Yaaaay! Anniversary SALE is on! ;+)

Yeap, I've finally edited the etsy listings to $5 so you can all go and grab some cute+functional goodness! Perfect for organizing your bag and for gift-giving too! I can't think of more reasons to justify this splurge! LOL (etsy's been working up a bit so hopefully it'll be fine for you guys when you purchase! Otherwise, give me a shoutout and we'll do manual. :)

K, enough shamless advertising & on to a bit of updates... Its been a stressful week with classes back to back and weird people to deal with. I've been planting my own existence in cyberspace since I came back from Sydney coz its been too difficult and painful to deal with the real world here. I heard this American guy in Hong Kong say, "I won't live here even if you paid me a million dollars". I feel the same way about Singapore. I know, I know, its safe, secure, blah blah blah but its just not me. I plan to escape once my 2nd degree ends. CPA Australia promised they'll help with jobs and migration. Better not flake out on me!



Good stress relief? CRAFTING! I've been sneaking to sew things coz the real life was too exasperating. Last Sunday I was feeling particularly crummy while I was flipping thru Summer's edition of Cotton Time and I came across a teapot at the back pages and I really wanted it! I thought, hell, I can make one. And so I did. I stood at the kitchen counter, between the sewing machines and cloth cutting, it took me 7 hours to create this teapot (reminds me of the hours I took to make a real teapot at pottery classes years ago!). I couldn't leave it undone! Its not filled inside, coz its kinda like a storage canister which makes it all the more challenging to make. No exposed seams and funny stuff! *phew!* I guess it looks decent for a 1st try. ;+) Cute green dot fleece inside. I'm not sure what to put inside yet, but the thing is I got my teapot. LOL Yaaaay! Satisfaction! (French mug was a present from a friend



The limey green inside. I wanted a puffy top like the one in the mag but somehow it turned up puffy inside instead. D'oh! Better luck next time!



Oh and I collected this package from the PO today. It was a big box from DH, from his trip to Japan for some asia pacific rim convention stuff at a university. I sat right at the back & tore up the box on the bus home. Who can wait?! And out pop all this great bunch of fabrics! He actually took the trouble to buy fabrics for me! I know he doesn't have a clue about fabrics but look at this bunch he got!! My collection is officially ridiculous! LOL Hugs to DH. ;+) They smell sooooooo good! :P

Oh and he said I needed a An Pan Man stress ball and a monkey mug. (??)

Ok, go shop now. ;+)

Preview

You've heard and seen it here first. The new collection to mark the 1st Ever Anniversary of florspace! There will be balloons, bubbly and loads of fun! Yaaay!

You people are the ones who made it happen for us! To thank all of you guys, the Mini Zippereds in the Petites section will be at only $5 each! If you've been thinking of grabbing a florspace MiniZ, now's never better! Old favourites, yummy summer colors & spanking new designs all for one low price! Grab a whole bunch, save on shipping and make sure you're never lack of stocking stuffers at the end of the year! Really, it pays to shop early. ;+)

When's this gonna be? On the 8th of August, for a whole month!
(Couple more days, people. Save your Moolah!)

Sweetie Pie

Sweetie Pie
Originally uploaded by florspace.

I made this really sweet zakka-style drawstring pouch the day before my 1st day at uni. I had only 1 thought in my head, dead woman walking. So, what does a woman on death row do? She crafts.

So I gathered some super cute scraps, cut them up and out pops one of the cutest pouches I've made. Who said stress was bad? I say it brings out the best in me. LOL But thats just me.

So this cute girly girl features the ever popular Sweetie Pie fabric, from Japan (where else?!) and a really really sweet slightly crinkled pink & white stripes on the top, bottom and inside. I think the crinkled look is fantastic. You don't have to press it and it still looks so cool. How convenient! Anyways, in the spirit of Japanese zakka style, I've also put a cute oat linen strip in the right bottom corner, that says, "So Sweet" with a pink cupcake right beside. How much cuter can it be!?Perfect for your lingerie/nightie on vacay and other girly stuff.

Its gonna be a one of a kind so pick it up today at my etsy shop. ;+)

------
p/s: For all who's worried about me & school, I'm good. I found a decent group for the marketing project and hopefully everything's gonna run good from there. My poor lecturer's very sick though. :P

They say 3rd time's the charm...

Anzac at Sunset
Originally uploaded by florspace.

They say 3rd time's the charm...

Somehow I can't manage to see that just yet. I just had my first day at a local private uni, as a 1st year student (again!) in my second degree(I did my 1st one with Sydney Uni), Bachelor of Business, Accountancy. Its offered by a rather prestigious Australian uni, and it promises to be world recognised, including the Australian CPA. I've had a long and arduous background with Accountancy. In fact, I've just dropped out of ACCA. Lecturers & school were poorly equipped and I had trouble understanding their brand of english. I lost that motivation. So in came this second degree, promises to break up the crazy load in one single ACCA unit into several. I guess I can't lose doing another Australian degree.

My first day was a blur, stressful blur. People already knew people, and did I mention they look 20? I'm not sure how to describe but I didn't feel like I quite fit in. I guess I had to start with Accounting 101 again coz the uni did not recognize my previous but relevant professional degrees. Needless to say, I ate lunch alone at a table with another Australian lecturer & a local lecturer lamenting about the local students. I smiled politely. And when Marketing lecture came, we needed to find a group to work on a project. I've hated group work since the beginning of time. Its never work out for me, its either we disagree on everything and it ends up awkard, or I end up having to do the whole project. Somehow, I do waaaaaay better in a real work situation, where people are forced to work together by geographical reasons and are more amicable. I took sometime to think about it and I'm thinking about pitching a one-woman effort to the lecturer. Just hope its possible.

I'm still keeping my hopes up. Perhaps sometime soon, I'll agree that 3rd time's the charm. For now, I only miss Sydney more and more, especially with the flown in uni lecturers. Sigh...

Mushroomated

Mushroomated
Originally uploaded by florspace.

Finally, a zakka pouch I can call my own! All that gorgeous Japanese craft magazines got to my head and my life. I wasn't sure if I was able to create one as good as the ones in the magazines. The challenge was daunting. i tried and tried but nothing seem right. I had to give up for a while. Then one fine day (no thunder!) I sat down, grabbing these few fabrics and created this guy, oops, I mean girl.

