LIVE SEAFOOD & CLOUDS

I went with my dad to a live seafood restaurant as they had half price off the menu. Dee-licious! You basically head off to the tanks and choose which marine animal you wanna eat. If not, the staff might serve you a semi-dead fish/crab to clear off stocks. Ok, I did have a tinge of guilt after I saw them being picked up but seafood tastes best frrrresh.

Marble Goby fried and served with a dose of soya sauce and spring onions. Crispy on outside, tender on inside.

Singapore's national dish - chilli crabs. This one is drowned in sweet chilli and egg, usually it's less gravy and you serve the gravy with bread or rice. It's wonderful, needless to say.

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Gotta work off those cholestrol, no more seafood for 2 weeks. I looked out of the window and the brilliant clouds caught my attention. I love evening skies.

SHINY SHINY

Mmm I love shinyness. Check out these finds from Etsy relating to things bright and flashy!

Rainbow Lamp Shade II by FunctionalArtGlass

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Gold Bird of Paradise Glass Box by InteriorGlassDesigns

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Crystal Flower Fruits Belt Buckle by butterflybuckles

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Vintage Rhinestone Jewelry Picture Frame by CarolCollectibles

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Classic 1980s Disco Bag by uknowuneedanother

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Brilliant Blue Necklace & Earrings by groovymooncreations

NEW AIRPORT TERMINAL 3 VISIT

This morning I went to see my sister off at the new terminal of Changi Airport. Terminal 3 opened on Jan 9th this year, cost about $1.75 billion to build and it's beauoootiful! The lobby is vast, guess they spared no expense despite the limited land resources. It's like a giant mall with fountains. Many shops line the terminal, the viewing gallery has bars and restaurants so you can eat and drink while watching planes fly! There is a hypermart and a food court in the basement. I've always enjoyed airport visits especially when I was a child. Back then we only had Terminal 1 and I recall how my eyes were glued to this cool fibre-optics fountain that spans from basement to the top storey! During my teen years, it became common for students to head off to the airport to study on the carpeted floors (viewing gallery) because of the quiet ambience and air-con (what else lol).

 

Main lobby with lots of natural light streaming in.

A cascading waterfall and creepers on the wall.

The cascading waterfall is designed between the conveyer belts and bromeliad plants in the center with palms.

Shopping and food, just a portion of it on the ground floor.

Viewing gallery with restaurant below. You can spot the reflection of the bar on the glass! I'm on 3rd storey looking down at 2nd storey.

Wall fountain garden at basement 1, leading down to the train station below.

ACEO PRINTS & INTERVIEW

Samrana of Grooveycrafts is gracious enough to feature me on her blog! Check it out on the link below, she spent alot of time on it! =) 

{{Lemon Shortbread Interview}}

Also here are some prints I ordered to test out the quality (they are from ArtCardsWanted.com) and printed on Kodak photo paper (matt). I'm waiting for a replacement set because of an overcrop on these batch; hopefully they will come out perfect this time! The colours are nice and vivid, and has the hallmark of Kodak Paper on the back. According to the company, the Kodak Edge paper is silver-halide for better output from digital images. It will last 200 years before noticeable fading under normal home storage condition. I might go for fine art prints rather than photo prints next time but these will do for now as I cannot find a printer that will ship overseas. I'm curious to know how the rest of ACEO artists manage to produce prints!

EVENING DRESS COMPLETED

This is a rather chinese looking dress I'm gonna wear for my friend's wedding dinner banquet! Rust red Thai silk with glass beads, fully lined, the neckline is an overlap wrap and ends somewhere around mid-torso. The strap is bias-cut. It took me 5 days non-stop to sew this because I had to juggle errands too so I'm glad it's over. My lessons for the period: Invest in an invisble zipper foot for my domestic machine! The handstitching of the invisible zip took way too long - 4 hours- and it's not fun to sew when the weather has been extremely hot and humid even at night. Beading took 6 hours.

And Murphy's Law answers, just as I'm complaining the weather is too hot, it's pouring now =/ and I need the sunny weather to take photos of my vintage jewellery that just arrived... does that ever annoy you?!

CUTE BUTTON PINS & AN INCIDENT

Yay finally here! My newly designed pins based on food =D I have more designs (original characters) still incomplete, and hopefully these will give me alittle pocket money and promote my shop abit more. 1" diameter, and available in my Etsy store in sets. I spent alot of time contemplating if a nice packaging should be included, and decided to. To save costs, I printed the attached cards on my inkjet printer to size on pretty pearlscent cards. After that I sprayed fixative because it is not waterproof. Not too shabby looking, I'm relieved! The pins are suspended on a piece of translucent fabric. Every purchase will include a little something extra!

