Something new is coming

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Friday Ketchup No. 1

Thank goodness it's Friday! And because it's a public holiday, we all got to sleep in. Okay, I mean me.

What a week it's been. Flowers, celebrating 18 years with the man and being attacked by a wasp-hornet. And today, I finally decided Candy Crush is eating too much of my precious time. So I deleted the app from my facebook even though I had reached level 125. It's almost April and I have yet to start making stuff for my craft market in early May. Yes, I'm starting to worry.

Right after deleting Candy Crush, I sat down and made ONE bag for my craft market.

It's a simple lunchtime bag. No pockets, no zipper, no magnetic snaps. Just an easy throw your wallet in the bag and go kind of bag.

I didn't want to just sew 2 pieces of fabric together so I paper pieced a tree. I wanted to make a rain tree which is a common tree in Singapore but I found it too troublesome to piece the curved shape. Anyway, it captures the essence of a rain tree - broad and stout with a big top. A rain tree is shaped more like an umbrella.

It was raining (again) when I took the photos of my bag so I had to use Auto mode which really changes the colour of the fabric. The 2nd photo was taken with my iPhone. I think the 3rd photo shows the truest colour of the fabric. Do you like the polka dots? It's a Lecien, by the way.

* * *

I looked through my leftover stock from Christmas (man, that was a long time ago) and I have a total of 1 big bag and a few small ones. So no kidding. I'm really getting nervous about my next craft market. I've yet to get the official schedule but I know I'm on because I already paid for it. I feel like I've been on a 3 month vacation just lazing around. What was I thinking? Clearly, I wasn't thinking.... (as hubs would say) I fear I will have to sew every day from now on.

* * *

Know what's the difference between a man and a woman? When a woman sees dirty dishes in the sink, she washes them. When a man has to wash dirty dishes, he goes out and buys a machine that will do the job for him.

Look what hubs bought me this week. A dish washing machine. In Singapore most people wash dishes with our hands. It's not common to see a dish washing machine in our homes. Recently, I had another bout of peeling skin on my hands and I nagged everyone to wash their own dishes. Hubs is really terrible at washing dishes. I would have to clean them one more time because you could still see bits of food on his "clean plates". I mean, how hard is it to clean the dishes? Apparently very hard for one man.

We have yet to use the machine because the dealer has to send someone to come demo the machine to us. Can you imagine how hard it is to use the machine if I need to see a demo first? I fear my life is going to change drastically from now on. I hope it's for the better.

* * *

Has anyone used the touch screen kind of computers? We bought one recently and I think I'm becoming one of those old people who don't like changes. What's interesting about this kind of computers is everything is inside the monitor. What a space saver. I really like this aspect the most. But the actual computer? I'm afraid to use it! Luckily this computer is meant for my kids and they're touch screen kind of people. It also uses Windows 8. My current computer uses Windows 7. I really hope my computer doesn't die because I'm so used to the feel of it. Some things shouldn't change.

The return of the wasp

Folks,

This morning after taking my son to the train station, I came home and settled down in front of my computer to play Candy Crush (level 121). Yes, this is kind of my routine now. Before Candy Crush took over my life, I would do some housework.

Suddenly I heard a familiar zzzzz sound followed by a big black object coming at me. It landed on my crotch and when I saw what it was, I screamed my head  off. It was that damn wasp again (blogged here) and it was on my crotch. Good thing I am always fully clothed at home. So I screamed and screamed and tried to get it off me without touching it.

 
Then I saw my yellow container which I use to put my pencil shavings and loose thread. It's like my rubbish bin. I grabbed it and smashed it on my crotch - over and over again until the wasp fell to the ground. That's when I quickly placed the container over the wasp trapping it. I could still hear it moving around. I don't know how I did it but while moving it still trapped in the container, I managed to catch its leg on the cover and so that's when it stopped moving. I placed something heavy over the container and waited for hubs to wake up so he could get rid of it. And I finally stopped screaming. I don't know how hubs could sleep through my screams.

