Shinzi Katoh mugs collection

Shinzi Katoh is Japan’s best known Zakka artist and illustrator/designer (read more about him in here). His illustrations style is still very 70's, which I quite fond of it. I fall in love the most with his due caffe mug. It's such a clever concept, top for my biscuits and below for my tea. No more hassle carrying my tea and biscuits through the stairs and opening doors in the office -_-"

I first saw the mug at Melbourne design exhibition, months ago. I wasn't aware about Shizi Katoh at that time and thinking about the hassle carrying breakable items back to Brisbane, so I neglect the idea of buying the mug. But when I accidentally found the mugs again, I promise my self to get one of this. Seriously, I was like a mad cat lady (from the Simpsons) when I saw the whole collections of Shinzi Katoh. It was the first time I was introduce to Zakka — the things that make people feel happy and exist like a comfortable air. Now, I trully understand why Japanesse do lots of cute unnecessary stuff.

I would recommend you to grab Shinzi Katoh items from here, UK site and the original Japanese site, here. Both have the best range of Shinzi Katoh collections. You will need this guide to shop in Japanesse site unless you can read Kanji (thanks to Charlotte from anknel and burblets). If you still can't get enough of it, check Shinzi Katoh flickr group here.

Tell me which one is your favourite? … I know it's so hard to pick. I hope my sister would get me one for my Birthday, next month. I'll let her decide ^^

Amazing collage from Kup Kup Land

Bunny H6, originally uploaded by Kup, Kup Land.

It's absolutely beautiful. My hand is shaking when I noticed the original artwork is still available at etsy. I have overspend last month, my credit card bills have been piling up. My freelance clients haven't paid me yet, and I don't think it will cover it up all. I am sure this work will be gone in just a matter of second (sigh)

Kup Kup is such a creative person, she has been constantly creating an amazing works. It has been very inspiring to see her creations. This collage piece is rather a new exploration of hers, but you can still see her unique style by the used of colour and the felt. Felt has been her main medium, she made lots of pretty felt collage and really cute pin cushion land. See her other lovely works on her flickr and buy her prints from kupkup.etsy.com (you’ll see what I mean).

No, you can't buy it before me, I am warning you!!!

It’s my spring bedroom

Winter has definitely slipped out the back door (since I’ve been waking up with sweats in the middle of the night lately… sigh) All the trees have been blooming, more suns and warm weather. But I completely forgot to change my sleeping wear and still comfortably wear my pj. (chuckled… no wonder I keep sweating at night). I redecorate my room on the weekend. I changed my flannel quilts to something cooler and pick brighter colour quilts cover.

What do you think of my room?

My guys friend think that my room is kinda cuteish -___-“ well, what can I say… I can’t throw away all my cute dolls! They are still part of my life ‘till I found the right guy.

It’s very IKEA-ish and I am not shamed of it :P More photos on my flickr.

Mondayne update

It's quite hazy this morning. They say it's going to be 27˚C today. Hopefully, it's going to be great week. Btw, I saw this guy again this morning while I was queing for the bus. I cheekily smiled at him when he was passing by, and he smiled back at me^^ ///////// I was completely blushing…

Okay, back to the real world.

All the week I've been having such a great meal. I might even gain some weight, I feel bit quilty. I need to eat less during summer -__-" I had peking ducks last night on my friend birthday dinner.

It's quite ironic, the dinner was in the same place and same table where I had dinner with my ex, his mom and his friends when he visited Brisbane again. It was beyond my expectation that we're having dinner there. Since it's in an uncommon place. None of my friends haven't been there before. I didn't realise it when I got the invitation for the dinner.

I was quite upset about it. No matter I try to avoid the past, it always just come back. In the end, I am okay with it, I am with my friends. Past is past, I live in the present.

Overall, it was a great week. I shoped at DFO on Saturday, bought only a birthday present for my friend which make me such a good girl :D Honest, I didn't buy anything else.

Oh yea, Happy mooncake festival everyone!!!

I am doing okay, be back soooon

This photo is ridiculously cute -___- hmmmphhhhh… can anyone translate this? Image snatch from here. I can't even read japanese, just keep looking at the pretty pictures ;) wink wink

Dians has been having such a busy weeks. Hopefuly, after she finished her freelance work and stop her procrastinating she will back posting more exciting stuff. //////// smack smackkk///////////// need to focus on work! gtg

His reply

It took my Saturday morning to think it through again. To accept and forgive is definitely against my desire. But what come may against my grudge?

