This year, I'm planning to expand the variety of decorated paper bags in my stash. They are currently a mix of cutesy, pretty and eclectic (aka mish mash...*winks*). Really nothing for the dudes in my life. ;)
A super quick project to add to my decorated paper bag stash for dudes! :)
Happy weekend friends!
Has it been another week? I am still a little behind with my mixed media eye drawings but still persevering. Here is 11/100.
So this pouch came with my Sephora order today - perfect for art supplies on the go! Actually I mostly use my free makeup pouches for art supplies because cosmetics companies know how to make some good ones. They are usually made of fabric which makes them washable or a hard synthetic plastic that has structure and makes it super easy to spot the items you want once you open them...less digging for art supplies! *winks*
This one is pretty roomy too. And it has 2 side pockets inside! But the best thing about it is that it is black and washable! I have "destroyed" so many pretty pencil cases with pen leaks and coloured pencil marks.
There is one downside to using makeup pouches for art supplies though. The other day I asked the niece to go to my desk and bring me my current art supply pouch which is from the brand Urban Decay who are famous for their Naked series of makeup (for more neutral looks)...
"Sophie, can you go to my room and bring the rose gold coloured pouch which says Good Things Happen When You're Naked?"
You should have seen the look on her face. *LOL*
Happy Wednesday friends!:)
Hello friends! Here is this week's super quick card with scrap bits (which I just made in the last hour ...see my previous post for context..*winks*).
This year I'm dipping into my chipboard stash so I added a cute little one at the edge of the card. :)
For a little interest, I added a little bloom with bling. And a random fussy-cut snail. *LOL*
Hope you are having a beautiful day!
At first, I was annoyed that there were so many restrictions on what can/cannot be done. And the media wasn't helping with spates of bad news from all over the world. If there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it was so dim that I wasn't even catching a glimmer of anything.
But the moment I realized that I couldn't change what was happening in the world, I decided to focus on changing my attitude and making the best of the situation.
If I was going to cook meals for my family, I will learn new dishes and challenge myself creatively. With the change in perspective, even the weekly grocery run became a tad more interesting as I combined my love of bargain shopping with the need to feed my family nutritious food.
To cut down on buying processed food, I made lots of food from scratch. From chicken broth to pasta sauce to homemade noodles to bread and other pastries. With no daily need to commute or travel, all the time I used to spend waiting at the airport for flights and luggage could be devoted to the mastery of cooking.
Every day I look forward to the protein that my mum has taken out from the freezer for the day's meals and my mind starts to think of creative ways to make a nutritious and delicious meal. I'm not going to lie and say that it was a breeze. Because it wasn't. It would take me a long time to cut the garlic, onions and veggies.And I was spending most of my free time watching YouTube videos on how to cook certain dishes. Or there would be some home repairs to tend to and I had to learn how to use tools.
Something had to give though...I wasn't spending as much time on my scrapbooking and drawing because I was really exhausted at the end of the day. Most nights I was in bed by 9pm. Sometimes 8.45pm. Yep, even my folks can make it to 10pm. *LOL*
2020 was the first year in all my years of blogging that I had NOTHING pre-scheduled to post. Every blog post was done on the day itself. When I made a quick card for the blog post, it was probably done the hour before. Sometimes I might do 3 or 4 projects on the weekend and have something to post but the actual blog post was written on the post date.
But I picked up so many skills and learned how strong I could be - in mind and in spirit. And for that, I am grateful for 2020.
In 2021, I want to advance further in my self-growth. I started a journal on January 1st. Some people have separate journals for bullet journaling, gratitude journaling, brain-dumping and affirmations. Mine is a single journal where I can do everything in it. *winks*
In January I did daily journaling but it was such a chore that in February I decided to journal every few days instead. And I enjoy the process so much more. Of course, I have to challenge myself when it comes to journaling too. My affirmations are written with my left hand (I am right-handed) just to force my brain to focus because I have to write a lot slower.
