handmade*love

HELLO!!!!!

:D

Well, first off, sorry for not updating regularly these days. I somehow let all the busy-ness in my life get the better of me. But I'm trying really hard now to slow down. One step at a time though.

Anyway, I'm back here today, for one very last time. Just to let you guys know that handmadelove's moving to a new home. Well, why the sudden move? Haha. I guess I needed somewhere to help organize my thoughts, my life and more importantly, I needed a platform for me to continue being who I am, but in a more professional way. Don't get me all wrong, but livejournal has indeed been a really good buddy for the past one year.

Well, apart from it's awesome navigation tools and presets, livejournal also saw me through my internship, final year project, graduation,

and most recently, my first ever solo show.


It's been a great experience so far. And I never want to stop thanking you readers, for always being so supportive of my art and my life. For listening, commenting, reading and most importantly, being ever so encouraging.

Livejournal and you readers have seen me grown! A year ago, I was just a simple minded girl who worked day and night on just school projects. Then, I was someone different, my ambition was just to work hard in school, do well and work in some smashing graphic design firm.

And a year later, I 've become someone so different. My life is now filled with art pieces after another, teaching and chasing kids.

I have clay and paints stuck on my fingers and hairs on most days. And on good days, I'm spick and span, with only my pen and moleskine in hand.


I'm now seeing how my life's taken on a totally different direction. I no longer want to be a designer. Instead, I find myself an artist now. It's a privilege indeed, to be able to work alongside the kids I teach, and listen to their little adventures-something that has become quite an inspiration of late.

Well, many of my clients and artist friends have been asking if I have a proper website. Well, I do have handmadelove at vox. But it gets kind of messy when I have two blogs around. So I figured, housing them all in one home would be a better idea. ;-)
A website? Maybe in time to come, yes. But for now, I'm sticking with blogging somewhere else, where I can share with people not only my art, but more importantly, what inspires me, and the kind of artistic musings I have in my life.

So, handmadelove* will be moving over to wordpress.
This time, it'll be more focused. Less personal stuff like rantings, complaints.
Instead it'll house my ideas, crafts, art pieces and inspirations.

So, thank you once again, and I hope to make this shift over to my new home,
together with you!

See you over at my {new home}!


PS: Oh!, and do say hi! I won't bite. ;-D
PPS: I'll still be posting on jr_nal at times, so do look out for me too!

Hello, yes I know I said, I'll be back only end of the week.
But then again, I'm excited to show you guys a piece
I did this morning:

[ The thing about Art: ]

Gouache + handwriting + paper collage + vintage stock
Okay, now it's back to working.
Posting will be kind of sporadic for a while.
At least for the remaining bit of this week and the start of next week.

But then, you can always see my little photo updates on my flickr.
I'll try to make it a point to update at least once in two days ;-)

xoxo,
Take care and be well!

Ps: Here's a quote of the day:

I've been busy. Really busy till it's painful.
Trust me when I say that having 8 jobs/commitments ain't a joke.

Anyway, I need to take a blog break, not only to do the many things
I need to do, but also to decide on certain things.

I will be back end of the week.
PS: With a new art piece to show you guys


See you in a bit!

Last week, we ventured to the Botanic Gardens for an afternoon picnic.
We ate sandwiches, pizzas, read and scared children off with our singing.
Took many many pictures and made new friends. The lovely golden retriever
and the can't stop laughing mommy. Haha. And of course, we couldnt leave
without some monkey tree climbing.





We should do this more often, next time more prepared, better food and maybe
even some kite flying, bubble blowing, card gaming and guitar playing.



Have a good Tuesday everyone! ;-D

Okay. It's monday again. I don't like mondays anymore.
The only thing I like about it is that I get to go
volunteer at the stables. Other than that,
Mondays are NOT fun. :(:(:(:(

I want to sleep in and not have to wake up at 6.45am.
Long gone are the secondary school days you know. :(

You know what I need?
I need a holiday. A LONG self discovery sort of holiday.
Un fortunately, I'm too tied down with work. Garh.

I want to make more time for art!
Painting, collage work, etc etc.
YEEEEE. I reallly dont like mondays!

As much as I'm too curious to know what is wrong with my body, I'm scared too.
Most of you would have known about my week long fainting spells, dizziness and
fever on Sunday and Monday. It's strange how I'm not sick at all, no coughing, no
flu, but I was down with fever and when I recovered, my fainting spells came.

And these fainting spells would get so bad that even when I'm in the toilet, I kind
of feel like passing out. At first I thought it was just low blood pressure or something
similar, but it got so bad. Even after I increased my sugar intake. I still got dizzy and
super light headed at work, when I'm, travelling, even when I wake up after a nap.
And just yesterday, I burnt my wrist a little, with the iron cause I had another
fainting spell. Okay, part of it was because I'm clumsy too, but still, I lost control.

