创意微景观

话说我妹夫迷上terrarium并传染给我，我因而“不小心”在淘宝买了“几样”饰物。由于中国货运agent出错，我痴痴地等了好久才终于在上个星期收到我们购买的微景观饰品。

可恨的是我的沙石终究还是没运到。我空有饰品却没法子给我的空风们一个新家。我筹措了几天，终于决定改定方向，今天弄个小小的混合微景观。

我在玻璃瓶里放了泥土（原本想放沙石的，比较干净），在院子里拔了几棵带花的小草种在一角，希望它们可以茁壮成长天天开花。

在瓶子的另一边铺上小石子，插上一棵樱花树，再把两只小绵羊安在树下，我的小小空风就有个新家啦~

很有生气的感觉

What Assurance Does a Consumer Have?

I've blogged about the good experience I have with Lazada Malaysia, Taobao and Threadless. Of course, I do have bad online shopping experience too.

On 18th Nov 2014, I helped my friend to buy a Xiaomi Mi4 16GB smartphone for his son's Christmas present from Groupon Malaysia. Groupon promised that they will deliver the product within 20 days from date of purchase. 

On 5th Dec 2014, Groupon sent an email saying that “due to unforeseen packaging and delivery issues , Groupon is currently in the midst of proceeding with deliveries, and you will be receiving your purchased item(s) latest by 18-Dec,2014”. 

Until 17th Dec 2014, there's still no sign of the Mi4 so we sent email and called to check the delivery status. The girl on the phone seemed clueless.  

On 21st Dec 2014, finally received the official reply from Groupon saying that “I just wanted to get in touch to let you know that we’re in the process of following up your query. We haven’t found a solution to your case yet, but we hope to have something for you very soon. As soon as we have some news, I or one of my senior colleagues will get back to you.”

On 23rd Dec 2014, I received another email from Groupon saying “Because the product you ordered will be distributed by one of these third-party companies, it could take a few days for all of the orders to be fulfilled. Extremely popular products may also take a bit longer to ship than others. Please be informed that we have escalated this matter to the relevant department to investigate from their end. As soon as we get a resolution we will update you accordingly.” 

On Christmas eve, at 5:43pm!!! Groupon announced that “Unfortunately, we weren't able to get enough inventory to deliver your Groupon Goods order as promised. Also we aren't able to offer exchanges or replacements at this time due to limited inventory. I have now cancelled your Groupon and our partner has already been informed that this Groupon is no longer valid. I have also sent request to our payment service provider to refund the amount of RM1,199 back to your method of payment. Please allow up to 14 working days (excluding Sat, Sun and PH) for the amount to reflect in your account statement.”

Customers have to pay on the spot when they make any orders on Groupon Malaysia. When Groupon Malaysia failed to deliver as per promised, customers have to wait for 14 working days (More than 3 weeks!!) for the refund. What is the logic? Why do customers have to suffer because of the blunder Groupon Malaysia made? Who is accountable in this case?

I would expect a company as big as Groupon Malaysia would control the 'deal' subscriptions, where it should be capped in advance to a reasonable number that they can handle. I still cannot believe that they have to wait until Christmas eve 5:43pm to announce that they are not able to get enough inventory to deliver!

Worse still, when I check for “Xiaomi Mi4 16GB Smartphone” on Google on 30th Dec 2014, I can still see this good available on their website (see print screen below)!

Why Groupon Malaysia still selling goods that they do not have enough inventory to deliver to their customers?
Why do they collect money from consumers for products that they knew they cannot deliver within 20 days from date of purchase as per promised to consumers?

I have a very bad feeling about this. What assurance does a consumer have if this company shutdown?

Having Fun with Clip-On Lens

Mid of December, my brother shopped online and found himself something nice on Lazada Malaysia for RM50. However, he needed another RM30 of purchase to get free shipment so he turned to his sisters as usual.

We had nothing particular in our mind so the first thing we did is to browse for toys and baby gears. While browsing, we talked about our mutual friend's latest posts on FB where he took marvelous photos with his newly bought clip on lens. Eureka! We shopped for universal clip-on lens for our phone and totally forgot about the baby in the house :)

We placed order on 15th Dec and got our new toys on 18th Dec. Pretty good service from Lazada I'll say.

My LIEQI Universal Clip Lens comes with a clip, a wide angle / macro lens, a fisheye lens and a pouch. (The wide Wide Angle / Macro Lens is a 2-in-1 device, where the Macro lens available by unscrewing the Wide-Angle lens.)

It fits well on our phones and iPads. What I love about this new toy is that it is light, easy to carry around, and most importantly, the quality is not bad at all (for the price of RM29 per set)!

The wide angle lens has nothing to shout about but I have no complaints! (reminder: RM29 per set!)
Fisheye lens is fun to play with but my favorite is the macro lens.

Here are some photos for your reference:

Normal phone camera

With clip-on wide angle lens

With clip-on Fish Eye lens

macro - strawberry close up

macro - grass1

macro - grass2

macro - grass3

macro - flowers of pegaga

macro lens - airplant baby

macro lens - wild flower

macro lens - flower bud

macro lens - 煤炭屎鬼

This set could replace my bulky DSLR on normal days, and I can still have fun with photography.

