Singtatter's Corner

Happy Chinese New Year; A Most Interesting Day in Lijiang

2012-01-23T23:54:00.003+08:00

I missed the ATC session in Bishan Library last month, and it seemed ages for the next one to come - perhaps because January session was postponed a week ;) We had a fun evening doing paper quilling. I do quill occassionally, but it was fun doing together, and an eye-opener looking at all the dragons and Angry Birds Mdm Au did. She was our instructor for the night, and what a lot she prepared for us - papers, tools and the ATC backing.(Above) The quilled fish ATCs I did - planned for the Chinese New Year! Wishing everyone 年年有余 - a year filled with abundance. And for the theme "Simply Red", my ATCs (below) adorned with red tatted flowers, wishing all 洪福齐天!

The quilled dragon and Angry Birds (bottom left) are the amazing works of Mdm Au.

I finished this birthday ATC for Annette (New Zealand) in good time. This should reach her before her birthday in early Feb.

Another few alphabet ATCs done, I have completed the series for Sherry! Just need to do another set for Mari.

2 gorgeous ATCs came - V is for Violet and a very cute W is for Worm - from Sherry. I love her needle-punching works, and that's something I haven't tried.

Still on Day 3 (8 Dec) PM in Lijiang: We stopped by a jade city - Dian Mian Yu Shi Cheng (丽江滇缅玉石城) . This is one of the largest in China - rows and rows of counter-top, thousands of pieces of jade, in colours and unlimited designs from earrings, pendants to bangles, small to big sculptures. Not only jade, but there were also some crystals, and Chinese herbs. We bought quite a bit of the herbs here, not that they were cheap, but guaranteed that they are the real and quality ones.
This is the model of the place which acts to provide directions around the counters. The squarish tables at the bottom right are those selling herbs.
Next was a visit to Shuhe ancient town (束河古镇). We gave up walking after going down one of the streets. Still very cold despites the glaring sun, we could hardly opened our eyes walking in the direction of the sun!
One interesting shop.
On one side of the road, trees were bare, .... ... and on the other side, greens!

Here you can see both sides of the road.
Just one of the numerous signs - this one written "Be kind to the followers and grasses".
Along the main streets in Lijiang.

The "Acrossed Bridge Rice Noodle" (过桥米线) as written on the signboard in front of the shop, is one of the Yunnan's special food item, with some interesting stories behind it. I went to Yunnan once about 10 years ago, and believe it or not, I missed this rice noodle cooked in booth so much, I just must take this again. I had my good share of it for 3 meals! More delicious than our local fishball noodle soup!

Finally, we visited Lijiang ancient town (丽江古城) .

"The sun's in my eyes!!!! "
The sun was going to set. No more glaring sun, but the uneven tiles on the ground and steep terrain made the walk pretty tiring.

Weaving in process. Although the Chinese government classifies the Mosuo (摩梭) as a part of the Naxi minority people, they have many of their own distinctly different cultural practices.

Along some of the streets in the ancient town. There were a number of shops selling yak meat here.

We were almost lost inside the town. Armed with a map and not-to-scale directional signboards along the streets, with lesser and lesser people to almost deserted streets, we finally found our way out to the main road to hail a taxi back to the hotel.

The front lobby of the Guanfang Hotel (官房酒店), the morning of 9 Dec, when we checked out after breakfast.

Paradise Lijiang and Back to Tatting and ATCs and a Challenge

2012-01-07T23:15:00.008+08:00

I'm back to my crafts, trying to catch up on swaps, trying to finish the Alphabet ATC swaps with Sherry (USA) and Mari (South Africa). These are not new designs as I have finished until Z for the alphabet swap in another group. It's not easy to think of different critter design in tatting for alphabet U to Z.

I join a new swap for the year - a birthday ATC swap! It will last the whole year, right from January till December. Tahlia (USA) is the first birthday girl in January. She love peacocks, so a tatted one is going her way right now.

Mary Green of Green Paper has an on-going monthly challenge, Green Paper Collage Challenge - to create a piece of art using at least part of each of the three images provided. I'm not one into vintage prints, this is the first time I created art with these vintage images. I intend to print them on black and white and added colours by tatted motifs. Here's my ATC "Ravishing Red" created for the January challenge:

Continuing on my China trip in December ...
Day 2 (7 Dec) PM: The car journey from Dali to Lijiang (丽江) took 4 hours. Vast mountains and green farms dotted the way.

We reached Lijiang in the late afternoon. After checking in Guanfang Hotel (官房酒店), we roamed the nearby streets and went to the supermarket for some titbits and drinks.

Day 3 (8 Dec) AM: Behind us was the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山).

The Yunshanping Meadow Cableway and a ski site have been built on the mountain. The total length of the cableway is 2,968 meters, with a vertical difference of 1,150 meters, supposedly one with the highest altitude of its kind in the world. We decided to skip the stop fearing the cold.

Yunshanping (云杉坪) is "Wuluyoucuige" in Naxi language, which means the place for lovers to die for their love. The Naxi tribe living here believe the Jade Dragon Mountain can protect their love from being ruined by worldly conceptions.

Lijiang county of Yunnan province is the main region where Naxis resides. The Naxi minority created a very unique culture of their own - rich and diverse, with their own music, art, and their thousand-year-old pictographic writing system which is similar to hieroglyphics and considered the only existing pictographs in the world today. (See the pictorgraphic words on the wall in the photo above?) They also has their own religion which is a hybrid of the Tibetan''s and Han''s religious beliefs.The main feature of Dongba religion is in their ancestors and nature worship. Dongba which stands for sages, are responsible for passing down the Dongba culture to successive generations. The Naxi culture is derived mainly from the Dongba culture hence their art forms such as music, dance, painting etc. are a replica of the Dongba''s culture.

At the Dongba Valley (东巴谷), a cultural village showcasing the Naxi culture.

A pine tree (云南松) - I love it against the sky.

Jade Water Village (玉水寨) is located at the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We were there when everyone was getting ready for a national inspection team to inspect the place.

A sacred spring is situated in the center range in Jade Water Village. Its water source originated from the snow mountain - pure and fresh snow melted water flowing through a distance of about 2400 meters before it reaches the Jade Water Village. According to some legend, the mouth of the spring was where the Jade Dragon came out to inspect the plain of Lijiang, hence this spring was named as "Sacred Spring".

When this spring runs down the range, it forms three tiers of waters. The first tier was known as "Appearing Dragon Waterfall", the second tier the "Playing Dragon Waterfall" and the third, the "Farewell Dragon Waterfall", hence the name of "three-tier water".

The natural scenic spot makes it a favourite ground for wedding shots, even in winter!

It's no wonder people calling Lijiang a paradise!

Beautiful Dali

2012-01-01T18:31:00.010+08:00

We took almost 2 weeks break in China, and it was a mad rush for Christmas shopping when we were back. Then it was family gathering over the long weekend. Time for a breather and catching up on my blog and my exchanges!

Day 1 of trip in China (6 Dec): We arrived in Kunming (昆明) in the afternoon, and immediately set off for Dali (大理) by car. On the highway from Kunming to Dali:

It took about 4 hours to reach Dali, and it was already dusk by the time we reached. After checking in the hotel, we went for dinner. These 2 dishes were interesting - the left one was egg white with milk, deep fried, with red bean paste in the middle; the right one was a chicken dish fried with dried chili and lined with deep fried mint leaves at the bottom. Nice to take a bit of each food, but too greasy to eat more.

It was cold throughout our whole trip, below 10 deg C, but most of the time, hovering just above 0 deg, from 1 to 5 deg. We weren't quite prepared for such cold weather. In fact, we took turns to come down with fever on the first few days. Luckily, there is such a thing called paracetamol!

This was the front lobby of the Landscape Hotel (兰林阁酒店) we stayed in Dali, full of oriental charm.

We visted the Tang Dynasty Three Pogoda Temple (崇圣寺三塔) in Dali on Day 2 (7 Dec). Regarded as one of the best preserved Buddhist structures in China, the compounds behind the pagodas were destroyed during the 1920s earthquake and later in the Cultural Revolution and were rebuilt starting in 1986.

The Central Pagoda (the one in the centre in the photo below) is almost 1200 years old and represents a period when Dali was a Buddhist Kingdom.

The other 2 pagodas are on each side to the left and right of the centre one.

The Congshen Temple (崇圣寺) behind the Three Pagodas has recently been rebuilt and reopened, after deteriorating in the 20th century due to earthquakes, fires and the Cultural Revolution. It is a massive complex that continues far up the mountain.

Next was a cruise by boat on Erhai Lake (洱海).

This is the largest highland lake next to Dianchi and one of the seven biggest fresh water lakes in China. It means, "sea shaped like an ear" in Chinese, implying that the lake is ear shaped and as large as a sea, hence it was so named. The lake is an important food source for the local people (Bais), who are famous for their fishing method: they train cormorants (seabirds 鱼鹰) to catch fish.

The caught fish deep-fried for sale at a resting point:Despite the cold, it was a clear day with blue sky and white clouds.
A quick lunch before we set off for Lijiang (丽江). We tried to go for non-spicy food where possible!

I didn't have much time nor mood to handmake gifts this year. Only managed to tat a few of my favourite holly paperclips and decorated some tic tac boxes (part of the lots here):

The Christmas swap hosted by Bonnie Jean Larsen (USA) arrived before the new year. Top left ATC done by Bonnie herself, bottom ATC by Eileen Britten, and the Angel ATC by Marie Schroller (USA).

This was my last doll ATC swap for the year. The theme was "Leaves and Trees", the pair was hand-drawn by Lisa Ricchio (USA), this being her first swap for doll ATCs.

Hope everyone has a good start in the new year, and a wonderful year ahead!

Aladdin

2011-12-04T00:40:00.003+08:00

Just a few ATCs this week. I touched up a few of my previous cards for a Christmas swap,

and the following "T is for Teacup" and "U is for Umbrella" received from Sherry for the alphabet swap. It was a very busy week, stressful and tiring, and a few late nights too - preparing a tender, attending company D&D, watching a musical, sourcing for a new maid (yet again), and trying to clean up my house (some bugs overrun 2 of the rooms, thanks to my maid, and it seems to be spreading) :( Have to call in the pest control guys, they are coming on Monday, hope things will be better. On a more lightful note, we will be taking a 2-week break in China - flying off on Tueday!! It will be a cool, or rather, a very cold change (the temperature, that is) :)

The musical, a year-long wait, was W!LD RICE's pantomime - Aladdin. As usual, a well-loved fairy-tale was given a clever local twist and charmed audiences with its side-splitting comedy, heart-warming songs and snazzy dance routines. Asian Idol winner, Hady Mirza, and Singapore Idol runner-up, Sylvia Ratonel, made their theatrical debuts as Aladdin and Jasmine (in photo above). They sang well. Directed by Glen Goei, the cast also included Karen Tan as Wizard ABBA-k’adab-rah, Darius Tan as Widow Wong Kee and Juwanda Hassim as Genie of the Lamp, and some 50 young talents from the age of 4 to 14 as part of W!LD RICE’s First Stage programme. Karen and Darius brought so much laughters and delightful sqeaks!

The story and the twist - Wizard ABBA-kadab-rah wants to rule the world! He needs 3 wishes from the Genie in the Magic Lamp. But in order to get that – he needs the help of a boy who is pure of heart. In other words, he needs Aladdin! Aladdin & the Wizard go on a magical musical mash-up adventure as they sing their way to the Blue Mansion in Malacca to steal a magic ring from the fearsome bibik - Amelia of Amethyst Rise (left on the above photo). With feisty sidekick Jasmine (the not-so-little nyonya) in tow, off they go to the fabled Batu Caves. But what treachery lies in store for poor Aladdin? When the Wizard traps Aladdin in the cave & whisks Jasmine away to his harem of Single Ladies in the exotic land of Ukenastan, will it be courage, love or magic that will unite them? For local friends, you can still join Aladdin & friends (& fiends) on a GLEEful adventure that weaves pop hits and show tunes into delightful showstoppers! Aladdin is on till 17 Dec. Not an advertisement, but a recommendation for a good treat for the whole family.

Holly and Tree - Christmas is Coming!

2011-11-28T23:09:00.007+08:00

During the Nov ATC session in Bishan Library earlier on, we were introduced to the book "Ed Emberly's Picture Pie". It is a book for juniors, but such ingenuity! All the pictures are formed using only circles, or using parts of a circle. The top ATC was done during the session, but I added a bit more colours to the background at home.

It has been some months I have not taken part in doll ATC swaps, so I'm back for the Nov swap "Trees, Leaves". I realise I'm hooked on haiku, can't believe I actually came up with 3 in a row (including The Peacocks in the ATCs above)! The haiku I composed may not be fantastic, but I enjoyed creating them. A pair of the boy and girl went to Riitta in Finland.

Tatted little berries for the holly inchies I created for the Nov Mingle. I orginally wanted to tat the hollies too, but they would have to be pretty small to fit into inchies! I still find inchies amazing and challenging as I try to crack my brain hard to squeeze details into the 1 inch square!

It was time to upgrade my Celestial ring (hurray)! Is there anyone who doesn't like diamonds? I love these little stones. This is a dream for me - sure wish these were all mine but each would cost S$10,000 upwards, so I was only trying them and begging the sales person to let me snap a photo. Didn't quite fancy the extreme left one with the thick band, so selection was down to the 4-claw piece on the extreme right, the 5-claw and 6-claw pieces.

Eventually, I decided to go for the one with 5 claws. It's my lucky number, and the biggest and best graded stone among the few too. Thank you, DH!!!!

Christmas is around the corner, ok, not quite yet, but time does fly. Here's one Christmas tree that really tickles me!

The Phantom Of The Opera 25th Anniversary Musical Concert On Big Screen

2011-11-12T23:58:00.001+08:00

Do you fancy catching a musical theatre performance on the screen of a cinema? I certainly don’t mind, especially when it is only staged in another continent. Since the very first time when Golden Village screened the Metropolitan Opera productions of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor and Mozart’s The Magic Flute in high definition digital format on the cinema screen in Aug/Sep 2007 on the 22.4m wide screen of GVmax, most of us would have hope for more to come.

Last Sunday, I brought my 2 girls to catch the latest exclusive GV’s screening of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Cameron Mackintosh’s The Phantom of the Opera, a live recording of a fully staged, lavish production of the timeless classic romantic musical of the haunted stage of the Paris Opera based on Gaston Leroux’s gothic novel of life beneath the stage of the Paris Opera where a mysterious masked man tutored an unknown to become the leading lady and fell in love with her. Set in the sumptuous Victorian splendor of the Royal Albert Hall and directed by Laurence Connor, this is the first staged version of the musical to be screened in cinemas.

