Sunday, May 27, 2012

Books and things!

Kinokuniya were having a big big sale which I finally checked out!

Last week I received an e-mail that the sale stock was reduced to $5 but I couldn't make it till yesterday when it was further reduced to $2 lol!! Of course after several weekends the good stuff was definitely gone, oh boogers :(

But still, at $2, you can't resist looking through the tables ^^

I also wanted to double check another art/design book I've been meaning to buy, there are two versions and I was checking whether the cheaper/smaller one was worth it, so you know... I had another reason to be there!

Anyway, I whittled it down to a round $10 figure i.e. I bought 5 items!



Picked this one up in the design section, it's pretty old now, over ten years but it had some interesting content and the designs didn't look too much like they were following trends. Yeah, figured out I should always checking the published date first as some of the design books at the Basement are getting on in the years too, though there are still many gems floating around there!


I also grabbed a random Chinese magazine that featured KPOP artists, it was a toss up between two that mentioned Big Bang and I think I chose the wrong one, a short article with them :(



Some Evangelion postcards, set of 6, looks like I need a new photo frame again >.<


Nothing much in the comics section but I picked up a cute one for kids about a pair of animals that didn't make it onto the ark, reminds me of that Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode (yes, what an old show but I got re-obsessed with it and watched about 4 and a half seasons in one go)... anyways, Christmas is about to be cancelled forever in the memory of the world if Sabrina doesn't fix it up... like Salem who accidentally got rid of Kwanza (yes, what is Kwanza...??)


My friend gave me a voucher for Christmas and when I went to peruse Kino, I wanted to get a felt cake book but I saw those Asian magazines that gave a freebie every month e.g. little bags and things, I asked my felt cake expert friend (Tiff) about it and she said that the quality of the freebies wasn't that great and I should buy them only when Kino was reducing the price to get them off the floor. There were magazines with charms, creams, toys and one with a little bag which I picked up.





The annoying thing is, the box is part of the magazine so if you were to keep it, it's a waste of space. The fashion inside was pretty staple, nothing flashy so you could wear those pieces over the years. (The magazine was from 2010!) The bag itself was very cute but the inside was made of that cheap material they use on those "wind jackets" that don't keep out the cold! I like my Espirit bag better which I got as a kid and I still occasionally use!



I also went to the Basement and picked up this Asian cookbook, since I can finally compare prices I foudn Basement did have the cheapest price! Also picked up a design gift for my friend which I obviously can't show ;) and this cute little egg recipe book, hehe...


P.S. Here is the book I did buy with the voucher ;) Though it was about two months ago.



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Everyone needs a little Daiso in their life!

update: Blurb about store locations further down the post :P Hard to miss!



Last weekend Penguin and I made the trip to Daiso in Chatswood, there were a few mishaps with our meeting time but we finally met up at 3pm and caught the train into Chatswood. As we planned to have dinner there we walked down the main road from the station to browse the restaurants and decided to head to Daiso as that was our main goal.


We walked in and to the right was some nail polishes, a few beauty things and bath bombs. While I was still looking, Penguin decided we'd definitely need a basket... no scratch that, a shopping trolley! Our first item was one of those purse hooks.



Trolley's already full and we just got there!
We slowly waltzed through the table ware and squealed over the super cute mugs, then when we reached the baking section (Penguin) and bento section (me); time seemed to slow down! We had a ball seeing all the cute items and throwing everything in the basket. Then we realised we'd only seen half the store, it's quite big!!


A funky spatula!

The second half had more make-up; hair accessroies, stationary, gift wrap etc, I tink I ended up walknig all the aisles twice here while Penguin went through a bit slower. We regrouped at the baking section (with another trolley and basket for sorting) in order to set our final budget and convince each other whether not we needed certain items!

I call it "double trolley + basket sorting"

funny looking pudding mould!

cute bento utensils

Here is my haul!


Bento soy sauce holders

Bow craft punch

Cute brads (almost bought two XD)

Tape for crafting

Apron

Pedometer

Plastic bags for baked goodies... and lunch...

handbag holder

Penguin chocolate moulds

Tea bag papers

I ended up buying two aprons accidentally, boo :( I should have realised but with all the counting and recounting I thought the number was right, it was only at home I realised I'd bought two! Ironic as it was the only item on my need list, haha. The pedometer is a bit over-sensitive as it seemed to overcount!

Just so you know, Daiso is a shop quite similar to the 100yen stores in Japan, every item costs $2.80, there is one in Chatswood and also Melbourne. Sydney also has similar stores, from my knowledge just behind Town Hall; Market City level 3 and Burwood Westfields!

Update 17/06/2012:
Daiso stores in Melbourne: Doncaster, Abbotsford and soon in the CBD
http://www.daisostore.com.au/#
Daiso stores in Sydney: Chatswood's Mandarin Centre and there is a  grocery store in Town Hall (under HSBC) which I heard is partially converting into Daiso
***mini update 28/06/2012***
   I've been to the store under HSBC! :) It has less stock sicne it's a lot smaller but you might still find some goodies... I have also heard rumour from a good friend that there will be a Daiso opening on George St closer to Central Station!!

Similar shops:
Town Hall - Maruyu @ 283-285 Clarence St Sydney 2000
http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/shopping/venues/3676/maruyu-city-supermarket
Items are still $2.50 each and you can get a stamp card for discounts + it's on top of a small grocery store - score! :)

Market City - level 3 near the food court, items are $2.80 but a different selection to Maruyu which is smaller

Burwood - (from the same person as my Town Hall Daiso source) hearsay says the store is gone - sadness! T_T

A conversation between Penguin and her colleagues: (which I probably embellished a bit)

Manager: So guys what are you doing on the weekend?
Colleagues: Blah blah blah + replies
Penguin: I'm going to Daiso! *excited face*
Colleagues: That's the most exciting thing you're doing over the weekend?
Penguin: er.. yeah...
Colleagues: *blank face*


It's ok, I had the same experience on my end ;)

 We had dinner at Grill'd and dessert at ZenQ!







Thanks Penguin for pushing the trolley and helping me decide on items! :)

uber panda cuties!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

My first eBay win!


I started browsing craft items on eBay, well more seriously than before and I came across this very cute embossing folder. No one else was selling it so I placed it on my watch list to monitor, but I ended up having a busy bee weekend and forgot all about it! But since the seller had more than one she put up another auction which I went for, it was a bitter fight till the end, I'm not sure if I was up against one person or two! I did pay a bit more than the previous action (boooo) but I was still happy with the price, as I imagine the price would have went up to the same amount had I bet the previous time.



The seller was pretty polite and posted it the next morning but as I was in another state I didn't get it till Friday (posted Wednesday). Here's how it was packaged, she also throws in a cute little wire hanger (which was mentioned on eBay) and embosses some paper for you. It seems like it's just printer paper but it's a nice little bonus which can still be used efficiently (or maybe I'm the only one here who only embosses cardboard lol)




http://myworld.ebay.com.au/craftyrosalie?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:AU:1181