More Drawings Done by the Girls, Ivan's Skeleton and Lace Buttons

More drawings from Joey and Kristine.

Joey was so happy she got the star pupil's bear in school (after being a star pupil for 2 consecutive terms), she drew it out with crayons:

Kristine done this herself. I liked the way the whole thing is presented, and the arrangement of the spaces, though I can't really understand what's the theme: 2 boys praying to Buddha (that was what she said), the new Chinese word (meaning green vegetables) she just learned in school, and the fish bone shape of the paper!

Next is what my boy has been doing during his leisure time - assembling all these pre-cut wood pieces together. This is just one of them:

Gina was talking about all those cute buttons, I too bought some at the start of the year, and completely forgot about them, they were still in the envelope that came! Maybe because they are still in the plastic wrap that came and due to the humid weather here, look like the edges have start to rust a little.

Scrapbooking and More Clay Art

How time flies! The 4 weeks of school holidays have ended and school starts again today. Spent the last weekend with my children doing scrapbooking and clay. Brought the children to a free scrapbooking lesson, and this is what they did together: We still have a lot of photos, so we continued at home. This is what Ivan did himself, showing the musicals they attended:
And Joey came up with this: Kristine also attempted, but she couldn’t manage everything herself, it is not completed yet. But I managed to finish this with QuicKutz cookie-cutters, they made the job of cutting all those alphabets much faster than the other die-cuts.
Well, the girls are crying unfairness and pestering me to get them some clay since my boy did the earlier clay pieces. Finally, I bought them and these were what they did. Ivan and Joey followed books mainly, but Joey was very fast with her hands. Kristine didn’t know how to follow book, she did her pieces from imagination – not too bad at first, love the first few pieces at the left, but she got tired and started making things big on the right (and whatever are those!). I only helped them with the Santa Claus!

Look like Ivan still likes food!

Joey likes animals!

Kristine's creations (a sort-of flower girl, a drawf, oranges, Santa Claus, lollipop, cake and the other 2 whatever they are, I wonder!)

Tagged!

Have been too busy lately to read blogs. Just realized that I have been tagged by Lace-lovin' Librarian, Diane !

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag 4 people at the end of your entry.

Now, 6 unimportant things about me...

1. I’m too lazy to do housework, my hubby’s always complaining the house is messy. Can’t help it with 3 small children around messing up the whole house with toys and books, 1 big one with lots of electronic gadgets and another one with lots of craft materials!

2. I can’t be bothered to take any driving lesson, so my hubby’s car would be left parked in the carpark whenever he goes on official overseas trips. I would rather walk a bit further to take public bus than to take cab, and save the cab fare for a snack or more craft materials.

3. I don’t socialize a lot, and spend after-office hours mostly on crafts and with the children. I’m not very good at expressing, and I’m not the type to joke around, but trying to loosen up!

4. I love mysteries and detective stories. Although I don’t read a lot nowadays, I will re-read the Sherlock Holmes books every now and then, and I still enjoy Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. I thing I can’t stand is dog-ear on books, it’s so heart-breaking! Oh, precious books!

5. I love watching Cantonese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean serial dramas, but my hubby loves watching variety shows and documentaries. So, it’s a game of who gets the remote control! And of course, with the children now competing for cartoon shows too!

6. I love Japanese food: sashimi, cold noodles, sushi; I love sweet desserts: ice-cream, almond paste, avocado shake, tiramisu, chocolates; I love my mother’s home-cooked soups, I love chili crabs… I can’t really cook, but I love to eat! Oh no, I’m getting fat!

I'm sure you have enough of my ramblings. Ok, time to tag ...(drum roll)...

Vicki of Victats
Omon of Tatting/Frivoliteter
Aileen of Wicked Tats
Jullie of Crafting with Jullie Teo

Motif No. 9/25 - The Merlion

The Merlion was first designed as an emblem for the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1964 by Mr Fraser Brunner. The lion head represents the lion spotted by Prince Sang Nila Utama when he discovered Singapura in the 11th Century. The fish tail of the Merlion symbolises the ancient city of Temasek (meaning “sea” in Javanese) by which Singapore was known before the Prince named it “Singapura” (meaning “lion” (singa) “city” (pura) in Sanskrit), and represents Singapore’s humble beginnings as a fishing village.