Hours later, hubs woke up and his idea of getting rid of the insect was to sweep it outside our home. He said the hornet looked dead. I really can't tell the difference between a wasp or a hornet. Of course I wasn't gonna let the wasp-hornet regain consciousness and come back for revenge. So I bravely took a plastic bag and placed it on one of the steps on the staircase. Then I got hubs to sweep it into the plastic bag. Then I put a dead knot in the plastic bag and threw it into the rubbish chute. Clearly, I am now braver than hubs.

I hope the wasp-hornet doesn't send out a search party because I really don't want another attack. And I'm keeping the yellow container close to me at all times. It pretty much saved my life.

p.s. i wished i had taken a pic of the dead wasp-hornet!

18 years

Folks,

Today is the first day of school after a 1 week school break. I barely slept because my sleep pattern was off. I had to put a fake gun to my head (I used my fingers) to get me out of bed. Then I went into the living room and I saw this.

Yep. Real fresh yellow roses on the dining table from hubs for our 18th wedding anniversary. The last time I received flowers from hubs was in 1996 or 1997. Yes, before year 2000. The romance is coming back!

I still can't believe it's been 18 years.  After 18 years, we've still not quite got it perfect and need to pause now and then to figure it out. I don't know how other couples do it but keeping your marriage happy is a lot of hard work. Yes, harder than bag-making.

As with our tradition, we exchanged gifts. (because I like getting gifts)

Hubs loved to live dangerously and gave this water container to me. I almost fainted. It turned out to be a joke gift. He gave me something else.

This is what I got him. Hubs doesn't smoke and doesn't drink but he does love his tea. So this big cup is for him to drink his beloved tea. The last one I got him was too big. Hope this one is just right. I hunted everywhere but couldn't find one of the right size that said Tea.

 We had lunch in a cafe located in a bookshop. If your total is $25, you get to pick a free book from a few shelves. Our meal was below $25 so we didn't get to pick a book.

I had peanut sauce chicken and white rice. It was not bad except there wasn't enough chicken.
 

Hubs had laksa which is noodles in curry. He said he didn't feel like he ate anything.

But he almost ate his hair.

This is what hubs gave me - a T-shirt with a peace symbol made of kisses. Oh baby. The romance never stops! I look the pits though - so sleepy I slept on the train when I went home.

After lunch we went to Isetan supermarket and there were many food promoters giving out free food samples. You could go a few rounds and have a decent meal! I had noodles, rice, octopus, scallop, crepe, sweet potato, nuts, and lots of weird stuff. All for free.

Here's to more good years together.

The bees-ness

This morning hubs and I instead of sleeping in on a Saturday got out of bed early (10ish) to travel to a polytechnic to attend a seminar on how to talk to your kids about the birds and the bees.

This is how dedicated we are as parents of 2 teens. Well, actually a few days ago, hubs was writing his weekly column and came across an advertisement for the seminar in the newspaper. Although the registration had closed, he asked me to sign us up. I did that and almost immediately we received phone calls confirming our registration.

This morning I found out that food was also provided. Cool.

There were 3 sessions altogether. The one in the morning was in Malay and you get breakfast. The one I attended was in English and we got lunch. The last one was in Chinese and I'm guessing they got teabreak. And it was totally free.

If you are a parent, this is an issue you're bound to face. How to handle the birds and the bees with your kids. This is something you don't learn about in school or from your parents. It's really learning on the job. Anyway, the purpose of attending the seminar was in the hope I could gain some insights from others. Well, either that or listen to 3 hours of bullshit.

The first part of the seminar was a talk by this guy, Joshua Ng. He's a talker. Talks and talks. He's not too boring though so it wasn't so bad. After one hour, we broke for lunch.

There was a buffet and it was mostly healthy food. I think HPB (health promotion board) had a hand in that. Some of the people attending the seminar really attacked the food. They must be really hungry. The attendance was not full house. Not even half house. So I'm guessing there was a lot of leftovers. I wished this seminar was more well publicized so the hungry could come attend and eat the free food. And of course learn to communicate about the bees-ness. Either that or take off right after lunch.

After lunch we were separated into 3 groups depending on the ages of your children. Our guy Joshua Ng also conducted the talk in our group. This time he focused on teens and at one point, he brought out the big guns - a lit candle and a sparkler. It made me very nervous because I did not want to be burned alive. I thought him playing with fire was totally unnecessary. It's just showmanship.

