Life in the City...

...is great, but it would be nice to own a house in a peaceful village and maybe, own a farm too. Then I can sing, "Mango-steen-skin has a farm...ee..yaai..ee..yaai..yo!"

Everytime I see a picture of a green farm with blue skies and animals grazing in the field, it always bring me to the thought of my hubby. You are in the picture darling! My old-McDonald!

Haha!

I'm working on a "farm" in my "Dew Drop World" (that's what I would like to call this stamp series), but I'm sure the sheeps are going to give me hard times (that's why I put them in circles). Hm, shall I dismiss them?



I can't wait to start carving, but I already spent 2 hours sketching it. Gotta get back to other job now!

~~continued~~

New stamp is born!

I said, I just going to try carving the sheeps and finish the rest later...but then, I got carried away! I made a mistake and have to toss away the first rubber, and start a new one. Was a bit rushing on the trees though. A bit rushing on this post update too... Whatever, I have a farm now!

With the smallest sheeps in the world!

Been Neglecting...

...other works. Stamp carving is highly addictive. Once you start, you can't stop.

Made the design few months back, but I always use the chance for commision works. This morning, it felt like an artwork again. Custom works are a bit stressful sometimes, but things done for fun (of course) is therapy!

Susan Boyle

I can't believe that I was all teary to listen to her singing!

Unfortunately, embedding has been unable so you have to click here to know what I mean.

Beautiful song and lyric too.

I Dreamed a Dreamed from Les Miserables

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When dreams were made and used,
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung,
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he'll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

Day Before Today, I was..

Experimenting a newly bought teak color waterbased varnish on some of my old stamps... but my hubby prefers them to be left natural and unvarnished.

..and some reproduction works.

Last but not least, a new stamp for this week.

Sun-day-out

We went to Kinabalu Park, Kundasang and Mesilau recently, accompanying our two friends from KL. They were here to coordinate a seminar on Accident Investigation Management and another in-house trainning for safety and health at workplace. We are very lucky as this time around could be the orchid blooming season. These are wild orchids so some of them are very rare because they only grow in deep jungle and high altitude, and some even endogenous to mount Kinabalu. Too bad, I don't have time to snap more photos of the orchid but trust me, these place are botanical heavens!

Enjoy the pictures I have taken that day!

The smallest orchid in the world.

Scientific name for the plant with red fruit (previous pic)

Mine!

Tadaa!!!

My very own new stamp!! Yeah, I know...too many fine lines. Ugly kan? I mean my palm la. Hehe.

Nausea. I was carving until I feel like I want to puke!! Uweek!

I thought I was making a simple one for my self, but it was tough!

Ahhh...I just got to share with you how excited I am! Yeeyeh! Yeyeh!

Hahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!!

Give Me That Evil Look

One morning, I was waiting for my hubby, and Free came to accompany me under the coconut tree. FYI, we let Free wandering freely outside the house when we off to work, so he is free to do his own business; mingle with other cats, make friends with dogs, chase birds, make friend with the old lady next door so he can get his portion of chicken wing everytime the daughter cook chicken, and to poop under the jackfruit tree or under the other neighbour's balcony.

I happened to have my camera in my handbag so I took it out and snapped his picture.

He was staring at me and I noticed that he got some kind of evil look in his face. Hish, Free...ko ni dah la hitam!

When my hubby came, I get inside the car and my hubby asked Free whether he wants to follow. Tau apa Free buat? Dia bangun dan masuk dalam kereta. Hey! Diapun mahu pegi keja la!!

Kulit Manggis!

My new blog address is http://www.kulitmanggis.com/! Yeyeh.. Yeyeh!

Actually I wanted mangosteenskin.com but the domain is no longer available. However, I can still get the domain using GoDaddy Domain Buy Service, only that it would cost me $59.90, equal to approximately RM 209.xx plus another 10% or $10 comission (whichever is greater) to the domain agent if I manage to purchase the address!!! Argh...tak payahlah!

When a very good friend of mine suggested kulitmanggis.com, I straight away fell in love about how "Malaysian" it sounds. The price is affordable, converted to our currency, it's about RM35 only!

So if you are a blogspot user thinking of getting your own dotcom, you can simply go to your dashboard, and on setting tab, click publishing. From there, you can check the availability of your desired address, and if you wish to buy a domain, it will be registered through Google partner (GoDaddy or eNom). It only cost $10 (USD) for one year and as part of the registration, you will also get a Google Apps account for your domain.

