making of broylim Birthday ~TOY MUSEUM~

making of | PART 1 | PART 2 | Presents (Part 1) | Presents (Part 2)

It's been almost 2 weeks since TOY MUSEUM and I'm so sorry for delaying this post till this time. Was meant to update this in my old tumblr blog but since I've finally got "word shutter" to the way I want it to look, I can finally do some writing now.

Anyway, in case you didn't know, on April 2, 2011, I celebrated my 21st birthday with my family and friends at Downtown East's K-BOX at e!Hub and it was a blast. The theme of the event was, yes that's right~ TOYS!

The reason why I picked the title TOY MUSEUM is very simple; kids nowadays do not play with toys. Just take a look! When you're on the train or on the go, you will see kids playing things called technology. iPads, iPhones, PSP, you name it. Kids nowadays are so different from back then where we fiddled with Power Rangers, balls, dolls, etc; the creativity.

Therefore, TOY MUSEUM was to remind us how it feels like back then when we were still using our imagination to play, to tell stories to ourselves and to remind us that we all had a childhood once. I made my guests bring their toys along and many of them were like "WHAT THE..." because I caught them off guard. Many of them no longer own toys but eventually, many of them still turned up with the requirements.

I hope TOY MUSEUM achieved it's objective though; to remind ourselves of our youth and even though I'm already 21 this year, I will still be reminded of the child within me... The innocence, creative and imaginative person within me that defines who I am.



Now, back to the making of. In case you're unaware of my blogging style because you're new to me or my blogs, I blog with tons of photos and I really hope you enjoy them. If you want to see my past entries, hit on the "new album 2" tab just under this blog's title to see my previous blog.

As previously mentioned, the theme of this event centrals around toys. Therefore, my preparations is based on that concept. TOY MUSEUM is also a platform for me to fulfill one of my dreams of holding my own concert (hehe~) and that's another point that I took note of when I was preparing.

So... First of all, the "door" gifts...

I'm loving this new blog because I get to post really huge photos! I went to Daiso to get these balls as door gifts. And this is what I did with them...

I wrote on them! These gifts were inspired by ayumi hamasaki's concert where she autographs plastic balls and threw at her fans and that's exactly what I did~ In total, I signed and written on 70 balls and here are some of the photos of the writings.

I wrote in both English and Japanese~ :D

There's a reason why I picked a yellow ball to "proclaim" as a limited edition because in every 10 balls per pack, there were 3 yellows, 3 reds followed by 2 blues and 2 greens; there were more yellows and reds than blues and greens. So in order to make it "fairer", I made this yellow one a limited edition one~

Signing these balls were really fun because I got a chance to write lots of nonsensical stuff on them. This one just has my name on it. Besides writing junk and my name on these balls, I wrote "Thank you" as well to thank my guests for attending my event (as well as their presents). Hopefully this is sincere enough though...

And of course, I saved the last ball for the best.

The venue is one of the most important things to plan for this event, in my opinion, because it took me the longest to confirm but eventually, I settled for K-BOX at Downtown East because it the room was extremely huge! It features a pool table, a projector screen and lots of space for the guests to sit around and hang out.

Best of all, this room can house up to 90 people! Isn't that the biggest room you have ever seen? In fact, one week before the actual event, I went down to see the venue for myself and I was like "GOSH!!" These photos were taken during the final settlements of the venue and the staff allowed me to go check out the place and it was really helpful because at least I know what to put where.

Bar counters! More space for people to sit around. Though it was quite expensive to hold an event here, I think it was quite worth it because it includes a dinner buffet spread, lots of drinks (alcohol included though I don't drink) and of course, loads of fun and loud music!

Moving on... On the day before the actual event, I went out with my cousins and siblings to do some last minute shopping for decorations and other random things. Went over to Sheena's house in the afternoon so that we can go over to Bugis to meet the rest. Qiqi entertained me while I was waiting. She's so sweet because she jumped onto my lap and rested on them so I could take this photo of her! If only Maomao does this...

As usual, Sheena took forever to get herself ready so I had to wait for her. When she was finally done, we left for Bugis on a cab but before that, I took this stunning photo of Qiqi~ :D

When you go out with a bunch of girls, especially when they are your cousins, you should be prepared to wait. When we reached Bugis, that's what Sheena and I did. We waited for Laura, Rena, Vera and Leon to arrive. While waiting, I had my first KOI bubble tea~ Thanks Sheena, for the treat~

Honestly, I have no idea what's the craze with the KOI bubble tea because to me, it tastes like regular bubble tea with just slightly more expensive ingredients in it. Furthermore, the queue was ridiculously long and we had to take queue numbers.

Part of their sign board. Cute graphics.

