Changes through the years

A lot has changed since I started this blog. It used to be a place where I just post whatever that comes to mind (before blogger, I was using Multipy.. anyone remember that?) and then it evolved to more of a craft blog when I discovered card-making in 2008. 

I was also single when this blog started and then I got married and now I have a toddler. I was living in Malaysia and then we moved across the oceans to California, USA. I started Angelicquirk selling handmade crafts and conducted bookbinding workshops and renamed the business to Evelin T Designs in 2013 still selling handmade crafts and conducting bookbinding workshops but I am also providing illustration/designing + calligraphy services and designing digital stamps.

The only thing constant in life is CHANGE and no matter what we do, change will happen. I guess it is how we will embrace the change. Some changes we love, some changes we don't. Especially those that push us out of our comfort zone but sometimes those are exactly the kind of changes that we need to be better and excel in life. 

Do you agree? What has changed in your life since you started your blog? I would love to know.. please share :)

My Photography 'Corner'

Some of you may know that I currently live in a tiny one bedroom apartment and space is always a constraint. It takes a lot of organizing and 'clever' storage to keep everything in place. 

My craft table doubles (or triple) as well, my crafting area, my photography corner and our dining table. And so far, that's how it's working for us... well, until we move to a bigger apartment (soon! *fingers crossed*)

This is how I stage my photo-taking. Behind me is Ryan's play area.. haha.. and I have to squat in that small area to take my pictures, which is fine and having to clear the table constantly is a good thing for me too. I do try to clear my table after I use it each time anyway :)

See how I just prop up the patterned paper as the background. I change my 'background' to suit the cards I make. I try to use colors that will make the cards stand out and so far this has worked out well for me.

I usually use Photoshop to tweak the exposure, brightness, vibrance and color balance after I take my pictures because we don't have much natural light flowing into my space. The next place we move to, big windows is one of our requirements.. haha.

Hope you enjoyed this little sharing and little peek into my apartment :)

Overnight Oats

I've been seeing so many pictures and articles of overnight oats recently that I decided to try making some too. I googled some recipes and they seem pretty easy to make.

They are so delicious and healthy, even my hubby enjoys it.. yum yum!

Go ahead and google some recipes to try! 

Project Life : Week 14

Just sharing another week that I did for Project Life. I really simplified it a lot, preferring to journal more and keep embellishments to a minimum. 

Am still figuring out how to photograph them clearer. I tried taking them out from the pockets but maybe the lighting was still not bright enough or my hands were not steady enough but these still don't look very sharp to me.

Week 14 Part 1

Week 14 Part 2

Using a cork shaped embellishment that I cut out. I love how it's subtle and yet gives dimension to the page.

Will continue to find ways to take sharper, clearer Project Life images. Do share tips if you have any. I will appreciate it heaps!

Happy Totoro Mail

Everyone loves a happy mail, right? I know I do. I love checking the mailbox to see if there's any happy mail (even if I know there isn't going to be any.. haha). I guess this stems from days when I was actively writing pen pal letters and post crossing.

And I do love Totoro. For those who don't know who or what Totoro is... well, he is a mythical creature or "keeper of the forest" created by Hayao Miyazaki in his film "My Neighbour Totoro". I find the movie endearing and Totoro found a place in my heart since I first watched it more than 10 years ago.

When my dearest IG friend told me she was going to Japan, I asked if she could help find me a totoro keychain and she was really sweet to hunt it down for me. I was so happy anticipating my happy Totoro mail and am so glad to hold him in my hands :)

* Thanks, Sam! *

Totoro found a place on my pencil case. It holds a lot of my favorite stationeries.

I love you, Totoro!

What kind of happy mail makes your day? Do drop a comment and share it with me. I would love to know.

Banana Blueberry Honey Yogurt Muffins... yum!

The first time we had a banana blueberry honey yogurt muffin was at Starbucks. I thought that was a healthy choice for a toddler to munch on while we waited for Daddy to have a discussion. Ryan loves the muffin and ate a lot of it (I love it too, although I only got to eat some of it...)

Do I look cute?

Big bite! 

So when we got home, I set out to search for a recipe that could give me kind of muffins I had at Starbucks... you know, moist and delicious? I baked muffins following some recipes that had really good ratings before but they didn't turn out moist and was a little hard so I was hoping this time I would get lucky.

I found a recipe for The Awesome-est Blueberry Yogurt Muffins on The Pioneer Woman's blog which was the closest to what I wanted and decided to try it. 

First attempt was...... not very good. I think maybe I used Greek Yogurt which was not as watery as normal yogurt and maybe my oven is too hot because my muffins came out a bit hard even though I added almond milk to water down the batter a little.

Today, I decided to try the recipe again and I tweaked the recipe even more and it was a SUCCESS! The muffins came out so moist, just like what I had in Starbucks (imagine a huge smile on my face!)

They look so good, the color and the texture...

I love the golden brown color on the crust

It's really very moist (& delicious)

Ryan approves of the muffin. He already finished his dinner when the muffins came out of the oven but after he tried a little, he kept asking me for more. I think he finished almost the whole muffin (pictured above).

So, here's my version of the recipe I found on The Pioneer Woman's Blog.

