So for the last 4yrs Mr Blue-Eyes has scored himself a sweet support gig for a roaming international conference. In past years it has been held in Sydney, Boston, Vienna and this year Hong Kong.

Where possible we tack on a holiday, last year we did Italy & Corsica as our honeymoon and this year i went over for 8 days in HK and 2 days Macau.

HK was astonishing in its scale and efficiency. My first thought when walking out into a Kowloon evening (30c+/60% humidity) was that it is just like Chinatown at home but bigger :)

We did 3 days based in Kowloon with day trips to Chung Chua island and Lantau Island. Breakfasting on pork buns, getting lost in the streets of Mong Kok and barhopping at night in Soho.

Mr Blue-Eyes is the cameraman in these parts with his Canon 40D and 5 lenses so the pix you'll see from me to start with are the happy snaps on the iphone when he couldn't be bothered hauling the beast about.

Rest assured he did get it about and is in the process of culling and grading approx 1000 images which you'll see the best of over the next week or so.

We stayed around the corner from the Temple St Night Markets, a buzzing market of knockoffs and trinkets fresh from China interspersed with clusters of openair dining establishments.

Beer was essential in the steamy nights and cheap too, about AUD$2.40 for 1litre.

And all beered up and full of amazing spring rolls and spicy prawns.

I've had a bit of time on my hands recently but it has still taken me a while to actually do something crafty with my time.
Miss Cath gave me the Meet Me At Mike's book of crafty things to do which i have used to help me with my knitting but i hadn't quite got much further than that.
I used to work with a Sussie of Sweden who was quite the sewer and when she returned to Sweden she donated her fabric stash to me (and to a BrownOwls stash swap). Part of her stash is a number of metres of quirky vintage paisleys, 2 of which complemented each other very nicely.
I figured the 'Cute as a button vintage clutch' project wasn't too daunting and I'd have something useful at the end of it too.
Plus I'm a long time reader of Kara Smith's blog and was inspired by her fab bags and clutches to have a go.

Well i've had this on the go for a couple of weeks, I have fear of cutting so it can take a while fo rme ot work up to that. Then i stumbled on the iron-on interfacing step as what i thought was iron-on wasn't. BrownOwls to the rescue with the suggesting to use spray adhesive to attach that to the material.
A few more stumbles with the sewing machine not playing nice, Mr Blue-eyes is the machine expert around here so i had to twiddle knobs until it came good.
So today i had no more excuses, I'd finished the book i was reading, read all my blogs for the day, applied for a few jobs and checked the mail.

The pattern suggests using a button and snap closure but i have metres of mauve/blue snap-button tape in my stash that i'e been saving for just this sort of project. However i had no real idea how to actually use it, hence the sort of wonky attachment below.
I possibly could have ironed the seams flat along the way and i tend to be a bit of a free-flying kind of sewer but overall i think it turned out alright.
I certainly have enough of both materials to have another go at it or perhaps make a matching tote....look out

As mentioned in my last post, I now have a desk of my own for the first time in nearly 3yrs.
Furniture in our house is a much discussed and planned thing, least of all because if Mr Blue-eyes can make something better why would he buy something (therefore the majority of Ikea furniture is abhorrent to him).
Then the making itself is planned with CAD, the timber scoped and sourced, the steel checked and prototypes made.
What you see here is actually the 2nd incarnation and the drawers and storage at the top were debated endlessly. He welded the K frame, inserted the powerpoints and constructed it out of 12mm form ply.
We still have moments about how tidy my desk is but i figure it is my desk, my space and i'll run it as i need. Obviously it is looking most tidy in this pic, perhaps one day I'll show you my creative space in action.
Let it be know that i am most delighted that i can sit at a desk, with a desktop computer and type away as opposed to the laptop on the lounge passively surfing.

After some 3 years of not having a desk/work space and using a laptop on the lounge I now have a fab desk made for me by Mr Blue-eyes. I'll show pix and details of that in another post but in the meantime i needed some neat drawers to go under it for misc bits & bobs that i collect (hoard).After being dismayed by the prices at Doug Up On Bourke for industrial drawers, a bit of trawling on ebay delivered these steel/wooden drawers that durable and considerably more afforable. A bit plain but i had some ideas for that.