sorry

A very belated hello! I'm listening This American Life episode #388, entitled "Rest Stop"... good stuff! I used to listen to TAL while sewing, but stopped... can't remember why. Today I was working on a lino print and decided that the already wonderful crafting experience would be made even better with some good listening material. If you've never listened to TAL, I suggest checking out their page of favorite episodes first. Subscribing to their free podcast is also a good idea. :)



Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I would show a couple of the lino prints I've done recently. Though you wouldn't know it by looking at my blog, I have been quite busy with crafts, especially printing and sewing. Salome and I even had our own craft day recently, which was great. Hopefully I'll have some news soon regarding our much anticipated (by us at least) website. In regards to the prints above, the bathtub was commissioned by my lovely sister, who wants to use it as a graphic on her blog. The slug print is the latest in a series of cards that I have in the works. I'm really pleased with how it turned out -- he's quite cute for a slug, no? -- though I'm not sure how often people send "sorry" cards. I might have to turn up the rudeness these next few weeks so that I have some good reasons to use them. Or maybe I should send cards to my readers to apologize for the three-month silence...

pass me a kleenex!

Here's one of my recent sewing endeavors -- tissue box covers! I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out -- quick and easy, but they serve their purpose ... covering those tissue boxes (which in HK tend to be quite garrish). Now I'm considering making covers for other unsightly things... the stack of junk mail on the table, or maybe the pile of clothes in my room.

latest purchase

I bought these super cute cookie cutters at Ikea this morning... definitely not a premeditated purchase. I noticed the squirrel first. Then the moose. Cute, cute, I thought. Porcupine, even cuter. But even then, I figured I could do without them. And that's when I noticed the snail. Not sure why or when I developed a soft spot for molluscs, but I do indeed have one. I guess I'll have to throw a woodland-themed party sometime soon, and let these little guys see some action.

super-villain

I've made a horrible, horrible discovery -- homemade ice-cream sandwiches. Cookies. Ice-cream. They are two things that, independently, I already had a dangerous liking for. Dangerous, because I have no self-control when either of them are in my kitchen. Now that they have combined forces, they are like a super-villain, and I am powerless against them...



The cookies pictured above are among my favorites -- oatmeal -- very similar to this Betty Crocker recipe, but sans walnuts, and with cinnamon added. The ice-cream is Dreyer's Vanilla.

hello

Here's my latest lino print. This little guy might look harmless, but carving this print cost me: a deep puncture wound to my left index finger! Ouch! I guess sometimes I need a little reminding -- be careful when handling sharp objects!

bach choir

My choir made it onto TV! Here's the clip:



Unfortunately there's a lot more footage of the orchestra than the choir, but oh well -- you can at least hear us!

pouch bag

I purchased a card reader today, so can once again blog with pictures! Hooray! This is not the post I was planning to write the other day, because since then, I have had some major sewing inspiration!!

I borrowed a rather non-descript, fold-up grocery-store tote from my mom the other day, and was inspired to copy it using some fun fabric. So far, I've made two, and I'm really pleased with how they've turned out! I experienced some challenges -- I'm still getting used to sewing with bias tape, and my sewing machine decided to throw a couple tantrums -- but it was a positive experience overall. Here are the finished bags:

Folded up, to fit nicely in your purse.

Unfolded part way.

And in use! The little pouch doubles as a handy outside pocket.

I want to make some more, but will need to take a trip to Sham Shui Po first, to stock up on bias tape... in many colors!

I'm sure there are patterns out there for similar bags, but if anyone would like me to put up a tutorial, I'd be happy to share the steps, so that you can make one of your own.

recent travels

Since I can't post new photos, here are some older ones from recent travels, posted on FaceBook with links here for those poor, unfortunate, non-FB-using souls...

Taiwan: I went to Taipei and the Taroko Gorge with three friends for the long May Day weekend -- we had a blast!