Also, an incident happened during the afternoon yesterday (Fri 13th now I see), I  was walking on my way home with lunch and saw this frail old woman put her groceries on the ground opposite a carpark so I thought she was waiting for someone; and as I turned around to walk to my apartment block I heard a loud thud... turned around and she had fallen face down. Freaked me out, my first reaction was to make sure she didn't have a stroke or something; she fell on the ROAD from the pavement. Thankfully not a busy road with just a few cars coming out of the carpark! I dunno where she was hurt but she was bleeding alittle from her mouth and she didn't speak English and I didn't have my cellphone with me.

Thankfully a stranger driving a company van stopped and offered help to call ambulance. Then thank God again, as I was going to get some help from the clinic nearby when this girl from across the street suddenly shouted  that she knew that old woman. We were going to call the ambulance but the old lady didn't want to (she was conscious) because she couldn't afford to. Through translation, we learnt that the weather was too hot and she fainted because she was dehydrated. The blood was probably because she fell face down on her cheek from the pavement. So I ran to the nearby bakery to buy a bottle of water and the girl called her dad (who was the pastor of that old lady) to take her home. 

How about that, it was just the right timing for all of us that I was there when the old lady fell because no one else was there and dangerous to be alone lying on the road; and the kind stranger who was just turning into the carpark arrived just as I needed to find a phone without leaving the old lady out of sight. And most imptly, someone who was a friend of and could speak to the old lady so we knew that she was ok. Thank God!!

SAKUMA SHIKI DROPS COMMEMORATIVE TIN

I blogged about the Sakuma Shiki Drops in March and look what I saw in my neighbourhood store! The commemorative tie-in with Studio Ghibli's 'Grave of the Fireflies' (Hotaru no Haka) design! More expensive but the movie is one of my faves, I just gotta collect it... I still have a tin of candy from my last purchase so not opening this for now.

If you haven't watched the movie, and am in the mood for a poignant historical film, check this one out. Produced in 1988, it is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka about 2 siblings who struggles to survive near the end WWII in Japan.

NEW BUSINESS CARDS!

For my beading & vintage costume jewellery blog shop! Previously I had cheap self-printed kinds on cardstock because of a last minute bazaar to make do, but finally! I thought customers will be more likely to keep a nicely printed card rather than toss them = less wasteful =)


It's dual use where the back is plain so I can either write a thank-you note, or use it as a necklace card. Matt laminated, stiff card and unlimited colours for offset printing(!!), 300 pieces for only S$30 (abt US$23)! What a deal. I printed it locally and the printer was near my home (I printed my Lemon Shortbread biz cards there too and was very satisfied tho they are a very new company - at that time their studio seemed halfway renovated).

I wish my designing skills could be better & cuter, looking at the Etsy Packaging pool on Flickr, those packagings really make me drool! I would love to know what you guys think, and if there are any spots I can improve on? There is a cropping problem on the back tho (my image was placed too low digitally and overcropped =P)

YELLOW CROC FRIEND ACEO

New ACEO that I had left uncoloured for a few days while I was busy sewing. Finished this while watching 'COPS' (lol yes the one that goes 'bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do') and 'The Practice' again. It is available at my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12468825

MAKING FORMAL DRESS PART 3

SEWING LINING TO FABRIC... CONT'D:

So here I have attached the lining to the fabric on the inner sides. There is only one method to do this because there is no way you can join all seams on one side: you have to sew halfway while joining the seams, then flip it around and finish the other half from the other side. If you are worried about the seams not matching up when fixing the 2-halves, you can take the less stressful method of leaving a gap like what I did in the photo.

The gaps can be easily concealed with handstitching! Just hide your knots well. 

ATTACHING INVISIBLE ZIP:

I don't have an invisible zipper foot for my domestic sewing machine (which is really essential) so what I did was to sew as close to the zipper tooth as possible. Then I handstitch it by holding the zipper teeth outwards with my thumb and do secure stitching to my center back (with the specialised zipper foot it is designed in a way that the zipper teeth are flipped out when you are sewing, making zippers an easy task). Very time consuming with handstitches but no choice for me!

*Tip 5* Make sure your seams align when the zipper is closed!  I have a waist seam so that was important to make sure they are not uneven when zipped. It looks unprofessional if the lines don't match. Also the top seam you might just get one up and down if you're not careful. Just be patient and use pins or tacking and test it out before sewing it.

Next I understitch the facing piece, note it doesn't go all the way around the straps because the machine can't do it. It's better than nothing though, and after that I steam everything nice and flat.

ATTACHING ZIP TO LINING:

The quick way is to use a machine, but I prefer handstitching with invisible stitches to save me the stress of trying to align the seams. 

*Tip 6* I iron out the seam first then use a single white thread and stitched it on the zip a little to the side so the zipper won't catch the lining and rip it. The bottom of the lining piece is sewn first with machine then I just steam the seams open.

