Sharpie Pen Holder

Be careful of where you place your beloved pens. There were times when I left my room's door opened as my 'landlady' (subletter in exact) wanted to have a chat with me and her little girl's eyes sparkled, seeing all those colours on the floor (let's just say I don't clean up the things I would still be using). Wisely, she took the opportunity when we were chatting to slowly take baby steps into my room. These colours seemed to be like magnets, drawing her gradually into my room! Cheeky one, I'm sorry, but my room was a mess. So, I prompted her mom to stop her. Whoa, she's only three/four, but she has an eye on these. I can't imagine her potential in the future! 

What a deal they were, costing me just 8 pounds. But, things started to get complicated when the pack was opened...

Initially, I persevered by rearranging them back to their 'case' when I were to keep them away. Over the time, I found this a bit unrealistic. I mean...

Look at this!

A single shake and every effort turned to dust!

So... I came to a resolution to create something useful yet fun.

View the video below on my simple step-by-step (actually it's step jumping step!) process. 

Give it a try. Who knows you might discover your hidden 'talent'!

DIY Cardboard Shoerack

Are any footwear in your way like the image shown below? Have you almost hurt yourself after tripping over your own or someone's else shoes, etc. ? Are you sick of tidying the doorway until you have given up trying to make your place look decent? well, or at least safe? Are you a nomad (like me) who don't bother to get a nice shoerack so that it won't end up belonging to other people after moving?

Here's a solution to all of your worries/concerns above!

All you need are: patience, cutter knife, ruler, hot glue gun, pencil and cardboard. All these can be sourced easily, ain't it? So, there's no reason not to give this shoerack a try!

All these building can be strenuous, but they're 'surprisingly' light. 😂 Yes, they're just a bunch of rectangles, but they are my rectangles. Yes, I can simply destroy it before I move in the future, but they are truly precious. And I know where to go when I want to reminisce them. 😊

Miniature Paintbrush

家家酒， 不如家家‘画’

When I was young, I had lots of furry/non-furry animals/soft toys to play around with. I would pretend to be their teacher and my little sister would make them (especially my own toy) as bratty as possible to make my life miserable (that's just the nature of my sister! *joking*) and hers to be like angels. Of course, I had chance to make it even. 😎 For no reason, I think we never had a class on arts. 

You know how most asian parents are. Loving yet protective - fear that their beloved children will make a mess out of themselves (well, actually it's the house that my parents would be more concerned of! 😂).

So, today I introduce to you something fun (it is to me!) where your child can pretend to be an artist and take it from there. 

Image 1. Ain't he a painter? 😍 (without his painting hat though). Yes, he's the legendary mole from Czech. Krteček is his name. There's an interesting story to how I own him which I might share in another post some day. Nope, he's definitely not here to steal the spotlight today!

  

Image 2. The view from my little Mole's angle. He's not that tall by the way, if you can't already tell. 😅

Image 3. Download your FREE template here. Note: Drawing stand and paper are NOT provided. You can utilize any recyclable materials like cardboard and just get creative!

Reasons not to not give this a try:

1. SIMPLE - Get your own felt. Cut off shapes from the templates and as soon as you know it, you have your own sets of painting tools!

2. DESIGN - Yes, you're the boss. You can decide your own colours of everything - paint or brush. 

3. LIGHT & SOFT - They are unlikely to post dangers to your little ones.

4. CLEAN - Your children do not have chance to make a mess of themselves and your house!

5. EDUCATIONAL - Colours! I would have wished that I own one many years ago. (Yes, my third concept! Something educational, but fun at the same time! - Refer to tic-tac-toe for my second concept)

6. PROUD - Be a proud parent. Show to your children that they have been given one of the best gifts in life - handmade!

7. PRACTICAL - train DIY-ers to work on something delicate; train your kids to hold a brush.

Feel free to share your experience in making one or let me know what's stopping you! Enjoy :) 

How to literally walk around London

Goody! It's this time of the year again! Meeting up with my two old pals ET and LW in London somehow became an annual thing which I pretty much look forward to. In a few days time, ET is going to graduate (unfortunately work could not afford me to attend). In a few months time, LW will graduate too. So, this year is the final complete reunion of us three in London. 

