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Craft Materials Shopping @ Taiwan

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Finally, I have the fabrics unpacked from my luggage, arranged and photographed. It has been 2 months since my shopping and vacation trip to Taiwan. I touched down at Taiwan with 20kg (44 lbs) check-in luggage and returned with 60kg (132 lbs). Out of the 40kg extra, majority of them are the craft materials I bought there, food came next followed by books and souvenirs.

Due to Taiwan’s geographical location and with the influential of Japanese culture, you may find that their craft style are towards kawaii. If you have plans to visit Taiwan, do spare a day or 2 to shop for some craft materials. Besides, Taiwan is also famous for it’s food, not sure which shop to eat? Easy, get into the shops with the most customers and you won’t be wrong.

The following are the places I would like to share with you where I bought my craft materials and books from.

Yong Le Market (永樂市場) – Map
The biggest textile market in Taipei, located at DiHua Street (迪化街), Taipei. It is a real fabric shopping heaven with nearly thousand of fabric shops in this area!!! Most shops closed on Sunday.

You will find lots of shops selling all kinds of fabrics and sewing notions, from quilting cotton, canvas, to upholstery and pile fabrics at 1st floor and 2nd floor of the market and the shops surrounding it. If you shop from door to door, you would need to spend at least 2 days here. Due to limited time allowed, I managed to do a quick shopping in a few shops within 1 day.

Look at the fabrics inside the market, note that this is only half the aisle along side and there are a few aisle in each floor. It is like a maze inside the market, all you got to see are fabrics everywhere. I lost myself in the market and can’t find the right entrance I came in when I am about to leave. If I wasn’t considering about the maximum weight I can carry for my check-in luggage and the maximum quantity I can hand-carry back without customs taxes and duties, I could have bought tons of them back…. how I wish I live next to this lovely market.

Besides those commonly found fabrics, there are also some shops selling pile fabrics, from microfiber and fleece, to faux leather and faux fur. You are to be amazed by the varieties of fabrics found here. Again, if it wasn’t the weight, I could have brought back a lot.

In fact, I went to this area twice, in the morning, my daughter and I went back to the hotel with 2 full bags of fabrics which my daughter helped to carry a lighter one. We took a brief lunch and went to Bear Mama (the second last photo from the bottom) for the second trip to this area. After buying a big bag of yarns (not in the photos above) and some purse accessories from Bear Mama,we walked back to the market and shop again.

To view the fabrics I bought, go to page 2, 3 & 4.

Bear Mama (小熊媽媽DIY) – also available Online, in Chinese only
Many of you wonder where I bought my purse making notion, like frame, handles, locks, metal zippers with cute pull etc…. This is one of the shops I bought some of them from. The shop is just a walking distance from Yong Le Market.

To view the items I bought, go to page 5.

Eslite (誠品) bookstore
After a long day of shopping and lugging a few bags of nice fabrics back to the hotel, my daughter and I decided to spend a quite and relax evening at a book store off Zhong Xiao East Road (忠孝東路) near our hotel.

As usual, the first place I would go to is the craft book section. Most of the craft books are in Chinese and Japanese, and the choices are simply profusion. I bought a few craft books for inspirations and hope to share some of the ideas one day.

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Craft Materials - My recent shopping trip to Singapore

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Now, I need you to tell me which segment in the shopping guide you would like to know more. Please cast a vote in the following poll form, multiple selection is allowed, so click which ever interest you.
 
The poll will be closed on 31 December 2011.
 
Thanks for your vote and soon you will see more on the shopping guide.
 
The above photos are the craft materials I bought from Singapore during my recent shopping trip. I went to only 4 shops to get all these. On my next trip, I will make sure to bring my camera to take some photos for the shop I went.

1. Sportlight at Plaza Singapura (Off Orchard Road)
2. Daiso (Plaza Singapura)
3. Sing Mui Heng (1st Floor People’s Park Center), they have a branch in Kuala Lumpur too.
4. Golden Dragon (2nd Floor People’s Park Center)

My trip was a little too rush to cover everything in Singapore, there are a couple of shops in my list that I haven’t had time to visit, they are:

1. People’s Park Complex (next to People’s Park Center), you will be able to find more fabrics on 2nd Floor.
2. A quilting shop in Tangling Mall

Poll For Craft Materials Shopping Guide. Please vote which segments you are interested. [select all applicable]]

