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Friday, December 19, 2008

Christmas Spirit



Today is Youngman's last day of the school year and he will be in year 2 next Feb. The School Report has been sent home and Youngman was cool on all key learning areas. The teacher's report said that he set a good example for his peers. He has already opened some of his Christmas presents and now he can just be himself and play with his Legos and make up his own storys.

The P&C put on a little drinks party after school, after a few snacks and beer, I am officially on Christmas vacation and off line......

We are heading down Melbourne . Mr. Silvermonk bought some carbon credits to plant trees so that we can all fly down this year to spend sometimes with friends and relatives.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

cheers
chimin

Ps: we will be back in Sydney for the New Year Eve firework!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Carols in Victoria Park 08


Carol in Victoria Park 08, originally uploaded by silvermonk.

We've been to the Carol in the park for a few years now. It was organized by the St. Barnabas church The Park is a beautiful place with the city as the back drop.

We were having a very enjoyable time with children playing tips ( chase ) and the magnificient fire works to finish the night! We raised enough money on the night for the Habitat for Humanity to build a house in India.



We also seen the biggest full moon slowly creeping up behind the stage......

Well, after a hectic week of working on the bench, ( which end up drilling a hole in my thumb....)
I am glad that we had a relaxing and peaceful night out in the park.

We will be in the City tomorrow to choose some big Lego toys for the Youngman. He's been a real good boy this year apart from watching too much TV.


Saturday, December 06, 2008

Best Ever........



The Finders Keepers Market was the best market i've ever participated in.
Lots of cool stalls, 10 minutes walk from our place, all the neighbours were there and every single one of the young and old handmade groovy people from Sydney were all there, even a lady from Chicago was there and got a present from my stall for her daughter, I was busy..... very very busy and tired and happy!

The organizers should be congratulated on putting such a wonderful and successful market!

The best part of it was seeing all these people with a beer or wine in hand while relaxing, browsing and supporting handmade!

See more of the photos of the night!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

The Market!




Dear friends,

The finders keepers market is on........
If you are planning a night out, this is the place to be.

There will be clothing, accessories, jewellery, art, homewares, lighting, stationery and more......
And of course, there will be music and food!

It is held inside the foyer of the contemporary arts space "CarriageWorks".

I am having a stall there as well, so come and say hello.

Finders Keepers will be running:
Friday 5th December 6pm – 10pm
Saturday 6th December 12pm – 10pm

click here for direction.

Monday, December 01, 2008

100 Sales!



My jewellery shop on Etsy reach a little milestone today! A small step in terms of statistic, but a big step in my adventures into the Cyber space.

The 100th sale is my Cross embedded with love, how wonderful is that!!!!!

A big thank you to all my customers.
Your support is much appreciated.

cheers
and more to come!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Christmas Sparkle!





Just want to pop in and say Hello!
I've been a bit busy with the Christmas orders and making lots of jewellery for my up coming Finders Keepers market.
You can click on the side bar for more info.

Also thank you my fellow Aussies greenOlive and Pominoz for putting my fine silver earrings in their treasuries.

We are going to the Star War opening on Wednesday.

cheers and have a nice weekend!

Monday, November 17, 2008

BUY HANDMADE THIS CHRISTMAS!



Couldn't believed it, its only six weeks to Christmas!

I am in love with kraft paper at the moment and redesign my new earring tag and Christmas packaging.

FREE SHIPPING worldwide until Christmas in my Etsy shop .

If you would like to purchase from my website, Just enter FREESH15 upon check out to get 15% discount on your purchase. (Not to be used with other discount code!)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Old Darlington school





The Old charming Darlington School is all fixed up with new beautiful roof and new surrounding landscape.

It quickly becomes our favourite walk after dinner, the only thing missing in this picture is a dog........I wish we live in a house with a backyard.

There has been a lot of opposition noise about the expansion of the University. I personally don't mind that at all.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

DaWanda World 2009



Yes, I am going to give away all this beautiful jewellery......

A group of online sellers from DaWanda organise a new promo called "DaWanda World 2009" /"Happy New DaWanda Year 2009".

"The idea is to bring together a variety of shops from all over the world representing Dawanda in this "Dawanda World 2009" promo campaign.

Each shop participating in the campaign will send 10-15 items, which will be put into the bags and can then be bought from a few nominated shops on Dawada .

The sale will start on January 1st 2009 and the money from the sale will be donated to an organization which is still to be nominated."

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Creative advertising




Don't you love this?!

The council has been putting heavy fines on people putting poster on the post......
( you could see the lamp post next to it is all clean!)

So someone come up with this great idea and i think they will get away with the fine.

The cool thing about it is the bicycle is chained onto the (legal) new bicycle stand, how appropriate!

