Kiirey - Everything Uniquely Beautiful

Happy Mail Day

2013-06-04T21:44:00.001+08:00

Despite all the bad news on Swap-Bot (bullies and flakers) I still love it because there are still a lot of great swappers.

Last week, I received these (on the same day).

From USA, love all the bits and pieces.

From Finland, an even bigger package. I never thought flat package swap can be so much goodies!

Aaaa... What happy mail day.

And last week, I bought these over the website. Our local postal office don't have such nice stamps because they only have definitives stamps, so I have to get these on the website. And I end up spending $196 just on stamps.

I love putting lots and lots of stamps on my mail. :)

Daisy ATC

2013-05-28T09:44:00.001+08:00

It has been some times since I draw and paint. And last night I made this for a Swap-Bot ATC swap, theme was, obviously 'Daisy'.

I like how it turned out. Simple and soft. And I tore off the pages from Pride & Prejudice that I am not ever going to read.

Whipping Day

2013-05-24T15:10:00.001+08:00

Taking a day off, did some groceries and pick up something for a friend from a nearby bakery. Couldn't resist myself when I walk into a bakery shop, it's exactly like a craft shop. As I wander around exploring the shop, I saw this Savoiardi biscuit fingers and I fired up google on my phone for easy tiramisu recipe. And started to pick up my ingredients. You don't a lot of complicated ingredient and also don't to bake (I don't have oven yet), just chill in the fridge and we will get this romantically delicious pick-me-up. And today I will try to whip up my own tiramisu. No coffee liquor thou, and I'm going to add extra expresso.

Will post some more pictures when I'm done.

Done and sitting in the fridge. It's quite easy but I didn't make enough coffee so I have to make a few rounds of coffee. I'm dying to know how it tastes.

It's a success. Virgin tiramisu, I bet with liquor will be better.

Will definitely make this during parties.

Recipe from Gorden Ramsey's easy tiramisu recipe. Worth a try, it's really easy and it was my first attempt.

http://www.thegordonramsayblog.com/recipes/gordon-ramsays-easy-tiramisu/

Mail boxes

2013-05-23T09:10:00.001+08:00

This is where I always mail my stuff. I threw in 4-5 pieces of pretty mail every week. Highest record being 11 mails altogether. Yes, this year I have been a good snailmailer, but not a good blogger.

Postal rate has gone up crazily last week. But nothing will stop me from writing and writing and writing.

Because it always... ALWAYS made my day when I came home to a pile of these. ❤

Stamped It

2013-02-07T16:13:00.004+08:00

I am home for Chinese New Year, 1 week holiday starting today. And it's time to dig my old stuff hiding in my old bedroom. It's always a surprise what I can find. It's a good thing that I am a collector since I was a kid and now I am having such a good time reminiscing my chilhood/teens memory and hobbies.

And look what I found this time.

RUBBER STAMPS!!!!

It's not a large collection, probably about 20 pieces of them (some mounted on wood, some unmounted) and this is just part of it. I bought most of the stamps, and a few are swap item from penpals and swappers. Some stamps are hardly use and some still NEW!
And obviously I am fan of butterfly stamps. :p

Today, I gave them a very good purpose of being beautiful rubber stamps and started to stamp them on envelopes.

so, is this what you call mail art? :)

Road Trip

2013-02-07T16:02:00.001+08:00

3/Feb : Me and BF went on a short road trip to Genting Highland, the only mountain resort with a theme park and casino in Malaysia.The last time I was here was 3 years go. It's only a 45mins drive.

It's 14 degree C here, it was so misty and windy. Definitely too cold for my liking. I was forcing a smile there. :/

round and round we go

BF went out to watch football, I was alone in hotel room. but it's ok, I brought some stationery, postcards and letter to write. But before I can finish a letter he went back to the hotel room with sulky face, apparently couldn't find any nice spot to watch football.

I never thought I will buy anything here because everything is super expensive (especially food), but Tangs is having their warehouse sales here and everything is 70% off. And Vincci is also having sales, so well...2 pairs of shoes are going home with me.

And then I found this cute gift shop, with a lot of super adorable little trinkets and stuff, so some cute Rilakkuma magnets for my pen pal and a set of cute rubber stamps are following me back home too.

A Handmade Morning and Good Mail Night

2013-01-29T21:00:00.001+08:00

It has been a productive handmade morning. Started my day with a cup of coffee as usual, check on Postcrossing and scroll on Instagram pictures, and then made these cards this morning and send them out for Postcrossing Round Robin. It's fun to cut, arrange and paste. I always enjoyed collage art (but I am not into scrapbooking).

