Mixed media, tea bags & toxic rainbows…

21 months… nearly two years I have been a resident of Saigon and with only 89 days to go I discover an art class in Saigon… I have been looking… there are language courses… sports clubs… wine tasting… but no art… and now one has appeared… better late than never… you are looking at the newest student on the Expressive Mixed Media course specialising in experimental painting techniques and print making… Wow… not cheap at $255 dollars… but it will be amazing to learn from professional teachers rather than my current “botch up, trial then error” method plus it will also  get me through the remaining couple of months with something super to look forward to each week.

I can’t wait to get started… what will I do… will there be lots of lovely artsy folks… so excited!

…Here is one of my latest crafty fiddles…

Brown cord tote bag with felt lining and applique detail… commission piece for a friend… not my original design… based on an image found on a google image search… amazing what you can come up with if you type in I Heart Tea…

...Tea Bag...

As for the rest of the week… I have been breathing in toxic rainbows of acrylic spray paint… graffiti is harder than I imagined… but the finished results are kind of cool… will post a photo when completed!

Nearly the weekend chaps!

…Happy Easter all you lovely folks out there…

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Counting down to Berlin…

It’s that time of year again… 2/3 of the way throught the academic year and the Easter break is so close I can almost touch it… Absolutely exhausted and a super crazy amount of work to do before the school year is out.. However… I have started my chuff chart… 90 days to go folks until I quit Vietnam in favour of less sunny climbs…

…I have been a googlin’ … Berlin is fabulous city… one of my favourites… there is a plethora of gorgeous things… kaffee und kuchen… Sunday flea markets, clean fresh sunny parks… snow in winter and a reason to wear all the hats and scarves I have amassed over the years… Autumn… beer festivals, wine festivals, film, art, fashion and music festivals (and sport too apparently…)… Also Etsy… yay!

I just need to get all my stuff from here to there… find an apartment… learn all about how to teach big kids… brush up on my now shockingly bad Deutsch…

…I will do that later…

Right now I want to get through the week in one piece… amongst other things it is Environment Week at school and to quote the great Kermit… “it’s not that easy being green”

The Easter holidays bring lovely things from home… Cat and Tobes… i only get to keep them for two weeks… but we have great adventures planned…

…stay tuned to this station for our Asian odyssey…

… time for a nice cup of tea now…

Goodnight World

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Cupcakes, Hairbands & thousands of tiny stitches…

Hello World… A week of calamity, cooking, field trips, embroidery and glue gun burns… Following our field trip to visit the dinosaurs in Saigon’s Dam Sen Park in District 10 we found ourselves with a surfeit of bananas… when life hands you bunches of bananas what else is there to do but make Banana Crumble Muffins… the recipe is absolutely fabulous, especially the crunchy cinnamon crumble top and easy to make even if you are only 4!

Banana Muffiny Goodness!

...Om nom nom...

I have also started a couple of projects… a small patchwork piece of embroidery as part of a giant mural for the school Environment Week… every child and adult in the school will be creating a square that reflects what taking care of the environment means to us… with over 900 patches to put together it will be an immense task but will result in the most glorious piece of artwork!

Feather hairbands… shockingly expensive to buy but simple and cheap to make if you have a little patience, a glue gun and asbestos fingers… so off I went to one of my favourite places in Saigon… the haberdashery market… I have stocked up on beautiful natural pearls… i love the odd shapes that you find in imperfect pearls… also seemed to come home with a bag full of feathers, glitter, chenille sticks and felt…

Here goes… one hour  later and slightly singed finger tips… turned out quite nicely i think!

Feathers for my birds nest of hair!

Much to do today… finishing off a birthday present for a friend… no pictures until after her birthday though… don’t want to spoil the surprise! Perhaps I will use the last of the bananas and make banana bread this time… yes… i still have some left… perhaps I will just go and see Alice in Wonderland instead…

Have  lovely Sunday all!

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Sprinkles, frosting & a nice cup of tea…

Cakey Triumph!

Not wanting to disappoint my mother I thought best to whip up another batch of cupcakes… fluffy, sweet and light as opposed to molten, chewy and leaden… The proof is indeed in the pudding… the resulting tea time treat was delicious…Here you go Mom… photographic evidence that you raised and taught me well and I am not a total disaster in the kitchen!

