Chinese New Year Memories: Nga Ku

When preparations for Chinese New Year comes around, there are always recurring things on the to-do list: cookies and tidbits for the onslaught of guests, spring-cleaning, and decorating to name a few. But one of the tasks demands planning ahead; that is, in order for it to step up onto the stage when the big day comes, it has to be dressed and rehearsed a good while before.

This task, which my parents are excellent directors of, is the planting and cultivating of the arrowhead plants. To green-thumbed aficionados and botanists, this plant is called the sagittaria latifolia, to most laymen over here on this side of the world it is called 'nga ku'. In order to plant them, one has to place bulbs into shallow water. According to my parents, the bulbs have to be placed in sunny areas until they began to sprout shoots, which is a sign that they need to be taken away from direct sunlight or the leaves burn.

What my sister and I are assigned to is 'dressing' the 'nga ku', which obviously occurs after the 'nga ku' has reached its optimum beauty (glossy, bright leaves and strong stems that insist on reaching for the stars). We pinch off itty-bitty bits of red paper, wind them around the stems of the 'nga ku' and glue them to place. The result is a gorgeous contrast of bright green and red, perfect for jazzing up a living room corner or as a centre piece on the dining table.

I think the sight of a pot of 'nga ku' all decked in its red finery is one of the nicest sights of Chinese New Year. And like how the pointed leaves represent growth and continuous improvement, I hope this year will be better than the last for everyone! :) Have a happy Monday.

2014

Happy 2014 everybody! The merry month of January has already passed us by, and I hope that it was a wonderful month for everyone! For my part, the first month of the year brought me more experience as an intern in an ad agency. There were fun times and there were hard times, so I guess I hit 2014 off well ;) .

The Lunar New Year of the Horse is in full swing and ye gods, has it been busy! I had a time of it; yearly visits from family friends and relatives, constant house cleaning, and snacking on yummy homemade cookies! Will upload photos soon, so do look out for them. I'm also in the midst of preparing some double happiness for the much missed Wallpaper Wednesdays. It's going to be absolutely peachy!

See you in the next post, friends! Have a groovy Saturday night.

Zesty Sudsy Saturday~!

Earlier this year my parents embarked on an epic Europe trip. Through the goodwill and love only parents have for their children, they returned with a bar of lemon soap for me, bought when they stopped in a Munich shopping centre. And it is by far the largest bar of soap I have ever owned. Seriously, compared to a Body Shop soap bar that weighs in at only 99g, this one is a whopping 135g. It's almost like holding a block of butter that happens to sud up when it comes into contact with water...and smells lemony. I suppose it's maybe because Europeans are just generally larger compared to Asians, and thus need larger soaps?

It tickles me that the soap is so big it can't fit in the soap dish, and just somehow balances precariously on. And when I accidentally dropped it I was surprised it did not crack the bathroom tiles XD. Despite its size the soap does not have an overpowering scent. Rather it is light and airy, so you leave the bathroom carrying just a whiff of lemon freshness about you :).

I think it's interesting how something so small could have such a big difference coming from the other side of the world. Just one of those little things that never cease to surprise. Happy Saturday, everyone!

Childhood Treasure: What A Doll!

Collected some goodies from my old place the other day, and I'd like to share this with all of you. My mother especially requested I brought back a few of her childhood trinkets. Among them was a 1950s/60s tin doll called Annie!

I find it incredible how my mother could actually preserve the box Annie came in, moving from one house to another when she was a child. Annie's dress is somewhat faded and spotty, and her hair has been sprayed into an unruly helmet (hairspray courtesy of my grandmother *ahem ahem* the things you used to do, mother), but on the whole she is absolutely perfect.

The best thing about Annie is that she serves tea! Plop her yellow teacup on her serving tray and she whirrs to life, moving and turning independently. Even better? She actually works, after all these years.

Happy Saturday everybody! :)

Let's Go To The Zoo!

 Early this year (during the long long semester break), I took a trip to the Melaka zoo with Esmond! The zoo just recently underwent a change of management (it was privatised after having being a government body), but honestly a lot of work still needs to be done. It was a quiet weekday when we went, and coincidentally the Chief Minister was there as well, due to a rather serious case that happened the day before. 

