Day 97-Fine Foods, Fresh Fruits

Fine Foods, Fresh Fruits

(Also the last instalment of my "Bazaar" scene for this year)

This last stall had been 90% done for the longest time, shortly after I returned from my Bangkok trip in August with the fruits, in fact. Even now with the cats, it is a work in progress.

I have decided this shall be a family store run by 2 relatives,
one selling fresh fruits and vegetables

and the other fine foods, like the best beans, lentils and rice you can find

Unlike their more popular neighbours, Rolla and Ro and Tallulah, the patronage at this stall is of a different breed, not so illustrious but no less welcomed.

This is a family who love cats and pedigree cats, mind you. Alas, the family's love for the feline has outweighed their business cents (sic). Clear to all but themselves, there is a severe lack of paying customers at this stall and here is a close up of why:

Now, will you even walk into a stall where the signage are cats prowling and sniffing your produce, right at the shopfront?

So what if you provide extra services like grinding and pounding seeds into powder if you allow Bengal fur to be in the mixture .

Who cares if you own the loveliest pair of Persians in love

when your tom cats don't behave?

And when you finally have a customer, will she be more interested in your cat spilling the beans than the beans themselves?

There is no wonder why it is another bad day at the stall

when your fruits are bruised by your kitty stuck in a basket

or your pet is the one sampling the cut kiwis instead of a customer.

OR maybe we are getting it all wrong.

Maybe when you are a cat lover, like our Family

you play, live and work how you like

"like owner, like cat," they say,

Carefree, CareLess and Cashless.

I have been having trouble naming the store until now. I think I shall call it "Feline Family Fine Foods & Fresh Fruits" unless someone else has a better idea. Helene perhaps?

Postscript: In planning my trip to India early this year, I bought a guidebook called "Nelle's Guide, Northern India" (1990 1st Edition) for S$2. It turned out to be a gem not for its tour tips which are almost 2 decades too old, but for this beautifully written extract on Chandni Chowk and my inspiration for my Bazaar:

Chandni Chowk pierces into the very heart of Delhi. This largest trading center in north India was once a quiet road , shaded by Banyans, with a canal flowing along the entire length . Jahaara, Shah Jahan's daughter, had a square built on this road and in its center a pool fed by the canal. On a clear night the water reflected the light of the moon: so it came to be known as Chandni Chowk, the moonlit square. The nobility built mansions here, shops sprang up along the street, and Chandni Chowk became the most fashionable place in the empire. Emma Roberts , an Englishwoman, recorded in her diary that the streets often echoed with the shrill roar of many caged cheetahs being hawked and hooded hunting leopards. The title of great men were shouted by their followers. There were Persian cats and greyhounds for sale while the trumpeting of elephants mingled with the sounds of cartwheels and itinerant musicians....

Apart from my palace, this Bazaar is the other dream scene I really want to create. But as you can see, the display for each stall is so big that I fear I may not be able to execute this without losing some furniture, like a dining room table. I have built the 3 stalls inside out, interior and no exterior, and each stall already measures at least 32" long and 19" wide. I hope to build the facade of the Bazaar and a street scene with howdahs, roaring cheetahs . There's also Chandni Chowk's legendary perfume store and of course, the ubiquitous tea shop.

This Saturday, there will be a party for 20 kids at my house. It's Tasha's 9th birthday and I will have to shift the "Bazaar" away from the dining table and to the guest room. Good luck to me!

Day 97- Catwalk

The weekend after the witches left, I did something I have never done. I painted. It was really more out of necessity than inspiration.

In the last month when I wan't exactly in my "creative high" , I had done the unthinkable and let my nieces and nephew fiddled with some of my minis. There was in particular an incomplete scene (90% done) I let them play with. Maybe they can inspire me, I thought. And true enough, they did.

My 7 year old niece, Qesha had scattered cats in that scene (coming soon). I love it so much I decided to steal her idea.

These were the cats:

Under better lights:

They came from a S$3.00 packet of a dozen. And yes, there were green cats , in 3 different shades, as if that was their most natural colours. One even had a yellow face. I needed skinny, hungry cats, not sick ones.

So I took out my encyclopaedia, some 10 year old poster colours that were hardened already (luckily they came in bottles and not tubes) and started working on the cats.

