Make a Hat carry-on

Lovely long weekend here in SG, and the weather was perfect! SG's warm, humid and sunny days are for summery hats. But I rarely bring a hat out with Me because my cute straw hats are such a hassle to take around. I prefer the straw hats to the soft cloth kinds just because they look so much prettier, haha.

Well, hats are not just adorable, stylish or cool accessories, they're extremely useful in the blazing heat ( that is common here in SG). They shade you from the rays, and protect your head from heat burn. And now I've found a quick and so easy solution to carrying my hat around! I have a few straw hats that I usually don't use because they are too big to be kept in my totes or purses, but now I've got the perfect and cutest solution! I'm so psyched by it and it puzzles me why this was never thought of before! OK so I've not tried looking up on the web for it, who knows another crafty blogger might have beaten me to it, but never mind! I'm sharing my idea here!!!

My cute straw hat

So the prototype was really basic, I snipped a small hole on the inside lining of my straw hat and tied a Long ribbon through it. Then tie the ribbon that is attached to the hat, to a loop or handle or anywhere you can string the ribbon to on your bag. See below, so easy! And there you have your hat attached to your handbag and you can go out with it slinging on your bag without any hassle! And just untie it and wear the hat when you're in the sun! Soo easy right?

I was so pleased with this idea that I decided to make it far more durable. So this what you'll need to make a hat carry-on loop for yourself.

Your hat, sewing kit, ribbon, and a ring clasp.

First, you cut a length of ribbon, no need for it to be too long, maybe about the length of your palm. I use ribbons because they're easier as the sides are all finished and they won't fray. Except the parts where you cut, you can always burn them so that it seals the tips from fraying, or for me I just hem it up. So just loop the ribbon in half, and sew the tips together like below:

Then all you need to do is sew this ribbon loop to the inner lining of your hat, like so:

After that, you're pretty much done! 

All you have to do now is hook it to your bag! Using the ring clasp, just hook it onto your bag's handle or loop etc! And you're ready for your day out in the sun with your hat! 

And no hassle of carrying your hat around all day with you! It will just hang on to the side of your bag, and there is no additional bulk or getting your hands full!

And when you want to wear your hat, unhook it and leave the ring clasped to your bag, and hide the ribbon inside your hat as you wear it. Easy peasy!

Enjoy your day out!

Cheers,

E.L.

Hair tips

Happy Sunday to all! It's been too long since we've shared anything here, so I'd like to write a part 2 to my previous post about Taking care of your hair.

This is a follow up to updAte you on the effectiveness of the products after a long period. So in that previous post I was using L'occitane's volumising shampoo, And it has been about 3 months now. The effects of the shampoo is, in all honesty, really terrible for my hair!

It was over drying my hair that it became so hard and stiff. I was using the Moroccan hair oil treatment with it at the time ( also seen in the previous post), which was the only thing that made it soft and bearable. But I had to use it everyday in order to save my hair, even skipping it a day will result in a big unruly stiffened mess on my head, because of this shampoo. However I do have to say that I think it is helping with the volumising effect, as it promises. My hair does feel fuller, but it was giving more texture in them rather than more hair growth - I guess that's why it was so stiff.

And this is where Organix repairing awapuhi ginger conditioner comes in! I got it after I finished the Moroccan oil treatment, and I must say this conditioner is far more effective! And it really does leave my hair silky soft and luscious even after shampooing with the volumising shampoo! 

I definitely feel better about my hair now. If you asked me if I'd get L'occitane's shampoo again, I might if I'm going to use this conditioner, but I think I'm more likely to try out the other organic products instead.

Hair Tips:

1. Trim your hair at least 1-2 inches after every 3 months, if every 6 months trim at least 3 inches. This gets rid of the dead ends and let's the new hair grow out healthier without the frizzy split ends

2. If you follow my steps of hair care, here is what I do daily: shampoo, condition in shower - leave it on for 5 mins so do a scrub down while you leave it in. Then after shower, towel dry hair, and when its still slightly damp, slather on organix vanilla silk serum (seen in previous post). Blow dry, then slather on more of the serum - the first application was to protect hair from the hair dryer, then the second application is to keep it moisturised, this should be done even when using curling iron too.

3. Never colour or bleach hair! This is the worst thing you can do to your hair and scalp!

4. If you can afford it or have time for it, do a hair mask or treatment for your hair at least twice a month. At a salon or even a home one with a drugstore product is good enough.

Hope this helps you to a better hair day!

Cheers,

E.L.

Some Monkeys and a Little Whimsy ~

Yay! Finally some updates from S.T. all the way from China!

On another note, my aunt from UK came home for a visit few weeks ago, and while she was here I got to spend some rare quality time with her kids. I am obsessed with their British accents! It's such a thrill to hear small children speak in whole sentences with that rounded accent!

