Rest In Peace, Mr Lee

My country has lost its founding father. It was news I was expecting with his health taking a terrible turn, but it's still so sad to hear. Singapore is in mourning, and I mourn too from afar. Regardless of whether we agreed with his ways, I can safely say that Singaporeans appreciate and are forever indebted to this man. We wouldn't be the country we are without him.

I find myself crying for him, but also for our stoic Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who delivered a short speech in three languages, announcing to the nation that his father was no more. The composure he demonstrated was simply admirable. I couldn't imagine doing that after losing a parent with such grace.

Rest in peace, Mr Lee. We're in good hands.

Photo Strip Love

This photo strip sent me on an emotional roller coaster ride! My sisters and I piled into a photo booth in Northampton, MA a few years ago, and I can't tell you how much I love this photo strip. I even made my sisters little wall hangings with the photos printed on fabric :)

When we started hanging pictures, I'd gotten it in my head that I need to put the photo strip into a wall frame so I can enjoy the silliness on a daily basis. Then a sudden dread filled me... I didn't know where it was! My guess was that I'd put it somewhere safe when we moved, and it was safe even from me. Sigh. Such an idiot. So I tore through the entire house searching for the stupid thing to no avail :(

I woke up the next morning and moaned about it to the hubs... about how I couldn't even remember where I'd had it before we moved, let alone where I might've put it during the move. He then reminded me that I'd stuck the photo strip in a ribbon noticeboard in our old bedroom.

HOW DID HE REMEMBER THAT AND I DIDN'T?! This is a man who introduces himself to people several times over! The man who can't remember what he ate for lunch by dinnertime! The man who forgets to buy milk on the way home from work when I'd just told him before he started driving home. (Seriously, why do I put up with this?!)

I was filled with glee, then back to dread when I realised I still had no clue where it was lol! The hubs kept reminding me that I had to get my bum to work because I was in the midst of a rush custom job, but I was just so obsessed with finding the bloody thing.

Aaaaaand I finally found it. In a big plastic bin in the built-in cupboard where the cable box lives. A cupboard I look into every day when I turn on the TV and cable box. What in the world was it doing in there?!?! How'd I not see it?? Good lord. You'd think I'd take better care of something that's so precious to me!

Anyway, all's well that ends well :) It now sits pretty in its frame on my side of the bed, and I can see their silly faces every day :)

Randomness

- How adorable is this book on Parisian kitties!?

- This made me laugh and go aww :)

- Americans taste test Singapore food. Hilarity ensues. And now I want satay...

- I found out Garnier changed its moisturiser formula when I opened a new bottle. How? I got a burning, red, puffy rash all over my face and neck, that's how. I had it on for all of 10 minutes, and it was horrifying. Apparently I'm not the only person who's found out the hard way! (Read the reviews... one poor girl suffered for five months!) I've since tried Olay with the same result, and landed on Eucerin for sensitive skin (DUH! Should've gone there first!) and I'm happier than a pig in shit.

- This made me laugh so hard because my American lecturer at uni brought her Aussie in-laws to the US to stay with her parents, and while her mother-in-law was up on a ladder putting a suitcase away, her father kindly told her not to fall on her fanny. The poor man was completely mortified when he found out what 'fanny' meant to an Aussie / Brit. I'm laughing again right now... tears... streaming... Woo breathe...

- And I'm a HUGE Wayne's World fan, I shall leave you with the above :)


Picture from here and here.

DS Sample Sale

A couple of weekends ago, I took a trip down to Bridgeport to Denyse's studio for her annual sample sale! I had a couple of friends who asked me to pick up a bundle of her new collection, Franklin... I haven't gone mad and bought three for myself! I got some scrap bags and a couple of odd ends.

I didn't stay long this time because my usual peeps didn't go this year. I went with the hubs, and while I shopped and had a chat with Denyse, he found a place that was selling used CDs. We now own a Mott the Hoople CD that doesn't even have my favourite song of theirs. Wonderful. Slightly passive agressive there, honey. Hahaha!

But as short as it was, I loved it :) It's always great eye candy being in her studio, and we got to wander around the building because it was an open studio weekend. We took a ride down to Westport for lunch at Shake Shack (YUM!) and did bits of shopping there and Orange... then home again, home again, jiggity jig!

My apologies for this blog being super quiet the last month or so. I've been extraordinarily busy, and as a result, very tired. And there's always that phenomenon of the longer you leave the blog, the harder it is to get back to it! But I've got quilts to show you, so hang tight :)

After The Rain

I took a little stroll around the yard after it stopped raining the other day. I could've sworn these marigolds were dead, thanks to me, but here they are, all alive and blooming. How??? They were brown and crispy! 

I do know there's no coming back for the petunias... one of them actually dried up, tipped over and fell out of the pot. Ahem. 

I'm so glad I took a picture of these tall grass things because the hubs chopped them all down the very next day. All gone. Every single one of them. Sad times. Till next year, you tall zebra-looking things. 

