Projects by Jane

This little piggy

2012-02-08T18:19:00.000+08:00

Hello friends,

I was in the mood to make something felty AND piggy. It's been a while since I made any animal brooches.

I cut the shapes without using a paper pattern so it's a little wonky. I figure why make a template when I'm only making one? To make the brooch poufy, I inserted some stuffing.

Bear isn't telling if he likes the pig brooches on his ears. I showed them to me hubs who in his typical fashion said:

Yes, it's nice, but.........
It's a pig!

If you'd like to make your own piggy felt brooch, you can go to my tute here.

♠♠♠

Remember over the weekend I was selling my bags at VivoCity craft market?

This was what I came home with. Yep, I barely sold anything. I shall put it down to lack of interest, bad feng shui and too small a stock. For my next craft market in end March, I will try a lot harder to have better range in my stock.

It wasn't a particularly bad experience for me. Boring, yes but I had a Japanese novel (translated in English) with me and I read the whole book in 2 days. I shan't tell you the title because it is quite erotic. Well, I got it from the public library so don't let your imagination go wild!

The one thing that irritated me tho' was that the space was very cramped. I shared space with another seller who positioned his rack such that it's in the way. So every time he walked past me, his bum would graze my back. Yep, not so great having your back grazed by someone's bum all weekend.

I listed a few of my unsold pouches on Etsy. Go have a look here if you're interested. See ya.

Linked to these parties:
Ninth street notion
The Gunny Sack
Get Outta My Head Please
So Very Creative
Ask Anna
Petite Hermine
Family Ever After
Skip to my lou

Very strong feeling

2012-02-03T16:39:00.001+08:00

Dear friends,

It's February and time for my family to settle down. Jan is usually a tough month because the kids go back to school after a very, very long break. Getting them to break the games habit is the toughest challenge. My kids lack self-control. I have a hard time coming up with strategies to ensure my kids not spend too much time on games. I know I have to look for a win-win where the kids get some game time and at the same time put in enough effort in their studies. Already the tests schedules are out. School term also means waking up at 6am. I cannot say this enough: waking up at 6am sucks.

Do you know drinking tea or coffee doesn't keep you awake when you're sleepy? It only keeps you awake when you're NOT sleepy.

This weekend I have a craft market at Vivocity. It means today I should be packing my stuff instead of blogging! I dislike packing for craft market the most. More than say washing the toilet. That's why I'm procrastinating. I'm in 2 minds about doing craft markets. The problem with craft markets is you never know if your items will sell and make it worth all the effort you put in. Plus you need to produce a table's worth of items. The upside is you get cash and the opportunity to get feedback. I learn a lot about what women want in bags from casual conversation with customers. Okay, I'm really whining because I feel sleepy and I have so many tasks to complete by tonight.

In Singapore we have a drink called ying yang which is just tea and coffee mixed together. I wonder if drinking it will keep me awake?

Tonight there is a $10 million Toto draw for Chinese New Year. I have a very strong feeling I will win.

Yes, I'm just rambling.....

Have you guys used Pilot FriXion pen before? I buy it from stationery shops. My kids complained it doesn't work so well for writing on books. But guess what? They're fantastic on fabric. When I embroider, I usually draw an outline on the fabric using a water soluble pen. The problem is I need to soak in cold water to remove the ink afterwards. For this FriXion, I just press a hot iron over the ink and it DISAPPEARS! I'm told the ink will re-appear in very cold temperature. Well, I tested a piece of fabric with the ink disappeared in the freezer and it didn't re-appear. So I'm guessing it's pretty safe. Anyway, I embroider over the inked line so it's hidden anyway. What a fantastic invention!

This week I had a total of 3 sewing days and I managed to make a few more items to sell.

I made 4 lunchtime pouches. I thought the 3 on the left had interesting colour combo.

I made 4 Get up and go go sling bags. If you're wondering if 4 is some sort of a lucky number, it's nothing to do with that. I just made 4 and then got tired.

I couldn't resist making a skulls and roses sling bag. This one's strictly to scare the ladies.

Occasionally I go into this "sewing frenzy" as I'm sure most people do from time to time. Last night, I felt really tired but my mind was very much on alert. So I made this bag. It's a very simple, functional bag which I've made before maybe in 2009 and earlier but a lot smaller. I did not interface it as I wanted it to have this drapey look. And I'm not saying it just because I'm too lazy to interface. The handle was a bitch to make as usual. I finished the bag this morning and I so want it for myself! I think I will have to make at least 10 more of this design.

Tomorrow at the craft market, we're using a new cashier system. I hope it doesn't fail! Have a happy weekend. See you next week.

p.s. sorry for the crappy photos. the sun died on me.

To die for zip pouches

2012-01-29T15:06:00.000+08:00

Hello friends,

I've been bad. I did not go vegetarian once this week. Yesterday to "punish" myself further, I ate potato chips. I felt guilty thru'out so I believe I'm punished enough. I'm avoiding wearing any of my older(tighter) clothes as I want to defer finding out if I've put on weight. Next week I'm going to be good. I will have at least one vegetarian meal a day instead of making the whole day a vegetarian day. That way I won't feel so deprived. The mind can be so powerfully stubborn.

Next weekend I'll be back at Vivocity to sell my bags. (More details here) A quick glance at my stock tells me I haven't been productive enough. Only one more sewing week left. If you are eagerly awaiting my next ePattern, I'm ashamed to say it's all on paper. Nothing has been transferred to the software yet.

Today I discovered that the bag of 50 pieces of swivel clasps that I bought in December has been used up save for one. I'm amazed I've made so many wristlets in such a short period of time. In December I tried to buy 100 pieces of the swivel clasps but there weren't enough in the shop. Clearly this is a hot item but for some reason, the shop owners just refuse to stock more. Perplexing! So until I make another trip to the shop and I'm hoping they have new stock, I won't be able to make any more wristlets.

Here are a few zip pouches I've completed. The first 3 big ones I don't make often.

Can you tell the tree trunks are felt? What? You couldn't tell they're trees?

This one's aimed at those looking to buy a Valentine's gift.

Back to my favourite theme - flower-flower. And the stems are chain stitches.

I know the handle is a little weird for the butterfly pouch. I wanted to use the baby blue drill remnants. The handle is detachable so it's optional.

I've finally completed all my rabbits zip pouches. I embroidered 3 more. Unfortunately I got so carried away with the embroidery that I forgot to keep an eye on the amount of linen I had. So four of these pouches were in a bit of a fix as I ran out of linen.

For these 3 zip pouches, for the back I pieced remnants together. Good save, I think.

But for this zip pouch, I ran out of options. So I used another linen for the back and tried to "save" it with the fabric tab and handle. Kind of wanted to make it look deliberate and not out of desperation.

After a while, all the rabbit zip pouches start to look the same to me.

I made a "houses" zip pouch too. I think the trees killed it.

Linking to these parties:

Young and crafty
Family Ever After
Petite Hermine
Blue Bird Sews
Ask Anna
So very creative
The gunny sack
Get outta my head please
Ninth street notions
and a few others later on......

Year of the dragon

2012-01-23T21:03:00.000+08:00

Hello,

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon. I wish everyone a Happy Dragon Year. May you have good health, wealth and happiness.

My son drew these dragons for me. I LOVE the first one most. So does he.

It is the custom for my family to visit all our relatives on the first day of Chinese New Year.

This was me today. Yes, I'm holding my stomach in. I managed to squeeze into the monkey tee but I opted for the flannel pants as I don't feel I've lost enough weight. Plus today is not a day to stick to my diet. (and I didn't - meat day all the way!) Can you see the pendant I'm wearing around my neck?

Here's a closer shot. It's an agate stone with a dragon carved on it.

This is Mr Ma. He's from Shanghai and he carved the dragon on the stone in 5 minutes using a tool that looked like a solder iron. How cool is that?

Why all the obsession with dragons apart from it being a dragon year? Ah, you might not know this but I was a dragon baby. Yep, 48 years ago, I was born on this planet.

This is my year.

This morning I woke up feeling very happy and positive because it is the first day of my year. Imagine how shocked I was when I read my mail and saw a nasty comment on my previous post.

I have deleted the comment from the post. But I have screen printed it so you can see for yourself what the commenter wrote.

To be honest, it took me a while to fully understand what the comment meant. Right away I could feel it was meant to be offensive. But I can't say for sure I know why.

Most of you probably don't understand fully what the comment meant. Let me decode the comment for you: "ang moh" started out as a derogatory term for Caucasians. You understand that when this term was coined, it was a very long time ago and it was a different world. Locals do continue to use this term but it has lost its derogatory implications.

This commenter is accusing me of writing my posts in a way to gratify caucasians. And by signing off "by Chinese and proud of it", he/she is implying I'm ashamed of being Chinese.

I don't know who this commenter is but it is obvious this person is from Singapore.

This is my reply to Mr/Miss Anonymous:

♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠

1. What a COWARD.
If you hide behind Anonymous, you are nothing but a coward.

2. What a NERVE.
If you don't find my posts funny, that's cool. If you don't find my posts interesting, that's cool. If you don't think my sewing is cute or pretty or worth looking at, that's cool too. If you think I pander to ang moh's fancy, that's your opinion and you are entitled to your opinion. Just don't tell me. Keep it to yourself. My mother always says: If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing.

3. How RUDE.
This is my blog.
If I pander to Klingon's fancy or whatever, that's my own dem bizness. If you want to write your opinion about anything, write in your own blog and see if anyone gives a hoot.

4. How PRESUMPTUOUS
You don't know me. You don't get me. You have not read enough of my posts to know what I am about.
I pander to nobody but myself, you fool.

5. I have a zero tolerance for troll behaviour. This is not that kind of a blog. You have come to the wrong place. Please never read my blog posts again.

♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠

My dear regular readers,

I am sorry you had to witness this. But since I started blogging in 2007, I have never ever received a single negative comment. And I thank everyone for that. And I'm also appreciative that majority of you use your name when you comment. The only reason I allow readers to comment anonymously is that readers without ids or readers coming to my posts via facebook are unable to comment and that's an option for them. But they leave their names so that's okay.

Well, what an ugly start to a beautiful day. At first I was enraged. You could say the wrath of a dragon was incurred. I summoned the thunder and lightning and it rained all over Singapore today. Haha. No I don't have such powers. At first I was so pissed.

But it is the first day of my year.

Why let a total stranger, a troll at that ruin your day? So I went visiting and enjoyed myself. It turned out to be not such a bad day after all.

I'm making every day count for me. I hope you have a great year ahead. See ya.

One year you're in and the next year.... you're out

2012-01-22T21:44:00.000+08:00

You know what they say in the zodiac world,

One year you're in and the next year.... you're out.

Today is the last day of the Year of the Rabbit. I thought it would amuse me to embroider the rabbit's last day.

This was the first one I did. I used dark brown embroidery thread and I kept the stitches simple - just double stitches, french knots and running stitches. For balloons, I used the old cork and stamp trick I had employed before.

I had so much fun I made a total of 7 pieces. I found that I much prefer the chestnut brown thread for the rabbit.

I really like these rabbits. I may keep them around for a while. No reason why they can't stick around for another year.

I would have made 8 pieces because 8 is a lucky number (for Chinese) but it was time to go for an important dinner at my MIL's. Yes, today, all over Singapore, many families have a reunion lunch or dinner. This is an important custom. Family members come together to have a meal together. Special food is cooked for this meal. One of this dish is yu sheng which is a salad with raw fish. My MIL substitutes raw fish with abalone.

This is my MIL's version of yu sheng.

You're supposed to toss the salad while asking for wishes to be granted. The messier the salad, the better it is. What a strange custom! And afterwards, you're supposed to eat the salad, even the ones that fell on the table.

See you in the Year of the Dragon.

Linked to these parties:
Young and crafty
Family ever after
Ninth Street Notions
So Very Creative
DIY Home Sweet Home
You are talking too much
Get out of my head please
Three Mango Seeds
The Gunny Sack

Things to do and buy

2012-01-20T20:16:00.000+08:00

It's no longer acceptable to mock your own culture. This kid uploaded a video to youtube dissing Chinese New Year and the response from netizens is not pretty.

Last year I would probably have written a post titled "10 reasons why I hate Chinese New Year". But that's the old me. This year I'm a new me. And this new me is opting to be positive particularly on Chinese things. Say hello to the 2012 Jane.

With that in mind, here are the 10 things to do before Chinese New Year.

1. Get new hair

DONE!
Yes, it took 3 hours.
Yes, I look the same.
Yes, I no longer look this NEAT. (this pic was taken one day after the hair styling)
Yes, I now have wake-up-hair. Don't know what that is? Ever looked at yourself in the mirror when you wake up? That's wake-up hair.

2. Get new footwear

DONE!
It's possible I may have bought too many. But the post-Christmas and pre-Chinese New Year sales were too good to miss. The slippers on the left cost $15 each! Every year, I wait patiently for my Ipanema slippers to go on sale. The pair on the right were discounted. Yay!

3. Get new clothes

DONE!
I have 2 red tees. The monkey tee is at least a year old tho'. When it was bought, the manufacturer highly under-estimated my beefiness. If I can't squeeze into it, I have a backup tee which makes me look rather mannish.
For bottoms, I'm torn between a Topshop high waisted (what was I thinking!) pair of jeans which is still tight around the waist and a Aeropostale low waisted flannel pants (buy 1 get 1 free).

4. Spring clean
As good as done. I'm tired.
Every year I find I'm the only person in my home doing the cleaning even tho' I live with 3 other able-bodied human beings. A word of warning....do not open the storeroom. You may never find your way out again.

This year I went a little overboard and decided to fix the embarrassingly torn swivel chair.

I used fabric remnants from my bag to sew a cover. Word of advice: don't look under the chair. I hand sewed the cover together. Not pretty.

5. Buy Mandarin oranges
Sigh. I'm short of 2 oranges.

These 2 Mandarin oranges came home with my son. Unfortunately I need 2 more. I tried buying from the supermarket but the queue was so long that I gave up. There is a shorter queue if you buy a whole crate. But what am I gonna do with an entire crate of Mandarin oranges?

6. Bake cookies
I'm on a diet so it's not happening. Okay, I'm lazy.

7. Buy Chinese New Year goodies
I bought some pumpkin seeds but I already ate them all.

8. Stuff money into red packets

Still on the to-do list.

9. Check out God of Fortune

It is also unacceptable to mock the God of Fortune. Like call his depiction creepy. This version of God of Fortune was on stilts and giving out brochure. Seriously, I'm not going to comment on how tacky that is. All I'm saying is his costume smelled awfully bad.

10. Stop and smell the plastic flowers

The old me would have said: What is it about Chinese New Year that brings out the fake, plastic flowers?

But 2012 Jane says:

Very pretty fake looking flowers with nice lanterns.

2012 Jane: Yay, more pretty fake looking flowers.

~~2012 Jane: My, my, more pretty fake looking something.~~

2011 Jane: China called. They want all plastic fake looking flowers and weird flying saucer lanterns returned immediately.

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

2012-01-19T16:26:00.001+08:00

Do you know why the rabbits are hopping for their lives?

Because a dragon is on their tails!

Enjoy 4 more days of Year of the Rabbit while you can.

Keep sewing and carry on

2012-01-15T17:41:00.000+08:00

Hello friends,

It's midway thru' Jan and I'm sorry to report that my sewing hasn't been productive. Lately for the past one week, I've been plagued with bad sleep and ghosts are chasing me in my dreams. I wake up when I can't outrun them. What's worse is the ghosts FLY. Hopefully I can get better sleep soon so I'll stop getting these daily gripping headaches. I've read that you could die from taking too much paracetamol but when you have a pounding headache, you have no choice.

I updated my Etsy shop today with two items. The first one is my sexy zippy wristlet. I showed you the embroidery in a previous post. The wristlet took longer than expected to construct. It's a little hard to think straight when your head is pounding. This morning I made the handle which I embroidered with feather stitches as well. But instead of french knots, I went with daisy chains.

The flying pigs drawstring pouch I made a while ago. (see this post) Although I put it up for sale at VivoCity, no one bought it. It puzzled me as I sold so many other items. But no point spending time mulling over it. So I thought why not pop it in the shop.

Would you guys do me a favour? Go favourite them at Etsy. (if you have an account) Thank you.

I made a few other sexy zippy wristlets using premium linen cotton, some of the fabric I've used before and a couple are new fabric from my stash. I really love looking at my sexy zippy wristlets. You know what? I've never given myself a sexy zippy wristlet before. It's so sad huh? Time, laziness, lethargy, headaches - these are my enemies.

Echino beige

Yellow Green Pseudo Patchwork

Echino Fuchsia

Yuwa Green Roses

Houses

Echino Hot Chocolate

I have roughly 3 weeks left to make more items for my first craft market date in 2012. It will be on 4th and 5th February at VivoCity. I'll see you in my next post.

Linked to:
Ninth Street Notions
Skip to my lou
Young and crafty
Family ever after
Sew Chatty
Keeping it simple
Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Feeling hungry

2012-01-12T21:21:00.002+08:00

Hello you,

Dieting is hard, let me tell you that. I'm not even really dieting, just eating less, exercising regularly and oh, going vegetarian once a week. Being hungry makes me bargain with myself more and today I talked myself out of jogging.

Today is my first time going vegetarian. I almost fainted from the sheer effort. Last week I decided it was too early to go vegetarian. Or rather, I procrastinated. What's a meat-eater to do? I've never ever chosen not to eat meat. It's insane that's what this is.

Today I resolved to go vegetarian and had a 3-vegetables + 1 egg with rice meal for lunch. I almost died of hunger. I think it's all in the mind because I certainly had a full meal.

Me hubs wanted to show his support and resolved to go vegetarian for dinner with me.

This was my dinner. Brown and white rice, egg (2nd one today), lettuce, plum, white mushrooms, carrots, french beans and grapes. The weird round stump is sweet potato. I absolutely could not go without an egg. The sweet potato was a life saver.

My kids got to eat these grilled pepper chicken plus what I had.

Me hubs caved right after dinner. He had an additional ham sandwich and one chicken wing. His excuse? He had gone jogging before dinner.

I really hope I can keep this up. My plan is to have go vegetarian once a week and gorge on meat the rest of the week. No, I'm kidding. I think it would be sensible to have one meat day, one vegetarian day and fish the rest of the week. That way I won't feel deprived and binge. Sigh. You know the best part? Despite all my efforts, I believe I've gained back the entire 2 kilos I lost at VivoCity.

♥♥♥

How about some juicy news from Singapore? Okay, nothing much happened this week. But on 23rd December last year, there was a flash flood at Orchard Road and once again it flooded the basement of a building.

What made this flooding worse wasn't that it had happened before but the denial by PUB, the agency in charge of flood in Singapore that any flooding had occurred. Yes, they saw the photos like the one above. PUB said it was ponding and not flooding.

That was weeks ago. And I had indeed brainwashed myself into calling flooding ponding. In fact, the word flooding no longer exists in my vocabulary. It's ponding, ponded, pond from now on. And I was okay with it really. Because in my mind a pond is a lake of water.

Well, on Monday, the Minister in charge of ~~flooding~~ ponding said in parliament that PUB should not have used the term ponding. Demmit. I have to re-wire my brain all over again.