This theatrical performance, a celebration of The Phantom of the Opera’s 25th Anniversary at the London’s Royal Albert Hall on 2 Oct, starred Iranian-born Canadian actor, Ramin Karimloo as “The Phantom” and American prima donna, Sierra Boggess as “Christine”. The 201-minute screening included special guest appearances by Sarah Brightman, the original Christine, and 4 Phamtoms of previous productions. Personally, I felt that this particular segment brought the spine-tingling melodies to the highest level! Certainly well-worth the $25 ticket, but a pity my boy is not in Singapore now, he would have enjoyed it too.

First time I did something for the Halloween theme. Can you spot the ghosts in the “Halloween” inchies? The other sets are the “Fall Colours”. 1 of each set is going to Marjorie Grace-Sayers (USA).

These tatted motifs were finally sewed up to complete the hairclips. Joey doesn’t use such stuff, but Kristine will be happy to put them on her hair. Looks so lovely on her :)

Besides looking at the creativity aspect, I love making ATCs with educational value too. Learn idioms the fun way! I collected all those idioms that are related to music and songs and slipped them into a pocket in the ATCs. Hope my children and other recipients learn something from them! These were done for the Nov ATC session in Bishan Library to the theme "Music".

Kristine drew the 3 ATCs on the left below. I love her drawings, they are always so cute! Joey doddled the one on the right "Happy Treble Clef", adding confetti and yarn. Looks like it is having a goood time with a triple ice-cream treat!

I traded for 3 quilled ATCs with Au Siah Huay. Aren't they lovely? The "Cats In Love" looks so romantic! The first piece I received from Jennie Tan - "I Love My iPod" - her series of Music ATCs comprised of doddled heads and limbs with cut-out fashion.

Another Tatted Cross and Update on Swaps Received

2011-11-05T23:56:00.005+08:00

I tatted another cross for Faith. This is The Yarnplayer's Eternal Rose Cross, a sweet and petite pattern. I tatted a few more of the roses, perhaps I should tat another cross or two, it sure looks so lovely.

For Lenna's Haiku ATC swap, I received a hummingbird from Rena Matus (USA), flowers from Siri Hauge Opdal (Finland) and autumn wind from Sabrina Hoeke (USA). Lovely poems everyone has composed! I think they are some of the more meaningful ATCs I have swapped.
Debbie H's inchies for Aug and Sep Mingles have also arrived.

Rae Ann's Sep Bees too.

Things are moving slowly for the last few of the Alphabet ATC swaps, but here are the latest received from Sherry Dreier (UK) - R is for Robin and S is for Sunbonnet Sue.

Spent last Sat with my girls at a craft shop doing some quick Christmas projects, they sure concentrated hard! We had a long day in the shop with all the make-and-take projects, giveaways sales and auctions.

I have not tatted paper clips for quite a while. Joey is having a sale in the school, so I tatted some old patterns for her.

In fact, Joey did much more herself. She tatted flowers and glued them on her doodled cards - 81 cards in all.

Finally, the children's exams are all over! More time for crafts!!

Tatted Bookmarks and Clip

2011-10-22T23:30:00.005+08:00

I have been tatting the whole week for 2 colleagues who resigned this month. Although there are already a lot of floral bookmark designs out there, but I just love flowers so I came up with another one. I'm calling this "Floral Bliss".

Another flower - this one is a beaded version on a hairclip. Hope Cass likes these 2 gifts!

Faith would love cross, so I tatted Lene Bjorn's "Maria" cross-shaped bookmark in Flora 50 thread. There's still time to tat another small cross for her. More tatting to come!

Tatting Classes!

2011-10-17T21:45:00.002+08:00

This was the 2nd year I conducted tatting classes in Hwa Chong Institution, with 2 classes of 10 JC1 students in all. This time, it was an especially memorable experience for me - 2 male students in each of the 2 classes! Can you believe it?

All the girls did quite well generally, some learnt much faster and of course, some struggled harder. A bit disappointed that the boys in the 1st class didn't try too hard and gave up towards the end. The other 2 boys in the 2nd class won my admiration though - 1 managed to tat even better than most of the girls, while the other did struggle a bit to do the double stitch, but he never gave up and really sat through the hours seriously and improved his grip and movement!

Whether it was feedback out of courtesy or for real, most of them found the 5 hours an interesting and enriching experience. The 2 days were real tiring, but a great joy and break! I'm over the moon receiving feedback like "brilliant course", "really awesome skill to learn", "very knowledgeable and talented instructor", "passionate about her tatting", "helpful and extremely patience in guiding us"!

A great theme was set for the October ATC session in the Bishan Library last Thu - "Trivial Pursuit". Do you know this is also a board game? Read about it in Wikipedia here. I did my ATCs based on 2 facts - one regarding snowflake, and the other on hummingbird.

These were what I traded for - all different medium and theme!

T is for Turtle done! Following the same idea on the border as my previous alphabet ATC, I sewed a "t" border :) This is my last design for the alphabet series. I did it - I have finished A to Z with all tatted critters, and some alphabets even with 2 designs! I must take a photo of all the different alphabets together one of these days, they really look awesome together!

For 2 Sunday mornings, I accompanied Kristine to a national Chinese calligraphy competition and the prize-giving ceremony. Her school came in as overall champion yet again.

Kristine didn't bag the top awards, but good enough for me who can't even write with a brush! Her piece of writing is on the extreme right of the middle row.

Kongming Lantern

2011-10-04T22:46:00.003+08:00

Kongming Lantern (孔明燈) - it was said to be invented by the Chinese sage and military strategist Zhuge Liang. During the period of Three Kingdoms (220~280), Zhuge Liang was trapped in Pingyang (a city in ancient China) and he could not go out for help. However, Zhuge Liang, who was good at measuring wind direction, made a floating paper lantern to send out a message for help. Before long, he was saved by the army who received his lantern. Later, people call it kongming lantern as Kongming was the reverent term of address (i.e. Chinese style name) of Zhuge Liang.

I have only seen them in movies. Last month Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations at Kristine's school, we actually saw 2 been released. It would be a good guess that it was a first experience for most of us! See all the cameras and camera-phones snapping away!

Kongming lantern is constructed with a bamboo frame, covered with oiled rice paper and with a small candle inside the lantern. When the candle is lit, the air inside the lantern heat up rapidly. The density of the air inside reduces and the lantern rises into the air.

In ancient China, kongming lantern was usually used in wars. Nowadays, it is used for expressing good wishes (by writing well wishes on the surface of the lanterns), especially on Mid-Autumn and Lantern Festival. Kongming lantern is regarded as a symbol of “harvest success” or “well-being year after year”.
They really floated up and far, and soon out of sight even in the dark sky!

I love tatting bumble bees, especially this critter by Martha Ess, they are cute and fast to tat up. Here are all my bee inchies for the September Mingle!

Finally, I got my Y fabric ATCs done and mailed together with the Z ATCs to Sharon Scothern (UK) and Lyn Strauch (USA). They are a few months late, but they are better late than never. I was pondering on what to sew for the border, it suddenly struck me I could easily sew a "y" border. Just perfect for the alphabet!

And similarly, a long-awaited "Z is for Zinnea" from Merle (Australia).
My patchwork quilt is done up to the border - the result of 4 weeks of continuous hand-sewing. Next will be hand-quilting, more late nights!

See Valerie's quilt in her blog too. No prize for guessing - we're in the same class! It helps to have someone with you doing the same thing, movitating each other, having someone to listen and understand your frustrations and complaints.

My Computer Is Back! New Fave - Haiku and Patchwork

2011-09-27T22:57:00.004+08:00

My computer was down and was sent in for repair. It is finally back today, and so I'm also back with my posting!

Haiku ... I don't remember learning it in my school days. I learned about haiku from my boy when he studied it in school a few years back, and more recently, my girl in her Primary Three class. Interesting poetry - the structure - and simple too! Just 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively, totally 17 syllables, and they need not rhyme!

Lenna organised a Haiku ATC swap, it certainly caught my attention, and soon, I'm composing! My language may not be fantastic, but I'm proud to say I composed them! Here's the first attempt to translate my haiku into ATC. They were done for the Sep ATC session at Bishan Library for the theme "Transition". Mine were titled "Transition~ From Dirt Road to Concrete Road" - a pair of footprints on mud.

And the 3 ATCs I'm submitting for Lenna's swap - "My Favourite Time". Calico painted with water-soluble crayons, my haiku printed and mod podged onto the fabric, buttonhole wheels hand-embroidered on, together with a pair of butterflies I tatted, and backed with an acid-free cardstock.

These are all the 5 I did!

Going back to the September ATC session in Bishan Library, I did another set of cards for trade "Transition ~ From Caterpillar to Butterfly". I love this quote by Richard Bach - "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

ATCs I received from Rita (dog paper cutting - The Grey Hound, and the Stencil Wolf), Richard (Peranakan lady drawn with pen and colour pencils), Sor Huan (Mother and Child - dried plants with drawing in pen).

Did you know you can paint with those wooden disposable chopsticks? If you don't believe it, see these drawings everyone did with chopstick and Chinese ink in the half-hour!

The ABC's inchies I received from Rae Ann (USA). Cute!
Did I mention I joined a patchwork class? It's a beginner class on a weekly basis, so you know this is my first time doing patchwork. It's a small quilt with 6 blocks of 12" x 12" each. I'm hand-sewing the blocks, you can imagine how stress I am looking at all the patches of fabric! Ok, to make a fairer comment, it's stressful looking at the clock (speeding against time to complete my homework for the next lesson), but it's pretty relaxing to gather all those tiny stitches on the patchwork needle, and so fulfilling to see the blocks building up :) A triumphant feeling when the pieces meet exactly corner to corner, point to point!
Here are my 6 blocks all done up, going on to the sashes and corner stones. This was the progress in the middle of last week. I'm now sewing the border, and too busy with the sewing to take any photo yet!

Teachers' Day Presents

2011-09-11T22:20:00.000+08:00

For Teachers' Day this year, inspiration on what presents to make came pretty late. Thanks to a gift I received - the yellow "chick" cable wrapper on the top right-hand corner. This is a useful and practical gift, and not too difficult to hand sew, though I only succeeded on the 3rd attempt. After that, it was a breeze to cut all the fabrics and velcro. The children wrote on the shrink plastics buttons and sew up the edges. We sewed 22 altogether!

ABC's inchies I made for the August Mingle:

And my "S is for Swan" fabric ATCs.

Sherry (USA) stitched appliques for her O is for Overall Bill, P is for Peace and Q is for Quail. Love the tiny stitches!
Mari (South Africa) sent 5 in 1 mail! O is for Owl, P is for Pins, Q is for Quilting, R is for Rhino, and S is for Sheep.

Gayle (UK) embroidered a stunning Cherry Blossom tree for the Textile ATC Jun swap. It was really worth the wait. Do you believe Gayle is new to using textiles and stitching? I don't!

A New Winner!

2011-08-28T12:17:00.002+08:00

I have been so busy, my blog has been neglected. I'll do a quick update.

First, I have to redraw a winner for my giveaway, as I have not heard from Tatterjil. New winner is Comment #15 - Diana of B4UStamp Studio 653!

Diana has never heard of tatting outside her quilting group, so I presume this rose bookmark will be the first tatting piece she will own now! Please contact me with your snail mail address so that I can mail it out to you, Diana :)

I received a really nice and cheerful fabric piece of work from Donna Chapman (USA), with a 3D sewing machine, pin-cushion and pins. Donna might have misread the Alphabet ATC swap for a postcard swap, so her "Q is for Quilting" turned up in my letterbox as a postcard! Can you guess what is this ATC below - the one with the Finnish postage stamp? The background is a page from a Finnish dictionary.

I really give up - don't know if it's my computer problem or the blogger problem or what, some of the photos just will upload in all sort of funny orientations. It spoils some of the fun, right? I really can't help it :( Anyway, when the card is opened up, it reveal a note and a landscape on one side...
and flip it over the other side, there are 2 paper dolls for the doll-ATCs, "My Country", and a nice sweet description. Riitta drawn these 2 dolls wearing the Finnish national costumes based on folk traditional festivity dressing in the 18th and 19th centuries. The one on the left (or top in this wrong orientation) is wearing the Ruokolahti region dress, and the one on the right/bottom is wearing the Keuruu region dress.
It is such a lovely concept - the booklet form, and when folded up, it slipped nicely into the ATC protector! Great work!

Then, there is this yummy-looking felted cupcake ATC from Linda Huggins (UK) for the July cupcake swap.

And my own Cupcake ATCs below. A piece went to Cat Candow (Canada). I applied mod podge to the fabrics to make sure the words and paper cupcake (top one in the ATCs) stayed on the fabric, and I sewed the bottom cupcake.

Why are they called "Recipes"? Cos' there are actually recipes tucked behind in a pocket!

The Q ATCs are done and sent too! Q is for Queen Bee. And I found my flower loom to make some loom flowers!

My 2 girls were so excited with the loom, they had to make some flowers with it too :)

THE ATC on Parade Exhibition is underway now at the Serangoon Library, located in NEX, till 31 Aug, afterwhich the exhibition will move to Bishan Library from 2 too 22 Sep. Here are just some of the panels in the exhibition:

ATC on Parade 2011

2011-08-14T16:10:00.007+08:00

I have the winner for my giveaway - Comment #16.

Tatterjil, thanks for your lovely comment, please send me your snail mail address so that I can mail out the blue rose bookmark for you. I have left a message in your blog too a few days ago, but have not heard from you yet. Please do contact me with your address by 19 Aug, else I'll be picking another winner.

I have been working on my fabric alphabet ATCs, finished the "R" before the "Q", but I have already tatted the Q critters, just need to sew them up.
And some ATCs for the August trading session in Bishan Library. I did these very simple "Shapes in My Garden" for the theme "Shapes". I'm sure you can spot the 4 basic shapes. Incidentally, I have also used 4 different materials on them: metallic sequins, wire, fabric and paper.

A pair of button fairies "Blue Tinkle" on ATC.

Traded for these: Rose (water-colour painting by Lyn, Stars (colour pencil and pen by Sor Huan), and Dog (paper cutting by Rita).

We had Marianne Bos, a New Zealander quilt artist who is residing in Singapore, for a little talk on quilting and fabric works. Lots of beautiful quilts, fabric postcards and ATCs she brought with her to the library.