I had earlier consulted with Rosanna who advised that I should use a primer before painting. I also did some research on painting plastic and found out that you should :

1st, sand the plastic - check
then 2 coats of plastic primer- Only had wood primer and 1 coat only
Use acrylic paint- Poster colours
Finally, varnish to seal colour-check

The madeover cats took forever to dry and some never did! In any case, these are my skinny, scruffy prized cats:

Before: The Orange & White Cat (pic above)
After: My dead Burmese, Khomeni Puntip
(disappeared 4 years ago, it was our most beautiful cat.)


Before: Mr Yellow Face
After: A Lilac Burmese

Before : Lime Green Puss
After : A Turkish Van

Before: Mr. Khaki
After: A Thai Korat

Before: A Black Stalker (1st pic)
After: A Black Bombay


Before: The Cat in front (2nd Pic)
After: A Singapura


Before: Lemon Brown Cat
After: A Burmese with whiskers

Before: The 3rd Green Cat
After: A Striped Bengal


Finally,
Before: Cat In Zebra Skin
After: A Prized Pariah

If there is such a thing as shabby cats, mine qualify I am sure. Its very strange ,but after I am done with them, they are no longer just plastic cats. They became my babies, as if I have made them. Is that how painters feel after they are finished with each canvas? Even the ones that are no good?

Maybe it's only the bad "artists" who feel this way and can't bear to junk their work.

Day 96-Friendship & Fragrance

A heart is like a bottle of perfume
If you do not open it,

The world will not know its fragrance
---A Corny SMS Love Message

These perfume bottles were part of a parcel I received from Helene on 23 Sept 2009. I have admired and love Helene's creations since I met her in blogland and I have told her so , many times. She does not make many but when she does and shows them on her blog, I am always a little surprised at how good she really is and wonder why she does not make more . You will see what I mean when you look at the close up of her creations.

Flanell No. 6 is the No.1 seller of Cocco Flanell, a very talented designer in Paris. Now tell me, does it look like it is only 5/8" high? If I tell you this is a life-size knock off from India, will you believe me?

When I first saw her creations in Nora's bathroom, I emailed Helene and told her that I would eventually copy her crystal range (which I mistook for silver in her pic) because they really reminded me of vintage perfume bottles of India.

Not only did Helene make me the "crystal range", she gave me these beautiful silver ones as well. I call them my "silver holders" which I will eventually use to hold some ingredients needed to make perfume.

Here is the "vintage" range which are made from beads that do not blind you with their shine. I really love them. The littlest one on the left is barely 1/2" with the top. If only I have kept my mother's nail polish (she has immaculately painted nails which impressed even her very geeky heart doctor) from when I was 5 years old, I would be able to take the "Big & Small" pictures that miniaturists love.

If I have to pick a favourite though (at knife point), I will have to reluctantly choose the one with the speckled bottom which with the other 2 shown in the picture, will form part of my "quaint range", the vials for fragrance with a tinge of magic.

So dear Helene, thank you for your lovely gifts
and as Snoopy says to Woodstock
"thanks for being my friend."

Day 96 & A Moon-Kreativ Dreams

"YIKES!" by Kiva Atkinson

In a bid to rescue me from my stupor in the accursed moon I was "bewitched", some of my blogger friends threw me lifelines back to blog land.

Ironically, my 1st ones came from another witch, Tessie from Spiderwort Manor who gave me not one but two awards, the Kreativ Blogger Award and the Blog and A Dream Award. How apt, I thought. Wake up! Dreams' Over. I can just hear Tessie screeching over my head with her dragon. Then there's the darling and ever talented Jean Day (who herself had been recalled with the same award) and sweet Roberta, who despite the foreign language, struggles through my long posts of nightmares. Of course, there is also my dear dear friend, Rosanna and then Kiva, who gave this award to my other blog with an impossible long name. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

I love awards but not always the rules. So no rules today, just a celebration. Tonight, I want to celebrate the wonderful worlds of Kiva, Eva, Ara and Rosanna, who are also the miniaturists and the recipients of both the awards from me. I picked them not because their names rhyme, but because their work fulfil both the creative and dreamlike elements of both the awards.

So here they are, the incredible Kiva, Eva, Ara and Rosanna and the 7 THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW and which I have made up about them:

"The Poisoner In The Box"-Kiva Atkinson

No.1 - It is clear from her miniatures that Kiva has been making minis for a loooooooong time (that's why she is soooooooo good). In fact, I understand it was since Obama was a teenager running in a tank top around her neighbourhood. This explains Kiva's penchant for tank tops and why she's never made her minis without them.

"Root People At Play"-Kiva Atkinson

"Mr Witchy Tree For a Bookcase"- Eva Perendreu Mata
(pic fresh off the press!)