♥♥♥

Here's a work-in-progress I've been slaving over. Feather stitches and french knots. I forgot how much time is required for these hand stitching. The french knots took a really long time but I discovered a neat trick to making them. It involved a cushion. I'll show you soon.

These embroidery reminds me of pussy willow. And you know what that means?

Maybe these red curtains will give you an idea. No?

What about the giant flowers?

Yep. Walk into any shopping mall in Singapore and you'll feel like you're walking into a brothel. (not that I know what a brothel is like) That's right. Chinese New Year is coming. In less than 2 weeks. From 23rd to 24th January. I know. Some of you are still recovering from Christmas and New Year. It's okay. You don't have to celebrate it unless you're Chinese or eats Chinese food. I've made a few items for my next craft market in February. I'll show them to you in my next post. See ya.

Me and Abercrombie

2012-01-10T21:41:00.000+08:00

During the 8 days I spent at VivoCity, I did not have the chance to go ~~look~~ gawk at the Abercrombie boys who were on duty half-clothed at the store at Orchard Road.

Of course I have the video but we all know it's not the same. But let's watch it anyway!

Today, me hubs decided it was time we rectified the situation and DRAGGED me to the Abercrombie and Fitch store in town. As we entered the shop, I almost choked on my embarrassment as there really was one half-clothed gentleman standing by the entrance. My attention was on him and my own embarrassment that I did not hear the female greeter asking if I would like to take a pic with the half-clothed guy. Well, she did speak to my deaf ear. But me hubs has 2 good ears and heard what the lady said. Later he mentioned it to me and I immediately decided it would be a great idea. Plus it was FREE.

Before we get to the exciting part, let me describe to you what the shop looks like. It was like I had entered a brothel. (not that I know what a brothel looks like) It was very dimly lit and you could hardly see the clothing and accessories. The carpet was very thick and soft and I really felt like I could fall down any moment. All very plush.

Has anyone gone to a Abercrombie and Fitch store in your country? Is it the same as Singapore - all dimly lit?

I managed to check out some nice pants but they were really expensive so I think I'll wait for the "buy 1 get 1" sale like at Aeropostale. After determining that we could not afford any of the outfits until the "buy 1 get 1" sale comes along, we decided to go get me a pic with my guy. But I was too shy so me hubs said he would pose with me.

At the entrance, I strode up to my guy who's very nice and friendly and very bare-bodied. He even put his arm around me! Yes, I was in heaven for a few seconds. Also, he's super tall and I could only see his super bare chest. (I was the right height!)

Here's the polaroid. If you're wondering what happened to me hubs, yes, the bastard chickened out.

But me hubs took a photo of me and Mr Abs with our camera. Okay, before you guys laugh your dentures off, let me just qualify. In the first photo, Mr Hunk put his arms around me. So, in the second photo, I thought that was the protocol and I leaned ever so slightly towards him and put my hands very lightly on his (gasp!) bare waist. Absolutely awkward but look how happy I was! And he looked happy too, didn't he? Oh, and his name is Hardy. And isn't me hubs the best hubs ever? I can't imagine myself doing the same for him for a sexy woman wearing bikinis.

♥♥♥

I'm suddenly remembering that this is a bag blog so let's all come down to earth. I wanted to explore fotofuze.com as it is a photo enhancer which can be linked to Etsy. What I like about it is it makes the background super white and your item really stands out. But it's a little slow for me.

It's been a super long time since I listed a ready-made item on Etsy. This sexy zippy wristlet was made today. If my wall was white, I think the photo would have turned out better. If you're interested in this wristlet, go have a look at my Etsy shop.

See ya.

Today I made a slouchy bag

2012-01-06T20:56:00.000+08:00

Hello internet people,

Peace in.

Are we ready for what's what in Singapore? Firstly, remember how I bitched about the trains not running like they should a few weeks ago? The CEO of SMRT (the trains) resigned today. However, she did not resign because she screwed up. She resigned to "pursue personal interests". She did not disclose what interests these might be. I wonder if it is sewing related.

Some months back I mentioned that the government assembled a Ministerial Salary Review Committee. This is in response to Singaporeans' vocal unhappiness with the ministers being overpaid. Well the review report came out and yes, there is some reduction in the recommended salary. But guess what? Despite a cut from $3 million to $2.2 million per year, the prime minister will still remain the world's highest paid leader. Ministers' salary start from $1.1 million a year. The President gets the worst pay cut from $3.17 million to $1.54 million. However, I would not worry about him as he is already wealthy.

Whether anyone thinks the salaries are still too high, the fact is it is a step forward for Singapore. Any cut should be applauded. This could not have happened before the invention of fb. I think fb deserves a prize.

photo credit: wiki

How about giving fb a handmade merlion? Which I can't make as merlion is copyrighted.

♥♥♥

This month the craft market at VivoCity is taking a break. I will have to work very hard to increase my stock. I don't like it when I don't have enough stock. It is a painful process. I have to try my best to make it interesting for myself.

These few days I started work on a new design. Usually I make a prototype using paper mostly to check out the sizing and work out placing. But for this new design, it is not possible to use paper because it is a very drapey bag. The way the fabric flows is the main design feature so I need to see it on fabric. I had this 1 metre of Ikea fabric which I had been "saving" mainly because after it was washed, the colour bled a little. So "saving" may not be the right intention. I wanted to "kill" the fabric because once the colour bled, I could not use it to make a bag for sale. I've been told adding vinegar to water before washing will prevent bleeding? Is this true? I don't have vinegar. Does anyone have any other recommendations? I've tried salt in warm water. I couldn't tell if it worked though. I mean, it didn't bleed but then again, maybe it wouldn't have bled in the first place. Sigh. My life is so complicated.

See what I mean about the draping? This is my new every day bag. I used magnetic snaps for closure because I prefer it. If I were to make it for sale, I would add a recessed zipper because most women prefer zippers. The size of this bag is huge. It's perfect for me. I carry a lot of stuff with me when I go out. A large thick jacket/sweater, a scarf, pouches, an umbrella, medication and I don't know what else. Please don't look in my bag. You'll faint.

This bag has a gusset. Which means construction time is lengthened. I could go with two rings or make it a one-ring wonder. As for the handle, this length is customised for me but I could easily go with adjustable length. This bag got me a little excited and I'm going through my fabric stash to see which fabric is suitable for this design. The only thing I'm still on the fence - whether to interface or not. For this bag, I skipped interfacing as I was concerned about the effect on the draping.

That's all I have to share.

Peace out.

Tools of the trade

2012-01-03T23:51:00.002+08:00

Hi ladies and that one gent,

Last year I used many tools when I blog and usually they're free ones found on the web. I wanted to share some of these with you today. Those of you who are bloggers might be keen to listen.........

For photo editing there are two online services I use:

Picnik and Photoshop Express

What's great about picnik and photoshop express is they're easy to use so you don't need someone to teach you. The quality produced is pretty good. If you've never used these services, just play around with both and see which you prefer. Photoshop express tends to be slow with the upload and download. Otherwise I really like the picture quality. When I want my photos to be perfect, I use both photoshop express and picnik. Both services are FREE for the basic features.

See this simple collage of my flower-flower denim zip pouches? It was created using Picnik. There are a few variations in the photo arrangement of the 4-photos collage. If you want to create collages using more than 4 photos, they are available for a fee.

This mosaic above was created using a mosaic maker. Again FREE. It can support up to 36 photos. A few looks are available. I like it best with the square formation. Go here to make your own mosaic.

Mosaic maker is just one out of many other cool things you can do with your photos. To see the other options, go to Big Huge Labs.

The last newest thing I learnt was to number my comments beyond 200. I don't mean I figured it out on my own. I'm not good with html. But I followed this blogger's instructions and managed not to screw it up. If you don't hold giveaways, there is really no need to number your comments. Plus if your hand trembles when you look at html, best to leave things be. Otherwise, go here for the tute. Remember to back up your template!

Nite nite.

I wish........

2012-01-01T14:41:00.001+08:00

Hello 2012,

Have you arrived in 2012 yet? I hope you're safe and sound. My family ushered in the New Year with a session of mahjong. I won. We don't play with money, just points. How did you usher in the New Year?

It's been pretty normal around here. Trains are running smoothly. It looks like it's gonna rain. I've lazed around since I woke up. It feels like 2011.

2011 was a good and bad year for me. 2 deaths in the family. Didn't see that coming. I still think of my neph and BIL from time to time. The first half of 2011, I felt like it was going to be my last year selling my bags. The lacklustre sales and ever-rising rental made me want to call it quits. The second half of 2011, things changed. I made more, I sold more and I ventured out to unknown territory to sell. And I launched my ePatterns for sale. I made a resolution to make the ePatterns happen and it did. 2 years later. It's never too late, my friends!

I'm not one to make resolutions and not keep them. I know I have willpower and the motivation. I have two resolutions for 2012.

1. Make 12 ePatterns.
2. Lose enough weight to fit into my thinner self jeans.

I've gained a lot of weight since I took and stopped taking "happy pills" for my myofascial pain. I've always been slim so it took me by surprise. Yet I've not been able to lose the extra flab. I'm blaming it on lack of exercise, poor eating habits and aging.

My gynae recommended that I read this book, Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman.

I finally bought the book and I'll see if it helps me change my eating habits. My gynae lost a bunch of weight after reading this book. He said it changed his life and his lifestyle. And you understand my gynae is a REAL DOCTOR so if he says it's a good book, then I believe him. Plus he looked 10 years younger after his weight loss! I want.

One of the things I want to change in 2012 is to cook more. A big contribution to my weight gain is eating take-away. You have no control over the amount of oil used. And my kids love fast-food and since I eat what my kids eat, that's a big factor too.

One of the big reasons why I don't cook so much apart from laziness is my cooking tastes sucky. I don't love the food I cook. I'm a bad cook. This year, I'll learn if I have to from recipes. And when I say I'll cook, I do mean I'll really cook. Not just the usual grilling of chicken. I mean with a wok and spatula and ginger and onions and shallots. And actual boiling of vegetables.

My kids and I do not like salad but in 2011, we ate so much salad because mom is too lazy to boil vegetables.

2012, a completely new me.

To be honest, what really prompted this motivation to lose some weight started at VivoCity during my 8 days stint.

On Day 1 which is set-up day, I was busy doing the display and running about a lot when I realised my jeans were running away from me. When I sat down, my kids yelled out that my butt was exposed. I felt behind me and sure enough, my jeans were really loose. Had I lost so much weight? Sure I had been busy sewing but sewing never led to weight loss in the past. Still, my hipster jeans were barely hanging onto my hips and that had never happened for a very long time. In fact, sometimes I struggle to get into them.

It must be the sewing then. As I congratulated myself on my new svelte body while sinking my teeth into 4 chocolate laden cookies, it occurred to me I could be wearing this faulty Giordano jeans which I had bought years ago. After one wash, the backside opened up like a valley and it never fitted me after. I went to the restroom to check and sure enough, I had worn the faulty Giordano jeans. Demmit! And I had already congratulated myself with the 4 chocolate laden cookies. I must stop dressing in the dark.

On Day 8, as I was running around (I forget why), I felt my jeans running away from me again. Demmit! Why do I keep dressing in the dark? Later when I was in the restroom, I saw that I was wearing my Denizen jeans. Wait a minute. My Denizen jeans are my FAT JEANS. Which can only mean one thing. I had indeed lost weight. During the 8 days at VivoCity, I was so busy that I only ate 2 meals and snacked on fruits. Just to be sure my FAT JEANS were too big for me, I ran around and it was the biggest thrill for me when I felt cold air hit my backside.

It was only a mere 2kg loss and by now I've gained back most of it. But it really motivated me and I even ended 2011 with 6 jogs round the park. Sure, half way through I wanted to stab myself in the face. Why is jogging so hard?

Just out of curiosity. Why did I lose fats around my hips? Why not the tummy or thighs or arms? Why the hips? I already have the hips of a 14 year old. My gynae says my hips never widened despite having 2 kids. He said women would kill to have my hips. Okay, I imagined he said the last bit.

2010 was the year I sewed without inhibition. I made a wide variety of bags and focused on embellishments. 2011 was the year I focused on specific designs. From a creative point of view, not very fulfilling.

This elephant pouch I made a long time ago, makes me want to cry. For every 10 pouches I make, I can only afford the time to make 1 applique/patchwork/embroidered pouch. This is the reality for me. Time is a luxury for me. Plus the 9 fabric pouches help pay the rent.

In 2012, for my sewing self, I want these:

♥ More applique
♥ More embroidery
♥ More patchwork
♥ More needlebooks
♥ More big bags
♥ More flower-flower pouches
♥ More fabric remnants bags
♥ More heart with wings bags
♥ More stamping
♥ More adventurous play with fabric
♥ More me :)

In addition, I want to tackle new things like:
♥ brooches
♥ blocks
♥ androgynous accessories

I shall sleep less. It can be done. Hope your 2012 opens up new possibilities and enjoyment of old favorites. Happy New Year. 2012 is gonna be great.

p.s. no use begging. every pouch/bag you see in this post has been sold.

Post-mortem of 8 days at VivoCity

2011-12-29T23:13:00.001+08:00

A big hello to the 61 people who read my last post.

Me hubs ~~bitched~~ grumbled that I did not write my VivoCity post-mortem. So here it is. In detail.

My table display on Day 1. In the beginning, I had more items than I could display. It takes every ounce of discipline not to display everything I own on the counter.

You know how sometimes what works in one market may not work in another? I had used this Ikea display hanger to display my pouches before and it worked plenty. It is also a space saver. But at VivoCity, it bombed big time. I did not sell a single pouch when they were displayed on the hanger.

Then I shifted them to the counter and they started selling.

The craft market was spread over 3 areas. Mine was in the main area where the cashier is. My counter kinda faces Denizen on the left and Winter Time on the right. So if I look to my left, I want to buy tees and jeans. If I look to the right, I think of Korea. (it's the coldest country I've been to in my entire life)

I forgot to count the number of sellers but it was not too cramped. I was really grateful for that. My counter faced these two counters. The first one had two ancients selling model planes and aviation books. (they wrote the book) You're probably thinking who would buy aviation books at a craft market. Well, from my observation, they had pretty good sales. I'm shocked. Maybe they are aviation celebrities? The second counter was manned by another ancient with her daughter. They sell jewellery. The elder lady is pretty feisty. Do not mess with her. In the beginning the old lady just scowled at me. I have no idea what I did but as the days passed, she started smiling at me and occasionally gave me an approving nod. Gosh, I felt like a young girl visiting my grandma all over again.

I made the most sales on the first 3 days. Okay, I confess. 3/4 of my stock was wiped out in those 3 days. I think my sales only started taking off in the late afternoon on Saturday 17th December. So for a few hours, I was worried sick wondering, where's the crowd, where's the crowd. Once the crowd came, there was not a moment to run to the restroom or have a meal. I had to strategise and "saving my pee" was my solution. I also ate during the off-peak hours.

Although I had my 2 elves to help out occasionally, there were long periods when I manned the counter alone. My kids turned into mall kids. They spent money like they owned the mall. My girl surprised me with her ability to navigate the mall. I'm only familiar with a small section of the mall and once I got so lost after going to buy food I almost gave up and went home. VivoCity is a huge place. The signage is pretty bad too. People asked me for direction all day. I usually ask someone else to help them. Later I decided to find out where the popular shops are so I could give directions. People who approach me for directions - they're usually on the verge of tears after wandering around in circles. Oh, wait. That was me.

I was shocked that sales were good on Day 3 which was a Monday. But really, it was no surprise. You see, when I showed up in the morning, there were 2 long queues next to my counter. See these people had come to redeem their receipts for a stuffed bear or a ipod nano. I think to get the ipod nano, you need to have spent $5,200. We really benefited from these redeemers.

I had average sales for the next 5 days. My stock had dwindled so much that I was worried that it would not hold the interest of any customers.

So I made more. How did I do it? I think I have superhuman will power. Twice me hubs and kids manned the counter in the evening and I went home. Once to sew and once to sleep.

Believe me. All I wanted to do was sleep. It was exhausting. It was so exhausting that sometimes I would black out for a very short while. I don't mean become unconscious. It was more like time stood still and everything became slow motion. During that few seconds, my brain took a tiny teeny nap and then I awaken again to attend to the customers.

You know how when I make my pouches, I would handsew the gaps last? This I did while at the counter and once a customer spotted a pouch I was working on and bought it on the spot. They actually waited for me to sew up the gap. It was nerve wrecking. And I forgot to take pics of the pouch.

But I did take pics of this houses zip pouch which was sewn at the counter and the sewing machine portion was done at home. It was sold within an hour of putting it on the counter.

I don't want you to get the idea that my bags and pouches were that popular. It was just that shoppers were looking to buy presents and maybe they were desperate. But I felt so happy. I felt like I owned VivoCity.

Remember my upside down bag? I wanted to be sure customers understood what they were getting and informed each interested party about the fabric placement. I was really embarrassed to sell it and feared the customer's reaction. I madly imagined them screaming at me:

Are you crazy? You want me to buy an upside down bag?

On the other hand, I was also very interested to see who this fearless lady would be.

Meet Agnes. (forgive me if I got your name wrong! the chaos, the exhaustion, the black outs...) She is the fearless one and the coolest chick in VivoCity!. She had no qualms carrying an upside down bag and gamely posed for pics too. Plus, she bought a zip pouch which I had secretly been wondering who it would go to.

Yes, my heart with wings zip pouch. I have a thing for heart with wings but I rarely make them as it is hard to sell them. Only a tiny number of women would go for them. Yep, my heart almost burst into song (Abba's mama mia) when Agnes bought it too. Cool.

This was the last bag I sold. It was also a bag that gave me a lot of fun. Take a good look at it. Do you see the skulls? This bag got a lot of attention especially towards the end when I had hardly anything left.

Okay, I'm going to be boastful and say that after 2.5 years of selling since April 2009, I'm a pretty good judge of who would buy the niche bags such as skulls and roses. And I'm basing this simply on the way the customer dresses herself.

Most of the women who came to grope the bag DID NOT see the skulls. They would come very close and admire the roses and wait for it... sure enough, they would jump out of their skin and scream. At first I was a little concerned. I mean, who wants her bag to scare people? But as the days dragged, it became my amusement.

Yes, I'm so evil. Oh, come on. 8 very long days and 12/13 hours daily not including commute time.

Sometimes I would laugh so hard I had to crouch down to hide my face. But I was human too. Once an elderly woman went for the bag and I quickly took it away. I did not want to be responsible for a death.

Speaking of which, on one of the days, a security/police guard shot himself in the head in a toilet on the same floor that I was. I guess Bedok Reservoir was too far. Yep, evil again. I did not hear the shot and we only learnt about it through facebook.

Later alligator.

The train! The train!

2011-12-28T18:46:00.000+08:00

In Singapore, you're screwed if the trains break down.

Oh, how rude of me.... A big hello to the 78 people who read my last post.

Now, where was I? Yes, public transportation in Singapore. It is very expensive to own a car in tiny Singapore so public transportation is very important as most people depend on it. To be honest, I've gotten so used to the public transportation running so smoothly for years that the idea of it not running smoothly is beyond my imagination.

On 15th December when many train stations were shut down after a major screw-up, I started to get worried. On 16th December where 4 trains failed again, I got really nervous. See, I needed the trains to be working between 17th December to 24th December for me to get to VivoCity. Not only that, I needed 3 different train lines to work.

