hit and mix / coastal road by apostrofeee

The Coastal Road from Apostrofeee on 8tracks Radio.

We're sorry for the radio silence the past few months so we're turning on the radio again to make up for it!

(Or was that joke too unfortunate? No? K maybe.) 

This one's part of a collab with one of our dear friends, Erfi of @apostrofeee who has exquisite taste in tunebugs and is our resident driver so this is also in honor of our roadtrips  and for your own roadtrips or yknow, less exciting early morning/late night commutes.

Have a great Thursday!

lion around the city / creatory vol. one

We met our friend Nicole and paid a visit to the cornucopia of creativity and what a sweet sensory overload is was!

The local art space is pregnant with incredibly creative and talented Singaporeans and we can't wait to see what gorgeousness it births into.

Kudos to The Ate Group for pulling this off for the first time ever!

handy dandy / mitty leather wallet

A while back I had my first foray into stitching up leather goods, inspired by the wallet in Walter Mitty. I never worked with leather before and for some reason had figured it would be simple blind stitching but SPOILER ALERT it was not - nonetheless it was heaps of fun! Tried to follow this great tutorial by High on Glue to the letter but improvised some in terms of materials and leather-making tools, or the lack thereof.

Tools used: leather scraps (from handicraft stores in Chinatown, the scraps are cheaper if you can find large enough pieces), stitching awl, pair of scissors, two needles, waxed cotton thread, a lighted candle and a print-out of the pattern you can find at the tutorial link.

First step is to prepare your *tools of voodoo doom (*needles) - attaching a needle at each end of your piece of waxed thread, as according to this tutorial. I used the lighted candle to get wax to stick the thread together after the last step, you can do this as well if you have unwaxed thread or do not keep recreational bee hives you can get beeswax from.

The next steps were to cut your leather pieces according to the template, so you get two separate pieces of leather to form the back and front of the wallet. You will need to mark out the holes along the sides of the wallet so you can stitch the two pieces together. Basically the only tool I had was a stitching awl because I am too beginner to invest in any more, so I overlaid the paper template on the piece of leather once it was cut to the desired shape, and pierced through the template markings to get evenly spaced holes. (Be sure to pierce through with your awl all the way through - if you fumble with the holes using your needles later you can get ugly uneven stitching, as I got in some places.)

If you follow the template, at this point you would have two pieces of leather with holes along the side, and all that is left is to stitch the two pieces together to form your wallet! Next comes the stitching part, which is different from normal stitching because you are working with two needles. This tutorial helped a lot, though I improvised without the stitching pony (by trying to have as steady a hand as possible to hold leather pieces in place) getting even stitches is hard at first try but it gets progressively easier I promise!

If all goes well, you can complete with a knot of the thread (you can very lightly burn the knot to prevent fraying or to flatten it a little but be careful not to burn the leather because it leaves a mark)! I skipped conditioning because I used scrap leather so it was not the biggest investment - you can use thicker ~*premium*~ leather for a more advanced attempt. Leatherwork was loads of fun overall and I'd love to get better, sans burning clumsy thumbs - definitely worth a shot!

Tutorial credits: High on Glue

hit and mix / peppin' steppin'

peppin' steppin' from wafflesandwit on 8tracks Radio.

here's a midweek pickup for everyone to grab onto! with dashes of motown (a big big fan) and flavours all through till the 80s - i've even thrown in a token garnish from our era; all these songs have been carefully chosen to 1. empower your steps with a spicy sriracha bounce, kick and happiness (chilli is great) 2. demonstrate that old songs are still and forever will be relevant. all these are songs so reminscent of growing up - in my household at least - so here you go, have an overflowing spoonful of nostalgia, see how many you recognize and love! and remember, old is gold and nostalgia is not neuralgia (yeah, had to google this one) 

