i had far too much fun creating this...

Meet Michelle from Springfield.
Thanks, Mike and Helen, for the inspiration. If you haven't done so already, please create your own Simpsons avatar here.

my first tote

I made my very first bag tonight! It's just a simple tote, but what a sense of accomplishment it's given me! I'm really glad I decided to go for something relatively simple for my first project, because even with the seeming easiness, I had a lot of unexpected logistical issues to work through. It was a great learning process though, and as cheesy as it sounds, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! I'm already mentally working through my next project...

Here's the finished product.

The other side (and opened, showing the pink lining!... yes, that's right, I tried to line it, and it seems to have worked!).
There's nothing in the pictures to provide any reference to size, so in case you're wondering about it's dimensions: the top is about 10 inches across, and the bottom about 13.

I'm already planning to use it tomorrow (read: it's a little too home-made looking to give away, so I'll keep it for myself) and will carry it with pride!

pb cookies

I wouldn't say that they're my ultimate favorite cookie, but definitely in my top five [with oatmeal, gingersnap, chocolate peanut-butter chip, and chocolate mint chip]. And there's certainly something comforting about a soft, warm peanut butter cookie...

strong mint

I was at 7-Eleven today, paying my phone bill (which still strikes even me as a strange thing to do...), when the lady at the register asked me if I wanted to buy some gum for HK$3. These kind of "promotions" of products that aren't selling well are pretty common at 7-Elevens, and I usually reply with a default "no thanks." But a couple things caught my attention. 1. Gum. I like the stuff quite a lot. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I'm addicted to it, but I do get irritable if I've just had a cup of coffee and/or a meal and don't have gum handy. 2. Fisherman's Friend. I was pretty much addicted to the throat lozenges (original menthol) for a short time in middle school. I think that's why I like menthol Airwaves so much now. 3. For $3 (US 40 cents) why not?

So I think I know why this gum was on special -- it is so over-the-top minty, it's ridiculous! And if it's not clear already, let me emphasize that I'm no light-weight when it comes to gum. I already mentioned the Airwaves, and I also like Extra Professional -- two kinds of gum that are so strong, my niece and nephew no longer even bother to ask me for either when I'm taking a piece out for myself. They've tried them and were not pleased. But wow, this gum was so strong that after just a few seconds of chewing, I could -- no joke -- feel minty-ness in my eyes!

It's powerful stuff. Be warned.

tuesday afternoon adventure!

I had a great afternoon shopping with Erika, whom I recently discovered shares my affection for all things Sham Shui Po! Since I was wanting to look for fabric, and she was needing to do some scouting and sampling, we decided to join forces and hit the haberdasheries together. Here she is having a heyday with wire.
The wire store pictured above had 4 cats, and they were all sleeping in the back...
...in various positions.

Erika reintroduced me to a great fabric store that I'd pretty much forgotten about. I found lots (!!) of things that I liked. Here are some photos of what I bought:

I love these colors!! And designs! And more importantly, I love them all together! I might use them for the tetris quilt, or do something else with them.

Some brighter colors. The top two are quite thick cottons... almost canvas. I think I might try my hand at making some bags. I've been reading a bag-making blog recently and looking more closely at my own purses --think I'd like to give it a shot. It can't be too hard, right?
Here's one of the new fabrics with some that I already had. I like these prints together. Another quilt in the making...

I'm very excited about this rediscovered fabric store for a number of reasons: 1. They have an amazing selection within a relatively small space. 2. The store is air-conditioned (hugely important right now!). 3. The fabric is about a third of the price of the stuff at Spotlight.

It's settled: I'm hooked. Now it's just going to be a matter of finding time to sit down and get sewing!

the stuff of fairy tales

I came across this photo while looking for some pictures of animals to use in my classes tomorrow, and just had to share it! Isn't it amazing?! Here's the link to the original National Geographic article.

sunday afternoon

I had a lovely Sunday afternoon with Athania and April. Thanks for the great time, ladies!

