Moving!

.... This will be my last post on this blog. Sob.. Ok let's not be overly dramatic, I'm only moving blogs! Heheh.

My new blog will be at http://chingmakesthings.blogspot.com 

After 5 years of writing on this blog, I think it's time to move on and start on a new canvas. Reading back my old posts always gets me nostalgic. I started this blog sometime before I started dating this man who has now become my darling husband :) From random conversations to angry rants about life, this blog has been through a lot of ups and downs, and I will surely miss it. I'll still keep this blog here so I can read it to my baby when I get bored during pregnancy someday :P

Over at my new blog, I'll be sharing lots of tutorials on sewing and crafting, and all things happy :D As I'm in the midst of designing for a sewing pattern line that my mom and I are working on, you can expect tutorials on customizing clothing, and even learn how to refashion your vintage finds! 

My husband and I are also preparing to renovate our home. This home has been his family's for about 20 years, and we plan to refurbish some of the furniture pieces that were handpicked by his late mom back then (she had great taste!). So I'm looking forward to share those projects with you guys on my new blog, as well as other DIY deco activities for the home!

So please update your bookmarks, and I hope to see you on the other side! (how morbid lol)

Lots of love and fuzzy blog kisses

My new online store is finally open!

Do come visit! Browse, share, and enjoy free shipping worldwide with the checkout code below :)

I hope you'll like what you see!

Tutorial: DIY Painted Belt!

I did this video tutorial as a submission for ModCloth's DIY Boss Contest-- it's my first time shooting a video tutorial, and I had a lot of fun! That, and my back ached like a crazy old man by the end of the session. Well ok to be fair, mostly due to the DIY camera rig I constructed haha.

Here are some behind-the-scenes pictures

All shot in natural daylight-- the best kind of lighting! I was rushing to get all the shots before the sun went down.

I prepared a very rough storyboard so I had all the steps visually planned out, so that I would not waste time thinking on the spot (something I learnt from helping Lobak with his production of wedding short films).

To keep the camera on a lock shot, I disassembled one of our Ikea shelf/trolley thingies and made a rig for the camera. Love you, Ikea!

My nail polish stash. My favorites are actually IN2IT because the texture is not too thick, but I love the colors of the OPI Minis that my mother-in-law gave to me for Christmas-- it's the Nicki Minaj collection heheh. Thanks to Mel and Jean, I love Face Shop's line too, because of the texture and wide range of colors.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but I have a weakness for belts. Whether they are new or thrifted or handmade, from a retail store or a night market, I. LOVE. THEM! Any belt lovers here? :P

The whole video was shot on my Samsung NX10, a camera that I absolutely ADORE. I bought it during a clearance discount I chanced upon (wouldn't have been able to afford it at full price), and I don't think I've ever loved a camera this much. I chose a 30mm pancake lens for the bokeh because I absolutely love bokeh. I know, I'm loving so many things on this post LOL. Most of my recent pictures in this blog were taken by my NX10.

The video was edited in iMovie, and the music was composed on Garage Band (my other music projects can be found here). 

Editing took the longest time for me (and an extra cup of coffee), but it's also something I'm consciously trying to improve on. I think I really enjoyed this video tutorial because it's a combination of everything that I love: photography, music, fashion and art. 

FINALLY! You made it to the end of the post! Haha. Ok here's the video, let me know if you like it!

p/s: Hello new readers! My blog is now at http://chingmakesthings.blogspot.com :)

Refashion: You're sacked!

Finally had time to work on this refashion! 

Refashioning feels like a quick fix sometimes, but most of the time it's a learning process for me. I learned to develop an editing eye from watching Project Runway-- step back, look at the garment, and see which parts you can edit out to make it better. 

Truth be told, I've been wanting to work this sack of a dress that I thrifted for RM5 (< USD2) for a longggg time. Unfortunately, every time I look at it, I get sucked into the black hole of inspiration. I didn't want to give up or use the light blue and white striped fabric for a non-garment item, so I kept this dress folded up near my desk so that I'll be bugged by it on a daily basis.

I actually drafted a pattern of a dress with capped sleeves and planned to cut up this dress and use the fabric to make a new dress. But after cutting the printed pattern and looking at the dress, I started to see the dress in a different light.

Let's see, I quite like the pockets... but they were seriously large and I could probably smuggle big puppies in them. I did like the elastic waist too. Most of all I love the button-up back! I couldn't bear to part with that detail.

I put on the dress and pinned it here and here for a bit until I decided HOYEAHH LET'S DO DIS!!

With Bernhoft, Passion Pit and Florence and the Machine competing for my attention from my iPod (yea rite), I worked on the dress and ended up with a dress I'm proud to have in my wardrobe!

With the box bag I refashioned. Yes I know I have very veiny hands. I was born this way and if you don't like it I'm gonna ask Gaga to hunt you down with her half motorcycle body.

Took off the sleeves, clipped up the shoulders and brought them in, nipped the pockets slightly, and of course chopped off a good couple of inches from the hem (the dress originally went down to my ankles and made me feel like going out to milk some friendly cows).

Button-up back! I actually missed a button. Think I'll need my husband's help to wear this dress heheh.

A rather billowing skirt of a dress that I probably shouldn't wear on windy days lol. I like the high neckline too!

In other news, looking back at February, it was my favourite month of 2012 so far for my Etsy store, and here's why! 

Reblogged by Wear Color:

A long time ago, Eevon passed me the link to Wear Color (which resulted in almost a day of zero productivity due to the endless scrolling), and I've been following it loyally ever since. If you scroll through its pages, you'll notice that Wear Color doesn't just reblog colorful pictures-- they are beautiful photographs that are high in style quality. I've gotten the chance to know Mallory who is behind the blog, and she's not only genuinely nice, but also very encouraging from the start.