Friday, October 31, 2008

Stretch your brain

( Anna~my sister in law sent me some interesting emails every now and then. This is one of those i want to share with you!)

This is not a test - just a phenomenon. All readings are explained.

Read out loud the text inside the triangle below



More than likely you said, 'A bird in the bush,'! and. .......
if this IS what YOU said, then you failed to see
that the word THE is repeated twice!
Sorry, look again.

Next, let's play with some words.
What do you see here?


In black you can read the word GOOD, in white the word EVIL (inside each black letter is a white letter)

What do you see here?

This one is quite tricky!
The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.

ALZHEIMERS' EYE TEST
Count every 'F' in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT
OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY
COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...
(SEE BELOW)

HOW MANY ?
WRONG, THERE ARE6-- no joke.
READ IT AGAIN !
Really, go Back and Try to find the 6 F's before you scroll down.

The brain cannot process 'OF'.

Incredible or what? Go back and look again!!
Anyone who counts all 6 'F's' on the first go is a genius.
Three is normal, four is quite rare.

*****************
More Brain Stuff .

From Cambridge University .

"Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!"

The last test is quite interesting because Gabriel is in the mist of learning to read, write and spell!
And there is this big debate of "Whole Language learning" and " Phonics learning".

What is amazing is that Gabriel ( he is almost finish year 1 ) can read the above paragraph without any problem.

What I've learnt from Gabriel's learning experience is that, some kids are very good with whole word learning and they learn to read (out loud ) in no time, and that is just part of the story ( of learning to read and write). To complete the picture ( to write and spell), you need phonics and grammar.

At first, Gabriel's reading progress very slowly, he's a bit reluctance to say the word out loud ( to read ) if he did not know how to. Now that he learns the phonics his reading and spelling skills just take off........

I am no expert in all this and i probably need Mr. Silvermonk to check the grammar, but i am sure you know what i meant ( hopefully most of the time?!)

I find this quite useful.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Up dates .........



~The" Explorations '08 " is over and I am very happy to report that the displayed piece "Spiral Dream Necklace" has gone to a good home. Good news is they are still available in my shop.

~ Watch out for this month's (November) newsletter with big discount code for the Christmas season!

~I am in the process of adding new designs to my shop in conjunction with the newsletter.

~If you see something on my Blog or Flickr that you like and is not currently listed in my shop, just let me know and we can sort something out!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Sculpture by the sea 2008





"Sculpture by the sea" is held every year along the coast between Bronte and Bondi Beach. The event marks the arrival of spring and the farewell to the unwilling winter. ( This is especially true this year, the weather has been exceptionally cold last week!)

This year the " Harmony with the breeze" by Kozo Nishino really caught our imagination......

Its delicate titanium wings flag gently and rhythmicly in the wind. It's so elegant and poetic and beautiful. I can just sit there all day and contemplate.
It has to be my all time favourite!!!!!!

If you want to see more of the sculptures in the walk, I found a set on flickr, just clicked here

More Sculpture by the sea photos post on Flickr

Friday, October 24, 2008

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?



Every parent with a young child in school would enjoy this video!

What Sir Ken Robinson said in the video truly rings a bell.

...................

The sun is shinning again after a few days of rainy and cold weather.
We are heading for the beach and the "sculpture by the sea".

Have a nice weekend, my friends!


Sunday, October 19, 2008

International Organ Day







Yesterday was the International Organ Day. More than 250 concerts was held around the world to showcase the King of the instrument! We were there in the Great Hall of Sydney Uni.(I was graduated in the same Hall 9 years ago) for the " Introducing the pipe Organ" to the kids! I've always love the majestic sound of the Organ and really enjoyed it! Youngman even had a play on the Organ .......

The Quardrangle of Sydney Uni. is such a beautiful place. They have one of the only two Carillons ( the largest by itself weighting over 4 tonnes) in Australia. We are very lucky to hear and then see the 54 Bells in action!

See more of the phots here

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Songlines Castle Ring




I love my Songlines Ring and wear it quite a lot. The only problem is that the ring band is slightly too wide for my finger. I decided to do something about it. I held it in my hand yesterday and they started to grow on me and evolved into something of its own.
Within minutes I started to cut out 3 strips of silver from the rims and soldered them onto the open side of the ring........and there you go, looks just like a castle.

Mr. Silvermonk said Castle Ring sounds a bit too Colonial.

I thought, Wow, from Songline to Castle, that sounds very much like the Australian ( natural/cultural) landscape........




Honestly, I just really like the sculptural feel of the newly reincarnated ring.

I feel blessed!!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Casper the friendly ghost.......



Well, I thought the Ring looks like ET, but Mr. Silvermonk said it looks like "Casper the friendly ghost". I like the fact that ghost and friendly go together, at least in this case!

