The Heart of Paul

NNC Mug Rug Exchange: The Chinese Teacup Rug

2011-12-30T22:44:00.001+08:00

Here's another one of the mug rugs I made for the NNC Mugrug Exchange.

This one is a 'Chinese' one. MW, the Exchange Mom decided to have two types of mugrugs and the participants can choose either one or both do participate in. Of course, with me being me, I chose to do both.

This exchange is for the Chinese Tea Cup Rug, which was decidedly smaller than the other mugrug I did..

Anyway, this mugrug went to Sally of http://bagncraft.blogspot.com. Sally is an entrepreneur and she sells handmade bags and owl dolls LOL. You can see all these in her blog by clicking on the link.

Now, looking at the following pictures you WILL agree to:

1. Ignore the wobbly lines of my apparent lack of skill in quilting in a curve, which is evident near the bottom middle of the design when I tersasul and 'went off track'.

2. Ignore creases and folds that were caused by lack of skill in measuring fabric to size and the stubborn laziness of not using pins when sewing, which brought about the combined disaster of having puckers on the face of my work.

3. Ignore failed attempt at using zig zag stitch to applique different fabrics.

3. Agree with colour scheme; I am a guy, I cannot colour-coordinate. And I am perpetually depressed so I don't do 'cute rainbow-y colours'. I do drab.

4. Compliment me for my awesomeness in needle turn applique, which I (self praise) think I do quite well *winks at Janet Chan*

I was aiming to make the teacup rug look vintage. Like something out of a Shanghai 1942 setting. Hence the Cheongsam appliqued on it and the chinese writings and choice of colours.

gè 各 huā 花 rù 入 gè 各 yǎn 眼

"Each flower enters each eye differently" (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder)

There was another Chinese idiom of the same meaning that sounded prettier but it was too long and some of the characters had too many 'strokes' so I settled this simplified one.

Here's the complete set I sent to Sally which included a teabag pouch containing 3 types of chinese teas, a teacup and long saucer and some biscuits.

Those 'thin biscuits' I included are vegetarian biscuits which are sooooooo good!!! I couldn't stop munching on them. I thought Sally might like them with her Chinese Teas so I included them.

By the way, do the Chinese even have biscuits with their tea? Do they even have an 'evening tea time'?

Here's the tea cup and saucer again. The saucer looks like a surgeon's kidney tray LOL!

I'll write a post about the chinese mug rug I received from Mel which came in a beautiful box next! Stay tuned! :)

NNC Mug Rug Exchange: The Crazy Quilt

2011-12-28T22:42:00.002+08:00

Hi! I know it's been a while since you heard from me doing anything craft related. Before you get excited, thank you for asking if I'm still alive. I was just overwhelmed by the lack of interest in my sudden absence from the crafting community.

Alas, I'm still kicking, though barely. But I know you're not interested in listening to why my life sucks so I'll get right to the point of this post.

You might remember the Mug Rug exchange I received from Astrid of Mauritius (http://grandmasredneedle.blogspot.com)?

After sooooo long, I finally delivered mine to my partners! Yes I hear you gasping in shock; how can I delay my exchange for 3 months, you ask.

I was busy mah my day JOBS (note the non-singular) don't allow me to go to the post office to mail my stuff.

Anyway here's the first of the mug rugs, the 'western' mug rug which was for Zarina of http://concerningzarina.wordpress.com

Yes yes yes the bindings are all wonky.

God you people are so judgmental! Give a guy a break would you? It's only my second time working on quilt binding ok.

Anyway, I wanted to try some 'crazy quilting' on this mug rug. I find it hard somehow to do the 'crazy quilting' because my mind keeps trying to straighten out the pieces! I was trying to keep the 'crazy' in as best I could.

Funny how the 'crazy' unleashes itself at times when you least want it but when you need it to it doesn't rear its head.

Close-up of the embroidered teacup.

Speaking of teacups, if the mug rug is called a mug rug then shouldn't the embroidery design be that of a mug? Or at least it be called a tea rug instead of a mug rug?

The woman (yes, it was probably a woman and no I'm not going to bother doing research to verify this) who invented the mug rug must have made a mistake when trying to sew up a place mat because she was a noob so to cover line she calls it a mug rug because it was too small to be a placemat and too big pulak to be a coaster.

I truly enjoy creating stories. I should be an author :)

The complete set I scratched up for the exchange.

I actually DID want to get Zarina a coffee mug but I had already stitched a teacup on it so I had to get a teacup instead. I included a little teabag pouch, a tea biscuit saucer and some oat biscuits.

Oh by the way, if you haven't yet heard of the name 'TEA BISCUIT SAUCER' anywhere else, you read it here first and it was coined by The Heart of Paul :)

Stay tuned for another post on the Chinese mugrug (I know right, who comes up with these terms?!)

Nyonya Pineapple Tarts: The experiment

2011-11-30T01:28:00.002+08:00

It's 1am in the morning now and I should be sleeping. But no.

I'm so stressed. I'm depressed, I hate my life and I want to die.

But before I kick the bucket, I thought I'd try my family's 'SECRET' recipe for Nyonya Pineapple Tarts.

I think only a small handful of the women left in my peranakan family can do this tart properly, now that most of the older generation has passed on. Not wanting to miss out on a 'very important' aspect of being the called 'peranakan' and despite not being female, I just HAD to try this recipe.

I think it was a success :) My sister, the snake that she is, smuggled some to my father (who keeps bragging how well late-grandma makes them) and he said there were good. I didn't want him to try because I was just experimenting with the recipe!

But apparently my tarts were convincing enough :) So.

Make the pineapple jam yourself. Be prepared to spend some time standing at the stove and stirring the blended pineapple until it becomes thick and jam-like. But if you got lost in suicidal thoughts like I did whilst cooking the jam you might over-caramelize it like I did here.

Father said in the old days, the pineapples were chopped to death using two big knives. I was thinking how nice it would be to imagine yourself chopping up your enemy's face whilst doing that.

Make the dough for the tart shells. No I'm not giving you the recipe nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah!!

I had some fun imagining myself ramas-ramas my enemy's muka sial whilst mixing the dough mwahahahaha!

After you rest the dough, press them out with your tart cutter. I couldn't find the picture of me using the cutter (I tried this recipe a few weeks ago).

The cutter I used is made from copper with a wooden 'plunger' inside to give my tarts their 'indention'. I understand from father that in the old days, people had to cut two layers of pastry; one was the base and another was a ring to be put on top the first layer.

Damn a lot of work lor if you want to do that. Luckily nowadays we have the plunger cutter. I suppose maybe some ancient nyonya lao ah mahs somewhere still does it the old fashion way.

Oh and after you have cut out the tarts you have to 'pinch' the sides. Other than to give the tarts their Nyonya Pineapple Tart signature look, the 'pinching' also helps the layers to stick together, if you had done it the old fashion way with the double layers.

Tekap banyak-banyak the tart shells. From the picture you can see the difference between the 'pinched' tarts and the ones left 'un-pinched'.

'Pinching' might take some practise, because you have to keep them evenly spaced and facing the correct angle all together so they don't look like they got stampeded over by a clutch of chicken feet.

I am super awesome so I got it almost immediately and it also helped that I imagined myself pinching (very painfully) the face of the person I hate.

Don't the 'pinched' tart shells look like sunflowers in the picture? Pretty.

Press on the pineapple jam (which you should have pre-rolled into little balls for a smoother operation) into the indention.

Traditionally, the top of the tarts are decorated with very thinly cut strips of dough formed into a simple lattice pattern. They strips are kinda fine and soft so you want to lay them carefully. I used the edge of a knife to pick them up and lay them onto the top.

Thank God all those painful hours of needlework gave me the strength and stamina to keep the patience running. And you need A LOT of patience doing this part. I almost forgot how to speak English after finishing the decorative latticework on the tarts.

Egg wash the pastry parts only and bake them!

Don't they look like sunflowers? :)

I know they look a little bit messy. To be honest making these tarts is tiring work and I was very tulan by the time I reached tart number 10. All I keep thinking about (other than suicidal ideas and how to take down my enemies) is how much work it takes to make this and how easy it is to consume a piece in two bites.

*Sigh* Baking can be so depressing :(

Nom Nom one of the tarts and praise yourself for attempting a true culinary feat! The dough should be thin enough so that it cooks to a crunch and not too thick that it remains undercooked whilst the jam burns.

I found that the tarts tasted much nicer after they are cooled. They taste different when warm from the oven and when cooled and left to stand for a day.

No I'm not giving the recipe. My aunt warned me about that :P

But lemme say that the recipe can be easily found on the internet this days. It's the process of making it that is important :)

So, have one tart (or two) every time you feel upset. It's a balm for soothing injured souls....

NNC Mug Rug Exchange: from Mauritius!

2011-09-26T16:37:00.005+08:00

I had a happy surprise waiting on my desk not an hour ago!

It was the NNC Mug Rug Exchange all the way from Astrid in Mauritius!!

I like how she used raffia strings(????) to tie it all up.

I think of it as a......delightfully-rustic-mess :)

That postcard in the midst of the delightfully-rustic-mess is a postcard of Port-Louis in Mauritius.

THE MUG RUG!!!!

In case you haven't yet noticed, the 'monogram' on the left side is the letter P :)

And the 'picture' on the right side is a smoking mug (or is it a teacup???)

And here is the close-up shot so you can see Astrid's free motion quilting-ness.

It's really neat.

Ooooh someone has her own label now :D

On a totally random note, I realize from picture, my fingers look exactly like my mother's. I have...I have....lady fingers :(

To cuts of fat quarters.

I like the pink and black Eiffel Tower ones!! It's....girlish-ly masculine!

(LOL Bear with me and my vocabulary. I'm known to sometimes use this kind of 'speak' and annoy people, particularly my parents and colleagues)

And a very cute tea bag pouch(???) containing 4 different Mauritius-produced tea. The teabags are part of the exchange requirements I think.

(I have a perfume from L'Occitane called The Vert too LOL)

Thanks so much Astrid!! Like I said it was a pleasant surprise and I can't believe that I didn't realize that the mug rug exchange was a secret-partner one! I'm so out of touch with life! Ooh, I think I signed up for the Chinese Mug Rug too, which means I should be receiving another mug rug soon! :D

Now, to work on MY mug rug for my partners....

The office anti-social...

2011-09-20T12:22:00.002+08:00

Signage at my cubicle at work.

Because I'm bored: Photos from my iPhone

2011-08-18T11:58:00.009+08:00

Because I'm bored and fed up of work.

And because I donated blood less than 2 hours ago so not enough energy for anything else.

So I'm posting random pictures in attempt to make my blog happy because I've abandoned her for too long :)

For so long I've wanted to donate. I couldn't earlier because I had 'abnormal' blood pressure which is over the borderline. I found out when I was 19 years old and wanted to donate.

But last year, I decided to try again when the National Blood Bank came to my workplace. Been donating every 4 months ever since :)

Because T.H.O.P was preparing it. So it's gotta be a heart :)

Ignore beer can in background -_-"

My father made this YEARS ago before I was born. It's a copper plate hammered with a small nail-like tool and a small hammer.

Is my father awesome or what?! I think he made three designs altogether. I remember seeing this 'fist' one, a Chinese character which reads 'fu' and the cockerel from the Chinese Zodiac.

When I was a kid, every Chinese New Year my job was to polish these designs with Brasso till it shone!

Truffle oil courtesy of MW and her sister...JW?

Last year a few of us crafty friends met up at the 'bohemian' style bakery and we bought bread for dipping into the truffle oil. Delicious! The bread came straight from the oven they were still warm!

*sigh*

My friend tried to talk me into buying this pretty shades by Dior. He bought something similar but with bigger 'diamonds'.

I didn't take it. First of all because it was RM900 and secondly, I can't pull off that kind of...'fabulous-ness'. But it's dazzling under the light :)

Speaking of dazzling I saw this nice chandelier at a lighting store in Melaka. It's soooo beautiful in real life I shall buy it when I have my own home.....some millennium in the future.

Childhood sweets.

I still hate sweets.

I hung out at Tini's house one day and we tried making macaroons :)

At the last attempt out of 3 we got it right!

Macaroons are soothing balms for broken hearts :(

Underneath the Melaka Tree. So this was the tree Parameswara (alleged founder of Melacca) sat under when he thought to build this historical town.

My father (a Malaccan himself) picked one of their little fruits and made me taste it. It tasted green and latex-xy. I can't believe people eat it.

Last year I was thinner.

This year I'm a Chipster -_-"

(Chipmunk + Hamster = Chipster) -__-"

I LOVEEEE traveling by train!

Did I say I LOVEEEE traveling by train?

When I first got my iPhone I was totally crazy about the camera apps. I took a lot of pictures of a lot of things.

Like nearly everything!

Have I said I took pictures of everything?

My sister bought me this (expensive!) sugar-work tool set for my birthday. I used some of it when fixing up her wedding cupcake tower.

I was about to leave for work one morning when I saw this solitary white flower in the jungle of a garden at the front of my house.

What flower is this?

Morning at Villa Dominic, Genting View where some church retreat thing I had to join.

Beautiful :)

Another scenery of Genting View during the church retreat. It's so nice and quiet up there.

We were all forced to take a walk outside one evening and was assigned to bring home one item from nature that closely resembles our personality. I had wanted to choose a dead leaf or a dandelion-thing out of spite, but instead settled for a Touch-Me-Not plant.

Later during group sharing we were to explain why we chose that particular item. I told them straight that if I had to share about myself I will repel any advances with my thorns and close up my leaves and shan't say a thing, like the Touch-Me-Not plant I picked up :)

I'm so bad. I shall burn in the fires of Hell.

Took this whilst flying over the land of Sarawak.

We have plenty of curving rivers and vast jungles.

Don't you think this cloud formation look like a herd of horses running.

YES IT DOES YOU HAVE NO IMAGINATION SO THERE! :)

Taken at the beach where my grandma's childhood home is at.

I actually have a few more pictures to share here but I got bored so I'm just going to sign off for now!

Till the next 'The Heart is damn bored!" session!

:)

NNC July Stitching Bee: Photos from my iPhone

2011-07-30T22:36:00.008+08:00

iPhone shots of today's NNC Stitching Bee taken with the LemeLeme app.

A small group of us this time round.

It was very laid back and we had easy conversations with each other.

