Sold another lanyard

Cheryl asked me to also make her a lanyard that's similar to the one I made for Gennie just that her requirements are to have them in white and blue. I figured she's more of a baby-blue gal rather than a bright-blue gal. Thus, made a similar lanyard that's with pale blue seed beads. Received her feedback that a lot of her colleagues commented that her lanyard is very nice :) I hope she likes it as much too.

Vintage Flower Brooch

This is one of my favourite creation which i made some time back. I think this brooch has a vintage feel to it but too bad i haven't had a chance to wear it yet.. can't seem to match it with any of my clothing. Hee...

Arrival of my baby niece!

My second sister just gave birth to a daughter on 20 Oct! We were actually quite worried that she will give birth before my elder sister's wedding dinner. Coz we really want her to be able to join in the fun and joy of the wedding and witness the whole event as well. Well, lucky enough! She delivered just 1 day after my sister's wedding, which is the next day! Hee. now I have 2 nieces! Let's see when my elder sister will contribute to the Singapore population.. Haha!

The baby looked so small. I didn't have a chance to hold the baby as she's always sleeping when I visit. During my first visit to the hospital on the day of birth, she was already wheeled into the nursery (is that what you call the room where all the babies are?). When I next visited at the hospital again, I was just in time to see her being wheeled back to the nursery. Then yesterday when I visited her at home, she was sleeping and sleeping. no chance to hold her. But anyway, she's sooo small that I'm afraid to carry her.. Hee. She has a darker complexion than her sister, but her mummy says my first niece was also quite dark at birth but later became fairer. Dunno if baby will also be the same. But both nieces have a lot of hair at birth.. So cute!

Think we can only carry her when she is older and have more "awake" times :)

My Sister's Wedding

Recently, was busy with my sister's wedding. She had her Tea Ceremony on the Sat 2 weeks ago while her Solemnization and Wedding dinner was on the following Sun. Boy! Luckily it's done over 2 days. I was her bridesmaid and I was already quite tired out… can imagine how tired my Sis and Brother-in-law would be. Now, they are just back from Phuket for a short holiday and is back to work already. For me, I had a headache that came on and off for those 2 days and another 2 more days after that. Booked myself a massage session last Friday to ease my body strain.

1st Piece of Creation I Sold

Gen asked me to make her a lanyard last month as she thinks her company issued one is too ugly. Her requirement was to have it white-based so that it's easier to match her outfits. I only completed it recently as I was busy with the ring pillow for sister. This piece of work is officially the 1st piece of creation I sold :) Mailed it out last week to her. Hope Gen likes it & finds it good enough to replace her company lanyard! Hee...

Sawadee Ka!

Just came back from Bangkok over the weekend. Luckily we did not encounter any protests or inconvenience from the demonstrations currently ongoing in Bangkok. Before I went, everyone kept telling me to be careful lah... if there's any riot, run in the other direction etc.. But, the atmostphere there at the major shopping areas were still normal, like before. There was no feeling of riot or street protest at where I was staying. However, there were noticably less Singaporean tourists around. Foreigners were still plentiful though.

On my 1st day at Bangkok, we arrived and reached our hotel in the late afternoon. We left out baggage and proceeded straight to Erawan Shrine to pray to the Four-faced Buddha. Hmm… I found that it's better to go to the Shrine in the late afternoon as it's less crowded. The last time I came around noon and it's was super crowded with both locals and tourists. Next it was dinner at Coca Steamboat! One of my favourite :) the Tom Yum Soup was nice… different from our Singapore version.

The next few days were spent at shopping complexes, MBK, Siam Square, Siam Paragon & CentralWorld. Bought pasmina shawls, local snacks, lingerie, toiletries, t-shirts and Naraya products! Also when to get made-to-measure shirts at MBK. Quite cheap and efficient. 800+ baht for an egyptian cotton shirt which the tailor says is like Raoul. That's about $30+ SGD which is not too bad and they were able to deliver the completed shirts to our Hotel the very next day :) He originally quoted us 1200 baht but my fren managed to slash it down to just over 800baht.. Hehe...

