HAPPY HOLIDAYS! AND A DEATH...

Greetings from California! I haven't blogged in such a long time, been so busy uploading vintage goodies for my jewelry shop as Chinese New Year is just around the corner!

Anyhow in my title the death refers to my bf's family dog. His name is Jojo and he died at abt 4.30am on 27 Dec, due to old age. He is about 15 years old. The photo below was taken on Christmas and shows him waiting patiently for scraps! We congratulated him on passing yet another Christmas as he had aged considerably since I last saw him early 2008. However he had suffered from a strange bloated stomach for a few days already and sits for hours looking at nothing (spooky almost) so we wanted to bring him to the vet but before we could do so, he left.

What was amazing about this dog is he waited for his owner to turn up at the kitchen before he died. He even managed to walk alittle to him  (as the area was barricaded and Jojo had somehow sent a 'psychic' message because really it was just by chance that my bf went to the kitchen area in the wee hours). After his owner turned up he couldn't do so anymore and I don't really want to go into the sad details but he died several minutes later. In fact I really felt his pulse was gone and he somehow managed regain a few last breaths as we waked the rest of the the family to say goodbye.  

Jojo was rescued as a young dog from a cage in a school where the school children were presumably abusing him, although I thought he was obese from all the table scraps, he was happy, loyal and smart. Farewell to Jojo~

I'M FLYING OFF!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning, so see you guys in California, I hope everything goes alright. The photo is a snapshot of sunset from my room heheh.

THRIFT STORE SNAPSHOTS

This is one of my favourite haunts - the Salvation Army thrift store on Upper Serangoon Road. It's close to my home (used to be even closer) and it is located in an empty hospital (how cool is that!) It's really easy to find it too if you'd like to visit; it's opposite the Biddadari Cemetary, or the large plot of grassland that used to be  the cemetary until they dug out the graves for the train line. In the past there were plenty of easy good bargains as people didn't know the hospital became a thriftstore. Nowadays there's a steady stream of visitors.

This is the 2nd floor where all the fun stuff are. 1st floor contains the large furniture. In the individual ward rooms you can find many wierd things by sections. Oh yes and notice the fans, there's no air-con so be prepared for a little sweat-out. Just a side note that I'm not surprised why that disco dress is donated lol.

Manga & chinese comic books section, it's a nice bargain if you don't mind the edition differences/ yellowed pages. I once bought an early publication by Yumiko Igarashi (author of Candy Candy) here. 

Wall decorations, I fancied that mock Qing Dynasty wood plaques. The Last Supper one on the left was.. interesting.

These little wooden figurines are awesomely gloomy. They're in a set of 4 or 5 I think, but saving my cash. S$18 each excluding the 30% off for Christmas.

Aaah! Kinda creepy. They are maidens washing their hair.

The most common kinds of horse figurines available on earth I think. Chinese porcelain horses.

Bronze and brassware.

Lots of donated clothes; you can find some vintage pieces here, alot are gaudy and reek of mold. Some make you itch some make you sneeze some are new or overstocks and occasionally you find a gem! Just launder it well.

CHINESE PAINTING CAT POSTCARDS

These are some postcards I got from the Salvation Army thriftstore, it is a 5-piece set made by Ikea. I don't know what Chinese painting has to do with Ikea but they are so adorable and such a great find for a nice price too =).

They are painted by Chen Dehong, a renowned chinese painter who mixes Chinese and Western methods of painting. Love the dexterity of the strokes, and how a few dabs and smudges portrays kitties so well.

I've always planned to take up chinese calligraphy/ painting but learning the technique takes years of practice; the simpler the artwork, the harder the technique. Also I'm guessing since handling the brush & ink will show how amateur (or pro) you are, it's just better not to get embarrassed because my chinese handwriting in pen is atrocious.

One of the cards was used as a trade with my mailart friend in Italy. Yes I totally mangled it - we had to have our personal touch on it so I had to wreck it up a little =)

DOULOS VISIT

I decided to visit the MV Doulos, the world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship and largest floating bookshop, while they were stopping over in Singapore for a few days! The day was cloudy, warm and humid. MV Doulos is an evangelical-based, non-profit organisation, and none of the crew on board is paid a salary. They stop around the world at ports of call. Of course I had to bring my camera along and here are some snapshots.  

http://www.mvdoulos.org/

Doulos' frontal view docked at Vivo berth outside Vivocity, Singapore's largest mall complex... convenient! The Star Wars-like structure at the background are the cranes for the containers at the Keppel Harbour.