17th December was alright for me. I took a taxi. On 18th December, after spending 13 hours at VivoCity the previous night attending to a massive crowd, I forced myself out of bed and left for the train station to VivoCity.

This was what greeted me. The station was shuttered!!! Man, I was soooo pissed. Every bad word I had learnt from the time I was born came to my head.

I went to check the signage and saw that the trains were planned to run only from 10am. Usually it starts I dunno, 6am? But it was 10am. Then I saw that 10am was crossed out and replaced with 11am. Ah.

I was directed to take a shuttle bus to the nearest bus interchange. I walked to the bus stop and it was the most horrific sight. There were people everywhere. I immediately tried to call for a taxi. Haha. I guess everyone else was doing the same thing. I could not even get a tone. The call just got dropped. I silently hated Singtel. But I kept trying.

Eventually, I gave up and queued up for a shuttle bus. Everyone in the queue wasn't really sure if we were in the right queue. It was really annoying. Somehow I was swept along and got into a bus. When it reached a bus interchange (which had another massive crowd of people), I went to check the bus info and was delighted there was a direct bus to VivoCity. I confirmed with a few people just to be sure.

When my direct bus to VivoCity came, I told the driver my destination and if I was on the right bus. He said yes but I had to alight "outside" as he did not enter VivoCity. No problem. I sat down next to a woman and I immediately asked her if she was familiar with the route. I wanted to be sure I did not miss my stop. The woman became concerned when she learnt I was heading for VivoCity. She was very sure the bus would not stop at VivoCity as it was an express bus.

I don't know what kind of express bus it was, but it was very slow. After 30 minutes, the driver stopped at a bus-stop and yelled and gestured at me to alight. I got off the bus. It was raining heavily and I looked around to orientate myself. To my horror, I realised I was opposite IMM building which is in the west. I had travelled for 30 minutes from north-west to west and nowhere near VivoCity which is in the south. The rain started to pelt down heavily - like man-size fist kind of rain drops. I had no umbrella and I felt like bursting into tears. I started calling for a taxi when I saw a green light approaching. I waved at it and the taxi stopped! How rare is that?

The taxi was a limousine so it was very comfortable. The driver made the mistake of asking me if the trains were running and I poured out all my transportation problems to him. Everything from start to end in detail. The poor guy. I think he was just expecting a yes or no.

Hi Honey, I'm home!

2011-12-25T15:53:00.001+08:00

Hello friends,

I've been away. Yes, I miss me too. See, I moved into a mall - VivoCity for 8 days to sell my bags and stuff. Yesterday was the last day.

I often read fb/twitter/blog updates of how this person or that person "had a blast". And I may possibly have claimed to have "had a blast" in the past. But my friends, I never really knew what "had a blast" meant till 8 days @VivoCity. For the first time since I started selling in 2009, I can truly say:

I had a blast!

I had such a blast that......
♫ I blacked out a few times. (no worries, it was just for a few nanoseconds)
♫ I went totally deaf a few times. (no worries, it was just for a few nanoseconds)
♫ I lost 2kg!!!
♫ Once I was walking and suddenly I forgot if I was going to VivoCity or going home (it turned out i was just heading for the restroom)

Every fantasy I've ever had as a seller came true. You know the one where your stock flies off the table? And you fear you don't have enough stock? And you try your best to make more and the minute you place it on the table for sale it gets sold immediately? And so you make more and bam! bam! bam! they all get sold?

Yep. All that happened. It was beautiful. It was magical. I will never forget it. I'll always have 8days @VivoCity!

This is what's left of my stock.

I wish all my readers:

♥♥♥ Happy Holidays.♥♥♥

I'll write my post-mortems in a while. Ta ta for now.

The winner of my awesome fabric/pattern giveaway

2011-12-18T00:37:00.002+08:00

Hello dear friends,

It's Sunday in Singapore. I've just returned from a very successful Saturday craft market at VivoCity. It ended at 11pm. It took another half hour to get a taxi.....

Alright, alright, I know you want to know who the winner of my awesome fabric/pattern giveaway is.

A total of 415 entries were received. Thank you all. Most of you were game enough and looked out your window for me. It was awesome reading what you saw. Some strange and some very interesting views. I enjoyed every single entry.

And Mr Random.Org chose....

Lucky number 132.

This was 132's entry.

Are you Mary? Congrats. And sorry about your sick tree. I've emailed you. If you don't respond by Tuesday 20th Dec 8am Singapore time, I'll have to generate another number.

See you guys soon. Another 7 more days of VivoCity to go.

All I want for the next 8 days....

2011-12-16T16:53:00.000+08:00

Dear Santa,

All I want for the next 8 days at VivoCity Craft Market:

♥ I don't fall sick.
♥ Good sales.
♥ No run-in with any crazy bitches.

p.s. if it's not too much trouble, get the Abercrombie & Fitch boys to visit VivoCity (level one, facing Denizen) anytime from 11am to 10pm (Saturday 17th to next Saturday 24th)

Done salivating?

This week's been hectic. I made it a point to do the price tagging, packing, finishing mid-week. And I got the kids to help. Yes, nerves were frayed (mostly mine) as always when I get the kids involved. But I was dead tired. So glad I have 2 kids. Today is Friday and I'm relaxed as there's no need to rush like usual.

Speaking of frayed nerves, in Singapore yesterday, the MRT (like subway) suffered a major breakdown. Passengers had to be evacuated (walk thru' dark tunnels), windows were smashed by over-anxious passengers to let in AIR and thousands had to find alternative ways to go home. My kids and hubs were on the train when they heard the announcement that the trains are delayed. I think they got lucky they managed to get the last few running trains. During those moments when they were wondering what was going on, I went to twitter to see what's happening but it was just confusion and questions. That is always the biggest problem. Lack of timely information. When the train reached the stop where we live, me hubs said the carriage sounded like it was breaking apart. I'm just glad everyone got home safe and sound. I hope the transport minister will fix our "world-class" transport system soon. Either that or strike out "world-class". Btw, the breakdown was caused by failure in the 3rd rail. Never heard of the 3rd rail? Neither have I. It's the rail that supplies electricity to the trains.

I have a few bags to show you. First, 3 crossbody bags. I made the straps adjustable.

Houses anyone?

More houses?

I've used the ricco-ricco fabric before. And yes, I've a thing for houses.

This cross-body bag is in linen-cotton.

Ricco-ricco houses in its magnificence.

Okay, some people like the beige/brown/minimalist look.

And some odds and ends.

The next 8 days are going to be gruelling. I have to be at VivoCity for 12hours every day. If it doesn't kill me, it will make me stronger. See you on Sunday when I announce the winner of my awesome fabric/pattern giveaway. Have you entered?

Enter my awesome fabric/patterns giveaway

2011-12-12T16:29:00.001+08:00

Giveaway is closed. The winner is Mary. See this post.

Helloooo!

Today is December 12, and Sew Mama Sew is organizing a Giveaway day. Click here if you want the list of other blogs which are participating. (it starts 6am PST Dec 12)

What I have up for grabs are:
☺ 1 yard of my favourite fabric by Kokka
☺ a bunch of Japanese FQ
☺ 4 of my PDF bag sewing patterns

Winner takes all.

An aerial view of the fabric.

View from the front.

One more look from the top.

These are my 4 PDF bag sewing patterns. Um...you understand you have to make the bags yourself? And if you win, you need not use the fabric you've won to make these bags. So no worries!

Love what you see?

Here's how:
♥ Leave a comment. 1 comment per person, please. If you can't think of what to write, look out your window and tell me what you see! Duplicates will be deleted.
♥ If your email is not tied to your profile, please leave your email address in your comment.
♥ Open worldwide. (You must have a valid shipping address - no P.O. boxes please.)
♥ Ends December 16 5pm PST
♥ One winner will be decided by Mr Random.Org and announced on December 18, Sunday.

Come to my boudoir

2011-12-09T22:08:00.001+08:00

You know the romance has gone out of your marriage when you leave a note for your hubs which says:

Come to my boudoir and I will make you very happy.

Hubs comes home from work late at night, reads the note and IMMEDIATELY guesses correctly that the Black Friday items he had ordered has arrived and they are on the bed.

As it turned out, the packages were items he had ordered for me so he was totally crushed.

Yes, life in this household is ever so exciting....

Ever since I casually mentioned to hubs that I might accessorize myself in something Christmasy when I sell at VivoCity next weekend (for 8 days), hubs has gone nuts trying to find something for me. He totally loves shopping so it's almost like my gift to him.

I don't know how long he hunted but he managed to find this very light scarf at a shop in Singapore. I like it. It's really soft.

Would you believe hubs bought this Handmade scarf from a folksy shop? Yes, I couldn't believe it myself too. It's so cute. I think I will rock this scarf.

The santa's hat is for my girl. She has been practising looking emo in it. I think we're all set for Christmas. Oh, oh, if I can get the twirly sparkly thingy, I will hang them on my counter too.

Today I decided to take a short break from sewing as I feel my muscle ache creeping up. I've been really sewing my head off and it's getting a bit tiring. Let me show you what I've made. It's all stripes and checks. If stripes and checks don't sell, I'm dead.

The return of the poufy pouch. I tried to stay away. I did. But I couldn't help myself.

Zip pouches to pay the rent.

I'm starting to like these gift pouches.

I thought some sexy zippy wristlets in checks and stripes won't hurt.

And lunchtime pouches in these stripes and checks are so sweet! Love, love them. But man, I'm really tired. Time to zzzzzzzz.

Come back Monday for my awesome fabric/pattern giveaway, you hear? Have a fab weekend.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this fab fabric?

2011-12-07T14:39:00.001+08:00

The minute I saw this piece of fabric I knew I had a winner. It's a Alexander Henry anime print of a dragon princess. Pretty cartoon girl, with black and gold orange/red. Plus Chinese characters. (or maybe Japanese characters?) All the right elements.

I was so wrong. I have made a total of 4 items from this fabric and I've only sold a grand total of ONE. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this fabric? It's my money losing fabric. My worst performing fabric. My white elephant. I have the desire to make the rest of it into scarves.

This "Get up and go go" sling bag I gifted to myself. I use it at craft markets. And I've received many "where did you get this"?

And I have another similar bag for sale but no one would buy it. They would get attracted to the fabric but buy it? No. Customers have told me the fabric is too childish for a woman and not suitable for a kid. Me hubs has told me the similar bag I gifted to myself is too kiddy for me.

I'm finally sewing like a maniac. I have a total of 5 "Get Up And Go Go" sling bags. I hope I've chosen winning fabric this time around. Btw, heads up. My photos are all shaky today. I was just in time to catch the dying sun and it was thundering and lightning like crazy. And lightning makes me nervous even though I'm in my balcony. Still I don't want to take chances. Getting killed by lightning in Singapore is a very real risk.

Usually I do not sell the bags which I use for my ePatterns. My plan is to house them in a small glass cabinet and stare at them in my retirement. But I have a lot of the pseudo patchwork fabric so I made one more. Incidentally, this is a winning fabric. :)

This fabric called out to me for its colour. Yellow-green. I feel faint when I see yellow-green fabric. Another two colours that take my breath away are teal and turquoise.

Stripes always work for other bags but this is the first time I've made a "Get Up And Go Go" sling bag with this fabric. Sometimes you just can't tell.

Mama mia. This checked fabric really rocks this sling bag. If no one buys it, I'll gift it to myself. Ah yes, the occupational hazard of a bag-maker.

I thought the linen-cotton would look so good on this bag. Am I right? I've just received this fabric so it's still too early to tell if customers will like this fabric. You know, I've been wrong so many times before. But my bet is this is going to be a small winner. Let's face it. Linen-cotton is very niche. You know, once the Christmas craft markets are over, I'm going to make myself a large linen-cotton bag. Man, I wish I make clothes as well.

♥♥♥

Oh, hey. Thanks guys for all your suggestions about what to do with my upside-down bag. Your ideas are all nutty so I totally LOVE them.

♥♥♥

Remember me hubs had 2 out of 3 moles surgically removed? Here's a photo of his new look. Yep, he exchanged his moles for scars. Also, interestingly, since he removed his first mole, he has had a serious bout of hives, tripped and fallen badly while crossing the road and discovered a lump at the back of his head. I hope nothing else serious happens.

Lastly, I'm having a fabric giveaway on Monday!!!!!!!!! See you in a couple of days. 10 sewing days left till my craft market at VivoCity.

I'm crying on the outside and crying on the inside

2011-12-05T15:47:00.001+08:00

Dear family, friends and people I've never met,

How are you? Yes, Monday, the beginning of a new week. A fresh start. Not for me. Do you know what it's like to sit in a pile of poo? Me neither. But close.

I had been struggling to get into the sewing groove and finally I got on a roll. I made a bag other than a zip pouch and drawstringy thing. An actual bag with zippers and handles and pockets. Here it is.

See anything wrong with it?

Now look at the back. Yep, I did the stupidest thing. I cut the fabric upside down for the front. So my cats and houses and ferris-wheels are upside-down. For some reason, I thought the fabric is non-directional. Sidebar: isn't the fabric gorgeous? It's yellow-green which is my weakness. Don't show me any yellow-green fabric because I will buy a bolt of it. The houses are the bonus. It's also a linen-cotton blend. Clearly a winner.

I slaved over this bag. See the front zip pocket? These pockets are a bitch to make. It had an inside patched pocket too. And I experimented. I used bindings to hide the raw edges inside and it worked. I used tiny pleats at the bottom to create some playfulness. Oh god, I want to kick myself in the face.

My plan is to sell it at Vivocity at a big discount with a buyer's beware note. Hope it works. Because I can't look at it anymore.

When my heaving and sobbing finally subsided, (a bag of chips did the trick) I made another crescent bag to make myself feel better. This time I wanted to be 100% sure the fabric is non-directional. I made sure by actually looking at the fabric.

Isn't it gorgeous? It's made of linen-cotton - what else? The print is something abstract by a Japanese artist. The texture of the fabric is rough - but a good kind of rough. You know, luxurious rough.

Linking up to a few parties:
Young and crafty
Family ever after
504 Main
Skip to my lou
Ninth Street Notions

Flying pigs and dirty linen

2011-12-02T20:49:00.001+08:00

Hello friends near and far,

Is it December already? I didn't even know it's Friday today so I missed the recycling people. It's the school holidays and days merge into nights. It's all a blur. We sleep at 3am now. Back to the problem - we have bags of recycled stuff lying around. Me hubs is mad.

You know once in a while I make a very good investment in a piece of fabric. I usually only get a yard of print fabric.

This pigs fabric has got to be one of my best investments. When I first saw the fabric, I immediately thought "flying pigs" even though the pigs aren't really flying. I looked closely at the texture and saw that it was a linen-cotton blend and I had to have it.

What I love more is linen. Linen has the best texture any fabric could offer. But I really, really hate to sew with linen. I go mad just trying to cut a straight grain and for bags, if your grain ain't straight, you might as well ditch the bag.

Then I discovered linen-cotton. Linen-cotton is the fabric manufacturer's answer to linen lovers who wish to keep their sanity.

I want to say linen and linen-cotton is an acquired taste. First of all, they cost a lot more than cotton. These are premium fabric. But I know not everyone cares for these fabric like I do and I have a story to tell.

I have made many, many small pouches out of this flying pigs fabric. This particular linen-cotton blend is thin which is unusual as most linen-cotton is thicker than cotton. So small item is a wise choice.

The first time it happened I was really stunned. A customer took a good look at my flying pigs item and finally put it down. She told me the fabric was dirty. I immediately looked at my pouch and searched for the dirt but I couldn't find it. Finally the customer pointed to all the slightly darker "stains" all over the fabric. "there, there, there, there."

I had a good laugh. The customer mistook the natural colour of linen for stains. Unlike cotton, linen has streaks of impurity and I often feel that's what makes linen and linen-cotton charming (to me).

Then it happened again and again. Each time I would patiently explain that the fabric was not dirty but natural streaks. Occasionally, I managed to convert a customer and she would pay for the "dirty" item.

One day this customer came along. She loved the flying pigs item. I could see it in her eyes. She looked at it for at least 15 minutes. Usually I get nervous if anyone eyed my items for so long but it's linen-cotton so I gave her time to get over the "dirt".

When I went in for the "kill", she told me she really loved the item and so badly wants to buy it but she's so unsure about the "dirt". I explained linen to her, that they were natural streaks. But I could see her head and her heart having a big struggle.

Sadly, she decided not to buy.

Half an hour later, she re-appeared with a man, maybe a husband/boyfriend/lover/father/brother? She hovered in the background while the husband/boyfriend/lover/father/brother? took a good look at my pouch. He even removed his glasses to have a better look. After a very long time like maybe 10 minutes, he had a small conference with the woman and then turned to inform me in a very serious voice, "Your fabric IS dirty. You shouldn't sell things with dirty fabric."

Sigh. I don't even make much money doing this handmade business.

I pried my flying pigs item from the guy's hands and waved them away. I could not be bothered to argue or say anything. You just can't educate people who don't want to be educated.

I've finally run out of the flying pigs fabric. These are the last 4 items I made. The flying pigs are the selling point which is why I usually make very simple items. I will sell these at Vivocity in 2 weeks. Let's hope no crazy bitches tell me they're dirty.

So farewell to my dear pigs. It was a good run. I did some embroidery of the pigs - on clean linen-cotton. (washed twice just to be sure....ok kidding, just once)

Yes, another drawstring pouch. I almost feel like I'm incapable of making anything else at the moment. 14 more sewing days to go.

See you. Have a good weekend my friends.

Have you ever walked in the rain?

2011-11-29T21:05:00.001+08:00

Hello people in the internet,

Is the sun shining where you live? Because in Singapore it's been raining for a freaking month already. I'm not a morning person. And it does get a little sunny in the morning. Before the big rain comes. So being "not a morning person", it's been pretty gloomy for me.

So let's see what's been happening. Nothing much. KIDDING.

Last Thursday, a day of reckoning for all 12 year olds in Singapore. Yes sir, the day, MOE (Ministry of Education) released the PSLE (Primary school leaving examination) results. As you may know, my younger child is 12 this year and like all her peers, she's had a very stressful year. We cannot escape the school system here. PSLE is really just an exam to tabulate a score and you use this score to gain entry into a secondary school. Simple? Well, it would be if there are no cut-off points to secondary schools. It would be simple if every secondary school is given the same amount of funds. It would be simple if the top schools don't hog the good teachers. PSLE is given far more importance than it should especially when MOE helps to create a class system where you either get into an elite secondary school or you don't.

Ah, the ranting again. Never mind. You have no power to change the system. Neither do I. So we just make the best of what we have.

You could say we started waiting for the PSLE result from the moment my girl was born. Because every thing you do from the moment she was born was to ensure she is equipped with the skills to pass this darn PSLE well enough so she does not get labelled "Normal" (ironic, I know) and end up doing 5 years of secondary school instead of the "Express" course of 4 years. This year 62.9% are eligible for the Express course. So last Thursday was a day of sorrow for about 37% which in raw figures is about 15,500 students.

