-CLOSED-

Ok, I will close down my art blog.

Please go to my main blog for updates : www.moon-shines.blogspot.com

I will update my arts and crafts and other stories (apparently all about me only...haha).

Thank you very much. ^_^

Poupee Girl

So what do you do if you are so broke that you have to cut down your shopping spree?

Join Poupeegirl. Yes, pathetic but this saves me a lot of money and it's fun too. LOL.

Life In KL

Don't feel like writing. Let the picture do the talking.

Mici and Miki.
Mici was running in the wheel and Miki was hiding himself with food in the little house.

First home cook meal in KL.
Thank you Fong Fong!!!
Ok, I will learn to cook too.

Great pal, my lappie. No I didn't get a pink lappie but a tablet instead.
But I got a pink mouse. *lalala*

Finally got my artisan table (from Kin Fai). So, here's my crafting corner.

And here's my working table.
Spot the pinks in my room? Hehe

I was Featured

Ok, I know this is old news but I must blog about the good memories.
I was featured in tizzalicious.com. I was nothing biggie but good enough to make my day. Perhaps I should feature a talented crafter/artist every week too? Hmm...that's a good thought.

New Stuff

So, I have finally got the grip of living hell in KL and so at last I found back my craft mood, very much overwhelming indeed. Here's what I made when I'm home (more like room) alone in KL...

Heart with a patch brooch, veggie cuties, breakfast cuties (pancake and egg are brooches too). I haven't decide what to do with the veggie cuties and they took hours to make. >_<)

Pawprints!!! My own creation too. I enjoy making them soooo much and will make more.
The top three are pin brooches and below two are handphone charms/keycharms.

And one big family (and increasing day by day).

Notice the mini donuts too? Darn difficult to make because they were soooo small, like only 1.5" in diameter.

Yahoogroup NNC is going to set up a stall at The Curve flea market and I'm going to throw this to the market. I may not earn as much as from Etsy but the idea of selling in my own local bazaar is sooooo fun. Ok, now I need to cut and stitch faster. Now, I need at least 1 hour to cut and stitch the simple pawprints. If something like the peapods, it took hours!! >_<

Well, I guess living alone outside is not as difficult as it seems when everynight I have my crafting to and also not forgeting my Grey's Anatomy and Prison Break. Ok, now I know why I am stitching so slow.

Zakka Anyone?

Kawaii is so out now. I just found out the latest trend….well, perhaps not that latest, but it’s something new in the sense of fashion and style. Zakka! I’m not really sure what is zakka actually, but here’s the definition from Wikipedia.

Zakka (from the Japanese 'zak-ka'（雑貨）or 'many things') is a fashion and
design phenomenon that has spread from Japan throughout Asia. The term
refers to everything and anything that improves your home, life and outlook. It
is often based on household items from the West that are regarded as kitsch in
their countries of origin. But can also be japanese goods from mainly
fifties, sixties and seventies. In Japan there are also so called asian
zakka stores, that usually refers to Southeast Asia. The interest in Nordic
design or Scandinavian design, both contemporary and past, is also part of
this zakka movement. Zakka can also be contemporary handicraft.
Zakka has also been described as "the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and
mundane". The zakka boom could be recognized as merely another in a series of
consumer fads, but it also touches issues of self-expression and spirituality.
Cute, corny and kitschy is not enough. To qualify as a zakka, a product must be
attractive, sensitive, and laden with subtext.

But from what I understand, Zakka is something ordinary but yet outstanding and beautiful. Kawaii but not as loud and proud. Kawaii in a humble way. Sort of like low-profile beauty.

Pictures do the best definition, so here’s a few Zakka-ish item. Ordinary? But they are very cute in a Zakka way.

Zakka softies by à voir

Zakka fabric bookmark by revontulitikku.

Zakkaish bag from cozyholidaycottage

Zakka pins from lostindeepseaforest

So....zakka anyone? Me definitely!!

