One of the perks of being back in my home country is the ENDLESS op shopping to be had. There were no op shops in KL, at least that I could see. Thankfully I've landed in a small coastal city that is awash with treasure troves of used goodies. Mostly goodies. Often you come against someone's well worn pilled trackies. Or feather yarn. Sometimes Roxette tapes. Once in a while there's an old high school art class painting that makes you look twice, "Is that mine?"... Although I had ample opportunity, I picked up none of these things. I got a blooming good book called 'Flower Arranging in Colour' by Betty Massingham (image). A kilo of zippers. Some sweet sheets and pillow cases. A teeny yellow saucepan. And a nice chat with the woman behind the counter about the virtues of a good haberdashery collection.

Who knew a monsoon drain could be so pretty?

This weekend Malaysia celebrated Merdeka, or independence (from British rule). There were many many flags adorning houses, buildings and cars. A car covered in small flags is quite a sight, each one flapping gleefully in the breeze. There were lots of thing happening in KL (many sales, of course) and on Saturday Thistler and I headed down to the Annexe Gallery in Central Market for the Art for Grabs market they hold there every so often. The gallery was also putting on a programme of films and lectures about Malaysian identity (and constructions of) that looked pretty good, but our love of craft won out over intellectual curiosity...
Lots of handmade goodies to see, here are a few we bought home for ourselves.


This little critter is a handmade softie constructed from a glove. Rather in keeping with my own sock kitty. Below is a set of hand cut perspex brooches. The black fruit is a durian - a beguiling fruit that stinks to high heavens but is heavenly to taste, apparently. Never eaten it, but have certainly smelt it at the markets. That and the umbrella are perfect Malaysian souvenirs!



We totally made it up to our intellect this afternoon though. We were hanging out in the city when, surprise surprise, it started raining. We thought we'd pop in to see a film. 'Don't Mess With The Zohan'. Yes, it is as bad as you think it may be. At one point Zohan says he's from Australia (hiding his true identity) and another character says 'Oh, it must be nice there now that Apartheid is over.' We must've been the only Aussies in the cinema, cause no none else chuckled. Now I've told you the 'funniest' part, you don't need to see it.

Rainy Days

It's been raining all morning. Really raining. Tropical rain. I wonder how long it will last and how many parts of the city have flooded already. No matter, I'm enjoying it. It's a complete distraction.



I wish I smoked so I could stand in the open doorway, arms folded, sucking that cigarette and looking sardonically to the sky. Or reflective, like I was contemplating something REALLY big. "Yeah," I'd think, "it sure is raining."



These pictures go no way to showing you how much water is falling from the sky. But you get an idea of the colour scheme.

We have been getting lost in the city (again), eating banana leaf meals at 'lost' locations, dining with Russians, cleaning our drains and spying piano players in fancy malls.

Mr David is Selling His House

This banner was hard to miss as we walked up the highway to the shops. It wasn't there the next day. I wonder if Mister David managed to sell his house. With 5 bedrooms and 7 toilets I bet it was snapped up quick smart.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

"Here. Here I am dummy. In this shop window, playing at being a mannequin. Modeling this sweet outfit."
I walk past this shop window at least once a week. The very first time I did, I stopped and stared. This here dummy is a dead ringer for my little (!) brother. I kid you not. The face, the height, the hair!! It's uncanny, I swear.

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.

There I am preparing for the masquerade ball tonight...No no, obviously not. I'm at the Butterfly Park in KL. We went there Sunday afternoon, and what a lovely afternoon it was. A real treat, though even more hot and humid than the city! I never ever go in for butterfly things, but boy, those little flying insects sure are beautiful as they go flitting by. We also saw a snake swallowing a live frog, some rabbits (bunnies + butterflies = happy tourists I guess), loads of scorpions, hairy spiders, rhino bugs, leaf insects and dead, orderly pinned and displayed butterflies and insects (all behind glass).
The butterfly park is situated in the Perdana Lake Gardens not a ten minute cab ride from our place. The Lake Gardens is also home to the Bird Park, the Orchid Garden, The Deer Park, the Hibiscus Garden, the ASEAN Scultpure Garden and the Malaysian National Monument. Whew!! Next time we'll take a packed lunch and see them all.

