Look What I Got ...

... in Miranda's Giveaway! A set of five blank cards, a skein of LadyShuttleMaker's "Pear Glace" HDT in size 50, another skein of Yarnplayer's "Leafy" HDT in size 40, a gift certificate to Handy Hands and a 2 1/2 inch David Reed Smith's post-shuttle in East Indian rosewood!!

Miranda also included a box of these cinnamon-favoured state cookies of New Mexico! Thank you, Miranda!! Received them just before I went on my trip ...

... to Shanghai! I have been to China only once, to Kunming in Yunnan, almost 10 years back. Although I would prefer Yunnan to Shanghai for the colorful ethnic minorities, Shanghai, as the largest centre of commerce and finance in China, boosts a rich collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles. The Oriental Pearl Tower (468 m tall, supported by three enormous columns that start underground) was the most unique building. There is also a roller-coaster inside, a short ride though!

The outdoor observation deck at 259 m high, built in May 2009, with a glass floor drew much excitment from every visitors, and of course, a number of legs also went jelly (my DH's too)!
Yuyuan, where the City God Temple is located, is the best place to go in our opinion, we went there 3 times over separate days! Can you believe that?

In the Metro station, on the platform, waiting for the train.

On one of the streets, there were lots of tourists and locals alike

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Part of the Yuyuan Garden.

Here's where you can find a lot of things - food, crafts and souvenirs.

冰糖葫芦 - China's traditional candid fruits on a stick.

Here we were having 蟹黄灌汤包 (king-size crab roe soup bun) at this original 南翔馒头店 (Nan Xiang Steamed Bun Restaurant) inYuyuan.

And there is a branch of this famous restaurant in Singapore; we coincidently sat right in front of this banner! And guess what, I also coincidently found the restaurant without searching for it when I'm back in Singapore, and my verdict is that the food here (the branch in City Square Mall) is even much better than that in Shanghai itself, in term of quality and taste! The other 2 branches are in Bugis Junction and Plaza Singapura, if anyone wants to check them out.


And of course, we couldn't miss the acrobat performance. We did have a hard time finding the place on our own.

Couldn't get much of my craft works done in the past week as I was too tired from all the walking. I brought along my shuttles and threads to Shanghai, but I didn't even have time to take them out until the last hour when we waited at the airport for our flight back. I finished these "E is for Elephant" ATCs just before I went off. Hope to be able to get back to my crafting mood soon, in between the renovation of my new house.

The fabric Zodiac Sign ATCs started coming in: Saggitariuis from Pauline Mackenzie (Australia), Leo from Norma Riehm (USA), Taurus from Jan Ziebol (USA). Also a "Lace" ATC from Elizabeth Peters (Australia) on the bottom right. Thank you, gals!!!

C, R, S and Moving On!

Another complete alphabet set - the C. We have 3 cats - my favourite animal! Going clockwise from top left - my tatted cat, printed cat from Mari Strydorn (South Africa), applique cat fom Ann Seidel (Germany), and finally courthouse steps, an old quilt pattern, from Sherry Dreier (USA). These are the R and S fabric ATCs from Victoria Sturdevant (USA). Must check with her how she made the Rooster card, my guess is she printed the rooster and R, and S is a sure sweet and sparking shoe! Love them!

Now my S cards - tatted skunk! This is my favourite one so far, in term of the composition, background - I have used all the greens I could get my hands on!

We had our monthly ATC trading session on Thu at Bishan Library. Moses invited Tia, to give us a little talk on drawing and colours. Tia is an architect and an art and design educator. Listening and seeing her pen and watercolour sketches made me so tempted to start drawing too. Well, perhaps, and I could start with something small, like on an ATC. The famous 4-storey pre-war buildings in Tiong Bahru done by Richard is a great example. Traded my gingerbread boy doll ATCs for Rita's origami "Sotong" and Pei Ling's Labbit #3 too.

All the body parts (head and 4 limbs) are movable, and the gingerbread boy can run away too (from the paper)! More are in the baking, and gingerbread girl too. He looks delicious, doesn't he !?!

For those in Singapore and perhaps in JB who are interested to learn to tat, I have a class planned over 2 Dec Saturday afternoons (11 and 18 Dec, 2 to 5 pm), at Knotty Bicsie's Studio located in Blk 467B, Admiralty Drive, with free shuttle bus from Sembawang MRT. Register with me or Betsy from now till 5 Dec.

I'll be flying to Shanghai/China on Wednesday, so if I don't response for the week, it means I do not have internet access! Really looking forward to the short trip.

Christmas is Coming! Bonersan is Rejoicing!

Christmas is coming!!! Believe it or not, Christmas trees are already springing up in Singapore on the last few days of Oct. I have also started on .... gingerbread man! Done with a free template I printed out quite a while ago, with brown felt on cardstock backing, they are all ready for the Nov Paper Doll swap!

This "Lace" ATC went to Emily Wilmarth in Sweden for the Textile ATC Oct trade - tatted lace and machine laces.

I enjoyed drawing and assembling the skeleton so much that I decided to trace another one out, this time on a Japanese food wrapper I saved. Bonersan, as I called him, is jumping with joy over what I won in another 2 giveaways!!

This is a hand-painted canvas on the theme "Have Needles Will Travel" I won in Cheryl's giveaway. Cheryl has put the canvas on stretcher bars, and it also comes with a stitch guide. She graciously include some embroidery flosses too! I must admit I'm not a stitcher, so all the stitching terms are foreign to me. I must really do some research before starting! I'm hoping to make this to slot into the cover for my ATC album containing all my fabric ATCs :)

Another win! 2 skeins of Zarina's hand-dyed threads in her Fall into Fall Quilt Bloggers Giveaway. Zarina is in KL, Malaysia, and if you like vintage-looking thread colours, check out her etsy shop for her HDTs.

Thank you Cheryl and Zarina!!!