Projects by Jane

March 2026

2026-04-04T19:44:00.000+08:00

Dear friends and strangers,

Nowadays I count myself lucky if I can get through a month without any health issues. I went for my 6 monthly health tests and the results were disappointing. I knew it wouldn't be good because I've been indulging myself a lot not really watching my diet giving myself the excuse of YOLO or why live so long, etc. 1 year ago, my doctor had asked me to modify my diet to lower my cholesterol. He had high hopes I could get off the medication. So I went on a lower dosage of the meds. 6 months later, he said my cholesterol had gone up on account of the lower dosage of meds and me not watching my diet. Last month I had a checkup and again my cholesterol went up, this time even higher so my doctor lost complete faith in me and said I have to go back on the full dosage of the medication. Of course I'm disappointed in myself but what's more worrying this round is for the first time, my report card flagged 2 items - 1. high salt 2. low potassium. The high salt is a surprise because I'm usually careful with salt which means I'm probably consuming way more salt than I'm aware. The low potassium is new but I figure it's due to my low fodmap diet. I have been lazy with portion control of high fodmap food and did a food avoidance instead which is wrong. This is how I ended up with low potassium. To fix this problem, I'm now eating half a banana twice a week. I tried eating one banana and ended up very sick and another time I ate a very ripe half banana and got sick as well. So yes, the stupid banana has to be not too ripe.

My MPS (myofascial pain syndrome) reared its ugly head a few times in March. My doctor gave me medication to take for the pain but the bastard only gave me 21 tablets. I asked for more but he said the medication wasn't good for me so I have to ration the tablets. I only take it when I feel ready to jump in front of a train. The medication works really well. The first time I took it, I slept for 12 hours. When I woke up, I felt reborn. The second time I took it, I felt I needn't have taken it because I wasn't desperate enough. I didn't sleep for 12 hours though. Now I have 19 tablets to last me for 5 months till my next health check up when I'll ask for another 21 tablets.

Hubs has his health checkup this month and I'm pretty sure his results will be terrible but somehow his doctor (also my doctor) is less hard on him.

My daughter too had a health scare and I was really worried about her. We've seen a specialist and she recommended a change in diet. Hopefully it will improve her condition. She too has led a YOLO life.

Making

March was such a long month and it gave me opportunity to complete a lot of stuff.

I bought a tatting pattern from a blogger I follow. She has this gorgeous tatted necklace and despite my very amateurish tatting skills, I decided it was doable. Lol, I could follow her pattern but clearly my tatting skills are lacking. I made so many errors but of course I just kept going. I'll definitely want to make 2 or 3 more of these necklaces.

I completed this patchwork table runner/topper a while back and finally uploaded the video to youtube. I used a fusible web technique to glue all the fabric together. If you're interested, you can watch the video here.

What do you think of this embroidery project I completed? I've uploaded the video to youtube. You can watch it here. It was inspired by a painting I did. Originally I wanted to use dark blue fabric but amazingly I don't have any dark blue fabric.

This was the inspiration. It's the last gouache painting I did. I didn't see myself improving in gouache so I decided to take a break.

I also did a digital version in Procreate.

This was the only watercolour painting I did. I seemed to have regressed in my painting.

Oh, I finally got off my butt and did something about my vague dream of becoming a cartoonist. Not a professional one, just a hobby cartoonist. I have a Skillshare subscription and I watched 3 classes on making comics by Drewscape. I don't know who this teacher is and I got him just by searching comics on Skillshare. But I got so lucky because his lessons are pretty good and I managed to complete all 3 of his classes and below are my projects. I've drawn the comics in pencil which is so hard and my human drawing skills are seriously lacking.

The brief for the first comic: 1. Encounter 2. Interaction 3. Result

*chope - to reserve a seat using personal items, esp tissue paper

The brief for the 2nd comic: 1st level: Problem + want, 2nd level: Try & fail, 3rd level: Solution or none

The brief for the 3rd comic: 2 types of speech bubble, a mundane convo

What I've learnt after I completed these 3 projects is that making comics is harder than hard.

By the way, if you would like a free month of Skillshare, you can use my link here. You can cancel before the trial ends to avoid being charged. If you pay for subscription, I'll get a free month. Honestly I don't need the free month because Skillshare is pretty cheap already. But if anyone wants to "look see, look see" the classes at Skillshare, you can try it out.

I finally finished my beanie/toque. It has weird mistakes here and there but it's wearable. I used a super long cabled needle to knit it and I really struggled. I tried using magic loop but it's not for me. In the end, I just knitted as if I have the proper length of cable and pull the extra cable out of the way. For the final few rounds at the top, I switched to dpn. Recently my daughter bought a set of interchangeable knitting needles/cables using the money the govt gave the citizens last year. I might try another beanie/toque using her needles.

Currently I have 2 knitting WIP - both are shawls. I've already frogged 2 other shawls as I lost interest so now I'm wondering once again if I should give up on my WIPs. I also tried to pick up fair isle knitting recently. It looks so hard. I don't know if I have enough fingers to do it. I know I tried it before long ago and my project looked like crap.

Lastly, are you guys into gel ink pens? I love Zebra's Sarasa 0.5 gel ink rollerball pens and recently I bought the vintage colours. Aren't the colours gorgeous? I particularly love the last two - orange and grey.

See you in May.

February 2026

2026-03-05T19:30:00.002+08:00

Hi internet strangers,

As promised, I'm back with another post. This monthly blogging might just work out...

February went by so quickly. You'll probably know it's the Year of the Horse (fyi, Feb 17 2026 to Feb 5 2027) and it's the Fire Horse this round, not that it means anything. The Fire element and Horse zodiac occurs once every 60 years. It's Hub's year. The next time a Fire Horse year comes round, hubs will be 120 years old.

Remember the last time I travelled with my fam to Bangkok, and there was a big fight between my daughter and hubs involving a coffee drink and digging through a rubbish bin and I swore I'll never travel with them again? Well, seems I forgot all about it and we all booked a trip to Japan (Okinawa and Tokyo) to escape Chinese New Year. Lol, I hate Chinese New Year celebrations so much that travelling with family who are constantly arguing didn't seem so bad.

We were away for about 12 days and we only blew up at one another once. When we returned to Singapore, we were still friends, lol.

And we did have a small belated reunion dinner + mahjong with hub's fam because hub's mom would move heaven and earth to get her reunion dinner.

Okinawa

We went to Okinawa first via a layover at Fukuoka. From Singapore, we took a SQ flight. Service is usually good although I can't say the same for the seats. Always too little legroom. We didn't take a direct flight to Okinawa because the airline that we were considering - Scoot is miserable for long flights. Anyway, I discovered my body wasn't designed for taking 2 flights within a day. And to make matters worse, the domestic flight from Fukuoka to Okinawa was extremely shitty. It was only around 2 hours but 3/4 of the flight the airplane was rattling and shaking. I honestly thought I was going to die on that flight. I had this strange feeling on the flight - like my entire body disappeared and then reappeared as if I was put back together again. Anyway I've learnt my lesson. I'll never take 2 flights in one day again.

We stayed at Naha City and you see 2 things everywhere - Shisa statues, Shisa merch. Shisa are traditional Okinawan lion-dog statues which comes in a pair with one open mouth and one closed mouth. The stuffed Shisa I bought is open mouth so it wards off evil. If the mouth is closed, it keeps goodness inside.

I regret both the tongue and the hat

We even ate Shisa pancakes. It wasn't very good. The "official store" selling it was closed and we bought from another one not knowing better.

Another common thing I saw was the hibiscus. Even though hibiscus is also found in Singapore, I couldn't resist buying a fake one from Donki. (it's a hibiscus hair clip)

Hubs and daughter went on a boat humpback whale watching out on the Pacific ocean. I slept in because I was recovering from the 2 flights and also I don't do well on a boat.

In Naha City, the main transport system is monorail and buses. The monorail is constantly crowded especially when there are tourists likes us with our luggage. The locals must hate us.

The temperature in Okinawa wasn't low but strangely I felt very cold probably due to the wind. I had to wear Uniqlo's heattech innerwear and my down jacket for god's sake and hubs was wearing short sleeved shirts.

Us doing the Shisa pose

We took a very long bus ride to the aquarium. It felt like a day but it was just a few hours. Aquariums are boring to me but my daughter loves them. At the end of our visit, we accidentally stumbled on a dolphin show. We got to see the entire show and it was really entertaining despite the cold.

Food

While my daughter's goal in Japan was to acquire all her favourite character's and favourite celebrity's merch, I had nothing specific I wanted because I have so much stuff at home already. So me and hubs just tagged along with daughter wherever she wanted to go. One thing I like to do is to enjoy the food and I think I managed to achieve that somewhat.

My first meal at Fukuoka airport was a bit disappointing. The taste was alright. The rice perfect. But there were a few bones in the salmon. The bones made me jittery and lose my appetite.

The first meal at Naha City was burger and fries + ginger ale. The burger was amazing and the fries were amazing. Strangely the cook only gave us a handful of fries. Literally a handful. And the ginger ale had cinnamon in it. So weird. But the food - amazing.

We came across Hands Cafe and we had to eat there as we often go to Hands (the shop). However, food is not their forte. I had curry and much to my surprise there were only tiny bits of meat in it. Like really, really tiny. I did enjoy the side dishes.

The day we went to the aquarium, we had buffet at a restaurant before we entered the aquarium. We were starving and at first the food was really good but after a while, all the food tasted the same.

I ate twice, the same amazing onigiri from a stall at a supermarket. The taste is very simple but the addition of a vegetable in the salmon made it heavenly.

We ate a lot of food in Okinawa but these were the ones I remembered.

Hotel

We stayed at Hotel Azat Naha and it is a basic hotel. I think only green tea and coffee and a few basic stuff were provided. There was a place where you can get water.

We stayed on the second floor and we had a "river view".

The Okinawan weather was not very kind to my nose. The air was not very dry though. My skin wasn't super affected. No cracks and just the usual amount of dry skin.

After a few days in Okinawa and honestly by then I had grown bored already, we left for Tokyo. Yup, via domestic flight but this round, we got a better plane and the flight was smooth.

Tokyo

Tokyo was very cold but less windy than Okinawa. My nose got better although my skin felt drier so I had to apply vaseline on weak points on my face throughout the day. Since we had been to Tokyo a few times already, my daughter who's our tour leader decided to go to the less touristy side of Tokyo plus we did 2 day trips out of Tokyo.

Hotel

Believe it or not, we stayed at Asakusa again. This area is very crowded during the day. Fortunately most of the time, we're somewhere else.

Lol, trying to look sexy

Our hotel was Hotel Gracery Asakusa. It was a bit nicer than the hotel at Okinawa. There were lots of freebies and many types of tea. For water we had to get it from the water dispenser. Our room was on the 13th floor and we did get a view, except it's of another hotel - APA hotel which is directly opposite.

Food

I got lucky I found food I like. I loved the curry soup at CoCo curry house. I love it so much I want to make it myself.

Once we were very tired, cold and needed food. We saw a Hoshino Coffee and got a table. We hadn't realised this particular outlet was a cafe, not a restaurant. Still we made do and I ordered hotdog with fries and a pot of hot tea. The hotdog and fries turned out to be so amazing. Maybe I was very hungry. And the mustard? I'm really not into mustard but suddenly I love mustard. In fact, now I'm thinking I need to buy mustard so I can eat my food with mustard. How have I lived my life all these years without mustard?

One time we were at a mall and I was asked to pick a restaurant. So I went to all the restaurants on the floor and I looked at the menus. I picked Olive House because I wanted to eat Clam Japanese Style Spaghetti. It turned out to be so, so delicious.

Very small space

Another time we were super tired again and my daughter saw on google 2 possible restaurants. I picked tempura and we went to the restaurant (Tendon Itsuki Ginza) which had a queue as it wasn't open yet. When the restaurant finally opened, we were the last to be let in and after us, there were more people waiting. The restaurant only hires young female staff and it has a tiny space. We all sat at the counter. The tempura was cooked fresh and there's just one cook so there's a bit of waiting time. The food is good. It's just a lot. Way more than my stomach could hold.

We went to a place outside Tokyo called Kawagoe where you can find many characters' merch. The architecture reminds me of Kyoto. It's very touristy and we went from shop to shop trying the food. I had the most amazing grilled prawn for 300 yen. It was so amazing I wanted to cry. It was also ginormous. Yum, yum, yum. How do I get to eat it again, lol.

hubs posed in front of the Singapore Chicken Rice stall

One time we went to Yokohama and we ate at this food court which strangely had Singapore Chicken Rice. It tasted quite good and very close to the taste of Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore.

I love carrot cakes but I'm always scared to order from cafes I've not tried before because there are so many variations of carrot cake and my taste is so specific. After visiting a craft market, we took a short break at Bless Coffee and the carrot cake was really good. Exactly how I like my carrot cake. We had a nice time people watching outside the glass window and also escape the cold.

My good luck with food was on a roll. Even the tacos at a random cafe were good. Of course not everything we ate was good. Some were ordinary and the only bad food I felt we had were Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant close to Ueno Zoo. It was oily and over flavoured. (hubs chose it, lol)

Craft Markets

We went to 2 craft markets, one was at a shrine. There were a number of handmade stalls and I really enjoyed looking at all the cute handmade stuff. I only bought one thing because I own so much stuff already. I felt so inspired after visiting the markets I wanted to go home and make stuff right away.

Ueno Zoo

Gentaro

Of course we visited Ueno Zoo because my favourite gorilla family in Kyoto Zoo had sent their young Silverback Gentaro to Ueno Zoo to live and also to mate with another young gorilla, Annie from Higashiyama Zoo. Both get a very small outdoor space to roam about and honestly when I saw how small it was real life I wanted to cry. It's smaller than my flat and my flat isn't exactly big. I managed to see Gentaro but there was no sight of Annie. Later I found out that Annie was bitten by Gentaro after both were allowed to be in the same space together. Currently both are in "training" to learn to cohabitate. Looks like it's not going well. In previous training sessions, Gentaro had also attacked Annie. How long will it take before both can live together in peace and get it on?

Flight Back

Our flight back was via ANA/Japan Air. The legroom was good. We had chosen our seats such that hubs sits in front of me, both aisle seats. My daughter gets the window seat. So there's a stranger between me and my daughter. I know it sounds strange to choose such seats but I often get the worst person on earth sitting in front of me who insists on reclining all the way throughout. The boy between me and my daughter happened to be travelling with the boy sitting in front of my daughter. Throughout the flight, they kept ordering alcohol. They looked like minors but the stewardess kept giving them drinks. After we were up in the air for a while, the boys asked if my husband could swap seats with the middle boy. I was really pissed off with the request and I wanted to explain that we had paid extra to select our seats but in the end I realised I could just say no. Both boys accepted my decision graciously. It was strange that he didn't try to swap seats with the person sitting in front of him.

Knitting

I didn't finish making anything in February. I did attempt to knit myself a beanie for my trip innocently thinking I could complete it in time. But I had started too late and since the trip is now over it seems pointless to continue. This is the current status of the beanie. Should I continue? I'm not even sure it'll fit me, lol.

Swimming

I was very diligent with my swimming. In fact, the day we came back to Singapore, it was very early in the morning and after a good sleep, I went swimming in the late afternoon. Since then I've been able to go swimming at least once a week. I'd like to go twice a week but the bad weather is a deterrent.

See you in my next post, first week of April?

January 2026

2026-02-04T17:28:00.004+08:00

Hello,

It's weird to see me here so soon after my last post in December 2025. I'm just as surprised as you are. It has become normal for me to ignore my blog for a whole year. So why am I here? Well, I thought I'll try this blogging thing more regularly for a change. Maybe monthly? I think I can do monthly. I'm a bit disappointed though because my last blog post was barely read by anyone. My previous post before the last one was written in November 2024 and that one had 12,488 views. The post I wrote in December 2025? 126 views. I know I'm not comparing it fairly but still, 126 views is like how many readers? What happened? Where have all my blog readers gone? No one cares if I'm dead or alive anymore?

Since I'm not a logical person, despite the poor views, I decided to go ahead with blogging more regularly.

2026

So how's the year going for everyone? Is it just me or does it feel like a whole year has gone by since the new year started. Like wasn't January a super long month? With so much that has happened around the world, it really feels like enough already. Let's skip ahead and end the year and try for another new year.

MPS

For me, I didn't start the year well. Since last year I've been getting hints (which I ignored) that my myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) may have returned. In MPS, you get pain in your muscles and surrounding tissue. There are trigger points which are usually knots in the muscle. The pain can go from a deep relentless ache to burning and is often accompanied by fatigue. If you've never suffered from MPS and I hope you haven't, you won't understand how awful it is. It's no ordinary muscle pain I can tell you that. I have many, many trigger points on my neck and shoulder and sometimes the upper back. Now and then my jaw gets it too. It's horrible. The trigger points feel like the day after someone had taken a bat and beaten the crap out of me.

I suffered from MPS in the early 2000's for several years and it was really bad for a couple of years. I lost 10 kg. I had to take medication as well as go for physical and mental therapy. Those years were a blur due to the medication I was on. After I recovered, I would get brief periods when the pain would re-surface but each time I managed to recover.

This time around, the MPS looks set to stay. Of course I'm totally to blame. Last year I completely did not exercise. It was really stupid of me because it's really crucial to exercise, to stretch my muscles to ward off MPS. I kept saying I would exercise but the small little attempts weren't enough. I made a feeble attempt to find my old Pilates teacher but couldn't locate her. And that was it.

Well, the MPS finally got so bad I needed to take action. Since the new year, I've started going swimming weekly. Last week I even went twice. What I dislike about swimming is I get new brown spots on my face afterwards. Yes, I do apply sun screen but some of it gets rubbed off during swimming. Have I considered swimming at night? No, because the water would be cold and cause my muscles to tighten and knotted up. Can't have that. Plus, I don't feel comfortable walking about in the dark by myself. I guess I have to live with brown spots and whatever the sun does to my skin. We'll see how much damage the sun does to my face in a month and then I'll decide if risking night swim is worth it.

I also started doing yoga and pilates watching youtube. Is it too little too late? The thing with MPS is it's not like you can exercise a lot and it will fix everything. No. Once MPS is triggered, overdoing exercises or even just doing nothing even keeping still can cause pain. The pain just comes when it wants to come.

When the pain is bad I have no choice but to take painkillers. Of course I don't want to depend on painkillers but enduring the pain is out of the question as it could worsen. Fortunately (??) MPS waxes and wanes. So I have good days and bad days. Sometimes the early part of a day is good while the later part is bad. Thank goodness or I would go mad. I have to fight off anxiety and depression as well because MPS just does stuff to your head. The fatigue is the worst though. You feel weighted down for no good reason.

Right now I'm coping without going to the doctors. I've been down this route before and I really don't like the medication the doctors ask you to take. In the end the medication doesn't cure MPS. Changing my lifestyle is the best thing I can do right now. More gentle exercises and later on I might have to look for a physiotherapist to unknot my knotted muscles. I also started taking magnesium glycinate (supplement) which boasts supporting muscle relaxation as well as support sleep quality. Honestly, I can't tell if the muscle relaxation part works but the sleep part sure doesn't.

Yes, that's me and my tragic chronic muscle problems. Wish me luck in my recovery and sorry for the moaning.

Solo

If you know me, you'll hear me say this often: I like being alone. I like to do stuff alone. I enjoy alone time. But you know what? That's true only for a few hours. I'm actually a social being. I don't mean I'm a sociable person. I mean I need company. I need other beings who are known to me to be around me. I'm in all honesty pretty bad at solo living.

Like this year was the first time I went swimming on my own. Hubs did a trial run with me in case I couldn't find my way. Am I too reliant on hubs for direction? Hubs also showed me how to use the locker which required an online payment. I'm ashamed to confess I'm one of those folks who still pays with cash. (I have a coin pouch in my bag) Well, I've now become quite comfortable with using my phone to make payment even though I find it troublesome.

What other things can't I do alone? I've only gone to the cinema alone once. It was terrifying so I never went again. I've never slept alone so it's not possible for me to travel alone. I can sleep alone in the daytime though. But once night falls, my family had better get home or I'll lose my mind. Of course living alone is out of the question.

When travelling, sometimes I get left in the hotel room by myself for a couple of hours. Believe it or not, it's horrible for me. I cannot enjoy the alone time. I don't know what's wrong with me. Why am I such a scaredy cat?

I can dine alone at food courts or even restaurants. I can shop alone of course. I can take the train on my own. But I don't think I can handle taking a flight by myself. In fact, I hate going through immigration counters alone. So yes, I'm pretty useless doing solo stuff.

Stuff I Made

I showed you the Library Bag in my last post. Here's the video.

I made a single layer wrap using Batik fabric scraps. My daughter bravely used it in public. Video here. The Batik scraps were from my craft market days. They were very expensive fabric so I've always felt it's a waste to see them unused.

Bear is modelling 3 brooches I made from scrap fabric. Video here. I know I'll never be able to get rid of all my scrap fabric but it's fun to see what I can make out of little pieces of fabric from previous projects.

And lastly, a few water colour paintings. I'm thinking maybe flowers aren't my forte.

Etsy

Hey, anyone has Etsy shops? Since the new year I've noticed my Etsy sales have PLUNGED. Like suddenly zero sale for days and days followed by one or two sale. Then zero again. I don't even know what I need to do to revive traffic. Can anyone enlighten me?

Affinity

Do you guys use Affinity? It's a design app for photo editing, vector design and page layout. Last year I think around October Affinity announced Affinity Studio would become free forever. No subscriptions, nothing. Free to use. The only thing you need is a Canva account which you can also get for free.

