Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts

Sunday, December 12, 2010

My Old Singer Resurrection Project (Part III)

Oh, bummer!  

I had been lagging in my posts lately, so many things happening around here that almost made my head spin! (but not like Linda Blair in Exorcist III, I assure you).

I edited and republished two of my posts from this blog, entitled 'Our Dear Pets' & 'Buffalo Shower at Mekarsari (Hold the Soap!)' in a Wikinut website. I had to admit that it was quite a new experience - I met  lots of professional writers from all over the world whom I received wonderful insights, useful guides on how to write great articles, and many more. 

one of my published work @ wikinut

And there was also this end of semester exams for my older children, DOUBLE BUMMER ...

Fortunately for me, the kids had all went to sleep, so I got a few hours of my needed peace n' quiet, just perfect for winding down and write. With my ever present mug of hot cappucinno, soft music playing in the background, I let my fingers to dance on the keyboard. What bliss.

The Big Day

At last, Mr. Fixit arrived with my Singer cradled on his motorbike.  Oh, goody, goody!  I couldn't be more happier.  I quickly let him in to reinstall the machine onto its cabinet.  And while working, he showed me the parts which he had replaced at his shop before.  Here they are:

The pineapple gear (don't know which part resembled a pineapple!)

the old 'pineapple' gear

The motor drive belt

old motor drive belt - crumbled at a touch
sturdy new belt

The 20 years old black gear belt (which could have easily snapped on my first attempt to reuse it).

pic of the new gear belt

And finally, just finally, the machine is back to where it belong, back in the house, all 'rejuvenated' and ready to rock n roll!

SWEET!!

Dropped me 'da bomb'! Uh oh.

'Would you like to give it a try, Ma'am?", the guy asked .. [and received a completely blank stare that certainly made me looked so stupid] ...  But then, he must have remembered that I sit at the very bottom of the 'sewing chain', so he quickly whisked a spool of maroon colored thread from his bag pocket and deftly showed me how to do it.  (Pheww, that was awkward!)

he forgot to take this off - finders keepers! lol!

After showing me not once, but twice on how to feed the thread, he proceeded and sew a straight line on a piece of blue cotton scrap cloth. Hearing the 'thudda thudda thudda' sound made my heart to go pitter patter.  I felt so happy it worked again so I continued to pay more attention and absorbed as much information from him. He showed me how to refill the small thread spool, set the different pattern width, replace the needle, and so on. All the while, I had a picture of me fixing my children's clothes, making useful things for the house (i.e. cover for my hubby's electronic piano/keyboard, runner for the dining table, sofa pillow cases, and many more!)  Ooh, so exciting!

Mr.Fixit stayed only for 25 minutes as he had another machine to deliver.  After paying his well deserved fee and a tip, I saw him off and quickly went inside again .. to celebrate the homecoming of an old friend :)



Sunday, November 14, 2010

Free Manga Tutorials

Manga manga manga ... 
That's all my daughters Dinda and Zadia care about now.
Both of them really love to draw - you could probably could still see their early drawings on our bedroom walls in Muri Salim - that is, if the owner hasn't repainted the house yet, LOL ...  The drawings are still shaky but with more practice on the manga basics, I think both girls have lots of potential - well, hopefully they will not get bored and bail out prematurely - as always been the case with their other fads.
And it is because of this reason also that I will not enroll them to a Manga school, well, at least not for now.  Actually, there are quite a few of them located in Jakarta:


MACHIko MANGA SCHOOL
Jl.Kemang Raya No.14B Jakarta Selatan
12730 INDONESIA
Tel.&Fax             +62-21-7181683      

seven artland
Jl. A.M. Sangaji no. 48
Jakarta Pusat 10130
Indonesia
Phone
            +62-21 68802423      
            +62-21 7151 6041      
            +62-812 8130220       (Ririn)
            +62-815 86851979       (Shirley)
Email
info (AT) sevenartland.com
Website
http://www.sevenartland.com

Ma-Ta Art School
English First Plaza Pondok Indah
Jakarta Selatan
(021)7500459

For a starter, I think it's better for the girls to master the manga basics first.  And thanks to Mr. Google and the Internet, after doing a bit of searching, I came across this site 'Manga Tutorials' which offers 'tons of manga drawing instructions from basics to publishing ranging from articles, step-by-steps, references, and video tutorials'  and BEST OF ALL, they are free, non membership exclusive and covers a wide range of topics.
To give you an example, here is a tutorial on how to draw the different emotional expression, posted by Rio:

The girls were so excited when I handed them the print out and quickly did a few sketches of their own.
I promise that I will search for more (free) manga tutorials, but, since it's already late (yawn) and I could barely open my eyes (blink blink), I will continue my search tomorrow and surely add to this post. Good night everyone :)          (zzzz  zzzz  zzzzzzzzz) ...