Nik and Faizon who were the first to arrive.

Nik brought some beautiful bags that she made and Faizon brought some pretty bracelets which she tatted.

I know you can't see anything but these are the tatted bracelets, snowflakes and bookmarks which Faizon made.

Here you can see a bit of the bags Nik brought and some of Faizon's tatting works.

I tried one of the camera app functions and failed.

L-R: Faizon, Nik, Vivian and Zarina, who brought some of her hand dyed threads.

Second try. Failed again

lu lao peh.

Mel and Janet

Mel and her shuai son, Nigel.

LOL!

Oooh! The mother and son introduced me to two new iPhone game apps called Restaurant Story and Office Jerk.

Restaurant Story is where you set up and run your own restaurant.

As you can see from this picture here I've flourished a lot since starting the game 12 hours ago :)

And Office Jerk is soo much fun!

Basically you're the office jerk and your job is to irritate your office-mate sitting across from you by throwing things at him.

In the picture above I've thrown a pie into his face :)

And here I threw a whole electric fan at him, which hits him in the head and face-first into his keyboard. In the following animation after this happens, he will turn towards you with the keyboard keys imprinted to his face LOL

You can throw other items like a ball of paper, a pencil, a stapler (LOL! I've always wanted to throw a stapler at someone!), a mug, a throwing dart (LOL!), a golf ball, an eraser and even the score sheet that you see in the picture.

How about a TNT explosive which explodes upon impact :)

A special 'throwing item' will appear if you make enough contact with the victim; The Purple Squid, which can stick itself to the victim's head.

LOL

I shall use this Office Jerk game as a way to de-stress at work. I only need to imagine the person's face to be someone else I might not like :D

The Wedding Cupcake Tower

2011-07-23T23:52:00.014+08:00

Planning sketches.

Sugar-work piping and stenciling.

Not all come out well of course :(

Sakura sugar flowers.

I forgot to clip the petals tips.

Sakura tree test-assembly.

Intermission :)

Cake test-assembly.

And right after I accidentally dropped one into the sink whilst trying to dust off the excess gold dust. But it's ok I had an extra. ALWAYS make extra if you're doing sugar work.

Piping disaster *sigh*

Test-assembly for butterfly cupcake.

Cupcake tier all flowered up.

Assembly at venue.

Butterfly cupcakes all assembled.

Wedding cupcake tower assembled :)

I think they like it :)

NNC Birthday Exchange 2011

2011-07-21T01:32:00.001+08:00

I participated again in the NNC Birthday Exchange for 2011!

This year my partner is Diane from USA!

The gift arrived last week and I patiently waited for my birthday (today 21st July!) to open it. I was soooo patient :) And my patience really paid off! Everything in the gift box was beautiful. And Diane packed up items in pink and black! It's like a pink-black-oriental theme thing which she put together for me.

Anyways enough yapping and on to the pictures!

My birthday card and a packet of sakura stickers! Lovely!

And Diane has such beautiful handwriting. Exactly how I'd always wanted my handwriting to be actually. *sigh*

Pink and black mini bows!

Furry yarn!

What did I tell you about the pairing of black and pink :)

Size 12 perle cotton.

I think Diane used the same thread for her handiwork to me, as well as the pink and black bows.

These recipe books were the first things that I pulled out of the box.

One's a book on Cajun cooking and the other is a collection of dishes from the south. I was looking through it and it seems the Southerners love their BBQ and seafood! If I ever go there someday I shall be a fattened up pig in under 2 days! Not that I'm going to complain of course because I LOVE BBQ! :)

The main criteria for the birthday exchange is that there must be one handmade item and two other items that complements the main handmade item.

Diane had made this beautiful blackwork needlebook for me!

Of course, in black and pink. And along with the needlebook came 2 packs of needles.

Lined with some oriental design fabric.

Close-up of the blackwork. See the beadings and golden thread?

I didn't take a picture, but the sides of the needlebook was trimmed with a twine of the black, pink and gold thread. very pretty.

More blackwork! This time in the form of a scissor case and scissor fob. They're so beautiful!

Here you can see the trim I mentioned earlier. The tassel is a beautiful mix of pink, black and gold!

Close-up of the scissor case.

And I'm excited to say that I FINALLY own a pair of stork scissors. And it's probably just me, but those black markings on the scissors remind me of chinese brush painting.

Close-up of the scissor fob.

The final item was a pincushion that really made me laugh!

It sports the same 'sakura' flowers but finished as.....if I'm guessing correctly.....a 'grandma sunday hat'!!

LOL!

It even has those little bows in front and a longer ribbon at the back!

LOL!

'Grandma Sunday Hat'! It's brilliant!

Close-up of the stitching work.

Thank you so so much Diane. The gift is awesome and I appreciate all the work that has gone into it. It's really very well planned. I will attempt to match yours when I return the favour in October!

I'm still reeling from the awesomeness of the gift. The work is just amazing!

"How quaint"

LOL!!!

Happy Birthday me!

My Sister's Wedding: Photos from my iPhone

2011-07-05T14:50:00.007+08:00

Warning: I'm writing this whilst in a bad mood; blogpost may content racist remarks that might cause insult and anger to certain parties. Take TWO chill pills before proceeding.

Hipstamatic and Instagram shots of my sister's wedding solemnization last weekend.

Box that would be holding both their rings.The florist lady who arranged this is great.

Bouquet that my sister wants to carry in, also arranged by the same florist lady. In the future I shall also buy flower arrangements from her!

Because my sister is super awesome, she chose to do her own make-up and hair for the wedding solemnization.

I was hungry and went to get my some McDonald's and when I came back she was almost ready.

This is the 'hantaran' (wedding gifts???) from her to the husband. Note the 'Chinese-style' arrangements that she wanted to reflect our Chinese heritage.

A close-up shot of one of the items. She will have a matching perfume bottle from the groom too.

Notice the red brocade pillows (which I made! I know, I'm a show-off!) , gold ingots, paper fan and the 'shuang xi' (double happiness) symbol. Red and Gold colours of a Chinese wedding!

Some finishing touches.

I helped push that sprig of Baby's Breath into her hair.

Reminds me of the that morning when I helped her get ready for her first day of school :(

The State Mosque where the wedding solemnization took place.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that it was a huan na wedding. Yes, my sister married a huan kia.

An cua cho? Ee ai ka huan kia kek hoon. Lao peh lau bu pun buay sai kong hamik lan liao.

Waiting for the ceremony to start.

By the way, I made that veil thank you very much! :P

And this be the huan kia groom all nervous!

OMG I'm so racist! :)

And here are the 'hantaran' (wedding gifts????) set out in a row.

The left side is from my sister and the right side is from the groom. I think the idea to make one side Chinese-sy and one Malay-ish is a brilliant idea to display the whole mixed marriages thing.

And and and, I shall take this moment to BRAG that we did the 'hantaran' for BOTH sides ourselves *proudly puffs chest*

The 'Racist' and the Bride.

Only yesterday I walked her to kindergarten. And now she's married!

The most exciting part!

The groom recited the Malay-marriage-vow-thingy just once!I've heard that some people had to repeat it twice because it wasn't perfect.

The couple happily married! :)

The fella is an alright guy. And he's always been very nice to me. And....he fulfilled all the important materialistic 5 Cs. And he's taller than me. So huan na part aside, I do like him and I approve :)

We adjourned to the dining hall where there was some food (we were all sooo hungry!!) and I took this shot at the bridal table.

Huan kia Husband and pua teng lang serani cham Wife leaving the building.

Awwww sweet!

They're currently on their honeymoon in Bandung, Indonesia :)

Aww! *cough si cough huan cough kia cough gag*

Yes yes yes yes I'm a mean big brother and a 'racist' so sue me!

Now, to prepare for the coming wedding reception. I'm so excited! :)

And my Hokkien is si beh awesome.

Some bead work

2011-07-03T20:23:00.000+08:00

I did a little bit of beading on a baju kurung recently. It was a minute amount of beading but was still fun nonetheless.

Beadings on the sleeves.

The 3 large pearls in a row are Swarovski pearls.

'Drop-style' beadings on the front hem of the blouse part.

The wearer asked that I 'hold my horses' with the beading. She requested for pearls on the dress as she isn't really into glass beads and such. I put in just enough glass beads to make the pearls stand out. Otherwise it would all be lost in the lace.

And I was right, the glass beads sparkled under the lights at the venue we were at :)

Beading on the selendang (A veil? A shawl?)

And before you tell me that I'm super-gifted and that I must be the god of crafting or something because I could bead such awesomeness on that selendang, let me tell you that I bought a ready-made (sibeh expensive!) beaded trim from Jackel and stitched it on :)

In fact, the chiffon material for the shawl (veil?) was also from Jackel. I bought 2 metres of it, chopped it in half length-wise and had them hemmed at a nearby tailoring shop (the snakes charged me RM50 for it!!)

More 'drop' style beading on the four corners of the scarf, each with a big Swarovski pearl.

Ready to be worn!

The beaded trim doesn't go all the way from one end of the material to another. It's just about a metre in length. It's supposed to just 'frame' the face of the wearer, yet heavy enough to 'sit' on her hair and stay on her shoulders. I'm a genius :D

Wedding Hipstamatic: Photos from my iPhone

2011-07-01T11:11:00.011+08:00

Hipstamatic shots from my iPhone app during my cousin's wedding in Sarawak last week.

His wife is very the photogenic! She looked awesome in every picture!

That's my cousin, the Groom. His sister is the Bridesmaid.

The Groom and I were playmates during our childhood days. We used to play 'ninja' and invented martial arts moves (I know right! So embarrassing!)

Best Man and Bridesmaid.

Or rather, I think she's the Maid of Honour since she was the only Bridesmaid and she did help to prepare for the wedding.

Practicing for when he lifts her veil for the 'you may kiss the Bride' moment :)

The wedding was held at the cathedral where I once served as Altar Boy. It was presided over by a priest who, I was shocked to see, DID NOT age over the past 12 years since I last saw him!

After being pronounced husband and wife!

Can I just say that these two have good taste in what clothes to wear?

That dress is perfect on her. And don't let me start on how much I like the coat he's wearing!

We adjourned for some food and drinks and more 'camwhoring' after the wedding. I was very the hungry and very the panas in my jacket and tie.

I won't post the pictures here but boy did we camwhore!

This particular photo wasn't taken with the Hipstamatic. This was produced with another super awesome app, the Instagram.

Grandma.

The wedding reception dinner was during the wedding night itself.

My parents trying to pretend they're not anxious that their soon-to-be-a-lao-uncle eldest son is not getting married anytime soon. Parents and weddings!!

The final dance. I forgot the song!

Do you see the cake in the background?? It was so nicely done. And, every tier is REAL cake!

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture!!! What awesome Hipstamatic shots I could have made with that cake!

Aww!!

Taken at the seaside village where grandma grew up.

NNC Mini meet-up: knitted beanies and a pouch for Shanny

2011-06-14T11:08:00.009+08:00

Our NNC Malaysian friend Shanny, who lives in Switzerland came home for a holiday recently.

A few of us from NeedlesnCrafts (NNC) managed to meet up with her for a second time. This meet-up was for those of us who couldn't meet Shanny during an earlier NNC Stitching Bee.

I was one of the members who couldn't meet her earlier because limpeh had to work at the last minute.

Anyways, a few pictures!

Here's Super Mel crocheting some cupcake key holders. I won't say anything more about what's she doing. I'll let her show you what a wonderful thing that cupcake will be :)

Another main reason for this meet-up; a cross-stitch stash sale!

Here the ladies are looking through cross-stitch patterns for sale sorted by designers.

Oh and there was linen too but I forgot to take pictures.

L-R: Lillie, MW, June

And now they're sorting through threads by colour! Such vibrant shades of red here!

The ladies were literally mahjong-ing the threads around! LOL

And now they're looking at the greens!

And more myriad of colours!

Here's a close-up of the flosses. Pretty!

In between eating, drinking, yapping and catching up there was some Show and Tell from the members.

MW and June holding up an RR they are participating in. I didn't take any close-ups but it was very beautifully done.

And here MW is talking about her try-out Mug Rug piece. NNC is currently running a Mug Rug exchange. I've participated and can't wait to get to it :)

And of course our guest of honour Shanny! She came with her husband and two kids! I really don't know how parents can take two toddlers along with them. How do you handle the kids?? I'll go crazy!!! But that's me digressing.

Here she is holding up a drawstring bag I made for her. From that pretty smile I'm guessing she likes it :)

I pieced together some Japanese cotton, raw linen and gingham print. And I'm proud to say that this is the first bag I actually got the corners to meet! Everything was properly measured for once! :)

Ruined it by putting in some of my lousy hand-embroidery just so it can be a 'proper' Heart of Paul product of course...

Oh and I knitted up beanies for her two boys.

The beanies are knitted up in the round using a circular needle and finished off with double-pointed needles.

Except for the one with the pom-pom because it was too small for the circular.

And I'll sign off this post with pictures of the kids wearing my beanies!

The eldest boy, Owen who looks like a Taiwanese xiao didi with that beanie :) Such a gentleman to let us take photos of him with it on for a while. I know he was a bit uncomfortable because it was warm.

And the youngest boy, Kevin who's soooo cute and all smiles after we put the pom-pom beanie on him :D

It was nice to see you again Shanny! And thanks for letting me knit beanies for your little men!

Marzipan Modelling - Angry Birds

2011-05-24T16:00:00.002+08:00

I got invited to an 11 year old's birthday party last month :D

It was Nik's son's birthday party and 'Uncle Paul' got the invitation just a few days before. The party theme was...Angry Birds! LOL we even had to wear red to the party.

I couldn't decide what to get for the birthday until the other half of my split personality, aka Lionel, told me that I should make something for the young man.

So I did.

The red bird doesn't look very angry though. And the green pig reminds me of a friend.

My colleagues at the pastry department were so nice as to oblige this insignificant cook and let him use a corner of the pastry kitchen. I returned there in between work as often as I could to finish modeling some marzipan into Angry Bird characters. The birds look silly in marzipan. I should have done it with sugar instead.

Because of my bipolar manic depression; the 'Lionel' episodes during which I turn into a 9 feet god-like being known as Envy (no I'm not green, The Hulk is green. I wouldn't turn into such a horrid colour) my colleagues let me help myself to everything I needed, from the butter to the icing sugar to the food colourings. I particularly choosing the colours!

