elusivek | Entries tagged with hobby

oomigosh sorry. Life has been just so so so so busy. I guess it's a good thing? Work has been pleasantly busy with ad hoc stupid things happening (the IT email system would refuse to "release" certain emails sent to me... it's just OTPs which I NEED for work related things)

I've been trying to read more and the other day, just for fun, I bought a small 6" ereader from Taobao. It was like... more or less USD $40 for it. The OS is a little funky, it would take some time to get used to it, but, once books are set in there, then it's great. I guess my eyesight is still good, I still think the text is a bit too big even on the small screen. I think if they can go just one point smaller then it would be perfect. I think I'm going to use the tiny ereader for when I go on holiday. It weighs next to nothing (yeah, it's small) and is very convenient to just throw it back into the bag. But then maybe I'll think it looks more like a phone and then prefer to bring the larger devices again. Dunno. We'll see?

I have been diligent! i have been running consistently lately. Yesterday I even went to a running shoe trial event for a new PUMA model. I will admit it IS indeed pretty comfortable and the rebound made running very eash for the knees, but I didn't buy them. My pair of Nikes are still relatively new so, once I rack up the 500km on them then I will think about getting new shoes. At least now, I know not to limit my search to just Nike.

Here's a few kitty and doggy photos LOL. I'm just trying to play on my Switch, my friends. I got back to Final Fantasy X and I guess I've been a little spoiled by the newer games where we can rotate the view? I kept trying to rotate the view there LOL but view rotate wasn't a thing yet on that Final Fantasy installment. I'm still not where I had stopped in my previous playthrough on the PS2 (never finished because the disc later skidded and would stop at one specific point) and I've already forgotten how unbelievably sad the storyline is. I went ahead and read some spoilers and ooooh it just hits the heart even more.

I've been feeding these kitties that live at the place where I park my car. The black and white one (Tuxedo cat?) is pretty friendly with me now, he would come up to me and rub my legs as I'm preparing his dinner. I can also touch him now but only for a bit, touch him a bit longer and he eyes me with contempt and walks away. The other tiger stripe-y brown-grey is still super wary of me. Can't see if it's a he or she, it would come up to near me for the food but would run away as soon as I look at it. There's actually a third black and white cat that is TOTALLY afraid of me, I've only seen that one twice. But I do have a third bowl ready for whenever that one shows up.

And ooooh. I took some time off from my usual ceramic doggies and kitties planters, so that I could use the wheel and throw some items, then learn this, Portuguese Faience.

The flowers and the lemons were the actual thing being taught. You can see I very soon ditched that and started to do my own thing LOL!

Watch on YouTube

It was a Sunday, and it's been a while since we were last in Hong Kong, so my Sis and I figured we'd make a trip out of it for the game Pokemon Go.

I did some homework to see where the event locations would be, and got it in my head a rough itinerary.

Before we left, the kitties hanging around the router (it warms their butts). While I had my early dog walk with Frankie, I saw this Pikachu Tesla (hey it's electric, it's yellow, so... this was a matched design LOL, much like my orange Charmander car).

The ferry ride was uneventful. We got to Hong Kong and took the star ferry to TST side. On the way I got my first event Eevee. See me kitted out in full Pikachu gear. Even my socks were yellow Pikachu LOL.

There was the event location giving out some random (trash LOL sorry) but we got it all the same. We put on the sun visor and I sort of got used to it. We walked along the Victoria Harbour, TST side, and absent-mindedly went to Starbucks with that cap. Got asked by the Barista if we were having fun LOL.

The 1881 was one of the spots. There was some guided tour guy leading a group walking through.

Just having fun with the in-game camera function.

I never actually knew where The Peninsula Hotel was. I thought it was on Island side but apparently it's on TST side. Christmas decor is cute.

This is... Avenue of the Stars or something. They've got a few statues of film sets. There was a Bruce Lee somewhere too, but too many people around that one

From there, we tried to look for the MTR and sort of got to K11 Musea. Made a quick walkaround. There's a small shop making croissants that looked like baubles LOL. We found a restaurant for lunch, ate up, and then made our way to Causewaybay....

Because we found out Windsor (a shopping mall) was doing a Pokemon event too.