Blogging at this hour....

Well, one thing I like about my job is that I can blog at this hour. Muahahaha.....My new job allows me to online. Such bliss!

Ok, nothing much to blah in the morning, other than I killed another small roach this morning. Will be going back to Ipoh again this week. Yeah, has been going back to hometown quite frequently. WTH, KL-Ipoh is so near. Since I am going back by car this time (with Kin Fai), I will bring down more of my stuff, especially crafting tools. I just neeeed to get back the crafting mood.

Talking about crafting, when I was looking for art and crafts workshop around my area, I stumbled upon NeedlesNCrafts (NNC). NNC is a yahoogroup of great Malaysia crafters. I am totally impress that we Malaysian, have our small group of artisans. Looks like arts and crafts in the country is still not dead yet. I am currently pending for membership. Can’t wait to join this group and am looking forward to some craft fairs, craft workshop, gathering, some activities among fellow Malaysians. Now I don’t have to swap craft with only foreigners which drain my salary for postage.

Ok, need to go back to work. Lalala…..

Cockroach Terror

I am trying to cope wioth my new life in the big noisy urban city. But living alone is not fun at all. Especially the house I live in is infested with the horrible horrible horrible dreadful evil of evil insect, the big fat black cockroach. >_<

A few days ago I already had one in my room, which I had to run out dancing from my room to seek help from my heroic housemate. Embarassing betul! My second encounter with the nasty roach was even worst nightmare. I bumped into the second roach unexpectedly in the bathroom and worst still, there was no one to answer to my help. This nasty thing has more superpower than the one in my room previously. This one can fly!!!!!!!!!! The house has nothing but an empty can of Sheltox spray. I stood outside the bathroom planning a strategy to win this fight. I cannot let this nasty little black thing spoil my good sleep. I did came across the slipper stragery but I dare not kill the thing with a short distant blow. Suddenly, I remembered how my grandma killed a snake using hot boiling water. So I boiled some water and splashed at the cockroach but I think it did not kill it. But it felt into my bathroom mug (with my toothbrush and stuff in the mug....ewwwww). No choice, I had to drive all the way out in the middle of night (12.04am to be exact) to 7-Eleven to get a can of insect spray and some naftalene balls. When I get back to the bathroom, the nasty thing is still there waiting to challenge me. And with the spraying strategy, no insect can outsmart that.

I am an animal lover, but very sorry...I am an insect hater.

And I scattered the naftalene balls all around the house and especially my room. Housemate Daren, sorry, has to kill all your 'siew keung'. Next time, get hamsters. I am all for hamsters.

********

On a more happy note, catch up with Fong today at The Curve and I finally had a chance to eat the Shabu Shabu which I'd always wanted to try but due to some weird excuses, Kin Fai always avoided it.

Shabu Shabu = Japanese steamboat

And it's always beef....YUMMYYY!!!

Time to sleep, more blog tomorrow. I am going to get approve by PPP this time. They rejected me for not posting more than 10 entries in the last 30 days. -_- I AM an active blogger....I'm not? Well...hehe...
Nitey nite...<3

Another Page of My Life

Well, I guess this yet another page in chapter three of my life (chapter one being teenager, chapter two being uni students and chapter three being a working adult). After working for 4 years in Ipoh, having the good life living with parents, slow and steady Ipoh life, close relationship and good rapport with Ipoh colleagues, now I moved on to the second page of my third life chapter, which is living my life alone as a working adult. I know this is nothing new for most of you guys out there, but somehow is a small challenge for me, seeing that I am so over-pampered with my parent's love. But hey, as an only child, I get pamper for my whole life (I'm spoilt, yea I'm spoilt).

Today is third day living alone in KL, the big mean city. Nothing much to tell here, just that new room, new job/company, new bed, new laptop, new colleagues (saw some old faces, most familiar are chan mali chan and Eng Chuan) and now I am waiting for my new car. woohoo....