It's Been Raining All Day

It has. It's so nice. Things have been a little slow here lately. Or, well ordinary. As in I don't have any ker-azy KL adventures to report. Thistler had a cold/flu thing, so our last few weekends have been spent at home, snuggling up under the air conditioning (?!). I've been expanding my softie family though and now have a rabbit and cat to add the made by maude gang. I'll show you later, ok? July has started off in a technology loving fashion. We've got an XBOX 360 and a camera now! Wow! So, no more phone camera shots. We have a boatload of games also but that's not really my department. Ahem, I only play the cute ones...
Anyway I know I've been absent ALL WEEK from this blog but I have been looking at other nice things. Here are two that made my heart beat a little bit faster...



cabin and cub made this beautiful mixed media collage, 'girl and bird'. Is it the pink gingham that got me? The cabin and cub etsy shop is full of more of these sweet, funny, beautifully designed pieces.



This is Raspberry Beret by truffle. Apart from making me hum the song, it reminds me of a piece of vintage cross stitch Thistler gave me the very first Christmas we had together. I sewed that piece onto a vest and it's one of my favourite tops. I can't wear it here cause it's too warm for woolly vests, but I could hang Raspberry Beret on my wall. Of course it helps that it's a blooming great piece!
Have you seen or experienced anything that has made your heart beat a little faster this week? Too much coffee, great art, labour pains, good cooking, paint fumes?

Teksi!

image from here

Have you ever have fun in a taxi? I have. Tsk tsk, don't be rude please. I mean the sort of good time you have when you have a happily unexpected conversation with someone. Most taxi drivers begin by asking me where I'm from. Australia garners mostly 'OH, Australia.' This means they don't really know anything about Australia. Sometimes they ask you which part, sometimes they have family there, occasionally they say "oh, down under!" Usually they ask what season it is. 'Winter", I say, 'It's cold now!' Then we both chuckle because a.) It's possible the driver has never experienced winter and b.) I'm sweating like crazy all over his upholstery, and boy, do I wish it was winter here! Lately I've been having conversations about Malaysia and it's mixed cultures, and how everyone just tries to live in peace and have a good time. This is usually mixed in with some of mine and some of the driver's personal story, and are wonderful encounters.

Yesterday as I walked toward the taxi rank in Bangsar the driver started flashing his lights. I thought maybe it was a secret code or a joke he had going with another driver. Or maybe he'd seen his friend over the road. Anyway, I got in and told him where I was going. He was about 60 and Indian Malay.
"Oh sweetheart, no problem, I can take you there sure" he said. I ignored the embellishments and smiled.
"I was flashing my lights at you but you didn't signal!" he cheekily exclaimed.
I laughed "I wondered what you were doing!"
"Oh darling, you should have hailed me and I would have driven up to where you were!"
"Ha ha, sorry. I wasn't sure you were doing that for me!"
"Ohh yes, I ALWAYS flash my lights when I see a beautiful lady!" He glances in the rear vision mirror at me and smirks, but in a friendly way.
"HA! Do you always get a good response?"
"Oh yes, I always get the lady's heart!"
I make some more chuckling noises and look out the window. Now he thinks maybe he's gone to far and that I'm frightened.
"Ohh sweetheart, don't worry," he coos, "Where you from?"
"Australia."
"Oh yes. Which part? Sydney?"
"No, Melbourne, down the bottom."
"Ohh, I have family in Sydney. They like it very much. I've been there."
"Really? Do you like Australia?"
"No." He glances in the mirror again.
It's my turn to smirk, in a friendly way. "Why not?!"
"Too cold!" We laugh and he is pleased with his joke.
"Why you here, you got family here?"
"My husband is working here" OK, I'm not married. My partner is working here, but it's easier to explain if I say husband (instead of 'boyfriend', which sounds high-schoolish to me, or 'partner').
"Oh, I didn't know! You look so young. If I knew I wouldn't have tried to... Ah, I was going to put in an application to be your husband!" More smirks, laughing eyes in the mirror. Oh this guy! By now I'm laughing, laughing. OK, shall I try and turn the tables on him?
"What about you, you married?"
He quiets down a bit. "Oh yes, I'm married". Ah ha! I think. But he is far more practiced at this kind of conversation that me. He changes the subject.
"I tell you, in this city, watch your handbag!"
"Oh yes, I know I know!"
He's looking at me in the rear view mirror again, grinning playfully. "I never steal from ladies, no no. Never steal their handbags. I steal their hearts, then everything they have is mine!" Killer shot, Mr Taxi Driver! You win, you have my heart...