Anyway, I just came home from a trip to the doctors and it was so scary because he
was testing my hearing with a tuning fork and was checking my eyes and stuff, etc.
( It was a teeny wee bit like what the doctors do in shows when they realize the patient
has some neurological problem )

And so, he concluded that it might be something up with the nerves or my balance
thingy. I'm not too sure either. But I have to take pills for 10 days and if the problem
still persists, I need to get back there for a bit of blood tests. It might be some nerve thats linked to my balance or soemthing. Okay. It sounds scary and it sure is. The first thing I thought of was, what if I lose my balance and I cant paint or draw anymore?

Sounds scary. The last I checked up on Amitril-10 pills, the word ' Neurology ' appeared
so much, I chickened out and yup, here I am, sitting in my chair wondering and thinking
of possibly quite silly things.

But yeah I know God's in control.

:/ Scary but yes, He will bring me through.

On a less worrying note, we decorated umbrellas today! :-D






It was SO much fun! Hehs.
Minus my dizziness and light headedness.
Okay, dawn! God's in control! ;-)

Acrylic on wooden Plaque
3.8 x 5 inches
$50

*Prices are all in SGD*

This piece is still up for sale! Quick Quick!
What Makes Beautiful, closes in a week ;-D

--------------------------
On another note, I'm so busy!
Learning Kidz just called. And I'll be taking their holiday classes.
4 Jobs + comissioned artworks to be done + Uni apps +
Project Big Move + Volunteering + Oshima handmade
book competition = 6 days a week/tired grumpy me

I want to be cheerful and happy.
But even the rain and late buses makes me grumpy and angry.
That's not very nice.

Tomorrow, bus 48 better be nice and come on time, cause I'm
going to leave my house even earlier. So it better be nice to me.
And tomorrow's kids better be polite to me too. If not, I need to
pray very hard not to snap at them like I kind of did on wednesday.

Haha.

At the end of the day, I feel the most comfortable hanging out with my crazy friends from cedar. Well, we were all 'brought up' a certain way, and we stuck to each other trhough thick and thin. So I guess this friendship's here to stay! ;-)


Hehe. Love you silly ding dongs! Here's a smiley :-D to more lazing around, more stupid pee jokes, more warm chawamushis, no to teeny weeny bikinis and cute things and blah blah!


Ooh, and thanks for the nice nice chiyogami. I love!

:D:D

And so, I woke up and said a bittersweet goodbye to the month of April.
April's been pretty great, my first ever solo show opening, my turning of twenty,
and so much more, but yet at the same time, it's been a pretty rough month for me.

I'm looking forward to what new things May would bring. And I would like to remain
hopeful that the month of May would be a good one.

I would like to push myself a bit more this month.
I want to start by becoming a better artist, and start settling things,
instead of letting them just sit there. I need to find some new kind of courage,
mainly to venture out into the wild side of nature, discovering little things and
berry - like plants, rediscover my love for the environment, and find a hopefully
better purpose for doing the things that I do, mostly being, working 6 days a week.

Well, we'll see.

I have an ugly red big itchy patch on my arm.
I feel like throwing up when I eat my favourite food.

But it's alright, cause we're going on a picnic trip later on in the afternoon.
And If it rains, we'll just be happy and merry and eat till we're in glee!

;- D

See you in a bit!

xoxo,
Poke & Poko!

Gabrilla Montez: Do you remember in kindergarten,
how you'd meet a kid, and know nothing about them,
then 10 seconds later you'd be playing like you were
best friends, because you didn't have to be anyone but you.

***

My sister and I.

Well, looking through all my old photos, it's apparent that I started wearing headbands
and tights a long long time ago, even before they became so in right now.
Apparently, my mum used to dress me up in loud huge polka dots,
matching red shoes with red belts, red bags and red headbands,
teeny bikinis, and even super suspenders.

Lol.

And one day before I turn twenty:


Thank you Dorothy, for the lovely happy tapes!
Theyre so dotty and spotty, I love! :D

And Martin too, thanks for the super expensive AWESOME stamps!
It has all my favourite characters on it! :D Thank you thank you!

Both's sitting happily together with Sandra and my cuppycake pincushion.

Hmm, turning twenty, that's quite scary.
But still, I'll try to make it happy!

*PS: My birkies and sewing machine turns 1 year old tomorrow! HAHA

:D:D:D

It rained so much today.
It rained when I woke up.
It rained when I was on my way to work.

It rained and rained and rained.

And the raining didnt just stop there.
It rained in class too! Wesley and I were
imitating Sophie and her red umbrella.

Well, of course, I had my trusty red umbrellie with me!





We read a rainy story book, and made a rain bead curtain.