And tonight I need to finish my Travelling Notebook and send it out this week. It has been overdue for too long. >_<

handmade cards, off they go

It's good to be productive in the morning, felt energetic and went to shop, processed a hell lot of online orders (both local and Etsy) and came home really late. I will be home alone for 4 days (BF on business trip) and just now when I checked my mailbox, I was greeted with a lot of magical smiles and glitters and confetti. 10 postcards, 1 letter from Weronica (Sweden) and 4 bank letters (boo). How I hope everyday is like today. Well, I just have to send out more :)

a good mail day

Postcrossing Round Robin

2013-01-29T11:22:00.001+08:00

This is to keep track all the Round Robin that I joined at Postcrossing Forum

Dec 2012
Art RR (Group 320) : Sent
Many Theme RR (Group 816) : Sent
Art RR (Group 311) : Sent
Travelling Notebook RR (Group 3)

Jan 2013
January Alternative RR : Sent 15/Jan
New Asia Meets World (Group 131) : Sent 21/Jan
Art RR (Group 317) : Sent 21/Jan
Art RR (Group 318) : Sent 21/Jan
Asia Vs Asia RR (Group 35) : Sent 21/Jan
Slavic Country RR (Group 210) : Sent 21/Jan
Handmade RR (Group 99) : Sent 29/Jan
France Vs Other Country RR (Group 356) : Sent 4/Feb
10X10 New RR (Group 96) : Sent 4/Feb

Feb 2013

February Alternative RR : Sent all 6/Feb
Handmade RR (Group 87) : Sent 8/Feb
Art RR (Group 305)
Pen Pal RR (Group 198)
Handmade Postcard RR (Group 100)
Handmade Postcard RR (Group 102)
Many Theme RR (Group 932)

No Mail Day

2013-01-27T01:32:00.001+08:00

It has been two days without mail. There is a lot of national holiday lately, yesterday and next Monday. I thought Mr. Postman will bring me something but empty mailbox. :( There will be no mail for me until next Tuesday. Hopefully by then it will accumulate a lot of surprises for me.

The Snail Mail Project

2013-01-24T21:09:00.001+08:00

Clockwise from left: Outgoing mail(handmade envelopes), new postcards I bought for postcrossing and a happy mail from The Netherland.

One of the thing I want to accomplish in 2013 is to relive my old hobby, which is snail mailing. Since Dec 2012, I have been looking for (and found) penpals in the world wide web. I thought this will be a forgotten hobby, buts surprisingly, many are still very active in the age old snail mail. I wrote more than 10 introductory first letters out to snail mailer I followed on Instagram, and also made some pen pal call out thread in Postcrossing, and sign up on Interpals. And one month passed, finally, other than postcards, my mailbox is swarming with really sweet and entertaining letters. To my BF, this seems like very childish and old school way of 'networking' when we have Facebook and Twitter, but in fact, it is the social media that inspired me to get back on the snail mailing bandwagon. I was surfing Instagram for inspiring pictures (an Instagram addict I am), and I found a bunch of snail mail related pictures. Search for #penpal or #snailmail and you will be greeted into the beautiful and colourful world of snail mailing.

When I was much younger, I was an avid snail mailer, digging stationery shops for beautiful letter pads and stickersheets for my own collection and also for my penpals. When I was back at my hometown 2 months ago, I dug out a lot of treasures. I spent hours ogling at them cuties.

a small part of my collection, most of them bought from Living Cabin and Diddl letterpad from my Germany pen pal, Janni.

Back in those days, there is not much 3D of puffy stickers. and stickersheets are soooo cheap. 80sens for a long strip of cute stickers. And now, I visited a few stationery/book shops and there is not much variety and a lot of puffy stickers which is very expensive, RM3.90 for a sheet with not many pieces in it. And Living Cabin has become so boring and nothing cute to explore anymore.

And my proud stamp collection. I have HUGE collection, 15 large albums and 3 boxes of unsorted stamps.

