Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Vegan Craftastic: Pocket Journal Giveaway!
I really really really really love this gorgeous teal and brown pocket journal from Vegan Craftastic!!!! Isn't it the cutest, most adorable thing you've ever seen???? I love the color so much!!! Such a beautiful combination! I've already started thinking of how I'm going to use it. It will definitely be packed with my thumbnail sketches and doodles of ideas. ;)
This beautiful teal and brown pocket journal is made by this wonderful lady named Laura.
This is the URL link of her pocket journal giveaway : CLICK HERE
Check out all of Laura's beautiful pocket journals and handmade cards she posted in her blog and the ones she is selling on Etsy.
I really hope I get to win this beautiful pocket journal. :) I've never won any giveaway I've joined so far huhuhu.....and how wonderful it would be to win something like this! :) Wish me luck guys!!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Last day of June 2010 Blog Giveaway!!!
Hello everybody!! I can't believe that today is already the last day of the June 2010 Blog Giveaway! Gosh!!! How time flies so fast these days!! The giveaway ends TONIGHT at 11.59pm! So if you have not yet joined in, do so NOW!! There are 6 of these quilled flower theme pop up cards to be given away to 6 lucky winners.
GO TO THIS LINK TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY : JUNE 2010 BLOG GIVEAWAY
OK! That's all you have to do! Easy right? :) Yup...super easy hehehe.....so, take this wonderful opportunity and stand a chance to win a special handmade card from my blog. I wish everyone the very best of luck!!!!
XOXO,
Lin
Cleaning Out the iPhone Files.
Wow. So, I cleaned out my iPhone ... purging it of all the pictures and videos I have been storing on it for the past year ... and my goodness ... there are loads of little snippets of our lives ... that I might have otherwise forgotten about if it weren't for my trusty little pocket phone/camera/video devise.
Here are several "windows" into our lives ... in no particular order ... all with a bit of commentary. I hope you enjoy ...
This is our humble home. Behind my parents' house. Not much --- but just enough.
Isaac ... at a local thrift shop ... saying, "Mom, look, don't you think we should buy this for Daddy?" Ummmm ... no way son.
My girlfriend, LyAnn and I get massages at the Bangor Mall. Looks like the woman is about to slap LyAnn's butt. Love it.
Isaac enjoying the local park. He gets SO giddy playing at any of our umpteen parks here in Bangor. (Have I mentioned before how much I love Bangor?).
Borders rocks. And here Isaac and I are ... pouring over the Marvel Encyclopedia. And although we own it ... we always seem to peruse it at Borders too. It is a tradition I guess.
My buddy Andy .... bringing my new vintage --- TOTALLY AWESOME --- bike to the studio so that I can place it in the window display before we get together to paint it and make it even AWESOME-R.
Ooohh ... here is a humble pic of the place in which Isaac and I had our first movie audition. I wanted to remember it (as though I could ever forget).
Meaghan bottle feeding You. Yes, You.
Yummmmm..... the BEST Mexican food in Maine .... at Miguel's. I am drooling now.
Ok ... this donut is Ridonculous!!! It is a triple chocolate donut from Dunkins. They only make them for certain promotion periods. Damn good thing ... or Isaac would be toothless. Can you even imagine the sugar content???
Meaghan captures a moment of love between Daddy and I. At least I assume I was reaching over to rub his hair or something!?
Isaac makes friends everywhere he goes ... especially blondes. Meaghan graciously offers to push the swing for them.
Reading at the Borders Cafe. Again.
New Friends. Are. So. Awesome.
Playing the drums at Best Buy. Another place we go just to hang out and try new gadgets.
I want to make this. Soon.
A gift from Uncle Jamie. By mail. Bought at a Nashua thrift store. He smashes, lights up, and speaks. Can you say "Uncle of the Year"?
A terrible picture of the voting process at my Studio ... for the Pet Portrait Contest. Just a handful of contestants shown. I have no idea why I didn't photograph this whole event better.
This lady is a HOOT! At the Winterport Boot Christmas party ... she started a food fight. I love her.
So, Miguel's may have the best Mexican food around ... but Isaac brings his own Burger King Macaroni & Cheese ... as he loathes Mexican food.
When we met R2-D2. 
A trip to Burger King ... because they were including Iron Man toys in their kids' meals. And how can we resist Iron Man? Truly, we cannot.
More new friends ... we met at the park and exchanged phone numbers. Again ... have I mentioned how much I love Bangor!?
Here are several "windows" into our lives ... in no particular order ... all with a bit of commentary. I hope you enjoy ...
This is our humble home. Behind my parents' house. Not much --- but just enough.
Meaghan is forever stealing away my iPhone to take pics of herself. And wouldn't you if you were this gorgeous?
Isaac ... at a local thrift shop ... saying, "Mom, look, don't you think we should buy this for Daddy?" Ummmm ... no way son.
My girlfriend, LyAnn and I get massages at the Bangor Mall. Looks like the woman is about to slap LyAnn's butt. Love it.
