Ryan & Christine's Wedding Guest Book

The book is making it's debut tonight for their wedding dinner. I kept the look simple and uncomplicated. I forgot to bring my camera so was using my camera phone to take these shot at work. My office roommate thought the book is for my wedding, nope, not my colours. I have a different idea for mine, providing I remember to do it.

The covers is a textured purple paper, with a big pink with gold trimmed organza bow that is both practical and decorative. And I dressed up the ribbon with paper flowers at the ends.

To open up the book the bow is untied and I added two tiny bunch of flowers with skinny purple bows just so the front won't look so empty. Roommate asked where I bought the tiny bunches and was amazed when I said I made them, it was a no brainer. Then we went into a discussions on how to look for inspirations, more of me doing the talking and she listening.

 
When the pages are turned, at every gutter is a pop up flower! I had to do that. And decorated the sheets with punched out flowers in the same paper that I used to make the pop ups. Sticking those down took ages and sticky fingers. The pages I used are perfumed light pink with roses on it.

A little glimpse of my table at work and that the guest book is a concertina. so tonight Ryan and Christine can just stretch the whole thing out on a table and people can write their well wishes without having to cue. And I supplied about eight pens in pink, purple and grey for the guests to use to write in.

After the function is over, they can stick in pictures of the dinner into the book as well on areas of the pages which aren't signed, so they can personalised it even more and whenever they look through the book, they can recall the happy moments of the night as they read the dedications that will be written in the book.

Congratulations Ryan and Christine, my wedding gift to both of you.

I ♥ Nik Kershaw & Some Other Stuff...

I only have one more weekend left until the whole wedding thing happening *eep*. Is everything prepared, I don't know. To catch those 'moment' shots, I don't know. Are my outfits even ready, I checked and was told they're not even sewn yet! Gee, that really helps with my anxiety level... Am I getting enough sleep, not really. It's one of those tossing and turning and tossing and turning and upset over things cos your mind is all confused and jumbled up with what's going on and unfinished dresses(!!) and trying to keep your cool and pretty much probably have stepped on some toes and you're upset you made them upset and this can go on but you get the picture.

So one night because of not being able to sleep, I was chatting online to a fellow book binder in Germany (Hi Sandra!) who is totally excited because she's going to catch A-Ha in concert, I bet you it's front row seats. I mentioned I've always love Nik Kershaw since I was a kid. He's so cute! And so spent the next few nights on YouTube watching his music videos. I'd like to share this one song of his with you all. The music video speaks to me, and the lyrics I love.

Just in case you can't see the video, go here. I got the chorus on repeat in my head alongside with 'Dancing Girls', quite fun seeing a bunch of senior ladies dancing.

My friend Sarah sent me a really nice text on my phone this morning, thanks Choo. It helps. My Soon-To-Be said something really sweet to me last weekend, it was very comforting and reassuring and solidified that we're meant to be on this journey.

I'm trying to finish the wedding guest book for a friend's wedding this weekend, for some reason I'm struggling with it. No worries Ryan and Christine, it will be in your hands before the day complete with glitter pens! And dammit I forgot to bring the glue.

I must be hormonal-ling since I'm having all these emotions at the same time, my period is late.

Anxiety.

Big time.

My New Studio Space

Yay! I found my camera cable! Found it this morning as I was clearing the work surfaces of the studio as the movers are going to move the last bits of the furniture today, the work benches and sofa bed. Those stuff are all on the floor now, will sort it out next few days. Never realised there were so much stuff...

I said a couple of weeks ago I'd show you the new studio at the new house I'm moving into. It's on the first floor and got windows all around. It was originally a balcony with double sliding doors. Then during one of the renovation the living room downstairs got extended and the balcony got turned into a spacious varandah. Then, when this whole getting married business came up and I said I'll move in there, we had the windows put up. By then it was already decided that'll be my studio space hence all the windows. Also because old studio only had one window and it was blocked up by my racks and I yearn for daylight. Now I have it all around!


These pictures are taken with me standing at the doorway. That's the neghbour's house on the left.

The table can seat 6 people to give you an idea of how big the space is. That tall building in front got the convienent store, tailor, photocopy place and car tires workshop.

The right is my favourite view, the trees! Also if you look out the window you could see the main road. You can't really see the house from the main road unless you know what to look out for. So cool! I'm planning that to be my painting corner.

I wonder if this space is big enough... and how it will be like once I've moved in and settled down. All of our stuff are currently downstairs in one of the spare rooms and my canvases spread around the house. I'm still debating on whether to have built in cupboards with work surfaces or just use the dismantable racks. I asked a friend who's an interior designer working in Singapore to help me design the space, and her dad's a contractor here so that's quite handy, only she won't be back for a while. I have to live with the space first and we'll see how it goes...

Now that all my stuff are in boxes, I won't be making anything for a while because if I start opening them up they'll be all over the place. For now it is safe that they stay in the boxes until after the wedding and honeymoon is all done and we settled into our life in the house. Then I'll take everything out and set up the studio!

Right now, I'm studio-less...

Oh So Pretty!

