Some of you might have known about this already, but my best friend passed away yesterday afternoon. We knew about him being admitted to hospice the night before and we were meant to go visit him this monday. I was going to knit him a beanie or a scarf. I know I am just a beginner knitter and can't possibly knit a scarf in just under 3 days. Let alone a beanie. But my best friend, he loves his scarves and since his cancer 2 years ago, he's been often seen with a beanie. So I told myself, it's ok. I will knit it as fast as I can, God will watch over me and I will be able to knit one up. Will stay awake to knit it even if I have to. And so, I packed my knitting needles, notebook and off to the yarn store I was going to go. I was still trying to decide a blue or red one would suit when I received a call saying his condition has worsened.

So before we knew it, my friend, Darren and myself just rushed off from work yesterday late morning and sped all the way up from Melbourne to Bendigo. The last time we drove there with family, it took us over 2 hours, 3 in fact because we got lost. But by God's grace we reached in about 2 hours. In fact slightly under 2. I was still alright in the car, but I knew it was time. I just didn't want to believe it.

We reached Bendigo just in time. I wanted to speak to him and tell him so much but he was in so much pain, they had to sedate him and he couldn't hear. So I just kept quiet and spoke to his sister instead. But it was just so hard standing there looking at my best friend lying there in bed. He was so tiny, so frail and just gasping for air. His heart was pumping air so hard to his lungs, with every breath he took, it was just such a pain to even watch. I left the room after that thinking well, might be the last time I see him alive. But maybe not. But you know. I was right. It was the last time. We were waiting around in the lounge room. His dad and mum came to speak to us and we talked about his condition and how it was either going to be heart failure or lungs collapsing. In my heart I knew very well, his lungs would be the one to give way first. Knowing my best friend, he wouldn't give up, not until the very end. So I am sure his heart was going to make sure it just keeps going. And yes, I was right again.

I remember his parents and us, we were talking about Vietnam and other stuff non-related to Xuan Dao.. I guess it was good in a way, took their mind off for a while but then suddenly, the nurse came and they had to rush to his ward. I knew maybe it was time maybe not. So we just waited. Along with a small bunch of other friends. Things after that was just a bit of a blur. I don't really want to talk about it.

But anyway, my best friend Xuan dao passed away shortly after. His lungs collapsed. I knew it. I knew his heart would keep working. He is a fighter and always wants to win. So that was the last time I saw him alive. We were told we could go into his room whenever we were ready. But to be honest, I never was. For the past two years, I have been living in denial. I never wanted to believe it was real and never wanted to face the whole fact of what he was going through. It is just so hard. He told me he wanted to be treated like a normal person. So that was what I did. I called him every week and asked him out for iced chocolates, fishing trips, lunches, parties, invited him to my show openings, etc. Whenever I'm in Carlton or Brunswick, I'd call him and ask him if I could pop over. He lived just nearby. I start my residency at Harvest next week. It's in East Brunswick and I don't know how I will feel. Knowing for the past few times I've been there, I always call him, but this time round, he will no longer pick up my call. Not anymore.


I have so much to tell you Xuan Dao. I can go on and on. It felt so strange to sit next to you yesterday, telling you about Darren and our cooking adventures. About our pineapple tart, bak kwa and peanut cookies. You haven't even got to try my homemade roti prata. I always thought a dead person's hand would be really icy cold. But no, your hands were cold but still warm. It was like you were still alive. I looked at you as you lay in bed. Somehow your jumper still seemed to be moving ever so slightly, as if you were just sleeping and breathing. But I know I was just tired and imagining things.

Xuan Dao, everyone says we should be happy for you, but it takes time. I couldn't sleep last night and I just kept waking up hoping it was all not true. Will you just come back? So we can go have ice creams and iced chocolates and you can scold me when I make you pay for $9 parking? Why did you have to leave us so soon. I still have so much to tell you. Now that you're gone, I won't have anyone to hang out with in the afternoons. Apart from Darren, you are the only person who knows everything. My best girlfriends who are always my rock and pillar of strength, they are all in Singapore. So it's just Darren now. I know I have a bunch of other good friends but it is just different. Xuan Dao, I know you wouldn't want me to be sad. I should be happy that you're safe now in God's arms, but I miss you and I just want you to come back.