When my girl was in K1, she often asked me why her classmates were way ahead of her in academics. At first I told her it was because she was born in the last quarter of the year and her classmates were older than her by a few months. Once we went to a classmate's home and I saw the little girl take out a thick book and start writing feverishly. It took her an hour. After she was done, she telephoned her mother at work to tell her she had finished her Math and she could play. I took a look at the Math and was shocked she could do mathematics meant for a child 2 years older. Man! If every parent prepared their kid like this one, I knew I was finished. Still, I did not want to hot-house my kid. Okay, who am I kidding? I couldn't hot-house my kid even if I wanted to. Firstly, I have no patience. Secondly, I don't believe in it. Thirdly, it's way too much work. Being a parent of 2 kids is no picnic already without adding on these unrealistic goals. So I helped my girl learn Math thru' play and hoped that one day she'll catch up with her super classmates.

One day when my girl was in K2, she suddenly saw that she got smarter all on her own. She could count, add, spell and do everything everyone else could. I was relieved but I knew in my heart that the kids of tiger parents are the ones who will come out top.

Academics has always come easier to my son. He was good in Math and that's half the battle won. MOE is notorious for setting god awful Math questions that even ministers could not answer. Yes, make the Minister for Education take the PSLE every year. Math did not come easy to my girl. For years, she survived without going for tuition. But for her final year, I'm afraid I made her go for Math, Science and Chinese tuition classes.

In Singapore, many students attend two schools. One regular school and one after school usually 1 to 1.5 hours per subject.

The last few months before the PSLE, the school teachers went crazy and loaded the kids with too much homework. That plus the extra lessons I had signed her up for really took its toll on my girl. She did not perform well in her preliminary exams set by her school. The purpose of this exam? To help you gauge where you are. I think my girl's bad results helped shake her up a little. The emotional stress? I don't know if the damage is lasting.

On Thursday, we made our way to her primary school. This was a moment my girl had been dreading. She was very sure she had done badly. Her confidence was at zero. She told me I had to read the grades for her.

At the school, we had to endure 45minutes of announcements, top students photo-taking and other inconsiderate photo-taking sessions. When the teachers finally started handing out the results to the students, the principal interrupted once more for a final photo-taking session with so-and-so. Geez. Did everyone have to bear witness to the darn photo session? I wanted to throw a shoe at her. Seriously.

Finally we could continue with the results. Me hubs saw my girl getting her results. Then she went and sit down with her class. She did not look at us. We waited and waited and waited. C'mon. We've been waiting for 12 freaking years for the result. We finally called her on the phone but it was too noisy so she probably did not hear. We decided to squeeze our way thru' the crowd to her. Me hubs gave up squeezing half-way. I was determined and finally caught her attention.

The moment I saw her body language I knew it was good news. She was a different person. She sat straight and was smiling and relaxed. She handed her result slip to me and said excitedly, "I got A star for English!"

The good news? She did well enough in her PSLE to enter 4 years of secondary school. Her grades well exceeded our expectation. The distinction for English was a bonus. Me hubs is claiming genetic credit for it.

Now the next phase of the waiting game begins. Waiting to see which secondary school she gets posted to. We have to pick 6 schools and I believe we have made very smart choices. I hope she gets her first choice because it's easy to get to and the students the school produces is not too bad.

♥♥♥

In the midst of all the excitement from getting the results, I suddenly got all nostalgic and I remembered this day which was when my girl was maybe 9 or 10. Now, I come from a family where getting caught in the rain is like a sin. When I became a parent, I became paranoid that a single drop of rain would make my children ill. So we never went anywhere without an umbrella. Once there was a huge gusty rain and we were on our way home. The umbrella really wasn't any help as the rain just lashed on us. As we struggled to hang on to our umbrellas, my girl asked me if she could walk in the rain.

Walk in the rain?

I don't know why but I said yes. So all three of us closed our umbrellas and we walked home in the rain. The rain was really huge giant kind and kept pelting at us. It was really funny. We walked in the puddles and played with the water as we walked home. All these while giggling like crazy because it felt so free.

I never knew walking in the rain could feel so liberating. But it was the one and only time we did it. Much much later we were walking home and it was raining and I suggested to the kids that we walk home in the rain.

Are you kidding? My kids thumbed down the idea.

The moment was over. It was a sweet moment and I will treasure it. Have you ever walked in the rain with your kids?

♥♥♥

So the past week I was nervous and out a lot. Not much stuff has been produced for my craft market. I should feel nervous!

This is a small piece of fabric I won in a giveaway. It is so gorgeous. I love it so much. The print looks like antique drawing. I especially dig the morning glory. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the manufacturer and neither does the person I won it from. I've been saving it and saving it and finally I decided to use a tiny bit of it.

Remember this piece of embroidery I found in my stash in September? I must have done the embroidery ages ago and forgotten about it. The style looks very similar to my aunt-in-law's so I'm guessing I was trying to imitate it.

I decided to marry these two - something old with something antique.

What do you think? I'm so in love with the pouch.

I know you're not supposed to praise yourself but I feel I'm so freaking good with drawstring pouches. And I never get tired of making them.

Still on a high from the drawstring rush, I made two more.

I think these are great as gift pouches. Have a great week my friends.

Linked to: Skip to my lou Sumo's Sweet Stuff Ninth Street Notions Dittle Dattle Tea Rose Home

Get Up & Go Go

2011-11-23T19:31:00.001+08:00

Hi friends,

I believe most of you have blog friends? When I first started blogging in 2007, the concept of blog friends was rather alien to me. In fact, I only started leaving comments on blogs I read after encouragement from me hubs. I cannot point you to the first blog post I left my first comment on as the blog has closed. I was just beginning to sew bags in those days and I left a comment to tell the blogger that I had used her tute to sew a little zip pouch. For days, I worried over the comment. I wondered if the blogger had read it. Did anyone else read it? Was I too cheesy? And so on. Yes, kinda paranoid like would the comment police come to my door?

I did not leave any more comments after that as it took a lot of courage to leave the first one. For those of you who are seasoned "commenters", it really was not easy for me.

Much to my surprise, a while later, the blogger emailed me to tell me she liked how my zip pouch turned out and wanted to feature it on her blog. I was shocked and horribly flattered. I had not expected any contact from the blogger. It totally changed the way I viewed blogging. The interaction was so pleasant and invigorating. And might I say, addictive.

Being featured on her blog also changed something else. People started reading my blog. In the beginning, it was just me, my family and the occasional reader who stumbled on my blog. I think this blogger was rather popular because for a few years, I would get a lot of traffic from her blog. I was quite sad when she closed her blog.

Well, I became less afraid of leaving comments as I went along and before long, I actually made a few blog friends. One blog friend in particular, Antmee she's had a pretty big impact on my life though I'm not sure if she's even aware.

I think I told you guys how I wanted to start my ePattern business in 2009 but I could not get going. I had so many issues - hardware, software, lack of confidence, shyness. You name it. Then in end 2010, I told Antmee about my pdf patterns and she agreed to try the first ePattern. I think she went beyond trying. She gave me very good suggestions and her opinion which I value. I gained a lot of confidence from her feedback. Still I did not launch it till mid 2011 as I wanted to use a better software.

As you know, I've already launched 3 of my ePatterns. For my last ePattern for this year, I turned to Antmee once again and as always, she's a fabulous blog friend. I think I'm very lucky to meet her. Thank you, my friend.

Usual price: US$6.90 Sale price: US$5 (from now till 30 Nov 2011)

My dear readers, I present to you my Get Up & Go Go Sling Bag. I know, what a ridiculous name. I ripped it off Wham!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.

This is a bag that every woman should own. It's a good size to keep your essentials. A zipper to lock everything in and a cool sling so you can carry it crossbody.

What else? No raw seams. (I'm still unable to make bags with the seams exposed)

Plus a pleated bottom.

Anyone has an Etsy account? Please do me a big favour and go heart it or buy it. HERE. ♥♥♥

Lastly, I'm doing a Black Friday Etsy and Cyber Monday Etsy promotion. So all my ePatterns are at a special price of US$5 each. From now till 30 Nov 2011.

Some of you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week? Hope you enjoy it. And happy shopping too. All the best to everyone who owns shops and having sales. Me hubs says he'll be raiding Amazon on Cyber Monday. See you in a while.

Project Accessory

2011-11-22T20:41:00.001+08:00

Dear fellow bloggers and readers,

How are you guys? Time did not stand still for me and I am frantically cutting fabric and trying to get into the groove so I can sew bags for my December craft markets. Before I talk about other stuff, I have a very important announcement to make:

Project Accessory is unwatchable.

Project Accessory is similar to Project Runway in format ie. you have a bunch of contestants given a challenge and limited supplies and within a limited time, create one or more accessories. It is a reality TV show.

I gave this new show a go as I am naturally interested in accessories plus I am a big fan of Project Runway. I am a very loyal viewer. If I like a show, I will watch every single episode. I'm kinda like Hachi: A dog's tale. In fact, I'm still hanging around, waiting for Law & Order to return. If you must know I have watched every single episode of:

•Cheers
•Seinfeld
•Friends
•The Nanny
•Will and Grace
•Survivor
•The Amazing Race
•Big Bang Theory
•How I Met Your Mother (I want to give up tho')
•2 and a half men (still hanging on)
•Law and order
•Law and order svu
•Law and order criminal intent
•Fringe (on the verge of giving up)
•House

Yes, I know. I watch too much TV. The amount of time I spent on these shows - I could make 1000 bags and 100 ePatterns!

Back to the topic. Why is Project Accessory unwatchable? The host, the judges and the contestants. Basically every bit of the show doesn't work for me. First of all, the host, the mentor and the judges seem so uninterested. I mean, where are the mean girls? Where are the judgy statements. Where are the bitchiness? Where's Mr Kors? The contestants are worse. Everyone looks straight. Where are the over-the-top gay guys? We need them in reality TV. Otherwise it's just watching you and me work.

I decided to hang on until the handbag challenge. Of course the contestant who's a bag designer won just as the shoe designer won the shoe challenge. None of the contestants thought to show us what the inside of the bag looked like. I mean, were there raw seams? Was it even lined? One guy actually put on the runway a bag with holes and he was not even eliminated. Alright I give up. This show is history to me.

Now for some linky love. A few more bloggers joined my Christmas gift linky party. Thank you.

pic from What's Going On?

First to jump in is Rebecca from What's Going On? The wristlet look familiar? Yep, it's made from my ePattern. I'm not kidding. I was so ridiculously happy to see it. Want to make one? Get the pattern here.

pic from Relished Artistry

Who's next? Ah, it's my only male reader Corey from Relished Artistry. I remember the first day we "met" like it was yesterday. Okay, I don't. I've been reading his blog for a long time now. He's very arty and always has something interesting to say. I like to read his thought process - very often raw and honest. His neck laces are really gorgeous. If you think you can make one, go to the tute.

pic from Yadira's Crafty Adventures

Yadira recommends a pretty flower brooch/hair-clip. Her blog is Yadira's Crafty Adventures. I like this combo of red on pink. It's so cheery!

pic from Sweet Bee Buzzings

Bethany from Sweet Bee Buzzings has a change purse tute. I remember "meeting" Bethany like it was yesterday. Geez, I don't. Suddenly one day, I found myself reading her blog religiously. I don't remember how or why. It just was. She makes bags as well but she's more versatile. She makes quilts and things to hang around the mantel.

pic from Hobo Chic Project

Hobo Chic Project came with food. How polite! If you want to turn oreos into lollies, go to her tute.

And that ends my party. Hope you enjoyed it. I have to read my linky tool email to see if I have to pay to hold another link party. If it's free, I might just hold another one. But don't worry. Not so soon.

See you soon.

Marry me juliet

2011-11-20T16:58:00.001+08:00

Hey people,

Today is 20.11.2011. A great day to get married in Singapore. (I imagine it'll be hard to get a taxi tonight. I'm still recovering from 11.11.11)

I attended my niece's wedding this afternoon. No, she did not choose to get married at 20:11hrs. But I imagine some people would. I still remember my niece when she was a little baby. She was always smiling and laughing and really plumb. I called her The Laughing Buddha. I didn't see much of her when she was in primary school. One day I saw her at a book shop. I was quite surprised to see her alone looking at some books. In my mind I was thinking how on earth did she get here by herself? I walked up to her and started talking to her. She went absolutely pale and ran straight to her mom. I think she thought I was gonna kidnap her. She didn't recognise me at all. Happy to report she no longer runs screaming from me.

In honour of this happy occasion, I wore heels. Technically they're heels because they're not flat.

Me and hubs went as 80's rock groupies. To make it more relevant, he gave his hair the Justin Bieber look. I respected the special occasion and ran my fingers through my hair a couple of times to "comb" it.

We did not get married on a special date. However, the date we chose turned out to be the hottest day in a century. How cool, I mean, how hot was that! Just picture me sweating in a gown and full make-up on my face. Me hubs did write a little about how we ended up married. It's very unromantic. Read it here if you care.

The bride wore a dress. For the first time.

I like the door gifts. The containers can be used to store my beads. You get different words like "Love", "Hold". I did not investigate what my siblings received.

The second gift is a piece of chocolate. I contemplated bringing it home to the kids. Then I popped it in my mouth. Me hubs did the same. Fortunately I found a spare one and my kids shared it.

So that was a lovely afternoon. Always love it when couples get hitched. It is a courageous move. To take a gamble on a person till death. To love and to cherish.

On another note, I had a link party here but the response was poor. It's like I had a party and no one showed up! I feel like the uncool kid in school all over again. No one wants to partay? You guys own blogs, don't you?

A grand total of 2 persons showed up. Technically, 3 persons showed up but the 3rd person sells stuff!

pic from Kamiel and Odille

First to show was Kamiel and Odille. She brought oven mitts. Remember, you need to borrow a large man's hands for the pattern.

Pic from Made To Treasure

Next was Made To Treasure. She brought quilted ornaments. These are really beautiful.

Anyway, it was kinda awkard. A party with just 3 persons. Everyone stood against the wall. I tried to liven things up with Def Leppard and discussing Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's break-up. Of course it was even more awkward when the 1000 pizzas came.......

Guys, the link party is still going on. It ends on Tuesday. You can still jump in if you want. HERE.

See you soon.

Make your own christmas gift link party #1

2011-11-18T21:38:00.001+08:00

Hi friends,

How are you guys? Hope you have a great weekend. Today I want to talk to you about blog awards and link parties.

From time to time I get "awarded" blog titles e.g Versatile Blogger. To "play" the game, you usually have to :
1) reveal a number of things about yourself your readers don't already know
2) link to a number of bloggers (include links) whom you admire and want to award the title to
3) thank the blogger who tagged you. (with a link back)

Yes, it is a tagging game. And I've played it. A couple of times.

Thing is, I've written so many posts and they're all about me. So you know more about me than most strangers should care about. And I don't know many bloggers to tag. Also, some people don't react well to being tagged.

So I'm officially out of this tagging game. Those of you who have tagged me. I thank you for thinking of me.

Anyway, instead of a blog title acceptance post, I thought I would do a link party instead. I've never done one before. It's my first. Will it be my last? Haha. Yes, if the response is poor. Anyone interested to post a link? I thought this would be a good way for bloggers who read my blog to link back to their blog. Kinda like saying, hey, over here.

So that's the purpose of this link party. Do you like this idea?

I've set a theme for this link party. It is to link to anything you have made that one could make and give as a Christmas gift. It need not be a tutorial.

I'll start with my item which is a sarubobo pin. I made it this evening. It's easy to make and requires very little supplies. Here's my tute.

I love to pin sarubobos to my bags and pouches. p.s. check out my messy sewing table.

Here are a few rules:
1) Link to something you made. It need not be something you made this week. Old posts are fine.
2) Link to a specific post.
3) Link back to my blog.

p.s. This linking tool I'm using is slow. When you're done with the process, it'll take a while for the image to load.

Have you ever needed to scratch so bad?

2011-11-16T18:32:00.001+08:00

Hi from cloudy Singapore,

Although I've recovered from my 11.11.11 which entailed sleeping a couple of days away, there's something about grey skies that gets me down. So I should avoid looking out of the window! Today there was some sun and I managed to take enough photos to complete my latest ePattern. I have sent it for testing so we'll see if I can release it this month? This will be my last ePattern for this year because I don't want to play hide-and-seek with the sun. It's just too frustrating. Besides my stock is quite low and I need to stock up. I'm going to have to sew like mad for the next few weeks.

This is my girl's last year in primary school. She wanted to give her teacher one of my pouches. She fancied the linen ones. I was too stingy so I asked her to design one and I would sew it for her. Seriously though, I thought it would be more meaningful if the pouch had her input.

I gave her my stamping ink and stamps and she had a ball.

She only stopped stamping when I said, "less is more."

I thought the teacher might like some polka dots!

Bear approves.

I don't know how much my girl told her teacher about the pouch. My guess is she probably did not point out how she designed the front. I don't know what I did wrong but both my kids are rather reticent. Maybe it's in the genes? I know I was very reticent as a kid. I barely said a word throughout my primary school. But I grew out of it later on. Sometimes though, especially in the presence of uncomfortable company, I do go back to my ole reticent self.

This is the last week of school for my girl this year. That's right. Come Saturday, I no longer need to wake up at 6am. Woo hoo! My son has been on school holidays for a couple of weeks. Secondary schools end the term earlier. He had really just been sitting on his butt with his iPod. Starting this week, for 2 weeks, he goes back to school for Art Boot Camp. Okay, it's just painting. He told me he's the only guy. hahahaha. I'm glad he has school as it gives him some exercise.

Me hubs had his teardrop mole removed. It was fast and he said, painless. I'll spare you guys this time and not show you the exorcised mole.

Unfortunately me poor hubs has bigger issues. He has developed an allergic reaction to an unknown substance or food? Now he is covered with hives. It is fortunate his mole doctor is also a skin specialist. She had a look and now we have to let the medication take its course and hopefully the welts will disappear soon. Itch is a terrible thing to bear.

My MAAD 11.11.11 Post-Mortem

2011-11-12T21:24:00.001+08:00

Hello everyone,

How did your 11.11.11 go? Did you do anything special or just let it go by like any other day? Here's how my day went....Be prepared. It's very detailed and long. Do you have a glass of wine or vodka or whatever you need to get thru' my long post?

11.11.11
6:00am    woke up (very reluctantly)
6:30am    checked gmail for notification of Etsy sale - no sale
6:45am    walked girl to train station. debated whether to go jogging - laziness won
7:00am    breakfast of honey pancakes (it was a little burnt)
7:25am    checked hair in mirror - decided against washing
7:30am    watched Project Accessories

Have you guys watched this show? It looked like a very low-budget version of Project Runway. And why do most of the contestants look like serial killers? The female Tim Gunn looks like a madam at a russian brothel. The Heidi-wanna-be looks like a human form of Iman (previous host of Project Runway Canada)

You know what I think after watching Project Accessories? I need to learn how to make a necklace, a ring, a bracelet, an arm cuff, a head band, a belt and shoes! Because these contestants - they know how to make everything.

8:00am    arrival of garbage disposal truck triggered sneezing fits
8:25am    did some laundry. might have said some f-words
8:30am    updated facebook
8:45am    googled for cure for urticaria - none found
9:00am    finished up some hand sewing
9:30am    checked out pathetic stock
10:00am   made sign for $11 zip pouches
10:10am   checked out a winged skeleton pendant/necklace on Etsy.
10:12am   checked out a dragonfly/mermaid brooch on eBay - would have preferred it as a pendant
10:58am   received SOS to wake mandy up.
11:11am   started packing (11:11am feels same as 11:10am)
11:15am   woke son

12:00pm   had leftovers for lunch
12:45pm   finished up packing
1:00pm     called Mandy to wake her up for maad
1:15pm     watched Big Bang Theory
2:00pm     left with son and luggage to get taxi - we got lucky but the bastard went the long way!
2:40pm reached red dot museum - ran into Shannon (red dot mamasan), she helped me with the luggage for a few metres before giving up.