Today is national holiday, I can't wait for tomorrow to check on the mailbox again! ^_^

Celebrating

2013-01-12T11:03:00.002+08:00

Decoration at my shop (I'm proud with my ribbon rack behind)

Here in Malaysia, all the Chinese are in the mood of Lunar New Year celebration (which is on 10 and 11th of February) and my branches in my shop blooms with pink plum flowers (I did a 2 minutes Google search for the name of this flower). I didn't do much with Chinese decoration in my shop because I not into red and I think Chinese New Year songs are too loud. The shop next door keep blasting CNY songs (well, better than them keep looping the Gangnam song over and over again). I am happy and couldn't wait for the holiday to come, even though I celebrate Chinese New Year every year, but the mood is too loud and funky for my liking. I am more into Chrismasy feeling, Michael Buble and Diana Krall Christmas songs playing all day long. I hope someone can make jazzy Chinese New Year song, is there any?

Collecting Hedgehog

2012-11-11T22:04:00.001+08:00

illustration by whimsy whimsical

spot the hedgehog happy pair at my little cozy corner (work desk)

Like most of the girls, I am obsessed with something. Some people like to collect owl (that's the most common thing to collect, IMO), anything pink, cat, dog, anything related to France, etc. But I have a quirky obsession with hedgehog (or you can call it porcupine, they are from the same species).

Hedgehog items/collectibles are soooo difficult to get by. Whenever I go travel, there's nothing on hedgehog and everything on Etsy is very overpriced (I know, they are handmade/art). However, I couldn't resist to get this illustration from Whimsy Whimsical. Yes, hedgehogs are whimsical animals. The beautiful print reached me on Friday and I was really mesmerized by it. I am going to put it on my 'wall of art' at home.

I Still Love Blogging

2012-11-10T22:42:00.001+08:00

I still love blogging, but unfortunately (and shame on me), I couldn't find time to blog as devotedly as I should be. And look at the date! One year apart. And it's always at the end of the year that I will review back what I have done and what I should have do more/better. And here I am, trying to pick up my blogging habit again, every time of the year. Yes, really shame of me, I couldn't prolong this practice for very long. But I never gave up. So I will try again....

2012 has been a very messy, hectic, and yet the most fruitful year for me. My craft business has run for 1.5 years and I can see that it is growing into something. The first half of the year, I was running around craft markets and fashion bazaars. I worked 7 days a week, 16 hours a day (8 hours for sleeping) all on my own. Pushing trolley and setting up my booth at weekend markets has been a routine and at times, it has became horrifying tiring and very heavy hearted to wake up on the bazaar day morning. The so-called creative business has become somewhat monotonous. It was after June that I slowed down on the market movement because I moved to a bigger shop and the audience that I generated from going around marketplace and craft fair started to drop by at my brick and mortar shop.

And at this bigger space, I was able to invite teachers to held craft workshops. Response was overwhelming. Thanks to the experienced teachers (Florence and Kak Syam) who has been extremely supportive. They are very nice lady and easy to work with. I am very happy to have met great people like them, whom inspired and helped me in some way or another.

And I am listening to Christmas songs already (Michael Buble always), while making a pledge, to continue blogging as religiously as I could.

Sweet things I bought

2011-12-01T22:43:00.000+08:00

There is a new cupcake-bakery shop that just open nearby my shop in the quiet mall. I'm happy to see that there is more and more shop opening here. And especially such pretty shop.

A Visit to A College Market

2011-09-17T09:58:00.000+08:00

After always going around markets and bazaars as vendor, I rarely visit as shopper. And today I went to visit one of my good vendor friend at a college market. After leaving university life for more than 5 years (don't want to reveal too much of my age..LOL), going to this college really brought back a lot of memories. But this upstream college has too many to offer compare to the uni that I attended back then. I can see Starbucks, fancy cafes, shopping places, what a blissful life for students nowadays.

When I reached, my friend was just setting up her booth. Just the right time to snap some photos.

This is how the whole bar of soap looks like before cut. (yes, inside a milk carton, isn't it cute)

Taking out the goodies. It's black because it's full of poppy seeds. Great for scrubbing.

She forbade me from taking her pictures, so I can only show the hands at work.

One of the best seller. Soap with loofah embedded. Natural loofahs!

Sampler

Essential Oils

For more bath goodies, go to her fanspage : The Bubble Lab

And I spotted another cute stall. It's so cute and pretty and I couldn't resist to stop by and snap some picture and talked to the nice girl. She gave me her namecard but I'd misplaced it. :(

I spotted a cupcake tin.

This stall is so pretty and cheerful. I used to spend so much on stuff like this.

Cute plushies. I got to know that it's call Me Too.

So many lovely metal tins. I know a lot of people loves to collect the. I bought the red Alice in wonderland.

I met a few more vendor friends, but I got too chatty with them and forgot to take pictures of their lovely stalls. I will do a better market photographer job next time!