These are the only ways up and down. They aren't exactly stairs, I had a hard time climbing those as they aren't edged steps; more like round metal trunks to ballet all the way up. It's high, it's slippery and I shouldn't have worn flip flops..

 

After the climbing ordeal, this is the deck towards the bookshop.

The bookshop on deck.

This is Vivocity outdoors; it poured heavily after we came off the ship and while walking through the shelter to get to the other side, we came across this 'waterfall canopy' blocking our way. Someone should really redesign the sheltered walkway. Either you head out in the rain make a big circle to avoid it, or you make a mad dash across the waterfall (which we did with an umbrella but still got wet). I can't imagine how the 2 foreign businessmen we passed not get their expensive suits wet. 

BUDDIBLOOMS ACEO

My new ACEO called 'Buddiblooms'.  I had a hard time thinking of a suitable title... most of the time my artworks are called 'Untitled' until it's time to save the file in my computer. That's how the lousy titles pop up! Artwork is made with pen and markers. It is inspired by... pincushions (well, not entirely) =)

For readers who are unfamiliar with ACEOs, an ACEO is a collectible artwork in 2.5 x 3.5 inches. There are no restrictions to what makes an ACEO except for its size. It can be an original or a reproduction print, any topic any medium or media. You can collect by themes, artist, colours or just to fill your walls/ albums! The movement began on Ebay as a form of affordable fine art collecting (either as investment or hobby) and now there are many artists selling quality ACEOs on Etsy as well, so check them out! 

TYPING TEST

The link is from Groovey Crafts, I think I'm at an alright speed, might manage at most another word or two if I practise hard enough! Can anyone type 100wpm? If you can you're probably a pianist or a cyborg.

My results: 

255 points, so you achieved position 237340 of 1204109 on the ranking list


You type 338 characters per minute
You have 64 correct words and
you have 1 wrong words

64 words

Try it!

CUTE STICKERS

Maybe I'm a little too old for these but they are irresistable! Soooo cute! The ones in the top are double-layered 3-D, and the lower photo are puffy kinds. I bought several styles and plan to use them for some little cards and tags when there's time!

YUP IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN...

...to promote my jewelry shop  =)

http://lemonkitscharms.blogspot.com/

Lemon Kitscharms is a blogshop that sells vintage accessories and handmade jewellery, vintage-styled and retro kitsch. I am clearing some of my older stock & contemporary jewellery to make way for more vintage finds in 2009, there's not much left but many are going at a discount. I also sell a little beading supplies so you can check that out too! A blogshop does not come with carts and check-outs, so to order, just leave a comment, your email, country and the item's you'd like and I'll get back to you within a day.

WONDERLAND: ALICE ACEO

This ACEO is requested by Sweetestpea from Etsy! The scene is my favourite part in the story where Alice discovers a 15 inch door and sees the wonderful land outside and wants to go but her head was too big to fit through. This is made with markers and pen; and matches my other Wonderland artwork with similar borders.

And I'm abit busy with rushing things so blogging is not as regular as usual sorry! Watch the flu bug!

I GOT A NEW PHONE! LG SECRET

Alright I pretty much dislike phones but my current Samsung celphone's battery has retired for good (6 years old) so I had to purchase a new one. I upgraded to this shiny new thing: a LG KF750 Secret phone from South Korea.  It is a slider design with 3G capabilities, touchpad navigational buttons, lcd screen, does bluetooth, video calls, google tools including blogger, maps and search, mp3 player, media player, a 5.0 megapixel flash camera that also records video.  

The back is carbon fibre casing with a reflective design. The default games are played by shaking the phone left right, up down. Of course you can download your own games into the phone too. You can add a memory card up to 4 gigs should the phone's memory be insufficient for your videos, music and games.

I found the bluetooth wonderful, so easy to transfer files from my computer to the phone without the use of a USB cable! Your computer has to have bluetooth enabled too. The chimes from pressing the keypad while SMSing is a nice change from beep boops.

 

The packaging is very nice; wires and stereo earphones come in separate boxes within the big box.

