Colour Theory

Sorry for the lack of post!

Have been really busy with uni and travelling around. Have taken loads of photos in the time between the previous post and this one. 

Actually, that was an excuse. I've just been lazy to blog :P But I did take loads of photos. Many really interesting ones that I will share soon, including our class's excursion to Textile Museum of Borås and my trip to Copenhagen over the weekend. So this time I've gotta catch up on my work after my travel  Plus, the textile students and lecturers are going for a textile conference in Stockholm  this weekend and my parents are coming for a visit the weekend after. So...lots to be done!

Here's what I was doing just yesterday at class.

Colour Theory with Elisabeth. So fun! I truly felt like a kid again, looking at all these colours and doing all the gluing and pasting!

I've done many similar exercises that Elisabeth is teaching now back in Melbourne but we've never really gone that much depth into colours as we do now. It's really interesting.

We are usually more familiar with Pantone fans and colour identification, for those who know what that is. Here we were using the Swedish colour system called NCS (Natural Colour System).

So totally love the machine cut, 2x 2cm colour chips that come nicely in small self-seal bags with the exercises :) Real neat.

Le Love

Was going through some of my favourite bookmarks over the weekend and totally forgot that I've tagged this blog. Le Love is a blog about love, entries submitted by people all around the world.

Photography is such a powerful media. It captures and immortalizes moments of intimacy, love and tenderness, as portrayed there.

I absolutely love how the photos encapsulate the many different types of emotions that a person falling in love, already in or out of love feels. The surprise, disappointments, worries, frustrations, sheer passion, vulnerability, loneliness, adoration, hurt, pain, dedication, innocence, fear, longing, yearning, regret, hope, love. 

Some photos seem like they are living, as the feeling of pain, hurt or love are quite tangible. They really make you feel with the subjects in the photos.

Here are some of my favourite photos from Le Love. 

"Way too attached"

"Stealing Kisses"

"Afraid you'll forget me"

"Great complexity"

"Marianne Taylor Photography- That's what I want"

"We both know"

"Like an eternity"

"There are no rules"

"Nothing new"

"I love(d) you"

"Soak up every second"

"Imagine"

"This year"

"I don't know what's going to happen"

"But he didn't hit me"

"You are..."

Emalyne's Takoyaki

This very much delayed post is specially dedicated to my eldest sister, Emalyne! 

Not only did she spend copious amount of time, effort and money, this darn food cost her much anguish, days of disappointments, heartache, sweat and perhaps tears. If it were me, I might have probably given up long before she did, including those that perhaps had laughed at her mishaps, which was such a terrible thing to do! People can laugh all they want but she can improve :)...I mean, WE, can improve, hey? :) My cooking's no better hah!

But you know what? These wonderful suckers morsels, which she ended up having a love-hate relationship with, turned out B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L.L.Y! Many of the ingredients, including the takoyaki pan, were shipped all the way from Japan. So that's 100% authenticity guaranteed! 

So this one's for you, Da Jie! And thanks for making this exquisite delicacy for the family! Great idea as an entrée in a Japanese-themed or finger food party.

Take care and much love from Scandinavia,

Mei

Pieces of octopus placed in positions after being cooked in slightly salted boiling water

Pour in the magic flour mix

...okay you gotta ask her on this one

Dunk in the chives!

...and the preserved radish!

flip it ya'll

A pinch of that Japanese greenish seasoning

A zig-zaggaty squirt of the dark and sweet okonomiyaki sauce and Japanese mayonaise

Perhaps a more generous dose of kastuobushi shavings on the hot morsels. See how these shavings gracefully 'dance' in the heat!

Itada Kimasu!!!!!

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!