The queue for the Pikachu Santa was so long, we decided not to queue for it.

Anyway, we then left, got on the Tram and made our way back to Central, quick walk through Donki, did some shopping in the new(ish) hip(ish) Central Market, and got on an earlier ferry back to Macau because my Sis had a migraine growing.

Inconsequential conclusions: no Eevee shinies for either of us, joined in 2 raids, joined 1 dynamax raid, got a bunch of event eevees and got a couple of other shinies instead.

I've been on a weird Netflix binge in recent weeks. Even before Italy. Hah. Watching NCIS. The funny thing is, Netflix has these markers that shows what episodes you've watched. Apparently, I've watched NCIS before, starting around Season 10, or so Netflix tells me. I decided to watch from Season 1. Familiar faces, interesting cases, intriguing twists.

Once I reached Season 11, the episodes kind of started to sound familiar, so proof that I had watched them once upon a time. But I must say, the early seasons were a lot more interesting. Starting around Season 7-ish it started to turn bland and just some sort of "equation" episodes.

Definitely remember the first time Bishop showed up, I remembered her food-associating quirk, but I don't remember the whole backstory with the terrorist. Shows how much attention I paid before, I guess.

The funny thing was the episode that mentioned Macao LOL. "The Royal Bank of Macao" and the fake Macao banknotes made me laugh, because it was all the design and color of US banknotes. Could have done a little better to be convincing, at least, with the color of the banknotes?

I guess the plan is to watch on? The Netflix markers say I've watched up to Season 13 (Netflix available up to season 15). I really wonder how and when I did watch that. I guess some time ago it was available on Netflix all locations? And then it got restricted to US only, so now that I got a VPN, I get access to the earlier seasons as well? Dunno.

In the pottery class, we were ask to make a "raku" kiln as a group work. After much brainstorm, we decided to make a "Daruma" since it practically is a round-ish shape, the hollowed interior has enough space to put mini clay pieces, and we thought the eyes can serve as those... holes for air circulation to feed the fire.

So, we made this!

But then it needed another hole in the back to feed the gas tube, and the cover for that hole needed a handle, so we made something like a tail... so now this DARUMA looks like a monkey. After painting the front, we decided to paint a butt since there's a tail. Monkey in Japanese is "Saru", so now, we name this raku kiln the SARUMA! I even painted the butt hole.

The master wanted me to search for the monkey of some cartoon and I kept having to add "butt" to the search for reference, eventually I decided to stop searching as the results started to show some kinky cartoon spicey images.

Next week we'll sign our names, then this SARUMA goes into a kiln, and then we are going to make some mini pottery so that we can burn them in this raku kiln.

ah. Well. Yeah yeah. I hardly post about these anymore.

So when Suara announced her Taiwan/Hong Kong tour earlier this year, it was just when Macau finally "unlocked" the borders and I was all "ooooh! A REASON to go Hong Kong!" So, I got myself a ticket. It's a 7pm concert, and at the time I wasn't sure what time it would end, and back then ferry service between Hong Kong and Macau was still shakey, so I went all out and even booked a hotel for the night.

It was all so exciting back in January.

Now that it's tomorrow I have to go to Hong Kong... I.... don't really feel like it.............................................

Ooooops.

LOL.

Sis initially said she'd like to meet up in Hong Kong on the following day, and I said sure, I'd bring her to the place where I bought my jade bangles so she can get hers as well. But just a couple days ago she said she's changed her mind and she not going. Duh. Had I known that earlier I probably would have arranged some activities. There's this Chocolate village thing that I probably would need an entire day as it's out in Ngong Ping (somewhere far from downtown) and I would need to take that cable car I was always curious about. But now it's too late to arrange for those. So. I'm now thinking, what is there to do on the second day with my overnight bag and all that.

Guess I should hunt for a nice lunch place and then find a bookshop or something to sit in and wait for the return ferry (tickets are non refundable/non changeable and such)

And then last night I saw on Facebook that Masami Okui is going to some anime game con in Shenzhen.

(iframe embed doesn't seem to be working on DW.....)

I'm tempted to go, but then July it's gonna be tough. The parents are going to be out of town. I'll need to stick to the morning and night dog walk schedule. It's good that it's Sunday so at least Sis would be home to see to Max for his mid-day toilet break. But I'm still on the fence about it.