After waiting for quite awhile, we finally got our tea! If I didn't remember wrongly, I had this tea with ice cream in it and it was really creamy. Pretty pricey too. I would only recommend this if you have too much time to spend and you don't mind waiting forever for your drink. Sorry but KOI just doesn't really appeal to me...

And so, the rest finally arrived and girls being girls had to visit the toilet of every single shopping mall they go to. While waiting, we took photos and here's Rena and me~

Even though I had walked past this Bugis area for don't-know-how-many-thousand-times, it had never occurred to me that I will actually visit these party supplies stores. My cousins were the one who suggested that I start here for my supplies because the selection is huge!

In terms of pricing though, I have no idea whether they are reasonable but I feel that the items are priced at a comfortable level. See those plastic balls in the photo? Should have gotten them here because they come in packets of 100!! No idea how much they cost though. I must say that these stores are quite well stocked; there's nothing that you cannot find here! Streamers, sparklers, light sticks, huge selection of balloons, masks, gifts, candies, decorations, confetti, etc etc~ If you want to plan for a party, drop by this place to do your research! You will definitely be inspired~

After shopping for some stuff, we went over to Bugis Street (ugh I hate Bugis Street and almost fainted inside due to lack of oxygen) to walk around. Notice what an EXPERT I am at capturing unglam photos of my cousins, Laura and Rena, who are incidentally my models for some of my shoots. :P

Surviving Bugis Street, we went for dinner at Bugis Junction's food court. Luckily, it wasn't as crowded as we expected it to be and had one of the most mediocre fish soups at one of the most high class food courts in Singapore ever. The amount of fish slices was pretty generous but the soup was a mess. Nothing special to it and the tomato was not even red! Not recommended.

After dinner, Laura and Sheena went off first because they had other things to settle, leaving Vera, Leon, Rena and myself to shop for the remaining items. Walked over to Bras Basah complex to shop for some art supplies for my guest book. Actually, we thought that the Popular bookstore there was closed until we saw a woman inside from a street away and when we did, we RAN over before it closes to get...

These! My guest book~ Instead of getting a typical book, we decided to go for this photo album where the guests will write on origami paper and stick it into this album. It will also allow me to develop photos of the party to put inside; a win win creation! But until today, weeks after the party, I have not selected the photos to develop... :P Too lazy~

Other than the album, I bought 2 party cannons for the final act of the party. :)

And lots of balloons~ Regret getting those pumps because they didn't really help on the actual day anyway...



Now, to the actual day's preparation...

Rena and Vera brought Barbie Dolls to decorate the place! It's been ages since I've seen these messy hair women dolls and it was awesome! The ones on the left belongs to Rena while the hair disasters on the right belongs to Vera. I still remember that the Kelly on the right actually has chicken poxes if you rub warm water on her face. Really interesting and innovative toy~

Chua Ying Ying was meant to rehearse some of her songs but she ended up playing pool... -_-"

I was lucky to have lots of people to help me prepare the decorations for the event and here, Leon's blowing up and tying the balloons that I bought the day before the event. See those floor mats? They were stuck onto the green screen in the room to create a backdrop for our photo shoots.

Many thanks to Rena and Alvin for the creative direction and for sticking these colorful mats onto the green screen.

The balloons that my friends and family helped blow. Thank you Vera, Leon, Rena, Alvin, Raven and other cousins for helping out!!

The balloon is bigger than Vera.

My personal wireless microphone with Orange tied around it with a golden ribbon~ Really adorable accessory to the dull looking stick and totally fitting to the theme. :)

The staff at K-BOX were really helpful in assisting me with this party and they were able to provide me with very much everything I asked for, for instance this table where I placed the guest book and pens on. They were really efficient and friendly. Without them, I don't think the event would have went as smoothly as it was. Anyway, I printed instructions on the front of the guest book for people to follow, in case they are clueless why an empty photo album is placed in front of them.

And the last photo of this entry; BACKSTAGE! There is actually a backstage behind the projector screen where I kept my stuff to keep the main ground clean. You should have seen how messy it was during the event because it was so messy you can hardly walk in here. Not to mention, it was dark and really crowded but oh well~ It's just a backstage.



Preparing for such a huge event with over 50 guests was not easy! In fact, I don't think I will ever be planning my own party ever again because there were so many details to look into~ Furthermore, because it's your own event, you will feel the stress in making sure everything is perfect. The food, the venue, the gifts, the experience, the camera man, the entertainment, etc etc... It wasn't easy! I rather be planning someone else's than my own honestly.

Well, stay tuned for the next update where I write more about the actual event. :)

making of | PART 1 | PART 2 | Presents (Part 1) | Presents (Part 2)

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