Everything is so easy, even though my blog address is now http://www.kulitmanggis.com/, but if you click on http://mangosteenskin.blogspot.com/, you will be automatically redirected to my new domain. So none of my readers will be left behind. Everything is done for you especially if you don't know much about making these things work manually, like me!

Long Sunday Post

I just finished one important task in March, so I thought I would be able to concentrate working on stamps but then a bigger task came. I'm currently busy gathering information for an RFQ (request for quotation) and the tender's deadline is tomorrow! Yeyeh! Yeyeh! Yeyeh! But then again, I still have something to do with the company's account and two of its license renewal. NO! I'm not that smart for accounting thingy, just something to do with it. Argh!!! Macam ni bilalah baru ada masa buat stamp nih?!

Uh~ Oh~ I have an announcement to make~~ I received quite a number of enquiries regarding business cards, stickers and logo designs. Such an honor to me but I'm sorry to tell you that I will not be able to accept orders for these items for the time being. It would be inconvenience for both of us, because I can't concentrate with the design works...tak mau lah buat cincai-cincai, kualiti mesti dijaga...and of coz, I don't want to burden you with the long wait. Coz I really, really can't promise. These kind of job always takes extra time and we need to discuss the matters few times before we can decide the final design~~~so, considering my limited time for creative business, I got to narrow down to handmade stamp commision work only. Please accept my humble apology. Tapi, kalau berminat nak order stamps...BOLEH!! (Bolehlah...boleh! ~~terus nyanyi lagu Mas Idayu sambil tuang susu kacang dalam gelas).

Today I have to turn down a birthday party invitation, so my hubby went there alone because I said I want to do some mounting job. You have seen the sewing theme set (which have been carved maybe two weeks ago), but the three larger stamps (pic. below) I have been working on since Friday. By hook, or by crook, I said I must finish them today. So while the washing machine is working hard with the laundry, I am in the living room, cutting and smoothering the small wooden blocks.

Newly mounted stamps

Finally, I manage to mount these small stamps! Hey, they looked great in a set, kan?. One day I might produce more stamp set for sale (Hah! Dah mula dah angan-angan!).

Yang dalam gambar ni, Lilstitch punya.

Below is the stamp I designed for Lilstitchy. Saya sukalah nama Lilstitchy...lancar je nak sebut kan...macam Mangosteenskin panjang sangat!

Commisioned by Lian of Lilstitchy

I like this "Tengkiew" stamp so much... ordered by Cuda. She prepared the design, and I only modify her "awek" icon, supaya nampak macam gadis bertudung dan tak sebijon macam yang ori. If you have a ready made design, mungkin saya kena adjust-adjust sikit tapi tak perlu tunggu begitu lama untuk stamp siap...tengok stamp Cuda ni, simple tapi sweet sangat kan!

Commisioned by Cuda of Didaijauteeshop

I designed this owl stamp based on a pottery work I saw in Etsy. Sorry, I lost the link tapi macam tu lah ceritanya.

All the stamps are waiting to be sent to their owners, except the owl. Nampak macam hamper la pulak kan. Dalam sehari, saya belek stamp-stamp ini berkali-kali, dah penat-penat buat, rasa macam tak mau jual. Hehe. Kidding. Kidding. Kidding.

Waiting to be packaged and mailed.

Getting My Wood Supply

I'm swarmed with office works but I'm also worry about few unmounted stamps that suppose to be completed and delivered this week. There are also unreplied emails and delayed works for handcarved stamps. I really need to get some wood to make the mountings so I took a different route to work this morning to enable a visit to Hiong Tiong.

I wanted to rush but I missed the junction and had to make a U-Turn twice!

The warehouse where they keep smaller pieces of pre-cut woods and plywoods. This is where I do my shopping today!

I brought samples of my mounted handmade stamps, to give them idea of what I'm looking for. These lady help me to locate the pre-cut size that I require and help me to cut them into shorter pieces. I use Agathis wood for my handmade stamps mounting. It is a soft type of wood for lightweight use, has very light color and smooth surface. It is good to have a bit of knowledge about wood or make some research first before you plan to buy, coz it really helps.

It's looks like a giant cabinet! But there's no need to climb the ladder because the pre-cut wood that I want is stored at the ground level, rightmost door in the picture. I am a bit particular, so I like to make the choosing myself. There are operating machineries at the back area and moving forklifts so the place is very noisy. Yelling is common in a place like this.

I'm updating blog and doing other work in my computer at the same time. Oh how time fly so fast! I already missed my breakfast and lunch!