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.

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!

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

If you stand at the window where I stood,
If you read the books that I read,
If we can be with each other even just like that,
Then let's count that as us being together...
I miss you.

(T.O.P from Big Bang's Secret Garden parody)

[ENG] Secret Big Bang (Secret Garden Parody) by vvipjamie

Book Depository UK - affiliate =D

Yay, I just created an affiliate link with Book Depository UK so expect some garmified book reviews ^^

As BookDepo followers will already know, there's a 10% off sale (off their rad prices) until 14th May, 2012 (Noon BST) :)

Here's a peek at my last BookDepo order

+ I also pre-ordered 'The Intrigues of Suzumiya Haruhi' which will arrive in two months =D

Some quick 5-second reviews :)

Anne of Green Gables Series books 3-7 (L.M. Montgomery)
I adore this series which I read when I was younger. Coming-of-age, keeping dreams alive, rememebering life is a balance of positive and negative.
*Already own #1-2 and will be ordering #8 soon

Ranger's Apprentice #7 (John Flanagan)
Great series for teens. About a boy in a medieval like world with knights, kings, strange creatures and an elite force called rangers.
*Just finished collecting the series.

Homecoming; Dicey's Song (Cynthia Voigt)
Great coming of age story that has won quite a few awards, basically a 14 year old girl who takes her three younger siblings across many (many many) miles (not sure of my US geography) after their mother disappears. They hope to find her at a cousin's home (original destination) but have to walk the distance as they don't have enough for a bus fare.
*Already own a previous release of 3 books and missing 2 of the series

Suzumiya Haruhi; The Rampage of & The Wavering of (Nagaru Tanigawa)
I first read this quirky series online as it was translated from Japanese by a fangroup called Baka-Tsuki, after it was licensed they took it down but I enjoyed reading it so decided to purchase the series. Each novel is quite short but light novels are popular in Japan and many have become animes or dramas such as this one!
*Collecting as they come out

Don't forget: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/?a_aid=garmidesign ^^

Paper Petals #2

Came home today from the second Paper Petals meet where we exhanged our first set of cards. There are currently six people so I received 5 pretty new designs.

I ended up making my card till the last minute huhu T.T (in between chores here and there!) I wanted to incorporate a technique so I scoured through my books and magazines taking notes... I finally came up with an idea involving acetate (similar to overhead projector sheets) but couldn't get the creative juice to flow -_- So I thought about it over dinner and decided that I would use my idea for a Christmas card :)

***which meant back to the drawing board***

I decided to make something similar to a design that caught my eye before, really liked the pale colour coordination. I cut out the right scraps and things (the blue paper I used had a matching ink, but luckily the pink I had around the house worked together well).

I had a few issues with the layout and how the elements worked together as I made one big change which was the strip down the middle was cut with a border punch so many other elements had to change.

I worked something out (although my "no two cards are the same" policy got in the way) and set to writing out the instructions, despaired when I had to write it out eight times, so typed it up and went to look at the OfficeWorks website about document printing... their website was down... -_-

(An aside, I did go to Office works and I even bought a copy card - free to purchase but have to insert $1 or $2 coin... then couldn't figure out how to print so went to the counter and it's all done from there... goodbye $2 coin...)

Anyway, I'm generally happy with the card and I did write that alternatively it could be made as a gatefold card (i.e. it opens like saloon doors lol), but after making it, I think I should have made the actual card to be a gatefold card because the paper is layered and just looks like it will open lol

Instructions I used for the swap

Stamps

• Swirl: “Baroque Motifs” (Stampin’ Up)
• Sentiment: “Baroque Motifs” (Stampin’ Up)
  OR “French Phrases” #45797 (Sullivans)
• Script: “Secret Bird Society” (kaisercraft clear stamps)

Colours

• Blue; “Pool Party” (Stampin’ Up)
• Pink; N/A

Other

• Pink ribbon; rhinestones (if applicable); white embossing powder; Versamark; border punch (fiskars “spreading water”)

Method

1. Cut blue cardstock approx. 5cm by 14cm (Or an A4 cut into 8 pieces)
2. Stamp the script stamp 2/3s of the way down the card
3. Place pink ribbon on the blue card (in the empty space); jazz it up with knots, bows, rhinestones, layering, criss-cross effects
4. Cut pink cardstock approx. 10cm by 14cm (Or an A4 cut into 4 pieces)
5. Use an edge punch on one long edge
6. Stamp the script stamp 1/3 of the way up the card
7. Stamp the swirl with Versamark and emboss with white embossing powder
8. Cut a strip of the blue paper and emboss a sentiment onto the paper
9. Place the sentiment onto the pink card over the script stamp
10. Glue the pieces side-by-side onto a folded card

Alternatives

• Create it as a gatefold card
• At step 1., trim the card about 2cm shorter and use that piece for the sentiment
• Switch the colours/layout of the elements
• Add glitter to the holes (border punch)

I also learnt how to make rosettes and was given a plain tag to decorate, if only I could make something as beautiful as this!

A close-up of some other swaps!