Pastry from Taiwan

I received a package from Hong Kong today! The box was colorful that caught my curiosity.

It is a box of traditional pastries from Taiwan! My friend went to Gao Xiong for an exhibition and bought me this beautiful gift set. The packaging is so cute that I almost didn't want to open it.^^

We did not buy any candies for Halloween so these cookies and mini-cakes are going to fulfill our sweet tooth for sure. Big thank you to my friend Samson! You are the best!

And hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

(A drawing I did for Samson's birthday)

Happy Birthday My Bro

This is my brother's birthday today! As a sweet, awesome sister (lol), I made him a paper model Danbo (a toy he mentioned about buying) and placed it on his desk this morning while he went to the bathroom. He was so surprised when he returned and had fun posing the Danbo.

Yes the arms and feet are movable. Yes it is made out of paper. Very cool isn't it? I found this awesome template on DA and completed the mission with this tutorial video. I made it with 80lb cover paper so it feels better. The whole process was fun, though cutting out the pieces alone took me almost 1.5 hours! Well...I wanted it to be PERFECT for my brother^^

Danbo was only an "appetizer" for this special day. The main dish is...(drum)...Toro!

Toro the Songy Cat is my brother's favorite character. Unfortunately, Toro is not as well-known in the U.S. as in Japan or Hong Kong. This makes finding its product difficult. I even tried browsing a few Japanese websites with Google Translate. Luckily I was able to find these cuties on eBay from a HK-based seller and they are actually the special edition plushies for the Space Invader 30th anniversary. I think it is perfect for his birthday which is on the 30th!

My brother was very happy about these Toro plushies, which made me very happy too. And we rounded the day up with a red bean green tea muffin cake. I am going to take him out for dinner on the weekend so hopefully he will enjoy that as well.

哥哥, 生日快樂!!!

Context

This seem like a cool tool for designer!

Safety Video

Do you always pay attention to the safety video during your flight? If your answer is no, Virgin America's new safety video is going to change your mind. XD 

And this is cute!

Responsive Design

I might be an year late to post this but...this design is cool!

Featuring on Examiner

Two features in a row! This is the 2nd time for my work being featured online *sniffs sniffs* and the lucky guy is...Candy Corn Mushroom! 

Yoko from LucyandLarry, a Seattle based seller who made adorable jewelry designs, wrote an article on Examiner.com about Halloween decor and provided some unique handmade gift ideas (my mushroom is one of them!). You can find the full treasury list here.

BEST Friday ever! And I hope you all have an awesome weekend XD

Workwankers

Funny illustrations to introduce the Workwankers.

The Smallest Printing Company

A mobile printing installation created by The Letterproeftuin. The one on the left is a screen print station and the one on the right is a letterpress machine. Aren't they the coolest? I always adore small scaled stuffs, especially when they are still functional regardless of the size (something more than just a decoration). I could play and make small postcards and posters with these for the whole day!

Screen print is always fun to do, and doing it with a small-scaled station just takes the experience to a new level!

No more cut and trace. Imaging sitting at home playing with letterpress letters and make embossed card...It would be awesome!!

Check out more images here.

Poppin FREE Printables

Colorful office supplies always help brighten up your dull working day! Poppin offers some coolest and funniest free downloads, including accessories for your office accessories, notes, planners and to-do-list templates. Check them out here!

Got Featured!!!

Very first time ever...my products got featured *tears of joy*!!! My Chocolate Felt Cake Trinklet Box/Coffee Felt Cake Jewelry Box got selected to be shown in Goodsmiths' 2013 Holiday Gift Guide. The image is huge too wahaha...

With a very cute cover design, the guide divided into 5 sections for shopper's convenience. You can find my yummy felt cake jewelry box under Stocking Stuffers. They are the perfect holiday gifts for your loved ones! (Don't you miss my hard-selling style lol). The Silly Gingerbread Man ornament below is just too cute...hmm maybe I will be a buyer this time :P Thank you Goodsmiths! It means a lot and is such a honor to be part of the showcase.

Hope you find something you like from this gift guide. Happy shopping!

Plush You!

The annual Plush You! show was fabulous. Kristen, the owner of Shmancy, is a sweet lady who organized the show to display these unique handmade plush/crafts submitted by 50+ talented artists. When I walked into her store all I could say were "omg!" and "too cute!!".

Enough of talking, let's look at some of the awesome plushes!

FREE Sample from Paperless Post

Paperless Post is offering free paper sample pack for the first 1,000 people who order them. Their designs are so cute that I couldn't help but order a set. If you like unique designed paper goods, check out Paperless Post!

Bo's Birthday

The 3rd October birthday celebration is here! Today is my friend Ambrose's birthday. He is studying landscape architecture in Harvard and so I got inspired and did this drawing. Hope he is having lots of fun in the East coast and less studio works on this special day lol. Happy Birthday Bo!

The Best Customer Service

Although this is not a craft or design related article, it impressed me so much that I have to blog about it.

Yesterday I received my Clarisonic Mia 2 (yay!). This is definitely a big investment because, as everybody knows, the product is pricy. If I didn't have a gift card I would need more time to save up the $$...Anyway so after about a week of research (I did almost everything possible, lol, like compared the prices, gifts/samples, cash back, warranty, etc...), I finally made my purchase from Nordstrom.

The Mia 2 I purchased was a Nordstrom Exclusive edition, which was in a beautiful Coral Ember color with an additional full size cleaning gel, travel bag and one extra sensitive brush. The item arrived in perfect condition except the samples were missing. It was a bummer but since they were bonus anyway, I don't mind much. It was the color that made me want a return. The color is much brighter in person than on the screen. It could be my computer so no complain...But the thought of investing in something that I will use for years, I figured the right color is super important. Thus I looked up their website again and surprisingly found a new listing of white (my top choice) available for store pickup! I immediately made a phone call and placed a hold.

The lady who helped me on the phone was away for break during my arrival, so somebody else helped me with the exchange. Unfortunately the one they held for me was not the exact edition I found online. Long story short, they ended up calling the lady back from her break (I felt so sorry about that...T-T) and she helped me found the right one in the back, PLUS giving me the gift with purchase set (a travel bag and lotion) after knowing about the missing samples.

Conclusion: With the same value, cash back and warranty deal, I now have a Clarisonic Mia 2 in my favorite color PLUS an extra gift set. Thank you Nordstrom for the smooth transaction. Thank you Deborah the lady for her professional customer service. I had been a troubling customer today (sorry! I am ashamed!)...and because of that it made me even more appreciated all the help and effort Nordstrom and its staff pulled together. Thank you for brightens up my day :)

Think Reality

Good infographic helps you understand complicated data.

October = Bankruptcy

October, I called it the month of bankruptcy lol. My family alone has 4 birthdays to celebrate. To start off the party month we have October 4th, which is today, and this special day belongs to my forever loving person -- my mom! From here to heaven, Happy Birthday Mom!

etsyRain Meet Up

So excited, so nervous! I am meeting up with some etsyRain members today. As a new member to the group, it will be my very first meet up event and so I prepared something -- Mushroom "Boo" Halloween Cards. The Candy Corn Mushroom is a new addition to my Amigurumi Mushroom Family. From drawing to printing to packaging, I had so much fun making these cards this morning. They are now sitting in my bag waiting to meet their new owners! XD