I had hand-carved quite a few mushroom stamps and 2 went perfectly on the pouch. It seemed a little dull still, so I went ahead and patch the infamous Japanese-import cotton canvas mushroom. It kinda felt like the finishing touches! So, even if the worst happened, the stamped mushrooms fades in the wash, which it prolly won't coz I used permanent inks from Japan and heat-sealed them, the cute red mushroom will still stand! Genius! LOL

Anyways, its soft & sturdy materials combined to make this fabulously cute + functional pouch, perfect for gallavanting or lingerie in your overnight cases. I hate to be caught going to the bathroom with my underwear in hand. :+P

Carry your essentials in style people.

Hello Mia! + Shop Celebration Announcement

Past few days went by like a blur. I think I slacked a little but still managed to get laundry and some purses done. I've also carved out some mushrooms for stamping which will prolly be showing itself in my creations pretty soon. Rubber stamp carving can be therapeutic somehow. I do it really late at night when all is quiet and I'm lying around on the armchair with Jazz/blues on the radio. I reckon its the best time to get stuff done. The weather's pretty unforgiving in the day, leaving me mostly hot, sticky, migrained and generally flat by 4pm. I think I need a night job. Or I'm praying DH will finish his PhD soon so I can move out of here. I think I miss him quite a bit. He's in Tokyo for a convention these 2 weeks + having a great time shopping. *Green wif Jealousy!* I'm broke, which pretty much explains why I'm not there. :+(

I managed to send out Melissa's tote for the Bag Ladies Swap as well. Hope she likes it! I'm not showing it yet though. :P I've also received the last instalment of the FAA blue parcels. Strangely, I haven't heard from the peeps I posted to. I'm praying they got to the rightful people, safe & sound. Sometimes its just so hard to make sure it reaches wherever its supposed to go, which is why I have a pretty deep love-hate relationship with the postal system. Like the world, there's always good and bad people around. I think I prefer to meet good ones. Speaking of, I'm supposed to get a custom necklace from Marsha, she made a really nice design for me but I wasn't sure if it was me and I didn't quite put it the right way to her. She was really nice about it and I promised to love the necklace anyhow. Thinking of which, I'm quite a strange person. When something catches my eye, I wanna grab it, own it, thinking I'd love it forever, but its forgotten in some corner in a blink of an eye. Its the ones I'm not sure about that really lasts a long time. Its my lifelong dream to study how my brain works. I swear its got a life of its own and it spents at least 75% of its time laughing at me. Sigh.

Anyways, I'd prolly love it. Her designs are really really special. It takes time to love. The more you see it, the more you develop an affinity for it. Its amazing how that happens!

Oh, MOO tells me my notecards & stickers are on the way. *happy*

Oh, that very sweet/cheeky girl up there? She's been my blythe for 3 months now and I haven't got a name for her. Then I finally had an epiphany this evening. Her name is Mia, in honor of Mia Farrow & Woody Allen's "seperate togetherness" relationship, which I kinda worship, since I'm "weird" about stuff and space. :P

Mia: "Hey everyone..."



p/s: BIG NEWS!!! Florspace's ONE YEAR OLD on 8th August + Lyn's Birthday (Sept)! Party is coming! ALL Mini Zippereds in the Petites section will be just $5 for TWO whole months, AUG & SEPT! Including any new Mini Zs on the way, which is a whole BUNCH! Isn't that cool?! Save your moolah now!

Tama Tutorial

Tama Tutorial! Funny how I didn't procrastinate this time. LOL Hope you guys have fun making them! Oh, click on the pic. You'd get to my flickr page for clearer instructions. :+)

Who needs a manicure when you can craft?

ETSY never looked better! They have free stuff! Ok, I'm a bit S-L-O-W but seriously, I'm only one person so sometimes it does take time to find out these things. :P I was actually snooping around for stuff to put on my spartan blog so I wanted something from etsy, hence the great find! I'm gonna print out these super-duper cute postcards and pop them in with my orders! How great are the etsy admins for putting these free stuff up? Who's got button makers? Make me some of those etsy buttons! Hell, make a hundred and tell a whole bunch of peeps how cool etsy is! I can find everything, almost everything on etsy and I'm not even gonna name anything coz I'll be in so much trouble for missing some good stuff somewhere! LOL I have to watch how much I'm surfing etsy for fear of emptying my pockets! ... *gasp!*

Bummer News! ----- I heard that some poor sellers on etsy are being convo-ed nasty messages like how crappy their stuff is or how expensive their things are. Thats NOT cool so please don't do that to those poor sellers. These people must all be given a fair chance and respect for what they have produced. It may not be your cup of tea but please keep those comments to yourself! I know how those comments can feel and it can really hurt. We don't wanna cause any suicides, now do we? So be nice.

Grocery day Sunday. I woke a bit late coz I had terrible dizzy spells Saturday night. Then realised I had a mountain of stuff to do. Bazillion purses to make, erasers to carve, mini patchwork quilts to finish, plushes to make for peeps,.... Anyways, I took a bit of time to sand off the ugly corners of some wood monograms I picked up on Saturday. *pifft!* All that sand dust wasn't fun though the sanding part was. I'm glad my fingernails are short or there it goes. Who needs a manicure when you can craft? It was grocery shopping after and lugging them home. I'm so glad Dad bought the car. I feel shiawase to be in a private car again. Public transport is forever a nightmare for an agoraphobic.



Edit: MOO Stickers! They ship free for month of July ONLY! Get in quick. I've got my 2 packs and I've done some notecards from them too! Can't wait to see them! Those MOO minicards really are addictive.... :P Check out the MOO Flickr group.

Play catch-up, Diet Suicide, Going Blue

I played catch-up with 2 of my friends on Friday, had Sushi and a great time chatting away. Glad to see them doing fine and apparently, ahm~, they read my blog too! So hey Angela & Annie!, you guys always turn my bad days into good ones. Let's do dinner again next month!

Saturday, morning swim with mum again. 2 teenage guys were being gay in the pool, 5 kids in the swim class watched and played with delight. I tried my best to make my time worthwhile by swimming a couple more laps. But it was fun to watch what peeps do on Saturday mornings. :+) I came back and had a quiet hour with Craft Cafe + some knitting. Annie brought her knitting on Friday for some help. She was so modest about it but I'm so in love with the creamy color of her yarn on the wooden knit sticks. I can't help but wanna join the club. I rummage through my craft bags for those forgotten wooden needles and started reminiscing about my knitting days. Boy am I rusty! Annie, you're waaaay better than me now! I got a few rows so we'll see.