Forgiveness may take a lifetime forgiving, but I have my faith stand by me.

I am done with him. He crush my heart but he is not going to ruin my life^^ We may or may not be friends anymore. I'm taking it easy ;) Whatever will be, will be…

Accept and forgive

It’s hard but it’s the right thing to do to make you feel so much better :) I am flushing away all the bad energy. I had enough bitching and sulking yesterday. Kanimaki thanks for your supports.


My ex-bf doesn’t want to be friend with me anymore since he started seeing someone new. My congratulations text message wasn't replied. He just completely ignores my existence. And yesterday, I just noticed he removed me from his friends list at Facebook. I totally got the message.

We only dated for less than 2 years. I had a great time with him. But we have to break up since we have different plans for our future and it’s too early for us to take the next step. He went back to his hometown, to fulfil his dream to continue running his dad publishing company. Our ending was quite mutual.

I was perfectly cool when he started seeing someone. Although, there was a moment after we broke up when we were still quite close. But when he start dating, it was very clear to me it was enough. I’m back on my feet and not looking back.

Breaking up is hard (as always, it’s not the first time for me anyway) but loosing him as a friend tears my heart apart. I was completely upset by his act. I don’t understand why he has to make things so difficult. How much more he wanted me to suffer? I’ve hurt enough to let him leave and to live with all the memories in Brisbane.

No matter what the reasons is I forgive him. I wish him well…

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13

Image via Beautifool type.

Today is my lucky day

I saw him in the bus this morning. He rocks my heart for a split seconds, I just can't stop smiling. I knew that it's going to be a great day.


I've been so infatuated by him. It's been awhile and very unreasonable. Sometimes, when our eyes met, I completely lost of my self. Only a vaguely smirk arised, trying to hold my wild-randomness desire.

I wonder if he noticed me. I got the feeling that he is. Or is it because of my power of stare -_-"

Should I say HI or keep this foolish infatuation going?

I girl can only dream…

Swiss design in chemical industry

"Clap your hands if you love swiss design"
quoted from Grain Edit.

I say bow if you can. I don't think there's any other best words to describe it. Swiss design is just so brilliant and timeless. Others might say it's so retro but I don't agree with it. No matter how much design trends evolve, I love Swiss design till death set us apart.

And it will be just a matter of time, I'll colect all Swiss design books, especially Josef Muller Brockmann. He is totaly my design hero. He has inspired me from the beginining I started doing design.

Why can't we just design our chemistry text book like that!!!

Image from Publicity and Graphic Design in the Chemical Industry by Hans Neuburg 1967, via Grain Edit. To see more of the images visit Grain Edit flickr set.

Brisbane Eye

Brisbane Eye, originally uploaded by Dan Halford.

Have I told you that Brisbane just recently got their own version of the London Eye. I thought it was a joke when I heard it over the news. Then there was no sign of any feriss wheel on the due date, which was supposed to be up on May on the 20th anniversary of World Expo '88 at the South bank Parklands.

Few months after that I saw a white big constructions of a ferris wheel. I was so thrill, so it was true!!! This beauty was definitely one of the crowd pleaser during the Riverfire festival last weekend.

Apparently, I haven't had time to jump into this georgeos wheel yet. But it's on my list for next weekend stroll with Picasso exhibition.

Happy Nie Nie Day

You might noticed that I've placed a new button on the left side of the blog. Nie is a short name for Stephanie Nielson, she is just normal mom just everybody elses. Sadly, last week Stephanie and her husband, Christian were in a very serious plane crash. They are a young couple with four children under the age of six. They are in critical condition. Stephanie has third degree burns covering 80% of her body and Christian has third degree burns over 30% of his body. The recovery will be very long and very expensive.

To be honest, I've actually don't know much about her apart from this news, that have been posted around the blogsphere. I've seen the photos of her family, they seems such a happy family. I am very touch by this. I can't believe how hard life could be.

If you are able, please consider contributing to this fund that will go directly to the family. You can go donate it to here. You can also help by buying some items in the auction held in several websites for the benefit. Go here

Please help, at least pray for Stephanie's family. Let's God give them strength. As she and her family are very much believe in the power of Jesus Christ.

You can follow updates about Stephanie and Christian here. You're very much welcome to pass it on this story and ask others to pray for them.

Jess Bonham

Uhhh ahhh… I totally love the shots by Jess Bonham, it's really cool!