*Tip 7* Optional: I use a 'little worm' (not sure what it's called in English) as a buffer for the zipper so the stitches don't wear out when you pull down the zip.

HEMMING:

I use invisible stitches to hem. Double fold, iron then handstitch. My slits were originally on the side (it was an A-line skirt then I altered it into a straight skirt to make it look more stylish) but I shifted it into the center back so I didn't manage to leave a seam to fold in, but I stitched it anyhow. Won't fray because I'm using the selvedge for the center back. And I added another 'little worm' at the top of the slit too. 

I used machine for the lining's hem.

RIBBON:

Made with 3 pieces of  scrap cloth, the bow is made with a rectangular piece, the tail with 2 pieces and the 'knot' is from a small rectangular piece. Not hard to assemble, after that it's sewn onto the waist band of the dress!

Done! I just need to iron this and it's ready =D Now I'm gonna make my 2nd dress. Hope I didn't bore you to death!!

MAKING FORMAL DRESS PART 2

So I'm almost done with my white tea-dress, the fitting is not perfect but I'm still gonna wear it anyway after spending  2 full days sewing it! Here's a very brief outline of what I did:

PAPER PATTERNS:

Drafting and cutting out of paper patterns. Very important to make sure all your seams align before cutting the cloth, so you don't have to handle the excess cloth when sewing. It is the darnest occurance when somehow the measurements don't match after minusing here and adding there. The most impt part of the draft to me is the hip line. Because you can't walk if you don't leave extra ease around your hips.

I draw out my facings, linings and original fabric pieces separately. I don't use a tracing wheel because it becomes inaccurate when the paper shifts around while tracing (esp on my flimsy tissue paper!). I do it in pencil. After doublechecking that the total circumferences of bust, waist, hip and side seams tally in measurements, then do I cut it out.
FABRIC CUTTING: 

Cut fabric time! This photo below shows the lining pieces. Steam your fabric & lining fabric before cutting them to make way for shrinkage. I'm using silk so not supposed to have water contact but it was crumpled from folding so I just let out a wee bit of steam. 

*Tip 1* To mark the dart points, I use a pin, poke thru fabric and use a tailors chalk to dot the dart point instead of using tracing wheel. It's very accurate that way. Snip the edges to indicate your allowances and you can use a ruler and chalk to draw your darts on the fabric. 

*Tip 2* You may notice the lining becomes very tight when worn although you use the same measurements as your original fabric patterns. To avoid that problem I include a pleat in my lining (this time I used 2 pleats since there are 2 back pieces because my zipper is at the center back). Yea! That way your dress will be all comfy.

INTERFACINGS:

I also cut interfacing which is the same paper pattern as the facings, and iron them onto the facings immediately so the fabric won't stretch so much from my rough handling lol

SEWING:

Ok so I assemble the pieces: darts and seams that are easily sewn. Then you come to the part of...

SEWING LINING TO FABRIC:

Here the dress is in shape, I want to attach the armholes of the lining to the silk fabric from the outside first. Of course if you have other sequences, it's perfectly fine too!

*Tip 3* For sewing curves, the more curvy the seam, the more snips you have to make on the inner seams so the cloth will stay flat when you flip it out. Else there will be a tension of the thread and cloth and your fabric will pucker badly. Don't want that, so I snip really generously like 8 snips per curve lol. See? My armholes don't pucker any more. 

*Tip 4* After steaming seams flat I sew an understitch (that is, securing the seams towards the facing-lining piece) to make the seams fold backwards better. It really makes a difference and your seams will be as neat as... origami =P ! I'm hooked on that method, or usually a topstitch to flatten stuff but this dress I don't want stitches seen on the front so understitch it is.

To be continued.. need to sleep now it's like 4am =P

I AM MAKING 2 FORMAL DRESSES!

To wear at my friend's wedding. One bridesmaid (or as we call it 'sisters') dress and an evening dress for her wedding banquet. I would rather just BUY the dresses, but nothing really fits me since I have an awkward body shape lol or fits my budget too. Dug out my old school notes for drafting. The basic bodice totally looks wierd from what the 'model' typical size looks like (small bust, not so small waist lol) Anyhow I also wanted to save paper so I used tissue paper (bad mistake), it keeps ripping and flying all around and crumpling. The weather is so hot and I need the fan, just makes things worse hahahaa. See you can even see my table texture (marbleing) under the paper! I pray everything goes well. Hopefully if it does I'll do a short overview!

I've sewn so many clothes but never for myself. I prefer wearing knits and t-shirts. This is my draft for a basic block that took ages, I'll keep it for future use.

A rough sewn sample of my basic block. Of course, some alterations to be made after trying it on.