Gorgeous yet simple string of blue beads from Ana, Flickr FAA Parcel swap, Blue. Its funny coz I'm not usually a blue person but it seemed like a good idea then to join in. Then I received some fabulous goodies from Warm n Fuzzy & Ana, and those little blue things they sent me really got my inspiration growing! Blue might be the new pink for me....Can't believe I just said that! *gasp!*

DH would be so mad at me if he sees these. I lost a couple of pounds when I was in Sydney. He didn't liked me snacking so I quit choco & chips for 2 months. It was unbelieveable but it looks like quitting snacking can make you lose pounds. Then I came back here and started ravaging potato chips, Caramel Corn and Marks & Spencer's "extremely chocolately milk chocolate rounds". Not good. But how can a girl live without her chocolate? But I'm trying to be good and have Zaru Soba for lunches.

Thats my girl with her new shroom cap. I'm not sure if she likes it but it kinda looks cute on her anyways. ;+) It was just a random crochet thing and it turned out perfect on her head. Oh well.
I know some of you guys want some instructions for the Origami Tama. I'm a bit busy with family + school stuff but I promise I'll sit down soon to make one. :+)

Karma bites back

The "Threatened" post is deleted because it created so much imbalance.

I'm sincerely sorry if this bugs anyone or has bugged anyone.

I'll try my best to limit the blog to happy things. ;+)

All that tension made me hungry. I'm gonna grab a burger.

Marsha Toh

Enough ranting. Have you seen Marsha's shop? She's got really beautiful hand-crafted jewellery that makes you wanna empty your pockets for! She's officially on my awesome people list. I'm so in love with her Lariats and the classy wooden beads... The idea of mixing chunky elements with delicate silver things is just divine! I'm doing a little swap with her and she's doing a little custom piece for me. I told her I preferred the surprise element and not to show me anything til the final product! I can't wait!

Oh and She's a Singaporean too! Just that she's now in London. Hmm.....me thinks she's got one of the nicest necks around. Wait, is that your neck in the photos, Marsha?

And Marsha's little boy (oops! sorry for the mistake before!) is the one who named the necklace you see there!

p/s: your litte one is sooooooooo adorable! ^____~

Less talk, more pics - Weekend + Boxy Pursuits

God, its Tuesday already. Where has the time gone? I spent Saturday edging people around at Tampines Ikea. That place is like a huge warehouse but its still crowded. What gives? But I'm a big fan of Ikea anyways. I finally got around to buying shelving for my room and loads of odds and ends can finally get off the floor. Maybe the mess was giving me nightmares. Its still a tad messy but there's room to walk now. I'm starting to wonder why would I need so much physical possessions? On the upnote, I've packed up my wardrobe and gave away some stuff to the salvos, but I've retained quite a pile for fabric and recycled crafting. Wait, did I just come up with that word? Whatever.



Sunday was hell. I was up early and was working all day. Dad was a great help. He drilled in my new curtain rod. The old one barely covered 3/4. Yeah, I was living in shame all along. LOL. And he did my shelves and wall hooks. They all had a vintage look to it which was what I was looking for. I'll put up a picture of the wall hooks later on. ;+) Then it was shifting time. I had a new space beside my bed for the black drawer chest. DH bought me that vintage bird cage I was looking for so that goes up there. I'm planning to have pictures on the wall. That'll come later again.



I spent Monday doing a bit of sewing. A whole pile of purses was laying around for days. I got a little bored as usual so I did experimentation on 2 of them. I gave them bases, one of them had a squarish base, the other was flat, but with some puff on the sides. There they are. Mum thinks they look classier. Or maybe she was getting tired of my flat Minis. I personally prefer the flat ones, or at most the puffed up sides. Somehow the boxed sides' kinda generic, non?



Finally, boxy pursuits Tuesday. I started figuring out this design on Monday since I got an order from a Flickr friend. I love boxy purses but I've been too lazy to actually figure this out coz I've had one too many failed attempts. Somehow I couldn't get my head around it. I wanted the inside to be as well sewn in as the outside. It proved impossible without hand sewing, taping of the exposed seams or simply leaving it exposed. :P It's technically only 2 days but I spent all my time thinking about it, in the shower, during my evening walk, during my sleep. Its that feverish! I tried and re-tried until the seams could take no more on my prototypes. I was plain annoyed and angry. I think I had migraines last night. Can't remember now! Anyways, I woke bright an early Tuesday (today) to give it a go again. This time I got it. And I made several versions for the prototype viewing. I'm happy to say my client is pleased! *whew!* The green/blue circles came from an old vintage tank dress, I made the ladybug one for my pen case and the country mint stripes with red flowers for my mum coz I know she'd want one when she saw it!



I also made this cute box/dice shaped one for fun. Its really tiny, 2.5" square with a cute yellow big gingham inside. Yaaaay for boxy purses!

New Additions!

New Additions!
Originally uploaded by florspace.

Yaaaay! New NEW NEWWWW~~~~~!

LOL I got excited with these 2. I was having a very hot and bored shopping trip one day and when I found these 2, my eyes popped a la Homer Simpson! Don't mind me, I love Simpsons. I can recite their scripts backwards if need be!

Anyways, these are Japanese-Import, quilt-quality fabric. Utterly soft and gorgeous to hold, with amazing prints of white piggies on red and mushrooms(!!) on pink! 2007 is piggy year according to the chinese calendar so this one's dedicated to 2007!

They are all up on etsy right now in limited numbers so grab yourself a cute purse today! No reason not to! ;+)

p/s: florspace was mentioned in Wickedly Chic: Daily Ditties 15th July.

Retro Kitty Shorty Tote

Retro Kitty Shorty Tote
Originally uploaded by florspace.

