Graduation

When I am tidying my room this week, I am also trying to tidy all the photos in my laptop, putting them in different folders and stuff and then I came across these cards. I remember making them for my ex-ex-flatmate and my ex-flatmate for their uni graduation last year. I sent them both a card, some flowers and a bottle of bubbly for their big day. I still think finishing uni is kinda a big achievement and after that you are a proper grown up I guess. No more essays and assignments for the rest of your life! ( my first thought!!)

And I think uni is so much fun that I would love to do it again. If I am academicly clever, I think I would like to stay in uni forever, however I am not (not even close to it). Being a student, you have got so much free time and not much to do really , a few hours in the library max if you are approaching the essay deadline, such a great stress free life compared to working life.

Although I don't see my ex-flatmates often now since both of them moved away from 'lovely' Dundee, I still wish them all the best with what they are doing now. They are both very nice girls and lovely to live with. ( and yes, I lived with flatmate from hell before as well)

( I finished typing and editing this post when I am waiting for Argos to deliver my new set of drawers, they said the delivering time is 7am -8 pm. Will the delivery man really come at 8? I am getting impatient now) Time for a cuppa and some biscuits I guess.

Food

I am not really in a crafting mood this week because I am going to rearrange my room so I can fit in a new chest of drawers for all of my, ever expending, craft supplies. So there is quite a lot of stuff lying around just now and I think I will start doing craft again once I have finished tidying them up during Easter. (9 days Easter holiday!! Got sooooooooooo much on my to-do list :D )

I am not in crafting mood but I am in cooking/eating mood(diet plan in the bin?!),I made a few things last weeks and I am quite happy how they turned out.

First, is the ‘Union flag’ shepherd pie. It is my version of shepherd pie, using buffalo mince instead of lamb and I added chilli in it, bascially I changed half of the recipe expect for the mash on the top(!!). I saw this ‘design’ on the cover of Jamie’s magazine a while ago and I thought what a fun idea! Perfect for Queen’s diamond jubilee dinner party. Very British :D

And next up is the ‘ Dinner for the month with Mr. Finnegan’. He chosed ‘My old man supreme chicken’  for his main course. (the original recipe from Jamie Oliver as well) Basically it is a chicken breast wraped with mushroom and pastry. I am a big fan of puff pastry so I think this is great! Even Mr. Finnegan doesn’t really like mushroom. He cleared his plate much faster than me. March mission completed :)

And I made waffle on..Pancake Friday I think..? ha. It was made within Pancake Tuesday week anyway.  With ice-cream and cracking chocolate sauce, yum. ( you can totally see my ice-cream is melting tho.lol)

Even typing this blog post make me hungry! I am actually on a diet right now so i don't look too chubby in my American trip in June. Better head to the gym more ofter I guess. ( Actually I am munching a carmel slide when I am typing this. lol Diet starts on Monday which I said all the time lol)

Going to put some Jason Mraz on then back to my tidying :) Happy Easter everyone!

Black and White in Paris

I am entering my 2^nd a passion for PTI challenge after a great start from the 1^st one(I got into the top 3 passionate last time, woo hoo!!) I think this is a good way to keep me updating my blog and make some cards that are out of my comfort zone! And it is fun:)

This weeks challenge is ‘black and white with a pop colour’, I came up with a black and white idea quite quick, but the pop colour part..I needed to think hard how this was going to match with the simple layout  that I was going to make..

I am not sure why when I think of black and white, I think of Paris, so I used an Eiffel tower image from stamping up and teamed it up with a sentiments set I adore so much from PTI. It is Dawn Mcvey’s signature greetings. This set of sentiments is so versatile. It fitted so well with different themes.

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I embossed the tower and the sentiment to give it a bit of 3D effect (which i know you can't really see on a 2D photo :D) and I used melon pink as my pop colour (to create a romantic effect? ) then I finished it with  a ‘frame’ and some washi tape.Nice and easy in half an hour. ( and another hour to try and clean up all the embossing powder on my desk..!!)

