Onion

Its been a long time since I paint with watercolour. It was not easy but in the same time fun! These day I try to do something more relaxing for myself. Picking up what I have been wanting to do like; reading my mountain pile of magazines, punch needling, clay, traditional painting.

So much stress going on around the globe lately that it puts me on break but even so, still involve in some creative activities! :) We just can’t live without creative stuff no?

Also, I learnt it from youtube. You must keep the butt on when slicing onion if you want to avoid teary eyes! It works!!!

Punch Needle - ing (First Attempt!)

Finally doing some punch needle! I always wanted to do some punch needling ever since few years back when I discover the beauty work of Laura Ameba. I bought her book back then but I have no chance to learn how to do it and where to get the tool. Finally, I just purchased her miniature punch needle last month and hope that one day I could attend her class virtually or physically in Japan.

That aside, I found this bigger punch needle when I went to nearby shop here in Copenhagen. The sales person was so kind enough to point me to different materials. I am so happy that we became instagram friend! She studied textile. Isn’t that cool? So, I bought DMC 10 punch needle with fabric and some cottons. I kid you not, it was so difficult to get it right. But with more and more patience! I did it! Well, its not perfect and still have lots to learn but I did it nevertheless. I want to do more as a coaster / rug. So fun!

Count our blessing :)

Hi, guys! What’s up? Recently lots of good things happened despite the alien virus. Let’s count our blessing and happiness instead of terrible stuff, ok? :) Also, I just want to share with you guys!! Finally, after contemplating. I gave in and bought Dymo label writer! I am so happy to received it this morning. Now, I don’t have to go to post office anymore to send my stuff and don’t need to write them one by one anymore. I can just print print print! And no ink! But…. my fault, not checking the information details on the website. Now, I have to wait for my sticker! HAHA! How klutz am I and I have to wait for another 5 days whaaaaaat! But its ok never mind don’t panic. Its another 1 week to go ;p. Oh, yes! For you who doesn’t know, I do have an Etsy shop!!! Here you go >>> LINK

Smile

Something for you :)

the importance of index finger!

Hi! How are you? What did you do over the weekend? I was so happy over the weekend!! Me and owl (my husband) went out for getting me a cute desk clock for my new working table which arrived on Sunday! I am still excited over my new proper working space. I didn’t have one coz our flat in the UK back then was too small for two tables and since I draw mostly on iPad, I don’t need much space. Owl in other hand, need proper table for playing computer game (priority), doing his own stuff on computer!

Can’t help but going to paint paint paint with my new watercolour (gifted by mom when we went to Japan last year) Mom always spoilt us when it came to what we need and love. She went to Japan with dad end of last year and got me cute toys, dolls from disneysea, all sorts of mt tape designs, cute fork and spoon set and much more!! I do love it, I feel like I am forever mama small lil girl 💕💕😁. Actually 3 of us (my sisters) feel that too. I miss mom so badly! Feel like giving her big big hug now. But its ok! I’ll give her huge one when we go back to Indo.

Oh, I made gimbap for me and owl for lunch. Made wayyyy too much! This time round the gimbap has more taste and was delish! We couldn’t finished them so keeping them for dinner (so that’s the plan) until I cut my index fingers. We were freaking out coz the cut was okay deep and about 1cm long or maybe more and it bleed so much!! Then owl said no more gimbap for dinner, keep them for my lunch today since I couldn’t really prepare food for myself… I then realised hmmm index finger is so damn important! oh well, all fingers are but I didn’t realise much that we use lots of index finger for our everyday life.

Me and owl finally get our twin jacket to keep us warm. I love our jacket so much!! Also, since they are different colours but same size, we can rotate them! Hehe me and owl shared some stuff together! 😂😂😂

fourth week in Copenhagen!

Hi, guys! How are you? (not even sure if anyone read this but hey! I just want to share and since I don’t talk a lot to anyone aside from my husband, video call with my family back in Singapore and Indonesia and couple of friend yeah! I need to practice my English lol).

So, we finally moved to Copenhagen now. This is our fourth week here! This is sort of insane, we basically living in different country each year. Everything happens so quickly but thank god everything is smooth sailing. We had our apartment ready even before we reached Denmark! How cool is that! The shipping company was swift too. Everything went according to plan.

I love it here, especially the side we are staying now. Its so quiet and you can’t hear any transportation around. Only occasionally kids screaming happily playing at the playground right outside our apartment. The place is spacious and we have nice balcony here! Sadly I couldn’t go out much coz it so windy out there and so cold. My nose cannot handle the weather. But I make sure to at least go out three times a week, be it going to buy grocery or just take a small stroll around.

So, yesterday I decided to go visit Studio Arhoj store!!! YAY!!!💕💕💕💕💕 It was always on my wish list to visit the store. I just love studio arhoj stuff!!! Of course, I adopted another familia and also the sing porcelain (always wanted one). My plan from there was to visit this t-shirt making place. I was thinking to dropped by and check their material. I am planning to make more merchandise this year. I HAVE TO MAKE IT HAPPENED THIS TIME. Also tote bag, but sadly it isn’t open for public. So, I’ll have to just check out their catalog or may be email them.