Yes, I was six years old all over again.

Everything was assembled over some buttercream icing (the light green 'grounds' and dark green 'grass'). I used Italian Meringue Buttercream ,which was my favourite kind of frosting, after Chocolate Ganache :D

Because the 'oldest child' at the party was too big to play in the party games, he had to content himself with sitting at the table with colour pencils and colour some angry bird pictures.

Watching the kids play brought back some memories of how fun it was as a kid.

What prudes we become when we grow into adulthood. I want to be a kid again!!

Anyways I received an SMS from the boy (kids these days have handphones!!) and also from the mother thanking me again for the cupcakes. I'm happy :)

Blogging from iPhone: random post again

2011-05-14T20:10:00.001+08:00

I'm having dinner with my family and waiting for the food to arrive.

So, I'm bored and blogging with my phone. My friends from my craft group was saying blogger was ill so I wanted to check if it works.

Went karaoke-ing the other day. Sang myself hoarse and tried not to be too envious that my two friends were singing like Ziana Zain and Siti Nurhaliza in concert and I sounded like a Mongolian throat-singer.

Shihlin Taiwan street food snack my favourite!! The fried chicken is awesome!!

This is so cute. I bought this little 'floret' of broccoli from the supermarket for dinner one night.

It was so cute! And though it was small it still fed me for two meals.

A Heart of Paul :)

Raspberry sauce on custard.

I tried making ginger ale the other day and was successful. Then it wasn't fizzy enough so I put it into an Espuma and shot like 5 soda chargers into it and it was 'the drink of the gods' thanks :)

Oh by the way our food just arrived. That teochew style fish looks wicked. I'm actually afraid of it. Just look at it; its looking like its daring me to eat it.

Ok gotta eat now. Father is giving me the "Put that phone down now and eat boy!" look.

Till next random moment :p

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blogging via iPhone

2011-05-09T18:12:00.001+08:00

Hi. I just wanted to test and see if I can blog from my cost-me-an-arm iPhone, because I couldn't do it before.

I downloaded this (paid for!) app from iTunes. Yes yes... I hear some of you gasping in shock that I didn't 'jail break' my phone. Well I intent to follow through the contract till it expires :) I'm a nice guy mah.

How far away mine feet looks. Well at least I CAN still see my toes. And my *ahem*....

Till my next random moment!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Random: Crochet flowers

2011-05-04T11:48:00.004+08:00

Random post on a some flowers I crocheted during the Etsy Malaysia's Crafty Art Market last weekend.

I was at the stall of Tini from SnazzynSuch crocheting these flowers, which were ordered by Okinokiyo, whose booth was beside Tini's.

No I wasn't actually there selling anything.

Angry Bird Amigurumi

2011-04-27T13:19:00.002+08:00

Can you believe I took 2 weeks to complete this little fellow?

Gone are the days when I can finish an amigurumi, more complicated than this, in ONE NIGHT

*SOB*

I am loosing my passion for crafting aren't I? Haven't done anything productive in the crafting department.

And the Angry Bird's beak is too long. It makes him look older. I shall remedy that......when I feel like picking up the crochet hook again :(

Ai li bo tiao kia

2011-04-11T10:11:00.003+08:00

I'm having a moment. Bear with me.

First heard this in 2001. The singer's name is Huang Yi Ling and she's singing in the Hokkien (fu jian) dialect. I can understand bits of pieces of it but I think the emotion and pain in her voice says it all yes?

Perfume Bottle Gift Pouch

2011-04-07T10:05:00.001+08:00

I made a pouch to gift a fragrance bottle in last week.

Call me a girl, but I think that a perfume bottle gifted in a hand-made pouch or bag is so much more prettier than if it was in a box. Same thing when gifting soaps :)

(OK lah, if the person wanted the box after you've gifted them the perfume bottle in a pouch then you give it to them lah. But I don't keep the boxes from perfumes, most of the time the bottles themselves are pretty enough to sit there on their own)

It was just a simple non-lined pouch so I had to use the zig-zag stitch on my machine to 'serge' the edges to lessen the chances of fraying.

And I attached a tatted butterfly to the pouch. I think I got the butterfly attached on the 'wrong' side (dammit, again) and yes, those are the attaching threads on the wings of the butterfly very visible to the eyes.

I shall defend myself on the flaws by stating that I was REALLY sleepy and was struggling to finish this the night before!

The perfume bottle inside with a birthday note tied to it.

The fragrance is Oceanus from The Body Shop, which I think is no longer sold here.

Cute gift pouch yes?

Yes :)

Food, Glorious Food: Photos from my iPhone

2011-03-29T14:30:00.000+08:00

Hi! This blog has plenty of pictures so it might take a while to load.

Want to start off by saying that I come from the Land of Trees and lived in trees for most of my life so I'm a bit of a 'jakun' now that I own a cool gadget which is the iPhone 4.

And I DID have to lose a limb for it (because my paraiyah-level salary could never afford me something so cool) so I might as well go full jakun and show it off. *Sob* I hate my friends who can afford to have cool gadgets and cars. (Damn them! Damn them!)

Anyway, I can't believe how AWESOME the iPhone 4's 5-megapixel camera is! Here I shall post pictures of food which I took (I'm kinda hungry now come to think of it) and maybe later on another post on pictures from Singapore which I also recently took with the iPhone 4.

Once again all these great shots featured here were taken with the iPhone 4. (And this is not an advertorial though I wish it was and that I could get paid for it) The quality is just as good as a compact camera!

(I've always liked photography. But I already spend enough on crafting and eating so can't. Maybe when I'm rich in another lifetime. Maybe)

Let's start off this iPhone pictures post with a little bad cholesterol for breakfast....

Poached eggs on toast with Hollandaise Sauce.

Just look at the yellow. It could be sunshine for all you know!

One of my favourite ways to have eggs. But the making of the Hollandaise part is a bit off-putting. Especially when you end up scrambling the eggs on the bain marie...

Lamingtons

I absolutely love Lamingtons! I remember when I was first introduced to them. I went, "What?? Chocolate cake rolled in coconut? You're crazy!"

Read: Lived in trees.

Ah Mel, I made these lamingtons right after reading your blog post on it because looking at your Lamingtons made me crave for them :D Though yours looks lovelier, consistent in size and more moist...

Spice Sachet ingredients.

This shot is amazing! The iPhone camera even captured the bruises on the leaves and even the water droplets! To my untrained photographer's eyes I'd swear it was taken with a DSLR.

*sakai mode*

'Bouquet Garni'

The colours!! Something so simple yet a phone camera can capture to be something so - in my layman's opinion - 'aesthetic'.

Preparing to make Chicken Stock.

OK. I know these two pictures looks terrible. I only included it because I like how the bright colours of the Bouquet Garni look against the pale blanched chicken bones. And see how the camera captures the little oil spots?

But to heal your eyes from the chicken carcass....

Caramalized Banana

I don't usually go for yellow but I must say the colours in this shot is very 'appetizing'. It has brown sugar, butter and rum in it. Flambed and most delicious! I had it warm with vanilla ice-cream :)

Roasted Rack of Lamb with Red Wine Lamb Jus

I think I over-reduced the Jus because the oil is making itself visible but that's digressing (I did spend 2 days on making the sauce!) What I wanted to say was that how shiny and moist the meat looks. The camera managed to capture the 'glaze'.

This was taken under the regular fluorescent lights by the way.

Rendang Daging

I know right? Looking at this picture is making me hungry. I can literally smell the rendang aroma emanating from the computer screen.

LOL Literally managed to 'capture' the 'essence' of Rendang.

Random. I tried to make ginger tincture (using vodka) and thyme vinegar yesterday. I'm going to combine them to make a Ginger and Thyme Sorbet in 2 weeks time :)

Dried looking fries cut from actual potatoes. Tastes so much better than frozen ones.

Unfortunately the camera didn't capture the salt specks which is why I took it in the first place. Or maybe there really isn't any salt on it?

Baked Jacket Potatoes with sour cream and bacon

Oh the colours of dark red, brown, white and green and....aluminium?

William Potatoes

Croquette Potatoes

Can you see the deep-fried breading? The camera can capture such details!

Also taken under florescent lighting.

Baked Chilli Garlic Chicken served with Steamed Rice and Bell Peppers

The colours again!! I like!

Pumpkin and Leek Soup

With the little Hearts of Paul trailing LOL!

But the problem with taking pictures of liquid, whether on the iPhone or my Sony Cybershot compact camera is that you can see reflections on the surface. Even in this picture you can see the slight reflection of the fluorescent tube and a shadow on the bottom right where my arm was blocking the light. When I tried taking the picture out in natural sunlight, it kept reflecting the sun. LOL

Handmade Angel Hair sauteed with Smoked Salmon

But there's a limit of how close a shot you can get with the iPhone 4 camera. It doesn't seem to have the 'Micro' that my compact has. So I can only take so close-up a shot. Plus lighting was bad anyways. There was a storm outside and the lighting in the kitchen, whilst bright enough to cook was bad for photo taking.

Oh this dish of handmade pasta and smoked salmon was delicious by the way. Sometimes I just love rolling out and cutting my own pasta. There's a certain satisfaction to it. Even the salmon I used was smoked in-house. A colleague of mine does it in his little smoking house outside our kitchen. It's awesome!

I tried preserving lemons in a jar with coarse salt, coriander and cinnamon stick.

It's not ready yet but yesterday 28/3/11 when I opened it to check for mold (there was none thank God!) the smell was so fragrant! Kinda reminded me of my L'Occitane Vervaine perfume HAHAHAHA

But it was so pretty I had to take a picture. I think I have to press it one more time this week.

Again notice how much detail the iPhone camera can capture at a distance of about 3 inches from the jar.

Paella

Cooked on a paella pan! It was supposed to be Paella Valenciana but I didn't have rabbit meat and put in too much tomato puree. But it was still awesome and so much fun to do and produced a good picture on the iPhone, if not mediocre. Can see the rice grains leh.

Another Heart of Paul :) This time on a pie.

Which was actually a Steak and Kidney Pie

Which WAS HEAVENLY! Everyone who tasted it wanted more! It was strangely addictive! *tries not to think of the Sweeney Todd 'pies'* I want to put the blame on the rum used but it must be the spell I was saying whilst stirring in the pan.

LOL True Blood much?!

Sauteed Prawns with Mango and Tomato Salad

Or was it Mango Tomato Salsa?? I can't remember but it was good enough for a pretty picture on the iPhone. Taken in natural light.

Another picture of the Sauteed Prawn with Mango and Tomato Salad. Differently plated and taken under florescent lighting. How I love the colours!

Does it seem like the iPhone camera takes better pictures indoors? Maybe...

Bouquet of Herbs; Dill, Oregano, Thyme and Rosemary

I was holding it in my hand when I realized it could produce a pretty photo so I took a shot with the iPhone. I was right :)

I tried 'mixing' natural light from the open door and florescent lighting. I know, it makes me sound weird and nerdy. Both of which I actually am :D

And finally...

Choux Swans

CUTE OR NOT??!! Damn cute right? Everyone who passed by (and this person had purposely put the swans in a very strategic location where their cuteness can be viewed) came over to fawn over the swans.

And here are the swans out in the snow.

The Swan in the middle is a bit burned at the neck because she was holidaying in the tropics and forgot she was made of choux paste.

And that's it!

I love my iPhone 4, which I paid for with a limb.

Hate people with money. HATE HATE!

Oh and I hate people with a Honda Civic too. HATE HATE!

NNC 4th Anniversary Exchange 2011

2011-03-22T13:08:00.011+08:00

We at Needles n Crafts (NNC) were just done with our 4th Anniversary Meet last Saturday.

I almost couldn't make it because it was a working weekend for me, but managed to go anyways at the last minute. June from NNC who was going late offered me a ride so I 'snaked away' from work and went to the meet, which was held at Rose's beautiful home somewhere in Shah Alam.

I didn't take pictures of the meet but the other ladies did so I'll just give you their blog addresses;

http://veronicaoyh.blogspot.com/2011/03/2011-nnc-anniversary-meet.html and http://veronicaoyh.blogspot.com/2011/03/2011-anniversary-gift-exchange.html

http://www.snazzynsuch.com/?p=1929

The Owner of NNC:
http://nikainunza.blogspot.com/2011/03/nnc-4th-anniversary-meet.html

I participated in the Anniversary gift exchange of course!! And when mine was drawn it went to Diane of USA!

Which was ironic because the lady gave me some beautiful silk flosses ages ago and now I've stitched something with it and it's going back to her. You know how they always say 'a good turn that goes around comes around' :P

Anyways here it is, together with the gingham heart that was an extra assignment which had to be included in the exchange;

The biscornu and gingham heart turned out quite small because my aida count was small. So I guess I'll call it a miniature biscornu? Isn't it cute? The silk flosses from Diane came in colours corresponding to each other. The dark pink used for the Rhodes Butterflies are Chinese Silk and the borders and eyelet stitched (pulled thread) are from Italy.

The Rhodes butterflies are so very pretty. Pattern from HERE

I forgot to 'standardize' the holes of the pulled thread stitches with a knitting needle after I was done so it looks a bit multi-sized. And my gingham heart was not the standard size required and our NNC 'Exchange Headmistress', Margaret was disapproving of it. LOL

(I don't know why the picture appeared rotated!)

As you can see, my gingham heart is the smallest. It's supposed to be a paperweight (I filled it with poly pellets) and the original idea was to have a crocheted doll (also filled with poly pellets) sitting ON the heart. Then I would have complied with the measurement regulations, and it would have been a heavy enough paperweight.

But of course, I didn't have time to do that so I decided to go retro by sewing on a huge flower thing on the heart.

It was too late to change when I found out the allowed size, which was 3 inches from the valley to the bottom of the 'V'. Oh well....

And in return my name was drawn to receive Zarina's gift!

(Picture courtesy of Sabariah http://mama.nuraina.com)

(Your father displaying the gifts that I drew on the table. Picture courtesy of Sabariah http://mama.nuraina.com)

Zarina (http://concerningzarina.wordpress.com) had tatted two pretty pieces of doily. One was an oval doily in purple and another was a square one that from a distance, looks like daisies!! Pretty!

Doesn't look very 'daisy-ish' close-up though.

Her gingham heart project also had a tatted piece on it. And the heart was filled with potpourri.