Swaps are moving slowly of late. This was the only mail I received in 2 weeks - art doll from Cindy Peck (USA). Cindy chose to make a garden fairy. I'm impressed how the different layers making up the doll were held together with only 1 brad, which also enable it to be folded down in half. The card behind is also the work of Cindy. Thank you, Cindy!

Onto the last 2 days of my China trip, we spent an uneventful day shopping in Guiyang 西市路 on the 10th day (17 Jun, Fri).

Most of the locals shop there for all their shoes, clothes, household items, stationery and everything.

Cross-stitch and knitting/crochet are the main craft hobby there. There are lots of cross-stitch kits selling in shops scattered all over the area, and knitting yarns and needles on one of the streets.

We ended the day with a visit to the massage parlour where DH usually goes for foot massages. I didn't want to try as the one I did in Toa Payoh/Singapore was not a very gentle one in my memory, but I gave in. Not too bad services - both the foot trimming (where they will shave off all your dead skin on your feet and trim the toe nails with a knife!) and the massage itself! Not painful at all, and it ended with a hot glass bottle capped to the bottom of the feet to draw out the "wind" in the body.

I ended my day with a trip to the hair-dresser, which I kind of regretted, as I ended up with real short permed hair that costed 400 CNY and only done past mid-night! Felt kind of been conned as I only originally intended for a simple hair cut only, but well, it's a change everyone will notice!

On the 11th day (18 Jun, Sat), we left DH's condo for the airport at 6.30 am to catch the domestic flight back to Guangzhou. Luckily the weather was good enough for us to fly. There was time to still do a little shopping in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport during the transit, but things were pretty expensive there. A small plate of simple fried bee hoon costed more than 60 CNY! We were finally back in Singapore by 6 in the evening.

I do have more photos to post - more on the food in Guiyang in the next post!

Just a little announcement on our 4th annual ATC exhibition, "ATC on Parade 2011", which will start next Thu, 18 Aug, at the Serangoon Public Library. The exhibition will then move back to the Bishan Public Library from 2 to 22 Sep. Pop in to the libraries if you can!

Last Days to Join Giveaway; Enjoying Some Crafts Together with Kristine

2011-08-06T23:40:00.005+08:00

If you haven't join the giveaway, you can still do so before 9 Aug by commenting in my last post. Second chance if you leave another comment telling me you are following my blog.

These are the Make-and-Take projects I mentioned in my last post, which Kristine and myself did at Junior De Artist on 23 Jul (Sat) as part of their Great Singapore Sale party. The pieces were all cut and packed, we just did some stamping, gluing, and oh, cutting the holes for the Zutter Hanger for binding with the Zutter cutter. I must try making some small books with the Zutter machine on CD-Rom, which I'm told would work. I like the Easel Treat Bag (on the right) best. The other (top left) is the Heart @ Tag.

Then on last Sunday (31 Jul), we went to the Bukit Merah Library for 2 craft sessions - cross stiching and beading. Here Kristine was concentrating on stitching her initial "K".

And the products after our 2 hours of work:

Here's a tatted oak leaf bookmark with a pair of acorns at one end for another colleague who has resigned. Believe it or not, another 3 just quitted, so more gifts to tat!

I tatted another one for myself.

It was a free theme for the July art doll, so I decided to do it totally without paper. Using wire for the body frame, dressed in fabric and laces, I called her Mdm Redhead, and she is all dressed up for a dinner date! One is on the way to Lynette McNamara in New Zealand.

For the doll-ATCs on "My Country", I squeezed in 4 dolls into a pair of ATCs to represent the 4 main races in My Country - Singapore. 1 pair went postal today to Maureen Blakeley in USA.

To re-cap on where I stopped for the June China trip, we were staying in Kaili City on the 8th day.

Kaili city (凯里市) is the center of Miao culture, hosting more than 120 Miao festivals throughout the year. The Miao are known for arts and crafts, including jewelry, embroidery, brocade, batik, and papercutting. Kaili is a major producer of rice, hence all the padi farms we saw along the roads. The weather was really fine - blue sky and green fields.

The next morning (9th day - 16 Jun, Thu), we went for a little walk around the streets near the hotel. The Sport Stadium was right in front of our hotel. The night before, food carts lined the whole perimeter of the stadium, and they were still there even past midnight!

In the morning, groups of locals dressed in different coloured robes gathered in front of the stadium for morning exercise A group of ladies was even in their tribal costumes! Lots of silversmith works in jewellery and wall-hanging selling in the shops on the exterior of the stadium. In the morning, groups of locals dressed in different coloured robes gathered in front of the stadium for morning exercise A group of ladies was even in their tribal costumes! Lots of silversmith works in jewellery and wall-hanging selling in the shops on the exterior of the stadium. A lady (dressed in blue in photo above) carrying and peddling basket-load of fruits along the streets, using a traditional weighing scale.

I was looking for a post office to send postcards and found one, but there were long queues at the adjoining bank and everyone seemed very excited. DH had to check it out.

They were queuing for a 5-yuan commemorative coin for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist party of China. Made of brass alloy, 30mm in diameter, with the party emblem - a 5-pointed star - as well as a peony and pigeon. Apparently people waited in long lines a few hours before banks were opened. We were lucky to be there at the right place and the right time, and we managed to queue twice to get 6 of the coins!

After checking out the hotel, we set off to the Leishan Miao Village (雷山县西江千户苗寨) where the ethnic minorities are mainly located. Along a street inside the village:

Here you can see and buy lots of stuff. An embroidery project in progress:

Numerous silversmith shops.

Wax painting:

Paper-making:

One of the local snack there - 糍粑, which is a glutinuous rice lump, just like the muah chee in Singapore, but they made them into a big piece and put the peanut filling into the centre, and there were more choices of the type of filling. The lady below was pounding the glutinuous rice dough with a real big hammer!

The Miao-style houses 'Diaojiaolou' represent the typical feature of Miao's architecture.

At the top of the mountain over-looking the whole village:

Our guide for the Miao Village tour - a Miao lady, of course.

After that, it was a long 4-hour drive back to Guiyang, and we reached only around 9pm, and had to make do with road-side stalls for dinner.

Some Tatting Gifts and A Little Tatting Giveaway

2011-07-25T23:31:00.009+08:00

This is the 2nd exchange I received from Kayenderes Green (Canada). Kayenderes always has such cute ideas for her ATCs. Who wouldn't like her "I Love Strawberry" and "I Love Banana" doll ATCs!?!

I sent some thread samples to Kayenderes in our earlier exchange, and she has graciously included another 2 hot and cute mini fabric postcards for me! Thank you for such a lovely package, Kayenderes!!

I had been real busy with tatting gifts for 4 colleagues who are leaving the company this month. 3 rose bookmarks,

plus a tatted floral pendant/pin for Lee Teng as she has been such a great help on my projects, and another piece for myself. Still tatting another leaf bookmark for Benjamin even as I'm writing and posting this :(

After taken a break from the inchies mingle last month, I'm back this month with 2 sets in the Oriental theme. Made good use of all my Chinese name seals I custom-made in China. There are 3 different ones here, I should have another 1 more seal lying somewhere in 1 of the houses. That's the problem with shifting house so many times, I can remember where I kept my things in the very old house, but not the newer places, sigh.

Anyway, the coloured rubbing are done with coloured pencils over old Chinese coins, and the big Chinese characters are cut with die-cuts using silver foil paper, gold origami paper, brown cork, and black foam. The red and white backgrounds are different type of Chinese calligraphy papers.

I was out the whole of last weekend, Saturday to do some Make & Take projects at a craft shop (more about this in my next post), and Sunday to Sentosa Resorts World. We went for the "Voyage de la Vie", Singapore's 1st theatrical circus and the first resident show in Festive Grand, Sentosa RW, featuring an international cast of circus stars from 16 countries.

It was really a mix of everything - some dances with 3 ballads, some doses of magic with more aerobatic feats, all tied loosely in a simple script of a Boy who received a mysterious box which opened up to reveal the mischievous Game Master, who in turn, introduced him to the Lantern Keeper who guided him on a journey through his imagination and where he encountered many extraordinary characters. Moral of the story: It is the Journey and not the Destination which gives life its meaning.

Kristine agreed with me, we preferred "The Lion King" for the music, singing and costumes; the "Vision" for the magic performances, and the circus in Guangzhou for the circus feats, but well it's still a show worth watching especially with the Family Package deal (4 tickets for the price of 2)!

Moving on to the 8th day (15 Jun, Wed) of the China trip, we started at the East Gate of Xiaoqikong.

The first place we came to was the Xiaoqikong Ancient Bridge (小七孔古桥), 25m long, 4m wide and 4m high, built in 1836, is an important bridge linking Libo to Kuangxi. The place here gets its name from this bridge which has 7 holes beneath it. The scenary is most beautiful here.

The road to the left will lead to Kuangzi, some 10km away! Another path to the right leads to the Laya Waterfall (拉雅瀑布).

The Forest on Water (水上森林) was such a fun place to trek through, and the children love playing water gun here. The water was real cold.

Another waterfall, the clear water falling down the green forest was a great sight, especially set against the tree with full bloom.

We had come to the start of the waterfall.

That afternoon, we arrived at Kaili City and stayed at Crown Plaza Hotel.

Here we were at a night market.

I have not forgotten I mentioned a little giveaway! It will be a tatted rose bookmark like those in the photo above. You can choose a pink or blue rose. Fret not if you are not into rose for the gentlemen, I can tat a butterfly to replace the rose if you prefer that. 1 chance for leaving a comment in this post, and a 2nd chance if you leave another comment telling me you are following my blog. I will close the comments by the end of 8 Aug, and the drawing will be on our National Day on 9 August using the random number generator.

Vision - Where Seeing ... Is Just The Beginning

2011-07-17T23:37:00.004+08:00

The "O is for Owl" fabric ATCs are done and mailed! I discovered a new way (for me at least) to hand-sew the edges. This formed an irregular outline creating a frame for a picture. I thought it looked a little wild, just right for the bird in the wild!

I finished a few other paper ATCs for Thursday ATC session in the Bishan Library - more doll-ATCs "Shades of Green" (top) and "Shades of Blue" (bottom).

And following the theme "Singapore", I did 2 similar ones in collage.

What I traded - A is for Ant (embroidered fabric) from Valerie, The Vine (pen drawing) from Terence, and Fruitful Trees (watercolour painting) from Laura.

Moses introduced us to Exquisite Corpse. It was cool fun, and we came up with so many hilarious and unimaginable pictures. More pictures on Moses' blog.

Kristine and I spent an exciting Saturday evening at the Esplanade Theatre, at VISION — Where Seeing…is Just the Beginning - starring world-renowned father-daughter illusionists and Asia’s first Elite Diamond Merlin Award recipients (conferred by the International Magicians Society in New York and is equivalent to the Academy Awards for films). Lawrence and Priscilla Khong in a one-of-a-kind magic show, melding magic with theatre and a script. VISION also debuted 19 brand new illusions that were never been seen before, such as the deadly Nam Escape – a new dangerous and difficult stunt involving giant sharpened iron spikes mounted on two mammoth 10 feet (3m) “wheels”.
The dancers and dances were superb, especially in The Goldfish Bowl scene; the props were artistic, especially in A Future World scene. Magic cleverly weaved into the drama; a script which explored past hurts, hidden truths and love. Dramatic effects, entertaining acts. It was a first time for us to watch magic live (except for those little performances for kiddies in parties!), and certainly a thrilling and unforgettable night!

I just had to snap a shot of this drawing exhibit on the wall as we walked along the passage way to the Esplanade. It summarized well what we have in Singapore - Makan, everywhere also got!

Continuing to the 7th day of our China trip (14 Jun, Tue), we set out for a 6-hour drive out of Guiyang to Libo County (荔波县), located in the remote southeastern corner of the prefecture, on the border with Guangxi. Zhangjiang National Park, including the famous scenic areas Daqikong (大七孔) and Xiaoqikong (小七孔), comprises typical, abundant and concentrated virgin forests, fame for its beautiful mountains, clear rivers, deep valleys, excellant waterfalls, peaceful lakes and extraordinary caves.

Along the way to Daqikong, we passed the Guan Yin Mountain (观音峰).

The natural statue of the Goddess Guan Yin is located at the end of the top cliff (above our heads on the photo below).

Here we are at the start of the Daqikong (大七孔) . We took a short boat ride to save some leg work.

This is the Natural Bridge (天生桥). The "bridge" is 73m high, 15m thick and 22m wide, is above the tall hole in the photo below.

We stayed a night in Sanli Hotel. A number of beautifully craved wooden chairs befitting for the Emperor lined the front lobby.

And a trip to the eating street (小吃街) at night. Families would go down for the Chinese bayberry sweet soup (杨梅汤) or a beer and perhaps some fried pork ribs and peanuts. Simple enjoyment!

I Love These Books!

2011-07-10T13:38:00.050+08:00

After I sent out my 3 little books for the swap, I worked to make another set for myself. They are at least 90% similar to the Book 2 and 3 sent in for the Little Book swap.

This is the new book cut out using the QuicKutz's Sugarplum dies for the cover and inserts. To re-cap, thin oriental papers lie between cardstock, the papers and cards perked up with colour from different types of ink pads, and tatted flowers adjorned the pages. The other book, the fabric one, measuring about 5" by 4" in size. Words stamped on, laces and tatted motifs added.

The little books for the swap came back - 3 of them!! All so lovely! Thank you, Barbara, Sabine and Sue, for your fabulous creations, and Lenna too, for organising the swap!

(1) From #16 - Barbara DeLisle (USA) - A book of "Ovals", the red little one on the bottom left corner of the above photo - it's barely 1 1/2" x 1 1/8"! 15 words with corresponding pictures, just like a pictorial dictionary, complete with a yellow bookmarker! Barbara received my QuicKutz Sugarplum book.

(2) From #32 - Sabine Schneider (Germany) - A fabric accordion book- canvas painted with acrylic, and sanded down. Came wrapped with a most interesting German paper napkin. Sabine received my fabric book.

(3) From #33 - Sue Emmerson (Australia) - A tag book on "Friends". Came in a machined-sewed paper envelope.7 tags in all, full of Victorian graphics, quotes, ribbons and laces! Sue received my 3" by 3" book.

I finished my "P is for Penguin" fabric ATCs, and is now working to wrap up the sewing of my "O" ATCs.

Cute penguins! Martha Ess' little critter designs are sweet, just can't tat enough of them!