Apart from my busyness, these colours just 'POPin' my creative minds. I wonder if I could use this fluoro colour for the next publication design :P hmmm…

Seen first via Happy Cavalier

Miss Amber Alexander

I recently bought a really sweet water colour prints from Miss Amber Alexander. Her watercolour paints are so lovely. I really like her style, reminds me of Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit. Miss Amber paints such a charming animal which looks so alive and shows their own unique characters. I just drawns to it when I first saw it. Honestly, I have been too stingy to spend anything at etsy. I like so many things at etsy but it seems never really right. This time, the ducklings really struck my heart. It gives me tingling.



I love ducks, I think they have such a cute arse :P (opps, I might need to edit that one, don't you think so?) Well, I have a little sweet memories with ducks, it reminds me of my life when I was still studying at uni. This ducks family came up from no where, were running around in the corner of our uni park. I don't know why they choose to play around in our small square park rather than the big nearby park, at Southbank Parklands. They always give me a smile. Sometimes I went to see them at the parklands, when I needed fresh air and inspiration.



My friend bought Free ice cream, Fox only prints (above). I think it looks really cheeky. Please visit amberalexander.etsy.com to view and to buy her prints. Her prints sells at very reasonably price at $17 and the original around $50. If you want to know more about her, you can view her interview here and here. I think I will buy more of her prints in the future.

Which one is your favourite prints? I can't wait to hang my ducklings next onto my bed.

Maths cover

At work, we are currently redesigning our Maths book series cover. While my friend doing her research to check the other competitors, she found this really funny Math Textbook Cover Brainstorm Meeting. We had a really good laugh about it. Trust me, our ideas is way better than! Don't blame us (powerless designer) if it turned something similar like that, we tried… but somehow that look is what the editors/authors/teacher prefer.

Above is the rejected cover, that I designed a year ago for other Maths book series (yes, we do lots of Maths). The book is for primary students, so it needs to look much more exciting and fun. I still thinks it's an awesome cover. It'll definitely stay in my portfolio.

Hope you guys like the jokes. What do you think of my cover design?

Mondayne update

It was such a sleepy morning, even though I've been having a good night sleep. I've been turning my heater on before I went to bed, it seems to work. I had better sleep this past few days.

This monday is another dooms day, the day that I have to submit my design. But I don't even feel anxious at all, which is totally wrong. I've not even finished it (shhss… I hope my client doesn't know my blog). I've done couples hours of sketching this morning and I got some nice one^^ It is pretty fun getting back doing some logos, very exciting.

Last week, I mentioned it in my procastination month post about designing the logo. This is still for the same client. I managed to meet deadline and nailed it!!! (pursed my mouth in self-satisfying smirk). But then my client said the name of the company needs to be changed, since there was legal issues 0_0 (haha… so funny, but this is not a joke T_T) Honestly, I feel kinda glad. I don't think it was a great design, it was such a rush process. So, i'm re-doing the logo with new name, a better name.

Other news, I had my haircutt at TONI&GUY on Saturday. My hair style is really similar like my last one, I was expecting something more exciting. I realized that TONI&GUY style is very edgy and straight which I don't quite like it. Mine turned fine, just being too simple (maybe because I was being too particular describing what I want). I was carping a lot about my hair before I reached home. But, after couple of make over at home, I could finally happy with my hair.

Weekend was great, it was Indonesia independence day. I went to Pesta Rakyat at the Brisbane Powerhouse, new farm, just like last year. Lots of good food, I would recommend anyone to come if you like Indonesian food. It was such a great time to meet up with some friends that I haven't seen for awhile.

bye for now… have go back to work^^ Hope you guys'll have a great week!!!

Ruffles and tights

My favourite costume for winter has to be tights, high waisted skirt and a cute blouse. Recently found this nice simple white blouse for a bargain. I really like it, the fabrics is pretty light, so it’ll be great for summer time too. The skirt just fits me in nicely, gives me a good balance for my petite figures. This was a great bargain too when I shopped at Melbourne. It’s from WISH, which usually cost $100. I bought it at Green with Envy, at Bridge road. This shop is a must if you’re at Melbourne. You really don’t want to miss shopping at Bridge Road. I went there at my first day at Melbourne. It has given me the best shopping experience, lots of different varieties of clothes in a good price.

The winter is almost over, which means less clothes, less glamour. But I prefer that way, more casual, more my self. And yes, I love the warm weather.

