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.

I decided that this year I really wanted a tree! We’ve never had one before as a couple…and we always assumed that every Christmas we’ll spend it at our parents place (they have their own tree). But I didn’t want a fake tree…and I didn’t want to chop a tree down either…so what were my other options? A friend suggested the old tree branch idea and I was sold!

The very next day I went hunting for my dead branch and found a huge pile of chopped up branches on the verge. I’m sure people who saw me scavenging around the wood pile must have thought I was a loony!

I also picked up some pinecones and gum nuts and sprayed them all white with a $2 spray can from Bunnings.

For my tree ornaments, I hung up some baby pinecones with bakers twine. The rest of the ornaments are vintage treasures or gifts given to me.

I found a red flower pot in my father-in-law’s shed and filled it up with sand. Then I decorated the pot with more pinecones, gum nuts and tinsels.

So there you have it…my first ever DIY Christmas tree! What do you think? Hehe

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!

I made spaetzle with meatballs and mushroom cream sauce on Richard’s birthday.

Spaetzle is a popular dish in Germany. It’s a cross between a curly pasta and a small dumpling. Before we left Stuttgart, mum bought us a spaetzle maker so that we could make our own homemade spaetzle! It was much easier than I thought and also, very delicious and fresh!

Basic Spaetzle Recipe (serves 2 people)
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk

Mix the flour and salt. Combine eggs and milk and stir into the flour mixture. The batter should look and feel like a pancake mix. Wet and sticky.

Place the spaetzle maker on a large pot of boiling, salted water (there are different kinds of spaetzle makers out there, mine looks like a flat cheese grater).

Pour the batter onto the spatzle maker and spread the mixture through. The dough will fall through the sieve and into the boiling water.

When the spatzle floats up the surface it means it’s cooked. Gather the pasta quickly with a large spoon, drain and serve with your favourite sauce.

Spaetzle is declicious with melted butter and melted cheese, or served with any meat dish, gravy, cream based sauce or even plain! Enjoy!

Richard turned 30 earlier this month. I was excited for him to join the club since I had turned 30 in June. As expected, he was moody right up to the day of his birthday. I’m going to call it the ‘notwantingtoletgoofmytwenties’ syndrome.

I remembered suffering from that and it drove me crazy! I was so moody and shitty about turning 30 that all my friends and family, and Richard included couldn’t stop teasing me about it. I think it wasn’t just the fear of turning another year older, the fear was more about me; whether I had accomplished enough in my 20s and what was waiting for me in my 30s. Then there was also the fear of adjusting to reality, that I am now a 30 year old and do not belong in the 19 – 29 age group and that there are YOUNGER, COOLER and more BEAUTIFUL people out there than me. So yes…those were the fears that plagued me when I turned the big 3-0.

So coming back to Richard’s birthday, I could see him going through the same turmoil that I experienced and when I asked him if he would like to do anything for his birthday, he grumpily said no. I couldn’t let that happen so I organised an early surprise party for him by sneaking in a few phone calls to his mates. How I managed to get him out of the house without him being suspicious that night was all thanks to this new toy.

I bought him a Sprocket Rocket which shoots on a super-wide panoramic lens. I passed him the camera in the late afternoon and used it as an excuse to get him out of the house to take photos with it.

We caught the train to the city, walked around and snapped photos with it. Then I took him to the local Korean restaurant where all his friends were waiting to surprise him. Oh how I wished I had taken a picture of my husband’s expression, it was priceless! He was shocked, stoked and overjoyed! I think my heart filled when I saw how happy he was!

In all the excitement, it felt like it was my surprise party too:) We were surrounded by good food, good friends and a huge cake. It was such a great night.

On his actual birthday, I cooked us a proper dinner at home. I made a German pasta dish called Spaetzle. I’ll share pictures of the dish and the recipe in my next post!

Oh gosh! Where do I start, I’ve been meaning to blog about lots of things that have happened to me this week! I’m still deciding if I should write a LONG post and cram every news inside or if I should break them up in smaller posts and share little doses of news with you!

