3R strikes again!

On May 27, 2012, Ramu Rame Ramo, a community of Bandung crafters consists of my self, Kawakib Craft, Raisy Tasthy, Pepoloco, Linda Sari and Anggraini Craft attending a high school Bazaar as a tenant. It was SMA 3's Inori Bazaar.

The Bazaar was a Japan themed bazaar. There were also band competition, dance cover competition, etc. But the most interesting competition for me was the Cosplay Contest.

According to Wikipedia, the meaning of Cosplay is: "Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure), a contraction (or portmanteau) of the English words "costume" and "play", is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, Japanese movies, or Japanese pop music bands. However, in some circles, "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume."

I found it interesting because these kids were serious about the costumes and they posed and acted accordingly to the characters. So serious that some costumes were made painstakingly and very detail, it so related with crafting. 

(Almost) Always With RE

RE on the above title stands for Ribbon Embroidery.

You see, my first love in craft was with RE. I saw a beautiful ribbon embroidered blouse in a local mag, I called to ask the price which turned to be too much for my budget and lead me to learning all about those beautiful ribbon stitches, up until now. I learned it from books, AJ. Boesra's, Di Van Niekerk's, Chris Rankin's and Ann Cox's. After that, I bought many local ribbon embroidery books too (beside AJ. Boesra's) like Rosa Amalia's (which is my online friend here), Yossi Zulkarnaen's, Endang Rachminingsih's, and many more, for inspirations.

Whatever craft I made, I've tried to put ribbon embroidery in it, if possible, because not only I love the looks and doing it, but also I feel I owe my existence in the craft community to ribbon embroidery (Sounds too much, eh? Lol)

Now let's get to another story. Almost every crafter I know have an owl creation. I myself love the owl ever since I read Edward Lear's poem about "The Owl and The Pussycat" which I found both funny and cute. As the matter of fact, I made a pochette based on that poem.

As written above, almost every crafter I know have an owl creation. To the point where sometimes there are little bit of "clashes" where one "stole" other design, one claimed to be the best owl creator, and so on. While there is a strict rule between crafters that one can be inspired by others but NOT duplicating theirs (for commercial use), I think there's no problem if every crafter have an owl creation (of course, as long as it's not "pirated" pattern), the more the merrier . Now, I'd like to have one(s) too, but of course with my own rendition. Since I consider my self as a stitcher, these are my version of owl plushies:

To be honest, I was inspired by Aimee Ray's, but I'm sure, as you all can see, I'm not trying to be her . What do you think?

Beads Couture Needle

Remember my post about Tambour stitching?

As I said in the past, I will save some money to buy the tool, because I really interested in it, but it's relatively pricey for me.

Today, I've received the tool I ordered from here. It was Clover's and came with a plastic tube to keep the needle.

So happy, I tried it right away. At first, it's kinda awkward because I've never use it before.

But after 3 trials, I finally got it and love the tool because it make stitching (whether it beads or chain stitch) done faster (and more even in size...I think) .

This is the result of using the needle for beads stitching

These are the chain stitches I made with the needle. Not bad, eh?

Hmm, projects, projects...

Over Due

Yeah, this is an over due post but I just think I need to share it

So, it's been almost a month now, we're living as Bandung citizens...back to my hometown, after so many years (I think since 1993).

Adapting to the new climate (it's much, much colder here than Bandar Lampung), I got 3 days of cold, but I'm fine now.

Since we moved, I've been busy surveying junior high schools for my son. He done some assessment tests in some schools and waited and prayed for whatever Allah think is the best for us. Alhamdulillah, now he's accepted in an Islamic based junior high and will start his study next week.

At the moment we're renting 2 rooms in an old house. In that house, there is other family, a young couple with 2 toddlers.

The front of the house

Our house mates

To be honest, I enjoyed our space in Bandar Lampung more. Yes, the one we're living in now is more spacious, but there are problems that forcing me to look for other place to live (that's why I still haven't settled yet, still unpacked, out of the thought that I will move again very soon). Electricity is one thing. I'd like to buy a fridge (sahur is on my mind), but I don't think the electricity in this house allow it. Until this moment, I still haven't found the right place...still looking for it...

Anyway, we're happy to be in Bandung, although there are friends we missed in Bandar Lampung. We took some last pictures of us in the hotel we used to live in, in Bandar Lampung, together with my buddy, ibu Pia. For 2 weeks hubby stayed with us, helped our relocation. We're so happy, though after two weeks, hubby had to fly back to Langkawi, Malaysia, to continue his work there.

I Love Matryoshka!

Don't know why, but I have a thing with matryoshka...there's something that so adorable of that simple (but turned out not so simple to make) doll.

I've been wanting to make one, but as you know, got no spare time. But a project offered, demanding different kind of things with ribbon embroidery on them. Clothes, shoes, bags, book cover, hijab, etc, all done... and I was wondering, what else?

Recently I purchased this lovely matryoshka fabric from Etsy and it just came to me, why don't I make a ribbon embroidery on matryoshka doll?

So this was my first ribbon embroidered matryoshka doll. Not quite happy with it, but hey, practice make perfect, right? Hope I have more time to do more practice on it . Insha Allah...

