The Christmas Month

This December was almost as busy as the last. After I presented & submitted my garment design, I had a little bit of breathing gap before I went on a trip to Amsterdam & Brussels.

It was a fulfilling time with my in-laws. We experienced love that reflects the Christmas spirit. How wonderful!

I managed to make some Christmas postcards & cards for my folks and delivered them in time. I realized how I missed making cards.

I look forward to some blessed restful time at cosy home with my hubby this Christmas. As the London public transports & eateries would be down on Christmas Day, we would definitely stock up our fridge. We won't want to be stuck at home with no food! Ahaks.

Merry Christmas, bloggers.




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My Life-size Origami Skirt

The fashion design presentation day cum CRIT for my precious-blood-and-sweat garment came (literally meant the 'blood' bit - poked my fingers with the sewing needle umpteen times). It would be an understatement to say I was nervous. But I was really prepared & fortunately the judges were pleased with my presentation & design concept.

I shan't bore you with the whole garment making details. So, let's let the photos do the talking...

    

       

        

What do you think?





Apparently, my work has been featured on the design school's website, blog & tumbler.


All in all, I think my ability to produce a presentation book and the right choice of concept made it to impress all members of the floor. I would say I could do with more practise on sewing manually & with the machine. :)

Mission Accomplished.







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Origami Crunch Time

When I get a project that is not from work (thus no daily cut off time), I often go overboard to complete it. I would disappear into my own world & working away till it's way past sleep time. 
But hey, that's what you might do too when you are passionate about something, right?

Here are some of the photos depicting the process of fusing the origami concept into a garment...

Prototype

 

 

 

Prototype on mini mannequin.

 Life-size experiment in paper. Tedious part of this design has begun.

The crunch time started when I began hand stitching my garment design after one mini prototype & one life-size experiment.Stay tune for the next report regarding the final outcome of the garment. For some unforeseen reasons, it morphed!

Dolphin & Dandelion

Coloured with graphic markers

I met up with a friend whom I have not met for more than 10 years.

Over an extended lunch, he and his fiancee shared with me their testimonies including a prophesy they once received. It was a good inspiring session. The next day, I decided to illustrate for them the prophecy that means so much to them in a pictorial form.

Van Gogh wannabe?

Here are some of the design exercises done during the fashion course...

Produced colour palettes to match the samples given.

Task : Paint a fruit with secondary colours.

Copied designs from magazines

Practised sketching fashion designs... this was totally random & impromptu.

 Monochrome painting of Van Gogh according the original sample on the left. 

Not bad eh for someone who for two decades didn't like painting because she finds it difficult to control the brush?

These exercises brought back some good ol' memories of my first year in Interior Design.





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Restless Creative Juice

After all the Olympics & Paralympics hype subsided, and the moving of home had taken place. I began to think, "What next?"

I would usually like to think I want to be a lazy couch potato & just watch the tv whole day long. But I realized one consistency of me getting restless after 30 minutes or less sitting in front of the tv, knowing there are nothing waiting for me to work on after I am done watching the tv.  I need to do something more fulfilling. I need to be occupied with work or projects to get my brain juice working & to push my creativity further. 

I know I could make cards & join online challenges like I used to (actually I can't wait to resume) but I realized some things in life can wait while I acquire more skills.

So long story short, I took a short 5-week fashion course, had a go with the industrial sewing machine and designed a garment. 

The course required individuals to choose a theme to their design collection. And one garment to be completed by the end of the course. Some of the themes chosen by others were animal print, lace, punk, leather, army print, red carpet, egyptian, african & etc. Guess what theme have I chosen?

(Pic by Crafts 4 Camp)

Origami! A paper folding concept. Don't you think it would be interesting to wear/own a Origami garment? ^_^ I am already excited thinking about all the possibilities!

The garment will also be submitted as a competition entry, so I will be doing a presentation to 4 panel judges in December. Results shall be out by early 2013. If my design wins, it will be displayed/modeled in Stratford's Westfield, London. Fingers crossed.

Nomadic Londoner

It's time to move home again. I have been told that Londoners are prone to moving a lot. But moving for a person with too much stuff...  like me, is big hassle. The process of packing, dismantling, cleaning up, getting movers, handing over & etc is tedious. Meh.

Nevertheless, it is well with my soul and I know that God is moving us to an even better place each time.

During this busy month,  I managed to make a very quick trip to Nottingham.

  

My mister rushed off to catch his NF football team playing in a match while I went to discover the town & played with my camera.

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The Sporting Spirit

On 12th August, the Olympics 2012 finally came to its closing ceremony and I witnessed it at Stratford Park with some folks from church. We watched it live from large screens while chillaxing with snacks on our picnic mats. We enjoyed seeing the proud athletes during the parade & we even danced and sang along when the concert began.

The spirit of sports & competition continues into September. And I was not ready to return to blogland. I managed to grab two tickets for J & I to visit the Olympic Park on 5th September during the Paralympic games. 

While we were in the Olympic Park, we visited these :
Coca Cola interactive theme house
CGI touristy photo shot spots
Biggest McD in the world
Interactive game kiosks
Live band corner

During these exciting times, I moved home again. Oh, how I dreaded the packing stress & mess. Nonetheless, it all went well. We believe God moves us to a better place each time. All glory to Him.





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Guten Tag, The Olympics Fever Is Still On

On the first week of August, my husband & I had a holiday in Berlin, Germany. Individually, we were looking forward to this trip. He was excited about the Beach Boys concert...

... while I was thrilled to be in Europe again.
We stuffed our faces with cheap good gelatos & bratwursts.

We met up with my girlfriend & her boyfriend too. With them, we played a table tennis tournament, ate more scrumptious german food and travelled the graffitied streets.

 

 

 We even watched the Badminton Men Finals featuring Malaysia vs China in my friend's cozy apartment.It was a good game.

On 12th August, I joined a bunch of friends at the Stratford Park to watch the Closing of Olympics London 2012.

Through the Olympics period, we watched many live games on TV. 

 

There were so much hype around London, the Olympic Park and around my area. What a fabulous place to be - the right place at the right time. Conveniently ticking one thing off my bucket list for living in the Olympics host city - once in a lifetime experience.