Subscription Box Craze

Hi again! I just realize that my last post was like 10 months ago! So sorry for being away so long. Life has been very full for me lately, and I'm having the time of my life! But now that its the year end, and what's with so much holiday around, I finally have some time to catch up with my blog again. So I'm just going to go through the photos on my phone and document what I have been up to for the past 10 months. And even then, that would be far off as I've too much back log to clear. But never mind, let's just take it one post at a time!

 To start off, LOOK! Such a colorful photo of Japan's caramel corn! In 3 exotic flavor! (Cheese Cake, Sweet Potato, and Toasted Apples). Yummy! This does not include the more main stream flavor of Chocolate, Original, Matcha, Toasted Almonds, Vanila, and goodness knows what else. Yes. I've made it my life's mission to try all the flavors available!.
 

 Ok, enough of that crap. Next! Subscription Boxes. In case you don't know what are those, they are boxes you can subscript on a monthly basis like magazines for a fixed amount of money. You don't have much control what you will get in it, but it usually follows a certain theme. There are many times of subscription boxes available in the world. It is basically giving someone else money to buy you a gift monthly. Sounds pathetic but it's true!

The subscriptions are usually expensive, for example, small boxes can be around SGD13? To big boxes ranging to SGD30 for something like what you see in the photo. And that's just for junk food from Japan! They also have boxes with gourmet food, beauty box, wine, organic vegetable, pastry, games etc.

Anyway, being the cheap skate as I am, I didn't want to commit to let a stranger send me a box that might potentially be damaged, and may contain food I may not like. So I decided to try an experiment. I decided to have a budget, say SGD20 to make one subscription box. I pick Japanese Snacks as I was deprived of my annual trip to Japan by my new Japanese boss this year (the irony).

I went shopping at Daiso, at Japanese alcohol shop, and Cold Storage. And the two boxes is my end result, I gave one to my brother. Each box cost price is around maybe SGD11 to SGD13, and it is a huge box too!
Items found inside includes: Instand Ramen, can drinks (juice and tea), Snow Biscuit, Jagabee Potato Chips, lots of Ramune candies ラムネ (ugh), mini chocolate and candy, and Japanese drinking snacks.

Not  bad eh? So this is why marketing doesn't work on me. I'm too cheap to fall for fancy ideas. I rather make my own!

That's all for now! Next post coming up soon!

Here is the youtube from Animeman that started the above experiment.


27-Dec-2015: Add on after the first publishing of this blog, I found the photo of my very first attempt at a subscription box! At a budget of SGD10, I got this junk which none of them taste any good! Lol. Lesson learnt: subscription box are not meant to be practical, they are meant to be fun and make you happy!

Ref:
Tohato Caramel Corn
ラムネ Ramune

Photo Grid Japan 2014

Just wanted to upload these photo grid I did when I was in December 2014, you know, in case my laptop crash or something. Anyway, these are unique cause there are like my first few photo grid I've ever done. And they are special cause they are all from Japan! Let me try my best to recall where I took them.

 

First grid is of two cups of coffee from my friend Ms Loo who needs a top-up every morning before she can function as a normal human being. It was Christmas time and the cup from the left is from a French Bakery Shop in one of the train station which I can't remember, and the other is from a convenient store in Yokohama on our way to the Ramen Museum. Both were like only 100Yen each, but the detail of the cup is so pretty!

  

Above two pix are the unique drawing sometimes found outside or inside Japanese shops. Top one if from a maid cafe at Odaiba, I think it was in Diversity. We didn't dine there though, opting instead to go to a Hello Kitty Cafe at the same place. The one at the bottom is of a bookstore in Ueno Station. I think I bough 2 books from there! One on how to sew (A Cottontime magazine publication), and the other on simple drawing with colored pens.

  

Lastly, a momento from the place we stayed in. On top is a drawing of the feeder bus that pass outside our ryokan and brought us to Ueno or Asakusa. Each trip is only 100Yen! And the bus really does look like that, super cute! And below is a drawing of a ryokan we stayed in. 

