This post explains how I made my emotional support soft toy mascot, and why I made it.

Meet my soft toy cat Blu. She stands 5 inch tall. She has pink wobbly eyes (craft accessory bought from a store). Her limbs are cut from felt. Her nose and mouth are sewn on by embroidery. I made my own soft toy to add meaning to her value as my mascot.

You may wonder what is the point of having a soft toy and why I made it. The following flowchart explains it.

Flowchart explains the problem of stress and the brainstorming to tackle the issue.

Flowchart on HOW TO MAKE 3-DIMENSIONAL SOFT TOY

Decide on size of soft toy.

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Draw out the paper pattern on tracing paper or blank paper.

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Cut out the paper pattern.

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Trace the pattern onto desired piece of fabric.

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Double fold the fabric before cutting because two pieces are needed to sew for the front and back of the soft toy.

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Take one piece of fabric and place its right side upwards to face you.

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Draw your soft toy animal’s facial features.

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Sew embroidery to accentuate these features, or use acrylic paint to highlight facial features.

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If you used paint, wait for it to dry before proceeding to the next step.

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If your soft toy has limbs like the cat in the photo, you have to sew on the limbs at this stage.

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Place the right sides of the cut-out facing each other.

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Sew on the wrong side which is facing you. Leave a hole around 2 inches wide, to invert the fabric.

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Invert the fabric through the hole. The right side of the face would be facing you.

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Put filler stuffing into the gap. How much filler depends on your preference.

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Sew shut the hole using small, neat stitches.

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Viola! Welcome your soft toy into your home.

Please share your life with your soft toy. She can become your friend who provides some emotional support, as well as psychological support. Never sit alone again. Sit your soft toy at your table/ chair/ bed/kitchen.

You may have bought at least one soft toy from a store, or made one. Please share a photo of your soft toy.

The above is another handmade soft toy.

If you prefer a professionally made soft toy, I recommend this Hello Kitty in a Pusheen playsuit (jumpsuit). Here’s mine with Blu.

P.S. I may receive a small commission if you buy something through this link.

If my statistics is anything to go by, it implies roughly 79% of authors don’t read book reviews of their own books.

Authors who read book reviews of their own books compose 21%.

Bar graph shows number of authors who don’t read book reviews of their own books versus those who read reviews of their own books

If a book reviewer is sycophantic and expects to make good into the author’s “book of graces” they will be disappointed 79% of the time.

Have you collected your own data? Have you drawn your graphs? Please share by pointing a link to your url.

This is where you may like to get some graph paper. This type of paper is multi-functional. The grid helps you to draw too.

Disclaimer – I might be given a few cents if someone actually buys from this link. Thank you.

Buy her book at https://www.amazon.com/Barberry-Honey-YA-ebook/dp/B09S8NN2CT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14D5OHM13EA5J&keywords=barberry+honey+book&qid=1645722121&s=digital-text&sprefix=barberry+honey+book%2Cdigital-text%2C305&sr=1-1

It starts with a coffee. Because who doesn’t need one?

Then David meets a pan handler who spits metaphors like a seer.

David fishes around for a room to rent.

Unfortunately, he is not as lucky as the blonde in this picture.

He smokes to reduce personal stress.

David often asks a haunting question – what really happens to the parcels his post office is supposed to deliver? He asks his boss, the mysterious AB. The Universe arranged the meeting with the boss’ son, Kai, in a synchronicity of chance meetings. David seizes his golden opportunity to ask Kai, the same haunting question.

You guessed it. Kai side steps the question. Instead, he offers an olive branch. By way of exam answers for David’s Year 3 economics exams, because Synchronicity has made David and Kai share the same subject they study in university. Synchronicity is beautiful and convenient. But is it cheating?

One night, David wanders around lost, failing to locate his Aunt Alice’s house, where he hoped to spend the night. By another stroke of sheer synchronicity, he sees a logistics vehicle from his company Ginkgo. He had been suspecting his company was hiding the true nature of its operations. He retrieves a package dropped off by Ginkgo and opens it. He is surprised to see a jar of Barberry Honey. At this moment, its revealed the importance of the title of this novel – Barberry Honey. It is the crux of Ginkgo and what binds everyone together.

Luck runs out for David as he is caught for pilfering the mail box, by a patrolling policeman.

Kai rescues David because his father instructed him to do so. This move fits into the bigger picture in. Wonderful synchronicity again. Accommodation falls into David’s lap. This set up throws David and Kai together. The former presses for the truth behind Ginkgo and learns it. He asks Kai to be let into this inner circle.

This is how I imagine good friends enjoying each other’s company.

Kai reveals the true nature of Barberry Honey, and why he promotes it as a substitute to help lives. He is not the spoiled rich son and heir to his father’s drug empire. He has his own honorable mission.

The special goods are delivered via their own logistics network. Kai and David weigh and pack the parcels.

Contrary to expectation, there are older men working in the trade too. They have been faithful workers their entire working life and are nearing retirement. One such man is named Kind. He was set up to take the hit twice. The first didn’t kill him. So he was set up again. David was tested to show his loyalty, by obeying AB’s order, to kill Kind.