Also tried this Health Land Spa and Massage Centre (www.healthlandspa.com) which was recommended by many tourist guides and online comments. Tried their Traditional Thai Massage at 450baht for 2 hours (~SGD$21) and it's pretty good. But think they spend too much time massaging my legs… wish they could do more for my back and shoulders instead. But the head and neck massage was pretty comfy. I wasn't too confident in locating the place myself so we took a taxi from the hotel. It's supposedly easy to get there via BTS but I find the surrounding not very touristy… Better to make advance booking with the Centre too! I asked the hotel to help me call in the morning for an afternoon massage. They have many staff there so I think it shouldn't be a problem to make an appointment on the day itself.

After the massage, we went to search for a local seafood restaurant (Lek Seafood) under Chong Nonsi BTS station. Found this restaurant on the internet and the review was quite good. The place was really quite run-down and probably wouldn't appeal to me at all of not for the review on the internet. We only ate the BBQ Jumbo Prawns and Steamed lime sauce Catfish. Yum Yum… l love to eat seafood in Thailand.. hee.. 200baht for 4 jumbo prawns (1/2 kg). That's abt $8.40 SGD. I think that's cheap too! But can't remember the price for the fish though.. hee.

Overall, I think the trip was a good one. SQ flight, hotel stay and experience there were all good. I shall be back again :)

Labour of Love - Wedding Ring Pillow for my Sister

Phew! I finally managed to finish the wedding ring pillow that i promised to make for my sister for her wedding in October. Actually i started working on it since many many months ago but the process was very slow and tedious... Had to go all over the place to look for different items.

I chose to use rabbits as the "wedding couple" as both my sister and her hubby-to-be are born in the year of the rabbit. Small, cute rabbit soft toys aren't that easy to find. But I finally found this pair (which were actually key chains) in a shop at Century Square Tampines Mall. Finding nice lace fabric for the cushion cover was quite a chore too. This piece was found at Spotlight. I wanted to buy one with white flowers but when i finally waited for the Spotlight sale to come, it's only left with the beige flowers... The lace for the rabbit bride's veil was found at Chinatown. The rest of the beads and ribbons were bought at bead shops in Chinatown and Spotlight.

After making the "parts" and some trial and error with the placement... the final product is finally completed! Hee...

Lymphatic Drainage Massage

I tried my first lymphatic drainage massage yesterday at a Javanese massage place yesterday. Hmm... it feels similar to those normal Indonesian massages that I had at Bintan but concentrated more on the lymph nodes areas which are like the inner and back of thighs and inner part of the upper arms as well. Wow... constantly rubbing deep into these areas can be quite painful. But well, I'm a girl of high pain threshold (I think), so it's still relatively bearable for me. An ex-colleague once told me that after doing this massage, you will stink as the body is expelling the toxic... but I think I still smelled ok after doing the massage.. hee..

This massage is part of their slimming menu but as I have sensitive skin, they decided not to use the slimming gel on me and did a 90mins massage for me instead of the 60mins massage plus 30mins steambath. Hehe.. it's fine with me since I dun want the steambath anyway and prefer the longer massage time. But 90mins still seems to fly by so quickly and it's over before I know it. Sigh... Not sure if it'll really help in aiding faster and better detoxification of the body though, which is what I wanted... not so much on the slimming... Let's see if my skin have any adverse reaction within these few days. So far it's still ok. *keeping my fingers crossed* if my skin's still alright then I can still go back to them once in a while to do this massage again, for detoxification :) I love going for massages...

Happy Birthday Singapore!

"Shine Singapore" - Singapore's 43rd Birthday

Hehe... fren won a pair of NDP08 tickets from company in a lucky draw and I got to watch the national day parade at the floating platform! Hurray! There was a slight rain during the start of the parade. Poor performers have to endure the rain and proceed anyway. Luckily the rain stopped when the night came.

The Black Knights were very cool :) their stunts were really quite impressive. So proud of our RSAF team.

I love watching fireworks!! in real life and at close range that is... the blasting sound makes it slightly more exciting and the glittering lights always brings a smile to my face.

