aunty v's {edited}

yesterday we went to aunty v's house for dinner. mel, lysa angie and i went earlier to bake. and we baked using (as nigella would say) "gorgeous, dark, luscious best quality dark chocolate". haha. we used her recipe for molten lava chocolate and fairy cupcakes.

THE BAKED GOODS

molten lava chocolate

fairy cupcakes

siew li had a new recipe for mozerella mushroom!

and we got to make fabulous espresso - it using these pre-packed coffee cups which is then put into a machine. the coffee cups are of varying intensities and flavours. i got adventurous last night and tried the arpeggio (strength was 9/10). i said it wouldn't affect me, though secretly i thought i might be kept awake the entire night. which was fine actually, because i have a truckload of work to do. but true enough, an hour later, i was totally drained! i was so freaking tired. i couldn't believe it. anyhoo, that truckload of work remains. need to get down to it. need a spa. need to scrap. think i'll go bathe first. that seaweed clay face mask and olive scrub is calling me.
*sheryl

p/s: heyy girls! click here to get the pictures from today. (:

a sailor's log book

andrew mentioned he was going on a sailing trip next week. so i made a log book for him. (ulterior motive is for him to write to me daily! haha) but this is also an example of an altered art project. the mainframe or casing for this project was a disposable cd cover. i was going to bin it the other day when i realised the "altering" potential for it! (:

as i wanted the whole project to flow, and since this was a rather small piece, i used one 12" by 12" paper for the whole of it. been really into making my own "embellishments", like the skully here - which i mentioned in the previous post about my obsession lately with embroidery.

and the thing is you don't have to be very exact in your measurements. what i did was to cut the paper to leave a smallish border around the base, and then i dabbed brown acrylic all over the edges. it covers up any exposed areas and at the same time distresses the edges.
another "3R's" (reuse, reduce, recycle) tip is comic strips from the newspaper. in this case, it was an old political cartoon i found. i made it into a little book, in which i'm going to write a little something each day for andrew to read.
and this is the log book. i just stapled some sheets of cut up notebook paper, added some pictures and embellishments. i didn't want to do anything too complex because i know andrew wouldn't use it if it was.
another tip is that if you wanted to do something fast but didn't want it to look too plain, a busy patterned paper should do the trick. it gives colour and attention, but yet you don't need to do too much.
the skully acted as a binding post too. so its all good. (:
arr! ahoy matey!

*sheryl

rants for the day

never apply muscle rub(esp those with picture of an old man looking very serious printed on the box) on a freshly showered body that is still slightly damp. as i subsequently ripped off my arms and threw it at the door while groaning in pain, i cant help but think of the old man looking at me as i screamed in agony.

alright, enough of muscle rubs. i received several bad news today as i was told that i am going sailing soon. as a medic in the navy, i sometimes have to commit myself to ships as they sail out.suddenly my schedule just became insanely tight with church camp approaching as well as duties to fulfill. i'm saddened by the fact that my gym schedule would be affected but God must have his reasons for doing so. perhaps he wants to take a break and come back refreshed, since i'm honestly burned with work, lack of sleep as well as maintaining balls to walls intensity in the gym.
gym was pretty good today, arms day. you hit them hard and fast, so arms day is always the shortest. a guy came in at 9.50 though, even though the gym closes at 10.weird. enough of the rants, its very unbecoming of me to talk on the net about what happened. always thought people who does that was pathetic. already,there's many things to be done in own life, why bother spending 15 mins telling everyone, who doesnt really care, about what happened today.

i shall do a review instead. with the weather turning increasingly, i find my daily craving of gui ling gao heightened.some of the best gui ling gao is actually those pre packed ones from chinese herbal stores. get the pearl ones. there is also the 7 dollars a bowl gui ling gao in chinatown that till now, i still is the best i've ever eaten. next best would actually be from a dessert store at the basement of junction 8. its those authentic ones that day make in those classical chinese bowls. Sheryl also brought me to another at chinatown, and although i didnt like the gui ling gao as much, i thought the mango pudding was outstanding, thats an understatement, i'm actually in love with it.

okay then, end of post. many things to be done and its 12.20 and i'm still awake.

embroidery

em·broi·der·y /ɛmˈbrɔɪdəri, -dri/ [em-broi-duh-ree, -dree]
–noun, plural -der·ies.
the art of working raised and ornamental designs in threads of silk, cotton, gold, silver, or other material, upon any woven fabric, leather, paper, etc., with a needle.

lately my fixation with sewing has led to embroidery. i used to think that embroidery was just applique; the traditional floral prints and cottage impressions. so i tossed the notion of ever doing embroidery aside when i started learning how to sew in secondary school as part of the mandatory home economics. but the past few days, i've started noticing websites and blogs with "unconventional" embroidery. in particular elsie (which is where i got the diamond pattern from). so i've been stiching skullys, cupcakes and diamonds. i'm not sure what i'm doing to do with these random pieces of cloth with equally random embroidery. but let's not concern ourselves with that yet.