The zoo is the second largest in Malaysia, after the National Zoo. I found it a bit disappointing, though, because there were far more deer species than any other animal on exhibit. We didn't even see the flamingoes or the tigers D8. We did see a few large iguanas roaming the grounds freely, though. Large enough lizards to make us run screaming when they came too close. Haha. 

Here are some snapshots I took of the other animals! Photostyler is great for jazzing up the otherwise afternoon-sun-harsh-shadows.

Happy Monday! :)

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.

Blue Skies and Sunshine~!

Well, there hasn't been much of them these days. It's been cloudy and cool for the past week, but hey, what's there to complain about that? :D

Yes yes, I know I'm three freaking years behind time, but The Princess and The Frog is so pretty and colourful! I think it's one of my favourite Disney movies. And the songs are stuck in my freaking head. I hear it in my ears when I'm about to sleep and wake up to it in my head. Haha. And Mama Odie is so adorable! With her happy pet snake Juju. I have a soft spot for slightly crazy old women, yes XD. And New Orleans suddenly seems to be the most alive and romantic places of all time, by the way it was portrayed. Now if only Disney made a movie set in Malaysia...we'd be the top destination of the world. Haha.

cinemasquid

Last Sunday was the reunion of the beautiful and the crazy, literally (pun wholely intended). It was more or less a party, with presents, food, games and of course, camwhoring =P. But twas nice to be together again after all this while. It's almost as if we barely changed. I use the word barely, because some of us may just have gotten prettier (*pointstoself* 8D) and some of us may just have gotten a tad bit more narcissistic, but owh well. As long as we're all still together, right? =P

Anyway, I will be returning to the nowhere in a while more. This is my last week here, just so the world knows (not like you all care). It's been fun while it lasted, but I need to push the switch from 'holiday' back to 'hard work' so that I don't get back to class with the brain of a beached jellyfish XD. See you all soon!

Dear Momma

Big shoutout to all the hot sexy mommas! :D. The Google Doodle of the day is absolutely adorable! I love it when the two o's run out and glomp their g mother XDD.

I think everyone has heard their mother complain about how hard it is to be a mother at least once (at least being the key words. Because we all know for women saying something once is never EVER enough =P). Does the sentence 'when you become a mother/parent, you'll understand' sound familiar to you? But since it's obvious we're all not going to be parents anytime soon (touchwood), we shall take today as one of the gentle reminders of the single atomic force behind us all. For without this woman, where would we all be? 

I might not be able to be there in person with my mother today, but I hope everyone else will be able to! If you're not with your momma right now, why not write a letter to her? Or a note. And put it somewhere she will see. I'm going to put mine right here =).

"  Dear Momma, 

   Hello! I'm sorry I can't be there to wish you Happy Mother's Day and give you muaks muaks, but I hope that the father or sister will read this to you so that you can hear all the speeches I won't usually tell you in person =P, and then give you muaks muaks on my behalf.

Firstly, big big BIG thank you for ALL the things you've done for me! From conceiving me then pushing me out into the world, then it's a never-ending decrease of your savings to feed me and buy me clothes and books and toys and almost everything I want and need. I know a lot of times you must have sacrifice the things you wanted for yourself just so that you could buy me things when I asked. And although I don't say it enough, I do appreciate and know that!

Also for all your advice and comfort when I needed them! I think if I didn't have your advice and encouragement I would be a depressed homeless drug addict by now. Without your teaching (and nagging), I don't think I'd ever have the strength to face this world. It's true that you have made me what I am today! Maybe not ALL of it (credit to Dad too la, okay =P), but you helped to lay the foundation of ME! :D. Without you I would never have been able to write or draw or read the way I do, so THANK YOU for that!

I know there are a lot of times when you look at other mothers, and you wish that you could dance, or hang out or drive your daughters around and do crazy things with them. I know you feel very sad that you can't do all the normal things properly; we do too. But I want you to know that because you put in triple the effort to be our mother, that makes you the BEST and we LOVE you all the more for it! Don't push too hard or stress yourself out so much. You should relax more and know that we appreciate all that you have done for us.

To me you are the best mother the way you think your daughters are the best daughters in the whole world. And I would never want to have any other mother. Even if I was given the chance to choose again, I would choose you! And Dad too, of course. Because both of you together make the best parents for me! :D.

Love you and hope that you will have a very Happy Mother's Day!

Muaks muaks from your daughter,

Joanne a.k.a SK2, N2, P.P, BK, LKK, PPU, NK, NZK, 'Girl'.   "