Not sure if i'd be able to catch the fireworks shows on 22 & 23 August also at Marina Bay. Love the fireworks... but hate the crowd :(

My Niece is 3 years old

We celebrated my niece's birthday about 2 weeks ago. I saw this really cute iPanema sandles at a shop at Heartland Mall and was bent on getting it for my 3 year old niece :) But alas! there was no bigger size available and the new stock is not coming in till October. And it's only 3 days to her birthday party! I must have searched all the shopping malls in the Orchard area and although most of them do carry the brand... but they too are out of sizes. Left with no choice, i bought a much bigger size slippers for her (also from iPanema) from Tangs. Hope her feet grows quickly enough to be able to wear it soon!




Also couldn't resist buying this set of OshKosh clothes! They look soooo cute! I was helping my bro buy a set of clothes and his budget was $40. I completely bursted his budget by another $30+! Ahem... they really are too cute to give them miss.

But since Sis couldn't get her present in time, we decided to all share the presents. Wow! Spent over $88 for a little 3 year old's birthday... shared by my siblings and bro's gf.





Look! this lovely cake is my niece's birthday cake! It's really quite a huge cake. Luckily my bro-in-law's nephews love to eat cake and they took quite a bit.. else i dun think we can finish it after a very fulfilling BBQ dinner. Hee...

Me? A Bridal Designer?

Woa! Cin recently asked me if i could help her decorate her wedding banquet hall if the hotel she chooses have yucky decorations. I was 1stly very flattered to be asked, but was 2ndly very skeptical if i could pull such a big project off!

Cin: Eh, if my banquet hall's design is very horrible.. u help me decorate ok?
Me: Huh?! But i'm not experienced! Have never done this before....
Cin: It's ok lah, i have confidence in you. Besides, i just want very simple decorations with fresh flowers...
Me: Err.... but i'm not confident leh... what if i didn't do a good job.. I'd have ruined your wedding experience and after your wedding dinner.. i won't be your fren anymore...
Cin: Haha! Won't lah! You just conceptualise the design and the rest of us will help with the decorations too :)
Me: Err.... we'll see how it goes. See which hotel u eventually choose 1st...
Cin: Hee :)

I think it will be fun... but it would be a very tiring thing to do and would probably takes up a lot of effort and time.. But well... Cin's a good fren... if she really wants me to do it... i probably will... but *shudder* - Can I do it well?

Caught the Flu Bug

I've caught the flu bug and am feeling under the weather... Dad says i must have caught it from him as he was having slight flu 2 days ago. Mum also caught the bug from him too and we are both resting at home today. I've seen the doc to get an MC for today to rest at home. Would luv to have more days to rest more but there's a full-day meeting tomorrow. Shouldn't miss that else i'd be totally lost.

Doc says that it's very common recently as a virus is going around. I've got a 3in1 flu/pain/fever medicine and cough syrup which tasted yucky!! Mum didn't want to go see the doc so she took panadol cold relief instead. Dad took his own remedy - a small cup of hard liquor mixed with a big cup of hot water. Take this before sleep and you'll be well tomorrow - or so he claims. Hee...

Hope I'll be well before the weekends! I still have Yoga lessons to go to and it wouldn't be nice to go to class with flu... Yep!

Durians Season

I think it is the durian season now. Durians can be seen sold at every fruit stall. Even make-shift durian stalls are popping up here and there. Yesterday, Dad brought me and my friend to buy some durians to devour... hehe... actually wanted him to drive me to the Four Seasons Durian Cafe at Joo Chiat Place to buy some durians there. But well... Dad feels that there is no need to travel all the way there. So we went to the neighbourhood to buy instead.

We wanted to try the Mao San Wang, which i believe is currently the best type now, but it's all sold out. So the stall owner recommended Golden Phoenix to us and claimed that it's better than the Mao San Wang (but apparently it's sold out faster than the Golden Phoenix. hmm...). We bought 4 of it. Friend wanted to try the Ang Hie so the stall owner gave us 1 free! Hee... In total, the damage is $36 for 3.6kg of Golden Phoenix! Hope it's not considered expensive... else i would have been conned by that decent-looking stall owner :)

The taste is really not too bad! The Ang Hie is a little sweet but not too overwhelmingly so... and the Golden Phoenix is more on the bitter-sweet side. Oh i prefer more of the bitter one...