What your favourite costumes during winter?
ps: I'm trying to extend my tights collections, not just stick with black. Yellow, purple and chocolate brown are on my list^^

I might be suffering from OCPD

Hey, I might be one of them. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder that is characterized by a general psychological inflexibility, rigid conformity to rules and procedures, perfectionism, moral code, and/or excessive orderliness.

People with OCPD tend to stress perfectionism above all else, and feel anxious when they perceive that things are not "right. over wiki

If you know me well, it’s probably time when you said yes, I think you’re one. Okay, I’m just going to rewind from the beginning why would I end up finding this.

I had a little conversation with my work mates this morning about house cleaning, how sometimes it’s hard to adjust with your flat mates demanding house cleaning rules. This is not a small matter when you are in a share house. It could be a beginning of a catastrophe. I had my own experience with my flat mates, since then we’ve never talked to each other again.

My work mates started telling the story where the uncomfortable situation started between his two flatmates because one of the clean/tidy guy hates when the ironing board wasn’t store away after being used. Even though, he has already reminded the other guy to put it away. (luckily, my friend is off the hook, since he has never iron his clothes ughhh he is definitely the slacker type, the worst of all). We had this argument about this ironing board, what is necessary? I’m my self, admittedly, has been screaming to my sister to put it away since ironing board is not part of the furniture and will be a place to start the piling up clothes and clutterness. Do you think it’s necessary to store ironing board after being used?

Of course, I have plenty of other rules how my place needs to be neat and tidy. I’ve always be the clean freak and very demanding, even my mom don't understand (I might have hurts my mom feelings on this, sorry mom). I hate the feelings surrounded by messiness. All the negatives vibes are all on me, I would get mad easily and yell a lot. I could tolerate for couple of days, but when it builds up I got really frustrated.

I felt so much better when things back into their normal arrangement. When I was a child, I would not anyone allowed to touch my study desk, since everything has it’s own order. I like things to be PERFECT! This rules is applied in life in general, and of course in my design.

Have you guys ever watch desperate house-wives? Bree Van De Kamp would be the right character that fit me. Look at her hair! it's perfectly neat. She is the perfectionist housewives type, I noticed that she’ll do more cleaning if she’s face with problem rather than solving it. She is probably little bit too much, I don’t clean as much as her but I would act in similar ways.

In my final words, I would tick all the OCPD diagnostic criteria. Yes, I embrace details, rules, lists, order and plan. But, maybe for now I haven’t been fully obsessive with it. Just take this post as a warning sign. Reminded me when I'm over the line.

What kind a person are you: neat freak or don't care — there's so much things in life? How often do you clean your place: weekly, montly or whenever i feel like to?

The Country Lane shop, Montville Village part 2

I promised to post more about this shop, so here it is. This is the shop that highlighted my trip at Montville. The presentation of the shop is very welcoming and very unique. The shop was just full on with country crafty objects. It's a really lovely shop. I spend nearly an hour just in that shop, I can't decided what to buy.



Finally, we (my sister and I) decided to buy the door sign for our bathrooms and a welcome sign. The star was actually said 'welcome'. But when I was about to hang it at home, it turned out that our main entrance door was already quite lovely with its glass decoration. Rather than not using the sign, I repainted the words turned it into toilet instead chuckled. I think it turned great, no one will ask where is the toilet anymore. (or accidentally open my room when looking for the toilet, since my room is just next to the toilet).



Visit Country Lane website here, you can browse or buy their items online. Although, it won't replace the unique experience visiting the real shop.

Procrastination week month

Oh no, I've not posted anything since I came back from Melbourne. Nearly a month now. I do have good excuses though :P

The cold
I went down with cold from Melbourne. It was the worst cold I've ever had. I even went to the doctor twice. The fever was bothering me so much, even though I've taken medicine, it didn't get away. (Btw, my sister's bf is a chemist, he was the one who suggested me the medicine. Usually it works). I was getting worried, nearly 3 days and no improvement. I really needed to go back to work as soon as possible, I've taken so many leave days. So I went to see a doctor since I can get a medical certificate as well. Seeing a doctor in Australia is just so hard. You have to make appointment first and usually you need to wait for another week, which is practically useless if you are really sick. This is one of my reasons, I don't usually see a doctor, just straight to the chemist (except if I got unexplainable sickness, which has never happened before). Luckily, I got my appointment in the same day after calling several clinic (I found yellow pages is the best way to find nearest clinic).