I haven't even knitted you a scarf yet. I was thinking I could knit one and place it in your coffin on Monday but I don't even want to look at my knitting basket. I haven't even taken out the knitting needles from my bag. I just feel so tired and so worn out. I feel so sick just thinking of knitting because it just reminds me that it was just about 24 hours ago when I received a call telling me to rush down. Xd, I was going to go to the yarn shop. Why didn't you wait for me. Anyway, thanks for waiting for us to arrive before you went to sleep for good. You must be happy now. I will see you in heaven soon alright. And then we can go back to our endless teasing of each other. Xuan dao, my dear best guy pal in the whole wide world, my brother and crazy friend. As as usual, being the competitor you are who always wants to win, you've reached the finishing line just a tad too quick for my liking. Anyhow, you have fought the good fight, and finished the race while I am still panting away here like a tortise. I can imagine you at the end laughing at me going " Ah don! Ah don!" Just you wait till I get to the end and meet you again.. Just you wait..

PS: I will be taking a couple days off from this space and my inbox. I just need some time. Thanks.

Yarn stash

Some beautiful Quince n Co. plump yarn came in the mail the other day. The colour's so vibrant and just beautiful. I'm almost done with my chunky snood. Can't wait to roll these skeins up so I can start knitting with it. I think they'll end up becoming nice wooly scarves!

PS: I was in the papers yesterday! Read the article here. It was a tiny mention, but still, I am just so excited about it! And if you were watching ABC's Art nation last Sunday, you might have spotted my little camera too. Here's the video in case you missed it. My camera's shown at 3:04. Thanks Angela for letting me know!

High Street, Armadale

I didn't do much over the weekends. I mostly worked and stayed home, so no photos at all. Instead, I'm sharing some shots from last Thursday afternoon. These were taken at High street, Armadale. To be honest, I've lived here 3 years now and I've never actually been to Armadale before! I was around the area for a work meeting and well, as usual I lugged my camera along. I always do when it comes to exploring/visiting a new area. It was nice and sunny, not too warm. Just my kind of weather. I'm actually really excited that it's getting a bit colder and it'll be scarf and sock weather soon. I've been waiting and knitting really patiently.

Oh and see that last picture there? That's Carbon Black gallery's second floor space! It's where I'm going to have my solo show! The light in there is amazing. So beautiful and dreamy. I'm doing a show based on the idea of a wintry vegetable soup! I will have prints, tea towels, soft sculptures, etc. It's going to be held during the colder months of July/August. Just thought it'll be nice to have something warm during the end of winter, where everyone gets a bit cranky and misses summer.

Adult Illustration Class!

Hello everyone! Just thought I'd let you know, I will be doing an intensive watercolouring, illustration class starting next week 3rd March at Harvest Workroom in East Brunswick! Classes will be conducted over 3 Thursday evenings in a row. 6.30 to 9.30pm.

For the first class, I will be introducing everyone to the wonderful world of watercolour paints. How to use them, techniques, paper types and how to start preparing palettes, etc. I will do a demonstration of packaging illustration, like the Frankie milk ones I've done. And we'll all get to paint our own packaged materials. During the second and third week, I will show you how I create my food recipe drawings and we will all get to do our very own A3 sized version! Perfect for framing and hanging in the kitchen after that.

Overall, it will be fun I promise! With lots of food-talk, fun drawing and learning. You really don't need any prior experience. Bring a friend along and together, you'll walk away with the knowledge of how to paint like I do and well, you'll be all prepped for making beautiful recipe drawings on your own. Imagine being able to do one for your best friend, family, partner as a birthday, christmas, anniversary gift! I think it'll make a nice present!

Alright, to sign up, go here! Don't say I didn't tell you. Spaces are very limited. Only 15 spots and that's it!

Package in the mail

This amazing beginner's knitting package came in the mail for me late last night. The lovely Anna of KnitKnit emailed me the other day to ask if I wanted to have one of her knitting kits and of course I said yes! I got to pick out whichever one I wanted and of course I chose the chunky snood/scarf kit. I love chunky scarves!

