Cause And Effect, My Condolences

Left: Front runner Lee heading back towards a hash site in March

Because of one action, it causes a whole load of chain reaction. One of the ladies in my hash group had passed away this evening. She was a victim of a hit and run. Mrs Lee Jefford was riding her bicycle with a friend and fellow hasher when a red lexus hit and knocked her down. The driver of the car sped off leaving the scene. It happened in the morning. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition where she was fighting for her life the second time, the first was battling against cancer I was told.

Her husband, her children, her parents, her friends are mourning for her loss. People who loved and cared for her, and those that she loved and cared for, snatched away without a chance to say goodbye. 

Lee was also a therapist, she was suppose to start therapy tomorrow with a friend's son, she could have helped him. It could have changed the boy's life and the family's life. But we won't know now would we.

I met Lee when I joined the ladies hash, she was one of the fast ones and would always be the first ones out at the sound of the horn and the first ones back still looking fresh as a daisy. My heart goes out to her and the family she left behind. May she rest in peace.

The Paper Trip That Never Was

It started off like this... A friend said that she and her aunt are going to go to the Philippines to source for some items for a shop the aunt was planning on setting up, paper and ribbons. The items were right up my street and I figured, hey, I've never been there, I'll come too, thinking I could pick up some nice paper along the way. So, here are some images that struck me, although one or two is missing that I feel I should've included them in but I couldn't be bothered at this point in time...

This was the hotel where we stayed at in the Philippines, near a place called Green Hills which has a pretty good shopping area which I quite like, and a big supermarket too.

This was the balcony to the room at the hotel. Pretty nice set up I must say. I spent every night sitting outside reading and listening to the night sounds because...

...right behind the hotel was a shanty town of a sort. Half built buildings and homes pieced together like jigsaw puzzles. The blue roof on the left, the guy was just painting it when I took this shot. The building on the right, it has holes for doors and windows but there are no actual doors or windows in those holes, yet people were living in it. I was watching people doing their everyday life.

I was already tucking into this yummilicious blueberry pancake when I remembered I wanted to take a shot of it. This was considered small. I could only eat half. It was a place called Flapjacks where we went for breakfast, that was about half nine or tennish and I wondered why there were still lots of people at the tables. And that's when I realised the big chasm of the affluent and the poor in Philippines. They could afford to lounge around and yak all day.

Behind where I was sitting at Flapjacks was this. Just this little bit made me think that I was in the USA. Look how loud that police car is.

One of the many places where we went to eat, this has to be my favourite interior. I love the display area at the end of the wall, the oval tray like mirrors on the wall, and the general ambiance of the place. This restaurant was serving local dishes and I liked the bangus spring rolls, it's fish.

On the menu was bottomless ice tea and I don't know why but it taste really nice over there and I kept on asking for refills. Worth the money. Oh, we also went to a buffet at a place which was famous for where over 50 dishes were available. It was most interesting, they gave away hand puppets whenever you order a drink.

When I saw this guy, I thought it was really cute. It reminded me of a sculpture I did of an elephant with wings. When I had a closer look it was actually a teapot with a mustache, wings and an old style aviation helmet and goggles. I took back cute and replaced it with quirky.

This is us, Auntie Linda, Elaine and me. We stopped at the flying teapot for a rest and quick drink from all the shoppings and having checked out the many shopping malls. In the end, we still liked to shop at Green Hills area, plus the open market was there and I picked up quite a bit of stuff there too. Great bargains in my book.

On our last day we stayed around the hotel area as our flight was in the evening. I spent the day wandering around and came across this fantastic book store. It has all the pop up books I always wanted and several other books like this one. I want this book. Unfortunately, I had already spent the budget I set aside for the trip and I don't think my luggage can take anymore. So this book is on my wish list. I take pictures of books I want including the ISBN number so I can look it up in future.