And so before they returned home, I made them some sock monkeys! I found this great tutorial on another blog on how to make them, it's super easy and it looks so professionally done that my aunt and cousins could not believe I made them. You can find the full tutorial here [btw Joanne, the other blogger is genius at crafts!]

And when one of my friends saw it she instantly wanted one, so with her birthday just around the corner, I made her one too. I also made her a bookmark. The bookmark was inspired by S.T. actually, she made one before, with just the locket frame, and in it she had printed out the a favourite quote from a book of the person that she was giving it to.

Being inspired, I made one with my drawing instead, and the one here features my favourite drawing of the Eiffel Tower. I felt the whole feel of the bookmark is rather whimsical, as the back of the locket frame I've also added a quote - “If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." - Avram Noam Chomsky

Get inspired! till next time...

Cheers,
E.L.

S.T: Cocktail: YuZu Daydream

Hello hello,

Its been an exciting week in Shanghai, with the start of school term and Autumn making its way into this part of the world. The days are beautiful, with lots of sunshine and cool breezes, almost like an English summer. I have so much to blog about, so much to share but I guess I'll pick my battles.

Teacher's Day recently passed and the school I'm teaching at gave everyone a jar of Citron tea, or as what I call it, Yu Zu. Its declicious and a popular beverage served at Japanese and Korean restaurants. Its also easily available at supermarkets.


It looks like a jam concentrate and to drink it, you simply dissolve it in water and the result is a tangy, sweet and chunky beverage that bears a semblance to honey lemon teas.

So guess what I did with my jar?

Yup, I boozed it up and it made one TASTY beverage.

Its absolutely delicious, refreshing and the alcohol hits you hard because you can't taste it. You guzzle it like a HumVee guzzling gas. Not a pretty picture I know but still. Gorilla decided to name it YUZU Daydream. And yes, it will send you into a hazy stupor of happiness and giggles.

YUZU Daydream

3 Tbspns of Citron Jam

300ml of Tonic Water

60ml of Bombay Saphire Gin

1. Mix Jam and Gin together.

2Add the tonic water and stir till well cmbined.

Serve chilled.

Try it, its the perfect summery cocktail.

X.O.X.O

S.T

Greetings from Shanghai! -S.T

Hello all!

Its been quite a hiatus for me, having moved to Shanghai and almost after 2 glorious months, I finally managed to get the VPN working and hence, able to blog!

Its been quite an adventure, having to go back to dealing with messy paint and screaming children to checking out live jazz bars in Shanghai.

Here is just a quick visual summary of what I've been up to:

Its been a great adventure and like anywhere new, you have to embrace everything that happens with a great sense of humour and adventure. :)

I'll be blogging more about the nightlife, great bargain shopping places, craft shops and recipes so keep watching this space! :)

XOXO

S.T

Taking Care of your Hair

If you have been following our blog, you would know that I've tried dyeing my hair about a year ago due to greys, and as much as I liked the idea that I can cover my age, and my reviews on the hair dyes still stands - I regret dyeing my hair!

The chemicals in hair dyes are terrible for your hair and scalp! And honestly I'd really rather have my greys than what the dyes did to it! So until I explore natural hair remedies to cover greys - that are not harmful to hair or scalp - I have been trying all ways to recover the softness in my hair.

I am all about departmental brands or herbal natural remedies when it comes to beauty aids - mostly because I cannot afford the luxurious brands or facials every month etc. If you can then great for you! Go do that because yes it is true, money can really buy you better skin, better hair, better health and better everything!

So for the middle class folks like me, we have to experiment... and I did. So here is the best result thus far in repairing my damaged hair.

My Hair 2 months ago-

Ok bad photo, but good enough to see how frizzy and split my hair was... you can see the ends of my hair are now brown as it gets that way after the chemicals in your hair dyes are stripped over the months of washing.. 

At this point, I was using Dove intense repair series. It was wonderful when I used it before dyeing my hair.. but after, not so much. Considering that the intense repair series is supposed to help hair that are damaged by chemicals, it did not really help. 

So I tried getting a hair trim at my neighbourhood saloon - bad move! The silly scissors that is half-comb and half-blade that is used for thinning the hair [to get the layered effect] is really bad, it gives split ends! And that was what the saloon used and I ended up with plenty of split ends... But still workable.

I then decided to bite the bullet a little, and bought Organix hair products. I've always seen this brand on the shelves, and for frugal people like me, this is much higher priced than most other products in a pharmacy. But I was desperate, so I got the Moroccan Argan Oil leave on conditioner and Vanilla Silk Serum at about $15 each. I also ventured a little further for my pockets, I went to L'occitane and bought the Volumising shampoo.

Ok firstly, I wouldn't suggest the L'occitane shampoo to everyone, I got it on impulse and got sucked in by the store's warm and sweet smelling and dreamy marketing strategies. It's really expensive considering it's only a 500ml bottle of shampoo [that's gonna end up down the drain anyway] at $53. But I do like the idea that it's supposed to be for volumising, because I have very thin hair, and have quite bad hair fall.