I think this kit is just fantastic for beginner knitters like me. It comes with a booklet of illustrations filled with clear explanations, good quality knitting needles, yarn and of course a super cute tote bag to go along with it! Nice for bringing along when going to a park to knit. I love every bit of it and I've already started knitting my chunky snood as you can tell from my second picture. There is seriously no stopping when it comes to knitting. I joined my first ever free knitting group yesterday. It was fun meeting new people who love making things with their own two hands. And also, nice to know I'm not the only one in love with soft cashmere, merino yarn! Seriously, I could keep one in my bag so I can touch it from time to time! I know, I'm crazy!

My Work in Frankie!

There you go! As promised, here's proof of my milk illustrations in the latest issue of Frankie, issue 40! I made Darren pose with it in our kitchen, early this morning. I liked how it all turned out. Big thanks to Lara, the creative director at Frankie. For without her, this Frankie Illustrator dream wouldn't have been even possible! I hope you all like the drawings as much as I do!

PS: Even though I really do hate milk, these were seriously drawn with lots of love I promise!

Mociun Fall 2011

My heart skipped a beat when I saw these over on Mociun's blog about 5 minutes ago. My goodness. So Pretty! Those lines, dots, oh my oh my! So beautiful, I had to immediately pop over here and do a second post for the day, so I can share it with you guys. Now hands up who likes it as much as I do!

On my desk the other day

I've been cutting out bits and pieces from the latest issue of Vogue Australia and InsideOut Magazine. Lots of inspiring stuff in there. Apart from that, I've bee running around still! I haven't had a day this week to sit at my desk for the entire day just painting and working. I leave the house everyday for my teaching job, work meetings and stuff. Another meeting today at a gallery today to discuss a solo show I'm having. Will tell you more soon!

PS: My room seems to be really warm/dark in those photos. I had the blinds down that day. The sun was way too glaring.

Been Busy

The new issue of Frankie came in the mail yesterday. One from my yearly subscription. Another 2 from Lara, Frankie HQ. I don't know what to do with 3 copies. So I'm sending one out to my sister and another to Ebony. I know both of them will love reading Frankie as much as I do. I haven't had the time to sit and read, much less knit. I've been working. Both at home on exciting new projects and teaching at my new work place. But did you know, I did some milk illustrations and they appeared in this new issue! I will be back to show you more. For now, I'm off to the city to meet Anna!

Snippets of my super quick Weekend

And so, our weekend came and went so quickly. I feel like I need another one already. To think it's only Tuesday! This week, I started working on Saturday mornings and only get off work at 1.30, so by then half the day is gone. We really didn't do much this weekend, other than just sleeping in on Sunday, making breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. Going to the market and stuff. Usual weekend things. One moment it's here and the next it's over. Ah well, it's alright. Minus today, it's just 3 more days to the next weekend right? In trying to see the fun side of things, Darren has funny names for Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesday's 'Hump' day because it's right in the middle of the week. Thursday's 'Oohlala' day because the next day's Friday. And Friday's 'The weekend is here!' day.

I like being positive this way.

Happy Valentines

I'm not a believer in splurging on chocolates, roses and teddy bears during this season. If you're in love, everyday should be valentines day! Still, I reckon it's a perfect excuse still to give and receive nice art right? Okay, I'm contradicting myself! But yes, this was meant to be a little anniversary present too. This handprinted letterpressed poster is from Roll & Tumble Press. We got a nice frame for it last night and I spent a good hour framing it up nicely, cutting a new correctly sized mat for it. It's huge and it hangs above his bed now. It's a little girly for a guy's room. But who cares. He likes it and that's all that matters. I think it beats buying chocolate that probably will only last 5 minutes and flowers that will last at most 2 weeks.

Quince & Co.