Did I come back with paper? A few, but those were picked up from stationary stores and gift shops. Would I go again, I would and this time do the tourist thing and check out attractions. It's really affordable, easy to move around, communication no problem since they speak english anyway... I wonder if it's because we were in the city... I'm still reeling from the knowledge of the big divide of classes... Most of all what I didn't know was, according to future-to-be father-in-law, I should've picked up book binding tools there because they are big on hand made books. Damn it!! I wished I knew...

Corset Binding Stab Album & Hair... Hair?!

Here's a detailed shot of the binding that I've been teaching in the Stab Binding Intermediate Class. It's a very sexy binding I must admit, kinda look slightly raunchy. I'm not sure if you can say that about a binding...

Here's another detailed shot of the ribbon bow that secures the album. It acts as a practical and a decorative feature. That's what I've been teaching the students as well.

Where is this album now, I gave it to my wedding hairdresser because he is a nice guy and he did a fantastic job trying out different hairstyles for me for the wedding, all I have to do was sit there. Almost all my cousins goes to him and my mom and sister got converted to go to his place for their haircuts and are now regular customers.

Wait til you see my wedding hairdo, so cool! I can't wait! Woo hoo!

A Surprise Birthday Party

My fiance got smarter this year. He was all prepared to not get sprung on like what happened to him last year on his birthday. So I have to be even smarter. I planned it a month plus in advance, I organised getting his friends together for that day, and it was held a couple of days before his actual birthday. Was he surprised, totally.

I made these stencils to go for the chocolate pudding, he likes this particular Superman logo, it's from the Kingdom Come series if you're wondering. You'll see later how that turned out.

This was the present that he got that night, I had to make the paper bag because it was the best way to wrap up this particular present.

Here are the rest of his presents, I wrapped them up individually and gave one a day leading up to his birthday.

Here's us with the cake I specially ordered for him, a bit of a drama happened getting this cake and everything turned out fine in the end. Phew. I so love the girl who made this, she is the bomb! All I said to her was Superman and teddy bear, and I left her to it.

Check out the detail on the bear. Look at that logo. So cute and perfect! I chose not to have any wordings for the cake and asked for the bear to hold a present instead.

I was fiddling around with the cake and moved the present and aaahhh!! He's wearing the red underwear and a belt! You couldn't see this detail earlier on because the bear got a cape on and hidden by the present. I love her attention to details I tell you. All you people who live locally and want to get your hands on this, go to Sugarush.biz, and you will deal with a very sweet person. The super teddy was saved and is now in an air tight container in the fridge, the rest of the cake was demolished, a yummy chocolate fudgy cake.

Here's the crowd, we came in last and everybody sang happy birthday to him, that's about almost 30 people in this room. Wished I saw his expression though, he was stunned and that managed to pull a fast one on him. Although that day there were danger of it being leaked when people were asking him if the dinner was that night, of course he had no clue what they were referring to...

Remember the stencils in the beginning, this is what they're for. Superman themed chocolate pudding! Out of all the chocolate puddings I tasted, they have the best. Johanes was such a dear preparing the menu and making sure everything was done properly. That's why I like going there, and the food is good too. Villa Mauri, go, say hi to Johanes.

While we were enjoying the yummy dessert, Dr Phillip was regaling us with his saxophone playing a couple of renditions for us. Some guests from the restaurant sat in to listen to him play.

He got two cakes that night. The second one came out after the chocolate pudding and more birthday singing. Everyone had a good time, the food, the crowd, the atmosphere, the service, it went as planned. Now I have to think up a plan for next year.

Off To The Post/Mail With You

Here are, or were, a bunch of books that was sent to various people around the world. Since this posting was late I can say everybody that those parcels were addressed to have received them... With the exception of that one at the bottom. I haven't heard if she gotten it already.

Doda was the lucky recipient of this parcel. She won a book, and I threw in another book and a bunch of other stuff... more little books, materials, threads, lots of hearts... I wrapped everything up and she was over the moon when she opened it up. Grabbed this image from her blog, this was how it looked when she opened it up. I was impressed that nothing moved because that was how I packed them. But it did take a while before she got it. Made her day when  it arrived it did. Happy happy joy joy!