I've already downloaded it but I've yet to switch from Adobe Creative Suite. The reason is I'm using the older version which doesn't require a subscription, just a one time fee. However Adobe no longer supports it (the bastards!) to force me to use their very expensive subscription based Creative Cloud. Once my very ancient desktop dies, I won't be able to install the Creative Suite to my new desktop. All my patterns, templates are done using Adobe Creative Suite. So at some point in the future, I'll probably have to switch to using Affinity. I don't look forward to switching software and learning a new interface. I'm old now and it's hard to remember stuff.

I'll see you end of February or first week of March. Take care.💕

Taking Stock 2025

2025-12-22T21:17:00.001+08:00

Hello friends and Internet strangers,

It's been a whole year since I last wrote. Not much has been happening around here. How about you? 2025 went by really fast. I mean it's good right? If time passes slowly, it would be awfully boring.

Want to hear something funny? I spent nearly the entire year thinking I was a year older than I am. It was only recently that I realised my mistake. What a nice bonus. Suddenly I became a year younger. Also a bit worrying. What's wrong with my brain?

It's that time of the year when I feel a little blue. Maybe it's the end of yet another year on earth. Maybe it's taking stock of what I've accomplished the whole year and realising I haven't done much. Could it be the increasing amount of scrap fabric I've accumulated? Or maybe it's the weather. The endless December rain due to the wet North East monsoon. Clothes not drying well, contemplating buying a dryer but knowing I won't because there's no space for one.. the usual year end blues thinking about my purpose in life, laundry and how to look forward to another year of the same.

There were a number of things I wanted to achieve this year. Did I achieve them?

Youtube

Amazingly, I kept going with my youtube channel. In all honesty, my youtube channel isn't very successful as I've not managed to get a big audience. Youtube is flooded with sewing tutorials so it's not a surprise. Maybe one day I'll get sick of it and stop making videos. But at the moment, the motivation is still strong. If you would like to send some love, subscribe to my channel! (I beg you)

These are the stuff I made for my youtube.

Digital Art

Last year I got into digital art and man, the progress was slow. I kept learning and forgetting. Re-learning and forgetting all over again. Now I know the basics well enough. As for the advanced digital art techniques, it's too hard for me to remember. What I hate about aging is you forget stuff very easily.

This was my first piece of digital art. Is it horrific?

I tried to improve it. Or maybe it wasn't worth improving.

I'm quite pleased with this one even though everything is very flat.

I liked it so much I made a free-motion quilt version, lol. It's quite scary to look at, isn't it? I don't know why I'm so attracted to it though. It's me, by the way.

When I started drawing digital portraits, I didn't want to draw other people in case they get offended by how the drawing turned out. So I chose myself as the subject. I mean, how am I going to get offended by myself?

Here's another portrait I did. I actually LOVE this version even though my lines were shaky and my knowledge of Procreate was very basic.

Here I improved on the drawing technically but I didn't like it as much. Kinda creepy.

I tried to go back to a naive style of drawing.

I made another attempt and here I tried not to get the flat look by adding shades. As you can tell, I haven't quite learnt how to draw hair yet. I also generously added brown spots to my face to make it more realistic.

This is the last portrait I did because I got sick of my own face. Here I wanted a more cartoon look and I think I succeeded! I drew my face super long because people are always reminding me that I have a long face.

"You have a very long face."

"Wah, your face very long."

"You know your face is very long, you know? You know?"

I doubt I'll ever forget I have a very long face thanks to the constant reminder.

What do you think of my digital art? Should I stop scaring people with my drawings or should I continue?

Comics

Last year I told you I have a vague dream to create comics. I was actually interested in a Far side style of comic - a one panel thing. Realistically, I don't think I have it in me to make any comics. I may have the humour bit but the execution of the humour in comics is truly hard. Not long ago, I came up with a few ideas for a one panel comic. Then, believe it or not, I completely forgot everything and since I did not write it down, I couldn't recall a single idea. So until I get another idea, this dream may be over.

Painting

I've not made much progress in painting. Before I could master water colour, I started trying out another medium - gouache. My god - this is such a difficult medium to handle. I think I'm way better at water colour. Gouache is not a forgiving medium. The mistakes are very glaring. I'm very close to giving up. I mean, painting isn't something I'm good at in the first place. On the other hand, painting gives me a lot of peace. It frees my mind of my worries.

These are some of the stuff I've done. I'm learning from books and Skillshare. (if you use my link, I get 1 month free if you get a subscription) To be honest, Skillshare is hit and miss. There are lots of video classes but you need to go through a whole bunch (of mediocre) to find the good teachers. The plus side is the subscription is very cheap. I got mine at 50% discount.

Free-motion Quilting

As you know I fell in love with free-motion quilting last year and yes, I'm still in love. But I didn't invest in much time on it in 2025. Just a few small quilts for my home, nothing worth showing.

Health

Overall, I thought 2025 was pretty good for me health wise. I managed to overcome my hives problems as in I can live without taking hives medication anymore. It's getting better and although it's not completely gone, I don't stress over it anymore.

I've also gotten better with my digestive health from following the Fodmap diet. Now and then I still get into trouble eating something forbidden but honestly, I've improved so much it's unbelievable.

Unfortunately, I completely neglected my physical fitness and didn't exercise at all. I'm likely paying for it now. Lately I noticed old problems like neck pains (myofascial) have come back. It's sending me into a panic and now I've started doing light pilates at home. I'm starting swimming as well. If all goes well, as in, I don't give up, I aim to swim once a week. Today was my first swim and luckily it was a non-rainy day. As hubs was off, I made him go to the pool with me. Having not entered a pool for so long, it was really refreshing swimming in the water. It wasn't cold and my old bones creaked (or cracked) here and there. I stopped swimming a few years ago because my skin got very dry. But now I have to choose between dry skin and debilitating muscle pain. Anyway, I've no one to blame but myself. I kept wanting to exercise and I never do. Yes, this is the kind of person I am. Procrastinate until it's too late.

I finally did my Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). It was on my list and I got it done. Never got around to doing my will though so I'd better stay alive until I do.

Travel

Yup, my family is still on a travel kick. One day we'll run out of money and it'll stop. So I should enjoy it while I can. This year we travelled to Osaka, Melbourne and Bangkok.

You probably know we heart Japan. But Osaka? I LUV. I don't even understand it myself. I mean Osaka zoo doesn't even have gorillas. What kind of zoo is that? But Osaka feels more like Singapore and is less crowded than Tokyo so that could be the reason. I guess I feel more at home in Osaka. Also Osaka is close to Kyoto where my gorilla family lives. We went in January and it was cold.

My daughter booked us a fantastic room with a view. (Hotel Hankyu International)

I've yet to visit a good flea market

Kyoto zoo

Nagoya

In July we went to Melbourne so my daughter could see her penguins. It was also cold and super windy. The day we arrived while looking for our hotel, we found ourselves on this long stretch of road with nothing to block the wind. And believe it or not, we nearly got blown off by the wind. We hurriedly dragged ourselves into an alley. I thought it would be like this throughout our visit but it only happened that one time.

After our spectacular hotel room in Osaka, the one in Dorsett Melbourne was rather disappointing. The service sucked too.

Hubs said with my grey hair, I blended in with the locals in Melbourne. Also, we were browsing at a craft market and it was partly outdoors and cold and suddenly we realised the true meaning of Christmas in July. Lol.

Food in Melbourne is very expensive. Like $17 for fried rice at a food court? Are they mad? How do the people in Melbourne survive? Once I bought kimbap and I was told to pay a weekend charge. I paid. The kimbap wasn't very good. One time we had pizza at a place we walked past and it was sold by the slice. Very expensive as well but omg, such mind blowing delicious pizza. So worth it.

Another thing I observed - Melbourne buildings are full of graffiti. Awful ones not the artistic kind. In Singapore we cane people for vandalism regardless the artistry.

In October we returned to Bangkok to keep my daughter company as she was there for a concert. Nothing much to say about our return to Bangkok except that I bought more elephant pants and on the day we returned to Singapore, hubs and daughter had a big fight at the train station. Needless to say, I swore I'll never travel with them again.

And how was your year? See you some time in 2026.

Ketchup and Bucket List

2024-11-22T16:47:00.000+08:00

Hey folks,

First of all, those of you who are waiting for my bag pattern sale, it's on now at my Etsy and Ko-fi shop. No coupon needed. Until 3 December so don't wait ok?

Alright. Let's catch up. The year is almost over. So fast right? Doesn't time whizz by when you're not counting it? This is my second blog post for 2024, the fewest number since I started blogging in 2007. I kinda missed those days when I blogged about every little dem thing. It was nice but I don't have the energy for it anymore. Plus who's still reading blog posts nowadays huh?

This year is sort of a special year for me. Special as in I officially became a senior citizen. In other words, I turned into an old lady. Yup, yup, yup. Plus, with me still stubbornly refusing to dye my super grey hair, I'm almost at Gandalf's level of old.

By Screenshot, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22187302

I've discovered there are a couple of benefits to turning 60. The supermarket (NTUC) I shop at gives a 2% discount on Tuesdays. I'm a bit pissed people who are older than me gets 3% discount at NTUC. Why is there a need for discrimination among us oldies? The other big supermarkets give a flat discount rate for seniors (3 to 4%). Unfortunately, where I live, the two supermarkets here are owned by NTUC. Pffft.

The biggest advantage of being a senior in Singapore is the transport concession card. I'm not super clear what the exact discount is - something like up to 55%. But I've noticed I don't have to top up my card as frequently. Woo hoo.

Interestingly, volunteers (from Health ministry) paid me a visit. They were pretty persistent. The first time they came when I was out. The second time I was fast asleep. They waited a few hours and came back again when I was finally awake. They wanted to check on my welfare and to see if I needed assistance. Was it weird they took a wefie with me? Was it weirder I did a peace sign? It's kinda nice the government checks on the old folks. So comforting. The volunteers gave me material on managing my health, active aging and planning for future needs.

They also wanted to check if I have dementia, lol. After I started getting older, I've noticed my short term memory isn't as good anymore. Also recently I saw a notice at my family doctor clinic that hearing loss is a risk factor for dementia. Since I've been deaf in one ear for 4 decades, I'm pretty screwed. When one of the volunteers said he wanted to test my memory, I was a bit scared. He gave me three things to remember. Apple, pen and table. Then they sneakily distracted me by talking about this and that and then out of the blue, the guy asked me if I remembered the three things. I could only remember apple and pen. What was the third thing? I searched my memory and there was a total blank. Then I remembered he pointed at something in my home when he said the third thing. Yes, the table! I was so happy I could remember the stupid table. So at the moment, I don't have dementia. What a relief.

Bucket List

A couple of years ago, I started a bucket list. Unlike other people's bucket list, mine is mainly medical. The first few things on my list were to fix my lifetime struggle with gastric pain and migraines. Anyone else has endoscopy, CT Scan and colonoscopy on your bucket list? I had an endoscopy and a CT Scan last year and this year a colonoscopy. Have you done a colonoscopy before? The prep is no joke. Like you literally shat your brains out.

After my endoscopy and CT scan, my gastric doctor suggested I try a FODMAP diet.

FODMAP are a group of sugar which does not get completely digested or absorbed in our intestine. These eventually end up producing gas which causes my stomach to bloat and hurt and I also get severe headaches. The doctor said people like me (with my symptoms) do benefit from a FODMAP diet. My endoscopy result shows I have multiple polyps which are possibly a result of long term use of omeprazole. Although polyps are mostly harmless, some do turn cancerous. Anyway, the best way forward is to reduce the use of omeprazole. With nothing to lose, I felt I had to give FODMAP diet a try.

The FODMAP diet is not easy. There's a lot to read up on . As it turned out, the FODMAP diet helped me a lot. I've discovered that cutting out the following from my diet has reduced my symptoms significantly.

Food I cut out:

Fructose
Mushrooms
Onions and garlic
any ingredient that ends with ol

There is a method to figuring out your FODMAP tolerance. You can do it with a dietician or follow the Monash FODMAP's method. Everyone's FODMAP diet is different. What works for one may not work for another.

With the FODMAP diet, you can tweak it to include the "bad" food by using portion control. Like for me, 1 tablespoon of mango is ok, but nothing more. I decided not to eat mango anymore because who can stop at 1 tablespoon of mango?

There is a Monash FODMAP app (one time payment) which I find very useful. Being on the FODMAP diet requires a lot of discipline and reading of ingredients. I've been careless lately and just like that the symptoms come back. Eating out will always be a challenge. Still, compared to before, my wellbeing has improved significantly. I'm so glad the Universe sent me Dr Sara. Before I started the FODMAP diet, I was so miserable and forever second guessing which food gives me misery.

Sadly, as a result of poor gastric health for a few decades and the presence of polyps, I need to go for repeat endoscopy and colonoscopy in a couple of years. Fortunately so far all my polyps have tested negative for cancer and that is something I'm really thankful for.

I want to give myself a pat on the back for being persistent in searching for a "solution" for my gastric health. After years and years of being told there's nothing they can do and being continuously prescribed medication that hurts me, I'm so glad I kept pushing. I won't mourn the years of suffering I went through. I mean, you can't un-suffer, right? The battle is not over. The FODMAP diet isn't a cure. It helps you identify your food triggers. You also can't remain on a low FODMAP diet for life because you may end up with nutrition issues. It's a continuous process of finding the right portion of food to eat healthily that won't trigger symptoms.

Food will always be my enemy and every meal is a potential minefield. I have to constantly be vigilant and not let myself believe I'm cured when I feel good. (which I'm frequently guilty of) Discipline, discipline and more discipline.

More health related stuff on my Bucket List - I've ticked off Bone Scan, Mammogram, twice yearly health checkup and dental checkup. Today I went for anti-shingles vaccine because the previous one I had - the efficacy had dropped to zero already. This vaccine is very expensive and you need 2 doses. In the future, there's a anti-pneumonia vaccine plus an eye exam.

I think when it comes to my healthcare, I'm very proactive. Although I always tell hubs I don't want to live a long life, I feel that I'm doing everything to ensure the opposite.

Two outstanding things on my list are Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) and a will. There's a centre not too far from my home where I can get a LPA done so it really comes down to doing it. As for the will, I dunno why we keep putting it off.

The final thing on my bucket list is to declutter. I'm having a lot of trouble with this one because I live with hoarders including myself and since I'm the only one doing the decluttering it's a lonely battle. And today I bought a bunch of 2nd hand craft books! I need professional help.

Hives

I don't know why I'm doing this but I feel the need to update internet strangers on my Hives situation. Have I become the typical old person who needs to tell everyone about all her ailments? Maybe. Anyhoos, I went to see my skin doctor 2 weeks ago and I got a different doctor from before. The previous doctor had told me my hives would stop after 2 years. So I've been holding on to that because my 2nd Hives anniversary is coming up next March. Guess what? The new doctor laughed when I told her about the 2 year thing and she told me there's no guarantee. Some people, she said never recover. What? I'm so sad hearing that. What if I'm one of the "some people". At the same time, I think to myself. I'm equipped to handle hives as I have 2 medication - one for daily and one for super bad days. Hives or no hives, life goes on.

Sometimes I dream of a life where I have no pain, no itch and I can eat whatever I want. I hope I can achieve it while I'm still young(ish).

Youtube

In my last blog post, I told you about my youtube channel. I've been slowly adding videos and if you would like to show my channel some love, you can click here:https://www.youtube.com/@projectsbyjane/videos

Making videos is challenging. I've learnt so much since my first video. One big thing I've learnt is this: I record my video on my iPhone in 4k resolution. But why does youtube play it at a shat quality on auto. Of course viewers are free to change the video quality but that requires effort. I discovered that to get youtube to play your video at a decent quality on Auto, then you will need to export the video in 4k. Otherwise, the auto quality of your video on youtube will be shatty. The downside of exporting at 4k resolution is it takes a lot of time. Both during exporting and when youtube processes it. But that's not a big deal because you can easily do other stuff while it's being processed.

My Makes

I haven't sewn much this year. I made a few bags for my youtube channel.

I've used these 2 bags to death. I'm still very into free motion quilting.

This one had a lot of hand embroidery.

And this one was insanely hard - I painted the fabric. The base fabric is calico.

And this pouch was for a video tutorial.

For a while, I was in the mood for free motion houses. This is my childhood home.

More houses.

And more houses.

And applique houses.

I wanted to practise my free motion plants. I got sick of it super fast. And then I had to colour them.

Travel

Since we started travelling last year, we haven't stopped. This year alone I've been to Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok. Previously we rarely travelled because hubs hated to travel. Now? Hubs' a changed man. I think he was the one who kickstarted our Bangkok trip in August.

I loved the window view from my Bangkok hotel. The malls are huge! I don't love the smell of sewage on the streets though. It was a very short trip.

Guess what? We're going back to Japan again next year. I think it was mostly hub's idea to travel again. Did he say he wanted to clear his leave? I forgot how it happened.

There are many aspects of travelling that I dislike - the flying, the walking, the exhaustion and the bickering. Each time, I swear it's the last time I'm going anywhere. But then, I forget and get excited about another trip. I was telling hubs that if we intend to do anymore travelling, it has to be within these 10 years. Both of us are getting physically weaker. His knees are bad. Mine comes and goes. It's downhill from here on.

New Obsession

I have a new obsession. A short while ago, hubs bought an iPad. I requested for the pencil pro instead of the regular pencil. Then I bought Procreate, an app for digital drawing/painting. I've been wanting to try this app for a while and I'm so hooked. I'm not super good at it yet and am still a bit wobbly. But it's a lot of fun. I've watched some youtube videos and a few skillshare classes (you need a subscription) to pick up some tips. It must be working because I'm getting better day by day. I don't have any big ambition with digital art. It's mostly for fun. But a small part of me was wondering if I could actually become a cartoonist which was my ambition when I was a teen. Probably not because I think the cartoonist gene is lacking in me. I also wanted to be a greeting card designer when I was a teen. Greeting cards are probably extinct by now so I'll just work on my skills first. Maybe next time I'll show you my digital art.

Thanks for reading till the end if you made it this far. I'll see you next year.

Video

2024-05-13T20:56:00.002+08:00

Hey everyone,

How's your year going? I kept wanting to write a blog post and suddenly it's May. Hey, it's the Year of the Dragon. It's my Chinese zodiac year, not that it means anything except that I'm getting very old. <fake cry>

Would you believe I've travelled twice this year? What happened to the me who doesn't travel? In January I went to Hong Kong with my daughter. We didn't enjoy ourselves so I won't even talk about it. (One reason I was miserable was I couldn't poop.)

In March, daughter, hubs and I went back to Tokyo. Too soon? Maybe. (I could poop, btw) Hubs lost his wallet in Singapore hours before our early morning flight because someone (me) had to go to the doctor after midnight and he had accompanied me and left it in a taxi. Hubs lost half his mind from anxiety but fortunately managed to get the wallet back after calling the driver. Recently, just this week, he lost his wallet again at a coffee shop and after losing half his mind the whole night, managed to get it back the next day. Hubs is now officially banned from carrying a wallet.

Tokyo was freaking cold and windy. What I learnt about Tokyo wind is it BITES. We shopped our heads off and spent a ton of money. Overall, it was a nice visit but I really HATED the wind.

Apart from jet-setting around, I've been occupied with making youtube videos. Last year I started to learn to make Youtube videos. I tried a few video editors. The first one I used comes with your windows - is easy to use but so unreliable. I think I made one video with the editor. Next I tried VSDC and it's so hard to use. I made one video but after a couple of weeks, I completely forgot everything I had learnt. So I gave up. Finally my daughter introduced CapCut to me. It's not too hard to use so in the end I settled on CapCut. I use the free version.

Anyway, believe it or not, making videos is hard. I barely know what I'm doing half the time and I feel clumsy. One thing about uploaded youtube videos is, you're screwed if you've made errors. You either delete it, redo or live with it. There are some stuff you can fix but it's limited. For better or worse, I've published a few. I watched a Youtube video about making Youtube videos and this guy said, the first 50 videos you make will teach you how to make videos. I guess I have a long way to go! Anyway, here's my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@projectsbyjane I made a few playlists so it's easier to browse. Do check it out.

I've also just made a vlog. I don't really know how many vlogs I'll do but this is my first. I wasn't sure what I should put in my first vlog so I ended up showing off my hobbies! I mean, without my hobbies, I'm kinda nothing. I hope you'll watch it. (To watch video full screen, click play on the video and then on the square to the right of the word Youtube.)

What else? Well, life's been pretty hard lately, itch wise. Recently, I realised that I've had hives for one year already. I was at the skin clinic for a follow-up and my doctor conveniently said it'll take 2 years for my hives to go away. She's very unsympathetic because most of her patients' conditions are way worse than mine. What's a little hive? But I begged her for better medication and she gave me something extra to take when my hives get super bad. The something extra is really powerful. It put me to sleep for 14 hours the first time I took it. Now, not so bad, just 12 hours. And I feel sleepy all day. I only take the extra pill when I feel like throwing myself into the river.

And for those who come to my blog to see what I've made this year, here are 2 textile art I made using my fabric scraps. Yes, it's birds again, combined with free-motion quilting.

And lastly, a quilt I made for my Angela Walter's free-motion quilting challenges.

Lastly, I opened a new shop to sell my digital downloads:https://ko-fi.com/projectsbyjane

This platform supports a Pay What You Want model which I really like. I hope to add more digital downloads to this category soon.

And for supporters:

Tokyo and Kyoto Leg

2023-12-23T15:24:00.002+08:00

We flew from Seoul (Incheon) to Tokyo (Narita), Terminal 1 on a Monday arriving around 1pm. The flight was only 2.5 hours. We cleared immigration really fast. I got a foreigner immigration officer and she sort of mumbled a "welcome". Same as Seoul, my 2 index fingers were scanned and a photo taken.

Tokyo was even hotter than Seoul. At the airport, I saw a group of students stripping off their clothes in the open and changing to shorts and tees. The toilet was just a few steps away...

The first thing my daughter did was to get our esim to work. Unfortunately it took a while to get connected to wifi. Finally after some time she managed to get all our esim activated. Such a relief. Honestly, having internet connection is so critical in a foreign land.