I could take the ferry to Shekou, but then IN Shenzhen I'm not sure anymore. The subway/train? Not sure. Taxi? Dunno. Also, payment! I still need to test my Alipay settings (another long story).

She's going to be there for goods sales and some signing. But, so what? I can bring the latest album to her to sign. But then... after that.... so what...? I already have a signed letter and postcard from her.

Why am I so apathetic LOL. Have I lost my passion, my fire for adventure?

Our most recent class was slip casting. So there's moulds, and you pour in liquid clay, let it set a bit, then pour it all out. The master wanted us to try to do layers with colour, so then we can carve the outermost layers and see the inside with another colour.

He had 2 moulds of sake bottles and said we'd take turns to do it. But when the first people were doing it, it was taking a long time, so we went to look for other moulds. I saw this bamboo themed cup or, vessel, or whatever, and figured I'd make a bamboo.

Originally, I had planned a design of dark blue outer layer, then I'd carve a circle to show the yellow moon (second layer colour) against a silhouette of a cat (couldn't decide if remain the cat on the outermost blue layer or let it go in deeper)... but after finding this bamboo cast, I decided, nah.

However, the master only had ready made blue, yellow, red and white porcelain slip. So, he had me mix a colour. Going in blind, I used a lot of an apple green mixed with a bit of dark grass green and a tiny tiny bit of phoenix green (dark blue green kind of thing). I don't know the final colour coming out though. The master said he'd make a cookie to see what the color would be like. Okay...? Meanwhile, I have to get to carving.

Using a bamboo shaped and green coloured thing has rendered my initial moon and cat design moot, so... without much thinking, I thought I'd make a bamboo pattern on the sides.

And then, promptly figured out, the outer layer was a bit too thick. The master said to keep the outer later a bit thicker so we can allow for some mistakes, but this has made carving designs a bit difficult.

Anyway, for now, one side bamboo is done, I have to make the other side next week. It's gonna be a pain though, as just those 3 rods of bamboo gave me a lot of headache already. The other side has 4 sticks of bamboos LOL, I might have to change the design a bit. I'll hunt for my set of wood carving tools and bring them to the next class, I think the carving tools I have would probably be a bit better for what I have to do, and going in so deep (because the first layer is too thick). Next time I know, maybe just keep the first layer slip cast for a minute (he had us wait for more than 2 minutes).

I probably should wait until the whole thing comes out of the kiln before posting, but I'm impatient. I can't wait to see my friend's design though, she was planning on a Van Gogh-esque Starry Night kind of swirls. It's not going to be easy, especially since we have to go in so deep.

I've enrolled in the third "term" of the pottery/ceramics course thingamajig. It's going to start next week. But I figured I should also practice more working on the wheel, as I seem to just not grasp how to "center" the piece of clay.

The master at the workshop had bought some mini wheels from Taobao, so I went on a search for those as well and found them.

Not wanting to work inside the apartment as I was worried the clay-water would splash all over, I set up a temporary station out in the verandah. It was actually nice and therapeutic. Except for when I noticed there was someone on the roof at the opposite building and that gave me a heart attack. They were fixing the terrace.

It was a tad messy in the end though, and cleanup was a pain. I couldn't just flush everything down as the drain isn't working (hadn't been working for the past few years, building management refuse to fix it because it's expensive).

Mom also refuses to talk to the homeowners group because she doesn't want to "raise fights" with them. Well. If that's the case, then I will only passive-aggressively carry the bucket of clay water down, make a big show of carrying it down to the drain in the car park, and when the building guard asked me why I don't just pour the water down the drain, I said "yeah the drain's blocked and the water will just overflow and pour down outside the drain, then everyone down here will complain."

He suggested I pour the water over a drain that's just in front of the building, instead of going down to the car park. I said "Well, I still need a water source to rinse and clean the bucket, so I'll go down to the car park where there's a spray hose. You know, we haven't washed our verandah for a good few years."

It really wasn't the building guard's fault, but if everyone is trying to be polite and avoid confrontation, I can only voice the inconvenience passive aggressively and make a show of how I'm complying to their request of "not washing the verandah" at my inconvenience.