And we've got quite a few spiders building webs all over the place. I lived in Australia, so naturally when I see a spider, I want to make it all kinds of dead. The hubs won't allow me, so they now live in the bushes around our house. Great. Awesome. Wonderful. 

But at least it's pretty when it rains!

Randomness: The Verbal Diarrhea Edition

- Aren't these gladiolus in my front yard just ridiculously gorgeous? Things keep popping up in our yard that we have no idea are there... I continue to be amazed one year on! Good job, Nature! And the previous owners...

- The summer weather has been weird. Sometimes steaming hot and muggy, sometimes cool-ish but somewhat humid, and sometimes it's just so bloody hot you pray for sweet, sweet death. And no matter the weather, all I want to do is eat ice-cream or froyo. Which I've done a great job of not doing despite my reputation for having no self-control. But the struggle is real.

- Recent things I've shouted to the hubs from the shower include, "That wasn't me! It was the conditioner bottle!". Classy.

- I'm trying to figure out what to do with the Cotton + Steel fabrics because I need it in my house! On my bed, on my sofa, EVERYWHERE. Too damn good.

- But I did make one as a sample for work... pictures to come!

- 25 Husbands who must be stopped... They require patience and a sense of humour, don't they?

- We had something living in our backyard, and we think it's gone now. The hubs found parts of a bunny, and most of a bird, and then spotted the culprit one morning. He initially thought it was a fox (because he failed science apparently) but upon looking at pictures, I determined it to be a damn fisher cat. In other news, I'm never going outside again. I'll keep an eye on the baby bunnies and chipmunks from the safety of my house.

- I feel awful for these 11 doggies who ate bees (and I hope they're alright!) but I couldn't help but laugh hehe!

- I now have a blog post with 'diarrhea' in the title. I win everything.

It Only Took A Year

We got art on the wall, ya'll! It only took an entire year! Yay! High five!

I don't know why we kept putting it off... I think after we moved in, we kind of couldn't be stuffed anymore and eventually forgot about the decorating part. So that's the wall in our living room... a bit of love for NYC / Brooklyn, Lisa Congdon, The Black Apple, Marc Johns, a hilarious Batman / Joy Division (Ian Curtis) mash-up, and one my sis gave me that I've absolutely no clue who it's by. She also gave me the Marc Johns one because that's what our tattoos are based on :)

I've thrown a quilt over the sofa because it is cooler than sitting on microsuede in the summer. Gah is it September yet?! Although, mercifully, the weather has been lovely the last few days!

It also took an entire year to finally change out the hideous light fixture in the dining room. And only because the stupid rotary dimmer decided to get stuck in the on position. It was original to the house, so we've now had it changed out and join modern times, so we thought we'd get the light fixture swopped out at the same time. 

By the way, if I'm being honest, it took about nine months for us to decide on dining chairs. We finally used the dining table for its intended purpose this week. I have no excuse. Moving on...

This one's in our bedroom, taken on the day we actually got married. 11am on a Wednesday in his parents' living room. Romantic.

This print is also in our bedroom :) I'm very aware of the grammatical horror of this print, but I really don't care. It's awesome and I like it. And now we get to stare at it from our bed for... like... ever. 

The library overfloweth. We need another shelf ALREADY. It's a sickness. This is the view the hubs has from his desk. I think it's a pretty lovely view, especially when I appear in the hallway, inexplicably dancing or making faces.

I don't know if you can see it, but there's an orange book on the top left corner, on the shelf. We went to a rare and used bookshop and the hubs found this phone directory from 1961 that had his grandparents' contact info marked. What are the odds?! So of course he had to come home with it hehe 

And yes, those are my Mr Potato Heads on top of the shelf. Spud Trooper, Darth Tater, Artoo Potatoo and Opti-Mash Prime. Oh, and Lenore, Mr Gosh and Ragamuffin. I'm classy, what can I say?

The 'Get Our Art On The Walls Already!' project started last weekend when we dragged everything we had up from the basement. I even found some prints I'd ordered and had never framed, so we took a trip to the shop to get some frames. The hubs has decided that he detests frame shopping more than anything in the history of the world. Wah wah. 

There are some prints that still need to go on the wall but I can't decide where they should go, and if I still like the frames. I've got a couple of cross-stitch pieces I did (American Pastoral and Starry, Starry Night) and I honestly don't know where to put them. So rather than slap things on the wall just to get it done, I'm going to place them here in the corner of the living room while I walk around with the frames to see what rooms / hallways I like them in. I might need psychiatric help fairly soon.

And that mirror... well... here's the thing. If I hang it, the hubs can only see his chest. If the hubs hangs it, I'll see maybe three hairs from the top of my head (humidity and frizz... what a bastard). I'm thinking perhaps it should go on the wall along the stairs so I can stand on the stair and use it while the hubs can use binoculars and use it in the hallway. The trials and tribulations of being 14" shorter than your husband...

And just to prove that I sometimes go outside, here are some things my front yard grew! This is some purple stuff!

And this is some white stuff!