Despite arriving only 4 hours later I still had a lot of fun especially at the food table. LOL There was chocolate-peanut butter cake, chocolate pecan fudge cupcakes, mango macadamia cheesecake, chocolate fondue amongst the tea items. All of which were baked/made by NNC members!

It's too bad I missed the hardanger tutorial, some Show n' Tell and all the fun chit-chat.

Well there's always next year right?

P.S: By the way, all photos taken for this post with the exception of those from Sabariah were shot with the Iphone 4. My camera had run out of battery and I was in a rush so I took them with my Iphone. I'm amazed at how clear the 5megapixel Iphone 4 camera is!! I took some beautiful shots with it during my trip to Singapore last month. Blog later when I feel like it!

Valentine's Day: His and Her's Coasters

2011-02-21T09:00:00.001+08:00

Tried my hand at sewing bindings again.

His and Her's Valentine's Day Coasters.

It's kinda relaxing to slowly handsew the binding behind.

I used a little quilting needle which was really sharp and left holes in my finger.

The hearts are hand-appliqued and then quilted.

Hand-appliqueing can be quite relaxing too.

I'm happy with the outcome.

I got myself some linen material and will be using that for more coasters. I'm on a roll :D

Trying for Quilted Coasters

2011-02-16T16:00:00.001+08:00

I was trying my hand at quilting and sewing quilt bindings so I decide to start off by making quilted coasters.

I think I sort of failed at the binding part. I didn't cut it properly so both bindings are slightly different in sizes.

But it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. It's actually very easy! Time consuming, but EASY! :)

I needs more practise with sewing bindings (which I had to teach myself!) Anyways, I've already made another set of coasters for the sake of practise. More on that next time.

Oh and I'm really excited to share that the pink mushroom-my fabric that I used for those coasters is actually a sponsored fabric from Fabric Fanatics!

Yes! My first fabric sponsor!!!

*excited squeal*

This Kelly from Fabric Fanatics whom I met at the ILoveBazaar a few weeks ago at Tropicana City Mall.

I picked out my sponsored fabric fat quarter (FQ) and bought another FQ and a metre of pink lacy embellishment.

Those are the FQs that Kelly brought the other day.

Visit her site at http://fabricfanatics.blogspot.com/ for more fabrics, ribbons and laces. She's got linens, cottons from America and Japan, zakka prints, cotton panels as well as (I spied!) Michael Miller fabrics! I understand she sells FQs as well as by the yard. Email her at fabricfanatics@gmail.com for questions.

When she told me to choose I couldn't decide what I wanted! I knew it was going to be a small thing so I chose the pink mushroom-my one which looked real nice as coasters!

Be sure to visit Fabric Fanatics and see what she has for sale!

OR you can drop by the Etsy Malaysia craft market this Saturday, 19th February 2011, 11am - 6pm to visit her! Do come!

Psst...The Heart of Paul will be there at the booth of Snazzy n Such ;)

NNC Valentine's Day Exchange 2011

2011-02-14T10:00:00.002+08:00

I participated in my craft group's Valentine's Exchange again this year :)

Last year my partner was Nik and THIS was what I made her.

This year pulak my partner for the exchange is Zarina and this was what I put into the 'mysterious package'.

A chicken scratch applique heart pouch and a crocheted bookmark.

She's already wrote on her blog entry HERE about her part of the exchange.

Some close-ups on the items I made...
I put the chicken scratch embroidery on the heart before appliqueing it on the brown fabric.

Used the needleturn technique for the heart. I think I have to work on that technique a little bit more. And not pull the thread so tightly as if I was in a tug of war competition.

The crocheted bookmark with little hearts on it is just so cute.

8 hearts because the number eight is auspicious according to the Chinese. After all this exchange is still within the fifteen days of the Chinese New Year :)

The inner lining fabric of the pouch is this pretty flowery cotton which I had for ages.

On the other hand, I received my 'mysterious package' from Usha!

She wrapped mine in pink paper tied with red string.

Auspicious too :D

LOL!

And inside is a beautiful black muffler done with the broomstitck lace technique, which I understand Usha taught herself to do.

Also included inside was her handmade V-Day card (with the golden rabbit, this year's Chinese horoscope animal!), some stickers and a packet of sequin.

Thank you Usha! Happy Valentine's Day!

That's your father trying out the muffler.

And a close up of the work.

I enjoy joining the NNC Valentine's Day exchange! Can't wait to do it again and I wonder who my partner is next year!

Granny Square Purse

2011-02-07T11:40:00.004+08:00

The Granny Square Purse I finished on a long car ride driving back to my father's family for the Chinese New Year.

I used the remnants of yarns from another project I carried along. This purse was for the 7 year old girl who my mother used to babysit. She came along with us for the day.

It was very hard to crochet with a squirming little girl tugging and pulling on the yarn, trying her best to take my hook from me so she can crochet too, who decided at the last minute she wanted rainbow colours, who keeps using your scissors on everything in the car including mother's blouse and who keeps saying, "Paul-koko pi gu, Paul-koko pi gu", who ate EVERY PIECE of the pineaple tart we had!

The said Pineapple Tarts. They're a Baba Nyonya specialty.

And so absolutely fantastically good!

Random fail

2011-01-25T11:01:00.003+08:00

No prizes for correctly guessing what I was trying to do.

Of embroidered table cloth and random food rant

2011-01-24T11:47:00.008+08:00

My parents and I were visiting at my father's niece's in-laws in Malacca a few months ago and I saw this tablecloth at the coffee table in the living room.

One thing screamed in my mind when I saw it; 100% HAND-MADE!!

From the looks of it it looks to be nicely used and old, but I couldn't help but admire the simple design on it. OBVIOUSLY hand-appliqued and embroidered. Probably by the lady of the house herself (I didn't ask)

Close-ups of the applique and embroidery. Neat huh?

The reverse of one of the appliques.

I know right, I'm such a $%^&%* to be scrutinizing like this! LOL

Even the edges of the fabric were hand seamed!

We were served locally ground coffee and some Peranakan 'cakes' whilst we wait for lunchtime. Seeing the coffee cups and kettle and strainer placed out on the embroidered table cloth is very RETRO! LOL call me sentimental.

I can 'smell' the fragrant coffee from just looking at the picture LOL

And now onto the foods we had there!

Bahulu in the background and some sort of peah (Chinese biscuit?) that was fantastic!

Oh and I must tell you about this fried snack we had which was made from (I can't spell it), gerago which are tiny shrimps that seasonally come in with the tide in millions only to be scooped up to become snacks, cincaluk (fermented shrimp) and belacan (shrimp paste) to name a few.

Can you see those black specks? They're the gerago heads. Hahahaha!

These deep fried snacks were deliciously prepared by the lady of the house who is an excellent cook. Dipped it in homemade chili sauce which was awesome!

They even used the gerago to make their own belacan, which they dry on the roof. We got a few 'cakes' of belacan to bring home :)

For lunch we had pong teh and this one had both chicken and pork in it. Went very well with the sambal belacan which was made from their homemade belacan and belimbing buluh and kaffir lime leaves pounded into it.

Very Baba Nyonya and very very good!

There was also Ikan Kuah Lada (Fish in Pepper Gravy) which was out of this world. This is the red variety made with some dried chilli. The other other variety is yellowish and has no chilli in them.

I was already full from all the snacks and coffee earlier but I stuffed myself to death with these anyways. It was all so delicious I could have cried! You really can't beat a seasoned 'Nyonya' cook!

And she was only too happy to shared the recipe for it as we ate, knowing that I liked to cook too :D (all the while feeling like I was being interrogated because I'm of 'marrying age' and no girlfriend...)

I also saw this crocheted doily covering the phone on my way to the dining area.

I was about to say, "Gua pun pandei bikin!" but decided against it because I'm supposed to be a 'man' in the Peranakan family which means I have to have a good job, a house, marry a good Peranakan wife who can cook and clean whom I'd probably have met through match-making by busybody elderly aunts (or spinsters just for irony's sake), make children, preferably sons to carry on the family surname and live long enough to see my grandchildren. And it'll be a plus point if my CRAFT involved woodcrafting, farming, metal-smithing, animal trapping and light bulb changing like my dear true-baba father is, not the 'hooker' baba-halfpint I currently am (wow did I just put myself 50 years back?)

Hmm...I have none of the above and my boyfriend is this international Taiwanese singer. Wonder what they make of that?

I was joking by the way, keep your hair on, stop gaping and take a seat!

Red and Gold

2011-01-18T18:06:00.002+08:00

I used the remainder of my poly-silks to make another bag yesterday. Near similar to the one I made for Radha last year.

Why the hell did I buy those poly-silks for anyway? They fray like crazy. They're even so flimsy I had to attach interfacing on. The black fabric are cotton twill heavyweights that I bought like ages ago for some aprons.

Velcro closures and gingham pocket.

The bag is deep and with a bottom about 6 inches wide.

I got a hug from the person who received this from me :)

Have I said how much I love my labels?

I love love love!

*attempts to spread the love over to you*

OH...AND BUT OF COURSE! :(

Granny Square Pouch

2011-01-14T08:00:00.000+08:00

I made this pouch with a granny square the other day. It's so ma huan I don't think I want to do another.

What I did was to crochet a traditional granny square pattern into the size I want; I finish the square with a double crochet border all around.

I then fold it in half and use single crochet to join the two shorter sides to create the outer part of the pouch, as seen in the above picture.

The thing with working with crocheted items is that the crochet work can stretch or 'wonk out of shape' with too much handling. I would suggest letting the crochet piece sit and 'rest' for a while before measuring out the lining fabric.

Attach the zipper to the lining as you would for a fabric pouch, just without the outer fabric.

After letting the crochet piece 'rest' for a little bit more (this is important otherwise there's no way you can successfully attach the lining) gently fit the lining into the crocheted outer layer and with more gentleness pin them both layers together.

After 'resting' the piece some more (Boy, I feel like I'm making puff pastry here), ever so gently make basting stitches to hold the lining to the crocheted outer layer. I did the basting using small stitches that remained hidden so I didn't have to remove them. In fact this help to reinforce the lining to the outer layer. Go figure.

'Rest' again (I know you're fed up by now and ready to torch the piece but pray have more patience) and very very gently use whip stitches or any small, hidden but secure stitch to HAND-SEW the top part of the double crochets to the edge of the zipper.

Be careful you don't pull or stretch the crochet part, otherwise you will find that you will have some 'extra parts' that didn't seem to match with the size of the lining. I started from the middle of the work and handsewing outwards to the ends.

I know I should have shown more pictures to properly illustrate my points but just make sure you 'rest' the crochet piece in between handling and do all in your crafting-power to minimize stretching.

I did this in a span of 2 days with all that 'resting'. Of course I slept too in between :)

NNC Birthday Exchange 2010

2011-01-05T13:21:00.003+08:00

Late posting for the NNC Birthday Exchange 2010.

The birthday girl I was to send to was Rose.

The grossgrain ribbons are the 'bag ties'. I got that idea from seeing a bag one of the ladies at work carried. I thought it was an interesting idea to use a ribbon tie to fasten the bag opening instead of clasps or buttons.

I was very last minute on this one. I had ONE WHOLE YEAR to do something but no, not Paul, who was too busy being upset about life and knitting scarves, and then burning the midnight oil and complaining for lack of sleep.

By the way, I just LOVE my new label :) I know one of you asked me about it the other day on a previous post. It was designed by RibbonBoutique.

Also made Rose a pinkish pouch that was kinda small.

Material was very soft. Bought at Nagoya Alor Setar LOL

Again with the label :P

Part of the exchange requirement was to include 3 stash items, which I could fit just snugly into the pouch.

Rose's workplace and mine is very near. In fact we're literally across the road/freeway from each other. So I met up with her on the pretense of wanting to treat her to a birthday lunch, and passed her the gifts. It was supposed to be a secret exchange anyways.

I'm glad you liked the bag Rose. I apologize for the clumsy work.

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-01T00:01:00.000+08:00

I just thought it would be a good idea to have a handwritten new year's message.

Brocade boxy pouch

2010-12-30T15:19:00.000+08:00

I made this boxy pouch for my sister's Christmas present.

Pattern was taken from It's a Pretty Modern Life.

However the pouch was too small. I had intended it to be a new make-up bag but I guess my sister has to use it for something else.

The material is a brocade sort which I bought ages ago. I've always intended for it to be a pouch (even bought the zipper in a matching colour) so what better time to use it!

I didn't know that brocade cannot be ironed. I pressed one of the panels and to my horror it SHRUNK! DRAMATICALLY!

So with no pressing and only pins I managed to finish it. Not very pretty work if you can't press and is too busy trying to keep blood from the pin pricking off your work.

Another good tutorial to use for a boxy pouch will be from Projects by Jane. (Read my previous post below, the blue checked pouch I got was made from this tutorial)

What's been happening??

2010-12-29T11:31:00.012+08:00

Hullo!!!

Wow a month of absence from blogging! And crafting :(

I didn't have much going on in the crafting department (will blog on that later) but I've been SWAMPED with plenty of other things in this sad life of mine;

1. Relationship problem. I hate being Cancerian. And sometimes relationships can turn from 'mutual' to 'bus stop' if you know what I mean. But then again that's none of your business...so.

2. I've moved rooms!! On a whim! But I'm much happier in this new place. It might not be the ideal home to live in but definitely better than my previous room. I've got a bigger space this time which obviously means it costs more (Dammit! But at least I'll lose weight from the occasional starving) and it's equipped with an air-conditioning unit that was probably once the cooling unit for a freezer. It's SO DAMN COLD! Even at 26 degrees Celsius at the lowest fan speed it's cold! My water bottles actually chill overnight!!

