Swap-o-rama

Here's a couple of swaps I recently finished via craftster, I have been trying to keep swapping to a minimum in the months leading up to leaving Korea. However there was a cupcake swap and a rockabilly swap at the same time so I couldn't really resist.

First of all the rockabilly swap - here's the goodies I made for my partner.

First of a pair of cherry earrings and nautical themed bracelet. I especially love the bracelet and I think I may have to make another one for me.Next up is a cross-stitched passport cover. I am really happy with the way this one came out - it's a little altered from the original pattern but I think it's pretty cool.The grand final is a tiki/Hawiian style embriodered jacket! I didn't make the jacket as I fon't have a sewing machine and I'm not going to kid myself. I couldn't make a jacket anyway! However, I did embrioder the jacket by hand with a sexy hula girl and palm tree. My partner is in the UK and it's summer there so it's a light summer jacket and it's modelled in the photo's by yours truely.

Here's the goodies I recieved for the rockabilly swap - first of all a very cool zombie pin up doll. She's crochet and totally awesome, she's also getting on rather well with my crochet leather face doll I recieved in another swap.
I also recieved a pair of crochet cherry earrings - how cool are these? I have quite a lot of cherry earrings but none that are crochet. Very awesome. Finally a new furry home for my netbook - it's like my netbook lives in a muppet now!The second swap I took part in was a cupcake swap! My partner was a girl from Australia with a love of all things cupcake and gothic/horror movie related. Perhaps we were separated at birth?

Here's the things I made for the swap. First up I embellished a little tote bag with some zombie cupcakes and some skully bows.
I made a needle felted zombie cupcake for my partner, she has a zombie cupcake tattoo and this wee felted monster was inspired by her tattoo.

So my creation is quite different to her tattoo but it was my inspiration only - I didn't want to try and totally re-create it!Next up is some cupcake cross-stitch. Rich created the patterns for the cupcake cross-stitch and they are awesome! There is only one key ring - it's double sided and a little blue cupcake pillow.

I also made a little shrine/trinket box from an old mint box I had. The inside says "life is just a cup of cake" as that's the name of a cupcake store in Seoul.
I also made a couple of cupcake charms which I am so happy with, I think they came out really well.I also made this charm bracelet - it's got skulls on it which has nothing to do with cupcakes but I thought my partner would like it. She said she put it on as soon as she opened the package so it must be a winner.I also made these cute little cupcake earrings from some cupcake charms I bought at Dongdaemun markets - they are pretty simple but I think they work well.Finally I made this little "cake" from a Korean craft set I bought - it's just for fun but I thought it was super cute.Finally - here's what I recieved for the cupcake swap. Its a pretty great stash! First of all a ceramic cupcake jar, a cupcake plushie and some cupcake fabric. I think the fabric would make an awesome bolero - if only I had a sewing machine and the skill to make a bolero.Next item is a "skull cupcake" jewellery set - a necklace and some earrings. I love these - two of my favourite things in one.She also made me these cute cupcake fridge magnets and sent me some cupcake buttons which I don't seem to be able to get a good picture of!
Next up we have a charm bracelet - I'm really into bracelets at the moment as I can actually wear them and people can see them. I felt that when I was living in Wellington I was always wearing long sleeves so there was no point in wearing bracelets!

The clapse on this one is skull and bones and it has metal cupcakes as well as plastic ones my partner has made. The plastic ones spell out "cupcake" on one side and "Teresa" on the other. Finally, we have hairbows and more hairbows. I've worn the pink animal print and white skull one so far. I love them all though!

Dobongsan Hike

Last Sunday Rich and I decided to go hiking on Mt Dobongsan, although I have to admit I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.

I've done quite a bit of hiking and day walking back home in New Zealand, however, New Zealand has a pretty mild climate. I'm used to walking on relatively cool days with plenty of breeze. Last Sunday was really HOT for me - around 30 degrees! We drank a lot of water during the hike.

Also this hike was a lot more rocky than I'm used too - sure we have a lot of mountains in New Zealand but they generally the incline isn't that bad when you go hiking in the mountains.

However, this hike was very vertical and there was a lot of scrambling over rocks rather than actually hiking as well as pulling yourself up cliff faces with ropes or metal handrails.

It was a pretty hard hike and actually in many parts more of a climb than a hike which isn't my thing - I prefer walking!

But, it is quite beautiful (although I didn't fully appreciate it at the time) and we got to see an amazing Buddist temple at Mangwolsa.

Movies 37, 38 & 39

It's time for another movie update - last weekend we actually watched quite a lot of movies.

First up was "The Runaways" - I didn't know much about The Runaways before watching this movie apart from the fact Joan Jett was part of the group. I also didn't know very much about the movie itself.

I really liked this movie, there's nothing like a group of girls kicking rock n roll butt, even if the band ends up falling apart in the movie.
The next movie we watched was "Splice" which I have been looking forward to watching forever. It's basically a tale about what happens when genetic research goes too far.