I went to the bestest place to get fabrics in Singapore- Arab Street. Much cheaper than Spotlight stores, prettier varieties and sellers less ill-mannered than Chinatown. My fabrics - white Indian silk (bridesmaid dresses are agreed to be white) and a terracotta red 2-toned Thai silk (for the wedding dinner). I'm a fabric snob, don't really use polyester unless it's poly-cotton blend (besides these silks are CHEAPER than the polyesters in Spotlight... go figure) Also some acetate lining, invisible zips and interfacings. Till the next post! Am absolutely tired lol

BUBBLE GIRL ACEO

My latest ACEO inspired by bubbles! I usually watch crime shows or mostly CSI while doing my artwork (yes not the most appropriate mood lol) and last night was an episode of 'Born to Kill', featuring the profile of the British serial killer, Harold Shipman. He was convicted of murdering 15 patients (he was a general practitioner), there is no way of knowing how many people he has killed during his career as a doctor. After that it was an episode of 'The Practice' of a trial of a doctor who administered a lethal dose of morphine to grant a mercy killing for the family. hehe can you see the link of the aceo and the shows? Hopefully not, because there isn't a link. Anyhow I love psychedelia and irridescence so that inspired me to do a concept illustration about it.

FEATURE - SUPERHOUSE

Walking into Superhouse's shop  is like walking in a toy store! Her items are kitsch and fun, and the colours just made me click just about everything! I love the little fun things that will be a delightful gift for especially kids and the kids in us. Visit it HERE. Here are some of my favourite products:

This caught my eye immediately- Lemon Vintage Necklace!! Need I say anything more?

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11237691

Spiderman multi charm necklace

 http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12046050

Mandarin Treasure Tin 

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10624602

Test Pattern necklace 

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10629431

And I just found out she had featured my Cheshire Cat ACEO in a Alice in Wonderland themed treaury! I am always in the treasury now to check out any Buy-and-Replace BNR events going on. 

Here's the link (expires in 2 days): http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=48157

ALL THE NETWORKING WE MUST DO

I just spent more than an hour updating my Flickr account which I had left stagnant for more than a month now. Really all these social networking sites, communities and marketing are just taking a whole chunk of my time when I can produce more artworks or accessories.

How many sites are you involved in?

For me let me take a headcount...

-DeviantArt is the only art community I'm in now 

-My website has been around since 1998 (geocities to atspace to a domain)

-MySpace

-Flickr

-Etsy

-Ebay (not for the past few months)

-Blog

-Threadless

For my beading shop

-2 Blogs

-Flickr

-Singapore Yahoo auctions

-8 local directories, 2 of which I constantly update my notice board

-That Slide widget I always update too

Recreation groups:

- 2 more deviantArt club accounts for Tenchu-clan & Studio Ghibli

- 1 yahoo club now semi-defunct but I still got my password

- My Yuzu fansite (which I really have no time to update since a year ago)

I'm sure I forgot some lol!!

Some places like Myspace and deviantArt I got tired and just lumped my two ventures together. hmm 17 places to visit just to promote online sales... might as well add 2 more -- FACEBOOK! Coming soon. I probably have joined Indie-something site too but I can't remember for what. My bookmark toolbar is really full lol. 2 browsers (Safari & Firefox) are used  so I don't have to keep logging in and out of different email accounts so much, I have 7 email accounts!!

Anyhow, my new ACEO below. It is nouveau-inspired and melocholic. Have a nice day updating & uploading =P

GOOD SNACKS

So I just came back from the night bazaar or 'Pasar Malam' here. The good stuff there is always the food! 

Below are some tea eggs or 'Cha ye dan' 茶葉蛋 ... very delicious, they are boiled eggs in some herbal 5-spice brew and tea. And soy sauce. The whole soup is black and the street vendors sell the eggs straight from the huge pot. The eggs I got from the night bazaar cost 50cents (US$0.35) each. They get boiled so long the fragrance creeps into the egg and makes them savoury tasty with a tinge of bitter chinese herbs.

I like to eat mine with a drop of soy sauce (I know it's already salty but still...) and pepper sprinkled on it. Can't eat too many yolks though (high cholestrol) lol

I also bought a coconut to drink. Yea it looks a little strange because it's dehusked and sitting in a bowl lol. The seller amazingly cracked the husk without ruining the coconut flesh so the juice don't seep out while I'm bringing them home in baggies. Quite ingenious.

This strange mash of unknowns are called 'Muah Chee'. They are so nice and chewy! Like chewing gum but edible. I think made of glutinous rice flour and oil, with a very faint sweetness to it. I'm not sure how they prepare it now but in the past they used to pound it over and over till it becomes an elastic lump. Anyhow the seller will cut out a lump into bite-sized pieces and toss them about in a peanut and sugar mixture. I dislike peanuts but this one is one of the rare peanut dish I ever take!