Stamp Collector

How cool is this sticker calender? Perfect for stamp collectors :D I'm wondering who I could give this to. Find this and more cool stationary at Violet Gift Shop.

Stunning...

I am playing with a new Android phone application called Mobo Fashion, it's my way of looking for different sources for fashion inspiration. The first thing that popped up were these stunning heels by Alexander Mc Queen, wow! The petals are so delicate, I wonder if people wear it. I don't think I could, it would be a display piece for me, a work of art.

Looking forward to discovering more fashion with this app :) but I should probably head to bed now seeing as its 2am on a Wednesday night haha. Night!

Ethereal

Such a beautiful delicate pillow :) Find at TheHomeCentric on etsy.

Saturday Crafting

I spent much of today finishing (or partially finishing) my test bags. Partially finishing because I am still waiting on my order of magnetic snaps to arrive. But I'm still pretty happy to line them up and admire the colours. Really looking forward to trying out designs using some cool fabric I found on etsy, but tomorrow is a daytrip day to a winery region and I'm looking forward to that too. Yay to happy weekends :)

Feather

Hehe I know I already blogged about this shop, but I couldnt help posting another cute creation by iluxo, this time a lovely little necklace.

This weekend promises relatively lovely weather so Matt and I are going to try our luck and go for a daytrip to a winery region around here. New Zealand winter is pretty crazy with cold, rain, sun and wind all happening every single day (and changes minute by minute). I feel for the weather forecasters as they very nearly get every single prediction wrong. When my sister was here a few months ago she said the weather is 'throwing a tantrum' because one minute it'll be sunny and then it would be pouring rain. Oh well, so we've learnt to prepare a 'wishlist' and look out the window that day to see what the actual weather is like.

One thing for sure though is I am going to squeeze in some sewing, starting tonight. I am having fun making some journal clutch pouch with different designs and features. So much fun hehehe.

It rained overnight...

... and these huge mushrooms sprouted out of nowhere. Can mushrooms really grow so fast? We found them on the sidewalk on the way to work, and they are bigger than my hand. No idea if they're edible or safe, so I left them alone, we are in the CBD after all.

Pretty clock and happy folder

Oh my goodness, so want! Find on Etsy, made by iluxo. Can someone buy it for me please? hehehe

I was experimenting over the weekend using some new oriental flower fabric to make a journal clutch for my big A4 sized folder. I think it was a success, though I now know that going larger means straight lines are really really important, might work on smaller things in the future. I'm liking it, my folder looks stylish now, wherever it sits (and not boring plain plastic-y purple). The clutch holds my folder closed and keeps everything nice and neat. Happy.

On a random note, I did a presentation at work about my workflow in animation. I havent been that scared for a long time, public speaking is definitely not my thing. Even though I was really well prepared and it was something I already do, speaking in front of 50 odd people was so daunting. Anyway I'm really glad to have had it done and dusted, hope people learnt a few things too.

Making...

Wow, it's been a long time, but not a dull time at all for me. I've been real busy at work but over the weekends I've been trying my hands at baking bread, pizza bases, soups and sewing cute little things. Here are photos of my final products. So happy :)

Pizza bases made from scratch with yummy ham, capsicum and rocket topping

Chicken, leek and potato soup with bacon crisps

Jalapeno bread, made with my own two hands!

In this time away I also got a chance to go to Taiwan to attend my cousin's wedding. While there I picked up a bunch of colourful fabric. I intend to use them to make some cool Keyka Lou bags and covers. I made my first ever bag yesterday and I'm seriously proud of how my first sewing project turned out. I get the feeling that I may just get addicted and have to sell them off so I can make more! But they really are super cute, dont you think? Thanks Keyka Lou.


My Journal Clutch turned out kinda tiny. In fact it is so small it's perfect for my mobile phone, so I turned it into a phone case. The flower in the center though was a total fluke, and I'm really quite happy that I somehow positioned the flower right in the middle of the cover so it looks like a flower button. In the future, I might work out how to do it deliberately, nice.

Oh I forgot to mention the fabric used for my Journal Clutch was actually from an old dress I use to wear in summer. It's so nice to repurpose a favourite dress, continue the lovely memories from the summers back in Queensland. I shall be using my new fabric once I'm done practicing (after all, when I started sewing this clutch yesterday I was only confident in sewing straight lines, had no idea if I could even do curves at all, or sew multiple fabrics all at once haha).

Forest friends

Want to adopt this little cutie. Find at OddFauna on etsy.

Back detail

Why not give some attention to the back? Find more gorgeous designs at Anthropology.

Eggy breakfast bites

Saturday morning, feeling hungry but havent decided what to have for breakfast yet. I wanted something hot, eggy, tasty and filling. Something like a frittata but with a bit of crunch. So I went to my fridge, pulled out some ingredients and got to work. Here is my creation.


Ingredients
Filling:
20g Ham
2 Button mushroom
handful of Baby rocket
handful of Tasty cheese

1 Tortilla wrap
6 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Tear up or carefully cut the tortilla wrap to line a 12 hole muffin tin (slightly greased to prevent sticking). Torn bits create a rustic look and will crisp up during baking. Dont worry if there are holes, once baked the egg will hold everything together.

