Amateur Quilting Project Underway

The quilting project has since commenced with much vigour and enthusiasm.

Yesterday, the DDA went along to Beyong Fabrics to gather some more supplies. She was given some pointers on how to improve on her amateur quilting efforts. Thanks so much to all the help from both Silvana and Eduardo!

Below is where she is with her project so far. There's the backing to be done before the wadding can be sewn together.

The DDA realise that quilt work requires certain amount of good planning and massive amounts of patience!

She's having fun :)

Patched Cushion Cover

The DDA had a commission from the Finn - to make a birthday cushion cover for a friend. So she dug up some fabric material from a bag of giveaway materials from friends and whipped up a very quick and dirty amateur cushion cover in less than 2 days!

The only thing that is left hanging in the air and in need of answer is if the cushion cover will withstand a good washing in a washing machine... the DDA's guess is that of a negative answer.

New Craft Project

The DDA went shopping for fabric today for a new craft project. She's really pleased with her find at this little craft supplies shop called Beyond Fabrics.

This little shop is stocked with many fabulous items! The moment you step in, you will be inspired with many many projects you'd want to embark on. Not only do they stock crafting materials, they also sell finished hand made products from their workshop. The owners Eduardo and Silvana are both most helpful with their suggestions too.

The DDA came out of their shop smiling from ear to ear. She'll now need to start with treating the fabric purchased before embarking on the composition and production!

Can't wait!!!

100 Creative Items VI

After creating Pötkö with its dreamy smile, the DDA had to create a girlfriend for it, and its name is Pätkä.

These stuffed soft toys were created within less than 3 hours each. Their shapes and looks were inspired by the left over fabric that gave life to them!

The Finn gave names to them as they took shape. Pötkö and Pätkä, and so the DDA gave them their Chinese names too so they correspond as such = Pötkö "一枝" and Pätkä "一段".

The DDA just can't help but want to share these as they mark the rounding up of 100 creative items for 2009! Not sure if she did achieve 100, but hey, she enjoyed every single one of them.











These fun loving creature creation was inspired by a project the DDA found online whilst surfing Julochka's blog. Here are links to strings the DDA found, and she's very thankful to these ladies for the inspiration.
1) Julochka
2) Tollipop
3) Molly

And to round it up, the DDA presents the photo album that captures all the creations for 2009.

100 Creative Items V

Up to this point, the DDA is thinking that she'll just cheat and count each and every cupcake and cookie she's made for the year (not by batch as one item, but by piece) to get the total number of creative items made in 2009!


2009 has been a very challenging year to start. Yet it is filled with bursts of creative madness. There was the fun and exciting summer holiday with the parents, no doubt tiring but it was worth all the time spent.

The DDA is very thankful for all the lucky stars and angels that watch over her and her family!

Joulu 2009

After a whole week of holiday, the Finn and the DDA are only finding it a slower pace today. They are really feeling the holiday now, taking things EASY. 4 days to go and it will be a brand new year!

100 Creative Items IV

In the elenventh hour, the DDA works up a storm... still thinking she can achieve 100 items...

100 Creative Items III

Home crafted from November up till last week. The DDA is working on more Christmas decoration too!

100 Creative Items II

Haven't posted much in a long long long long while... but the DDA has been rather busy, keeping up with creative things! Whether she can achieve number 100... that's a challenge as the year winds down in about 62 days...

Below are a few the DDA has created in the past couple of weeks.






There is a larger pool of items posted in an album.

The DDA wonders if she can create 62 items in the remainder 62 days?

100 Creative Items

The DDA has decided she'll take the challenge of making (if she can achieve it before end of year) 100 creative items.

She read about this idea from Moments of Perfect Clarity, who read about it from Oh for the Love of Blog, who read about it from Tollipop!

Yes, they are all creative people!

She'd like to share a few pictures of the most recent items created. And she's got a couple already posted earlier this year (below is a small list). These projects are keeping the DDA very very busy indeed.