can't touch this - MC Hammer / don't worry be happy - bobby mcferrin /dream lover - bobby darin / girls chase boys - ingrid michaelson / happy days theme song / here comes my baby - cat stevens / i'm a believer - the monkees / in the summertime - mungo jerry / karma chameleon - culture club / lollipop - the chordettes / lonely tear drop - jackie wilson / rubber ball - bobby vee / splish splash - bobby darin / sugar sugar - the archies / these boots are made for walkin' - nancy sinatra

handy dandy / embroidery wall art

Embroidery is one of the most fun DIYs - here is a great project to hang up your riot grrrl pledges or warrior quotes on your wall! You will need cloth (this one in pink checks was from Ikea), an embroidery hoop of any size you'd like and embroidery thread in various colours (from craft stores), and a needle with a large enough eye for your thread.

Be sure to iron your cloth before you pencil-sketch on your phrase. Mine says "Ovaries Before Brovaries" (Knope, 2011). Place the cloth tight in your embroidery hoop. Thread your needle and tie a knot on one end. 

We'll use a split stitch for this embroidery. Basically it means you make your first stitch, then for the next stitch you will push the needle through the center of the stitch you just made (splitting the embroidery thread), before pulling the thread the whole way through. Repeat for subsequent stitches.

 When you run out of thread, tie a tight knot as close to the cloth as possible, and snip off excess thread.

 Finish up by adding any additional details!

You can iron the cloth again it if gets scrunched up as you did the project. Adjust your design so it sits right in the center of the hoop, and tuck in the excess cloth edges into the back of the hoop (you can glue it down with a glue-gun as well). And that's it, your pledge is ready to be hung up any which way you please!

threads / with the girls

We spent girl-talk-time with some of the best we know doing what we love best (eating waffles). These girls are all sorts of lovely and beautiful and different - proof that the ultimate style tip is having the sparkliest personality! Here you have them in various versions of Wear Anything - only the best kinds of clashing prints and colours and gazes. 

hit and mix / let it in

let it in from wafflesandwit on 8tracks Radio

march mix up! just a collection of favourites; gentle and bold, break and mould. enjoy this one!

best day of my life - american authors / emmylou - first aid kit / featherstone - the paper kites / get yourself free - akina adderley & the vintage playboys / the girl - city and colour / ivory road - king charles / little joy - brand new start / prophecy - adam & the amethysts / riptide - vance joy / saturday - adam faucett / sweetness - pearl and the beard / troubles will be gone - the tallest man on earth / we don't eat - james vincent mcmorrow / the wrote and the writ - johnny flynn 

waffle watch / wimbly lu

This waffle watch was one that we were eagerly looking forward to and finally we had the time to pop by courtesy of the university's recess week. We brought along the girls this time - easily our most favourite people, and had sparkly conversations over these babies. 

The waffles were edible sunbeams, golden and radiating warmth from the most wonderful toasted batter. Crispiness levels were exciting, slightly charred (always appetising), but unfortunately not as dense as I hoped. Scoops of frozen creams received mixed reviews - the brownie scoop was literally like frozen brownies, which can never go wrong; the honey cinnamon was velvety and strong on the cinnamon front so you get this sweet spicy cold conglomeration of unique, the salted caramel had an overpowering burnt caramel after taste and there is so much right that can happen with truffle chocolate. Waffles came with syrup and butter, served on beautiful china blue plates added plenty to the gastronomic journey (sucker for packaging), delicate curves keeping the golden syrup and melted ice-cream in a pool for the waffle to soak in. Just by the way, who else eats their waffles in equal portions of ice cream and syrup in perfectly calculated square cuts???!! Y'alls should. That's the only way you keep track of how much you've eaten so you can ration the remainder to make it last, man.

Service was great, friendly and earnest waiters, food reached our table quick and we realised just how much we went trigger happy with our orders. We got coffee - a big nyehhhhhmehehhzzzz no; my mocha tasted like extra sweetened hot chocolate and the cappuccinos were too milky. The jugs of iced ribena were just iced ribena but so rewarding in this relentless heat. We didn't want to split our attention between waffles and their other confectionaries - haven't gotten the hang of this food tasting/blogging yet, obviously. But their cake and treat display looked like a glorified willy wonka's candy store, will definitely be back for more. They also had a red (!!) t-rex (!!!!) in their outside display beside the word "rawr-mantic". Plus points for Jurassic Jokes. Amazing interior, good use of space and cozy just the way it should be. 

