2012 wall calendar

2012 calendar is here! When you've got time, go check it out :)

Mont Blanc

It's SO bad to crave a Mont Blanc tart after gym, but I just can't help it! The soft chewy glazed chestnut on the top of the creamy chestnut mousse.... Hmmm so yummy. Once again my hunger has defeated my will power (as if it ever existed :P)

Now I've finish my delicious cake, I'm thinking what for dinner tonight.

Reminiscing

Brings back lots of wonderful childhood memories seeing Barbie. As I took a bite of the chocolate, Memories seep in.... discovering a surprise gift on my bed coming home from school in the form of a Barbie wedding set (still have it at home!). Or playing Barbie fashion show with my sister (or I should say it's the other way round).

Barbie, you are forever so elegant.

Print & Pattern book Vol 2



Picture courtesy of Print & Pattern

Print & Pattern 2 is out! I will get my copy when I order next batch of books from Amazon. The first one is so beautiful and has lots of great prints. I can't wait to have the two put together on my bookshelf.
For more preview of the new book, see it on Print & Pattern. 

Here's my Vol 1 copy at use :)

 

Herm Festival des Métiers

I have always held strong admiration for Hermès for their perseverance in keeping artistry and craftsmanship alive. Up to this day, Hermès still insists in creating their products by skilful artisans with as little help of machinery as possible. Knowing their Festival des Métiers is coming to Hong Kong, it was too great an opportunity for me to miss out. 
As many of you may already know that the first step to screen printing is to make negative films by each separate colour. It's unbelievably amazing that Hermès' films are all drawn by hand! Colours in a design would first be counted (there are 30 colours in the design in the pic above), and then handdrawn onto separate films. The time frame for making a Hermès scarf, from design to finish, is two years.

The next booth that we checked out is the serigraphy process. Hermès uses one specific type of silkworms to make all of their silk products, and all silk fabrics are woven right in Lyon, France. It takes at least 300 cocoons to make just one silk scarf, so you can imagine how tightly weaved are the scarves. They print from darkest colour to lightest, using different squegees to produce different levels of viscocity. Hermès has a secret recipe book of 7500 colours, mixing their own colours, and uses an average of 30 colours per scarf, max up to 45 colours.



The silk tie booth and leather booth are also very interesting and well worth a visit. Every artisans at the fair are so skilled, it was definitely a great afternoon well spent.

Mother's Day SALE

Mother's Day is near and now that spring is finally here (HOORAY!), we are having a 10% sale as a little thank you to our customers. Please enter coupon code: MOTHERDAY10 at checkout.

We also have two new giclee prints in our store: 'Home Sweet Home', inspired by my homesick while I was away this winter, and 'Eveylne', a whimsical dreamlike woodland. Currently we are working hard in making some of my new prints into new products, so stay tuned. ♥

Airstream home office



Airstream Sport

 I have being away from this blog for such a long time due to family health issues. Some of my family members were very sick and I had been going to the hospitals very often recently, which I pray and hope won't happen again. Luckily all of them are recovering and are well now. Back to a more cheerful topic, our tea towels are featured in a few Etsy treasury, and one of them especially intrigued me. It is of Airstream theme, and upon seeing the treasury, it has awakened my forgotten dream of owning a trailer of my own (Yes!). Ever since I saw a picture of a revamped Airstream I have been imagining of owning one in my (small) backyard. It would be like having a secret hideaway place, plus the convenience of driving it to anywhere and have the comfort of a home. So here is the idea of how I'd transform an Airstream into my home office/den:

1. Ultrasone Edition 10 headphones, Utrasone ; 2. Carafe & cup, Velocity  ; 3. Stackable shelf units, Velocity ; 4. Loveseat, Ikea ; 5. Cushion, deMOCCA ; 6. Rug, Crate & Barrel ; 7. Computer desk, Ikea ; 8. Coffee table, Crate & Barrel ; 9. Parker Chair, Urban Outfitters ; 10. Mini Moss Terrarium, madebymavis Etsy

This decor inspiration board comes from a Japanese fusion restaurant called Gyotaku that I've recently visited. Its interior is accented with wood and stone elements, very modern and tranquil with the use of greys, white and beige. I'd love to share this home office/den with Fermin, and therefore simple, streamlined furnitures are chosen to keep the space neutral. Headphones are for Fermin as audio is Fermin's favourite hobby and terrariums are something I'd love to put in my home office when I have the space. The carafe and cup from Velocity is so adorable; I could use it for tea or for the rare occasions some Japanese sake (LOL). Well I can keep on dreaming about this home office ....

Lovely store finds: Muji

I'm sure many of you have visited or have heard of Muji, but still I would like to introduce this wonderful concept store -- one of the earliest concept store (to what I've known) to embrace simplicity, almost like a Japanese version of Ikea. Almost everything in the store comes in neutral colours such as white, beige and grey. They have many interesting products made with wood, metal or recycled paper into designs that are streamlined and modern. They now have locations all over the world, including U.S. and Europe.