Isaac enjoying the local park. He gets SO giddy playing at any of our umpteen parks here in Bangor. (Have I mentioned before how much I love Bangor?).
Borders rocks. And here Isaac and I are ... pouring over the Marvel Encyclopedia. And although we own it ... we always seem to peruse it at Borders too. It is a tradition I guess.
My buddy Andy .... bringing my new vintage --- TOTALLY AWESOME --- bike to the studio so that I can place it in the window display before we get together to paint it and make it even AWESOME-R.
Ooohh ... here is a humble pic of the place in which Isaac and I had our first movie audition. I wanted to remember it (as though I could ever forget).
Meaghan bottle feeding You. Yes, You.
Yummmmm..... the BEST Mexican food in Maine .... at Miguel's. I am drooling now.
Ok ... this donut is Ridonculous!!! It is a triple chocolate donut from Dunkins. They only make them for certain promotion periods. Damn good thing ... or Isaac would be toothless. Can you even imagine the sugar content???
Meaghan captures a moment of love between Daddy and I. At least I assume I was reaching over to rub his hair or something!?
Isaac makes friends everywhere he goes ... especially blondes. Meaghan graciously offers to push the swing for them.
Reading at the Borders Cafe. Again.
New Friends. Are. So. Awesome.
Playing the drums at Best Buy. Another place we go just to hang out and try new gadgets.
I want to make this. Soon.
A gift from Uncle Jamie. By mail. Bought at a Nashua thrift store. He smashes, lights up, and speaks. Can you say "Uncle of the Year"?
A terrible picture of the voting process at my Studio ... for the Pet Portrait Contest. Just a handful of contestants shown. I have no idea why I didn't photograph this whole event better.
This lady is a HOOT! At the Winterport Boot Christmas party ... she started a food fight. I love her.
So, Miguel's may have the best Mexican food around ... but Isaac brings his own Burger King Macaroni & Cheese ... as he loathes Mexican food.
When we met R2-D2. 
A trip to Burger King ... because they were including Iron Man toys in their kids' meals. And how can we resist Iron Man? Truly, we cannot.
More new friends ... we met at the park and exchanged phone numbers. Again ... have I mentioned how much I love Bangor!?
One of our local Starbucks has an artist in their employ ... and Isaac is VERY fond of his work :)
So ... there you are ... a few snippets from our life. Times when I did not have my "real" camera ... but was happy to use my iPhone to capture a moment in time that might otherwise be forgotten.
The videos I cleared off the phone are fun too ... and perhaps I will post those soon as well. I hope you all have a great day ... and that you capture a few memories as well.
xoxo,
Jodi
Monday, June 28, 2010
Baby Bites writes an article on the lily pad!
This afternoon I was rapt to discover that the awesome Baby Bites team have written an article on my lily pads. Calling them"handmade heaven", we're also on the front page of their very cool website/e-newsletter page under the "what's hot right now" section! You can read their positive, supportive review by clicking the picture beside this post. Thanks so much Jodi and team, we're so proud!
Featured in Berita Harian Minda
Last week I was contacted by the Berita Harian - Minda, journalist Ms. Khairunnisa who was keen on featuring me in the Tips and Panduan section that's dedicated generally for school kids. This particular section of the paper guides school kids to do DIY projects at home or at school. So I was asked to co-write the article and guide the kids with some tips on how to make a very simple handmade greeting card.
Sounds simple enough right? hahaha.....well, I had trouble deciding how to do it at first. I thought of doing quilling or pop up cards, but the journalist insists that the card had to be something very simple so that the kids can easily do it at home with their limited tools and materials. So in the end, I wrote a step by step instruction on how to make a simple handmade birthday card, including several photos of the process itself from beginning till the end. But looks like only 4 photos showed up in the article hehehehe. Oh well, there isn't enough space to show all of them anyways. :)
Everything was done and arranged through email. I never even met the journalist because she's working in Kuala Lumpur. So we just corresponded online. This is the first time for me to actually write something for the paper and it's pretty exciting. It was a little difficult as well since I'm not used to writing in Malay...hehehe.....so I had to write and edit several times to make sure people can understand what I'm trying to explain hehehe. All in all, it was a good experience. I'm so glad I took the chance and did it in the end. :)
I'm sorry I couldn't scan the article.....something wrong with my scanner and I don't know how to fix it huhuhu....so I was only able to take photos of it using my digital camera. I was hoping the article can be found online at the Berita Harian website, so that I can link it here....unfortunately it's not available there. So, this is the best that I can do for now...sorry ya. :(
Thank you so much to Ms. Khairunnisa for giving me this opportunity. I really really appreciate it! :) Yay!!!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Cute cards
Ever since I got my hand powered paper shredder, I just couldn't stop shredding papers....at least a few times a day...LOL! I just love looking at how the paper shreds and drops into the transparent casing hahahaha.....silly huh??? Yup....I can be so silly sometimes hehehehe......sometimes the simplest things can give me great pleasure. :)
I tried making gift cards for myself to use and sell. My previous gift cards were smaller in size and I've never done quilling on them before. So I tried to make these for a customer of mine who loves to order gift cards from me. These gift cards are so easy to do especially since the design is so simple. And since I got the paper shredder to help me cut the paper......it's a lot faster to get the quillings done on the card.