I still couldn't really adapt with the new life. Why couldn't adapt? First of all, I am kinda lazy. Most of my clothes are still in the luggage. Secondly, craft stuff still nicely pack in the craft box. No craft mood yet. Third, I am going back home this weekend. hahahaha....But I am making the first attempt to adapt by making my first blog post in my new room, with new lappie. Not too bad huh....I did not forget completely bout my blog lar....still will update wannnnn.

As for the HK pic, maybe later...but soon. Since I have plenty of time now.

Black and White Inchies Challenge

Finally I am done with 100 black and white inchies challenge and sold it off Etsy. Making inchies in colour is fun and easy, but black and white is a challenge because I can not find many material in the shade of black, white, gray and silver. And after one week, finally I finished this task. Am very very satisfy with the outcome.

Preparing the background is fun and easy. Decorating the inchies takes a lot of creativity and patience.



Here's all the beauties and now they are on the way to the proud owner who appreciates art in inches.

Flying again

MIA for sometime. Busy crafting and looking for new job. Yep, finally found one and moving to KL, for good.

And now packing for my Hong Kong trip. Yayyy.....

Flight is tomorrow and I have not pack anything yet.

Selling at Etsy

It has been 10 days since my last successful sales at Etsy. I used to sell at least 2-3 items during the weekend and up until now, there's 30 successful sales. But business has been stagnant for the past week and I think I need to work harder in maintaining the sales.

Here's some of the things I will have to do, for promotion, for the love of craft, for business, for fun and whatsoever (I got some of the great tips from The Tiny Fig).

1. Blogging
   Yes, I need to maintain a consistent update of my art-venture blog in order to showcase my craft and art work and also to promote my Etsy shop. And many also read other craftster's blog, comment their work, link them to my blog and in that way, my network will broaden.
   
   
2. A new avatar
   Hmm...so I need to find or design a new and recognizable avatar for my brandname, Kiiss.
   
   
3. Forum
   Be more chatty. Give useful opinions and thoughts. Exposure!
   
   
4. Other affiliates
   Flickr, many related group to join, comments on other ppl's art and crafts. Look for more ideas and inspiration. Chat and comment. Build network. But I don't know about Facebook, but since it's such a hip now, perhaps worth a try.
   
   
5. Other craft websites
   Crafster Community, Indiepublic, We Love Etsy, and maybe Nervousness? Get connected with other artist and craftster. Join activities in forums. Learn more new technique, improvise through other expert. ^_^ Just have fun! Arts and crafts is more to having fun than just about making money.
   
   
6. Make more items and list them frequently
   Yes. I need to make more item and list them frequently at all time. But I do have a tendency to list everything at once. And now I do not have any new item to list, need to make more!!!
   
   
7. Photography and photoshop
   Ok, I need to brush up my photography skills. And also learn Photoshop. I can not survive with just Microsoft Paint. /vomit.
   
   
   

Ok, so I still have a plenty of works to do. Better move my butt and keep things going...lalala....

Love for Sushi

Love for Sushi
Originally uploaded by Kiie

I just ♥ sushis and spent the whole week trying to come out with different types of sushis. Most of them are my own designs and template. But I bought a really cool sushi template from an Etsy user and I learn a lot of basic techniques from useful tutorial. I'm thinking of buying more tutorials from her but she seems to have increased the price of her tutorial. :(

I'd put my felt sushis on sales at www.kiiss.etsy.com. Hope my sushis will be loved.

Tofu bags. Yummy.
For sale here.

Choose your favourite sushis.
$20.00 for 4 different sushis + chopstick free! Click here!

Cupcake

Hungry hungry hungry. But I can't eat you.

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR

Hokie....so no one will be updating their blog regularly nowadays because it is the Lunar New Year celebration all over the globe. Busy busy...collecting ang pows, gambling, going out with family and friends.