The white stuff attracts many fat bumble bees!

There's also tiger lilies (I mean orange stuff!) but one of the bees looked like it was trying to plot my demise, so I decided to retreat.

OH! And there are more itty bitty baby birds! Man, they're ugly right now.

Robin's Nest

We spotted a nest in the tree right off the side of our front porch. Well, when I say we, I mean the hubs since I can't actually see the nest. The stupid nest is higher than my eyes will go :/ I jumped as much as I could but jumping + photo-taking = nope.

But do you see it? I don't know how the hubs saw it through the branches because the dude can't see things that are right in front of him hehe

So I handed the hubs my iPhone and had him take the picture of the nest and eggs! (Dude needs to do some focusing!!! LOL!) There's apparently another one that's hidden, so six altogether! She's been a busy little momma bird because a few days ago, she only had one! How pretty does that look!!

You'll have to excuse my excitement because having grown up in the city, I don't really see things like that. Especially not beautiful robin's eggs that are a gorgeous pale blue. We did see a nest with one egg at our old house but for some reason, that momma bird pushed her nest over and the poor egg tipped right onto the ground :( 

I'm going to have the hubs take proper pictures with my camera because he told me he spied a little crack in one of the eggs, so perhaps they're starting to hatch!! We're trying not to poke around too much because we don't want to scare momma bird and make her think we're up to no good. Just want to make sure the little birdies are doing alright! 

And speaking of mommas, I hope my Mum had a lovely Mother's Day :) My sisters and I divided up responsibilities... they got her pressies and I got her flowers. Divide and conquer! Brownie points for life! I got her this colourful bouquet, and according to my sister it was so giant she almost dropped it. Oops. But Mum was thrilled, so we're happy girls :) Happy Mother's Day, Mum... we love you much! xo

More Sewing

I know I've been quiet... I've been busy at the machine, watching lots of things on Netflix while I sew, and totally forgetting to post on my blog. Mostly because the light is usually so crap that I never take many photos. However, this is a photo of a stack of triangles that I've already sewn into a queen quilt top. Yup.

I finished the Single Girl quilt top (all 25 blocks in a week and a half!!!) and pieced backing, and handed it to Laura to work her magic. Patrina chose the baptist fan pattern, and I know it's going to look awesome because that's what I did on mine :) And as much as I love mine, I'm toying with the idea of making another one. A bigger one that's kind of scrappy. The crazy, it lives within me.

Oh, and Patrina is a total doll (THANK YOU, PATRINA!!!)! She sent me a surprise parcel full of beautiful Enstrom chocolates and toys for the kitties. And hedgehog dryer buddies that are insanely cute and help with the static! I tried them out and they work! One little hedgie has a mark on his face now because the other one must've bumped into him in the dryer. He looks like he was in a gang fight and has the scar to show for it now. Badass hedgie.

It's going to be ridiculously cold the rest of the week, so more sewing will be had :)

Chicopee Love

I haven't been doing much else aside from sewing and avoiding going outside because the frigid cold was beyond ridiculous. I got emails and texts from my family because they kept seeing reports on the news, but I had to keep reminding them that we're not in Minnesota or Chicago, so stop worrying. Thankfully, the maddening cold has abated and it's just gone back to the regular winter cold. I was working on the shop window at work yesterday and actually managed to pop outside without a heavy coat on. It's hilarious to think that 0C° / 32F° is actually 'warm' to me now, especially when I grew up on a tropical island haha!

Anyhow, I started on this super king-sized Single Girl quilt out of Chicopee for a friend. I say super king-sized because the pattern calls for 20 blocks but we upped it to 25. I suggested this madness... I clearly need help. HEEHEE!!! But it's only taken a week go get to this point and I've amazed even myself. All I've done this past week is cut, sew and watch shows on Netflix! Perhaps the cold weather wasn't such a terrible thing after all. Or not. 

Oh, and you see my teapot pincushion over there? I started getting so many comments and emails all at once last week, referencing a post I did over three years ago. I even edited the post to let people know that I'd bought it from Joann's, I didn't make it, and I'm not selling it. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on until someone from Quiltmaker magazine contacted me to inform me that they'd featured it on their Facebook page haha! Too funny!

DS Quilts Sample Sale & Raffle!

Denyse is having her annual sample sale this weekend, and she's also raffling off a quilt made from blocks donated by students from her improv patchwork classes. The proceeds from the raffle benefit the Bridgeport Rescue Mission. Tickets are available on the 4th floor through the weekend. 

I'll be there :) A bunch of us local peeps are meeting up at the sale and we hope to see you there! (If you see me, say hi! And then watch me react awkwardly and try to duck under something to hide... fun times...)

Dancers Among Us

I stumbled across these magnificent pictures on Dancers Among Us by Jordan Matter, and all I can say is WOW. I mean seriously. WOW. Ballet dancers are just amazing... the things they can do with their bodies and always maintaining their elegance. Simply amazing.

And the looks on people's faces as the dancers are airborne? Too damn funny :)