The bad: More colours other than black-silver (iphone lookalike sorta) will be nice. Also it does weigh alittle heavy with all the solid functions. As with all touchscreens, fingerprints on glass annoy me to no end. They include a little screenwiper to clean the glass, but I'll need to replace that shortly! Also the touchpad is not quite obedient, my problems are the right buttons; I always press the top right button when I meant for the lower right button as they are placed closely together. Other times the wrong menu comes up because I had merely tickled the touchpad by accident.

If you are looking to compare the LG Viewty with the LG Secret, the Viewty's back profile resembles a real camera (zoom lens and all that) and it is a full touchscreen without a keypad. The Viewty feels flimsier though it is lighter & width is thicker. It also comes in a different colour other than black.

Verdict: Love it! And at a bargain, S$98 for the phone if I signed a 2-year continuation of my current phone plan. The promo I had came with a free $300 Kenneth Cole watch too.

Edit!: Well now I have some problems cropping up after 2 weeks of use. First, the battery life is much shorter than expected (2 days without much use) and it dies after about 18 photographs (no flash). Second, it's hard to transfer  my files from the phone to my computer, as the bluetooth goes one-way from computer to phone. Much hassle needed, the software included in the CD is useless. Third, I wish I could shut off or lower the volume of the shutter sound when I'm taking photos. Fourth, the touchscreen pad is slow to respond and even with my small fingers the navigational buttons are placed too closed together and you often end up touching the pad even when you don't mean to.

SCARLET IN WINTER ACEO

Finally able to come up with a piece of artwork! It came out ok, the sketch was originally a geisha but I wanted a hat and curls in her hair like a doll. Made with pen and markers, available in my Etsy shop here:

Scarlet in Winter ACEO

I hope to do more art soon when there's time for it, now I'm just busy making a billion necklaces, well not really... just about 20!

MOUSE BAIT

Guess what's in this fat package I got from my sis?

>>>

>>>

>>>

Yes it's a big fat packet of Cheetos, flown all the way from California to Singapore! We have Cheetos (hard to find though), and the jalapeno flavour which I relish is not available here. Unfortunately my sis couldn't find the jalapeno flavour so settled for Lemon Flamin' Hot which is good still, but jalapeno is the bestest. This is for my birthday by the way (29 Oct).. yes I know.. you want junk food as your present?! to echo my sister's reaction lol. They came all unsmashed because of the 'Fragile' sticker on the package too =)

Check out these cheese-y artworks on Etsy:

Cat Mousetrap by Challand

****

Red Wine and Cheese by JMacGallery

****

Pairing by printedcanvas1

****

Sad Stinker by nutandbee

****

Say Cheese Please by dadadreams

****

Le Fromagerie by monjojo

****

Dear God, please don't let them find me by Tanyabond

THIS IS SAND

In need of some creative stimulants? Check this site out: http://thisissand.com/

It is a play site where you move your mouse over a blank 'canvas' and the pixels will turn into simulated sand. Very cool and a great way to relax. You can pick the colours too. Just click on that little grey square on the top left for instructions. My piece featured above doesn't mean anything, I just wanted to play with the colours!

FEATURED, TAGGED & VINTAGE POSTCARDS

MesmanBlog has mentioned my 2 ACEOs in their blog HERE! Thank you~ =)

Visit their photography and blog: http://mesmanimages.blogspot.com

++

Also I've been tagged again, this time by ArtbyMar! Please feel free to grab this and post it on your blog and tag others!

RULES: 
* Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
* Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog. 
* Don't forget to let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Don't like the sound of plastic bags, though sound of paper bags are nice (I collect them)

2. Mathematics is hard to understand, especially trigonometry.

3. Phones and doorbells are best when they don't ring.

4. My favourite colour  is salmon pink, and sunset colours.

5. I've never drunk coffee. I tried a teeny sip when little and that put me off permanently. 

6. I've worked for a plant nursery and know some info on tropical plants (probably forgotten most of them by now)

7. I never had interest in accessories but worked for a few fashion companies and dabbled in selling/ repairing them. Now I'm selling jewellery, and it's strange because I seldom wear jewellery, don't even wear a watch. Don't have pierced ears. I like what I'm doing now because of the floral cabochons and admiring vintage designs... Besides drawing of course =)

++

Check out what my aunt sent me! She found 3 more vintage embroidered postcards bought in the 1950s from Spain! Too bad they're mouldy from Singapore's humidity... one reason why I don't collect paper goods or do art trades... can you bear to let your artwork be destroyed by mould infection?