Cut mushroom and ham into small cubes. Divide into muffin tin, and top with cheese and baby rocket.

In a jug, lightly beat 6 eggs with milk and season to taste. Pour over filling.

Cover lightly with foil if rocket leaves are protruding, and bake in oven for 15-20mins (remove foil halfway through baking). Bake until the egg has set and risen slightly.

Pop onto plate and enjoy with a nice cup of coffee on the balcony :)

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This recipe is SO flexible, you could use anything you have in the fridge or pantry as the filling. Try with olives and sundried tomato. Swap out the rocket with some baby spinach. You could also precook the mushroom with some onion and sausages and then fill the muffin tin. If you're after a cheesy topping, add the cheese last. I think I might try some salmon flakes next time, or baked beans. Have some fun and enjoy your lovely baked breakfast.

nom

Dance with dots

I love this look. The skirt is so cute, especially the socks with the shoes. Find at Asian iCandy. If only I was less afraid of the cold. I'd wear this out right now :)

Cute shorts.

Anthropology email. These shorts are cute!

Sisters Together

Waiheke Island, Rangitoto Island and Parnell French Market are some of the things we did together. These were taken on the weekends, we had a lot of fun during the week as well making dinner together and having fun at our workplace. One of my favourite moments were climbing Rangitoto Island which is a dormant volcano and finding acorns on the way. I've never seen a real live acorn before and my sister and I were both ecstatic about finding them. We are both fans of My Neighbour Totoro and their donguri (Japanese for acorn).

I miss her, but I shall see my little sister again in a month and so I can look forward to that :)

Soap Dish

I've been a busy bee, but a happy little bee. Last week my sister came over to visit me! It was so SO good to see her. We went to quite a few places around Auckland and I will show you pictures in my next post. Because she came for a whole week (and I wish it could have been longer), I had to make up some time this week to keep up with my workload at work. It's worth it though, we had so much fun together and now I miss my Mei Mei (chinese for little sister). Photos coming soon....

In the meantime I want to show you this picture.

While cleaning our apartment before my sister's arrival, I grabbed a icecream container lid (with a nice lable) and put our soap on it. I later cut a little wedge on the bottom to allow drainage. It's quite nice isn't it? Love the fact that I can reuse the lid in this way and have it take center stage.

Creatures

Look carefully, this fox is made from a map! How very very cool :D Find more creatures at laferrera on Etsy :)

This weekend my sister will be visiting!! Yay! I miss her a lot and really look forward to hanging out with her. This does mean my sewing plans are put on hold, though to be honest it's not moving very much atm hehe. I'm still hoping to create something in time for winter. Something cosy, cute and warm.

Simplicity

The beautiful clean work by Bookhouathome. Would proudly carry this bag around :D

Colourful Koi

These are amazing. I'm trying to figure out how this is even possible with a single sheet of flat paper... Check out more amazing origami at MABONAORIGAMI

For a good cause

Two things have been on my mind a lot lately, tsunami and baking. Totally different things, but together... we can start something and that is what we did. I was inspired by how well our food was received at work after our bake off, and that night I was motivated by the stories coming from tsunami ravaged Japan. The next day I decided it was high time to hold a bake sale at work.

I gathered a group of 6 bakers and we each baked a couple of our favourite things. Over the weekend my friend Kate once again invited Carla and I over to make our goodies in her well stocked kitchen :) Gosh was it a busy day! From 11am till 7pm we were baking non stop. We made cake pops, hedgehogs, lemon slice, savory cookies and chocolate cupcakes. I left at 7pm, went home and kept going, had to finish off icing the cupcakes and baking the rest of the cookies. Finished at midnight.

Today, the big day... well, how about I tell this part in pictures :)









We made $630.20 all in one happy, tasty and sharing day. All for the people of Japan. My colleagues are just the most generous people :) So so happy, and definitely worth it! Japan, this is all for you.

PS: the last photo is of the 5 bakers we managed to gather for a photo. We are missing Carla, the cake pop queen, and also the wife of our HR person.

Edibles

Cutest little cupcake toppers made by Andiespecialitysweets on etsy.

In other news, my friends and I had out little bakeoff. To be honest we probably should do another one to fund raise for the Japanese Tsunami. But anyway, we had a lot of fun baking 3 different types of cookies (chocolate chip/m&ms, peanut butter and jalapenos and cheddar cookies), a cheesecake and Bakerella cake balls. Sooo many goodies. We got so tired by the end of it all. Anyway here are some photos.

Jalapenos and Cheddar cookies found on Design*sponge. They were a huge hit! A few who tried them on saturday kept asking me today if there were any left.

My friend's Peanut Butter Cookie. I ate half already...

And the cake balls made by following Bakerella's famous recipe :D Though maybe not exactly, ours wasnt red velvet cake.

Dear Japan

we are thinking of you. Such devastation with an 8.9 earthquake + tsunami... it very very hard to not feel the pain and be horrified by the imagery. Please, stay safe and hold on.