It seems I have also unwittingly entered into a game of next door neighbour Top Trumps with the lovely Ant (queen of cake making i might add)… I borrowed her weighing scales and returned them with buns… she has since lent me her memory card reader so I think i have to return it with some sort of electrical item… I am hoping we can continue on this way a la One Red Paper Clip until one or both of us ends up with a house!

I have added a few more of my photographs to my blog too… have a look if you like… bright colours and black & white…

…Time for a nice cup of tea and a bun I think…

Fluffy & Light

...om nom nom...

…Have a lovely cake & tea filled weekend everyone…

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Exploding Rainbow cake…

We followed the instructions… to the letter… and KABLAMMO… as our little cupcakes were baking away in the oven something weird started to happen… they turned into some kind of molten chemical mess that looked a little like melted space crayons… About 5 minutes into the cooking process there was a pop and a splat and gooey ‘cake’ mix exploded all over the inside of the oven… um… why? I blame Vietnamese chemically food colouring personally… nothing to do with my skills as a domestic goddess whatsoever!

The result was a perfect disaster… they could be used as a weapon… some sort of Vietnamese fighting cupcake…

...Round 1 disaster...

Not one to be deterred by initial catastrophic buns, whilst the tiddlypeeps slept i whipped up another batch… fudged the recipe a bit and they turned out perfectly… not as bright… but frankly food should not resemble molten plastic or a brightly coloured asteroid!

These ones actually tasted delicious… light and fluffy and yummy…

Hurrah for food dye!

Yummy cake mix!

Ta Da!

Colour accented cupcake!

Finally… delicious cakey goodness…

:)

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Paying customers!

I am not planning on giving up teaching, nor am i planning to spend every night and weekend hunched over pieces of fabric sewing until the light dims and my eyesight fades… however… I have been asked to make a few pieces for friends and I have actually sold one… I made the above… a door decoration… butterfly wreath? Call it what you will… a few hours spent with silk, pearls, ribbon and a glue gun and voila… a fancy knick knack for your apartment door…  I think it turned out quite sweet and simple…

I have made a few more…

https://livvly.wordpress.com/textiles/ribbons-buttons-and-all-the-pretty-things/

Now i have a few more kitschy stitches to whip up… With every piece I make i get just a little bit more inspired, creative and more accomplished… As with everything… practice makes perfect…

It certainly distracts from the daily grind… although admittedly today’s daily grind was mostly playing with lego, reading stories and building train tracks… and somehow i still managed to get covered in glitter… how does this happen?

Tomorrow in class we have another hard task… making rainbow cupcakes…

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/rainbow_cupcakes

What could be more fun? Playing in the splash pool, reading Mr Pusskins and then baking fabulous rainbow cakes?

…Somedays I really love my job…

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Going home…

Friday… finally… some weeks really just seem longer than others… Early mornings and late nights seem to all blur into one… A patchwork of emails, work projects, teaching, children, meetings, cups of tea, breakfast in the evening… I could sleep for a week.  Let’s blame it on the suffocating heat and humidity… I love Vietnam… i really do, but on occasions I have to work a little harder to convince myself that running away tomorrow is an unwise decision…

Instead I am planning my journey home… what beautiful arts and crafts to bring back from Asia… what to do for a month in the summer in England when I don’t have to work… Not counting down as such… just looking forward to being with lovely friends and family for a while before I move to Berlin in August…

Here are a few photos from last summer in England… It was really hard to come back after 2 weeks with beautiful sunshine, countryside and proper cups of tea with a nice slice of cake…

https://livvly.wordpress.com/photography/green-pleasant-land/

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Time for Tea…

Please allow me to introduce myself… My name is Liv… I am 32… a teacher, a traveller, a part-time photographer, a consummate tea drinker, a wearer of floral prints and of late an experimenter with textiles…

This little corner of the web will be my diary… a journal of my thoughts, my work and a space for me to share the things I love with friends, family and those who stumble upon this blog by chance…

…so…

Hello World

…time for a nice cup of tea now I think…

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