We were at Jusco supermarket shopping for Lamy abc that was on sale when I came across this new range of Unicorn Colors Notebook.  It first caught my attention with the range of attractive colors mini notebook.  Ranging from Bright Pink to Refreshing Green, all imaginable attractive colors are available.  I spotted the Black Large notebook that looked like a Moleskine.  Picked it up and the hard cover felt like a mole.

Currently I could only find this notebook at Jusco, despite my numerous attempt to contact the company Unicorn for more details, I dont seam to find this notebook being sold elsewhere.  The notebook came with an Expandable Inner Pocket like a typical style moleskine and it has an Elastic band holding the entire book tight.  The book has 96 plan 80gm paper and it responded quite well with my Lamy Safari.  There were no smear through at the reverse side, nor were they any bleed through to the bottom sheet. The notebook was priced at RM19.90, much cheaper than some of the competitions.

[Show as slideshow]

vladstudio over at deviantART released a new wallpaper titled “The Traveling Tree”.  This new header brings a refreshing green and blue to the blog design.  As I have been itching to change the entire blog design, I have yet to find inspiration.  The Travelling Tree brings a new breath and helps to brighten the blog design and helps to fill the gap while I search for a fresh look.

Photo Artist – jplacson

Windows 7 icons extracted from the Professional Developer’s Conference release. Thanks to Mheltin, we now can enjoy the latest Windows 7 icons on our computers. It sure looks much better than Vista, but still fall back behind some of the icons created by deviantartist.

Link

Fancy super heroes as your dock icons, mermer has come up with a set of cute and shinny little dock icons. From Iron Man, to Hulk, X-men, Fantastic 4, from Captian America to the Punisher, Spiderman and the Ghost Rider. They are pretty awesome and every super heroes fan must have. Oh, they have reflections too, makes it a little more 3d… its just every dock icon must have these days…

Link

JG Visuals have came up with a set of pretty neat looking visual styles.  There were 3 color schemes named differently and the finishing was rather detailed with options of light or dark backgrounds and the title/top bar look.  The slim version was awesome, though I could not get used to it… its still pretty neat.  This is a keeper and worth a try. 

Link

My brother inlaw wedding was around the corner, next week to be exact and the thing about the door gift for his wedding was still uncertain. May Lin offered to make door gifts through mum and the closest we got to a yes was the brother said he will called back to confirm. Our initial thought was to make potpourri, something nice for the guest to take away. That was last week, and almost the end of the wedding gift idea or offer since we did not receive any call back. Saturday morning, as usual, we set out to our usual B’fast, and after that, we didn’t want to just go back, so we went over to OneStop, one of the ailing shopping mall in Penang where we rarely visits. On the concourse, there was a China Vase exibit/sale, a nice Chinese Vase as a wedding gift perhaps, well, we found ceramic chopsticks, and beautifully painted chopsticks I must add. This was the beginning of the weekend quest. The price was reasonable, and it was somewhere close to what we paid for when we made our own wedding dinner door gifts. Before this, May Lin’s colleague already tip her about a Chinese wedding ‘stuff’ shop near Komtar. So, after One Stop, we went over to this place and found chopsticks as well, nicely decorated and packed, And the price was also reasonable, cheaper than what we paid for when we DIY. It was between wooden chopsticks and ceramics, and price in fact almost the same, we went for ceramics.

Before we went back, a quick phone call to the brother to ensure he has not made or ordered his door gifts yet. Back to OneStop, we manage to bargain the price down to almost the targeted level. We bought 250 pairs, for 25 tables. The chopsticks were plain and did not have any gloves or anything to keep them together. It was bought bulk anyway, and not fit to be just given like this. So we first added some ribbon decorations, and later a sticker as a thank you note. The ribbons we got it from Popular Bookstore and the red string (elastic) was from Kamdar. The sticker was printed on the spot over at Gurney Plaza, a small stall that offer sticker printing. Saturday was a shopping day. When we got back, it was already rather late, so we did not get much done. By Monday, all was done, then we felt something that was missing. During my wedding, I had a small card made stating the significance of chopsticks, and we tie a card to every pair. It was too late to do the same, so we printed 25 A4 size cards to be folded and place on each tables, the cards again was bought from Popular Bookshop. The result, as shown in the pictures. It took our entire weekend to finish all 250 pairs, but it was fun and fulfilling. Anyone else interested in Chopsticks as a wedding gifts, we don’t mind taking orders.

After yesterday’s rant, I felt a little better and the craving seams to have subside.  Then, on a follow on message over at facebook, GP forwarded me another couple of sites who post their moleskine drawings on their blog, and I am hooked again.  One side of me screams to get one, another side screams that it is not pratical.  i dont paint, and I dont write, and I have only plans for it to be a scrap book only.  And so, I thought maybe I rant on moleskine again today, I can shake off some of the cravings away. 

If only I have discovered molekine during my university days, I would have a wonderful book for my friends to write some few words before parting.  Instead,  I handed them an ordinary notebook.  It was a desperation as it was already end of the semester and everyone is leaving.  I got to get a book for them to write, and I just grab the best book off the student shop at the refectory.  It was nice, but moleskine would have been nicer.

If only I have discovered moleskine after graduation, i would have a wonderful travel book on Europe.  Subsequently, another wonderful travel book on US and last year Japan.  In use, i pathetically printed a booklet with compiled photos and web clips.  It was nice, but after a few months, the color faded and now, I am left with blank pages of once a nice remembrance of the time I had in the US.  If I had a moleskine then, I could still bring it out now and then to dwell on yesteryears.  On Japan, just days before leaving, I went to the study and grab a notebook I kept from my previous company.  It was a fab paper notebook where it does not shed any paper flakes.  We filled it up with chops or some called it stamps from all the tourist spots in Tokyo.  It was nice, but moleksine would have been nicer. 

Check out moleskine over at youtube and flickr. I love those arts, just can’t get enough of it.  At the end of the day, it was the art created by individuals, and not the moleskine that was great.  Moleskine was just a medium or a tool to those arts.  So, why am I craving for a medium? I am crazy…

Photo Attribution: China Guccio