Here's a nice timer photo we took at Pacific Cofffee. Have I ever blogged about how much I love timer photos? I think not...

no straw day

All the McDonald's restaurants in HK are apparently doing their part to save the environment. Introducing the twice-monthly "No Straw Day." Seems like a very small step towards being "green," but I guess it's better than nothing, especially considering that hundreds of thousands of straws are probably disposed of daily in HK's 210 (I did the math...) McDonald'ses. Then again, one has to wonder how many more napkins will be requested on "No Straw Days" when everyone's going straw-free, taking their plastic lids off and slurping on the side of their cup. I see an increase in spillage (and therefore tree-slaughter) on the Micky-D horizon...
Looking at this picture of my French-fry-grease-stained McDonald's placemat makes me want to never go there again (although, I know, haven't I vowed to avoid it in previous posts?). But I really can't over-emphasize how convenient it has been for me to stop at the Golden Arches on Friday afternoons for my early pre-tutorial dinner. Fast, easy, cheap. But is it worth the self-loathing?...

Well, I won't have the tutorials as an excuse for much longer. Because I'm starting a new job in August, the tutorials can only continue for a few more weeks. Though it'll be amazing to have my Friday nights back, I have to say that I'm really going to miss my students. There are some pretty incredible kids and teenagers in those classes, and I'll be sad to leave them. :(

But parting with Ronald won't be quite so difficult.

take a chance, take a chance...

I signed a contract today. I'm going to be staying in HK for the next year at least, and working at an international school teaching ESL to students in Gr. 1-3. I realize that's not much information, but I prefer not to go into too much work-related detail on my blog. If you want more details, email me, and I'll be happy to divulge more information!

Many of you know that I just finished up a degree in teaching science, so this decision might seem a bit surprising (trust me, this is something I asked myself, and was asked about in my interview), but I do have a degree and some experience in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and I realized in the past year or so (through tutorials mainly), that I really enjoy working with kids in this age group. And the icing on the cake, so to speak, is the fact that I'll have some pretty cool colleagues (one in particular comes to mind!;)), not to mention that I'll get to go back to a more normal work schedule (how will I spend my Friday evenings? Not to mention my Saturdays?!). There are other reasons why I'm looking forward to this job as well, but won't list them all here. But one more thing that I will say is that I feel like the school's administration has been willing to take a bit of a risk in hiring me (I say "risk" because of my lack of official elementary experience), and I'm having a hard time not finding that fact extremely touching. I guess at least part of the reason why I'm feeling this way is because over the past few months I've experienced more than my average number of disappointments -- some small, some big, some work-related, some not -- and it just feels great to have someone (to steal a line from a great ABBA karaoke song!) "take a chance on me."

happy independence day

Well, I wished everyone a happy SAR Establishment Day, as well as a happy Canada day, so it only seems fitting to wish everyone a happy 4th of July as well. Especially fitting, as I myself am American...

(just couldn't resist this sweet bald-eagle-stars-and-stripes-piece-of-photoshopping-genius (or is it actually painted?!)...)

To be honest, I was proud of myself for not forgetting the holiday all-together, which I'm ashamed to admit has happened to me on more than one Independence Day past. Though I remembered this year -- and quite early in the day as well! -- I didn't do anything particularly patriotic today... in fact, I had about as un-American a day as I've ever had. The highlights of my day (after teaching, of course) were eating Indian food for lunch (at Branto, with April and Athania!) and taking a detour to Ikea ("looking for fabric," but walked out with no fabric and a few non-fabric items... but the key word there is "walked" out. The 3 things I bought were small enough to be easily carried home... but I digress!). In fact, I think the most patriotic thing I did today was use a McDonald's bathroom, and that was only because other facilities were out of order...

"feeling too busy to get everything done? then why not start a complex craft project!"

The above seems to be the logic my brain follows. June: had a lot of free time, but spent most of it on Facebook. July: busy with summer school and lots tutoring, and I'm suddenly sitting at the drawring board, planning my next craft project.

But as far as craft projects go, this one's an exciting one. Below is a picture of the "pattern" for the tetris quilt I've been talking about making for so many months now. Still not sure about the fabrics that I'll use, but I feel like I've made the first step, and am looking forward to doing more!

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much fun I had working on this design. The process sort of burst my maybe-I'm-not-really-an-anal-retentive-nerd bubble... in an effort to illustrate what I mean by that, let me share with you a few of the "rules" that I set for myself while drawing up the pattern:

1. pieces of the same type (and color) should not touch each other. (Explanation: I don't want pieces to blend into each other on the actual quilt.)

2. each row should have 1 empty space, to increase the authenticity of the tetris scenario. (Explanation: if there were no spaces, the line would disappear.)