Hmm....I think I'll have to finish up that patchwork blanket Grandma gave me. She's patched the blanket but didn't finish the backing. She heard I had a sewing machine and I can sew so on the last time I went to Kuching she bundled it into my arms and said, "Kitak pakei mesen polah kedirik jak. Senang keja Lolak." -_- But Grandma, I'd LOVE to have a finished item like how my other cousins received. And WHY did you have to wait until my 20s to give me one :(

I finally have a space where I can do my sewing/crocheting/knitting etc etc. I know it doesn't look like much in the picture. I took this when I just moved in and had to sew for the NNC Birthday Exchange (blog about it later) which I was almost late for. All those storage cupboards you see are built in (a BIG plus point that made me decide to take the place) and can contain all my crafting nonsensicals and more! :)

Note NNC group welcome page in the background :P

3. Visited the Etsy Malaysia craft market in November. It was held at Jaya 1

My friend Tini of Snazzynsuch.com and her friend Hathiya of 5PetalFlower.com shared a stall there. They were SO busy! LOL

Hathiya sold her handmade stuff like pouches and bags and Tini sold some baby quilts, fabric grocery bags and various crafting notions and fabrics. I met fellow NNC member Jo there and she raked through Tini's fabric box for some Amy Butler's LOL

Nik, the Owner of NeedlesnCrafts (NNC) yahoo group was also there but I had left by that time. Other stalls were selling bags, home-made soaps, painted tiles, pillows and jewelery. Basically the assorted hand-made items sold on their Etsy website.

3. Went to the Popular booksale at Summit USJ right after the Etsy craft market.

I almost bought this crochet book. I think it was 70% off. But I didn't at the last minute.

Almost bought the cross-stitch book too.

The craft books were all over the place. One had to dig a bit to get to them.

I heard about this booksale from Sabariah who called me when she was there. Thanks Sabariah. Tak jadi beli apa2 :P

4. I wanted to bitch about work but I think I'll just not because *whispers* I suspect that my company has a bunch of people regularly combing the net for people like me defacing the good name of the company and how we work hard to drive dreams...shhh!

5. Baked some for Christmas.
Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Muffins. Failure :(

Pandan Cake. Success!

Chocolate Chip and Almond Cookies. Success!

6. I spent Christmas in Ipoh and it was so dull :( In my hometown Kuching, you could actually feel the Christmas in the air and see it on the people's faces. BUT, I did manage to meet up with a friend from college, Cassandra (who bought me lunch and green tea ice-cream :P) and fellow NNC member Janet.

As Christmas gifts Janet gave me a book on poetry and a pouch which she made.

Thanks Janet for the gifts and breakfast. Your lunch at the next NNC Stitching Bee is on me :)

7. We at NNC had our last Stitching Bee for the year 2010.

A big group of us this time. I arrived late so I missed the earlier show and tell session. But most of us did manage to have lunch nearby and talked some more and the moderators of the group managed to discuss plans and craft exchanges for the year 2011. Read the owner of NNC, Nik's blog for a better report of the meet.

And as I have suddenly run out of things to say and have gotten hungry from blogging, I shall leave off here for now!

:)

Random

2010-11-26T14:10:00.004+08:00

Just thought I'd be random and say here that my blog is on hiatus but I'm still alive.

Not really kicking it, but alive nonetheless.

(^_^)

Will be visiting at the EtsyMalaysia Crafty Art Market tomorrow at Jaya 1, Petaling Jaya.

You all kaypoh-kaypoh go and see also lah! Mana tau maybe you will find something you might like, or ternampak something that can give you inspiration in your crafting.

Well, at least that's one of the reasons why I'M going :)

DAISO at 1Utama

2010-11-16T10:48:00.004+08:00

DAISO in 1Utama. I think just recently opened. The store assistants were still stacking stuff on the shelves.

It's on the New Wing, Ground Floor just in front of Cold Storage.

Felts of all colours and sizes.

Felt Appliques.

Also some cuts of fabrics. Most of which are polyester.

Our favourite DIY buttons :)

Limited amount of yarns. It's either some crafters came along and sapu them or the shop is still very new so they just campak some yarns on the shelf for the sake of having something to sell.

*has an impression of MW and Mel sweeping yarns into their shopping baskets*

Other sewing and crafting notions.

Go visit for yourself. I didn't bring my camera so I had to use my phone for pictures.

And I'm only posting this because my blog has been neglected for too long.

Flag of a bag

2010-10-19T11:13:00.004+08:00

I made this for MW of NNC for her birthday about 2 months back. But I'd only managed to give it to her last week because she was away overseas.

The coloured fabrics were from a fabric gift pack which I received from Zarina for a Valentine's Day exchange.

The fabric quarters are hand-dyed by Zarina and it comes as a 'pack' called Garden's Path which also featured her personal colourway hand-dyed threads of the same name.

After piecing the fabrics together I did herringbone stitch embroidery along the borders with the Garden's Path thread as embellishments. I actually wanted to do feather stitches but it didn't turn out too well. Herringbone looked neater.

Oh by the way I used velcro strips to act as straps. This is the first time I've sewn on velcro and my needle snapped on the side with the pointy thingies.

So, don't you think it looks like a flag from some unknown country or state?

MW said out of nice-ness that it didn't but I think it kinda DOES look like a flag.

I got the idea to arrange it like that from looking at a coloured economic studies related chart one day. Instead of concentrating on what the presenter was talking about I was suddenly struck on what to make for MW's birthday, with the fabric quarters I'd received from an exchange.

So much for paying attention huh?

Simple patchwork baby blanket updated

2010-10-13T13:00:00.001+08:00

*UPDATE*
Thank you all for your wonderful comments on the blanket. But I have to tell you that this is not exactly my first time doing a patchwork blanket. In 2005 I did one for a friend who was going away. And I did EVERYTHING by hand. So this is kinda like the second time attempting.

That's why this is embarrassing, because I'm not a first timer and little mistakes like this shouldn't be happening right? LOL

Patchwork baby blanket project completed.

A gift for a couple who just became first-time parents. Their baby celebrated her 'full moon' (1st month after birth) last Sunday.

Blanket measures 36x36 inches with 6inches squares.

I had wanted to add a border in a darker shade but the backing fabric wasn't enough because your father never planned the blanket properly; just cincai bought the fabrics.

I used printed flannel for the backing and top-stitched around and through the middle to make sure the blanket doesn't bunch up after wash.

A very easy project to do. I finished it in 2 nights but I'm sure if you're fast and you use a rotary cutter instead of a scissors like me you'll do it in half the time. Oh and not stopping every few minutes to watch Glee would help too.

And of course, I'll also show the 'darker side' of my works. LOL

Note to self. Measure and cut all panels in one sitting. Don't decide halfway to take a bath and go to out for a plate of fried rice before finishing the measuring and cutting. Otherwise it'll not measure the same.

Note to self, ALWAYS mark with chalk on the WRONG-side, NOT the pattern-side.

Note to self, cut off selvages or hide them!

Idiot.

I found this awesome semi-translucent wrapping paper that somewhat allows you to see through to the design fabric inside. It made such a pretty wrapped gift and surely brings out people's curiosity because you can't really see what's inside and at the same time you CAN see it if you know what I mean.

Anyways I presented this blanket to the parents when I met them at church last night. Got an SMS later from them saying that they love it :)

Q - Sponging your coat UPDATED 13/10

2010-10-13T10:00:00.001+08:00

I have a question that has been mystifying me.

I'm reading this book called 'Circle of Friends' by Maeve Binchy (perhaps you have seen the movie of it starring Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver?)

There's a part where the narrator says that 'all her coats were sponged after they were taken off' and another part saying 'she sponged her coat lightly with water and lemon'.

My question is, what the HELL is the meaning of 'sponging your coat'? I've tried searching on the internet but couldn't come up with anything. Why would she sponge her coat if there never was any mention of a stain on it?

Does anyone know? Please I MUST be enlightened by the reason behind this strange female ritual of sponging your coat! I won't be able to sleep. And you know I already have trouble sleeping!

Oh and the storyline is set to around the late 1950s in Dublin, Ireland if that's any help.

Will promise to love you plenty if you tell me :)

*UPDATE 13/10/2010*

Dear Friend, thank you for all the feedback regarding this matter. I've managed to gather some information about sponging down coats;

Obviously, it's to clean off the dust from them. People in those days travel on roads that are very dusty and smoky, especially those who take the public buses or walk in the busy cities. Also, living conditions are not quite like what we enjoy these days in modern times and our cleaning methods have evolved.

To make sure that their coats smell fresh and clean and lasts longer, they use natural fragrances and disinfectants like lemon juice, vinegar, rose/lavender water and such. These are applied by sponging or spraying. The coats will smell fresh and clean and can be worn longer. One commenter of this post even mentioned steam-pressing.

Leather coats and bags in those days were rubbed down frequently with leather rubs or furniture polish to keep them protected, shiny and soft. And these leather goods eg. handbags, shoes, coats are kept wrapped up in tissue paper, lined boxes or coat covers.

What a lot of work! LOL But it helps preserve your more expensive items.

Oh and I LOVE YOU ALL PLENTY-PLENTY! Hugs and kisses all around! :P

Photos: Flowers Updated 13/10

2010-10-12T15:22:00.009+08:00

I snapped these pictures of flowers from my cousin's in-law's garden. They live in a house by their paddy field and their garden is thriving with flowers both cultivated and wild, as well as some vegetables and fruit trees they plant for their dinner table.

Their place is really one of the most nicest places to be; windy and everything green. I stood outside in the mid-day sun (I needed a tan anyway) and snapped some photos of the pretty flowers there, some of which I have never seen in my life.

I love flowers and can appreciate them whenever they are presented to me (I am such a woman! LOL). My mother loves flowers too and I think I have somewhat of a green thumb myself. I used to take care of my own little corner of potted plants as a little boy.

These are so beautifully blue!

Bougainvillea, some of which are two-shaded from being cross-pollinated because they're so close to each other!

Cat's tails? Ewww! LOL

These bright red flowers have nasty looking thorns on their stems.

These plants were kept under the shaded area with the orchids. I was told that the leaves turn yellow and they die from direct sunlight.

With resident ant LOL

They remind me of sunshine. LOL

Anyone know the name of this flower? It's very pretty in real life.

The flowers are clustered in the shape of a globe and feels a little bit waxy. And it grows on a vine.

*Update* Special thanks to Jane and Surya for feedback on this flower.

According to Wikipedia it's called a Hoya. If you click on the link and scroll down you'll see pictures that are similar to the one I took here and there's also a damn big list of the many different Hoyas there are in this world!

Oh and that 'globe shape' it grows out as is called an umbel. Thank you ladies!

Little wild flowers growing amidst everything else. Just as beautiful in its simplicity.

More wild flowers. Poor little things almost got crushed underfoot when I was attempting to take close-ups of the other flowers.

Dragon fruit plants.

It's a pity there weren't any flowers on it. If you haven't yet seen a dragon fruit flower in real life, I do hope you get to some day; dragon fruit flowers are one of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. They only bloom at night and people with these plants will wait till late to see the flower in its full glory (and snap like, a million pictures of it).

We had one in my father's garden and had the chance to witness it in bloom. The flower only lasts a few hours and by morning it would have wilted. I think it's a relatives to another beautiful 'night-bloomer' called The Queen of the Night. Or are they the same thing? LOL

Orchids are planted too. Watch out for more pictures of their orchids!

Orchids are my favourite flowers :)

This is called 'Tandok Rusak' (Tanduk Rusa) which means 'Deer's Antlers'. Sure looks like deer's antlers don't they? They got this plant from my dad. I think it's an orchid of sorts.

And my newly found favouritest of the orchids; THE BORNEO WILD ORCHID!

Well, just one of the many only found in Sabah and Sarawak! You can be fined for taking this flower out of the state. It's a protected thing and you've got to apply for license or trade your souls or something terrible like that.

And it smells beautiful! You will never smell anything better than this in your short lives! My father caught the scent first in the wind and pointed it out to me. I put my nose to it and almost died from the heavenly fragrance! If they had any perfumes of it I would buy bottles and wear it on me every frickin' day!

Pink zippered pouch

2010-10-08T15:40:00.002+08:00

This was supposed to be a zippered pouch but it turned out to look more like a zippered pencil case. I was using remnants and scraps so didn't have much to work with.

Couldn't decide if I wanted those hateful french knots or lovely buillon stitches for the centre of the flower so went for both :P

Stupid lining was riding up into the zipper which cause it to get stuck so I had to sew the sides a bit more.

I tried sewing the lining down first before finishing the assembly but it made making the corners difficult. I don't know if you understand what I meant by that.

Sesame Street with The Backstreet Boys: One small voice

2010-10-06T11:47:00.003+08:00

Brings about a smile doesn't it?

My blog turns TWO today

2010-10-05T00:01:00.003+08:00

Like my own birthday this year, no celebrations by having giveaways or reminiscing about anything.

Just a quiet thanks to God for the Gift of the Crafts - for better or for worst. For that which has made me realize I am worth something and which has given me many new and good friends.

Happy Birthday The Heart of Paul

Black Garter Knit Scarf

2010-09-30T16:16:00.002+08:00

Finished a garter stitch scarf in a big big hurry.

Took me all of 3 nights and 2 night-mornings of non-sleep.

Why does the stitches look uneven in this picture?

It measures 52 x 9 inches.

I made it without those tassle/fringes thingies because I really don't see those embellishments working on that big hunky guy I made it for. LOL

It's just knit all the way.

The yarn was bought a lifetime ago from 100yen in a pack of threes. I used two packs (that's 6 balls) on a 8mm needle. Someone told me it looks like the colour of charcoal and I agree and like the colour very much!

The finished scarf is so soft and 'spongy' (if that is the word!) and definitely WARM!

Attempting cables

2010-09-24T10:35:00.003+08:00

Tried cable knitting with the help of some members from my craft groups.

That was about as far as I got before I became bored (hey I get bored with crafting too!)

But them cables look cool. I will find a proper pattern with smaller needles. My cable needles were so much smaller than those pink knitting needles.

Can't really see the 'cables'. The knitting got a bit tight at the cable parts. And I was all fiddly with the cable needles and the 'parking' or whatever you call it.

Will attempt this again another time.

Things I learned from my parents

2010-09-22T11:02:00.005+08:00

I used to get so irritated and upset when my parents reinforced certain 'good manners' when my siblings and I were growing up.

Sure, everyone was taught to say 'please' when they want something and 'thank you' when they get it, but at that point in life I thought some of the things I was made to do or NOT to do by my parents were a bit stupid, senseless and something I didn't need in my life.

My father is a policeman so somehow that made my growing up a little bit more strict in a way. Yes I admit I was a problem child (who received his share of the cane). And whilst I didn't do drugs, smoke or was a juvenile delinquent, my character was a bit 'complicated'. My mother called me a 'skalo' which is a word in her dialect which I can also speak but have no idea what that word means! LOL

Anyway I didn't write this to talk about my past life but to highlight certain things that I learned from my parents.