That’s me for just now, I am hoping I am going to be lucky this time and get that coffee mug image stamp coz they are just toooooooooo cute! (My to buy list for PTI is far too long now.. and seems it is not in proportion with my saving!)

Supporting local businesses

I found out on Saturday that Burns and Harris in Dundee was closing down( after 126 years!!!!)..and they were selling all the remaining stock with 70% off. I got myself some great bargains although the shops stock was almost all gone, at the same time I am sad they are closing. I can always go to Hobbycraft and other shops I guess..but I liked the homely feeling of B&H, they always cut the cardboard for me for free and they’ve got some great art stuff. I think it is a shame that so many small businesses in this difficult economic climate  are not able to survive..

So I am going to use this post to support some local business and do a bit of free marketing for them..(ok, I know..i don’t really have 10 million followers and not everyone is living in Dundee..but they are all lovely shops and products that deserve some recognitions..and whenever I like a shop/restaurant in Dundee, I always tell Gary: 'I hope they won’t close down soon' because businesses in Dundee don’t seem to last long..?)

So first up, is Henry’s coffee house. It is just a lovely place in the city centre. I love my starbucks(and all the freebies I get from the starbucks card), but it is good to sometimes go to somewhere else that is less ‘commercial’. I know what to expect in starbucks but going to Henry is more exciting, you always wonder what cakes they’ve got today and what is the soup of the day. All their food is very tasty I would say( They used to serve the soup with a roll and with Lockerbie butter which is one of the best butters I have ever tasted. I think they are available in most supermarkets, the one with salt is more tasty than the one without salt.) And I believe they do live music sessions at night time in the café now. Check their website /facebook page if you would like to know more.

They did a tasting session in the place I work the other day and the owner(Henry?haha) told me they got their coffee beans from that wee little coffee/tea shop in the city centre( you will know what i mean if you live in Dundee,that old old fashion coffee/tea shop!). Local businesses supporting each other, thumbs up :)

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Then they next one is Mrs.Bridge. I guess they are quite famous already and you can see them in quite a lot of food shops. I found out actually they are based in Arbroath and they do lovely gift sets when you purchase online. I ordered a few sets for Christmas and they came with a very presentable gift bag and their products are very yummy. I used to buy the garlic mayo all the time and Gary told me the chutney i got for his family as part of the Christmas hamper went down like a storm in his household. You usually got a discount code from their facebook page for 10% off and you will sometimes get free delivery on special promotions period.

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Give them a try if you are living in Dundee or in the UK. I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

Actually I am bit frustrated from the weekend just past with my blog, I tried to fix my ‘reply’ button on the comment bit, but it is just not working! I think I spent around 3 hours looking for solutions in Google and even try to fixed my HTML (god knows what they are…?!) still no progress (!!). I wish I am a computer geek guru and I should of paid more attention at school when they were teaching all this weird coding thing..

The reason behind fixing the stupid button is that I just want to say thanks for everyone for their comments and encouragement since I started this blog. It is always nice get some feedback.

(and Jeff, I lied to you, I said everyone can leave a comment, actually that’s not the case until I changed my setting 2 days ago..so you can leave a comment now without having a Google account! I learn something new about my blog everyday.lol)

I will try to finish up a few cards and hopfully get another post up later this week and enter a few card chanallege if I can, I totally need to kick the lazy bug out of my body.

Needle and threads

This is my 1^st entry for ‘a passion for papertery’ challenge.

The theme is 'needle and threads'. Um. Tricky. Very Tricky. I don’t have a sewing machine. (!!) I have always wanted one but I just don’t have the space in my room, so thinking cap on!