So the amount of time I've spent on Ravelry is just insane. It's like an etsy + dictionary land in there! I get to learn so much by reading all those forums and I get to favourite things too, like in etsy. Last night while I was on my little Ravelry adventure, I came across Quince & Co. Now, their site is filled with so many beautiful pictures and I honestly got hooked. God knows how long I spent clicking on every single picture! Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was ready to purchase 2 skeins of beautiful plump puffin yarn. Not sure how many US knitters read my blog. But have you bought their yarns before? Or do you have any other recommendations as to what sort of yarn's nice for making scarves. I like knitting with thicker/heavier yarns. And I really like the feel of merino and cashmere. I would love to hear from all you seasoned knitters! Thanks!

Thank You

Seriously, you guys are amazing. All the emails, comments. Wow. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. I really don't know what else to say! But yes, for all my Thai readers, don't be ashamed or embarrassed. I still love your country and people, and needless to say, the food! And it is really not your fault at all, so don't feel bad! I'm sorry if I made you feel that way. This experience won't make me like Thailand less or anything. So yes, chin up to you too! Fact is, I can't really do anything about it but to let it go. So yes, I'm not going to let those bums get to me. I'm not intending to even give up making art. No way! So negative things aside, I have a really good piece of news to share with everyone. 

I got offered a residency at Harvest Workroom for the month of March! In case you're wondering what that means, it means that I get a whole studio space to myself and make art in it! Yes! Dream come true right? The lovely harvest ladies, Lara, Jess and Emma are just so kind and I look forward to be able to spend my days in the space making and taking photographs of my work, collaborations and adventures. Along with the ladies, I might make silkscreened recipe tea towels, have an exhibition at the end of it, a pop up stall, artist talk, etc. So many ideas!

Oh and I'm also doing kids classes there too! Along with adult classes! It's a new thing - the adult classes. But I will be teaching the basics of watercolouring ( the way I do it ), product illustrations like these ones here, and we'll also get to do our very own recipe drawings. I've never taught adults before. So it will be an exciting new thing for me. I've also  started my kids classes at Art Encounters this week and it's been lots of fun. My Tuesday and Wednesday kids are proving to be so cute and adorable! I asked them what symmetry meant and everyone raised their hands eagerly. And when I picked each one to tell me their own answer, all I got was "I know I know! It means.... like this and like this ( drawing an x on their face)"..."ummm.. Oops! I forgot!" 

Anyway, more details on those Harvest Adult and kids classes soon.

See, I told you I wasn't going to let those bums get to me!

My bedroom slippers are from here. And my new plant was a gift from Jacinta!

Trying To Stay Positive

I first saw this a couple of weeks back on Evie's blog, and I really enjoyed it. I saw it again yesterday on Sarah's blog. It is indeed such an inspiring video on so many levels. I have it saved on my laptop. And watch it over and over again whenever I feel crappy making art or when things don't go as planned. This morning, I watched this video 6 times. I knitted while watching/listening to it on loop.

I was sad and angry and just disappointed to know that I couldn't do anything about my designs being stolen. If you don't already know, a shop in Singapore's Haji Lane is selling tops with my work on them. My sister traced the shop down yesterday and found out the shirts were going for $20 each. That's a lot of money for art that's stolen. I cannot imagine the profit they are earning and that I don't even get a mention, needless to say, a single cent.

As if things can't get any worse, we found out from the shop lady that the shirts were bought in bulk, wholesale from Chatuchak Market in Thailand. I was already aware of this Thai shop selling tops with my art, thanks to a blog reader who alerted me about it a few months ago. Back then I knew I couldn't do anything about it. And was just hoping that since it's a small shop, fine, whatever. It's not like it's going to go anywhere else other than within Thailand right? So I just tried to be ok with it. But I was wrong. Turns out this Thai shop is not only selling it on their racks, but also 'exporting' and selling it wholesale to shops from outside of Thailand. And this Singaporean shop just happens to be one of them. I don't know how many shops out there are selling it now. But it pains me to know I cannot do anything else but just sit back and watch it go. The thai shop stole not only one but 5 of my designs. ( I think it's 5, there might be more ) I am sad that I'm struggling here, trying to make a living out of my practice. Waking up everyday, finding jobs, feeling disheartened 80% of the time, working 24/7 thinking of how to make better art, pushing myself so hard and yet there you have it. Someone just goes and rips it all out and they probably earn more than I do now. Just from stealing what's mine.

