Archive | August, 2017

My Dinky Dinosaur

14 Aug

Meet my dinky dinosaur!

On Saturday I went to Borneo Ink to get my dinosaur tattoo. The tattooist, Vadim, was a visiting artist from Russian and he used a different technique. He said it was a prison-style tattooing method, using just the needle and not a tattoo machine.

And all it took was a mere ten minutes. The setting up took longer – sterilising, wiping down and ensuring the space was clean.

When the pokes kicked in, it felt like ant bites and occasionally it felt more than a bite but bearable. I must admit I did break out in a cold sweat for a bit but the session was over quickly.

M2, who was with me, said she could hear the poking on the skin and it sounded painful. Well… part and parcel to bear if one wants a tattoo.

I am happy with the end result.

The end result!

The comparison

The original pencil doodle

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At a Crossroad, Part 3

11 Aug

Hubby thinks a dinosaur choice for a tattoo is ugly and for the life of him, cannot understand why would I want a dinosaur. Well, it’s my choice and I have mulled over it for sometime already and the decision is set.

Surprisingly, my M2 has been very supportive of this. Initially I couldn’t fathom why my child wants me to get a tattoo. With a little probing, I found it.

She has an ulterior motive! She wants to get an ear piercing that only a tattoo parlour is able to execute with the correct and proper tools. We shall see about this as I have not agreed to what she wants.

As I write this, the tattoo parlour just called! My appointment is scheduled for tomorrow morning! yay.

Now I am excited…

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A Bargain, Part Two

10 Aug

The square blocks from Daiso are not as easy to carve compared to my usual balsa wood. They are not soft, being harder and more dense therefore, harder to carve. 

I started to carve Citizen #64 of Gigglesville but the progress is very slow. Even with sharpened tools, it’s slow. In the midst of it, I diverted to the new balsa wood for a couple of quick ones and Citizens #65 and #66 came about at a much faster pace.

Sometimes there are no shortcuts even at a bargain. I should stay focused. 
It took me several hours each time over a stretch of several days to complete Citizen #64. That’s too long compared to the balsa wood which I take only 40 minutes to an hour to carve a citizen up.

Maybe if the blocks are not suitable to carve citizens of Gigglesville, I should consider using them to create other elements to support the township. Something to think about.

Citizen #64, the giant

Citizens #65 & #66

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Our Silly Pet

8 Aug

We have a new neighbor on our street and they have two Labradors. Several days ago, M2 overheard the owners, walking the dogs, calling out one of the dogs by its name, “Fishball” and she thought it was rather cute.

She then suggested that we should change official pet number one’s name from “Rooney” to “Beefball”, similar to the neighbor’s because it’s rather cute. After all, “Rooney” is such a boring name and we’re not even football fans!

Fast forward to a typical night at home…

After the usual after-dinner routine – coming out to the garden to play and having his snacks, it was time for Rooney to go back. So I called him by his actual name and he didn’t budge even with a snack bribe.

So I tried another tactic…

I called him “Beefball” and he moved! Walked right towards me. We sure have one silly pet who does not know his own name sometimes or most times!

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A Bargain

7 Aug

Thrift stores are the best. At a fixed flat price, you can find just about anything from these places. We have Daiso, the Japanese brand here and I must say, it’s one of our favorite haunts.

Every now and then whenever we go to the mall, we must visit a Daiso store. And surely, we will find something useful and at a bargain. Last week, I found some ready-cut wood blocks (8 pieces in a bag) on the shelves and thought the size was perfect for carving. At half the price of my usual balsa wood but three pieces less than what a foot of balsa would yield, it’s a bargain.

Slightly bigger at 1.2 inch by 1.2 inch compared to my usual one inch by one inch balsa, I think I can manage although the label did not mention what type of wood these blocks were. I even discovered a set of diamond files, perfect for filing those crevices!

With the new materials (incidentally, I bought two more pieces of balsa from the art store) and new tools, Gigglesville is set for another boom in the coming days! Whee…..

Carving-10

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We Love Sandra Boynton!

4 Aug

Sandra Boynton is my all time favorite illustrator and author for children’s book. I discovered her books while working in New York City back in the early 90s, after graduating from college. I am proud to say I have quite a sizeable collection of her titles.

My collection were read by M1 and M2 in their early years, and even me occasionally these days when the mood hits.

When M1 was a toddler, I taught her to read ‘But Not the Hippopotamus’. The child was amazing. She could recite the whole book with full of zest and expression without a glance at the pages. The only thing she struggled with was the long word ‘hippopotamus’ which came out as ‘neh-neh-neh-tamus’.

When M2 was 19 months’ old, she had her exposure to Sandra Boynton too. Multi-tasking at such an early age, she’s engrossed with ‘Barney’ on the TV while attempting to read ‘Doggies’ at the same time. You have to turn up the volume, ignore Barney and listen to her carefully.

Adorable is all I can say. Sigh… why do they grow up so fast?

M2readsSandraBoynton

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Giving Up

3 Aug

I finally decided to ‘give up’ two more games on my iPad, deleting them several nights ago. Remember Candy Crush Saga was canned awhile back?

It’s not a total give up but a technical one because I still play these games in Facebook on the laptop (at home) or desktop (in the office). My iPad has been so slow, rendering it almost useless, it’s aggravating.

I don’t have pictures and music on the iPad, so I suspect it’s the games’ data accumulated when I play them and it hordes the space on the device thus slowing it down. With the RAM dropping down to 200MB or thereabouts most times, what can I do? I can’t even read anything on Safari, let alone crush some candies!

So I canned both the Monster Busters apps. This is on top of clearing away other apps that I don’t use any longer. I even deleted the Facebook app!

On hindsight, maybe it’s a good thing to make me less dependent on my iPad as I find myself doing more meaningful things in my free time, like carving up a whole township of Gigglesville citizens!

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International Owl Awareness Day

1 Aug

As I indulge in my free time by carving up a whole township of owls and creating their characters, I am also slowly discovering a lot of information about this creature.

While they may be carnivorous, mysterious and nocturnal in nature, mine are a little bit more fun – cute, giggly-looking and certainly not carnivorous. And I’d like to think my Citizens of Gigglesville do also hold a special place in the hearts of all who appreciates my efforts.

Owls are enigmatic birds and can be lovable or spooky depending on how one looks at it. As 4th of August is International Owl Awareness Day, here’s a good site: http://www.owlworlds.com (there are plenty more) to learn about this fascinating creature.

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