Fabrics

Notions & Accessories

Yarns

Tools & Equipment

Online shops

Physical Shops

View resultsVote Now

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

Fabrics0%

Notions & Accessories0%

Yarns0%

Tools & Equipment0%

Online shops0%

Physical Shops0%

Other: (Please specify)0%

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

[Update 10 Oct 2011 - winner's names]
The winners are:
1. Teri Riordan via Facebook (comment # 26)
2. Royce (comment # 197)
3. Maddy Pierson Via Facebook (comment # 432)
4. Lisa Griswold (comment # 154)
5. Debra Rodkey Lee via Facebook (comment # 241)
6. Kenny Lim (comment # 104)
7. Pat V. (comment # 434)
8. Hanne (comment # 424)

To check if you are the winner, just go back to the giveaway post, the number beside your comment is the number I used to pick the winner in the random way.

Thanks for the gorgeous 443 comments in the giveaway, I really caught by surprise and I wish I have more kits to giveaway…. I will know what to do next time when I have similar giveaway. Thank you for participating in the giveaway…. THANK YOU!!!

I will contact the winners now to get the mailing details so that I can send out the kit as soon as possible. If you are the winner and don’t hear from me within 24 hours, please contact me, sometimes my email will get into your junk mailbox. Or, write on the wall of Craft Passion Facebook Page to inform me.

[Winners, please reply me with your valid mailing address by 12 October 2011.]

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Traditional Cellophane / Glass Paper Lantern

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Handmade Cellophane / Glass Paper Lantern is a sunset industry due to the tediousness and the skill needed to produce it. Not many youngsters are interested to learn and inherit the skill because it can’t make them a living. If I am able to find this special cellophane again, I will make a tutorial to show you how to make a traditional cellophane lantern.

Do you remember the Pagoda lantern I made 2 years ago… gosh!!! Can’t believe that it has been 2 years!!! I am still using it on every Mooncake Festival. Browse through the above album and you will find some creative lanterns I found in my local town ship.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!!!

Red Round Lantern hanging high up by the roadside

I was overjoyed and thought that I should take some photos to show & tell. So…. here are the steps on how the ice cream potong is served the traditional way.

Hubby and I each ordered one and we both chose red azuki bean flavor.

The “uncle” took out a block of ice cream wrapped with plastic from the insulated tank. Cut it into a few pieces of rectangular shaped ice cream potong (by the way, “potong” means cut in Malay).

He inserted the wooden skewer into the ice cream potong. He told us that his fingers were crooked due to everyday’s “ice poking” and not many people can stand the pain. {Think}… it is like poking skewer into the stone hard popsicle, may be just a little softer than ice cube.

Peel off the plastic wrapper and serve before it melts in the warm weather here.

The yellow color ice cream potong is sweet corn flavor.

The red azuki bean and my half finish ice cream potong. As sweet as my old time memory, but, I still think that my red azuki bean popsicle recipe has the creamier taste and has more beans in it

It is only RM1.00 each (about US$0.36), and you should known the reason why……

Coming up next…… Chinese traditional cellophane lantern.

[Canon EOS 60D 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD and 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS UD Standard Zoom Lens (See all Digital SLRs)]

Love, love, love my new Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera, my birthday present I bought for myself… a great gift for me after being working hard for so long!!! Also a gift for you because you will get to see more beautiful photos for the coming tutorials . Plus this camera comes with HD video recording… I supposed video tutorial should be great for certain crafts if it won’t take up too long for displaying HD video across the net.

I have been saving to upgrade my camera from entry level to semi-pro since end of last year. Why Canon, and not Nikon, or Olympus or other brands? I bought my first Canon DSLR 2 years ago, and I am so used to the Canon menu functions & software, my choice will go back to Canon for the next level. Not only that I can use back the lens and accessories, I spend lesser time to learn and get use to this new image catcher (I would rather spend the learning time to do more crafts).

I am not a professional camera reviewer nor am I a professional photographer, I can’t compare / review camera by their specifications and functions. I chose it because I need it, I know it works for me and takes care of my pocket. Why EOS 60D and not 600D, 7D or 5D or 1D or older version 550D? Well, I can’t afford 7D, 5D and 1D, they are meant for professional or photo enthusiast or whom has deeper pocket. I streamed down to these 2 models because both of them are the latest models and come with high resolution wide 3.0″ vari-angle LCD monitor. This vari-angle LCD monitor function is very useful when I need to take photos from various angles, especially from floor level and from top level. I can just flip out the LCD monitor and change to live view shooting mode, view via the monitor instead of the view finder to find the angle I want, focus and shoot. I no longer need to lay down on the floor or stand up high on a chair for taking low and top level view, isn’t it great. So, why 60D and not 600D? In fact, I almost wanted to buy 600D since it is cheaper than 60D. But, think twice, 600D is still entry level but higher range with more functions than the basic 1100D, while 60D is semi-professional level. I wanted a semi-pro camera in the first place, so 60D is my choice. More over, 60D has all 9 cross-type AF point which is much superior and accurate. Of course, with the price different, there should be more advantages from 60D over 600D.

