Bits And Blythes All Over The Place

Jakey says hi!!!!! Don't you just LOVE his smile!!??!! 

Hi everyone!!!!!!!!! How are you????? What have you been doing???? Wow, it's been AGES hasn't it!! Sorry for not posting for SUCH a LONG time! The last time I posted was during the December holidays LAST YEAR! Well, of course then school started, so I got all busy with schoolwork and lots of new activities. Then I had gastroenteritis for almost 3 weeks!! I even had it during the March holidays, BOO! But I'm all better now, thank you Jesus!!

So this post is going to be a little long, because it's a bunch of stuff over the past months squeezed together (I don't have lots of pictures though, because our little old camera slowly died a couple of months ago). Before I start though, I'm going to do some SHOUT-OUTS! In case you don't know, a shout-out is like a greeting, which people usually do over the radio or during a concert, to people you can't see right then. It's a way of saying HI!! If you'd like me to post a shout-out for you to your friends in my next post, let me know!

Here are my shout-outs:
Shout-out to Qin Yi, my classmate and probably the best follower ever. Thanks for swinging by my blog almost every day!
Shout-out to Nicholle -- thanks for being a great friend and my Science partner in the SCSA competition!
Shout-out to Dion -- thanks for being a great partner!
Shout-out to Harmony, Jana, Leeann, Ser Jia, Chloe, Maisy and Jodie for celebrating my birthday with me -- thanks for your super presents and an amazingly fun day!
Shout-out to everyone involved in Earth Hour -- good job!

Now on to my post! (I would have liked to share more pictures of my awesome birthday party with my friends, but I don't really have pictures because the camera was dead at that time. This picture was taken by Maisy's mom, but we're all looking at other people taking pictures with their handphones. Anyway, we had a great time!! Thank you everyone!!!).

So, see me in my blue uniform up there? That's right -- I'm with the Girls' Brigade! Do you know what the Girls' Brigade is? Well, it is an international and interdenominational Christian youth organisation. It was founded in 1893 in Dublin, Ireland. The Brigade operates in over 60 countries worldwide!

The international vision statement of the GB is "Girls' lives transformed, God's world enriched". The motto of the Girls' Brigade is "Seek, Serve and Follow Christ" and its aim is "To help girls become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through self control, reverence and a sense of responsibility, to find true enrichment of life". The GB programme follows four themes: Spiritual, Physical, Educational and Service. These words spell SPES, which is Latin for Hope. Isn't that great?

I chose to join the GB as my school co-curricular activity (CCA). All students in Singapore must participate in a CCA. As a GB girl, I have lots of important things to take part in and different roles and responsibilities. For example, we have gone to help at the nursing home and had camps in school to learn important life skills and about the fruits of the Spirit. We even had a year-end field trip to Pastamania, where we got to make our own pizzas -- YUMMY!!

Last Saturday, I took part in my official enrollment in the GB. There are six badges which can be collected throughout a year (I got my sixth today). Each badge stands for something; in this case -- God's Book, My Journey, My Service, My Treasure, My Activity and My Responsibility. The first letters of the badges spell "GB J STAR", which means a really AWESOME Girls' Brigade Junior :D

And now, here's a quick pic of little Jakey!!! Isn't he the most adorable fuzzpot ever???? He's already 9 months old, and he can stand up all by himself. He has a huge appetite and the most awesome laugh ever!!!

Just yesterday, my Dad brought me, Ro and Jakey swimming. We put a small black swimsuit on Jake and decided that we would put him in the water slowly, and get him used to it step by step. The last time we brought him swimming, he screamed his head off the moment his toe touched the water. However, this time he really enjoyed himself, and Daddy carried him around in the adult pool. He was laughing and happy and Daddy said he swam better than Ro and me (haha, very funny, Dad).

Here we all are hanging out in front of the balcony TV. I know I look deep in thought or plain bored, but I suppose that's how I look when I digest my food. It's a pretty small space, but really cozy. Just behind me is my Mom's tiny craft area, which brings me to my next topic!