Hello Sun

2011-09-05T09:31:00.000+08:00

I woke up early today. Bright sunshine greeted me cheerfully and so I start my day by greeting back at the sun.

1. Golden Sun Pottery by claycoyote

2. Yellow sun prints by ellothere

3. cute sun plushie by elbooga

4. sun yellow shirt by janeyclothing

5. huge happy little sun amigurumi plushie by comfort creatures

6. the sun acrylic on wood by tad carpenter

7. sun pendant necklace by mickeyjohnson

8. the morning sun abstract print by misval

9. amigurumi sun by the sun and the turtle

I Heart Hedgehog

2011-08-24T22:02:00.002+08:00

I've seen owl merchandise everywhere. I wish there are more hedgehog items. They are so prickly adorable! I am so in love with this little dude and it will be my official animal collectibles.

1. crochet wire ring by otherworlds

2. Bradley the hedgehog by bitsofwhimsy

3. polkadot hedgehog pincushion by strawberriesandcream

4. canvas tote bag by squarepaisleydesign

5. silver necklace by lulubugjewelry

6. pin button by vegancraftastic

7. purple plush hedgehog by 5orangepotatoes

8. twill tape by craftpudding

9. hand-carved stamps by talktothesun

I'm back

2011-02-06T14:01:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year 2011.

The whole 2010 was missing because I moved the domain to wordpress.org but the hosting and domain expired before I could back up. I am not sure whether I can still back up the database.

And I figure out that using blogspot is not bad and I do not really need to have my own domain. A lot of successful design/handmade/inspiration blog are still hosting on blogspot.

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

2009-12-23T12:15:00.000+08:00

Nothing more elegant than a simple white Christmas and looking at these gave me the peace of mind. Have a great, save and happy holiday everyone :)

LivingEtc

Snowflake bulb by Lorikay

Dashing Reindeer Headband by ME2Designs

Snowflake ornament by Iwanabe

Dreamy Beautiful

2009-12-20T14:26:00.001+08:00

Here is more beautiful and dreamy gift pick inspiration for the week. Hope you love them all. My personal favourite is the giraffe amigurumi but too bad I just can't pick but those crochetting skill.

1. Typewrite Necklace by CuteAbility

2. Vintage Rose hairpin by pastelpetals
3. Dreamy Giraffe Amigurumi pattern by reeneegurumi
4. Candy Bird Photography Print by jenseverydaymoments
5. White Lace Blooming Popup Card by crankbunny
6.Strut, woodcut by mLee
7. Let's Hug print by belleandboo
8. Opulent Artisan textile cuff by Decadence2
9. Spirograph Necklace by mamaslittlebabies

Win a 2010 Calender from Cabin+Cub

2009-12-17T00:41:00.001+08:00

2010 Cabin+Cub Desk Calender

This is a really memorable and meaningful giveaway before the year ends, a 2010 Cabin+Cub Desk Calender. To enter, you have to tell which month you want to be and what costume you will wear to pose in a calender. Hmm...I want to be little red riding hood. Or Alice in Wonderland? Maybe little Tinkerbell.

Go to Cabin+Cub's blog to enter now!

Interview : BeaniPet

2009-12-16T23:49:00.002+08:00

Crafter : Jun (BeaniPet)
Country : Malaysia
Blog : http://beanipet.blogspot.com/
Shop : http://beanipet.etsy.com/

1. Tell us a little about yourself.

You can call me Jun and I'm a dreamer. I like to share my thoughts with people and I love to create things that makes me and people happy ^ . ^ I'm very down to earth and love to go hunt for great desserts XD I think of myself as a pandabear - dreamer, peaceful, caring and simple.

2. What is art/craft for you?

hmm... art and craft is life, you, people and love. Food can be art and it can be just food and life. A hairstyle is you and art and just a hairstyle. I think everything that evolves around us is art and craft and life. We just have to slow down to appreciate things. ^ . ^

3. What is your favourite craft?

I've got no favourite. Coz to me everything is art and craft. If I have to choose it'll be my Beanies. Seldom see a pillow that comes with ears, eyes, nose and pocket. ^ . ^

4. Other than crafting, what do you usually like to do for fun/relax?

I like to go dinner with my friends and we usually go restaurent hunting to find great food and great dessert places ^. ^ I too love to go to the movies and I love to go to the bookstore~ to see illustration, cook and sewing books and find reading novels too! Oh yah... I also like to cook when i'm not sewing^ . ^

