Turning old to new

Today, 16 January 2012, I decided to restore my old mirror with all the shells my son collected.  I kept all the shells he collected as I was too 'sentimental' to chuck them out.  Besides, I checked the feng shui book and it looks like I could do with some mirror in the house.  So here is my attempt to turn something old into a new look with recycled material.

My old bathroom mirror

Transformed with shells 

I am quite proud with the final product.  Now I can hang the mirror in the auspicious corner in the house and not worry about selling the mirror in trademe.  

Typical Saturday

Saturday again. I hate Saturday - it's the morning where I wake up without my son.

I was feeling sorry for myself today as I had to turn down an invite to dim sum due to my financial situation. I dragged myself out of bed, make breakfast, turned on my computer for the usual mail and FB routine. There was a mail from a friend challenging me to make a CNY fan. I took the challenge and am quite proud with the result.

I felt perkier and decided to cook a special meal to welcome my son home.

I made up my own 'honey soy tongkwai chicken stuffed with oranges in its cavity' meal and put everything in a slow cooker and treat myself to a home cooked spaghetti alio olio. It was yummy, dosed with extra garlic and improvised with cili padi and continued watching Julie and Julia. It has taken me the whole week to watch it and have yet to finish watching it!

After lunch, I decided to get the right cord to make a mystic knot. So with my paper bag (as I do not know how to describe the cord, I thought I will just show them the handle of a paper bag!), I head out towards the craft shop.

Suddenly, I had a meltdown inside the car.

I felt angry and sad that this is my life.

I wished very ill thoughts towards the ex-husband.

I walked into the craft shop with red puffy eyes and I couldnt care less. However browsing through all the yarns and crafts calms me down. By the time I got to check out, I was OK and was mildly surprised the cord that I was holding has a 50% discount on it. Now, that is something good for my sucky life.

I went home and with determination tried to learn the mystic knot. After many attempts, I have decided to rename it Mysterious Knot! I could not get my head around it. So I settle for something simpler - the Good Luck knot.

Again, quite proud to say I achieve that quite easily and hung the knot to my fan.

Now that I am calmer and awaiting the return of my son, I should say that if my son had not come into my life, which eventually led me to leave my job as an engineer which resulted my husband (now ex) to leave me, I would still be living a 'convenient' life where I could buy everything.

But because I am in this situation, I have learnt survival skills and a 'can do' attitude. I told myself, if someone could do that stuff, I could too. I would have not attempted to knit or bake or do any craft if I was not in this situation. So I guess the saying there is a silver lining is true although I do wish it is more than just a silver lining. (perhaps win Lotto tonight!)

I am now waiting for the return of my son and the smell of my honey soy tongkwai chicken stuffed with orange is so appetising. Off now to prepare cous cous with that nutritious juice.