More on the China trip. Moving on to the 5th day (12 Jun, Sun), DH's colleague and his family drove us on a three-hour journey west from Guiyang to the Huangguoshu Waterfall (黄国树大瀑布). It is one of the biggest falls in China, reaching 74m high and spanning 81m in width.

According to local legend, in ancient times, the sky suddenly cracked open, causing part of the Milky Way to smash to pieces on the ground. The largest piece hung on the verge of a cliff and became the Huangguoshu Waterfalls, which, in the process of crashing down the cliff, broke into several dozen cascades. When the Milky Way fell, numerous stars came down with it, which were converted into stone forests, crystal-clear pools, bridges and caves. Water pours down the cliff into the Xiniu Pool sending up great spray and as sunlight is diffracted through the drops of water, glorious rainbows are produced. There is a natural cave behind the waterfall, 40m above Xiniu Pool, which regretfully, we didn't trek up due to time constraint. Around Huangguoshu are 18 smaller falls and 30 karst caves. Scenery is spectacular.

A long escalator (where I were pointing) will also bring tourists up & down to the waterfall area.

The other stop at the Tian Xian Landscape (天星景) was most interesting.

The Shu Sheng Bu (数生步) consists of steps of stone, each stone with a date starting from 1st Jan all the way to 31 Dec.

Here's the place (Gao's Mansion) where Pigsy of the Journey to the West, wanted to take a bride, and where he finally me the Buddhist monk Xuanzang.

On the 6th day (13 Jun, Mon), DH went back to his factory for a meeting. We went along to visit his office. It is big with numerous yards.

Then, it was a lunch with his big boss and the various deparment heads, together with 2 new Zealand guests, in a VIP room of a posh seafood restaurant (雅园大海螺海鲜酒楼) located at 南明区四方河路 within 山水黔城. It was more grand than any function I have attended.

We spent the rest of the day walking the Yang Ming Flowers and Birds Market and more streets at 市西路.

There are a number of stores selling Chinese herbs like this one here.

This last photo was at 市西路, taken in the evening (by the way, the sky was only dark at 8pm during this season). This area is just like Hong Kong's Women Street, selling clothings, towels, umbrellas, shoes, ...and lots of cross-stitch stores too! The walk was cut short when DH was informed last minute of a dinner appointment with the New Zealand guests. We left, but would be back another day!

A Bit of Everything and More on China Trip

2011-07-03T11:56:00.001+08:00

Perhaps I was trying to settle down back into my usual routine after the 11-day holiday break in China, I only manged to finish 2 iris-folding kimonos done with fabric tapes on handmade fabric paper this whole week! I tried a few new things on these 2 ATCs: (1) The red circle below the glazed sticker fan is actually a Chinese character in my Chinese name, stamped from a stone craving, and I added a layer of glaze over, (2) A new way to sew the border!

The green piece is going to Annet in the Netherlands.

I was going all WOW seeing every piece of the Alphabet ATCs that came in: Sherry Dreier's (USA) L is for Lace, M is for Mouse, N is for Nine Patch Quilt Block;

and Mari Strydom's (South Africa) L is for Lion, M is for Mushroom, N is for Needles and O is for Owl. I love the idea of the Needles card especially.

Here I photographed them by the alphabet. All the tatted critters on the left topmost are my work :)

Rag doll that arrived from the USA, created by Sherry Collier.

I love the way Sherry punched tiny holes all over the (black) body, giving a sparkling effect. Sherry also punched tiny holes on the head to tie on the hair and on the arms to tie all the rag stripes!

Continuing to part 3 of my China trip: We spent the 3rd and our last full day in Guangzhou (10 Jun, Fri) visiting the shopping belts - Beijing Lu Pedestrian Street (北京路步行街) and Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street (上下九商业步行街).

Kristine wondering what they are looking at?

Beijing Lu Pedestrian Street is a pedestrian street where most stores are open from 9 am -10 pm, but prices are generally higher than shops in Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street. I found a street where shops sells stuff like buttons, crystals, fabrics, wholesale, but no, I didn't buy anything, it's really too much to buy unless I plan to sell them, LOL!

Managed to find a mall selling lots of jades (from pendants and rings to big craved pieces) in stalls which are lined up just like our local wet markets! However, nothing really catch my fancy, and I don't want to risk getting conned for fake jade pieces. So at the end of the day, we only bought an extra luggage bag and more bags, watches, socks and T-shirts for the children.

After an early dinner in Panyu, we moved on to the circus!

It was a pity we didn't have the time to visit the Chimelong Paradise (长隆欢乐世界) or the Chime-Long WaterPark (长隆水上乐园), but the Chimelong International Circus (长隆国际大马戏）certainly made up for it. This was Kristine's and also my first time watching a live circus show.

This is the world's largest permanent circus; the world's largest circus stadium which can contain more than 8000 guests per show, and with the largest circus stage in the world. The stage is approximately 100m wide and 50m deep with more than 11 levels of different floor space settings.

The star-studded cast of more than 300 international performers form the Magic World 《魔幻传奇》, along with 40 species and 500 different animals certainly overwhelmed the audience - interesting animal shows, pyrotechnics and hi-tech flaming and lighting effects which created a mysterious dream world, vibrant colours and costumes. One of the last segment on the penquins (not real penquins though), really leave a lasting impression! Sitting in the VIP seats right in the middle front of the stage on the second row, Kristine was simply delighted to "catch" 3 squirrel soft toys!

On the 4th day (11 Jun, Sat) we departed Guangzhou and took a domestic flight over to Guiyang (贵阳). Here, it is totally different from Guangzhou, the weather I mean. Just like in Singapore, it was hot and sunny in Guangzhou (after we left, storms had overtaken the place!), but it was like going around in a big air-con room in Guiyang.

Guiyang, dominated by mist-shrouded hills, is the capital of Guizhou Province. The climate is mild throughout the year. In Guizhou, the most famous is Maotai Wine (茅台酒), which is China's most famous alcoholic beverage, and one of the world's three most famous distilled liquors. Besides having a large chemical industry, rubber industry and a sizable domestic pharmaceuticals industry, Guiyang also manufactures aerospace engine parts and equipment, industrial and mining equipment, as well as railway vehicles and equipment. DH is working in a factory manufacturing excavators. Guiyang is also home to more than 30 minority ethnic groups including Miao, Buyi, Dong and Hui, etc.

DH is staying in the condo named 蓝波湾 in 都习路, which is very near to the Wal-mart supermarket.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the streets in the area, buying some food and fruits back to the condo. Lots of Chinese Bayberries (杨梅) and small managoes. Came across a fried chicken shop which sells all the parts of the chickens deep-fried, including all the intestines and claws - not at all appertizing to me!

What's Up!

2011-06-27T23:01:00.003+08:00

Guess what, I'm on the April issue of "What's Up"! This is a newspaper targetted for students and available in schools that subscribe to it. The article was talking about trading, focusing on the ATC trading and our local trading sessions in Bishan Library.

A lot of mails came while I was away. First of all, another Springtime Button Fairy came, this one from Lisa Alff. She has used her daughter's hair, and it is just lovely. Anyone knows Susan Malacari (PA/USA)? She seems to have just vanished after signing up for the swap, wondering if everything is alright? Barb Glasier's (USA) pair of green ladies for the theme "Shades of Green" - very clever way to match up to the theme!
All the inchies from the Flower Mingle have arrived too. Cheryl Russ' (USA) paper-punched flowers,

and Rae Ann O's (USA)'s hand-drawn flowers. Rae Ann has also generously sent another 4 chickadee (her favourite bird) inchies as an extra treat for me.

There was also a "bumper crop" of alphabet ATCs! However, I'll reserve them for the next post :)

I started on these paper Rag Dolls before my trip and just completed them. I will have to hold on to the doll for Maureen Blakeley who is in Canada, with the current postal strike which suspended all urban postal operations countrywide since mid of this month.

Back to my China trip. It was a great one - we went to quite a number of places and tried a fair bit of the local food. While in China, I couldn't access blogspot and a lot of websites. They are restricted there!

Spent the 1st day (8 Jun, Wed), flying over to Guangzhou in a 4-hour flight. A small hiccup when DH's domestic flight from Guiyang to Guangzhou was delayed due to heavy fog, but we spent the time exploring Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Not as big nor as many shops as the Singapore Changi Airport, but impressive enough and I found a nice collector set of <<红楼梦>> ("Dream of the Red Chamber" written by Cao Xueqin and is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels) in a bookshop, which I would have bought had it not been so thick and heavy.

It was pretty late in the day by the time we checked in Baiyun Hotel, we only managed to shop a bit at the Onelink Plaza (万菱广场), which is a wholesale market for a variety of products. Most of the souvenirs we brought back for friends were bought here.

On the 2nd day (9 Jun, Thu), we visited Baiyun Mountain as mentioned in my last post. This was the cable car trip down the mountain.

Then we went to the Canton Tower (广州塔), with a height of 600m (450m high body tower and 150m high mast antenna), which surpasses the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai and briefly held the title of tallest completed tower in the world.

The Canton Tower is in the background.

The highest viewing gallery is at 428m. Here's one of the views from the tower.

A new attraction, the Spider Walk, is located on the external of the Tower, spiraling up the circumference from the 33rd to the 65th storey, between the height of 168m and 334.4m of the tower, with a total of 1028 steps and 1000m in length, and is purportedly the longest staircase in the world. Part of the metal platform is on transparent panels, but personally, the feel and the view was not as fantastic as when I was walking on the transparent floor of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Oriental Pearl has a big sphere which protrudes out and the width of the transparent platform is much, much wider, hence, one really feels very excited to walk on it, and many legs really go jelly. The Spider Walk here is more of a challenge of one's fitness level, walking up more than a thousand steps, but ok, the platform is totally open with only railings on the side, hence it is not for young children and those physically unfit. Walking with my girl, we took about half an hour, with 2 brief rests in-between. I'm not one who exercises much, I almost wanted to give up on the last few flights had it not been my girl walking ahead of me! I guess if one is walking in the night when all the lights are on, the feel might be much better!

Here is my Spider Walk certificate!

Bao Mo Garden (番禺宝墨园) is one of the top 8 signts in Panyu District of Guangzhou. It was built at the end of the Qing Dynasty based on Lingnan architecture - buildings, gardens, hills, lakes and bridges – a place where man-made art sits among nature’s art in the form of sculptures and edifices which boast intricate clay, porcelain, brick, wood and stone carving, all making grand sights.

The place here also records the culture and cases investigated by Bao Zheng, an upright official in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) with a small museum housing life-sized wax figures depicting scene of some of his famous court cases was realistic.

There is splendid water scenery inside running through a one-thousand-meter river, and supposedly more than 30 stone bridges crossing those charming rivers and lakes. The water is clear, the surface of the water is rippling and the trees surrounding the lake are swaying in the breeze, just like a fairy dreamland, nothing lesser!

Millions of carps are swimming and chasing each other in water, splashing around especially when someone throws fish feed in. Everyone enjoyed the feeding session - young and old, fish and us!

And oh, there is a pond with hundreds of tortoises of all sizes, and stream where children can fish, boat where you can sail, restaurants where you can savour Panyu cuisine, and even a swimming pool where you can take a dip. To sum it up, it is a very tranquil place with beautiful scenery of the gardening in South China, a place where one can be totally relaxed and happy to be in.

The Pearl River flows through Guangzhou City. A night cruise on the river is a great way to see the night view of the city. We enjoyed the breeze and lights, which were fantastic, especially the Canton Tower - it was breathtaking, and I just love the colours. Architectural lighting on the Canton Tower was designed by Rogier van der Heide, based on the principle that the tower should not be "lit up" but "radiate a glow" at night. 7,000 LED light fixtures light the rings of the tower's structure each from underneath, to form a continuous glow. The night lights of the Canton Tower surpasses the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower.

This was the most rewarding and exhausting day!

Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou

2011-06-19T23:31:00.003+08:00

I managed to finish these ATCs just before I left on my trip last week. Fabric ATCs "N is for Newt". Do they look like newts? I tatted them by modifying Martha Ess' gecko design.

Doll ATCs "Shades of Green" for Karen Bassie in Canada. And more doll ATCs, collage-style background, for the theme "Food, Glorious Food!". A pair will be going to Peggy Bainbridge in USA.

This has to be one of my longest holidays. For this 11-day China trip, we flied to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and later to Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport (mainly domestic flights at the latter airport but flights to and from Hong Kong are treated as international flights).

We stayed in Guangzhou first for 3 days at Baiyun Hotel located in Huan Shi Dong Road. This is quite an upmarket district, the mall beside the hotel consists mainly international luxury brands. As my mother-in-law couldn't walk far, we travelled mainly by chartered car throughout. We started our sightseeing with a trip to Baiyun Mountain (白云山) literally "White Cloud Mountain", taking a park tram up and the Baiyun Cableway down. The name of the mountain derives from the view of peaks shrouded by white clouds in late Spring or when the sky clears after rain, Baiyun Mountain has been a scenic spot since ancient times.

The top lookout point of the mountain offers a good view of the city. On the lush, rolling hills, many of the locals are enjoying nature and holding various outdoor activities there, from just a morning walk up the mountain, badminton, dancing, taiji to group telematches.

A Fabric Little Book

2011-06-11T22:00:00.012+08:00

This is an auto-post as I'm currently in China on holiday :)

A very beautiful blue tit arrived at my house, just before I went on my trip, all the way from England, for the Stitchin Fingers' Textile ATC May swap (theme: birds, nest or feathers). Michele English made her base with handmade felt of Merino wool fibers, hand embroidered the paper part of the bird and edges with silk threads, crocheted the blue flower and beaded the purple flower and part of the edge. Wow, it's a handful of techniques to create this lovely unique piece of art!

In my last post, I mentioned about signing up for Lenna Andrews' little book swap and have shown 2 of the 3 books I made. Here is the third book which I sent in for the swap. This is the first time I did a fabric book and it's about 5" by 4" in size. It was real shiok to rip and tear the cottons!

Again, I used bits of ribbons, laces, fabric & crocheted flowers, and more tatted flowers to embellish the pages.

I also tried my hands at stamping on fabrics with my new ink pads. Love it!

Finally, the back cover - that's all for now!

Little Books Filled with Tatting

2011-06-05T14:50:00.001+08:00

I forgot to show what I have sent to Kayenderes Green (Canada) last week, in return for her lovely garden fairy ATC. The ATC doll I sent is Miss Quinlee L. from My Petal L Missy Series. Accompanying Miss Quinlee are some cancelled stamps and thread samples for Kayenderes to try tatting with. Kayenderes has been ill the past month, hope you are feeling much better now.

