Never Lived Alone

I like to sew. Everyone knows that. But what most people don't know about me is I dislike mending. My family has learnt this thru' experience. Any holes that need mending or any alteration is automatically put on the waiting list. In the past, me hubs would nag me to death before I would, very reluctantly do whatever alteration was needed which usually took just a few minutes of my "precious time". Now he has grown weary and decided to just do the mending himself. As for alteration, I believe if he could, he would.

I'm also the kind of mom who does not feel any embarrassment if my kids walk around in clothing with holes in them. My girl would often point out holes in her clothes and suggest I mend them. I would procastinate or just put it on the "waiting list". Yesterday, a miracle happened in my home. My dear daughter asked for a needle and thread and said she would mend her clothes herself.

 

Just look at that wonderful sight. Head bent and feet turned up in deep concentration. I will cherish this moment forever. Yay! No more bugging from the little princess about the holes in her clothing.

She did such a good job. See where the arrow points to? It used to be a hole. I didn't even have to teach her. I think every human being is born knowing how to whip stitch. You know, just go round and round.

Okay, my son has a shirt (his school uniform) which has a nice little hole. It really bothers me hubs. With me girl's newly acquired skill, I suggested to son that he mends his shirt himself. He was of course quite against the idea. Oh, what would motivate a boy to mend his own shirt?

This week I was supposed to up my stock for my date at Iluma Art Market from 19th to 20th March. Instead I spent time watching movies. Today I watched The Resident.

It sounds like a bad movie. But I'm not very selective when it comes to movies. I mean, I LOVE Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo for goodness sake. My favourite comedien other than Steve Martin is Rob Schneider.

What attracted me to The Resident is the idea of living alone. All my life I've never lived alone. When I was young, my family was huge. When I was married, I lived with me hubs family. When I moved to my own home, I had kids. So I was never alone. During those days when me hubs was still in the reservist and had to go sailing for 2 weeks, it was me mom and mil who was more paranoid about me being alone. They would call and call. Geez, I wasn't even alone. I had 2 kids. I remember when I was still single, whenever my 3rd brother went to serve his reservist duty, I would sleep over at his home to keep his wife AND kid company. Like it's the most normal thing in the world.

I've read in some blog posts that kids in western culture leave their family homes to live on their own when they turn 18 or so. Is this true for most folks? I can't imagine my kids leaving home at such a young age. I can imagine them living with me till they get married. Gosh, did I say married? Right now, I cannot imagine my kids getting married.

Well, I think living alone can be pretty scary. Just 14 minutes into the movie, I already started hearing noises from here, there, everywhere. The Resident is really about a perverted landlord who lusts after his tenant. I was sure Hilary Swank would not do a bad movie. I mean, this is a Million Dollar Baby! Also, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, (the creep) was Uma Thurman's Accidental Husband. And I think she has good taste. (because she has such long legs) Bad taste aside, the movie has a good (creepy) moment like when Jeffrey Dean Morgan used Hilary's electric toothbrush for kicks. What I didn't understand was when Hilary was told the rent for the apartment was $3300 and she acted like it was a steal. Really? In Singapore, $3300 could get you a house, I think. And that's why most folks in Singapore live with their parents. The rent.

Nope, you didn't come to my blog to read about the movies I've watched. So here are 3 striped items I made.

Here's hoping my striped items pay the rent for my Iluma stall.

I usually have some problems matching the stripes at the seams. This is my best match to date. Hopefully I'll stop watching TV and movies long enough to make a few more items for Iluma. See ya.

March MAAD 2011 Post-Mortem

Hey folks!

How was your weekend? I had a rather quiet weekend. No, just kidding. As some of you may know, I was at red dot design museum hawking my bags. I had a rather nice time actually. Surprise? Yes, it's safe to read this post. It's whining-free.

My bag display

Check out the cool thingy I bought from Ikea to display my lunchtime pouches. My little pouches really clutter up the table - this is such a space saver.

Here's me on Saturday. I wore my threadless tee. p.s. i promise not to tilt my head the next time I have my pic taken.