1. We never take food from someone else's plate unless offered or granted permission. I have friends who pick at my french fries, take the fried chicken from my plate when I return from the buffet table, drink my soup, my currypuff stolen from my table that a kind soul left for me, the cold water in the fridge finished etc. And though we were encouraged to share our food at home, I agree that taking from someone's plate is rude. My father was right, if you want it ask for it. If they don't want to share then you're not getting it.

2. We were taught to walk properly without stamping with our heels. Feet stamping is a no no in my home! I notice some of the people I've lived with walk like they're stamping. And they can't walk in wooden houses without making it look like there was an earthquake! My father was right to teach us that.

3. We never slam doors! No Door-Slamming is one of the very strongly enforced rule in the house. We are to close the door properly, by turning the handle/knob before pushing the door. ANY DOOR be it the bedroom door or refrigerator door. I've noticed door slamming to be the habit of some of the people I've lived with too. Especially the two boys living in the opposite room. Door slamming at 3am just imagine. Thanks Dad.

4. Noise is louder at night. So the TV volume must be turned down at about 11pm and any form of noise to be kept at minimum so as not to disturb other people. This is probably partly because we grew up living in a civil servant flat which was small and close to each other. My father gets very irritated by loud noises. And this man has a bad left ear. LOL

5. Never take money from the communal coin box without permission or take anything from mummy's and daddy's wallet. Speaks for itself. I got caned once for taking 50cents from the communal coin box to buy flavoured ice. And I understand that we are not to take money out of our parents' wallets. Something that I know some children have a habit of doing.

6. Never say 'YUCK!' at the dining table. Sometimes we forget (including my dad!) but we were taught it was rude. If we don't like that particular food, say 'No thank you' instead of a 'YUCK!'.

7. Wait for the other person to be done dishing his share before helping yourself. Never cross over his hand and dishing with him at the same time. I thought this was a valuable lesson too now that I work in the hospitality industry! Thanks Dad!

8. Don't say 'NAH' when passing someone something. Say instead, 'Here'. For non Malaysians, 'Nah' is a slang used very often when giving something to someone. Apparently to my dad, 'Nah' is rude.

9. Say 'Excuse Me' when leaving the dining table early and wash your own dishes!

10. No chair/table dragging. Lift it up and move it! My father will fly into a temper whenever we drag something. Oh how I remember!

11. Don't leave the tap running when brushing your teeth. Oops. I've never really adhered to this rule! LOL Come on nobody does you hypocrite!

12. Tell your parents when you are leaving the house and where you're going. Greet them when you get home. I'm sad to say some people I know just walk out of the house and come home without saying anything to their parents. What bad upbringing!

13. Speak properly. Don't mumble. Directed to me most of the time :(

14. There is no 'bah' at the end of English sentences. Reserve it only for when speaking the Sarawak Malay dialect. We come from Sarawak, where the word 'bah' is used when speaking in dialect. We were taught not to use it when speaking in English. And also had a harsh lesson on when to use 'borrow' and 'lend'.

15. Never ask God why. And say 'Praise the Lord' first when something good happens. Mother taught us this. We are to remember God and thank him first before we rejoice on something good. And we never ask God 'WHY ME?'.

16. No screaming and shouting in the house. I've been slapped for screaming, believe it or not. The only one 'allowed' to raise his voice to shouting is my dad, which usually means the end of an argument.

17. When summoned by a parent, you get your ass over there in 0.9 seconds or so help you God. We can't even say 'WHAT?' or 'AA??' when our parents call us for something. We are to rush right over when they call. And there is no 'Wait aa I watch this show 2 more minutes"

18. Everybody eats at the table at dining time. Something I agree to and I miss very very much :( I'm glad this was done in my family. We must sit and finish our meal at the table. There is no eating in front of the TV or talking on the phone during this time.

19. If there is a fight between siblings, both parties are punished without trial.

20. Most words are taken literally when used on parents. If I say, "Nevermind just throw it somewhere at the back", my father will take it that I really WILL throw it at the back. I've made this mistake a few times already, resulting in a verbal regret from the offended party that I ought to have been drowned as a baby to save them from this grief of raising a devil-child.

21. No name calling. One of the rules that failed. My siblings and I still address each other with nicknames from our childhood days. But only when we talk to each other. We use proper names/honorifics when talking in front of the parents.

Oh but there is one thing I wish my father would learn in return; to use the communal spoon at meal times to dish from communal dishes. Oh and we don't get any of his jokes LOL

My siblings and I grew up receiving a lot of love from both parents, who never loved one more than the other. They are sacrificing and hardworking people who provided us with the best they can give. Sure, pocket money was below minimum and we never had a computer or a VCR or Astro and our cars were always short-living 2nd hand cars (which was always in red I don't know why!) when we were growing up. But we had plenty in the TLC department and we had books (reading was one of the qualities instilled from young, the other being drinking a lot of water ROFL!) My parents as being loving was evident from the many kids my mother babysat (to pay for our extra tuition fees!). All the babies/toddlers that were sent to us received love and care from my parents as if they were their own. I just know my mother cries in secret when a baby leaves our care.

One thing I admire from my parents is their affection to each other despite the many irritated complains one has about the other. My father would kiss my mother on the cheek when he leaves the house or when he comes home from work.

They catch each other's eyes and look lovingly at each other at church when something that only they understand was said during sermon. And (for the love of God) they still hold hands when walking in public, and my siblings and I will try to stay about 20 feet away when they do that. LOL

Black rib knit scarf

2010-09-14T13:02:00.003+08:00

Remember the last rib knit scarf I did?

Well I knitted another one for the same person.

I didn't intend it to be another rib knit scarf initially.

Stupid camera flash was too bright.

The original pattern I had chosen for the scarf was a nice basketweave pattern. It was quite a bit of work and I had to use stitch markers to make sure I didn't make a mistake! The basketweave on a man's scarf is real classy in my opinion.

But a few emo-ing, depression-ing and kiasu-ings later (don't ask), I pulled everything out and started on it again, this time in rib knit.

And this is the end product!

It's made from 100% Merino and measures about 7" x 90". It's VERY long, knitted from 7 50g balls with 4mm needles.

Took me about over a month. When I was nearing the dateline I knitted all the way into the early mornings. But my 'panda eyes' and fatigue was worth it, because I did it for someone I cared about.

Close up of rib knit.

I made a few glaring mistakes here and there of course (a perquisite for all Heart of Paul handmade items apparently!).

I didn't take a picture of me trying out the scarf but it was beautiful, soft and not to mention heavy!! In other words, I'm happy with it :)

I have some balls (no pun intended!) of grey Merino yarns which were bought for me along with that black. Perhaps one day when I have time on my hands and the (doubtful) chance to go to some sibeh cold country I shall knit one similar scarf for myself.

Yes I would like that.

Dear God

2010-09-07T15:55:00.003+08:00

_____________________________________

Dear God,

So when are you picking me up?

Paul.
_____________________________________

Visit to Alor Setar, Kedah

2010-09-03T15:00:00.001+08:00

I had a weekend visit to Alor Setar (in Kedah) at the end of July. My friend Radha from the NNC group lives there so I took the opportunity to go visit the place.

And because I went at the end of July (which was LAST MONTH) I've forgotten about half the things! You'd think a 'young man' like me would have a stronger memory but I was having a 'mental battle' recently so I'm right now, by definition, a 'mental case'.

Anyway.

I thought my visit to Alor Setar was a refreshing, worry free and happy one! I had to take leave on that Friday and fly over on Thursday night because in the state of Kedah their weekends are Fridays and Saturdays. They actually have to work on *gasp* Sundays!

My friend Radha was so nice to let me stay at her home and take me around. *hugs Radha*

She and her husband Kumar picked me up from the airport quite late on Thursday night because the flight was delayed by an hour. We had supper at their favourite restaurant; tom yam (in Kedah they eat tom yam with vermicelli noodles and not rice!), satay and Chinese lettuce. Forgot to take any pictures because was too hungry at that time and attacked the food vehemently but politely of course.

Speaking of pictures, I realized I took the most useless pictures when I was in Alor Setar so I apologize if the pictures don't do the visit justice. I don't know what came over me. I suppose my camera and I had bad focus that week.

Get it? Camera? Focus? No?

This was breakfast that first morning! Curry wantan noodles.

Ok la I forgot what they are actually called but they were basically wantan noddles in a sweet curry sauce that was REAL awesome!! Oh I can still taste them!

Had this with the shop's home-made soybean drink.

Spent the rest of the morning teaching Radha how to tat. She learned to tat rings and picots faster that she had thought. Well done Radha!

Ignore the dim sum in the background. That was second breakfast which we were having whilst tatting :P

We visited Nagoya in the afternoon. They were having a sale.

I actually bought that white-black-teddy-bear material of heavy cotton.

We also dropped by Gulati's fabric store. The materials are expensive but felt really good. Too bad they were a bit too gaudy and flashy for a guy to wear. LOL

We had lunch at this nice family restaurant. I didn't take any pictures of the food but IT WAS SO GOOD! My favourite was this prawn dish that I think was called 'cheese prawns'. The 'cheese sauce' that they used was so delicious! I was thinking the whole day on how to reverse-engineer the recipe, which I suspected had mayonnaise in it. Ooh sinful!

Then we went up the Alor Setar tower. It was a pity the restaurant at the top was closed because it was a Friday (their Friday is like our Sunday here; nobody works). I heard the restaurant rotates like the one at the KL Tower.

I had a good 360 degrees view of Alor Setar from the tower viewing deck, including the green paddy fields in the far distance.

This is Radha's family's live-in dog, Timber.

A fine fellow. Went for a walk around the neighbourhood with him and Radha that evening. Timber can join in the singing of 'How much is that doggy by the window?", barking twice at the appropriate pauses. You should have heard him 'singing' with Radha. It was so cute.

Should have shot a video of them 'singing' together! It was very entertaining! LOL

Dinner that night was at a comfortable little cafe which serves western food. I had the mixed chicken-fish chop which had green salad, coleslaw and fries at the side.

I also shamelessly ordered (Radha was buying LOL) deep fried calamari. My favourite!!!

And before going to bed Radha taught me a new embroidery technique, at which I failed miserably :(

(The blue ones were Radha's and the light brown ones mine obviously)

This is the cross-stitched Rose Sampler by Ellen Maurer-Stroh which Radha had finished and framed. It was actually a Stitch-along with some of the ladies at NNC.

Radha has a lot of pretty cross-stitched works hanging on the walls of her house.

Including this beautiful one which is my favourite. It's depicting the Hindu god Krishna, with his wife, the goddess Radha (yes, Radha's namesake).

Radha (the person!) had cross-stitched this herself. The image is clearer taken from a side-view or slightly further away.

Isn't it beautiful?

Breakfast the next morning was some delicious chicken porridge.

I do so like chicken porridge! Radha and Kumar took me to this shop nearby where they are friends with with owner, who I guess was famous for the porridge he serves.

And for second breakfast (Yes, second breakfast. Kumar and I were hungry don't be so judgy!) we had the curry wantan noodles, AGAIN!

And I do so very much love the curry noodles. It was so f*cking nice! The curry gravy was burn-in-cholesterol-hell sinful; thick and milky and fragrant and sweet and so absolutely f*cking delicious! I already swore twice so THAT'S how delicious it was!

Which we had with some dumplings which was equally as good.

I was totally stuffed by the end of second breakfast.

Kumar and Radha then brought me to this place in the town centre called Pekan Rabu.

They sell a lot of things here from traditional local crafts, Malay attire and local snacks. I bought myself some of the snacks of course!

Woven bags. Forgot what they were called. Maybe Radha can refresh my memory (because I only seem to remember useless things) after she reads this post.

They also sold local 'cakes' and OMG is that kuih batik I see on that tray yes it is so I bought RM2 worth of it and finished it all on my own!

Kuih batik was my favourite as a kid. I hardly find it over here in Peninsular Malaysia but it's more widely available in my hometown in Sarawak.

Damn I must learn the recipe from grandma!

Speaking of grandmas.

These beautiful granny squares were made by Radha's elderly mother. Her work is so consistent. I wish I had taken a picture of her actually crocheting it. She's planning to fix all the squares together to make a blanket. Radha will you take a picture of it once it's finished?

I sat around chatting a bit with the old lady and apparently Radha's mother is a gifted multi-crafter herself. Well now we all know where Radha got her talent from!

On the evening before my flight home to K-Hell, Radha and Kumar took me to this big Chinese restaurant to have a taste of their much mentioned about Crab Rice!

IT WAS SO F*CKING GOOD!

Here's a close-up shot of the crabs Resting-In-Peaces (get it?) on the rice. Ooh how it makes mine mouth water!

They chef cooks the crabs in the claypot with the rice so all the marinate and crab juices gets back into the rice. Before serving the serving staff would add in sliced spring onions and fried shallots and toss everything together.

It was beautiful! I MUST sit down to think and attempt to 'reverse-engineer' this dish!

Claypot pork with salted fish(?)

Another beautiful dish! And I can actually cook this one too :P

Brinjals with sambal I think. Very tasty.

And a picture of us together. Which Radha pointed out, the ONLY one with me in it out of the whole trip. LOL

Please excuse our stunned looks. You see, the camera pointing took so long we actually let our smiles drop from sheer exhaustion. And we never got the cue to smile again; the waitress who took it was quite nervous and shocked that we had asked her to take a picture, not to mention a bit talentless in picture taking. The poor thing.

Anyway.

A-hah! I KNOW you're not reading what's written on my plane boarding pass at all.

You're reading the 'burned complexion, plump figure...dull expression, gentle spirit, plaited tails' from that book page and wondering what sort of 'fantasy' story I'm reading right? Admit that you are. LOL

Thanks so so much for hosting my stay at Alor Setar, Radha. I had a lot of fun eating and having your company. It's so refreshing to be away from the big city and going someplace where nobody knows you.

I truly enjoyed myself. Especially the eating part! LOL I must return the favour someday when I am able to.

The aeroplane cabin darkened for take-off.

And yes, despite being advised not to, I was using my digital camera during that time. It's almsost as if I had wanted the plane to crash so I didn't have to return to KL kan?

Dear God

2010-08-28T12:46:00.001+08:00

______________

Dear God,

Thanks for letting me try.