LEFT: Spent my night after dinner preparing breakfast bars. Simple ingredients - Peanut butter, fruit jam, roasted oats, white sesame, cinnamon powder and almond powder. WARNING: Never ever flip them upside down until you are sure that they're sticky enough. Well, long story short, almost half of them ended up in the bin. Jam was already something sweet and I did not want the taste to be too strong. So the stickiness bit is something I have to work on. RIGHT: Well, I could not think of any good graduation gifts or birthday gifts, so that's how I came to the idea of 'healthy' breakfast bars. 

Early morning, it was raining and gloomy. Stepped into puddles of water - as I was 'wunning' (walk+run) *as usual* to catch my bus. A 'good' start of the day 😑. My coach reached the destination 10 mins early at 11.20am and I would only be seeing LW at 1230pm. Discovering that our meeting point was walkable (my friends and family have a totally different definition of this. Let's just say that my sister used to complain to mom that she could not feel her legs after joining my trips to Europe) and could still arrive just on time, that was when I decided to just walk. 

Lunch @ Patty&Bun, Borough Street, London. 

https://www.pattyandbun.co.uk/borough-high-street/

Gave the medium-ly done 'Lambshank Redemption' Burger (£9, excl service charge) a try. It was pretty 'petite'. To be honest, the taste was alright, but it's a taste that I would forget the minute I stepped out the place. Possibly due to my high expectation after watching their patty making video the night before *oops*. 

Hummingbird (£9.50, excl service charge) @ Where the pancakes are

https://wherethepancakesare.com/

Dessert done, but ET was no where near. All thanks to rain. 

Time: 4.10pm. Bus to depart at 5.00pm. Estimated walking time: 1 hour and 10 mins. And yes, for some reason, I just decided to 'wun'. Rationale behind: If I'm walking then I, not the traffic, am in control of the time. However, that decision this time was just plain fun. 😄 The best part was that my phone died when there was still 51% battery remaining. Time: 4.45pm. Luckily, it was a rather familiar place where I could still roughly make way to the station and I was still hoping to get something from Domique Ansel Bakery (just beside it). The ones I wanted to order and go were completely sold - apparently it seems to be a rather popular place). Could not make up my mind to any alternatives, I decided to just pay a visit next time (there's always one since coach is my best friend) as I had only 5 minutes to spare.

Oohh, a queue! Used that opportunity to snatch a sandwich from PRET and when I was about to make payment, the young lad serving me exclaimed 'Latte on the house'. I'm not a coffee person (it stains! and I could not really tell what's a good coffee), but hey, why not? Never get to know the reason, but I definitely owed them a 'Thank You'. That was all I needed - something warm - on the bus after whole day of rain and walk/run. 

Now, just need to think of how not to use the toilet after having green tea from the dessert shop and that coffee. Oh wait, how about sleep?! *End of Story* 😆

   

- 6 hours bus. ~ 7 miles. 2.25 hours walk. 3.5 hours meet up -

An enjoyable day with you, LW. Truly grateful that you took your time off to meet up. All the best in final year! As for ET, happy graduation, truly proud of you! Your future awaits! It's a blessing to have you both in my life.

  

Breakfast

My mom has always emphasized on the importance of breakfast! So, I have never ever skipped my breakfast. I must admit I might have brunch occasionally. 😅 Having that said, I would say I skip lunch instead of breakfast since in most cases it's because I woke up late 😉 Well, dinner is a totally different story. There were times where I only had fruits for dinner (because I overate during breakfast/lunch/dinner and still experienced the aftereffect - bloating!)