2:45pm queued up to enter museum

3:25pm met chewy from elephantislove! believe it or not, i had "met" her thru my blog. i don't remember how it started but suddenly i was reading her blog. Maybe it has something to do with her being from Singapore! i suggested she sells at maad on her visit back and here she is.

3:35pm collected my table which is a suitcase, my charged lamp and a clothes rack. searched for son as I had misplaced him.

3:40pm selected my spot which is my usual spot and it's right next to chewy! check out my new ikea lamp

3:41pm Chewy's table

4.26pm My first sale! Mandy snagged TWO 11.11.11 zip pouches

5:20pm Photo taking session with Chewy. My head is 3 times hers! This, I'm blaming on my ancestors.

5:27pm My 3rd 11.11.11 zip pouch went to Janet. Love her outfit!

5:47pm My 4th 11.11.11 zip pouch went to Fiona. See how she's wearing my iPhone zip pouch round her neck? She has also bought my sexy zippy wristlet ePattern and I'm waiting to see her finished product.

7:10pm Spotted my sis, Elaine. My son sold her the MoMo Odyssey zip pouch.

I had really wanted to take the opportunity to give my son the chance to man my table without any help from me. It could mean fewer sales for me but I was willing to trade that for a learning experience. It took a bit of prodding from me and a lot of time, he was so engrossed in his games, he totally neglected the customers. But in the end, he made a total of 8 sales! Very impressive.

9:36pm Wendy came and snagged the nautical red/white crescent bag. The linen bag she's carrying? That's my bag too! I love to see my customers carrying my bag. It's so awesome.

10:24pm sold my 5th 11.11.11 zip pouch to this lady - i forgot to ask for her name. she's a repeat customer so i better remember her. she snagged 3 items this round. love her already.

my total sales? it was pretty good - not fantastic but i'm very happy with it.

12:00am goodbye maad. hello home. so i thought.

12.11.11

12midnight to 1am

Me and son lugged our luggage and hunted for a taxi. At first, there weren't any taxis with the Green Light on. We walked further away from red dot museum. Was it a mistake? Lots of people were walking with us. At some point, I decided it would be silly to keep walking and hoping.

Then we came to a road where there were lots of taxis with Green Light on. We were so happy and so were the groups of people with us. And the stupidest thing happened. NONE of the freaking taxis would stop. They just zoomed past us and after a while, I realised that the taxis were just going round and round, not picking up passengers. I could recognise some of the taxis. Yes, WTF! I asked a woman next to me and she was just as puzzled. Later, a Caucasian walked past me and he said the taxis weren't going to stop at all. It dawned on me the taxis were waiting to be booked. Apparently, the 50% midnight surcharge wasn't enough for the buggers. There ought to be a law against taxis not picking up passengers, Mr Transport Minister! Like caning or something.

My strategy then was to get to somewhere I could identify so I could hopefully get a booking for a taxi. So we walked once more. The streets were really deserted save for us, the walkers. It was like a scene from Walking Dead and the taxis were the humans running away from us.

Me and son broke away from the group. I saw from a distance a structure that looked like a taxi stand. I felt I would have better luck there. At the taxi stand there was a location code so I called for a taxi but of course everyone else was trying to call for a taxi as well. After a long wait, I managed to get to a human who transferred me to a machine which said my booking was being processed and to HANG UP. Wow. So we waited. Everyone else at the taxi stand seem to be doing the same thing as me.

Suddenly out of the blue, a taxi pulled in and the driver poked his head out and asked if anyone was going to the west as he was ending his shift. I couldn't believe it when no one else was going west. Although I was at the back of the queue, I doved forward (I felt like I FLEW forward) and told the driver where I lived. He said YES even though I lived in the North-west.

The first question he asked me: How long have you waited?
One freaking hour.

Then he said that with barely any traffic, he could have me home in 20 minutes. Mr Lim, you're a superman. We were home in 18 minutes. On the way home, I called to cancel my taxi booking but the operator insisted there was no need to cancel as I hadn't even got a taxi yet!

Good nite people.

Spot the elevens

2011-11-09T20:53:00.001+08:00

Hey folks,

It's a been a while since my last post and you must be wondering if I'm dead or alive. No? I'm still here. I've just gotten over a tiny attack of migraine. It's all good now. My brain is a little confused tho'. This morning I thought it was Thursday. Then I found out it's really Wednesday. Joy! Technically I've gained one day. Woo hoo!

I'm wishing the rainy season will end soon. Rainy season means I get the sneezy nose and sometimes itchy skin. Plus, my laundry doesn't dry properly. Every year I get the urge to buy a dryer and then I don't. I don't really know how to fit a dryer into the laundry area as there's no room. Just wishful thinking. It's also a losing battle for me trying to get my next ePattern up. When I am ready to do some photography, it's hopelessly grey. Today the sun came out and I was out! Who knew living in Singapore you would have to wait for days for the sun? In a couple of months, I'm pretty sure I'll be sweating every day and wishing the sun would take a break.

Want to hear some updates about the sales of my ePattern? Since I launched my sexy zippy wristlet last Thursday, I've sold a grand total of (drum roll) 6 copies. Yep, literally 1 a day. Oh....wait. Don't look so sad. It's a success story! Did I not make that clear? I think 6 copies in 6 days is pretty good. Sure, if you compare it to say a more established pattern maker, 6 copies is pretty pathetic, but it's not to me. Yay!

Want more updates? Remember in this post, I alerted you to the numerous drowning at Bedok Reservoir in Singapore? It is now confirmed that Bedok Reservoir is indeed a serial killer. A sixth body was found on Saturday. The body was fished out shortly before a blessing of the souls was conducted by the Inter-Religious Organisation at the reservoir. Psst...I think their timing was off. The organisation in charge of Bedok Reservoir has currently engaged a security agency to patrol the reservoir. Hopefully, these men will catch the reservoir red-handed and chain it up or something to put an end to all the drowning.

You guys want to play a game with me? First some backstory. Over the weekend, I was asked if I would do anything special for this Friday's MAAD which falls on 11.11.11. Without thinking it through, I gallantly said I would sell 11 zip pouches for $11 each. Right away, I started making 2 and it was quite a breeze. I didn't want the zip pouches to be any ole print. So I decided I would use either stamping or embroidery to embellish them. Kind of make them a little special. Then it occurred to me that I would actually have to make another 9 zip pouches.

Here's the game. I basically played around with the date 11.11.11. See if you can spot the 3 elevens. Some are pretty obvious. No prizes for getting it correct. Just for your own satisfaction.
Here we go....

At first I went really literal.

This one is pretty obvious.

I was thinking of going Matrix the movie route and do running stitches of elevens. Then I thought of the amount of work involved.... so I settled.

Still a little literal but sweet right?

Starting to run out of ideas. Houses to the rescue!

I'm not shy to steal from my own databank. Remember my first tulip?

I LOVE little girls with balloons. You may have noticed I'm trying to hide my elevens. See, I kinda had a seizure thinking what would happen if no one bought these zip pouches on 11.11.11? Would be pretty hard to sell them on say, 12th November.

I think I hid the elevens pretty well here.

Yep, reworked the flowers but this time, less literal.

I had a sudden inspiration - the 3 amigos. I was giggling as I made this.

This reflects my state of mind when I made it. Just. 2. More!

Even the houses were grumpy!

Did you play along?

Here's your reward. I'll let you take a peek at my lining! It's been a while since the last peek.

I'm exhausted. So I'll see you when I see you. If you are in Singapore this Friday, pop by red dot design museum to celebrate 11.11.11. Details below.

Maad Pyjamas
11.11.11 Friday
5pm to midnight

@ red dot design museum
28 Maxwell Road, red dot Traffic, Ground Floor
Singapore

Projects By Jane's 11.11.11 Special

11 stamped and embroidered zip pouches will be sold at $11 each
Any unsold ones will be bumped off either thru' Etsy or other craft markets.

p.s. I'm linking up here: Tea Rose Home, Skip To My Lou Ninth Street Notions

Sexy Zippy Wristlet

2011-11-04T00:07:00.000+08:00

Hi folks,

I'm very happy to report that I've finally completed producing my latest ePattern. Please say hello to my sexy zippy wristlet. It is now available for sale at my Etsy shop: projectsbyjane.

When I first started out making my first few zip pouches years ago, I really struggled with installing the zipper. I think I would have given up if it weren't for my stubborn nature. And also, I really enjoyed the challenge. I've come a long way since my first zip pouch but I've never forgotten my initial struggles with the zipper.

Initially, producing a zip pouch ePattern was not high on my list of ePatterns. I felt that there were more than enough tutorials, many free, in the net which could teach anyone how to make a simple zip pouch. One day, I was talking to one of my testers and she expressed interest in learning to make my curved zippy wristlet. You could say I was really just waiting for someone to ask for this pattern. And really, that was how this ePattern came about.

I don't know if this ePattern will be well-received. My first ePattern - the perfect-size reversible lunchtime pouch is the most successful to date. My second ePattern - the iPhone zip pouch has fewer sales. It is expected as not everyone owns an iPhone. Perhaps I should have used the word gadget instead.

When I made this sexy zippy wristlet ePattern, I wasn't so concerned about the profitability of it. Instead I focused on finding a way for beginners to learn to overcome their fear of zippers and learn to make a simple zippered pouch without tears. And of course, it doesn't hurt if the zip pouch looks sexy too. So this tutorial was done using an all-purpose presser foot. I threw the zipper foot right out the window. Really, a lot of problems one faces with a zipper when making a pouch lie with the zipper foot.

Once again, this ePattern took way too long to produce. I still haven't figured out how to be fast. The bad weather didn't help. I'm so grateful to my tester who's so fabulous and generous.

Lastly, if you have an Etsy account, do me a big favour and go to my Etsy shop projectsbyjane and heart my new ePattern. Thank you and good nite.

Post-mortem: VivoCity 29th to 30th October 2011

2011-10-31T22:16:00.000+08:00

Hello friends,

Fake tree outside VivoCity - anyone noticed the leaf giving me the finger?

How are you? I slept the whole day away. I'm sick as a dog. My tummy feels weird. When that happens, it means I will have a bad headache. Hours of headache. My face hurts. My eyes hurt. My stomach screams for porridge for dinner. I never want to eat porridge for dinner. Except when I feel sick. Yes, you're thinking what I'm thinking. I'm gonna lose some weight from this illness for sure! Woo hoo!

My son is sick too. He has a fever. He rarely gets sick. It's his first day of his year-end school holiday too. Don't worry. The fever does not affect his ability to play electronic games. Hope it's not a bug. Don't want my girl and hubs to get sick too. We need them to get food.

So I spent the weekend at VivoCity selling my bags. I did not have a good start. After getting my counter, I started to set up my display. Then I was told to move one counter away for my own sake as the counter next to me sells pottery art and painting is involved. See, the paint could fly in the air and splatter on my bags. It was only one counter away so it was no big deal so I moved. But it took a long time to get the key to the new counter. None of the keys fitted. Then I tried the key from my old counter and boom! It worked. Still I felt the Universe was trying to tell me something!

I thought the new counter was a pretty good location anyway. I snagged 2 sales while I was setting up. I was actually thinking to myself it's gonna be a great day.

Then I was told to move. Again. You know, it's never nice to be asked to move. To be asked to move twice in one morning is bordering on UGLY. This time, my counter was literally carried by the staff to another location, next to the cashier. (Oh yes, there is a cashier system) Once again, I felt the Universe was trying to tell me something. Alas! I'm half deaf so I could not hear.

I'm not the kind of person who acts like an ass in public. I'm usually cooperative and nice. Maybe that's why I'm the one who has to move?

This is my table display on Saturday at my NEW PERMANENT LOCATION. After my move, I had ZERO sales for a few hours. I was quite moody for a while. I mean, you understand, right? I stopped trying to figure out what the Universe was trying to tell me.

I was also moody as on Friday I had found out my portable hard drive where I kept my 2 weeks' worth of work in my ePattern and photos had died and I did not have any other copies. On Friday night I had gone to 2 computer shops to get it repaired and was refused. These are professional PC repairmen and they have no guts to open up my hard disk? What kind of world do we live in?

Around 4pm, me hubs called me with the good news. He had broken into the hard drive and retrieved my data. The clever, clever man. I am so in love with him right now!

While on the phone listening to the good news, I started getting sales. And it got better and better from then on. The traffic was fabulous. My total sales on Saturday was pretty decent. I finally heard what the Universe was trying so hard to tell me.

Jane, we're moving you from a bad place to a good place!

At least that's what I heard.

This was my table display on Sunday. On Sunday, the crowd was different - more families. There were more browsers than buyers. My sales dropped. I managed to make a few sales so it was still alright.

Did I tell you? My neighbouring vendors are very nice folks. The one next to me sold organic baby clothes. Two very lovely ladies. I enjoyed talking to them. There was also a home decor vendor whose wares I kept checking out. Next to her is Corinna, a German lady living in Singapore. She makes really adorable dolls and owns Cute and Cosy.

Here is Corinna modelling my iPhone zip pouch. Psst... so glad she didn't hang it on her ~~ass~~ bum.

My counter faced this shop selling winter clothes. So I'm like staring at it all day. It's a good thing I brought my sweater and scarves because it got really cold. Otherwise I would have gone into the shop and bought myself a winter outfit. But it wasn't like cold all the time. Sometimes, it got really hot so I have to remove my sweater and walk around.

There is a restaurant called Carnivore to my right and all day I keep thinking I want to eat meat. A couple of times I went to the entrance to sniff the food. Sometimes I act like a dog.

This lovely outdoor scenery was just a few metres from where I was. A couple of times I went out for fresh air only to end up inhaling 2nd hand smoke. It's gotten to the point where open spaces in Singapore are always invaded by smokers. Across the water is Sentosa an expensive island experience for tourists.

Anyone wondered how my stamped linen did? I was curious too as it's the first time I'm selling these.

This was a hit. Groped and poked and commented on. I'm just surprised no one bought it.

The girl with balloons and tulips were bought by 2 young girls.

I have another craft market coming up on 11.11.11. I can't think of anything significant to offer on that day. I have around 10 days to make more items for sale but I think I may be out of action for a few days. I can feel a fever creeping up on me. So see you in a while. Good nite.

Queen of zip pouches

2011-10-27T18:24:00.000+08:00

Folks,

How are you guys? It's really cold and rainy in Singapore. Demmit! Me mom is right. It's gonna rain every day until December. She's like a undiscovered weather satellite. This morning I took a 3-hour power nap as last night I lost track of time and went to sleep really late. I don't really have to justify my napping as you all live like really far, far away in another country but readers can be so judgy. (it's a real word; google it) Hmmm, where was I? Oh yeah, napping. I woke up in time to see the sun dying and quickly took photos of the stuff I had made. I got really lucky. After about 10 minutes, it rained like a hurricane. Usually I like to take photos between 2pm to 5pm because I like to take pics against a wall background and by then the sunlight would have reached my wall. Doesn't make sense? Anyway, I have news.

This weekend I'll be selling my bags and stuff at a shopping mall called VivoCity. It's a HUGE place and I'm not kidding when I say I can get lost in there. It's right next to the sea and it's a gorgeous place and you could spend the whole day there. It's my first time selling at VivoCity so it should be interesting. If my kids go with me, I might be able to do some shopping while they man the counter. Woo hoo!

So I was auditioning my pouches to see who's gets to go to VivoCity. You know, one day you're IN, the next day you're OUT. Hahahaha, what am I saying? I'm mixing my TV world with my real life. Every darn pouch I made gets to go to VivoCity.

You know I've been keeping count of the number of items I've made since September 2007, right? I keep count here. I discovered that I have made a staggering 232 zip pouches of which 186 are rectangular/square ones and 46 are wristlets. Are you impressed or amazingly blown away? I'm like a machine or something right? How can any human being make so many zip pouches? And certainly I should ask myself why I keep making zip pouches. But they're so versatile!

So, in honour of making 232 zip pouches, I declare myself the Queen of zip pouches.

Last night I was up making the stamped thingy into more zip pouches. Let's go to the runway, shall we?

Houses on raw linen

Hearts and vine on linen cotton

Leaves and apple on linen cotton

Girl with balloons on linen cotton

Tulips on linen cotton

I made a few other zip items a few days ago.

Apples wristlet

<Giggle> I've actually cut out the apples fabric for 2 more zip pouches but never got round to sewing them. Might be too much, right?

Henna wristlet

Henna coin pouch

You know what I noticed at craft markets? Caucasians dig this henna fabric most.

Country wristlet

I'll bet you knew I like this fabric because it has houses on it. It's linen cotton and I got a discount!

Flower flower wristlet

This fabric? I'm just trying to use it up. Need to make room for new fabric!

That's all I've made so far. Hey, Happy Halloween if you're celebrating it. It's not a tradition in Singapore. Okay, some scary news from Singapore. On Tuesday I read in the news that there was a drowning at Bedok Reservoir in Singapore. My first instinct was to ask me hubs to bet if it was a male or female.

Two things to deduce from this: One - I have a gambling problem. Two - I'm insensitive.

Okay, let me explain myself. Btw, I lost the bet of $10. It was female. I haven't paid up. I'm terrible at losing. Where was I? Yes, the explaining.

1. It all started in June this year. A lower half of a body was discovered in Bedok Reservoir. It turned out to be a young man from China who had gone missing in April. He could not cope with living in Singapore.

2. In September, a young woman and her young son drowned in Bedok Reservoir. The woman had problems with her estranged husband. They were dressed in red. Why red? There's a superstitious belief that a dead person dressed in red will become a vengeful ghost. Which is why at wakes no RED is allowed. Must remember that.

3. In October, an Indian foreign worker drowned in Bedok Reservoir despite witnesses' attempts to rescue him.

4. 2 days later, a Chinese man was rescued from Bedok Reservoir. He claimed to be drunk. Too drunk to remember he tried to end his life. He's still alive.

5. 2 days ago, an elderly Chinese woman drowned in Bedok Reservoir. She was dressed in RED.

Now you understand why I made the bet? Suddenly Bedok Reservoir became the go-to place to drown. I do hope the number stops at 5. Are these copycats? Maybe if the papers stop publishing the death, it may stop.

Geez, I just remembered I used to live close to Bedok Reservoir back in the days when the contractors were digging it. Me and my siblings used to go to the bottom (it wasn't filled then) and walk around. I cannot remember how tall the reservoir was but really freaking deep. Once, my brother went to the bottom and his slippers got stuck in the sticky mud and we saw he was sinking! How scary it was. We pulled him out and decided to stay out of the reservoir. We wanted to live. You know what? I think Bedok Reservoir is alive!

See you next week kids!

Craft market details:

29th to 30th October 2011 (Sat & Sun)

VivoCity

11am to 10pm

Level 1, near POSB in front of Denizen.

My name is Jane. I am a stampaholic.

2011-10-25T21:04:00.000+08:00

Hello readers,

Miss me?