Transport card

We bought our pasmo passport cards at Terminal 1 - Skyliner & Keisei Information center. Each card costs 1500yen (preloaded) and the 500yen handling fee is waived. But it's only valid for 28 days and is non-refundable.

After that we needed to catch the Keisei Access Express to our hotel. My daughter said we had to go to Terminal 2. We were wondering how to do that when we walked out of Terminal 1 and right outside were free buses to Terminal 2. We grabbed our luggage and hopped onto the bus, hanging on to our luggage for dear life. Terminal 2 is just a short distance away.

Taking the Keisei Access Express train was our first introduction to Japan's rail system. Since my daughter is more familiar with Japan, hubs and I just followed her. Still, she was a bit nervous. We did get on the correct train and managed to find our way to our hotel.

Our hotel, Asakusa Tobu Hotel was nice, very similar to our hotel in Seoul. (we have a nice view of the river plus there's free fresh coffee in the morning) The only thing different is one of the beds is a sofa bed. It creaked a lot. Of course hubs took the sofa bed.

Our first day in Tokyo, we made it easy on ourselves and ate at a soba place near our hotel. After that, we did a lot of shopping.

That was a mistake. We should have made hubs stay in bed on the first day. He was feeling exhausted. The second day in Tokyo he said he wanted to stay in the hotel to recover. So my daughter and I went out without him.

My first day in Tokyo was the last day I had to take my sinus medication. I had pretty much recovered and my fatigue from Seoul's visit had almost disappeared. Maybe all the stars aligned which explains why I fell so in love with Japan. Head over heels, heels over head, like a first crush. Tokyo is such a cool city to live in. I want to live there for a few months, or even a few weeks. Despite not understanding any Japanese, I think it won't be hard.

My daughter had gone to Japan last year and she told me how much she liked Japan. She also said I would like Tokyo. She's right!

Girls' Day Out

1st stop - Ueno Zoo. I have a tiny bit of gorilla obsession. I watch gorilla families on youtube daily and it just so happened my favourite gorilla family resides in Kyoto which we will visit after Tokyo. The gorilla family in Ueno Zoo is sort of related to my Kyoto gorilla family. I've drawn up the family tree below not that it's that important you understand who's who. My favourite gorilla is Kyoto Genki and of course her fam. I thought it would be fun to visit Genki's mother-in-law at Ueno Zoo.

Unfortunately, it was very hot and the gorillas were mostly hiding in the shade. I only saw Toto the grandam and Sumomo the baby. I swear Sumomo looked right at me from far, far away.

After the zoo visit, we randomly walked around looking for food and chanced upon a restaurant (Obon de lunch) with 4/5 people in the queue. The menu looked enticing to me and we decided to put our name down and joined the queue.

We didn't wait long to be ushered in and the food turned out to be amazing. If I were to go back to Tokyo, I'm going back to the restaurant.

Next stop - Nippori Fabric Town. It's literally one street full of fabric/craft shops. It was a bit overwhelming so I only shopped at a few Tomato shops. Nothing is cheap here. But the huge range of craft and sewing stuff available is so fantastic. I am so jealous. I was so scared I would overbuy that I really held back and only bought stuff that I hadn't seen in Singapore. I won't show you every item I bought, just a few...

Check out this pattern cutting guide. You use it with a cutting knife which is not included. The cutting guide is a bit expensive for such a little tool but I believe it'll come in useful. For garment patterns, I really dislike adding the seam allowance by hand. There's a video here that shows how to use it if you're curious.

I use needle threader often but I tend to lose them because they're like invisible. This tool has 2 needle threader at both ends and it's big enough and red in colour so no problem finding it.

And this bunch of fabric was 550yen. Ridiculous, right? So I bought it even though I have so much fabric at home.

After leaving fabric heaven, we spent the rest of the day at Ikebukuro for my daughter to buy all her cute, cute stuff.

We ended the day with a late dinner of sandwiches and pancakes. Hubs started to worry about us and we decided to call it a day. It was a really fantastic day for me. I enjoyed myself so much.

Day 3 in Tokyo, my daughter did not feel well and wanted to stay in the hotel. Thankfully, hubs had recovered so we left daughter at the hotel and we set out for Okadaya at Shinjuku. As my daughter was our main navigator, I had no choice but to learn how to take the train. I was quite scared but google map is pretty reliable. Somehow we managed to get to the right train station but getting to the building was another hurdle. I remember hubs asking a front desk staff for help and she said outside right. Well, it wasn't. Eventually we found Okadaya - seven floors of buttons, threads, lace, beads and rhinestone, alongside wigs, cosmetics and stage make-up. Hubs left me there while he went to do his men stuff. Okadaya has some similar stuff found at Nippori Fabric Town. What sets it apart is the massive amount of yarn. OMG. If I didn't already have too many hobbies, I would buy up some of the yarn.

My Okadaya purchase - mostly hand sewing thread and some brooch buttons. I was terrified I would lose control since I was alone that in the end I did not buy much stuff.

After Okadaya hubs and I wandered around Shinjuku. By late afternoon, my daughter said she had recovered and we planned to meet up to go to Pokemon's Cafe which she had prebooked.

It's a scam. I'm kidding. Pokemon Cafe food is so-so. It's meant for the experience. There is a huge room next to the cafe where you can buy all the Pokemon merch which daughter did. In the cafe, you're encouraged to go around and take pictures of the Pokemon decor. The cafe was not full-house. Outside the restaurant, there's a queue for customers without reservation. I think it's not hard to get into the cafe if you go during off-peak hours.

Later as we were about to leave, we were told there was a show coming up so we stayed.

The show is a song and dance routine with a crew and Pikachu - over and over and over again. Our seats were no good so... But my daughter enjoyed herself a lot. I think the Pokemon Cafe is a one-time experience thing. One more time would be too much.

Day 4 in Tokyo - our big plan was Disneysea. We did not prepare ourselves well for Disneysea. It was blazing hot. I wore a black tee-shirt and did not bring anything to fan myself. Our first ride was Toy Story Mania and the queue was insane. In total, we queued for over 2 hours in the hot sun. I had stupidly emptied my bag of all the paper stuff so I only had my boarding pass to serve as a fan. My god, I don't know how I managed to stand under the hot sun for so long. Finally it was our turn and the ride was so fun! Totally worth the wait. I wanted to have another go but the queue was too long. Next we decided to try Aquatopia. As I have height phobia, there aren't many rides suitable for me. The queue for Aquatopia was quite short so we gave it a shot.

The ride turned out to be a big mistake for me because the stupid seat kept spinning 360 deg. Over and over and over. I had observed the other riders and theirs were more like 180 deg. I felt very sick afterwards and I had stupidly not taken my motion sickness pill before the ride. I did take the pill after the ride hoping it would help. Afterwards I had another problem. I felt that my body couldn't cool down. I was quite concerned I was getting heat stroke so in the end it was decided I would go sit down at a cool place while hubs and my daughter go do their rides. It took a while but I eventually felt better and I decided to walk around. Unfortunately I got lost and then my phone had no reception so I became very scared. I just kept walking towards familiar places and eventually I had 4G again and I quickly called hubs. After more walking, I was reunited with my family again but my daughter was not done. We went to a mermaid place which was nice and cool and I sat down on the cold seats while hubs and my daughter did more shopping. And I fell into a deep, deep sleep..... (it was the Novomin effect).

I felt a bit sorry to my daughter for feeling tired, a bit unwell and sleepy at Disneysea. While I was asleep, she went on a shopping spree and when I woke up, we decided to skip the fireworks and go back to the hotel. Yay.

Believe it or not, we somehow ended up doing more shopping near our hotel. I think we clocked more than 20,000 steps that day.

Day 5 was the day we were travelling to Kyoto. It was also my daughter's birthday. We were all nervous. We did not prebook the train tickets. So many things could happen. At Tokyo station, my daughter wanted a last go at all the cute, cute things. So me and hubs ate at a Thai restaurant while she did her thing. Originally I wanted to buy bento to eat on the train but hubs wanted to eat first. So he robbed me of the eating bento on a bullet train experience...

We bought tickets for Nozomi Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. It's important to pay for the basic fare as well! The total fare came up to over $100 bucks per person. Our seats were unreserved and we were surprisingly unconcerned about the availability of seats. Ignorance is bliss.

We were busy taking photos and forgot to find out where the unreserved seats were. They were right at the front end - 1st 3 cars and of course we were at the opposite end. So we had to run with our luggage.

The stupid thing about the Nozomi train is, for unreserved seats, you have to put your luggage on the overhead rack. It doesn't look safe and hubs didn't want to hurt himself swinging our suitcases over his head. So in the end we kept them in front of our legs. It's a bit squeezy for hubs but doable. I saw a train conductor walk up and down the cars but he didn't ask for our tickets. My daughter got to enjoy her "eat bento on the bullet train experience" as well as eat her birthday cake. The journey was about 2 hours. While on the train, I couldn't feel that the train was travelling super fast although occasionally my ears felt blocked. Watching the train on the train platform though, you can see how fast the train is. Like blink and it's gone.

Our hotel - Hotel Vischio Kyoto is right across Kyoto station. I love the location. Kyoto station is also connected to a few shopping malls. If I were to live in Kyoto, I would definitely stay near Kyoto station. Our Kyoto hotel room felt a little bit smaller. There's also nothing to watch on the TV. Otherwise, all the usual standard stuff are available. For the free stuff, it's DIY - we can pick up anything we need at the lobby. There's a spacious lounge where you can make free drinks, sit, drink, read and there's also a separate place where you can do your work.

The best part of Kyoto trip was the visit to the zoo to see my gorilla family. I can't describe to you how it felt. It was somewhat emotional and surreal. Kyoto Zoo is very visitor friendly. You get to see close up of the animals which may not necessarily be good for the animals. But good for me. Oh, and I bought so much gorilla merch.

Momotaro, the silverback took a nap in front of me. What a magnificent silverback. His whole face was peppered with beads of perspiration. Gentaro and Kintaro both came to play with the visitors. Kintaro, the youngest had a ball showing off to us. Genki, though stayed far away from the visitors. If she came close to the glass window, she would face away. I was a bit disappointed but she is a gorilla so I don't think she cares for us. Hubs and my daughter were a bit bored so I didn't stay too long. I was contemplating hanging around for their mealtime but I didn't want to be cruel to my family.

After the zoo, we walked to a handicraft market which was outdoors and you can imagine how hot it was. Nearby, there was another handicraft market, also outdoors and finally there was one indoors and air-conditioned. I had such a good time looking at all the handmade crafts for sale. I only bought a couple of things because the stuff were not cheap. I mean, handmade...

The following day we went to another handicraft market at a shrine. But it turned out to be a pre-loved goods market. I'm not a fan.

Kyoto was slightly less hot compared to Tokyo but more humid. It rained once when we were asleep. Kyoto was also less crowded and there's an old world vibe especially when you travel away from the city. The scenery is so pretty.

Did hubs and daughter fight in Japan? Yup, pretty much every day there was some disagreement. In Kyoto, there was one day when they had a huge fight. Thankfully they always seem to make up within a few hours. But I got so tired of them honestly. I was so ready to go back to Singapore just to stop having to listen to their fights.

My appetite in Japan was very good especially in Kyoto. I really enjoyed the matcha ice cream and desserts. Then there was a restaurant that sells hamburg steak, I think it's called Hiro. The hamburg steak was amazing. I usually don't like hamburg steak unless I cook it myself. I still think about the taste, believe it or not. I ordered the hamburg steak with cajun rice which was also delicious. Maybe one day I'll go back to Kyoto just to eat the hamburg steak! And visit my gorilla family of course.

On Day 8 in Japan, we had to travel to Osaka to take a plane back home. My daughter was really nervous about the train so the night before we went to recce the station. We needed to take the Haruka Limited Express and we were wondering if we could buy advance tickets. In the end we decided to buy tickets on the day because there were no options to choose dates at the machine. Then we looked for the right gate and luckily we spotted a sign that stated the gate would open much later than we wanted. So we walked in circles and finally found the right gate which was exactly where we were in the beginning.

On our last day we checked out early and we almost had a heart attack because there was no one at the reception counter. Fortunately someone came out when she heard our voices and she helped us use the check out machine. Later, we bought our train tickets without any problem and you have to pay for both the base ticket and limited express ticket which came up to slightly under 100 bucks for 3 of us.

Our train was a Hello Kitty train! Again we did not pay attention to signs and our unreserved seats were in carriage 5 & 6 which were far away from where we were standing. Fortunately we were fast and were able to snag the limited luggage storage space for our luggage. There was a conductor on the train and he walked up and down the train frequently checking on tickets. And he had a good memory so he never asked us for our tickets once he had checked. There were a few commuters who did not buy the correct tickets for the train and they had to pay up. I'm guessing they forgot to pay for the base fare.

The train ride to Kansai Airport is just a little over one hour. Once we reached the airport, we went to a family mart to use up the money in our pasmo cards. There was a queue to check in baggage and security but not super bad. We had time to kill but there wasn't much to do at Kansai Airport as there was quite a bit of space boarded up for renovation. Our flight SQ619 was slightly delayed because there was a typhoon over Philippines airspace and our pilot wanted to change the route to fly over Taiwan instead. I like the airplane as the seats have more legroom and I got hubs to sit at the aisle. No complaints from him this time. It was an uneventful flight home. Everything went well, except my ears got blocked and remained blocked for a few days. I felt really stressed over it as my hearing was muffled and I honestly thought it was permanent. Then one day I woke up and all was well again.

Having not travelled for so many years, I'm really glad we went on the trip. Deep down, hubs and I are mountain tortoises. It was stressful but I survived. My stomach survived. I was worried my gastrics would act up but it didn't. I ate rice. I've not eaten rice for a few years and to my surprise, I discovered my stomach tolerates Japanese rice really well. So I'm back to eating rice, mostly Japanese rice. My hives also did not appear throughout the 12 days away. Very weird. Once I was back in Singapore, my hives came back. Comes and goes, comes and goes. The specialist I saw said there's no cure, just live with it and manage it with medication. Easy for her to say!

What do I love most about Japan? The 100 yen stores! I couldn't get enough of Seria. I bought so much stuff I had to put some in hub's luggage. I discovered the Daiso in Singapore is pretty awesome in terms of range of goods compared to the ones in Japan. Unfortunately the Daiso in Singapore is no longer a 2 dollar store. My family loved going to Don Quijote (Don Don Donki in Singapore) and Uniqlo over and over again much like what we do in Singapore. The Don Quijote was amazing - so much stuff it's mind boggling. I deeply regretted not going to Tokyu Hands and Nitori just to see the difference.

Another place we kept wanting to go to but somehow never went was Denny's. Singapore no longer has Denny's. Tokyo is a shopping paradise. I've heard people say Singapore is a shopping paradise. But Tokyo is a whole other level. The one thing I couldn't find in Tokyo was oat milk. I searched and searched but nothing. In Kyoto, oat milk is widely available.

Do I miss the toilets in Japan? Absolutely. The bidet was unforgettable. The cleanliness - first class. Why do people say Singapore is a clean country? Honestly, Singapore streets are clean because we have a massive number of cleaners picking up litter. It's not that the people here do not litter. And our public toilets - ew. I think Japan is clean because the people are clean and socially responsible. I wish Singapore is like that too.

Will I return to Japan? For sure. Hubs says living there isn't possible so I guess it'll just be a short trip. Our 12 day trip was a bit long for me. Two countries, three flights and three hotels. It was exhausting. But so glad we went.

We Went to Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto

2023-10-20T19:05:00.003+08:00

Last month, my daughter took hubs and I for a holiday to Korea and Japan. She wanted to celebrate her birthday while on a holiday. She had gone to Japan last year with her friends and loved it so much she wanted a return visit. She added Korea to make it a long holiday. A total of 12 days with the last day spent travelling back to Singapore. 12 days! No we didn't kill one another but... Anyway, my daughter did everything - she booked the flights, hotels, transport, esim, came up with the itinerary and while we were in Korea and Japan, she was our chief navigator. All hubs and I did was tag along.

Of course I fell very sick weeks before the departure date. My stupid sinus got really bad due to the burning of incense paper by my neighbours during the Hungry Ghost Festival (16 Aug to 14 Sep). My doctor was too easy going and did not treat it aggressively. Three days before departure it got worse and my hearing became muffled. I almost lost my mind. As I have only one good ear (left one), I get very paranoid when my precious hearing is affected. I ran back to the doctor and this time I was prescribed antibiotics which thankfully did the trick and by the next day, I could hear properly again. I was so close to cancelling on the holiday. Unfortunately this meant I had to take antibiotics on the first 5 days of my holiday. Antibiotics tend to affect my stomach badly. Despite taking probiotics, on our flight to Seoul, I had diarrhoea... Just a week or two ago, I had read a story about a passenger on a plane who had so much diarrhoea it flooded the aisle. I became very concerned that my stomach would give up on me and I would become international news thus ruining my daughter's birthday holiday. That was all I could think of throughout the flight. Thankfully my stomach stayed strong.

Changi Airport

The last time hubs and I flew on a plane was 2017 - 6 years ago. I was surprised by a couple of "new" things.

Firstly, there are baggage check in kiosks. It's all DIY but we had help from a guide. Secondly, the security check is done at the gate and not upon entry to the departure area. I don't know if this is the same for all the terminals but that was the case at T3. I like this change because there's no crazy queue when you first enter the departure area.

Singapore to Seoul

We flew via SQ600, economy class of course. The seats had very little leg room especially for hubs. We sat together which was nice. I had the aisle seat and wanted to switch with hubs so he could have more room but he stubbornly refused. Later he told me the flight to Seoul was the worst part of our holiday. 😭

For our airplane meal, there was chicken or fish. I chose fish. It doesn't look good but it was delicious!

Incheon Airport

We left Singapore at 8am and landed at Incheon Airport around 3:30pm. There wasn't much crowd at immigration and we got through quite fast. I had the privilege of getting an immigration officer who showed complete lack of interest in her job. She sipped her drink from a straw while using some facial expressions to indicate to me what she wanted me to do - have my 2 index fingers scanned plus my photo taken. Then she stuck a sticker on my passport and I was dismissed with her eyes looking away from me extremely bored. No Welcome to Seoul?

The minute we walked out of the airport, I knew we had made a mistake. The weather was super hot. Like volcano fire hot. Worse than Singapore. Ok, maybe equal to Singapore heat. Years ago when the kids were little, we had gone to Korea via a tour package and it was freezing cold. I remembered the temperature was minus something. We were totally unprepared then because the weather had suddenly changed - freak weather. We still have weather PTSD from that trip. This time we had checked the weather carefully and we packed mostly long sleeved tees expecting temperature in the mid 20's. That's cool for us. I only brought 3 short sleeved T shirts!

The first 2 things we did:

activating our prebooked esim
finding our Airport limousine bus to our hotel which was also prebooked

The esim activation took a while but eventually it worked. Don't ask me anything because daughter did everything. We found our bus stop (6701) but we needed to get paper tickets using our QR code. In Korea, we discovered most front desk staff don't speak any English. After some running around, we got our tickets from a counter inside Arrival Hall, just beside exit door 4.

Our limousine bus would take us close to our hotel but we needed to walk a bit. Our driver constantly worried about us. Our stop was City Hall (Seosomun), the last stop. He kept coming to check our tickets. I think he was worried we would end up back at Incheon Airport! At various stops, the bus would wait for passengers. That made our journey longer than the expected 1 hour.

Seoul Hotel

Our hotel was up a slope. What am I saying? ALL of Seoul is up some kind of slope, some gentle, some killer. The hotel room - a 3 bedder was nice. We had a window view, private toilets, wardrobe, small fridge - the usual hotel stuff. And yes, the toilet comes with a bidet. The TV was fantastic - so many channels to watch. Unfortunately, none of the Korean channels offered English subtitles. The pillows were horrible though.

Our itinerary in Seoul was simple. Since we had visited Korea before and done a lot of touristy stuff (although my daughter said she remembered none of it), this round, our aim, or rather, my daughter's aim was to go to every shop that sells cute, cute stuff and buy them all. I did have a small bucket list and it was to visit handmade markets and shops, visit the hanoks and eat gimbab and Korean fried chicken. I had considered watching a Korean variety show live but the logistics was too complex for me. Hub's bucket list was to get a haircut.

Transportation

To get around, we travelled using the subway and we used T-money card. We bought our cards from a convenience stall near our hotel. Later we discovered there were cheaper ones in another convenience stall. The cost of the card varies with the design.

Navigation

I just followed my daughter. Haha. She used Kakao map while hubs used Naver map. The two of them frequently disagreed and fought especially when we were lost. Since I suck at navigation, I just kept my mouth shut. In Singapore hubs and daughter get along very well, like buddies. But in Korea and Japan, they were like cats and dogs. There were times when I really wanted to find a stick and beat the crap out of both of them!

Payment

Seoul is very friendly when it comes to payment by card. We used very little cash and ended up with a lot of leftover won.

Duty free

It was so easy to handle the duty free payment - just meet the minimum sum, show your passport and the cashier takes care of everything.

Tap water

What's with the tap water? My hair was super frizzy after washing - it felt like dried grass when dry. My daughter said her hair felt different as well. I regretted not cutting my hair before the trip. What a hassle washing and drying my hair every night.

Convenience stores and supermarkets

I love to visit supermarkets but the big ones were harder to find in Seoul. The ones we manage to find were at the huge malls. Convenience stores on the other hand are everywhere. In Singapore, I never shop at convenience stores because we have supermarkets everywhere. I'm not kidding.

Steps

Seoul is very unfriendly to the elderly. Apart from the slopes everywhere, the subway does not have escalators. Just steps, steps and more steps. And always, just when you think you've reached the top, there's more steps or another damn slope. If there are elevators, you might have to make a detour because they don't necessarily take you to where you want to go.