I don't know about what you guys think of this design but I somehow love the card just the way it is. Just one flower with a stem and two leaves. So simple and cute. This is the first time I'm experimenting doing stems using the quilling technique. I usually make the stems using colored pen. But, somehow it doesn't look as nice, so I tried to make a simple stem with brown paper....and I kinda like how it looks! hehehehe! Simple!
Quilling is definitely a simple way to decorate a plain blank card and make it look fancy with a fraction of the cost because it's all made of paper. :) I'm loving it!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Auckland Art and Craft Fair, July 24th, Auckland Art Gallery
The first Auckland Art and Craft Fair is 4 weeks away, on Saturday 24th July, and Topography will be there!How is this for a great intro?
'Greta Bertenshaw is the lovely lady behind designer children's label, Topography. Her cute t-shirts are all hand appliquéd with typography based designs and simple silhouettes in the most gorgeous fabrics. Topography is based in Auckland and is relatively new — we just think they're too cute!'
Take a look at the Fair blog for more information on the wide range of talent that will be on show.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Retail ready...busy, busy.
This week has been crazy busy for me here at lily pad designs. I've been stockpiling a whole raft of goodies for my first 'offline' retailer - (we used to call them 'brick and mortar' retailers - is that term still used?). As of next week the gorgeous boutique Newmarket retailer Bay Bee Cino will be stocking my 'lily pad' harness liners and my 'lily pinboard' range. I'm working on a colourful display area in conjunction with the lovely baby manchester company Holly Chic - the pinboard fabrics have been chosen to match the Holly Chic bedding. They are sublime! Let me know what you think. And you can still buy online from Holly Chic.
Lovely Characters in My City.
At this past Friday's Downtown Bangor ArtWalk, my studio gave away free portraits to anyone who walked in to check out our business. Here are some of the great people from my city ... and even a sweet puppy ...
Truth be told, the woman in the red dress did not come into the studio on her own. I saw her passing by and yelled down the street to her, "Miss, I WANT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF YOU!". To which she simply turned her head, followed me, and entered the studio. I am not even sure if we exchanged words. She was just too cute to pass up.
So, our free portraits were a great success. And I hope to offer more freebie sessions in the future --- so that folks can see how fun and inexpensive a great photo shoot can be.
Thank you to all who participated! And for those who didn't ... we will get ya next time :)
Love,
Jodi
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
My new toy!!!
Yay!! I've already received the hand powered paper shredder today!!! Woooohooooo!!! I'm so excited about it!! hehehehehe!! The paper shredder arrived safely to me this morning . Love the service the company gave me when I ordered this paper shredder. It's so easy to order from them and the delivery is fast too. :)
The name of the website where I got this hand powered paper shredder from is call IZUKKA (www.izukka.com) . You can check it out at the link HERE.
The name of the website where I got this hand powered paper shredder from is call IZUKKA (www.izukka.com) . You can check it out at the link HERE.
I quickly unwrapped the box and took out the paper shredder and gave it a quick check to see how to assemble the handle and then I proceed on trying it out. It was a breeze!!! It's so easy!!! I can cut hundreds of paper strips in just minutes!!! WOW!! It's so fun! LOL!! Funny how a hand powered paper shredder can make me feel so happy ahahahahhahahahah!!
One thing that you will notice when you use the paper shredder to shred your color paper is that each of the paper strips you shred has rough textures at both sides of it made from the paper shredder's cutter. So when you coil each paper strips into quilling patterns, it will have that textured look on it unlike if you cut the paper strips using a razor blade. If you use a razor blade, the paper strips will have a smooth clean finish at the sides of it. For me, I don't really mind with how it looks. Because I think it looks ok to me even though it has the rough texture. The rough texture gives it a special touch hehhehehehe. The important thing here is that, the paper shredder saves me a lot of time and energy. I no longer have to hurt my hands trying to cut the paper strips one by one. :)
So the choice is yours.....you can cut the paper using razor blades or paper shredder. I've already made a quilling card as a sample for everyone to see the difference of the quilled flower and leaves I made using the paper strips cut by the paper shredder.What do you think??? It looks ok right? Not much of a difference from using a razor blade. At least when you use a paper shredder, you'll always get the same size paper strips every time you cut them. Same standard size :).
I love using this cute machine so far hehehehe......hope you will give it a try too! I specifically ordered it blue in color because blue is my favourite color......there are also other colors available for you to choose from. I'm so glad I bought this because this will help save me a lot of my time and energy! Wooooohoooooo!!!!!
