Some pictures of my stall at the recent Made On The Left Winter Market.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a proper market, I took a break from doing any major markets in 2011…just so I could work on some new art and maybe streamline my range.

Before the market, I was feeling a little out of touch with things…and just a lack of confidence with myself and my art. It didn’t help that I left some art prints and about half of my stock at home! I wanted to kick myself after selling out on products within the first hour! Arrgh! So a word of advise: do not be lazy, do not underestimate your talent. Make and bring more stock than you need. You just never know!

Still, I had a really good time at the market. It was nice meeting old and new stall vendors again. It was also lovely interacting with my customers and observing which products were popular on that day. When you sell online, you don’t really get to observe customer shopping patterns or hear their feedback and comments, these were the things that I missed while being away from markets.

I think more importantly, being in a market environment, filled with so much creative energy and talent, gave me back some confidence and encouragement about my art making. I only hope that my art inspired others to feel the same.

For pictures of the whole market and other stall photos, check out Eeva Margita’s blog post and the Made On The Left Facebook album. Some awesome shots there (and much nicer than my old camera!)

Hello! I have a few new and “small” things to share with you!

My 2013 Little Mo calendars are now available to purchase in my online shop. It features 12 original illustrations of Little Mo and her horoscope star signs. The pocket calendars are printed on thick recycled card stock which makes it really sturdy and there’s a total of 14 colour pages, including front and back cover.

It’s pocket size, and very compact and cute!

And after 3 years in business and only relying on word of mouth from you lovely people, I finally have proper Little Mo business cards!

I don’t even know why it took me so long to get them made! I think when you design business cards, magazines and other business collateral for clients (as part of your day job), the last thing you want to do is design your own business cards. It’s just never good enough! That’s how I feel anyway.

So I got these cards printed at Moo because I liked the idea of having 100 different artworks on each card, and surprisingly it was an easy and quick process. I also love that they are mini in size. If you know me well, I adore anything labeled “little, small, mini or pocket size”. Personally I think anything labeled with that description means twice the charm, fun and cuteness!

So yes, I’ve got proper business cards now…and I feel so professional..hehe

Was mostly spent drinking tea, pottering around in my balcony garden…and a bit of drawing in between. I hope you are all well! xxx

Last month we visited the Chilli Festival for the first time. It was quite a fun affair with rows of stalls selling chilli plants and chilli infused food like chilli sauces, chilli wine and chilli beer.

We bought some spicy condiments and a box of very fresh and hot mixed chillies. In the box were some Bhut Jolokias, Fatalii, Morugas and even the fiery Trinidad Scorpion!

I was really inspired after our day out to make my own chilli jam!

Chilli Jam Recipe (makes 1 jar)

1kg ripe tomatoes
250g caster sugar
6 hot chillies, sliced
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
3 tbs fresh lemon juice
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cranberry sauce
2 tbs fish sauce

Firstly, peel the skins off the tomatoes and chop them up. Place the tomatoes and sugar in a saucepan, cover and leave at room temperature overnight.

Add the rest of the ingredients into the saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat and let it simmer for 1 or 2 hours until the jam thickens. Don’t worry if your jam seems watery in the beginning. As you cook it longer, it will gradually start to get thicker. Adjust the taste and chilli heat to your desire.

Let the jam sit in the saucepan, in a cool spot for 5 minutes before pouring it into a sterilised jar.

This sweet chilli jam makes a lovely spread on sandwiches and crackers, served with cold cuts. Enjoy!

Some snaps from our Sprocket Rocket. I really love this camera. Sometimes I forget how wide the lenses are!

Hay stacks and blue skies in South West Kulin

We spent most of our time filming on this stretch of highway for the Tin Horse Highway documentary.

A picnic at Lake Leschenaultia

Us at Lake Leschenaultia

Late nights at Richard’s gig. He’s on the far right.

Film stock used: Fujicolour Superia 200

Before I start afresh for the new year, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing 2011 with me! Thanks for your continued friendship and your comments on my blog. Also thanks for your support and generosity in my online shop and art making! I’m so blessed!! THANK YOU!

So I thought 2010 was awesome, 2011 was more than awesome!

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary

We went to Europe for our honeymoon…we spent some time with my parents and richard’s family.

I met up with one of my Little Mo customers in Paris! The lovely Nathalie and I ate macarons and sweet parisian treats together.

I became an aunt for the second time to my most adorable nephew. His name is Cameron and his older brother is Tristan

Little Mo and Friends turned 3 and I’m so grateful to all of my customers!

I expanded my Little Mo and Friends collection

I turned 30!! (And had 3 birthday parties, one in Australia and two in Malaysia with my family and friends!)