I think being able to make a living as an artist is indeed a gift. And I am lucky I can even call myself an artist. But if shops and companies just go around stealing from us, what's left is just a whole bunch of unhappy artists feeling discouraged, with some even giving up totally on what they love to do. Not sure about you, but I really cannot imagine a world without handmade craft and goodness. 

Weekend Bits

So judging from the pictures, I think Darren and I definietly overate and outdid ourselves this weekend. SO much home cooking. We usually just eat out during the weekends since I cook every weeknight. But this week I have no idea what went into us. Maybe it was me trying to save ourselves some money. Anyway, we ended up cooking and cooking and experimenting so much.

For starters, we did make 鱼生. If you're wondering, it was indeed 100% made from scratch. Nothing from those cheater box sets! It turned out quite good actually. But something's still missing. Got to go figure it out. We also made lots of spaghetti. We've been watching too much of this and pasta is all we think about after that. We also made beer battered fish and chips. Darren had the most chips since I'm not a chips eater. I had more peas instead. Apart from the carbo overload, we made Bak Kwa/肉干 too. Again, 100% homemade. I'm not usually a fan. I do eat it but only once in a while. Darren on the other hand LOVES it. He had such a craving for it this Chinese New Year, so we decided to make it since the one place here in Melbourne that sells it, makes really lousy ones. I thought we were going to fail this recipe horribly, but it turned out to be way too good to be true! I actually love it and am addicted to it now. Oops!

Well cooking aside, we went to the markets at Springvale and South Melbourne. Laughed a lot over silly things and hung out with our friend, Grace. We also popped into Safari living, Loom rugs and Fenton and fenton. All of which sold so many beautiful things I wanted to bring home. But their price tags just didn't agree with whatever's left in my wallet. I saw this beautiful rug at Loom. My goodness. SO perfect, but $10,000. Yes, that's 4 zeros there.

Oh and did I mention, we finally got a Wooden Ecology fruit/salad bowl from a homewares shop in Elsternwick. They had a massive sale off a lot of their cookingware. We left with the fruit bowl ( Been on the hunt for one for the longest of time ), a table mat and a wonderful new bamboo chopping board. We've been using our tiny A4 sized one for far too long. The new one's 3 times the size! I can finally cut my roasts without meat landing everywhere. Food, pretty shops and chopping boards aside, I also bought the latest issue of Vogue and InsideOut.I don't usually buy Vogue. But this issue's way too colourful to pass. So far it's been pages and pages of inspiration after inspiration. If you ask me, $8 for inspiration isn't a bad thing after all.

So it seems I've had a wonderful weekend and I did. Until I found out from a friend about a shop in Singapore's Haji Lane, stealing my artwork. Argh! From a picture she sent, they stole this drawing of mine in full and reprinted it onto tops. My first thought was 'Seriously?! Who wears that? Can't they do it justice by printing on tote bags or something.. Argh! And what the heck! Stealing'! Not the first time this has happened. Another shop in Thailand's Chatuchak stole a whole bunch of my drawings recently. And printed them onto tops too. I cannot for the life of me understand why people do that. Seriously, make your own artwork and stop stealing! Stealing from small home-based artists is just wrong. We as artists struggle and work 24/7 to make our practice sustainable. And here you go just ripping off our works and reselling them to earn yourselves undeserved big bucks. Argh.

I don't know the shop's name yet, But Haji lane is a small lane and the shops there are quite well-known. Most of them at least. Their clothing prices are usually quite expensive so to think some owner out there's earning so much from stealing is just so horrible. I've asked my sister to look into it and go hunt the shop down. If I was in Singapore, I'd go straight there and demand an apology and ask them to remove it all. Anyway, if you see it or any of my works being sold elsewhere without credit, please let me know. Thank you very much! I will keep you all posted with regards to this matter.

PS: Sorry to end off on such a sour note. But well, I had a good weekend nevertheless! 

I will not let those stupid stealers ruin my day.