Mid-evening Daydream

There are some random moments in my life when I suddenly wish to have children, just so I can furnish their childhood with rich colours and finger painting and glitter and fun times. And even a beautiful, no-sew teepee so they can play games and read and enjoy life.

no sew teepee via the handmade home

And then I think: "hey, who needs kids? I wouldn't mind one of these for myself 8D"

Out of the blue...

I've been silent, silent, silent. The new semester has commenced, and I have to say things are being busy even before I can get my mind used to the idea. Soon enough I'll be so bored I'll blog 3 posts consecutively in a day. 

Anyway, Chinese New Year has come and gone, and it was a fairly fun one for me. How did yours go? Was it filled with red packets, red clothes, red decorations, and crazy big-booming firecrackers? Whatever it is, hope the Snake year 2013 will bring everyone much luck and love :). Cheerio~!

Clippy Clips!

I suppose one must get used to the idea that whatever you've thought of, there is probably something somewhere on the Internetz that shares a similarity with it. This idea of painting clothespins with nail enamel has been featured on many blogs in the past, but in the one fit of boredom that got me doing it, I really thought I'd hit on something very profound. Oh well, the feeling was nice while it lasted :P, and no prizes are given out or anything, so, yeah. Heehee.

Anyway, yes. I was in a fit of boredom before dinner yesterday, and unearthed old bottles of nail enamel and a box of mini clothespins. So of I went and painted a good number of them. I later used some pretty cool lace stickers on some plain ones (pictured up above). Finished the whole lot off with a coat of clear varnish apiece :).

It's been a cold day today, and yet for all the life in me I can't seem to be productive enough. I must strive to make use of the days of pleasure while they last! Hope everyone had a great Sunday!

Greetings From The Garden

Just a few shots of the flora and fauna of the new garden. Jasmine (the lizard) is always sunning itself about the garden. You can usually catch a glimpse of it sunbathing on the grass under the warm morning sunshine. The little froggy sat in a container of water plants, and its croak reverberated around the clay pot, sounding like a bull horn. The flowers are pretty, don't you think? Have a happy first week of February! :) .

Flagship From The Past...

Made a pretty string of buntings yesterday! I messed up the first time; the little triangles whizzed about independently on the line. I did it properly the next time, using vintage-ad inspired wrapping paper. I like looking at the companies and recognizing the names, and looking at where they stand now.

It matches the old girls on the postcards very well, albeit they are a bit monochromatic. Maybe I'll do something more fluorescent next time round :). Have a happy Toosday everybody!

Cork Board : Fish scales float my boat!

Ta-daaaa~!!! Check you out my gorjas corky cork boards :D.

I made only one grave mistake (and maybe a few little ones). I should have cut out each row of fish scales, and not just alternate rows. But what the heck, the end result still makes my heart flutter so it doesn't quite matter :P. 

I like fishy scales! Can't you tell? I will never get over my lost love for a certain pair of fishy shoes, never. My heart still bleeds when it's not fluttering over the nice-ness of my cork boards. 

Anyway, a lot of DIY tutorials I've looked at on customizing cork boards (or just painting repetitive patterns in general) called for stencils and/or templates. There aren't fancy things like stencils and/or templates here in Melaka, and anyway I was doing this with whatever I had on hand. So I stole got this fishy scale design from (shh!!) depositphotos. It didn't really matter if it was slightly pixelated or in black and white.

My cork boards were about A4-sized each, so I printed the designs out on normal A4 papers, then arranged them on the cork boards and taped them up. I then proceeded to cut the scales out with my happy knife, then stapled the makeshift stencil onto the boards and taped up the borders. I then mixed a mint green and pink (I wanted a more coral pink, but it turned out more cherry blossom. Still looked pretty though :D) in my cupcake-tin-palette and got straight to painting.

And when it all dried I decided to add one more last touch...

Gold paint! I dithered over stripes and dots, but in the end I decided I didn't want to overdo it and just went for a mock 'distressed' look. This I achieved by simply dabbing a corner of a dry rag and 'wiping' the gold paint onto the painted scales, removing any excess with another rag. I think the result came out just peachy :).

The edges of the boards were a bit flaky, so I painted some gloss varnish over them and it's worked a treat. Mounting it was easy: foam tape attached to the four corners of each, and aligned to the wall. Perfection!

Haven't quite pinned anything nice up, as I am still appreciating the shiny scales. But soon enough only a hint of sherbet and gold will peek from under the inspiration overload, I'm sure. For now I've just pinned up two postcards, bought from my uncle's antique shop. 

Did you notice just how lovely the glitter pushpins look on the board? Make some for yourself- or for a corky friend today!! :D.

Glittery Push Pins~!

I wanted to clean out my cupcake-tin-palette from the glitter animals, when I took one look at the leftover glitter and thought, 'I should use them for something if I'm too lazy to pour it back into the bottles...'. So I did exactly that.

I got a box of large-headed push pins, and slathered them with Modge Podge then spooned glitter liberally over them. I spread newspaper out on the lawn, then poked the pins through the paper before going over them all with clear lacquer spray. Easy, delightful, and perfect for your daily dose of glitter ;). These are going to look perfect on that cork board of mine, pictures of that coming real soon!

Happy Sunday everybody! Tis the last Sunday of January so go crazy! :D