If you would like to start shopping now, click here to go to my shop on Etsy!

Congratulations to Jingle (Lavender), Michele (Red) and Jamie (Teal)!

You’ll all receive an email from me soon, please reply within 36 hours with your mailing address so I can get the fat quarters off to you as soon as possible! If I don’t hear from you within 36 hours, we’ll get the random number generator give us another lucky number! Thank you all so much for participating – I never expected such warm response! As a way to say my thanks, all commenters will be entitled to a 20% off on your entire order (excluding shipping) at The Heyday Shop! I’ll put up another post for that so if you’re interested in getting any of the fat quarters featured in this giveaway, you can go here and start shopping now! Thank you!

I started with one fat quarter bundle in mind, and then I worked my way to two…well, the final answer is three! I love how they look together! So here goes: I have three fat quarter bundles to give away so I thought I’ll come up with three ways for you to enter -

1. Share with me one of your all-time favorite Etsy stores. I love shopping!

2. Put up a link to one of your favorite sewing tutorials ever – my summer holidays are coming up, I’ll need loads of those to try my hands on.

3. Tell me what is the one thing you cannot resist printed on fabric. I’ll go first – I can never get enough of polka dots. In every color!

Each one of you has three chances in all to win these fabric bundles if you answer all of my tiny requests – and I will close comments and pull out the random number generator on May 31 (GMT+8).

Everything you see here is lightweight cotton, full of Japanese zakka goodness! And oh, this giveaway is definitely international.

There you go, easy-peasy! Remember to leave an email address I can contact you by and your order of preference of the bundle you’d like to receive (Red, Lavender, Teal). Good luck, I hope for some giveaway luck myself too!

P.S. Please check back if your comment does not appear immediately – when it comes with more than a couple of links WordPress requires me to moderate it but you know you have my stamp of approval

I’ve always wanted to do a giveaway but pretty sure that I wouldn’t be able to drum up the publicity I need for it to be a successful one. Ever since I missed Sew, Mama, Sew!’s Giveaway Day in December last year, I’ve been looking forward to their next one.

Join in the fun, either by hosting your own giveaway or enter the many fabulous ones that will begin on May 27 (you will have until May 30 to enter) by checking out the master participating list on the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog when the big day arrives.

I can’t wait!

這是艱難的時刻。

距離我第一次聽到消息，才不過三十個小時，
其中的理性與感性之間的掙扎卻像一場醒不過來的惡夢。
心裡壓抑著的那一口氣總是嘆不完，
每個人嘴上都不停的說著話，不停的在尋找真相 -

很可笑，那所謂的真相。

學妹問我看了新聞沒，我說看了。她問『那是真的嗎？』的當下，
我很難不火大，但這就是差別所在，畢竟她還沒上過馬老師的課。

我們撇開當今新聞媒體種種的不可靠不談，
面對一則這樣的新聞，普通老百姓確實只會一味的追問那兩極化的
『真』與『假』，我們不也常常在事不關己的時候享受過一則又一則的聳動、辛辣？

於是，我告訴自己不要去計較他們的眼光，不要去駁斥他們的看法，
因為他們不認識馬國光。

於是，我告訴自己我要持保留態度，因為無法證明一件事的確定，不代表成立了否定，
相同的，無法證明一件事的否定，也不代表它發生了。

於是，我告訴自己我不能犯下那訴諸於情感的謬誤啊。

這些都是你教我的，馬老師。

你一定不會介意我沒有第一時間站出來挺你，我相信。
你應該還會稱贊我的邏輯有學好吧，老師。

我一向都不太欣賞對於倫理這種社會建構的高談闊論，
但我尊重它。我了解我們共同生存在這個世界上，總有些規則不能假裝看不見。
所以，我了解老師您也要為您的行為負上重重的責任 -

但請容許我自私點。

星期二的時候你才說過，我們一定要把七、八、九章上完的。
距離我第一次上您的課，還沒撐完兩個學期就要草草結束，
我有很多的不甘心。
如果我說，您私人生活的任何行為不該牽涉到我們上課的進度，
您會不會更難做？
如果我說，『語言與邏輯』和『美學』的授課老師再也不會有除了您以外的最佳人選，
您是不是可以不用離開？

如果對於桃色新聞我要持保留態度，
那對於我的課業大家是否也該中立一點？

這是很艱難，很艱難的時刻，因為您真的是一位好老師。

I think it comes with age, this longing for home in my heart.

Not many people will care to admit that their lives are perfect, because what is perfection – really – but every desire ceased? And oh, the things I desire. But I like to see my life as being complete, even though for many people this life hasn’t even begun yet. I’ve said this so many times but maybe it will never be enough: I am happy. I will never stop saying that because everyday I find a reason for an abundance in my heart, recycled or new. This happiness comes with an emotion some attach to maturity but, well, when your life is complete, you must protect it.

