Roses are red, violets are blue…
Flowers flowers flowers. Yet another vital component to creating that wonderful romantic ambience for your perfect wedding. I’ve been googling flower arrangements and bouquets and it’s a great distraction/ stress relief from concentrating on and marking scripts. I’ve gotta admit, it’s really tough to look through 80+ scripts and making sure every single one is given the same amount of attention and consideration. But enough about work. Here’s some of my favourite blooms.
Ruth and I have decided that the theme of my wedding would be purple, pink and white. So these bouquets really fit the theme/aesthetic that I’m going for.
The last bouquet is really growing on me. I love how pale, delicate and sweet it looks though the third bouquet has the nicest combination of purples and pinks. What do you think?
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Splurges of the Month!
With a moderate oomph added to my bank account every month, it’s been really tempting to treat myself every once in awhile (but all this is stopping, with the setting up of my POSB Savings account, thank goodness). So tada! here’s my moderate splurge of the month:
Simple, elegant and black, this Tocco Toscano leather bag suited me perfectly for work. I loved the gold accent and the simple crown logo too! I have to admit, that I’m not really the type who’s into big-name brand bags so unlike my fellow “new” colleagues who got their first bag purchase from Chanel, Coach etc, I was looking more for a design that I really liked + quality :)
One thing I find is essential for bags is the shape. With all the stuffing that salespeople put in bags, they always look lovely hanging in the store. What i’m interested in, is what the bag looks like without all that stuffing, with my irregularly shaped stuff in the bag. So I went for a structured bag that had a definite shape, even with irregularly shaped stuff in it. & yes this is why I love katespade so much, so many of their bags are shaped so nicely! but none of the designs instore caught my eye…
Also, this isn’t a splurge at all but to decorate my desk, I got even more flowers! hahaha. I love flowers and how they brighten up a place, so for one dark little corner of my desk, I got these flowers + vase from Daiso
I love the combination of blue & purple, so I mixed four stalks of flower clusters (hydrangeas, they’re called) together. Plus, since my other flowers were more pink toned, I thought it’d be good to go for a “cooler” combination, whilst keeping with my overall theme of purple. This is why I love the colour purple so much! It’s just so awesome :D
The bf also felt quite spendy, so he got a Braun Buffel wallet in white. I really love the colour and texturized surface, plus white is a “new” colour for him. He usually goes with browns and blacks.
It was rather amusing how much paraphernalia was inside the wallet. They even had a “family tree” of the founding members of Braun Buffel!
I personally find that when it comes to things that you’re gonna use everyday (wallet, bag etc), it really makes sense to invest in a quality piece that lasts forever & is relatively easy to match. In other words, it’s either a neutral, simple piece or a really outstanding piece. The former to quietly accentuate your style and the latter to loudly proclaim it – it could really go either way. But get something that wears and tears in a few weeks and you’d be feeling rather unhappy about that purchase. So big ticket purchases these might be, but our daily use of them more than justifies the cost, i think! Far better than hiding in one treasured corner of our rooms! XP
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Of florals and fun
Finally, the long weekend has dawned and I won’t deny that I’m pretty psyched to enjoy this much-needed break! Haha, to my credit, I already commenced my relaxation from Wednesday as I stayed over at my cousins’ place (freedom from the parents!! my aunt & uncle are off holidaying..) and won’t be home til Sat, by which I’ll be indulging in “me time” as I usually do each weekend.
As promised, here’s a pic of my 2nd floral arrangement I got from IKEA in my office!
As previously mentioned, I accessorized the transparent vase with a Chanel ribbon – and if you’re thinking that I deliberately had a wallpaper to match the flowers, well I didn’t! It just so happens that my aesthetic is rather consistent and I was lucky to find such a gorgeous yet simple wallpaper on my first day at work from deviantart.com (not much work to do on the 1st day!)
I first discovered deviantart – an online community that celebrates alternative (mostly graphic) art forms, in my secondary school days. Ever since then, it’s been my go-to place for browsing when I need inspiration for say, a birthday card or collage, or even when I’m just look for cute and out-of-the-ordinary emoticons.
From comic strips to contemplative self-reflective pieces and art inspired by manga/cartoons, it’s amazing what the human imagination can think of – and what various talents all over the world can execute with graphic programs.
so if you’re bored this weekend – go drop by deviantart and revamp your emoticon collection, change your desktop wallpaper or just browse for pleasure’s sake :)
Have a great weekend everyone! :)
Rested, Refreshed and Rejuvenated
It’s Monday! I hope all of you emerge from your weekends well rested, refreshed and rejuvenated. The important 3 Rs that are always essential in my weekend plans :) This weekend, I really caught up on my sleep debt and was really thankful for the “metime” to just sit back and relax – though I’ll admit that my love for time management games caused me some healthy frustration. haha.
& just in case you’re into stressful time management games like me (hey! the satisfaction of completing a level efficiently is very rejuvenating, ok!), here’s what I’ve been into lately, Burger Queen. It’s not listed on the “Top 25″ of the iTunes list, but this app by Korean company Crecat Soft is well worth its $0.99 value. It’s been 3 days and I’m still addicted. The characters and animation are very comical and cute!