Maybe I’ll start with my most recent adventure. This weekend I attended the Lomovember exhibition organised by Pigeonhole. It’s a wonderful lo-fi curation of colorful lomographs captured in Perth and around the world. The best images are block mounted and sold by silent auction, with profits of the sale going towards the Movember Foundation.

I had 3 photos selected for the exhibition, out of the 400 submissions they received:

Summer Sun (Strasbourg, France)

Twilight (At the back of my parent’s house in Stuttgart, Germany)

Kaleidoscope (Eiffel Tower, Paris)

Despite my excitement, I was actually nervous about explaining to my husband that his face was going to be in a public exhibition. I told him a few days before the event:

H: hey you wanna check out this lomo exhibition?
R: yeah sure…when is it?
H: they’re having a launch party on Friday. Uh…ah…some of my photos are in it…
R: yeah?? Cool!!!!
H: yeah…..but they are…erm…uh….ah….photos of you
R: WHAT??!
H: They picked them!! They must like the ones with you in it…
R: ………..

And we left the conversation at that. He had no idea which photos were being exhibited so it made for a nice surprise, as well as a pretty cool date for us

I loved every photo in the gallery, it was my first time attending a lomo exhibition, let alone taking part in one. It was amazing to see so many inspiring and happy accidental photos taken from a whole range of lomo cameras.

When they were getting ready to announce the winner for the Best Photo award, I remembered feeling a combination of tipsiness from the wine and also excitement for the winner. Then I heard,“…best photo…Helena Tay….Summer Sun”. I looked at my husband to see if he had heard it too, and he had this bewildered-proud-happy look on his face. I was speechless, I totally did not expect to win anything (I would have been contented with a raffles prize dinner for two!) So, I am totally grateful and humbled at being picked for the Best Photo award.

Thank you Pigeonhole for the generous prize and wonderful event! I think my new toy came at a great time too. Ever since I bought my Diana Mini a couple of months ago, it has rekindled my love in film and photography. It brought back good memories of my uni days when I was a Film student and we learned about composition, lighting and Mise en scène. I had big aspirations then of being a director and making pretty films. Whilst my goals in life may have changed, I think having my Diana and my new camera has encouraged me to get back into film and photography. I am excited to know that there are great moments waiting to be captured. I am also excited by the possibility that maybe one day I will make that pretty film!

Yep, Little Mo officially turns 3 today:)

3 years ago, I opened my online shop and listed a few stationery for sale. In my shop, I had 4 or 5 writing sets, some postcards and a few sheets of wrapping paper. The first item that I sold was to a nice couple in the states. They bought one of my wrapping papers and they said they just wanted to be my first customer. 3 years later, I think I got carried away with drawing, resulting in a whole expansion of goodies now.

I just wanted to say thanks for a fabulous 3 years and thanks for making what I do so enjoyable and worthwhile. I really had lots of fun over the years; blogging and sharing my art with you, selling and wrapping up your packages. I consider many of you wonderful friends that I’d love to meet in person and have tea and cakes one day! So thanks for supporting my art and thanks for your friendship!

Here are some of the new goodies for my birthday launch:

Little Mo and Friends silver book clips

Pug conversation cards

Pug silver book clips

Swedish tulips watering can brooch

And as a special treat, don’t forget to use this coupon code during checkout:) Just enter the coupon code: MOPARTY to enjoy your discount.

Hi! Hi! Hi! (or…woof!)

I’ve been busy drawing and cutting out papery things the whole weekend. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s launching on Little Mo’s 3rd birthday party.

I’m really excited with my new collection, they are a combination of all the things that I am obsessed with right now…namely pugs, tea drinking, and colourful patterns! Let me know what you think of them.

Don’t forget to visit my blog or my facebook page in the lead up to the party. I’ll be adding more photos of my new artworks. Stay tuned.