PaperMarket

New scrapbooking store in Raffles City basement: PaperMarket!
It's the biggest scrapbooking store I've seen around so far! And everything is so inviting, it's hard to leave empty handed. All scrapbooking stores are very enticing, but somehow this is MORE, you know? Pricy though, so I only bought one thing. But believe me, you just want to bring the whole store home *drools*
I bought the most usable thing for me - pretty masking tape! And I'm such a sucker for packaging, this is in a ziplock bag!! Just like food from Muji. Which I know, seems silly for paper tape. But now your tape will never get dusty!
So pretty~!

Sunday Fleamart

Guys, it is 5.21am and I am awake. I think it's the milk tea I drank at the HK cafe (the last time I had the milk tea, I slept at 6am...I have no idea what they put in the drink!). Perhaps it's also the mild depression after sending the dancers off at the airport. Perhaps it's the post-humous admiration for and sympathy towards MJ after watching too many of his music videos and interviews on youtube. I think his story is so captivating because he's like a walking conundrum -- black/white, man/child, straight/gay, male/female, hero/victim, saint/sinner, human/monster, pauper/king, man/god. He's just so enigmatic and controversial. The kind of person that makes you stop and think, makes you question yourself, your judgements, your assumptions. It's kind of the same way Adam Lambert pushes the boundaries and teases the public -- though I'm not trying to put adam on the same level as MJ here, haha. But definitely, these are two people who were born to be on stage and bring their music to the world.

Back to the sleeplessness, perhap it's also the nervous uncertainty after reading the email from ofm about the closure of the dance hall due to a h1n1 case in school. What do you do when you get an email from the school authorities telling you that the place where your cca trains is closed because someone who tested positive for h1n1 was there last weekend and so they have to close the place for disinfection? And you have training tomorrow (technically, today) and you don't know if you should cancel training and find some way to inform everyone in time so they don't make a wasted trip down to school, or spend the day sourcing for an alternative location? All this while realizing that the decision lies solely with you because the rest of your exco is overseas? And while trying to figure out a way to get a decent choreography out by 22 Jul...with NO venue for any practices? AND while grappling with the dangerous realization that you were in that very place on BOTH saturday AND sunday last weekend, and the entire competing dance group was there for five hours on sunday and they just left on a plane for europe (thereby, bringing the flu virus with them on the plane).

The worst thing about being up so late is that you start to think too much. I'm probably making a big deal out of the cca thing...but I'm nervous because there's no one to turn to!!

But I guess the best thing about being up in the wee hours of the morning is the random surfing on the internet...and then you come across precious gems like:

Eggy, wanna go?? If not I will find someone else to go with!

By the way, eggy if you read this in time...I found out what naumi is! It's a luxury boutique hotel and the name was so familiar to me (that day when we were at bras basah complex) because I did a big project on the marketing of boutique hotels in Singapore for my module 2 terms ago!! Anyway, I'm thinking of picking this hotel for the birthday thing :) Go check out the site, it sounds pretty rad. (OMG I just used the word rad, but I think it's pretty apt).

X-mini Capsule Speaker

Just bought this today! I bought the red one, and it looks really hot, a lot prettier than the black one ;) Can't wait to show you guys. The sound quality is really quite good for speakers of this size, it's a really clear and solid sound, and doesn't crack or sound tinny even at full blast. It has a pretty good base, which apparently, is all due to that brilliant accordion-like technology you see up there. My crappy laptop speakers can finally retire in good conscience. And, AND it's super portable, it really is that small! Palm-sized! And the cable is retractable, so you don't have to deal with a lotta long wires. And it came with a little pouch to carry it in! Y'all can check out this review to find out more techy info.

For $32.90 (it was on a small sale) I think it's really worth it. Plus, it's that really common plug, you know, that one, lol, so it works with most other things, including my ipod! Can provide music during sleepovers/picnics next time! I feel so high-tech and gadget-y! =D

Faux food

Just bought these at the bazaar near the science canteen today! I believe the lady said they were handmade with korean clay, but i can't really remember. Anw, cute right! =D Love how the cakes have chocolate sprinkles on them, and i think it's really funny that it's dragonfruit on the cakes, haha. The watermelon slices don't have stripes on the outside though, will just have to paint them in. But cute! =D They had really funny stuff like croissants, corn cobs and the longevity baos too, only, those didn't look as nice lah.

Wooden Mini Billiards

Bought this at Daiso today! =D It's really tiny! The whole table's just the length of my hand. But it's quite well made, easy to setup too. The balls are a little too light to really have a game with, but it's cute to have on your work table anyway =DAll packed into this small packet.All done! The table legs look pretty good huh!