Malaysia: I spent part of our March spring break at a conference in Kota Kinabalu... the other part was spent snorkling, exploring the rain forest, and sitting by the pool. It's a tough life...

photo-free for the moment

I had a post in mind to write this evening, got to the photo-adding stage (step #1 for me), but found that my camera and computer are not on speaking terms. How sad! It looks like I may need a new USB cable, or -- what I'm leaning towards -- a card reader. So no more blogging from me for now. I'll take this as a sign from above that I should go to bed early.

plant friends

One day I'd love to have a garden. A real garden. With soil to dig in. And included in said garden would be a decent-sized herb garden. I love fresh herbs, but am always reluctant to pay supermarket prices for them.

Until the real, get-my-hands-dirty-in-the-soil garden materializes, I'm determined to be happy with a potted indoor one. I just started the herb section of my indoor garden the other day (well, not counting the rosemary that I tried to grow that died almost immediately). I picked up some basil and mint the other day at the Mong Kok flower market. I'm hoping that the basil will really take off so that I can start harvesting some leaves. Basil seems to grow well in HK, as seen by the basil bush that my parents had growing in their yard a year or two ago. Hopefully being inside will not hinder my new Mr. Basil.

Basil. Grow like crazy, please.

Mint. I realized recently that I love the way a little mint tastes in a smoothie. Really. You should try it if you haven't. And then of course there are other favorites -- yogurt mint sauce... my mouth is watering.

And I don't think any part of this plant is edible, but I couldn't resist buying it. It looked so intriguing, just barely starting to bloom... I just had to see how the blooming would progress. If you know what this flower is and how I should care for it (i.e. will I need to regridgerate the bulb at some point?), please do share your tips.

I feel a little silly saying this, but these plants have made me so happy in the past couple of days. Even this morning, they looked so friendly and cheerful that I was tempted to call in sick and stay home with them. Yes, you heard me right... stay home with plants. Staying home with a human loved-one? Acceptable. Staying home with a pet? Well, if it's a creature as adorable as Templeton, people would probably at least understand. But a plant? I think I might have gone off the deep end...

prints

There are a lot of things I could and probably should update you on (though nothing life-changing like an amputated limb or an engagement). I realized after posting my pictures from Tianjin that there are a couple other trips I've taken this year that I have not shared via the blog. So I will attempt to get caught up on the travel side of life soon, or at least before my next trip, which will hopefully be in early May (spring traveling has been a bit on the excessive side, I know). But for now, here's a little craft update.

I wasn't feeling too well yesterday, so decided to stay home from church today and get some rest. The weather was conducive to staying in as well -- close to 100% humidity with periodic torential rain storms. Lovely. Definitely the time of year that one regrets any complaints about the coolness or dryness of winter.

I allowed myself to do only restful things today, and so, besides some reading and a moderate amount of cooking, I got back to work on a series of prints that I had started some time ago and not done anything with.

I designed them to be greeting cards, and am quite pleased with how they look. Some of them need some cleaning up, but overall I'm grateful that these got done with no major hiccups. I find that linoleum is so smooth to carve, that sometimes you end up cutting away more than you intended, and if that happens to be a part of a letter in a word, or a critical part of a picture, there's not much you can do to fix it.

This one is what I worked on for most of today (yes, these tend to be quite time-intensive for me, but maybe I'm just slow). The ice-cream cone idea came to me quite late in the process, but I'm very happy with the end result. I love ice-cream.


I did this one a few months back. It probably needs a little cleaning up, though I tend to like the imperfections and roughness...

Another one I did a few months ago. I still like the concept for this one, but wish the pencil was at a slightly different angle.

Another thank you card, also done a while back. Not sure this one fits nicely into the mix, but I guess I like it well enough.

So, if you have a birthday coming up (or one that I missed!), are expecting, or are owed a thank you card, there's a high probability that you will be receiving one of these soon.

On a related note, I might be selling some prints like these online in the near future. Sal and Kaiser have been working on a new website for us to use to sell our handmade goods. They showed me yesterday what they had come up with so far, and it looks great! (But how could it not, with Salome's artistic flare and Kaiser's web sense!) So stay tuned for some shop info, especially if you've been wanting to purchase a cozie, cards, and whatever else we end up selling!