Since I attended my first rubber-stamping workshop, I had been fantasizing about the stamps I would carve. You know how obsessed I get when I'm sewing my bags? It's true for stamping too. My obsession has not reached Intervention level yet as I don't have my rubber blocks. While waiting for my rubber blocks to arrive (and I was prudent enough to buy just 2 blocks), I went out to buy more ink. I buy the little ones. They're so darn cute. I wanted to buy EVERY colour available. Fortunately my kids were with me and I have to set a good example. I only bought 5 colours.

These are all the little fabric ink I own. I have a brown ink which I use for my label but it comes in a big tray.

The problem I have with buying ink is I can't tell how it will turn out on fabric. I am most happy with Poppy Red, Cerulean Blue and Emerald. They look fantastic on fabric. Have you heard of Cerulean Blue? It's such a gorgeous name. If I have a third child, I would call him/her Cerulean Blue and ruin his/her life forever. Alright, I'm kidding.

Cerulean Blue.

I'm hating Bubble Gum which is just pink. It barely shows on fabric. I'm thinking if I ever use pink ink, I have to use white fabric. But ewwwww.

I couldn't wait for my rubber blocks and used a tiny bit of leftover rubber from the workshop and I carved a simple leaf. My leaf has no veins as it's so small I have no idea how to make the veins.

Here I've sewn stem stitch for the branches. As you can see, I'm totally fine with cliché ideas. The apple is done in long and short stitches.

Yay, more Houses. I did not have any round rubber so I used a cork to stamp the tree and the flowers came from the rubber behind a pencil.

I have to admit that using cork is a last resort. Cork does not hold ink well. I searched my home for something round and flat and couldn't find anything! The next time I'm at the stationery shop, I'm checking out the round or oblong shaped erasers. And I'm itching to carve a REAL tree.

Over the weekend, I looked in one of my many messy drawers and discovered a bag of treasures. Inside were professionally-carved stamps. They were all used before but they look fine. I have no memory of how I came to possess them. See the little girl I stamped all over? I did not carve that. I'm nowhere near that level of superbness. I dunno why. When I see a girl, I automatically think balloons. Or maybe I just have the cork in my hand?

Here I've added the balloon strings. Doesn't look so weird now, does it?

Here I used more stamps I found in the Treasure Bag. The heart stamp is really intricate. The flowers look doable. Will try and carve me some next time. And I discovered a leaf with veins!

I'll be honest. Using professionally carved stamps is a lot of fun too. And so much less time-consuming. But once you've carved your first rubber stamp, I believe you'll be hooked. My rubber blocks have arrived. What shall I carve? These are just some ideas:

♥ Tree

♥ Skull

♥ Baby

♥ Bunny

I'll see you real soon.

Here comes the rain

2011-10-19T21:26:00.001+08:00

Ladies and gent,

Yes, it's wet, wet, wet in Singapore. Last week I explained to me mom what I am doing now and found it hard to explain what an ePattern is. Then I realised that I only needed to tell her that I take photos of how I make a bag. And you know what she said?

It's going to rain every day until December!

She's almost right. It's raining lots but not every day. Unfortunately, it rains on the days I am free to do a photo shoot. I've tried taking photos with flash and artificial light but they look horrid.

Since my last post, I've managed to let the days slip through my fingers. I've not accomplished much. Everything seems to be in progress. My kids' exams are over though. That's such a relief. My son has to apply for a specialised course for the next two years of secondary school. So we're waiting for his results. He did put in a big effort for the exams so I'm expecting not too bad results. The only paper I'm worried about is Literature as he claimed there's no use studying for it etc. To be honest, I'm quite blur about secondary school streaming. But what I know is apart from English, Chinese and Math, the two other compulsory subjects are Literature and Chemistry. Good grief. I hope my son doesn't have to study Shakespeare.

My girl's results won't be out till end November. Meanwhile, both kids have been living it up with their tablets and games. Life is honestly too good for them. They lie down all day and complain they're tired.

Last week I grossed some of you out when I showed a photo of an excised mole. My apologies. I had such a giggle over the comments though. The more you ewww the more I giggled. On Monday we took me hubs to the doctor once again - this time to remove the stitches.

The wound is healing nicely. When I first saw it after the stitches came out, my stomach felt a little weak. The doc gave it a good scrubbing to get rid of the debris which explains the redness. In case you're really into the Mole Story, here's me hub's take on what made him remove the mole. Read here. Fyi, me hubs is going to remove one more mole - the one below the eye.

Kids, in this case, I want to blame my MIL. I think if she hadn't called the mole below his eye the "teardrop mole", I don't think me hubs would go to the extent to have any surgically removed. The word "teardrop" really bothered him. I never even noticed he had moles! (true story)

As for me, when I was young, people (my family and friends) would tell me what a big head and long face I have. Not once, not twice but again and again. Like it's a crime. Like it's the worst thing in the world. Like I could do something about it. Like wtf! So now, I'm always thinking I have a big head and a long face and if there's a surgical procedure to shorten my head and face, I would!

I'm not perfect. I do say stuff to my kids that I shouldn't. Like tell my son he's tall. He is very tall. But he's self-conscious about it so I stopped. And I've told my girl she has big feet (but they're not that big). So I seriously need to watch my words.

Next weekend I have a craft market and I haven't made many items. Same ole' story. I think I try to do too many things at the same time. It's not working out. I do have 3 owl wristlets to show you. Do they look familiar? hehehe

I will be selling these owl wristlets at my next craft market. Right now they're sharing a handle. I do have to dig through my stash to find more of the fabric to make two more handles.

Oh yes, I wanted to do a giveaway to mark my four years of blogging and I just want you to know I haven't forgotten. I've already decided what to give away but we have to wait for the stars to be aligned. So be patient and wait for it. It will be sometime this year. Meanwhile, thank you for reading and big thanks to my commenters. If you wish to receive a reply from me, please note that you need to link your email to your blogger account. Otherwise I will see a "no-reply". See ya.

I'm a happy stamper

2011-10-16T23:29:00.000+08:00

Friends, readers, total strangers,

A confession. I thought I knew a little about stamping as I had read up a tiny bit on it. I had drooled over stamps and stamping and ink and thought all I needed was the desire to learn.

As I found out at yesterday's rubber stamping workshop at The Little Happyshop, you need to be steady with your hands. Let me just say this first. I enjoyed the workshop a lot. It might not show on my face but I did.

Who is this homeless looking guy? (Just kidding, Joe) He's the rubber stamp guru - Mr Joe Chiang of Monster Gallery. Yep, this is the man. Honestly, I took a bad pic of him. I blame it on the light.

Here's a better shot of Joe. (I pinched the pic from his facebook.)

There were five ladies in the class. It was held at The Little Happyshop and it looked like a happy shop. I kinda felt happy when in the shop so it's a good name. Very good fengshui!

These are the essentials for the class - rubber, scraper, sharp pen cutter, tracing paper and dark pencil.

The easy part is transferring the image to the rubber. A reverse image is transferred. Must remember this. I had to do this twice because the first time my outline was too thin. So I got left behind! I'm the slowest "kid" in class. At some point during the lesson, I heard Joe saying "Let's wait for Jane!" hehehehe

Cutting the outline is the hard part. If you're a stamper you'll know about the valley you have to carve out. I'm quite clumsy and was a little nervous about hurting myself. At home when I cook, it's common to hear me yell out in pain. In fact, my kids are so used to it they won't come running unless I cry out "Help."

Where was I? Ah yes, the valleys. They are harder to cut then expected. So I cut and I cut and at the end, my result is quite crude. My lines are jagged when they should be smooth. Also, I did not taper the waste enough so the stamping gets additional lines. But I got the idea. I'm the sort who gets better with practice.

When I reached home, I worked on the stamp a little bit more and it looks a little better.

This morning I had a few minutes to spare and decided to work on a new stamp. I made a tulip because I like using tulips in my embellishment. It looks like a crown. I'm not even sure I've seen a real tulip. Well, a tulip is pretty easy to carve but I managed to not get the precise outline again. Much more practice is required. Once I get additional rubber, I'm carving every day.

Ah, a peek at my inspiration notebook. Meet Teddy, my new bear. I named it after a dog. I have limited ink colours . I would love turquoise, teal, red and hot pink. I settled for this dunnowhatkindofblue blue. The pink was too light.

I combined the stamped tulips with some embroidery. I'm soaking it to see if the colour fades. If it doesn't, it'll become a coin pouch. What do you guys think?

This is how I draw and sew a bag dart

2011-10-14T11:47:00.000+08:00

Today I'm going to show you an easy and primitive way to draw a bag dart. First of all, you must understand the purpose of a bag dart. It is to create volume so the bag won't look flat.

Two things to consider:
- size of dart
- position of dart

The size of your bag dart needs to be relative to the size of your bag. How pointy or long you want it is best decided by using a paper pattern and pinning it till you get what you want.

The position of your bag dart is best where the side seam meets the bottom.

Here's a demo on 2 of my bag patterns:

How To Draw A Bag Dart

Crescent bag pattern

All you need is a paper pattern, compass and a ruler. For this pattern, I want a dart with a width of 1" and the sides are 2" each. Note: The 2 sloping sides are always equal.

First, using the compass, mark 1" on the curved line where you want your dart to be.

Measure 2" with the compass and from one point of the dart width, draw an arc.

Use the compass to draw another arc from other point of the dart width. The 2 arcs must meet. From this meeting point, draw your sloping lines to each point of the dart width to form a triangle-ish shape.

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Recessed Zipper Shoulder Bag Pattern

I pulled this pattern from my recessed zipper shoulder bag tute. I wrote this tute in 2009 - blast from the past!

Because the side and bottom are not a continuous curved line, the width is marked differently. From the lowest point of the pattern on the right, mark 1.5" - one on the bottom and one on the side. From these, mark 1.75" arc. Where the arcs meet, draw 2 lines to each point of the dart width.

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How To Sew A Bag Dart

There are 2 ways which I have used to sew bag darts.

Cut Out Method

For this method, I cut the dart out of the pattern. Important to note that for this method, the size of the dart is minus the seam allowance.

To sew the dart, right side together, match the sloping sides of the dart. Sew dart starting from the widest part. Backstitch at both ends. I usually use a 0.25" seam allowance.

Old School Method

This is the method I usually use. Important to note that for this method, the size of the dart includes the seam allowance because you are sewing on the dart lines.

The dart lines are transferred to the fabric. I use a dressmaker's coloured pencil to mark the lines. Right side together, match the dart lines. Use a pin to match the lines. Sew on the dart lines starting from the widest part. Backstitch at both ends.

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Lastly.....
- If you find your dart points are bulky after sewing, you can omit the backstitch at the pointy end and knot the thread manually.

- To reduce bulk for matching darts, iron darts seam in opposite directions.

I hope this is helpful to you. Leave a comment if you have any questions.

Tale of one mole

2011-10-11T21:32:00.000+08:00

So, today was the day. Me hubs got a little nervous.

Goodbye mole. Me hubs regretted not plucking the mole hair.

The waiting area is nice with running water and fish to calm the nerves. Don't want any patients to flee!

I don't think the clinic is prepared for Big Foot. (I got to wear the plastic bags over my sandals too!)

In the studio for a Before photo. The photographer didn't say "smile".

The doc is just giving jabs to numb the skin. Me hubs acted like a baby and asked to be put to sleep. The doc declined

We had to wait a short while before the doc start CUTTING the mole out. I think me hubs is stoned. (on imaginary drugs)

I didn't get to witness the actual surgery. It was over very quickly. The bandage gave me a fright though. Can you imagine how scary he would look if he had removed all 3 moles at once?

We got to bring home the excised mole. The hair is still intact. I knew the kids would be grossed out. Couldn't wait to show them! It'll be one week before the stitches come off and we can see what the scar looks like.

Exciting day for me. Now, you all remember why you came to my blog in the first place? Yes, my bags. I have one to show you.

It's another of my one-ring wonder bag. But look at the gorgeous blue. Another cotton canvas from kiyohara.

It's the bottom shot again! I'm getting just a tiny bit tired of making bottoms this way.

It's a recessed zipper bag. If you're wondering what the bit of red in the lining is, it's the pocket. See you guys real soon.

Whatcha doin?

2011-10-08T21:45:00.002+08:00

It's Saturday night in Singapore. It's been cloudy and cold all day - no chance of taking any pics. Yesterday I was at MAAD and it was kind of a weird day.

First of all, I went for a jog and came home exhausted. I hadn't jogged for a week and one week was all it took to put me out of shape. After messing around for a while, I took a nap at 10am thinking I'll get a power nap of at most 30 minutes and then I'll pack my luggage for maad. It became a 2 hour snooze.

I don't know how I managed to squeeze shower, lunch, packing luggage but I managed to leave for maad at my usual time. It was Children's Day so my girl came along with me. (she volunteed although she did grumble about not having any free time) Amazingly, I caught a taxi right away and it went the short way and I arrived at red dot early. There was a queue. I've never arrived this early before.

Some people use objects to queue. I discovered I don't like arriving early and queuing.

It rained. All the folks selling by the road had to move into the museum. It was cramped. The live singing and dj moved to the back of the museum. The portrait painters moved to a different location.

The fengshui was totally changed. I think I got the table of DEATH because my sales was very sad. I was very disappointed. It was also Crazy Hair Day for me.

The museum is really dark. Know why? The bright lights are switched OFF. I think it's time I invest in some small but bright lights. Ikea here I come.

I saw these exhibits which I thought was really cool. Would you believe they are tupperware? Yes, the overrated plastic containers.

I managed to make one more bag since my last post. It's a one-ring-wonder. I modified the shape a little to give it a wider base. No, it didn't sell. But there was a tiny bit of interest.

It's made of cotton canvas. I love the green leaves! The fabric is manufactured by kiyohara.

I hope you don't mind me showing you the bag bottom. It's a current fetish of mine.

My next craft market is on 29th and 30th October. That means I have loads of free time to devote to my ePatterns. All I need is for the sun to come out bright and shining like it should. I will work on 2 ePatterns next two weeks. Oh, I met a guy seller at maad. He owns monster gallery. I have signed up to learn rubber stamp making from him. That's next Saturday. I have tried making moulds on my own but they're really crappy. Hopefully I will be able to pick up the basics from him. Also, I have a free bag tute coming up. If all the stars are lined up perfectly, I should be able to publish it this month. I'll see you soon.

You likey stripey?

2011-10-05T18:58:00.000+08:00

Fellas,

Today was quite an unusual day for us. In the morning, we took hubs to see a mole specialist.

But first we got terribly lost. Me hubs said, "Blame google map." We went to the wrong hospital. Google is no longer our friend!

Despite getting directions to walk to the right building on foot, we still went the wrong way. Finally, the nice lady who gave us directions drove us to the building. We are pathetic!

Me hubs is hoping to have 3 facial moles removed. But the doc is only willing to do one first. See where the rocket is pointing at? That's the first to go. Turned out the moles me hubs has are not easy to remove. They have to be cut out. Ouch. There will be a scar. It is not cheap. Consultation alone is $71. The surgery is $173 minimum for the each mole. It will cost more than that after adding miscellaneous like gloves, tissue paper. I don't know, just guessing.

The doc was worried me hubs might fret about his fengshui changing for the worse after removal of his mole. I don't think me hubs ever thinks about his fengshui.

We helped hubs kill time as it was too early for him to go to work.

We saw the movie Contagion. This is the kind of movie in which you will see a lot of familiar actors - some you couldn't place but are vaguely familiar. You know, that guy from, from.....

This movie reminds me of SARS. My girl was in K1 when SARS hit. Many parents kept their kids at home. Not me. I sent my girl to school every day. Only a few students showed up. It was a blessing in disguise. The teacher gave my girl a lot of attention. She won "Best Girl" for her class that year.

We had time to look around Orchard. I finally got to see the offensive ad which is making some folks in Singapore as well as a powerless Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) mad last week. Please tell me. Are you offended by the ad below?

Ah, here it is in its magnificence. The offensive Abercrombie & Fitch ad of a topless man. I must say dear readers. I am terribly offended by this ad. Terribly offended. Who is this desirable ~~hunk~~ man? How dare he show off his heavenly bod! And where may I download this ad for my wallpaper?

pic from Strip

And what about this ad Unfurgivable which some folks are offended by as well? I'll be honest. I did not understand the fuss because all I saw was a fur handbag. Today me hubs explained it to me.
hehehehe.

hehehehe.

hehehehe.

We had a couple of minutes to pop into newly opened H&M. It was nice that there was no queue to enter the store. I don't quite understand the fuss over H&M. But I think I'll go back again. I saw a pair of bell-bottomed jeans I really like.

Over the weekend I made a few stripey items. Here they are.....

Stripes look good on a crescent bag.

Good ol' curvy wristlet.

Two simple zip pouches to round up.

This Friday I'll be back at MAAD selling my bags and pouches. Details below:

Maad Pyjamas
7th October 2011 Friday
5pm to midnight

@red dot design museum
28 Maxwell Road, red dot Traffic, Ground Floor
Singapore

See ya.

I need a clone

2011-10-03T14:56:00.000+08:00

Dear lovely readers of mine,

It's October already? Why does time fly when you don't have enough of it? I need another pair of hands. To take care of all the menial work. It's the last quarter of the year and time to really start stocking up. It's also time to start thinking about craft markets for Christmas. This October alone, I have 3 days of craft markets. That means weeks of sewing. Honestly, I'm not complaining. It's always good to have a market date to sew for. Feels more purposeful.

This past week hasn't been that good for me. I think it's the pressure from the end of primary school exams my girl is sitting for. Tomorrow is the last day! I'm practically incubating her so she doesn't fall sick. It's just an exam which decides which secondary school she gets to go to.

In Singapore, at the end of primary 6, kids sit for an exam for English language, mother tongue, science and math. A T-score is generated based on the marks earned and calibrated against their peers. This T-score is then used to qualify for a secondary school. Schools which are more successful will have higher cut-off T-score. The worst ones will take in anyone who applies.

The way the teachers and schools go on about it, it's like the kids are sitting for the Imperial Exam. There's so much unnecessary stress and we parents have to fork out ransoms to pay for extra lessons at private tuition centres. Why? Because the exams are pitched at a a higher level than what's taught in schools. My opinion? The meritocracy in singapore education system SUCKS! What it has produced are elitism and crappy secondary schools which nobody wants to go to. Wouldn't it be great if kids could attend secondary schools near their homes without having to check if they meet the cut-off exam score? Geez, what gives schools the right to exclude kids based on grades? How did Singaporeans let this even happen? Yes, I'm just ranting. Just one more day.

When my son entered secondary one, he said to me that if he had learnt the secondary one syllabus in primary six, the primary six exams would have been a breeze. I'm sure the kids who were hot-housed found it a breeze.

Remember my skulls challenge with me hubs which I won? Thought I'll show you a pic of him eating his words or should I say money he lost.

Isn't he sweet? Hamming it up for the camera?

You recall I had some cardholders for sale? Well, well. I had 4 unsold ones and I displayed them when I was at 313@Somerset. I didn't manage to sell them on Friday and Saturday and me hubs said and I quote:

I wish you wouldn't display them for sale. NO ONE will buy them.

Unfortunately, I did not have my shark-mode on because I did not say:

Care to make that a bet?

Because I sold the 2 top ones on Sunday. I have to be more vigilant in future. Can't believe I missed the chance to make another $100 off me hubs.

