Futuristic sewing

I know it's only a concept design, but holy cow I want one of these!

A sewing machine that projects your stitch unto the fabric as a guideline.  Comes with a backlit work area too.

And that’s not the best part.

It can also MATCH the colour of your thread to the colour of your fabric, and PRINTS the thread as you go.

This project is called 'Leitfaden' and is designed by Monika Jakubek and Anna Müller.  Images taken from Yanko Design. 

Kew Gardens

These were all taken last week. The weather was simply fantastic, we had a lot of fun exploring this place, although we didn't manage to finish our tour. It was huge!

Not to be confused with the Chelsea Flower Show, Kew Gardens is located in Surrey and is said to be one the most important place to study plants. It is also a very important seedbank and has the largest preserved plant collection in the world, around 7 million specimens, imagine that!

Admittedly, our trip there was partly inspired by James Wong, presenter of BBC Grow Your Own Drugs, who was also a student at Kew Gardens.  After watching his tv series I was quite tempted to buy his book!  His garden design for RHS Chelsea Flower Show (a joint effort with David Cubero) won a gold medal this year.  Fellow Malaysians may have heard about this as it was sponsored by Tourism Malaysia.

But back to Kew.  These are pictures of the iconic Palm House, which is basically a really large and tall glasshouse.  The architecture is quite amazing to look at, despite being more than 160 years old.  We stood outside for a while and pondered how the Victorians managed to curve all those pieces of glass.

Air was humid and it felt like the tropics.  All types of different plants grow side by side, squashed together.  Some plants looked familiar, some I've never seen before.

We didn't stay long, as it was quite crowded, but you can't see it in my pictures. We walked around, read the plaques of the more interesting plants, snapped a few more photos and left. There was still so much to see! I'll post more next time.

Overload

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately.

I think having too many interests has given me information overload; from foodie sites to home interiors, photography to fashion design, craft to digital art… there must be at least 200 sites bookmarked. 

My backlog of unread feeds is so bad that I no longer enjoy reading it. Just thinking about it gives me a big fat headache. I merely glance through the pictures quickly and consider it done. Oh, the guilt!

Since I've spent so much time looking and sometimes, reading, my desire to actually make something has gone. I don’t feel like taking photos, I don’t feel like cooking something special. And don’t get me started on my unfinished sewing projects. Blog? Now that just makes me want to cry.

Alamak, how and when did this happen? I wonder if there’s anyone else out there who feels the same. 

I need to break out from this cycle!

Diane von Furstenberg

The weather has been sunny and hot lately,
and I'm in need of a new pair of sandals.

I just love these Kula leather sandals from Diane von Furstenberg!

The gold ones are especially nice, as seen here on the model.

Beautiful spring

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers everywhere! We've celebrated Mother's Day here in the UK back in March, so it's a good thing my sis texted me this morning to remind me.

Photos below taken just moments ago in my garden. I never get tired of photographing cherry blossoms year after year, it's so pretty to look at.

I planted these Mexican Orange Blossoms in the sunniest spot of our house. And it's thriving! We had SO much flowers this year, it smells like a delicate mixture of honey and orange each time we walk by.

Strawberry roulade

I made this last weekend, but got the sponge wrong this time -- it was too dry.  The end product looks pretty good though.  Maybe I got the sequence or technique muddled up.  Seems like I can't get this roulade right without a bit of drama, hehehe...

Come step into my kitchen, and enjoy the photos of my process.  The strawberries were so sweet smelling, it was wafting gently towards me as I photographed it!

Happy Friday everyone, and have a great weekend. <3

Pig-eons

Spotted in my garden.  Now, I've seen quite a few pigeons in my lifetime, but I have never seen one THIS big.

Check out the head-to-body comparison.

There's a pair of them that comes back every year, greedily feeding on berries and giant earthworms in our area.  Each time they try to fly, they clumsily go 'Phwoop!  Phwoop!  Phwoop!'

Poor birdies, I hope they've slimmed down a bit this year.