i realise that embroidery is just a technique and you can do anything with it really. i'm beginning to think of it as an extension of drawing. so anything doodled can be stiched. and i think that actually adds dimension in a different way. i don't know why i didn't realise this sooner. i think many a time we limit the definition of something to a preconceived notion. like just yesterday, andrew and i were having our usual coffeebean chat-chill time and we were strangely talking about the same thing. i was relating how i told his brother (evan) that the beginning of a book is usually boring till you reach the climax of the story. andrew said i shouldn't use such words with evan. then i protested saying the word climax is prefectly appropriate, it is a literary term. to which he then consented. he then described how in wuthering heights the word "ejaculated" was used to replace "suddenly". (no, i'm not drifting off topic, there's a point to this.) which is the same way i judged the word embroidery. (aha! yes, there's the point!) while it is usually used to sew particular designs, it doesn't equate to be all and end all. and in terms of art and methods, i think that would be a good "think-out-of-the-box" idea. use a technique used in another art form to alter in another art form that doesn't traditionally require or use such a technique. but then there's that thing about the many many other types of art forms out there.

i'm not sure if anyone else notices, but i tend to delve into alot of different types of crafts - scrapbooking, beading, painting, sewing, (interested in doing more decoupage and paper tole as well), clay work (especially with polymer clay) - this is on top of my other interests like cooking and baking, wanting to learn how to play tennis proper and etc. sometimes i wonder if i'm spreading myself too thin over too many crafts. andrew says that i want to do too many things. hmm. jane of all trades and mistress of none?

*sheryl

sewing and machines

so this is the usual scene. i'll be watching tv while blogging. anyhow, here is the sewing machine! (: next to it is the small one i have. its not much. its in fact really elementry. but i'm still trying to learn how to sew proper. you know, like the techniques and all. so this will do for now. is basic yet is a slight upgrade from what i had. i tried making a small pouch yesterday, but i think i still need to work on the sequence, the way i sew certain areas. behind the smallish sewing machine is my 12" by 12" paper stash in its new holder.much better cos i can actually see the papers from aeriel view and the sides. (:

some lovely cloth i've been wanting to work with. i especially love the small flower print piece. (:

a netting pouch! i'm still adding on bits and pieces to the grow album i did with netta. but i feel like starting on another project. this album was something quite out of my comfort zone, in the sense that i was experimenting and it was really bright. i don't usually do something with so many colours thrown in. but yes, i think i might start a daily album. so its to scrap a little something to do with that day. proper rumination would probably still be in the journal, but the visual aspect would probably be in the daily album. helps me not feel so scattered i think.

got a tonne of readings to do and i need to read "finishing well" as well. then maybe andrew and i can do a discussion of it. so as to prevent a discursive rambling of whatnots and whosits.
*sheryl

pilot

hello everyone,
my name is Andrew. (as you can tell, i dont do this often, or at all, which explains my awkward introduction).
I just want to give big thank you to Sheryl for creating this. its quite awesome to share a blog with someone i love.
i am 20, and stuck in army.eight more months till i finish national service. i am a bodybuilder(which is just about the most self-centred sport) and i'm actually a fan of this guy Jay Cutler(pic above), the current mr olympia.
i'm supposed to be reviewing a christian literature i just completed but i'm actually quite tired now and would not do justice to the book which by the way is titled "finishing well" by David W.F.Wong. so more about the book on the next post.
i'm going to talk a little about bodybuilding like Sheryl mentioned(knows me too well). Unlike the misconception the public has about bodybuilding, it is actually the best sport ever(of course its subjective)
Its not about chugging endless amount of protein shakes, nor lifting a moderate weight to "tone up" like in men's health.(by the way, there's no such thing as 'tone up' unless you are a girl, you either squat till you puke or not lift at all)
Bodybuilding is a lifestyle. Its about spot on diets(6-7 meals a day), endless knowledge, discipline and of course, heavy ass weights that threatens to crush you unless you bring it back up. and that is why i love it, it changes your life. God willing, i'd love to look like Jay one day. alright, enough rants. Shall leave you guys with a video, pictures speaks a thousand words after all.

love you baby. by the way, the picture at the top is my favourite picture i took together with Sheryl, we just love our explorations and walks dont we?

whoo hoo!

okay, so i thought it would be way cooler for us to have a blog together instead of just me. also, i guess i felt like i needed a revamp - as in the way i was blogging and the stuff i was blogging about. i think my part for this would mostly be sharing random events and any creative projects that i'm able to churn out. just by way of introduction, i'm really into beading, scrapbooking and sewing. in fact, i just got a really cute new sewing machine! shall upload pictures when i get it - its currently at my aunty's house, mom's picking it up after work. andrew is a bodybuilder. so i guess he might blog about that. hmm. we don't quite know yet.
*sheryl