Made Real Update

I was scrolling through my previous posts and found this. And then I realised I never posted anything about it (the Made Real part). So, here it is: I designed that Oh-Goodies! snackbox. Yupp, that's about it. They've come a long way since the launch slightly less than a year ago. Congrats Fang and Yixin (:

Here's their instagram feed -

If anything, I'm alive

Things have been amazing and terrifying and mind blowing and terrible and lovely all at the same time. I never knew I could feel so much and so vividly.

The recent past and near future has much to show and tell but I'm in no place to process everything or share anything right now.

Please bear with me, I'll be back soon.

Sorry and thank you.

Snapchat Stories

Snapchat is legitimately probably one of the most liberating apps you have have on your phone. For real. I love it. Yesterday, my phone was nudging me to delete stuff to make more storage space. So when I was clearing stuff, I re-watched the videos and omg, love. I tried to upload videos but it didn't work out, so, sorry, too bad.

For when I am turning 20.

The thought of turning twenty and possibly leaving home and making life work scares me. It petrifies me. I'm writing this post now, on 11 November 2014, hoping to post this about a week or so before hitting the big two-zero. These two songs have been playing on my iPod.

1, 2.
Have a listen.

Maybe they give you the same sense of hope it gives me.


Today: 6 April 2015

I turned 20 a week or so ago and I was asked how I feel about it. Since I already journaled some thoughts, I thought I could just share it. The following is as quoted from my journal.

I had dinner with Deanna just now and she asked me how I felt about turning 20. My first word/reaction was “fuck” in caps and spaced out. But it is (still 19, turning 20 at this point), less of a blow than it was when I turned 19. I think that’s because of several things.

1. At 19, there were more unknowns than now, at 20. Or maybe I’ve come to be at peace with the idea that it’s okay to not know and not be certain. Or maybe a large part of 19’s “unknown” was about what I would be doing with my life in the coming years and if I’d be able to get into a university. And 20’s peace comes from having that ‘unknown’ known.

2. At 19, I didn’t know who I was or who I was becoming, or who I wanted to be. 19’s confusion stemmed from knowing that I could be anything I wanted. And 20’s peace comes from a year of practicing acceptance. I have learnt to be okay with me, with what “me” can do and what “me” likes. Being okay with that resulted in me liking “me”, and thus being comfortable with who I am becoming and ultimately, who I become.

3. 19’s struggle was much to do with resistance towards settling. 20’s calmness comes from settling on one conscious decision to not settle. There’s always more to everything. More to work towards, more to see, more to do, more to hear, more to love. And ultimately, more to give.

20’s peace comes from knowing god exists, and knowing His is, and will always be, my Abba Father.

Ps. When I Grow Up still lightens my mood and always makes me hopeful.

Undies all day, errday : part III : Water Fun

I couldn't decide if I wanted to post all the film photos together, or to separate the Adventure Cove images from the pool images. But I decided to post them all together. The pool was brilliant. It was for everyone from that hotel, but no one uses the pool so it's essentially a giant private pool. And Adventure Cove was pretty fun so, no complaints. Except for the group of guys that were making a lot of noise. But it's all cool.

Undies all day, errday : part II : Bubble Baths

We did a lot of stuff. Mostly in the tub of the hotel actually. It’s odd, I know. But when you have a toilet like the one we had, you’d probably do the same. I’m just really thankful I have friends who so openly do things like that with me. Here’s a gif of some of the images I took. Not going to post them individually here because well, let’s just say, I want to keep this place as child friendly as possible.

Drowning in Problems (kind of?)

I'm in the middle of doing an infographic and I'm kind of drowning in problems (caused by it). But on the bright side, I die and take a long time to be forgotten. So, this is a celebration to the fact that we all die in the end, with or without our problems and challenges. And if you're anything like me, I'm glad I die having overcome some challenge or another. (yes, this infographic will get done, and it'll be done damn well)

(see you soon, I have yet to update on part II and III of the staycation)

Undies all day, errday : part I : SEA World Aquarium

It’s the second time. But if anything, I was probably more amazed by the creatures there than the first time. They changed the route and I thought the first route was better, but that’s not the point. The point is, these are some images taken there that I would love to do a jewellery line about but I don’t see that happening anytime soon so I’ll stick to dreaming it up for now.

Kid: Why is the fish not swimming?
Dad: Becaue he's old.

This fish was big. It's probably about my size and 3 times my weight.

One more gif of more jellyfish cos well, they're so pretty.

And this is a preview of what happened in the toilet of our room in RWS. More in part 2, stay tuned.

Family Day Out

My dad got free passes to the River Safari and it was the day after internship was over so why not wake up at 8am to see the pandas? Hahaha the waking up part wasn't that fantastic but at least the pandas were awake and moving. Visual post cos well, what else can you do when you're there with a phone?

Hello from the Chuis!

Aren't these creatures just majestic?

They had an entire souvenir shop just for panda merchandise. Unbelievable.

I think my brother and I had more fun in the gift shop at the end of our journey than throughout the journey itself.

For some reason, the first photo my mom takes of us is always unfocused. But I quite like it that way.

That's my brother's birthday present. It was a stuffed hedgehog called Spikey Spike. I said it looked more like a Pete than a Spikey Spike and my cousin agreed and told him in a very matter-of-fact manner "You need to up your name game man".

I guess this makes up for not being able to take a photo carrying a live panda.