If you are interested, you can read the legend of how The Merlion came to Sentosa island here: http://www.themerlion.com.sg/

I have wanted to tat the Merlion for some years, but only took the plunge now. Can’t believe I have been working on it for one and a half months! Had mental blocks on how to go about tatting it, and in between, I completed Jane’s TIAS 3, designed the bookmark “Dancing Kristine” and tatted a few more bookmarks. Phew! finally, its finished! This is Motif No. 9 – the Merlion, tatted with Manuela 20 thread and with 3-cut beads:
This went to Hanna for the animal motif for our International Round Robin project. I enclosed more small animals on paper clips for Hanna too, a token of my apologies to her for the long wait. Hope Hanna will like the selections. To give the credits, the bat is Mark Myer’s pattern, the snail is Sharren Sarver Morgan’s, the bee and caterpillar are Roger aka Freedman’s, and the butterfly is from Rebecca Jones’ book.

Tatting Books

Received my latest order from Handy Hands yesterday. I was quite amazed at the size of the box that came. No, I didn't buy so many things. I had to put both hands in and felt like I was digging for treasures beneath all the foam pieces! No wonder shipping charges charged by Handy Hands are so expensive, but look at how they shipped orders, the items are sure well-protected!
Ok, these are what I bought and digged out from the box - most of them are the latest books by Christel Weidmann, Martha Ess, Karey Solomon and Iris Niebach.
The animals in Christel's books are as usual, so realistic. My boy is so excited to see the bull, cow and calf. I love the pig and piglet. Joey wants the rabbits, but Kristine is asking where are the horses ? Come to think about it, I don't recall seeing a lot of tatted patterns for horse besides 1 small horse by Jane Eborall and 1 (rocking?) horse by Pam Pamela.

Martha's critters are so cute, I love the heart patterns and variations, and the rabbit the most. Karey's dragons should work out faster than Pam's dragon, but I will need to read the instructions first to figure out the patterns. I just finished my animal for Hanna, and I have also used beads for the scales, loved the effect of the beads, though the way I work is tedious. Must check out how Karey did her dragons! This is a sneak preview of what I did. Any guess what is it ?


Last but not least, I just had to get 3 of Iris' books, including 2 of her earlier books on doilies, after seeing so many tatters doing her doily patterns. Her patterns are sure special, I am not disappointed.

TIAS 3 Finished!

Here's Day 9 and Day 10 ...

... and finally, Day 11! Hurray, it's done! Just saw the bonus from Jane, wow! Jane, you are one genius!

TIAS 3 - Day 7 and 8

Now this looks like a cat to me, waiting for the ears to go up!

Felt Art - Dog

I signed up for a felt art workshop sometime ago for last weekend. Interesting how 3D objects can be formed using only wool and felt needle. A bit tiring on the hand, and face the risk of “ free injection” if you are not concentrating enough to see where you are poking the long needle into. Well, this dog is what I managed. My girl, Kristine, named him “Happy”. Not too bad for a first try, right? Now, Joey is trying her hand on making a squirrel, and not so simple as she discovers.

Hand-Turned Sewing Tools and Tatted Dragon from Vicki

I love things made with wood - they don’t rust or tarnish like metal, and will have a nice patina with use and age. Cynthia from the US hand-turned these pens and sewing tools using mainly dyed birch laminates and natural burls. The dyed birch laminates are so colourful, and supposedly waterproof too. I just adore the hand-turned beads! Prices are a bit steep, but it’s paying for quality and beauty of hand-craft items, and I’m a happy returning customer!

I have received a dragon from Vicki for the round robin - it’s Karey’s new design that everyone is talking about not too long ago! I’m quite excited to see and feel the tatted dragon, as I have been trying to decide if I want to get the book. After seeing Vicki’s, I have made up my mind! Thanks, Vicki!

TIAS 3 - Day 6, Ivan's Robot and Art Clay Food

I have done the TIAS Day 7, but my camera run out of battery. So here's Day 6 photo first. Now, my guess is a Crinoline Lady or a butterfly.

My boy, Ivan, likes fixing puzzles, 3D models and such. He assembled a battery-operated robot by himself over the weekends, and made some art clay pieces too.