Banana Blueberry Honey Yogurt Muffins

3 cups minus 2 tablespoons multipurpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon baking powder

A pinch of salt (I only used a little as these are mainly for Ryan)

1 cup organic brown sugar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 

1 egg

2 cups organic Greek yogurt

3 cups blueberries

2 bananas (sliced)

1/3 cup honey

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

- In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

- In another bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, egg, yogurt and honey. Add the dry ingredients and stir (I added one cup of the dry ingredients at a time, stir until mixed and then repeat until the dry ingredients are all used up). 

- Add blueberries (reserving 1/2 cup) and bananas to the mixture and mix well.

- Add mixture to muffin cups (I use silicone cups from Ikea). 

- Sprinkle remaining berries and press down lightly. Sprinkle some brown sugar over the top to add some crunch to the crust.

- Bake 20-25 minutes, and allow to cool completely (I baked for 22 minutes, then turned off the oven and kept the muffins inside for another 5 minutes before taking it out).

If you do try out the recipe, let me know how you like it :)

Enjoy!

Project Life : Week 13

Keeping up with Project Life can be challenging sometimes but I do put in a couple of days every fortnight to edit, print and complete a week or two worth of our life in the year.

Week 13 is the week my lil' man turned 1 and that is just amazing. I cannot imagine where the time went! It was an incredible year for all 3 of us, a lot of adjusting, getting to know you and lots of love.

 I like to keep my cards fairly simple but still embellished. 

As you can see, I focus more on journalling :)

Do you Project Life as well? What motivates you and what slows you down when keeping up to date with your pages?

Share your thoughts! I would love to hear from you.

Being a Dreamer

I am a daydreamer for most part. I believe this trait may have developed from my childhood when I read voraciously. My mum used to subscribe to Reader's Digest (back when the digest was much thicker & with more content) and when I was 8 or 9 years old, I look forward to reading "Laughter is the Best Medicine". I read the jokes first and then a story or two.

Gradually, I read more of the Digest. They were less 'boring' to me as I grew up. I read a lot of other story books too, to the point where my teacher came up to me and asks me if I studied at all (I was getting good grades.. why she asked me that is another story all together. A good one too). My mum never asks me to stop reading. I scored 6As and 1B for my PMR (Lower Secondary Assessment) which was not perfect but at least I got to read books other than my text books.

So, I dream... my imagination was vivid. I loved to go on adventures with the Famous Five, go away to the Faraway Tree, disappear from our world and into the world I was reading. One day, I am exploring island, another I am in Victorian England or some other imaginary place. It is magical.

But I digress... I set out not to write about how much I loved reading (a habit I should get back into) but about being a dreamer. About dreaming of the various projects I wanted to undertake. And about one particular dream that is coming to light.

I will share more about my dream that is materializing in my next post on June 3rd.

It is just so amazing, the things that happens when we set out to pursue our dreams. It started out as a thought, and then it stayed a thought for quite a while before I decided to act on it. And wonderful things happen when we decide to act on our dreams..... It seems the universe really does wants to help make our dreams come true :)

And while you wait to find out what I am keeping secret for now, you can always pop over to my shop for a gander :)

Cork Embellishments

Before I started Project Life in 2013, I was just starting to get into scrapbooking. I wanted to preserve memories and I love how beautifully scrapbooking makes that. However, I wanted to remember daily bits and pieces too and Project Life made that so much easier :) I would still scrap big events but for our everyday life, I prefer the Project Life method.

And because of that, I am always on the lookout for embellishments that I could use to jazz up the little 3x4 or 4x6 cards. Embellishments that are pretty and yet does not add too much bulk (else it wouldn't fit in the pockets.. haha).

So when I saw that Studio Calico was selling these DCWV cork sheets, I knew I wanted to make some cork shapes for my Project Life pages. I bought my supplies and then I procrastinated (that and I needed new scissors. My old cutter bee basically destroyed my first batch of cork shapes).

I use Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI's vintage cream and Hero Art's Fresh Peach. You've got to wait a a little for the ink to set before handling them (else you get inky fingers... like me). Alternatively, you could heat dry them with heat gun. I want to try embossing them. I think that would be pretty too.

And you would need very sharp scissors to cut these babies. I used my old cutter bee and it was a disaster. The shapes frayed and turned out really badly. These were all cut after I bought a new pair of cutter bee.. So, do take note of that.

If you like any of these and don't have the time to make them, you could custom request and I will make and list them in my shop for you to purchase.

A Brand New Start

I have been blogging at this space for quite some time now and what started as a personal blog evolved into a crafting blog where I shared my handmade cards, scrapbook layouts, mini albums, Project Life, book binding and well, just about everything crafty.

And as much as I loved what I was doing, I have come to a place where I want this blog to be more structured. Yes, it is still going to be a space where I share my love for crafting with the world but I am also going to be sharing a bit more about other things, for example, food we've tried and loved, recipes, places we visited and maybe a new hobby or crafty things to explore. It's going to be predominantly about crafts & illustrations with a side dose of personal touches. And of course, it's also going to feature my illustrations and artwork that is available in my shop.

My illustration of our cat & Ryan

Come by and visit me often. I promise to work hard at taking better pictures, illustrating more and sharing them with you :) I will also offer free printables and tutorials. It's going to be fun!