I've been quite pre-occupied with my sling bags. It's going to be a ePattern soon. I already have the sizing perfect. All I need is 1 week of free time to create the pdf. Yes, yes, I know. I work very slowly. Here are three new ones.

Skulls and roses

Blue Momo

Psuedo patchwork

Hey, has anyone other than Miranda noticed the changes on my blog? I made the blog header HUGE, changed the font for the text and changed the sizing of the page and sidebar. I'm using the new blogger editor so changing the fonts is really easy. But for the sizing of the page and sidebar, because my template is really old like 2004 old, I had to modify the html. I am not a fan of html. I feel the same way about html as when I have to unclog the toilet or pipes. See you soon.

One ring good, two rings better

2011-09-30T15:45:00.001+08:00

My dear blog readers,

How are you all? Everyone okay?

I was staring at my pile of fabric remnants and feeling really sick of moving them around because I've run out of space to store them. I realised that I had to either throw them away or give them away. Unfortunately the second option is turning me a little paranoid. I see the look of fear in the people whom I constantly dump my scraps on whenever I approach them. Throwing them away is out of the question because it's like throwing away money. So I did the next best thing. I used them to make a bag.

I used the Ikea remnants first because they take up a lot of space. I had the butterfly fabric, the leaves fabric, the peacock fabric and the grey roses fabric. Although these fabric are in the black, white and grey, I was a little worried that mixing them together might not work. But I think it worked out quite well. Some of the larger remnants were of very odd shape and creating a patchwork wasn't as easy as I imagined.

What do you think? I sewed a few running stitches as I thought the left side looked a little bare.

This is the other view. This was a lot harder to patch as there were curved remnants.

If you're thinking this bag looks familiar, it's really my One-wooden-ring bag but this time I used 2 rings. I'm calling this my Two-ring-better bag. I left the handle adjustable.

This is the side view.

The bag closure is recessed zipper. I used the grey roses for the lining. Bear is pleased with the result. Tell me - do you love it, hate it or don't really care? See you soon.

One blog seven views

2011-09-28T20:10:00.002+08:00

Do you embrace change or are you someone who needs to be dragged through any itsy bit of change? Or are you, like me, a wait-and-see kind of person? I'm referring to technological changes in particular in the internet.

Have you heard? Blogger now provides seven dynamic views for your blog. What does that mean? It means that a reader now has the option to view a Blogger blog content in seven different ways. That is, if the blog owner has enabled the dynamic view ability. Right now, I have not enabled the dynamic view for a few reasons which I'll go into later. But I'll give you a preview of what my blog could look like in future. Yes, sort of like a crystal ball.

But before that, dynamic views only work if:

Your blog is public. Meaning no sign-in.
Your blog feeds are fully enabled. In the Settings | Site feed tab, you have enabled either Full or Jump Break for your Post Feed.

Here's the preview of the seven views of my blog:

Classic View

The classic view is pretty much what you're used to already. Except for one very important extra - infinite scrolling. Infinite scrolling means scrolling through the pages without having to click on a page or "older posts". And even after clicking on a specific post, infinite scrolling is still possible because you are really looking at one big giant page.

Flipcard view

You either love or hate the flipcard view. It's great for blogs with lots of pics. Each pic points to a blog post. Infinite scrolling works when you are in the flipcard view - meaning you could scroll through the images. But once you've clicked on a specific post, you only see one post and the infinite scrolling is lost until you close the post and go back to the flipcard view.

Magazine view

I'm not impressed by the magazine view. I don't really care how the posts are laid out. Other than the layout, it's similar to flipcard. Once you click on a specific post, the infinite scrolling ability is gone.

Mosaic view

I can't tell the difference between flipcard and mosaic. The funtions are similar.

Sidebar view

Sidebar view looks promising. However infinite scrolling only works on the sidebar. I'm getting obsessed with infinite scrolling!

Snapshot view

In Snapshot view, all the pics of each post is shown. Other than this difference, it has the same functions as Snapshot and Mosaic.

Timeslide view

Timeslide view is a blogger's dream. It pulls together all posts by the month. Reading all my posts through the years won't be so hard then!

What do you think of the seven dynamic views? Which ones do you like? One other thing you probably didn't get from the images of the above views is this: The reader gets to choose the view. It's totally in her control.

If you own a Blogger blog and would like to preview the dynamic views of your blog, you can go here to enter your blog name and it's totally safe, no worries. Look for the word "Preview".

Before you excitedly go off to enable dynamic views for your Blogger blog, let me tell you the reasons why I haven't done it for mine.

The sidebar disappears along with all my ads and widgets.
The header looks different and my header ad disappears.

Once Blogger rolls out the option to customise the header and sidebar, I'm in. Until then, I'm sticking to my static view.

You know what I wished Blogger had done instead? Allowed the blog owner the option to limit the views for her blog. I really like to have control over what the reader sees. Of the seven views, I believe most of my readers will just use Classic or, Sidebar. Those new to my blog might go for Timeslide.

p.s. If you're enabling dynamic view for your blog, I beg you - please keep a copy of your BEFORE template. At least if you don't like your new look, you can always revert.

I'm not friends with the sun anymore

2011-09-26T20:59:00.000+08:00

Dear people who read my blog,

How was your weekend? Want to hear me whine about mine? First of all, I wish to declare that from today onwards, I will no longer do outdoors craft markets. Please remind me if I should forget. I do recall making such a declaration a year ago but I soon forgot about it.

I am not a outdoorsy kind of person. You know that right? I don't do camping. I don't do picnics. I'm an indoor kind of person. There has to be a roof, a door and preferably air-conditioning. Clearly I forgot all that. After spending 3 days outdoors over the weekend manning my stall, let me just say this. I am such a freaking princess!

The craft market was just 5 counters right in the middle of a path used by many pedestrians to get from one building to another. The whole day, people just streamed past us in droves. It was not easy to get people to stop and have a look around. I can understand why. It was hot and humid.

Table on Friday

I was hot and humid. Sweat poured out of me all the time. I drank water and juice the whole day just to keep myself hydrated.

5 Reasons Why I Shouldn't Do Outdoor Craft Market

- I die without air-conditioning
- There are insects
- People smoke in front of you
- The sun
- I develop bra rash

I have recovered from my bra rash, thank you. The trouble with open spaces is it attracts smokers who make it their smoking corners and they have no issue smoking a few steps away from you. In addition, it attracts couples who have public display of affection issue. They neck in front of you. I mean, really go at it. For minutes.

I only had to man my stall for 5 hours on Friday. 5 hours really dragged especially when my sales really stank. It didn't help that sales for the seller on my right was spectacular.

Well, all Friday evening, I started at this poster at a cafe a few steps away from my stall. Guess what I had for dinner?

It came in a really long plate. The luncheon meat was nice. The egg was good. But the rest of it was too oily. Still I finished everything.

Entertainment came in the form of returning birds. Just a few steps in front of my stall is an open-air car park where there are many tall trees. These trees are home to birds. Not 1 bird. Not 2 birds. Not 10 or 20 birds. But a GAZILLION birds. And they return home to roost TOGETHER. Not quietly either. Every darn bird twitting away. I felt like I was going completely deaf. But if I were completely deaf, I wouldn't be able to hear a GAZILLION birds twitting.

And for 3 evenings, I sat thru' the Coming Home cacaphony.

Table on Saturday

I spent 12 hours at the stall on Saturday. It was mercilessly hot and humid. Although I kept myself hydrated, I think I passed out a few times. Or maybe fell asleep. I couldn't tell the difference. At some point, I fantasized smoking pot. No, not the illegal kind of pot. I live in Singapore you know - where drug possession (over a certain weight) means death by hanging if caught. You understand I live a very clean life. I don't smoke - not even second hand smoke, I don't drink and I don't even listen to heavy metal. 2 tablets of panadol is all it takes to get me high as a kite.

But last Saturday, I hallucinated about smoking pot - the cooking pot kind. Though I don't know how it can be smoked. Alright, I'll admit the fantasy wasn't well thought out. Well, my body was kinda over-heated so it's understandable. Fortuanately sales was not bad so I was brought to my senses from time to time when a customer bought from me. Shaken awake more likely.

Sunday was a litle less hot. But I was still traumatised from the previous day's heat and over-compensated with the drinks. This aloe vera ice blended drink really spoke to me. I definitely over drank because I had to keep peeing.

My stall is next to a Charlie Brown cafe and almost every minute, someone is posing next to Snoopy for a pic.

When I started taking pics of unattractive plants, I knew I was thoroughly bored. Sunday's sales dropped but was still better than Friday's.

Overall, the people who stopped by my stall were pretty nice. I only had one bad experience. This foreign lady wanted to buy one of my larger bags. She was unwilling to pay the stated price. She offered to pay for the bag in her currency. Not at an equivalent rate but an amount she was willing to pay. (I checked the exchange rate when I went home and she had given herself a $15 discount!) I declined her offer and told her I couldn't give her a discount. Then she reasoned that after a currency conversion, my bag would be very costly to her. I still wouldn't budge. How could her country's weak currency be my concern? But I kept this thought to myself. Rather miffed, the lady pointed to the top stitches on my bag and asked if I used a sewing machine to sew the stitches. I said yes, of course.

She jerked her thumb at my HANDMADE signage and said, "and you say Handmade!"

That was her parting shot. Yeah, she TOLD me. Apparently, I can't call my stuff handmade seeing how I use a sewing machine! Well, sticks and stones may break my bones, at least she didn't steal from me!

Hung like an elephant

2011-09-21T20:44:00.000+08:00

I invest a lot of time watching TV sitcoms and TV police series. It is always disappointing to me when the shows I follow get cancelled or an actor leaves a series. The last two years been traumatising for me TV-wise. First, Law and Order died. Then Law and Order: LA died. Then Charlie Harper got killed by a train in Two and a half men.

If this carries on, I may have to stop watching TV altogether. So I was very interested to see if Ashton Kutcher could persuade me to carry on with Two and a half men. As it turned out, he could. Because, did you know? Ashton Kutcher is hung like an elephant. That's right. Like an elephant. Not hung like a horse. Not hung like a killer whale. Thank goodness not hung like a donkey. But hung like an elephant.

So I'm sticking around. To see more of that elephant.

Speaking of elephants, for some strange reasons, when I hear "hung like an elephant", I immediately visualise a curvy elephant trunk.

Wow, this week is going too fast for me. I've been sewing every day and I feel like there aren't enough hours for me to sew. Do you ever feel this way sometimes? When you have all the time in the world, you can't motivate yourself to make anything. But when you have limited amount of time, you end up with boundless energy.

I made 10 zip pouches. Yep, that's how much energy I have. I made them in 1 day.

No worries. I have nothing to prove with this skulls and roses zip pouch.

Placement of the hearts is a little off.

I could look at this fabric all day.

The rest are familiar fabric which I can't seem to use up.

I made an exciting bag. I know it doesn't look it. It's a simple rectangular messenger crossbody bag. But....

In the past, I would make such a bag with a magnetic snap for closure. Yesterday, I tinkered with the zipper installation and viola! I have a zippered messenger bag. This bag is really exciting for me because I have developed a new and easy way to install a recessed zipper in a bag. For me, when I make a bag, it's not just about the functionality or the look. It's also about the amount of time it takes me to make it. Naturally, faster is better. Looks like you're going to see more of such bags in future. I'm also thinking of doing a ePattern but one day at a time.

Lastly, I'm going to be busy this weekend. From Friday to Sunday I'll be selling my bags and stuff at a local mall. Yes, I know I just did a craft market but let's be honest. While I like to pretend I'm running a business, it's in reality a very expensive hobby. And in order to support this hobby, I do need to go out and sell and make some money.

The hours are very long for this gig. I'll bring stuff to occupy my time for sure. It's my first time selling here so the usual questions apply - where's the toilet, where can I get my tea and what's the crowd like. Where I'll be located will be about 400 metres away from newly opened H&M. Do you have a H&M where you live? Is it overrated? Me hubs thinks it has my kind of clothes - you know the kind for a longish upper body. Maybe I'll have time to go have a look-see. Details of my gig below:

Venue: 313@Somerset
(Level 1, at the discovery walk, beside Charlie Brown Cafe)
Friday 6pm to 11pm
Sat 12pm to 11pm
Sun 12pm to 10pm

If you are in Singapore, swing by and buy something, won't you? I'll see you next week and give you the highs and lows. By the way, September 25th will mark 4 years of blogging for Projects By Jane. I will do a giveaway sometime next week. So come back, come back.

Sorry no cure

2011-09-19T21:25:00.000+08:00

Hello,

What did you do over the weekend? Me? I made 6 reversible drawstring pouches.

I've been desperately trying to increase my stock as I feel rather nervous about Christmas approaching. Yes, you heard it right. Christmas is coming in about 3 months and I hadn't been vigilant about keeping my stock at a decent level. If I don't start making stuff to add to my stock now, I will feel very pathetic in December. Ideally I would like to have 100 items on hand by December but that's an impossible figure to achieve. I don't have the energy. Like over the weekend, I was aiming for 10 drawstring pouches but 6 was all I could manage. I realise that when I make anything in batches, I feel drained more easily. Still I have to try as hard as I can to increase my stock.

This time around, I went a little crazy with power over the mix and match choices. I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Don't the pouches look like little puppies just chilling? Let me introduce them, starting from green polka dot, clock-wise - Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Janet and last but not least, Michael.

Last week in Singapore, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) caused an uproar with a unpopular decision.

Its CEO, cancelled a popular 6-year old "Halloween Horrors" event at the Night Safari
- 2 weeks before it was launched
- after selling 1000 tickets
- after a group of final year Polytechnic had spent 7 months working on it as their gradeable project
- after spending $1 million

The CEO said sorry. Halloween had nothing to do with conservation. Then she remembered the President just attended a mid-Autumn festival held at the zoo. And we all know the mooncake festival has nothing to do with conservation. So now, the spin is - events need to have an Asian focus and be family-centric.

The CEO said sorry. No one told her the students' work would be graded.

The CEO clarified that there were no religious reasons behind the cancellation but she did indeed say
"a lot of money spent on an infrastructure (Haunted House) of devil worship". In addition she added that there were "controversies about the 31 October festival, where some U.S. schools even ban Halloween events."

I only know Halloween from TV and movies. As far as I can tell, it's a harmless tradition which is meant to be fun. I don't associate devil worship with a Halloween haunted house. Plus, we live in Singapore where 1 month out of every year, businesses and individuals deligently go about spending huge sums of money to stage events and burn paper products to "feed" the hungry ghosts. And I'm saying it's an accepted practice. If you can live with "feeding" the hungry ghosts, how can you be offended by a haunted house?

And I'm always unimpressed when anyone says, the US this or the US that. It sounds more like the person ran out of anything substantial to back up her decision.

This brings to mind an exchange between me and a customer when I was out selling my bags. A customer admired one of my pouches but expressed reservations about the animal print I had used. I asked her what her concerns were. Her reply? She was afraid the animal had a spirit in it.

What!? I assured her the animal print is just a print. And there were no spirits in my bags. I wasn't even keen on her buying the pouch as I honestly didn't want to be drawn into any spiritual debates. When I make a bag, I only care if it looks cool or not cool. She did buy the pouch eventually although I can't imagine why with all the reservations. I guess that's how awesome my bags are.

You can never have too much storage space

2011-09-17T00:38:00.001+08:00

Hello friends and strangers,

A few days ago I had a real big scare. I tried to upload a photo to my blog and was informed gleefully by Blogger that I had run out of space. How is that possible? Me run out of space in blogland? But there's endless space in the net. Right? Right?

Oh dear folks. I've been so ignorant. Apparently I'm only allocated 1GB of free space to keep my images and stuff. What!? 1 GB? Still, 1 GB is a lot of space. I can't believe I've used it all. What on earth have I been uploading? And just to be clear, you get 1 GB per google account.

I started to panic over the thought of losing my blog. I mean I love my blog. No, really, really love. Like in love. It's my baby. First thing I do in the morning, I check that it's still breathing. Last thing I do at night, I check that it's still breathing.

Now you see the awful fear creeping all over me? Me hubs suggested I delete some unwanted images from picasa which stores my images. Okay, hold your horses. Before you gallop off to merrily delete, just know that deleting the images from picasa will delete them from your blog. So you could easily end up with a blog with no images! There's no UNDO so be careful.

Deleting the images from picasa involves checking each post and getting rid of duplicates and unwanted images. Sounds easy? It's an impossible task. Picasa doesn't tell you which images are linked to which post. After 5 minutes, I gave up. I decided giving google US$5/year for an additional 20GB of space is totally worth it. Yes, Google sells space too. I bet you thought they just sell searches.

Today I received notification my extra space has come in and to my utter delight, I have 27 GB which means an additonal 7 GB! How did that happen? Wow, now I have all these space, I'm no longer feeling like I have to be nervous about uploading many images.

Coincidentally, I wanted to write a post about how I store my sewing supplies. For the past 2 weeks, I had been trying to tidy up my sewing supplies. It started with me moving a chest of drawers from my sewing table to the floor. Just 1 move and I ended up spending the whole day moving stuff from the drawers to elsewhere. You understand I'm not de-cluttering because I "need" the stuff.

This was the elsewhere some of my stuff had to go to. I re-discovered this DIY stacked boxes which I bought from Ikea 12 years ago.

Here are my frequently used sewing machine needles and sewing needles. The ones I rarely use are kept in some other boxes.

I have a lot of wooden rings for my one-ring wonder bags. On the right are my ink.

Despite a limited storage space in my home, I have the inability to junk some of my stuff especially when I've had them for years and never used them. These handy needle? I was attracted by the name. Thought they would come in handy. Turned out I couldn't find any use for them. But I keep hanging on to them thinking one day, they would come in handy. Do you own these as well?

I personally feel this is one of my best ideas for storage. See I have floating sewing machine needles which have not been used enough times to be thrown away. I used to just chuck them aside and each time I needed to use them, I had to squint just to see the size of the needles. What a waste of time! I just stick white batting to the box and the numbers represent the sizes. See how HANDY it is?

This mooncake box is now home to my bobbins. I like to create little compartments.

My sewing machine thread used to be in 1 giant shoe box but it got too unmanageable. I had other storage methods for my sewing machine thread in the past but they all failed. This current method works as I can find the colour I want easily. They stack up too so it saves on space. What I would really like is to store the bobbin with the corresponding top thread. I tried it once using sticks and styrofoam. It lasted until the styrofoam gave way.

My embroidery thread is a complete utter mess. I wound them in cardboard and put them in the little cubicles. The cookie container keeps the unopened thread.

These 2 mooncake boxes are home to my zippers. I'm afraid to say there's no better way to store zippers than using a rubber band to tie them by sizes. The ones in the blue box are my continuous zippers which I buy by the yard. If you think I have a lot of zippers, I do use them up pretty fast.

These 2 recently acquired mooncake boxes have been put to good use. The pink one is for my velcro. See how useful the compartments are? I'm not a velcro person. They stick. I prefer other closure methods. But they're good to have around because you don't want to run out to the shops everytime you need something. The deep red box has no compartments but I've made my own. These are good for my sewing notions. Notice the heart key? I wonder why I kept it?

This hat box is perfect for my rope and string. I keep straps on the cover of the hat box. I have no idea why I own so much rope and strings.