The drugs
It was quite funny, the doctor didn't give any extra prescriptions. She said I've taken the right medicines which was Neurofen plus and Panadol. But I found out that I haven't taken enough dosage. Things got better, no more fever. The next day, we had our house warming party and house blessing in the evening. I stupidly taken Neurofen plus with my empty stomach before the mass started. So during the mass was totally doze off, I felt so sick. I hope I didn't offend anyone during the party. I felt so terrible since I was the host and I wasn’t entertaining at all and also forgot to thank everyone that came and help during the party. I have no appetite at all that night, even though there was plenty of good food.

The morning after
It was so worst. I couldn’t eat anything, I kept wanted to vomit. My body was just so weak, I could feel it reached the toll. I ended up vomited nearly anything. Now I can understand if someone pregnant and having their morning sickness, it’s realy hard. I cried that day, physically and mentally I simply couldn’t take it anymore.

I’ve asked to be taken to the hospital but no one could drive me there. My sister has to drive my auntie to the airport that night. Thankfully, my mum cancelled her flight for another week.

The next morning, I got better. I don’t feel so sick anymore. But I still went to see a doctor. The doctor believes it was the drugs affected my stomach. I just don’t understand how strong was the small tablet can caused that much problem. Another funny part is, she asked me twice, whether I wasn’t pregnant. I look at her convincingly and said I am definitely not pregnant. Why would she asked me that, I thought that was so silly.

The procrastination started
During my last sick day, I tried to blog and upload my Melbourne trip photo, but the Internet wasn’t working with me. I can’t really deal with any more frustration so I just take it easy.

It came to my realisation that I have agreed to design a logo for my friend, just before I got really sick. I promised him it would be done in another 2 weeks. But, a week has gone by. Oh my…

Back to the office, I have lots of things to finish. It was quite full on everyday. My mum has gone back to Indo too. It wasn’t very excited. We have to do all the housework by our self again.

Now, I only have one day to finish my friend logo. Huff, I don’t know why I accepted the job T_T I want my relaxing day back. I am completely doom.

I ain’t keep dreaming

Maybe it’s about time I spill the beans about what makes me feel so anxious last week.

I was short-listed as mid-weight designer in studio that I’ve been dying to work in. It was all coincidence, that I found out they were looking for new designer. I applied for it and asked to come to their new studio for interview.

There’s nothing that I don’t like working as book designer where I am now. I feel that I just need to do it for my own sake. Even though, I wasn’t quite ready, but I think it will always end up with the same reason. I will always feel not ready, fear of being fail, unable to achieve that I always dream of. I’m afraid to face with my own disappointment.



I don’t want to keep dreaming. So I went for it.

I was so nervous and wasn’t quite focus during the interview. It wasn’t me at my best. No confirmation until now but I have a feeling it won’t be a good one. I’ll accept any results with satisfaction. I believe everything happens with reason. I will take it in positively.

Ps: I won’t post anything more about it if I don’t get it. Their new studio is very lovely and two level storey, filled in with white space interiors, very spacey indeed. Btw, I am off to Melbourne early tomorrow morning, be back on Tuesday. So thrill and excited, wohooo…

Some words of wisdom to share?

Image: a spread from Whatever you think, think the opposite by Paul Arden. It’s a VERY good book, buy the book from here.

Relaxing Saturday at Montville Village

Last Saturday I went to Montville with my family, one of the Sunshine Coast hinterland towns. It sits amongst lush green fields and pocket rainforest, about 90 kilometres north of Brisbane. It took us around hour and half drive from my place (the south of Brisbane).

Once you’ve drive up the hills, the views just so spectacular. Lots of green hills dotted with dairy farms and acreage living, I had lots of fun looking at the cows. The weather is great since it’s in the hinterland the temperature is always cooler. You can feel the air is just so clean, so much better than in Brisbane (even though it’s winter now).



Montville is famous for their pretty village. There are plenty of small shops along the roads. I was so excited looking at their cute cottages looking shop. The antique and craft shops steal my attention straight away. Did I mention that there is a water wheels in front of a tea shop? (Sorry no photo posted)



Although, to be honest I was expected more of the shops. You can feel it’s kinda bit too commercial, lot’s of nice gifts shop but they aren’t that original. You could feel a bit touristy too around the village. But I did find some good ones, which are: The Country Lane, craft / vintage shop sells mainly tole painting signs and home wares, very crafty country objects. It’s my favourite, I’ll post more about it separately. The cuckoo shops is very famous for their original German’s manmade cuckoo shops. They are very lovely. I can’t get enough with the candy shop, very ‘licious. The small antique shop is nice too. Oh, I really like the witch statues (photo above). They are around $125 AUD each. I want one for my backyards (to creep some crows away ehehe or just for fun). Visit here for more Montville guide.