I'm still giving this blog a bit of a makeover (inspired in part by meet me at mikes great posts about doing right by your blog) so some things are a bit woozy at the the moment - like the link list. Here's some news for you though - an hour ago an ATM ate my bankcard!
xx maude
p.s. If you're crafty or a craft lover, bloggie or a blog lover you have to get over to meet me at mikes right now and join their tea party. It's so much darned fun!

Winner!

I was going to post about our weekend and my fabric shopping woes but was just over at April May's blog and discovered I have won her Friday Giveaway! This makes me very excited!! I'll post something later. Maybe. For now I'm going to wash the dishes while I bask in the glory of having won something. Thanks Sam! xx maude

Make Over

In keeping with yesterday's post on new clothes, I thought I'd give this blog some new clothes also. Or rather, dress it properly. It's suffered from not having a handmade banner since the beginning, and I finally rectified the problem. With a little help from Thistler of course. Everything is a bit lo-fi here. Well obviously we're hardly an analogue household, but we just don't have access to all our computer files, a digital camera, scanner or printer, which I find limiting for this sort of thing. So the banner turned out a bit wonky. But then, everything I make is a bit wonky...

Colour Me Striped

There's nothing like a new outfit to make a lady feel nice. Yesterday was a Mega-Mall day, but it was ok, 'cause I came home with the booty. And it's been a while coming, because the pants situation in my wardrobe was getting dire. I finally found a pair of jeans that didn't have super pre-faded thighs, weird ruching at the knees or a skinny leg fit. That sort just don't work for me. I also purchased stripy tee with a bit of puffy sleeve action (my favourite sort of sleeve!). That brings my grand total of striped tops to eight, plus one pair of striped shoes. It's not intentional, I just gravitate toward the stripe. I don't have a pair of striped pants though...


New striped tee and newish striped shoes. The light stripe in the shoe is actually SILVER GLITTER. Yeah, they are special.

A while ago I let a shop lady dress me. Oh boy, what an experience. I was in the sort of shop you know you're not going to find anything in but you look anyway, with the vague hope of finding a 'fun' little t-shirt at a bargain price. Well, the shop assistant plied all kinds of long bat-winged, spangled and screen printed tops on me, paired them with a pair of aforementioned jeans and then, after assessing the assemblage, topped it off by removing her own belt and putting it around my hips. Mmm, white vinyl belt wrapped around a pair of generous hips. Nothing says STYLE more. I don't know why, but I let this charade carry on for 15 minutes. I wanted to see how I'd look if I dressed like someone completely different. So for a short while that afternoon I was a nasty, cigarette smoke smelling teenager. I wish I'd worn lots of eyeliner. I kept saying that I didn't like the bat wing experience, that I was really to short to get away with it. At these protests she would purse her lips a little and say 'But it's the style!". Oh right. How can you argue with that?
Just quickly, I am getting to grips with my new sewing machine. It's noisy, it sort of growls where others whir and the reverse action is a little clunky. I've made a couple of bird softies though, and think I'll be attempting some new purses today. And when I find the fabric, maybe another striped t-shirt...

A Beautiful Loaf Story

Is it really June 2ND? Cripes, how time flies. It's a drizzly day in KL, which is perfect for a day of pottering. A bit of housework, some crafty times, coffee and magazines.