I liked this collection as they are all organic products, and I'm quite conscious these days about Parabens - especially after using Korres [no parabens in Korres products is the biggest selling point - ok to digress a bit.. Parabens is an ingredient in plenty of beauty products that has been causing some controversy as research has shown that breast cancer cells have shown a presence of Paraben in them - although no solid proof has linked that the ingredient of Paraben in beauty products are the cause of breast cancer.., but then again, if you can avoid it, why not right?] So none of these contains Parabens, and the all natural and organic oils etc sounds all so delicious for my hair!

So my routine is - Shampoo, leave on the conditioner, towel dry hair and apply serum to hair. The bottle for the conditioner says for ultimate effects, apply conditioner then wrap in warm towel - but I'm too lazy. I started doing the conditioner like once in 2 weeks, and the serum after every shower. But these past couple of weeks I've been doing it every evening.

Hair now-

Okok bad photo, I just took it while in the office... but hey even so, you can see the difference! I can feel the difference too! My hair is back to it's softness from before the hair dyes! And it's far less tangly too! 

I find that the one product that made the biggest difference was the Moroccan Argan Oil conditioner. It really left hair so soft and silky. The serum is pretty good too, just that if applied to completely dry hair, it gets really sticky and heavy - so don't use too much of it. The Shampoo is good too, but it doesn't lather as much, of course considering that it is supposed to be mostly natural ingredients - its volumising effect has yet to show much results but who knows, maybe in a couple months!

Cheers,

E.L.

p.s. see my follow up on these products here

Gift Ideas - Fun Packs & Kits

It's been awhile since a new post and this is because I've been lazy and S.T.'s trapped in China which of course blocks out Google.... So till she figures how to manoeuvre round the internet blockages from the chinese government, we will not be receiving any updates from her.... Ah well.... then it is up to me to fill this space!

So in my absence, we've celebrated a couple of occasions that warrant pressies! Who doesn't love presents right? And what's better than just receiving a gift? RECEIVING PLENTY OF GIFTS!

Well that's sorta the idea... so if you can remember from the last post [or so], our colleague S.M. was leaving our company and moving on to another job, so our company gave my other colleague, I.A. and I a budget to get a farewell gift on behalf of the whole company. After much dallying and not knowing what to get, I.A. came up with an idea to put together a Rainy Day Kit for S.M.!

Awesome idea! Because with the small budget we got a variety of fun stuff to put together and made it into a Rainy Day Kit! It consisted of all the fun things a girl needs on a rainy day -

A book to curl up with, facial masks, bath & body lotions, chocolate, fudgey lip balm, mints, a princess pen, and nail polish. We also burned her a CD with all the songs we've shared with her throughout her time with us in the company! That was such a fun and personal bit, but so hard to narrow down the song list!

It was such a hit with S.M. that it gave me brilliant ideas for my cousin R.'s belated birthday pressie. I haven't met her in months and thus missed her birthday in March, so I think she deserves a little luxury. In her pack, it's called the "Self-Indulgent Pack"

In R's 'Self-Indulgent Pack', it has all the stuff a busy modern day woman would need to unwind and relax on a day off. I got her a set of the Japanese Rose bath and body milk with lip balm from Korres, I got her a travel Book about Europe by my favourite author Bill Bryson [R.'s an avid jetsetter who is obsessed with Paris], and I got a nice container and filled it with soothing teas for her and also made a CD compilation of relaxing music. Plus a touch of additional luxury, if she wants to step out, a little sparkle to add on to her party dress - I made her pair of Aventurine Earrings.

The next pack was for D. I also missed her birthday in March, so I made her a pink girl pack!

In her pack, I got her a nice glass bottle and filled it with yummy cookies and tied a pretty pink bow, facial packs with nail polish all in pink, bath and lotion in pink, and a girly pretty romantic novel - all wrapped up in pink!

And last but not the least..... My BF's birthday! Which was just this weekend that passed! I got him a theme of blue accessories.

A pair of Rivieras Leisure Shoes and an AX Pop colour watch - both items he had been eyeing and wanting to get for himself. Of course staying in theme, both were in the shades of blue!

And so with a personal creative touch, I made him a birthday card with quotes from our current favourite TV show - Happy Endings

I created the font from scratch and printed it out to make the card, here is a copy so you guys can use it to if you want ;)

And yes, I am very broke now from all the spending, but so happy to see my loved ones happy with what I got them! This gift pack ideas are wonderful and actually with the right budget and the little effort of shopping wisely while thinking of what the person you are buying for might appreciate - this gift pack ideas make great presents and can save you alot of moolah!

Hope it inspired some of you out there!

Cheers,

E.L.