And.....today is the fifth day of Lunar New Year celebration, lalala and I am getting a little exhausted of the late night hang out with my friends and also at Kin Fai's friend's place. Last night I slept at 3.30am and woke up at 11.00am(almost everyday I slept at 3am) and now blogging about nothing. Haha.

Kin Fai went back to KL today. He was here for 7 days (one whole week!!) but I couldn't get to see him that often. I was kinda pissed off because his friends got to see him more. >_< But I guess every year's CNY is deem to be like this. But I couldn't stop myself from complaining. But can't blame me, I haven't see him in 3 weeks!! Long distance relationship is so difficult. Arrgghhh....*sigh*

Will be starting work tomorrow. I know there's a lot of ppl already started work today. I really don't feel like going to work at all, I know everyone is the same....but it's such a dreadful feeling, I know I am avoiding facing shits at work. But the shits are just too horrible. Can't write much about work here because a lot of my colleagues and even my bosses knew about my blog (is it a good thing?). It has been almost 3 years working with them and I grew to love the ppl and environment but somehow.....I don't know, is 3 years too long already? Some ppl has been working for more than 10 years in the same company. Not a pleasant CNY I would say, because I was being bother by work. Ok, so I know there's work pressure and pleasure. I am not trying to complain, in fact, I did enjoy (love??) my work a lot. And now trying to establish my part time job as an artisan.

Ok, I am still working hard on my Etsy shop. There's so many things I wanted to make and sell. Felt sushis, paper dolls, tags, inchies (already done!! and looking pretty but nobody is buying), more felt food....maybe even cards. Now trying to make some felt sushi food. For more arts and craft-venture, please tune to this blog. Since I got hooked on with Etsy, life has been busy and it adds another meaning to my life. This is not kids play, you know. I am putting my love and life into this art thing. Life without a passion for something is definitely dull and monotonous. So peeps, find your passion if you haven't got one yet.

What I am Doing

Ok, so I left my blog in the cold again. Some readers has been asking me, what are you doing???? Why no blog??? Actually I'm really slacking off in blogging and seldom read my friend's blog as well. SORRYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

Okok, lately, this is what I'm doing most of the time. My Etsy Shop. Hahaha. At last I have my own shop. And have been making a little money from it. I'm trying to make more handcraft item for sales and so, maintaining the shop and crafting is what I'm keeping my hands busy now. I tried to introduce the idea of e-commerce to my friends, e-Bay, Laundromatic and Etsy. Some of them are interested with the idea...but, just interested with the idea and not interested in actually doing it. So well, I'm having my fun, earning humble moolah and it's much more fun than doing MLM or selling insurance.

Oo...by the way, I have another blog to keep track of my arts and crafts adventure. The passion of crafting is what keep me sane from all the stupid work stress(but I'm not so easily get stressed from work....I'm almost stress-free) and also kills the boredom and loneliness of being in the long distance relationship.

Talking about long distance relationship. Yea, we are still strong. And a lot of ppl are surprise that we're still together. LDR is not as difficult to maintain as I thought. Maybe success rate will be like 30% (or maybe 20%...erm maybe 10%, there's no statistical support, ok) but it's not like impossible.

Ok-lah, that's all for today. At least I blog something mar.

Orange Delight

Made these for Swap Bot's Orange theme handmade postcards.

F&N Orange Freecard. Boring

I pimped the postcard and I made these. I quite like them but I have to send them out to my partners. I hope they will keep them in nice place. :)




Not much description today. Am busy with my Etsy shop. No, it's still not ready for sales yet. Sigh....

Beautiful voice

How many times did someone's singing actually touched you and made you cry? As for me, three times. Audition, semifinal and Finale of Britain Got Talent.


Audition



Semifinal



Final




Mr. Potts's voice touched me, not only me but the world. And with the story behind....this really is better than watching a movie.

The 'Got Talent' show is way more meaningful that any Idol show garbage. Salute to Mr. Potts.