I also started a 5 minute meditation in the mornings when I'm still in bed. Meditation is hard and right now, I just focus on my breathing for a start. Since I am an early riser, I've started to use my early mornings to do my art stuff like scrapbooking and drawing. Which is working out much better because my night time ritual is a lot more relaxing and I am sleeping.a lot better. :)
What about you? How has 2021 been for you? Are you on track with your goals?
So I've decided to stick with a familiar subject matter in this year's #the100dayproject - working on mixed media eyes. Back in 2019 when I was tackling the same subject matter, I worked on a fixed-size small substrate that would allow me to work on my eye drawings on the go (you know, back in those days when we could travel *nostalgic music plays in the background*). While I completed the 100 drawings, they are all in a stack held together by binder rings. Not sure what to actually do with the stack actually.
This year, I've decided that I won't be limited by size and I will just draw it in any of my existing sketchbooks.
My challenge to myself is to really play with different colour combos and get stronger in my eyebrow game. Here is 1/100.
Clearly had some eyebrow issues in 2/100. *LOL*
Went with warm tones for 3/100.
Not sure about the brows for 4/100.
An angled eye in green for 5/100.
Blue eyeshadow for 6/100.
The eyebrows look a little off for 8/100.
Had a little fun with gold glitter on 9/100.
What do you think?
So one of the neighbours gave us some homemade CNY goodies a few days before CNY and of course, it is customary to return the gesture with some homemade treats as well. Except for the fact that this gal left it to the very very last minute to start her baking. *dramatic music plays in the background*
Usually at this point in time, I would have had 100s of cookies of various flavours baked along with some cakes and tarts in the fridge as well. Except this year. With the COVID 19 situation, all the elders have decided NOT to have open houses for visits so the only guests we had were my brother's family (who come every week and eat up all my food)...and we didn't even have to visit anyone either. So I decided to leave it to the very last minute to prevent minimal attrition of said goodies. *LOL*
Anyway, I only baked 3 things this year - the salted egg yolk cookies, walnut cookies and pineapple tarts. Still it took me 3 days to bake because of my tiny oven. I can only bake about 26 cookies at each time.
Here are the decorated containers of cookies - I just went with doilies and twine. I had a pineapple charm so the pineapple tarts container had a "bling" *winks*
They all went into one of my decorated paper bags with 2 mandarin oranges for good luck.
P/s: Nope, the birds were not included. Hehehe...
Today's Make Stuff Monday is a decorated paper bag with a reworked tag.
Yep..these days, the paper bag decorating includes the sides too...in a bid to use up more patterned paper. *winks*
Happy week ahead friends!
So my sister got a whole lot of chocolate from a friend foe her birthday which we saved for The Gangster Gang (3 nephews +1 niece). But since we knew that the chocolate could be gone very quickly, we decided to issue a veggie for chocolate challenge. First chocolate of choice is FREE. But in order to have another, they must eat ONE serving of veggies witnessed by Aunt E, wash the bowl and fork before they can choose a chocolate of their choice.
Now there was a lot of debate as The Gangster Gang weighed their options for what to pick for their FREE choice because there were a few Kinder Surprises in the lot. Should they go for the chocolate and the prospect of a fun toy OR just go for a regular chocolate bar which is bigger. Yep, there was a lot of hovering near the basket of chocolates that day.
Meanwhile, the rest of The Gangster Gang were ready to flex their veggie-eating prowess at dinner. Except for the fact that I made baked pasta with all the veggies all chopped up in the sauce. Which Aunt E says is sauce and not veggies so nobody else got a chance at attempting the veggies for chocolate challenge. *winks*
The upside is that even the niece who doesn't eat veggies has started to eat a little in order to get at the "prize"..hehehe.
Playing along with Stick It Down.
Hello friends! Just popping in to share a quick card made with scrap bits. CNY is on Thursday and your gal has finally started baking! Of course, at this late point, she really should go with her tried and tested recipes right? Nope. She's trying out new recipes as usual...
Like this salted egg yolk cookies. *winks*
Hope you are having a great week!