But 5 durians is really too much for us to finish... there is still 1 left in my fridge, masking the rest of the food in there with it's pungent smell......

Farewell Gifts - Lastly...

What to give to guy colleagues?? Hehe... Bookmarks!
But really it's just attaching something to the ready-made bookmark with a hole at the end.


Whew! These are all the creations I rushed out during the last month I was with my ex-company. Hope they all like these gifts I made for them.

Farewell Gifts - 5

One of the girls don't wear accessories at all! But she loves those furry ball thingies always have them hanging on her mobile phone.

So, I made a phone strap accessory, with a furry ball thingie at the end and attached a cow stuff toy (she's born in the year of cow) to it as decoration.

Farewell Gifts - 4

A bracelet...

&

A brooch...

Farewell Gifts - 3

Now the necklaces...

Farewell Gifts - 2

Farewell Gifts - 1

Finally, i'm the one leaving the company and i made a bunch of creations to give to my close colleagues as my farewell gifts to them.

But in my haste on the last night to complete all my creations... i took very bad photos of them. Can't help it.. too tired liao.. just wanted to capture them quickly and go to bed.. hee

Black Snowflake Brooch

This is probably my 1st creation made for a colleague. She was my Deputy Director who employed me, but left a few months after i joined, to spend more time with her family.

She's really a very bubbly boss and always full of smiles and laughter. We were all very sad that she was leaving and everyone can't bear to see her go.

We made her a scrapbook and i also made her this black snowflake brooch as a farewell gift to her.

We still do get to meet up once in a while during gatherings and it's still enjoyable chatting with her. I wish her well... :)

Detoxification through Yoga

I went for my yoga class again last Sunday. The instructor said that there's alot of virus going around recently and alot of people are getting sick. So, he taught us a series of postures that concentrate on massaging and squeezing our lymph nodes around our neck, underarms and inner thigh regions, which he says will help in detoxification and build up our immune system.

It was, as usual, a good sweat out session. PLUS, i ended up with neckaches and muscle aches around my arms and thighs the next day. Hmm... i can be hopeful with that flat tummy thought! Hehe :P

Berry Earrings

Berry Earrings - made for a young, spritzy colleague :) she's now a young mummy of a baby boy and a second one is on the way I believe...

Care for some Grapes?

Grapes Cluster Earrings - made for a very soft-spoken and swet colleague who was leaving the company too. Not a very nice photo though.

Most of my creations were made for colleagues who were leaving the company.

Brooch

Meteorite Brooch - made this for a Malay colleague who was leaving the company too. I hope she likes it.

Uploading My Creations Slowly...

Hmm.. didn't manage to take very good photographs of my creations. I have a friend who always complain that I take bad pictures... hoho.. even the built-in stabilizer in the Canon camera didn't help. Or maybe the stabilizer isn't working? *shrug*

Spiral Flower Ring - I made this for a manager who was leaving the company..

Yoga Yoga

I went for a yoga lesson yesterday, my first yoga experience actually. Wow... yoga can be quite tiring! and I didn't expect that I would sweat.. haha and boy I sweat quite a lot too. My balancing was quite bad.. must practise that :) Looking forward to my next lesson, though I could feel my arms and thighs aching slightly today. Hopefully I will make it a regular routine (i did give up on pilates before.. hee). And hopefully I'll get a much flatter tummy after these lessons! Hee...

My 1st Blog Entry

Hey hey! This is my 1st blog entry. Actually, I've set up this blog account for quite some time but just haven't really found the energy to write and post. Heehee..

Why petite Queen? Well.... coz i'm really quite petite in size and am not exactly that young anymore. So can't possibility call myself a princess right?!! haha..

Anyway, I'm supposed to post my jewellery creations and other crafts but those have to wait for a while lah. Don't have those photos with me right now. Till the next time! :)