Remember my Blythe dolly Isadora? Well, do you know, my Mom is a doll customizer! Doll customizing is really an art form, where the artists take a basic doll and totally transform it. The dolls they make are called art dolls and they are collectors' items. This dolly is Sadie, one of my mom's dolls. Isn't she pretty? Sadie was bought by a lady all the way in the USA. Sometimes she shows my Mom pictures of Sadie all dressed up with her other dolls, which makes my Mom really happy.

Some of my friends own Blythe dolls in their original form and asked me how my Mom could make them look completely different. Well, let me show you! This is a picture of a Blythe in her original form. Even though their hair and eye colours might be different, their faces all have that shiny plasticky look and those same sort of features.

So, to customize her, my Mom has to completely take her apart. This is a picture of Blythe in pieces.

A lot of the work happens on the face of course. My Mom has to remove all her original colour and carve her to look the way she wants. This is what it looks like in the beginning.

This is what it looks like after awhile. Carving is hard work and takes a long time. My Mom says it's kinda tricky because it's 3D and not flat like a drawing. You have to look at it from all different angles.

The carving tools are all very sharp and so are the doll parts. My Mom has a box of plasters on her craft table. See? Poor Mom's finger got a deep cut and was bleeding :(

After she finally finishes carving, it's time for the faceup. This is when she paints in all the colours and things she wants.

My Mom also has to change the eyes and the eyelashes and decorate the eyelids. Sometimes she also colours and cuts the hair. The face she was working on in those pictures became the dolly above -- Francoise! Francoise is also living in the USA now.

Here is Rowan, getting her newly coloured hair and waiting for her new body.

And here is Rowan, all done! Rowan is going to live in South America, wow!

My Mom always takes pictures of her dolls before she packs them up to send to their new owners. She says that after working so hard on them, she really misses them when they go. Here is Miette sitting on the dolly travelling trunk. My Mom also has to put beads and charms on the doll's new pullstrings. The pullstrings control the doll's eye mechanism. Original Blythes have one string to change their eyes (they have four pairs of eyes looking in different directions), but they don't have sleep eyes. Customizers usually put in the second string so they can close their eyes if they want.

These are Sadie's eyelids.

Here are a few pictures of some of my Mom's dolls. They all live in different parts of the world now. This is Marine. I think she has a very cool city look.

This is Ophelia. She is like a romantic princess in a haunted castle.

And this is Scout! She is the only dolly available in my Mom's shop now. I think she is really cute, like a real little girl.

She's a bit of a tomboy too, so I think we should keep her! My Mom says she'll think about it.

OK -- I'm going to stop now for my dinner. I think I'll have more pictures next time because we have a new camera now, yay! But these few weeks we'll be having exams, so I'll be busy with that. Thanks for popping by!! See you again soon everyboooddyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

Paint With Water!

Hello everyone! How have you been? Today we finally have a bit of rain and the PSI is at the "Moderate" level -- yay!! I wonder if it ever gets to the "Good" or the "Go and Play" level?

My Mommy got us this cool Paint with Water thing which is really cute and fun! They have palettes on every page, which is handy, and super cute pictures for you to paint! Come visit me at Bikbik & Roro where I've been guest blogging for the past week -- I'm gonna be sharing more about this there, so please stop by and have a look! Bye and come back again soon!

On Sadness and Cuteness

Hi everybody! How have you been? I hope you all are doing OK, although the weather and haze pollution are so bad. The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) went up to 401 today. I've learnt that the PSI is a sort of measure of the air quality. Zero to 50 is good, while 101 - 200 is unhealthy, 201 - 300 is very unhealthy, and anything above 300 is hazardous. So we are in the hazardous range now. The smell of smoke even comes into our house although the windows are shut. Plus the temperature is 35 degrees :(

I read in the news that "Indonesia on Thursday accused Singapore of acting "like a child" over thick smog from forest fires in Sumatra that has triggered an environmental crisis, as the city-state's premier warned it could last weeks" (you can read more here and here). I feel sad that there is all this bickering going on while there is such a bad environmental crisis happening which is not being fixed. I also feel so bad for the poor wildlife that is being affected :(

Let me share with you something happier. Remember the cat pin my Mom made for Maisy's birthday? It was so cute, I wished I could have one too, so my Mom made me a little one! This is a tiny Ragdoll kitten! He reminds me of my cat Ming Ming.