Cool things for the home

Brush and Rinse, another award-winning design by Scott Amron. The back of the toothbrush has been modified so that held at a certain angle under the tap, it can produce a perfect fluid parabola! You won't need a glass any longer to rinse, or try to collect the water in your hands! It's amazing how he always manages to improve simple, everyday items that most of us never give a second thought to.
Pretty umbrellas from Pare that I want.

Useless and insensible, but so sweet (haha!). French Heart Sugar Cubes that sit on the edge of your cup. I have no idea why you'd want to do this though, wouldn't your tea/coffee remain unsweetened??

Cool things for the home

Water Me When I Tilt vase. The right amount of cross between design and functionality. As the water in the vase evaporates, the vase will tilt downwards, reminding you to water your plants =) Nick Foley's Pear Tree LEDs. The pears can be plucked from the trees! And they're rechargeable. Once the LEDs in the pear run out of battery, just stick them back onto the branch to charge =) Such fun, to make up for the lack of pickable fruit in Singapore.

Cool things for the home

Wallpaper that looks like light is coming through the window, seen at Apartment Therapy: San Francisco. Cool concept huh, and it really looks like it works.

Abduction Lamps!! How cool is this! It takes some crazy people to come up with this one, haha. I love this Bovine Abductee one, it's hilarious! They're still in the prototype stage though, as you can see here.

Features and add-ons below:

Alien Abductors

UFOs are not known to fly 'unaliened', and this one is no exception.

A wide array of aliens are available in different poses.

Bovine Abductee

We know that martians abduct hundreds of cows each year. We also know that Elvis lives on Mars.

Put these two facts together, and you'll realize that the Martians are busy collecting Earth cows to keep Elvis with a steady supply of hamburgers.

Human Abductee

It is well known that Martians abduct humans. We also know that Martians have useless hands.

Combine these facts with the previous conclusion, and it becomes clear that humans are abducted to serve as burger flippers to keep the King happy on Mars!

Multi function Antenna

The antenna has more functions than the obvious function of being an intergalactic communication device.

Pressing the antenna turns the lamp on and off. Turning the antenna enables the pulsating beam feature.

Maddy Pwns the Egg

Now, before I go into the Origami Night photos, please head over to this blog (and its flickr relative) for fabulous food photography.

Yes, big plans we had. But like they say, aim for the moon and you'll land amongst the stars. Or something to that effect. Did I just make up a quote?


So last monday, we headed to PS to execute the preparation plans for the big day. Daiso, the Japanese $2 dollar, proved itself to be a worthy resource for all things cheap and Nippon-made. Like in most other dollar stores, there were lots of crappy mass-produced items that looked like they were falling apart. However, we were still able to find some hidden gems. Some interesting things to look out for at Daiso are the sakura-inspired cookie cutters (which we tried to use for the Green Tea Cookies you'll see below), pretty cupcake liners (which you can find in this post), assorted origami papers (see below), kimono fabric pouches, kawaii notebooks (with grammatically incorrect inspirational quote included), and bamboo baskets (for a zen home design).

After Daiso, and a quick detour to Carrefour, we headed to our favourite coffee place, tcc (aka the coffee connoisseur) to make the invitations and party gifts. One thing I love about tcc is the interior design. The different outlets have different designs, but they're all equally funky and stylish. They remind me of the art boutique hotel rooms that I see on Discovery travel and living.

Eggy went for the usual Mocha Villa, while I tried out the Iced Minty Mocha (it's the one in the picture above). We then shared a third cup of Mighty Joe Young, which is a very interesting coffee-banana blend, topped off with banana slices. We always have potato wedges with our coffee because wedges are cheap and we are cheapo.

We had plans to make Geisha hairsticks with attached origami cranes and beads for distribution on Origami Night as party gifts. But even after several bouts of trial and error, we couldn't attach the beads and such to the chopsticks without them looking ridiculously homemade. I think our hairsticks weren't even remotely artistic. Luckily, the chopsticks came in handy later, as utensils rather than accessories.
Invitations were fun! We went for a "Geisha" tone which was easily achieved through the repeated use of the word "humble". Our literary juices suddenly began flowing at this point, and we churned out several Japanese pearls of wisdom.

"The armless samurai will have trouble wielding his sword."

"It is impolite to present an ugly man with a looking glass."

"A shallow river river dries up easily."

"A bamboo in the land of pandas does not remain bamboo for long."

and my favourite...

"Green tea may appear yellow."

Signed, sealed and delivered....

Now, on to the day itself... or the night itself, to be more accurate. We started with sushi. The first step was to chop up the avocado, cucumber and crabstick into sushi-size slices.

