Concerts Amidst Embroidering

What is THIS ?!?!?

I find these very interesting.

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

Here's another one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art Dolls and ATCs

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

And with extra sets to keep and trade.

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

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

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

little Kristine made up her own origami doll!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the Sundial Garden, I caught this dragonfly resting.

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

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

Flowers Attract!

This is the 2nd set of fabric flower brooches I sewed for Catherine, now my ex-colleague:

And more I completed subsequently ...


Now, time for some crocheted flowers! Definitely more are starting to bloom.


[It has been really a long time I have not taken out my crochet hooks.

Luckily they dont' rust like felting needles!]

Well, all the flowers attracted this beautiful purple butterfly!

[Fabric ATC from Lisa in USA, swopped for my crocheted angel ATC. ]


I'm quite excited to be catching the theatre show, Animal Farm, this weekend with my children.
I have read the book in my secondary school days, and have since forgotten half the story, but who can forget the famous line -

“All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others."


A “Made in Singapore” production by the Singaporean theatre company, W!LD RICE (ok, that's my favourite theatre company) and directed by Ivan Heng (my favourite director!) , the animals are created not by fancy costumes but by the human body - innovative design combine with live and original music - well these are in the advertisement, I will judge for myself come this weekend!

OWOH Win, More Tatted Entries, and New Fabric Flowers

First of all, I received these 2 prints from Vickie for winning her One World One Heart Giveaway in Feb. I don't think she mentioned how big these teapot prints are and I wasn't sure what to expect, perhaps postcard-sized ones, so imagine my surprise when they came in a 42 by 32 cm box! Cheerful and gorgeous colours, thank you, Vickie!

Here are the other entries for the Pameran Poskad exhibition mentioned in my earlier post. The 6th one is "Heart To Heart" - these 2 hearts are what I test-tatted for Martha Ess for her book "Tat's Amore" with a good collection of her tatted heart patterns. This pattern is not a very fanciful one, but has a very lacy feel to it, especially when tatted with finer threads.

Next is "My Sweet Heart", pattern by Pam Palmer in her Tatting Treats book. This is mounted on a 3-fold card, blank inside.

Nina Libin's butterfly bookmark, loaded with Czchekoslovakia glass beads and tatted with Olympus 40 thread. This has been one of my favourite beaded bookmark piece all the while. The piece can be detached from the card to be used as a bookmark. I made the flower girl too to go with the whole theme!

Another piece with tatted butterflies - "A Gathering of Butterflies" with Rozella F Linden's celtic butterfly tatted with Flora 20 threads and Adelheid Dangela's Elise butterfly tatted with Manuela 20 thread.

Last but not least, "Just Clips' - just my paper clip designs: the Jolly Sun, butterfly, lucky 4-leaf clover, and the newest goldfish and flower bloom, which will go into hopefully my planned paperclip design book.

Two more colleagues have resigned, this didn't help in our already heavy workload :( I only managed to squeeze whatever little time I have to sew these fabric flower brooches for Sallyna to use with her headscarves. My first attempt and feeling quite pleased with them. My tatted butterfly paperclip to go with them naturally!

Happy Tatting Day!

Happy Tatting Day - it's 1st Apr here in Singapore now, and it's International Tatting Day! I'm not sure who started this or when, but it's sure better than celebrating the good-for-nothing April Fool's Day. Tatting uses a needle or shuttle to create lace which is a more delicate of work compared to crocheting. On this day, tatters around the world celebrate our hobby and introduce it to others. Often, we celebrate by eating chocolates and making tatted lace. Over at Ambitatterous, Isdihara is celebrating with a lovely giveaway. Want to learn tatting? Hop over to the TattingChic's blogoversary giveaway for a chance to win the book "Learn To Tat"!

Time flies! How true! 2 weeks has gone by in a flash. My office work sure gets busier by the day, but no, I haven't stopped tatting. In fact, I was tatting up quite a bit and doing them up for the up-and-coming Pameran Poskad 2010 to be held on 18 Apr -1 May 2010. There is no restriction on the medium, but my 10 pieces are all tatted laces - some tatted previously and some new ones, but all mounted on acid-free cardstocks with added embellishment for presentation. I'll show them over 2 posts.

This first piece is "Parrot Talk". I think this is one of the greatest parrot design, by Mary Parrott. My own design is a far cry from Mary's one. I tatted Mary's parrot pattern twice, one with size 10 threads, and this one with size 20 threads. Cool, right!

Next is this "Blooming In Spring" - a bookmark design by Jos van der Helm. Another one of my favourite floral designs.

Ha, owls are next in the line! "Listen To The Wisely" comprises 2 of my small owl design, and Dianna Stevens' horned owl bookmark design. HOOT!

I did 2 pieces in creative tatting, which I have not done for some time. Hope to tat more flowers for my girls' dresses and clips, but see how it goes later. Well, this is "Floral Scroll" - with embossed background done with QuiuKutz embossing dies.

And the last one for now - "Pretty In Red".

I had to miss KBCC's activity last Sat to rush these entries. Betsy taught the group to weave alphabets and patterns onto regular pens, the Friendship Pens. I didn't do these during my school days, but I did make some Friendship Bands in this form some years back. Managed to dig some up and gather them together for a shot. Not too bad, right?

Just realised I have not posted about these 2 fabric Easter ATCs I received from Ann Seidel of Germany. They are a great addition to my collection, thank you, Ann!

Mainly ATCs

Just received my paper-cutting ATCs - (top left corner going clockwise) from Florinda, Susan, "Bean Sprout #1" from Melissa, and "Wild Hyacinth Blubell" from Edie. Thank you, everyone!

These were what I did and sent.

For this month A*Live ATC session in Bishan Library, we tried perspective drawing. Long time I didn't try drawing! Got the "Kite Entangled" from Rita (middle card on the right) - love the concept and the drawing! The top 3 are from Joey, and the bottom 2 are from Kristine in exchange for my Easter fabric ATCs.

I did these "Eat with the Family" ATCs; we made our favourite dessert, tang yuan, together one afternoon, boiled them and everyone ate and enjoyed them. I don't made them very often, it is a treat every now and then, as I made them differently from those selling outside.

This is a Chinese New Year lantern my boy did for his school earlier in Feb - his concept and work, and with some input from me. Won a prize too!