E.L.: Boyfriend's Birthday, and Art Jewellery

It was my boyfriend's birthday 2 weeks ago, and he was in Japan, so I only managed to give him his present recently when he got back. The actual gift was CHANEL's Bleu Eu de Toilette [happiness is CHANEL], but I also wanted to make him something as I always do.

So, I knew that he had just gotten himself a brand new camera, the Olympus E PL2 - which is awesome by the way, and all photos in this post was taken with it - and he needed a camera case. And of course, I made him one!

I used some blue leather and greyish-blue canvas, for the interfacing I used 2 layers, felt and sponge, so that it gives added protection. When making camera or phone or laptop cases always use good thick interfacing so that it provides the needed protection. I also lined it with white satin so that it does not scratch the camera. I also added snap buttons to the sides so that the bag can extend itself.

Since this was a surprise gift, I had to seek out the measurements of the camera online, however I completely forgot about the giant lens, and I was soo lucky that I made the bag so oversized that the camera fits it snugly!

I also made for him another leather cuff, which he had requested before in these colours, beige and green - in the photo it's sitting ontop of the previous one I made for him too, see it here in this post.

All the leathers I used are scrap leather, and they are all hand-sewn [painstakingly as leather is sooo thick], and I leave them quite raw around the edges as firstly I think it suits the look, and secondly I can't seem to find leather Edge Kote in Singapore! If anyone knows where I can find them please let me know!!

So aside from my boyfriend's birthday presents, I've also been experimenting with making jewellery with my art - my drawings.. I wanted to see if I can use paper in my jewellery without ruining it when it gets wet, and how I can make them sturdy enough.

And this are 2 that I came up with!

This first one is a rough drawing of the Eiffel Tower, the drawing is on paper, and I used jewellery wires to create the circle frames and attached them to the sketch. Then I coated the drawing with glossy finishes on both sides, and it became sturdy and waterproof! So chaining it up with pale gold ropes, I have a charm bracelet!

My second one, I created more of a bead like charm. Using clay and my drawing, then also using glossy finishes, I got this! I also braided strips of red leather for it to hang from.

I love them both! And they look great worn together too!

So these art jewellery range are not perfect, they are quite raw as they are all made entirely from scrap pieces, so not too sure if it can be sold. And these 2, I'm keeping for myself anyway.

However, if this catches any of your fancy, let me know!

Cheers,

E.L.

Reebok's Wrist Weights

If you know me, you'll know that I've been committed to a jogging routine for about 8 months now, before I used to be lazy where I go off and on the routine. However, now I'm pretty good at maintaining it! Well, I don't really have a choice see, my dad and brother are avid fitness freaks, and my mom was obese with health problems contributed from it.

Anyway, jogging is usually my only form of exercise, besides my 2km walks everyday to and fro work, I don't go to a gym as it's a waste of money to me. So, with jogging and walking, my legs and core are the only part of my body that is getting most attention, and I am left with jiggly arms. Hence, I got these awesome wrist weights!

These are designed for strapping on and then you can carry on doing your core exercises, so for my case, I strap it on and go jogging! And it's basically weights that work on your arms while you do your core. Mine are 0.5Kg [on each weight, so both weigh 1kg together] as seen in the photo above, and honestly I thought it would have been much heavier, but because of the momentum when I'm jogging, my arms' swinging actually balances out the weights so it does not feel like it's a toll at all. There was a heavier option at the store where I bought it from, it was 1Kg for each weight. However, to get basic tone, you should use lighter weights, for building on muscle mass, heavier would be the option. Since I've already got 5 and 9 pounds hand weights at home, I got the lighter wrist weights - besides I wanted toned arms only, not huge guns!

So I love it, the design too is smart, it pretty much works like an arm guard [those we use as kids when we are learning to ride a bike or roller-blade], you just hook the hole to your thumb and then strap it around your wrist. This design is good as it holds the weights in place, instead of having it sliding up and down your arm, or having to strap it on so tight. It's also made with breathable cloth, and it is filled with beans to create the weight, so it's flexible and soft and comfortable. Plus the attachment is velcro, so it's easy for strapping on yourself.

If you're interested, this should be available at any big sports store that also sells other gym equipments. It wasn't crazy expensive, SGD$23, but I did wince abit considering it was like buying beanbags for my wrist..


Cheers,
E.L.

Kao Liese - Bubble Hair Colour - Natural Black

I've recently discovered that when life gives you a whole ton of lemons to suck on, the stress will give you grey hairs... And I got several sprouting on my too-young head! So I wanted to get rid of them, and was plucking them out, but I knew it was not a good way, as grey is when your normal black hair has lost its pigmentation so it will never go away and will always keep growing back grey. So instead of plucking them out and enduring balding patches [grey hair is always better than no hair!], I decided to dye it!