Then once the sushi rice is cooked, spread it flat on the seaweed. For sushi rice, we just used normal rice (Golden umbrella, haha) mixed with white vinegar, sugar and salt.

After laying the rice, we added the layer of sushi ingredients, which was later topped with Japanese mayo drizzled in DNA-inspired patterns. After that comes the most exciting part....time to ROLL!!

The aspiring sushi chef poses with a perfectly cut avocado maki. Notice the Japanese V-handsign and the supposedly humble, demure smile.

The sushi turned out much better than expected. We were initially quite depressed because of several rice scares...first the rice was too dry, then it became too wet, then it became too porridgey (like the porridge from sliced fish porridge, not like congee).

We chose Asahi over sake...unfortunately, I don't like beer, so I can't really say anything about the Asahi beer. It's something I still don't understand, perhaps with time I will learn. To me, it just tasted strange, nasty and bitter. It did, now that I think of it, smell pretty good. :D

We also had miso soup with dried tofu bits. This came straight from the instant miso packets. All we had to do was add boiling water to miso-paste lumps.

We also made green tea cookies! Basically, we added green tea powder (removed from green tea bags) to a simple cookie recipe. Initially, we used Eggy's sakura cookie cutters from Daiso to cut the cookie dough, but it didn't turn out the way we expected to. They looked more like mutated cookie lumps than adorable sakura flowers. The cookie dough also kept sticking to the cutters, despite our desperate flouring attempts. So we ended up making cookie balls and swirls instead. The cookie turned out tasting pretty good...we can actually taste the green tea! The texture of the cookies reminded me of those Chinese New Year melt-in-your-mouth white flour biscuits. I think they look pretty cute sitting here in the strawberry printed origami paper box.

Cold soba saved the day.

Of course, no Japanese meal is complete without green tea.

We should have called this Japanese Night instead of Origami Night...considering we BARELY did any origami.

Loloko

Alright, so it's my turn to flood the blog now =p But this isn't a long post, honest! Just some cute Japanese stationary from Loloko. Most of their stuff (including what I'm posting here) are card holders and magnets, but they have a few other things too.Mini-bench card holder. Serves as a coin holder tooEgg and mayo card holder! I really like this one! I even use the exact same Jap mayo, with the red criss-crosses and all! Electronics magnets
Shower magnet and cardholder. The showerhead and the bottom of the bear is magnetic, hence the blue paperclips.Cute sticky notepads!Wooden egg with blue beret cardholder =D
These are the cutest! They're ring-holders! I mean, just how cute is that! An apple, a pear, a mushroom and a cactus!

Okay, that's it =)

Alex Monroe

It's Friday, I'm in love, Alex Monroe has the most gorgeous stuff in nature related jewellery. Beautiful and elegant, and with really fine details, it's positively drool-worthy! And if you can't wear gold without looking like some chinese/indian auntie, most of these come in silver too, for a slightly lower price (the difference isn't very significant though, still highly unaffordable =p). Unlikely that we'll be able to buy any anytime soon, the prices are typical of gold jewellery, in the hundreds =p Someone, anyone! Quick, fall in love with me and buy me some of these!Feather ring, I really like this one, it's very unusual.Feather hoop earrings. Okay, I don't know how likely I'm gonna wear these, but they're so cool. Especially cos you stick the end of the feather through your ear.Hoop earrings. These are my favourite i think, i really really love them! They're so simple but so beautiful. Even the name is so simple! I covet them very much! Where to get £108!! Entwined Heart Bangle. Pretty huh. I like how the bangles are slightly textured, which gives them a slightly more modern look. Not your typical chinese auntie gold bangle.Swallow earrings.Hummingbird hoop earrings.
Tiny leaf studs. The detail on this is really quite amazing, cos it's really small!Filigree Lace Fern Locket, with a tiny gold bird inside. Isn't that so cool! He makes such tiny stuff, and well, for a guy, he makes really pretty and delicate stuff!Two birds on a ring, with a little nest and a pearl egg. The twigs of the nest look so fragile balanced on the branch, it's really fantastic.Circle bird and diamond necklace. If you look closely, you'll realise the circle has twiggy details.Rose ring. This is so pretty and girly right! Heck, even my mom loves this. For all romantics. Nori rose ring. I like the pretty rose gold colour. The stem of the rose goes all the way round to form the ring.Rose heart necklace. This one has a lot of detail, the heart is formed by entwined twigs, it has two tiny birds (i think) on the top left corner, and leaves on the right of the rose-gold, well, rose.
Leaf ring. I like this one too, very simple and pretty. A bit like Julius Caeser's laurel wreath actually, haha. Mummy likes this too =)

I just picked out the few that I liked best, lots more to see at the website. Go browse and feel wistful!