Smell of Seoul

I'm not sure if it's because I had sinus issues but I couldn't stand the smell of the streets. There were 3 kinds of smell mixed together - firstly, a bad sewer smell, secondly vaping and thirdly a sweet incense. In Gangnam though, the smell was absent. In many other areas, the smell was very persistent.

Vaping and smoking

I noticed many people vaping and smoking on the streets. In Singapore, vaping is forbidden so I'm not used to the smell of vaping, not that anyone should. As for smoking, in Singapore, it's only allowed at specific places although in housing estates, people do tend to walk and smoke. The smoke in Seoul made me feel ill.

Hanok Tour

I booked a Bukchon Hanok Village Walking tour from visitseoul.net. On the website, there's no warning that this tour will break your feet and that you will continue to suffer for the next three days. We walked and walked, always uphill, until our feet wanted to fall off. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go back to Singapore. Of course I could have dropped out of the tour but I was too embarrassed to do so.

Our guide met us at the entrance of Unhyeongung Palace. He is a retired Korean man who is supremely fit. I suspect he used to be a soldier, a marathon runner, navy seal or a mountain hiker because he walked effortlessly.

Our group consisted of us, a German couple (who didn't know what Germany's national flower is when quizzed by the guide) and an elderly Malaysian father and daughter.

Overall I sort of enjoyed the walking tour because it's nice to see the sights from a local's perspective. But I found it hard to understand the guide's English and I had to listen very carefully to figure out what he was saying.

Slopes after slopes

After the Hanok tour, we had our first mental breakdown. We couldn't make up our mind where to eat. We were starving and really, really tired. But we kept walking and walking and still couldn't find anything we liked. Eventually we ate at an organic restaurant which hubs had originally suggested. (yup, he gave us a lecture) My daughter and I rejected it at first because we thought we could find something better and after walking another 10,000 steps, we decided the organic restaurant was our best option. To our dismay, it was full house. So we walked around some more and when we circled back to the restaurant, there were seats!

The restaurant only served bibimbap and I got the vegan one. This meal turned out to be the best meal for me in Seoul. Maybe I was starving but it changed my view of bibimbap which I kind of never liked before. The bibimbap I had before in Singapore came with a sauce in the rice and I really hated the sauce. This one had a tiny amount of sauce and it's up to you to add it.

We spent a total of 4 days in Seoul. Because of the Hanok tour on day 2, I really suffered on the last 3 days in Seoul. My shin, calf, ankles, feet hurt like crap but you're on holiday so you have to keep walking. I wished I had worked on my fitness before the trip.

Food

Maybe because I was on antibiotics and sinus medication, my appetite wasn't very good in Seoul. I lost some weight during the 4 days in Seoul.

For breakfast, we usually just have something light in our room. Green tea and coffee are provided. I was very happy that I could find oatmilk at the convenience stores. Oatmilk is very important to me and I need to drink at least a cup a day.

Our first Korean meal - We ate at a traditional looking restaurant near our hotel. My favourite Korean food is seafood pancake so that was my order. This one didn't taste as good as the ones in Singapore Korean restaurants. I think hubs really loved the pork pancake. The kimchi was sooooo sour.

I ate buckwheat noodles twice. It's very chewy.

In Korean reality TV, I've often heard celebrities talking about the clean taste when eating buckwheat noodles. After eating a bowl of buckwheat noodles with cucumbers, I totally get what they mean by "clean taste". It felt refreshing.

I ate tuna gimbab (no photos) from SSADA Gimbab - it was fantastic and huge. I love gimbab but in Singapore it's hard to find. I've tried making myself but I'm no good at it.

We happened to walk past a Seoul Express 88 restaurant and decided to try the Korean Chinese food. It was tasty at first but after a while all I could taste was msg.

We ate burger once. I didn't enjoy it because it's full of mayo.

We ate fried chicken in Gangnam. We were the first customer. The chicken tastes the same as the Korean fried chicken in Singapore.

My daughter ate the most food. She sure knows how to enjoy herself. One night, she wanted to try this spicy noodles at a restaurant. I didn't eat because it was night time. Anyway there were a few non-Asian foreigners in the restaurant. A local customer observed the foreigners and later went around correcting the way they held their chopsticks. He was very friendly and so were the foreigners. Honestly, my family holds chopsticks the wrong way as well. We're easy going. I was wondering if the Korean man would come and correct us? Well, he didn't. I guess he knew better than to tell a Chinese family how to hold the chopsticks!

There was a drink I had which I found extremely refreshing, maybe because I was hot but I couldn't find it again. It's called Jeju Hanrabong crush. (the orange drink) I could drink it everyday.

Places

Hongdae Free Market (it's not free, just a bit sad because there were only a few stalls)

It's the guy behind in blue tee

Hongdae has a really cool vibe. There is this long pedestrian stretch where some people were recording tik tok videos. This particular guy was dancing to BTS Idol and he was very passionate, had all the right moves but unfortunately, he's not graceful. So he came across as clumsy but very, very entertaining.

Insadong - a handmade market on the ground floor. Later when we explored the building, I realised the stalls at the ground floor were tenants.

Hangang Moonlight Market - food, handmade crafts and singing. The food kiosks were very crowded. The queues were insane. The handmade - not so much.

The COEX Aquarium was nice because we caught 2 shows by chance - seal feeding and a mermaid show. My daughter loves aquariums that's why we went.

Starfield Library - me and daughter went up and down the escalator multiple times so hubs could take a photo of us but the timing was never right.

Gangnam style statue - we were too embarrassed to dance, not that we could.

My daughter has an insane appetite for cute stuff and I lost track of all the places she dragged us to.

Skincare

I didn't buy much in Seoul except for skincare products. We went to a few Olive Young and I saw some products we use and the price was so ridiculously low I felt stupid not to buy. I would have bought a lot more if we weren't going to Japan next.

Overall, my daughter and I achieved what we wanted in Seoul. Hubs didn't get his haircut because he wanted a barber and we couldn't find one. I wished the weather had been cooler. What I liked about being in Seoul was I could recognize many celebrities on posters and ads.

I was expecting to see more BTS but it was mostly Son Sukku, IU, Gongyoo and some others I didn't recognise. I thought I would hear Oppa on the streets but to my surprise I did not hear a single Oppa. Lots of Unnie, though. Unnie! Unnie!

Leaving Seoul

Early morning on Day 5, we took the same Airport Limousine bus to Incheon Airport to catch our flight to Tokyo. My daughter had prepaid and the driver scanned our QR code for payment. No need for paper tickets. We flew via Jeju Air. My daughter couldn't check in online and when we checked in at the counter, we had some problems. I have no idea what the issue was because the staff kept speaking to us in Korean. She made a few phone calls which ended with no solution. Then she went to consult another staff who made a few phone calls and after a long time, she came back to us and spoke more Korean. Finally she asked to see our confirmed flight back to Singapore and once we showed it to her, she checked us in. Honestly I was a bit worried we would be stuck at Incheon Airport. It would have been a nightmare.

For Jeju Air (flight 7C1106), my daughter upgraded us to Business Elite. I totally recommend it. Look at the amount of legroom! No complaints from hubs this time. We got water, juice, pastry and a snack. The flight is short, about 2.5 hours. The night before, hubs started feeling sick. He was very sleepy and tired on the flight. I did get worried but he recovered quickly in Tokyo so he didn't miss out much.

I'll write about the Japan leg in my next post. I have finger fatigue now. See ya.

All I Want

2023-07-30T17:27:00.001+08:00

Hello,

I'm back. Anyone miss me?

So what have I been up to the past few months? Well, mainly I was trying to stay alive. More on that later. In between trying to keep myself sane, I did a tiny bit of textile art for my ongoing "Use every dem fabric scrap" project. The stitching is done free motion style. Can you tell the second piece is done on a painted calico? I have thousands and thousands of scrap calico from garment making and I just can't bear to throw them away. So I spent more money on fabric paint to disguise the plain calico colour. I only applied one coating of paint. Not bad right?

This is the fabric paint I used. I chose this brand because it was the only fabric paint I could find at Art Friend. I discovered that you can't leave the leftover paint on a palette overnight and expect to use it again the next day. The paint dries up to a plastic thing, like a skin and it becomes unpaintable.

Here's another one I did. Your typical cups applique. With this piece, I wanted to use more scrap fabric.

Birds on a wire. And maybe something about cliques and being outsiders... Anyway, I was trying to be clever here. I did one on paper - water colour and micron pen and one on painted calico. Did not use up much scrap fabric!

Okay, I think here's a good time tell you what I've been through the past few months. I wanted to show you something pretty first before I tell you the ugly stuff. To be honest, I'm a bit embarrassed that I have ailments after ailments to write about on my posts.

Here goes. Remember there was a time when all I suffered from was just gastric issues? Bloating, pain, headaches, reflux, more pain. Ah, those were the good old days. In early April, I finally got scheduled for a oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy(OGD) aka endoscopy. I was hoping the test could shed light on why I have chronic gastrics. I also had a CT Scan scheduled but that was in early May. The test went well. Sort of. The doctor did forget to wait until I was completely asleep before she started inserting the tube into my throat. And mind you, I had gotten her to promise me she would not do it while I was awake. She did it anyway. It was impossible for me to indicate to the staff that I was still awake. My body and arms were restrained and I had stuff in my throat. I tried telepathy but it didn't work. Desperate, I used my throat to make some gurgling stressed noises. Thankfully someone noticed and started patting me on my shoulder but the doctor continued inserting the tube. Finally the anesthesia kicked in...

A few days later my problems started. Probably not related to the endoscopy. All I know was one day I was fine, the next I woke up with hives on my upper leg and sides of my body. I'm calling these Hives No. 1. At that time, Singapore was going through a heatwave so I thought that had something to do with my hives. I wasn't too concerned thinking the hives would run its course with anti-histamine to relieve the itch. But the itch got worse and worse and it was no ordinary itch. The itch ran very deep and nothing could relieve it. My body also felt super hot without any fever. I constantly felt I could burst into flame any moment.

I went to see a GP who declared I had acute hives. I was prescribed steroid for one week and anti-histamine for day and night. After taking the day anti-histamine prescribed by the GP, I found myself with more hives - these were whole body hives and the itch would run around from head to toe. I'm calling these All Over Hives. Apart from the additional hives, I had other symptoms so I suspected my body did not like the day anti-histamine which was a new to me brand. I switched to another brand of day anti-histamine which I had taken before and All Over Hives disappeared together with the other symptoms. Problem solved? Not really. Hives No. 1 continued to be my main concern but now and then All Over Hives would still get triggered and last for 3 days.

Our air conditioning was not working well so we bought a new one except it would only get installed in early June. I think everyone else in Singapore was getting new air conditioning. It was that hot.

Meanwhile Hives No. 1 was making me nuts. I only had welts on my upper legs and sides of my body but boy, I wanted to scream every minute. The itch was crazy. At night it was worse. The day and night anti-histamine only reduced the itch a little bit. Thank goodness I could sleep a little as the night drug caused drowsiness. I had acupuncture twice and honestly I don't know if it worked. I surfed the net searching for solutions and read somewhere acute hives could last for 6 weeks! Believe it or not. Exactly after 6 weeks, Hives No. 1 completely disappeared. I was so relieved. I continued with the anti-histamine as the doctor had told me to continue even when the hives were gone.

With Hives No. 1 gone, I'd thought I could live like a human being again. But All Over Hives kept showing up. Each itch cycle was 3 days. I would get a break from the itch for a few days before another itch cycle started. Unlike Hives No. 1, the itch was all over my freaking body. The itch ran up and down, up and down causing me to lose my mind. All Over Hives was waaay worse because I could not sleep well. On the itchy nights I had at most 2 hours of sleep. I found myself becoming mentally unstable. Fortunately I found 2 ways to cope. If I kept very still, the itch was less intense. Also, if I am eating, I couldn't feel the itch. So I snacked a lot. Don't ask me how much weight I put on! The nights were the worse because I was so sleepy but I couldn't lie down on the bed. Lying down made the itch really bad. I would pass the night sitting very still in front of my computer watching mindless youtube videos. By June, our new air conditioner was installed but the cold air did not make sleeping easier. It did make life a lot saner. I felt less irritable.

Finally, I was so desperate I went back for 2 more rounds of acupuncture. On my last visit, the doctor hurt my belly hitting a vein. I ended up with a painful hematoma. The bruise lasted 1 week. And the acupuncture didn't fix my itch so I ended my relationship with the quacks. Money down the drain.

I went back to the GP who suggested that I get 2 injections. He said many patients benefited from the injections and of course I was so in. At first I felt like finally I had found my solution. My itch felt reduced. Several hours after the jabs, my skin turned super red and hot. My All Over Hives? Increased in intensity by 1000 times. I also lost the ability to taste anything except sweet. OMG. I wanted to kill my GP. I wanted to kill myself. This time, the itch cycle lasted 5 days. For 5 days, I had 1 or 2 hours of sleep per night. And I lost my appetite. Previously, despite the super itch from Hives No. 1, I had a fantastic appetite and eating kept me going. Now that I've lost my sense of taste, eating was a torture. I only ate sweet stuff because that was the only thing I could taste. Don't ask me how much weight I gained.

I went back to the GP and he was so disappointed to see me. He had told me I would feel great for 2 weeks. Much to my disappointment, the GP said he could do nothing more for me. He referred me to a skin specialist but it would be months before I get to see the specialist's face. What was I supposed to do in the meantime? His reply: I don't know how to help you. And I HAD to pay him his usual fee for zero help.

This GP has been my doctor for many years. I've trusted him with my health care, my life even. He made my condition worse. And then no apology, just I can't help you? He gave up? What kind of doctor does that?

After realizing I was truly on my own, I felt so hopeless. I kept going through my food diary to see if I had eaten anything that might have triggered the hives. By then I had pretty much eliminated dairy, gluten and nuts from my diet so I was sure it wasn't caused by food. Suddenly I had an idea. Since I reacted badly to the injections, maybe that's the key? I looked at the medication the GP had given me via injections and one was steroid and the other was the same night anti-histamine that I had been taking on and off since my itch started. What if the medication was causing All Over Hives? Although the idea that a medication that is supposed to stop the itch could cause itch is unthinkable. I decided to stop taking any anti-histamines, both day and night. And it was hard because my itch level was X1000. I wanted to tough it out to see if it made any difference. Much to my relief, All Over Hives completely disappeared. Within a week, my skin colour lost much of its redness. My sense of taste also slowly returned but until today, my sense of saltiness is still off. I can taste it but it's reduced.

So, happy ending? Well, yes and no. Hives No. 1 came back. What? Now and then. No kidding. But the good news is it's not as bad as before. As long as I don't take any anti-histamine, the itch cycle is short and not as itchy. It's a mere fraction of what it was like before. In fact it's bearable. And I can sleep. Yay. And I can lead a normal life. I also think I've figured out what caused Hives No. 1. I believe it's triggered by pollen. I have tested positive for pollen allergy before but I've never had hives like these past few months.

I try not to go outdoors often and when I do, I wear long pants. I wash my nasal passages when I reach home. When Hives No. 1 come back for a visit, I try not to freak out because I know now that it'll eventually go away. I haven't totally avoided going out to exercise. I've gone out to run 4 times and only one time I had a bad itch and had to run home. It seems cloudy days are not good for me to go outdoors. The other 3 times when I ran outdoors successfully without itch, it was sunny. My new exercise outfit is long sleeves and long pants. I also stopped wearing short skirts. One time I was outdoors for a very short period of time in short skirt and it was windy. Just like that, Hives No. 1 was triggered on my legs. The hives went away within a day so I didn't cry over it. But skirts are a no-no for now.

So that's the long story of what happened to me. Honestly I could have given you the shortened version but you know me.

I hope that one day my body will be able to deal better with pollen. Meanwhile, I drink ginger tea a few times a week because I read somewhere it helps. I mean what have I got to lose?

Also, more happy news. Both my endoscopy and CT scan came back normal. I do have multiple polyps which is likely caused by my long term use of gastric medication. But not cancerous. In fact, I am healthy as can be. The doctor did give me a suggestion on how to deal with my gastric issue and I'm so glad I took her advice. I finally have an answer! But it's too much to write about in this post so I'll dedicate another post to it. It's mind blowing.

In the early days of my itch, I kept my mind occupied by making some beaded jewellery. Then one day I had to stop because it got too hard to focus.

During my endless watching of youtube videos, I came across a Angela Walters free motion challenge and I became interested. Although I know some free motion doodling, I did it in a haphazard way. Angela Walters' free motion quilting had regular length and there's a method to the madness. I became hooked and joined her first free motion quilting challenge. (here) I followed everything including the piecing of the blocks which took me a month because you know, the itchiness. I finally got to the part where I could do the free motioning and then I realised how HARD free motion quilting is. My quilt was large and you know I'm not used to working on large pieces of fabric. It was also heavy and I didn't have the luxury of space so it was a disaster. My stitching was awful and let's forget about regular stitch length. If I manage to complete free motioning on one block, it was considered a success. Then it occurred to me that I need not do free motion quilting on such a big piece of quilt. I could do it on smaller pieces and still complete the challenge. And that's what I did.

These are all my practice stitching and I used up so much of my scrap fabric! I thought it was a waste to throw them away after all the hard work so I bound the edges and now I'll never run out of coasters or table mats.

I want to thank free motion quilting for saving me. I needed to keep my mind occupied during the times when I felt sad and hopeless and it was the one single thing that kept me going and going. Like every day I wanted to conquer another new pattern. After so much practice, I'm still not that consistent in my stitching. It's definitely harder than learning to ride a bike. When I'm stitching, my mind and my foot sometimes become 2 separate entities. That's why now and then my stitches are tiny or super big.

I decided to continue with the quilt from the Angela Walter's challenge and even though the result is quite crappy I finished it.

All the fabric used on the quilt were scraps from other projects. I'm going to continue with more free motion challenges from Angela Walters' blog but I'm definitely not doing big quilts anymore.

My last free motion project. I used Zig fabric pen to colour the "drawings". For free motion doodling, it's hard to keep the stitches regular. Maybe there's a way but I can't do it. I focus more on the shape. I wasn't trying to "save" any fabric scrap. But I did end up using a very wide piece of calico. Win, win.

I almost didn't want to tell you about the second leather bag class I attended in March. It was to make a hobo bag. This is the bag. Isn't it horrible? I couldn't get a good photo of it as it is too floppy and the shape is funny. The leather is chrome leather and somewhat soft. I regretted attending the class. The teacher was awful. She was very bad at teaching. Whenever she did a demo, she would make mistakes and tell us not to follow her example. She taught us an ugly way to sew the pockets with visible raw edges. When asked why she doesn't teach the method where the raw edges are encased, she said she's teaching us the handmade way. The method where all raw edges are hidden is only done at factories. She's so much bullshit. I only learned 2 new things in the class - using rivets and sewing on a cylindrical bed machine (see image above). It's not a difficult machine to use but it's very slow like one stitch at a time because the teacher had set the speed to tortoise and it is set via the motor so you can't modify it. The teacher also kept asking me to work slowly because I was too fast. It was torturous is all I can say. I'm so done with leather.

See you in my next post.

New Things

2023-02-01T20:27:00.000+08:00

Hello,

Slowly, I found myself disappearing from my blog. Hardly anyone reads my blog nowadays so there was no motivation or urgency to write any new posts. But I guess habits are hard to break so here I am tapping out a new post.

End of last year I did 1 thing that the normal me would never do. I felt myself suffocating and needed a huge distraction so desperately that I signed up for a leather bag making class.

I've never had any interest in leather, not that I'm anti-leather. Plus I have sensitive skin so working with glue and leather is probably not the best thing for me. But I wanted something totally different from what I'm usually attracted to. Before the 6 day Tote bag class, I was a bit afraid I may not be able to tolerate the smell of leather or be unable to complete the bag. Too much overthinking. Working with leather turned out to be so freaking fun. There is so much to learn. The process of making the bag totally by hand was so enjoyable. We used saddle stitch, done using 2 needles and it sounds easy but you need to pull the thread in the correct direction to achieve the slanted thread look. Most importantly, all the hammering was extremely therapeutic. Bang, bang, bang, bang. I wish I had discovered leather earlier. Now with my commitment to so many hobbies, I don't think I can spare the time or money to explore it further. I'll probably attend workshops in future when I want to make anymore leather stuff. That way I need not invest in the leather making tools which, I kid you not, aren't cheap. What's best about the class is everything is provided so there's no need to pay for supplies. Plus the cost of the class was funded by grants and my education fund, so I didn't even pay a single cent.

This is the leather bag I made. Originally I wanted to add a lining but I was quite slow and the tiny amount of time available to sew the lining at home was squandered so my bag is unlined. But I did burnish the edges so despite the lack of lining, it turned out alright. I use the bag all the time now.

Since last year I've been trying out watercolour at home. I only painted in primary and secondary school using poster colours in art classes taught by teachers who knew nothing about art so as a result, I literally know nothing about painting. During my late teens to early 20's, I was obsessed with drawing but I used caran d'ache colour pencils. So no painting since secondary school if you don't count the "painting" I did on fabric. Hardcore painting with actual techniques has never been on my radar. Just mention blending and my eyes would go all glassy.

But... I felt I needed a new hobby, one that I have no talent for so I'll be so occupied with figuring it out that I won't have any space left in my head for stress. (this is how my brain works) Anyhoos, I didn't choose watercolour. Watercolour chose me. Initially when I was looking for an in-person painting class, I searched for poster colour painting. But the classes were for kids. So embarrassing to join a kid's class so I widened my search. (I once attended a very basic bookbinding class and I was the only adult!) My next choice was acrylic but the location was not ideal. Eventually I signed up for watercolour because the cost, timing and place was perfect. It was once a week on a Saturday over 2 months. Thanks to a huge subsidy because I'm an old person, I only paid $56. I could have used my education fund to pay the $56 but I've wiped out my fund. All supplies are provided - a set of watercolour paint, one brush and a few sheets of watercolour paper. So, $56 is not a bad deal.

