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 :)

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!

Tiny bit of crafting emerging

Christmas is approaching so fast, and while I'm still totally living up my new life here (more on that later), I am beginning some work on christmas presents. This year I would love to focus on personalising items with embroidery. I bought some books on amazon for inspiration and am eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Embroidery Companion: Classic Designs for Modern Living. This book has some really gorgous designs which could be used to add just a touch of scandinavian charm to your favourite items. Usually I'm not that much of a fan of classical designs, but the ones in this book changed my mind, just a bit. I love a hint of colour and culture.

A Rainbow of Stitches. I love motifs and I love sewing them. For some reason, outlining something is relaxing after a day of work. I also think for people like my sister and friends, these designs would appeal to them more. I am looking forward to reading about how to design my own motifs and get better at sewing them (as usual with my crafting, I play with the medium on my own first then read about how it's actually done after, backwards I know).

Cant wait to get these books! On the other hand, I have nearly finished my first gift, a simple red tote with my own Dala Horse embroidered on the front. This Dala Horse is a bit different, slightly more animated than the traditional ;) I will post a photo when it's finished.

What's been keeping me busy atm? Lots of little things really, but most recently we had a massive launch party at work last night for the new department of our studio. Oktobor has existed for awhile but just yesterday they officially announced our department as Oktobor Animation, a studio partnership with Nickalodean! We met the people who started the successful tv animation giant, Nickalodean, and the people who created the Penguins of Madagascar series. Such big guns in the industry, but extremely nice and humble people. I feel really lucky to be here at this time.

Oh we also had Guy Fawkes Night a week ago, playing with fireworks for the first time. And my friend introduced Matt and I to a card game called 500, which has been extremely fun. So much to say though so maybe I'll get my act together and post more often. Talk soon!

Land of Hobbits and Narnians

Wow, it's been a long long time since I last posted, and a lot of things have happened since then.

First of all I have moved to Auckland, New Zealand! (hence the title). Matt and I got a job animating on the Penguins of Madagascar TV Series and within 2 weeks of our interview we were on the plane bound for the land of Hobbits and Narnians. There was a mad rush before we left (a dozen goodbyes and packing) and when we landed, to get ourselves set up here with rent, banks, phone, internet... yada yada. But after a month, I must say that I really love it here. Not only is the project super cool to work on (King Julien and the characters from the movie Madagascar? extremely fun!); the studio is awesome and extremely organised. There is tons of stuff to do around here and our friends, old and new, live so close we could do anything on a whim. Happy!

Auckland city

Needless to say I have been majorly distracted from crafting and thinking about it. But there are some projects brewing away in the back of my head and I really cant wait to get stuck into it again. I must say that christmas presents are a major priority for the next few months, and while I hope to start adding new items to my shop, I will need to make sure all the gifts I want to make are done first. Will be sharing with you my progress though! stay tuned :)

Ok, I'm about to pop out again, heard there was an Indian festival around here and I need to buy a Nerf gun to join in the battle at work(will explain later)! ta ta :)

Roman Headdress

My gosh! Look at this stunning piece of wearable art! Click here to see the listing on etsy. The artist wishes to work in the film industry, I shall have to remember her if ever I do meet a costume designer.

On another note, I think we're going to Singapore! Matt got a job at the studio Lucasfilm, and hopefully I'll be able to join him soon after. Singapore... lovely warm weather, sooo looking forward to that :D I guess we'll be on the move again soon (and I havent even finished unpacking), we are digital nomads for sure.

Brissie and Goldy at it's best.

So to continue the reflection of our week of fun with Nouche and Dan...


Wednesday - Marina Mirage, The Spit, Broadbeach and the Q1. Under the bright blue sky (in the middle of Brisbane winter), we showed our friends the beach, the surf, the marina, the casino and then we went into the sky (took the lift up the Q1, the highest residential building in the southern hemisphere) and saw the whole city at night. After being away for so long, Matt and I seriously appreciated this as much as Nouche and Dan. We miss this place.

These are photos from the top of the Q1


Thursday - Mt Tambourine and Harbourtown. We had a relaxing lunch, followed by a relaxing wander in the crafty Gallery Walk, and finally a relaxing, lazy wine and cheese tasting at a winery called AU (Aussie Vineyards). Then we went to our regular haunt, Harbourtown and did some direct factory outlet shopping and ate some seriously good dinner.

And here we are, walking outside the winery.

Friday - Industry meet in Brisbane City at the bar called Barsoma. Basically a group of creative industries people gathered to catch up, meet new people and make contacts. I recognized so many faces but I seriously had no idea where I met them or what their names were haha. Must be getting old...

Saturday - Well our friends had to go to meet other friends (yes, we must share hehe), so I attended a friend's birthday dinner and had awesome sushi. After some yummy sush and seeing my Brisbane friends again, we decided to get some tea at a very Taiwanese tea place. So good catching up with them.

Sunday - My babe's birthday!! We went to a very famous and our favourite seafood restaurant in Sanctuary Cove: Georges Paragon. Sitting in a beautifully decorated room, with Nouche, Dan, Paul and Brit, with the light streaming in and eating top quality seafood - you could not ask for a better day. My man was so happy and content :)



We were going to meet again today for a goodbye afternoon tea, but we all ended up too exhausted to do so (not surprising after such an amazing, but extremely packed week hehe). I hope Nouche and Dan enjoyed the week as much as we did! And I do hope we get a chance to catch up again before we all go jetting off to all parts of the world next month.