Then I suddenly remembered I have a set of patterned paper from stamping up! And it is called 'sweet stitching' from last year's cataloge..Bingo!i guess I am going to cheat a bit here and pair it up with a hand sewed flower as the focal point. So i combined some real ‘needle and threads’ and some printed 'needle and threads’in this card. You just can’t see the real needle and threads cause they are hidden in the flower ;D

I made a mother's day themed card since it is almost mother’s day.  Btw, I never really celebrate mother's day in March since my mum is still living in HK and they follow the American tradition and their mother's day is in May..But Hong Kong used to be a British colony?? Not making sense here and I am always confused when I should say happy mothers day to my mum.

Ok, enough blethering. Let's see the card.

I used the colour scheme here:

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And I used the a PTI mat stack 4 die and fillable frames 4's sentiment and mix and match different paper and embellishments, and a hand sewed felt flower.See my pinterest if you would like to know how to make them.

I am having a lazy week this week, started making loads of cards but they are all half finish and they are just lying around (told you I am messy!!)  I guess I need to get my motivation back. I am glad there is more day light now! Can't wait for summer ( i guess i started saying that back in September?)

Pinterest

I will share something else with you today. Craft related but not a real card and it's not home cooking..(because I was too busy watching Downton abbey last week?!!) but it is something combining these 2 great things plus more! is Pinterest!!

What you need to do is when you see somethig you like on the website, you can 'pin' your favourite things on your ‘board’.How fun is this?

These photos just make you smile,they show you how pretty things can be.

So much fun and  full of inspiration. Looking at colours and food makes me happy.. oh..and all the places I would love to go before i die. Georgeous photos.

And I thought I will show you my 'real life pintestest' as well..My receip book and my craft idea book. Old fashoined but i love them.

I made my own craft note book, it is a 99p notebook from 'The Works'! and i got the really prettyrecipe book from paperchase.

You can see i got some recipes from Tesco magazine and some old recipes are from 'i don't even remember where'. I just wrote them down in both Chinese and English. If my granchildren would like to know my secret recipes, they better learn some Chinese :D

And i draw sketches on my craft one. Got some scrapbook sketches in the book as well. I wish I could bring this notebook with me all the time but it is a bit too heavy, I might go and get another lighter one next time.

Oh, so if you want a Pinterest account, let me know so i can invite you and you don't need to get put on the waiting list.

Happy pinning and skteching :)

Love is in the air

When you thought Christmas was not that long ago, here comes valentines’ day. So this is another occasion for cards and some handmade goodies and more CHOCOLATE!

To be honest, Scottish people receive chocolate all year round. You usually have a selection box for Christmas, then its valentine’s day, chocolate bunny for Easter, mother’s day, father’s day, birthday, Halloween, dinner party gift. Chocolate manufactures will never go bankrupt in this chocolate loving country.

I had a light bulb moment a week ago when I was reading the new Jamie’s magazine, I can combine my two favourite hobbies! So this is what I produced. A year free ‘special dinner’ for Mr. Finnegan, which includes most of his favourite dishes and some new receipts for me to try.

Here is how it works, each month, I (the chef) will set out a 3-course menu and he can pick a date, pick the dishes he wants on the menu, then I will cook it and everyone is a happy bunny after.  Great money saving idea (!!) and this is much better than me getting him a rubbish present that he might not even remember next year . ( actually, in my opinion, I never pick rubbish present so that’s  why I am running out of ideas now.)

Of course, you need a card to go with it.

Then here is my next project. Some sweets for everyone on valentine’s day. Oreo truffle. Combine cream cheese with oreo, cover it with dark chocolate and some cocopops toping thingy ( yea..them 'ants' like thing!!) ... Yum.

I read this line on the paper after Richard Branson’s holiday home burnt down last year, and I though this will be perfect to end this blog post.

‎''At the end of the day, what you realise is that all that matters is the people you love. Everything else is just stuff. And none of that stuff really matters.''

So the important message here is, if you don’t get what you want this year, you can always ask for it in the next valentine’s day (!!).