Wimbly Lu Chocolates

15 Jalan Riang

Singapore 358987

+65 6289 1489

lu@wimblylu.com

handy dandy / thread charm bracelet

Took a break from the madness of essay writing to make thread bracelets, inspired by the Rugby and Co ones our friends have been sporting. Here is a modified version of a project by Operation Overhaul, tweaked a bit to make it a charm bracelet, too.

You will need to start with a basic charm bracelet - I made it using chains, jump rings and lobster clasps fastened using long-nosed pliers. (You can add more jump rings to make the bracelet adjustable.)

Cut your embroidery thread to four times the length of your chain, and tie it in knots of eight to ten pieces for each colour (depending on the size of your chain links - I used eight pieces for mine), two colours per set.

Here's where my braiding differed from OO's (getting loopy patterns instead of braids). Pull the pink set under the first chain link, then cross the grey set over and into the same chain link.

Repeat for subsequent chain links (pink going under, grey crossing over).

Once you reach the end, tie a neat knot, and cut off excess thread. You could stop here if you wish, the bracelet is completed!

Alternatively, you could add charms onto the chain links - here I added a matryoshka doll to each bracelet using jump rings. And there you have it, a cute twist on traditional friendship bracelets!

threads / checks and balance

We had so much fun taking shots with boys we bribed with the promise of food, and that the both of us turned up in monochrome checks was not the most deliberate but it was the most fun! Checks and tartans are pretty easy to dress up and dress down - here's how we wore this cute basic print for the weekend.

waffle watch / department of caffeine

today was a sunday and we were insistent on waffles for late lunch, which unfortunately meant a 20 minute wait in the approximately 200 degrees sun because this really popular new place was Really Popular. got a queue number, sweated buckets and eventually sought refuge between the shelves at Littered With Books. but when the waiter placed the valrhona chocolate waffle and peanut butter and jelly waffle gloriousness on the table, all was forgiven. we also had a spot of shepherd's pie that was really good, a brownie, elderflower lemonades and ice chocolates all for the price of $(a satisfactory bang for buck). i don't describe food as well as you think i should. you would do better sitting on the other end of this screen if i gave you the food gum that violet beauregarde got to chew and programmed it to taste like newborn unicorn glitter tears which is possibly the closest thing to these waffles. but while we wait for science to catch up, go waffle watching for yourself at department of caffeine!

Department of Caffeine
15 Duxton Road
Singapore 089481
+65 6223 3426
deptofcaffeine@gmail.com

hit and mix / cupid bows, afghan throws

cupid bows, afghan throws from wafflesandwit on 8tracks Radio

When They Fight They Fight - The Generationals / Cupid - Sam Cooke / Treasure - Bruno Mars / You And Me - Penny & The Quarters / Be My Baby - The Ronettes / Triangle - Janie Grant / Dream A Little Dream of Me - The Mamas & Papas / Wonderful World - Sam Cooke

threads / stripes and dots

along Jalan Green in Penang

(ern stop slouching) 

we love us some patterns. there is virtually no way anyone can walk out of the house in stripes or polks and not look deathly cute/or be reminded not to take themselves too seriously. 

you can work your prints from entire apparels to appendages like brooches or ribbons. sometimes the best way to pair a patterned piece is with ANOTHER patterned piece. but if you are of the more conservative camp / wish not to look like a 8-legged washi tape crawlie spun a web on you, try out a dull colour and a stand out patterned cardigan or block colour on monochrome pattern; yin on yang/fire on ice

page turner / ministry of moral panic

Meet an over-the-hill Pop Yé-yé singer with a faulty heart, two conservative middle-aged women holding hands in the Galápagos, and the proprietor of a Laundromat with a penchant for Cantonese songs of heartbreak. Rehash national icons: the truth about racial riot fodder-girl Maria Hertogh living out her days as a chambermaid in Lake Tahoe, a mirage of the Merlion as a ladyboy working Orchard Towers, and a high-stakes fantasy starring the still-suave lead of the 1990s TV hit serial The Unbeatables.