And salute again.

More more more!!!

I'm not creating the best craft yet but I'm practicing more and more. Actually slacked off a bit lately due to the holiday seasons. Bought a whole bunch of felt material but haven't start with anything yet although I'm so full with ideas and inspiration now (too much surfing on the internet, saw too many good stuff).

Here's what I made:

The sushis I made from the cane sushi tutorial.

Not cut properly, that's why with the diferent size. hehe. But I was pretty satisfy with my first clay cane. I was a bit worry during the cane reducing process....which I thought I distorted the cane and screwed up....but then it turned out to be quite ok. I could not slice the cane properly because the rice seems to look distorted after the first two slice but I was clever to chill it overnight in the fridge. On the next day, I have my miniature sushi roll. Stupid old camera was not able to capture micro-view >_< but the rice looks really cute. I loveeeee translucent clay. ^_^
Oo...btw, the sushi cane tutorial is here in case anyone of you wanted to try some clay fun.

Bunny from MauStudio

My bunny looks a bit distorted, especially at the head. It's difficult to sew something so small. But still fun and it looks cute and confused. Hehe.

Let's play together~~~

Breakfast set.

Made a breakfast set from clay too. I love to make eggs. Cute enough to eat.

One happy family and they can all share the breakfast. hehe

Singapore Trip

A very late entry and I don't even remember when was the exact date of this trip. Somewhere in late of October. And since I'm home alone at Kin Fai's house with nothing much to do except online and chatting, so I might as well complete writing this abandoned entry. Erm, why home alone? Because I was on holiday and he still have to work, so I was being left home alone for 8 hours!!!!!! How fun is that?

But it's not too bad, I'm more an indoor person (unlike Kin Fai), so 8 hours home alone is not much problem as long as I have the internet connection, I am still very much connected to the outside world. And I really enjoy (syiok!) using his laptop.

Okok, back to the Singapore trip. Was there for a week long for company training purposes.

Ok, I'll reveal a bit on the things I do during the training here. All machinery and equipment. How boring. I don't know why I ended up doing this kinda of work. I'm an artist!!!! Should be holding brushes creating masterpiece not holding Allen key and assembly spare parts. Arrgghh!!!

Here's the hotel I'm staying. Parkroyal Hotel.

SGD190++ per room and it's not even a 4 star rated hotel. And no breakfast provided. The other 5 colleagues I went to Singapore with were kinda excited with the hotel rooms...mainly because 4 of them are technicians and seldom get to stay in posh hotels (this is not even consider posh). And 4 of them went totally hype when they saw the bath tub. And since all were guys, so I had the room all to myself. Another guy(engineer) suggested to share room with me but I blatantly rejected him.

Hippo city tour bus.

I had to lead 4 of the technicians for a city tour. The useless engineer left us on the very first day and joined his own Singapore friends. I had a friend working in Singapore offered to show me a bit of the island upon my arrival but I have to reluctantly reject him because I had to stay with the 4 poor lost lambs. It's also my first trip to Singapore, so I'm pretty lost myself too. And the 4 little lambs did not have much useful suggestion so I decided to take the Hippo city tour, a 24 hours city tour guide for just SGD24. Not too bad for us first timer. And for the first time of the day, I was cheered up seeing that the bus I was about to board is pink! hehe.

Me in the Hippo bus.

And some of the not very attractive technicians. I'm a bit hesitated to put their pictures in my blog but just that you all will know why I'm not enjoying the trip. LOL.

I went to the roof seating for better view.
I'm wearing pants ok, just don't know why my beige pants turn out so skinny.

Merlion. Smaller than I thought.

The Singapore flyers. Bigger than The Eyes of Malaysia I suppose. (of coz lar, everything they also want to be better than us)

At Orchard Road.

Vivo City. Nice design for a building.

The Hippo bus also took us to Sentosa Island for the Song of The Sea show. Sort of like laser+3D+musical fountain show.

