Trip to Hong Kong

Few days ago, a facebook friend Sunita posted about taking unpaid leave  to travel. Well, I certainly would do it. Life is too short to spend in one place, right? 

After marriage and kids, travel seems to be a distant dream, but believe me, we need to go out there, take the kids off their gadgets and start looking around you instead of glued to the HD screen. 

My 13 and 11 years old boys are just like any other boys who prefer  lounging around and play games  in their gadgets during holidays.

Hong Kong 

Last summer we went to Hong Kong, which they enjoyed.  We still laugh at how my younger son kept disappearing to explore the stalls in the Temple street night market or any other places we visited. 

The boys enjoyed reading GPS map to find our Big bus stop. The younger one was fascinated by double decker busses and always made us sit in the upper deck.  

How we were all  so worried during our day trip to Shenzhen when one couple in our group was detained in the immigration because he forgot to bring their return air ticket. 

ShenZhen Window of the world

{this is why you need a travel wallet, esp if you travel with family }

Family Travel Wallet 

 Even though they were tired of walking around in Hong Kong summer heat, they still enjoyed street shows and looking around. 

Big Bubble street show 

street show

They learned that there are  more interesting and exciting things to see and to do out there then looking at their gadgets.

Cable car ride in Ocean Park Hong Kong

Travelling indeed is life lesson : learn to be away from the comfort of the home, to be discipline, to be aware of what's happening around you, to be alert, and most importantly to enjoy yourself. 

Yes, travel will definitely enrich you as a person, as a family. Give your children memories to treasure.   

What about you? Where are you heading this winter?

Until then, 

Almost Holiday

Summer holiday is almost here! It's time to pack my bags and make few handmade for my family and friends in Indonesia. 

I always prefer to give handmade stuff even if it's small.

two of my sisters already told me to make them passport wallets :D

Mickey Mouse Family Travel Wallet

 and I already order one Bag from my fave bag-maker bestie, BagStock . My mom loves her Saddle bag that I gave last year. 

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Black and white is always favorite. Last weekends, hubby's cousin came to visit me and she wanted  wallet and pouch set in black and white and Blue. I showed her my photos from my previous custom order and she wanted same combo. 

I really love this combo. I thought black, white and red is perfect but this linen blue and this chevron really look classic. 

If you notice that stone car, it's my current fave photo props. I collected that stone when we went to Umngot River in Meghalaya few months ago. Hubby was laughing when I collected stones to take as souvenirs.

What is your fave photo props? 

Personalized your Wallet with Hand Embroidered Names

Photo props is really important, I feel, esp when you are selling online. But not too much. You have to make props that visually appealing yet not crowding your product that it takes away the focus. 

I love my canvas board white background. And always try to take photos before noon in a room which does not have direct sunlight. 

Ethnic Traveling Vanity Pouch

I have screen door in my sewing room that facing the front porch. I recently put an off-white lace curtain to block the direct afternoon sunlight. And that's my fave photo spot now. Since I got my new 50 mm lens, I love taking photos here. 

Ballerina Small Pouch

As much as you can do not take photos with auto setting. Try to tweak the setting a bit and you will get  perfect photos. Do take a look at your camera setting and try to search for online tutorial. YouTube is a great source of information. 

Here, I give you sneak peek on how I did it. The photo below was  taken using my Sony Pocket Camera. I put my canvas board near the screen door and I put a white card stock paper (it was  bed sheet wrapper or whatever you call it). 

The paper is a bit shiny so it gives perfect reflection. The white paper will sort of block the light from the door/window and reflect it back. It reduces the shades that you normally get when you take photos without one. 

by the way, my handmade shop in Etsy will be closed from next week until end of July since I will be going for holiday. So until then do check my READY to SHOP section in my shop. 

Thank for dropping bye

Until then,

Back from Holiday

Hello...I hope I don't miss much during my holidays. I really miss reading my blog rolls and admiring the great crafts everyone is doing all around the world.

In short, the holidays are quite FUN and hectic. Though we went away for almost a month, the kids were sick for a week and spent another week for recuperation since we already planned to go to Sumatra. Anyway, all's well that ends well, right? ^_^

I still haven't downloaded all the pics of our trip. Got busy with housework and the boys' school work plus my sewing projects and also Ramadan is on. So all the photos will have to wait  ^_*. But, here are a few that I love. These beautiful beaches and the durians...yummmmm...can't have enough of it:)

Sewing is always my stress buster, to release tension from too much housework and the hustle-bustle of Indian household ^__*. Esp. after long holidays, and I feel like the dust in my house just won't go away and made me wondering my India has so much dust..;).

I haven't told you about the mini quilt swap that I do with my friend in Indonesia. I made this simple one and hand-embroidered it my self.




I took it to Indonesia to send it to her and guess what?? it got LOST in the mail. I just can't believe my self, it's domestic shipping and they LOST it. I felt so terrible since I got mine. She made this pretty pinwheel quilt using Balinese Batik.



Thus, I decided to make another one for her. I got the idea from Love of Quilting Magazine. It's a double nine patch. I had so much fun doing the tiny squares and just finished the quilt top last night. I hope she will like it ^_*

So, that's all this week....I'm glad to be back to my sewing machine...^_^

Happy Sewing

Elvira