"Pumpkin Man"- Ara Bentley

"Pumpkin Man T-Cosy" -Rosanna Rolla

No.2 - Our girls often make images of men in vegetation. They in fact believe that the 1st human beings are plants and not amoebas. They therefore do not eat vegetables.

"Fairies' Picnic"- Eva Perendreu Mata

No.3 -So strict a non-non vegan is Eva that she absolutely does not depict vegetables as food in her mini picnics.

"Addams Family Picnic" -Rosanna Rolla

No. 4 And where Rosanna's work is concerned, the ideal picnic scene should be one without food so that noone will be distracted from her beautiful embroidery.

"Octopus In A Bucket"- Kiva Atkinson

"Aristotle The Octopus In An Organ"- Ara Bentley

No.5 No guessing what Kiva and Ara's favourite seafood is and how they like it prepared.

"A Tudor Boar's Head"-Kiva Atkinson

No. 6 Kiva is a household name with the Singapore loan sharks. Over here, when you don't pay up, they hang pig's head over your front door as a warning.

No. 7: Our girls never sleep.

Kiva churns out commission work overnight and only perfect ones, make some more for her virtual shop in ebay, updates her website and then blogs and writes 55 posts just in October.

Eva holds a full time job, mothers and then make room boxes after room boxes to give away to hardworking doctors and little girls while posting regularly for her 2 blogs.

Ara drafts plans for houses into the night, have 2 mini mansions in the works, makes complicated minis, runs her photo studio , organises swaps and owns 2 blogs which she updates faithfully.

Rosanna works, washes, cooks, irons, replies to emails, nurses her sick child and still make tens of cushions and tea cosies to give to friends and admirers while building her casa rossa. She also owns 2 blogs and is running a swap for Christmas.

So put your hands together please, for Kiva, Eva, Ara, Rosanna, the wonder girls!

"Thing/Hand-(work in progress)"-Ara Bentley

I am so proud that a bit of their artistry will eventually lie in My Maharajah's Palace and even prouder that they have become my friends.

All pics click through to the website or blog where they are taken. Go and feast your eyes but be prepared for a long and plentiful feast.

Day 96 & A Moon-Up From The Basement-Pt 2

Oh my, Oh my! There should be anger management classes for irate witches because let me tell you, they really over-react!

Mdm K+T was fuming even more as she would be flying to WHC with a huge plaster on her face. I thought it gave her character and when I told her so, she added 2 weeks to my misery.

Yes, I was the one who was punished because lying head first inside the cauldron, she didn't see all the flying around or knew what hit her . She only heard me screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOO".

But, but it was the Tabla! I insisted and pointed to Mdm Golden Messy Hair, hoping she would back me up. She shrugged and looked away.

When I turned to Mdm Red Pink and Awful, she just shook her stick at me, daring me to say anything about them flying away.

And so it was with some mumbo jumbo about toil and tumble that they laid a curse on me.

No more mini making
until our broth is brewing
For YOU with the evil scream,
to the basement, damp and dim
No light, no day, no muse, no play
No blogging, no friends
till our journey to Canada ends!
oh
+ 2 weeks for that plaster comment!

And so my misery began. 1st thing they did was to dump the cauldron on me. "Cinder it", she commanded. Huh? What in the world is "cinder it?" I felt like Cinderella with the evil Sisters. I even broke into a song and birds and mice started scrambling down to the basement to help me.

After much scrambling, these were the ingredients found and properly laid out for the "cinder it":

Firstly, a plastic translucent ball removed from a spent deodorant bottle. This is the part which you used against the armpits. It is very easy to remove. Just a pen knife and a few jiggle and its off. Word of caution: Resist the temptation to smell it for it is pungent.

Then a small plate of bony hands which you will need to colour brown with acrylic paint.

The 3rd ingredient is a bit unusual. They were from the preserve pack that comes with raw fish bought from super market. The packet says "DO NOT CONSUME" and then give some instructions on what to do if you consume it anyway.

Last but not least, a handful of Grade C snakes since Grade A has escaped. Pick 2 with the best colour and worst grimaces.

The steps are fairly straightforward. Paint the cauldron brown. I "dirtied" it using dried tea leaves and coffee powder (glued on cauldron). I then placed the ball inside the cauldron so that all the other ingredients can "float" on the surface. Quite by chance, I found out that the inedible "peas" can be smeared and so with more glue I did that on the side of the cauldron to simulate the bubbling over of a yukky brew. This is my 1st "cinder it" attempt:
I think I would have been able to live with that if I am a boy. I was sharing with Helene on how there is such a thing as "too realistic" and how that is NOT a good thing.