Watercolour sounds easy but believe it or not, mastering watercolour is extremely difficult as I have come to discover. You have to be the master of water to be able to control your result. And watercolour can be unpredictable when you are unable to Be Like Water. Me? I suck at watercolour. The students in my class are amazing. I heard some of them attend painting classes everyday so that might explain why their work is way better. Despite my lack of talent in watercolour painting, I discovered I really enjoy painting. And most importantly, when I sit at my table painting away, my mind is free of stress.

I felt the teacher isn't very good. He's a bit impatient and doesn't try very hard. If he tries to explain something and he sees blank faces, he'll say, never mind if you don't understand. His attempt to explain temperature of colour(which I thought was important) was feeble. I wonder if anyone understood. The best part was he declared he will no longer paint in watercolour. So much for being an inspiration. To be honest, I was thinking of continuing with intermediate watercolour class to see if I'll improve. Now there aren't any follow-up classes so I guess I'll just do it on my own.

These are the exercises I did in class. I dislike still life and realism style. I can't for the life of me do it well.

I've been practicing painting a lot and in the end, I realise I kinda like the ink and wash technique the most because it requires less skill and precision. The pic above - first I put some washes of colours for the cats, plants and birds. Then I use micron pen to draw the details. My teacher taught us to draw in ink first and colour later but I prefer to do the reverse. Doesn't the painting look like it was done by a kindergarten student?

Last year I set myself a goal of 24 scrap fabric project. I ended up with only 10 because my interest fizzled and there was no inspiration.

These 2 were the last projects I completed last year. I've worn the fabric cuff many times and I love it so much I want to make a few more in other colourways. The duck quilt is something I tried using a different technique from my norm. I used fusible web to glue all the fabric down followed by sewing decorative stitches all over the seamlines.

This year, I'm going to continue using my scrap fabric, putting them in little fabric collages. I mean if I don't use my scraps, I'll have to throw them away, right? I think realistically, I can manage 10 so that's my target.

I sewed a blouse for myself using leftover fabric. Hubs says it's sexy so I'm going to make another one but I'll make it a dress with pockets.

Remember last year I had to go for a bone density scan? I waited 6 nervous months for the scan. Guess what? The results show I do NOT have osteoporosis! Wow, I was expecting bad news and when the doctor told me the result, I almost cried. I feel the Universe has given me a second chance so I'm making sure I take calcium supplement every day. And exercise too. No more messing around.

June, July, August and September

2022-10-04T20:23:00.000+08:00

Helloooo!

Looks like another 4 months whizzed past just like that. Here's a roundup of what I've been up to.

1. In June, I attended a sourdough class. I won't tell you the name of the teacher because I wasn't completely happy with the class. It's not that the teacher sucked but she's quite mean. If you really want to know who the mean teacher is, you'll need to ask me privately. Since the class, my sourdough game has not improved at all. In fact, I'm quite close to giving it up.

2. In July, I attended a pasta making class. What a gamechanger this class was. In all honesty, the teacher wasn't that good. She was quite disorganised and did not practise mis en place which irritated me. So while she's cooking, she'll ask for this and that and someone has to go and find it for her. So annoying when she's supposedly a chef. Another thing I didn't like about the teacher was she kept encouraging the class to ask questions but when you ask something she'd already gone through, she f&*^%ing yells at you. There was a guy who kept getting yelled at and then on assessment day, my group asked me to clarify something with the teacher and yup, I was super yelled at too because she said she had already told us! And right after that, the teacher asked the class to ask questions if anything wasn't clear. Wow. Such people exists. (I wanted to smack her with a ladle or something but I didn't) Anyway, what was good about the class was the chance to make pasta from scratch. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and we also learnt to make a few types of sauce. Also, there was another chef who popped in for a visit and decided to stay. He was really nice and went around to make sure everyone was working the dough correctly and he was very encouraging. He came every day we were there. I think having him present made a big difference. The teacher on the other hand wasn't very interested in us once her demo was over. She only checked our cooked product and of course by then if you had made mistakes, it's too late. Since the class, I've made potato gnocchi once and it was so nice. Way better than the one at school. I've also bought a pasta machine and made fettuccine. My pasta sauce has also improved I think mainly because I gained a lot of confidence. So glad I took the pasta class! Making pasta from scratch is a lot of work so I alternate between store bought pasta and handmade pasta. Potato gnocchi is easy to make though. I want to eat it every week!

3. In August I attended a sewing class to learn to make cheongsam. The teacher was nice and knowledgeable. She had an assistant who was really the worst. She had poor knowledge and attitude. Once I needed help and the teacher told me to go to her assistant who ended up making things a hundred times worse, hindering my progress. I avoided her once I knew what kind of person she was. Overall, the class was hard and tedious but I learnt to get a good fit for my bodice. The teacher wanted us to sew at our own pace which sounds good on paper but she taught at the pace of the faster students so I found myself constantly playing catch-up. It was quite stressful. I did manage to finish the cheongsam. I don't look good in a cheongsam so I don't think I'll make it again. Maybe something similar but less straight jacket-like?

4. I've been practising my pattern drafting but didn't go beyond what I had learnt in class. It is tedious, takes a long time and requires massive amount of fabric. So far I've made a few blouses and 2 shirts.

I made another pleated top for myself, similar to the one I had learnt in Basic class. I wanted to test my new bodice pattern and this top doesn't require a lot of fabric. I'm currently obsessing over fit and ease to find the right balance.

This is the same pleated top for my daughter but with sleeves. It might have been a bit too big.

I drafted another pleated top with sleeves for my daughter and I messed up. The shoulder and collar are a bit weird.

Despite the flaws, my daughter has worn both tops to work.

I made 2 shirts which I had learnt in the Shirt and Pants class. I made the blue one for my daughter and the green one for me. Even though the green one is made using my measurements, my daughter felt comfortable in it so I gave it to her. She has worn both to work. The shirt has a fair amount of ease so fit is not an issue.

For a change, I made a knitted blouse - Adrienne Blouse by Friday Pattern Company. Unfortunately, it shows a bit too much shoulder so neither of us dares to wear it out. It'll be my stay home lounge wear.

Lastly I made this trial blouse with extended sleeve which I learnt in Basic Drafting class. This pattern is driving me nuts. I thought I'd finally got the sizing right but I realised I had forgotten to do this test - when I hug myself, the back width feels a little strained. I mean, this is a standard test for comfort, right? Hugging yourself? So I will need to redraft the back. Eventually I want to turn this into a dress.

5. Remember my on-going scrap busting project? I only completed one more - no. 8. This one took a long time because it's all hand applique.

This scrap project was inspired by my childhood memories. When I think of the old days in my village home, I can see the giant star fruit tree that was next to my home. It was constantly bearing fruits and the smell of rotting star fruits is forever etched in my memory. If you know me now, it would be hard to imagine I used to live next to a forested area. I mean I'm scared of animals and insects. Yes, those were the days when we had pigs, chickens, a cat, a dog and me and my siblings hunted grasshoppers to sell to the bird shop. I remember the wild birds most. My house was close to 2 ponds and now and then we get to see really beautiful birds which were attracted to the ponds. I've kept the embroidery to a minimum as this project is all about the applique.

6. In June I had an x-ray of my toe and it was 90% healed. The doctor said it should heal completely on its own without any treatment. I'm able to walk and swim without any problem.

I was more concerned about injuring my toes again. I've noticed I'm quite careless and absent minded at home and would walk into furniture quite frequently. I came up with a solution - Skechers crocs knock-off. I wear them at home all the time and they're so tough that I don't injure myself even when I walk into things. We don't wear footwear in our homes so it was quite a change for me to not go about bare footed at first. But now, my Skechers and I have become one.

7. Dealing with stress is still no.1 on my mind right now. It was only recently that I became noticeably less anxious. Before, I was constantly struggling with stress. Once, on a particularly stressful week, I had chest pain and I thought I was getting a heart attack. But it turned out to be just stress and I am fine. But it scared me so much and since then I've tried very hard to do stuff to help me relax. Guess what? I started doing water colour. I'm very, very bad at it but mixing the colours help me relax. I find that when I'm playing with the colours, I'm able to free my mind. I considered enrolling in a water colour class but I pondered too long and the class is sold out. I'm also doing breathing exercises and slowly trying to change the way I react to negative situations.

8. Since I started making clothes, my scrap fabric has increased by many times. I need to put aside some time to use up more scraps. Although I like the look of hand applique, I can't overuse my hands too much. So my future scrap projects might have to involve more machine work and less hand sewing. Recently I started sewing decorative stitches on patchwork held together by fusible webbing - no seams! It is extremely soothing listening to the sound of the machine going up and down. You should try it.

9. On my to-do list:

a. Pattern for a dress with extended sleeve

b. Pattern for a sleeveless dress

c. Remake the pants from Shirt and Pants class

d. Remake the princess seam dress from Dress class

10. Since August 29th, we went mask-free in Singapore except in public transport, clinics and hospitals. Not surprisingly, many people continue to wear masks.

See you in December!

February, March, April and May

2022-06-05T20:14:00.001+08:00

I'm still alive. The past four months whizzed by so fast. My memory is pretty bad nowadays. I can barely recall what I did in February and March. What I do remember is it was stressful. My son was waiting to hear back about his internship application and I was imagining all kinds of worst case scenarios. Typical of me. Thankfully he managed to get hired and has now completed one month of internship. 5 more to go! Hubs was also going through his own crisis as well. Thankfully my memory is bad so I can only vaguely remember some of the tension and stress February and March brought me. Oh, I almost forgot. Hubs, daughter and I caught Covid. It wasn't super bad but still we did suffer for 1 week plus. The virus attacked our throats mostly. I felt tired and had no desire or energy to do anything. I ate ice cream all day. Of course I put on weight but it's covid weight gain so let's close one eye.

Remember I said I was going to work more on my scrap fabric turning them into applique art and my goal was 24 pieces of textile art in 2022? I stopped at no.7. It's already June. There's no way I'll make 24 this year. But I'll still keep going. I'm currently working on no.8 and it's a big piece so it's taking a long time to complete. The first piece - bird drink water - I really love and would like to make more of. The second one - a crazy patchwork embroidered zip pouch was made from a UFO, a remnant from my previous life.

Since March last year I've stopped colouring my hair. As you know, I've been struggling with my grey hair for many years. Each time I stopped colouring my hair, I would immediately run to my hair stylist if one person calls me a senior citizen. Remember I bravely went grey when I went to Bintan with hubs and our taxi driver thought I was his mother? I almost died. So I was caught between wanting to look younger and getting tired of having to touch up my greys so frequently. It's not cheap, takes a long time for each colouring session and I get some reaction after each dye job - my eyes get swollen and my skin itch. Plus the worst part - when the first greys appear on the top of your head and you see one line of white hair - so gross. After many to-and-fro, I finally made the decision not to cover up my greys anymore. Like F O R E V E R.

Of course the decision did not come easy. I made many consultations with the family until nobody cared anymore. I'll tell you a secret. Last year I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. 80% of my hair above my forehead is white. When I looked at the mirror, I saw a ghost. This year is better. I'm starting to accept looking old (I'm kidding. I'm never going to accept it.). I think I just got more used to seeing my white hair. Now when I look at the mirror, I no longer see a ghost. Instead I see a homeless woman. I think it's an improvement. Ghost to homeless woman. At least I see a human. I wonder what I'll see in the mirror next year?

Since I've gone grey, I've realised this: a woman's hair does not belong to her alone. It seems everyone who looks at her has a stake. Lots of people have told me to go and colour my hair. They're probably thinking it's so silly to look older than necessary when there's an easy solution, right? But I'm going to be stubborn about this and stick to my decision. And I hope that my MIL will stop colouring her hair so I won't be mistaken as her mom!

One of the reasons it took me so long to stop covering up my greys is I really feared being treated like an old lady by humans. Take this incident. Once I was at a pharmacy and I was queuing up to pay for 2 packets of quinoa. A sales promoter came up to me and offered to help me carry the quinoa. I told her I was fine but she said she felt uncomfortable watching me carrying the 2 packets of quinoa. So she grabbed the quinoa from me and queued along with me until it was my turn at the cashier. It was a nice thing for the woman to do (from her point of view) but I was uncomfortable because she probably did it on account of my grey hair. So grey hair = old lady = incapable of carrying 2 packets of quinoa. You might ask what's so bad about a stranger helping me out? Well, it just confirms what I fear. People associate grey hair with feebleness.

Last year I attended 3 bread making classes. In the first class, when I showed up in class, there were already some people in the class and I looked for an empty seat. We were supposed to sit in a table of threes. Guess what? The 2 persons at the table I sat at promptly got up and sat elsewhere. I ended up sharing the table with 2 latecomers who had no choice but to sit with me. In the second class, I was the last person to arrive in the class so the teacher assigned me a seat so no one could flee from me. In the third class, I did not arrive late but most people had already arrived. I sat at an empty table by myself. Soon a lady arrived and she sat at my table. Then suddenly she got up and joined another table without a word to me. Later a latecomer came and she too sat at my table. Again, she quietly got up and joined another table. I ended up sitting alone until a guy whom nobody wanted to sit with asked to be my partner. Maybe you think I'm too sensitive but I really felt like nobody wanted to sit with me because I looked old and useless. My course mates probably thought I would be a liability. It was no fun feeling unpopular. On the positive side, it is easier to get seats on the train. During peak hours though, it's every man/woman for herself. I've had my seats snatched away by younger people who avoided eye contact with me.

Alright, enough about my hair. I know you're sick of it already. From April to May, I was super busy because I signed up for 3 garment drafting and construction classes. When I was young, fresh out of school, I had already gone through similar drafting and dressmaking classes. The thing with drafting and making garments is if you don't put it into practice, you forget nearly everything.

Each class was only 5 days long from 9am to 6pm but it was so exhausting. Some days, I thought I was going to pass out. On the last day of each class we had an assessment which was pretty easy. The difficult part of the class is to make the garment according to specifications and on schedule.

Despite my years of experience in sewing, it wasn't a piece of cake for me. I struggled. My first struggle - sewing in metric. I've been sewing in inches for 2 decades. To switch to metric was so mind-blowing. My second struggle - following the teacher's method of construction. I realised I'm not a visual learner. The teacher would do a demo and there's a video of the demo but when I go to my table, if the steps are unfamiliar, I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do. For me, I need instructions to be given in precise language or I'm lost. My third struggle - sewing to a deadline. At home, I take my time sewing between cooking and watching k-drama. One blouse could take me 1 month to complete. At the sewing school, it's go, go, go. You need to keep up with everyone else or you're left behind. The last struggle - using an industrial sewing machine. Actually I got used to the sewing machine quickly and I love how an industrial sewing machine sews so powerfully but I occasionally struggled when another student (from a night class or weekend class) messes with the tension and I have to fix it.

The first class was super easy because it's just a sleeveless blouse and skirt with facing. The blouse pattern was drafted using a slash and spread method. The neckline and armhole were finished using bias tape. The skirt had facing and invisible zip at the back. My skirt was a bit loose. I think it had too much ease. I wished the teacher had asked us to make pockets because a skirt without pockets is unwearable.

I had a little accident at home on the day when I was on a one-day break from my first class. I had just reached home after a swim and I walked into my bed. The bed frame went between my 4th and last toe. The pain was unbearable. My left foot swelled up and I couldn't walk properly. It turned out I had fractured my 4th toe. I saw a GP who asked me to wrap my injured toe with a good toe with plaster. But it made it worse so I stopped doing it. Later I saw an ortho doctor who said I shouldn't wrap my injured toe at all. In fact he said he couldn't do anything for me except prescribe painkillers. But since I can't take strong painkillers due to my kidney issue, I could only take panadol and tough out the pain. The fracture will heal on its own. I only need to not walk into anything for at least a few weeks. The first 2 weeks were really miserable for me. I discovered that you need your toes to walk and balance. I've been taking my toes for granted all these years. I couldn't walk on my wet bathroom floor so hubs bought 2 bathroom mats which helped a lot. I had to depend on my family to buy stuff for me. The dependence wasn't nice. Plus, I had 2 more days of my first sewing class to complete. I don't know how I did it but somehow I managed to hobble my way to school and complete my module. Right now the swelling has completely gone down. I've been exercising my toes daily but it still doesn't feel like before. My doctor says I can't swim or run until he says so.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my "personal physiotherapist" quit in March so I was physiotherapist-less as the clinic couldn't get a replacement. The ortho doctor referred me to a physiotherapist at the hospital. I've gone once and the service is different. It's mostly advice and exercise related. None of the "pampering" that my previous physiotherapist provided.

By the way, it's totally hub's fault that I walked into the bed. Years ago, he had insisted on moving a sofa in front of our bed. Our bedroom is super tiny so there's very little room to walk around. Lately he kept kicking the sofa out of position and as a result the feng shui went haywire. About 2 months before, he had walked into the same part of the bed and bruised his toes. Of course his bones are super strong so he had no problems. Back then I had told him to stop moving the sofa out of position but he kept doing it and that's how I got a fractured toe. I really should go and pull out all his hair. Anyway, I have stuck some bubble wrap on the dangerous part of my bed and hopefully it works. Hubs said the positive thing that came out of my injury is that the doctor discovered I have porous bones. Isn't he the ever-positive guy? I have a bone mineral densitometry scan scheduled in October. (there's a long wait list) Meanwhile I have to take calcium supplements. Why is aging so hard?

The second sewing class was hard. Shirt and pants. You need precision when you sew the collar stand, cuffs, zip fly and waist band. I found the teacher's instructions very hard to understand. I kept questioning my own intelligence. In the end, I think I don't suit the teacher's style of teaching. Somehow I managed to cough up the shirt and pants. The pants fit but isn't very comfortable to sit in because it's a natural waisted pants while I'm used to a low waisted pants. (I have a tummy) The shirt turned out great!!! I will make one for my daughter. We had to stay in school overtime twice. I felt so tired and sleepy I wanted to cry.

The last class was a princess seam dress. The teacher was very patient so it was a good experience. First we had to sew a dress bodice using calico fabric. Then we had to make alterations if any to the pattern. After that, we modified the pattern into a princess seam pattern. The drafting took a lot of time. The final dress had 9 pattern pieces. I didn't do the neckline well so I'll probably try to make another dress. The dress is fully lined and has an invisible zip closure.

Overall I enjoyed the sewing classes. I've gained a lot of confidence in drafting and sewing garments. Believe it or not, I may sign up for a couple more classes!

By the way, my daughter has graduated. She's already gone for her "grad trip" to Australia and will start work next week. Both my kids work in the same industrial area and will probably go to work together. So cute! I'd better hurry up and make more blouses and skirts for her to wear to work.

January 2022

2022-02-11T20:52:00.000+08:00

Hello!

It's now the Year of the Tiger (Feb 1st 2022 to Jan 31st 2023). How has your Tiger year been?

I think I'm starting the year well. Firstly, right after Chinese New Year, I went to the dentist. Yes, voluntarily. Thanks to the pandemic I haven't visited the dentist for the past 2 years. Yikes! TMI? This year, I decided I wasn't going to live my life constantly fearful of Covid. Not that I intend to live carelessly. But it's been 2 years and I shouldn't avoid doing necessary stuff that requires me to be unmasked like getting my teeth cleaned and checked out. Just to be on the safe side, I opted for an xray as well. Thankfully, I do not have any tooth decay. I was so grateful I almost cried.

Another thing I did was get my blood test done. My doctor sneakily scheduled my appointment for after Chinese New Year to catch any pigging out. I'll get my results soon and it'll be clear if I ate rubbish. <I did, a bit. Okay, a lot.>

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, our Chinese New Year was very quiet. My mother who's 93 decided to be super safe and cancelled Chinese New Year. My family stayed home and played mahjong. On the second day of Chinese New Year, we went swimming. We didn't even buy mandarin oranges this year. Hubs, son and I are quite reclusive so a quiet CNY is no big deal but my daughter is the complete opposite of us and ranted about the lack of visiting and traditions in our family. So I think maybe this year, I'll try and do better as a mother and start celebrating all the festivals. I'll google them later.

It seems the current strain of Covid-19 going around now is very infectious. Our cases keep going up but I'm numb to it now. Our death rate isn't high so that's a good thing. Life in Singapore is still pretty restrictive. Everywhere we go, we have to check in, check out with our Trace Together app. Eating out and visitors is kept at 5 people. And of course, outside our homes, we need to wear masks. Our lives have gone on. And honestly we can go on this way indefinitely. But I really look forward to the day when our government stop testing for Covid-19 and remove all restrictions. Will it happen this year? I doubt it but one can only hope.

Do you guys suffer from stress? I'm constantly putting myself in situations where I end up worrying incessantly. It's killing my stomach and worsening my gastric. I wish humans have a button to allow a do-over. I'd like to rewire my brain so that I don't keep doing stupid shit like over think and worry about the wrong things. I feel like I'm trapped in this endless overthinking/worrying cycle. This year, I'd like to try worrying about the right things. Any tips?

Creatively, I thought I was on a roll. I wasn't. I have a goal this year of making textile art using scrap fabric and I have so many ideas. Too many actually. As a result, some of my creations weren't executed the way I had pictured in my head.

Scrap fabric project no. 1 - this is a cheat really as it's very small and involved only a few pieces of scrap. But I like the overall effect. I would love to do this same thing on a bigger piece but hand sewing is very hard on the hands. I'm going to be kind to my hands and not do it.

Scrap fabric project no. 2. I do like the aesthetic of this apple as it's closest to how I picture applique in my head. But it's unfinished, still waiting for the rest of the alphabets.

Scrap fabric project no. 3. It started with what I thought was a great idea. Marimekko inspired flowers. Yikes. So poorly executed. I must never look at this piece again. Shudder. Vomit.