That drainage pipe is actually a "public" drain that all the floors above us will use too, if they wash their verandah. So what happens now is the people up there wash their verandah, the water drains to our verandah, but because the blockage on the public drain has now accumulated to our floor, the water overflows from our level, so the building thinks it's us that's washing our verandah. I want to see when our floor floods then will they concede that it's a public drain or not. Argh but that's boring talk. I was talking about the wheel and practicing one it at home.

Still haven't managed to center the clay properly. But I will continue to practice!

This ceramics hobby is going further than I originally expected.

I really am not a creative person. I don't come up with ideas on the spot. So a couple weeks back when the instructor just suddenly announced "your project is to make a set of 3-piece whatever. Mug, cup, plate, bowl, whatever."

I mean. Had he said that at the end of the previous class, then I could have had the weekend of think about it. But he said that in the beginning of that class, so some thinking had to go on.

And then, he said "you should make use of all the methods I've taught". Well. Geez. So I started out with pinching (the regular molding by hand). He said he was surprised. The other course mates used the roll-out method, which gives a much cleaner finish, because you roll out the clay so it's smooth, whereas if I pinch it by hand some parts are gonna be thicker and some parts thinner.

I made cup. Which now I think it's gonna be a bowl, because I overjudged the shrinkage. You can get blinded because of the cat ears LOL. Then I made a mug with a tail, but the tail broke (physics), so I decided to use it as a flower vase instead and just removed the tail. Then I thought to make a very shallow plate to use it like a fruit display bowl or something. But the instructor insisted the mug with a tail idea is great... so he made me make another one but smaller. And then I made that fruit bowl. All cat themed. I just finished painting the 1 bowl. I've sanded down the fruit bowl. The other mug and vase need a good sanding down. It's going to be so boring. But my brain has come up with an epic (in my mind) painting design for the fruit bowl. So....

Tomorrow's gonna be the last class, but the instructor actually owes us 2 more classes because he got covid in the beginning and delayed the start of the class for a week. Anyway, as my bestie C is going to the next class, and I saw there was still vacancy, I went ahead and registered to go on the next class. Once that's done, I'll join as a workshop member so I can just go and make stuff without classes.

Besides, there wasn't enough time to go on the wheel! I very much prefer pottery throwing than pinching and all those other methods. The pieces come out with a smoother finish when done on the wheel.

Went to a workshop playing with glass, and had to make this glass shade for a candle warmer.

Process>>>>>>>

Cut and sand the glass
I can't imagine how tough it is to cut glass. There's a glass cutter, and we had to cut a section off the glass piece, then lightly hammer on it until it breaks along the cut line. Then it's sanding the sides so it's not sharp.

Then we have to wrap the sides around with... I don't know what it was. It looked like a copper sticker thing. It was a pain because one side of the glass I chose had uneven patterns....

And then it was burning.... i think that's tin? over those "copper" sticked sides and weld them together. The welding part was really difficult to make the sides look pretty, but it's so satisfying seeing that tin adhere to the sides.

My candle warmer lamp in the dark, and under bright lights.

And finally a group shot. Mine's the one on the far left. I think my sis did a very nice color combination. The other two are from my friends. I've kind of regretted my color choice (should have made one of all different colored glass pieces), but I'm not going to make that thing again. So I'll enjoy that thing as it is! So pretty!

I seemingly have a lot of time, but then I am also, at the same time, so busy that I hardly have the time to just write! I constantly have to rush through my tasks then do a quick Wordless Wednesday or do a late Friday Five and the like! But I suppose it's good this way.

Teeth/Braces
They are OFF! Dentist says I'm done with the braces, that the "relationship" between my problem top and bottom molars have their relationship fixed (okay, so braces are like counseling, for teeth, LOL). I just need to use more my left side more for the normal grinding down of my teeth. Right now, the feeling is like when you get your cavities filled and the dentist didn't file the teeth enough, so you feel like you can't completely bite down? This is my constant feeling nowadays, though I noticed the last 2 days seemed better. And even though with my braces out, I supposedly can eat normal again, I'm pretty chuffed that I lost 7kg, so I'd like to keep my eating habits for now. Soup and a bit of bread for lunch. Though, last week was birthday week, so I've been eating a lot more. I don't want to weight in tomorrow LOL.