Here's a short video to make your own sandwich! It's easy and straightforward (both the real thing and the craft) 😄. It does not take up much of your precious time. I can't see why we should miss our breakfast or any meals at all - if time was the issue.

Insta Version (@missbloopy)

Youtube Version

Enjoy! Hope from this day onwards, none of you will ever say that there's no time to prepare your own meal. 

 

A game of Tic-Tac-Toe

Fun does not originate from flat screens only - missbloopy

Tic-Tac-Toe. A game which most, if not all, of the 1990's children have played. It's not something fancy or anything close to it. It's a getaway for children these days from ipad/phone/tv screens whilst having fun.

I have an odd habit of keeping my things the way it is, especially with the presents I received when I was young. Whenever I got the time, I would just take them out and reminisced about the time back then and later put them back in the box they came with. I would re-wrap it with its present paper and leave it at the same old spot where I keep it. I guess sometimes I just thought that those presents were too precious for me to use - although not all things are usable - but you get me! However, as the years go by, I view things in an opposite manner. I slowly found it wasteful if they were kept as display purposes. 

And I feel that it's the same with the gifts that I have given or will give to my friends. My mom used to say: 'Who's the unlucky one this time'. Well, that's my mom alright 😕, but it could have well been the actual thoughts of those who have received any from me. 😅

So, who am I aiming to these days with all these crafty ideas? The public of course! However, the real source of inspiration is young parents. I'm seeing more and more of my friends taking marriage vow and stepping foot into the world of parenting. *joy of tears* What I hope not to see most is that those glaring flat screens taking control of any child's life. 

I wish that my gifts could be something educational and at the same time fun. And that's how I came to this concept. This is actually my third one which I had in mind. The first and second - which I can't wait to showcase - are still in the process and will eventually be posted. 

Your tic-tac-toe can be just drawn on paper. I just wish to go a bit further by giving children a chance to 'build' the # structure and physically move Xs and Os about. Who knows one day they might just fall in love with felt craft. 😙 I also created the tic-tac-toe 'pack' below, so that young moms or dads or anyone could just print off and have fun with their children! You can even start training them to use scissors - must supervise at all times!

Click here to start your own felt craft madness and a game of tic-tac-toe. 

Note that the 'difficulty' was contributed by the size of the Xs and Os. It's really a 'pain' cutting and stuffing the 4cm x 4cm. Can't imagine doing 3cm x 3cm, but you can challenge it! Oh yes, definitely super lot of patience needed as they can be really monotonous. Imagine cutting 10 x Xs of the same colour and another 10 x Os. So, why not let your imaginations run wild here - give your Xs and Os a different colour or you can create patterns for them. Even cooler - who says tic-tac-toe must be Xs and Os?! 😎

I gave this to the little one at my 'home' for her birthday, thinking that I could finish sewing in a night, but apparently not! Partial thanks to work. 😒 Hence, I actually gave her a day late. *Oops*. I never got to see her play or open the present as I was rushing to reach workplace on time and she had to go to school too. But, it was rewarding to hear from her mom that they really enjoyed the game although she had 'fights' with her brother. Her mom: 'Little kids, they will just put their Xs or Os at their favourite spots and everything is fine until they found out they've lost.' Oh yes, this third concept has met its educational purpose - to train that little brain to think more! 

Actually, if you know this game well, there are only two ways to play it. It's either u win or tie the game, but shhh let's not spoil the fun. Let them discover the techniques to 'play' it their own way!

Future wise... Perhaps maybe working on Chinese Chess? 😂 I would say NAH for now. 

A video (@missbloopy) to show what does it mean by winning the game.

Haha, yes! I purposely filled all the gaps and make the O opponent looked naive. That's not the point! Just enjoy the video. 

*** Special thanks to my sister who has taught me the basics on using photoshop and another uni friend who has helped to install one in my laptop. It's been a while since I last used it. I can only say, more to come 😉. *** 

Patterns

Rummaged through my old folders in my laptop to find all these patterns which I have simply designed to check the practicality of turning them into 'wrapping papers'. It can be linked to my old posts (2nd and 3rd photo) way back in 2013.