Woohoo! Finally. *wipes sweat*

I didn't know if I really wanted to sell this. LOL I wanted to keep it coz its too darn cute. One of the cutest fabric combination I've done so far, even though I don't really wanna play favourites with my creations in case the rest gets jealous and I get in trouble. :+(

This tote is pure thick Sanrio Canvas, all the way from Hello Kitty Land, aka Japan, so quality is promised. I combined it with real red cotton straps, long enough to go on your shoulders. Japanese denim inside with a tiny bit playing peek-a-boo on top. Bottom's a really pretty aqua polka dots cotton. One patch pocket for your smaller items. :+)

The wallet's a similar breed, with ivory cotton on the inside and double red snaps and red zipper to keep things safe. 5 pockets, because we've got too much stuff. Actually I need one on the outside for subway cards so I designed it that way.

I know some of you guys know that I've bashed in my thumb in when I was hammering in the snaps a while ago for another batch of wallets. But I've gotta say, I really really love making wallets, because they always turn out soooooo cute! And I'm in a constant dilemma if I should sell them. LOL. Anyways, they don't come out too often because they take quite a bit more time to conjugate and produce. Besides, I can only do hammering in the day, you know. ^___^

p/s: I got sick of calling them "cute" wallets so when I was editing the photos, I realised they kinda look like little boxes, and they were very much squarish by themselves, hence the name "Cube Wallet" was born. True Story.

Today's sunset was gorgeous. I was rotting on the couch as usual after the evening briskwalk with mum, watching korean dramas and pigging out on tapioca chips my dad kindly brought back from Kuala Lumpur. I'm not usually the TV watching kind coz in my opinion, local dramas don't quite appeal to me. They are dripping of in-your-face propaganda which totally puts me off. I watch American TV mostly after 10pm when they come on. Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep again last night. Something's torturing me. I have trouble falling asleep and when I do, I wake at 3, then 4, then 5 before I gave up and head for the loo with a magazine. Thats one more quirky thing about me. I like reading in the loo a lot. In fact, you might say I like hiding in there. Its weird coz I'm slightly claustrophobic yet I like smaller enclosed spaces where I know every corner. I can't accept black holes. Thats when I get into trouble with DH. He's an extremely private person. Bad childhood, 'nuff said. So I have to bend myself backwards not to pry into every single tiny detail which usually drives both of us nuts. Sigh.

Some of you have kindly offered condolences and sweet words so I do thank you from the bottom of my fabric bin. :+) Its amazing how the virtual community mean more to me than real life. There are days when I plan to go out, take a breather and walk around, but I end up at home, crafting and using the net. Somehow it does guarantee a lot more joy than dealing with frowners and nasties out there. I do hope this doesn't become a problem in the long run. Maybe these days I enjoy being more of a wifey wife (DH calls me that!), being home and performing wifely duties. It does seem more meaningful to me, to make someone else's life better than being in the rat race when you'd prolly be replaced faster than you can say "I quit". Hmm.....I suspect I'm getting older! Thats what my mum like to say, that I'm too old for my age.

So ramblings, ramblings. What's next? I had these pattern fabrics cut out before I headed off in april so I managed to get working on them. What do they look like? Cute cube wallets of course! I only had 3 made coz they can be difficult, though a lot of joy. I'm still using the mushroom one I made! Anyways, I plan to trickle them on etsy. Though the Retro Hello Kitty one prolly won't coz they don't allow. Boo. (pssst! I have a tote to match that one)

Ok, I gotta go. Pray I'd have a good night.

Reality sinks in

My background plays "If I never knew you"...

I couldn't fall asleep yesterday. I don't know why but I had a funny feeling. I'm quite sensitive to the parallel dimension. I don't know if it exists, but I prolly won't wanna know. At that moment, I realised DH wasn't around. I called him in the middle of the night. We told me I could when I needed. Still I felt guilty. I manage to fall asleep unknowingly anyways and the day went by as usual.

This evening as I moved to unpack the last box of cargo sent back to me from my life back in Sydney, I felt this sinking feeling in my heart. That last box was a box of books. Our lives revolved around books when we were students, and it continues to remain that way, which makes opening that box really hard. I couldn't do it so I left it. Then I came back to the comp, and it hit me. I'm not in Sydney anymore, not in my old comfortable life with DH at my beck and call. I realised how much I've depended on him and his presence. My heart sank further that this is gonna be reality for the next 5 months til he comes back for Christmas. I'm alone, left alone to fend for myself. Its usually alright in the daytime but the hours get long and hard at night. Every sound is magnified and it naturally leads to creepy thoughts for me. Its hard to fall asleep, even with DH's placebo stuffed sheep toy with his voice in it for a couple of seconds. Its just different when I'm alone. To make myself go to sleep fast without uncessary thoughts, I work at the comp til late, til my eyelids can no longer stand on their own, would I crawl into the cold bed reluctantly.

I usually take about a "honeymoon" week to adjust, then I would realise certain things, or more to the point, certain reality, and start to loathe it. Its weird but after I met DH, its difficult to be alone again, even though there may be times when I miss me time.

I've got limitations

If you haven't heard, my paypal has been limited, actually since June 4th when they sent me a notification that someone has tried to break in. I wasn't really using it at that time but nonetheless annoying, especially now when I need to make transfers. I'm actually a bit confused on why would they limit the person's account when they suspect a break in, instead of looking for the culprit. I mean faxing documents and waiting for them to restore the thing is a serious pain the ass. It actually sucks, big time. I know that coz in the 10 years that I've used paypal, I've been limited twice. This is the 3rd time. There's virtually nothing to do except sitting on my ass and wait. (I also wanna say that I'm using them because I'm forced to and that they're a bunch of sleazebags who charge a shitload of money without giving decent service. So sue me.)

Apart from the above reason for the candid title of this post, I need to say this even when I've said it before, The Dumb Weather Is Too Darn HOT! Its not even bearable anymore! 35degC means we can't walk outdoors. My migraines hit 3 times as often, not to mention dehydration and stress-causing shingles on my back. And after a day of retail therapy, we're supposed to feel good about all that stuff swishing at the bottom of the bag, not feel utterly crappy, with urgent need for a good shower and heading for the airconditioned room. I know, I know, there's nothing I can do about the weather here except move. But that prolly won't happen for another couple of years. Being at home daytime is my perfect time for SSBs (Secret Single Behaviors), when I can have free time to live in my little quiet world, creating and thinking about new things to make. OK, I admit it right now, I caress my fabrics and smell them to feel good. There, I said it. :P

Anyways, today's shop loot include some seriously cool cram cream deco tapes, cute animal clips for my fabulous customers & of course, fabrics. ;+) And ps, I had brunch with the ladies. Ok, its Dim Sum with some family pple. Hearing them complaining about their lives and how rebellious kids are. I bet I can hear my mum's sighs of relief that her ordeal with me's over coz I've finally learnt to cherish time with them. We've all got parents and they won't be around forever, you know.

p/s: Apologies for not going to the PO as often as I should. Promise it all goes out tomorrow, hell or high water. I'm hungry, gonna go grab a burger.

