[Holiday] Taipei '12 (1)

Went to Taipei for a week. It's the 3rd time travelling there, so it's more like revisit some of the places I miss
and also try to explore Taipei more.

We arrived at Taoyuan Airport in the early morning (around 6.45am?) and it's still very early to shop around. We napped a while before heading to 阿宗面线. It's nice to have a hot bowl of mian xian in cold weather =)

杂志疯, a magazine cum manga chain store is a must-visit for me to get my Japanese magazines. The magazines are much cheaper, much more variety, and more updated than Singapore (even faster than Kinokuniya). So girls who are into Japanese and Taiwan magazines should never miss this store when you're in Taiwan!

We randomly found a salon and got our hair done. I had my hair cut and dyed. It costed NTD1800 (which is around SGD75) and I like the cut! It looks nice even when I am too lazy to blow dry after wash. I really regretted for not asking the hair stylist's name card =( He's really very good! =((

Randomly trying out a hat in Uniqlo. Yes, it's cheaper than Singapore as well.

 Lunch at a Japanese restaurant that we always visit when we are in Taipei, Ximending. 

Fresh sashimi, generous portion, friendly price! What else to ask for?

It's also come with thick miso soup with lots of ingredients inside. Totally different from some complimentary miso soup we get in some restaurants in Singapore! 

Prawn tempura that come with vegetables **drooling**

Big Oyster (there's also SUPER big oyster but it's out of stock when we're there)

 The bill:: 

3 main courses, 2 oysters and 1 tempura costed less than SGD55!

When to 五分埔 (wu fen pu) in the late afternoon. Yes, afternoon. It's all dark by 6pm in Taipei in the winter. As you can guess, there's not a lot of people but every shop was selling winter clothes.. I bought nothing but 2 belts.. =.= We left very early and headed to cityhall area（市政府站）.

Went to Bellavita just to take photos of the hot air balloons. Nothing we could easily afford there..  Guess the cheapest store might be Tiffany & Co. =x Get the idea now?

Love Chanel's window display! All pastel, ready for spring 2013 =)

 Walked around 新光三越 (xin guang san yue) 

And ended the day with cupcakes from 诚品 (cheng pin)

[DIY] New hair band in 10 minutes

[DIY] Paper napkins to deco my bag. Yes, paper napkins.

I guess decoupage- using paper napkins (not those use see at eateries) for arts and craft, is not very common in Singapore. The first time I saw it was in Bangkok, which is also the place I've got all my nice colorful napkins.I guess it's pretty common in Bangkok as there's a lot of people crowding at the stalls selling paper napkins at Chatukchak. So here I am to share what I bought at Bangkok and also how to use them to decorate a plain basket bag (and basically everything else).

Here's some of the cute napkin I've got from Chatukchak weekly market and some shopping malls in Bangkok (the image shows 1/4 of the napkin i.e. it can be opened up like normal napkin into a bigger piece):

Which girl can resist the temptation of having beautiful cupcakes and an adorable teddy dressed in sailor suit for their tea party?

Floral, floral and more floral. I guess floral print is the easiest to use when comes to background for arts and craft, thus I've got a a lot of them. Mostly roses and carnations in different colors as I think it'll be simpler to mix and match (you wouldn't want roses, carnations, hibiscus, lilies, tulips, orchids all in one picture right??)

And Victoria style! I love Victoria style a lot, it's so ENGLISH. But there's not a lot of variety so I've only got these two designs.

Here's what I used to give my plain basket bag a personal touch:

1. A plain basket bag (I've got mine from chatukchak).

p/s: I took this picture when I was half way done with painting for the background so the bottom was in white while the top was still in its original color.

2. White acrylic paint for base

3. A painting brush

4. Decoupage glue-  literally glue for decoupage art

5. Varnish- a protective layer to make you end product looks glossy

6. Sponge

7. Scissors

8. Napkin papers

For paper napkins, I've chosen sailor bear as the focus of the project.

And using pale, watercolor-look-alike roses as background.

First, paint the bag with 2 layers of white acrylic paint. 

Then, cut out the images you want and arrange them accordingly on the bag (or a piece of paper or anything you want to paste on) so that you can visualize how they will look like when you actually glue them on the bag.

After you've decided on the arrangement, add some water to the sponge and gently tap the image one by one using the damp sponge.

 Do not use too much water as it will spoil the fragile napkins.

Then, paint a layer of decoupage glue on the napkins when they are almost dry from the water.
Paint SLOWLY and CAREFULLY as the glue tend to make the napkins stick to the brush.

 Wait for the glue to dry completely and add a layer of varnish to protect the image.

And you're done!

p/s: Adding varnish could be your last step. Here, I choose to change the button so it looks cuter =)

I am so going to bring this bag for picnic REAL SOON =))