Anyway, I squeezed 2 snakes into the pot, painted the hands and then placed them on the ball and smeared more peas . I also added glue onto the snake to make it seem as if it was dripping in goo broth. Not sure if you can see the hands but there were 3 in the pot, one of them quite smeared.
I then took the pot down to my favourite electric man because I wanted to "build a fire". This was to be the "killer ap" of my piece, the fire effect. Regretfully, Ithe electrical system in Canada was so different that there was no point sending the lights over . This is how you can do it, Karin , with LED lights.

I am proud to say that I have "designed" the light with Mr. Electric because he had never done one before. I told him it must have a "burning" look and the lights must flicker (like Christmas lights) but at slower rate. He told me we would need a controller (see the box with the masking tape?). The "timer" for the flicker was set to dim slow but brighten fast to make it seem more like fire burning. It would have been more realistic if you have more than 1 set of controller (which is very expensive) so that the lights do not go completely off. Nonetheless, this one is quite close. You can see from the picture that there are 5 LED bulbs. The 4 outer ones are orange and the centre one is red. This is the combination that gives you the colour of amber fire.

It was such a coincidence. I saw Mr Electric right in the smack of The Hungry Ghost Month. I remembered how the lady at the shop actually shrunk back when I held out the cauldron to her. She asked me if I was making this for the Hungry Ghosts. That was when I knew I had to modify the cauldron.

Took me weeks before I was satisfied at last . I added dried moss over the peas, and created a smoke effect over the pot with cotton wool. I also scattered transparent beads for vapour, peppered some glitter and the broth actually looked more palatable after that. Logs were glued to the bottom of the pot and I hope they will glow again someday.

The smoke must have gone to my head because I actually gave the girls farewell presents. I fixed their hats with vintage flowers I kept in my stash. They were from some old lady's estate. Helene said they sweetened the ladies up.

Something Old

Something New, Something Borrowed
She had some pink roses at her neck too. Mdm Red Pink & Awful also held in her arms a bouquet of herbs and dried moss and another snake similar to the ingredients in the pot.
Something Blue

These are the last pictures I have of the sisters hovering under the basement of the Emperor's Emporium stewing the perfect poison.

And then just as suddenly as they flew in, the HalloWitches left. And it was almost as if the incident never happened.

Was it a dream? I wondered as I stared at the Emperor's Emporium on Halloween. And as the clock struck 12 and Halloween's finally over, I heaved a sigh of relief. My blogger beeped. Hey! The witches are now safely away in Canada and cursing poor Karin, phew! Sorry Karin but....haha, they are off my back!

Time for bed and as I leaned over to switch off the lights at the tent, I saw a flash of red at its basement.

IT AIN'T OVER, MY FRIEND! IT'S STILL HALLOWEEN IN AMERICA! SO MINIKAT SENDS HER LOVE!

I screamed. For the 2nd time in a moon.

Day 96 & A Moon-Up From The Basement-Pt 1

I HAVE LIVED the last moon in a daze. It was as if someone had brewed a curse, blew the smoke my way and vhooooooom, my muses disappeared and could not return. I was at a creative low, blocked and uninspired, my mind trapped in a dark dingy basement.

The dark, dingy basement of The Emperor's Emporium- THEN

The dark, dingy basement of The Emperor's Emporium- NOW

My memories are not clear (it was a daze, remember?) but I believed it all started the day the HalloWitch Sisters flew in, as early as Early September, right into the"Jai Ho" celebrations of Rolla n Ro (originals only).

In their dull, drab dresses and wind-blown hair, the Sisters stood out like sore thumbs at our fashionable Bazaar. But the Bazaar was the reason why they have flown the many light years. They have heard that this is where you can find the best pot and the best ingredients.

No, no, no, the witches are not junkies. You see, the HalloWitch Sisters are preparing for the 2009 World Horror Convention ("WHC") in Canada on Halloween. A big deal because all the who's who will be there to showcase their latest poison. The WHC is a BYOB (Bring Your Own Brew) P-A-R-T-E-A. The Sisters will NEED the best if they are to stand a chance against the likes of Tessie of Spiderwort Manor or The Addamses of their Mini Mansion or The Ghost of Haunted San Fran.