This novel has a drug cartel in its plot. It warns against the dangers of consuming drugs and selling them. If you dream of. Being addicted to drugs, one of the common meanings is that you may have a Low self-esteem. You dream of using substances as a crutch, in lieu of a strong self esteem. This blog has a category dedicated to Dream Interpretation. An old post has some info:

Here are more dream symbols and their meanings:

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This book warns us not to judge a man by his external actions. Kai is a good man trying to redeem himself.

Pictorial book review continues here. Please return for more updates. Thank you.

Read more about The Interpretation of Dreams, by S. Freud:

Disclosure:

I may receive a small commission if you buy. A product via this link.

Reference

Freud, s. (2010). The Interpretation of Dreams. Basic Books: New York.

This is a book review on “Fieldnotes of a Psychiatrist”, written by Dr. Chong Siow Ann. He worked in a mental health hospital.

Patients face dying from terminal illnesses. Non-patients may only have brief moments to realise their life is going to be taken from them by calamity, or man made tragedy. In the face of death from either cause, do we go without a fight?

What if the dying do not know their light is withering? Should the healthy tell the dying? Would the dying want to know they are leaving us?

Dr. Chong asks provocative questions as he shares with readers his experiences. There is do definite resolution as he explains how he has regrets on not informing his father of his terminal illness. Even. At the elderly man’s deathbed, Dr. Chong didn’t talk to his father directly about impending death.

The common man and woman on the street think its evil to incarcerate a patient in a mental hospitals, which is actually a thin guise for an asylum. But the stark reality is that there is no other practical way of ensuring the safety of the patient and of the people around them, except by placing the patient under lock and watch. In fact, you can save the patient’s life.

Dr. Chong discusses many questions commonly encountered by patients and doctors. He writes from both perspectives – as a doctor, and as a patient.

It’s an interesting book. Get it here:

Disclosure:

If you buy a book from this link, I may receive a small commission.

James Tan wrote and illustrated a graphic novella on dying and palliative care. His booklet, drawn in comic strip panel style, leans heavily towards the choice to die with dignity.

His booklet highlights the story of a terminally ill, old male patient, who expressed his wish to die without invasive intervention to resuscitate him. The elderly man’s family was divided over letting him die gently, versus using. Intervention to prolong his disease laden life.

Mr. Tan interviewed four medical doctors before writing his draft for All Death Matters.

This booklet “All Death Matters” is not for sale. I received a free copy by contacting the distributor, Lien Foundation.

Reference:

Chong, S. A. (2018) Fieldnotes Of A Psychiatrist. Straits Times Press: Singapore.

Tan, J. (2020). All Death Matters. Lien Foundation: Singapore.

There is a moral lesson in this – Leave well alone. Women, don’t challenge your man’s ego. Mr. Park is a pastor and yet he committed suicide after he was egged on by his wife, to confront a neighbor over their sound box blasting loud music.

Park’s wife, and daughters Rosemary and Mira, are left floundering, as they try to carry on. Mrs Park had never assimilated into American culture. She desperately tries to make preparations to return to Korea. Her daughters try to sabotage her plans to sell their home, by making it undesirable for house viewing. They know that once their Mom gets money from the sale, they would be dragged back into Korea. They finally succeed in their clandestine operation, when their home blows up in a fiery inferno.

The orphans invite themselves into their elderly neighbour, Raymond van der Holt’s home. They ingratiate themselves into his routine and prove themselves useful as housemates. In this way, Rosemary and Miracle “Mira” Park get a repeat of their American dream. They get to stay on in America AND get adopted by a reasonably wealthy benefactor.

Sandi Tan’s creative writing entertains.

I have drawn fan art in a series of creative book reviews for Lurkers. To see these posts, use the keyword Lurkers in the searchbox.

Disclosure: If you buy from this link, I may receive a small commission from Amazon.

Drama teacher Mr. Z drives a Nissan Maxima. He offered a lift to Rosemary Park (Lurkers, p. 49). Unknown to her, he befriends her to groom her into becoming his co-operative protege. Read on to discover what lies in store for Rosemary.

Updated –

I finished the book Lurkers. Mr. Z fails to live up to Rosemary’s expectations. He fails himself. He could not and did not come to Rosemary’s rescue when she pleaded to him to help her stay on in America. Her recently widowed mother, Mrs Park, wants to forcibly take them back to Korea.

Mr. Z groomed Rosemary to “de-flower”. Her eventual saviour was unexpectedly the reclusive neighbor.

Disclosure: If you buy a book from this link, I may get a small #PaidCommissions.

A “pink china jug with a sun-yellow rim”. (On Beauty, Zadie Smith, p. 8)

I think this is an awkward looking jug, drawn as per Smith’s description.

Howard Belsen and Kiki Simmons, “Their only daughter, Zara, sat on a stool with her back to the room, her earphones on, “ looking up reverentially at the television.” (On Beauty, Zadie Smith, p. 7-8).

Fan art illustration:

Rosemary Park thought her drama teacher Bryce Zehring “looked like a handsome JFK”.

It was cryptic that Mr. Z offered to be Rosemary’s friend. Further along in the book, we can expect to see whether Rosemary accepts his invitation.

Mr. Z:

Disclosure: Small commission maybe paid to blog owner if a purchase is made via this link.