A macaron birthday party.

Let me apologise if you're here for photos of macarons. Because it's not that kind of macaron party.

BUT you will see some photos of really cute cake pops. Edible ones too, yum. Plus a sprinkling of me too yay. (lol not really huh) AND a very cute dog!

 So the night before, I made some miniature macaron boxes for the party, and printed the birthday girl's name on it as well. 

( again, happy birthday Paige! ♥ )

Teddy chocolates, and summer vacation!

You won't believe how long I took in choosing the colour of the speech bubble below. I've gotten so used to using pastel colours that dark blues look all weird to me now.

That's a sneak peek of a box of teddy chocolates, and as I've mentioned, I'm going on vacation!

In fact, I'll be going to two countries, to Bintan in Indonesia for a really short weekend getaway and then a longer stay in Gold Coast, Australia! -bouncing in excitement!

With my schedule totally packed, and having 2 workshops and several orders to work on from till I leave for this extravagant summer holiday, I've decided to close my bigcartel and etsy stores for now. They will re-open on 4th July, hopefully I'm not too jetlagged to do so!

It's the first time I'm closing my store since I opened it, but this break is sorely needed. Thinking of the work ahead of me before the holiday is painful, and as much as I need the money, I have to stop taking on any work.

The trip in Gold Coast would be free and easy, and I'll love any travel advice you have for me! ♥ I MIGHT just do another travel giveaway like I did for Hokkaido too, so stay tuned for that!

Summer Sale!

Hello there!

So there's a giant dark grey cloud looming at my window, and there's nothing summery about this gloomy Friday. But for the sake of this post, let's pretend the day is filled with summer flowers and cheerful sunshine shall we!

So I'm having a Summer Sale, exclusively for AiMail subscribers! For the first 3 redemptions, you will get free worldwide shipping (registered with tracking code of course).

Two coupons were redeemed within hours, but the discount code went ahead and expired anyway, which is really puzzling (it's supposed to expire when three coupons are used).

I've gotten in touch with the bigcartel staff (people who manage my shop!) and will be waiting for them to give me a reply on that. I'm pretty sure that I will be posting up the LAST coupon tomorrow, so for everyone else who has been trying to redeem the coupon, here is one final chance!

Stay tuned for my update, I'll be emailing all the subscribers once the coupon code goes live. ♥

How about videos? { cookies & macarons }

It's June already! Half the year is gone, can you believe it!

Some photos here for you guys.

Of miniature cookies and macarons. 

Okay I have some exciting plans for AiClay, but knowing my organisational skills I haven't been very good with being on track with them.

One that I want to share is.. crafting videos! I know a lot of people have been asking for tutorials (especially my international readers) but I can't promise all of them would be tutorials. I would try to keep them mostly craft-related though, and the easiest channel would be on youtube.

I've been watching and subscribing to plenty of youtube vloggers (a vlog is a video log by the way), and am so psyched to be joining the humongous youtube family! Even if the videos don't get a lot of views/subscribers, it would still be fun to shoot the videos and have them as memories. Oh look at me getting ahead of myself and writing disclaimers already.

So please stay tuned for when I get my first video up, and let me know if you think it's a good idea! :)

My last cookie.

I can't remember. 

It's been so long since I last had a cookie, let alone bake some. 

I do miss the wafting smell of cookies from the oven, seeing as I arrange my schedule every day, I should really clock in a baking session one day.

I found some old photos of 1/3 scale miniature cookies I had sculpted. ♥

Have a wonderful Sunday!

I'm a hand-model. {sweets & cookies}

Saturday morning. 

You're about to see a lot of my hand. My left hand specifically, since only my right hand is strong enough to hold the heavy DSLR by itself.

I was commissioned last month for a box of cookies and sweets, and here are the photos to show.

I started out by sketching some outlines of animals.

 

I know I've posted this photo a few entries down, but I do love the elephant biscuits so.

 

I had fun thinking about the different cookies/sweets I wanted to include in the box. The iced gems that I showed a few entries back were made for this commission as well. ♥

The box is handcrafted as well, remember the entry about drawing the flowers? It became a cover for the box, and there's also a plastic cover.

Thus ends this entry of photo diarrhoea, hope you like it! ♥

Have a great weekend!

The pineapple has spoken.

Thanks for the support, everyone! ♥

A little disclaimer in case it wasn't obvious, that's a real pineapple. In my real kitchen.

how to break fast & photos from Mother's Day.

I don't know if that's the official meaning behind the word 'breakfast', but it sounds pretty logical as it is the first meal we take after a fast of 6-8 hours (when we're sleeping).