We had our very first dinner guests last night! Thistler made his signature dish - Spaghetti Bolognaise. Oh boy, we haven't had that for a long while. It was home style cooking at it's best! Our guests surprised us with a 'beaut mango cheese cake for dessert. I wish I had taken a photograph of it before we tucked in. You know when you walk past a cake shop and they have achingly cute/sweet/funny cakes on display? This was one of those. When I opened the box I kinda squealed with delight. It was from a place called 'Loaf Story' (i.e Love Story) - this bakery is really popular in KL. It came in a great box and even had it's own knife! What is it about packaging that makes things extra special?

Half eaten cheese cake. I've just eaten another slice...

On Saturday we bought a sewing machine. Hurrah!! A second hand straight shooter. Straight stitch, zig zag, buttonhole. Very very affordable. I'll be picking it up later in the week. I can't wait to get that machine sewing!

p.s Despite the date at the top of this post, it really is June 2ND here. Promise.

Our Weekend Looked Something Like This

Fresh and dry produce at the Bangsar Sunday Market, coffee and cupcake from guess where?

The past week or so I've been nutting out some ideas for my new art project. I have a concept I'm working on based around the idea of home. Here's a sneak peak at three images I've made so far.


The images are watercolour and thread. I can't remember having ever used watercolour before. It was all we had around the house so I cracked it open. I don't use it with any sort of finesse, but I am absolutely loving it. I've also created my own surface patterns, which is another new step for me! Previously I had used existing objects as stencils to create surface pattern. These images are called, for now, "Table", "Light Fitting" and "Bed".

A Few Things I Haven't Mentioned Yet

* I completed my very first cross stitch project a few weeks ago. I bought one of those dinky little kits in a pansy motif. I never knew cross stitch could be so much fun! Maybe it was due to the 'stitch by numbers' aspect of it, but I found it engrossing and relaxing. I love methodical repetition when I make things (although I try to balance that with variety and spontaneity) , so cross stitch served that obsession.

* A while ago I made a lovely tofu salad thingy and, for the first time I can remember, Thistler happily chowed down on the tofu! That was until he fished a shell out of his mouth. I kid you not, he found a tiny shell in his piece of tofu! Oh boy, I wish we took a photo. We were shocked. What on earth?! After a bit of blustering we figured they must process tofu with seaweed in it on the same equipment at the tofu factory. At least it wasn't a hair, or a finger...

* I have never been in so many taxis all my life since coming to KL. Taxi drivers are as varied as any group of people you're likely to meet. Some are dandruff friendly, some are a little deaf or think I'm a little deaf and yell "left la?!" at intervals to check they're going the right way. Others are chatty and funny and ask us a lot of questions. We had such a driver once. He was lovely, dispensing advice about how to best handle other taxi drivers, places we should go in KL and the benefits of the Australian/Malaysian exchange rate. When we reached out destination he turned to us and said "Can I sing you a song before you go?". "Wow", I thought, "We are about to be serenaded by a taxi driver!"
"Sure!" we said. And he sang, "Tie me kangaroo down sport, tie me kangaroo down..."

• 

Where Are All The Sewing Machines?

I've just come back from searching for a sewing machine.  We searched last night too, at the Mega Mall, scouring the department stores.  The one shop that had them wouldn't sell it to us!  It was the only one on the shelf, I think it was the demo model.  Cripes!!  Earlier that day Thistler had asked at an electronic store if they sold sewing machines and the friendly assistant said "Showing Machines?  Yee-ees, over here..." and took him to the TVs.  Step right up and see the wonderful showing machines, sixpence a view, wonders await!  Today I went into Bangsar and asked at the fabric store, but they didn't know where to buy a sewing machine.  I'm pretty sure this fabric store offers a tailoring service...  Oh well.  I'm about to do a comprehensive web search.  Maybe I can buy online.  For now I guess I'll stick to paper products and refine those hand stitching skills.

                                                      I wish...