And also went to Bugis Street, bazaar type of shopping.

I usually went crazy with bazaars, where I could find treasuries and good bargains but it doesn't seem to apply here in Bugis Street. Everything was so expensive (because of the currency rate) and especially after the trip to Bali and Chiang Mai, this so call Bazaar of Singapore I rated 1 out of 10. Even our own Jonker Street in Melaka and Petaling Street in KL are far more better. And I didn't even buy a single magnet or postcards. But grabbed a whole bunch of free cards from their advertisement racks. HAHAHA. Singapore ZoCards (freecards) rocks!

And on the third day, SK took me out for dinner and show me a bit of the more beautiful side of Singapore, which is Clarke Quay. He also brought me to Orchard Road for some really tasty Shanghai Siew Long Bau.

Deliciousssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everytime when I bite, I have to be very careful so that the juice inside the dumpling will not get squash out from my mouth, which will look awful if it did.

Riverside at Clarke Quoy.

It's really beautiful and romantic in Clarke Quoy. I wished I was there with Kin Fai. T_T
Just strolled along the riverside and clubbing area. Quite crowded and it's a Wednesday. I wonder how's the weekend? Anyway, thanks SK for the dinner and the time for showing me around. Will try not to virtual slap you so often...haha (try only lar).

The reverse bungy at Clarke Quoy. Ppl must be crazy.

And on the last night in Singapore, I had another date with my friend, Chun Yng. And thanks to those great friends, they brought me to eat the better food in Spore. This time, I went to Vivo City, the largest and hippiest shopping mall in Singapore. Yes, really beautiful mall. But too bad that after we finished our dinner (because of too much talking... hehe), the mall was already closing and we did not really walk alot.

The restaurant that Chun Yng brought me to were very 'Hong Kong'ish and the name is oso very cheeky..Hak Seh Wooi, meaning brothers, also meaning triad brothers.

Custard buns. Sooooo delicioussssssss!!!!!!!!!!!

I really like the three eggs fried rice (am a big fans of century egg). And it's Chun Yng's fingers.

Overall the food there was really good, one of the best meal I had in the whole week stay in Singapore. Yes, generally Singapore food is not that good and if you want to eat good food you have to try one of those kinda posh restaurants in big mall. And yes, of course, much much more expensive too. And also people tend to flock to Kim Gary too....just like us Malaysian.

After the sumptuous dinner we had a nice walk and chat at vivo city's rooftop which spot the night best view.....just opposite Sentosa Island. But with construction going on at Sentosa Island (they are building the casino, you know....), the island view is not that beautiful.

We went to Jewel Box, a place at hilltop, not very high but a good spot for night view. We also took the late night cable car ride to and fro to Sentosa Island (not stopping at the island though).

The Jewel Box

Xmas decoration were already all over the place.

Thank you so much Chun Yng!!! Love you *muaks*

I really miss home (Malaysia) especially our local food. Even though Singapore is just our neighbouring country but their street food/hawker food is not even near our standards. And as usual, I gobbled down a plate of Nasi Lemak once I set my food back to Malaysia ground. But it was Johor's nasi lemak and not that good...but don't care laaaa, emotionally and spiritually satisfied. Haha.

This is the big pau I had at Singapore. Not BIG at all!! What the....*tut tut*....

Look fancy...can 'act' like very delicious.

Beef steak at Sentosa Island. Course and hard rock.

Ok...at last!!! at last!!!!!!!! I finished my Singapore trip entry. Wahaha...now I may rest in peace.

And to contradict my sentence above about being left home alone (and no fun), actually I was only home alone for 4 hours and by 1pm Deb came to find me for lunch cum shopping at Uptown Damansara and I got myself a new dress for Xmas celebration. Yay!! Which end up I did not finish writing the blog at Kin Fai's house but 4 days later, at my own house. I just don't know why this entry took forever to finish.