So I often take advantage and eat as much as I can hahah I'm such a pig. I even vaguely remember that whatever we eat within an hour of waking up contains only half the calories it actually has. Don't ask me how it works, or if it's true. It's just a comforting thought while I'm scoffing down all that bread and eggs and what-not.

  

So when you think breakfast, you got to think of PANCAKES! 

It's such an English food (erm don't quote me on this as well), but Mcdonalds has spread the culture of eating pancakes for breakfast all around the world, so yup we Asians love them too!

This pancake pendant is sold out in the store right now, but do check back as I'm hoping to make some again!

Today, I also sent out the second issue of AiMail, and also announcing the official opening of May Commissions! Visit the FAQ tab on top to find out how you can nab a spot!

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So Mother's Day just passed, and here are some photos of how my family spent it.

We went for Japanese lunch earlier in the day. My brother and I were treating (my father got lucky since it isn't technically his day hahah!) so we asked my mom to order anything she wanted. And we had loads of sashimi with chawanmushi (sweet cooked egg), came with a heavy price tag in the end but hey, it's Mother's Day.

My mom looks tired in this photo, must be weary from the anticipation of what we kids had up our sleeves haha.

This is a better photo of my dear mom. ♥

After lunch, we sent the parents together with my aunts and uncles for a surprise karaoke session (yes we Asians are big on that!). And the children gathered in my cousin's house and got busy in the kitchen, as we had to whip up dinner! I prepared Vietnamese spring rolls, and it was a bit of a failure as I had prepared the filling the night before and left it in the freezer. On the actual day itself, the filling refused to defrost and I was left with a huge chunk of cake-like filling.

My cousin had to stir-fry the filling in the end, before I could wrap it in the rice paper and fry them in the pan. They tasted not too bad in the end, on hindsight I should have bought more prawns and meat though. -writes down notes for next year's Mother's Day.

Ending off with a photo of roses that we prepared for the moms, one each for each child. So my mom gets two! Roses don't smell too awesome though, took a deep sniff just now and almost choked from the weird smell. :(

And don't stop showing your love for your mom just because Mother's Day is over! 
I'll try taking my own advice this time. ♥

Are you a mom?

For all the washing of dishes, nagging over the phone, making sure we eat our greens, laundry-washing, preparing our meals, being our alarm clocks in the morning..

Moms, you are the most amazing people ever.

Miniature zoo of animal cookies.

Happy Mother's Day! 

♥

To my own mom, I love you and for everything you do for me.

How I lost my voice.

This has got to be a record of the number of days between the actual workshop and me actually blogging about it. A record that I shall not break ahem.

The lag is not without reason though, allow me to explain.

My throat was feeling all scratchy and weird on the morning of the workshop. So that was the first alarm bell ringing off and I had to continually gulp water down during the workshop.

I don't know why my face was like that too. 

After the workshop, my parents (who tagged along as helpers for this workshop for the first time yay!) decided that we should join the rest of my family for dinner, and guess where we went.

A charcoal barbeque and steamboat buffet! My incredibly uncomfortable throat closed up a bit in horror upon hearing that haha. So I ended up paying $30 for a meal which consisted only of cooked leafy vegetables and mushrooms in the steamboat soup. I felt so sad for myself.

But the strict vegetarian, no-bbq diet did not pay off, as I still got a horrid sore throat at the end of the day. Probably from breathing in the bbq smoke. 

And then I had no voice the day after the workshop! I'm counting my blessings that the throat infection happened only after the workshop, and not before. Imagine me speaking in a scratchy manly voice for three hours. Yikes. 

Some of the ladies at the workshop.

 And that is the story of how I lost my voice. 

Maybe I should write a bit about the workshop itself. There weren't many hiccups for this workshop hooray, and I had a lovely group of participants to sculpt with. This time, it was an all-girls turn out, which is a first for my workshops! Usually there'll be a few guys in the mix. :)

Also, my parents were helping out at the workshop as JY wasn't free, so it was a first for them to see me conducting a workshop! Try to spot my mom, she's seated at the back in the photos haha. Thankfully, I didn't have jitters this time, except for not remembering the word 'consistent' and having to use 'so we'll try to mix until we get a homogeneous mixture' instead hahah. Like a chemistry lesson hur.

I usually hand out feedback forms at the end of workshops, and I shall type the feedback out one day! One of the ladies there, Joan, suggested that we could play some light music during the workshop. And you know what, I'm totally taking that up, thanks Joan! Guess I'll be shopping around for some music hmm.

Lastly, let me introduce you to my new shop! Isn't it looking all spanking and clean!
-beams proudly though it was just very simple html coding.

Now visit the shop please, and let me know if there are any glitches in the system.
♥
Thank you very much!