LAST VISIT TO UNDERWATER WORLD SENTOSA & VIDEO

A goodbye to Underwater World at Sentosa! I visited it for the last time on 13 June with my mom. They are now permanently closed. I would say the official announcement that they were going to close came rather abruptly in the papers, around early june. Ticket prices were slashed to $9.00 which was the price in 1991 when they first opened. Usually it would be around $29.90 (I think) for an adult ticket which was rather pricey for a short attraction. I remembered when they first opened with fanfare and everyone was raving about it. I have visited this place 3-4 times in my entire life.

It was a very warm, bright day and the queue was snaking. Average queuing time was 45 mins.

 The closing announcement and a screenshot of the website if you can't quite read it.

One of the two pools where you can touch the starfishes and rays.

A nautilus.

The conveyor belt tunnel was packed, as seen from across the aquarium! Here I got my 'Undersea' scene setting on my camera so the colour balance was adjusted.

The actual colour would be something like this!

The Jelly Fish enclosure was also packed.

Crowded but still nice, everyone wanted their selfie. Since it was a hot day in a long outdoor queue I have to mention it was a bit stinky lol.

Huge fish got everyone's attention.

Under the belly of a giant ray!

Slow moving fishes so they came out sorta clear. Most of my photos were just a blur of activity lol.

I think the best way to enjoy this is a video (scroll below).

Clown fishes in a tubed tank were the only clear fishes I could capture. With that we left the crowd and back into the heat!

Here are two snapshots of the lovely view from the new Siloso Skywalk.

Commemorative pennies.

Sad for it to go but I guess rental and competition from S.E.A Aquarium and Universal Studios killed it.

A video I made.

BAKING COOKIES LADY DIGI STAMP VIDEO & A PAYPAL RANT

Finally a new digi stamp titled 'Baking Cookies'! Available at:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/453518234/baking-cookies-girl-digital-stamp-digi

I have also made a quick video showing the inking process just for fun!

Please subscribe to my channel if you wish to see similar videos!

These past few weeks have been busy and worrying, as my mother had been diagnosed with cancer and next week will be the results and more followup appointments and consultations, so I am occupied.

Not only that, the 'Seller beware!' warning has finally rang true for my other shop. I've always known this but seldom shipped overseas; but wow that was quick, considering my new shop is only a few months old and I don't even have 40 sales yet lol. The combination of overseas packages (note, tracking & signature confirmation included, but for some reason doesn't count for honest sellers) via USPS + Paypal pretty much mean scammers get keep your product on top of a sweet, sweet refund, postage included! On top of that I get to receive negative feedback for absolutely no reason. And a case opened against me in Etsy. And ruining my mood and wasting my time to respond with 'proof'. What a joke. Yes, I called Paypal twice. No help. No guaranteed seller protection or winning an appeal even if you can show proof of delivery. The rep just said yeah we know, next time use a different shipping carrier with online tracking all the way to their doorstep... like a courier. Um... sure, you mean ask the customer to pay $80-$100 shipping for a 10-buck earring? Wrap your head around that. I'll be clicking that 'Enable Direct Checkout' button sooo quick once it's available in my country, despite Direct Checkout glitching right now. You know I blame USPS for this mess-up more than Paypal. What good is paying more for registration if you don't bother to scan registered mail??

-Rant over

Thanks for bearing with me! I'll be posting some local visits including the now-closed Underwater World I went with my mom before she had the diagnosis. Also thanks to my great DT to help run my challenge blog!

VIDEO: INKING MY LINEART & NEW DIGI!

Just made a new video while inking my sketch, this one will be titled 'Idyllic Garden'! It is the next digi stamp coming up. You can click directly to Youtube to view it in high resolution and subscribe to my channel if you wish!

New digi 'Idyllic Stroll' listed in my shop! You can get it here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/385161508/

Idyllic Garden is now available!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/386125944/

FLAPPER SERIES DIGI STAMPS

I am finally back with a set of new designs! Have been super busy the past 2 months, check out these flappers digi stamps, totally love art deco everything especially BAKELITE!

Flapper Twirl, inspired by Louise Brooks:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/281829604/

Jazz Flapper, inspired by Clara Bow: 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/294931495/

Sassy Flapper: 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/291451765/

 

The complete Set of 3:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/295344613/

Well here is what I've been up to! First I had to entertain my boyfriend who came over to visit, besides going out all the damn time! and enticing me to play Broforce (great game) & Battlefield Star Wars & Tropico (this one is addicting) & NES haha!

I have set up another Etsy shop selling my vintage jewellery, so that is taking a bulk of my time as I have tens of thousands of images to go through, retaking and improving them, SEO tackling, on top of maintaining an official shop and a (crazy frustrating + sometimes cool) local marketplace site. Of course online sales includes updating the social media following it.

Artwork-wise I've added Youtube to my overflowing plate. They are just coloring and drawing videos but a 15-min video takes a few days for me to complete: preparations beforehand, one day to shoot, one day to edit, one day to export & post. But it's kinda fun I think!

I am aiming to create new designs more quickly, the time-consuming workload is cleaning up the illustrations digitally. I MAY release less-cleaned-up digis soon, just to shave off 2-4 days worth of extra work per image. Which makes more sense since the amount of time spent on them is just not worth it. This way I will be open to create more detailed images on paper! Besides, I've got carpal tunnel and can't hold the wacom pen for long for some years now as they cramp up.

Regarding challenge blogs, I've stopped auto-promoting blogs that I am sponsoring - my apologies, I am using that time to distribute images to DTs and prizes to winners! Please feel free to post your events & makes on my FB Group and Page, so that way crafty folks will know to join your challenge!

That's it, thanks for reading folks!

NATURE TOTS DIGI STAMPS & WOW EVENT UPDATE

I've been a bit hung up on other work to blog lately but here is a belated update on my latest digi releases! I sketched three of them at the WoW event in March while the speakers were at it.

Monstera Girl:  https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/287371735/
Monstera Deliciosa is the name of the leaves this cute girl is carrying! I'm familiar with many tropical plant names because I used to work in a retail plant nursery. Also the name is easy to remember!

Reading Book Elf: https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/273290538/
I just drew this one from my imagination... the leaf and shell looks about right.

Kimono Girl: https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/286024751/

Yes she is supposed to be sakura-viewing, the original sketch had cherry blossom trees but I wanted the digi to be more versatile and the trees took too long to clean up =P

Smell the Flowers Pixie: https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/288979567/
A simple one to compliment my other fairies in the Nature Tots series.

Hope you like them!

Here are a few snapshots of the WoW event while I'm at it:

My table.

Randi Zuckerberg.

Evening skyline viewed around the Marina Bay area. The moon is in the shot.