Less Than Perfect - Pink Piglet

I must admit that little pink piggy here is not very well crocheted. There are big gaps here and there that would make any expert crocheter cringe. However, despite all the imperfections, I didn't throw it away cos I like how this piglet looks - it's big ears & smiling eyes. I call this 缺陷美!


Oh, and this lucky piggy does not have weight problems too.


Look, it's a long-legged slim beauty! Ha!


Come to think of it, I've never thrown away any of the things I made including those crafting mishaps. Yes, of course there are crafting mishaps - like everything else in life, sometimes the crafts turn out in forms other than those I envisaged. But I still keep them just because I made them with love - my passion for crafting. Maybe someday I'll show them to you but are you strong enough to stomach them, I wonder... :D

Remember my trip to Daiso a couple of months back? Well, little pink piggy here was crocheted with the S$2 yarn I bought there. I still have a big ball of that pink yarn left, wonder what I should make next...

Wanted!

Have you seen this guy?


His name is "Warumono" aka "The Bad Guy", wanted by the authorities for committing this crime:


Any member of the public who has information about this fugitive should contact Inspector Alcy of The Craft Precinct immediately.

Warumono is extremely adorable *ahem* I mean abominable.



Do not, I repeat DO NOT, attempt to confront him directly as he's crafty and highly capable of stealing your ♥heart♥ away...


For more doses of cuteness *ahem* er I mean information, please read "The Bad Book".


INSPECTOR ALCY
- THE CRAFT PRECINCT





Er...You looking for me?...

Socks & Whatnots

Many weeks back, I bought 2 pairs of socks (pink & grey) from this lady who sells them on some weekends at the central market. She does not have a proper shop but just sets up some tables outside other shops along the walkway, not a legal operation I guess. I asked for long grey socks & she found me an ugly pair which I bought anyway as I could not find other nicer ones. Anyway, the socks cost only S$1 a pair, so can't complain.

I didn't buy those socks for wearing but for crafting purposes. I wanted to experiment making a sock animal...this:

A Schnauzer!


*Hi, I'm Schnauzie*

I thought Schnauzie turned out pretty nicely. Really, I hadn't thought so while I was sewing it though, probably because I disliked the ugly grey socks in the first place & didn't think it'll work out.


In the meantime, I also made a bone bracelet & 2 rings. But as you can see above, Schnauzie has claimed the bone bracelet & is happily wearing it as a collar now. :)



Well, now that I'm left with one pink sock, I need more grey ones to make another Schnauzer...


...Even Schnauzie here thinks so too & is urging me to get started...


...& so I headed back to the central market in search of the sock lady but alas, no luck. She was not there the past few weekends. Hmm...when will you be back sock lady? I can't very well use those worn ones with toe jam on them, can I (oh, gross!)? Dear Schnauzie would never agree, you know...

Spring!

February is such a short month but eventful though. Before I yak on, just want to remember these important dates:

20 Feb 2010 - In memory of Pa Pa who has left us for 3 years already.
16 Feb 2010 - My 1st blog anniversary!

The Lunar New Year has come and (almost) gone but Spring is in the air as you can see birds busily procreating during this period.

Read in my Bro #1's blog that 2 pairs of crows (!) made their nests near his flat, one of which is only about 5m away from his balcony! Dear readers, you know how I feel about crows from my close encounter with them years back. Though my Bro #1 (who heard from his pastor) mentioned that crows (ravens) are actually a very misunderstood bird of blessing, I have yet to be converted :).

Anyway since we are on this topic about birds, last week while looking for some blank CDs to copy songs for my brothers, I found this DVD with this interesting long-forgotten video:



I believe this is a Sun Bird (do correct me if I am wrong as I am not familiar with them)? This bird actually built its nest on an almost dead pomegranate plant abandoned by my neighbour outside my house. The initial part of the video shows the mother bird feeding its baby. But did you notice after the feeding, the mother bird did not leave immediately but instead waited for the baby bird to turn around & poop & then caught the poop with its beak before flying off? You can see this around the 00:55 ~ 00:56 mark. Talking about good service! :D

So before I leave, here's a big black bird of blessing which I sewed using a T-shirt I've never worn (thought I should emphasize this in case you think the doll smells!):

Happy Lunar New Year!

恭喜, 恭喜!



It's Year of the Tiger!


Does this look like a totem pole? :)

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!