I have been in a bit of La La Land and made a few unusual rings lately and this is one of them! They just came out of my hands and took me by surprise........

I will be in Kirribilli Market tomorrow, come and have a chat if you are around the area.

cheers and have a nice weekend!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight



Very inspiring!

I hope you enjoy!

Want to know more, click here.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Nicholson Museum Collections



Don't you love these earthy ceramics! They are as old and as modern as you can get. What i mean is they are very old and at the same time have a very modern feel and look about them ( i do not have the date and where its from on my finger tips, i was too busy to take photos and just literally blew away with their beauty and simplicity!).

Its all part of the Nicholson Museum Collections at the Sydney University. We drove pass the Museum several times a day on the way to youngman's school everyday........ and we never visited the place!!!!! Or more precisely, we did not even know its there!

All i really want to say is they are so beautiful and simple............
Worth a visit if you are in Sydney next time and their school holidays programme is excellent and it's free!!!!!!


See more photos here

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Sydney Children's Festival



It's the much needed school holidays again.........

We normally go to the Power House museum, but this time the Sydney Children's Festival just literally around the corner from our place and its all happening in the Carriageworks !

We went to see the Jungle Fever and really enjoyed it!
There are lots of other free events and activities happening in the main foyer as well.

We might pop back in again next week..........

Talk about Carriageworks, they are planning a market on the site and you know how much i love having a stall in the market.
I've already put my hands up and hopefully they will get it all organise and in time for the X'mas season!

Did I just mention the word X'mas, I am not joking, the big department store in the city ( Myer) already have their decorations out.....

OK! OK! That's enough for today!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

WWW.Silvermonk.net



Dear friends,

I have been working on my new website www.silvermonk.net for a while now. I am very excited to let you know that it is all ready to go......

One of my favourite features on the new website is I can hand out discount coupons ( code) whenever i like.....
And here is one for my fellow bloggers, just enter the discount code "BlogLove15" upon checked out to get 15% off on any purchase! (valid until 28th Oct. 08)

Thank you for celebrating this milestone with me, your ongoing support and comments is much appreciated!

cheers
chimin

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Shaun the Sheep and his friends



Man! I did not know that Shaun the Sheep is so well loved around the globe!
I thought it was only happening in the house of Silvermonk! Youngman and his Dad really enjoy watching the show. They have a good time laughing their head off.

While I was making this pair of earrings........



Shaun the Sheep and his friends just jump out of my hands and here they all are.........
They put smile on my face!

The moral of the story is " I need to loosen up a bit more and have a laugh ever now and then........."

Sunday, September 21, 2008

More Storage





I've been looking for storage unit for a while now.
Ikea is on the list, but none come close to this one by the nightwood

Their upcycle philosophy and "down to earth yet airy aesthetic and sensibility" is my kind of thing.
One for youngman's toy collection and one for my work bench..........

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Exploration '08




I am excited to be part of the "Exploration '08" jewellery exhibition. It is held by A&E Metal Merchants at Gaffa Gallery, Surry Hills in Sydney from 19th-27th September.

My Spiral Dream Necklaceis in the show.

This is the first opening ( with one of my work) we attended since Youngman was born.
The opening was cool, lots of people and free beer.......

After a few beers, we all let ourselves loose and drove around the city and the Harbour bridge and the Opera House......

I want more!!!!

( I will be back to the exhibition this weekend and take more photos )

Saturday, September 13, 2008

I will not be in the Kiribilli Art and Design Market today!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I am still recovering from a Flu and would not be able to catch up with you in the market!

Take care and have a nice weekend!!!!

cheers
chimin

Some new works

Up In The Cloud Pendant



SongLine Rings



Autumn Earrings



Tree Earrings

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Along the River During the Ching-Ming Festival



The National Palace Museum of Taiwan is a good place to visit if you ever travel to the Island. They have a phenomenal collections of ancient Chinese treasures!

Here is a famous painting from around AD1200 China. Follow the instructions at the bottom of the picture and little windows will open up to display animation.

click here to watch the animation.

Control the speed of picture moving with your mouse.

Enjoy!

Monday, September 01, 2008

And the winner for the August mailing list is.........



.......... Sally Cooper! Congratulation sally and i will email you shortly with the details!

Thank you for all of you joining my mailing list!
You can still join now if you haven't.( joining button is on the right hand side bar)
Watch out for news about my new website........

Thank you youngman for playing " Midnight snack" by Sonny Chua.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Red Around The World




tactileeclectics has been travelling around the word to put this beautiful red treasury together. I am glad that she came all the way to down under and including my Inner Peace Red Coral Pendant.

www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=4933

I jumped into the Fantasy tree and found myself in Norway surrounded by beautiful illustrations.........