3. pieces of the same type should be spread out, and pieces of the 5 different types should be used an equal (or close to equal) number of times. (Explanation: purely aesthetic.)

The last rule proved difficult, especially when I got to the top (I started from the bottom, of course!) and was trying to finish the design without using partial pieces, but still following rules 1 and 2.

In spite of all my efforts, the design does have a couple points which are inconsistent with the game of tetris. Can you spot them?

1. Not positive, but I think the width should be 10 squares, not 12.

2. There are actually 7 different types of tetris pieces, not 5. I did not use different colors to distinguish between pieces that are mirror-images.

I actually did consider the above two points before starting on the design, but decided that the quilt would probably look a little better with more squares and fewer colors/fabrics. So, in the end, after all of my obsessing, I guess I did choose aesthetics over tetrical (adj?) accuracy.

If you're wondering about the triangular graph-paper underneath, my next project is going to be something involving equilateral triangle patchwork...!!!

the chris and athania restaurant

Helen and Mike sometimes refer to Branto (my favorite vegetarian Indian restaurant) as the "Chris and Athania restaurant," because Chris and Athania were the ones who apparently introduced them to it. This has always been a sore point with me, because if you go back a little further in Branto history, it was I who introduced Chris and Athania to the restaurant in the first place (although, if you go back even further, it was Joanna who introduced me to it, and someone else who introduced her, and so on). But in spite of my bitter feelings, I accompanied Mike, Helen, Chris and Athania to the Chris and Athania restaurant today.

Mike with a masala dosa telescope.

Athania with the chili lime (?) stuff that she so adores.

Chris with one of my new favorites, the paneer burjhi (thanks again, Erika!).

Helen with the vegetable makhanwala (a new dish that we tried today). Like everything else I've ever had there, it was tres yummy!

A perplexed Mike with the stuffed capsicum.

Athania, Helen and I after our meal -- stuffed and happy. Mike's reflection would be visible in the picture too, if it wasn't for the crazy flash-mirror combination. Our heads look like little planets orbiting the sun...

happy special administrative region establishment day!

This picture was taken during my excursion to Sham Shui Po yesterday. Notice the HKSAR flags in the foreground, and the PRC flags across the street. I haven't seen flag displays like this anywhere else (though I'm sure there are more out there somewhere), so I'm assuming that each district decides how they want to decorate/celebrate the holiday. Anyway, can't believe it's been 10 years since the handover.

Oh, and happy Canada Day to any Canucks out there as well. :)

eat together

I went to crafty Sham Shui Po this morning, and managed to work in a meal at my favorite Chinese dive-of-a-chain-that-apparently-has-its-own-website -- Eat Together! Wow, and I just realized from looking at the picture below that it's a 24-hour chain -- I'll have to stop by for some late night/early morning meals, just because I can.


Here's the meal that I've come to love. Dam dam meen (or dan dan mian, for any Putonghua speakers out there)... not exactly sure how it translates into English, but it's a slightly spicy soup base with pork, pickled vegetables, a peanut-y sauce, and lots of cilantro thrown in for good measure. It might not look or sound very appetizing, but trust me, it's very tasty! And what could be better to wash it down with than a super-sweet iced lemon tea.
Besides all the positive attributes listed above, I think the coolest thing about this restaurant is the employee uniform. Yes that's right, it's all camo here, even down to the hat/hair-net combo things they're wearing.
I just checked out their website. Unfortunately, it is not very informative, though they do have an English page with a list of their specialties. Which brings me to this interesting tidbit: one of their specialties is imitation dog meat. Yes you read that correctly. Killing and eating dogs is illegal in HK, but I guess someone liked the taste of dog meat enough to want to experiment on creating a kosher imitation version that could be enjoyed in the HKSAR...

word for the day

Haberdashery: a shop selling small wears and sewing notions.


I think today was the first time I'd seen this word, though that's surprising, since I now know that quite a few shops in Sham Shui Po (my favorite crafty shopping destination) have the word in their name.