I've been saving this image to post up for a couple of weeks already, remember a couple of weeks back me going on about my wedding invites and all... How I went and cut up sheets of paper and folded and folded and outlined and got my relatives over armed with a pair of scissors each for a couple of nights... Well, you're looking at some 1200 pieces of red, white and grey what-the-heck-are-they. After everybody had left, these covered the whole dining table and Shazam! playing games where she'd plow through the pile, jumped off the table when I scolded her, jumps back on when I'm not watching and repeat. In between her messing about she was constantly changing the little hillocks. And this was a picture op not to be missed. Since the nearest thing was the phone, used that to take this shot. Then Shazam! jumbled it all up again. What a coincidence that the light caught that one piece and highlighted the heart shape just so. Happy accidents!

Mom spent the past couple of days labeling the envelopes for the invites, not to mention that there was a slight error with the naming (*koff* somebody got promoted *koff*) and had to do a re-labelling on all 600 invites. I don't know why we even have 600 invites, the place can only hold 600 people. But yes for those of you who happen to be in my FB contact would have noticed how my status was having a countdown to what was in the picture above.

More pictures to come, most likely next week, I still have offloading camera challenges.

End Of The Season

I have just done the last two classes today (Pictures whenever I offload my camera) Here are some interesting numbers regarding the classes I've been conducting...

• 22 classes I've had in total.
  
• 16 of them were Beginners Stab Binding Class.
  
• 3 were Intermediate/Advance Stab Binding Class.
  
• 3 were Long Stitch Binding Class.
  
• 63 students had learnt how to make a stab book.
  
• 3 students returned and did a refresher.
  
• 1 did the class three times.
  
• 3 students were male.
  
• 1 was a seven year old girl.
• 17 of them returned to learn how to make albums.
  
• 14 students learnt how to make a long stitch book.
  
• 4 were taught how to make the alternative version.
  
• 2 students never did the stab bound book but did the long stitch instead.
  
• 93 is the total nuumber of students that had sat in my class(es) and made books.
• 2 of the albums I've made I gave away.
  
• 1 were sold.
  
• 2 of the stab books were mailed off for a giveaway I had.
  
• 4 were sent to various friends overseas.
  
• 3 were used as payment for services from Wina (making the pin cushions and her assistance in the class)
  
• 1 were donated as a condolence book for everybody to sign.
  
• 20 bone folders were sold, I only have ten left and would need to get more I reckon.

Wina and I had a great time conducting the classes. A lot of preparation and thought went through each class...

• Refreshments - the cakes and yummies I've had for the classes were ordered a week in advance, some were picked up the night before and others were picked up that very morning before class. The table will be laid out the same day as the equipments.
  
• Equipments - the table were set up the night before or several days before even, equipments were cleaned, some replaced and laid out. The pots topped up.
  
• Kits - my rule of thumb is to make at least three times as many students I'll be having for that class. They are usually made several days in advance, if I'm really good I make enough for two or three classes in one go.
  
• Ambiance - we try to pick a nice instrumental music for the background, although during the time when Mama Mia was out, the sounds of Abba filled up the room. Oil burners were lit for the room and for the toilet, the scents we have used were sandlewood, ocean breeze and jasmine. Lit up extra tea lights in pretty tea light holders for the toilet.
  
• Wina - she assist me in setting up and getting the classes ready, tidying up removing the pieces that is not required by the students anymore and keeping the table tidy, ensuring each student have their glass of water constantly topped up, removing used plates and cups, help clean up after classes are over. Makes my life easier.
  
• Post Mortem - after every class, Wina and I sit down and discuss what went well, where we slipped up, what and where to improve, the energy of the class, what to order for the next class, discuss feedbacks from the students to incorporate for the next class.
  

What I've learnt from doing classes:

• To be very organised.
  
• Not everybody is logical in thinking.
  
• Patience.
  
• It did not make a dent in the amount of stuff I have.

It's a very rewarding experience, and it's fantastic to see the confidence level soar. Some had old myth of not being creative or artistic broken, most had their first time experience using a power tool (great fun!), some were forced into doing the class and come out in the end throughly enjoying it. It was important for me that everybody left feeling very pleased, that they enjoyed it and worth their while.

Time to rest... well, no not really, I have a wedding to prepare and several important orders I have to finish before the end of this month and move the rest of the studio over to the new place. At this rate that means... I can only rest in July! *sigh*

Painting While Depressed

Fire in My Soul

Here's a strange bit, I noticed that (after it was pointed out to me...) I only paint when I'm upset or depressed. Strange huh, pretty effective though, the ice cream is safe. And this painting came about when I was upset about something (can't remember what it was now) and needed to get that negative energy out of me. I didn't feel like painting my rose series (even though I have a dozen more to go...) plus I wanted to use up this tube of gold acrylic paint which was just too translucent. I must be angry since the background was flaming red and just slapped on the gold, quite like the effect the brush marks created. The gold seemed a bit flat for me still and to add on the fire effect I glitterized it. The painting is alive when you see it in real life how it shimmers and sparkles especially where the gold and red meets. One of my rare abstract pieces. Still not sure if it's finished, am thinking of using gold leaf on it to create more texture...

I also decided to make a twin for the painting where it is the opposite, dark, still and depressing. I started it, the base colours were down, it was just a matter of working more into it. But it was never finished, after that I was never depressed enough to paint. It's hard trying to paint depression when one is happy :-)