The rainforest walk is the other famous thing to do at the hinterland. I went for an hour rainforest walk. The trees are probably around 600 years old. Its huge and tall, it’s quite amazing to see them. Nearby the rainforest walk, there are some nice spot for BBQ and kids too play around. The view from there is amazing, facing the glasshouse mountain (photo above).

Around Montville, there are some winery, nursery and strawberry farms you can visit too along the way. I didn't have enough time to do them all, maybe next time.

Apart from the busy shop, Montville is a great place for quiet relaxing (or romantic) getaway, great for family holiday too. It’s a peaceful place. I could imagine having a small lodge over there.

ps: I was nearly catch a cold after the trip (probably too tired)

I am incredibly anxious

It's a secret for now. But just wish me luck. I promise to let you know the good news if there's any, finger cross >_<.

I will need to hibernate during this week. si~gh…

Illustrations by AshleyG. You can buy the prints from her etsy, ashleyg.etsy.com
Btw, this illustration reminds me of my best friend :P

A perfect t-shirt to wear in front of my sister

I chuckled when I saw this t-shirt. Wow! this is so perfect. It's witty and cute, but straight to the point at the same time. My sister has been like that, honestly I can't remember when she was being positive.



This is the other t-shirt that I like too. It's illustrated by Adrian Johnson, I'll post more stuff about him. You can all buy the t-shirts from here. If you are in the States, you're lucky, you'll get free shipping if you buy 3 or more t-shirts.

It's probably what I needed

I've recently seen this photographs featured in many blogs. Melting Words, word series photographys by Kotama Bouabane. It's nice but cruel. Not after a small thing happened to me over the weekend, this photo is a great as awake up call to the reality.



Yea, it's over (it had been over). I definitely need a new start, another fresh chapter of my life. It's about time (I promise to my self, no more sulking!).

Kimchi fried rice and enoki mushrooms pancakes

Korean food is my current favourite dishes. I don't know how long has it last, but I always crave for Korean dishes. I would suggest going to Korean restaurants for most occasion.

During winter, Korean dishes are the best to serve. Since most of the cuisine is always hot and spicy. It's not hard to cook Korean dishes, once you know their basic fundamentals, which are:

• hot & spicy, they use Gochuchang (Korean fermented chilli paste) for their spicy dishes.
  
• Sweet, they always add sugar in their dishes. For beef marinade, they use Nashi pear to give the sweetness. This is used to marinate Bulgogi beef.
  
• Garlic, they love garlic. Garlic will always be in the main ingredients.

I cooked Kimchi fried rice (Kimchi Bokkumbap) and enoki mushrooms pancakes (Paeng-ee Beosut Jeon) few weeks ago. I found this really excellent blog called My Korean Kitchen filled with simple, original Korean recipe written by a Korean girl. Sadly, the blog has stopped. There was no explanation why she stopped writing. Although, surprisingly, the forum is still alive, people still come and discuss the recipe that she posted.



You can follow the simple Kimchi fried rice recipe from here. But I made my own modification by added Gochuchang and tomato sauce mixed with sugar and water. Since there is only little kimchi juice when you bought the Kimchi. The combination sauce that I added was actually a based sauce for Bimbimbap (hot stone rice).



The enoki mushrooms pancakes wasn’t quite look the same from what it looks like at Korean Kitchen. But it was taste great, I am happy. Definitely, going to make them again. The recipe is available here.

So, care to give it a try? Do you have any favourite dishes that you would like to share?

Curtis's Botanical Magazine and Kunst-Formen der Natur by Ernst Haeckel

I just wanted to share a really lovely amazing botanical illustrations that I found it last night via Cherry Fields, Melissa Haslam's blog, an Australian illustrator based at Melbourne.

The first one is the Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. It’s filled with big range of species of botanical illustrations with the detail descriptions. The book is published around the late 18th century. Everything is very nicely detailed illustrations and has a lovely colour.




According to Cherry Fields the copyright has already expired, so it’s safe to use them in drawings, collages etc. The pdf is available to download. You can found the download link through the original post.

