Baked not Fried

Finished brooches. I think I'll call them 'Potato Chip Series'. They are hand-cut (just like gourmet potato chips) from recycled and scrapped paper, layers hand-stitched and the whole chip is mod podged for protection. Don't eat them, just wear them. They are the result of my first couple of months in KL and I trashed a LOT of ideas to get to them. Why is it always the simple solutions that are hardest to come to?

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...

I just bought it home. Can you guess what it is? I bet you can. It's pretty obvious. It's not as pretty as my other machines, but it goes. And it has buttonhole stitch! Although no buttonhole foot...I'd better go and give it a whirl.

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.