Lagerhouse

Was exploring the places around my student accomodation/ uni just beginning of this week. I walked past the huge ICA (huge grocery store like Safeway and Coles) that my student host brought me to and behold, I found Knalleland! One of the stores that they have there is Lagerhouse. Once inside the shop I didn't really get out of it till at least 45 mins after. So much to see! Totally LOOOVED the prints, designs and the prices were reasonable. The Swedes seem to put much thought in their designs and they're so adorable!

I couldn't help myself but to take a few snaps from the shop whilst people weren't noticing. Really wanted to share it over here with you guys! :)

Rubber duckies for 99kr, around AUD$15. Okay these ones are steep.

Cute Aprons! Good present for mum :) If you look carefully, notice this apron is a slip-on!

Tin cans

Crochet and woven blankets

This would by far be the cutest marshmallows EVER! Look, even the marshmallows are cloud shaped!

Teeth in your drink. Yum.

Candies and chocolates! The green jelly beans on the right said "Eat your greens or else you won't have your candy"

More candies...

A Hello Kitty lolly that also spells fat. Cute to see but I wouldn't eat it.

Couldn't resist myself. I felt like I had to get this place when I saw it there. Approx AUD$6 for the plate. The red plastic one was from here too.

The pillow case that reminded me much of Sam's band, Bus Company. These are VWs and caravans, close enough to a bus haha

My AUD$3 pillow case!! That's around 20kr or SEK

Another 2 items I bought were the green/ dark blue printed cushion (shown in previous post) and an umbrella with the same prints as the VWs and caravans. 

These little prints, colours and designs make me real happy :)

My Room In Borås

Hej San! As some of you might have known, I'm am currently in Sweden on an exchange program for about 5 months. I've just arrived 3 days ago in Borås, a small but comfortably sized town that has a history on textile design and production, after spending about 2 first nights in Stockholm. I have already got some photos posted on Facebook of Stockholm but I thought I'd make my debut entry of Sweden of my room here! 

My arms and legs must be quite toned now for literally being trained from 3 full days pulling, tugging and carrying heavy loads and walking about the town, frantically looking for shops that would have what I needed.

This is how it looks like after 2.5-3 days of full-on cleaning, washing, scrubbing and shopping for household items including bedsheets and linen.

My room door with door to the bathroom on left. Yes, I only brought 2 pairs of shoes from home

What you'd see when you open the room door. I love my red floor mat. Makes my new abode a little homier

If you wanna go on a diet by having poor appetite, that sucker of a drainer on the bottom right corner of this photo can certainly help when you turn it upside down

I always imagined mops as the big and wild hair of rockstars when I was little. I always liked taking mum's mops and swinging their 'hair' about. Swoosh!

My beautiful and bright bed!! You got no idea how these colours cheered me up whilst not having my loved ones around

"Looking out my window, I see the trees, blowing in the breeze"- Praise Him, by Ps Sam Evans

I've got a street view from my window. I rather be living in the apartment opposite haha

I found this cushion selling for 39kr or AUD$6 from Lagerhaus. I love the print, colour and how it makes me feel- happy :)

For those that are curious, here's an unintended long entry of my account of my first day in Borås.

It was the worst compared to the other subsequent 2 days. I woke up before 6am, took a train from Stockholm to Borås, changed 3 trains whilst having to carry a handbag, a 10kg camera & laptop bag and pulling 22 kg of luggage. If pulling the bag and walking about searching for my way didn't leave me panting already, I had to fight with the other commuters for space to put my bags. With a small designated luggage area crammed with bags of all sizes already, I had to resort to putting my TWENTY-TWO KG bag at the overhead compartment. That was madness. Wouldn't have been possible without the help of another girl, who laughed when I said my bag's too fat when it becamed jammed halfway after we shakily brought the load up to the compartment. I was amazed that the women were more helpful than the men I've seen. No guys offered to help in that train. 

