Eye scream.

Been plagued with terrible headaches the past week and I figured it might have been the late nights I've been pulling the past few months that were causing it. And then came the blurry visions when I went out during the day once this week even with my contacts on. My computer and iphone screen have been at its dimmest but my eyes would still feel a strain and I went out earlier today thinking maybe I've been indoors too long and my eyes were just tryin to adjust to natural light. It started to make sense to me that probably my prescription needed to be changed and I finally went to get my eyes checked before I'd panic more about the possibilities of going blind (I watched the Ray Charles movie two weeks ago).

So it turns out I have astigmatism and need to get new contacts. I kinda knew I had astigmatism the last time I got my eyes checked but thought I was already wearing contacts MEANT for astigmatism. I'm left wondering why the optometrist didn't prescribe them to me back then, which would've helped long before this.

Toric lenses now cost $95 a box compared to the $35 I've been paying for normal lenses. I'm just hoping it will still feel the same as I've read that toric lenses have a different shape as opposed to the standard spherical shape of normal lenses. But you know what, fuck it. As long as the headaches go away and I no longer have to squint in the day or night, I'll do whatever it takes. All I have to do is wait for them to be ready in a few days.

Birds and the beads.

A month later, and I stuck to my word to have some bird necklaces made. It all started with my first pigeon necklace (from this entry) and now I've grown to have parrots, doves and herons. These are available for sale in my etsy store for USD$20-25 each. If those goes well, then I would definitely make more and see if I can work with other animal versions as well. But I really like birds. Just sayin'.

Brick and peyote pendants.

With the thousands of tutorials that you can find on the internet these days, it is easy to keep yourself busy with some form of crafty activity. The above was made with TOHO beads using a brick stitch and below was done with DELICA beads using the peyote stitch. They look almost the same but it really is different and both are equally fun to do. 

*photos taken with the iphone in shitty light.

Peyote ring

Mt first attempt on making a beaded ring working with a peyote stitch. I used delica beads cos they're flat. Am gonna try to make another one and one that fits me nicely cos this is a little loose and I prefer my rings tighter. 

Huda.

This is Huda. She's a pint sized fighter. I've been calling her that cos she's small in size but is bold in her actions. We were out in Dempsey on Sunday where I took this. 

VSCO Grid

If you're a frequent visitor of my site, you'd know how much I am into iphone photography and how it has revived my love for photography. I am a frequent user (or more like an addict) of instagram and even do editing with apps like Snapseed. I use Squaready to frame my images, and PicFrame or Fuzel for collages when need be. Slowshutter for long exposure shots, however, this works better with a tripod.

I have a habit of downloading apps and leaving them in there til I remember its existence before testing them out. One of them was the VSCO cam. I find VSCO revolutionary, but I might possibly be dramatic about this, but it is AMAZING! The preset filters are amazing (or you could edit them your own way like I do but am still getting the hang of it). The soft tones and subtle saturations that I've usually seen in images in Frankie or Monster Children magazine or in other japanese lifestyle shots. 

They even have preset filters to work with Adobe Lightroom. (Sad to say, I've still up til now not worked with RAW files.) I've seen many photos taken/edited with the app and always thought them to look amazing. But still in most cases, the photographers deserve the credit for having taken such great care in their compositions and then allowing VSCO presets to enhance them, that they do in fact turn out even more amazing. That's three amazings. 

But anyway, you have to see it for yourself by checking out the VSCO Grid. And that's where I have my own grid too.(Just sayin')

Hira.

This is my friend, Hira. We met 10 years ago when she was 16. She was into all things pink and Roxy. Back then, all we did was go to the beach and get tanned and do girlie things like shopping and paint each other's nails. I used to start my lines to her like, "Before you were born..." cos she's 6 years younger than I am. In a way, I've watched her grow up from a wide eyed girl to a smart, independent and beautiful woman... and she still likes pink and girlie things.

Shot with the iphone.

Sunday is the new Saturday.

I am always about shooting photographs of my girlfriends as to document all our fun times and I've done so for the past ten years. Last Sunday, we went to scout for a location to do a group photography session for our friend, Marni who's getting married later this year. We got lost and we chased the sun and it was for me a very special moment. We were going one direction but caught a glimpse of the vermillion sky between buildings and then made a turn, stopped the car and I shouted at everyone to get out of the car and stand in place. We did not plan our poses tho, which made for a very messy silhoutte pose below. Alot of girlie screaming and laughter ensued. Fun times.

The above picture, I got my friend Hazmee, who lived nearby to help shoot us. And the below pic, the help of a mini tripod and timer.

Delica

I made these last night when I couldn't sleep as I watched Life of Pi. I used Miyuki Delica seed beads that I got a couple of days ago. I'm really glad that there are so many colors of beads available locally now compared to when I started beading in the mid 90s and could only find primary colors. Beading is addictive, I have to say. So much so that I started ordering more beads from Czech Republic/Latvia sellers on Etsy cos they had nice range of pinks and different hues of blues. I'm so excited, I really can't wait for them to arrive!

Sags to stitches

For anyone that knows me and how I've been the past year, I'm not a morning person. I work well into the wee hours of the morning and my head hits the pillow just as the sun starts to rise. I am plenty aware it's not healthy but it just so happens that I get more productive at night, or maybe so when everyone is asleep. So, when my girlfriends, S and H decided we should have sunday brunch and to meet at 11am, I was at first, excited and then not really up for getting up early. But I got up anyway, always fully knowing that daylight is glorious and better for me. 

We had eggs and juice (and corn beef!!) at Hatched and tea and cakes at Antoinette. Throwing in some shopping time at Public Garden's flea market, each of us coming away with a vintage dress. 

"Dewi loves her Vintage." ~ S says.

Nuts and floss.

I seem to be in a accessories phase. The making of them, mostly. Especially, since I'm more accustomed to buying solids instead of prints when it comes to blouses and tops which would make necklaces the cherry topping to my ice cream. But then, I don't like cherries, so let's make it NUTS instead. Appropriate though, cos the above necklace was made with hex nuts and embroidery floss. And I found out that tassles are super fun to make!!

My pinterest is always filled with craft ideas, and I've had this tutorial for awhile but never got around to making this til now especially since I found the receipt with the hex nuts dated February 2012. You can find the tutorials here and here. 

I went over the Spotlight last night to get me some more floss and grabbed them in themes cos a friend of mine requested I make one for her. I thought I'd be spending over $35 on floss alone and was a little apprehensive about it while walking to the counter. The cashier counted 43 colors and then asked if I had the 30% discount voucher sent via sms, to which I looked at her blankly and said no, but then remembering receiving an email from Spotlight but was cursing myself for not reading it, but she gave me the discount anyhow, and I only paid about $25 and wished I had bought even more cos now looking at the above spectrum, I missed out on reds and browns. 

I later found the discount voucher in my email. It was a secret 2 day sale and boy, am I glad I decided to go yesterday. Note to self - always read emails from Spotlight.

Get Crafty - Straits Times.

Last week, I was featured in the Life Section of Straits Times, giving a demo on making your own greeting cards using lino. It was a choice between this or fabric printing using freezer paper, but I chose this cos I figured I could use some Thank you cards in the end. Did the interview at RSCLS Studio (thanks, Sam) cos they had good natural light and mostly for the space. Thanks to Lisabel Ting for the article and to the three good people who recommended me for this feature (Trisha of The Little Threads, Katrina Alana and Mike Mindflyer).

If you click on the image, you should be able to read the article and view the instructions. I rearranged the newspaper cutout cos it would've been too long(lengthwise).