A collaboration with Happy Together:

Jessica Fediw is one of my favourite mommy bloggers out there. She takes great pictures, and shares fun tutorials-- and all this while having kids! She's got a passion for sewing too, so it was fun teaming up with her with for my sewing charm bracelet. Again, a very sweet person to know :)

Frankie Magazine had me on their newsletter under "These little handmade leather beauties brightened our day":

Frankie is always on my adore list. Each issue is chock-full of beautiful things that seem to be carefully curated with a unique sense of style and taste. When I found out my buyers were coming from Frankie's newsletter, I think my jaw dropped and I may have possibly done an air whoop. Possibly.

That's about it! Thanks for reading this far hehe.

Tutorial: A different kinda bow

My dad celebrated his 68th birthday yesterday! Happy birthday pa! <3 

My dad will always be young at heart, and that's what I love about him. I hope that when I get to that age I will still be able to laugh heartily and make silly jokes like he is still doing now :D

We brought him a small gift yesterday, and for the first time in my life I tied a ribbon differently on a present. I think I saw this technique on Weibo, and it's pretty neat, so I thought I'd share it with you too. It's super easy!

Told you it was easy :) Depending on the width of your ribbon, once you've tied the bow you can slide the whole bow lower (like I did with my dad's present). 

I'm off to finish some work now, but meanwhile, some fresh colour block asymmetrical clutches have been added to the shop. I'm glad colour-blocking is back this Spring, all those colors do make me happyyyyy!

Color block clutches @ L.A.R.K

Til the next one, tardytartar!

p/s: Yes I spelled color the American way and the British way. Sigh... decisions, decisions.

Tutorial: Floppy disk coasters!

Phew! What a packed past week it was-- unexpected, but a very happy week for me that put February 2012 on top my favourite months so far this year for me. Some lovely things happened to my Etsy store, and I'm very very thankful for God's blessings. I'll share those stories in another post, coz I'm so excited to share this tutorial with you first! 

Who misses floppy disks?? Ok not me, because there's not much data you can keep in it (my husband has this story of his teenage years, and boys being boys, you can guess what they passed around in school in stacks of floppy disk. Anyone? Haha).

But, I love me a good old school flava (checkout how I spelled flava). In fact, for our wedding bands, my husband and I decided to have binary numbers that spelled out our initials, and we got them made by a wonderful silversmith-- Lyndsay of Idle Hands Designs. So floppy disks will always have a charm to us!

Anyway, HEY. Let's do this whole tutorial in Courier.

Ready to make your own floppy disk coasters?

Insert disk into Drive A:

You will need:

Colourful felt

Cork coasters (I recycled my old ones)

Glue

Scissors

Pen & Paper

First, trace the shape and size of your coaster onto the paper.

Roughly sketch out the parts of the floppy disk. 

You will need a label at the bottom, and the metal flap that protects the actual disc on top. I have no clue what is it called, but you know what I mean. That flap thingy.

Cut out your felt pieces according to the pattern you sketched earlier.

Glue all the pieces onto the cork coasters.

Cut some narrow strips to create the lines on the label.

Hurrah! Mission accomplished!

Now to check what files are in these floppy disks...

p/s: Hello new readers! My blog is now at http://chingmakesthings.blogspot.com :)

Excited, nervous, but I guess mostly excited! Ok maybe more of nervous.

Check out the new collection @ L.A.R.K

Hello new followers! Thank you for following my blog! \ :D /

I've been keeping busy with the Etsy shop. Am going to send off something to France tomorrow, how exciting it is to be writing an authentic French address on an envelope! (cheap thrills haha) I haven't been getting a lot of sales online (some of the sales are offline sales)-- if anyone has any tips for promoting and marketing an Etsy shop, do leave a comment, I'd appreciate it heaps.

Listed some new faux leather jewelry today. Had so much fun making them. I really do love the burst of colours and shapes!

Speaking of jewelry, I have an appointment coming up to meet with a retailer. It's my first time meeting a retailer and letting them have a look at my jewelry, and frankly I am quite nervous. I will be bringing key pieces from the faux leather collection, as well as my portfolio (photographs of other jewelry that I've done throughout the years). It did cross my mind to cancel the appointment and chicken out because of the fear of rejection, but HEY! Why am I being such a wuss? So I shook myself a bit (mentally) and slapped myself (mentally) and vowed to put my best foot forward and just DO IT. After all, if anything, it would be nice to have that experience of meeting with a retailer-- another new thing to learn in my lifetime.

I recently bought a domain (I think it happened at 4am, and no I wasn't drunk lol) and am going to start my own online store in the next few months. First, I've got to continue building the inventory... The current plan is to sell a mix of ready-to-wear, digital sewing patterns, as well as handmade jewelry and possibly some items for the home too.

Meanwhile, the husband and I are also planning for our home renovation. Been putting it off for way too long :-S  My mom and I are going to embark on some reupholstery projects, SO EXCITED! We have a lot of great old sturdy furniture in this house that have been here for 25 years... My late mom-in-law picked them and she's got good taste. (Sidetrack: My father-in-law said when they both got married and bought this house, they only had enough money for one sofa, so the house was pretty empty for quite some time. That story still makes me smile because it's pretty romantic.) I've never really worked with furniture before, so this chance to refurbish some pieces is terribly exciting that I keep using the word excited. Heh.

I will be posting up a tutorial soon, and this time it's something for the home! Come back soon ok! :D

/waves


p/s: Oh! I'm having a giveaway again :D Superrrr easy. Just "Like" L.A.R.K on Facebook and you'll be automatically entered into the lucky draw for this Mini Monolith ring inspired by the ancient pyramids. Ends March 15, 2012, so do spread the word!