Birthday
I posted a photo of myself on Wednesday for the Wordless Wednesday... that happened to be my birthday proper, that's why I chose that photo. However, I had used a hair clay that's more for color than styling, and it's white. That photo was taken by the end of the day, so the color probably was a bit off. Here's me earlier in the day. Even if I have to say so myself, I think the distinguished look suits me!

And then, Dad was talking to one of his brothers that night on Skype (dunno which of them). As their conversation was in German, I wasn't paying much attention until I heard my Dad say: (paraphrased from memory, so ignore any grammatical errors!)
Dad: "Kati hat geburtstag" (it's Kat's birthday)
Onkel: "ah, macht Kati vierzig jahr?" (oh, is she turning forty?)
Dad: "Ja, vierzig jahr!" (Yes, forty!)
Me: "Vierzig? Was vierzig? Wie vierzig? Wenn vierzig?" (Forty? What forty? Why forty? When forty?")
Dad: "ahaha! Nicht vierzig?" (haha! Not forty?)

Yeah. For the record, I'm not 40. I don't mind being forty, I mind people being wrong.

My bestie got a kick out of this story, and had her sister make this cake for me: The original design on has the skating girl, but she added a running dog that looks suspiciously like Frenchie. And of course, the message plate. "Noch Nicht Vierzig" Not yet forty LOL LOL LOL. She can make fun of me, but we're the same year, I'm just older than her by 6 months. If I'm forty, she's forty too haha!

Running / Workouts
I've been so busy that I skipped a running session last Saturday. Then yesterday I suddenly had an empty morning, and the sky was really overcast, so decided to grab that chance and go out running... only for the sun to come out and making it unbearable. It's winter. I'm in a sleevless running top.

There's this gym place that I always liked the concept of (Life Project) but the Taipa gym was in the middle of nowhere, and the Macau gym was located in a place that has virtually no parking... however, I have newly found out that the Macau gym has been relocated to a place SUPER convenient for me, practically on the way between home and work. I'm so tempted to join that gym place now. With a premium membership I get credit for 50 group classes, and I can use the facilities all year. They are open from 6am to midnight, and so in my mind's planning, I can drop off my gym back on my way to work in the morning, if there are no classes that day, then I can go there over lunch and walk on the treadmill (I have this habit of walking after lunch, come summer it will be too hot to do so), if there are classes, then I can stop by after work for the class, shower, then get onwards home. Then weekend and/or rainy days I can go use the facilities (treadmill/ellipticals/machines).

I've been good and been doing some yoga and plank exercise every night, but will I have the willpower to actually dilligently go to the gym?

Any spare time that I have that I wanted to just lie in bed and read and chill, but.... the dogs and cat had other ideas... I've finally finished the book I started in November last year. Now i have to decide what to read next to start working on the reading challenge!

Random
Ah... today... I felt like it being Mickey Mouse day... so I had my Mickey Mouse Argyle cardigan, and a pair of Mickey Mouse earrings... but the T-shirt inside is a Totoro T-shirt LOL

After lunch today, I decided to go for a bit of window shopping and use the 20% discount coupon I got at a witchy/culty/gems/spiritual place. On the way there, I saw this old building and snapped a photo of it. Not usually the photographic subject of other people.

Shopping
I got three new tiny stones. I got a Spirit Quartz (far back, white-ish), an Azurite Malachite (middle, blue), and I just forgot the the name of the front one. My sis says it's a pink amethyst, but since the shop is near my workplace, I might just swing by tomorrow again and look. The big stones around (purple amethyst, white crystal, and pyrite in the far end) are stones I had before already. I think this more or less completes my stones display, maybe if I find a green garnet then I'll get it and officially close my stone corner. (Garnet is my birth stone, but I don't really like red stones, so I'm considering a green garnet)

I mentioned in a previous post that I went for another soap making class with my Sis and my cousin. We learnt to make the roseremi pattern soap.

