Hamlet's makeover

My little piggy HAMLET resides at my desk and keeps me company at work everyday. But today, I felt like he needed a little makeover.

 So with my packet of post-it notes, I set out to give Hamlet a little more character...

You can never go wrong with the bowtie + moustache + monocle look... with a toilet-paper cape thrown in for good measure.

Throw in the pig/cow skull as a Shakespearean reference and we've got ourselves a true classic Hamlet act.

It was a nice craft to help me relax a bit after work. Although immediately afterwards, I was so tired that I fell asleep on my laptop... and when I woke up... this is what my Word Document looked like:

hahahaha... oh man. And THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is why I clearly need more sleep. Speaking of which, sleep is probably a good idea right about now. Good night!

love + friendship is all i need.

Remember the bird doodle from THIS post? Well, with my friend's iPad, my doodle was digitally transformed with random app effects and it looks totally different from my original sketch. Then, I added two quotes that I like about love and friendship - dedicated to Randolph and to all my friends who are far away! =)

 I like how the sepia-toned + friendship quote turned out... I feel like printing it out and framing it somewhere. It would make a good poster on my blank white wall!

weekend adventures!

The adventure started when my friend Quie and I had a huge burger and ice-cream fest (yes... another one of those... it should really deserve its own category on my blog). We each got 3 mini-burgers from Ruby Tuesday (1 chicken, 1 crabcake, and 1 beef burger).

I usually don't like pictures with flash, but I think using flash captures the greasy gorgeousness of burgers.

 Afterwards, we went to Haagen-Dazs for dessert - that purse below is actually an ice-cream cake!

 We ordered this ice-cream + creme brulee dish below. I took a picture because I was skeptical whether it would actually look like that when it came (pictures are deceiving in Hong Kong)...

 ...and for once, the picture didn't disappoint!

After this whole burger + ice-cream bonanza though, Quie and I felt like we should do something healthier the next time we hung out.

So... the next week...

we climbed a mountain!

I saw this mountain every day at work and every time I looked at it, I wished that I had time to climb it. After 3 months of procrastinating, I finally attempted it...

 At the foot of the mountain, people like to hang their clothes to dry in public... but they also like to dry things like garlic cloves on cardboard...

... and white vermicelli noodles on towels... which are right next to an old abandoned mattress... YUM.

We trekked along narrow pathways lined with bushes...

...through dried-up (sewer?) tunnels...

 ,,,past giant barb-wired fences...

...and up steep flights of stairs...

...until we finally reached a run-down, abandoned house...

(look closely... do you see anything extra creepy? hahaha...)

This place would be a perfect location for one of those cheap home-video horror movies... honestly though, this house would be so creepy at night.

We walked a bit further and came across ANCIENT MEDIEVAL CASTLE RUINS (sepia-tone added for extra effect)... haha... randomest thing you could ever find in Hong Kong.

Seriously, this place reminded me of the stone table where Aslan was killed in the Chronicles of Narnia movie... yes... agree with me...

This would be a good set for one of those high-fashion photoshoots haha...

Anyway, we found a flight of stairs that went up to the rooftop of the ruins...

...and looked out onto this beautiful view!!! I love how you can see the outlines of other islands in the distance...

... on a side note... do you see anything creepy in the picture below? I only noticed that scary flag at the bottom when I went home and looked at the picture closely. Yet another horror film moment.

But even that couldn't ruin the whole experience of just taking a day off to explore nature...

 Apparently at night though, there are wild feral dogs that roam the area... we only saw one dog on the way back down and I thought it was dead (it wasn't).

In the end, it was such an awesome adventure (even though I'm pretty sure I almost fainted on the way up due to lack of regular exercise)...and of course, we ended off our wonderful little hike with something sweet to reward ourselves... haha. =)

 Frozen yogurt always makes for a great happy ending.

=)

je veux retourner au Canada...

I finally had time to personalize my room a little this weekend. Since I love old vintage shots but don't own a Polaroid camera, I thought I'd do the next best thing and buy a bunch of Polaroid Paris Postcards. Some of the postcards featured some pretty weird pictures though, like that scary kneeling angel man (see image #3 below) so I cut him out and put in a slightly less creepy picture that Grace sent me (look! It's an actually normal picture of us! haha... how rare). Also featured below are: pictures of my family and Randy, a "LAURA" birthday banner that Grace made, and a photo of my lardball of a bunny, MIKEY, whom I miss very much. 

I guess since November is DEATH MONTH - that final, seemingly-endless stretch before the Christmas Holidays - I've been a bit homesick so I guess to help me count down the days til my visit, I put up this whole friends and family SHRINE haha. yes... SHRINE. Makes it all suddenly sound so much creepier. But I do miss all of you back home and JE T'AIME... hahaha.. isn't everything more elegant in French? 

*au revoir pour maintenant... mais je vais revenir bientôt.*

DIY: fabric stickers!

Ever since I discovered fabric tape a few weeks ago, I've been pretty obsessed with it. Well, today I was at the stationery store and I found a fabric STICKER!

 It came with a sheet of paper that had all these DIY fabric sticker ideas...

You can cut out shapes to stick on cards, or wrap the fabric around the handles of scissors...

I especially like the JAR idea... wrapping the fabric around a glass jar is a cute way to make a simple and chic flower vase. I would tie a little bit of lace around the jar too for extra fanciness.

Well anyway, I didn't have a jar at the moment so I decided to decorate a small metal box that once held chocolates (until I consumed them all).

I just cut out a piece of the fabric sticker to fit the cover, and now I have a pretty box for my jewelry.

If you can think of any other creative fabric sticker ideas, let me know! I'm going to start using it on everything!

DIY: scrap magnet

today i was feeling crafty so i found some random paper/fabric/felt scraps and decorated a magnet. the card is one that my friend made for my birthday. i especially like the quote in the middle - "light tomorrow with today". it reminds me not to always wait upon the future to happen, but to live each day with a joyfulness that comes only when i learn to be grateful in my present circumstances.

by the way, doesn't this totally look like an "instagram" photo? well it isn't. i'm sorry but this is my cheap attempt at sepia-toning an image using Microsoft Image Picture Manager (yes... that is how cool i am)... since i am the only living person in the world who doesn't have an iPhone and must resort to other sad tactics.