I’m taking a break from now on and will also be spending some time in Japan.

I wish you all a Christ-centred Christmas and a meaningful 2010. Thanks for your company this year, it means a lot to me! Jotting will resume mid-January. Take care and see you all soon!

An awesome Christmas tree cut out from a Amazon.com carton box.

Last year when I came across the Kikki.K store, I quickly bookmarked it under my “shop finds” folder, lest I forget. Fast-forward to early this month after a dental appointment, I was out window shopping in one of the newest malls in town, Ion. Can you imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I saw a kikki.K shop in front of me as I emerged from the subway station!? Though I wasn’t sure about the number of “k”s in its name but I was pretty certain this was it. Perhaps it’s the distinctive Scandic flair that made it easier to recognise. kikki.K’s founder, Kristina “Kikki” Karlsson was born in Sweden and resides in Australia. The shop in Singapore is its first outside Australia and New Zealand.

Anyhow it’s great to see a fabulous selection of zakkalicious wares in person. Care to take a peek into the Christmas gift guide booklet?

What if I tell you that as I’m typing this, I suddenly had a flashback that in a 2007 back-to-school swap, I was given a kikki.K pen and pencil?

I admire beautiful packaging and love to collect inspiring ideas. When the time came for me to decide how I should pack orders for the Sunshine bracelets, I went with brown paper bag sealed with a handmade recycled-paper seal (not shown) and to that, I designed a tag-cum-bookmark (with a quotable quote behind) that gets tied up with washi string. I wanted a simple package with some uniqueness.

I made a few knotted brocade brooches which were sold to benefit Project Sunshine as well.

In the meanwhile, thanks for taking part in the giveaway. I’ll be sending set A to MandaPanda and set B to JaimeM.

Inspired by clothes pegs, IQlip by Kokuyo turns clipping into an interesting and crafty exploration.

I bought this pretty card in Tokyo earlier this year because of its *rotatability*.

Soon I’ll be handing it to a special someone who will win this as part of my Yuletide giveaway.

There’s still time for you to join in.

Here are this year’s complimentary Christmas wrappers from 2 department stores — Takashimaya (left) and Metro (right). I bought some stuff from both stores and collected them free (after showing my receipts at the gift wrap counters). I’ve been happily using them interchangeably to wrap Christmas gifts and to make bows.

To create some visual interest, I occasionally combined the wrappers with last year’s leftovers and blended in some funky lime to synergize the bow mix.

To make the bows, I followed (and at times combined) the steps at Stamping with April and Craftster.

It gives me great pleasure as a button lover to present you these extraordinary titanium buttons! The onyx backing is the metal titanium that has been made to merge seamlessly with a woody front. Simply magnificent! As you can see, it’s no easy feat to produce them, particularly because of their flat moulded shanks, hence they are rare and costly to manufacture in Japan. Understandably the use of titanium is favoured for other purposes (e.g. roofing) than for buttons.

I’ve managed to snatch some leftovers from someone’s order and thought they will look charming strung, so here they are…as a bracelet, alternating with a sweet bloom. This ooak bracelet is available for sale!

Well, if you like to purchase buttons only, please drop me a mail with the quantity you want (of not more than 5 though). I’ll give you a quote. Each piece measures 1.65 (.65″) x 1.65cm (.65″) x .5cm (.19″).

I’ve been thinking a lot about a giveaway and finally decided what zakka goodies to share with you. I divided them into 2 sets and both will be given away to 2 persons. Choose either set A or B then leave a comment with your email on this post.

Closing date is 18th Dec. Results will be posted on the 21st. Please feel free to talk about it.

Also, from now till Sunday 13th Dec, for any purchase of a Sunshine bracelet you’ll receive a set of matroshyka page markers as a thank-you gift. Designs may vary from the one pictured below but guaranteed kawaii.