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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Wall Art

A friend was browsing on the project nursey website and spotted this wall of art prints in pretty pastels. She liked them and asked if I could help make a set for her own daughter's room.

 I tried to replicate similar patterns on my computer but did some different ones to make it slightly more personal.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Everybody needs thank you cards

Even if you are only 1. Although, who sends thank you cards anymore, who even writes letters or pen postcards in this digital age?

Still, I remember when I had penpals and the happy anticipation of letters from far away places. My box of yellowed notes once treasured now lost probably thrown away. Hopefully, with my new passion for stationery, this might change.

T's godson's birthday is coming up and it is never too young to have your own personal stationery, so I drew him some thank you cards that his lovely mum can use.

Same designs but in different colour themes. I am calling these Happy Zoo in Chocolate


And Happy Zoo in  Grape



Thursday, January 28, 2010

Lizzie's Designs

I am toying with the idea of starting a small design business creating logos, stationery, wedding invitations etc.

3 years ago, when I first moved to KL, I made my own calling cards and that got me a job designing someone's corporate logo. It was my first assignment and I was paid a cool RM 1,000 for it. It was trying work and I must have drawn 40 odd designs but he picked one and we went on to create his website and company brochures.

Since then I have done more work for people and used the opportunities to pick up new design skills. I think now is the perfect time for me to start.

For now, the brand is called Lizzie Designs though I am thinking of other names. Chocolate Fox, Grass Fed Lamb, Three Minutes , are some of the names T suggested but what do you think ? I hope a great name will hit me at some point and then I will start creating my name cards and maybe a website.

In the meantime, I am working on a logo for my friend C, who wants to reinvent his website.

He wants a simple logo with his name in it and I have created 4 so far.




He likes the second and the last logo but still seeking for more options. I will go away to think about it somemore and show you what I come up. What do you guys think?

Stationery is my next experiment and I have designed some fun ones for D's kids. The prints came out well, the paper is about 200 gm and has a nice ribbed texture so it feels luxurious though inexpensive.

To package the stationery together, I found a darling shop that sells amazing ribbons and accessories. They sold hundred of designs in all colours and patterns by the metre and my mind was reeling from the possiblities.

Here's M's card with pale sand coloured envelopes.


She gets a party card theme with falling diamond confetti.

I packaged the cards with a delicious mango velvet ribbon and gold tassles.


A, her younger sister gets a retro red and orange design.


Packaged with the most adorable string of hot pink po-poms !


I created another for A this time with a pair periwinkle sparrows

And put a sequinned ribbon around it.



What do you guys think ? You like ? Is there a future ?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Holy Mother of ...

Turned on my computer this morning and was surprised to find an old old friend online. He was in NY working late and we had a terrific time catching up. I haven't seen C in over 5 years and he seems to be doing great. Back living in Singapore and working with a whole bunch of ol cronies from my broker days.

He has always been a daredevil and was into bikeracing and F1 cars but he was also my dive instructor back in the day. Last summer C was in Adelaide and took photos of their shark diving adventure. Be warned, it is not for the faint hearted.

Here is the first of the series I shall call - Holy Mother of ...

The beast decided that camera gear was more tasty than plain ol'bait.

The bugger was only inches from the cage ! Gulp !


Never for a million bucks would you find me in that thing.


That's him emerging with trembling legs.

What a rush eh ? See the whole set of pics here.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Cupcake Chic

I haven't blogged for almost a whole week, so sorry, been rather tied up. Last week, we attended a big cocktail party celebrating Australia National Day. Then there was a wedding on Saturday and in between, I was trying to organize other people's lives.

Anyway, here are some photos from the cupcake class during the weekend.

We had to bring 6 cupcake of any flavour so I made a coconut, mango and lime cupcake, a recipe stolen from B. It was divine sounding, that's why I chose the recipe and it was even better to eat. I mean, how can a recipe that calls for 180gm of butter, 200 gm of sugar and only 100 gm of flour be bad ?!

We had to learn the Wilton Rose which was quite tough to do but the results very rewarding.


This clown decoration is quite scary to look at don't you think? The head is a plastic topper of course.

Next weekend is Thaipusam so no class. I will take a break from baking. Have another project up my sleeve so have a good week you guys !!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Birthday cake dummy


Since we weren't going to eat the cake I baked, I thought I give it to B's daughter to play with. Maya only just learnt how to blow out candles and my cake is better posing as a dummy than a dessert so we had fun lighting, and re-lighting and letting her blow out the flame.


I left after an hour but heard she was amusing herself with the cake for hours on end.

Maybe this year for her birthday, I will bake her a cake since by then (June), I should be an expert ! Or better still, throw her a full size party with all the frills and thrills. I could nick ideas of this website


It is a great little website for mothers who need inspiration when it comes to their children. Parties, room decoration, games, toys ... The search menus are easy to use and has loads of options. If you search by Tag, the drop down menu reveals a wonderland of fun ideas.


