Some Tatting Gifts and A Little Tatting Giveaway

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

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!

Have You Watched Emily?

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.

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!