I signed up for Lenna Andrews' little book swap, and have been working on the books for a while, or rather, on both the books and the tatting, as I wanted to fill the books with tatted motifs - flowers, birds and butterflies. Finally, they are done and mailed!

First, it's a 3" by 3" book. This is something new to me, creating from a 12" by 12" piece of paper. It's fun and addicitive, meaning I have a number more done, waiting for more tatted embellishment!

I have made all 5 pages "open" at the side so that I can insert a tag sheet into each pocket. So there are 5 tag sheets altogether!

For this second book, I used QuicKutz's Sugarplum album found in the Santa's Workshop Limited Edition Set to cut the cover and inserts. Thin oriental papers lie between cardstock; the papers and cards perked up with colour from different types of ink pads. I used bits of ribbons, laces, fancy adhesive tape and sequins too. Of course, more tatted flowers adjorned the pages :)

This is folder pocket insert.

Below left is another folder pocket insert.

A pocket filled with words on the inside back cover.

The third book is a fabric book - my first fabric book; it was shiok ripping and tearing up the cottons! I will post the photos of this book in my next post, which will be a auto-post, as I'm going off on Wednesday for one and a half week holiday to visit DH in China. My previous trip was to Shanghai. This time, we're going to Guangzhou and Guiyang, where DH is working.

Springtime Brings Lots of Flowers, Birds, Angels and Fairies

2011-05-31T22:35:00.001+08:00

It was a good mail day - both my April and May art dolls arrived together!

April Sunflower doll was created by Dayle Clancy (USA). I love the way she put different parts together to form the doll. Dayle has also done a very pretty drawing on the envelope, which looked so well-integrated, I almost thought it was a purchased one!

May Garden Angel was the fabulous creation of Amelia Ruscoe (New Zealand). 2 little accompanying angels came together, and with a very colourful and artistic handmade card.

For my first ever button fairy swap, the first Springtime Button Fairy to arrive came from Hazel Roots (UK). Springtime sure evokes images of flowers and butterflies - common elements - but quite different effects each one of us came up with.

The second one from Sue Cox (US) with a polymer face.

I managed to finish the zebra! Modified from Jane Eborall's horse pattern, I tatted them in white and used a black fabric marker to draw the black stripes. You can call it cheating, but I just can't think of any better way to tat them up looking like a zebra in such a small size.

It's been a while since I joined the Stitchin Fingers' Textile ATC swap. The theme for May is "Birds, Nest or Feathers". Hummingbird is one of my favourite birds to tat! One piece is going to Hopscotch (Barbara) in UK.

I have been doing a lot more tatting - all small motifs - to embellish something I'm not revealing yet until the next post!

"Open House" - Singapore Biennale 2011

2011-05-22T11:04:00.027+08:00

When I think of garden, butterflies and flowers always come to my mind. Thus, my Garden Angel has a pair of butterfly wings, and a rose for her skirt. More flowers adorned her. Pink rose will be on her way to Barb Glasier in USA.

I love flowers. Many pieces of my jewellery are either floral or butterfly in design. Working on the flower theme for the May Inchies Mingle, I almost couldn't stop!
These are done with tatted flowers. (1 set for the Mingle and 1 set I'm keeping in my own album.)

And these are colours (both watercolours and marker pens) built up on ad-hoc designs made up pounding real flowers on watercolour paper.

My boy is doing his 2nd year Japanese as a 3rd language in school. For the cover of his portfolio, we did this pair of Japanese dolls.

I have not done these paper dolls for a long, long time since my school days. So I had to try making some as bookmarks first.

As usual, my girls also want to follow what I do, and since exams were just over. Joey is good and managed 4, almost on her own. I helped them with the hair.
Kayenderes Green (Canada) sent a Garden Fabric Fairy ATC. It's a delightful one and definitely an unique one!

Singapore Biennale 2011 just ended on 15 May. This 3rd biennale, entitled "Open House", featured 63 artists from 30 countries, and presented at the Old Kallang Airport, Singapore Art Museum, National Museum of Singapore and The Merlion Park at Marina Bay. Having no intention to go, but at my boy's last-minute request to visit the exhibition, we went on the last afternoon before the exhibition closed. It was a bit of a rush and such a pity we didn't manage to visit the Merlion Hotel.

Personally, I was not too impressed with this year's exhibits, compared to the 2nd one held in 2008. However, one of them by Charles Labelle, "Corpis, 2010 - ongoing (from Buildings Entered 1997 - ongoing)" left the deepest impression. With gesso and pencil drawing on book pages, he drew all the buildings he has physically entered since Sep 1997. It is a valuable collection of drawings, which are all so well-drawn.

Some of the other exhibits:

Part of the "Office Orchitect" by Michael Lee (Singapore).

The field of ruined and scarred plinths in "La Cannibale" created by Mike Nelson (UK).

"What a Difference a Day Made" presented by Michael Lin (Japan) who purchased the entire contents of a local hardware store, and the store recreated in the exhibition space, along with the crates in which the work has been shipped to Singapore.

"Within", RMIT frost drawing performance on glass wall by Gosia Wlodarczak (Poland).

Gifts from New Zealand and Mother's Day Cards

2011-05-17T17:51:00.003+08:00

Another one alphabet done, this time is M - M is for Mouse (fabric ATC with felt alphabet, tatted critter and hand-embroidered word).
The theme for the May ATC session was "Mother and Father". I'm not sure what to do for the theme, so this was done really last minute - simple paper cuttings I copied from those we bought in China, but I cut them much smaller, and they looked real cute!

We tried watercolour painting with crayon resist during the session. This piece of sunset by the sea is mine, but touched up by Pei Ling. Pei Ling is a final year student in NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts), we learned much from her. The bluish 2nd piece is done by Pei Ling herself.

Here are some of the ATCs I received, some from last month swaps - E is for Elephant by Vicki, P is for Pig by Valerie, Baby Bear Misses Papa & Mama by Terence, and Colourful Shapes drawn by my girl, Joey.

My very first inchies swap was with Lynette McNamara (New Zealand). She has sent a lot of my favourite items - flowers and butterflies!
A BIG thank you to Lynette too, for sending all these goodies along for the prize I won! I couldn't cross-stitch well, so I especially treasure this cross-stitched bookmark. By the way, Tiki is the first man in Māori mythology.

My second inchies swap was also in, they are the April Mingle from Rae Ann (USA).
The children made me some cards for Mother's Day. They are so cute to include ATCs inside for me too.

X is for X-ray Fish

2011-05-09T12:33:00.001+08:00

Things are sure moving slow but time passes fast. DH came back for a week, and the children are having their exams, so not much time to do anything.

I don't know why, but these X-ray fish seem to elude me, and only after numerous attempts did I managed to tat something decent enough to show. Hopefully with these X-ray fish done, Y and Z will be easier.

Love these J and K ATCs received from Sherry Drier (USA) the past week - J is for Jacket and K is for Knitting. They are cool!

These complete the J and K swaps.

My favourite tatted Jellyfish, Norma's Joker, Mari's Jackal and Sherry's Jacket.

My tatted Koala, Sherry's Knitting and Mari's Kangaroo.

Springtime Button Fairies

2011-05-01T23:57:00.001+08:00

More of my tatted fabric Alphabet ATCs! These are the L's - L is for Lion. Tatting and sewing them made me reminisce the musical, The Lion King - magnificent and unparallel creativity!

Meanwhile, I have also received Mari Strydom's (South Africa) Alphabets - I is for Ice-Cream, J is for Jackal, and K is for Kangaroo. Mari remembers I collect stamps, and she has sent all the colourful South Africian stamps too. Big thank you, Mari!
The alphabet I swap is complete - my I is for Ibis, Ann's I is for inchies, Sherry's I is for Ice-cream (needle-punching), and Mari's I is for Ice-cream.

I signed up for a Springtime Button Fairy swap - my first button fairy swap. What are Button Fairies? They are fairies with buttons as bodies. Nenufar Blanco from Barcelona/Spain came up with the original button faerie. I have previously done a few small ones, small enough to fit on the ATCs. Now, these are about 7' to 8" tall from the end of the buttons to the loop at the top of the head. My version of Springtime Button Fairies is full of flowers and butterflies. Hope my swap partners can feel Spring in the air the fairies bring with them!

Iris Folding Fabric Egg Just In Time for Easter

2011-04-23T18:30:00.001+08:00

I didn't show in my last post what we did for the ATC session at Bishan Library last Thursday. We did drawing, cartoon drawing, using Rich Davis' Pick and Draw cards Moses supplied. It was pretty easy, even the children did very well. I am terrible with drawing and only managed these.

Traded a number of ATCs at the trading session this time: the pair of butterflies done by Sor Huang, and the B is for Bear from Jennifer. Another 3 pieces are currently not in my hands yet, so I can't show you yet.

Kristine has been busy with her school works, calligraphy and Malay lessons, so these are some rare pieces she did - C is for Cat and Secret Land, and swapped with me.

I have one person asking for another Joy card, so I did another iris-folding piece, and one more with an "e" for my girl, Joey.

Here's the iris-folding fabric postcard from Leah M (USA) - spring-coloured egg. Sure cheerful looking and so neat, and just in time for Easter!
My fabric Alphabet ATCs are back in production! These are my K cards with Martha Ess' tatted koala pattern. More alphabets are on the way!

Sunflowers and Umbrellas

2011-04-17T12:10:00.003+08:00

Art dolls for April - Sunflowers! Again, I mixed and matched my QuicKutz dies to come up with these paper dolls with movable head and hands. The big sunflowers were snipped from a daisy cut out of watercolour paper and painted with watercolours, and the small sunflowers on the pants were tatted with size 80 yellow thread and 1 strand of brown embroidery floss. One will be leaving for Canada soon, going to Karen Bassie, who created the pair of lovely ladybug ATC dolls for me last month.

Now in Singapore, it's bright and sunny just like the sunflowers, but rainy in the afternoon for the whole of last week. I don't leave my house without an umbrella. Talking about umbrella, this is one of the themes for the April inchie mingle. Failing to find suitable stuff to go on the inchies and my drawing is terrible, I had to make use of yet another QuicKutz die and tried my best to squeeze the umbrella on the 1-inch square!

Rita once showed me an ATC incorporating an inchie and a twinchie. This came to my mind suddenly when I'm looking at this postcard of a lady. So I cut it up into inchie, plus-size inchie and twinchie and assembled all the pieces back on an ATC to form the doll back. The top left one shows it all folded up. What do you think of it? I'll say it's a good one to show the relativity of all the different sizes!

The theme for the ATC session this Apr was "Alphabet". I came across this "Hands" word in a book, and was so intrigued by it that I simply had to try to re-create it. Again, using embossing folder for the background and die-cuts for the letters and hands, they looked classic.

Still in the mood for more iris-folding after the 2 fabric postcards, I went on to these alphabets. These ATCs are done with embossed origami papers though - E for Ellen, K for Kristine and J is for Joy.

Ok, now let's see what came in the mail this week. First, I have Lyn (USA)'s X is for Xylophone , Y is for Yellow Submarine and Z is for Zebra-Striped Zero. In case anyone is wondering, this is showing up in the wrong orientation again :(

A mouth-watering needle-punched "I is for Ice-cream" from Sherry Dreier (USA) and a jovial "J is for Joker" from Norma Mason (USA).

I'm so excited to receive my third fabric postcard in the mail, this time from Lyn Hodge (USA). Lyn created a winter landscape with sparkling snow - something we don't get to see in Singapore!

Thank you for all the fabulous cards, dear swap partners!

Iris Folding Fabric Postcards, Art Dolls and More ATCs

2011-04-10T14:47:00.004+08:00

My new maid is finally here! But looks like it's going to be a long way to teach/supervise her. I shouldn't be complaining really, it has to be easier with an extra help. So hopefully, I'll have more time to supervise my children's homework and of course, on work on my crafts :)

Heard of iris-folding? Iris folding is a paper craft technique, which originated in Holland, that involves taping folded strips of coloured paper in such a way to create a spiralling design that resembles the iris of an eye or a camera. Early designs were done using patterned paper cut from the inside of envelopes. Today, crafters use any light weight papers and even RIBBONS. Yes, I read that somewhere, so when Leah M organised an iris folding fabric postcard swap, I specially requested for a private swap with her.

And I used fabric ribbons, which I picked and matched from my stash, I do think they fit into place pretty neatly. How can I not go further to tat some flowers for that special touch to the card? I'm so pleased with them, I couldn't bear to post it out naked to Leah in the States. So, I even ran down especially to the Philatelic Museum to pay for the special chop on the stamp affixed on the fabric postcard, and mailed it in an envelope! Hope this piece will have a very special place in Leah's collections!

My patience paid off - I really felt that way when Lynette McNamara's Goddess doll finally arrived after a whole month of travelling from New Zealand to Singapore. I almost can imagine the Nature Goddess savouring the places she past by and abosorbing all the natural elements by the time she came!

Dana Keenan's "By The Seaside doll "swam" much faster from the USA in comparison, despites her heavy sea-shell head! How artistic we crafters get! It's such a great feeling to receive all the treasured mails in the post from every corner of the Earth. Just amazing, the exchange of not just arts, but also the culture and friendship!

Presenting Lady Madeline and Lady Mae, ladybug ATC dolls created by Karen Bassie (Canada). I always fancy red ladybird, my regret is not having seen a real red one but only those brown beetles. Well, Karen had a great way to incorporate the ladybug on the head! Lovely!

All the metallic ATC swap pieces have also came in. Here's the group photo of all the 8 pieces. Starting from top left corner going clockwise: Marjolijn van Wijk (The Netherlands), Cathy Vigor (USA), "Steel Magnolia" from Mrs Carol Jamieson (Scotland), "Thai Elephant" from Dayle Morrison (Australia), Kim Young (USA), postcard from Pauline Mackenzie (Australia), Debbi Baker (Australia), and finally, mine in the centre.

Cathy's coppery piece had a square brad to hold the metal pieces together, while Dayle's "Thai Elephant" had wire crotchet, old copper coin, beads and modelling clay stamped with an elephant! Interesting array of metallic elements in each and every pieces!

Thank you, ladies, for all the swaps!

I showed a mini-ATC album in my last post. Valerie asked to see the inside. Here are the interiors - the ATCs can be changed. I didn't made the pages fanciful as I wanted the focus on the ATCs.

My First Inchies

2011-04-03T13:32:00.005+08:00

What is an Inchie?