The party gallery is where I went to drool over. These mothers came up with the most adorable ideas like this Ladybug theme.


Just look at the hanging banner - which is so easy to do with my new illustrator skills, and the paper pom-poms look just like the ones I made to decorate the guest room when L and D visited.


This table setting is incredibly fun to look at.


And finally a tower of ladybug cupcakes.


This is a great business idea, because I don't see parents having time to do all of that and enjoy the party. Hmm now I really have to bake edible cakes.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Domestic Goddess in Training

I signed up for a cake decorating class a month ago and went for the first class last weekend. The first class was not much fun, mostly standing around watching the instructor whip up some icing then frosting a cake. This week, we had to bring our own 8 inch cake frosted in our choice of colour so that we can learn the techniques of piping designs.

So I went over to B's to bake my cake because she's got all the ingredients and the tools anyway. I found a lemon yogurt cake recipe at home and decided to bake that. When it was done, it was not so mueh a fluffy lemon cake as a thick lemon biscuit. Disaster. I suspect B was bit grumpy about me not asking her for a cake recipe that she decided not to say anything when she watched me. Goes to show that not all recipes work.

Anyway, it was fine because I wasn't planning to eat this cake. The icing will send my systems to diabetic shock. We were just told to bake one, ice it and bring it to class.

Here's my cake looking kinda blue-grey.


More practice needed obviously and the frosting is hopeless. The consistency of my icing was way too thick and it was hard to work with. Too late now.

At class we were taught different piping techniques. This lady is actually a baker with years of experience but signed up for classes to upgrade her skills. Just look at her cake, that was the colour I was aiming.

Here's the final line up. None of which by the way are my cake.

This is mine.


Not bad for a first class and what fun!


Next week we are told to bring 6 frosted cupcakes so guess I will be doing more baking then !

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I heart HBO


As much as I dislike the amount of American crap I watch on TV, once in a while I applaud their genius and Bored To Death is one series I am enjoying now. Thanks L for introducing it to me.

Season One just finished and I am impatient for the next one. The show is about a novelist who is having problems living his own life, smokes a lot of pot; has a boss (Ted Danson) who is a diehard romantic and also bored with life so smokes a lot of pot; and a best friend who is a cartoonist who also yes you guessed it, smokes a lot of pot.

Jonathon, the novelist escapes reality by becoming a private detective and ropes in Danson and his best friend. They stumble through bizarre adventures usually through a fog of pot smoke and somehow solve mysteries.

Go here if you want to sample episodes.

Brillant.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Designer Course 101

For the past two days, I have been going to school. 9 - 5pm at the Adobe Training centre. I signed up for the Illustrator Course 101 and it was brillant. I finally know how to properly use the tools, well some of them, to create beautiful things.

So this is my latest passion, no more jewellery making or ice cream making, its stationery. Perhaps you will be getting personalized stationery as gifts this year !! Like these beautiful designs !








I love stationery, don't you ?

Latest Brit Thing

I have been busy for the last two days and will post about it later. But first, if you haven't seen this, prepare to laugh out loud.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

A little bird told me...

P from out of town was visiting and I organized a dinner out with the usual suspects. The plan was to head to Tamarind Hills where I last went when Z and D were in town in May 2009. The venue was ideal and it offered the tropical exotic decor with good cocktails and delish food.

I was the first to arrive tonight and found that Tamarind had expanded next door and opened up a new annexe called Neo. At first I thought it was no more than a cool bar as the foyer had a clubby lighting and was flanked by a long black bar with LED lights built into the counter. But on closer inspection, there were several dining rooms where they serve tapas.

I liked it so much, dinner plans at the other place was cancelled, made new reservations and proceeded to pour through their martini list.

The resident mixologist was a french dude who sidled up and offered his suggestions. We decided on a raspberry, red wine vinegar vodka martini but he insisted I try their dry martini served with olive and blue cheese. So before my other guests arrive, I had my martini and he brought me a sampler of the other martini. Both went down well and I was sold. The other martinis flavours were like roasted apple, blueberry balsamic, bourbon apricot.....which I am determined to try next time.


The entrance to NEO.

Snapshot of one of their dining rooms. But we were seated at a different section, which was lot more cosy. The grey wall you see at the end of this room is actually a waterfall.


Food was quite good and very creative but bit expensive. Lamb shank with fig jus and tarragon risotto, snow fish with asparagus and walnut mash etc.


These pics came from their website.

When I googled Tamarind Springs, which is the original restuarant we were going to, the search brought up another place with the same name, in Koh Samui. I clicked on it accidently and it was a hotel / spa with the most amazing photos.

Thought I'd share it with you guys.


This place has apparently won awards for being the top spa in Samui. It is a day spa where one can go to spend few indulging hours or attend a massage academy.


They also offer villas for staying overnight at around USD 150/ night.

Divine isn't it....