So, I never have pocket money when I was young. I had to ask from my dad whenever I need to use money - although he hardly said 'no'. At the same time, I always hope to give things out of sincerity, including the wrapping paper. That's how I come to this point. 

If you ever noticed, like most english music (sorry, haha), they (present papers) are repetitive. Why not design your own? It's really pretty simple. Follow these steps below:

1. Decide what you like most.
It can be anything! From images to shapes, even if it's just a line!

As a new example, let me just briefly show you how I would do it. 

I'm just going to use ordinary 'paint' software. The massive downside of using 'paint' is that I can't really do any rotations, so I will use keep it really simple.

2. Copy and paste
Paste it however you want! Either way, you will create different arrangements (= different patterns)

3. Print off 
Depending on what you use it for, print it according to the size you want on a quality paper. Patterns fading because of water is the last thing you want. If say, you are printing as an envelope, yes a thick paper is greatly recommended, but if it's for wrapping something, forget it. 

 A quick overview from instagram (@missbloopy). 

Step-by-step guidance on youtube.

Here's to a collection of my random old patterns and the latest (cloud) one. Feel free to download and print it if you wish by clicking the respective hyperlink below. 

Pattern 1. Arrows

Pattern 2. Circles

Pattern 3. Fish

Pattern 4. Hearts

Pattern 5. Stars

Pattern 6. Stripes

Pattern 7. Clouds

Scissors

To be honest, all I ever 'properly' learnt sewing from was from primary and secondary school. When I said 'properly', it's really informal. Teacher would never go to teach each student one by one. Probably that's why no one really enjoys sewing. I forgot how I was taught in primary school, but in secondary, teacher just gave you task(s) then expected you to hand in the 'homework' some other day. So yea, we basically just need to try following directions from the textbook. If you manage to figure things out, good for you! Otherwise, let's just nudge our 'neighbour' to help us out! Come to think of it, my mom is definitely a whole lot better teacher. She rarely sew in front of me, unless there's a button going loose or so on, but I know she's the one who has indirectly inspired me to become the person I now am today.

Here are some personal tips and advice on:

- Scissors -

1. Get one

Depending on which hand you use, get the right scissors for yourself. For those left-'handers', if you want to train your right hand, or vice-versa, no one is there to stop you! I never knew left-handed scissors exist until my friend showed it to me. Hmm... Maybe that some day I will try to train my left hand to be as active as my right!

2. Understand it

Only you will know your scissors' 'temper'. So, mine is actually not that sharp since the beginning. Why? Beats me. Ask the stationery shop/manufacturer ;) It cuts papers perfectly well, but not for thinner material like thread or thicker material like felt. Come to think of it, yes I have been told before that I should have a scissors specialized in cloth cutting. I'm fine with the current one now. All I need to do when I'm cutting from felt is to use the part where it's the sharpest. It's somewhere in between the blades!

2. Don't share 

It it's meant for crafts, then let it stays that way. Do not use it to cut food packaging like milo. Otherwise it will become sticky and that's not fun. If you want to cut your hair, find one that's meant for it! Trust me, been there, done that. You won't like your hair style if you use a normal one, unless you want to create your own fashion! For now, I own only one, but in the future, if I'm working on clothes again, I will get that special one!

3. Keep clean

If you cut an area with glue, your scissors most probably will have glue 'stain'. Avoid washing it under water, especially if your scissor is not stainless steel, like mine. A good way to remove glue stain is to rub it off with a rubber :D Other times, just use clean dry soft materials like tissue.

Fun Fact: Since I only have one for my crafts, whenever I misplaced it, it's really a nightmare. I will have to wait for it to come out when the time is right (possibly when my room is less messy)! 

Here's a sneak peak on what I have been working on lately! Enjoy!