An Inchie is a miniature art piece. Inchies are 1 inch square pieces. A Plus-Size Inchie (PSI) is a larger size Inchie which is 1.5 inch square. 1 inch circle is called a Rinchie, and 2 inch square is called a Twinchie. It was mentioned somewhere that they evolved from the popular Artist Trading Card revolution, I'm not sure, but like ATCs, they can be created in any media or technique including paper, metal and fabric done with drawing, painting, quilting, collage, clay, altered materials, etc, the only criteria is the size. And because of their small sizes, they can be incorporated as embellishments on larger projects, to create mosaic artworks, and to create jewelry.

Depending on how you see it - whether it is more challenging or time-saving to do your art on this small size, I jumped on the bandwagon to create my first inchies. Nothing really fanciful, but they still took me a good 10 nights to finish the 2 sets of 16 inchies based on the theme "Well Wishes" - mostly collage-style on painted watercolour papers and some scrapbooking cardstock, putting my QuicKutz dies to good use, and utilizing whatever sequins and stuff I could find in my stash. I also designed an ambigram for my name or is that what it is called? In any case, it's a mirror-image, or almost one, and embellished with a small tatted butterfly.

I was surfing the internet and ordering some supplies when I came across ways to display ATCs - not about storing the bulk of them, but displaying just a few. They are some pretty neat kits and products selling in the stores, but some are kind of steep in the price too. So, I whipped out my die-cuts and machine to assemble this little album. The inserts are just great to display 1 ATC on each page. And since I'm just working on inchies, I incorporated them on the cover, tying everything together with yarns and fancy trims.

Remember the backgrounds for my ladybug boys and girls in my last post? They were paper napkins. Art4Mail group has a playshop last weekend, coincidentally, on Napkin Art. So I used the 2 napkin designs to do up some small cards. I didn't try much style, just simply using the napkin wholesale with mod podge. Either I was clumsy or I was too much of a perfectionalist, I made at least 5 failed attempts before I could get something decent-looking. Will either try stamping some words on or using some word stickers on the cards as a finishing touch.

Another piece of the metallic ATC came - this Steel Magnolia from Carol Jamieson (Scotland).

Moses graciously extended the invitation for the National Library's Learning Communities Appreciation Dinner to a few of us, regulars to the ATC sessions. The dinner was held at The Pod, the roof top gallery on the 16th storey of the National Library building.

The view there was fantastic, and here's one seeing the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands.

The other thing I must mention was the delicious halal buffet dinner catered from Old Chang Kee Take 5, a brand extension of Old Chang Kee, which serves 5 distinctive Asian dishes. Simple fare, but simply fantastic on the taste buds! It was a great evening!!

ABC Waters @ Alexandra Canal, ArtScience Museum and Of Course, More Craft Works!

2011-03-25T23:57:00.006+08:00

In conjunction with the World Water Day, the Tanjong Pagar GRC held a Family Day Carnival by the Water-cum-Opening of ABC Waters @ Alexandra Canal last Saturday. It was pouring pretty heavily just an hour before the start of the event, but the weather couldn't be better after that - a cool fine evening just great for taking a stroll by the nicely done-up canal. BTW, ABC stands for Active, Beautiful and Clean!

We were even greeted by an Indian with a handsome snake to pose for photos! With free flow of snacks like popcorn, candy floss and malt candy on stick and even burgers good enough for dinner, the good number of crafting activities kept children and even adults and old folks occupied.

MM Lee Kuan Yew accompanied by the other MPs of the GRC.

Then on Sunday, I brought the whole family to the newly opened ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. Even at 20% discount for the tickets, it was a whopping $97 for a mixture of 5 tickets, but well-worth the price walking through the four opening exhibitions -

(1) ArtScience: A Journey Through Creativity,

(2) Genghis Khan: The Exhibition,

(3) Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, and

(4) Travelling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World.

Personally, I enjoyed walking through the Genghis Khan exhibition most. A good flow of easy info displayed at every turn intertwined with the display of more than 200 authentic artifacts and weaponry from the conqueror’s reign, you are guaranteed to walk out knowing a well-rounded story of one of the world’s greatest leaders - his background and family, the wars and warfare, weapons and tactics, the influence of the Mongol empire on culture, law and finance.

The dim lights in the Shipwrecked exhibition added to the "at the bottom of the sea" feeling when we walked through the some 60,000 objects carried by a ninth-century Arab dhow. Lying undisturbed on the ocean floor for more than 1,100 years until its discovery near Indonesia's Belitung Island in 1998, the collection has been kept intact as one entire collection to reflect accurately the assortment and magnitude of the find which is the single largest consignment of Tang Dynasty export goods ever discovered - thousands of glazed bowls, ewers and other exquisite ceramics. The highlights have to be the several gold and silver items with such fine intricate details.

The journey through the Silk Road immersed visitors in the sights, sounds and smells of the bustling marketplaces in Asia and the Middle East - yes, you could smell the spices and hear the stimulated sound of the marketplaces at Xi'An, Turfan, Samarkand and Baghdad which were part of one of the greatest trading routes known to Man. The Silk Routes were crucial paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, soldiers and nomads from Ancient China, India, Tibet, Persia and Mediterranean countries a millennium ago.

Back to crafts. This month, I managed to complete my artdoll and ATC dolls very early, as inspiration came just so suddenly. I mixed and matched, cut and joined, modified cut-out from my QuicKutz dies to assemble this "By The Seaside" doll - see the waves and sequin seashells. Added a nice piece of fabric for a wrap around the movable hands, she sure would make heads turn!

I was also just as pleased with my ladybirds/ladybugs ATC dolls.

I used paper napkins I bought with this theme in mind, placed on painted watercolour paper to stiffen it up and add more interesting dash of colours. Can you smell Spring in the air? Little Ladybird boys and girls look like they could almost fly (or perhaps they really do fly)!

These following 3 fabric ATCs came in the mail this week. The lady on the beautiful blue background and all the fancy trims and ribbons was done by Lisa Maria (USA). See all those holes on the background - it is what is left over from when they make sequins. There is a big name to it - Punchinella. I learned something new :) And Google is acting up again, I just can't load the photo in the correct orientation

The other fabric ATC is Sharon Scothern (UK)'s Z is for Zip.

This green piece is done by Debbie Baker (Australia). She used a bright green stretchy sequin fabric (mostly used for dance costumes) which she toned down by painting it with a few coppery and olive shades of Lumiere paint, and layered with a felt backing. The embellishments are beads on metallic wires and squares of copper sheet that she heated, cut, embossed and distressed with black paint.

Thank you, ladies!!

The Lion King

2011-03-20T23:05:00.002+08:00

I mentioned in my last post about the OWOH giveaways I won. This is the 2nd one - a set of floral stamps, complete with a piece of acrylic block handle and a stamp pad, from Gail's Card Cafe. Thanks, Gail!

This artdoll is overdue, but nevertheless, she's completed and on her way to Amelia Ruscoe (New Zealand). The theme was Goddess, but I wanted to create one closer to heart, so I found a Goddess of Mercy picture and drew on parchment paper to create these dolls. The colours of the variegated paper and the embossing done on the paper created a lovely surreal effect. Had to add a touch of my tatted flowers ;)

I was unsure if I should jump in on this Metallic swap, but I couldn't stop myself. I created, in a way, a personalized fabric ATC for everyone but all based on the same concept - embossed metal foil coloured with black Indian ink, with a hint of Spring in the background colours and the rolled fabric rose. The surface was touched up lightly with metallic crayons and the border finished off with a metallic thread.

Pauline Mackenzie (Australia) was the first to send out for the swap, but she mistakingly made a postcard instead of an ATC. Of course we won't mind the mistake, and it's certainly a well-composed one - the embellishment was done with model magic then painted, and rubbed and buffed to give the metallic look.

The 2nd piece of metallic ATC came from Kim Young (USA), she textured the metal foil and sewed over them onto handmade silk paper. Love the bright, yet at the same time, warm colours!

The last 2 ATCs came from Germany by Ann Seidel - I is for Inchies and a Valentine Heart (for the F card I sent her mistakingly). Ann's I card with all the inchies came just when I'm going to do an inchies swap, I couldn't stop smiling at the coincidence :)

S$10 million musical, The Lion King, is the inaugural theatrical event at the new Sands Theatre, which can seat 1,627 people. Stunning costumes - the giraffes and zebras are my favourites. Of course the mask of Scar and Mufasa and how they hang over like real lions (photo above) are simply fantastic. Kristine, who went to the musical with me on Friday night, felt that the all the animals look so real like. Indeed!

We didn't manage to explore the whole Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands on Friday, we went a second time today and also to the ArtScience Museum. More in the next post!

Leaving The Garden - A Custom

2011-03-13T22:37:00.001+08:00

Survived another week without a maid, but hope a new one will be coming real soon, sigh. I was too busy to participate in this year OWOH giveaway. I did manage to visit some of the blogs though, and was lucky enough to win 2 giveaways. 1 is this black and silver stone bracelet from Anna McCurdy in Western Canada. Anna arranged the stones in such that the length will fit me and it's just perfect. I'm not a fashion guru, but I do think it's chic. Thanks, Anna!

My J cards revealed .... they are ... jellyfish! I'm not sure if they look like the real thing, but I'm happy with the tatted design and the whole card in general. Hope my recipients think likewise.

The theme for this month ATC session in Bishan Library was "March". Let's see - we have March starting on the same day of the week as November every year and February in common years only. International Women's Day is marked on the 8th of March every year. Pi Day is observed on March 14 because of the date's representation as 3/14 in month/day date format. This representation adheres to the commonly used approximation of 3.14 for π. World Water Day is observed on March 22 since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 as World Day for Water, and the theme for 2011 is "Water for Cities". After doing so much homework, I decided just a simple "March Marching In", and well, they do really march by pulling the 2 plastic strips.

We also learned to draw the Ed Emberley way using his books available in the library. Some are quite simple, but some are pretty complex pictures, he is able to show step by step drawing with just simple shapes and lines which will lead to the all sorts of pictures. You can see for yourself what we managed in the half hour!

I drew this scarecrow with highlighters following one of the books. Not bad for someone who don't draw :) The green hexagons piece was traded with Vicki, who painstakingly cut and pieced every piece by hand, while the ducks were drawn by Lyn.

出花园是潮人一种特有的成人礼俗。家中有15岁男女孩子的家庭，要为他们办出花园仪式以表示他们已经长大成人。出花园当天清早，要为孩子备办三牲果品拜别从小守护他们的公婆神，表示孩子已经长大，可以走出园，不再是终日在花园里玩闹的孩童了。其仪式是将三牲果品合凑成四件或八件或十二件，陈置在俗称“胶掠”上，请出公婆神的神炉，由出花园的孩子跪拜，拜毕，以后就不再拜了。出花园的孩子要穿红皮屐，吃公鸡头，所有食品都要吃一点。

Here's an attempt to translate the above Chinese text. "Leaving The Garden" is a traditional custom unique to the Teochew (which is one of the Chinese dialect groups). When a child reaches 15 years old according to the Chinese calender, the child goes through the garden ceremony to indicate that the child is already grown up and may go out the garden, and is no longer the noisy child who would play all day long in the garden.

Well, my boy just went through this today. I guess my mother-in-law has simplified a lot of things already. We went to the temple in the early morning to pray. As the child cannot meet any strangers (and so not go out of the house) throughout the whole day of the ceremony, we brought his new pyjamas, briefs and shoes to the temple instead. Back home, he then bathed with the flowers offerings and wear the new clothings. After that, offered tea to parents, and everyone sat down for lunch, eating a bit of every item of the temple offerings. This is the first time I know and went through such a ceremony (cos' I'm a Cantonese and we don't have such a custom).

Have You Watched Emily?

2011-03-07T21:50:00.005+08:00

Another week passed without a maid :( Only consoling thing is that I have lost a little bit of the weight I gained which stubbornly would not go down!

I finished "V" finally! V is for victory, but alas, I'm resolved on tatting animals, so it's V is for Vampire Bat. I came up with a little black critter with bloody red eyes, but I think it looks more cute than scary.

Another set of animal done - I is for Ibis. Since they look like flamingo, I modified Martha Ess' flamingo design to come up with this. I'm designing and working on J now, and is pretty pleased with the J********, can you guess!?! Stay tune!

Here's my set of complete H - my tatted hedgehog, hats from Mari (South Aftica) and Norma (USA), and a house that Sherry Dreier (USA) just built with needle-punching.

V is for Veggie and W is for Weaving received from Lyn Strauch (USA) and Y is for Yarn from Sharon Scothern (UK).

Sharon explained that she laid organza over the background fabric and sewed the channels to make the Y. Frizzy yarn were then inserted into each channel. Ingenious way to make up the Y!

Last night, my boy and I were at the Esplanade to catch Ivan Heng in his role of Emily of Emerald Hill, a finale to W!LD RICE’s 10th Anniversary season of smash hits. A one-woman play, Emily is a Chinese Peranakan, who by dint of her native wit and cunning, emerges as the matriarch of a large and distinguished household, but only at the expense of her son’s suicide and her estrangement from her husband. The end of the play sees her alone in a much reduced mansion. She is old, and wistful, and the remnants of her family have moved to the suburbs while she is surrounded by the urgent hammering and pounding of an expanding inner-city construction.

Since 1999 when Ivan Heng became the first male actor to play Emily, he has performed a total of 98 performances as Emily to date. “A moving, funny and accomplished piece of theatre.” – The Age, Australia - this summed up nicely my sentiments too.

I Love Flowers, Do You?

2011-02-26T23:30:00.006+08:00

No. 15th day without a maid when she had to go back to Indonesia because of problems at home. Now I have to find time to do more household chores, but luckily with much help from dear Mom. So things are going slow.

These are private swaps that I finally finished. The first one is an ATC for Lisa Alff (USA) with her name sewed on the basket, filled with flowers done with creative tatting.

"What is creative tatting?" non-tatters would ask. Well, it is a way of tatting realistic flowers with the creative knot. They are pretty and with much room for creativity, but tedious if you want colours - I have once used 4 shuttles concurrently in order to get 4 colours. That's the time you can't tat just about everywhere but to sit down in a quiet corner and concentrate or else, you'll be busy untangling the shuttles more than you tat!

This second one is a fabric postcard for Lynn Hodge (USA). YES, a fabric postcard of size 4" by 6" and this is the FIRST piece of postcard I sewed! I'm ready to tackle fabric postcards, but I don't think I'll do a lot as they do take much more time to hand-sew. I expanded my "Floral Bliss" motif to fill up the whole postcard with sweet pink blooms.