(Mom actually thought she could carry the panda and take a photo like she did with koalas in Australia. I think she forgot the pandas here are probably 3 times her weight)

Ps. Anyone knows why the photo border gets wider when I have more text in the captions? Is there a way to have it all the same throughout the post, regardless of the amount of caption I have?

Thoughts on completing internship

The gif was made when I was half way through the 22 weeks, and trying very hard to complete my interim report. Evidently, even around 20 hours before the deadline, I was still struggling and, obviously procrastinating.

Having completed my 22-week internship, I can only say I’m really glad this is over. Like, really glad. Sure, I’ve learnt a lot and made friends and pushed boundaries and all, but the end of this internship has been overdue for a couple of weeks. That said, I’m still extremely thankful for the opportunities and the ups and the downs. But I’m ready for what’s next.

The wire used to charge my phone decided to malfunction ):

But that's alright.

Here's a video. Enjoy (they're just brilliant. Especially the guy)!

Post by ‎Suzanne Dellal Centre מרכז סוזן דלל‎.

I'm really going to work on getting momentum posting again.

Getting out of it

I fell in love yesterday. With a girl with the hairstyle I've been wanting to get for the last 3/4 year or so. I didn't even see her face but I thought she was stunning. Sad thing is, she probably doesn't realise how beautiful she is. It was during this bus ride that I kicked myself again for losing the habit of bringing post-its or loose paper for letters for strangers around at all times. I really should start doing that again.

And I really should start blogging again. I'm only realising that I've lost the momentum I've built up so far (looking back, 2 posts a week was pretty impressive by my track record). But we all have to start somewhere (again). So, I'm starting from January's mini goal of posting 2 posts up this month. It's only the start of the second week of January so I guess I'm making progress.

Thank you for your patience.

Hi Friends

I realise I've been away for a while now. I just wanted to drop in to say I'll be back, and to bear with me for the next half a month or so while I put my life back together. Thank you for constantly coming back to this space to check it out.

In the meantime, happy new year! May 2015 be so much more than 2014. Cheers.

Sincerely
Abby

Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle

My friend, Sara, wrote an article for Obscured for which I took the photos. It's about Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle, one of the cooler places on this island, imo. I must admit that they're not my best photos but at least now I know this style probably isn't for me. Either that, or I have to give it a few more chances and work on it. Anyway, please check out the article here!

And here are some photos that weren't shortlisted for the article.

Oh my, time flies

4 days have gone past since the last post and I was reminded that it's time to upload a post again today. I don't have much to say today even though a lot of things have been going on. Pappa Chui has approved my bulk purchase of a hundred tote bags so I'm really excited for the line that's going to be launched concurrently with Made Real, a company founded by my ex-classmates (they always amaze me). I'll talk more about that closer to the date, which is sometime in January.

As of now, I've been using that phrase (as of now) quite a bit. And in my desperate attempts to finish packaging everything for the store's launch (hopefully before 1 December this year), the floor of my room has been completely covered with cards, envelopes, papers, and well, more papers. At least it's an organised mess within which I can still walk without stepping on anything.

The html is done for the store and my dad's done lecturing me about the more important legal stuff that I need to take note of (like placing a note about confidentiality and stuff). So now, I just need to finish packaging everything, buy my stamps and photograph everything. Still feels like I've got a long list of things to do though. Oh well, one thing at a time.

Till about 4 days later,
Abby.

On arranging flowers and other stuff

Docents' Appreciation Dinner was over last week and here's the video! Second video from iMovie and I think I'm improving somewhat. This is Dan Takeda, a professional flower arranger from Japan. Enjoy!

PS. I have zines on sale today till Sunday at the Singapore Art Book Fair (under Squelch Zines).

Bus Ride Musings

I was walking home this evening, thinking about everything. Well, as 'everything' as my brain could handle at once. That includes university, and how the course I have been wanting to attend for the longest time just announced 6 days ago that it's being cancelled (meaning to say, possibly not taught again) and what on earth I am going to do now, especially after that one hour long career counselling session with my lecturer over the phone (fried brain) which gave me a lot to think about. (Sorry, long sentence). It also includes the shop that I'm launching on 1 December this year and how I still have so much to do, internship now and how I have a love-hate relationship with my desk, and lastly, my weight.

Anyone who knows me or even seen me before would probably be going "what" now. But it's true. I'm thin. And I eat whatever I want. But it doesn't mean I'm not concerned about it.

But anyway, the point of this post was to share this song that has been playing on my iPod for a really really long time. Enjoy! Aren't these kids just talented?

Please don't get a heart attack watching this.

This was taken during the deinstallation of the exhibition's echo. It's this interactive part of the exhibition where people can respond to the works. The exhibition is now gone (bye bye boobies) and the upcoming exhibition is being installed as I type this.

And I'm only uploading this because I thought it was a pretty decent video considering it's my first ever video edited with iMovie, and considering I didn't know what one earth I was taking until the second day (notice the change of clothes). Also, this was shot entirely with the iPhone using the hyperlapse app (which I still love even though it drains the battery like electricity is free).

One of the girls in the office suggested this music cos she says together with the visuals, the entire thing makes you feel like you're going to have a heart attack, like how each installation and deinstallation makes all of our hearts work extra hard. I've warned you so don't die alright. Happy watching.

Gunned Roses

These are the ones that didn't make it to the FB album.

It's been a huge ass blessing.