It was fun to think about colors and choosing the stencil. It seems I made a good choice with my stencil choice and the colours I chose... I have... RESULTS! The overall theory is, you place a stencil on the bottom of a cylindrical container, with lines attaching so you can pull it out. After you've beaten up the soap and chosen the colours you use, you start to pour in the coloured soap in whatever sequence you like. I didn't shoot a photo of the cylinder and you can guess from the photos above and below, I kept the same colour sequence throughout. In the end, you pull out the stencil and let the tube just sit for a week to harden.

The soap had to be left to dry out for a week, and today we went to slice them out. It had to be 1 week because if we waited too long, then the soap would have hardened to much and it will be difficult to slice. It was magical, as you sliced each piece, you see the patterns come out. The lady taught us to slice thinner pieces, because this way we get to see more variation of our patterns. Look how pretty they are! I think some pieces look like nice grapefruits LOL!

( There's more! )

It's the week before Chinese New Year. Usually, there are flower markets right about this time, and everyone goes to the flower market to "walk the flower market" (行花市).

With the COVID-19 situation, since flower markets will attract A LOT of people, the government in Macau (and in Hong Kong, that I hear) has decided to cancel the flower markets this year.

So... what happened now is... each florist (and non-florist) is hosting their own flower market!

The most popular flower for the Chinese New Year would be the Orchid. I'm trying to think of the Chinese name and if it links up to anything, but I can't think of anything that pops to my mind. And since I'm lazy, here's a handy website explaining each and everything. I wanted to get a very simple orchid that my Sis got last week, so after lunch today, we made a grand tour of visiting all the florists we know of (and those we don't know of).

About my comment above, "each florist and non-florist" is actually a hilarious truth. Let me explain!

So there are the regular florists and/or flower shops/stores/stalls...

( Read more... )

*ahem* I did say I'll quit shopping stuff *ahem* but LOOK AT THESE! THEY ARE SO PRETTY! I'm trying to look for information on how to care for young pine sprouted from a pine cone, but all the information stop at "once it starts sprouting, congratulations!" So... after that it's just let it be? The shop guy said it should be kept in a humid environment, so lots of spraying at the leaves, but the online information I found says to keep them dry and water sparingly... huh. As for the succulents, I really was only looking for the Rainbow Elephant Bush (the top right one) because I saw a colleague have a big one and it was so pretty, looked almost like a tree! But I guess it wasn't the right season and I searched over 10 flower shops and couldn't find one, when finally I found a place that sold these saplings, but they were doing a buy 2 get 1 free, so I got the Common Houseleek (top left) and the Sunrise Succulent (bottom one, pinkish), that I did have before but killed it (overwatered it). Now I know. Keep it dry!

( Read more... )
Thank you for all the well-wishes and birthday greetings! It's time for bed, and face another workday tomorrow. Life goes on!

This weekend was intense for my concentration... I finished the other half of the puzzle!

Perhaps my brain was more attuned to "putting the puzzle together" and was better at sorting out the pieces this time around, I finished the other part in 2 days.

Oh, and then I noticed on Sunday, a dog must have messed up in my bed one time as there was a dried stain on my bedspread (it's a little disgusting, so I'm not going to elaborate), and took the bedspread to wash. *clink!* and a puzzle piece fell off, the last missing piece from the first half! Apparently nobody ate it.

I didn't slam the two halves together because it's easier to transport this way, but I took it to the framing shop and placed an order to frame it. The guy there will put the two halves together and then make the frame. I'm a little surprised he told me the frame will be ready the following day after 5pm. I had thought they'd take the measurements but send all that off to China for production, but apparently, they do it themselves in Macau. It's a nice surprise.

I'm going to pick it up on Friday, then I have all my stuff ready to be hung on the wall. I just don't know when Mom will ask the renovation guy to fix the few lights that have gone wonky. The renovation guy promised he can hang stuff up and do small repairs related to the renovation defects (and those lights are definitely renovation related, as it's not the bulb, we tried changing them already). Hope she asks him to come before Christmas, then I can have my room ready for that!

Can you see the missing piece?

I will keep my peace. I will keep my zen. I will finish the other half of the puzzle first. Then I will contact the customer service from this company.

In case anyone is interested in this company, it's Pintoo Taiwan. The English website doesn't say much, but the Chinese website does say they do provide missing puzzle pieces. So... I need to finish that ASAP! It starts... tonight!