My buttload of fabrics. This is like 1/4 of what I actually have? LOL

Happy Independence Day!

Florspace wishes everyone a Happy Independence Day!

This picture proves I wasn't slacking! Making the Minis was fun, taking pictures, editing and resizing them drives me up the wall coz its so monotonous. But they are almost all done now! Just a teaser sneak peek at whats to come! A Private Reserve Collection Part Deux is on the way, though in very limited numbers so save up your moolah! They are in those very coveted Japanese canvas & cottons, perfect for gift giving. But we all know you'll end up keeping it! I use a Mushroom wallet & several minis to keep organized and I keep getting asked where I got it! So now you know! ;+)

Actually I'm really really beat now. I might just microsleep and type nonsense so bear with me. I was up all night last night making Matchbox Drawers coz I was waaaaay too excited to keep it any longer and I couldn't find time to fit it in. Daytime is for scouring supplies & kawaii, posting stuff and picture taking. Night time is for cyberspace and general online administration. Where's the time for craft!? Like Barbara said, we need 30 more hours in a day for this already!

Oh I forgot to ask, does the chest look nice? We're doing a summer swap so I figure this might go well. Hot, summery, kinda sexy, though laid back and smells of the sea.

p/s: Angela got her birthday box and she liked them! *phew!* + I'm super duper excited about my ordered Re-Ment sets to come these couple of days!

Cute frenzy!

My dad's gonna kill me when he receives this month's credit card statement. I've spent an indecent amount of money on fabrics already and now this! I've been dying to collect them for a while but I didn't know what to do with them. Its utterly cute in theory but impractical in real life. Not anymore! I have my Blythe so I wanna make a kitsch kitchen diorama. This is the inspiration and this! How cool is that?!




Ok...besides hyperventilating about Re-Ments, I've mailed a whole bunch of things today including my girlfriend's birthday pressie, which I pray it'll arrive soon enough not to be indecently late. :P There's the Monogram plush made for her. Her name's Angela. I forgot to snap the back. Its really cute, with an X for the butt. hee!

Bought a bunch of tiny glass bottles, a gigantic pasta bottle for my origami tama (balls) coz I've no where to stick them, and 90 boxes of matches! Intended for the Matchbox Drawers but I've got to think about using the matches too. :P Hmm...I looked like I was gonna set fire to something with that many matches in hand. I had to get them coz the fatter drawer types are hard to come by. I'm not crazy about the slimmer ones. :+)

The fabulous Barbara has just started on her tutorial for the drawers so do pop in to learn how to make these cute and functional things! And she has a cute shop on etsy too! One very lovely patchwork bag in gorgeous fabrics is up in her shop for about a month now so do grab that if you love it! My lousy paypal account has been limited and I need to do some bozo faxing which is gonna take a while, if not, I would have grabbed that fab bag. :+(

I haven't been out much yet, plain busy with making a ton of minis for the shop! Lookie out! I'll be posting an email notice to everyone when it happens this weekend!


Minis in the making...



p/s: I know some pple have been hankering for deco tapes. This is what's available now, small ones are $2.50, large ones are $5, tiny ones are $1, before shipping! Let me know if you want some. :+)

Make Mushroom, Not War

Wooden Mushroom Guy!
Originally uploaded by craftsty.

How cute is this guy?! craftsty made this with just a wooden spool, a top cap and some paint! And she made some matchbox drawers too. I'm so excited about starting a Matchbox Drawers group on flickr so we can make those adorable drawers, fill them with goodies and send them as swaps or something. A collection of mini drawers sound too cool!

I managed to pack all the swaps and orders this afternoon so they're going to the post tomorrow, bright and early I hope. There was a blackout at 4am yesterday and it really freaked the hell out of me. I'm not good when alone in the dark. I sleep with a nightlight and radio on. I spent the remaining hours waiting for sunrise.

Its my best friend, Angela's birthday tomorrow so Happy birthday if you're reading! You get to be one year older earlier than I do! hehe But anyways, it'll be my turn soon. :P Hmm, instead of lamentations, I'm going to grow old gracefully. ^___^ Don't worry, your present's on the way.... I'll post a pic after coz I refuse to spoil the surprise!

Last but not least, let's make mushrooms, not war. My heart goes out to those in London. Take good care of yourselves!

Still a little lost, but a little found

I was sifting through my Sydney photos and I remembered asking DH to snap this at Military road. It was kinda sad to see it. I'm not too happy about being back here yet so this brings back the tears of having to leave. I've come to appreciate the quirks and cracks so leaving wasn't easy. Plus I won't get to see DH til the end of the year. I hope the poor child finds the teddy.

SHOP is now open! Its time to concentrate on my shop. I literally sewed up a storm today. I spent hours on stacks of Mini Zippereds for the coming launches. I won't say too much about it yet but there will be a sequel to the Private Reserves, restocks of favourites and a whole new bunch of great minis coming along too! Making them brings loads of joy and time seem to fly by so perhaps the pain of missing the life back in Sydney might go away soon too. The minis will trickle into the shop in the coming days so peek in if you're after something you don't see yet.

Today I managed to make a list of everyone who's shopped with me since my shop opened last year so that was quite a feat too! I swear my eyes felt like popping and my arms were falling out. But it'll make everything easier from now I hope. I rewarded myself with a warm mug of mushroom cheese soup. It cures most unpleasantries! Now I'd only need a hammock and a summer breeze...

Tomorrow I'm braving the crowds to go shop around a bit. Its rather terrifying how fast the population's growing here. Being agoraphobic isn't easy. How's everyone else's summer anyways?

Singapore is hot and lumpy

I'm back. Or not. I'm a bit confused actually. The turbulences of the BA pilots continues to rock my boat. Actually I've just got off the plane a couple of hours ago. Dad managed to pick up his new car so he picked me up.