Scrap fabric project no. 4. This quilt was such a struggle. I wanted to give up and throw it in the bin many times and maybe I should have. It started with bad batting. Too thick and heavy. I wanted to machine quilt but it didn't work out so I ended up hand quilting. Very bad idea. My fingers hurt! I don't even like the end result.

Scrap fabric project no. 5 was just for fun. I turned a drawing my daughter drew of her dad when she was little into an applique piece. I think her Dad must have done something really uncool to have prompted her drawing and defense.

That's it for January. Adios. (a favourite word I use to start wordle)

p.s. have you played squabble.me? it's like wordle with other players and a race against time.

September to December 2021

2021-12-28T16:56:00.000+08:00

Hello people,

I didn't realise I've been gone so long. But aren't you glad 2021 is almost over? What a dreadful year it's been. And we all thought 2020 was bad. Hahaha. I'm really looking forward to 2022 (just to get out of 2021) even though next year is the Year of the Tiger which is traditionally not a lucky year but I don't believe in horoscope so there!

Anyhoos, in Singapore we never managed to transition to endemic because Omicron made its appearance and refused to leave. Our social gathering/household visitors/dining out is still capped at 5 people which is fine for my family because we're such loners but for others, it must be a torture. (how to partay with 5 people?)

2021 has been super bad for our health. Hubs and I - we've now become people who have to take pills every day. For me, my protein in urine thing turned out positive consistently so my doctor said better check on my cholesterol as well. I was rather confident the results would be good because in a previous test<ahem>, the doctor said it had improved. I was wrong. My cholesterol had become alarmingly bad. I thought about it and I realised that I had been indulging in far too many Chinese pastries and tarts and upon some research, I discovered they contain trans fat. As a result of my greed, I now have to take 2 pills daily - one for cholesterol and one for the urine. I was determined to lower my cholesterol and I immediately cut out ALL pastries and tarts. In my next blood test, the doctor said my results were exceptionally good. I was so pleased with myself! But I have to continue with the medication for now but if my cholesterol remains exceptionally good in February, I may get off it. The urine meds I'm afraid I have to take for life. It's either that or lose a kidney.

Compared to me, hubs had it way, way worse. Firstly, his gout on his foot refused to stop hurting. It would get better and then return and repeat. Then it spread to his wrist. That was frightening. His company doctor was a blood sucker who only wanted to squeeze as much money as he could out of hubs. We kept asking for a long term treatment plan but it was always the same answer, next time, wait, wait. And the fees were so expensive. We really felt like suckers. Finally one day hubs made up his mind he didn't want to be treated by the con-doctor anymore. I was happy about that but also really worried because without long term treatment, the gout could return easily. Luckily I was able to persuade hubs to see a doctor at the clinic I go to. And it is so much cheaper. No nonsense treatment and no unnecessary tests. Hubs has more meds to take daily - uric acid control, cholesterol and high blood pressure. So I win.

Food became a big headache because a gout diet is an impossible diet - you can't eat so many things. At first hubs ate a lot of plant based meat and avoided real meat and seafood. After much suffering and a talk with a dietician, we realised that plant based meat are highly processed and bad for cholesterol as well. So now hubs decided to eat a little chicken, a little fish but to avoid all other meat and seafood especially sardines and anchovies.

My frozen shoulder has improved a lot. I can now do nearly everything with my left arm. I can wear my bra myself although I do need my right hand to help out when the bra line is high. I no longer feel pain and the best thing is I'm able to swim. At first I started swimming with a float. Then I tried without a float (breast stroke) and I could do it. I try to go swimming once a week as my muscles are still weak. I don't know how much longer it will take to get my shoulder at 100% again. There are 2 movements which my arm is still quite weak at. Hubs has asked me when I'll stop my physiotherapy because it is rather costly. I'm very reluctant to quit. I feel a bit like a freak because my left arm can't rotate as well as my right arm. But realistically, I've spent enough $ already and maybe I should let nature do its healing. I'm (fake) sobbing as I write this because I really don't want to give up physiotherapy yet.

Both my kids finished their fall semester successfully. I'm very thankful. My daughter had it really tough. A very difficult year for her. But she made it through. One last semester to go. The good news is she managed to get a job before graduation. I'm so proud of her.

Okay, enough about my personal life. I made a few pieces of tops for my daughter but based on her review, it's unlikely she'll wear them.

First I made a shirt. A real shirt with collar and sleeves and buttons and cuffs. It was hard but I managed to get the fit right. This shirt was the muslin in case you're wondering why I choose such a colourful fabric. I couldn't believe it but I got the fit right at first try. I made a "mistake" with the buttonholes. I thought it was odd that the buttonholes turned out a bit too long for my liking. After sewing ALL the buttonholes, I decided to read the sewing machine manual and guess what? There is an option to sew a customised length. I'm an idiot.

Then I sewed a T-shirt. I used the Basic Instinct T-shirt pattern here. You need to subscribe to the newsletter to get the pattern. What I like about this pattern is the sleeves FIT the arm hole. On many patterns, they never fit but this one does. What I don't like about this pattern is the neckline is too high. But you can fix that easily. Mine is slightly lowered. The design is quite boyish. All the seams are serged and the hems are twin-needled.

There was a time when I would buy remnants from Spotlight. This moustache jersey fabric was one of those remnants I had bought and regretted because there's too little of it. I finally used it to make a muscle tee. Pattern is by Fancy Tiger Crafts. It's an easy sew very much like a T-shirt. Serged every seam, twin-needled every hem. Instead of sleeves, bindings are used which is perfect for this fabric because I didn't have enough to make sleeves.

I made a few embroidered brooches. I don't need more brooches but I was going through a period when I felt very nervous about something and I needed to keep myself occupied.

I found a pig I had appliqued on a piece of calico a long time ago and decided to do something with it and use up some of my scrap fabric. I regretted the brown fabric and the binding. Otherwise I rather like this piece even though it didn't use much scrap fabric.

I attended 2 baking classes on my list. The first one I attended was Artisan and Decorative Bread. It's an advanced class and was rather challenging as most of the dough was very wet. I was quite disappointed we only made one loaf of sourdough. And literally nothing was taught about sourdough. It was just a levain you add to your dough instead of yeast. On Day 1 I had this teacher whom I knew from way back when I did cake classes. He speaks with a heavy accent and is super hot tempered. But he knows his stuff. One thing I learnt from him is this. My window pane stage which I've always thought was correct has always been wrong. He pointed to a part of the dough and said you see that? Mix some more. And true enough, The window pane he wanted was a much clearer membrane. From day 2, we had another teacher, also with heavy accent. I didn't have as much confidence in the second teacher. But I managed to make the required bread even if they were kinda ugly. The class was small - only 7 girls. I had a nice time baking with the girls.

The second class I attended was Cafe Bread. It's an intermediate class and covers wholemeal flour, rye flour and inclusions like fruits, nuts and bean paste. On Day 1 we had a teacher who thankfully didn't speak with an accent. I think he's good at baking but he didn't share much with us. One thing I leant from him is dough temperature is very important. I usually disregard dough temperature when I bake but now I'll take care to always use cold water because Singapore weather is hot. From day 2, we had another teacher who is an ASS. The worse thing is, he's a passive aggressive ASS. OMG, I couldn't wait for the class to end because it was so unbearable listening to his random rants, idiotic jokes and nonsense. So much nonsense came out of his mouth. And the class was dragged over 4 Fridays so the torture was prolonged. What did I learn from him? Absolutely nothing. He is a "throw everything into the machine and mix" kind of baker. The class was bigger - 12 of us. I didn't enjoy this class at all.

There's just one more bread class I want to attend - a dedicated sourdough class. I've looked around and there are a few. They aren't government funded like the ones I've just taken so I have to be mindful of the cost. (they don't come cheap) I hope to get a place next year and improve on my sourdough baking.

Next year I also intend to dedicate more time to use my fabric scrap. I seem to have increased my fabric scrap over the past two years. My goal is to finish 2 pieces of something made from my scraps every month. If I make 2 per month, I should have 24 by December next year. I look forward to that.

Lastly I shall leave you with this story. I have super sensitive skin which when triggered will result in incredible itch and when that happens, I go insane. To avoid that I apply this Bioderma cream on my face. I always have a tube of this cream wherever I go. I never take chances. The cream is not cheap so I try to squeeze every little drop out of it. One day I was on the train when I felt my jawline itching. I immediately reached for my Bioderma cream and it was a tube that had very little cream left. I banged the top of the tube on my hand several times before opening it and guess what? There was an explosion of cream everywhere. Did I mention I was on the train, sitting down with other strangers? Fortunately most of the cream had landed on my bag and the floor. Then I noticed there was a giant white glob on the thigh of the girl sitting next to me. And she was wearing black tights. The glob of cream was huge. Most people would inform the stranger what had happened, offer an apology and quickly exit the train. But I'm not most people. I did the unthinkable. I reached out and proceeded to use my finger to rub the glob of cream into the girl's tights hoping it would disappear. Now, it never occurred to me if the girl had noticed the cream on her thigh. Because suddenly a total stranger was fingering her thigh. She gave me a strange look and tried to see what the hell I was doing. Thankfully at this point, I realised I could be arrested so I stopped rubbing her thigh and apologised. Then I tried to explain about the exploding cream. I showed her the Bioderma tube and used my hands to mimic an explostion. I'm so lucky the girl was very forgiving. She gestured to me it was alright. Either that or she didn't want to bother with this crazy lady anymore.

See you next year.

What I made in July and August

2021-08-29T19:27:00.000+08:00

So I was terribly unhappy with my scrap fabric situation. Slowly over the years, I've thrown away some tiny scraps which aren't useable but there's so much left. In fact it keeps growing because I keep buying new fabric and using them. It's an endless cycle but I wanted to at least try to use a tiny portion of the scraps in small art quilts so I'll have something pretty to look at instead of heaps of scrap fabric.

The first quilt I made is a no-brainer. Birds flying in the sky towards the sun. The formation of the birds were ripped off Singapore's national day fly past. Just imagine the birds as small planes flying towards a Singapore flag. The birds were kept simple - raw edge with running stitches. The sun was originally an applique but I wanted something shiny so I sewed sequins anchored by seed beads. And as always, I got tired after a few sequins but had to keep going because I disliked unpicking more.

I noticed that I tend to make quilts with birds flying in the sky when I'm not feeling great. Such as being in a pain cycle or just sick of living. Making birds quilt somehow make me feel better and less trapped. So that's kind of my therapy.

Speaking of feeling trapped, here in Singapore we were finally allowed to eat out a few weeks ago. Not being able to eat out is very upsetting especially since we've had the freedom to eat out taken away a number of times already but what can you do? To be honest, we don't eat out that often, maybe once a week. It's just that having the option to eat out makes life so much better. Has the new covid-19 variants reached your country? We had a new wave of infections and our leaders got cold feet and brought back some restrictions. On paper, Singapore isn't going to pursue a zero covid-19 case strategy anymore. Instead, we're aiming to live with covid-19. Did I say on paper? That's the aim but when we will really move from pandemic to endemic is still up in the air. Regardless, one thing won't change. We, in Singapore will have to wear masks in public for a long, long time.

Do you guys use an oximeter or know what an oximeter is? We were given one per household to monitor our blood oxygen level. If the blood oxygen level is between 90 to 94, you have to see a doctor. The device is not super accurate because I've gotten 94 before and when I test again I got 96 and then 98 when I used another finger.

Here's the next quilt I made with lots of scrap fabric. The quilt started with the orange fabric. I've used this orange fabric frequently in my quilts. There was so much of it and slowly I managed to use up most of it. I had 5 pieces of the orange fabric cut into squares lying around forever. Finally I stitched 4 of the squares with some other remnants into a patchwork of sorts. I joined the patchwork to a piece of calico and after that I had no idea what to do with it. That was in 2019. The pieced fabric sat in my storeroom waiting for me to be inspired. I would look at it from time to time, audition some fabric but nothing came to mind until last month when I suddenly decided I would applique a vase of flowers. The applique is turned under and I used my usual loosey goosey method of applique - draw the shape on the right side of fabric, cut it with a small seam allowance and applique away. The backing is my mother's batik. I have tons left. <sob>

I love how this quilt turned out. It makes me so happy to look at it. So bright and cheery.

I wanted to knit very badly but projects that take a long time aren't good for me at the moment. So I knitted 2 beaded cuffs. Joining both ends of the cuff together was the hardest part. I can never do it neatly.

In July, I got bitten by the beading bug and spent some time making pendants using a plastic bead, a stone and a crystal rivoli. This video explains how to bead around a rivoli quite well. For the Galaxy pendant (bottom pic), I followed this video. Why do I keep making these pendants when I've nowhere to wear them to. And of course when I heard Beads etc was closing down, I went and bought myself more beads even though they weren't discounted!

I made another blouse just to test the fit. My daughter has narrower shoulders. I wanted to make a bodice (similar to what I made here) that fits both of us. That way we can share clothes!

Finally, some update on my frozen shoulder. It is healing slowly. I've continued with my therapy sessions and daily exercises. One setback is I hurt both my elbows. It's probably due to wear and tear and some of the exercises I had been doing. So for one week I stopped all housework and cooking. It coincided with hubs being down with gout and he couldn't walk for one whole week. He went through such excruciating pain it made me very sad. Because he couldn't walk, he couldn't go to the doctor to get strong painkillers. Instead he used over the counter painkillers which barely worked. The "good" thing that came out of the gout episode is hubs can finally relate to my pain and how one can feel so hopeless and helpless when stuck in the pain cycle. Still I hope he doesn't suffer like this again. One parent with pain issues is enough.

This month there was a small breakthrough in my recovery. I was finally able to reach behind my back all the way up to my waist. I still can't wear my bra but at least I can bring my hand behind. Also, I can now open both my arms wide at the sky. You can't imagine how happy that made me. <I'm almost normal> I'm now at the worst and hardest part of my frozen shoulder recovery - loosening my shoulder blade. Every time the physiotherapist tries to loosen it, it hurts like %$#@. If only I could tolerate the pain, I would be healed by now. Instead we have to do it slowly, bit by bit. I have to go to the swimming pool soon for some water therapy. I'm not allowed to swim because I will get injured. Instead the focus is on strengthening my arms. Gosh, I hope I don't get sun spots!

Basic Bread

2021-07-11T20:35:00.002+08:00

Since 2017, I've been trying to attend a Basic Bread class. I would sign up for it and somehow things would happen and I would not be able to attend. Finally one day I managed to get a confirmed class and was ready to go for the class. Then a phone call came to inform me the school was closing down and therefore the class was cancelled. I decided to give up on the class because I've been baking bread for a few years using knowledge gained from friends, youtube, instagram and blogs so I probably already have basic bread baking skills. Instead I tried signing up for intermediate/advanced bread classes. Unfortunately, I was always told to take the Basic Bread class before attempting the more difficult bread classes. Which brings me back to square one - the damned Basic Bread class.

To me, the Basic Bread class is a jinxed class. It's like the Universe is conspiring to prevent me from taking the class. Last year, yup, during the pandemic when vaccines weren't available yet, I signed up for the Basic Bread class. Remember the baking school which closed down? It had reopened under a new management (before the pandemic) and I had been thinking about giving it another go. Except it was hard to get a place. So I waited and waited and finally I was given a confirmed class starting end March.

Great right? Except I had my frozen shoulder and March was the period when it hurt the most and my left arm was super stiff. I kept thinking I should withdraw from the class but in the end I decided to go for it. The Universe was on my side for once. One day before the first class, I had my first appointment with my physiotherapist and he managed to reduce my pain and made my arm a little less stiff!

So all the stars aligned and I went for my first class. The first thing that happened when I was entering the classroom, I banged my left shoulder onto the door and almost died. Yup, the damned jinxed class. Fortunately, the pain went away after a while and I need not pull out of the class.

There were a total of 4 days for this class from 9am to 6pm on Saturdays. The last day is purely assessment. Every day, there is some theory and we bake twice - once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The pace is leisurely.

On day 1, we baked a pullman loaf and an open top sandwich loaf, both with bread improver. We worked in groups of 3 and we shared one mixer. So the weighing of ingredients, mixing of dough was done together in our group of 3. Once the dough was divided, we were on our own. We didn't have to handle the oven as the teacher did it for us. Our teacher was pretty patient and doesn't hesitate to help whenever required. I've had very lazy teachers before! I was a bit worried that I would have problems doing lifting, carrying of trays. The Universe gave me a young couple in my group. They did all the heavy lifting and washing up. I was very, very thankful.

On day 2, we baked an open top sandwich loaf, this time without bread improver so we needed to do a 1 hour bulk fermentation. The 2nd loaf was also an open top loaf but we did a sponge and dough method and for shaping we braided the dough.

On Day 3, it was French bread and soft bread roll, using bread improver. In terms of shaping, I learnt the most because we made 4 different shapes.

On day 4, for assessment, we baked an open top sandwich loaf and French bread. For the French bread, the teacher wanted to make it more interesting so we did a sponge and dough method. We used a different kitchen and oven and our bread turned out a bit lighter than usual. Our bread mould was also different. At the end of the day, there was an oral assessment for each of us. Everyone passed. It wasn't difficult at all and I didn't even study for it. All you need to do is pay attention during the class and of course be able to bake the bread. On assessment day, we worked in twos and I was paired up with a total stranger. She was omg so fussy. She disagreed with me frequently and wouldn't stop mixing the dough and I wanted to cry. Finally I put my foot down and stopped the mixing. Thankfully my bread turned out fine. She wouldn't stop handling her own dough and her bread ended up really ugly. But since it didn't affect me, I couldn't care less.

I'm so glad I finally attended the Basic Bread class. Despite having baked bread for a few years, I did pick up some knowledge and skills, particularly in shaping which is my weakness. Of course the best part is I paid $0 for the class as it is a WSQ funded class (90%) and the remaining 10% I used my Skillsfuture credits.

I thought I'll share some stuff I picked up from the class:

Bread improver: It's used only when you are short on time. You can skip bulk fermentation if you use bread improver but it doesn't improve the taste of bread. I would never use bread improver because I bake at home and I should make the time. Plus I'm always chasing the taste of bread so I tend to take the longer route to bake bread just to improve the taste.

Bread tin - The teacher doesn't use any formula to calculate how much dough goes into a bread tin. Instead he relies on the info given by the manufacturer. The loaf tin we used were 450g to 550g so that's the amount of dough we could use per tin. In class we used 500g and to be honest, I did notice the bread sank a bit after it was demoulded. I was hoping the teacher could show us a scientific way to calculate dough per tin.

Yeast - I've always thought low sugar (10%) and high sugar (>10%) yeast could be used on any kind of bread recipe. It turns out low sugar yeast can be used in any bread recipe but high sugar yeast can only be used in high sugar bread recipe. Glad I got this sorted out.

Internal bread temperature - Checking for doneness of bread is done using a thermometer. 95 deg C to 98 deg C is considered baked. Of course colour is another factor. I now obsessively check my bread using a thermometer.

Bulk fermentation - How to tell bulk fermentation is done? Poke a finger through the dough and the hole should stay and not close up immediately. Previously I've always used 1 hour as a gauge.

Final proof - How to tell dough is ready for baking. Press the dough and it should spring back slowly. If it springs back quickly, it needs to proof longer. If it collapses, it's over proofed.

There are two more bread classes I want to attend. Hopefully all the stars will align for me once again. If you live in Singapore and you're either a citizen or PR, you can sign up for wsq classes. Just google. There are lots of options. Don't be afraid of the assessment. Like I said, pay attention during class and you'll pass.

March, April, May and June Makes

2021-06-27T20:01:00.000+08:00

This year's been incredibly cruel to me. It's one hundred percent due to my bad judgement. I had injured my left shoulder last year and it was very slowly healing on its own. I did see a physiotherapist (subsidized) once and he did a few shoulder manipulations (press here, press there, pull here, pull there) and taught me 2 very simple exercises to do every day which he said should fix the problem. By the way, he was insistent I did not have a shoulder issue. He was very sure I had a neck issue. Also, he told me I'm not allowed (by him I suppose) to see him again for the same ailment unless I go back to the doctor to get another referral to see him. It had taken me a 3-month wait to see this idiot physiotherapist in the first place so no thanks.

Well, things were going well shoulder-wise until January when I went to throw rubbish down the rubbish chute. In Singapore if you live in a flat, the rubbish chute is where you dump your rubbish. In very old flats, the rubbish chute is inside the flat. Mine is a shared rubbish chute with my neighbours located a few steps outside my flat. On that fateful day, I made a bad mistake of throwing a bag of trash that was way too big for the rubbish chute opening. I ended up jamming the door which couldn't close completely and it couldn't open either. The sensible thing to do would have been to call up the town council to fix it. But I opted to do the stupid thing. I used both my hands to yank the door open. And yes, I managed to pull the door open but the force from the impact of the door opening suddenly sent me flying backwards and you guessed it - it aggravated my bad shoulder. The pain was so bad I thought I was dying. I squatted down howling like an animal. Eventually the pain subsided but the damage was done. The good news though is I managed to free my trash down the chute and the rubbish chute door was not damaged.

At first I didn't see a doctor because you know what doctors say about injured shoulders? Do nothing, it'll heal on its own. So with that wisdom in mind, I left my shoulders alone. Which was a very big mistake because my left shoulder slowly became very bad to the point where every little thing made it worse, causing great pain. It felt almost random. Like if someone touched my shoulder, if hubs sneezed (he sneezes a lot), if my shoulder touched a chair, if someone brushed past my shoulder, if someone pulled my left hand, if I moved my left arm an inch, if I breathed deeply, if I turned...

One day I told myself I had better find myself another physiotherapist because on its own, my condition was getting worse. I went to this clinic which I go to for health checkups and you know what the doctor said? Do nothing. It'll heal on its own. But he did refer me to the clinic's physiotherapist. Unfortunately, physiotherapist services at this clinic is not subsidized so it costs about 100 bucks each time. But since it's not subsidized, I could literally see the physiotherapist as many times as I wanted. The thing is the physiotherapist only came fortnightly so there was a waiting time to get my first appointment which was in end March.