The talk became a bit more of the same. So I played with my slippers and I yawned openly. Immediately Mr Ng saw my yawn and called for a toilet break. After the break, we did 3 case studies. We were put in groups. Me and hubs teamed up with 2 ladies and a guy. We were supposed to tackle the case studies and submit answers. So typical of the men, it was us 3 ladies doing all the work. I mean, the two guys did not open their mouths even once.

Finally we were chased out of the room because the Chinese session was starting soon. 

Oh, did I mention that Mr Ng gave out supermarket cash vouchers every time you volunteer a question or answer? There weren't that many opportunities to volunteer so I received 2 $20 vouchers. As I was leaving someone gave me another $20 voucher. Later hubs said he was also handed another voucher. So in all, we netted $80. These vouchers are equivalent to cash as we could go to the supermarket and pay for our groceries with these pieces of paper. It's almost like we were rewarded for attending the seminar.

So what did I learn that was most surprising to me? That parents have the biggest influence on the kids when it comes to the bees-ness.

Crochet flowers for your hair

I have been crocheting on and off since my kids were born and they're now teens. I started off crocheting bags and pouches. The problem was they took a long time to make and I still have a few UFOs lying around. I'll probably be cremated with them! I think I suffer from the same problem as many other women who craft. We want to do too many projects without first finishing the ones we already started.

With that in mind, I didn't want to trap myself into another crochet project that will take decades to complete. So I opted for flowers which shouldn't take more than half an hour easily. I originally intended to make them as brooches but I ended up turning them into hair clips. I added pearls and for the red flower, I added a sequin as well. The method I used for attaching the beads are the same as that I used for my lace hair clips blogged here.

In my haste to make these crochet hair flowers, I had not stopped to consider if women wear crochet flowers on their hair. I personally don't wear any hair accessories as I was severely traumatized during my teens.

I think I was 16 and one day I had a hair cut and maybe I didn't like how my hair turned out, I went to school wearing 2 hair clips hoping to disguise it. And you understand up until then, I never wore hair clips to school. All my classmates laughed at me. Not just the little laughs. But the huge hooting laughs. Girls can be so mean. And the worst were the ones who were my friends. They kept asking me why I was wearing hair clips and  to remove the hair clips so they could see what my hair looked like but I refused. Finally, they took matters into their own hands and pulled the hair clips away. That made them laugh even more. Because they informed me that my new hair cut made my long face look even longer. Sadly, many people have often found it compelling to inform me that I have a long face. Honestly, I don't even mind it or notice it. But to have so many people - hairstylists, friends, relatives, strangers - reminding me over and over that having a long face is so undesirable, it's quite upsetting. So the mean girls returned the hair clips to me and said I had better put the clips back on. Of course I couldn't wear any hair clips again.

These two flowers are quite large and heavier so I thought they're more appropriate as bag accesories.
I would have used 3 pearls on the orange/green one except I only found 2 of these in Tiba's stash.

I notice that I am quite conservative in my choice of yarns and crochet threads. Most are solids. I never really thought about it until now when I wanted more colourful flowers and the brightest I have is red. Where are all the psychedelics? When it comes to fabric, I could buy up the whole rainbow. It's quite strange if you think about it.

My dear Melly is my model again and this time Bear will have none of the "Bear has no hair" nonsense. So he got to model the crochet flower bag accessories.

Would you believe I took all these photos during a thunderstorm without flash? My canons100 is really good when it comes to taking photos in the dark. And what's the weather like where you live? I'm so tired of the thunderstorms here. I mean, it's been like this since Nov last year.

Lace flower hair clips

My friend, Vivian gave me some lace recently and when I reached home, I immediately used some of the lace to make a lace flower hair clip.

Vivian is the person responsible for introducing me to bead weaving which I'm now very addicted to, so it was fitting that I gave her the bugle spiral bead bracelet (blogged here) after she said she liked it.

I think it suits her!

Oh, where was I? The white lace.

This is what I made. I sewed three costume pearls onto it otherwise it'll look really plain.

If you've never made a lace flower before, it's really easy.

