The blurb for the perfume is as follows:

At the beginning of this year, I picked up The Body Shop’s Love Etc, which had top and middle notes that I liked. But once it stayed on the skin all day and mingled with sweat, it started to smell like one of my last perfumes which I fell out of love with. I found my current perfume not long after and found a buyer for Love Etc.

The reason why I’m even blogging about this is because I found the gift box while cleaning out my makeshift dressing table. What is it about product boxes that make us girls hang on to them even if they’re no more use to us?

I decided to toss it out, but I didn’t want to do that before getting a photo of it first. One of those little decluttering tips for things that you have no real use for, apart from unearthing every now and then and thinking, “Oh yeah, I bought that.”

A photo of it will do the same thing. I certainly takes up less physical space!

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Perfume Stories

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Go Bald video

It took me a stupid long time to get the money over to SSPCA, but I finally did last week. The final total is RM900. You’re seeing a RM850 above because the final RM50 is from Dona from SSPCA, who decided that she wanted to contribute.

So there you go. My thanks to everyone who donated, participated in the auction and spread the word. Now that I finally got this off my plate, I can move on.

Some of you may be wondering if we’re going bald this year! The answer is ‘yes’ and I’m looking forward to doing it again. However, I’m not sure if I’ll go all out collecting your money again this time. It’s mentally exhausting! But we’ll see what the Sarawak Children’s Cancer Society have in mind this year. You have a couple of months to talk yourself into doing it if you’ve been looking for an excuse!

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Project Snip-Snip: The End, finally

Ingredients:

• A stack of one-sided printouts with a blank side
• Heavy card or cardboard for backing. Think cereal boxes, Post Express envelopes, etc.
• Pretty paper, postcards or even photographs for cover
• White glue
• Clothes pegs or paper clamps
• Box cutter & Cutting mat
• Ruler
• Pencil

Decide what size you want your notebook to be in. This can depend on the size of your available cover. You might wanna trim the paper to fit the cover rather than the other way around, especially if it’s a postcard or photograph.

I wanted to make a notebook that fits in my hand when I write, so I cut A4 papers in thirds crosswise. Do the same for your cover and backing. It’s okay for the cover and backing to be a teeny bit bigger; it’ll look tidier from the outside.

Here’s my cover, paper and backing.

Stack them together, keeping the blank side of the backing facing out. Make sure the side you want to glue (the spine) is even. This is important. The rest of the sides will likely be uneven unless you want to measure things to precision. But handmade means it will be imperfect anyway, so don’t sweat the small stuff.

Clamp them in place near the spine with your pegs or clamps.

Apply a generous amount of glue to the spine. Make sure you get it into every crack. Pay special attention to the cover and backing.

The paper tends to expand around the middle once it’s wet, so I usually put another clamp in the middle. This will depend on how long your spine is. Just make sure it stays flat while the glue dries.

This is probably a good time to mention that your notebook shouldn’t be thicker than how far your pegs can reach.

Leave to dry. Ideally, it should dry standing up. Never flat. Glue will sink with the direction of gravity so make sure it’s sinking into the spine instead of on the table. You can wedge it between books on the shelf or find something you can stand it in.

Once it dries, it should open up flat without falling apart. Give it a quick flip through to make sure the pages are staying put.

Now you need to cover the spine of the notebook. Use light but durable paper. Paperbags work. I’m using one that I got from Starbucks. They encourage recycling so this is a great way of doing it.

Decide how much paper you want to overlap both sides and cut out a strip across the bag. Snip open one end and measure out enough paper to cover the length of the spine. Cut and spread glue evenly on the inside of the strip.

I find it easier to put the strip down on top of the spine like this so I can make adjustments and make sure both sides get enough paper. Optionally, you can try it on before you put glue, and score out the paper where it folds over the edges so you have a guide.

Smooth the strip over the spine and make sure the edges are all glued down.

You’re done!

Of course, give it some time to dry before actually using it.

The pretty paper I used is from Moof and is the only component here that was bought new. You can use anything suitable. The last time I made these notebooks, I used my photographs.

Have a fun Crafterday!

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Crafterday: Notebooks

My craft project last Sunday was a jewellery holder, which took me about a half an hour to make. Most of the material is already lying around the house somewhere, and the only thing I had to buy was the embroidery hoop. RM3.40 at the craft supply shop.

I didn’t shoot the process because I was so intent on working on the project. Anyway it should be fairly easy to figure out.

What you need is to stretch a piece of porous or loose-weave cloth over the hoop. Cross-stitch fabric will probably work well. I used a piece of leftover curtain from one of our first projects. Instant earring hanger!

The necklace hooks are made from wire thick enough to hold its shape but skinny enough to be manipulated by hand. I used a pair of pliers to speed things along, twisting it into a wavy shape, then turning the ends up. I reinforced the upper part with another strip of wire and used a ribbon to hold them together.

Then I just tied it to the embroidery hoop, made loop on top with the ribbon, hung it up and piled my jewellery on.

The necklace rack is subjected to gravity so I made the hooks deep enough for my necklaces to stay in if the thing tilts a reasonable amount.

Easy afternoon project!

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Crafterday: Jewellery Display