Now this story would have a happy ending if I hadn't been impatient. After my first visit to the physiotherapist, my pain was slightly reduced and he confirmed I have a frozen shoulder. A very bad one but he said it's treatable. I was given a few exercises to do at home and I started to feel hopeful. Unfortunately, my next appointment was more than a month away. I felt very desperate and decided to see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor (sinseh) for acupuncture. After all, the doctor had suggested acupuncture at a hospital but I rejected it because I had been there before and the experience was not good.

There is a traditional Chinese medicine clinic near where I live and I made an appointment. The sinseh I saw spoke English so I was rather relieved and maybe trusted him more. He placed a few needles on my arm and shoulder plus a couple on my right foot near my toes. He explained that there's a meridian relationship between the injured area and the non-injured area. Anyway, after the acupuncture, he asked if I wanted a massage (tui-na) of the injured areas. He said why not try his method and see if it worked. This sinseh was convinced I did not have frozen shoulder. He said I had injured certain muscles around my shoulder. Anyway, the tui-na was super painful. He basically felt around my shoulder/arm that hurt and rubbed away. I felt sore as hell afterwards but after 2 weeks the pain went away and believe it or not, I went back to the sinseh a second time for the same treatment.

This time though, things didn't go so well. Firstly, before the sinseh inserted the needles on my right foot, he didn't do it near my toes like the last time. Instead he pressed and rubbed very hard on my front right ankle. It was crazy painful and I told him so. And the sinseh said that the pain told him he was hitting on the correct spot. Then he placed a needle on the very painful spot (created by him). It was unbearable and I told him I couldn't take it. So he took out the needle and put it on another location. The rest of the acupuncture went as normal. After that, he tui-na my shoulder/arm as before. Except, this time he sounded a bit lost as if he didn't know what the hell he was doing. He would press and ask, this hurts right? When I said no, he would dig around for another location and kept on until he found a spot that hurt and he would rub until tears came to my eyes. I don't know why I trusted the sinseh despite all the pain he was giving me. The next day I could tell the sinseh had worsened my shoulder/arm. The pain was so unbearable and wouldn't go away for weeks. On top of worsening my shoulder, the sinseh also injured my right ankle which was fine before. Could this get any worse?

Yup. One day I discovered I couldn't eat without getting stomach pains and bloating. It got so bad even a drop of water could cause me great discomfort. The good ole' gastrics was back. It was probably due to all the painkillers I had been taking. Plus the stress from the shoulder pain. I stopped taking painkillers immediately and went on gastrics medication for a month. After a month or so, I could finally eat like a human being again. Honestly during the month I couldn't eat and I was also still in pain from the shoulder, waking up each day all I could think of was: another day of pain, another day of suffering. I really hated being alive. How I managed to go through each day without painkillers is beyond me. It's all a blur to me.

Over the years I've taken my fair share of painkillers. Doctors have warned me about the dangers. Well, it's finally come to bite me in the ass. Recently, my doctor told me that my test results say that my kidney may be impaired. They don't know what caused it but I can't take strong painkillers anymore. Panadol is all I'm allowed from now on. The kidney issue can be taken care of with medication so it's not like I will lose my kidney right away. At the moment it's still wait-and-see. After the next test results, the doctor will likely prescribe me some kidney-loving medication.

Well, I learnt my lessons and decided to stick to the physiotherapist. He's patient and his skills are decent. If only he's a miracle worker...If only I didn't have to pay almost a hundred bucks per session... At first I saw him fortnightly. In May, he started coming to the clinic once a week so I jumped at the chance to see him weekly. Hubs nearly fainted when he saw how much I had spent on my treatment.

So far I have recovered some movements and flexibility. I have a long way to go before I could consider myself fully healed. Due to long period of not using my left arm, my muscles had become very weak. So apart from recovering my arm flexibility, I had to work at rebuilding my muscles. Every day I have to do some specific exercises. Each time I do the exercises, especially the harder ones, I risk aggravating my injury. The thing is I have to bear with some pain but not push it too far. It's tricky. I have injured myself a few times. Some weeks it is 1 step forward, 3 steps backward. Once I injured my back. Fortunately it got better after a few weeks. Some weeks, especially when I don't see any progress, I feel like a frail mess. I try not to think about all the things I cannot do. Instead I think about all the actions I've regained. That way I don't feel like so pathetic.

After a lot of hard work, perseverance and pain, I am now able to do the following:

hang laundry (boo)
cook independently
bake (hubs has to carry the mixer for me)
cut fabric (it's still awkward when I spread out a large piece of fabric)
remove my T-shirt the way humans do over their heads (I had to wear very loose T-shirts and remove them like a skirt. Sad)
hug someone (yay for my daughter)
tolerate hub's sneezes (no more pain every time he sneezes!)
wash my hair with 2 hands
clean my right armpit (woo hoo!)
use the rotary cutter (I almost cried)

On my wish list are just 2 things I hope to do even if I don't achieve full recovery (touch wood):

sleep on my left side
swim (breaststroke)

Lately I've started using my left arm more. Definitely no heavy lifting but really just to use my left hand naturally when I go about the day. I've also been sewing quite a bit.

This sleeveless shift dress I actually made just before my shoulder got really bad. I tried it on and had a hard time removing it because there's no zipper or buttons. The fabric is a Ikea remnant I had bought years ago. The neckline and armholes are finished with bias binding. I included one pocket. Why not 2? I forgot why. The edges are serged and I wish I had taken the trouble to change the serger thread to white. To draft this dress, I followed PatternLabLondon's youtube video. You need to have Adobe Illustrator tho'. Honestly, drafting patterns on paper is a lot faster. I gave this dress to my daughter who says she'll wear it a home.

After I had sewn a Gemma top for myself in January, I wanted to sew one for my daughter. (even though she hadn't asked for it). I think I sewed this in March and back then my arm was still in bad shape. It was really hard handling the fabric with a bad arm. Fortunately it's only a blouse so it took me maybe a week to complete. I'm so pleased the serger thread matched the fabric. Sadly, my daughter said she may not wear the blouse because it's sleeveless. I do hope she gets over the phobia of wearing sleeveless clothes like I have.

This gingham shift dress (pattern from Christine Haynes Skirts and Dresses book) was my first attempt at sewing after regaining some flexibility. My left arm was still pretty weak but I could move it around and it did its fair share of the work. It took me one whole week to complete the dress. I don't know why I chose this pattern. Is it hideous? It's pretty shapeless but it was an easy sew. Anyway, I made the mistake of using this thin fabric so it's a bit see-through. My daughter says she'll probably not wear it because it's too see-through. My bad. I haven't tried on this dress because I'm not confident I can get out of it. Yup, another no zipper, no buttons dress. The sleeves aren't cut separately so no finishing required. The neckline was finished with bias binding. The raw edges were serged and again I wished I had changed the serger thread to white.

My daughter said if I were to sew anything new for her, it must have sleeves. So I worked on a pattern for a blouse with inset sleeves. Getting the fit right took ages. It's still not perfect but it's not too bad. I wanted this blouse to be a top she could wear to work so I chose a light colour. The fabric is calico with white print. The closure is invisible zipper. The neckline is finished with facing. I made the mistake of cutting the facing too narrow and it couldn't stay down naturally so I had to hand tack it all around. What a rookie mistake. For this blouse, I made the effort to change the serger thread to white. It took me 2 whole days - 1 day to thread it correctly and 1 day to recover.

The last item I made is basically the blouse with sleeves and invisible zipper but lengthened with 2 pockets. I took the trouble to change the serger thread to grey and this time it only took me a few hours. My daughter prefers the dress with a belt as she doesn't like to wear shapeless dresses. When I was a hot young chick back in the days, I wore this kind of dresses all the time. I cut the neck facing wider for this dress and it lay down obediently.

My next project is likely to be a shirt or blouse with buttons. This shirt no.1 which I made in 2018 and never wore became invaluable to me during the period when I couldn't remove T-shirts over my head. Suddenly clothes with buttons were badly needed. I only have 4 buttoned shirts and shirt no.1 with buttons very quickly became my favourite. Who knew this shirt would come in so useful? Since I've come to love buttoned shirts, I would like to make one for my daughter. Hopefully she won't reject it! See you in my next post and I pinkie promise not to bitch about my frozen shoulder anymore.

February Things

2021-03-07T18:37:00.001+08:00

This photo above sums up my February. I pretty much spent most of my time bead weaving. What happened was I went to see a doctor. Next thing I knew, all my beading supplies were on my table, the floor, everywhere. Okay, let me explain.

Most of last year I had been bitching about this thingy on my face about an inch below my left eye. I had worsened it by applying a pimple cream and I ended up with an allergic reaction resulting in me having to take antibiotics and anti inflammation meds for a week. I finally got my appointment with a skin doctor. She took one look at the thingy and said she knew what it was and it's harmless. It's called keratosis and is caused by long term exposure to the sun and ... wait for it, aging. So all those thousands of times I had gone running and frolicking in the swimming pool, I was exposing myself to these thingies. The good news is it can be removed easily. The bad news is since it's harmless, I have to pay private rate as the government does not subsidize cosmetic procedures. It costs a total of $310.30 including 7% gst. I agreed to the ransom amount (they made me sign a letter saying I agreed to pay the amount!) and the magic of private rate is I was scheduled for the procedure 3 days later. The doctor asked if I wanted to have the thingy tested but the test costs over a hundred bucks and if I agree to the test I have to agree to paying up to $500 for any subsequent tests. Common sense prevailed and I declined the test.

Hubs went with me to the clinic because I was a bit nervous. Here's me before the procedure.

Here's me after the procedure which took maybe 10 minutes. The doctor used a tiny spray "gun" connected to a machine filled with liquid nitrogen (I think) and a lot of smoke is generated during the procedure which is sucked up by a vacuum cleaner (not the domestic kind). The liquid nitrogen "burns off" the thingy tho' there's no actual burning of skin. During the procedure, my whole face except for the thingy is covered. I also had my mask on over my mouth. It was a bit suffocating but I could endure it because it was so quick. The doctor used the mirror to show me what my new skin looked like and it was not pleasant. It's what your raw skin looks like when the upper layer of skin is removed. The area burned off had to be slightly larger than the size of the thingy so that was a big negative.

The caring for the wound was hard. Serious hard. The first day I had to avoid having any water touch the wound. So I didn't wash my face at all and when I brushed my teeth, I wore a mask over wound. The plaster had to stay on for one day. Late at night my daughter noticed some bleeding outside the plaster. This was unexpected. The doctor hadn't mentioned any bleeding. She made it sound like a blister will form immediately and I'll recover easily. It became quite nightmarish after that. I noticed the wound was weeping a lot. So I had to constantly dry it. I still kept the plaster on. From day 2 to day 6, I had to apply antibiotics on the wound 3 times a day. Omg. I really dreaded cleaning my face. First of all, I couldn't use any soap on the wound. So believe it or not, for 6 days I only washed one side of my face and used a towel to wipe the other side. Obviously, I didn't wash my hair as well! Thankfully the Universe was on my side and the weather was cool so I didn't sweat at all. Until day 8, there was always a little weeping and very tiny bleeding. (the doctor never mentioned any weeping of course) The "blister" did form from day 2 save for a tiny bit where the weeping occurred. I think around day 8, I started to feel really good because no more weeping! After I stopped using the antibiotic ointment, I had to apply Vaseline on the wound for a couple of weeks.

Right now the wound has healed completely. The blister didn't get crusted so that was good because you don't want that. The area where the thingy was still has a different colour from my skin, slightly pinkish. It may remain like this forever or not but otherwise, it feels fine. At least it doesn't feel itchy anymore like before. During the period when I was caring for the wound, I had mixed feelings about going for the procedure. Of course I'm glad I went for it but I wished the recovery was easier. The doctor says there's a small chance the keratosis may return. If I'm so unlucky that it'll grow back after all I've gone through, I think I'll live with it. I don't want to go through the weepy wound stage again.

So how did I keep my sanity during the recovery? I couldn't do anything that would result in me sweating or itching so no sewing, knitting, baking or cooking. Bead weaving was the answer. This hobby requires a lot concentration so it was good to occupy my mind with sewing beads and not worry my head off about the wound. Sewing beads is very hard on the eyes. Fortunately my eyes have recovered from the blurriness which happened end of last year. The floaters? Like the doctor said, my clever brain has stopped seeing them. They're still there because if I look at a white screen for long or under very bright lights, I can make them out here and there. Otherwise I don't see them anymore! Isn't that great?

And the problem with bead weaving? Once you start, you can't stop. It is so addictive. In fact, I have dreams of myself bead weaving.

These 3 are Helix bracelets. I learnt the technique many years ago from a teacher in Singapore. Back then I didn't really enjoy making the bracelet because the technique didn't feel natural like I'm always struggling. The method I learnt was a top down method like this. I discovered that I much prefer the bottom up method like this. It's amazing how a simple change of direction makes everything easier.

These are peyote stuff. I'm most pleased with the top two. I've always wanted to try beading around crystals and I managed to do it. It takes a lot of patience! This video explains it quite well or you could just type "rivoli bezel" and I'm sure you'll get plenty of hits.

These two bracelets use right angled weave technique which is a technique I may never master. I don't understand why I don't get it.

These two are ugly. Big beads just don't look good.

I love this brick stitch pendant/ear ring but it was a lot of work. I used this tutorial and I followed the pattern but I had to chart the pattern myself. I almost wanted to give up. I have limited supply of delicas so no matter what these colours had to work together!

And these two are my favourite. I wore them when I went to meet my bff recently and she asked me where I bought them. Isn't that the best compliment?

p.s. I may have gone to Chinatown recently to buy more beads. Help!

Gemma Sleeveless Top

2021-01-27T18:12:00.001+08:00

The decorations hung above my head are a sign Chinese New Year is coming soon.

This year I did not make any sewing plans. As a result, I felt a bit lost. I don't really want to work on any UFO since my last few projects were UFOs. So I'm not entering my store room for a while. After successfully tidying up my store room in 2019, I've once again reverted to throwing stuff inside the store room so opening the door could mean stuff falling on my head. I do have some in-progress bag patterns I've been working on and off on. But I haven't resolved the issue of photo taking. I'm thinking of doing indoor shoots instead of relying on sunlight since I can no longer go to the stairwell to do my shoots. (dog issue) So what's holding me back is my lack of lights. Until I purchase them, my patterns are on hold. Also the space where I keep (dump) my fabric is a big mess. I'm by nature a messy person, so no matter how often I tidy a space up, it gets messed up again. (by me) Anyway, I was looking at the piles of fabric when I spotted this blue white Moroccan trellis fabric print leftover from a blouse I'd made for my daughter.

My daughter hasn't worn the blouse at all. Her reason? It doesn't go with anything. (she has a ton of bottoms) There was enough fabric left to make myself a simple blouse. I chose to make Gemma made by Rae. I've sewn a few Cleo skirts also by Rae so I was confident the top will turn out ok. So no muslin at all. It is a sleeveless blouse which a few years back would be a no-no for me because horror, to expose my bare shoulders/upper arm to the public is unthinkable. When did the no sleeveless blouse rule come about? When I was younger, I loved to wear singlets and sleeveless blouses. I was super thin then. I think after I had given birth, twice, my arms got flabby and I really hated to have them exposed to the point of extreme embarrassment. Recently, my arms became less flabby, by accident because I know I did nothing to make it happen. So yeah, I'm exposing my bare arms. It's no big deal. The sky won't fall down. Right?

As you can see, it's a simple sew. No sleeves, just bias binding (ugh) around the neck and armhole. Except it took me an exceptionally long time to make this blouse. Not because of anything related to the pattern. It was my serger who decided to be a crybaby. I accidentally got the upper looper thread snagged on something and it broke. Of course rethreading the looper thread shouldn't be so hard right? I only need to watch a youtube video a few hundred times. I watched the video in slow motion. I used my iphone torchlight to make sure I inserted the thread in all the right places in the right order. And the stupid machine would not serge. I threaded and rethreaded over and over for 5 freaking hours. Finally, close to midnight, I told myself I would do it one last time and if it doesn't serge anymore, I'm really going to throw the machine away. And of course my threat worked. The machine gave in and serged beautifully. I still can't figure out what I did wrong/right. Right after it worked, I went to google for a better Janome serger and would you believe there's actually one that threads itself??? It's Janome Airthread 2000D and costs $1,499 in Singapore. It's a bit pricey for me and I can't justify buying one unless I sew a lot of garments. Anyway I thinks it's wiser to be friends with my current serger.

Below are a few photos of me modelling the blouse. I paired the blouse with my favourite $12 Decathlon pants.

Overall, I like the fit of the blouse. It's not super fitted because this is woven fabric, not knit. It's comfortable and most importantly, my underarm flab does not get exposed. I don't really like that the blouse gives me a slight pear shape. I have a small hip so I can't imagine what it does to women with larger hips. Maybe if I make the blouse shorter?

I do have one big dislike of Gemma. The curvy bottom. It was a big pain sewing the hem. In the end, I did it by hand and I still couldn't get it to lie perfectly flat.

screen grab from made by rae

Gemma can be cropped as a crop top, have a ruffled bottom, or made into a dress. I'm most excited about making Gemma into a dress and am already auditioning fabric. I'm least excited about the ruffled bottom because um, I don't know any woman who would look good with a bunch of ruffles around the hip which make the hip look 10X bigger. Maybe someone stick thin?

Pattern details: I sewed size M (A/B cup size) but I used size L for length because I have a long body. The PDF comes with cup C/D size for the Front Bodice as well so it's actually a good idea to look at the layout and print only the pieces you need.

See ya!

A Polar Bear In The Sun

2021-01-13T17:44:00.001+08:00

It's been raining on and off, sometimes continuously for over a day, for weeks and as a result, it is extremely cold in Singapore. When I say extremely cold, I mean cold to a person more accustomed to living in 30 deg C kind of temperature. Last night it was around 23 deg C when we went to bed. My daughter wore a hoodie over a T-shirt, lounge pants, SOCKS and covered herself with 2 quilts, one of which is king size and super thick. Hubs wore a long sleeved shirt to bed which is unprecedented. As for me, I'm the one who's most afraid of the cold and since December, I've been going to sleep wearing a sweater and covering myself with a quilt and 1 blanket. I don't wear long pants at home tho' because I like my legs to feel cool. My son is a walking furnace so he doesn't feel cold.

Last week I finished this quilt which I started in 2018. It is a reverse applique of Inuka, a Singapore born polar bear. He was the world's only tropical polar bear and obviously it sounds very wrong. If you're interested, you can read about Inuka here.

In the beginning, I wanted to keep the quilt minimalist. I started with the fur of the bear. I didn't want the embroidery to stand out so I used white sashiko thread. I would have preferred the thread to be as close to the colour of the calico as possible but white is all I have. The effect I was going for was texture, texture and more texture. I used nearly the same embroidery stitches as the ones employed for my cat quilt. During the period I was embroidering the body of the bear, I just had issues with my aging left eye - floaters, blurriness and I wanted to take my mind off my stupid dem eye. It worked!

This kind of freestyle embroidery is just right for less than perfect eyesight because you don't need any patterns, just stitch and fill up the spaces. How do I decide which stitch to use? Well, what I do is I sew the big motifs first and place them scattered around. Then I work on the vine, running, etc stitches to fill up the empty spaces. When I can't think of an appropriate stitch, I just use running stitches. You could say it's my go-to stitch.

I avoided putting anything in the blue sky because remember, minimalist? So just running stitches using sashiko thread. Well, just so you know, I had considered hanging a banner of fishes across the sky.

I don't know what happened but one day I thought it was weird the bear was lying on a dark blue fabric. I wanted to depict ice. Next thing I knew, I was going through my sequins stash (everyone has one, right?) and found the perfect sequin. I had no choice but to try out a few sequins just to see. I anchored the sequin down with a small white matte bead. It was smaller than what I had in mind but I couldn't allow myself to run down to Chinatown to buy more beads. So I made do. I sewed the sequins between end of last year and the first 2 days of 2021. So while folks were ringing in the new year, there I was sewing sequin, bead, knot, sequin, bead, knot. Around 30ish sequins in, I massively regretted the idea of sparkling ice but it was too late to back out because I did not want to do any unpicking. So I soldiered on, sequin, bead, knot... Grr. Why do my "brilliant" ideas often end up very tedious to implement?

I added the sun because I wanted to call the quilt "A Polar Bear In The Sun" and also, Janet Bolton. I did exercise great restraint and did not add in any sun rays.

There were a number of issues with the quilt, partly because I had no idea what 2018 Jane was thinking but some parts of the quilt were single layer and the rest double layer. The polar bear was on a single layer of calico and while I was embroidering, I neglected to put another layer of fabric to stabilize it. As a result, there was a bit of puckering. I semi solved it by sewing tiny running stitches on the puckered fabric. Another issue is using calico as the layer underneath is not a good idea for a larger quilt as there's a lot of puckering in the sky so it looks untidy.

For the backing, I used a gingham fabric I had bought to sew binding on one of my daughter's blouse and I have so much of it left. For the binding, I used some scrap my mother had given me ages ago. I don't know where my mother gets her scraps but her fabric is always tightly woven and quite hard to sew through.

Overall, I'm happy with this quilt. I wanted a quilt that says texture and this quilt pretty much screams TEXTURE. I've managed to keep it simple despite the sequins. I enjoy looking at this quilt a lot even though it's soooo hard to photograph. And it's such a great feeling to finally finish this quilt. My first finished item in 2021!

2020 Round Up

2021-01-04T19:31:00.000+08:00

Despite everything in 2020, I crafted a lot.