Step 1: Cut some lace, 6 to 8 inches. Sew running stitches (double thread) through the holes near the bottom of the lace along the length. Make sure the stitches aren't too small and not too close together.

Step 2: You pull the thread and the lace scrunches up. Arrange the lace into a circle. Secure this formation using your needle and thread. Just keep sewing the center together until it doesn't feel like it will fall apart.

Step 3: Sew pearls to center of lace. I don't feel comfortable sewing the pearls directly to the lace. So what I do is I place a piece of felt cut in a circle between the pearls and lace. The felt makes a big difference.

Step 4: I glue a hair clip to the back. And I don't touch it again until it's completely adhered.

I have a surprisingly small amount of lace. Although I love lace, I enjoy making them more than buying them. Once I found a teacher in Singapore who knew bobbin lace making but she was not confident enough to take me on as a student. The only lace I'm able to make are tatted lace and crochet lace. One day I hope to pick up knitted lace.

I have more costume pearls than is possible for someone who hardly ever uses them. Some are from Tiba's stash while the rest are bought by me.

Oh, I have a pearl story for you. When I was a kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I loved to play with my sisters' stash. My eldest sister worked as a dressmaker and she often gave us a lot of accessories and supplies - mostly leftovers from jobs. One day, I found some pearls and I wondered what would happen if I put one of the pearls inside my nostrils. Did I ever mention I was a pretty dumb kid? After I stuffed the pearl into my nostril, I realized I couldn't remove it. I tried blowing it out but it stayed lodged deep inside my nose. I went to my mother and after making one feeble attempt to remove it and failing, she told me to wait till my eldest sister came home. My eldest sister lived elsewhere and would visit us. I always wondered what would happen if my eldest sister never came home. Anyway, I had no choice but to wait because no one was helping me. I was meanwhile going insane. I breathed through my mouth and secretly wondered if I was an adopted child because my mother did nothing!

Finally, my sister came home and my mother told her what had happened. My sister waved me over, tilted my head up, stuck her pinkie into my nostril and dug out the pearl. Just like that, I was free. Able to breathe again. I really thought I was destined to live the rest of my life with a pearl inside my nostril. I did get a good scolding from my sister but she saved my life! Anyway, that's the one thing I really admired about my eldest sister. Nothing seemed to faze her. Pearl in your nostril? No problem.

I made a total of 5 hair lace flowers. I wish I have a larger variety of lace to choose from. Speaking of which, do you notice how expensive lace is? I don't think I will make many of these.

Some of you are probably dying to see the back of my hair clips. So I took one shot, just for you.

I used HT2 textile glue to glue the hair clip but you can opt to get the kind of hair clips which have holes and you can sew them to the lace/felt. I like this glue because it's freaking strong. Although it has a smell and I'm super sensitive to glue smell, it doesn't bother me or give me any headaches. The best thing is it doesn't try to kill me like E6000. I get chest pains every time I use E6000. It's toxic, I tell you.

My friend, Corinna bought this HT2 glue for me when she went to Germany. The poor thing had to search for it! I am so grateful to her.

I thought I'll show you what the hair lace looks like pinned on "hair". My Melly is a good model, isn't she?

Poor Bear found out the hard way he couldn't model my hair clips. He has no hair.




Disclosure: i am a amazon associate and will get a few pennies thrown my way if you purchase via my links.

Partay: Sew Many Ways

Google Reader - The End is Near

Folks,

I'm sure you've heard already. Google Reader will cease to exist on 1st July 2013. When news of Google Reader's impending demise broke, I could hear the collective sigh of readers all over the world. This followed by the stampede to find alternative readers.

Now I'm not really worried about how you gonna read your other blogs. I'm just worried how you gonna read my blog. Hahahahaha. There are many ways to follow my blog. And all the other blogs as well.

1. Through Bloglovin'
You need to sign up. It's easy peasy. And you can find me here.
Best bit - you can import blogs from Google Reader over. Just make sure you are already signed on to the correct gmail before you initiate the import.

p.s. I've taken the liberty of adding some of your blogs to Bloglovin' so don't be surprised if you find your blog there already. And you're welcome.

