. Well, not anymore (though I did get a top for $15 - a steal, not discounted) those pieces are rare to come by and being again at Ion Orchard I tried to find a top with a good price, which I liked. I can't wear cheap(er) Made in China/HK clothes given my lanky frame. Sure enough there were nice design tees at uniqlo... but my fave brands were pull and bear, somehow, every season, there's always something for me to buy. I love this season's old-school floral hues of poppy red and navy and black and white, teamed with a yellow cardigan (found at pull and bear, only $29.90) and lovely colors - beige or off khaki playsuits and billowy blouses. A fresh take from the sequin and polyster military look.

There was a new shop that opened - 'stradivarius', along the walkway from Wheelock to Ion. It has really nice clothes, I saw those digital-floral print which looks exactly like watercolor, lovely... it's a cousin of Zara under the Inditex group. Like Bershka and Pull and Bear, of which it seems I have a season's collection in my wardrobe - Pull and Bear does the best, lovely gray, navy, off white colored tops of which I have too many and each time I open my wardrobe I feel like buying something yellow, orange or pink... anyways, Stradivarius seems to have the Pull and Bear vibe (and not the common Zara vibe) with sensible prices, and interesting stuff - I wanted to buy a lace top, a white top with some lace elements... and it has nice stuff which is worth taking a look. The moodboard on top is found at their blog.

Oh yes, I've tried at last the bagels which always tempt me as they hang from the display at Bread society... I am in love (who knew!) with the sundried tomato bagel. Initially bought for Mushroom who loves gourmet bread AND tomatoes more than me, I peeled off a piece to find... a little green olive in it! Not knowing if olives can cause stomachache to a wee bunny, I ate it and... heaven! The taste of olive, spices, sundried tomato in a bagel was bliss... I polished it off as a pre-lunch snack without adding anything to it. Yum... looking forward to my next trip there...

Love the florals on the painter girls. At Stradivarius.
Been looking everywhere for a floral cardigan like that...I also like the shorts, the belt, the hair...





For some love humor in a cartoon, go to www.kartoen.be. I always like how witty it can be in 4 boxes... and they always bring a smile to my face.
My favorite wedding themed blog has moved to www.greenweddingshoes.com . Have I ever said I want a photo like this? With the sunlight gleaming though our side silhouette... a photo that can leave you mesmerised and standing still in time... there are so many nice couple photos there that you can spend oodles of time just looking at them - I also love the table centrepieces that are so unique and different from our local traditions.

I feel that it's always a good investment to save up to get really good photographers to capture moments like this... I'm of course advocating designers and photographers... but I feel that a photo like this... is priceless... something to keep forever.

in love, photos

I love looking at (well-taken) wedding photos, and while I'm not there yet, it's always nice to dream that you are the owner of such fabulous photos. Was browsing through the works of this guy I know and once again, I am loving his works - the old school vibe, the black and whites, the scenery. This couple's was done in Cameron Highlands! And you can see how the mist adds a nice touch. I stared at the one with the bicycle for a long, long time. I would love to have a photo like this, blow it up on canvas and it would just give any room such an entrancing quality.

The other photographs are just so perfect, done by an American (www.jasminestarblog.com).
The whole wedding just looks so, so perfect and the photos are a wonderful way to relieve the day. The couple looks so lovely! I have already restrained myself from posting the whole collection of their photos here (you can view on www.greenweddingshoes.blogspot.com)
I like the last photo of the bride with the groom on an escalator. Quirky, original, yet don't we all take those escalators almost everyday? It's something that you can't help looking at and smiling. Somehow wedding photos have the innate energy and beauty from love to give it an edge, to help you to see that, hey, let's just stop for a moment in our busy lives and admire these photos.

Some very good news, I've got a job. The paranoid me can't believe it until I am actually seated at my desk (I do wonder if it will look boring) so I am saving the news to shout it from the mountains until I probably have settled in for a month and also getting my first month's paycheck. It took a lot of people to help me to move out from a media profile to a corporate career, and I was surprised that they were 'very keen to have me onboard'. So let's see how it all goes, but I think I will be loving this job! Pay is good, location good... and it's the same company where my future MIL works at. How's that!

odds and ends

Remember those teenage days when you put in all that effort to do something homemade for your bestie's birthday or your 'stead'... scrawling on cards and trawling different shops to get interesting materials... Well, this V-day, being on an extremely tight budget, I D-I-Y something for TheBoyfriend... using this... once again, black Ikea frame. I have bought this some time ago with Architect... long time ago actually, but could not find 3 matchy photos to put in, so it has boring land maps currently. Revamped to something nice, I'd post up the photos afterwards... *suspense!

Was in town last week someone blanjah me ayam penyet, so I took the opportunity to walk around town especially the places I seldom go to like... Far East Plaza. Going back there sure brings back memories of those days where we would haunt the little shops and find interesting scrunchies - yes they were in back then, tonnes of cheap slippers, bikinis, baby tees... Lately it's been quite pricey so I stopped going there to shop, but the afternoon brought a pleasant surprise. I actually found cheap chic stuff that were quite nice.

I like peeptoes and bows on shoes and this brown actually suits my skin tone... and the espadrille wedge heel is nice. Super comfy, not a single blister...and no pain on the toe base which most heels would cause me...amazing. And... it's below 20 bucks, cheap huh? Machiam shopping in Bangkok.

Yes I know I have one bag like this... But this is so furry I had to get it. From BYSI, a small version of Chanel-inspired flap. And it's from TheBoyfriend! Yes, I used his shopping vouchers (christmas gifted) so can say this is the first bag he bought for me...

Some branded top but with the label cut off from 'supermarket' at FEP. It's near 'woodwood', a shop with quirky, one of a kind pieces that I like very much. I've been searching for nude tops with black accents, so very this season for forever so imagine my surprise when I found it on the discount rack, and it's in my size. Doesn't look like much here but it's feminine and floaty! The same shop also stocks a Stella McCartney dress in navy or that dusty pink she always uses... LOVE! But it was over my budget so I restrained myself. Plus, I haven't worn all my dresses yet... LOL.

And lastly, the reason why I went to FEP: To get a cheap swimsuit. Since I don't have any decent ones for swimming... only string ones for suntanning which are a bit hazardous to learn swimming in... and I don't want to buy something expensive... or... fugly. Ta-dah! It's called a maillot... and if you ask me whether it's more decent... it's not... muahahaha. Well, unfortunately I can't FIT (too thin) the tankinis, and none of the boutiques actually sells those fugly swimsuits with the skirt or thick shoulder straps... well, I got this maillot. Nice huh? Got discount one. And I have a penchant for polka dots. I think FEP is quite interesting if you can avoid the made-in-china products and the cheap tees. There are a number of boutiques carrying branded or semi branded stuff, also a lot of made in Korea stuff, some good, some stunning. Those on the 2nd floor (actually I only went to the 2nd floor and the ground floor) are quite posh really. Having exhausted the clothes stores in Raffles City and Ion's quite high end, I think I will go back to haunting FEP.