I have made my way home four times in the last two and a half years. Each time I like the place a little better because I am far enough to have forgotten how it used to look. To see something for a first time is my forte, to tire of it my weakness. I enjoy this distance with my home country; I find so much more of me when I am not there.

And yet, there are definite times when I remember the familiarity of it and long for it. I remember how everyone whom I love and loves me are two thousand miles away and just want to be where they are. I want to go home so bad sometimes but the truth is once I am there, for real, it is apparent that my life is here.

Maybe, I think, two and half years is not nearly long enough.

I’m going to just go ahead with resolutions.

1. No more shark’s fin soup, ever. I’m going to overthrow the oriental tradition of celebrating marital bliss with drinking up what’s left of an endangered animal.

2. A journal entry a day – hand-written in good ol’ diary. In Chinese! My spoken Chinese is so impressive nowadays that my written should really try to catch up.

3. Balance between shop and school. Sounds easy enough but the challenges ahead, the challenges ahead.

4. Work around the plan of making The Heyday Shop an eventual career.

5. Tell the people I love that I love them as much as I can.

Happy 2009! I’m going to work on my journal entry for yesterday now.

I’ve been keeping this on my mind but school has pretty much taken over – I almost feel as if my time is no longer mine. This goes back to Domestic Scientist, who will know that I have tried my best. So here you go, seven things that I assume you don’t know about me:

1. I have complained about my mother’s obsessive cleaning (she’s Virgo) a lot more than I give her credit for but the truth is I have inherited the tiniest trace of compulsiveness to put things in order around the house or pick up that one strand of hair on the ground. I live in a house with five other girls: we have too many people to keep a tidy place and too few who bother at all. I try very hard for it to not get on my nerves!

2. I major in Speech Communication, which means that my profession requires to me to talk to people all the time. I love people and I love being curious about people and listen to them talk about themselves but I absolutely cannot stand crowds. People become so unlovable in crowds.

3. About 99% of my blog entries are titled with song lyrics. I am so bad at giving titles.

4. I am secretly afraid that as my spoken Chinese gets better every day, my spoken English will deteriorate relatively. The worse thing is that no one is here to speak to me in unaccented English and I have to succumb to the great power of an American accent here in Taipei city.

5. Everyday I think about whether to go to graduate school and everyday I change my mind. If you ask me whether I think I am going to make a good academic, the answer would be a flat no. But if you ask me whether I am keen on going to graduate school, the answer would be why not? I think academia is very inspiring and that the power of being curious is best understood in school. It’s just that once in a while you realise that while being a student you have so much time on your hand to contemplate but most of it is thought that explores theory or formulates one without much action at all. And we all need some kind of action, every once in a while.

6. I suck at electronic games. I pretend to be impatient with them but the truth is I am disinterested completely because I suck at them.

7. I will probably not get marry ever, because I am in love with a girl whom I cannot marry legally in either of the countries we come from. But it’s okay.

Leonardo DiCaprio, will i. am, Tobey Maguire, and Forest Whitaker have created public service announcements to encourage American youth to register to vote.

The non-partisan PSAs, produced by DiCaprio’s Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to register and vote and participate in the upcoming election. Celebrities appearing in the PSAs include: Amy Adams, will.i.am, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Connolly, Courteney Cox, Ellen DeGeneres, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Jonah Hill, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Kiedis, Ashton Kutcher, Adam Levine, Laura Linney, Eva Longoria, Tobey Maguire, Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Kyra Sedgwick, Michelle Trachtenberg, Usher, and Forest Whitaker.

我有想過，這樣算不算操之過急，畢竟我們是初次見面。不過，我對於喜歡的人、事、物總帶著滿滿的衝動，想要去擁有與感受，然後給予你你應得的贊美。

這一番話，我保留了一個星期的時間。今天再上馬老的課，身體雖然不在最佳狀態，心靈依舊不斷豐富。上個禮拜，老師談到藝術的語言跨越了所有其他語言；藝術創作者用很久的時間去磨練、探索、建構，為的就是把心裡的話好好的表達出來。

那表達出來後要幹嘛？

『放在那裡等待感動。』

這是老師不斷重申的一句話。它可以聽起來很芭樂，不過當你站在一幅畫面前說看不懂的時候，觀看著一出舞蹈說不會欣賞的時候，或是望著一件陶藝品問這是要用來做什麼的時候，那不是你沒有藝術天份，是你無法從那些作品裡得到感動。

然後怎麼樣？

開啟你的心，接受感動。

我多希望自己的文字足以形容生活中每一天觸碰到的新感受；世界那麼大，總有你不認識的，無知並不可怕。我讓自己充分感覺一切的新事物，在知覺與概念侵蝕我欣賞每一個個體的絕對空間之前，我要讓我的直覺做主。我只能說，我愿意嘗試去保留孩子般的好奇心，很專心、很用心的去體會每一個顏色，每一種感動。

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