5. Can you brief us a little about your daily schedule?

0800am - Wake up and do my usual morning stuff
0830am - Breakfast, I love to have great breakfast~ sometimes will go out to my garden and take a morning stroll to get some morning vitamin D XD
0900am - On my computer and start answering emails, checking blogs and internet stuff... (have to restrain myself to maximum 2 hours but I'm trying to make it a 1 hour timing)
1030am - start cutting cloth and usually I've already picked my cloth last night when doodling on what I'll sew today.
1100am - sew sew sew
Lunch break when I'm hungry and will surf the net awhile and at days I'll get loads of email so I'll answer them too..
0300pm - continue to sew till evening ^. ^
0700pm - go out buy dinner home for family and sometimes when i cook I'll stop work at 530pm to work on my dinner cooking.
- sewing ends and i'll go do other stuff like movie/tv/books/doodle my next creation and sometimes online to list a Beanie -

6. Are you a full time crafter?

Yes since September 2009! Very happy so far ^ . ^ BeaniPet started in Oct 2008 and I went into BeaniPet full time in Sept 2009

7. What or who inspire you?

What inspires me - life and people. I get loads of inspiration form the things around me. Music/movies/books/cafe/cake/pets/internet/blogs/people i meet/ life...EVERYTHING!
Who inspires me - Wow... A lot... My dad always asking me to deliver quality and work hard and i hold on to his advise in my heart. Loads of artist and author out there who inspires me... gonna pick one of my favourite~ Roald Dahl who believe in dreams and dreamers, chasing their dreams to make it come true yet unbelievably magical.

Kiirey thanks Jun for such inspiring sharings.:)
Happy Crafting~~

10 Ways to Have a Green Christmas

2009-12-09T01:20:00.001+08:00

Let's go for a green Christmas this year, and every other years. How?
Here's some fun ideas:

1. Learn how to make a re-usable, recycleble gift wrapper.

Eco-friendly gift pouch tutorial from Zakkalife.

2. Make your own hanging ornaments.

Red handmade ornament from Create Studio

3. Make your own Christmas tree.

White handmade Christmas tree by Dottie Angel

4. Recycle your old sweater and make them into gift stockings.

Recycled sweater stocking by handmadepretties

5. Give a card made from recycled paper, or even better, make your own card.

Snowflake eco-card by NaturesCubbyhole

6. No paper bags, no plastic bags. Use fabric bag.

Bring those food around with evelynfields lunch bags

7. Print your own gift tags and labels

Free printable gift tags at Giverslog

8. Give organic gift. You'll be surprise that there are a lot of organic varieties.

Handmade CandyCanes soap by Corabela

9. Spare the turkey. This is difficult, I know but at least try this superb recipe.

Vegan Turkey Roast by Chef Brian P. McCarthy

10. Give a tree. Or...give a seed. :)

Delay no more, Plant Now.

Enjoy preparing for a green Christmas. :)

What I bought on the Internet?

2009-12-07T23:08:00.001+08:00

Of all the many interesting and beautiful things I found over the world wide web, I can't resist but shop online once a while. In fact, I am getting hooked on online shopping. Even though I can't feel, touch, smell and/or flip through them but curiosity really kills me and my imagination runs wild with just looking at the pictures.

So this was what my addiction leads to....

Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 a DIY Guide to Zines and Zine Culture by brainscan

This zine is so fun and cool, even though it's more like a book with ISBN and published properly like any other book but I still feel like reading a zine. Every page of this books are as if typed, sharpied and xerox-ed. And the most fun part of all, it's a complete guide to start writing a zine, something which I wanted to do for a long time but never had time for it. But whenever I want to start writing a zine, I will have this guide with me!

Zeropumpkin family stickers by zeropumpkin

Stickers!!! I don't need them but why do I buy them? I don't know, I just feel I must have them.

Elin Thomas Giveaway

2009-12-06T20:43:00.000+08:00

From now on I am going to share with everyone the great shop/blog giveaways I found, even though more peeps know about it and join the contest means less chance for me to win but it's ok, beautiful things are for all to fight for.
And that's the purpose of this blog anyway, to share all the beautiful things I found on the world wide web. :)

A piece of crochet couture jewelry in fushcia and orange combo by Elin Thomas

Win the irresistible 2010 spring color combo by following her blog or subscribe to her newsletter by sending her an email. Don't fret if you didn't win this masterpiece, check out her shop for more colour crazy creation.