Ps: I will get the email draw ready as soon as youngman back from school!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Give away!!!!!!!



Spring is here in my part of the world.

To celebrate the abundance of universe, I am giving away this fine silver half moon earrings.

Comment on your favorite item from my shop and enter into the draw, It is currently held in the giveaway blog run by Katie.

check it out and have fun!

( until 4th September)

cheers
chimin

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I am back.....



.........from the Olympic Dream! To be more precise the whole Silvermonk family came back from the TV land.

I was always a very sporty person and love just about any kinds of sports. In my school days, i used to play volley ball, basket ball ,soft ball and table tennis. I probably would not survived my secondary school years without table tennis. When the bell rang, i would be the first one rushed out of the classroom and sweated over the little white ball. In any kind of sport, there is a beauty about the movement of the body when it strikes a balance and i really enjoy that moment when it comes.

My best memory about playing table tennis was when i went to the training sessions at night in the late 60s and early 70s ( in China ). After each training, they would served us a bowl of hot rice soup loaded with sugar ( made from sugar cane). In those day, food was not as abundant as today, and that bowl of silky rice soup was indeed food from haven and i doubt i ever missed one training session. I still remember the sweetness of the rice soup until these day.....

A sporting event like this is a good place for people to know each other, we watched every single country that paraded into the stadium and wonder where they all came from and we found them on the map......

Now that the Olympic curtain is drawn, I better chain myself to the work bench and seriously playing with the new materials and some gemstones that i just got......

Monday, August 04, 2008

In the woods



After Mr.Silvermonk took the whole family for a site visit, Gabriel suggested we go for a little adventure in the bush.
It was only 20 minutes drive across the Harbour bridge. You would not believe it is in Suburban Sydney.

The winter sun was so beautiful and just lightened up the whole bush.

A secret path......
A pleasant walk....

See more of the adventure photos and video here

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Join my Mailing List

Yes, that's right!

Just want to keep you inform of my new designs, sales and give away.......
All it needs is your name and e_mail address, nothing more and you can always unsubscribe from the list!

I promise I will not flood your inbox with marketing junk. If i get my act together, then it will only be once a month newsletter affair........

And if you join in the Month of August, you are in a run to win a $50 coupon to spend in my online shop.

I will let the Birthday Boy (Young man turning 7 in August ) do the Lucky Draw and the winner will be published here!

The joining Button is on the right hand Side Bar.

----------


You can watch Youngman learning his new piece here

Sunday, July 27, 2008

"Local River" Mathieu Lehanneur with Anthony van den Bossche




How cool is that!
Love the whole concept, the music, the video editing, the herbs, the glass tank .........

but not the eel though........

I will definitely replace the eel with a different type of fish if i am installing one in my living room!

Click on the Title to go to the Artist website!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Web banner

SilverMonk Web Banner

I have been contemplating of redesign my web banner for a while now. My style have been changed or should I say "evolved" quite a bit since i first started. I found out from Etsy forum that you can use power point to made a web banner, and here it is!

After i uploaded my web banner to my site and have a peek at the Etsy Treasury and I was surprised to see this beautiful Treasury by abbagesandkingsArt. My Songline pendant is among all those wonderful pieces. Go and check it out .........

SilverMonk Treasury

As you can tell Charcoal and Orange are my 2 favourite colour combination at the moment.

Thank you cabbagesandkingsArt !

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Up lifting experience



I was contacted by Melissa from the Wesley Mission in Sydney to make some necklaces and badges. It was a very simple commision piece, simply just use their Dove Logo.

The Dove is such a simple and beautiful image. It was a really uplifting experience to make the Dove badges and the necklaces.

I used 1 mm thick sterling silver sheet to cut out the shape and the wing span of the Dove is about 25mm! I also made two different Dove necklaces just to have a different feel of the piece!

Years ago, I took Rod to Wesley Mission's Sunday service in the City for his father's day present and there you go. Who would think that i will have the chance to work with them years later......

Its all good!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Cockatoo Island-Biennale of Sydney 08





The 2 weeks school winter break almost zoom passed just like that...........

I am grad that we managed to have a fun trip to the Cockatoo island.
It was a great day out, the weather was fantastic and the kids ran wild on the island, just don't ask me about the art installations.........

well, on the way to one of them, we were warned that it was not child friendly........
The one with the sails were cool, but the kids were warned that "no touching........."
We were closly followed by a lady with a walkie talkie when the kids were a bit over excited about the upside down boomerang boat.......

So we decided it's time to go outside and the kids were having real fun throwing rocks into the harbour!!!

Honestly, Cockatoo Island is full of industrial characters and if you love heavy rusty machinery, it is for you, they are just as good as any art installation.......