Day Off

I didn't go to work today; had to start clearing leaves that I had accumulated from last year, else they'll be forfeited. Went to the supermarket to buy some stuff but along the way, I stopped by at the ATM booth to withdraw some money & update my passbook. This ATM booth is one of those stand-alone kind located in the open air.

While I was queuing up to withdraw cash, I saw this young lady standing near the updating/depositing machine. My first thought was that she was queuing up for her turn but it turned out that she was not...When an aunty went over to that machine to deposit some money, this young lady told her that the machine was unable to accept cash deposits today and could only be used to update passbooks. Then that aunty asked why doesn't she just stick a notice near the machine to inform users instead of standing there physically to do so, the young lady replied: "My job is to do this - to stand here and inform users that the machine cannot accept cash deposits today".

!!!!!!

Oh my, poor girl. If you are from this part of the world, you would know how hot the weather can be. Can you imagine standing under the hot sun the whole day, just to wait for people to come along & inform them that the machine can't be used? What kind of job is that? What was her company thinking?

Anyway, while I was updating my passbook something dropped on my arm. Not cash (I wish!) but a teeny-weeny green worm. Eeeeekk! I get squeamish over such things. Wish I had this bird with me to peck it away for me.

Eggy Piggy

A belated Happy 2010! A little late, I know but better late than never, right? :D

Oh, I finally made a trip to Spotlight and Daiso the other day. There were so, so many things that I had wanted to buy but couldn't carry them all home. I bought some craft supplies and also this:


I like stuff made of wood and so I had to buy this wooden box even though I didn't know what I shall use it for (not to mention it only costs S$2!). But I'm sure I'll be able to find some use for it...trust me, I'm very good at that (especially when I wanted something desperately) :)

Now, I use it to house my crochet needles! Mum bought me these crochet needles many, many years ago...probably more than 15 years ago?


I haven't crocheted for a long time as I couldn't find any nice patterns in diagram format. You see, I have problem reading those crochet instructions in written form.

But last Christmas, with nothing better to do, I decided to try crocheting again but this time using a written pattern and these were what I made:


*Hello, I'm little Eggy Piggy*


*I like to eat apples*


*This weird yellow apple, like me, was born on Christmas day*


*Well, I'm off now...to market, to market...to buy more apples...Ta ta!*


Little Eggy Piggy and weird yellow apple turned out a little wonky but I like them :). Now I have no more fear, will continue to try to crochet some other stuff using written patterns!

Fish Head Curry

I have a weakness for curries. Any kind of curries - chicken, fish, vegetable, you name it, I love them all!

I could resist my other favourites like durians, mangoes, but never curries. It's my "nemesis". Don't you have some kind of food that you simply can't resist? If you do, then you'd know what I mean.

This is the fish head curry that mum cooked:



Ingredients:
- Fish Head (mum used white snapper)
- Ladies Fingers (1 packet)
- 1 Brinjal
- 2 Tomatoes

Method:
(1)


Oh, I had really wanted to write down the recipe here but it's just too long (!) and I gave up trying. Guess I will just concentrate on eating :D... Sorry!

Merry Christmas!

Manipulation

I love old Cantonese movies but this is not a scene from some 粵語長片. It's actually a photo I took on the Ngong Ping Plateau during my trip to Hong Kong in June this year! Yup, I had aged the photo with help from this interesting site.

For comparison, here's the original photo I took:



Also found another interesting site here which allows you to manipulate your photos to make them look like model photographs. I used a photo taken at a theme park in Korea to show you the before & after effect:

Before


After


Isn't it neat? Go try them out, it's fun!

X'mas Countdown

Only 3 weeks more to Christmas! Are you counting down already? Have you put up your Christmas tree yet?

Well, I don't have a tree this year, not a big one that is, but I do have a tiny one hidden somewhere in my messy storeroom :D. I shall have to go look for it this weekend. I like to set up and hang ornaments on the Christmas tree though I can't say the same about taking it down after Christmas.

I haven't got time to craft recently but I would like to share with you some of the Christmas ornaments I sewed in the past.

*X'mas Tree*

*Reindeers*

*Santa Bears*

*Snowmen*
Oh, I wonder if anyone still sends Christmas cards via snail mail these days or is everyone sending e-cards for convenience? For me, I decided to send you a felt X'mas card instead. Here it is, hope you don't mind receiving it a little early:


Happy weekend to you!

Not A Very Good Day...

I had to fire a staff today. Though it's not the first time I'm doing this, it was particularly tough this time round as this employee I had to terminate was one of my regular lunch partners. :(

It was not a good day for me today...

Busy Bee

Just pop by to say hello as I've been missing in action for a while. Have been pretty busy with my day job, so no crafting done at all during the past few weeks. Whatever little free time I have was spent idling around :).

Anyway, I always take the same route to work every day and this morning I was thinking perhaps I should show you some of my 'favourite things' - things that I like seeing on my way to work each day.

This is my favourite tree:

My favourite pebble path:

Also saw this purple plant on my way home from work one day. Though messy, I thought it looked pretty swaying in the breeze. It's grown wild, outside an office building which is still under construction. I believe once the building is completed, this plant will probably be removed.


Is it silly to show you these ordinary things? :)

What do you see on your way to work/school each morning? Do you notice your surroundings or like most people, would just hurry along to wherever you're heading?

Keroppi Alarm Clock

Hmm...The alarm on my little clock has decided to take a break and does not sound anymore these days. So now I had to rely on my handphone alarm to wake me up in the morning. This is the second alarm clock I broke.

But nothing's wasted, when the first one went dead, I removed the hour & minute hands and sewed this felt alarm clock with a Keroppi face on it!


How I wish this Keroppi alarm clock would actually work...


Keroppi is my favourite Sanrio character, though I like Minna No Tabo & Hello Kitty too. Do you have a favourite Sanrio character?

Hedgehog Blues

Sewed this blue hedgie a while back which I've not shown you. Guess this shall be the last hedgie I'm making, for the time-being that is :).


Which do you prefer? The yellow, pink or this blue one?

I love hedgehogs (did I mention that before?), so I took a group photo of the 3 hedgies I made & use it as the header for my blog. Looks like they are not leaving my blog anytime yet... :D

Bye for now and Happy Sunday to you!