I opened up two pop-up shops with my friends, it was so fun!

I bought a Diana Mini and crazily enough won a lomography competition and won a new Diana F+ kit!

I had some lovely write ups this year but being in a newspaper was really nice!

I met new friends online and through Instagram (I’m so addicted to this app)

I cooked Spaetzle for the first time on Richard’s 30th birthday

and….I now own a Black Forest Cuckoo Clock!!

So yes, it was a really good year! I think the day after I celebrated my 30th birthday, I told myself I was going to embrace life wholeheartedly, whatever the ups and downs. I will draw and love passionately, I will laugh with my family and friends and I will make more Little Mo goodies! There is also a quote near my desk that says, “Live your life with purpose”…which I will try to remind myself from time to time.

Happy new year everyone, may it be filled with lots of creativity, love and dreams! xoxo

P.S: The thank you cards above is handmade by my friend, Allana. You can get your own vintage fabric cards in her shop.

So I hope your Christmas was magic and blessed with family, friends, love…and good food! On Christmas Eve, Rich and I had a quiet dinner together. We put all our presents under the tree and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate. I think with the excitement of having our first tree this year, we may have got a bit carried away with the presents. Although half of the presents under the tree are for his family too:)

In the evening I prepared steamboat for dinner, we had slices of meat, vegetables, tofu and noodles to simmer and cook in our hot pot broth.

We ate so much! After dinner, we sat by our tree and gave presents to each other. Rich spoiled me with so many gifts! I will have to do a separate blog post on it because it’s just so awesome.

On Christmas Day we went down to his family’s place and we had more food and presents! I’m always amazed at how much effort people put into Christmas over here. Growing up in Asia, Christmas is just like an extra public holiday. It isn’t as festive and merry (although we do decorate the streets with tinsels and lights and occasionally put up the Christmas tree). More often we just have a quiet family dinner and maybe attend Christmas Mass at the local church. We never gave out Christmas presents at home, it just wasn’t a tradition at my house. But I can see how excited people get over here at Christmas time, especially Richard and the boys. I guess to him this is like his family tradition and he’s grown up celebrating Christmas in a loud and merry affair. The wonderful thing about this occasion is that there’s a lot of giving and sharing…and a lot of family and friendship bonding.

Ok, I’m sure by now you’re just itching to see some of the wonderful gifts I got this Christmas

A duck teapot from my sweetest friend Niina. She also gave me a gorgeous vintage casserole dish with a warmer stand (I will share that in my next post).

A gnome painter kit and cutest planter from my lovely friend Allana. Some gnome picture books from Richard.

Another gnome from my father-in-law and a new chili plant. My vegetable corner garden is coming along quite nicely this Summer.

He also gave me a new planter with some tomato plants!

Everything is just so awesome and everyone knows me so well! I always get excited when I receive gardening or kitchen gifts! Thank you so much for celebrating Christmas with me this year!

I really love this time of the year because I get to wrap up pretty presents and indulge in lots of papery goodness! I like collecting paper and usually buy one or two to add to my stash. This year I decided to stick with my DIY theme and make my own wrapping paper.

For my Christmas wrapping project I used a roll of brown paper, a white marker pen (my favourite new pen), twine, doilies, assorted papers and stickers.

It’s pretty obvious I have a special fondness for gnomes so I couldn’t resist drawing some smiley gnomes this year! They don’t look too bad (I think)! Happy wrapping everyone! My illustrated gift tags and stickers are available on my online shop.

Hey mum…the treats have arrived! Vielen dank!

To those who are wondering about the contents in the box, they are German Christmas cookies. Every year my mum spoils us with this stuff!

The brown flat shaped gingerbread is known as Lebkuchen. They are usually rectangular or round in shape, and coated in chocolate or white frosting. They have a sweet and nutty taste and smells like allspice

Lebkuchen is made with honey, flour, sugar, eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, candied orange and lemon peel, marzipan, and spices (cinnamon, ginger, aniseed, cloves, pimento, coriander, cardamom).

My favourite biscuits out of the lot are the Spekulatius. They are thin and crispy with a buttery and allspice taste. The biscuits are formed by traditional hand carved cookie molds. Each biscuit has a beautiful imprint and intricate pattern. They are almost too precious to eat! What are your favourite Christmas treats?

In the beginning of the month we had our first day of summer. It was crazily hot.

I took a detour to the garden aisle at our local shop…

And came back with a tub of purple creeping flowers for our balcony.

Aside from flowers, my gnome family seems to be growing. The latest member being Santa gnome, a gift from Richard’s aunt.

This week rich took the train and picked me up from work.

We met a mermaid…

And watched the sunset together…

And just the other day…while catching the train home a bear sat opposite me! I kid you not!