The thought of doing this for another x5 times, up-and-down thing, was like....OMG, in the span of 3.5 hours. To make things worse, the intervals between changes were short, which meant I had to rush. I found out I had to rush even more when my first train arrived late at the station that I needed to board my 2nd train at. And guess what, I had to change platforms while carrying that stupid fat junk around, which involved taking the escalators WITHOUT even having any extra hands to grasp on the rail. Same rush happened when I arrived at my last change but now with a lift :), though a very slow one. 

Arrived in Borås FINALLY with shaky hands and wearied arms and legs from all those load carried. Walked a bit to locate my accommodation.

Got to my room. Very different from how the website showed. A little disappointed. But got over quickly and got my hands on cleaning my room. Several trips later of getting all my cleaning mates like the broom, mop, brush, detergents etc from Ica, I spent nearly the next 5 hours cleaning my 19sqm room. 

Though my bathroom constitutes to maybe 15-20% of total area, I spent the longest cleaning it. You name it, I scrubbed it. Heck, I even wiped some walls and mopped a part of the ceiling. What left me most traumatised was the shower drainer when I took it out and turn it upwards. THE GAPS OF THE DRAINER HAD ALL THESE SUPER GROSS PURPLE FILM ALL AROUND IT that I literally had to turn my head away while scrubbing it as I immersed it a shallow bucket filled with mostly detergent. Had dinner and a shower past 10pm. 

At least I knew the room is clean. I could then sleep in peace :) :) I must say I got this cleaning trait from mum. She's most pedantic bout details when cleaning. 

Enough of venting. It's time for some sleep...

A cute VW and caravan printed pillow case from the same shop I got the green printed cushion. I got an umbrella from there in the same print as well. Reminded of my friend's band, Bus Company.

...my bed is calling me!

Dreams Can Come True

An illustration of a bird that I did since 2008 that I totally forgot about posting up till now! 

I drew this bird in a few hours one Saturday morning at the end of that year, primarily for a short screen printing course I did with CAE, which required us to get a design photocopied onto a transparency before exposure on the screen. Instead of getting an existing photo or illustration by others, thought I should draw one myself, for this blog. 

I love her :) She was first drawn with black ink fineliners and texta on paper.

Something That I Considered Doing...

...approximately two weeks ago was: sewing my very first skirt. A fifties inspired swing/ circle skirt. Which didn't quite happen as the fabrics that I scouted around Lincraft or Spotlight weren't as fancy as I thought they would be. This was for the event that planetUNI just had. I was playing as a Martin Luther King supporter and had to be dressed in fifties attire. Instead of just buying the circle skirt I thought of making one myself, which is way cheaper than having one made by a tailor, who quoted me $200 for ONE skirt. 

Though this didn't quite happen, here are a couple of treasures I found on etsy.com, which I find quite inspiring. I'm definitely gonna give a below-the-knee circle skirt a try in the future!

Source

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Diana + Holga

Lomography. A word that I've come across quite a few times on Facebook. I knew it was something related to photography but I didn't really knew what it really was. Until I checked out an old friend's blog. It was Emily Ding's. Knew her since my PLC days and just found out that her cousin and I actually go to the same church.  What a small world. Anyway! She listed some of the cameras and lenses that she takes photos with. One of them was her Holga or Lomo. What the heck's a Holga or Lomo? But with both words combined it became....... Anyway, hopped onto lomography.com.au and from then on, I knew it. You know those feeling of warmth that slowly bubbles up from the inside and a sense of euphoria soon overtakes. It was love at first sight! They're the coolest chunkiest and functional plastics I've ever, ever seen. 

Mine sure did! A range of Holgas

Here's my favourite. The cutest Holga. The colours are just so fun! 

Multicolour Holga

Link here

Another one that I like. Diana. The predecessor of Holga. 

Diana Mini F+

Miniature version of Diana

Top view

The photos that lomographic cameras capture are pretty rad. 