To the fabulous bunch of people who were concerned about me and my bad experiences, Thank you so much you all. If the internet allowed hugs, I'll hug each one of you. Those sentiments mean so much to me, even just on screen. After that bad experience, everything went up from there. I met really nice people and visited suburbs, went to the great Jenolan Caves up in the Blue Mountains (DH insisted) and shopped a lot more. I'm actually having cargo sent back to me. How bad is that?! If anyone wants to know, my luggage on the plane was 27.4Kg. :P

The day before I was back, I came down with diarrhea and a bit of fever. It was kinda bad coz I wanted to spend time with DH and stuff. Anyways, I managed to get better and everything pretty much went well after. Its funny to say but I do miss Sydney a lot and to go on without DH for 5 months from now feels nothing but dread. However, he's got a post lecturing at the uni, our uni anyways, and for the 1st time in history, a BAhons is lecturing MA students. How cool is that?! Yeah, he's always the smart one. He's got 1st class hons and the school medal. p/s: I got nothing. LOL

I'm kinda tired from typing and crying all day so I'm gonna crash now and we'll see what happens from now. I hope I'll get better.....

Find the pink in grey

Ice-cream Truck!
Originally uploaded by florspace.

I thought I might have better things to say this week or so but one bad experience on Wednesday left me burned for quite a while...It must be told so I will relive it once more before I try to wipe it out of my system.

I was at Wynyard station in the evening with DH on our way home. When the train came, the door in front of us was damaged but I was kinda tired so DH realised it before I did so he rushed to the next entrance on the right so that he could get us a seat. I was left behind, following a lady into the same entrance when this potato-chip (Smith's, blue packaging) munching guy, clad in a grey stripe suit pushed me away, I tried to make my way ahead nonethesless, and guess what?! He ELBOWED me forcefully off the train! I was staring at him in disgust. Shocked and appalled, I didn't do anything except staring in disbelief. He muttered in disgust. I couldn't hear what he had to say amongst the noise and chip-munching. I ran up the upper deck of the train hoping to find DH. I related the incident in shock and disgust and boy was he mad. He wanted to get even but I told him not to.

In all my years in Sydney, about 5 now, the whites and the asians here had a mutual understanding that they hate each other. No offence to whoever's reading, its just how it looks to me. Its even easier for me to just say the whites hate us for invading their space. It doesn't matter how eloquent we may be in English, asians are mostly regarded as dumb country bumpkins. Its sad coz sometimes the opposite can be said of them. Yes we have to share our spaces but instead of being vehement about the asians being hardworking and thus, dare I say it, achieving more than others, shouldn't we all just strive for the good of ourselves and for the good of the earth instead? It starts to look extremely childish to me when we focus too much on the differences of class, race, gender, political leanings, whatever.

As I was pondering on such differences of "us" and "them", another incident happened yesterday that really knocked my socks off. I was at a Western Sydney suburb - Parramatta, kinda like a Western Sydney central with the slightly poorer and more Aussie-esque people. There's this fabulous museum of antiquities called Grandma Pickles to which we make our yearly pilgrimage to. It was gone this time. Disappointed but we had a Westfield Shopping Centre around so in we went. As I passed by this shop, an asian girl was trying to enter but the door alarm sounded. She tried again and it sounded again. Then I overheard a bunch of guys who walked by talking about the ASIAN girl trying to enter the store, causing the alarm, the other guy said, "yeah, maybe she stole something from the outside." The companions started laughing. Suffice to say I was amused by the whole thing and suddenly realised how marginalized the asians have become in this society.

No rights to vote, no rights to enter store, no rights to get on the train....

hell, no rights to even exist.

There's no more room for pink in the grey reality.

Disclaimer: Before you send me angry emails, I just wanna say that I personally don't give a rat's ass about differences. I'd love you even if you're black, white, yellow or pink, as long as you're nice, not naughty. That said, it just makes me sad that people care so much about skin color and to categorise and rate people that way. On the plus, I have met fabulous friends of all kinds, colors or lifestyle choices, united only by one quality - They're nice!

C'mon earth people, root for world peace!

Where's kawaii?

I heart my chicken schnitzel
Originally uploaded by florspace.

I admit, I'm still mildly bored being here. I want to do loads of things with my fabrics but can't at the moment. Feel like I'm stuck in a nicer version of hell. Where's the kawaii heaven I used to know for a while?

Granted, I have the cool weather all day and night like I've been yearning for, for a year but everything else seems to have wrenched away from me. No more kawaii things to find in the stores or stashed in my drawers somewhere, I feel kinda lost. Not to mention DH is rather busy and I've been looped into attending seminars and lectures at my uni because I "got caught" one day by my linguistics lecturer when I went by the uni. I was used to be known for a knowledge enthusiast, very keen to attend my linguistics and psychology classes, clocking in extra time and all, getting credits for being interested and making efforts. But now I simply feel exhausted having to go to any classes at all. Good in theory/paper. I can feel myself getting lazy in that sense but I spent 4 years in uni being inquisitive about the mysteries of life that I feel I wanna stop and be for a while. I answered many things about myself and my own perspective on life so it gets kinda boring when I have to go through that again. I think I'm kinda jaded in that sense and it takes quite a bit to shock me.

Anyways, I'm kinda stuck to shopping and consuming for now. The worst thing is, I used to be that way and the more I consume, the more I need to consume and it ultimately makes me feel empty, in every sense of that word. Well, except when I find my clothes getting snug and rings around my tum. Thats bad news, but what?

Bad stuff aside, I had a wonderful day at the Kirribilli Markets on Saturday. I bagged 4 vintage dresses, 1 glomesh wallet and one vintage suitcase in fab condition for next to nothing! And those were things I always look out for and never get! Pictures to come!

um, who said buying stuff didn't lead to happiness?