Heartfelt and sexy, the stories of Amanda Lee Koe encompass a skewed world fraught with prestige anxiety, moral relativism, sexual frankness, and the improbable necessity of human connection. Told in strikingly original prose, these are fictions that plough, relentlessly, the possibilities of understanding Singapore and her denizens discursively, off-centre. Ministry of Moral  Panic is an extraordinary debut collection and the introduction of a revelatory new voice.

(X)

we've got this one courtesy of a friend who knows amanda lee koe herself - perks include a note with rabbit in a jester's outfit and an autograph. I've never heard of Amanda prior to Ministry of Moral Panic, so I did some googling and guess what, Amanda is kind of giant (couldn't find an exhaustive page on her achievements) in the creative writing industry. 

Published just in October 2013 and still fresh, #MoMP is an extremely colourful (and sexually raw, I must warn) anthology with references heavily dripping with very localized palattes, eclecticism and quirks - I often found myself excited because I knew where these stories took place, and what they were talking about and that made the stories come to life in a different way - "in equal parts a cashier and a love letter" it's Facebook page accurately describes. I never thought much about local literature because I once studied Daren Shiau's Heartland for my O Levels and it was too seamless and one-dimensional to say the least, I didn't feel my sensibilities being challenged. But fastforward to today post-MoMP, I think I feel a little remorseful for discrediting Shiau. I enjoyed #MoMP because it went beyond what I expected today's Singaporean literature to be, it was honest and unpretentious; though admittedly it was a little difficult for me to get past the parts with um, sex in it (where do I put my eyes what do I do with my face). 

I've heard that Alfian Sa'at gave #MoMP a bad review, and I was itching to get to it while I was about 12 pages in because you know, you kaypo and want to know if the book you're reading is cool, but I'm glad I didn't. And if you're thinking of, or if you've heard of that review, my advice is to read this book and form your own, read this book and give it its due credit; don't let someone else mar your judgement. If anything else, the cover of this book should be enough to captivate and make you want to buy it Just Because - big sucker for packaging in case you couldn't tell. 

Have fun starting this! 

Ministry of Moral Panic

by Amanda Lee Koe

Epigram Books

Available in Kinokuniya and Books Actually 

hit and mix / back to school beats

back to school beats from wafflesandwit on 8tracks Radio.

High School Lover - Cayucas / Fred Astaire - San Cisco / This Charming Man - The Smiths / Honolulu - Last Dinosaurs / Velvet Elvis - Alex Winston / Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes / Lisztomania - Phoenix / On My Way - Passion Pit / That's What's Up - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros / Dreaming - Allo Darlin'

threads / the bowtie and pocket square

nehemiah shows us that bowties and pocket squares (or ah pek handkerchiefs - though i do hope he didn't blow his nose into this $19.90 piece) are not just for the Dress Up Sit Down dinners or socials. this is a two-ingredient way to spiffy up a stale outfit, or to add a Prep(py) In Your Step. go for it guys!

lion around the city / ern's picnic surprise

Sunday was spent at the Marina Barrage for a surprise early birthday celebration for Ern's 22nd. This picnic potluck madness was graced with the Southern Wind (not actually sure which direction it came from - it felt more like a hurricane), endless laughter, beautiful faces, amazing pasta (with chili padi - only the best) and a perfect chocolate crepe cake with daisies sitting atop it that Suhaidah's mother baked. The theme for the afternoon was Whatever Lah Just Colour Block, but as per usual, not everyone stuck with the rules, and even the usually brightly coloured Ern showed up in Syafiqah's favourite colour palette. But no matter because we had the best time, and we all agreed it was a great start to our new semester. 

If you're reading this and starting the new school year as well, we hope you have the sparkly spanking good one!