The second one is Kunst-Formen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature), by Ernst Haeckel, 1898. This is a wonderful book, which features all sorts of illustrations of the natural world. It is very exciting to discover plenty of organic forms which is very unique. It’s such an excellence reference book.



It’s available from FLICKR. One of the illustrations was also used by Audrey Kawasaki in one of her ornaments painting. Via Cherry Fields too.

MALTE bar stool as a bed side table?

I just recently found this nice bar stool from IKEA. The height and the depth is just so perfect for my slim space bed side table. It's also available in three colour white/birch, black and red. I think all of them is nice. I am considering either black or red. The red will give a good punch to the room. The price is $49 AUD (which is good!). You can read the detail here.

Do you think it's hot or not as a bed side table? Red or Black?

G’morning

I need to wake up extra early to get in time since moving to the new house. It takes longer walk to the bus stop. It has been quite hard to wake up early during winter, since it's cold and the sunset was not even up yet.

Nonetheless, by the time I was ready and got out the house, the atmosphere outside was just so beautiful. The air is just so fresh (little chilly though). You can feel, its fills in your lungs when you taken a deep breath. Even the trees look so lovely in the morning. The grass were sparkling, covered with dews.



The first thing that we saw was this little guy. They seem happily hanging on the Australian wild flowers trees around our complex area. You can hear them cheeping every morning. They really make my day^^




It makes me feel very content every morning. It's such a blissful experience to start the day. And I am really loving it.

How is your morning routine? What time do you usually wake up in the morning?

I am back online

Finally, the internet get sorted. I feel quite relief that it goes well without any more drama. We signed up for wireless broadband plan with Optus. I was anxious that the modem won't be compatible with my macs. It works straight away out of the box, just needed to connect to the power supply and use the ethernet cable.

The wireless signal is quite strong, although from my observation, it seems the signal goes weak at night from 10pm. So far, the speeds is acceptable, it tends bit slower than ADSL2, but I am not complaining.

Quick Recap
ADSL2 doesn't work with our telephone lines. Surprisingly, even though, we had been using ADSL2 when we were renting where it located just another 10 minutes walk. The news was just dropped like a bomb. I was like going to face a reality to live without high-speed internet FOREVER. I wasn't even living in rural area!!! (They said we were on RIMS, some kind line sharing thing, rather than using the cooper wires direct to the exchange). It's one of the things you forgot to check when you're buying a house (sigh). But I blame it all to stingy monopoly Telstra!!!



My mum arrived here at Brisbane on Friday, picked her up at the airport straight from work. I am glad that she's here, I admit that I miss her. I was overjoy when she showed me the black heel shoes for me, it was what I always wanted (Mum always knows). Although, it was half size too big but I'll figure it out how to make it fit!!! (it's better than too small). It's from Charles & Keith.

We managed to shop at IKEA, it was so crowded. We didn't manage to get the dining chair, the one that I wanted was sold out, since it was on sale (half price!) So far, the house is still quite messy, but we'll get there.

Mondayne update

It's been such a rainy week and I was completely drench arriving at work T_T I think I really need to get a raincoat (I'm thinking navy blue). It is nice to have such a rainy day all week since we haven't got much rain. But it's not so pleasant if you have to catch public transport to go around.



I just stayed at home during the weekend. I managed to get my studio set up. My sister and I place our desk next to each other. The studio basically is at the same room with the dining room. It's probably my favourite room since there's so many sunlight comes through. (I call it, the sun room!!!) Even though, it's been raining on the weekend, but there was time when the sun shines brightly. So it's been quite a lovely day. (Although, we haven't got any dining table yet, lot's of boxes still stack in the dining room. To be honest, the dining room is the big dumped).

I am hoping to get the dining table and a bookcase at IKEA by next weekend. So no more messiness. I also want to get some frames to hang some artwork at the sun room.

I'll post photos tomorrow. Still no internet 'till next week

It started with a little note

I've stumble upon this sweet funny story via apartment therapy. A relationship started from a simple little note, placed by a girl onto the car windshield of the guy he likes. Both of them commute to work on the same schedule every morning. They've been exchanging glances and smiles for few months before she finally decided to left the note. The message on the small piece of paper was simple: "You are a cutie. Hi."A few days later, he reciprocated by leaving a note on her windshield with his phone number. You can read the original article from here.

This story reminded me my own past little love journey with Mr. Turtle :) Or perhaps giving me some encouragement >_< and hope.

