DIY Light Box (Easy)

I finally decided to make my own light box.

A very simple light box and you only need these three material:

• A rectangular white plastic storage container which is available at the supermarket. This one cost me RM40.
• A piece of A2 white paper (thats 8 times the size of A4 paper) folded into half and
• Sellotape

This is how my light box look like.

It is very easy to set up really.

Side view

Tried it out under natural light in the kitchen

and here is the result - unedited except added the water mark.

Not bad yeah?

The picture is brighter on the top left compared to the bottom right though.

Will do better next time.

After all the light box is very mobile and light.

Hope you are inspired to make your own light box and have a great weekend :)

Yearly Event - Tomb Sweeping Day

Its the time of the year again. We celebrate this in early April every year.
This year's Ching Ming Festival or Chingming or Tomb Sweeping Day or Ancestors Day or Cheng Beng falls on the 5th of April. Wow! So many names to it ya.

Anyway, this is the day/time where we visit our ancestors grave sites, sweep, wash, clean, clear (grasses) and offer food, fruits, drinks (tea and wine) and paper money, paper clothing, paper bags, paper shoes, paper jewelries, paper handphone, etc. etc.

Like previous years, we always celebrate it a week earlier to avoid the traffic jam. As usual we came the day before to do the clearing and cleaning. The next day we brought the food and praying materials which will be burnt for the ancestors just before we leave. Here are some pics to give you some ideas of this celebration.

We left early morning around 7:00 am but still got caught in the jam.
Smoke in the background from burning of joss sticks and paper offerings.

Still caught in the jam.
Can't tell the difference between rows of cars and rows of tombs :)

This is our "outing" spot.

Food, fruits, rice, soup, wine, tea, kuih, noodles.
All the favorite of the dear departed. 

This year we decided to bring the boys along.
Their first time and its like a picnic.

Hot hot day!

While waiting for the dear departed to finished their meal.

Panoramic view - about half of the cemetery.
Click to enlarge.

This is at Nirvana Memorial Park, near Bau.
Looks like a park/garden.

Click here for more on Ching Ming.

Religious Parade - Shen Ong Kong (Diety) Birthday Celebration

We took the boys to the dieties' parade in celebration of the Shen Ong Kong's birthday last night.

It was held downtown Kuching, along Jalan Padungan.

This celebration is held every year.

Since there are not many parade in Kuching, this is an opportunity not to be missed especially for the boys.

The parade was a showcase of decorated colourful floats, dragon and lion dances, beautiful princesses/performers, figures of deities on lorries, on four wheel drives, sedan chairs, etc.

Here are some of the photos to show you a part of our culture :)

Excuse the picture quality - taken with handphone camera.

One of the decorated cars

One of the dragons

Lion dance, praying

Opps! Backsides only

This lion is performing on top of the truck

Close up

Happy lion :)

Cute tricycle

Diety on truck

Pretty performers and costumes

From the 'underworld'

From the 'underworld'
Some seems to be under trance and looked very fierce

Devotees and crowd following the parade while we the spectators lined the roadside

Have a great weekend!

Exciting Gifts that Were Work for a Man, but are pH Balanced for a Woman

There are sections of the department store that you’d generally associate with either men or women, but not necessarily both.  For example, you’d probably only find women with the makeup, unless Halloween is right around the corner or if the David Bowie concert is just a block away. You’d probably also really only to expect men in the sporting goods section. While there are obviously tons of exceptions, we have been conditioned with certain expectations that aren’t necessarily true.

A gilded, sparkling and perfect example of this is a Rolex watch. One generally associates this, the Rolls Royce of all wristwear to be for men, but no, that assumption is very far from the truth indeed. Rolex has a vast and glamorous array of stunning watches for women that will make any fashionista salivate and lust after.
Just as it is with its masculine counterpart, a female inspired Rolex watch is more than just a watch.  It is a piece of art, it is a piece of jewelry. If you don’t believe me, and I don’t know why you wouldn’t, check out the specifics of Rolex at rolex watch repair or rolex watch repair los angeles and see what all the fuss (I’m making) is about. You will be immediately impressed, surprised and inspired to wear one.

Another fun example is a yoga class. Listen, I go to yoga almost every day.  It works. It helps with my posture, it works wonders for my mood, and it positively informs the rest of my day. However, to say that I enjoy it while I’m there is a slight stretch of the truth. While I struggle and sweat gracelessly from one pose to the next, all of the women in there are relaxed and elegant flamingoes, effortlessly and poetically moving their bodies along with the teacher. Women are naturally more flexible and I for one am unnaturally less flexible. I feel like a Homer Simpson among Jessica Simpsons in there, but I wouldn’t trade it.