It's been fun. Now I'm just a little bit stressed as to whether or not
I should enter crowbars. Something tells me to just submit a digital copy.
If I win, it means I'm good. If not, I'll just have to try harder.

But meanwhile, I'll definitely be trying my luck with Yuki,
at the Ｏｓｈｉｍａ　Ｉｎｔｅｒｎａｔｉｏｎａｌ
Ｈａｎｄｍａｄｅ　Ｐｉｃｔｕｒｅ　Ｂｏｏｋ Ｃｏｎｔｅｓｔ　２００７.

Whether I win or not, Yuki will be flying over to Japan/Oshima and will be
sitting happily in OSHIMA MUSEUM of PICTURE BOOKS, greeting his happy
visitors with smiley rainy faces. Though theres no prize money, I'm just gonna
try cause the thought of having Yuki fly all the way over to Oshima, that's just too
exciting and cool for me to just let it pass. Haha.

From the looks of it, I cant really be bothered with Crowbars actually. Hmm.

Sometimes I'd rather be quiet.
Quietness is nice. Silence and
darkness and being alone can be quite nice.

Oh happy day... Oh happy day...
He taught me how, to watch, fight and pray.
And he taught me how to live rejoicing
yes, He did (and live rejoicing)
Oh yeah, every, every day (every, every day)
(oh yeah) Every day!

Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)

Hope I'll learn to trust in God and rejoice at all times.
I dont want to be so sad and so grumpy and so worry wart each day.
I want to not care about what others do or say, especially when I know
they dont mean to hurt me. But it's not easy. I can't complain or voice
my uphappiness, cause I'd be deemed kind of silly. Thats life.

People cannot be trusted.
Only God can be and it's always funny how we
keep forgetting how God's always there for us.

:/



Meow...

Hello! I'm Sandra the white fleece rabbit. I live in Holland and I
enjoy digging for big juicy carrots. I wear bright red shoes
and a polkie dottie wool scarf wherever I go.

Have a nice day!

xoxoxoxo,
Sandra's mummy

Hello! I'm happy today cause it's been a good day.
Woke up really early and my body was acting against my will.
Had yucky dizziness and pukey tight throats. But well, my day
proceeded on with lots of laughter, smiles, hugs and even nudges.

As usual, it was pretty noisy at kindergarten. But they listened more
to me today and they smiled and greeted me, along the walkways.
And before lessons ended, they said byebye to me so loudy and some
came to give me hugs and one girl gave me a sticker. HAHA. It's sweet.

After 5 hours straight, on my feet running, chasing and packing kids artworks,
I finally got on the bus and slept quite a bit. Just had to catch some sleep and
energy before I get to the stables :-)

I reached early and it was raining super heavily so classes were cancelled.

- And JOYCE! I'll MISSSS YOUUUU!!!!! :-( Come on Mondays lah! Hahah.
If not it's just gonna be me and oile... Since Mariah, Aboo and Fraser's all so
:l ya.. I think only Simon talks to us. Hahaha.... Sessions will be so boring
without you! :-( -

Actually I knew classes were going to be cancelled. But I just had to pop
by and say hello to the horses and people there. So I ended up chatting with
Najeeb, a really friendly retiree, who comes down to volunteer quite a bit.
And after he left, I went to spend time just talking to the horses.


The dirty converses I wear during riding sessions.

They tend to become super sandy each time we go into the arena. But today it was
okay, just that I got it soiled with some black icky oil from Robin's stable.

Oh and I made a new friend today!

Meet HARLEY! He's pretty much one of the friendlier horses around.
He's about nine, male, bay and stands at 16.1hh.
Though he's bigger than the rest, he doesnt really bite and is
rather well behaved and nice. He's quite nosey though. Haha ;-)

OH! and talking about biting, meet LAURIE.

Laurie equals >:-(
HE BITES. REALLY BITES. And is really cranky and fierce and dislikes people
even touching him. Thank God I dont get him for sessions. Haha.

Well, but Terri was pleating up his mane today so I learnt from Bee
how to pleat manes properly. And both Terri and I were trying to tie nice
little rossettes on his mane. Terri's much more experienced. My rossettes/buns
just came off looking like godknowswhat.

Yups, basically I spent a good half afternoon chatting with Terri and Najeeb,
and of course my lovely friendly horses :-D

Haha. So that was my day.
Pretty much sums it up.



Have fun! xoxoxox,
dawnt

Life's pretty boring for me right now.
Even though I've got 1001 things to do,
juggling 3 jobs, 3 other committments...

I need something far more exciting than all this.
Something better, something greater,
something much more meaningful.

Anyway, the piece above is still for sale.
It's one of my favourite pieces. I've sold only
2 pieces to date, along with 6 handsewn Yukis.

Actually, it makes me kind of doubt myself.
But I'm trying to stay positive. Okay. I think it's just my mood tonight.

I feel kind of squashed.

:/