Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Romantic Month

My cousin Justin was going to his first ball and he wanted to impress his gal with a handmade corsage. Of course I had to help him save some money too! This tutorial has been going around the web crafting world I thought this was a perfect opportunity to try it out.
I've many organza scraps and wispy materials lying about. So you start by cutting loads of circles, or petals or any shape you want your corsage to have. I had them in many sizes, the smallest being around 5cm to 10cm the largest piece. Don't cut them too small, you risk burning your fingers! LOL! Note : This method does not work for thick materials. Only organza!

Place a pan of water just in case the material catches fire. I use a simple tealight. Hold the edge and lightly singe the organza circle in a swift motion. This has to be quick so that you don't scorch the whole piece. The pan of water will be helpful if it catches fire!!! Obviously this project is not for children!

You'll enjoy doing this part. Stacking the pieces, you can alternate different textures and colours to achieve a nice layered effect of a blooming flower.

I had to cut more organza pieces to fill up the two flowers I was building. A small one for his coat boutonnaire and a few bigger ones for her hand corsage.

As you can see on the far left, the smaller boutoinnaire is already done.

Get your beads all out to play. After much contemplating, I decided to stick to a simple blue bead theme.
Sewing the beads and the petals together. I weaved them in between petals to create volume. Tucking them in between the petals for a nice shiny sparkling effect in between.

See the thread coming out from the underside. Here you can stitch in more beads. I made around three different sized blooms like this and had them attached side by side to create an even bigger bloom.

Finish off by tying a note to ribbon strands, long enough to tie around her wrist. Justin's bouttonaire was fastened to a wire and wrapped with floral tape and silver ribbons. A pin is used to pin the bloom to his coat!
Easy Peasy! I also added a felt patch at the bottom so that it'll be easy on the skin.

Isn't it romantic!?

Monday, July 13, 2009

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Our Adventure In Bangkok : Holiday With Mom!

We took off to Bangkok right before the Flu season caught up with Bangkok last month. Sorry I took so long to blog about it - lots to catch up after our trip. Nigel's assessment test and interview was right after. We had ourselves a great walkabout in the City of Bangkok. Read on...

Our flight was delayed for a whole 2 hours and we were already late and really hungry! First stop was lunch at a famous chicken rice shop opposite of Pratunam Centre. Anywhere you eat in Bangkok you'll realise that their rice is really of exceptional quality! Even good when you eat it on its own.

Mum was trigger happy, so she had to start shooting some photos for her blog too. Chicken rice is a must eat when you're in Bangkok besides Thai food.

We went to Yaowarat street, also known as Chinatown, right after lunch. You'll know when you reach Chinatown - All those colourful signs. Lots of wholesalers, goldsmith, medicinal halls, foodstalls and traffic! It's chaos here on Saturdays! You can buy a pair of sunnies here for RM4!!!

Had to give the local food stalls a try. These kuih's have been tempting me all the way. For 20bht you get a box of delicious dumplings. I would suggest you pick clean stalls, fly-free ones and of course look around for good hygiene practice. I've had street food in Bangkok and survived it!!

Mom couldnt resist taking a picture of this stall. Everything here is raw - soft shell crabs, mussels, clams, and prawns. They're all for salads. We did'nt dare try this, but the queue was long.
The oh so delicious glutinous dumplings. Like our local Ondeh-ondeh, except for the different fillings inside. They were so GOOD!

We walked passed this stall and just stood there and stared. For 50bht you get a back of apple mango and this OMIGOSH sweet and spicy, dried prawn dip full of shallots and chillies. One of the best! We brought some home - much to Kenneth's delight!

It was a non stop day for us, we had dinner at Suan Lum night market. I took her to the puppet theatre restaurant. Here you can take tourisy pictures of Thailand's original puppeteers. The food is fantastic here. A bit pricey, but a very nice place to have authentic thai food. There is a food square in the middle of the bazaar, but it's pretty noisy with a live band and all.

Mom trying the coconut smoothie! It's super rich but really refreshing.

Pineapple fried rice, stir fried beef with fresh peppercorn and a serving of phad-thai. I know, pretty predictable, but it's our first night here so we're going simple first.


Next day : Chatuchak market. Mom digging into a bowl of crispy cholesterol! (Fried pig's skin tossed in shallot oil and chillies) It's a snack you'll find everywhere. Grab a bunch, dunk it into soup and voila!

Had to have lunch at the Boathouse noodle shop. Here you can choose between pork or beef, thick or thin noodles.

Yes, yes - I HAD TWO BOWLS!!!

This is what I like to call Bangkok serving. The servings are really small.

Everywhere you eat in Bangkok, you'll find these condiments on the side. The Thai's love to add spice, chillies and Aji (MSG) and fresh basil or some raw veggy on the side!

Mom making me wave for a photo! Don't forget to eat there!!! It's at the Chatuchak square.

One of the best things you need to do when you're at Chatuchak is chill at this wonderfully cute litte cafe called the DoiTung. It serves one of the best Macadamia slushies, and coffee ice-creams. Yes, they blend a whole lot of macadamia in vanilla icecream, whipped cream, caramel sauce and topped with more roasted macadamia!!! I'm getting dizzy thinking about it!

It's a fantastic place to chill after walking about Chatuchak, Air cond is at full blast here!

A glimpse outside of Chatuchak. You'll find bargain everywhere. Antiques, art pieces, shoes, tees, bags - you name it, they have it. It takes a keen eye, loads of shopping skills and yes a cool head.

Walking towards Central in Day 3. We walked over a canal where the water taxis are. The locals use this more.
At the walkway. I think it's an underwater world exhibition. Thai's are really big on huge visual posters and impressive displays.

I forced mom to take a photo right where Stan and I did too the last time we were here.


Dinner at a fancy thai restaurant. We had sticky rice and deep fried pork.

As usual, when you dine in a thai restaurant, they present you with some fresh veggy and some knock your socks off chilly dips!


I love the green curry! Look how tired we all looked. Too much shopping and good food.


The barbecued beef was really good! Smokey, tender and wonderfully thai with the spicy dip.

We stayed at Ecotel, we got a night's free stay here with the Airasia package. No, that's not the hotel, but the view. The location of this hotel is right smack in the city of Bangkok. It's best when you want to have a walk on your own adventure. Taxis aplenty, local food stalls everywhere and very near the shopping centres. The view didn't matter because you'll see...

Breakfast was really good for a 3 star hotel. You get bacon, thai fried noodles, juice, fruits, pancakes and coffee too.

The so regal lobby. We had to take some photos of the hotel lobby. This is a very clean hotel. We even tipped the cleaning lady!

See what I mean when I said the view didnt matter.

The outside is going through some major transformation. Although slow, I hope things will be better.
Isn't this a grand photo of mom?

Grabbing lunch at the airport. Burger king is tres expensive, so we shared. Can you imagine a whopper set was around RM24!!!! Yikes. That's the biggest cup of coke I've ever had.

Fumigation??? Smoke was oozing out, I think the airline was a little bit too paranoid. I suppose not, schools were shut down because of the virus when we left.

Taking our photo together.

Bye! Bye! Bangkok!!! Hope to be back again.