-Paul-
______________

ADV: Snazzy and Such @Jaya33, Section 14

2010-08-17T14:10:00.004+08:00

I've agreed to do a bit of promotion for a friend :)

Tini of Snazzy n Such will be opening a booth at Jaya33, Section 14, Petaling Jaya this week from Thursday to Sunday (19/8 - 22/8).

She'll actually be part of a weekend market that is held there. It runs from 11.00am till 8.00pm.

Check out the Google Map if you're not sure the the place is.

That's Tini.

The one sitting down I mean, not the lao aunty.

Anyways, the Snazzy n Such booth will be selling handmade items; embroidered little pouch-thingies, pretty baby quilts and oh the most cutest baju kurung for little girls!

Also on sale are sets of matched fabrics for making adult baju kurung. Some of the fabrics are imported cotton so it's pretty good. I was actually considering to buy them myself, not to make baju kurung of course but for bags! *whisper* Psst....go see if the designer fabrics are gone yet...don't tell Tini I told you first!

Speaking of bags, there will also be these really nice handbags and tote bags (not in picture, but hung behind the baju kurungs) which are quite fashionable.

Visit these links to learn more;
Snazzynsuch.com
or
The Official SnazzynSuch Facebook Page
(she's got more pictures of her products on her blog)

If you have any inquiries please contact the woman directly at her email snazzynsuch[at]gmail[dot]com or even better, go to Jaya33 and speak to her personally!

Snazzynsuch produces more than the items mentioned above. Why don't you go find out ;)

Other stuff on sale at the booth will be...

Acrylic yarn stash.

These crocheted items are also on sale at the SnazzynSuch booth. They can be used as table toppers/centrepiece, mini couch throws, pet blankets and if your baby is small enough even a baby blankett ROFL

So head down to Jaya33, Section 14 this weekend and visit!

Black bag: trying patchwork on bags

2010-08-10T15:08:00.002+08:00

I had this idea to try some simple patchwork on a bag.

I made the 4-square patchwork with some poly silk I acquired for God-knows-what reason. Will try some more like this when the time is good.

The bag was presented to Radha when I visited her in Alor Setar 2 weeks ago. I had her in mind when I was choosing the colours.

Then I realized I made the bag in the colours of the Selangor state flag -_-

I've been living here for too long.

Two more b'day gifts

2010-08-05T12:54:00.002+08:00

I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes from the comment box, Facebook messages, SMSes, email etc etc. I had friends from NNC, SNN and Angelwingscrochet leaving messages at the message boards over the span of days!

I took a leaf out of a friend's book and had a low-key and quiet one this year. I wasn't in the mood for festivities. Loving warm wishes are so much better then overrated loud and explosive ones from people who just wants a party.

And thanks for all the gifts! Thanks Maria and Ellen for the stuff from the birthday exchange. Thank you Tini and Cassandra for the birthday dinner. And thank you Radha for being so nice during my 'birthday retreat' to Alor Setar, Kedah! (will blog about that later)

I've already blogged about what I got from the NNC and SNN Birthday Exchanges. But I also received 2 more personal ones, from MW and Janet both of NNC.

Here's MW's gift to me...

That cruel message was the first thing I saw when I ripped open the envelope. And this was about 2 weeks before my birthday. It was such a long wait! LOL

Thanks so much MW! Yes I absolutely love the 'manly' fabrics (she used the word 'manly' in her note to me LOL). Imma make a messenger bag with one of those later.

And here's Janet's gift to me...
I was with Janet when she got me this fabric. I was stroking and looking lovingly at this fabric (yes, I do that to fabrics I'm such a freak) torn between buying it and spending a week in poverty. It's so pretty; reminiscent of sakura flowers.

Sekali she went and bought it for me for my birthday. Thank you Janet I love it so much I really do!

I have such nice friends :)

The Heart of Paul FACEBOOK Giveaway

2010-08-02T08:52:00.005+08:00

I'm having a giveaway on my Facebook account. If you're in my Friends' List then you're eligible. It's opened from 2nd August to 8th August. Winner will be drawn from a hat and announced on 9th August. (Malaysian time GMT+8 of course LOL)

This is the bag that is offered. I made too many 'The Heart of Paul Mistakes' on it so I can't sell it as planned. But it's still very much usable so I decide to use it for a giveaway. After all I didn't have one for my birthday this year kan?.

The bag is about 14x8 inches in size and made from heavyweight 100% cotton. It has a recessed zipper (the source of all this grief) and 2 smaller inner pockets. As well as a label! :)

Go HERE and try to win it!

NNC Birthday Exchange 2010

2010-08-01T09:00:00.001+08:00

I received these from Maria for the NNC Birthday Exchange :)

Maria is from Portugal. And she has put in a little bit of Portugal into her exchange to me; souvenir hotpads (or are they potholders?) with the image of the Cockerel of Barcelos, a postcard explaining the legend of the Cockerel of Barcelos and an information brochure about Cascais, the town where Maria lives.

According to the brochures, Cascais is sandwiched between beautiful beaches on one side and lovely mountains on the other side. And because of its neutrality a lot of European royalties 'escaped' there and built mansions, many of which are still standing. A good place to visit no doubt!

The birthday card, a quarter of those 'amoeba-patterned' fabrics (which is gold lined), fancy beads, clear-plastic-holder-with-magnet-thing and oh, VERVEIN SOAP! (I'm still in the Vampire Diaries craze you understand hence the excitement over vervein)

A CD containing Portugese 'Fado' music and a ball of Anchor crochet thread.

I've listened to the 'Fado' CD. A lot of sentimental guitar works and soulful singing. My particular favourite is the last track where this lady belts out in a beautiful and powerful emotional voice about I-dunno-what-because-it's-in-Portugese.

Just the type of music I listen to (OK lah I admit I'm the melancholy, melo-dramatic kind of guy who's always brooding and waiting for death to take him and listens to the grouchy voices in his head. LOL)

And a tatted keychain! So that's what the clear-plastic thing is for!

Thanks so much Maria. I like everything inside especially the Portugal bit and please take care of that injured arm!

P/S: This is a scheduled post.

SNN Birthday Exchange 2010

2010-07-29T08:00:00.000+08:00

I joined the ShuttlesnNeedles (SNN) Group birthday exchange again this year with my partner being the very tatting-talented Ellen from Singapore!

You MUST visit Ellen's blog at http://singtatter-corner.blogspot.com to see all her amazing multi-craft works. They are so beautiful you will faint!

Anyways about what I got from this exchange.

The Stash!

An assortment of crochet yarn and thread, tatting thread and perle cotton and beads that go with them all! Ellen must have done some homework to see what kinds of crafts I do :)

And the best of all are her beautiful tatting works;

A tatted bookmark in the form of a green snake! How realistic!

I actually let out a boyish giggle when I saw it -_-

da long xiao long?

Tatted dragons!!!

Dragons are my favourite mystical creatures and I was most happy when I saw these (more boyish giggles following after).

Four-leaf clover paper-clip. I feel very 'lucky' now :)

And I want to learn to do that double-leaf-thing too!

I was going to show close-ups of the tatted works but decided against it because I think they are Ellen's own designs so I'll let her showcase the 'workings' of her brilliance. But let me tell you that her tatting work is DAMN FINE LOR!

And last but not least,

The handmade Birthday Card!

With tatted miniature flowers somemore can.

Thank you so much for these gifts Ellen! They sure made my day!

Assorted Crocheted flowers

2010-07-26T09:54:00.004+08:00

Puff stitch flowers. Actually took me a bit to learn how to do.

Puff stitch flowers close-up.

They're so...cute!

Little flowers using crochet thread.

Sorry I must say now that I can't share the pattern for any of these because they're for someone else.

NNC Stitching Bee in Ipoh

2010-07-24T13:04:00.001+08:00

2 weeks too late to blog about the last stitching bee which was held in Ipoh, Perak. Hometown to Janet, one of our members.

Ok lah my parents are also living in that Ipoh but we're originally from East Malaysia so no I'm not Ipoh-rian like some people think I am (same thing happened when we were living in Muar. I mean seriously do I look Muarian?) Parents moved over to Ipoh over a year ago but that's a different story which we shall not be discussing here.

So anyway the stitching bee this time round consists of only four members; Janet, Nik, Radha and myself. Our meeting place was, duh, Starbucks at Ipoh Parade shopping centre!!

I must tell you Starbucks is such a great place. The seats are comfy and the staff are polite and my favourite cake there is the L'Opera and favourite drink is the Caramel Macchiato (ah...the sentimental reason behind this drink, which we shall also not be discussing here)

Radha all the way from Alor Setar, Kedah.

She arrived after I did. I was like 30 minutes early because I had crazy parents.

Digression. My parents woke me up early going on about breakfast at a noodle stall in Kuala Kangsar. I was surprised that they would be willing to drive all the way to some small town a ways for a bowl of noodles which I suppose must be quite good if anyone was mad enough to go all the way there. Turns out it was a 5-minute drive nearby to a chinese coffeeshop at JALAN Kuala Kangsar (-_-) I didn't know to laugh or cry. My parents are so funny sometimes. But the bowl of noodle soup WAS good so I guess it was worth it. The whole breakfast took only 30 minutes and when my parents dropped me off at Ipoh Parade I was so early it wasn't even opened yet LOL. End of digression.

Janet. The host.

Thank you for hosting out visit Janet :)

Nik with her 10-minute purse that she had recently learned.

Nik drove all the way from KL that morning. Read her entry for the Ipoh Stitching Bee HERE.

No need to talk about this person lah. Except that I brought something to crochet, which I crocheted on the train ride in public to and from Ipoh, which I kept in that nice drawstring bag given to me by BJ which everyone commented about at the stitching bee.

Because of time constraints we had to scoot off shortly after Nik arrived to visit the craft stores nearby.

But not before first swinging by a shop selling tau foo fah (soy bean curd?) which was smooth, sweet and real good!

It's like an impromptu dive-through. These cars are lining up for their bowl of tau foo fah!

The lady damn fierce can. She shouted at one of her workers.

Should have taken a picture of the bowl of tau foo fah that I had.

And this is us enjoying the soy bean curd. Except Radha who opted to drink soy bean milk instead.

Next stop was the craft shop. I think this one is called Beads and Craft or something like that.

They have plenty of beading supplies and at the back, DMC threads/fosses and aidas.

I have no idea why I took this picture. I don't even know what they are.

Nik choosing her DMC flosses.

Oh I forgot to mention we weren't supposed to take pictures in the shop so I had to conceal any photo taking, hence the poor angles of the shots.

The shop assistant whips out a 'DMC Catalogue' of sorts and you choose from there before she helps you pick them off their hooks.

A nice shot of Radha taking a look at the beads.

Radha and Janet amused about something.

Our next stop was across the road from this shop where they sold 'wedding favours' items which are flowers and ribbons and baskets and all those nonsensicals that a bride would be crazy about using for decorations for her wedding. I didn't take any pictures but there had stock of local acrylic yarns and some sewing supplies.

Radha left the group after this for lunch with her daughter and the rest of us went elsewhere to eat our lunch, where we were joined by Nik's husband and son.

After lunch Nik went off with her family whilst Janet and I proceeded to NAGOYA, a fabric store. Didn't take any pictures there either (I forgot the moment I saw they were having a fabric sale!). But I was happy I managed to find that white heavyweight fabric which is similar to the one I have in black. Going to make a chef's apron with it :)

Abrupt end of post because I suddenly feel like taking a nap.

Happy Birthday Me!

2010-07-21T00:01:00.005+08:00

NNC Pincushion Exchange 2010

2010-07-08T09:43:00.000+08:00

I'm finally blogging about the NNC Pincushion Exchange!

This was again organized by Usha of NNC. (I joined her exchange last year too) Mail out date was set for 31st May 2010. But I was very late....

Anyways now that my partner Ann has received them from me I can start posting the pictures. Ann is a Malaysian residing in Italy. How cool is that? (I must contact her for wool yarns from Italy teehee)

We were only required to make one pincushion in a minimum 3inch size but I decided to make two to make up for the late sending and the lack-looking work.

I'm not sure this was my best as I was a bit 'distracted' at that period. *takes a bite out of his comfort food - Cadbury's Picnic bar*

I was nevertheless somewhat excited because I tried out the SASHIKO technique for the first time. The pincushion is supposed to be a blue themed one so when better to try Sashiko?!

I didn't use a sashiko needle or sashiko thread but I gave it a go anyways. And I found out after that the stitches should be longer on the right side and shorter on the wrong side.

Buillon embroidery for flowers and satin stitching for the leaves.

I also embroidered Ann's name on that heart-shaped pincushion.

We had to give stash too. Ann crochets so yarns would be a good idea. (that Cotton Soft one is soooo soft)

Ann, I'm so sorry for the paraiyah stash. But I'm glad you liked the pincushions!

Now for blogging about the pincushion I received from my partner Rose! I received this a looong ago during the NNC Anniversary Meet. Rose finished it way before the due date.

Sweeeeet!

And I think this my first rectangular pincushion LOL

Mine favourite part of the pincushion.

Oh and if you haven't noticed, a button must be included on your pincushion too.

The stash. I like the fat quarter!

Thank you so much Rose! And I hope your husband gets better soon!

Black Grey Shoulder Bag

2010-07-07T09:05:00.001+08:00

Another shoulder bag!

The same pattern as the one I used on the orange polka dot bag. (Pattern found HERE)

I used a longish-wooden-button-thing for the clasp instead of the magnetic one or a zipper.

Should have gone for a zipper. Oh well.

The joining for the handle is better this time around. I found that I totally could NOT join the handles according to the pattern instructions so I had to device another way to do it.

And the bag has a hidden(?) zippered pocket!

And achievement in my little zipper-adventures so far I think. LOL

I used interfacing on this bag for some stiffness.

And that precious grey material is the same I used on the previous bags.

And that's the shoulder bag when worn.

My sister is modeling it because it was her 21st birthday gift last month.

Playing music with your...

2010-07-06T01:42:00.004+08:00

As you know I sometimes don't sleep at night (it's almost 2am and I work at 8am in the morning *sob*) so whilst on Facebook I saw a friend's post on this rather special yet disturbing video.

Oh I'm definitely NOT going to sleep tonight! LOL

P/S: Oh and I want to sew that dress!

Apple Amigurumi

2010-07-02T11:20:00.003+08:00

Apple the 'fruit' of 'knowledge'. So they claim.

