My leisure trip to Hangzhou & Shanghai 遊走杭州與上海

Escape from the hustle and brustle routines, I went to Hangzhou and Shanghai with friend Aileen. Hangzhou is renowned for the scenic West Lake. It's now autumn with cool weather. We walked along the West Lake for almost a day and seen the typical scenic views. 難得有假期, 忘卻繁囂, 與朋友Aileen去了幾天杭州及上海, 漫步綠柳西湖. Beautiful view of pagoda over a bridge with willows dancing in the air.Water lilies are dried but still another good view of West Lake
Leaves are turning yellow. After a walk we sat by the lake. What's more relaxing than having a creme burlee and admiring the tranquility! 輕踏黃葉, 細味秋意
Goodbye to Hangzhou and heading to Shanghai by the highspeed train .
Infrastructure of Shanghai is fast developed and everywhere with skyscrapers. 上海高速發展, 浦東高樓處處, 彼岸黃埔灘仍幸保留很多歷史古舊建築

Some old buildings of French, Belgium, British are still well kept.

Xitiandi (新天地) - affluent shopping, eating and entertainment areas famous for the "stone gate houses".

Tianzifang (田子坊) - a fusion of art and historic. I love this area, love the alleys with art studios and galleries.

Collage of people

I bought painting books of van Gogh and Wu Guanzhong (吳冠中), a book of bags making as well a book (重訪邊城) by the famous Chinese modern writer Eileen Chang's (張愛玲). I found that the hotel I stayed in just next to the apartment where Eileen Chang stayed when she's young.

I'd a relaxed trip, enjoyed the leisure and admired the old and new of Shanghai. The economy of Shanghai is soaring. The hardware is ready for world competition. Software still have room for improvement.

3-D nuno felt flower entangled into wool 立體絲花羊毛袋制作

Had been trying to explore how to do 3-D nuno felt flower on wool felt surface, but got no info. Last week when I was in Shamshuipo wholesalers I got some free samples of silk pieces. Eagerly I did some experiments. I thought this is the way to do it though not sure if it's the proper way, it's easy. Love to share with you. This is my pouch with the 3-D nuno felted silk flower and tied with my own handmade ceramic leaf. I love this.

I got these pure silk sample pieces from the wholesaler. A fruitful "free shopping".
I cut the silk pieces, loose stitched it and pulled the thread to make the petal shapes, then put some wool in between.

Laid the wool and put the silk flower on it, then do the same steps of rubbing, fulling.... Success is to do some more throwing, the flower will be entangled firmly.
I'll try to do bags with this technique. Hope you enjoy it and would like give it a go.

Another O.A.K. bag for good friend 給好友獨一無二手作袋子

Can't stop to do some more OAKs - one of a kind stuff for good friends. Recently inspired by Eva to do decoupage on bags, I made a few combined with my painting. Painted this one with the theme of poppies and little cottage. A set for my colleague Irene and her little sweetie Jasmine.

Both sides of the bigger bag. One with my acrylic painting, other side of flowers decoupage

Both sides of the smaller bag. Mother & daughter with painting of a little girl in the field, the other side is of broad grin. The handle is also made of my wool felt.

Poppies decoupage is cut from a napkin paper that Sue sent from England. Photos are laser prints I soaked with wintergreen oil and scratched on the bag. I stole their photos from Facebook !

This new sewing machine just bought to replace my faulty old one.

From handle to painting I made it and dedicate to Irene and Jasmine. I'm a no good painter. Painting with acrylic is fun and easy. Hope they find it unique and useful.

Birdie birdie are you ready? 我的 "停不鳥"

"Birdie birdie, are you ready? Fly and fly high ......up up to the sky."
These birdie pins I made would be giveaways . Friends always asked how come I got much time for so many stuff. Well, I also only have 24 hours but when I passionate about anything I'm really into it.

I made the birds with clay, colored the clays with underglaze, then highglazed and fired the biscuits. Needle felted wool and embellished with glass beads then glued with a metal pin. It goes well with a bag, a hat or a coat.

I've already done some gifts for Christmas, this is one of it. Hope my friends love all my handmade gifts made with love and heart.

Wool felt notebook cover for my sister

My sister Pauline asked me to do a wool felt placemat and a cover for her notebook. I'm most happy to do anything for her. She said she'd love the combination of sheep, flower, hill, trees, house etc. So I created a piece like this country style. I love poppies thus made the mat with it.

When the notebook's not in use, cover it with this just like a picture.

My sister is a great supporter to my crafts. She appreciates the handmade stuff. This picture is not that good to my expection. I would have made the hill and the tree colors more lovely, somehow it didn't. Since I was so eager to give her, I leave it as it is.

Please see how I made it. The placemat was layered like this.

I prefelt the trees and house and cut it.

All layered like this.

The layering likes more lovely but after felted the colors were not up to my imagination. Just hope my sister loves it.

My book "Tiger's First Year" share with readers分享我的貓書 -貓貓喵噢第一年

Tiger, my gorgeous cat's now 3 years old. Almost an adult of 21-year old. His first year was really a GREAT fun for us, so I captured his naughty moments and published a book. The other day my niece Vicky said she saw the book in a public library. Yes, the municipal libaries bought a log. I 'm so delighted to share Tiger's fun with readers. My cat book extracts 很高興我的貓書在康文署圖書館有外借, 讓讀者分享Tiger的百厭反斗行為.

Humm....., sweet boy having a sweet dream.

Tiger used to be very energetic and curious. He screamed at night. He called us up every morning and answered the door.

"What time is it for my super?"

"Who's it? Is it Mum coming?"

"Hey, wake up, wak up for work. Oh, no, for my breakfast please."

Since Mogi, another guy come months ago, Tiger behaves like a big brother. He doesn't scream at night, no more hug, not much attached. Frankly I love the old days of Tiger but time flies like a baby growing up and wants to fly some day. For pets, we've to prepare they would leave us after some years. It's sad we should well prepare but treasure their happy moment.

Warm shawl for the loved ones 暖暖冬日羊毛圍巾

Weather forecast we'll have bitterly cold days this winter. It's autumn now and quite mild but let's brace for the chilly days ahead. Wrap our beloved ones with hand made shawls will certainly show our care and love ! My recent session of wool felt shawls, each student done her unique and pretty piece. 天文台預告今年的 冬天將會持續寒冷, 快快為自己為摯愛親手做羊毛圍巾喲. 我的學生就做了這些暖暖圍巾.

Letizia, the youngest girl of the class made the stripy one. 彤彤的條子
紋.
Ada was doing layering. The fluffy look is good.

This one by Cecilia, black and purple looks gorgeous.

Carol's idea of both ends with patterns is terrific.

Amy's colorful one cheers up the dull winter .

See how they're doing it........

Pretty Ada is proud to show off her piece. I love the style with fringes

Great works, girls.