Oh, I did. Because we had to lug the stuff around town after that. :/

Noh performance and 28 weeks later

I went for a Noh performace/lecture by quite a famous performer, Sakae Terai, who was actually named an intangible national treasure by the Japanese government. Excuse my tiny explanation if you'd already know what it is. Noh, in my own humble little opinion is respectable for what its worth but it almost is a sure way to fall asleep since its extremely slow, with minimal tiny and deliberated movements by the actors. The songs could very well have been buddhists chants because we have no lyrics. The "music" consists of a bamboo flautist, and peppered with 2 drums, one big and small hit in various rhythm thats difficult to follow coz I realise that when I somehow managed to figure it out, I was in a micro sleep motion, embarassing to myself and others. For what its worth, it was a fabulous insight to what Noh actually was, with detailed explanations to the origins, songs, instruments, costumes, stages and masks. DH says that Noh was enjoyed by Japanese aristocrats a long time ago. I told him I preferred Kabuki and um, according to him, the latter was enjoyed by the 3rd estate. Nonetheless, we were exposed to a cultural experience we wouldn't have otherwise had the chance to, considerably rarer than Sado or Ikebana.

I watched 28 weeks later on Tuesday (cheap movie day!). It was nightfall when the movie ended and the weather was cold and unforgiving and it left me far more depressed when I already was about everything. I'd always loved zombie movies. DH and I were obsessed with watching them and collecting the DVDs, everything from Night of The Living Dead, which we believed was the first zombie-esque movies. I'm not sure if the 28 series belongs to the zombie category but I guess we can lump them in. 28 days later, the first installment begun with the guy who awoke to an empty city and albeit hopeless and bleak, there were uplifting moments of the supermarket shopping scene and finding the military, supposedly the savior. In the sequel however, it was just plain depressing throughout with mass destruction and torn families. Every shred of hope was gone the moment it is realised. The thing that was really eating into me was that the whole thing was so real and possible. I sympathize with Londen-ers since the whole scene was set there. I'd imagine its reminiscence of the Black Plague?

So, I'm about into the 4th week in Sydney. Truth be told, I still find the whole place kinda depressing (or maybe it was the movie?). I have no idea if I should be broadcasting this at all but it seems that this place is hit with all kinds of negativity which I suppose all other big cities gets, crime, kidnapping, lousy train system, bad-mouthing politicians and major corp people, crummy and ridiculously expensive food and essential supplies, general rudeness & obliviousness, smoking.... I could go on and on. Would it be the same to be living in New York or Paris?

Happiness is suddenly a quaint notion all over again....

Suitcases

this I love
Originally uploaded by girlhula.

Anyone can find me this?
You'd be my best friend forever! Not to mention loads of good stuff from my shop! Or you can ask for my 1st born. ;+)
They come in a stacking set of 3 I think....

Locked out

I'm not in the best of moods now. DH has just gone back home to meet the locksmith who supposedly's going to unlock the menace. The only time, only time I hadn't reminded him of "did you bring the keys" before the heavy fire-maindoor slammed and the silly DH forgot the keys. They were hanging at the noticeboard just beside his wallet and the door.

We were in a bit of a hurry this morning. Lindfield Craft Market. 3 words I won't be forgetting for a while. I grit my teeth as I write this. We woke early to catch the best, which was what we usually do for markets. Insert famous catchphrase here ("early bird catches the worm" ring a bell?) We went there bright and early, all dressed up, me in my layers - black skinny denim pants, red summer dot dress over and a blue denim jacket plus my swanky new Paul Frank wellies. I thought I'd commit the cardinal sin of wearing denim with denim; something I'd never do, but I figure the dress bought me a whole panel of seperation between the jacket and pants. Oh well. Arriving at Lindfield, DH assured me he'd checked the map and had it in his head, he even did a demeandering action of poking his temples. Men....*eye roll*

He lead the way, all over Lindfield but no market in sight. It was a quiet saturday morning with just a handful of people walking their dogs or off somewhere. It was horrible to be walking up and down hill all over the suburb, with no breakfast. My ankles and back were aching before we decided to give the whole thing up. No market, no breakfast and no hope. The only postitive thing worth mentioning was we got a walking tour of Lindfield and DH bothered to ask the people around if there was going to be a market today. The North Side Courier lied. They usually don't. In fact, the listing for this particular market didn't come with a calling number. The rest did. I guess I should've been more suspicious.

Dragging our tired cabosses, we arrived at Chatswood, inbetween our place and St Leonards and Lindfield, its a shopping town of food and salvation. Barely 2 bites into my breakfast of a 6-inch sub, DH asked if I had the key. Then all hells broke loose. The rest writes itself.

So here I am now, with my credit card abducted by DH ("I'll pay you later" he said), the only solace is to sit at this Everywhere Internet terminal furiously typing away. And yes, I've discovered that the the Everywhere Internet in the city demands a different account then the one here. Why the hell would they call this Everywhere Internet when its obviously isn't everywhere?!

I'm inclined to blame everyone, myself included for this lousy episode. What have we learnt today, boys and girls? Northside Courier and DH are not to be trusted. In fact, I'll like to add that most services & hell, everything in Sydney is not to be trusted. I must regard everything in suspicion from now on. What a tough life!

Augusto is coming...

For lack of a better title for this week's update. Couple of days ago, I told DH "Augusto is coming..." after Supahfunk sent me a flickrmail telling me Augusto is asking to be adopted by me. He was bewildered. Eyes wide open, he asked me curiously, "Uh, who is Augusto?". I was hoping he would think that its my new Spanish boy toy. LOL Eventually after bouts of supressed laughter, I showed him who Augusto was. I could tell he heaved a sigh of relief and smiled. I however, still look forward to Augusto coming. I'll let you know.



I was at North Sydney Markets on Saturday. Thats me with too-shiny-hair, wearing the brown beret from nimblefingers. She makes one of the best berets around, to your specific color & size, even for my um, super large head. You don't want to miss her.
Anyways, I had to drag DH out coz he was wacked out by a series of academic stuff that render his brain mushy for the weekends. I was glad to be there. This quiant little market happens only once a month, and its a great place for unearthing the great stuff. I found this Paul Frank tartan gum boot for A$15, condition new with tags. SOLD.


Apart from a myraid of interesting stuff, they also have great food. DH bought this plate of mini Dutch pancakes called Proffiterjes, correct me if I'm wrong. Warm mini panckes bathed in maple syrup and dusted with icing sugar plus strawberries on top. What could be better for a Saturday morning breakkie? YUM city, population ME! ;+)




I'd also caught sight of this gorgeous dandelion at the market after breakfast. I love them because they are so pretty, eternally round yet fragile and short-lived. I don't see them much in Singapore yet I've always known them them thru fairy tales, when you blew the petals off and you get 13, it'll be the witching hour. Hmm....I didn't blow this one though.