Other creative items created early 2009:
1. Floral Greeting Cards
2. Chinese New Year Cards
3. Make Up Purse 1

Living the London Life

The Finn came home yesterday with a huge sulk on his face. He is usually a cheerful sunshiny kind of guy, who is always eager to find out what's cooking the moment he gets home. Yet yesterday, he returned with a sulk.

Poor man. He actually received two nasty surprises as he went to collect his bike after work.
1) The bike had a horrible dent on the tank, and awful scratches on the sides. Some irresponsible biker who used the same parking bay had decided to rush his/her way out of the bay and knocked the Finn's bike over, and feeling guilty for causing such terrible damage picked up the bike but was in so much fear he/she hurriedly put the bike half in the bay half outside the allocated line. Which resulted in the next nasty surprise.
2) There was a parking ticket from the Hammersmith and Fulham council on the bike.

It's not very pleasant a thing to be honest to receive two bad news in a row.

This leads the DDA to reflect on other bike incidents the Finn has had so far. Week two of owning the bike, the Finn came home sulking. He was carrying a broken mirror in his hand. You've probably guessed it now, the incident happened at the same parking bay near work. The Finn went to collect his bike after work, to find his one of his mirror sitting on the seat. Well, it appears that some biker was in so much hurry to get out of the parking bay that he/she had to push his way out and break some other bike's mirror! Of course since it's broken, why not put it on the bike seat eh?

These incidents brings the DDA to think that Londoners are a bunch of inconsiderate lot. Why do they have to be so hateful?

Then again, if you do not experience all these stupid things, you do not interact with the culture, the people, the country, the life in London... suppose this is it? It's called living it?

Out of all these stupid bike incidents, the only consolation is that the Finn had decided on a second hand bike instead of a brand new one. Thus less painful in a way. Lesson for the day:
1) do not own a brand new vehicle in London, be prepared for reckless vehicle owners that harm others.
2) if you own a brand spanking new vehicle, make sure you have a nice gated front yard to park, and make sure when out and about you park in a secure and safe place where people are considerate. (if only it's that's easy!)

PayPal Demo Video

PayPal has rolled out a new demo video to further promote the use of PayPal for online shopping and payment. After watching it, the DDA is rather impressed at how well PayPal is doing on the online shopping arena. Converting many online shoppers into PayPal users. The DDA imagines PayPal is running a very profitable business.

The video has even answered the DDA's question on data security. There is a section that says PayPal secures users' financial details and keeps it safe. It then goes on to say it is even safer than shopping individually on merchant's website where you have to enter your card details everytime you make payment. And... you only need to keep it in one place, you don't need to carry it with you everywhere.

True, it is much convenient to keep all things in one place. Suppose if you only restrict one channel of use of your card details, then the lesser the risk of financial fraud?

One moment... the next question then is how strong is PayPal's data security mechanism??? Mind you, the DDA is a PayPal user herself, but for this instance perhaps she is being somewhat critical. She'd like to know how PayPal secures all that data.

No fear, no surprise, no hesitation, no doubt

The DDA was left waiting for 30minutes due to a delayed appointment. So she went wandering into Waterstones, and picked up a book that caught her eye. It's called The Rules of Life by Richard Templar. She thought she'd capture one of the rule that she really liked - No fear, no surprise, no hesitation, no doubt^*. That's how she would want to live her life indeed.

*apparently a quote by Miyamoto Musashi (1584 - 1645)

Make Up Purse Project

This is the DDA's latest craft project, following a tutorial from U-handbag. The purse pattern is from a slightly different styled purse. Blend two together, you get a beautiful purse!

Honestly, the DDA is just pleasantly surprised at the outcome. She has her friend to thank for making this request. The request was specifically for a purse frame make up purse. Initially the DDA thought "eek!!! how to go about it?"??? Then... she found this super cool website with a super cool pattern, and easy to follow tutorial.

Here are some shots of the purse.