The Canon f2.5 50mm macro, one of my favorite lenses to use with my new Canon 60D. With it, I can take sharp closed-up photos for the details I have made on the crafts.

[Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens]

Just some examples of my test drive photo shootings. I haven’t tested out the video function at this point, I hope I will do it soon.

f2.5, 1/1000, ISO250 - outdoor

f4.0, 1/60, ISO2500 - indoor

f4.0, 1/60, ISO1600 - indoor

It is not a new post, but I have edited the existing post with the new simplified pattern. There is a close-up photo on the brim section for you to see clearly on the stitches. For those who can also read crochet symbol, I have added a simple pattern diagram for better view and understanding.

Hope to see your yoyo-puff hat soon. Below is the one Ivana made with the original pattern before this edition. I was so touched when Ivana added this beautiful photo of her daughter in Ravelry and I feel so glad that she made it even with my first confusing pattern. The hat fits well on her daughter and the color she used is simply GORGEOUS!!!! Ivana just told me that she will make another one for her younger daughter

Happy Crochet!!!!

To see more of Ivana’s Yoyo Puff Hat photos, click photo to log-in to Ravelry, click project on the pattern page to go to AnnyLu's project.

I just received another photo from Anna Butenka, she made this with a half yoyo puff instead of the full puff to reduce the weight of the hat.

Please feel free to send in yours to craftpassion_@_live.com [remove the _] I will keep them updated here at this moment until I have the community corner set up so that you can share your photo there.

Tammy, please reply my email with your address by 3 July 2011.

I don’t know why Teddie didn’t respond to pick up her prize, may be she is away and has limited access to the internet. Hope that she is safe and sound, enjoying her summer vacation.

Thanks for the recent Amigurumi Lady Bug Girl, Sofia giveaway participations. There are a total of 57 comments left in the giveaway but only 1 lucky winner will take home the Sofia made by Jane. And, the lucky winner is….

**drum roll**

I have sent an email to the lucky winner, please reply me with your valid USA addresses by June 29 2011 (PST). The address will be given to the giveaway sponsor – JennyAndTeddy, she will deliver Sofia to you directly. If your name is in the winner list but didn’t receive my email, please check your spam or junk folder, or please write to me.

Thanks again for the participation! Hope to have more sponsors for the giveaways in future. It is fun, isn’t it!!!

 
I have sent emails to the winners, please reply me with your valid USA addresses by Mar 29 2011 (PST). The addresses will be given to the giveaway sponsor – Downlite, they will deliver the pillows to you directly. If your name is in the winner list but didn’t receive my email, please check your spam or junk folder, or please write to me.
 
Thanks again for participating! Hope to have more sponsors for the giveaways in future.

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This snowman is so cute, and I am going to make something similar soon.

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Well well well… I know I have not been updating my blog for more than a week. I was away with my family to our neighboring country, Singapore, for 5 days. Good excuse for being sluggish during this holiday season huh~ But, I brought back something for you… some Christmas decoration photos that I stumbled upon…. In fact, I snapped a lot, but picked only the best 10 to share here, hope they inspired you in one way or another.

Around this time of the year, many Asians would come to Singapore for the year end holiday. Singapore is one of my favorite countries too, foremost, I love their cleanliness. We spent some good time exploring the country and enjoying the Christmas atmosphere there. They have the best Christmas decoration in South East Asia, and, after Hong Kong in Asia.

Bring my memory back to my good old childhood days…. shopping in Singapore was our family’s year end activity when the currency exchange was so much better. We bought latest and trendy clothes to be wore during Chinese New Year which normally falls on February. My mum would buy her kitchen utensils and my dad bought his electrical appliances. We traveled into the country with half loaded trunk but came out with the vehicle so heavy that the base of the body would knock on the bump when crossing it Staying at my aunt’s house, playing with cousins, having McDonald or A&W for almost every meal, shop till the mall is closed, getting into the automatic car wash system… everything here was so excited in those days!!!! Wish that I could make some pieces of nice memories for my kids to keep too.