We stopped for starbucks in the afternoon. Yum rocky road crunch slice with Venti skim latte. Its already showing as another layer of fat on my tum. Its gonna be bad! Winter's the perfect season for hiding fatness but come swimsuit season, it'll be so much to cry for. No more skimpy yellow polka dot bikinis! :+(


Last but not least, I came home to find my ipod radio wrapped in the muffler I made. Looks like its getting cold...

Augusto Sit Down!

Augusto Sit Down!
Originally uploaded by supahfunk™.

He's my favourite softie yet!

I finally had some extra time to surf thru the Softie group on flickr and boy was I delighted! People are truly talented there. They've taken everyday things and turn them into totally ownable and squeezeable objects!

I can picture supahfunk saying, "Lyn, keep your hands away from Augusto!"

Everywhere Internet isn't everywhere....

Hey girls and boys...

here I am again! LOL I'd just came back from another mini battle with the Everywhere Internet guys. I had a username and password at the Chatswood outlet but apparently the city outlet doesn't recognise it. :+( I jumped from computer to computer thinking its the comp not working and in the end, had to waste another $5 to get a new account. Funny how things work here. I should've known though. Singapore's waaaaaaaay too efficient and we get so spoilt that everything should be working all the time. People here shrug when things don't work or when they simply have to go without. I remember the time when DH and I was at the Blue Mountains. It was winter, sun sets at 4 but we decided to be explorers and walked all over the mountain town. By the time we got to the train station, Katoomba, the trains had stopped. Excuses, tons of them were made by the train drivers that this train was going back and that train was ..... suffice to say that none of them wanted to take a train back to the city with a handful of passengers stranded at the quiet station. We were upset, tried to call and cab but none would come so basically we either had to wait and beg a driver to take a train to the city or find a motel for the night. Eventually we were taken back to the city, on the train. This would obviously not happen in Singapore but it is a very cosmopolitain city with cabs anywhere and everywhere anytime. I told DH, if we have to migrate, get a car already. Funny how we take for granted things for ourselves all the time.... especially being in Singapore when our asses get covered for us and um, even wiped. LOL

In the other news, I'm experiencing serious withdrawl symptons of not sewing, creating, packing, posting and all the other shop knick knacks. Jez louise, I am going nuts pretty soon! I keep hallucinating and um, thinking about sewing in my sleep. Before this, I spent everyday running around doing stuff so not being able to move as often feels "itchy". I am slightly agoraphobic as well so going out alone without some purpose feels pointless and um, naked. And, DH is kinda busy with his presentations and classes, I chose to mostly sit at home watching daytime TV like Dr. Phil and Oprah, Judge Judy even. Don't know if I should post about this. I'm kinda worried about my taste recently. LOL Yesterday I spent 4 hours uploading couple of sydney pics and food pics on my flickr. I might have more so keep checking! :+)

And the very very nice Ella sent me my Bag of Treats April swap which I received 2 days ago which really really cheered me up! Thanks Ella! She's a fabulous swapper! ^___^

Anyways, to keep sane and my more money from flying out my wallet, I bought some yarn to keep busy. I'm not entirely sure what will come out of them yet but I'll let you guys know! If anyone's doing fund raising, I'll be happy to donate my works. I'm pretty good at crochet. ;+) Though I prolly won't be selling any. I know you people prefer the cute fabrics. hehe

Ok, I'm gonna go before I start sprouting nonsense. (I had a creme brulee espresso)

I love you all! FREE HUGS! *hugs*

p/s: I just got a message from mum - her colon cancer check thing is CLEAR. *phew!* woohoo!

So lucky....

Well, I'm in Sydney! Sorry for not uploading any pics yet coz I'm actually using the internet at a public mall and there are no usb jacks on the station. :+( DH's internet is uh, dial-up, hopelessly slow and he's busy doing his presentations this week. No computer use for me at home. Boo. And I was too lazy to bring my own. The flight - I was actually proud to do a Jackie-O spin for my flight. Black trench, oversized glasses, skinny pants, brown balenciaga handcarry. Until I realised I forgot a good amount of things like my LOMO fisheye camera. Double boo.

Anyways, the flight was delayed, again and again. I met someone at Changi airport on another Qantas flight that was delayed too. See? Its not me anymore, its Qantas. I wanted SQ but it wasn't for me to choose. My budget did the math. It got delayed again in Adelaide during the connecting flight to sydney. It wasn't funny coz I was very tired and cranky. They changed my seat too, to make way for the 1st class passengers. They couldn't be in 1st class coz the door in first class won't open. Anyhoo, its a real stupid long story. I was rotting in Adelaide for 2 good hours when I could've reached sydney, or well, my place already. Quarantine was smooth for once and the nice china cab guy was nice too though the cab fare came up to be more than usual. Sigh.

THE SURPRISE. I told DH to stay home coz I needed him to "wait for something to be delivered". Well, I was late, so I guess he couldn't wait and he went out to get stuff before the shops close. I knocked on the door and nothing. Suffice to say I had to call him and told him to get his ass back. He thought it was some flower guy coz it was our anniversary and I used to send roses. His eyes, almost popped when he saw me! LOL It was priceless...best anniversary gift ever.

I went down to the city yesterday for a while, picked up some tops and walked all the way to the Circular Quay with a starbucks grande latte in hand, I felt warm and happy. I sat on the bench facing the opera house, watching life go by. A guy was singing and playing on his guitar some outback Australian tunes and with the sunset in the background, it couldn't have felt more real. It was so beautiful, so surreal. I was finally able to "be" for a while. I took time to watch the clouds go by, to watch a baby's reaction to its surrounds, the tunes to sink in and the birds to walk by....

Today's even better, shopping wise that is. DH is real busy these 2 days so I decide to make good of it going shopping. Guys are well, never really good at that and they get tired to easily and um, tend to drag us down, non? I found 2 black tailored pants, one black scooter mini dress and get this, a Stella McCartney Cashmere Bell coat! It was just hanging in the back and no one thought it exists anymore after that mad rush months ago. *phew!* Fits like a glove, feels like heaven and on discount too...what better way to end the day!

Stay tune for more! ;+)