微景观初体验

一切缘起于我妹夫……

他因妻儿短期不在身边，突然间多了些空余时间，不知怎的迷上terrarium。他老婆人在大山脚心在老公身边，为此很努力地在淘宝寻找和terrarium有关的物品。很不小心的，我也因而被那些可爱的玩意儿迷倒，到淘宝败了几个。

双十二下的订单，正好赶上Boxing Day到达。包装很好，我们基本上满意得很。

看见藓苔仍让青绿新鲜，顿时松了一口气。

我本身买了两个，一个是可爱的雨滴小盆（难度：零），打算放在办公室娱人娱己，并为办公室增添生气。

那浇水器是个云朵状的器皿，浇水时把清水往里头灌，雨滴就会慢慢形成。

龙猫撑着伞、小女孩穿雨衣，人造雨水滴滴答答，非常有童趣。

没事可以在办公室里“赏雨”。随时可以诗情画意一番。


可怜这些苔藓闷在箱子几个星期了。近来天天细雨绵绵，正好让它们淋雨去，并呼吸新鲜空气。

雨中撑伞的龙猫迷倒不少阿姨叔叔哦！

我买的另一个是“升级版回家中圆瓶”。必须自己作landscaping，多多少少有一点儿难度。

整套包含苔藓、圆瓶、装饰品、工具

首先，依照指示铺上一层轻石。

把水苔泡浸在水里一分钟后铺在轻石上。（别把整包的水苔都泡进水里，材料包里头的材料都比所需的来得多）

过后再铺上种植土。由于这“升级版回家”是斜坡设计，在铺放种植土时，可以用随这苔藓微景观DIY套装附送的汤匙，以设计陡斜度。

而随这苔藓微景观DIY套装附送的毛刷正可以用来清理粘在玻璃瓶上的沙土。铺上苔藓、把摆设品随自己喜好摆进瓶子里便可。

可爱吗？

最后，为苔藓喷一喷清水，再把木塞给盖上，迷你生态系统就完成啦！苔藓可以进行光和作用，泥土内的水分又可蒸发并凝结于瓶身，再循环为苔藓所需的水分。适合懒人呢！

DIY玻璃小屋制作心得（三）

由于没有玻璃屋，我的爱琴海小屋一直被我忽略在一旁，直到那天我收到PP的大礼……

是玻璃屋哦！

我虽然没做好准备，但实在兴奋，就迫不及待地装上沙子。满怀期待的开始继续制作……

这爱琴海小屋原是声控电灯，但因我一时大意，收货时没小心检查，把灯泡都装上了，这才发觉电板坏了。我只好稍微更改，把它改成我的airplant微景观。

很不错哦！我挺满意的。


DIY玻璃小屋制作心得（一）
DIY玻璃小屋制作心得（二）

马宝宝手套脚套(三)

马宝宝手套脚套的最后一个步骤，就是缝两只马儿，再缝到脚套上。由于这是我三十八年来第一次认真地玩女红手艺，做出来的马儿惨不忍睹，头型、脸蛋都不成形，真叫人沮丧。

不过，总不可能在这最后阶段放弃，这就准备用藏针法把马儿缝上脚套啦~

Ta~da~ 马宝宝脚套终于完成。虽然被我缝得一幅四不像的模样（我弟还安慰我说“ok啦~还蛮像牛的”），但反正收礼物的人不敢嫌弃，哈哈，我shiok sendiri就好了。

马宝宝手套脚套（一）

马宝宝手套脚套（二）

马宝宝手套脚套（三）

马宝宝手套脚套(二)

话说我的马宝宝手套躲在盒子里好几个星期了，我这终于做了一对脚套来陪伴。

首先，把要用的布料从材料包里取出。再把要用的部分剪出即可。

这是脚套布料，把正面相对，就可依着边缝起。

为了不让宝宝的脚触及缝合处不适，要做好一边脚套就得缝两个一模一样的，一个正面，一个反面，再把反面的那一个塞进正面的那一个里头，再把橡筋缝在这两块布之间。听起来好像很容易对不？我可缝了一个下午！

Tada!!一对脚套完成啦～

当然，这还没完成，否则怎么称得上马宝宝脚套？于是又缝了可爱马头形状，塞上棉花（也是材料包里头给的），再以藏针法缝合。

成型咯～

今天女红节到此结束，改天再继续努力吧。

马宝宝手套脚套（一）

马宝宝手套脚套（二）

马宝宝手套脚套（三）

马宝宝手套脚套(一)

手工从来不是我的强项，女红更是惨不忍睹。
我之所以会动念想要缝歌手套脚套，完完全全是在兴奋雀跃的状态下决定挑战自己。

话说我自以为很能干地在淘宝找了一对可爱的婴儿手套脚套， 四月中就已经收货，收到时兴奋莫名，却迟迟鼓不起勇气开始缝制……

马宝宝手套脚套材料包

在六月的某一个周末，我鼓起勇气，提了妈妈的女红工具箱，泡了一杯美禄冰就到院子里开工去。

这材料包的布料全已剪好，我的工作只是把这些零零碎碎的布料缝成一块儿。我从小除了偶尔钉钮之外不碰针线，这材料包内的制作讲解读得我满头雾水，什么平针法、藏针法等，读了感觉像在读武功秘籍，若不到Youtube上学学我还真是一筹莫展。

手套雏形出来啦

看起来真的很不错

花了约两个小时半才终于完成一边。（至少45分钟是花在想象针法！）

约四个小时半后终于完成了一对手套。连我妈都觉得我厉害得不可思议！

说起来我还真喜欢这布料，毛茸茸的，手缝痕迹都藏在毛里头，手工不好并不显眼噢！我还真满意。哈哈！

至于脚套……下回分晓。

马宝宝手套脚套（一）

马宝宝手套脚套（二）

马宝宝手套脚套（三）