2. Through The Old Reader
Sign-ups are needed. I chose to use my Google id instead of facebook. Importing your blog subscriptions is a little harder here. You need to first of all download it through Google Takeout. After you have saved it to your computer, you need to unzip it and find one find with a xml extension. That's the file you want. I tried to import my subscriptions and currently there are 37,620 other readers ahead of me waiting for their turn. Clearly The Old Reader is not ready for the stampede. If you want to read up on what the developers of The Old Reader has planned, read here.

3. Through Feedly
Speaking of stampede, many have flocked to feedly. The servers are probably struggling. I use it on Firefox but it's hanging right now so I can't show you anything. If you can't get into feedly, wait until things settle down. You do have over 3 months. You can find me here.

4. Through feedburner
All my posts are fed through feedburner and I've added a new page "Subscribe to this blog". It's on the sidebar. Or you could click here. 

5. Through email
You can subscribe via the widget on my sidebar or you could click here.

6.  Through facebook
You can find me here. Although facebook is not a reliable way to get updates of your blog posts, and I don't encourage you to rely on facebook, (because it sucks) you can LIKE me anyway.

7. Through Google+
Okay, stop laughing now. I'm on Google+. Here.  If link doesn't work, it's on my sidebar.

8. Through Networked Blog
You've probably never heard of this before. It's no different from other readers. You can find it here. And you can find me here.

9. Through Bloglist
If you own a blogspot blog, you could add a gadget on the sidebar. Just go to layout/add a widget/bloglist and you can either import your subscriptions or add whatever blog you want to follow.

See the sample I've done above? It tells you how old the post is and gives snippets so you'll know if you've read them. Not exactly the best way to read your blogs but it's an alternative.

9. You can also come to my blog every day or whenever you want.

A free lunch

This week hubs kept threatening to take me to Causeway Point (4 train stations away) for a Texas Fried Chicken lunch and today we finally decided to go so he could shaddup about it.

We were about 50 metres away from the restaurant when a woman approached me and asked if I would like to participate in a food tasting thingy at Texas Fried Chicken. All we had to do was eat a shrimp burger and fill in a feedback form.

But of course I said yes. Free food!

This was the burger I sampled. It was freshly made. It looks like any other ordinary burger. I'm thinking kids won't like that many sesame seeds on the bun. I don't mind them.

Enough lettuce and the sauce is not too overwhelming. The worst thing a burger can do is to leak. Vegetables haters won't like the lettuce. They were crunchy.

The shrimp patty was crispy on the outside. Very good. You could also see real shrimps.

But it's too freaking spicy.

My lips burned. At the end of the meal, I could feel tears rolling down my cheeks. Good thing we were given a huge cup of iced water.

I didn't forget my fried chicken. After some shopping to walk off the shrimp burger, I went back and  ordered takeaway for dinner. I was approached once more to take part in the shrimp burger tasting as I have a forgettable face. I declined. My lips still burned.

Felt flower hair pins

Folks,

This morning I woke up full of resolve to make one bag. Any kind of bag just to get out of this funk I'm in. Well, it didn't happen. You see, I was held hostage by a wasp.

Even before I had my breakfast, this giant wasp flew into my home. It was obviously lost and for some reason very attracted to my dining table light. The stupid insect kept getting its wings zapped by the light bulb yet it kept going back for more. ZZZZ zzz ZZZZ. This went on and on. Yet it survived. It wasn't even stunned.

Meanwhile I was panicking. I am petrified of insects. All insects. Wasps and bees are top of the list. I armed myself with the biggest umbrella in my home and grabbed today's newspapers. The umbrella was to shield myself from the wasp and the newspaper was to kill it. Of course I was fooling myself. There was no way I was capable of killing a wasp. I am a quivering coward.

I opened the door to the balcony and shut all other doors. I stood near the main door with the umbrella open and waited for the darn insect to fly its way out of my home. I waited and I waited and yes, it started to feel really silly standing there in my home holding this giant umbrella open. But the wasp just wouldn't leave. It flew around my home, again and again and always went back to the light. Finally I started to feel that my life was in danger as sometimes it would fly past my head.