I used to buy a lot of these $2 boxes but the novelty has worn off. Also, I really dislike the "liver spots" which appear on the inside. This one keeps my elastic. For someone who doesn't use elastic, I sure own a lot. Mostly inherited stuff and a couple of impulse buys.

These are at best 20% of my sewing supplies. I'm quite a hoarder and not very tidy. If you have any ideas for storage to help keep me sane, do let me know.

Wow, this post is image heavy again. Looks like I'm already squandering my 27GB. But this time, I made sure to delete the uploaded images I don't use! See you soon. Have a great weekend.

iPhone zip pouch ePattern is here

2011-09-13T20:41:00.001+08:00

Hi friends,

Do you suffer from zipperphobia? Symptoms include cursing, irritation, UnFinishedObjects and poor finishing. When I produced my iPhone zip pouch ePattern, I had in mind folks with zipperphobia and yes, I have the cure. Even if you don't fear the zipper, this little ePattern will suit you. I do the thinking for you. You don't have to crack your brains to figure this one out.

That's right folks. My iPhone zip pouch ePattern is finally out. And as always, I'm pimping it.

I had planned to launch the ePattern by August but it seems I'm still pretty fussy when it comes to photos and little details. I hope that by my third ePattern, I would have become more efficient.

Of course this zip pouch has all its raw seams hidden.

Each zip pouch takes an hour at most for beginners. Once you get the hang of it, you could easily whip them out at half the time. The best bit? You only need a small amount of fabric - a great way to get rid of your remnants.

A big thanks to my testers. They did all the hard work! Do me a big favour and go to my Etsy shop and heart this ePattern or buy it! Thank you. Muah! See you in a couple of days.

One Friday in the life of a MAAD seller

2011-09-11T12:39:00.000+08:00

Hi folks,

This was petty much how Friday 9th September went....

@1:24pm I decided it was more important to post my money bag on facebook than to finish packing up.

First time using this bag. I love it! It's such a handy sling bag that I want every seller to own one. This one was made specially to cater to my large wallet. The "name tag", cat brooch and little bird house are from Momshoo.

@2:15pm I headed out to catch a taxi. Fingers crossed.

I'm always happy when me hubs is around to help me lug the luggage around. He's a really strong guy.

@2:26pm Reached my strategic spot to catch a taxi. Another family had the same idea. I queued up behind them as I didn't want to fight with them for a taxi. But man! They're terrible at flagging taxis. Finally, I decided to help them get one. I started waving at every taxi that went past and that got them terribly nervous and they too started waving at every taxi that went past. Wow, what a relief when they finally got into one. I thought I struck gold when I got a very clean and cheery looking red taxi.

Wrong. He took me for a ride. A very long, expensive scenic ride. When I finally arrived at red dot design museum, most of the sellers had already taken up their spots.

@3:15pm Went in search of a pharmacy. It seems I was car sick from the long taxi ride and my head pounded like crazy. I'm always forgetting to bring something and this time it was my medication.

@5pm Table was finally set up. Tried a different way of hanging my stuff. Still very much in need of better ideas. The medication worked like magic. I felt pretty good.

@5:57pm My first customer! Janet, Janet, Janet. Check out her necklace. p.s. her new items match her bag.

The rest of the night was quite low-key. No sight of celebrities or the elected president. My sister came and so did Su. Had a nice chat with them. The traffic wasn't like the previous month. But interestingly, my total sales went up. My guess is this round there were more serious buyers. And that's a good thing. Then it happened.........

@8:50pm I could barely contain my excitement. I wanted to scream and shout and scream and shout but I controlled myself. You see, ladies. Long, long time ago, on January 24th this year, okay, not so long ago, me hubs said and I quote:

No woman would buy a bag made in the skulls and roses fabric at MAAD

When I first saw the Alexander Henry skulls and roses fabric, I knew it would be hard to sell bags made in the fabric. But you know me. I can't say No to a challenge. And the "worst" part which I hadn't revealed to anyone? The fabric seller confessed to me that she had trouble selling the fabric on account of the skulls. And you know what? When she asked if I could buy the entire amount of the skulls fabric she had, I said YES. It wasn't that much really.

So, the challenge of selling this Alexander Henry skulls and roses fabric crossbody bag has been met. Me hubs has to EAT HIS WORDS and give me $100. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

If you're wondering, I did not tell the young lady, I think her name is Ida about the challenge. I didn't want to scare her with this crazy story. I can understand how strange I may come across.

And she said and I quote:

Wow, this is so cool!

Why do I keep accepting such challenges?

@10pm My family arrived. They did not come the previous round so I was happy to see them. I immediately told hubs the skulls and roses bag had been sold and you know what? He said he'd completely forgotten about the challenge. In fact he had no memory of the challenge! Can you believe it? But don't worry. He'll cough up the money.

@10:38pm My kids manned my table while me hubs and I went to explore.

This part of the museum is where the music, singing and drinking take place.

Guess what this "lady" is selling? Woooooooo!

@11.08pm Just killing time. Someone thought it was a good idea to take a pic of me from the back. Next to me is Mandy of Forest Flame- the hat lady.

@11:13pm Completely bored, me hubs went off to explore the exhibits with my girl.

He's washing his hands.

He's washing his hair.

He's a mannikin.

@11:23pm This is how the kids kill time. Plus another shot of me from the back!

@11:37pm Group photo. (my girl is in her "hates photo taking" stage) Just hanging around waiting for 12 midnight.

The night ended well. We managed to get a taxi driver who drove fast via the shortest route. Let's do this again on October 7! See you.

This and that

2011-09-08T19:42:00.000+08:00

Hellooooo!

Tomorrow I'll be selling my bags at maad and I should be packing my stuff and price tagging. Instead I'm sitting here thinking over my taxi ride to maad in August. I think I was shortchanged. I'm quite a slow fuse, aren't I? Red dot design museum is located in the central business district so entering it meant having to pay the entry fee which is electronically deducted via a cash cash inserted in a special gadget on the taxi. Well, my driver ran out of cash in his cash card. He did not tell me this when I boarded the taxi. Instead halfway thru' he told me casually he needed to go find a gas station to top up. I was like, do I have a choice? Besides, he said he could give me a discount. At the gas station, he took note of the meter reading and when he came back he pointed to the meter and said 40cents which is the amount it ran up while he topped up. I still had no idea what it meant until I paid up at my destinatiion. 40 cents was the total discount he gave me! But he detoured off the expressway to go to the gas station. What a guy. I'm just hoping tomorrow I won't get a driver who doesn't top up his cash card before starting his shift.

While on the subject of shortchanging, some time ago, this happened to me while I was selling. A woman wanted to buy one of my pouches. She kept haggling but I did not give her a discount. Finally she paid the full price. She walked away but came back again. She took another of my pouches, said her friend would love it and said "that" was her discount. To my amazement, she took off with it. As she walked away she had the nerve to turn back and smile at me. I was so stunned that I did not chase her. Does her behaviour surprise you? I would not believe it if I hadn't witnessed it for myself. I mean, would she walk into a departmental store, grab an extra item and say "that's my discount"? I doubt it.

I had been wanting to make a metal frame purse for a long time but somehow never got started. Yesterday, I spent the entire day making it. I looked up Sweet Bee Buzzing's tute to make the pattern.

Mine is a sew-in frame so no glueing is required. What I don't like about sewing the frame onto the purse is there are holes on the outside but on the inside, it's solid metal. Your needle keeps hitting the metal. And even though I try to hide them, some of my stitches are visible. Plus my purse is too thin so I had to stuff cotton thread into the frame and to seal it, I used a plier to crimp.

Which resulted in very, very sore hands. I think next time I will use a hammer to seal the frame. I'm gifting the purse to myself so I can testdrive it.

I received another mooncake box. Isn't it stunning? Are you wondering what I do with all the boxes I receive? It requires its own post. Coming up.....

Have I ever told you how terrified my kids are of eating pastries which are too creative? They only eat the generic looking ones. Anything fancy they will not touch.

These 3 are pretty good examples of muffins my kids won't eat. Me hubs brought them home and they're just sitting in the fridge. To be honest, I'm with my kids for these muffins. They look pretty scary.

See you soon.

No peeing in public please, we're civilised

2011-09-06T22:38:00.001+08:00

Dear readers of mine,

What have you been up to lately? This week is a 1-week school break in Singapore. It means I have to get used to the sight of my kids playing some kind of electronic games all day. In my days, I spent my school break reading.

Nothing much has happened in Singapore. The most "exciting" thing that happened? A local actress, Mindee Ong caught 2 drunk and urgent caucasian men urinating in public, one of whom was doing it on the rear wheel of her car! She shouted at the guy defacing her car to stop it (is it possible?). He simply waved his sad bits at her and said something offensive. She called the police and just like in the movies, the police arrived after the 2 men had taken off. So sadly, we will never know the identity of the 2 men who peed in public. More importantly, we will never find out the penalty for urinating in public in Singapore.

This got me thinking. What are the things I can't do in public. I mean, can you urinate in public? I know I can't pee even if I were in a jungle surrounded by trees and darkness. I know I can't pee even if I were in a drain where no one can see me. I know I can't pee even in a public toilet if it stinks, is filthy or the flush doesn't work.

These are the 5 things I can't do in public:
1. Pee
2. Sing
3. Dig my nose
4. Dance
5. Make out

It's a good thing I have no issues with selling my bags in public because I have another craft market coming up this Friday at MAAD.

My 2nd time at MAAD Pyjamas, red dot design museum from 5pm to midnight.

I made a few more cardholders for sale at maad.

Each cardholder comes with plastic sleeves. After making 5 of these, I got really sick of it. What to make next? Come back and find out, won't you? See you in a couple of days.

Full moon uprising

2011-09-04T22:09:00.000+08:00

Hey fellas,

The dreaded Mooncake Festival is here again. It goes by different names. The Mid-Autumn Festival. The Lantern Festival. It's all the same. A very commercially driven festival. I can just imagine the moon cake sellers marking the calendar till they are able start selling the over-priced, overly sweet mooncakes. Some of the "premium" mooncakes go for a handsome ransom, enough to feed my 2 kids for a month.

Mooncakes are literally round as the festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month and on the 15th day, the moon is full. What you see above are traditional mooncakes. The filling is white lotus seed paste with pine nuts.

These are modern mooncakes called snowskin. They come in many flavours like pumpkin above, yam, purple potato, durian (gross) and you name it.

Know how I can tell the festival is round the corner? You see mooncakes and lanterns sold EVERYWHERE in Singapore. I believe some bakeries started selling the mooncakes in mid August. There ought to be a law....The actual date of the festival this year is 12th September. Which reminds me. Next weekend, if I were to leave home, I have to wear my fireworks-proof outfit. It's very cool. It has dragons...

See, this is what I really hate about the Mooncake festival. Kids and some older ones believe it gives them the license to set off fireworks and give this lady here the fright of her life. I'm terrified of fireworks, sparklers and generally any loud noises. I also have the knack of walking into the path of fireworks.

For me, the only good thing about the Mooncake festival? The boxes these mooncakes come in are pretty fancy. I look forward to the ones me hubs rescue or receive. Here are 2 he gave me in August.

This box looks really nice on the outside but the inside is just a plain box. I'm a little disappointed so little effort went into the interior.

This pink box is quite usable for storage. I like the compartments! This box holds 4 large mooncakes. The exterior actually came with a fancy cutwork but I accidentally threw it away.

I'm sure you've read how social media played a huge part in the uprising in the middle east? Well, a long, long time ago, long before any of us was alive, during a period when men still wore gowns, mooncakes were the equivalent of twitter/facebook. Now I learnt this in primary school from my Chinese language teacher and it was in my text book so it must be true. And this was how the Mooncake Festival came about......

In the 14th century, the Chinese in China were under the Mongols rule. Haha. Yes, once upon a time, the Mongols were mightier than the Chinese. A guy, let's call him Mr Zhu and his deputy, let's call him Mr Liu developed a plan to seize a walled city. They left messages of a planned revolt in baked mooncakes. Mr Liu disguised himself maybe as a monk and was able to distribute the mooncakes to the Chinese folks in the walled city. The folks ate the mooncakes, saw the secret message and at the planned time, everyone (maybe not the women and kids) came together and took over the city. Mr Zhu eventually became the emperor and established the Ming dynasty. Of course there are other folk tales of how the festival came about but I like this one best.

So what have I made the last 2 days? Just a few more same ol' zip pouches.

I've used this Junichi Nakahara print before. The quality of this fabric is really unusual and I can't find a suitable lining. So I used the same fabric for the lining which is something I never do.

I really like this blue. I notice I don't buy a lot of blue fabric.

I'm a little bit sick of this fabric....

But I like the size of this coin pouch. Just perfect for those little bits of scrap. See you.

Something old, something dug up and something new

2011-09-01T19:13:00.000+08:00

Dear readers,

Yesterday a package came for me and it was from my blogger friend, Antmee. What's in the package? Something antique. I want to say "antiquish" but I don't think it's a real word. I gave her some scraps in return but I can't show you what they are as I just mailed them today. I will show you a few pieces of what I received.

These 2 pieces are cross stitch on linen. The first one has a border of crochet. The second one, I think the border is drawn-work - something I've never tried before.

These 3 pieces are mainly lazy daisies stitches on linen and for the last one, I think the fabric is a tightly woven cotton.

These 2 pieces are mainly satin stitches which is a stitch I'm very bad at. You need a lot of patience and precision.

I'm very impressed with this last piece mainly because the edging is made of tatting! Unfortunately, the whole piece is starched so it feels rather unnatural. Maybe it is a requirement to starch such items in the past?

I had the idea that I could make something new incorporating these "antiquish" pieces. But I'll be honest with you, I don't quite know where to start.

I dug up something I had embroidered a long time ago and forgotten.

I was really copying the embroidery style of my aunt-in-law. See the embroidery on the bonnet and shoe? I guess the UFO will make a good drawstring pouch?

This week my family participated in a ceremony to move the buried remains of two relatives to a new home. Singapore is a land scarce country. If your loved ones are buried, sooner or later, the land where the cemetery is will be reclaimed by the government and you'll be notified to cremate the remains. Yes, Singapore land is for the living to put it crudely. It happened to my father many years ago. One day me mom received notification to cremate his remains. I did not attend the ceremony as me mom often gives me a free pass. The land he was buried in soon became landed property for terrace houses. Hmmm, I wonder if the current residents knew?

On Monday, we had to move the remains of my FIL and me hub's granny. After the cremation, the remains were housed at a columbarium. I'll be honest. I'm ~~quite~~ very squeamish when it comes to the dead. But I was quite brave throughout. I did not faint at all. I guess I base a lot of what I know on movies and TV shows. I had the impression that after cremation, you get fine ash. Totally not true. What I saw was medium pieces of concrete. Hardly any ashes.

Okay, this part was quite gross. As part of the ceremony, we had to use our FINGERS to pick up a piece of the skull and place it in the urn. (literally move house, get it?) Which means we had to do it TWICE. I did it without fainting. My kids gamely did it without a fuss. Amazing. I guess I set the example. Good job, mom! Actually, the idea of touching the skull sounds worse than the actual act. It was no different from picking up a pebble. Swear.

Of course I boasted to me mom about touching the skull without fainting and you know what she said? For my father, she used chopsticks! She had a good laugh over us having to use our fingers.

I know that for some culture/religion, cremation is not allowed. I wonder if these people are allowed to be buried forever? As for me, I have told my family I want a cremation and I don't even want my remains to be kept. That's right, gone with the wind for me.

I hope I have not put you guys off with all these talk of dug-up remains and cremation. Let's look at something new, shall we?

I made another boxy zip bag. This time I lessened the bulk where the handles are. I did not break any needles but I'm still thinking there ought to be a more elegant way to sew the handles.

This is something I'm quite good at. Making simple functional wristlets. I'm very attracted to fresh, young colours and I think this fabric fits the bill. Normally, I would not want to add unnecessary details but somehow when I look at this wristlet, I just want to add a flap!

Today I am using the new blogger to write my post. It's making me nervous. Does anyone have problems with it?

Come September 25th, I would have been blogging for 4 years. I will do a giveaway to mark it. I'm considering giving away my scraps because I have too much! I've been giving my scraps to a few crafters who make small items in Singapore. I'm almost embarrassed to lump more on them. Would anyone want my scraps?

Same DNA

2011-08-30T18:22:00.000+08:00

Hello folks,

It's a lazy day in Singapore. The sky is overcast and very grey all day long. It is also a public holiday. Today is Hari Raya Puasa. So to all my muslim readers,

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Me mom told me once that she observed that it rains every Hari Raya Puasa. She has no statistics to back it up just her memory. Well, it hasn't rained today so she might be proven wrong. But the sky is quite dark at the moment so there's still a chance. If it doesn't rain, she'll definitely get a call from me tomorrow. Haha we do this every year.

I spoilt the day by making it a Clean The Flat Day. Fortunately the kids were very cooperative and did their fair share. There are only 4 of us living in this flat and somehow we manage to accumulate a lot of junk. I'm guilty of the most junk especially with my fabric and sewing supplies. I decided all the cleaning and mopping was my exercise for the day and I shall skip the dreaded jogging.

I completed 2 bags over the weekend. I used my fabric remants as I really dislike having bits and pieces lying around.

This is a bag I've made before. Remember the Crescent Bag? I did not try to make any changes to this bag other than adding a zip pocket in front.

This is the 2nd bag I made. Notice something familiar about this bag?

Maybe putting them side by side will help. Yes, the top half of the 2 bags are exactly the same. You could say, they have the same DNA? For the 2nd bag, I modified the bottom half to create a roomier bag. I straightened the curves a little and added a flat bottom. What do you think?

I think Bear enjoys sitting in it.

What I love is the bottom. I wanted a rectangular shape but with some softness. Bear loves it. Swear.

And the winner is...

2011-08-28T18:47:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

I saw on TV the might of Hurricane Irene and I hope everyone in the affected areas is safe. I feel lucky to live in Singapore. All we get are heat and humidity and that's nothing really.

Singapore's Presidential Election is over. The 4-horse race turned out to be a 2-horse race. 1 candidate lost his $48k deposit as he only received 4% of the votes. Poor guy. I won $100 betting on him losing his deposit. Yes, it's awful making money off somebody else's loss. But the poor chap didn't stand a chance. He had a poor image (loose canon) and even worse enunciation. Why didn't his supporters tell him?

In the end, the race was between 2 former ruling party members - one a heavy weight former cabinet member while the other was a member of parliament. So you could say, Singaporeans generally voted in a conservative manner. Based on the voting pattern in the recent 2 elections, it's clear to me Singaporeans prefer not to rock the boat.

These 2 Tans ran neck and neck till the final count. The winner, Tony Tan won by 7,269 votes which is a margin of only 0.3%. But no matter how narrow the margin is, the election is over and life as we know it will carry on.

Now for something I'm more familiar with - sewing. Another Houses something-something.

Originally, I wanted to make another card holder cover. When I made the previous card holder, I had scribbled down the cutting measurements on a scrap paper. Unfortunately, my handwriting was messy and I misread the numbers. So it turned out to be too small for a card holder.

I decided it would look good as a needlebook.

And as a "bonus" this needlebook comes with 2 side pockets. I've been working on a few curvy sexy zip bags. Come back and check them out in my next post. See ya.