After that, I went to SMK Statens Museum for Kunst. That museum is my first choice to go coz I feel a little bit uninspired lately. I have been wondering why everything happening so slow for me. I promise to do better this year. The first thing I googled was Henri Matisse exhibition in Copenhagen. And SMK came out on the list. They exhibit his work on French Artist section. I am glad I went to SMK yesterday.

They are having Anna Archer’s (painter from Skagen) exhibition. The ticket booth lady told me to check the exhibition out and boy oh boy! They are amazing!!! When talking about great old painters, all you can think of are all the male painters I hardly heard about female painter. I was in awe browsing her artwork. Her use of brush, light, color everything. They are amazing there are few paintings are my fave. It was a great day in museum yesterday! It was fun, informative and inspiring. I also went to see early nordic painting which not to my liking I found them abit too eerie at least to me. I am more of colourful type. Also browse some Matisse and Picasso work some that I never seen before or may be I am just lack of paying visit to the museums.

today I miss our little chihuahua, hero! he is one naughty boy. he doesn’t like strangers, will only get closer to you when our parents not around or when you have foods close to you! he will jump up high when he sees foods!!! he is super alerted when he hears plastic (he thought someone opening snacks) and also the sound cling clank sound of tableware. he is one weird loveable boy. we love him so much.

you can do it!

I’d like to share what I illustrate recently! Its actually depicted what I feel every single day! In the morning, before I brush my teeth or at night before I go to bed. I’d like to tell myself never give up! you can do it! Everything is going to be okay if I don’t give up and keep on trying! :)

London meet up with authors & illustrators

So, I finally NOT chicken out and attended this meet up organised by Natalia Ohara (author) and Lauren Ohara (illustrator). They are so nice! I was furious actually. Being just recently moved to UK, the only friends I have are my husband Adrian and my friend from Singapore Shaun (we met occasionally coz he live far away!) oh if I could included owl’s friends and his family! So aside of communicating with them and sales person at coffee shops / market. I have not talking to strangers for more than 5 minutes! So, I went there earlier coz I am hungry and first met the creative duo sister they are so sweet and kind. They made sure everyone has the chance to talk to each other. I can imagine how tiring that was coz back in the day I always organised events and workshops so yeah! Kudos to both of them!! Do check out their instagram HERE (if anyone reading this) they have published several books! I’ve read one of it Hortense and the Shadow. I love the book! It reminds me a lil bit of Peter Pan and his shadow. I just love magical stories :)

So, I met lots of authors and illustrators. Having them talk about the industry in raw no edit no sugar coating is so so refreshing and inspiring. I mean, it inspired, encourage me in some way. It is fun to listen to their stories. I might have made a friend too!!! We might meet up next month for his husband’s exhibition at Tate Modern. How cool is that? I am so looking forward! :)

Please please check out this book! buy it for you son, daughter, nephew, niece or even yourself! I am going to get my own copy next month! need to save up coz I splurge too much on magazine this month.

coffee

After my portfolio consultation last week, I decided to be more active on writing my blog. First, so that hopefully if even anyone dropped by my website to view my work you can get to know me tiny bit more :) also to just pour out my interest, my nonsense, randomness and improved my English.

So since I am taking a bit of interst in coffee and some of my friends will ask me which coffee place I prefer and what not, I’ll post what coffee bean we brew each month or twice a month depends on how long we finished the beans! I also think that would be interesting and also give me more understanding of what I actually consume and learning to appreciate it more and more! I always feel dumfounded when the barista asked me, which bean do you prefer? I was nervous!
So here it is! Also to practice my illustration, build up on my portfolio and also hopefully one day I can make a zine out of them! :)

We just finished last batch of Ozone Coffee! I love it. I am someone who doesn’t love dark roast and too sour! but this beans has Lemon, white florals and blueberry. So the sales person said it will have a hint of sourness but it just depends on how you brew them. So far, owl brew it as what I like. This beans is organic beans, fully washed, from Guji, Ethiophia. Just so delish. I told owl, it reminds me of coffee I drank in Japan. But I couldn’t remember which one! It is just so yummy sometimes I can “picturing” the smells in my head and I just wanted to drink it again randomly at night or afternoon. ps, you can read about this coffee more and get it here!

magazine

I am magazine lovers! I am not sure since when but I always love to collect all sorts of magazines. I had to donate some away when I moved out from my old place so now I am more conscious in selecting magazines I love, so I won’t have to give them away as much! Some of my faves are Monocle, Wrap, Frankie, Flow Magazine, Breathe, Oh Comely, B Magazine, So En (Jap fashion magazine), Little Things (Taiwanese magazine), Drift, Ambrosia and lots more. Recently I discovered much much more magazines when I visited Magma in London and Manchester. I drawn to those magazine usually because of their cover and then their contents. Guilty as charge I am that kind of people who judge by its cover :p