A couple of scientists are working on "splicing" different species, eventually they add human DNA to the mix and things get a little complicated when they make a totally new "creature".

This film had a couple of cringe worthy scenes, but generally, it was awesome. The special effects in this film are amazing.

If you're a horror or sci fi fan then this film is totally worth seeing.The last movie I watched was "Pontypool" which I also knew nothing about before I watched it. Basically it's another zombie viral outbreak, but this time the outbreak is spread by the English language! Yes, certain English words have become infected and if you use them you will become a zombie.

The film is set largely in a radio station studio - you don't see a lot of the zombies but you do get to hear what's happening outside.

It's a great idea but a little bit difficult to pull off in film, but I think this film really does it well.Finally, in a couple of weeks, Rich and I will be going to the Puchon Internation Fantastic Film Festival. I'll let you more about this soon but it should be an amazing weekend of crazy films.

New Togs!

I always wanted some vintage look togs (or a vintage look swimsuit if you're not from New Zealand) but I lived in Wellington which isn't the warmest part of New Zealand so I couldn't really justify the expense.

But we will soon be visiting Vietnam and while we are there I'll be Kayaking and for this I really need togs. My old togs were well past it and didn't make it to Korea and the chance of me finding togs which actually fit me here are, well, non-existant.

So, I decided it was time to buy some new togs - I bought them from one of my favourite websites Babygirl Boutique.

Last time the were super fast with their postage so they should be here in time for our trip to Vietnam (fingers crossed).

Vietnam, Hong Kong & Macau

We have now made our decision, seen as China won't give us a visa we have decided to go to Vietnam and spend our holiday money there seen as Vietnam is happy to give us a visa.

We have spoken to our lovely travel agent at Soho travel and have a pretty good deal on our flights, all we need to do now is arrange for a time to go and pay for our tickets and have some passport photo's taken for our visa's.

I've been looking at a few photo's of Vietnam and it looks pretty amazing. We will be there for six days, most of which will be spent in Hanoi.

We are also planning on doing an overnight trip with intrepid journey's to halong bay where we will spend an evening sleeping on a junk. I'm really excited about this as Halong bay looks so beautiful.

The we will be spending about three days in Hong Kong and will hopefully go over to Macau as well.

Well, there's our updated holiday plans. I still feel a little annoyed we can't go to China but I'm sure that Vietnam will be totally awesome too.

Macaroon Necklace

Just another quick crafty post - here's a macaroon necklace I made recently with a Korean craft kit.

I was thinking of wearing it with my cupcake dress tomorrow, but perhaps that's too many baked good for one outfit?

What a week!

This week has been a very long week, tomorrow I have what I sincerely hope will be my last open class in Korea. This time both Korean and Native English Speaking teachers are coming along. You would think that seen as this is my fifth open class I would be less nervous - but that's not the case at all.

My co-teachers and I made a seriously cheesy video to go along with the lesson too - if I can get a copy of the video I will post it here. I'm sure Rich and the other native teachers that are coming along will find it hilarous.

Because of the open class and all sorts of other work that has piled up on me (I still have to plan a 1 week summer camp for my extra class and I am not sure where I will find time to do that!) I am incredibly tired right now. The humid heat of the Korean summer isn't helping - although I would take the heat of this summer over a Wellington winter any day!

I also had some bad news in regard to our summer trip to China.

Any foriegner living and working in Korea you must apply for an Alien Resident Card (ARC) to show that you can legally work here and have the correct visa.

I have been in contact with a Korean travel agent over the past little while to book our trip, the agent asked me yesterday how much longer our ARC's were valid for as the Chinese Government is now refusing to grant visa's to foriegn workers from South Korea if their ARC is due to expire in less than six months.

Because our contract finish on 31 August our ARC's will expire on 1 September so we cannot get Chinese visa's and we cannot travel to China.

I feel so disappointed about this, I'm not sure why this decision has been made by Chinese customs either? I have had my heart set on going to China again since winter and I just feel so bummed out about it.

Rich and I have to replan our whole summer vacation which sucks a lot seen as we were hoping to book flights this week. I think now we will go from Vietnam to Hong Kong then back to Korea but I am really not sure - I will keep you all posted. One thing is certain - I will be going to Hong Kong!

However, this week hasn't been all bad, for one thing I got to be a judge an English Language Speech contest. I heard speeches about everything from deep sea creatures, the perils of having little sisters, The Korean War, how Korean can become a multicultural society and the joy of the jijilbang's.

It is incredible how well some of these kids can speak in English, especially the younger kids that are only 8 or 9 years old. I was seriously impressed.

Also, for those of you who don't know, Rich and I are planning on moving to Taiwan later this year. Our contract's will expire here in Korea on 31 August, after that we will go home for a week or two (or possibly longer depending on the new jobs). Then's it's off to live in Taiwan with all kinds of new challenges and adventures.This week, I had a really positive skype interview with a very large Taiwanese school and a couple of other recruiters are also very interested in me. So here's hoping I will have a new job soon!