However, unlike most asian women these days, I did not want to have fake blonde/brown/red tones in my hair, I personally find it offensive - like the new age of colonisation. Why do we asians see the need to try and look like the westerners? We should just be glad with our own distinctive look :)

Anyway, I wanted to dye my hair, but I'm quite dumb at doing it myself at home, where most do-it-yourself hair dyes requires you to have eyes on the back of your head when you apply it on evenly, and it gets really messy, and I didn't want to go through all that, neither do I want to spend an extortionate amount in a salon. So I was super happy when Kao Liese came up with their dark colour hair dyes range!

Kao Liese hair bubble colours used to come in only light colours which does not even colour greys, but with this new dark colour range, it is specially for covering your unsightly aged hair!!!
And I used it, and it was successful!! It was also as simple to use as the product claims it to be! Well, the frothy bubbles that the ad keeps showing is semi-true, where it is only frothy when you squeeze it out of the bottle [after you've mixed the solutions as following the easy step-by-step instructions in the pack], but when applied to the hair it will all just dissolve and you will not be have nice bubbly frothy hair as the ad shows, but it will look like dark sticky paste. This is normal, but the best part is that it is so neat! As you spread the froth over your hair, the paste will gradually hold up your hair, so it does not drip and you can push up your hair like you're shampooing [as seen in the ads but without the bubbles], so it does not dangle and drip all over your back. It also spreads evenly all over your whole head of hair and easily all over your whole head of hair.

The results are very good too! My greys are completely covered and actually the entire length of my hair are evenly dyed! And my hair is blacker than before [actually my hair was natural brown before], but I would have prefered a darker black. Hopefully they can extend their black range to like blue-black and such. Also it did not dry out the hair very badly, I had to condition it quite heavily to get back the smooth softness, and the pack also gave a leave-on serum which softened the hair after wash too. So with continuous conditioning and I use my own serum and olive oil, my hair is shiny and soft as ever!

So check out more of it here if you are interested!

Cheers,
E.L.

Birthdays, BBQs and baby showers!

So I've been crazy busy, so busy that I can't even finish reading a simple book filled with short stories.

Its been a month of birthdays, bbqs, baby showers every other weekend that I have no time to do any crafty things at all! 

To show you just exactly what I've been up to, here is a quick run down: 

Gorilla's Birthday: 

We all know The Alchemist cufflinks were a hit, so here is a picture of the lava cake: 

A delicious dark lava cake with a crisp cake like top and pours out a river of chocolate when you cut into it. Sorry, no chocolate river shot, I was too busy eating it!

Anne Marie's Birthday:

 Anne and I go way back and this year, I thought I make an extra special birthday for her: 

Anne had been a huge Michael Jackson fan so I came up with the concept of making her a jewelry set with the lyrics to her favourite MJ song, "You Are Not Alone"

An acrylic tube stuffed with the lyrics, embellished with silver filigree caps and bronze faceted beads. Threaded with a black leather cord that was doubled up. 

Here is a close up shot of the necklace

Earrings. Same thing, Acrylic tubes stuffed with lyrics topped with fligree ball caps and faceted copper beads.

The entire set covers the whole song. She loved it which was important! :)

And of course, I baked her a jar of marshmellowy- collapse-at-first-bite chocolate chip meringues

Then came the birthday cake: 

Bet you're all wondering, what the hell is that?? Is that Snickers I see and what are those round balls??

My dears, this is the stuff of cardiac arrests... Its a chocolate cake layered with Varlhona Milk Chocolate Mousse, Peanut Butter Cheesecake, Chocolate rice crisp balls, layers repeated and finally topped off with a milk chocolate Ganache and chopped up Snickers bars.... Anne is a massive PB fan so hence this monstrosity.. Also inspired by StarBucks Peanut butter stack...Man..This cake is awesome...

BBQ with Gorilla's Mates

Then the following weekend I had a BBQ with the Gorilla's mates, so I made the following: 

Pierre Herme's Nutella Tart

Its my take on it. The crust is my mom's recipe and its filled with the filling from Pierre Herme's recipe and I topped it off with a drizzle of white chocolate ganache.

And I brought a gift too!

 Another jar of Marshmellowy- melt-in-your-mouth meringues!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

The Gorilla messaged me asking me if I could whip up some cupcakes for his office on Wednesday. They were throwing a baby shower on Friday and so needed cute cupcakes pronto. The design was up to me and so was the flavour. I decided on the following: 

Butter cupcakes with blue vanilla frosting and topped with a variety of baby related items. I made this with homemade fondant from scratch and it was a huge success.

Mom and Aunty Cat's Birthday

So I had a lot of fondant left over and have been dying to try out a 3D cake with this. Hence this: 

Its a chocolate butter cake that's been frosted with a thick dark chocolate butter cream and covered in fondant.. My Second successful 3D cake!! 

Will update on how it tastes when we cut it tonight at the birthday dinner. Have a great weekend!!

UPDATE: THE CAKE WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!!! Simply delish! :)

xoxoxox

S.T

Custom-made Brooch for an Order

So, a friend of mine ordered a brooch from me couple of months ago, for his mother's anniversary gift. He pretty much left it up to me with a budget, and I pretty much wrecked my head for ideas and trying out various designs.