I've been quiet as I've started putting together this puzzle, I bought a couple years ago, in Taipei.

I suspect Frankie (the Frenchie) has eaten a piece of the puzzle. Then this morning at around 4am, the bloody cat jumped on my table and pushed the whole thing onto the floor, and toppling a fan I had in my room too.

Luckily, this brand of puzzle is rather tough, once you put it together it doesn't come off easy. But all the sorted out by color and suspected areas are all gone, i have to do it again. Also, I don't know if any puzzle pieces had fallen into nooks and crannies between furniture... and Frankie has also taken a piece AGAIN and chewed it. I managed to get it back from his mouth but it was damaged already.

This puzzle company had pretty good customer service (a few years ago when I had an issue with another puzzle of theirs) so I'm hoping this time they will still help me. So I have to hurry up and finish this ASAP. This is just half of the puzzle, there's a second half that I didn't start yet, and the white border is also another set of puzzle pieces.

This post is mainly for

deepseasiren LOL as she asked me to post my stuff that she saw in the background of a photo I posted. I'm only doing my "hobby shelf" as it's a lot less interesting, it's just books... it's not even books I like, it's just mostly books that I haven't read yet... but haven't gotten around to reading yet (I'm working on it hahaha)

Topmost 2 levels of my hobby shelf. There's that white blob, it's an inflatable doll of a character called Mokona from a 90's anime Magic Knight Rayearth. I had that stored away but after the renovations he reappeared, I had a shelf space, so here he is. A little mooing cow from Gap I think, a gift from a friend, the mooing thing inside must have run out of battery, it doesn't moo anymore. In the middle is a bootleg Lego (or some other brand) Laputa Castle in the Air model thing, also a gift from my cousin (the one who gifted me the faux-Lego cars). It's supposed to have a glass casing but with the base of the casing the glass cover is just a tad bit too tall to fit in the shelf. I'm going to look for a piece of pressed wood board that's slimmer to use as a base so I can fit the glass cover over. Next a plushie graduation dog I got from my Mom when I graduated from University, and that last blue blob is a piggy bank of a character from an old game "Puyo Puyo" or "Madou Monogatari 魔導物語". The company that owns it (COMPILE) is defunct, but there's a new generation of the game but the artwork is all different. *shrugs*

Lower level are my 2 cars and a Snoopy plushie and statuette from the Snoopy Run thing I ran in Hong Kong in 2019.

Next 2 shelves... just random stuff, mostly Nanoblocks (Japanese mini Legos, I suppose)!

I was trying to collect all the Nanoblock Pokémons, but I've since lost track. I should still have a couple I haven't put together yet. Now I have to think... where did I put them? Then I have a couple of random Snoopy's and a collection of dogs. I also have a wooden music box (without the box) of the musicians of Bremen. That terrarium used to have an "air plant" but I managed to kill it... I don't know what to do with the actual container though, so I just left it standing there. Ah, there's a Sailor Venus that I got from a gacha thing in Japan, I should put it together with the Sailor Jupiter down below.

The lower level are other random models; I got a series of Pikachus from my godson, can't NOT display them since he comes every Christmas, so he can see I am displaying his gift. Sailor Jupiter is with the Pikachus in a stupid parody... Sailor Jupiter attacks with electricity... she is the queen of Pikachus.... LOL LOL LOL I'm silly. I also have a series of Sailormoon faux-Nanoblocks (I think that series is from a bootleg Thailand brand LOLZ). The front row Sailor Moon dolls are a sore point, I placed an order for the "inner senshi" (the guys you see here) and the "outer senshi" (Uranus, Pluto and the rest of them) but then the shop closed down before giving me the "outer senshi" set... and I had paid for them already! The collection of dog statuettes in the top right started in high school when a friend gifted me a series of dog statuettes, then I just continued collecting dogs and it's pretty cramped up in there, so I've since stopped collecting that. And also a random few other Nanoblocks on the bottom right. The peacock is falling into pieces, I don't know why those few pieces were loose, even when I was putting them together.

