Morning Sun

I am unsure whether or not this is due to jet lag, but regardless it is very strange that I wake up at 7 everyday now. Sleep at 9 (I managed to stay up to 9 without a nap yesterday) and wake up at 7 calls for a 10-hour-sleep... At least I'm sure people will tell me it's a healthy change and what not.

Mornings here are so very beautiful- actually, mornings back home are too. That golden hour at 10 when the sun is warm and shines with a golden tint... I sort of miss mornings back home. Then again if I were home I wouldn't see much of it.

My room with a view.

I used to (try) to sleep before midnight (and failing, usually) and wake up to my 9 o'clock alarm... then snooze it to wake up at 10. Haha! It sure is a great change for me to have sleeping patterns like this... I don't think I've ever slept so early, except possibly primary school.

I'm not complaining! We all know the benefits of sleeping early, so hello good skin and healthy bowel movements! Also, I get to use the bathroom while everyone else is still sleeping! I just hope I can keep this up even when I have classes.

Glad to report that I have been super responsible for myself this week... Tidying up, making my bed, cooking and cleaning, vacuuming... I think I can handle this staying by myself thing... Yeah. I'll make it through! :)

Pepperoni pretzels, mmmhph, so so good!

How does the same thing taste so much better here??

DARK CHOCOLATE CHEERIOS NOT EVEN KIDDING

Home made mushroom omelette tortillas! + bacon bits! :D

Popin' Cookin' Sushi Candy Set~!

I love doing craft things, and I love food. I also love my sister, so obviously it works together.

A few weeks back she brought back Japan's popular Popin' Cookin' self-make candy series, where you are given sachets of powder and everything needed to make miniature food that looks exactly like the real thing. It's amazing. Also I don't dare to eat it.

It has Japanese words! Hence, imported! *wild applause*

Apparently the Japanese are nuts about packaging everything.

These are your materials!

So the point is to transform everything you see in those small packets of powder and make it into candy in the shape of sushi. MAGIC.

The good thing about the Japanese is that they're really detailed, and literally you need nothing else. Just water, and even then they have this small space in the middle to hold JUST enough water for everything, it's amazing. Everything fits exactly right, right down to the amount of power to even how many drops of water you need.

This is 'rice'. Considering how it is just water + powder, after mixing it 

for a minute or so, it becomes fluffy and airy. IT'S MAGIC.

Powder for the "tamago".

After following instructions and mixing everything, this is what you get.

That's also how you make the fish roe to top off the sushi... just drop 

a certain solution into another solution and it will instantly become 

the texture of fish roe. It really is magic.

The rice placed on "plates" that's on the packaging itself...

Making sushi! (Look at that roe!)

Final product~

All in all it was a really fun experience! We didn't dare eat it because it even smelled super sweet and it literally is just sugar powder + water, so we didn't quite bother.

It did subtly show us the amount of detail the Japanese put into their work, as well as how innovative they are. Instructions guiding you through the whole thing were done on the packaging itself, eliminating need for an extra piece of instruction leaflet. And even though we didn't understand Japanese, the diagrams were clear enough to guide us through the whole thing, and it was pretty straightforward as well!

Sprucing Up Old Things

I need to update I know, but I've been stuck on the post-GE13 post for much too long so I figured I might as well take a break and write about something else.

Since I've been hit with the craving to make some stuff ever since going for the Pipit Zakka exhibition, which has been hugely inspiring, I got around to buying a whole lot of wrapping paper to make my own notebook.

Okay that sounded much too impressive. I simply found an old notebook I had which was lying around, forgotten, in a drawer and spruced it up a bit.

Yay for blue themes!

The front cover.

The inside of the front cover.

The back cover.

The inside of the back cover.

The front cover at a long glance.

Since I was unprepared and silly, I didn't take before and after pictures... And even until now I don't take before + after pictures. I suppose I'm not really one to stop halfway and take pictures LOLOLOL

It's my first attempt at redecorating a notebook and I honestly can say I think I did pretty well! Hahaha! What tested my patience was trying to cut the square holes for the rings... with a blunt paper cutter. (After many distressing rips in the paper I ditched the blunt paper cutter and bought a new one.) I'm sure if I wasn't so excited making it I would've just lolnopedon'tcare.jpg and simply poked holes.

I was lucky to have the shell-star lying around. It was previously a necklace my mom bought for me, which I adored... Until the string broke one day and I couldn't fix it. So I kept the pretty shell pendant and luckily I didn't throw it away! Just to make it clear, I am not a hoarder!

....Except maybe I have a slight tendency to keep all sorts of things.

The blue ribbon was actually a very old strip of ribbon that was from the dark corners of my drawer. Basically I don't where it came from. But it works and I'm just glad it does.

In a way, fixing up this notebook also spawed a very very very very very deeply hidden organization urge. I managed to dig out all the bits and pieces of ribbons I had kept throughout the years and kept them in a small bag to make it accessible - and easily distinguished for future projects! :D And the organizing didn't stop at ribbons - my buttons, my colored pens, my glitter glues all have a proper space to themselves. At least they're not lying haphazardly everywhere. >_> (My room is rather neater now, even I am amazed at the change.)

At the end I suppose I have to thank my sister for bringing me into the whole hand-made craft world... It has opened my eyes a great deal. To the extent that when I go out now I think to myself, 'Hey, I don't need to buy this; I can make it.' as though I am gifted with the talent to do so.

But hey, it looks pretty good for a first attempt. And at least now I know how to gift people personalized notebooks without actually having to fork out a whole lot of dough! xD

Pipit Zakka + Make A Notebook

So I decided I've had enough of my fabulously dramatic posts recently that are much too emotional. Instead we shall do with something nicer.

Like cute handmade stuff. I've always liked cute handmade stuff and today my sister brought me to Pipit Zakka in Cheras for a peek, since they have a handmade notebook exhibition as well.

The place was really nice and soothing. A little cramped, since there were quite a lot of people that turned up, but it was a generally nice atmosphere, occasionally punctuated by the smell of bacon. Mmm bacon. It was quite delicious, I think I shall make my own sandwiches to uni now. I'm quite sick of campus food right now.

I don't have much pictures, but we did buy a lot of stuff. xD Both my sister and I are suckers for cute things. Surprisingly, things weren't as pricey as we expected handmade things to be! (Or else maybe we're just more lenient with our money in this aspect...?)

Just a few pictures of what we got!

My sister bought me this wonderful charm bracelet! :) Animal themes for the win!

Matching phone plugs for le petit ami and I ♥

Such a cute sketch book!!! I feel so inspired just looking at the cover itself!

Vanille and the absolutely gorgeous cat notebook my sister got! ^0^

Look at the amazing detail that went into this notebook! x)

A caricature in a refreshingly great style, so good!

Although there actually wasn't really much to look at, it's a great place to go when some days you're just sick of city life and you crave for something pretty. It's great to just sit back and enjoy life. Who knows, maybe you'd be inspired to beautify your life and change some things? :)

Pipit Zakka's info can be found here.