Mommy's 50th Bday (Part 1)

I had always been hopeless in creative arts. Writing is no problem, visualizing is no problem, but drawing, coloring, and basically anything that involves DIY is...yeck. When I get a surprising As for my artwork among the strings of Cs and Ds (best is C+), it is 100% done by...my sister, who, on the other hand, is incredibly talented and can produce any amazing caricature or watercolor painting with just a few strokes.

So when Shirin introduced me to quilling, it's like "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Faking Skillful Artworks". Being the sweetest, thoughtful and kindest friend (i'll NEVER say that to her in person), she even go as far as to buy me a quilling kit and paper shredder as a farewell gift. Get this -- the one's leaving is HER, not me but I geta farewell gift. How incredible is she as a friend??? I CANNOT live without insulting and taking advantage of her yet gaining lasting loyalty in return...hahaha. Anyways, i'll miss her terribly but that cold-blooded lady will not shed a single tear when she flies to Pandaland. Whatever, i've strayed from the main topic.

Since then, I've produced customized cards from daddy, mommy, sister and the boy. I took ideas from quilling experts in their online sites (bless those kind hearts who share their designs for free) as references, and try to imitate the same design. Well, i can still claim that my designs are original, mainly because they differ LARGELY from the original designs due to my lack of skills and patience.

Take this, for example, a 3D flower pot with flowers which I'm making for the first time for Mommy's 50th Bday. In fact, all the previous designs are first-time efforts, with customized animals symbolizing the zodiac signs, and the latest, a heartfelt heart quilling patterns with a house-shaped card with our family picture for my sister, to remind her that we will always be there for her when she needs us. I'm very proud of that special card because it has loving messages from my parents and me to my sister. Also, i think it's the first artwork I present to her and she actually puts it up amongst her other lovely things despite its...uh, 5 year old artwork-look.

Okay, back to Mommy's 3D pot. Actually, most people quill for a long time, mastering the basics before advancing to 3D but i can't wait la.

The original idea:

As you can see, the most adorable little pot from papercraftcentral.net looks easy to make. Like molding a porcelain. It's even completed with little stands.

Since i don't have the similar color, i opt to go for colors as I have shredded a lot of color papers.

Firstly, i curl the base with the little stands:

Not knowing that the thinner the paper width is, the harder it is to quill, i was wondering why curling such a small part will cause my hand to ache, having struggled very hard to keep the curls onto the quilling needle. However, I'm pretty proud with myself for achieving 88% of the original look, only modified with 2 little stands instead of 4 stands.

Then, I proceed to do the vase top:

Ooer...ignore the really dry hand with white cuticles. Hmm...can anyone donate me a new DSLR camera because obviously my Olympus is not focusing very well...(or most likely, thanks to my poor phototaking skills). This is how i curl a realllly colorful top for the vase, doesn't it look like one of those lollipops?

After i took this picture, the quilling came undone. So, I quilled it again. Then I tried to push out the shape, and it came undone. So I requilled, pushed, came undone, requilled, pushed, came undone, requilled...OH BOY I WAS HATING CIRCLEs AND QUILLING AFTER almost 2 HOURS trying to quill the BLOODY circle.

Final product after a gruelling qulling session:

Sweet little colorful with 2 little flowers!! Okay, so it has changed from my original design:
1. Perfect pot shape with 4 stands - Not dried glue stained pot, not fully stretched in case it comes undone, and 2 stands
2. 5 flowers with tall stalks - I can only have room for 2, and can't figure out how to get them to stand tall with the drooping stalks so i made some artistic looking twisting stalks instead for the flowers to rest on.

What I've achieved through self-learning from online quilling experts:
1. Fringed flowers - adorable aren't there!!!!! I've advanced to nicer looking flowers from the basic shapes!!
2. Patience - If it's not cuz I want to give my mom something special for her 50th bday, i would have given up during the first time when the quill came undone.

Due to its doll house-sized shape, my family can't really see the remarkableness of it - till i zoom in with the DSLR, only they go like, "Woo...Waaa" because they realise i've been trying to make pot with flowers, not such squibbles, like so many of my past artworks. My mom panicked when she thought someone had thrown her little gift, when in fact, it's standing in front of her, resting safely against our real vase, but too tiny to be spotted.

This is the first time i've been so patient at practicing due to love, love of both the craft and my mom. So life's like this - if you love something, you work better in it. Hope that will come true in a potential career with prospects!

The responsibilities of a human being

I was having a conversation with a colleague, and realized that it's really not easy to try to be a good human being who fulfill lifetime responsibilities. Take a female manager for example:

1. Her parents - to be a good, filial daughter
2. Her husband - to be a loyal, devoted wife
3. Her children - to be a loving and caring mother
4. Her employer - to be a hardworking, helpful worker
5. Her subordinates - to be a just and admirable leader
6. Her in-laws - to be a patient, giving daughter in law

and the list goes on and on. Funny how people are expected to shoulder such lifetime responsibilities naturally. Some people adapt to the roles, some fumble with just one role, and either choose to escape from reality or ruins his own life. Average people manage to execute 4 roles well; some saints shine in all.

To me, I can adapt in any situation and shift from one role to the other with ease, and that is because I am extremely fortunate to be raised in a happy family with the greatest parents. I believe that my positive outlook on the world is due to the endless support, love and care I know i can count on my parents to provide me with in life. When everything fails me, they are the only ones standing to protect me. Not even once they complain about their hardship and all these years, let me have the luxury of going overseas to study, to go traveling -- all by being stringent on their own spending.

All they want is to raise my sister and I to become hardworking, dedicated, happy girls who go on to build our own close-knit and joyful family. They never pressurized us to become who we are not, encourage us to chase after our own dreams, and just hope that we will complete each stage of life in a fulfilled, happy way.

My dad tells us all the time : "As long as your mother, you and your sister are happy, i'm happy".That's the way life should be lived, people. Learn from my daddy, whose life goal mission is to provide a great, healthy and safe shelter for us.

Take responsibility as a life goal to be achieved, and you'll never feel burdened.