As much as I wanted to protect my life, I was in the middle of a Level 86 Candy Crush crusade and this was an extremely hard level to complete. Finally I was on a good roll and had a good feeling I would win the round. So I risked my life and went and sat in front of the computer. With one hand holding the umbrella over my head, I used the other hand to play Candy Crush. And yes, I eventually lost. This is how crazily addicted I am to Candy Crush.

Finally, I became too nervous to be in the same room as the wasp. I switched off all the lights and ran into the bedroom and shut the door behind me. Yes, me, the umbrella and today's newspaper. I lay on my bed and tried to sleep but of course I couldn't sleep. After about half and hour, I ventured out and it worked. The stupid wasp was finally gone.

And that's basically why I did not make my bag after all. I was too rattled.

But let me show you some felt flower hair pins I had made. Previously I had made some over the top felt flowers brooches but they did not sell as well as I imagined. In fact I think I have a couple still unsold. So this time I reined in my urge to embroider wildly and stuck to two or three colours. Also, I decided not to make brooches this time but used hair pins instead.

Would women wear these felt flowers on their hair? I'm hoping so. As for the two brooches which were unsold, I'm thinking I should convert them to hair pins instead.

Are you chasing the handmade dream?

Folks,

Are you creative? Are you into handmade? Are you chasing the handmade dream? Do you want to win prizes? Do you like foxes? Well, here's something that might interest you.

I'm one of the many sponsors for this little project: Crafty Singapore - Foxy Mascot Contest. Some background first. I am a member of this Singapore Etsy team and it's called Crafty Singapore. The Foxy Mascot contest is to celebrate the new site and team mascot "Foxy".

This contest is open internationally. To enter, you need to submit a clear photo of your creation. Do take note that if you are chosen as a finalist, you need to send by snail mail your submission to the committee. Essentially, your creation will no longer belong to you. When the contest ends, these finalists' submissions will be listed on Etsy and if they're sold, the proceeds go to the Crafty Singapore team. Credit as a creator will be given in the Etsy listing description.

Cool with that? The prizes are goods sold at the sponsors' Etsy shops.

The details of this contest are found here. Please note that I'm not on the committee so if you have any questions at all, you'll need to contact the right people found on the link I've provided.

I can eat this but I can't eat that

Ever since news broke out that Ikea's swedish meatballs contained horse meat, I had the exact same question as everyone else.

What does horse meat taste like?

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. All I wanted to know was are swedish meatballs made in Sweden?

Now I love dining at Ikea's cafeteria. It always feels like home. They make you clear your own mess. But I did not love the swedish meatballs. I tolerated them. I've probably eaten them four, five, six, seven or eight times. I've always found something missing in the dish. Like taste. I mean, if you were to ask me what the meatballs taste like, I couldn't give you an answer because you eat them and you forget about them. The taste is not memorable.

It's funny how the mind works. The minute Ikea withdrew their meatballs, I suddenly wanted to eat them. Me and hubs dashed down to Ikea last week to confirm what we already knew. Swedish meatballs are no longer on sale in Singapore.

Ikea Singapore had decided to halt sales of her infamous meatballs pending DNA test even though the meat source is not from the same one Ikea elsewhere used. Ikea revealed that the meat in Singapore's swedish meatballs are from Brazil and Australia.

I was extremely disturbed by this piece of news because I was under the illusion that Swedish meatballs came from Sweden. So, no swede in Swedish meatballs?

Now doesn't that make you angry? I'll bet there will be a public outcry if your dim sum was not Chinese.

This horse meat scandal got me thinking about the food I couldn't eat.

I know I would not eat horse meat knowingly.
I can't eat raw fish. No sushi. 
I can eat bbq pork but not if it's cooked in soup.
I am not a fan of pigs innards and would vomit internally if I smelled the smell.
I ate frog legs once thinking it was tender chicken but the minute I was told it was frog legs, I immediately threw up.
I can't eat reptiles.
I can eat quails eggs but I can't eat quails.
I have eaten beef and mutton but I would vomit internally if I smelled the smell.
I have eaten beef burgers though. No vomit. Maybe they were horse meat?
I can't eat turtles or drink turtle soup or eat turtle eggs. No turtle.
I can't eat snails or bugs.
I can't even think of eating rabbits.
I can't eat any birds not reared for consumption. Like if I see a chicken crossing a street, I couldn't catch it and kill it and cook it and eat it. Nope.