A great example of a gift idea that seem fine for a man but more suitable to a woman’s tastes is the divine gift of chocolate fondue. Sure fellas will love this; no human in his or her right mind would not. However, there’s a certain almost mythical chemical reaction that takes place when women and chocolate mix. It’s like a massage to her soul, a balm to her cravings, an assurance that today is a good day. We live in an exciting age in the evolution of food, and lately I’ve been seeing a lot of enticing chocolate bars with bits of hot peppers and orange and all manner of creative variations. Men, if you love chocolate like you should, good. But always sacrifice it for the woman you love and you’ll both end up winners.

Wire Jewelry - Wire Wrapped Pearl Studs and Tutorial

Looks familiar?
Yeah, I' ve made many many many of this studs before.
Check them out here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

On how to make this wire wrapped stud earrings, the tutorial (Direct/Instant Download) is over at my e-shops here:

• Wire Wrapped Stud Earrings at Etsy
• Wire Wrapped Stud Earrings at Craftsy

You can make this pair of stud earrings in less than 30 minutes :)

In 30 minutes you have a cute little wire wrapped stud earrings.
(Last minute Valentine gift, maybe)

This project is for the very beginner in wire jewelry.
You need minimum tools to make this. 

Here are some of the earrings done by others based on my tutorial.
Louise and Don's Version

Don added a little bow on top.

Linda of CrazedMagpie

Linda's version.

Happy Chinese New Year, Year of the Horse 2014

Happy Chinese New Year 2014 to family, friends and loyal readers of this blog of mine.

Thank you for being around and hopefully you would stick around for many many Chinese New Years to come :)

This year, as in previous years, we celebrated moderately consisting mostly the same kind of stuff:

• On the eve, we had the reunion dinner where family members from near and far sit together for the dinner (basically food, food and more food). This year we have Annabel, Kwang and Abby over for the dinner as well (their first after moving back to Kuching). The reunion dinner is considered the biggest event of the Chinese New Year. As such children always make it a point to get "home" for this occasion no matter where they are. Not for me though, as I am considered married into dear hubby's family so I am with hubby and family (ah, complicated tradition ya? Never mind, leave this for some other time).

As usual, my favorite is the one right in the middle - fish maw soup :)
The rest....well I can ignore them.

• Final cleaning of the whole house after the reunion dinner (to sweep away ill old luck and welcome the new good luck). I thought we can rest after the fulfilling dinner but NO, we have to work some more....right till before the clock strike 12:00 am. Can't bring the dirt into the new year.
• Setting off fireworks (to scare off the bad spirit) at the strike of 12:00 am (although others started way earlier, like after dinner).

I am not good at taking fireworks pic.
This is the best pic I took.

• Next day, on the first day of CNY, first thing first, we distributed red packets or Angpows (with $$$) to the parents and the boys and the unmarried family members.

When we were young and single, this is what we looked forward
to every Chinese New Year because we were at the receiving end.
Once we got married (without kid yet), we don't look forward
to this because we will be distributing but not receiving :(
Once we have kids of our own, we don't really mind because
we will be both, giving and receiving...hehe.
Of course they go into the boys' account.
In this case, it is better to have more kids. You will receive more...LOL

• Then we dressed up a bit, preferably in red (pinkish for me this year), ready to receive visiting family and friends and vice-versa.

With Henry.
Looky, my tourmaline necklace.
Very matching my dress ya..<3 love

Ahhhhhhhhhmmmm.......Henry feeding Abby cupcake.
Cute!

• We visited the temples, praying for a prosperous, successful, happy, joyful, healthy, abundance, bountiful, smooth, good luck, peaceful, etc. etc. new year of the horse.

Tua Pek Khong Temple

At the temple with the boys.
How fast they grow.
William is almost as tall as I am.
It was only like yesterday when I held
this little tiny baby in my arms (10 years ago!)

William and Henry excited over the Kois.

Koi Fish symbolizes success and wealth.

• Lion dance performance. They are usually invited to perform privately or at special functions, at different days of the Chinese New Year celebration.

....look at the happy boy on the right hand corner....

That's about it - the happenings around our 2014 Chinese New Year celebration.

The way you celebrate yours might be slightly different from ours.

Feel free to share and comment.

Jewelry Storage

Now that I think about it, I actually never talk about this topic – jewelry storage.
Maybe because I do not have many finished jewelry ;)
That’s why I am more into storing stones and beads.
Storing stones and beads is not difficult. I mostly use plastic containers like these here.

As for finished jewelry, people says it is an art in itself. Some use wine glasses to hang earrings, twist wires to make wire trees to hang necklaces and earrings (ehm! planning to do this), modify old picture frames into jewelry frames, and many many more ways depending on your creativity and of course budget and space.
Mine is quite simple here and rather "artless". I simply throw everything into this individual compartment here ;-)

Psst! I hang some of my necklaces and rings on the clothes hooks too.
This way, I can just choose which one to put on when I change my clothes...for convenient sake.