Here are some example from Google with their sources linked under them. These photos are taken from a pool of lomographic photos. Therefore they're are not confined to those that the Dianas and Holgas could produce and are certainly not mine!

From Natalie Kreb

From Selecticism

 From a Holga camera

From Christine Zona

Here's a mag website you could go to for more photos!

Camberwell Market

The first time when I went to Camberwell Market after staying here for nearly a decade was just last year. Funny how I didn't like it the first time when I got there coz I never really got any items for my wardrobe second handed. I must say that my style has evolved a little since beginning of 2009, and I'm starting to collect pre-loved, vintage items. 

Two visits this year to the market and I'm embracing it already. My third and latest visit was just 2 days ago on Sunday. Went there alone, wasn't really looking for anything in particular but ended up picking up 4 items and spent nearly $50. Some items were really a bargain! Like the Gucci leather shoes below. It is in my favourite colour, wasn't dirty or gross on the inside, all leather, the price was right AND it was in my size. Perfect. It was initially $30 and I got another $5 off! I didn't need it...but just couldn't help myself. The shoe was ticking quite a few good boxes of my list of things that would make my wardobe. Succumbing into such retail-temptation wasn't that unexpected on that day.

These Novo shoes still had price tag on it. $59.95, its original price tag stated. Seeing evidence that it was indeed a brand new pair, I asked the lady for the price. Ten dollars. 

"Can you make that $5?", I blurted, not knowing exactly what I was doing. Bargaining? Sounded strange coming from my mouth as I seldom had the opportunity to do so. 

"Nah this is a brand new pair and I got it for $60. Eight dollars".

Feeling a tad bad if I insisted on more discount, besides, it was a brand new pair. I happily obliged. And into the red plastic bag containing the Gucci shoes the new Novo went. I love the tiny tassel-ended bows on the shoes.

Now, this electric blue, maybe from the 80s-90s, really was a shocker when I washed it. Prior to washing, it had a really strong 'old' smell but little did I know how much dirt this little fella was carrying. The water that the jacket was soaked it turned GREENISH-BROWN. Immediately I grabbed mum's Dynamo and spilt some along the jacket, now sitting inside of the sink. Gave it a good scrub, rinse, scrub, rinse, and more scrubbing. Finally the water turned clear and now it's sweet smelling and happily toasting and basking in the winter sun :)

The store I got this jacket from had the best vintage clothes collection I'd seen that day at the market. The owner was really sweet as well and gave really generous discounts to the customers. It was $15 initially and I got it for $10. It'll go well I think with black, white or sand/ beige tops/ dress. Throw in some black tights and a nice pair of gladiator-inspired platforms. 

 

These cards were actually my first purchase. $5 for a deck of vintage Chinese poster girls' cards. It'll be quite hard to play with them since you'd have to squint a little to see the numbers so I'm just gonna keep them for inspiration next time for future work. The era of when these posters could have been made would be around the 1920s-30.

 

 

 

One advice though, do not linger too long flipping through books at some unfriendly-looking vendor's stall. Coz I saw a Victoria Beckham book (That extra half an inch or something like that) for $5 and got a little excited, picked it up, flipped thoroughly through it to see if I really needed the book. This process was probably just a mere 3 minutes. Decided that I've spent enough for the day, I put it down and left the stall. Instantly I was hearing verbal abuses hurled by the vendor and I realised that they were targeted at me. Bad way to treat customers. Who ever would wanna do business with you or even dare come near your stall next time? 

Generally the vendors there are nice and friendly and this market is a must-go! It's on every Sunday from 7am-12.30pm, google it for the address coz I wouldn't know :P

Geometric Ornament- Part 2

Holiday times can be a great time in catching up in whatever that you've told yourself to do more when you've got the time. To me, one of them is blogging, as I think that it's important to keep the readers entertained and inspired by putting up new and inspirational posts. Keeping posts regular can be a real good reason in keeping them coming back for more. On the other hand, having too much time can be a curse as well coz you'd end up getting lazy. That's the case for me as for now. EEEEK!!! I hate being a slob and being unproductive. Don't get me wrong, I love holidays. But too much time and not doing anything? Bad, bad, bad. 