Have you ever had a similar experienced before? Had a crush with a stranger you meet everyday?

Late update

Sorry, has been late posting an update. It has been such a busy week at least until after few weeks I moved into the new house. I might not be able to hook up to the internet for awhile. Depends how fast I can arrange to get the new internet connection done. So don't worry if I sort of gone for a month. I hope it won't take that long, I can't live without internet. I might even blog during lunch time at work.

I will be officially moved this weekend. So far, we have managed to move some little stuff and kitchen ware. We have been able to eat only using 4 bowls!!! I haven't packed all my books and magazine yet, they're still neatly sitting on FLARKE bookcase.

We did a big shopping on the weekend. We bought new vacuum cleaner, TV, and rugs. Now, I realise that credit cards always come handy. Finally, I reached that financial situations (it's either bad or good sigh). It was the first time, I used my credit card! for buying the new LCD TV, its Sharp AQUOS LC37D53X (37 inch with 100Hz, not full HD yet since my budget was under $2000). I've done lots of research with this one, so I hope its good. You can see the review here and other review with smaller size here. We had a good deal from JB HiFi, $200 less. It will be delivered this Saturday, so I will post more about it when I have it and also about my new house (I'm so excited about it!!!)

I found my self in the loop again

It usually take me a year to mend what's broken, but the marks will always there. Somehow, I always want to keep them alive in my memory. Since, it was the last thing I have to make me feel close.

I know perhaps it's no good, but let it be… time will blow them away.

It's been quite a melancholy week, the situations is not helping to improve my health or it could be the other way around. I feel so weak and tired easily

I'm pretty sucks noticing when I'm gonna get sick

It's been sicky day for me the past two-three days. I didn't see it coming, really. But after looking back it's all make sense I should able to prevent this to happen. It had been such joyful long weekend (with the extra holiday on monday as labour day). Then in the middle of the night I woke up feeling that my throat had been dried up like a dessert. I had a series of bad dreams that night, I had this dream like premonition of what going to happen in the office the next day where I got so sick then decided to go home. So in the morning, I decided to stay at home.

I was right. In the mid day things got worse. It's not only I got the sore throat but also catch the cold too. I was still feeling cold, even though I wore socks, sweater, and long pants and hid under the blanket, even the sun was shining so brightly. The lemon drink soothed me a little bit, while watching Operah show. Luckily, I haven't got the cough yet, but I got pretty bad runny nose.

Decided to go to see doctor this morning, unfortunately it was fully booked till Friday (disappointed T_T). Went to the next door chemist, got new medicine for my runny nose and a nice chewy vitamin C. I am quite optimistic that I will get better soon. I can feel an improvement from this morning.

I might even back to work tomorrow. Now, I will sit back, drink my hot herbal medicine and enjoy the sunny day. ps: I wasn't eating properly the past few days (perhaps it made my body weak) plus having instant noodle twice in a row!!! (definitely not good for your health).

Boys and girls, don't forget to eat healthy food plus vitamin C during this winter season!!! What's sickness you've ever had that you hate the most?

The talented person behind the catchy illustrations at QAG

I've been wondering who's the talented designer who creates the amazing characters at Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). The very recent/most popular exhibition is Andy Warhol exhibition. I am sure most of Brisbane art/design lovers had visited this exhibition. You may recalled there are some wacko Andy Warhol's character appears in some of the walls, explains few bits more of his works. Then if you are a hoarder like me, you might grab the cute square children's activity book (the picture shown). All those nice illustration is actually designed by Fiona-Lee (a.ka. Bonsai Foi), the inhouse illustrator/designer at the QAG/GOMA.

I believe she has been working there for couple years by now. She has been behind all the great characters created in every exhibitions for kids. From the famous turtle mascot for Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition to the Yayoi Kusama exhibitions (the dots), there're also the cat, the gnome, the bug and not to forget the bat from other exhibitions. The list can just go on, please check her websites or her flickr set.



I wish I could do work as fun as hers. ps: I think she is my work mate's (a.k.a marshmallow cat) best friend, who her self is very talented illustrator too. I found it over flickr, yesterday morning.

Michi Yanagishita is my twins???

In a glance I thought I saw my self as Small Cool judges at apartment therapy. Michi Yanagishita is an architect based on NYC, she and her partner, Yen Ha is the principals behind Front Studio (the only Asian-women owned partnership at NYC!!!). Her self-portrait posed just so reminiscence of myself (giggles). What do you think? try covering her lips.