The bottommost level serves like a stationary level. The renovation guy got this thing right: I asked for that particular shelf level to be in-line with the height of the piano. So my journals and watercolors and pens are all on this shelf. I need to clean up a bit though, I want to be able to get to my fountain pen inks with ease (white box in the middle-ish). Oh and I also crammed a bunch of my bank letters in the top right corner, which I clean up every once in a while.

I was gifted 2 (bootleg) Lego cars a couple years ago. My cousin had the bright idea to gift me those after I mentioned a friend saying that the Lego Mini Cooper was very well done. As Legos are super expensive, I guess he managed to find bootleg version "Lepin" haha. I've already made the VW Beetle and you can see it here.

With nothing much going on, and wanting to free up some of my cupboard space, I decided to bring out the second car, the Mini Cooper and work on it. (I have to say though, after putting it together, I need a larger space to display it, so, so much for trying to free up space *rolls eyes*)

( Read more... )

Now, I have to look for a proper display case, be it glass or acrylic or plastic. I just took the VW Beetle out and it's so dusty!

So... I don't know what came over me, but I suddenly felt like journaling again.

Since the Hobonichi store has opened their 2021 sales in the beginning of the month, I've already placed my order for my annual work-Hobonichi (works as my paper scheduler and I write my tasks and progress in that).

When I was feeling rather depressed in 2018, I actually managed to complete my personal journal daily (thought I didn't post much about it here, I used this tag for a few posts). I think my life sort of got better by the end of 2018 and so I kind of lazed off in the end and only did black and whites by then (haha....)

And when I was placing the order for my work journal, I thought about the 5-year Hobonichi. I mean, in theory, it would be cool, wouldn't it? The way it's set up is, The same date for 5 years are placed on the left page. The right page is free (so you can extend or free-use as you like). So if I really do it well without missing, I can see what I've done on that same day over the 5 years.

A random youtube that I searched so you can see how the format/set up is. Not sure if I will follow his style though. I'm still brainstorming...

It's daunting as I know I'll be tempted to.... skip or stop half way.... but, I'd like to give it a try. Besides, it's only a very short thing daily...

I'll need to look for those daily challenges to try to keep myself going, I guess. I'm also trying to think of what to write. And icon for the weather? Current book? Today's mood?

I forgot to mention, my Venus flytrap died; I was apparently giving it too much water; though I swear the woman that sold me that and my research said it needed water.

Then I had a small orchid, the flowers dropped naturally enough, but then the leaves fell off too, it was because it didn’t get enough sunlight to dry up the soil... and I had followed instructions to only water when the soul is very dry (like, a tiny bit of water, once a week) and to avoid direct sunlight.

Today I went with my sis to a plant shop, she wanted a succulent. I wanted to try but when I asked the shopkeeper, he said succulents aren’t exactly easy and told me to try this Nerveplant... Fittonia? He said, and I recount, “as long as this gets sunlight and water it’ll grow.” Okay. I believed him, and got this cute The Little Prince pot.

I don’t really like The Little Prince, but this design is cute, reading a book. There was one other where he had the fox with him, but this design was more cute.

Now I’m reading up on the Nerveplant and apparently, yes it needs water but no direct sunlight. So I can’t put it at my window sill. At least, I have to put it away during the better part of the day.

I have no green thumb but I’ll try again!!!!

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Agueda Umbrella
kat (DW: elusivek | LJ: notte0)
❤︎ loves dogs, dark chocolate, and books.
★ doesn’t exactly hate cats.
◆ hates white chocolate.
more?
I read books :-)

June 2025

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Page generated Thursday, 12 June 2025 04:39

escapades of the elusive kat

taking on the world one day at a time

Entries tagged with hobby

Time for an update

Pokemon Go Safari Hong Kong 8-December-2024

Netflix binge

The SARUMA

"Otaku" stuff

Ceramics: Bamboo on bamboo… for bamboo

So I did a thing.....

This hobby is going far

DIY Candle Warmer

Quick wrap up

(New?) Hobby: Soap Making

Chinese New Year Flower Market

More shopping, cakes, fun stuff!

Puzzle is finished

And the verdict is...

I will soon skin that dog and cat alive (not really, I’m joking)

All my crap LOL

What do you think of my new ride? LOL

5-year Hobonichi

More attempts at plants

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June 2025

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