With such terrible news, I thought I'd post a relatively beautiful image/item I found on Snapcrafty. To me, what the world now needs the most is hope. We need to hold on to hope and fight to stay positive, remember the beauty of the planet and keep going with our lives. We are being tested and so we must be strong.

Relief fund for those affected, at Redcross

If you have facebook take some time to read about the touching, humbling and charitable side of Japan and of human nature. These were taken off twitter where Japanese people are posting events they witness post tsunami. It brings a tear to my eye reading how kind and amazingly calm these people are. Japan, you have shown the world the most beautiful side of humanity.

Cuuute!

ooh! How cute is this?? Find at Mariska on Etsy

Save

I was looking at my spending the other day and realized that with my happy new lifestyle of socializing and going out, I spend a lot on lots of little random things. Ah yes, you know the usual 'yeah, why not have a coffee' or 'hm... this might be useful'. Not that I've spent lots on big stuff, just little things like coffee and cake, fancy brand food, drinks at the bar, clothes... things that you grab on a whim. So, with my sister possibly coming to visit, I have decided to rein it in for a month (or two) and be conscious of what I actually need. Save it for something big! like a trip somewhere.

Hanging out with friends and going places wont be put on hold though. No way! To me that is worth it, but say I went to catch up with friends after work, I wont be ordering dinner with drinks. I'll just get a drink and go home for dinner. Or if we go somewhere on a weekend trip, I wont buy a bottle of organic fancy olive oil just because I've visited and I'm inspired haha (this I have done on my trip to Waiheke).

Lets see if this works.

ps: the coffee above is a success moment this week. We have a cafe style coffee machine at work and so a friend and I have been trying to teach ourselves how to do the 'coffee pictures' you see at cafes. After weeks and weeks of trying I finally did one! (my friend got it ages ago haha, he's trying to do a phoenix he saw someone do). Mine was almost an accidental success, I wasnt really trying and it worked. Truth be told I couldn't replicate it the next day, I did do an apple shaped one though....

Rainy Afternoon

Today is Saturday and it's raining outside.

I'm snuggled up next to a window
all comfy
with some sewing
tea
and watching a cooking show called Poh's Kitchen.

So good!

A few nights ago, I spent some time drawing fairies. You should have seen my boyfriend's face when I said 'I was drawing fairies while watching tv' (he gave me a are-you-really-27 look haha). Anyway, I have since transferred it to some calico and begun embroidering today. I am hoping to create something to help me with my goal to stay warm this winter.

Back to it. Yay :)

Oh, and next week a few friends and I are going to have a cookie bake off! I will be making our favourite chocolate chip cookies since a few colleagues have been hounding me for some for a few days now. But I just remembered about a savory cookie recipe I saw on Design*Sponge. Jalapeno and cheddar cookie! After all those sweet cookies (we'll be making peanut butter and 2 types of chocolate chip cookies), I reckon we might need something savory to balance things out :)

Mmm... yummy felted wool.

ThreeSheepStudio Dyed and felted wool.

Now, what could I do with these?? :D

Shoes...

I may be the only female on the planet to have a lazy habit with shoes. I just dont wear the right shoes 90% of the times and therefore my look is never complete. My main excuse is, it's so expensive. Especially ones that wont rip your feet to pieces (which a lot of shoes have done). But I do need new shoes and so I am drooling over these ones on Forever 21.

The little nooks of Auckland.

Maybe it's because we live in the CBD, or because we have to walk everywhere, or our friends are so close by, but.... living in Auckland has introduced us to a new lifestyle. We did go out when we lived in other cities, but this time, we actually made a point to go somewhere new every week or two. I'm liking this :D So here are some places I've visited the last two weeks. Beware, most of it's food haha.

Japanese food with a difference. This is Industry Zen near the Viaduct (recommended by our friend Angel). Really good fresh food and served in the most amazing collection of plates. The restaurant itself was gorgeously decorated with all things traditional Japanese. Perfect place for our Valentines Day.


The lantern festival marking the end of Chinese New Year. This has got to be the second most crowded place I've ever been. We think all of Auckland turned up. Aside from the crowd, the lanterns were absolutely magical. Maybe that's why there is so many people.


The Chocolate Boutique in Parnell. Perfect for a sweet afternoon catching up with a friend. Parnell is a street just outside of the CBD with lots of cute little boutique craft and fashion stores. This shop sells chocolate (of course) but also serves really wonderful desserts. I had an amazing sticky date pudding, as well as a hot chocolate with a chocolate marshmellow fish in it, cute! Needless to say I had a bit of a sugar headache after, need to take it easy next time haha.
If you are in Auckland, I highly recommend these places! Already planning second visits.

I must mention the terrible news which happened this week. Christchurch (biggest city on the south island) has been hit with a huge 6.3 magnitude earthquake and the iconic Christchurch Cathedral has been destroyed. The news update (right now) said that at least 1/3 of the CBD will need to be demolished and the death toll has hit 147 with more still missing. It really saddens me to hear how devastating this event is. Please donate to the New Zealand Red Cross and help as much as you can!