Lovely store finds: About A Girl

As I mentioned a few posts back that I would introduce two very lovely and girly stores that I found in Hong Kong, so here is one of them. About A Girl is part of the lifestyle store chain of Franc Franc that mainly caters to young girls who love anything girly and frilly. I bought these lovely cutlery and a tea strainer for days when I like to treat myself a nice afternoon tea at home on weekends. Isn't the house shaped tea strainer adorable? 

Oh how I wish I brought my DSLR camera with me to Hong Kong so I could take a better picture. Just something random I thought to be very interesting, not something I'd see in Toronto. Cheers!

Humorous cards by Egg2Cake



greeting card by Egg2cake




Saw this blog post on Papercrave and had to repost this. Who would have thought of the word 'stressed' spelled backwards = desserts? What a genius! Desserts are definitely a great antidote for de-stress. :)  

Talking about desserts, I went totally ecstatic when I saw Ladurée's pop-up shop at Joyce in celebrating the fashion boutique's 40th anniversary. All of the chocolate flavours were sold out; we were very lucky in snatching up the last few pistachio macarons left, which is my absolutely favourite flavour, and also tried a new flavour, rose ginger, that smells and tastes heavenly. Unfortunately, this shop is now gone now so I would have to look elsewhere if I'm craving for more macarons.

Happy New Year!

 First of all, Happy New Year everyone! Our biggest apologies for MIA for such a long time, I have been sick (twice!) ever since I am in Hong Kong. We are back and here to present two lovely stores.

LOG-ON is a lifestyle store that carries mainly Japanese brands and offers a wide variety of products: beauty & bath products, magazines, accessories, apparel, home gadgets, kitchen supplies, etc. There are so many innovative products that you could spend hours there. Unfortunately I was unable to make some store snaps, but it's definitely a store to go to when you needed to find a fun gift or just needed inspirations.

The second store find is called Upon Witchee that I stumbled upon today. It's a lovely store that carries confection-like accessories and clothing. The girly Japanese style is ever so pleasing and appealing. 

For ladies who have a weak spot for dessert-inspired or girly accessories, I shall be introducing two stores next time. Stay tuned!

Lovely store finds: Franc Franc

Franc Franc is a Japanese home + lifestyle concept store where you can find housewares to beauty/bath products to furnitures, all in one store. It's the kind of store where you can spend hours just looking and inspecting each and every product, just because everything in the store is so attractive! They also have many sister stores such as Bals Tokyo and About a Girl that I've also visited and love, which I will blog about very soon. Stay tuned for more lovely stores I find in Hong Kong!

Lovely store finds in Hong Kong - Chocolate Rain

I first came across this adorable brand while I was at HKTDC last year and fell in love with the cute brand icon Fatina. What I admire even more is the designer's determination to create designs that are full of imaginations. I had no idea the designer has a store just down the street where Fermin lives, so when I saw the sign that says "I ♥ D.I.Y", I had to go check it out. The store is filled with many cute products and I finally have the chance to meet one of the designer/owner. She is a very sweet lady and has allowed me to snap some store photos for my blog (thank you ♥) After lingering in the store for more than half an hour, a bag of a camera pouch, a "Fatina and panda costume" USB, and keychain came home with me. She even put in a memo pad and magnets as a gift. Here is their website: Chocolate Rain

We are now available in Shop Domestica!

Our deMOCCA products, including our tea towels, cushions and 2011 calendars, are now available at the lovely Shop Domestica in Des Moines, IA! Happy Thanksgiving, our US neighbours! :)

Paper Crave's Calendar Wrap-Up

It's been a while since we've last blogged as we were busy working on an orderwe're very excited about. We would soon announce it once everything is settled.

Our calendar is included in Paper Crave's calendar wrap-up Part 7 along with many pretty calendars.
Please take a look! Wish everyone have a Happy Monday!

Cushion covers now on Etsy

Our cushion covers are now available in our Etsy shop! Comes in yellow 'Cotton Flower', orange 'Autumn Berries' and beige 'Autumn Berries', and has a zipper closure in the back for easy removal. Happy weekend everyone!

Cushion cover ... succeeded!

Good morning! I am so happy my first cushion cover succeeded after some zipper-related frustration! As my mom has very high standards (eek!), I shall make one more practice cushion cover before I make her her orange Autumn Berries ones. Fabric store, here I come. Have a happy Monday everyone!

Love - cute rubber stamps

Source: http://modernartstamps.com/

Today while I was flipping through my InStyle magazine November issue, I notice this wonderful section on personalized gifts. One of the feature is these cute customizable rubber stamps from Modern Art Stamps. They are so adorable! I think these two in the picture really represent what Fermin and I look like. It'll be lovely if we both get one so we can use it to replace our signature!