Here's something that's overdue, haha. My CATD project titled 'The Secret Garden'. Here's a few snippets of my design.

32x32cm Repeat Design

One placement design (Top Left) and 3 options for colourways

Small section on my initial 16x16cm repeat design. However, having to comply with the requirements in the assignment, I decided to go with the design below for my 16x16. Didn't like it as much but too little time on hand to experiment with other potential designs.

Heading of to Camberwell Market tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'd be able to grab some bargains!

Black, White & Red

Just yesterday I had received a package from my Forever 21 order from the US! Excited excited. 

Wanted to do a simple outdoor shoot but the rain came pouring down. Hence, decided to stay indoors. 

Shoes here are the ring are from the package received!

Wearing my thrifted acrylic sweater from Savers ($7!!), Bettina Liano skinnies, F21 wedge boots and ring & Moucha black faux leather bag.

This pair of shoes is the main reason why I was even thinking of purchasing online from F21, despite the expensive shipping and handling cost. Nevertheless, it's so much more affordable compared to the real deal- Acne 'Atacoma' or the aussie knock off- Tony Bianco's 'Nemesis'. 

Acne 'Atacoma' Lace Up Wedge Ankle Boot approx. AUD $710

Tony Bianco 'Nemesis' AUD $189.95

Forever 21 Wedge Boot

 Mine now for approx. AUD $30.00 only :P Hehe.

Geometric Ornament- Part 1

The semester that just ended had us onto our second project for CATD, using Illustrator for most of our work. Titled 'Geometric Ornament', I'm not exactly sure if I actually stuck to the guidelines and main criteria of the project- to create GEOMETRIC patterns. It was a time where we were all rushing, working towards our crazily short deadlines and I'd say 70-75% of this project was done within a period of approximately 3 days, max 4. Lots of work to be done, too little time coz:


1) Had to hand paint it, as you've probably seen in a previous post here
2) Scan it
3) Tidy bits up on Photoshop. Lots of magic wand, poly lasso tool and eraser using. Press Delete + Delete and Delete.
4) Import to Illustrator
5) Live Trace on Illustrator. Meaning to convert the image into anchor points. Huge, huge file
6) Create alternative to Live Trace, which is to hand render it, which I painstakingly clicked on every blinking anchor points of every blinking motif.


So below, is a wonderfully yet painfully compiled conversion boards I did for the project. 
1st column- Hand painted, scanned & neatened up
2nd column- Live tranced and colour changed
3rd column- Single handedly created every shape by clicking on evert anchor points. Despising yet rewarding...I'd like to think.

Conversion Board 1

Conversion Board 2

Conversion Board 3

Conversion Board 4

So here are the motifs used for the project. 

By the time I got to this stage I had to literally race against time to finish my assignment! Got by with little sleep, hence was totally losing the plot of this project already. More of the final, not every geometric looking outcome in the next post or so coz I've a haircut in an hour haha!

P/S: Motifs here are shared for viewing only. Absolutely no sneakiness (like using this on anyone else's work/ project) allowed. Cool? :)

Somewhat Edible Piece of Dirt

First attempt making chocolate flourless cake. Read recipe wrong and added water in my chocolate, butter and caster sugar mixture. Tried soaking up the water with paper towel. Not sure if that was the reason why my cake was hard, though still edible. Or could it be the cold weather coz it's gooeyer whilst warm? Hmm. 

Still tasted good though, as I used Nestle Gold, 70% dark chocolate bars instead of cooking chocolate as suggested in the recipe book :) Went well with a ball of rich, creamy vanilla ice cream!