I've never made brooches before, so this was a real challenge for me. I also wanted to incorporate some odd shaped gemstones into the piece just so to make it special.

Then I tried a new technique of wiring and paper jewellery, and so this was the outcome.

With some gold accents in the form of a bird in flight and very delicate gold maple leaves, on top of the wire-paper and gemstones, I created my first brooch!

This was priced at $30 and **SOLD**

Cheers,
E.L. 

S.T: Its the GORILLA'S BIRTHDAY!

Okay okay, I promise E.L I will post the work I've been doing for the Gorilla's birthday. He is on his way so I'll make this fast:

Cuff links for the Gorilla.

Aren't they cool? The Gorilla and I loved the Alchemist and it was that book that brought us together. I decided for his birthday to make him cuff links out of our favourite passages. This took me THREE ATTEMPTS to get it right.

Check out the awesome back view.

And yes, because I forgot to buy a proper cuff link box, I thought it'd be way cooler to put them into these little cases I use to hold my beads. Almost like a specimen sample. 

Well, I'm pretty pleased considering that I did this last night, cutting up font size 5 paper strips and sniffling. Yes, I'm down with a really bad cold and still feel wuzzy. Anyhow, off to see the Gorilla and I'll post pictures of the awesome lava cake that I'm going to bake for him. I know what you're thinking, "I hope she doesn't get any snot into those cakes..." HAH!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ORANGE GORILLA! I LOVE YOU AND ALL YOUR ECCENTRICITIES!

Without you, I would not have been able to accomplish all that I have. :)

S.T.

Book Review : The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Yes, it would seem rather odd to suddenly have a book review on this blog. E.L gave me her blessings, saying that I could, I quote, "Put anything you want" on the blog and so I shall.

I have always been a bit of a geek and I love literature. A lot of people think its stuffy, boring and really quite irrelevant but I say nay. Literature teaches you the essentials of life, to analyse character, text, subtext, social conventions, perversions, the norm and subversion. Literature captures the humanity and beauty of one's culture, the quips and quirks. One word can say so much and yet saying plenty can mean nothing at all.

I can wax lyrical all day on the wonders and benefits of Literature and the Arts but I will be digressing. In another life, I would have done Literature in University and then move on to be a  Lit teacher, write poetry and possibly be suckered into a strange world of Academia that would have me floating in a bubble of flowing narrative.

I digress. So I finally read the one and ONLY novel by Sylvia Plath. It was reported that she had committed suicide one month after the publishing of this book under a different moniker. Which to me doesn't implicate that the writing of the book drove to the eventual suicide but rather, the writing of the book probably served as a catharsis for her.

 You see, she was a bit of a drama queen and CONSTANTLY tried to off herself. It was reported that it was an ATTEMPT but they got to her too late and hence her attempt became a finality.

The reason why the trivia is important to the book is because the book serves as a semi -autobiography. Plath herself served an internship at a fashion magazine and it was said that the names and details were changed but essentially  it was quite true to her life. She did go into an asylum and was treated for her illness.

In books such as these, the plot really is secondary. It is the way it is written that draws the reader. But nonetheless, it is not a book review without a synopsis and no one really wants to read my practical criticism on the text so here goes. :)

The Bell Jar is basically about Esther Greenwood, straight A student and has a promising and bright future. The novel kicks off with her in New York city on an internship with a very prestigious fashion magazine. From there begins her depression. First it starts slowly, from just wanting to cry for no reason to feeling this strange sense of idleness and finally, it manifests itself and puts her on a path of self destruction.

The bulk of the story happens after the internship where her mother tells her she didn't get the summer course in another university.  From there, things start to spiral downward. She first starts to try and find things to do, like write a novel, take up short hand but the depression starts to eat her and weigh her down.

On hindsight, the book is darkly funny as her attempts to kill herself and her observations as how her body betrays her intentions, such as "floating up'" while she tries to drown herself are comical but yet subtly so and on some level, extremely sad. One cannot help but sympathize with her.

Her observations in the asylum and her treatments reveal to us a world of shock treatments and an alternate reality that's disconcerting. The developments that follow leaves one curious and you start to live vicariously through her. As she wonders when will that "Bell Jar" descend upon her, you too start to feel the anxiety, that fear that perhaps the Bell Jar will descend upon you and trap you in that insipid stale scent of yourself.

So you ask yourself, does she get better? Will she leave the asylum?

 I won't spoil the ending but lets just say you are left hanging.

What is wonderful about the book is that the narrative is straightforward, easy to comprehend yet profoundly deep and surprisingly, not as  depressing as everyone claims it to be.Yes, Plath does suck you into Esther's world and you see the world through Esther Greenwood's eyes and cannot help but agree with her madness and her perceptions.

 Not a good read if you are already feeling down in the doldrums, but definitely a read if you are in the mood for some good literature.

S.T