>>> Happy Leap Day! <<<

Just had to blog this day! TTFN!

>>> Earthquake! <<<

OMG! I felt it! It happened just before 1am. Just lying in bed, waiting to doze off when suddenly I felt the bed shaking, then the room, accompanied by a low rumbling sound. I immediately guess it was earthquake as I had experienced something similar in 2000. One cannot ever forget the feeling of earthquake. It leaves you rooted to the ground (in my case, the bed), feeling extremely scared and totally helpless. Thankfully the tremors lasted about 10 sec. The boys were fast asleep and didn't feel a thing. I woke hubby up when I said 'What's that' when the tremors occured. Obviously he didn't feel it and when I told him, he asked me if I were dreaming?!!! Eh hello, why on earth would I dream of an earthquake or even the feeling of things shaking about me?

Anyway, the next morning, he called me on my mobile to confirm I was right about the earthquake. He heard it over the radio. It measured 5.2 on the Ritcher scale. Apparently the biggest in England but seriously I think the quake in Dudley in 2000 lasted far longer than this one. Ohhh, I can't never ever forget that experience.

BackPorch Memories March kit is awesome. Check out the sneak peek. My DT kit will be late this month as Paula is awaiting stuff that she ordered from CHA. They are all the latest products. So cool and how nice to play with new stuff.

Oh, just been asked to be guest designer for a cool product! More news to come later...... TTFN!

>>> Happy Anniversary! <<<

to hubby and moi! Sheesh, has it been 8 years? I'm amazed I've lasted that long seeing that I do get bored easily and have never lasted more than a year with any ex's!!! Oh well, as long as he doesn't interfere with my scrapping and leave me to it, that's fine.

I got a box of choccies from hubby! I don't do flowers and have asked hubby never ever to give me any as I'm not thoroughly impressed by them. The mere thought of cleaning them when they wilt is enough to put a damper to it! It just stinks and I absolutely hate any chore that smells.

Choccies are fine but I'm seriously trying to reduce the inches off my waistline and am constantly getting choccies as presents. Doesn't help does it? Don't ever think of saying 'don't eat it'. If it's there it will get eaten. Even more so when I'm scrapping as I find choccies kinda give me the creative juices. Oh well, I shall have to put aside my abstinence to choccies for the time being! TTFN!

>>> Another Weekend Gone! <<<

Gosh, this month is sure passing fast! Another weekend gone again. It was back to routine on Sat, with Oliver having swimming lessons in the morning and Mandarin classes in the afternoon. Then at nite, I scrapped as there was a cybercrop at Homegrown Scrapbooks and managed 2 12x6" LOs.

The challenge was to use thickers and I had no problem accomplishing that task. I've got loads of them!!! Broke into my Feb Scarlet Lime kit and made use of other stuff from previous kits too. It's nice to be able to create without restraint (those on DTs will know what I mean).

This challenge was based on BOM. I chose to title it in French (I love the sea), just to make a change from using English all the time! Anyway, it records my longing for the sea. Having brought up in a tropical island, I really do miss being near the sea! LO created using Scarlet Lime Feb kit (apart from the bird). Paper is from Prima and such a lovely paper that I chose to create in 12x6 so that I can use both sides!

Managed only 2 LOs before succumbing to sleep!

Sunday was basically a chill-out day for us! The boys and moi spent the day watching Ben10, in between supervising their homework. It was a Ben 10 marathon weekend and I kinda like watching that cartoon. TTFN!

Zac's school celebrates the children's birthdays and it was Zac's turn to be standing around the birthday table. I think it's good that the school does it as it makes the kids feels like they really belonged there. Anyway, managed to snap a few photos. Yup, parents are invited to the birthday ceremony!

Well, they blow the candles and get a birthday pencil!

Joined Zac's school PTA and tonite was the 2nd meeting. Incidentally it's called Friends of Lynden Green Infant School (FOLGIS). I ended up being nominated as Secretary. How interesting!!! Basic role is to take minutes and do tons of paperwork! Oh well, might slowly ease my lazy arse out of the house and hopefully into the working society again. Been meaning to get a job but haven't given much thought to it! Ha!

TTFN!

>>> Music Week! <<<

It was music week at Zac's school and he had to perform for the school! Oh well, he merely played on the E string of his violin.

Gosh, doesn't he look serious but what an absolute cutie!

TTFN!

>>> LOs To Share! <<<

Some LOs created using Homegrown Jan Trilogy kit. It arrived a wee bit late so am now working on it:

Papers from Daisy D's and College Press. Everything from the LO apart from the stamps (SassafraLass & Label Tulip) & AC thickers.

