cat pouch necklace

a.k.a. the 'cat guardian secret keeper' - taken from the craft tutorial by Cat Rabbit in the latest issue of Frankie magazine (which has a special craft section! on similar paper to their cake recipes section in the previous issue).

(this was supposed to be a birthday present for a friend, but i can't get over how cute it is.. so now it's not a present..)

biscotti photos - part 1

'cotti wearing hats i got from SarabiRose's etsy shop: puss in boots and fez - the fez is for a friend, but i can't not take a photo of it X)

perspex goodness from tatty devine

blue anchor necklace

fallen leaves triple pendant

ping pong cufflinks

kino bag!

got this super cute and sturdy canvas tote from Kinokuniya today! it was $7 and they had a bigger one too with an illustration of a girl.



i love how kinokuniya looks at the moment, filled with wonderful illustrations by charles santoso (click here for a link to his blog post with photos). i wonder what they're gonna do with all the posters when they decide to change the decor... i so want one!

(anyway, i should have more posts here in a few weeks - still have to do a few more placements for uni. pray for good weather this weekend peoples T__T i have to drive 10 hours or so to an area that's currently flooding in various spots. fingers crossed it clears up enough by then..)

felt brooches

made these needle & wet felted brooches recently as gifts.

this rose brooch idea was taken from the spotlight inspiration room website. basically twirl some wool fibres with whatever shades of colour you want into a small circle, and needle felt them onto a felt sheet (i used dark green). then cut around the needle-felted fibres to make a rose shape. do the same thing, but with green wool fibres and cut it into a leaf shape. sew the leaf & bloom together. sew beads onto the centre of the flower. and finally sew a brooch back / safety pin thing on the back.

this next one was taken from the felting for baby book by saori yamazaki (amazon, book depository)


this one is just a matter of needle-felting two balls, doing the same with the green leaf as the previous brooch (but this time i wrapped the green wool fibres all around the felt sheet, instead of just needle-felting it on to the front side). to attach the two balls together without seeing any stitches, i just ran a threaded needle (cream/pale colour) through both the balls' centres a few times, but making sure to make only a small distance between where the needle exits and re-enters the ball, so that i can just cover the thread that is visible on the surface with some wool fibres (just grab some surrounding fibres to cover the thread & needle felt to cover it). and then did the same thing to attach the leaf to the balls. and then sewed on a safety pin back (sew it higher than what's in the photo, or else the brooch will be too heavy & droop when it's worn).

i actually tried both a dry and wet felting method to make the second brooch. so i needle-felted the fibres into a ball, then i dipped/soaked the ball into some soapy water (a small container of warm water with a small drop of detergent - not too much or else it'll get really bubbly). then i transferred the soaked ball into a zip-lock bag (or just a plastic bag) and squished it a few times in the corner of the plastic bag so that the soapy water can get all the way to the centre of the ball (basically the soapy water acts like the needle to lock the wool fibres together). then i squished the ball in a towel/cloth to get excess water out.
i repeated this process a few times, adding new layers of roughly needle-felted wool on top if the ball wasn't big enough.

i thought this method would be as easy as what's shown in this blog, but no. you can't just magically shake a bunch of wool fibres in a container of soapy water and it somehow transforms into a neat ball.
but oh well, i ended up making the leaf the same way. the advantage of this versus just plain dry-needle-felting is the fibres/ball ends up much neater.

ok. back to studying. bye.

i heart cat tote

another bag came in the mail today! (they were my birthday presents btw - not from a random shopping frenzy xD)


this one was made by mirishilo (em by miri) from etsy
it's canvas (less brown than in the photo) and larger than most totes i've seen! it also came with instructions on how to clean it etc

i can't wait for the holidays when i can finally get out of the house & start using them ;)

BAGGU!

look what came in the mail today:

(this is the peak of my paint-program skill.)

it's my BAGGU daypack!

i was slightly worried about it being too small (mainly looking at photos uploaded on their facebook page, of it being worn on normal-sized males, and the description of it being 10.2cm deep) but after dumping stuff in, turns out it can fit quite a lot! (yes. bags CAN deform!)
apparently it's also strong enough to hold 20kg worth of items! though i still wouldn't want to make any scratches with a sharp textbook corner or something.. it's my new baby ;) (i don't actually know what ripstop nylon is capable of. can you tear a hot air balloon with a textbook? hm probably not.) anyway. i should be studying right now. and i shall do that. meanwhile, bask in the beauty of grey. my current favourite colour.

グーズ

crazy cat lady mini milk bottle drinking glass (modcloth)

clear tulip watch (fred flare)

dedo message board by gonçalo campos (arcademi)

beatrix potter collaboration (graniph)

rilakkuma dock connector lanyard (strapya)

TV stone phone strap (strapya)

crafty tutorials

little library card notebooks - papernstitch
transferring an image to fabric with gel medium - how about orange
5-pointed paper snowflake - how about orange
quick mittens - anda lewis corrie (etsy admin)

oxidised sterling silver circle (rachel pfeffer)

disco silver leather hair clip (shisomama)

tokyo vintage dot lace-up shoe (repetto via smokyalice)

neck wear!

grey knight's cowlhood (YesJess)

neck specks (the.)

dogs & snow leopard necklaces (Meow Girl)

♪♫ on the day after xmas..

we go boxing day sales shopping ;D i went at 7.30am and the city was already crowded! though not as frantic as previous years where security guards had to shuffle people through one entrance only. people were walking, not running. maybe because it was raining. but anyhoo, definitely calmer & less claustrophobic, also shorter (not that many) lines to some of the designer stores.

surprisingly, i found some things!

t-shirt ($15!), shorts, socks, grey & turquoise nail polish (matchingly named "down low" & "up beat" xD)

afterwards, we had a lovely sandwich brunch at the dymocks cafe mmmmm. i had the dymocks club sandwich (chicken/bacon/avocado/salad/herb mayonnaise on wholemeal bread) & my cousin had the smoked salmon/cream cheese/capers/avocado/salad on wholemeal bread. their food is always so delicious and with very generous portions! (no food bloggers around, so we just ate it and didn't take photos xD)

photos of xmas pressies (& more cat photos) to come :D

i love winter. which is not now, sadly.

i lie xD more stuffs post.

actually a tea cosy! but it'll make a really cute beanie :) with holes on the side.. (TOAST)

breton tunic (TOAST)

manitu scarf (TOAST)

anntian round shawl. the description says it's 'very soft' ahhhh.. (creatures of comfort)

btw, so bored today i furminator-ed the carpet of an apartment i'm house-sitting atm. afterwards the carpet felt so much plushier ;D