One of my favourite parks

...is the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The trees shut out the traffic noise and make you feel like you're in a peaceful, sprawling garden far, far away from the rush of the city.


(Nikon F-801 + Kodak Gold 400)

New Zealand: Wai-O-Tapu

Apart from a lone hot spring, which continues to stump us with its existence, Singapore doesn't have any geothermal land-forms, so I was ooh-ing and ah-ing like a suaku (i.e. person who has been living under a rock) over every bit of bubbling mud or steaming soil when I visited the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Park in Rotarua, New Zealand.



This is the Lady Knox Geyser which erupts every day at 10.15am as part of an informative mini show. I was a bit disappointed to find out that the eruption was induced, even though the staff assured us that the geyser would still naturally erupt about once every 24 hours if it were left to its own devices.





There was lots of fog that day, which made everything seem even more mysterious and magical. Some of the photos turned out a bit too foggy though - apparently film captures fog much more than the iPhone does.


Earth-coloured



I wish they'd had more explanations and diagrams showing how the geothermal features had been formed or how they "work", but it was still a really great experience. I loved how unearthly everything looked.

(Canon AE-1 & Kodak Portra 400)

Crochet 01

Crochet appeals to me because you can make something with just a hook & a ball of yarn. There are loads of complicated and advanced things that can be done with crochet of course, but at my current (newbie) level, I find it nice & simple.

My mom taught me the basics when I was a kid but I never got further than making rectangles and weirdly-shaped dolls' bags. When I decided to pick up crochet again, I didn't know where to start because the easiest beginner patterns all seemed to be for scarves which a) usually require lots of yarn and b) I don't need because we don't have winter here.

Then I found these mini projects which were useful and doable and basically perfect:

Textured Bow Tie pattern by Delia:
While making this for my boyfriend to wear to a friend's wedding, I promptly forgot that it was a kid's pattern and we ended up with a kid-sized bow and regular-sized neck tie. He wore it anyway, which was sweet of him. Moral of the story: you might need to scale up the bow if you're making this for an adult!





Little Treasures Envelope pattern by Shara:
I really like this pattern because it's simple (no sewing required), cute & functional. It's become my go-to handmade gift and I'm pretty sure my friends are going to get tired of receiving this as a present soon, ha.





(Nikon F-801 with Kodak Gold 400 & Nikon D300. I'm need to work on my digital photography & post-processing skills, shooting with digital so much tougher than shooting with film!)

Do you crochet? What's your favourite beginner pattern? :)