Although I'm quite sure Adam and Eve ate a durian, which was so 'powerful' it 'woke them up'.

I made this half a year ago. Now belonging to a friend who came back from furthering their studies.

That other little black bag

2010-06-30T09:52:00.002+08:00

The post title lacks creativity. I don't know what else to put when blogging about my black bags.

I think the plant on my desk has more creativity today. Oh well.

This handbag was made using remnants of black heavyweight cotton and some scraps.

It's not very big, about 16"x9"; enough to carry your phone, housekeys, basic make-up(if there is such a thing as basic make-up for you women) and maybe a book.

Wait a minute. Why am I explaining what to carry in a handbag? *slaps forehead*

Black polka dots?

I think I like it :D

Now to figure out what to do with it -_-

Random Rantings: The idle mind of Paul

2010-06-28T11:56:00.001+08:00

Guess who???

These 2 seconds were the only sightings of me during the whole bloody campaign. They forgot to capture the most important part; the one where I was the doormat.

With pursed lips somemore can?

We were fixing the minced chicken that was frozen solid. We couldn't wait for it to completely thaw so we had to chop them up roughly with our knives. Yes manually. I was so tulan by the time I reached minced chicken packet number 26.

This was from a video taken a week before. The only part of me during the whole 3:57mins is my hand and knife slicing ginger.

And to think I didn't really want to be there. Wasn't feeling too charitable that day.

People are telling me recently that I'm becoming different. Like I'm turning into some sort of weirdo. Apparently I've become a recluse and when I DO talk my sentences are either nasty or completely whack.

It's all pink. I like. But pink is a mixture of red and white is it not? It takes 2 elements to create one.

The bosses are noticing it too. I was called into the office for an inquiry! Wouldn't they just love to know what's in my head.

A bent pin, while still not completely useless, won't work the same way.

And no I wasn't talking about erm...well....about THAT. LOL

My seam ripper had a mind of its own and wants more than just to frog mis-stitches.

It wants murder. Or did it just reflect the one wielding it?

This little letter 'K' may not be important to some people, but it means everything to me. In fact, it doesn't just (finally) mean my Sarawakian 'status' but also something else much much deeper.

Here's something by someone called Thomas Hardy - "The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes"

How true.

Surely you wonder why I'm ranting like this. Well I'm bored at work and would rather be at home sleeping and sewing and there's only so much pattern browsing you can do. My idle mind works in crazy ways.

I swear I mentally bent my teaspoon a minute ago.

That Black Gray Bag

2010-06-25T09:00:00.003+08:00

I realized I'm running out of names for these black bags that I do. So I added a 'Black Bag' label for all posts involving black bags.

And yes, this is another post about a black bag. That's because the materials are actually remnants from the 30 Black Aprons. And I kinda like using that black heavyweight cotton.

Anyways, here is another one of my black bags that was finished a while ago.

Yes, that's Her.

And by Her I meant the sewing-machine-love-of-my-life-heart-of-hearts-if-she's-gone-I'll-just die Her.

And of course, the bag. With that very nice greyish fabric paired with it. I think it makes a nice design, no?

Zipper!!

Yes, I realize there is a 'double stitching' glaring up from the zipper placket. That's because limpeh didn't quite catch the botton part of the placket and had to sew a second time. Well you know things like this only happens to The Heart of Paul.

But I'm getting better at installing zippers I promise!

Calico lining on the inside but without any interfacing this time round.

I actually made a hell lot of mistakes with this bag. My seam ripper was on a roll I tell you; ripping seams at every attempt to put the bag together. But as they say practise makes perfect :D

I found it EXTREMELY can vomit blood difficult to topstitch with a zipper in the way. So all I could do was to topstitch from handle to handle and hope the lining doesn't erm....."slip up".

I gave it to a colleague of mine. She's bought me gifts for the past 2 years on occasions and I figured I ought to return the gesture.

I think the colour scheme suits her perfectly!

On selling bags and trade names

2010-06-23T10:00:00.005+08:00

Three of the patterns shown above are from; Buttercup Bag by Rae, Tinyhappy Shoulder Ba g, Pink Penguin Puffy Pouch. The rest are mine own or adapted.

I was thinking of starting a little something selling bags.

OK lah I know I've just been making A FEW bags but he is allowed to have ambition too right? LOL And, those few people who received the bags I made told me it's good enough for selling. A friend even offered her help to 'market' the bags.

I think I might go for it. And when it's stable enough I might get the business registered like a certain someone :) And of course I'll have to use my own ideas and not patterns from the internet anymore. But I'm working on that.

And now the best part of it; THINKING ABOUT THE TRADE NAME!

I was thinking (on printed grossgrain ribbon);

t.h.o.p
by The Heart of Paul

Something like that. For all items made by me.

t.h.o.p which stands for the obvious!

Hmm...What do you think?

P/S: Oh by the way, there's going to be a bag giveaway in July here at The Heart of Paul *crooked smile*

Appliqueing lesson at the 3rd NNC Anniversary Meet

2010-06-22T09:00:00.001+08:00

I 'sorta' joined a tutorial that was taught during the 3rd NNC Anniversary Meet which was back in March!

We were given the templates before hand to trace. We also had to bring our own fabric scraps and thread etc etc

Teacher of the day was Janet from Ipoh, a multi-crafter in her own right.

We all sat around the coffee table of Sabariah's living room, where the 3rd NNC Anniversary took place.

MW tracing and cutting up her stuff. That's her sister Jackie on the far right and Anna, a master crocheter sitting in the background.

Jackie's piece.

I actually brought my own stuff to join in the applique lesson too. But when the time came I was hit with total laziness to cut up my own pieces so I just sat around observing instead.

We were taught 3 different hand appliqueing techniques; blind stitch (for the flower stem), blanket stitch(for the flower petals) and needle-turning (for the leaves).

I know I said I didn't do anything, but here I am stitching part of MW's applique piece.

She handed it to me to 'try' but I know you were 'lazy' too MW. Confess. ROFL!

Anyways it was a great tutorial by Janet. Thanks so much for conducting it Janet.

I tried the applique pattern a few nights ago. I used the blind stitch for the stem which was cut from bias tape and blanket stitch for the leaves and petals.

A close up of the work.

How did I do Cikgu Janet? A bit messy I think.

That gingham was fraying like there was no tomorrow so I had to apply fray guard first before appliqueing it on. I think that's a good idea to do if you can spare some of your fray guard.

The 3rd Anniversary Meet went quite well. There was plenty of food, gifts being passed around and most of all, the company and laughter.

What are you doing over there in secret ladies?

Ah...preparing the door gifts I see.

Anniversary Gifts ready to be drawn.

The foods!!

And cheesecake with strawberries, a specialty of Mel's.

Om-nom-nom time!

Clockwise from left to right; Nik, Sabariah, Tini, Mel, Alynn (with back facing) and MW.

An impromptu tutorial on brooch/jewelery making by Sabariah, the hostess.

She was showing how to bend the metal-thingies with a pliers-thingy to make a brooch.

Felt flowers by all the members.

Each member who contributes to the anniversary gift exchange MUST include a felt flower in it. Mine is the calla lily at the top rightmost corner.

That's Rose and I.

I'm holding the pincushion exchange I received from her. Will blog about that soon!

The show-and-tell session.

I'm so envious of their great works!

MW and I holding our gifts from NNC group owner, Nik.

The pincushion says, "As ye sew, so shall ye rip". LOL

Some of the members have gone home when this group photo was taken. But I had a lot of fun that day. Can't wait for the next anniversary meet in 2011.

You can read and see more on the anniversary meet at the following NNC member's blogs;

Nik, owner of NNC
Rose, thanks for letting me drive your car :P
Tini, who carried a DSLR that day!
Janet, thanks for teaching us
Sabariah, thanks for playing hostess. You have a beautiful home.

Little Comfort Pillow

2010-06-18T09:00:00.001+08:00

I came across something about 'comfort pillows' whilst browsing the internet for pillowcase ideas.

People usually make these pillows or comfort blankets for children who are hospitalized to help with the 'suffering' both physically and emotionally. I thought this was a great idea for adults too, because after all we all have that little kid still in there somewhere waiting for a hug. Admit it!!

Little linen comfort pillow.

Aromatherapy pillows are a great variant of the comfort pillow, using herbs and essentials oils either dabbed or inserted into the pillow itself.

A short squeeze on this pillow whenever one is feeling depressed or upset.

Here is a heart shaped comfort pillow pattern from Husqvarna sewing machines, created for surgical patients to hug away the pain. Or you could always make your own.

In fact, you could always spray or dab on some of that fragrance your special one is using, and hold the pillow to your face to be comforted as if that other person is nearby. I would put a dab or two of Cassis Rose from The Body Shop on mine.

May it bring comfort to one during times of crisis. It's small enough to be carried around in a handbag.

Go make yourself a comfort pillow today!

That orange polka dot bag

2010-06-15T11:14:00.008+08:00

I made this shoulder bag in a mega rush yesterday.

It was a last minute birthday present thing I decided on a whim a few hours before I was supposed to meet a friend for dinner.

So I flew home from work at clock-out time sharp, got everything out and started on what I thought I could finish within 2 hours.

Black heavy weight cotton remnants. Orange fabrics are lightweights from Kamdar.

I took almost 3 hours, and I was very-super-mega late for meeting this gal-pal of mine at the restaurant where she works.

Orange and polka dots are SO NOT my thing!

But she was gracious about it, and even gave me the 50% staff discount on the seafood pasta and salmon chowder I had.

Lining with cotton interfacing for a sturdier bag.

She even accompanied this person to walk around the shopping place after dinner and offered suggestions when I oooh-ed over some awesome sibeh kui fabric I saw (and bought so that I now have to eat grass for the rest of the month!)

But best of all she likes the bag. And orange is her favourite colour so that explains the level of orange-ness :)

I was such in a rush I didn't take good pictures of the bag and never got much self-evaluating done on the work. And there were plenty of the typical The-Heart-of-Paul-only mistakes of course, like the joining of the handles, which looked like I was sewing it together with a pencil for a needle and only 2 fingers to use. Choi!

That Little Black Bag again

2010-06-09T09:08:00.001+08:00

This is the second time I'm trying the Buttercup Bag by Rae. The first time was a pink fabric which I didn't really like.

And I'm using taffeta again! This slippery material is kinda hard to sew and pressing with and iron doesn't really work. I had to use pins everywhere!

But I like this buttercup bag design lah. It's soo easy to make.

Again my favourite bag lining, calico fabric!

And magnetic snaps!

Gave them to a friend for her very belated birthday present :)

That 6-gored black skirt

2010-06-07T12:04:00.007+08:00

I made a 6-gored skirt!!

Apparently the 'gores' are the panels that make up the skirt. The more 'gores' you put in the more erm.....'open' the skirts will be. I think. I dunno what you call them I don't wear skirts....

Anyways!

This is the finished skirt during the first fitting.

Can you see the 'gores'???

I didn't make the drawstring opening big enough that it wouldn't pass through the hips of the wearer. I had to open the sides a little bit and add a zipper later.

And this is the skirt worn during the second fitting (like WEEKS later), which fit the wearer beautifully!

I was so excited it wore nicely on the person!

That's the zipper and drawstring.

The top of the skirt where the drawstring is was made using jersey fabric so it will stretch and sit nicely on her waist.

The close up of the material.

The eyelet embroidery is very pretty. Gives a nice finish to the skirt. I didn't even have to hem it :)

And because of the eyelets I had to use lining on the inside of course. lol

Graciously modeled by my sister, whom I made it for anyways.

She claimed that she didn't bring anything suitable to wear with the skirt for the photo but it's ok because I'm more interested in the skirt! LOL

I feel so fulfilled sewing this. Can't wait to make more skirts! :D

The Heart of Paul

NNC Mug Rug Exchange: The Chinese Teacup Rug

NNC Mug Rug Exchange: The Crazy Quilt

Nyonya Pineapple Tarts: The experiment

NNC Mug Rug Exchange: from Mauritius!

The office anti-social...

Because I'm bored: Photos from my iPhone

NNC July Stitching Bee: Photos from my iPhone

The Wedding Cupcake Tower

NNC Birthday Exchange 2011

My Sister's Wedding: Photos from my iPhone

Some bead work

Wedding Hipstamatic: Photos from my iPhone

NNC Mini meet-up: knitted beanies and a pouch for Shanny

Marzipan Modelling - Angry Birds

Blogging from iPhone: random post again

Blogging via iPhone

Random: Crochet flowers

Angry Bird Amigurumi

Ai li bo tiao kia

Perfume Bottle Gift Pouch

Food, Glorious Food: Photos from my iPhone

NNC 4th Anniversary Exchange 2011

Valentine's Day: His and Her's Coasters

Trying for Quilted Coasters

NNC Valentine's Day Exchange 2011

Granny Square Purse

Random fail

Of embroidered table cloth and random food rant

Red and Gold

Granny Square Pouch

NNC Birthday Exchange 2010

Happy New Year 2011!

Brocade boxy pouch

What's been happening??

Random

DAISO at 1Utama

Flag of a bag

Simple patchwork baby blanket *updated*

Q - Sponging your coat *UPDATED 13/10*

Photos: Flowers *Updated 13/10*

Pink zippered pouch

Sesame Street with The Backstreet Boys: One small voice

My blog turns TWO today

Black Garter Knit Scarf

Attempting cables

Things I learned from my parents

Black rib knit scarf

Dear God

Visit to Alor Setar, Kedah

Dear God

ADV: Snazzy and Such @Jaya33, Section 14

Black bag: trying patchwork on bags

Two more b'day gifts

The Heart of Paul FACEBOOK Giveaway

NNC Birthday Exchange 2010

SNN Birthday Exchange 2010

Assorted Crocheted flowers

NNC Stitching Bee in Ipoh

Happy Birthday Me!

NNC Pincushion Exchange 2010

Black Grey Shoulder Bag

Playing music with your...

Apple Amigurumi

That other little black bag

Random Rantings: The idle mind of Paul

That Black Gray Bag

On selling bags and trade names

Appliqueing lesson at the 3rd NNC Anniversary Meet

Little Comfort Pillow

That orange polka dot bag

That Little Black Bag again

That 6-gored black skirt

Simple patchwork baby blanket updated

Q - Sponging your coat UPDATED 13/10

Photos: Flowers Updated 13/10