MIDAUTUMN LANTERN FESTIVAL AT CHINESE GARDENS

Midautumn Festival or what we call here in Singapore 'Mooncake Festival' or 'Lantern Festival' (different from the Chinese new year's Lantern festival btw). It is a kind of harvest festival in China but we don't harvest anything here in Singapore so we just celebrate it for the sake of it being chinese and enjoy glowing things. We eat mooncakes which are round sweet pastries and play around with lanterns.

It landed on 12 Sept this year - that be the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar - so there was a full moon that night. I went to the Chinese Gardens to catch a glimpse of the lantern exhibits.

Those orange lions are actually part of the lantern show.

This is atop the 7 storey pagoda.

There was a haze that day from some forest fires from Indonesia , the weather was overcast, hot and extremely humid. It was quite unbearable, even at night. That bridge links to the Japanese gardens.

Looking down the pagoda stairs

Koi pond

This exhibit is part of the chinese zodiac series featuring the 12 animals. Well the lanterns were finally lit up!

Journey to the West characters - Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Pigsy Zhu Bajie & Monk Tang on the white dragon horse.

And Friar Sand Sha Wujing.

This Nezha exhibit was in the middle of a large pond.

The seven celestial fairy sisters.

This was also in the water, and the fish to the right spouts water.

This is based on chinese folklore - Hou Yi shooting down the nine suns to save the earth so that's why we have only one sun in the sky now.

The pagoda at night and the moon peeking. It actually rained and the clouds covered the moon completely but it came out just for a few minutes for me to take this photo.

Our paper lanterns.

Our sparklers, it started raining as we lit the first one up so we only managed  a few sticks. There was a fireworks show but I didn't take any photos!

TRANSPLANT - PAINTING

Finished this acrylic painting quite some time back, and just listed it in my shop as I only managed to get it varnished in August after returning from the US. It is 20x30cm and was fun to make especially with the wavy edges. Titled 'Transplant'. I watched that show 'Oddities' and decided eyeballs are it.

As much as I wanted to paint while in the states I didn't complete any in that month of July - shame - , so will be making more paintings after settling some inventory for my vintage jewelry shop (brought back lots and keeping quite a couple for myself!) Oh yes and to arrange some larger prints in my shop.

This original painting is available in my Etsy shop here: 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80083764/transplant-original-acrylic-canvas

ANTIQUE MALL HUNTS

I've visited 4 antique malls in the past week and stole some shots in the shops. Many nice things I might go back for more items just for fun. 

Redlands Galleria.

There were many nice 60s dresses but all too large for me. Prints really get me!

This is a quality Japan teacup set, with other sized saucers included. I might get it. The shape & workmanship is perfect.

Mission Galleria. They make pretty good BLT sandwiches & Caesar's salad in their cafe.

I really like the deco style artwork on these plates.

Aha! I have a set of this (design slightly different) and would have bought this as well if it wasn't chipped and smudged.

I've seen a similar lizard live in Singapore near my old workplace (near a nature reserve). This taxidermy is quite large.

Might get this painting but can't figure how to carry it in my luggage.

This exterior belongs to Treasures 'n' Junk in Ontario.

Funny.

FOURTH JULY FIREWORKS

Well folks I'm here in California, here are some firework shots I took at Big Bear Lake on the 4th of July. The schedule was at 8.45pm but it started much later which was fortunate for us because the website had not specified exactly which side of the lake they were shooting off the fireworks and we were 2 miles off (we weren't the only ones who got it wrong either lol).

Enjoy and happy belated Independance Day to all Americans!