Once when I was a kid and still living in a village, my siblings caught a bird. I forget what kind and they said they were gonna cook it. I'm thinking now we were probably very poor and hungry. Because they really did it. It wasn't that big a bird so each person got a small portion. Although I ate my share it haunted me big time.

All this talk about food I couldn't eat has brought on the nausea. Big time. Have to go vomit externally.

How old were you when you had your ears pierced?

Folks,

When I was a teenager, I wanted one thing. Just one thing. To have my ears pierced. Yes, I know. I didn't go out much.

It was my dream to wear dangling earrings and I nagged my poor mother to death until one day when I was either 17 or 18, she caved in and took me to a goldsmith shop because that was how her ears were pierced. An old woman dabbed some alcohol on my ear lobes and after burning a needle with a lighter, she proceeded to pierce my ear lobe with the needle.

Holy crap! I did not think through the actual ear piercing process carefully. I did not think about my skin being pierced at all. Yes, this mother$#@#$ was sticking a needle in my ear lobe and I let her. I let her. Not only did I let her, after my screams had died down, I turned and let her pierce the other ear lobe. I was that vain.

I was told the pain would go away in a while. She lied. Anyway, I got to select a pair of gold earrings which my poor mother had to fork over hard earned money for. Until my ear lobes healed, I wore a temporary earring. It was just two pieces of stick.

I put up with swollen ear and skin and throbbing pain for many weeks. I wonder why I did not die. I also wonder why I did not storm back to the goldsmith and ask if she had done it right. Eventually my piercing healed and I got to wear my gold earrings. They were not dangling, by the way as the dangling ones were too expensive. But my plan was to buy cheap costume dangling earrings to wear.

Alas, my skin turned out to be super sensitive and every time I wore the cheap stuff, my ear swelled and sometimes the holes leaked.

It was gross but I continued to wear the cheap dangling earrings, even to school. The prefects in my school would book me for wearing dangling earrings and demand I remove them. It was a never ending harassment. I thought that after all the pain I went through, I deserved to wear whatever I wanted on my ears. Yes, I was a earring rebel.

Anyway, my BFF started to have ear lobe envy and one day I accompanied her to get her ears pierced. Unlike me, she had seen a sign at a shop that said "No pain ear piercing" and she wanted that. So, it turned out to be not painful for her. Because there was a modern way of piercing ear - with an instrument that looked like a giant stapler. I decided to get my ear stapled as well as the holes that the old lady had dug for me were slanted and it was a major affair just to wear a pair of earrings. The ear stapling hurt just for a few seconds and that was it. I felt like an idiot. 

Years later, I realised my skin would only tolerate real gold or surgical steel.

Now, where was I?

As you know, my beading has to be kept to a minimum nowadays and so I thought, why not make earrings as they're small and won't require much time. I mean, sometimes I have to let my kids have the computers and that would give me time to do a little beading.

Without further ado.....

You betcha the first earrings I made were super dangling ones. These are made using bugle beads from Tiba's stash and some Miyuki delicas. Oh, I think fireline is not a good idea when making dangling stuff. Too stiff.

These are just simple brick stitch earrings. I used Toho beads.

This pair of earrings took a very, very long time to make. I discovered that making small stuff sometimes take a whole day. I made the mistake of making the first one and then stopping for a week or so and then made the other one. The problem with this is that the second time I made it, I was feeling very hot and a bit agitated. That affected my thread tension and as a result, the second one feels a little tighter. I don't think I'll ever make this again. The beads are very small and hard to see and the worst part is the red beads are all mixed up in the container and sieving through them takes a lifetime. I had bought these beads before for a previous project and there's so much of it left.

If these earrings look familiar to you, you're very observant. I had made a similar bracelet before.

Remember this bracelet? Matching jewellery. I feel so spoilt.

And now for the failures. The diamond shaped one is too big and too uneven. I feel it's my choice of beads. I think maybe using cube beads will work better. The second one with the pearls is just ugly with poor choice of colours.

Let's partay! Sew Many Ways