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…..

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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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A Tragic Mishap

31 Jul

It was a Friday evening and we got home early. We were just chilling at home, waiting for the evening rush-hour traffic to disperse before we went out for dinner. And Pablo gave us another fright!

Hubby had removed the driftwood and pot several days ago, and replaced it with a mini bridge. And the feisty fella has been constantly moving/pushing/lifting the new bridge around because it must be quite light for him. Or he hates it, I don’t know.

Unfortunately, this show of muscle strength resulted in Pablo breaking off a pincer on that Friday night! Ouch.

Looking back, I think the ordeal must have been too painful for he was writhing around and we didn’t realize the severity. We were hoping it wouldn’t be so tragic; after all, crayfishes do lose limbs during battles especially within a community and survived. You could say he was in a battle here, with the mini bridge.

The poor fella looked off balance and disoriented. Little did we know, two hours later, we came home from dinner and Pablo Sanchez Rodriguez, our feisty crayfish was gone. Motionless with glazed eyes. Gone to pet heaven.

What a tragic mishap! It didn’t have to come down to this. I don’t know what to say… Sniffle…

Pablo was buried in the garden that night.

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The Making of Wanderlust Owl

28 Jul

It wasn’t easy to carve Wanderlust Owl. The sketch was ugly and amateurish but I could visualize how the character would look. And with patience and determination, it started to take shape.

At 31mm only in height, I had to include a cap, a back pack and a hiking pole, new elements that doesn’t appear on normal citizens of Gigglesville. As for the hiking pole, I actually used a toothpick because I didn’t think I could shape a hiking pole that easily without breaking.

This is the process and the end result; and to cut the nitty gritty of it, I am pretty proud of my handiwork. Wanderlust Owl is the start of a new series, the Adventurers of Gigglesville, besides the normal citizens and Superheroes. Let’s hope that there will be more under this new series!

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A Tribute – The Great Wall of China

27 Jul

The carving efforts have improved with time and dedication. This most recent piece is a tribute to hubby’s uncle, a man with a great passion and unusual life mission which is to walk the Great Wall of China.

This little 31mm Wanderlust Owl comes complete with a cap, a backpack and hiking pole, just like the man who has traversed the Great Wall in a spate of several years since 2009. He would continue on each year from where he left off on the previous journey to pursue the improbable dream and fulfill his mission with amazing courage.

You can read all about his adventure in details on his website: http://ooithin.wixsite.com/count1million

Hats off to you for this courageous and determined effort! You deserve the Wanderlust Owl.

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80% Effort, 100% Result

25 Jul

Golf is a funny game I always say. It is also a game of opposites. When you try hard, the more difficult it becomes somehow. But when you don’t try so hard, everything clicks. It is almost like when you hit rock bottom and just about to give up, you play one of your best games and because of this, there’s a renewed zest again.

Over the weekend I decided to participate in an away Interclub match for my golf club. After all, a golf buddy signed me up ages ago, I thought it would be good to try playing again after such a lengthy rest.

It has been three and a half months since my last competitive game. Although there were a couple of social games in between, the performance and ability had been questionable. With the persistent tennis elbow, golf has taken a back seat in my life. In its place is of course, the carving and the growth of my Citizens of Gigglesville.

So without any expectations except to not aggravate the elbow injury, I played my best game ever! This is truly a case of 80% effort and yielding a 100% result. I am dumbfounded at my ability but pleasantly gratified with the achievement.

The partnership with another lady saw the two of us emerging as the best pair (not first runners up or even second runners up but BEST pair) for our club, beating the men who are always better. Each of us played one under to our handicaps for a combined Stableford 74 points.

Well, it is indeed a confidence booster and a new secret discovered – putting in only 80% effort to yield a 100% result. This theory has made me wonder if I have been doing it wrong all these years? Hmm… If this is the case, I should remember this formula to have a good outing and at the same time, enjoy the game and not aggravate the injury.

I now look forward to future games and no, the Citizens will not be forgotten, they will still strive in numbers.

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The Pet of Gigglesville

24 Jul

In the thick of carving, I suggested to hubby that he should try his hands at this too instead of just fiddling with his air plants. So I gave him a tiny leftover piece of balsa to try.

He was keen but wasn’t sure he could do the owls, so he opted for something else and we ended up having a baby elephant!

Tiny little fella is now deemed the official pet of Gigglesville. Ain’t he cute?

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Dang! She’s Good

21 Jul

I can’t help but gush about my M2’s artistic ability. Recently, I officially engaged her for one of my client’s project. The style: doodles, something she was very capable of.

The project: a doodle to depict a community of health. I paid her for the job and I think she did an excellent job. The end result speaks for itself. Dang! She’s good.

M2's art

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