Lauren Williams Handmade

Look what was waiting in the letterbox for me this morning! Lauren Williams and I did a little swap, and I scored two beautiful brooches and a ring. Thanks Lauren! You can see more of her work on her blog and on her etsy shop.

Well, we had jaunt to Singapore this weekend. Oh! It was lovely. We caught the double decker bus from KL, which was a vast improvement on our last train journey to Singapore. Actually, it was awfully luxurious. Meal included, complementary tea, coffee and water. Pillow and blanket. We stayed overnight in a cheap-o hotel, and wandered the streets, eating and looking. We remembered how nice footpaths are and spent much time at the Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery. There was even a visit to Spotlight(!). Here are some shots to show you how darn bright and colorful Singapore was.

Fun With Cut and Paste

Four collages I've made this week. Fun fun fun. All the paper is recycled too!

A Tardy Weekend Post

Saturday was 'let's go somewhere new day', so we trooped off to Central Market. It's in the city center and a tourist trap for sure, a bustling indoor market selling primarily Malaysian arts and crafts. Still, it was nice to spend a few hours fingering batiked cloth and woven shawls. There were also lots of badly designed t-shirts featuring KL landmarks. Our favourite spot was the antiques and collectibles area, where we found a box of ephemera - old used envelopes sent from Chinese migrants working in Malaysia back home. Or so the stall holder told us. We'll have to go back when we have spare cash and sharper bartering skills. Attached to Central Market is the Annexe, where all manner of 'fine art' is housed. No, it was pretty cool. There was a street full of portrait artist, each with a small studio where you could watch them work. The quality was pretty darn good, and we chuckled over the idea of commissioning a family portrait. (Like the one of the Kennedy family hanging over their mantle in Neighbours.) The real reason we made the trip to Central Market though was for the Annexe Gallery, a great contemporary art gallery. We saw a wonderfully tactile show called 'Please Touch' by Simon Keogh. So we did, and it was good fun!

After lunch we wandered out onto the street and eventually stumbled across China Town. I was quite excited about this, but it turned out to be full of knock off designer goods and sweaty people sneaking up to us and coyly opening a vinyl wallet saying 'DVD for you? DVD?'. Not very exciting. Still, not much compares to soaking up the energy of a city and you know what, we didn't buy anything remotely tourist-y. Except for a bottle of water...


Can you believe we didn't take any photos in either Central Market or China Town? All the above images are from the streets in between these two places.

Hey Nephew

Big shout out to my nephew (who likes to be referred to as X) whose parcel I've just received in the mail. It came covered in sweet little dog stickers and included great little gifts of chalk, Malaysian money and a nifty little rock. Thank you Mr X, you made my day!
xox k

Right. I'm doing this for the first time. Participating in a 'meme'. Lauren from lauren williams handmade has tagged me. It goes like this...

The rules are:

1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Here are six random things about me.

1. Yesterday evening as I walked to the supermarket to gather food for dinner a man on a motorbike yelled out to me, "Hello, nice dress!" I was too bemused to yell anything back. I wasn't wearing a dress.

2. I am going to commit the Malaysian word bodoh to memory. It means idiot.

3. In the town where I grew up there was a shop called 'Bali Bagus'. I used to spend a bit of time there, looking at the exotic housewares and batiked clothes. They had a novelty section. You know, rude novelty. There were also lots of framed prints of Bob Marley and traditional American Indians. It was the only place in town that sold incense. Malay (with dialect variations) is spoken throughout Indonesia. In Malay bagus means brilliant, cool, fantastic. Fantastic Bali! Naff shop!

4. I am home sick.

5. I am working on a series of paintings called 'I Dream of a Beautiful Home'.

6. I have an etsy shop. I set it up a little while ago. I should have told you I know, but I was waiting until I got more products on there. You can have a look, just don't laugh at the lack of variety, ok?

Hey Lauren, I know it's illegal, but I'm not gonna tag anyone. I uh, don't know enough bloggers...Is that sad? Maybe if your a blogger and wanna be tagged let me know, I'll tag you.


I can, however, introduce you to Frank and Iris. They're finger puppets, although here they're featured as pencil warmers. They're pretty versatile. You'll find them at my etsy shop soon.



edit: LilliEve has been tagged. I'm gonna tag you too Thistler.

We go here...

(This is a street in Damansara Utama, a suburb of Petaling Jaya. PJ, a city in it's own right, is next door to KL.)

to get this...

(this is a 'cuppacake' from one of our favoured cafes, wondermilk)