Oooh, I had light. I discovered lights make my bags appear more attractive. p.s. i promise not to make the peace symbol the next time i have my pic taken.

Sales was better this month - a total of 9 bags and pouches. Not great, I know but remember February MAAD? So I'm grateful.

I have 1 pic of my cutomer. This is June with her new bag. I think you've met June before. Thank you June.

This was my little workshop. I spent my free time sewing sarubobos.

 

My girl kept me company on Sat afternoon. She soon grew bored so I let her take photos of my sarubobos.

She took lots but most were blurry. I like this one best. It shows a child's perspective.

I took lots of photos of my sarubobos too. I made a total of 7 sarubobos until I ran out of stuffing. Sarubobos are a great way to use up your fabric remnants. If you're the DIY kind of person, you might want to try out my tutorial to make a few sarubobos to call your own.

On Sunday - today, I learnt to make Crème brûlée from Chef Shun. It turned out to be rather fun.

Here's Chef Shun with his apparatus.

I whisked! Btw, this is my very first ever cooking lesson.

I torched!

I made Crème brûlée.

 

That's me about to dig in. It was gooood.

Hope your weekend was good too. See you all soon.

The N Word

Hello people!

How are you? Last week I was feeling really good. I started sewing pouches again and best of all, me hubs brought home a gift for me.

You might know I have "a thing" for containers. So I was over the moon when me hubs took this gorgeous metal tin out of his bag. It used to contain cookies (can you imagine?) and he had rescued it from the garbage bin at work. Okay, maybe he really took it from the snack table at work but somehow the idea of him digging thru' the garbage for me sounds so romantic.


Yes, I washed it and now it is where I keep all my sashiko thread.

I was really feeling energized and wanted to make many, many wristlets but was derailed by a thundering migraine. Do you suffer from migraine? I haven't had one since my Open Doors experience and that was quite a long time ago. So it took me by surprise. I often forget how painful migraines are. I especially hate the ones which come with nausea. If you are a fellow sufferer, you'll know what I'm talking about. The worse bit is not that you vomit. It's that you feel like vomiting but don't. It was totally my fault. I found myself extremely hungry and extremely cold one day in a situation where I could rectify neither. A perfect trigger for a migraine.

I've recovered. Thank you. Re-born once again. So I've managed to make a few more wristlets before my enthusiasm runs out. Here they are.

8 wristlets. Imagine how many more I could have made.

I used linen-cotton for this lot using my fave fabric. Five are made using Echino fabric.

You've met Echino Fuchsia.

You've met Echino red panther.

You've met Echino brown animals.

Now meet Echino beige birds.

And Echino sky blue peacock.

Here's a crowd-pleaser - Yuwa pseudo cross-stitch.

For the vintage lovers - Yuwa grey polka dots.

Lastly, for the romantics - roses with dots and stripes.

Lately I've been watching a lot of reality TV and I've started to notice that on 2 shows, the N word is used very frequently. Do you know paula abdul's dance show? I don't know the name but it's very similar in format to American Idol as in there's a panel of judges, there's viewers voting and there's the N word. Just watch the shows and see how many times the judges scream out "you nailed it.", "you nailed it baby!".

What's with all these nailing? I know there's another meaning to "nail". Heard it on The Big Bang Theory. I assure you the meaning is totally different.

I don't think I've nailed anything in my life. Sure, I think I did a good job but did I nail it? Not too sure about that. I've been nailed though. By a nail. Right through the sole of my foot. When I was a kid, I walked around bare-footed a lot. Never been nailed by a nail? Then you can't imagine how painful it is. Extraordinary pain. I remembered how my sisters tried to comfort me after. They boiled green beans soup for me. In fact, whenever I am injured, (and I was rather accident prone) my sisters would boil green beans soup. Till today, whenever I smell green beans soup, I would feel that everything is okay.

Lastly, I'll be selling my bags at my LAST maad this weekend. Woo hoo.

5th to 6th March 2011
MAAD
red dot Traffic
28 Maxwell Road
Singapore 069120
11am to 6pm both days

I'll see you guys soon.