All pictures taken by Anouchka with her very cool new camera :) Oh, but I think the one with Matt and the dessert was taken by Dan.

I'm back!

Hello!.... hello hello......

It's been a very long, but busy two weeks; first with my move back to Brisbane and then with a week of fun (thanks to two friends who gave us to opportunity to show them around our hometown). The two weeks ended with a beautiful day, celebrating my dear Matt's birthday.

So as you would expect the move isnt that interesting, so I'll skip over that and talk about the week where we showed our Sydney friends (Anouchka and Dan) around Brisbane and the Gold Coast. They came up with the hopes of escaping the cold Sydney weather, and boy did they get it! The weather was perfect for much of the week, blue sky, warm sun and gorgeous views. Our friends declared that they 'Officially want to move to Queensland' haha, please do!

Go here to read about what we did...

Rainbow

A beautiful embroidered pillow by MeringueDesign. Check out more simple and bold designs in her etsy shop. I just love how effective simple shapes and colours can be.

On another note, I am thinking about moving my Crafting Movement blog back here. Having two blogs is a bit confusing, especially when they're both about the same thing; craft. We'll see what happens.

As for me going awol for awhile, sorry about that. I went back to Brisbane for a week to attend my cousin's wedding and also to catch up with my family and friends. It was a wonderful getaway, and just what I needed to get my focus back. Now I'm back ready to do more Animation Mentor, Crafting Movement and job search. And of course, I'll be posting more often. Got lots to show! Talk to you later :)

Anthropologie

Gorgeous flower necklaces (this one called Just Add Water)

Shadowed Vine scarf

Pictureshow Dress

Thank you Red Thread for alerting me to the fact that Anthropologie is now shipping to Australia! These are some of my favourite items and I am tempted to get the scarf!

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I had a really really wonderful weekend with my family and I miss them dearly now. We spent every day wandering the shops around Chapel Street and Melbourne Central, and also went for a nice long walk along the beach and looked at mussels in the swirls. The weather was interesting and pretty crazy, on Saturday while we were shopping in Chapel Street, a huge hailstorm decided to spice up our afternoon. We were in a little alleyway with cute little shops and so we ducked into the closest one for shelter. The hailstorm pelted the tin roof and it sounded like someone had set off firecrackers inside the tiny store. After the hail came a flood of rain and the street turned into a river, half the cars were swimming in water. The whole time I was worried about my work friends who were camping over that weekend (but I later found out that where they were, they didnt even have a storm, just a drizzle every now and then. Which is good). Ah, my sister and parents were having the time of their life, and while were did get a bit drenched and uncomfy, we were still in good spirits. Even when we found out that the trains had stopped running and the bus we took got stuck in some floodwater and shut down. I love my family and I can't wait to hang out with them again soon.

btw, the Early Morning picture has been claimed! When my mum saw it, she said that I should give it to my dad as a birthday present (which is coming up). So happy :) She was also very supportive and gave me tips on how to make this project better (and what sort of price I should look at selling them). So I will be getting the rest of my pieces framed soon and list them up on etsy.

Happy weekend!

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Chinese New Year everyone! What was your weekend like?

My Valentines Day and Chinese New Year was spent in Sydney. We went there to attend the Top Gear Live show, which was really exciting and filled with lots of explosions, lights and action. Jeremy Clarkson and James May were funny as ever and the Stig was there too. For someone who knows very little about cars, it was very entertaining. They had some races with vehicles made out of garden shed items (like a motorbike made out of two whipper snippers and I think part of a wheelbarrow), stunt driving which is always amazing, and a fire segment where they drove around on cars that were actually on fire. So much good fun, just as good as the tv show.

The rest of the weekend was pretty fun as well, though it rained the whole time which was a bit annoying. On Friday we arrived in Sydney and had a lovely dinner at the JAR restaurant (one of my favourite restaurants in Sydney). I had Chicken breasts stuffed with spinach and brie surrounded with yummy veges and drizzled with the most amazing dressing. drool....

Saturday we went for a wander around the city and Darling Harbour, and then had lunch at the Sydney Fish Markets (for about 20cm of really fresh salmon sashimi for $10, it's amazing value, definitely recommended). Then we went to the show and had dinner at Ichiban Boshi, comforting ramen.

On Sunday we met up with our dear friends from Sydney, I missed them so much. We met at Pancakes on the Rocks and caught up with their doings. Afterwards we headed to the Chinese New Year festival near Central station, sloshed around in the rain for a bit and then decided to get away from the muddiness and go to Chinatown. There I found a really great surprise (for my crafty side), I saw in one of the shops, some of the stamps I've been wanting to order, and they were cheaper too because there would be no currency conversion or shipping.



So happy, and so I bought two. Would have bought the whole lot, but that was when I realised I had used up the funds I put aside for my weekend. Oh well, really looking forward to using them tonight. Anyway, back to the weekend, we had lunch at a korean restaurant and then went to the airport to fly back home (which took a long time as the flight was delayed and there was trackwork for our journey home in Melbourne). All in all it was a wonderful weekend, made even better by the fact that I had finished my homework before I left. I shall share photos of the trip soon.

A new online marketplace called Madeit.com.au