Addressed To: Miss so-and-so

I was ‘addressing’ an envelope the other day and it occurred to me that i never put salutations in front of the addressees’ names anymore. Yes, it may be a bit weird, but in the past, (during a time when all the envelopes i sent out were to be delivered only to close friends) I always put “Miss so-and-so” with their full names too.

I used to write vis snail mail to a classmate, Debbie. We saw each other in school everyday yet we still wrote to each other. and we got along better in our letters too. (primary school was a time when “I don’t friend you anymore!” was an ultimatum so commonplace) we exchanged drawings of cartoon characters, stickers and  little gifts that were small or flat enough to slip past the postman’s suspicions. Anyhow, point is, i used to scribble her name in full attached with a ‘Miss’ in front even though she was a close friend… it made us feel more important receiving letters addressed to us in a business-like way.

it is funny then, that it has come one full circle, nowadays, i address my envelopes with the last names of people even when i hardly know them. it is all for the handmade business; receiving a letter addressed to your last name makes you feel like you are receiving a gift from a close friend. ironic?

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let’s catch up

not much planned for this week (book me anyone?) so i have been sitting at home clearing old unwanted files from my computer, finding old, unedited videos from long ago which were all so funny. the things we did. haha. and surfing the etsy net…

I have been going around Etsy favouriting so many shops and hardly have the chance to really have a good look around. so i shall start giving long, deserved looks to those shops and possibly create some treasuries of my own, like so many others have done and slipped in some momshoo products in the process (thank you.)

so here some picks from the lovely crafters all over the world!

mustache man wooly egg doll from asherjasper

 

Ned the Moose from RedMarionette

grandmas illustration from Tosya (Tali, the owner of this shop also bought something from Momshoo! :))

a knitted Horse from iroirocrafts

 

Let’s Catch Up from kathrynwhyte

speaking of “let’s catch up (sometime)” it is the nice-ity phrase that everyone uses after bumping into a long lost friend on the street. a nice way to part but almost never really meaning what it says. true?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It all ends here.

Too much excitement in one day. my head feels a bit odd, drifty or something. must be the loud audio in the cinema.

yes, i am proud to declare (and gloat) that i have already watched the final movie of Harry Potter. how could i not? it was amazing. really. ahh… watching the movie on the opening day together with an almost full theatre filled mostly with excited secondary school students who rushed from school (still in uniforms) is a very different experience. bring on a satisfying scene and the cheers of joy and victory erupts from the audience. the punch-lines were good and the lines which need not have to stick closely to the plot of the story were funny to cause laughter among all. but that’s all i am revealing. go enjoy the movie yourself.

(anyhow, i am guessing everyone who was in that room already knew the story by heart as i did and watching it on screen just made me wonder if i had already watched it in my dreams for i had pictured the story to play out in the same way as i read the book. it was as though i had watched it before. the power of a good author?)

Now, excuse me while i brood over how many years i spent in that magical world with Harry.

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Rail Walk.

My mum and I walked the rail track on two separate mornings last week and this week. The difference a newspaper report (the one encouraging everyone to go visit the tracks before it is too late) makes is amazing.

The first morning’s walk was practically deserted except for two dog walkers and a bunch of people hanging around Bukit Timah station.

The second morning’s walk was instead filled with many people also walking and a couple taking wedding shots (with a very irritated photographer who complained that he would have to ‘photoshop’ many people out!)…

the track was also littered with as many as 20++ shoe soles (and I am not exaggerating) from poor people who had to continue the rest of their journey without their soles.

 

I kinda miss the quiet walk when we were the only ones around…

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This Loud Morning

i may be biased but i think it is a good album and i like it.

‘Circadian’ was the first song that got unknowingly replayed in my head before i even knew the song title.

 

and i like the music intro for ‘Paper Heart’

 

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camera obscura

I have been fascinated with the concept of Camera Obscura (Latin for “dark room”) ever since learning about it in the arts of grand masters who supposedly used it as a drawing aid. the most prominent being Jan Vermeer:

 “The Milkmaid”

 “The Astronomer”

it is said the artist used the technique as many of his paintings feature the same room and hence it was concluded that he darkened the room behind the one he used to pose his models using the second room as a camera obscura.

the next time i encountered the camera obscura was actually seeing the effect of the technique in person at Edinburgh along the royal mile:

with about 10 people gathered expectedly around the disc in the middle of the room, we were taught how to lift up people walking towards Edinburgh castle on pieces of paper and putting them down on the road again. it was like watching live-stream surveillance camera footages.

then this morning, i read National Geographic’s article on Abelardo Morell’s photography of camera obscura. he goes back to the old methods of capturing a image in the modern world. the images projected in rooms then captured by modern digital means are extraordinary!

“Upright Image of the Piazzetta San Marco Looking Southeast in Office, Venice, Italy, 2006″

“Camera Obscura: View of the Brooklyn Bridge in Bedroom, 2009”

see more of his work here

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