Shared with this site:

A Bar of Chocolate

This afternoon, after school, before he went for his Sakamoto Math lesson, my son told me that he'd like to go to the nearby convenience store after the lesson, to buy something out of his own money.

I asked, what do you want to buy? He said, something. I got suspicious and asked further more.
He answered, snack and asked me back, why I kept asking. I said, I have to know whatever he want to buy, because I'm his mom, he's my responsibility, what happened if, God forbid, he turned out buying drugs?

He lightly said, " First, I'm not that self-torturing person. Second, that store doesn't sell any. Third, I don't have enough money for that."
True, so I said ok.

Birds of the same feathers

No sooner, my land lady, mbak Febry, found out what I do.
She's a dentist, but who have thought that she has a thing for craft too?

We talked about craft a lot and she saw some of my works and projects.
She said, there's a craft competition among staffs in her office (she works for Public Health Service/Puskesmas) and she's working on some felt project.

One day, she came to my place, clutching something in her hands.
It's a felt tissue box cover, for the competition, made by herself, masha Allah...it's cute!

Keep it up, mbak Febry ! I pray that you'll win, insha Allah!
Turned out that we are birds of the same feathers after all

Good bye hotel, hello new place!

So, it's been near a month now, we are staying at the new place.
We rent a newly built, clean, 2 bed rooms space, with one sitting room, one bath room, small kitchen and a spacious shared yard. It's enough for me & my son to lived in until my son graduated from primary school, then we'll be (sigh...packing's on my mind!) move again to Bandung, West Java, my hometown.

The new place is so close to my son's school, that he walks every day to and from school.
The land owners are young, newly married couple, they're so friendly and nice.
There are some eateries, convenience store and laundry, all within 3 minutes walking distance...5 minutes walk to the mall .

The shared yard, seen from our front door. The building on the left is the land owner's house.

A little hut with a pond of timid fishes built beneath it, in a corner of the yard.

Alhamdulillah, things begin to settled down a bit (though there are still some hateful boxes, waiting to be unpacked, sigh). I enjoy the house chores, (things that I didn't really do when we were at the hotel, because they have service, lol) it's like playing house, lol... so much so that I almost forgot about my craft, lol...
Now that I'm getting use to the new routine, I'm working on a new batch of kids hijab...

Sweet dream...

Gigi, the little tooth, likes the Sweets.
But she knew that she can't meet them as often as she wanted to, because though they are nice looking and taste good, they can turned to be quite malicious, in time they will strip Gigi's email layers, make her prone to be damaged, especially if Gigi's owner forgot to clean her in the evening.
So, she can only dream of them, dream of playing happily with them and that they won't do her any harm

See Gigi on Calyx Multifunction backpack here

Meet Hans, the adventurous hedgehog!

Hans is a special hedgehog.
He's so active, couldn't sit still.
He's adventurous too, likes to try new things to do.
The other hedgehogs mostly don't understand (or maybe misunderstand) Hans.
But his mother do, so she channels Hans huge energy by signing him to various activities.
One day, she signed Hans up for parachuting lesson and he got hooked!
He loves it and do it regularly since then

See Hans on Calyx Multifunction backpack here .
He's one of my favorite, can't wait to show Hans' other adventures soon

A New Craze: Cabochon Embroidery

Well, at least it's new for me. Beading embroidery it's not something unfamiliar for me, but I've never weave it into a cabochon embroidery before. I've been wanting to create one, I have the tools, supplies and tutes but hadn't got a chance to make it.

Yesterday, I spent a whole day, tried my hand on this, based on mbak Dini Sarbini's book.
Because it's just a first trial, I didn't dare to use the stiff stuff and faux suede for the backing. Instead, I used felt (lol!) and attached a magnet instead of a pin ( I love magnet, it won't make any hole if you attach it to anything ).
I have the cab made of resin from a picture I grabbed at The Graphic Fairy.
I appreciate any critics and suggestion for improvement, for I still not really happy on the ruffles edge I made .
So please, I welcome any comment(s) .

Try my hand on drawing (again)

Drawing is my hobby when I was very young. My father was an architect, drawing tools were cluttered around the house so it's easy for me to got influenced (apparently it wasn't only me, later on my brother become a graphic designer). Funny thing was, I only drew with markers, I wasn't interested in other notions.

But I stopped drawing since, I think, around 3rd or 4th grade. My hobby was shifted to writing. I wrote teenlits, poetry, etc (but never got them published though, my readers were all my close friends ). When I got older, when I was at high school, I stopped writing because of my extra activities at school, namely acting class, discussion group, choir, joining a band & vocal lesson. At college I was even more busier, juggling between study and part time job as a radio DJ.

And now, I got interested in drawing again, since my collaboration with mb Puri on Calyx products got a good response at the Inacraft. They were mb Puri's drawings on fabric, so I just curious to try my own. A bit rusty though ...
These are meant to be on the new batch of Calyx Multi Function Backpack.

Alice's fall to the rabbit hole

Corsage Craze

Some of you might have noticed that I'm crazy for corsage right now.
I searched the net for the tute, found some that I think simple & interesting.
So, below are my results of learning to make corsages. Apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, they were taken with a cell phone camera because hubby left the camera in his office (again), sigh...

(Just for fun/Iseng) Calyx is...

...the sepals of the flower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calyx).