Birthday Project: 13th Sewing Adventure - Peplum Top

Turning 30. I made it a point to spend the entire 24 hours and more not thinking about work. No minutes writing. No checking office email. Remembered to turn on my "Out of Office" on Friday although it was only a day's leave. Tried best not to let many know I was on leave for minimal interruptions.

My sewing machine had arrived in time to fit right into my plan. If it hadn't I would have used my old trusty manual sewing machine anyway. It was something I had to complete no matter what. For myself. Over a year of not sewing anything! Be gone!

My Toy has arrived: Brother GS2700

I can't really pinpoint what actually sparked my interest to rekindle my search obsession from back in 2013.

My new toy is not a toy?

Tissue paper yummy?

I will never fathom why dogs love stealing and eating tissue paper, regardless if it's clean or soiled.

Through the years we've had a number of dogs living with us and they ALL loved eating tissue paper!

Favourite past time would include rummaging handbags for food and tissue paper. Once, Zack sniffed out a chewing gum and tried eating it. His expression of the sticky rubbery gum gluing his jaws together was priceless! Another time he stole a packet of wasabi coated nuts and was choking and wheezing from the sting of the mustard. Safe to say we never let him near wasabi since then.

But what puzzles me is why dogs find the tasteless odourless tissue paper so appealing that they go through all trickery to get some to munch (and swallow)! Beats me.

Learning for the day

I knew all those hours (accumulated) reading articles posted on my Fb feed would do me some good. Today I learned that there is no such thing as "detail-orientated"! Omg, my England is the fail.

It has and always been "detail-oriented". Lucky thing I've never ventured to use this term to describe myself in my resume!

Never too old to learn.

Brick and Mortar

This week we finally saw and felt the 'concrete' evidence of what we had known only on paper for the past two years. My first thought was "so small?" but I've come to realise that it isn't so small when compared with other places.

I loved the wood panel flooring and the bathrooms and the square bedrooms. There was an infinity pool and a sandy beach  between the four blocks, with a tennis court tucked in a corner and other shared facilities. But the best was probably the view. How I wish I could keep it but we need to do what we set out to do.

View from the balcony

I hope one day, I'll be able to keep something like this. It's not too small, it's just right for little old me and probably one other person.

Let's hope.

This Blog is 10 Years Old Today! Happy Birthday!

Hard to believe! This blog has lasted for 10 years. It has seen me transform from a student to a working adult, from ranting about classes to ranting about office politics, sharing my ups and downs, my notebook on life, my gallery and my podium, my tribute and my diary.

Happy birthday Violet Periwinkle! A decade strong and many more to come.

Stack Ranking

A couple of months back, HR had called us all in for a briefing session on how our performance evaluation worked. At that time, I didn't know that it was one of many different types of performance evaluation methods out there. Coming from a background of a small company and then to an SME before joining a conglomerate, I had limited knowledge of HR practices.

Look Up into the Sky

The weather for the past month has been wet, wet and wet. Daily downpours have taken us from a shortage of potable water to an excess of the same element, causing massive flooding in a few states. Looking out of my office window, a promising day can and will turn gloomy at one time or another.

I have become so used to cowering from the weather extremities of ceaseless rain and scorching sun that I can't remember the last time I took time to look upwards into the skies. To be honest, I think if I ever did, I would either get rain drops in my eyes or be blinded temporarily from the glaring sun.

So it was like a breath of fresh air when I saw the clearest blue sky with cotton candy clouds this afternoon while driving home. A lazy Saturday indeed but that feeling of going home, albeit a simple one, amplified by the beautiful sky was priceless! Praise God!

Beautiful blue sky after a gloomy month!

Seems like I wasn't the only one who noticed this beauty - I saw a number of friends posting sky photos on Fb as well. But... I think mine does it more justice! *bangga diri, but seriously imho* ;)

Matching Mayhem

Firstly, I admit I am no fashionista. So let it be known that I am not speaking from an expert standpoint or wannabe-expert. My opinion expressed is from my own taste and logic.

I have a weakness for clothes and textile. A couple of months back I was this close to buying a pencil skirt just because of its material - the cutting was a little off for my body shape. Cutting out all the mental debate that occurred, in conclusion I didn't buy it. Yay, mind triumphed over heart! Mind 1-0 Heart

This is a picture of the material - a blue and white woven cloth (not a print but actual thread weave). Yes, a photo momento as my only consolation. I have many of such photos, my mid triumphs!

Just noticed that it has a heart in the motif - love woven stuffs!

Here comes the point of this post. While buying lunch, I saw a lady wearing that exact skirt in my office. But she had paired it with a frumpy faded lime green blouse! I felt so bad for the skirt! Such a pretty textile, its glory not accentuated but instead hidden behind an inferior article of clothing! It wasn't so much of the colour that was offending but the style and form of the blouse!

Oh well, I had my chance to give the skirt a better home but I didn't take it up. So no rights to complain.

Tong Tong Chiang!

Surprisingly, 4th day of the new year and I've already started preparation for the lunar new year (coming up next month). A few days ago I bought myself a (somewhat) black cheongsam - finally, after so long of passive searching and talking about it!

And today, have made the first step of my what-seems-to-be-annual-routine CNY cards project. Now, I've just got to get some inspiration of the design!

Sneak preview of what I currently don't know the outcome of

Lately I've been mulling on resuming my hobbies, which took a backseat in 2014. There's a strong longing to seek work life balance again in the new year. Perhaps this is my new year hope.

Day 1 of Year 2015

Today I learned that the "sengkuang" we have been eating for years is not called turnip in English. It's called jicama (or yambean)! All these years I've been misled! And I found this out through googling for parsnip...

Photo credit: foodfacts.mercola.com