Beautiful Chinese paper cutting. This is a gift brought back by DH who is outstationed in Guiyang, China, hand-cut by a co-worker. She has lots of credit to her name, winning numerous paper-cutting competitions. Can't wait to meet her in person!

I'll end with these real blooms received from DH who is now back to his job in China. Thank you, they are lovely <3

Lot of Fishes for CNY and Lot of Hearts for Valentine's Day!

2011-02-12T19:19:00.003+08:00

The ATC A*Live session this month coincided with the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, so Moses planned for us to do a collage fish (年年有余）.

We also had Yusheng (捞鱼生) arranged in a most ingenious way in the shape of a bunny!

The theme for the ATC swap this month was naturally "Heart", I did a heart pocket with teabag folding "Having Lot of Love in the Heart", and "Popping Heart" - a smaller Heart popping out of the weaved Heart by pulling the golden string.

The bottom left ATC is my collage fish done during the session. The top left is a stamped piece I received from Rita, the Heart of Gold is drawn by Sor Huan and the last piece, Kokoro, by scrapbooking expert, Vicki.

Amy McDonald (USA) did a very different Queen for a Day doll for me. With a paper body base and crown, everything else is non-paper - a clay face, yarn hair, fabric cloak, glass crystal choker. Well, I'm inspired to try more types of materials for my subsequent paper dolls too. We'll see!

I'm still trying to tat up the animal for my V cards, but in the meantime, more alphabets arrived: H is for Hat from Norma Mason (USA), T is for Triangle from Hetty van Boven (Australia) and U is for Underwear from Lyn Strauch (USA).

My boy is in his 2nd Year Japanese language class. This is a A4-size Spring poster he conceptualized and printed (the words and photos), while I helped him to complete the piece using die-cuts and hand-cutting. Really hope that we will have a chance to visit Japan in spring to see her famous Sakura!

We have another colleague resigning. I tatted yet another leaf bookmark for her, I just love this particular design!

We had lion dance (舞狮) in our office yesterday, accompanying our bosses' walkabout.

This is a traditional dance in the Chinese culture - performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume. The story goes that once upon a time a monk combined all the lucky magical animals he could think of to made a lion to protect the people from evils plaguing the land.

During Chinese New Year, lion dancer troupes from the Chinese martial art schools or Chinese guilds and associations will visit houses and shops of the Chinese community to perform the traditional custom of "cai ching" (採青), which literally means "plucking the greens", a quest by the 'lion' to pluck the auspicious green, usually vegetables like lettuce which is called 'cái' (菜) in Chinese that sound like 'cái' (财) (fortune) and auspicious fruit like oranges tied to a "Red Envelope" containing money; either hang highly or just put on a table in front of the premises. The "lion" will dance and approach the "green" and "red envelope" like a curious cat, to "eat the green" and "spit" it out leave it in a nice arrangement, like a auspicious character but keep the "red envelope". The lion dance is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the business and the troupe is rewarded with the "red envelope".

I'm ending off with these quick sketches done by my youngest girl, Kristine, just before she went off to sleep. I love the children's doodlings done without pressure and without any restriction - give a most carefree feeling to them. These are to the theme of love - a TV and TV controller loving each other, while the basket and vegetable are not too sure of their love for each other! Cute!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Pongal Festival and Chinese New Year

2011-02-06T16:04:00.044+08:00

Singapore is a multi-racial country, so we get to interact and share festivals and participate. Here are some photos I took at a little Indian gathering at our neighbourhood last Sunday.

The event ? The Harvest Festival, or the Pongal Festival, which was originally in celebration of a good harvest in South India, where farming is the main form of livelihood. Here in Singapore, the Pongal Festival welcomes the beginning of the 10th Tamil month, called Thai, which falls in mid-January each year.

At the gathering, we saw how Pongal rice, sweet sticky rice where milk, rice and sugar are boiled together, was prepared. Also, a number of Indian families were patiently drawing Pongal Kolam designs using coloured crushed rice (I counted, they used 5 to 6 colours only). I couldn't resist doing a little research into these pretty drawings. There are line kolams, using free hand drawing of lines to make geometrical pattern, and pulli (dots) kolam, where dots are arranged in a specific sequence and order; these pullis joined to make pictorial designs. In the pulli kolam type, there is an another type called Chuzhi kolam, where twisted chains are formed by linking one loop with the next and forming designs with the basic pattern.

The other highlight was the presence of a cow, Letchmi, and calf, Veena. Adults and children alike were excited and all went up front for a close encounter and photos, it was really a rare chance to be up so close with farm animals in an urban place like Singapore!

If you are interested, this website has quite a bit of info on the Pongal Festival: http://www.pongalfestival.org

Following closely after the Indian festival is a Chinese festival - the Chinese New Year or the Chinese Lunar New Year, which is the longest and most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is known as the "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春节. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (正月) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with the Yuan Xiao Festival (元宵节) or Lantern Festival on the 15th day. Rice dumplings tangyuan (汤圆), a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, is eaten this day. In Singapore, this day is celebrated by individuals seeking for a love partner, a different version of Valentine's Day.

People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in the hope to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On Chinese New Year's Eve (除夕), Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers (not in Singapore though since it is banned). Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile; forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

According to legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nien (年). Nien would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nien ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nien was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nien was afraid of the colour red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nien. From then on, Nien never came to the village again.

Wow, I have written so much, I'll keep the rest short, just eye candies. Here's my W is for Whale ATCs with tatted blue whales.

I received more ATCs than I'm working on! First is this pair of Time/Watches/Clocks dolls from Margie Diamante (USA). BTW, I just changed to a new blogger editing format and just don't understand why my portrait photos are turning up the wrong way, and it's so frustrating :( Do you have the same problem?

Here are U for Upholstery, V for Violet and W for Winter from Jenna Louise (USA).

And last but not least, a pair of snow angels from Lynette McNamara (New Zealand). Lynette stamped, embossed and coloured her cards so well, her cards are as good as printed ones!

Thank you gals, I love all these arts in the mail!

Pavilion of Fortune and Floral Bliss

2011-01-29T19:10:00.004+08:00

I'm showing all these complete sets of fabric ATCs first. This is the set of alphabet "E" - we have 3 elephants (my tatted one, Ann's one in outline and Mari's African one), emu from Sherry and Eames chair from Norma. In case you are wondering, the word "elefant" on Ann's ATC wasn't a mistake, but the German word for elephant. And if you have missed my earlier post about the Eames chair, you can click on the word to go back to the post to find out what makes this chair so special.

Next is "F" - my tatted from piece, Mari's (on the left) and Sherry's (right) fish.

Then comes "G" - my tatted goose, Mari's giraffe, Sherry's gray goose and Norma's grapes.

Lisa Cottrell (USA) has caught up on her swaps, and these 3 pieces came together - snowman for the X'mas swap, "U" is for Unicorn and "W" is for Wolf.

With the snowman piece in, here's all the X'mas ATCs - my tatted "JOY", Vicky Baker's wreath, Eileen Carkott's snow scene, Sue Cox's snow globe, Sharon Scothern's reindeer and Lisa's snowman.

Lovely collections, right!?!

Now, back to my creations. Another pair of paper dolls "Queen for A Day". I know they weren't too creative, but that's my dream for a Queen - wearing designer's clothes and jewellery, and walking a poodle.

This is my boy's school project - constructing a lantern for the Chinese New Year with recycled materials. Can you spot them ? Toilet rows, egg crate, and in fact, the pink tissue papers which were used to wrap things that came in a box from USA some time back. I didn't throw them as the pink is so sweet, came in useful now. We are calling it the "Pavilion of Fortune"!

I just finished a beginner tatting class last weekend with Christine, Gina, Hazel and Shireen. I was inspired to design a simple floral pattern for them to try. It started off as a simple flower on the left, then the flower got bigger, and became 2 with leaves and vine. Finally, I have Floral Bliss done, dedicated to the girls, in celebration of Spring, and a gift for everyone.

Do You Know Your Alphabets?

2011-01-22T23:16:00.000+08:00

Yippee! I finished my G's and H's, and mailed them out too!

Here we go, G is for Goose ...

... and H is for Hedgehog.

(Read on further for more alphabets!)

I also managed to finish these 2 pairs of ATC dolls on the theme "Time/Clocks/Watches".

Do you like Guess watches ? The heart one is so pretty.

Mails were real slow since the week after Christmas, those posted on the last days of Dec took 3 whole weeks to arrive!

First, we have this cute Maori Warrior Doll and a pair of Snow Angels from New Zealand, sent by Amelia Ruscoe. Maori are NZ natives, and they would dress as in the ATC when they are performing Hapa Haka (music and dancing). The snow angels are summoning snow with their trumpets.

Next are the fabric Alphabet ATCs - E is for Elephant, F is for Fish, G is for Giraffe and H is for Hat and Hearts! Did you notice the interesting backgrounds that are so matching in every aspect? That's because Mari (South Africa) dyed her own fabrics!

Here are Sherry Dreier's (USA) F is for Fish and G is for Gray Goose on Green Grass, wow, really a handful of G's done by needle punching!

There are more, but I shall leave them for the next post :)

Blind Contour Drawing, Anyone?

2011-01-14T23:43:00.003+08:00

At the ATC session on Thu, Moses introduced us to Blind Contour drawing. I'm not an arts student, and have not heard of this before, so I read up a little bit on it. This is a method of drawing popularized in part by Kimon Nicolaïdes in his book The Natural Way to Draw(1941). Apparently, Blind Contour drawing is a favourite with drawing teachers to develop hand-eye communication, and it's an effective training aid. Contour drawing is essentially outline drawing. Blind contour drawing means drawing the outline of the subject without looking at the paper. The end result is not important, rather what is crucial is to observe the subject carefully. The student, fixing their eyes on the outline of the model or object, draws the contour very slowly in a steady, continuous line without lifting the pencil or looking at the paper. The student may look at the paper to place an internal feature, but once they begin to draw it, they do not glance down.

Sound easy? Perhaps. But it sure took some courage and a lot of persuasion before my little girl dared to draw anything! It sure breaks away from convention, and the result, an abstract drawing:)

The theme for the month was Chinese New Year. I found an used piece of transparent wrapping paper in my stash, cut it up into ATC size and backed with a painted card. Next I traced and cut the boy from cardstock and painted him with water-colours, added a brad through all the layers, and his head, body and legs could move. Here are my cards - "Fun with Fire Crackers"!

Traded 2 of them for these - Rita's stamped card, and Sekina Yeoh's origami bunny.

I was jumping with joy when Cathy Vigor's mail came in finally after a month - it contained the last piece for my Zodiac collection, and also the last piece for my Leaf collection. Cathy actually did a replacement for her first piece of leaf that never came after a long 3 months. Here are the 12 Leaf ATCs ...

... the left one of the last row is Cathy's and the right one is my tatted leaf.

And the Zodiac ATCs in the order of the signs. Awesome set, right! Cathy did the Virgo piece, and I did the Pisces piece.

And an "U" is for Union Jack ATC from Sharon Scothern (UK). The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. I love the lacy effect!

And here are my "U" cards. It's not U for Butterfly, but Ulysses Butterfly. What's that? The Ulysses butterfly, also known as the Blue Mountain Butterfly, or the Blue Mountain Swallowtail is a large swallowtail butterfly, endemic to Australasia, and used as an emblem for Queensland tourism. I designed this little critter and tatted them with Size 40 Olympus threads. I think they didn't turn out too bad.

Wishing Everyone A Sparkling New Year!!

2011-01-09T22:25:00.002+08:00

I have been MIA partly because of the holiday seasons, and preparing the children back to school. But mainly, we moved house, now very close to my mother, cos' DH is posted overseas. Hope we will manage fine.

We never have snow here in Singapore, and I have never see real snow, saved for those artificial ones produced with soap foam and in the ice-skiing/skating rings. But since the Dec theme for the ATC dolls is "Snow Angels", I used some snowing background and cut glittering white wings for each doll. Add a snowflake confetti, they look as fine as they could, just that I do not really know what are snow angels. Or rather, I don't really know the different angels apart! I'm curious how my swap partner will interpret the theme! These first pair went to Lynette McNamara in New Zealand.

I received my very first fabric postcard from Miriam Gogarty of Ireland. It is amazing to know the fabric piece, with a postage stamp at the back, actually made its way here across the vast land and sea.

In return, I sent Miriam my last of the tatted Flying Pig ATC.

There should be more to show next week once we settle down in our new place and into our new routine. Ending off with this photo of my new Celestial diamond ring and wishing everyone a sparking new year!

Thank You to All my Swap Partners and Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T15:31:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, I enjoyed painting the background as much as tatting the animal. Here are the T is for tiger fabric ATC cards.

And another set of A and B cards especially for Mari in South Africa.

With Lyn's rainbow card (bottom) in, here's my complete set of R cards.

Gemini card from Karen Swiech (USA) and Libra card from Aynsley McKay (USA) have came in; still waiting for Virgo card to complete all the 12 signs. Love this collection, great theme!

This Christmas is special with these special Christmas fabric ATC received from afar - a beautiful silvery white Christmas from Eileen Carkett (UK) - so dreamy!;

a penquin snow globe (glass beads within a window) from Susan Cox (USA) and a felt wreath from Vicky Baker (Canada) - they came just in time for Christmas!

Thank you to all my swap partners!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!!

Pisces Star Done!

2010-12-20T22:57:00.002+08:00

For 3 weeks, I have been working on these 12 Pisces ATCs. They are finally done and 11 of them on their way to their destinations. I don't know a lot of the techniques that my swap partners used, so mine are no-frill ones - painted background with water-soluble crayons, tatted lilac flowers and hand-sewn word. I did try something new - applying Mod Podge to the fabrics before I cut out the fish and Pisces signs. Cutting them with the scissors was so much easier, and no fraying at all! A touch of flat sequins gave the cards a sparkle!

Nowaday, whenever I see prints of people to fairy or whatever that look like a human form, I will start thinking how to cut them up and make them movable. These are 3 different ones I attempted: Furniture Man Comes A-Visiting; a 10-headed Indian King, Ravana, from the Indian story of Ramayana; and Butterfly Fairy. All will fold up and fit into the ATC-sized backing cards nicely.

I have received a "D" from Mari Strydom (South Africa) and a "R" from Lyn (USA). These complete another 2 alphabet sets. It's a bingo for "D" with all dogs! Will show the "R" set in my next post.