Of course, I didn’t just spend my entire weekend tapping away at my ipod touch (not converting yet to iphone! I’m still happily playing with my android phone whilst having my itouch lol) – I also looked for more decorations and additions for my still-rather-empty office space.
Tada! More flowers for my desk! :) We headed to IKEA with the intention of killing time before going to a friend’s house for mahjong, but I ended up going insane over the new range of pretty flowers there. This time, I was going for a different look and chose a long, elegant, transparent vase for my flowers – I only put four stalks in the vase as I wanted this to be more simple. I also picked two stalks of orchids – one purple and one white (as shown) so I can rotate the vase to suit my mood during the day :) For the vase, I accessorized with a black and gold chanel ribbon that has been lying around my desk forever (I stole it from my mom’s chanel perfume muhaha).
Here are closeups of the flowers
Besides the vase and flowers ($2.90 – $4.90 per stalk), I also bought a pink A4 sized photoframe to place my photos. Plus I also got this incredibly fuzzy pink pillow from Spotlight – slightly expensive at $24.95 (after 20% off) but it was a gift from the bf to indulge my girly insanity :D Pictures of those soon when I’ve placed them at my desk!
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DIY Flower Arrangement
Feeling rather jealous of my colleagues’ beautiful desk decorations, I dropped by Nex after dinner last night to do some shopping. To my delight, furniture store King & King Wong (which I have oft admired for their gorgeous fake-flower decorations) was having a 50% off sale for an entire flower section! Obviously I was over the moon and began picking out my flowers – the total cost, including the pretty tin container came up to about $27. Not insanely cheap, but for gorgeous flowers that are gonna last me quite a while, I felt it was quite worth it.
So here’s a DIY tutorial on how I created a beautiful flower arrangement for my desk :)
In picking your flowers for this task, it’s important to know several things:
- The size of your vase/container
- the colour scheme you’re inclined towards
- Decide on Dominant Colours vs Supporting Colours + Accents (explained later in the tutorial)
For me, I was personally very inclined towards a pink-white-purple colour scheme, but decided that my main centrepiece would be this beautiful red gerbera flower. You may choose to use a sticky base – some like to use wax, or even sand, or glue, or you can just go without any of these bases so that you can change your flower positions anytime you like :) For this tutorial, I go without the base.
Alongside the red gerbera flower, I had purple and white roses to form the bouquet. Ideally, with “supporting”/”secondary” flowers, their colours should be less loud and softer, leaning more towards pastels.
Arrange your “secondary” flowers in the container/vase to your pleasure. Because you don’t want these flowers to outshine the main “star”, so you should put them at the borders of your chosen container. To give a more natural look, “layer” these flowers on – i.e. don’t put all the purple flowers, then the white flowers. Put a few purple, then a few white, etc until you’ve finished using all the flowers. This ensures that the flowers are equally visible – though I’ll admit I had far more purple flowers than white ones! Remember to leave a significant space for your centerpiece, where none of the flowers will interfere with the main flower’s petals.
Place the main centerpiece into the container and tweak everything such that the main centerpiece stands out and has uninterrupted petals. You may choose to adjust the height of the main flower such that it stands out slightly, or is the same height as the rest of the flowers
Next up, the flower accents! I chose tiny pink flowers and several green leaves from stems I’d chopped off other flowers. Ideally, choose one complimentary accent to fill up “gaps” and one contrasting accent to bring out the colours of the flowers.
Insert these accents into your flower arrangement and tadah! A beautiful flower arrangement is completed :) I’ll be bringing this in a paperbag to office to brighten up my desk in the morning!
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Wall Decor
As Chinese New Year beckons, it’s time for one of my spring cleaning sessions with my room. Over the past year, I’ve had 2 wall decals, hung up a huge jigsaw, had several photo collages etc. all over my room. This year however, I’m thinking of a more… artistic vibe for my room, as I’m letting go of academics and stepping into the creative industry.
Certainly, as a somewhat-poor individual, I’m leaning towards DIY projects that I can easily do myself, such as these fabric boards – all I have to do is purchase complementary fabrics from spotlight and affix them to small canvas boards, which can be re-used in the future for my own painting, if I do get so inclined. Certainly I’d prefer to use my own drawing skills to do my own fabric etc., but until I get the time and resources, I’m thinking that this isn’t such a bad idea either.
Since one of my new year resolutions is to be EVEN MORE ORGANIZED than I was last year, (and neater too), I’m sorely tempted by these wall decals from Etsy Store Simple Shapes
by month
by year
The entire thing is laid out on a pre-prepared template, so you never need to worry about any crookedness etc. Moreover, I appreciate that these decals are available in a large range of colours
In one of my recent visits to Nex @ Serangoon, I also fell in love with a furniture & homeware shop known as King & King Wong, a franchise of a Malaysian furniture store
I’ll fully admit that there’s always been a stigma attached to fake flowers (in my personal experience) – they’re not fresh, they’re well, fake.. they’re plastic etc. However, it’s also been my experience that flowers, whether fake or not, make a home look so much fresher and brighter.
Moreover, they won’t rot or lose their colours like real flowers do. I guess as long as it’s not your significant other giving you fake flowers, these items look gorgeous adorning the ugly corners of your home, or hiding unsightly items from view.
Are you planning any new revamps/changes to your room/home this year? :)
Our Quirky Loves