Moving The Studio...

I am on two weeks vacation! Well, no not really. I just took time out from work so I can move the studio from my old place to my new place. Maybe I should get a before and after picture yeah, must look for pictures of old studio, I know I have it somewhere... What I love about new studio, the windows. Lots and lots of windows! Old studio got one window, but it's totally blocked up by my shelving racks so that doesn't count. Ok, gimme a few days, I'll put up pictures next week, promise.

The Invite Card - rambling rambling...

I'm designing my wedding invites, it's more or less done. Just need to talk to the printers and look for the right paper. I'm going to fold and cut up 500 pieces of flowers. Between me, my cousin and several other people, it is possible. I just need to find the right paper, cut up into squares and fold them up into triangles.

Mom has been reminding me to keep the card simple. Just make it a regular card she said. No need for the fancy shmancy pop up she said. I'm not going to make a fancy shmancy pop up. Even I know I don't have the power to make a fancy shmancy pop up in the time that is left. My cottage factory only exist when the need arises and even then they can only do so much.

I made several mock ups. The first one, I was like, yeah, this is it. Simple, nothing to it. That was the inside, open up the card and a heart pops out, text all laid out on either side. Then I did the outer part of the card, family list, cover. Thought I was being clever with the rounding off one end of the rectangle. Then I stepped back and realised it looked like a giant silhouette of a tampon

Scratch that.

Fortunately, the fiance's invites were already done. They were lucky, the place where they're having the do is packaged with the invitations. I like the typeface it had. I went back to mine and rid of the fancy shmancy curly type I had earlier, it was just messy as there was so much text to fit in. The malay language just have too much protocol.

Following the steps of the other half I did a simple layout with an overhead fold (A4 folded in half). Arranged the text to one side leaving space for the flower. Made a mock up and it worked. There's an empty space at the top left corner and I don't know if it's something I should fill in...

I tested out the mock up and my subject, aka sister, was suitably impressed. Hence, the plan will continue. Meeting printers next week, in the mean time, will look for suitable paper for flowers. It has to be red, as the card will be on pearliest white with black print. I shall live up to my motto, make do with what's available locally and maximise on it.

There are also mini invites for the other two functions, since those will be in a smaller run, I feel that it's easier to print them out myself. And it's designed smaller still, it'll be on an A6 format. So 100 pcs = 25 print outs... (4 per sheet of A4).

and the other one 50 pcs = 13 print outs on A4.

I just need to buy a pack of scented rose print on white for about... how much did I buy for a pack of 100... less than 40 bucks that's for sure.

If I buy them 40 cents per sheet that's... 25 + 13 = 38... multiply that by 0.4 = 15.20 bucks... oh, much much cheaper... if I buy stack, I could always use the rest for other projects... will have to think about that one.

Still have to factor in how much the printing of cards is going to cost at printers and how much the sheets of red paper is going to be. I'm aiming wrapping paper, that'll be about a dollar per sheet at the most. Just need to know how many squares I can get out of a sheet. A ballpark figure of maybe 12 squares at a dollar per sheet will give me.... 40 bucks! That's a lot to spend on wrapping papers...

And if the printers are going to charge me say, $1.50 per card that's another $750 for 500 invites. Shit that's expensive... work out each invite is going to cost $1.58. And if it's the one with the extra invites that'll be $1.78. When you break it down to unit cost that's cheap.

But I haven't factored in the, will we be using envelopes? Are the envelopes thrown into the price or is that an additional price? The pizza to be ordered for the flower making crew and assembly? And the glue used for assembly, not counting time and effort put in... My cousin and I have been brain storming this, when it comes to the planning and doing, she and I are gold.

I think I can keep it well below $800.

Must take pictures of mock ups and final pieces when ready... if I remember to charge up my camera.

This is going to be fun

I'm curious, how much did your invitation cards cost?

Oh gosh, I just remembered, I have to do 50 handmade invites for a friend's wedding!  

they changed their mind, they want a guest book now...