My tatted dog on the left, Sherry Dreier's dog at the centre and Mari's dog on the right.

Last Friday, DH and myself went to the Singapore Turf Club at Kranji for the first time with a pair of free tickets to the Hibiscus Lounge. It was block-booked, so we were issued with entry tickets to the Owner's Lounge instead. It was an experience watching live horse races in the lounge which has an excellent view of the racetrack, while taking dinner and placing a few bets!

Then on Saturday, I brought my girl for the Singapore Dance Theatre's full-length classical ballet performance - Sleeping Beauty, featuring music by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa. I think this is the first time for us watching a ballet, it is certainly amazing to see how the dancers expressed the story only be body movements, and of course, the mood by the music, without any dialogue.

I'll end with these 2 cards Kristine did for her Shichida teacher and piano teacher.

Pointillism and Aother Great Sing-Along!

2010-12-12T11:51:00.002+08:00

During A*Live December on Thu, Moses introduced French artist, Georges Seurat, and the technique the latter developed which people called "Pointillism" - using dots of paint instead of using longer brush strokes to create picture. We tried applying watercolours with cotton buds to create dots. Although the dots are pretty big, it was a fun technique; I love it, and just great for non-artist like me!
Traded quite a number of ATCs too: Going clockwise from top left "Christmas" by Selina Yeoh, "Owl Always Love You" by Rita, "Pufferfish" by Bliss (a 6-year old girl), and "Merry Christmas" by Richard Wee. Rita and Richared are retirees. Just to prove ATCs are really for anyone, young and old, and addicitive!

And these I got from my girls: Kristine's Big Butterfly, Lion is Puzzled (it's snowing and the lions don't know what is the white stuff!), Flying Fish and Joey's origami penquin with movable tail. Joey took my hole puncher and brads and started creating origami with movable parts!

I created more gingerbread boys and girls, all with 4 limbs and head movable - a hit in the A*Live trading session.
And for the Dec theme "Merry", I created these scrapbooking style "Joyfully Merry". Embossing dies work really well on these silver-coloured parchment papers.

Love the word "JOY" so much so that I tatted the candy canes, wreaths and snowflakes to sew up these fabric ATCs for the X'mas ATC swap. A lot of mails came in this week too. Here's Kath the Puppeteer's (US) Gingerbread Man. He's rather a big piece with silver icing, and really capable of every movement!

Next are the zodiac signs that landed: Hetty's (Australia) free-motion bobbin work "Aries", Susan Sawatzky's (US) "Aquarius" and Ann Seidel's (Germany) machine-stitched "Capricorn". Oops, I got Aquarius upside down, defying gravity!

3 "E"s - Elephant from Ann Seidel, Emu from Sherry Dreier (US), Eames Chair from Norma Mason (US) and the first X'mas ATC received from Sharon Scothern UK).

What is Eames Chair? I checked out and found this: The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman (footstool) were released in 1956 after years of development by designers Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller furniture company. It was the first chair the Eames designed for a high-end market. These furnishings are made of molded plywood and leather. The chair is composed of three curved plywood shells.

What's so special about these chairs? Read on... there is a decent used market for these chairs. Some collectors are willing to pay high prices for earlier chairs made with Brazilian Rosewood veneer, which is no longer available due to a worldwide embargo since 1992 (as a highly endangered species). In 2006, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the chair, Herman Miller released models using a sustainable Palisander Rosewood veneer. Prices for original rosewood chairs have recently reached as much as US$7,000 in auction! WOw!

Had a late night yesterday at the Floating Platform @ Marina Bay for the 2010 The Great Singapore Sing-Along. It was a cooling night with the sea breeze after a late afternoon heavy shower, and set against a beautiful backdrop - the Marina Bay Sands which just opened its doors this year. Just like last year Sing-Along, I had a good time singing with thousand others, a mix of old and new songs, Chinese and dialet songs. Although my children didn't seem to know most songs, but they listened, and when had an encore back home, they could sing!

Cinderel-Lah! to wrap up the Week!

2010-12-07T21:11:00.003+08:00

We have started packing things for shifting, and the first thing to pack was the children's old school books. There was a stack of Chinese magezines which belonged to my boy when he was in Primary 1 and 2, and that was 5-6 years ago! Before they went into the recycling bin, I salvaged some prints, and here are some of them, just fitting for the theme "School Days" and just in time for the Nov ATC-doll swap! I coloured these black-and-white prints with marker pens and applied a layer of gloss over. All the backgrounds were embossed with QuicKutz metal embossing dies.

And since I'm working on the "School Days" theme, I couldn't help admiring this water-coloured print on a new magezine. I cut her out and applied the gloss over, put a brad on the shoulder, and off she goes, swinging her arm and bag :) Does anyone in Singapore recognises where she hail from ?

Margie Diamante's school girls dropped over all the way from USA. How different they look from Asian girls in uniform! Thank you, Margie!

Sherry Dreier (USA) sewed a very cute dog for the Alphabet ATC swap - see the "D" on the paw, great idea! And S is for Stars from Jennifer Morlock (USA). How I wish I could handle the sewing machine!

Meanwhile, I have also finished and mailed out my F ATCs.

More cards received from the Zodic series: Cancer from Debbi Baker (Australia) and Scorpio from Christine Faller (USA) which came in a very pretty fabric pouch! Such interesting composition!

We had a really good afternoon in Esplanade on Sunday at the W!ld Rice 10th Anniversary production of Cinderel-Lah! This was the 3rd pantomime my children and I attended, after Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs in 2008 and Beauty & the Beast in 2009. Set in an unique Singapore flavour, and with familiar cast (Emma Yong as Cindy, Sebastian Tan as Prince Char Mee, Chua Enlai and Darius Tan cross-dressed as Cindy's stepsisters), it was simply hilarious, especially Chua Enlai in his Wonder Woman outfit for the masquerade ball! Gurmit Singh brought on even more laughter in the roles of Ali and Jeya - beautiful Indian babe! Najip Ali as Fairy God Makcik added new elements of magic to everyone's delight.

In case you don't know, Christmas Pantomime is an uniquely British theatre tradition that dates back to the Middle Age. Although the original performances were mainly mime, Pantomime has evolved to include all acting styles. Slapstick comedy, satire, political incorrectness, snazzy songs, toe-dancing routines, cross-dressing, fabulous costumes and spectacular sets, audience participation and a Good versus Evil story that is strong on romance and adventure, and juveniles (children) on stage add the "Ahh!" factor. All these elements are brought together in W!ld Rice pantomimes. To sum it up, we won't miss W!ld Rice musical pantomimes even if we have to forgo all other musicals! This is not an advertisement, just our humble opinion :)

Look What I Got ...

2010-11-30T07:07:00.004+08:00

... 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

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!

2010-11-14T12:20:00.002+08:00

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!

2010-11-07T15:18:00.003+08:00

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!!!

Bonearina! Knowing B, C and D; and Treats from Brisbane

2010-10-31T13:49:00.006+08:00

Introducing Bonearina!

She is the lovely creation of Cindy Whiddon in USA. The template was drawn by a friend of Cindy. Very neat, and pretty rose stamps on the dress.

The alphabet ATCs are coming in! On the left are B is for blue button/blue border and C is for Cat, both from Ann Seidel (Germany). The top right piece is B is for Braille from Norma Mason (USA) and bottom right is C is for Cat from Mari Strydorn (South Africa).

Still short of 1 A and 1 C cards, but the B cards are complete and here they are, including my own piece:
Now my completed D is for Dog! As per what I committed myself to, I painted the background calico with water-soluble crayons, hand cut the felt alphabets and embroidered the words with metallic thread. The dogs are, of course, tatted from Martha Ess' pattern. Can't wait to complete the alphabet series, but I have only done 5; still a long, long way. More goodies, this time from Maureen L in Australia. She asked for a small favour and in return, sent this very lovely selection of gifts to me! Her tatting is very neat and what sweet lacy bookmark she tatted especially for me! An angel tatting pattern booklet which I have been eyeing, and the Brisbane book makes me want to visit Brisbane again. Although I have been to Brisbane some 10 plus years ago (before I learn to tat), I didn't really go round much as it was only a transit stop. And, last but not least, all the stamps and frog chocolate are a real treat! I didn't really do that much to deserve so many gifts , but THANK YOU, Maureen!

And thank you, my partners for all the swaps!

Dolls and Frakira's Gveaway

2010-10-25T07:30:00.002+08:00

Couldn't quite decide what thread to use for the tatted cat, do the bigger ones (with size 10 thread) look like a tiger?

Paper dolls are another fun and addicitive thing to do besides ATCs, I almost couldn't stop myself making more of these skeletal dolls. They are going for a Halloween party in their sexy transluant outfits! And Yellow Petal (on the left) is going to Cindy Whiddon's in the USA.

The last 2nd leave ATC came in from Corlis, a painted one on black fabric. And an early R is for Ribbon Rose from Sharon Scothern in UK. Can't help noticing the black and white contrast of the 2 pieces when I put them together for photographing!

And a very lovely first dotee doll trade from Lisa Hunter (USA) - see her pretty wink and mischievous grin :)

Frakira in Czech Republic has an autumn giveaway earlier and I won it!!!

This is a small collection of Czechoslovakia stamps (above photo) I have all these years, and I love them. I initially thought Frakira is in Czechoslovakia, but not so. Here's a bit of history lesson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia

1918–1920: Republic of Czechoslovakia
1920–1938: Czechoslovak Republic
1938–1939: Czecho-Slovak Republic
1945–1960: Czechoslovak Republic
1960–1990: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
April 1990: Czechoslovak Federative Republic (Czech version) and Czecho-Slovak Federative Republic (Slovak version).
The country subsequently became the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic

In gist, Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 Dec 1992. On 1 Jan 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Back to Frakira's giveaway that came. First and foremost is a big ball of Madame Tricote's Maxi thread - 100% mercerized cotton, 565 m, made in Turkey. Although it's a crochet thread around size 10 (Frakira mentioned she don't quite like the thread, but some czech tatters love it), I must say I adore the variegated autumn-looking colours. Although I don't tat much with size 10 previously, I find it a good size to use for tatting motifs on ATCs, especially the animal alphabet series I doing now.

A heart pendant, an Inox faux tortoiseshell shutte, a packet of faux perals in different sizes and shades. As I requested, Frakira also included a handful of Ceska Republika and Slovensko cancelled stamps (I have already placed them nicely in the stamp holder!!). And a most beautiful snowflake Frakira tatted with Jan Stawasz's design using a czech thread Snehurka. Well, Frakira, your tatting is beautiful :)

A Most Rewarding Week!

2010-10-17T19:55:00.005+08:00

The past week had been rather a busy one, and a very different and unforgetable one. I taught basic tatting over 2 days to 2 classes of students, all 17-year old girls. 9 pax per class, each class was 5 hours long, excluding the lunch break. I had worked hard to instruct, to go round to everyone to check their progress, to point out and correct their mistakes, almost non-stop. The students had worked hard too to master how to flip the knot and to attempt a simple pattern. It had been quite a while since I taught in big groups; very tiring but equally rewarding to see some finished their first pattern! At the end of the classes, I realised I had not not taken a single photo, simply no time to do or think about it!

Not much time for my projects this week, only completed the "R" ATCs. I jumped in on a swap in another group which has been running the alphabet swaps for a while and they are at R now. Martha Ess' racoon pattern looks so real, right?

These chocolate doll ATCs from Martha Cruthfield were delightful - so cute and colourful! Love them!

And these are 2 ATCs from Vicki, who joined our local trading sessions not long ago. The first piece is 2 chameleons on a thin wood backing, and the second piece is a porcupine arranged with about a hundred of triangular spikes! Ingenious!

My First Dotee Dolls

2010-10-09T11:30:00.005+08:00

Since I received my first dotee doll from Lisa Ahmad a few months back, I have wanted to sew one too. For those who are unfamiliar with dotee dolls, these are the creation of Dorothy Christian (Dot), and are named after her. Dotees are small handmade dolls that usually measure between 4 to 6 inches tall and have a loop on the top of the head for hanging. They also have a tail hanging from the bottom of the doll. The tail is usually made of beads. These dolls are embellished with beads, embroidery floss, buttons or anything else the artist chooses to use. People make and swap these dolls like ATCs.

Well, I finally took the plunge and here's my first hand-stitched dotee dolls to the theme "Pretty in Pink", embellished with tatted rose. One is going to Lisa Hunter in USA.

Snail mail has been slow this past week, expected a few things to come in, but they didn't. Anyway, here's another leaf received from Maria Davis - leave sketched out of tyvek, painted & heated, then stitched to fabric. And "B is for Bee" ATC from Carolyn Mathis.

This CD doll just came in from Barb Glasier.

Thank you, gals!

CD Dolls and B is for Bird

2010-10-03T17:24:00.004+08:00

I started creating paper dolls this year. I usually spend quite a bit of time racking my brain to come up with a concept, and after that, to think of how to execute it. Along the way, I will need to think of modifications when things don't work out. The process has been getting easier after making 5 different paper dolls in the last 8 months, but I still take up to a week to come up with a satisfactory idea, and another week to actually work and finish the doll. So, every doll is painstakingly created and created with lots of love and thoughts, and naturally, immense satisfaction each brings!

For this latest pair of CD dolls, I started with these mini CD-Rom which I have kept for 10 years (not that I value the content, in fact, I never read them at all, but for the cute size). By chance, I found the doll heads, which were actually labels from bought pouches which my girls threw away. Next, I started thinking hard what to do for the limbs and on the CD-Rom surface. I knotted up all my thread ends from my tatting projects, and tatted simple ring flowers - not that simple after all because of all the knots hindering the closing of the rings, but I managed!! These went on the body. Using my QuicKutz dies for the glasses, skirt, palm, and boots, I finally assembled them! You guess it - the legs are movable, hinged by the brad in the middle of the CD-Rom. Oh, another proud creation!! One has gone postal to Sherry Collier in the USA.

The B's of the Alphabet ATC series are done - B is for Bird. The painted blue sky looked a bit plain after I stitched on the bird and word, but well, I tried a variation of the blanket stitch - the half-crossed blanket stitch - I do think it made the background stood out better. They are also on the way to Ann Seidel, Carolyn Mathis and Norma Mason.

Some tatting in between creating dolls and ATCs - names for my colleagues.

I'm excited to show this link to Sue's blog - she has tatted 70 of my hearts paperclips in a variety of threads for the ladies in a weekend retreat this month! Although the pattern is quick to tat up, it's still a lot to tat for a person. Kudos to Sue!