Of Glass, Silhouettes and Rainbows

Today started off like any other day, and I was feeling at peace with the world. But such great moods do not last forever. At around 1.30 in the afternoon, the postman came with goodies,and a not-so-good mail.

The mail I've been anticipating and dreading at the same time. My EOS results. It's not that bad I suppose, but it's neither what I'd expected. I suppose it's partly my own fault for not paying attention solely to my studies. *Yalah, kept getting distracted with all the kawaii and nice nice things.* T-T

On to the goodies. 2 fused glass pin brooches from Lawatha. My latest craze - silhouette prints of children and animals. :D

Lawatha creates stunning, eye-catching fused glass cabochons that are either made into pendants or pin brooches. She takes custom requests too, for specific prints and colours. Take a look at her sold items to see more example of her works. I had my brooches done as a custom order. :)

Aaaand, now, for my latest creation. {Click on the picture to view item details and buy on Etsy}

Rainbow Funk Necklace

I very happily announce that I've finally mastered the technique of crimping. :D Now, I can make proper jewelry. :)

This neklace is actually made using a 6-inch zipper, with silver beading string firmly sewn on. There are 10 individual embellished felt pins that are pinned to the zipper. So, this is a very versatile piece of accessory. The zipper may be opened up to whichever length you wish, for different style effects. You can also take out the pins to be worn elsewhere or rearrange and re-pin them as you like. :)

I was inspired to make this necklace when I saw this video on youtube. I stumbled across it 2 days ago when I was searching for 飞轮海 (Fahrenheit - taiwanese boy group). It shows Selina (one of S.H.E. 's girls) promoting her new DIY beading book. 飞轮海 guys were with her, and she held a competition among them to see which two can string more beads in 30 seconds. :D

She introduced one of her jewlery pieces, made from a pink zipper, lace, beads and pearls. It struck me as a great idea to use zippers in necklaces. Who thought they can look so good in jewelry? :D

Aaaand..... an apple cake! I haven't been making lots of food stuff because I'm seriously gaining weight at an alarming speed. And my mum's been telling me over and over again that I cannot eat this, cannot eat that, "cannot make anymore cakes ah", "what? want to make another batch of pineapple tarts? cannot!", "see la. want to slim down still want to bake somemore la?".

T . T

75g butter
175g self-raising flour
75g light brown sugar
700g cooking apples (I used green apples)
1 large egg

1. Set oven at 180°C. Grease a cake pan.

2. Sieve flour into a large bowl. Cut butter into pieces and rub into the flour with hands. Add sugar and mix well.

3. Peel, core and dice apples. Add to flour mixture and mix well.

4. Beat egg and mix to form a sort of dough.

5. Pile into cake pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until firm and golden brown.

This was the recipe. But the cake didn't taste sweet (maybe due to my using of green apples), and was a bit too moist. So I think, sugar amount should be increased to 140g if using green apples, and baking time increased to 1 hour.