blue sparkles

Made this pair of earrings today as i stayed at home all day as prescribed by the doctor. I haven't exactly been feeling well for the past 2 days with heartburn, tension & anxiety attacks. Relaxing at home has definitely calm me down. These blue sparkles are a seachange from all the knitting i have been doing. I have dreamt of blue drop baubles for the past few days and finally got a chance to launch that idea into a real life piece. Yay

There is also a glowy blue necklace too, but it too dark to capture its glory with artificial light.
The weather in melbourne has changed recently too. It is starting to get chilly & rainy.
Time for scarf season again :)

some monday distractions..

Look ! Chinese New year cookies. No, i didn't make them myself for once.. My cousin from singapore dropped by yesterday to give me some of these marvelous tasting goodies from bengawan solo. They are absolutely mood-lifters ( not that i was in a bad mood, it is the long weekend anyway) & yummy. The long yellow ones are pineapple tarts and the others are hazelnuts & blackcurrents cookies. Thanks Lynn !
A trick to eat those crumbly cookies: Just pop the whole thing into your mouth, don't just stop & take a nimble, it doesn't do any justice to the wonderful bursting flavours.
More crocheting as promised. Today i tried knitting a dishcloth but i was struck by the wonderful textured feel of crochet, so i switched~ from knitting to crochet with the help of this stitch & bitch book. After a few unfruitful attempts, i ended up with the circle. The stitches looked a little uneven and a bit ugly in fact but no worries at all, practice makes perfect, at least i am not shunning away from it like before... Without pausing, i casted on again with the blue yarn, hopefully, this will turn out better.
The orange yarn is debbie bliss cotton dk and the blue yarn is jo sharp cotton dk. I will put my money with debbie bliss in future as the cotton is strong, sturdy and not splitty like jo sharp's.
I have one domestic usage for it so far: Candle mat. Don't worry, i will not light the candle, just using it to flatten the stitches.. hhehhhee

Today, it is Mr H's birthday, so i am going to spend less time on the internet and more on him and cakes :)
Happy Birthday, Sweetheart !

a little daily inspiration

My internet broke down for a couple of weeks, causing my usual broadband to plummet into slow crawling dial-up speed which left me constantly hyperventilating and cursing my breath ( pardon me) every time i logged on to the internet, it can't even download the main page of blogger much less of anything else. Nothing much happened during the 2 weeks besides work and more work which puts me into a constant foul mood.

This is what i saw during the weekend. Floral blooms at my doorsteps, not sure what flower this is but it just lights my day. There are clusters of them all over the bush. Well, isn't it wonderful when you can pause, breathe and look at the surrondings sometimes, without scampering into the daily mundane grind.

Of course, every morning i wake up to this goodness. Hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles of hundreds & thousands, i know that it is too rich & sinful but who cares, i need some comforting before i go step into that madding workplace again.Here's my new project, short & sweet cardigan pattern from wool baa. It has been heavily modifed so far. I never like to stick to a pattern completely, i need to make changes to keep me motivated from knitting or else it will be another ufo lurking around. More pictures to come as i have knitted the first 2 fronts already.

Well, tomorrow is monday and i am not working ! Thanks to having a public holiday~Australia day which fell on saturday.. no monday blues for me for once;)

I have been wanting to show you these...

Some reading for the new year. Ever since Borders opened its store in the neighbourhood 3 months ago, the number of books in my house increases exponentially. H cannot leave the place without buying something. Thank god, we signed up for discounts, at least it doesn't burn a hole in the pocket. Nonetheless, it has rubbed on to me too .. ( thanks, H) My weakness are chick lits and craft books, which i buy once in a while.

Can you see the 2nd book from the top ? It's "the friday night knitting club", not a fantastic read but great inspiration for knitting. There is also a rumour that julia roberts is going to be in its movie version. This book makes me want to abandon what i am doing and work in a yarn shop full time.. haha

The first book on the top is P.S I love you. It makes me cry buckets and cherish the people around me. I have yet to see the movie. But i guess it will be great with Gerard Butler in it.
Well, did you spot the sewing reference at the bottom? I think it is high time that i revisit the domestic craft again. I am so inspired to sew ( machine sew actually) bags after checking the wonderful fabrics & sewing blogs around. At least sewing is faster than knitting.. am i right ?

Juliet has been done ages ago and worn several times now. It was completed 1 month ago and i just couldn't managed to find the time to take a decent photo. Well, this is good enough for the time being until i get someone who is kind enough to take picture of me wearing it. Overall, it is a quick and easy knit. The yarns i used ( Bamboo& cotton from patons ) do not seem to hold the garment well. After a few wears, it sags even more. Heavy drapes i would say. But since it is cotton i can wear it in summer on its own or a long sleeve top inside during winter.

This is tonight's dinner. Nothing fancy on a sunday night.. (oohhh sighh.. i am feeling the monday blues already..)I made nasi lemak and some left over grilled salmon and kfc winglets. Rice is cooked with coconut milk, salt & pandan essence. Together with some fried eggs and anchovy and peanuts, served with cubed spam with chilli onion sauce. We couldn't even finish half of these, i guess we will be eating these tomorrow as well :)

That's all for now.. Have a great week ahead.

cookies for the new year

Here are some cookies i baked yesterday. I have not been baking anything for myself since those sticky date puddings for christmas that fed 15 people !( sorry, no pictures, i was in busy-daze throughout those eventful days) and i was absolutely craving to create something edible besides yarn crafts.

The recipe is adopted from here. They are soft cookies that do not need to be in the oven for a long time, not more than 10 minutes. Easy to bake even when you are tired and the ingredients are all readily available in any functional kitchen.

Most of them were gone once they were off the oven, I was too slow to capture the moment !

P.S: No eggs are harmed during the process, they were substituted by plain yoghurt.

I would like to share this picture of Blythe from the 2007 Shutter muse contest. Isn't she lovely ?

Here is an excerpt from the site:

This year's Miss Popularity prize goes to Akiko Yajima! Congratulation! Her photo of Blythe has captured the hearts of many Blythe fans.The ray of light coming from the sky, the clear air, her Blythe looks like a fairy in the forest. She looks so adorable with her hands full of pine cones. We received comments from the fans like "Suddenly, I was drawn into this soft mystical world." , " If I go this forest, I felt like I really will see her". Thank you for this beautiful photo!

Little Forest Helper, i am still saving money to own my first blythe !