BUSY MAKING NECKLACES!

All those in the photos are floral themed necklaces! Hehe I love em too much. This is also the reason why I've been slacking off blogging - to prepare for early Christmas sales for my jewellery shop... Visit it at: http://lemonkitscharms.blogspot.com

I'll be uploading more throughout the week, so do check them out if you're interested in buying a gift for someone! Please shop early, you know how finicky the postal offices get especially at Christmas season, packages can take up to 8 weeks to reach anyone for international airmail!! So now is the perfect timing if you plan to shop online before the post offices start delaying because they are swamped.

Also a belated Happy Halloween (we don't have this festival in Singapore though!) Lastly, I'll be heading to the US from mid-December to mid-Jan =) so my shops won't be open during that period.

A HORROR FLASH GAME

Enjoy, I saved this post for a time closer to halloween! If you're in a mood for short horror flash games, check out Exmortis 1 & Exmortis 2. They are abandoned houses photos incorporated into a mostly point-click sequence game. Just click on my links and go to 'Play this Game' on the pages. If you ever get stuck, there's a walkthrough around as well, just google it! 

For a longer halloween game, maybe you can try 'Phantasmagoria' which was released in 1995, I loved it as a kid. You do alot of exploring and watch alot of movieclips within the game as well, but the graphics will seem much low-tech and low-res compared to present day graphics. I recalled it came in a 7-CDrom set back then.

PLUTO THE CAT TALKS

You can find more pics on Pluto + others on the label 'Cats'. I thought the 3rd picture is hilarious. Pluto is one of my bf's many kitties and he's not yet a year old. Seems to be very vocal because everytime the camera snaps, his mouth is usually open.

VINTAGE POSTCARD

I'd like to share this gorgeous postcard from the 1950s. My aunt bought it while vacationing in Spain, she said it was love at first sight. Too bad another matching card she bought is now missing. There is embroidery and a taffeta skirt with sequins sewn onto the card, double backed with another card. Very creative. I would love to try this technique out although the post office machines will probably rip a postcard like this to bits.

FUZZY PINK OCTOPUS

I just received a pink fuzzy octopus. 10 brownie points if you can guess what he does for a living.

Answer: 

>>>

>>>

>>>

He's a back massager; the kinds made of hard cushion and you whack on your back for loosening your muscles. I shall dub him 'Takoshi' mwahaha. Takoshi seems to like gymnastics as well...

7 FACTS ABOUT ME

Yellow Rose at Getty Museum, LA

I was tagged by Her Anatomy! Check out her blog at http://heranatomy.blogspot.com/

These tagging lists are getting longer by the year, I remember you only had to list 6 facts last year!

RULES
1) Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1) I am bad at video games that require me to press buttons at the right time or combi-moves, which is why I stick to games like Sims or turn-based RPG games or single button kills like Tenchu (cool ninja game). I love the oldschool 8-bit & 16-bit games but never managed to beat mario!!

2) I love vintage anything and have a horrible inclination of hording my stock of vintage jewellery; when I should be focusing on SELLING them and earning my costs back...

3) I'm very quiet because my brain is masterminding my next big project.

4) Love horror movies & games. My favourite movie is "The Shining" (directed by Stanley Kubrick). I also like "Dark Water" (Hono gurai mizu no soko kara) directed by Hideo Nakata, "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock... the aliens in "They Live" by John Carpenter, Freddy Krueger  in "Nightmare on Elm Street" & Pennywise the clown in "IT" are cool. My favourite game is 'Phantasmagoria' which I played with my best friend when we were eleven; and the 'Fatal Frame' series are so freakishly addictive. I don't like slasher flicks though!

5) I am a self-taught artist, so I want to learn other techniques from proper art lessons.

6) I find it hard to find music that I like.

7) I never regret the gadgets I purchase and they last me till they go broke. Still using my first cellphone though it's cracked and chipped, still using my first digital camera, still using my first mp3 player (ipod mini), my first computer (imac), first printer... still working fine! I even still keep my first and only discman player. To do this you must think "Will I still like this colour 5 years from now?", "Will this design look dated in 5 years time?" & "Is this a trustworthy brand?"... lol

I tag anyone on my follow list & blogroll who wants to do this! Just leave a comment on my blog and I'll check yours out, we want to know more about you!