Lately I have been hooked by Standart Magazine. A magazine about tea and also coffee! Isn’t it nice!! With coffee being so hype this past few years, people has been busy talking about coffee coffee coffee! Coffee became a source of social media hype as well. I love coffee but I love tea first. Tea and coffee are quite similar in my opinion. They both grow, picked and roasted carefully by the producers. Such hardwork!! Standart magazine teaches me about them in a way. I am always a curious cat! I always like to know about all sorts of things. My love of black coffee (filter coffee for me please!) all came from my husband. I could never drink black no sugar no milk but I feel like in order to taste the greatness of the beans I should give up sugar and milk in my coffee. Also, it makes me feel cool and super mature back then. He always bring me to try different cafes back when we are still dating back in Singapore. Then when we got married and moved in together, we tried to brew our own coffee.

I still remember we bought our first coffee grinder that worth only 1000 JPY from Japan and a Hario V60 for less than 20 SGD coz we are just so cheapo and don’t dare to spend more for it. After one year or so of trying to brew our own coffee (well mostly owl brew it) watching youtube, reading article from google. It just slowly became a habit for us! We ditched our Nespresso machine and just stick to brewing our own coffee by v60! We also upgrade and bought us nicer ceramic v60, kalita wave, goose neck kettle, thermometer and even small scale and then trying different type of paper. Having so much fun with it! Especially, when we visited Japan last year we went to Yamamoto Coffee! Sooo many coffee stuff there and the owner was so nice! We asked lots of questions regarding the tools.

But the most important thing is also the beans!!! We went crazy especially whenever we / me visited Japan. So owl love to brew them. I love to buy beans! Whenever I went travelling I’ll brought back diff type of beans. Hmm if you ask me, I don’t know a thing about them lol. I am curious to know more about the taste tho. At least I know how I love my coffee. But our fave now is coffee beans from Fuglen, Koffee Mameya, Ozone coffee! I’ll read up more about them again so thank you Standart magazine to get me excited with coffee even more! ps; I really wish to work with them in the future!!!

a little bit of happiness

I’ve been always wanted to have a white nike Air Force shoes. I just love the design! Clean, crisp not too bulky for women too! I wish I have them in every color! I got mine in Kyoto when me and owl had our late-honeymoon after 1 year of marriage ;p but I am glad we did that. Instead of splurged our moola for wedding, home, renovation and honeymoon. We chose to have a small wedding instead with our close family and friends (although, up until now I always wish my grandma could made it to our wedding. bless her soul I love her dearly) And yeah! last year marked 3 years of our wedding!!! I painted and design our wedding invitation too and using dino as our mascot ;p since both of us love it.

my nike!!

So, back to the shoes! I decided to give a bit of life and happiness to my worn out nike. And I am in love with it! I just grabbed a marker and draw. Owl warned me, I should use proper tool to do that but I cannot wait! Also, any idea what proper tool should I use? I would love to get a new pair (since this pair got hole on the bottom haha!) Ok, here it is!!

Japan here we come!!! (but its months away)

So, as owl promised we are going to Japan next year!!! I am super excited. Japan always has a special heart in our heart. I just feel at ease when I am there. The culture, the people, the foods!!! HOW CAN YOU SAY NO TO THE FOODS! the magic CONVENIENT STORES everywhere we go! Its just like a playground! :) Everywhere I go, I am like oh! this is cute, this illustration is so clever, those colors, those message! That’s Japan!

Can’t wait to replenish my art supplies from Sekaido or Tokyu Hands! I should probably stop getting more and more pretty masking tape as well but who am I kidding!

One of my fav alley at night! They serves good food!

So, this time round we are only going to Kyoto and Tokyo. I’ll probably be alone most of the time when I am in Tokyo, coz I’ve promised owl that he could have his gaming nerdy time with his friend. I don’t mind to wander around alone, in fact I do enjoy alone time. Its just me, I got to be selfish and I feel relax! But then of course if owl with me we could share lots of foods together! I do prefer going to galleries / museum and new food place with owl so I can try more stuff!

Not that anyone be reading this but do you also love Japan as much as I do? or even more? Where is your favourite place and what is your favourite activity in Japan?

my little digital shop is here :)

It is tiny tiny little shop but it is here on Etsy!

fun day at East London

Me and owl went to London on Saturday. Sadly, I caught flu T_T and not that enjoy my lil adventuring. But we still had fun :) I chance upon Tatty Devine!! OMG! There were time that I was so crazy about it!!! Owl bought me the customised necklace and also wooden horse pin :) I still love them so very much. There are a lot of pretty shops on our way from Broadway Market to Old Spitalfiels. It was sure a very long walk but the walk we did enjoyed so vey much! We had my first boba in UK and also yummy chicken briani from indigo at Old Spitalfields Market :)

risograph workshop

I went to London for risograph workshop at Hato press. It was fun!!!

Risograph this dino

also this couch potato illo. just nice above my fave all in one couch!

Hato press!