Ah Japan, it is those little little touches that makes it all worth visiting. As it is, I'm into year 2 of my Japanese language course now, and am listening to One OK Rock while I blog this. Maybe one day, I'll be able to blog in Japanese! Gambatte Ai-Chan!

Ref:
Yokohama Ramen Museum
Odaiba
Diversity
Maid Cafe
Cottontimes
One OK Rock

Card Holder Cover (Blue)

Also managed to did this beautiful card holder cover in blue. It was meant as a gift for a guy, hence the blue colour and the robot in front. I'm making this one for my brother and it took me about 2 hours to make. Most of the time was spend designing more than sewing. The sewing part is really quite straight forward.

This is the youtube clip I used as reference as the original one I use for the red card holder cover was no longer available.

 

The above is the in progress picture. As you can see, lots of patterned cloth are used to make the design, and each square is sewed individually in. The light blue square cloth are actually given to me by my mother-in-law. She got it from someone via a fabric sample collection. I have them in dark blue, light blue and pink. The above material is of the dark blue series, and they are shiny, which gives it an expensive look to it which is kinda cool. The label I pick was also male oriented. I guess this is the first male oriented sewing piece I've ever done. 

The end result is as per above. I personally think it looks kinda stylist. Like a cool fashionable guy might carry around. I like the end result, but I'm not sure if my brother would like it or not. Still, a gift is a gift, you gotta give it away  no matter. But it's nice that I have a picture of it to keep as a memento. Might even make a few for sale one of these days :)

My First Proper Zip Bag

By following the above youtube clip, I managed to complete my first proper zip bag today, starting from 11:10pm, and completing it the next day at 12:20am or so. It was kinda late to be sewing, but I just couldn't go to sleep without making it as it was kinda on my to-do list. But I'm really glad I did, cause I really love the result!

Here's a work in progress photo. Interestingly, the sewing project for the past few days have not been using any of the cloth I got from Japan recently. Instead, I'm using all existing materials that have been sitting around in my home. The cloth from Japan just provides the necessary inspiration to get me going.

 

And above is the end result. Love the green color and the rich green interior with floral design. Planning to make more of these things in future as I find them extremely useful as a bag organizer. And they look so cheerful too!

Christmas Day Coaster

Just came back from Japan and bought like SGD50+ worth of cloth. I wanted to make coaster for my new kitchen, not to mention that the cat coasters that I made last time seems to be missing here and there and I was running out of coasters to use. So Christmas Day was a good break for me to catch up on my sewing.

From around 11am till 2pm, I made 4 coasters.

Two was middle size, big enough to hold larger plates or so. The above is a picture of the coaster-making in progress. The cloth was actually bought in Singapore, but it's made in Japan. I love the colour and the pictures in it as it was very homely. The colour also suits my kitchen table theme which is minty green and white. I love adding those "homemade" label in everything I do lately, and adding those cheap fork and spoon to indicate the usage of the coaster always cheers me up as I have lots and lots of those cute things that I keep buying but seems to have lack of time to create craft with.

 

Anyway, the above is the end product. The wonderful thing about homemade thing is, they are always unique. And although not perfect (I used the wrong stitch to close up the coaster which kinda show when you zoom in on the photos), it is the acceptance of imperfection that makes one at peace with one self.

 

I also made these two adorable yet simple owl coasters to place mugs and cups with. These cloth are bought in Japan recently at Nippori Fabric Town. Using the correct stitch to close it up, they look much more elegant than the previous two coaster. And the best things about these coasters are, they are 100% cotton, so they feel wonderful to the touch. And whenever they get dirty, you just throw them in the washing machine and give them a wash and they come out brand new. And when you make your own things, you tend to treasure them more and they stay with you almost forever.

I realise that buying things and consuming things don't really make me happy. Maybe that's why I don't really like shopping. However, I love craft material shopping, and making things recharges my life. I think being about to create thing is a very important for one's well being. We shouldn't just be consuming things. We should also create and give back to the world.

Here's to more craft making for the year 2015! Merry Christmas!

Ref:

Nippori Fabric Town