This pin is actually very small, just about 3.5cm. But he has a cute star in his ear! This is what he looks like close up. Isn't he simply adorable?

And this is what he looks like on a cardigan! Isn't he sweet?

My Mom actually put some cat pins in her shop. This cat head is one of them! I love his colour and his beautiful green eyes. These pins are environmentally-friendly because they are made with recycled, reclaimed things. My Mom has been taking some custom orders for her cat pins, so if you want one, just email her or me! They are OOAK (one-of-a-kind), so you can look super cool wearing a special work of art!

OK, see you again soon! Try to enjoy the rest of your June holidays even if you are stuck indoors. Keep praying that the haze crisis can be fixed peacefully, permanently and soon!!!

My First Pin!

Just yesterday, my Mom allowed me to make my own collage pin, just like the ones she sells in her shop! I chose a picture of a tiger and cut it out. I then glued the tiger to a thick board and asked my Mom to help me cut that out. That part was quite hard, because the board is very thick and the cutter has to be very sharp. It also isn't easy to cut around curves and corners!

I looked at a bunch of scrap papers my Mom had and selected a nice green paper. I cut out the flower shape and stuck my tiger on the green background, along with two paper butterflies! Then I added a few sparkly stars and varnished my pin.

This is what I made! I thought it came out quite good for my first time, don't you think?

This is a close-up of my first collage pin! Isn't this tiger beautiful?

I always think of tigers as proud, majestic and very independent. Tigers hunt and live alone. Did you know that a tiger's closest relative is the lion? Without their stripes, it might be hard to tell a tiger and lion apart! Tigers are very large -- they can reach 3.3 metres and weigh up to 306 kgs! Their canine teeth can reach almost 7.5cm long!

When you look into this tiger's eyes, what do you see? I see a bright, happy face which fills me with a joyous feeling, but I am sad that tigers are actually critically endangered because of habitat loss and illegal hunting. Poachers poison their water and set traps to kill them so they can sell their body parts and skin for stupid traditional Chinese medicine recipes. There were once eight tiger subspecies, but three have become extinct. This is a tragedy! You can read more about tigers here and what you can do to help.

I have to go do my homework now. See you soon, and wishing all of you blessed school holidays!

Giveaway!

* Congratulations to Kay, the winner of this giveaway!! * 
Please check your email :)

Hello everyone!! Here is the giveaway I've been talking about! Yes, they are two collage pins made by my Mom! She made some for her shop, and I asked her if I could have a couple of smaller ones for my giveaway. She said ok! So here they are.

They are cute collage pins made of recycled materials! Collage is a form of art in which various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric are arranged and stuck to a backing. These pins are made of heavyweight cut paper and shiny foil elements, mounted on thick illustration board, and protected by several layers of glossy varnish. If you win this giveaway, you'll get not one, but TWO, sweet little pins! You can wear them on your shirt, or pin them on your bag, or just put them somewhere as decoration to make you happy. Isn't it great how fun and cute recycling can be!

This is what you have to do to take part in this giveaway!

Mandatory entries

(You must do these to be included in this contest)

1. Be a follower of my blog through Google Friend Connect (just click "Join this site" on the right there) or follow through Bloglovin (button also on the right there :).

2. Leave a comment for this post!

Extra entries

(Not mandatory, but you really up your chances! If it says 2 entries, please leave 2 comments)

1. Grab my button for your homepage (email me and I'll send you the image, and please leave me the URL so I can check). Doing this is worth 3 entries :)

2. Refer to this blog and this giveaway in a post on your own website (please leave me the URL so I can check). Doing this is worth 2 entries :)

This giveaway will end on Sunday, the 5th of May, at 12pm EST.

The winner will be chosen by Random.org. The winner will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to respond, or a new winner will be selected. Please be sure your email is in your comment!

Have fun!

Name Day!

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Hello!

Today is a beautiful day!

I am happy!

Can you see what I am wearing on my wrist?

Let's go closer!

Yup! My Mom made me a new bracelet! She had made some for some of her shop customers, and I said I wanted one too. She said okay! Isn't it cute? She calls them "Name Day" bracelets. I think I would like another one that says "Peace" or "Happy". Or maybe "Avenger"! If you would like one, you can find it in her shop here.

See you again soon!