Concerts Amidst Embroidering

What is THIS ?!?!?

I find these very interesting.

It is actually part of an exhibition in the Esplanade right now, made up of plastic bags!

Here's another one.

2 weeks have passed in a flash! My life is pretty routine, especially weekdays - send the children to school in the morning, go off to work, knock off work, make sure the children finish their homework before they sleep. Saturdays are tutition and extra lessons for children, so it is sending them to their classes, plus running errands at the bank, supermarket, post office ... Sundays - visit my in-law with the whole family.

Occasionally, there is a break, like last Saturday at the Esplanade - it was Reunion No. 8, but the first that I went. Not school reunion, but a concert of Xin Yao, and what is that?

Xinyao (新谣) - Xin (新) which literally means new and Yao (谣) for song. The full "word" is actually "Xin jia po ge yao" (新加坡歌谣), which simply means Singapore songs. It is a genre of songs that is unique to Singapore, where the songs are composed and sung by Singaporeans and are usually about life in this small island country. In its 28th year, xinyao was very popular in Singapore in the 80’s. It's a long time I have not listened to xinyao. My boy is recently introduced to xinyao in his school and when he listens to some of the songs on YouTube, they reminded me of my JC days, strummingon the guitars singing xinyao.

So, I just had to get tickets for the Chong Feng 8 Yin Yao Concert, in fact, ticket sale was so good that the 3 shows were almost sold out! The producer 蔡忆仁, together with his group 跳动律小组, put up a superb performance among all the other groups. 玖健 sung《在沙漠的第七天》with such great feelings; 姜鄠 was still as charming as his voice and songs《不是不願意》 ; 洪邵轩 and 苏心荃 put up a great duet singing 2 songs alongside. It was a long time I didn't hear the song《某某人住在很那个的小镇》. 黎沸挥 was full of energy singing 《让全世界起舞》 and leading the sing-along segment. But the best must be 梁文福. His talent makes him an idol of everyone out there - most of the songs in the concert are composed by him; he's a writer, a musician, a composer, a singer! He stormed the crowd with his songs 《新加坡派》,《歲月列車》and more, singing《仿佛》 with 蔡礼莲, 《蓝与红》 with 邓淑娴 and 《另一首歌。另一个伤心的故事》 with 潘盈, while playing the piano. Just a little pity that 颜黎明 only sang in the 1st show, and didn't appear in the second which we attended. TCR A capella wrapped up the concert nicely. I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, which fondly brought back the warmth and joy of yesteryears.

I have put in a lot of links to the songs, if you want to hear them on YouTube.

Couldn't snap a good one with my handphone in such lighting and background, but 梁文福 is in the centre, in pink shirt and a scraf.

Next week, the ultimate Canto-pop duo will be performing in Singapore - "Alan Tam & Hacken Lee Live in Singapore” (左麟右李 新加坡演唱会 2010). Last year, they put up 12 sold-out shows at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Since their first collaboration in 2003, the hallmark of the Alan Tam and Hacken Lee brand took the world by storm - it's a concert I have been waiting for years!
So much for concerts. Here are some of the things I am doing at the moment - embroidery. These first 4 ATCS are done with bead embroidery.

Then, I tried to sew bullion roses, still a few more to come which I'm half-way through now.

I received a surprise email from a sweet lady, Christina, who offered me a good-sized box of Workbasket magezines. I gladly accepted them. See what came in the mail ...

This card done by my girl, Kristine, for her teacher, conveyed what I want to say, "Thank You, Christina!"

Art Dolls and ATCs

The children are having their mid-year exams now. They are asking a thousand-and-one questions on their school work. In-between juggling work and the children, I managed to finish my Bollywood doll for Mary G. and art-doll ATCs for Amy S. Quite an experience for me assembling these paper dolls. Getting the sequence of the layers right saves a lot of time and effort, as I learnt from doing the Bollywood dolls, took me so much longer than it should take had I got it right. Anyway, they are finally done and mailed out.

And with extra sets to keep and trade.

Since the theme for the art-doll ATCs is fibres and ribbons, I couldn't resist embellishing them with bits of tatting, and in fact, also all the thread ends that I saved from my tatting projects - a perfect case of reducing waste!

Mother's Day had came and gone, but I'm keeping these little gifts and cards the children made for me.

Joey folded 3 origami flowers (above in the middle on the left) and

little Kristine made up her own origami doll!

Saw this cloud formation one fine morning and couldn't resist whipping out my handphone to snap a quick shot - the cloud was lined up in one straight line right across both photos!

And spent a quiet afternoon to bake these little scones with Kristine to go with good strawberry jam for tea!

Motif No. 15 - Tatted Goldfish Paperclip, Bollywood Artdolls and A Trip to the Botanic Gardens

When I was asked by Paula if I could create a paperclip design for the Shuttlebirds Tatting Guild's Annual Tatting Days in April 2010, I was more than happy to do it. The result is this goldfish. Not too sure how well it was received in the event, but one of my colleagues eagerly bought one when he first saw them!

In return, the Guild generously sent me these Workbasket magezines. They are such a treasure - so many interesting articles in them! Thank you, Paula and the STG!

This is my 2nd art doll exchange. Received this Bollywood doll from Catherine - simple yet most elegant. Thank you, Catherine!

I have not been to the Singapore Botanic Gardens for ages. My last trip, as far as I remember, was during my secondary school days. Thanks to my boy for his Science project, I went on a two-and-half hour walk with him there yesterday. We didn't cover the whole place, but a good part of it in our brisk walk - sure a good workout!

We started from the Tanglin Gate, and at the Swan Lake, a couple was taking wedding photos there with the pair of white mute swans. I love this shot (capturing the sky reflection in the water and the swan gliding across the water) which I took with my Samsung Pixon handphone. In fact, all the photos, except the last one, were taken with my handphone.

At the Sundial Garden, I caught this dragonfly resting.

Although there weren't as many colourful flowers as there were green trees, this was one of those flowers that I like best.

We went as far as the Evolution Garden and turned back. Outside the Botany Centre, we found The Man Who Planted Trees. At 5 metres in height, He will take centre stage in the coming Singapore Garden Festival at the Suntec City this July. Wow!