The sign on this store is one of many examples of how big, little-used or technical English words seem to pop up quite frequently in Hong Kong... which is ironic, as it seems to me that in countries where the majority of the population are native English speakers (or at least in N. America), simpler terms are usually preferred.

depression

I watched Cinderella Man for the first time last night and really enjoyed it! Not only is it a great, well, Cinderella story, but it also provides good insight into what life during the Depression was like. I've seen other movies set during the depression (my all-time favorite being O Brother, Where Art Thou?), but really liked the attention to detail paid in this movie. Yes, many movies do a good job of showing the desperation of that time, but in this movie, I appreciated seeing some of the creative ways that people met the challenges of Depression-era existence. Neighborhood kids all celebrating their birthdays together so that the cost of the cake could be shared, a mother adding water to milk to make it go further, etc. I like those everyday, seemingly unimportant details...

I've posted stuff about Shorpy: the 100-year-old photo blog before, but just thought that I would take this opportunity to point to their great collection of Depression-era photos. Many of them are by Dorothea Lange, whose work is pretty incredible.

my first "wildlife" documentary

No, it's not another cat video, don't worry. My neighbors have been on vacation for the past two weeks, and I've been looking after their lizard -- a bearded dragon. I'm not sure if I've ever been told her sex, but I've started affectionately referring to her as "Lizzy," and I guess I have subsequently projected some feminine features and qualities onto her. Voila, the lizard is a girl! I really enjoy feeding Lizzy. She'll occasionally eat greens, and she loves blueberries. But her favorite food at the moment is meal worms. I probably wouldn't enjoy feeding her so much if I had to feed her something cute and/or furry. But as it is, I'm not feeling much of a connection with the meal worms, let alone any sympathy.

Here's the video. It's of Lizzy grabbing a couple meal worms with her sticky tongue and chowing down.

megabox and spotlight

I went to a new mall -- MegaBox -- today for the first time. Wow! Here's a view of it from the shuttle bus that takes you there from Kowloon Bay. What a monstrosity!

One of the longest escalators I've seen. Takes you from L1 to L5 (the location of my destination -- Spotlight).

Spotlight. I'd been told by a few different people that I would like this store, and were they ever right. I've never been in such a huge craft store outside of North America, and I found the experience quite overwhelming. But after some deep breaths, I did make it through without having a breakdown/panic attack or buying out the entire store.
When I entered Spotlight, I told myself that I would stick to quilting stuff (still thinking about that tetris quilt!) and print/card making stuff. But then I came to the cross-stitching section and remembered the tetris magnets that I've been wanting to make. And then I came to the very extensive yarn section and decided I couldn't pass up an opportunity to crochet. But in the end, I think I did exercise quite a lot of self-control. Considering all the craft-related hobbies I've had in my 27 years, I was proud of myself for not trying to get back into all of them. I said no to the rubber stamps, to the scrap-booking stuff, to the popsicle sticks, and many others.

Here's what I did end up buying. A fabric cutter with board (very useful!) and yellow fabric, yarn, and supplies for the magnets. (Please note the curious kitten feet that made it into the top of the photo!)

And now that I have summer school starting next week and job applications to get in, let the crafting begin!

"you're so beautiful -- you could be a waitress..."

(That's one of my favorite lines from a Flight of the Conchords song. And in case you were wondering, no, I've never been paid such a compliment.)

I've liked FOTC ("the #4 folk parody duo in New Zealand") ever since Mike and Helen first introduced them to me months ago (you may remember some of my previous posts about them...), and was thrilled to hear that they now have their own sitcom on HBO. I don't think they're on HBO in HK yet, which is unfortunate, but one small consolation is that the first episode of their show is available on this website (another thank you to Mike and Helen!). I watched it last night with Amy and Aaron, and not surprisingly, we all laughed a lot. The premise of the show is that Jemaine and Bret have moved to NYC and are trying to make a name for themselves. To work in the songs that FOTC are known for, they do Bollywood-style montages and spontaneously burst into song. I think more shows should do this. Or better yet, I think this should happen in real life. On the show, they also have an obsessed fan, Mel, who seems like an interesting character. I just checked out the FOTC HBO website, and it turns out that Mel has her own fan blog -- sounds promising.

So check out the show if you haven't already and have 20 or so minutes to spare. The website also has links to a large number of other TV shows that are available online... I'm afraid to peruse the site too closely for fear that I'll get sucked in and come to consciousness days from now with a haze of TV catch-phrases as the only recollection of how I spent my time.

anna's jeans

Anna modeling her belated birthday present from moi -- her first pair of jeans!
Funny face.