Kiam Chye Soup

This was what mom cooked for lunch on the first day of the Chinese New Year. It is a pork bone soup stock with one pig hock (front) and 2 pig tails, meat balls, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, brocolli, young corn, salted mustard greens, pickled plums, assam gelugor pieces. It is a soup which is slightly salty, sour and yummy. You can have it on its own or with rice. It was a huge pot of soup and you can store it for days. It gets even more delicious after that.

Dragon Paper Cutting

This is now hanging on mom's front door. Bought this from the local supermarket a couple of weeks back. Now we have them in plastic cut outs and decal stickers but nothing like the authentic paper cutting. This year I did not have time to buy plants except for one stalk of the lucky bamboo.

Mountain of Pork

Turn away now, raw meat ahead. . . .

We were at the local market on the eve of the last market day before the Chinese New Year and this was the amount of meat being prepared for sale. In the old, old days, it was only at Chinese New Year that we feasted on meat and wore new clothes and so the tradition lives on. 

Flower Medallions Set 2

That was Set 1, this is Set 2. Set 1 was tatted in Lizbeth Size 40 threads in #635 Violet Pink Dark and #157 Raspberry Frappe.

Set 2 is tatted in Lizbeth Size 40 #145 Pink Parade and #157 Raspberry Frappe. Fox asked why the picots looked different. Well, these flower medallions have not been blocked.

Also some medallions look larger than others. It could be the colours playing a trick on the eye or my tension is just off. No worries, we are all imperfect!

Anne Bruvold's Chinese Dragon

In all, I tatted 3 Chinese dragons from Anne's pattern which can be found here.

Dragon #1 was posted a few days ago and was tatted in Lizbeth Size 40 #147 Red Burst and I used a Swarovski crystal for the sun.
 

Dragon #2 was used as a Chinese New Year e-card sent to family and friends. This one was tatted in Altin Basak Size 50 - #2328 (red with gold strand) and #2347 (gold with gold strand) for the sun.

Dragon #3 was tatted using Lizbeth Size 20 #611 Gold and Flora Size 20 #244 Charcoal for a black pearl.

They all seem slightly different with its own personality.

Chinese Ink Brush Painting Framed

Remember this from last year? Finally, I had the painting scroll-mounted and framed. I had wanted a bamboo design for the frame but the shop did not have it and for convenience, I had it done by the same person. Not many framers can do Chinese scroll-mounting.
I have kept the painting rolled up for nearly a year and thought it was about time it saw daylight. I wish I had a more well-kept house to show you the rest of it.

If you are interested in getting a painting from Song Qi Xian, you can as he is currently at Vivocity Singapore till mid February 2012. His paintings this time round are more colourful but I still do prefer his bamboos. Drop by and see him paint.

Chinese New Year Cards

I sent some cards to a few people this year. I try to do this every year but sometimes, time just slips by so quickly. Dragon year is normally a fertile year meaning more Chinese babies will be born this year. Read about the dragon in the Chinese zodiac here.

Happy Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Nami's Gold Fish

I joined the dorsal fin at the wrong place. A lot of tie and cut as I did not use the split chain method. I can imagine a lot of fishes in different colours from this pattern. I think I will try to tat this again and add a larger bead for the eye. This one was tatted in Altin Basak Size 50 in gold with gold strand (#2351) and Lizbeth Size 40 #147 Red Burst. Link to Nami's blog for the pattern. Thank you Nami.

Miltoniopsis Orchid

These remind me of pansies but this is actually a Miltoniopsis orchid. It is also called the pansy orchid and it is related to the Oncidiums. I hope I did not mislead you to think that I grew these orchids. I have no green fingers and orchids seems to die on me rather quickly.