My biggest leap in skills was in knitting. It went up at least one notch. I started the year finishing 2 lace scarves. I don't think I like knitting projects which take years to finish. My thang now is knitted toys which are not only fun but fast to knit up. My only fear is I'll injure my hands. Anyway, I won't be able to do any knitting until my left shoulder heals completely. I cannot wait to knit more toys.

I had planned on making lots of garments but that did not happen because hubs had to work from home and took my sewing table as his work table. My daughter worked from home for a number of months and she was very strict about noise so I gave up using the sewing machine for many months. My son too had to study online and there were also group calls and twice a week, he worked as a student advisor on a couple of modules. So more silence required. It was very stressful being cooped up at home and remembering to be quiet. I've never been shushed so many times in my life. (I'm pretty noisy)

I am very happy to report that when my daughter took on a temporary holiday job teaching kids coding and had to wear working clothes, she wore the 2 polka dot A line flare skirts a lot. She wore the yellow/orange blouse a few times but the white/blue blouse, she did not wear a single time. Of course, she bought a ton of clothes as well. I am certain she has more clothes than Imelda Marcos.

Last year I worried a lot about my kids. I know they're young adults already but I never stop worrying about them. My son struggled quite a bit in the last semester. His journey to university has been a very long and difficult one. I was naïve to think the struggle is over once he entered university. Thankfully, he managed to pass all his modules. As for my daughter, she had to do her internship which is a pass/fail module. I know she suffered a lot. The worse part is me and hubs couldn't do anything to help her. I'm just glad she found the strength to overcome her difficulties and managed to pass her internship. I look forward to the day when I stop worrying about the kids. I must ask my mother who has 9 kids how she did it. COVID-19 killed my daughter's dream of studying one semester in Canada. I don't know about my son's overseas summer immersion program yet. It's probably not going to happen either. It's bad news for the kids but good news for the parents. We save a lot of money.

I didn't think I had the ability to produce any bag patterns as it became clear I had to take all my photos indoors instead of in the stairwell as I usually do. In one of my bedrooms, I discovered a golden hour period when I could take photos by the window. So using that golden hour period, standing on the bed, bouncing a little trying to balance and also trying my best not to fall to my death out of the window, I managed to take all the photos I needed to publish 2 patterns. Maybe in the future, I should consider buying proper lights and take my photos at home instead of using natural light.

I don't have big plans for 2021. Just going to spend the year quietly, mind my own business, keep fit, lose some weight, stay alive and try not to lose any organs. Of course I'll be knitting, sewing and baking every now and then.

December

2021-01-02T19:24:00.000+08:00

I was going to keep very still in December hoping nothing bad happens to me while I sneak into 2021. No such luck. The Universe is screwing with me!

Mid December, I woke up one morning and realised there was something wrong with my left eye. It was seeing sparks, masses of floating thingies and there was a translucent thing covering my vision. I'm a bit puzzled why these symptoms did not set off alarm bells. Instead I waited to see if they were temporary. So unusually calm of me, right? At lunchtime, I started to go into panic mode. By then, hubs had returned home and together we went to see a GP who said I had to go to the emergency department at a hospital to get my eyes checked immediately. So we went to the nearest hospital, really dreading the long wait. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 situation, hubs was not allowed to accompany me in the emergency room. I think he was rather relieved to go home and take a nap. By the time I had my eyes diagnosed and discharged, I had spent a total of 6 hours there. The eye doctor said what was happening to my left eye is a natural aging process. (my ass!) I was experiencing a rather acute version tho' probably made worse by a small bleeding in the eye. The important thing is my retina is unharmed and I wasn't going blind. The bleeding is very small so the eye will heal itself. The bad news is there is no fix for the floaters or translucent thing blurring my vision. The sparks or flashing light had stopped by the time I saw the doctor which is good because I was told that's a bad thing to happen to your eye. Over time, the blurriness could get better on its own or not. The floaters are permanent. The good news is the brain can be trained to not see the floaters. What kind of good news is that? Since then, I've gone back for another check-up and my retina is still fine. So yay, not going blind. As if to console me, the eye doctor said she sees floaters as well. Now how does that help me? Also, the same shit may happen to my other eye as well. Thank you doctor, I needed that info!

It's been a little over 2 weeks since the floaters came and the doctor is right. Over time, I've been able to ignore the floating critters especially when I'm focused on something. Once my mind wanders, I see the floaters again. The blurriness has lessened quite a bit. The thing is the eye-aging-process is still on-going, taking its own sweet time. It hasn't quite stabilized yet. Recently, in the morning when I open my eyes, first thing I see is a million black dots. They look like black dots but I think they aren't actual black dots. I see them from both eyes. They last from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Then they either disappear or my eyes stop seeing them. It's very weird and irritating. But I think it's not time to worry about them yet. The eye doctor said to run back to them if I see flashing lights continually, my eyesight gets blocked or a new mass of floaters appear.

So I didn't manage to exit 2020 gracefully. I wanted to enter 2021 like a boss but it's more like I stumbled in. Damn! Despite all the shit 2020 has thrown me, I'm not depressed and am feeling rather optimistic about the future. After all, I'm still alive and in one piece. I survived 2020!

Believe it or not, I was quite productive, craft-wise in December. I decided to focus on finishing my UFOs because I didn't want to carry them forward another year.

I had this piece of white cotton canvas I had painted on which I started to rescue in 2019. I slapped on 3 birds and a sun and I call it "I thought it was Gingham Friday." Anyone get the humour? I laughed my head off when I came up with it. Are you sick of my bird, sky, sun quilts? This won't be the last one...

This quilt can be viewed from 4 different directions. (in case you didn't figure that out)

Next, this cat cut-out from a previous 2019 project, I had left under a table forever. I removed all the dust, washed it and forced something out of it.

I decided to focus on the cat and sewed my favourite stitches to cover up the whole cat. The idea was to have a heavily embroidered cat wearing the embroideries like tattoos. There were a few stitches I wasn't entirely happy with but YOLO. The title of this quilt is "Cat On A High". Not clever but I couldn't think of anything suitable. (the fish/balloon is a hallucination)

I added the fish because I view my quilt as a single-panel "comic strip" so a little humour is always attempted. My humour is heavily influenced by Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side. Is it obvious?

I had some regrets about the choice of fabric for the backing. (the method a la Janet Bolton) I wished I had a light blue polka dot because I thought it would go better with the front but I wanted to strictly keep to using my scraps and not BUY MORE FABRIC!

This heart themed embroidery thingy I started in early 2018 but lost complete interest in. I had zero inspiration so I made it into a cushion.

Since this is a use up my scrap project, I crazy patched the back of the cushion. And of course, crazily, I liked the back more. I call this "Crazy Heart". I worked on one more UFO art quilt and it's almost finished. I'll show it once the binding is in.

On December 28, Singapore bravely (or crazily) went into phase 3 of reopening. Yup, just as cases are exploding around the world, we're relaxing our measures. Masks are still mandatory but we can dine out in a group of 8, previously only 5 allowed. There are other relaxation on the capacity limits of premises, live performances, congregational and worship services. Only time will tell if going into phase 3 is a mistake. Vaccination against COVID-19 has begun, starting with high risk health workers. Elderly, 70 and above will get vaccinated from February. As I am not a health, frontline worker or elderly, I will have to wait for my turn but it will happen sometime this year. The vaccination is free and voluntary. Interestingly, the government does not want pregnant women and anyone under 16 to get the vaccination until more data is available. I wonder what percentage of eligible people will reject the vaccination? SEE you soon in my next post.

September, October & November

2020-11-29T16:09:00.000+08:00

It's been almost 3 months since my last post. Nothing much is going on in my life. It's pretty boring. I'm beginning to question the meaning of life. I'm hoping something shiny catches my eyes soon...

I've kept up the stellar performance of injuring another body part. My left arm/shoulder. One day I bought a sleeveless dress and I told hubs it made my arms look flabby. He suggested I do my exercises using weights. I may have been too enthusiastic because at the end of the day I realised I had seriously hurt something. For a while I had trouble putting on my clothes and reaching for the toilet paper which happens to be on the left. But over time it slowly healed. Right now, my left arm still has some limitation in movement but it's not as bad as before. I saw a gp who said I have tendinitis and it will heal on its own but it'll take a few months. I have an appointment to see a physiotherapist soon. Hopefully I get assigned someone who knows how to fix my problem. Weirdly, my arms grew less flabby the last few months.

So, you know the thing on my face below my eye? The skin imperfection thingy. I managed to make it worse. I maaay have tried another skincare product and now the thing has become 3 things. One day I went out to look for more products to try and in one skincare shop, after seeing my 3 thingy, the sales person literally shoved me out of the shop saying, we have nothing here that can fix that. You should see a doctor. I tried again in another shop and the same thing happened. Finally I had a gp take a look at the 3 thingies and she too was perplexed. She said I had better go see a skin specialist. So now I'm on the waiting list. It'll probably be a few more months before I get to see one. Meanwhile, I think I'm not going to worry about it anymore. And I promise to leave it alone.

One day I told hubs I'd been experiencing pain in my right ribs below my right boob. Hubs googled and said maybe it's my liver. The pain was persistent and I started to imagine maybe I have a tumour and I wasn't ready to lose a liver yet. So I went to the polyclinic. After a 3 hour wait, I saw a nice doctor who listened to my craziness. Well, after poking me here and there, he said he believed I was suffering from gastric. He was very sure of himself. He said gastric is an issue with people who do not have gall bladder - like moi. So I trusted him and took the medication he prescribed for 2 weeks. The pain disappeared. I became careless and ate evil food again - beef tacos. It was ONE beef taco. I don't even like beef tacos. It's $3. That's why hubs bought them. And just like that the pain came back. I'm so sick of my lousy stomach and incapable digestive system. It's been decades of issues after issues. Meanwhile, it's back to oatmeal, bread, boiled eggs and veges.

In Singapore, wearing masks is still mandatory outside our home. It looks like it will continue to be mandatory for many more months or even a year more. It's bad news for me because I have developed mask-itch. My skin becomes super itchy whenever I have a mask on. Once the itch gets triggered, I itch even when I don't have my mask on.

This soothing cream is literally keeping me sane. If I don't have this cream, I'll never be able to go out.

I've stopped knitting because of my left arm and then the itch. I'm dying to knit again but I think it's better to wait till next year when my skin gets better. I don't know if other people feel the same way. I keep thinking 2021 will be better. But chances are it's going to be same-same in the first few months of 2021.

Recently, it was announced that 2021's Chinese New Year bazaar at Chinatown is cancelled. I'm thinking Chinese New Year should be cancelled as well. I can't imagine what's going to happen if we get another wave. On Thursday, it was made public that a man who tested positive for covid-19 had dinner with 12 family members 2 days earlier in a restaurant! His case broke our 16 day zero locally transmitted case streak. Since we have a 5 persons rule per table for dining out and no mingling between tables, the man's family broke the no mingling rule. This is a typical selfish behaviour by humans who don't give a shit about others. The guy who tested positive works in a high risk environment yet his attitude is reckless. I'll bet the whole of Singapore is scolding him. Last night, there was another community case. It seems the person was previously infected but did not know about it. She was picked up due to the govt's surveillance of stallholders at selected markets. Now this is scary. The virus has been circulating in the community but no one got sick enough to see a doctor. Which means that our previous 16 day zero locally transmitted case streak was a false indicator. The committee in charge of covid-19 in Singapore's going to have nightmares in February during the Chinese New Year period.

I sewed a dress and a pair of Mary Janes for Carlos. I like the idea of sewing little things for dolls but the actual sewing can be frustrating. I wish I could do more for my growing doll family. But I lack patience.

I wrote a new pattern - Easy Hand Sanitizer Holder. I don't know if it's something people would need but I wrote it anyway. It's for beginners!

There's a 30% discount off all bag patterns in my Etsy shop. Ends 3rd December.

See you next month.

July & August

2020-09-06T20:14:00.000+08:00

I'm so happy it's September because the past two months haven't been good.

Firstly, my right heel suddenly stopped working. Like one day I couldn't even step on my right foot. Due to COVID-19, I've not gone running at all because you can't wear masks when running and I don't want to take any chances as the running area I go to is packed with humans. One day I got sick of my ever growing tummy and I decided to go for a long walk at the canal. Since I'm only walking, it's fine to wear masks. At first I walked a short distance of around 3 to 4km. Then I got fitter and the distance increased to 8km. My son got interested and joined me on the walks. We walked every day. I guess I walked too much because my right heel hurt so bad I couldn't walk anymore. Hubs said he had a similar injury before and he recovered from it so I felt less anxious. I checked out some youtube videos and religiously followed some heel exercises and massages. After a couple of weeks, my heel did get better. Now I'm all good but I'm cautiously taking it slow and have not gone back to long walks.

Secondly, I had a fermentation incident. I used to do quite a bit of fermentation to make bread a few years ago - water kefir, milk kefir, raisins, grapes, oranges. Then I gave it up because it was tiring. Anyway, recently I wanted to bake bread using raisins fermented water but for some reason, after a week of fermenting, there was no activity. So I tried again this time using grapes. The thing about fermenting with fruits is you need to degas the bottle at least twice a day. I do it 4 times a day to be safe. So it was the 3rd day of fermentation and I was supposed to degas in the morning. There was hardly any activity in the water the day before so I wasn't concerned. Unfortunately I missed the window to go to the kitchen. My son was sitting for an online exam and during the exam, he couldn't have anyone walk behind him. So I stayed in my room until noon when my son came to tell me his exam was over. I immediately went to the kitchen to degas the bottle. Hubs followed me, I think to go to the kitchen toilet and I was talking to him while taking the bottle to the kitchen sink to degas. As I touched the bottle cap, there was a loud explosion and the cap flew out, hit my hand and disappeared into thin air. It was so scary. My son ran into the kitchen to ask what had happened. I was so stunned. Then I realised my hand hurt like shit. There were 2 bruises where the bottle cap had hit. Hubs said if I had pointed the bottle at him, it could have hit him instead. Honestly, I would never point a fermenting bottle at anyone. Anyway, the explosion scared the shit out of me and I guess I'll never ferment any more fruits. By the way, the bottle did not even crack. And we never found the bottle cap. Luckily the bruise was minor and my hand still works!

Thirdly, as you know, it's been mandatory to wear masks in Singapore since April. I've noticed that the area where the mask touches the face can get quite irritable. Anyway, I noticed that I have something on my face below my eye bags that could be a clogged pore or let's just call it a skin imperfection. Because the masks touches it, I get a bit bothered by it and I wanted to get rid of it.

Last Saturday, I used my daughter's pimple cream. I had used it once or twice before but I only used a tiny bit each time. Unfortunately I squeezed too much out, like maybe a 5 cent coin's worth and instead of wiping the excess off, I casually smeared it on my face just below the imperfection. Then I went about my day. For some reason I decided to tidy my fabric stash. I was also babying my sourdough as I was baking two loaves of bread. Anyway, when I touch fabric, it's normal for me to feel itchy. So I ignored the itchy sensation on my face all day as I was touching fabric and flour throughout. Finally in the late evening, I had finished with my dough and I went to wash my face to get rid of the itch. To my horror, I realised that something terrible had gone wrong. Below my left eye, on my face, there was a big triangle of deep angry red. OMG, my skin had become burned. Burned! Hubs and my daughter had just come home and he said it'll go away but I didn't believe him. Also, my skin felt raw, itchy and burned. Burned! Another worrying thing was I could feel my left eye was weird because the redness was quite close to my eye. I felt so upset and anxious I honestly don't know how I managed to sleep. Anyway, I set my alarm clock because the first thing in the morning I was running to my GP. It being Sunday, the GP was only open in the morning. Thank goodness the doctor I like was on duty. He listened to my sad story without laughing and prescribed me 6 different medication and 1 cream. He said the red mark won't be permanent so I felt relieved. After staring at my face a million times, finally on Thursday, the red mark faded. There's still a teeny tiny shadow but I'm sure it'll fade over time. Anyway, my face is already naturally reddish so I think no one will notice. I guess I'm never applying pimple cream on my face ever again.

What else could go wrong huh? Well, all the medication I took gave me a bad tummy so that's a whole other problem.

I hope September will be good to me. I think I need to make better decisions. Seriously.

So what have I made in between my sufferings?

I knitted Kate to keep Kate's kitten company.

I finished my Arne and Carlos doll. It's a boy doll. I'm still unsure about the hair so I'll work on it some more. I love the technique used to knit this doll but I don't love the giant feet and wobbly head. It's hard to dress the doll! The pattern is from Arne & Carlos Greatest Knits.

Last year I spent quite a bit of time on projects to use up my fabric scraps. It didn't decrease my fabric scraps by much but I did end up with a few art quilts which I was rather pleased with. This year I wanted to continue with this project but somehow I wasn't inspired. I'm blaming COVID-19. It sucks all my energy there's none left for creative projects. Recently I remembered I had foolishly painted some calico which had yellowed. So I was staring at the blue calico and all I could think of was sky. What's in the sky? Sun. What else? Birds. Birds fly in the sky towards sun. Then I felt the quilt was too bare and I wanted to channel my applique hero Janet Bolton using her giant leaves in the sky. But at the last minute, I flipped the leaf and it became a balloon. Yup, my ideas for my quilts are usually very simple. I'm naming this quilt: Sky, Sun, Bird, Balloon. For the backing I used my mother's never ending batik. The binding is also a fabric I want to get rid of.

Lastly, the Twin Clutch is new in my shop. And there's a 30% discount off all bag patterns until 8th Sep.

Sweet Sourdough

2020-07-29T20:10:00.000+08:00

Lately I've been happier than normal. The reason? My bread baking has improved. Since I started baking bread, I've had one dream. To be able to bake a Pullman loaf of non-sour sourdough consistently. I do believe I've finally nailed it.

Last year I pretty much stopped baking bread because my bakes were sometimes ok, sometimes inedible. Yup, inedible. After all these years, I should have improved, right? I totally neglected my sourdough starter which had been gifted to me (sorry CL) and one day I threw it away because something scary was living in it. I know people say it's possible to resurrect but no thanks. Not going to touch anything that has black spores. I thought I had a backup in the freezer but someone (could be me) must have thrown it away. So I had to start from scratch. Except my new starter would not double. It would increase just a tiny bit and that was it. I googled here and there and finally I threw in some wholegrain flour. Believe it or not, that was all it took to make the starter double. I've since maintained this starter religiously. It's considered a young starter as it's under 1 year old. Her name is Susan.

Anyway, with the help from a good friend of mine, I started baking sourdough bread again. I managed a few successful bakes and that gave me confidence to bake more and explore techniques and try new recipes. Currently I have a few go-to recipes and techniques which I know will give me a successful sweet sourdough Pullman loaf. I've listed the factors which I believe, (correct me if I'm wrong) are critical to my success. And remember, I live in Singapore which is mostly hot and humid.

1. The starter. It needs to be active. As in, after feeding, it should at least double in 4-5 hours in Singapore climate. I've never achieved triple before. At most, 2.75. Anyway, I'm good with double or 2.5. Also, the starter lives in the fridge when not in use, not on the table top. Another thing I've observed about my Susan is that if I use her after one feeding, I might not get a great bake. She works best after 2 feeding. One feeding the night before and one more in the morning. One day I hope to be able to get a fantastic bake after one feeding.

2. Temperature. In the past, I would bake without thinking about the temperature. Like if the day is super hot, over 33 deg C, and I let my dough proof on the table, after baking, the bread will have this weird texture and taste. So now I either bake on a cooler day or proof in the fridge. This year, there were a number of weeks when the temperature was cooler like 26, 27, 28 deg C and I made sure to bake on those days. My bread turned out great despite proofing on the table all day long.

3. Sufficient bulk fermentation. Under fermenting was the biggest issue with my past failures. How long do you bulk ferment your dough? For me, I've learnt to rely on one method which is idiot proof. I know from experience how much dough goes into my Pullman tin. So I get the dough weight right. And I bake only when the dough reaches the top of the tin. That's my way of knowing the bulk fermentation is done. Usually it takes about 5 to 6 hours. If whole grains are in the mix, it'll definitely take a lot longer. As I haven't worked with whole grains much, it's still an area I'm exploring and learning. If I were baking buns, I use the poke test. I poke the side of the dough and if the dough bounces back quickly, it's too soon. This method is very subjective. But so far my buns have turned out well although a bit on the small side.

4. Reliable recipes. Some recipes suck. Fact.

5. Sugar. This is the magic ingredient. Feeding sugar to your sourdough starter will take away the sour in your bread. Try Autumn Baking Diary's non sour sourdough bread recipe (15th June 2020). She uses this ratio - starter:flour:water:sugar 1:1:1:0.5 which work for me. (For some starter which continue to taste sour, she has an alternative ratio - 1:3:3:1 This ratio I've not tried.)

The result of adding sugar to starter is a loaf of soft and tasty bread without any sourness. The dough is a bit wet so in the beginning it's quite horrifying but let your mixer keep kneading until you hit windowpane stage and you'll get a shiny elastic dough.

6. Milk and sugar. Yup, feed your starter milk and sugar. I stumbled upon a private fb group (you need to request to join) which uses "Herman starter" and it turned out to be a sweet sourdough starter. The flour fed to Herman is plain/all purpose flour. Herman is a surprisingly strong starter. It is more liquid than a regular 100% hydration sourdough starter. After feeding, it rises and falls, rises and falls, rises and falls. You can use it anytime after its show of power. The result is a loaf of soft and tasty bread without any sourness. There are lots of Herman starter recipe in the internet. If you're keen to try the ones I've used which are suitable for Singapore/Malaysia climate, join the fb group and you will be able to access the recipes. Or you could use Autumn Baking Diary's recipe and substitute the starter with Herman. It'll work. I've tried it.

After so many years of chasing sweet sourdough, I've come to discover I enjoy the sour in sourdough. Yup, ironic. My next quest? Sour sourdough? Or the right amount of sour in sourdough?