But 1st thing 1st:

a makeover for our girls so that they could blend in with the chic and trendy Chandni Chowk crowd. Out went the drab and in came the satin and lace, made in the same HalloWitch signature style i.e.:

A conservative neckline for the bodice
with an unmatching but shimmering kerchief at the neck for "drama" effect when flying.
Plain long sleeves with plenty of room for swinging brooms and stirring sticks.
Clashing aprons trimmed with inappropriate black laces along the hem.
No underskirt but a plastic black cone instead,
perfect for sticking the bustle skirt onto with clear scotch tapes so that
the girls don't have their overskirts over their ubiquitous pointy hats when flying in the winds.

The Sisters love their new dresses so much, they never took them off again.

I first spotted them, shaking their bums with their plastic cones showing, at the Rolla's opening acts. It must be just after they have found their claypot/ cauldron (details later). They were standing right at the back and gesticulating excitedly. No one else saw them then despite their garish fashion sense. Well, nothing unusual about the excitement, I thought, everyone was dancing to the music and the performances have gotten better now that Jai has his own Eva's Tabla.

And then, slowly and surreptitiously, I saw Mdm Khaki+Turquoise wriggled and wangled toward the stage. Nothing unusual still, I guess.

She shimmied "seductively" towards Jai..hmmm, well, ok, understandable, which girl wouldn't be attracted to him, right? On hind sight, my alarm bells should have rung then because face-down-flat-on -the -floor was a sure funny way to shimmy.

As if she could read my mind, Mdm Khaki+Turquoise immediately turned around and started to limbo rock! Wow, IMPRESSIVE! Her body was just 1 inch above the floor, completely parallel and levitating(?), heaving towards Jai's feet.

These are the close up shots I took for proof to see if she was indeed levitating or maybe she was just a great limbo rocker:

By the time I realised what she was really up to, like some of you now, the deed was done. Mdm Khaki+Turquoise was using her pointy hat to hook Sissy's basket so that she can steal her!!

And look! The Sisters are stealing away

with their claypot on their head, Indian Style!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO", I screamed! And they promptly dropped their pot!

Note To Audience: If you can, read the next part in slow mo ..

Upon hearing my scream, the Rollas sprung into cinematic action. In the art and magic of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the pair leaped into the air and landed

on the turban of an unsuspecting dancer with Ro still strumming and singing so that the dancing continued and the enjoyment of the crowd went uninterrupted. And while they gracefully leaped and landed and danced through the air towards the HalloWitch Sisters, Jai leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath and threw with one hand (and this one, you must really imagine in slow motion)

the Eva Tabla toward Mdm Khaki+Turquoise

The tabla flew silently,
over the shoulders of the Rollas who were themselves
stepping over the heads of more dancers,
All of them,
zeroing in towards Mdm Khaki+Turquoise

And while the other 2 witches panicked and flew too

Madam was not so lucky.

For Eva's Tabla was right on target
hitting the back of Madam's head

And as you can see,
she has toppled over
right into her very own cauldron,
in complete humiliation and pain.
The bag dropped from her hand
and dear Sissy has escaped.

What a relief !
For this was to be Sissy's fate if our heroes and heroine had not reacted in time:

So round of applause for our brave men and woman please, ladies and gentlemen. I dare say though, and I am sure everyone will agree, that the real hero has to be Eva's Tabla. And that is why till today, it remains Jai's best friend and constant companion.

Now the story has not ended but for now, here is an excerpt of the relevant scene, for those of you who have not seen the Academy Award Winner, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (in case you want to know, Chow Yun Fatt is my all time favourite actor):

Day 95-Palace's 1st Lottery Win

An e-messenger from "Diva Eva" on 4/9/09 brought news of my 1st ever lucky draw win. 10 days later, the wonderful array of finely crafted mini-wares arrived. They are all treasures but I must confess I have my favourites.

I love the sail boat. The little red boat which bore my name "Susan" beautifully handwritten in "miniscript" red . An amazing feat especially as I cannot write legibly.

I love the plate. An unusual decagon-al "antique"china with a "tree of life" decoration. So exquisite I can't bear to put anything on it.

But mostly I love the drum because I know Eva made this specially for my palace project.

It appears that I am not alone in my affection.

Watch out, my dear Maya. I think Eva's Tabla may very well end up as Jai's constant companion. And there is a very good reason why. I will of course reveal the reason when the time is right.

Here's a clue and I am whispering this to you *looking behind to make sure there are no evesdroppers: The reason why I was absent for a month and the reason why I am back has quite a lot to do with Eva's Tabla. I can't wait to tell you all about it.....