Papers from Imaginisce. Embellished using stamps (from own stash) from Daisy Bucket, Fontwerks, Autumn Leaves, Impress, Label Tulip and Story of my Life. Can you not tell I'm a stamp fanatic???

Papers from Fancy Pants and Imaginisce and of course stamps from Label Tulip, Autumn Leaves and BackPorch Memories!

Papers from College Press and Fancy Pants. Recording Zac's recent birthday party at Build-a-Bear workshop. Will be doing a mini album of it as well as I took tons of photos!

More LOs to come later..... TTFN!

>>> Snowed Again Albeit Lightly! <<<

Woke up to a snowy morning. Ground was lightly covered and there was a slight drizzle of snow too. It looked so beautiful.

Had a hard time waking the boys up as it's so darn cold! Moreover, I had to attend an ICT workshop at Oliver's school. Great timing that the internet went down! Typical isn't it. Have to take my hat off to the teacher who came up with an alternative plan and we played with another software instead.

Snow didn't last long though. By afternoon, it was completely gone when the sun came out!

TTFN!

>>> Our First Crop! <<<

Morag, Nikki and I held our first crop today! The venue was at Cheswick Green Village Hall, in Solihull from 10am-6pm. It was quite well-received and we had an enjoyable day meeting new crafters and generally having a good laugh!

What's a crop without a shop? Shopping supplied by Paperdolls.

Met up with my team member from UKScrappers, Rachel. It's so good to put a face to a name. We've been chatting for a while now and it's great to see the person.

I'm looking forward to the next crop on Mar 9. Details can be found on our What Housework website!

>>> LOs To Share! <<<

My LOs/projects for BackPorch Memories using February Medley kit. Kit consists of papers from Rusty Pickle French Market, Bo Bunny and Creative Imagination Winter Garden.

Oliver as a baby. Background has been sprayed with glimmer mist.

The day Birmingham received a wee bit of snow! Wish it snowed more!!!

LO based on a sketch by Becky Fleck. Can't say it looked like the sketch as I did minor adjustments!

My project, a mini album in the shape of a half heart. When opened, it represents a full heart! As usual, binded it with my BIA tool!

For the newsletter, wrote an article about creating a calendar planner, well, more a birthday planner with a difference! Glimmer misted and stamped the tags that were in there. Here's how it looked inside:

Made use of Rusty Pickle Lucky papers. They were a delish to work with! And of course the BIA in action again! 'Heart' that tool!

TTFN!

>>> 5 Years Ago... <<<

this little boy was born on this day! I can still remember the day so clearly! He was supposed to be delivered by c-section on 14th Feb 03 but decided to make his appearance a day earlier! Trust me to have just finished my dinner when labour pains began (on 12th Feb). I had to wait a good 6 hrs before they gave me the epidural and by then, the pain was getting worst! Anyway, he was eventually taken out at 3.37am, weighing a good 8 lbs! No wonder I feel so squashed inside during pregnancy! Anyway, Happy Birthday ZAC!

Presents from his friends and relatives. I made his wait till today to open it but he was cool about it! He did, however open 2 pressies on Sunday!

We wanted to bring the boys out but both pointly refused to go out and wanted to stay at home. Not surprisingly as Zac received a new DS game (Mario/Sonic at the Olympic Games) and wanted to play their DS. It was another brillant day again but well, can't forced them to go out if they don't want to. So hubby went out to get food groceries as his parents were coming over for dinner.

After dinner, we celebrated Zac birthday (yup again) with another cake, this time a cake ordered from a Chinese bakery! Zac loved strawberries and had an enormous piece! Took a family photo but didn't set my lighting properly... typical! Oh well....

Set the timer but failed to put on the flash! Typical! Still, kinda like the effect! No doubt this pic will be photoshopped heavily if used for scrapping!

Zac opening another round of pressies. Kept some aside for this moment. He's not allowed choccies normally so managed to get him some dark ones that didn't contain too much milk. He has an intolerant to dairy products from cows! (Be interesting to find choccies made from goat's milk though!!!) Haven't had a chance to photoshop this pic otherwise would have airbrushed the plugs behind! What an eyesore!

TTFN!

>>> Tuesday! <<<

Brought the boys down to Birmingham Town Centre as I had to collect Zac's cake from the Chinese bakery in Chinatown. Had a stroll through town as well and went into the Games Station to check out the DS games. MIL wanted to get him a DS game but didn't know which so I helped her buy the Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Had to pop into the Rag Market to check out some trimmings. There's this chap that comes every Tuesday and he carries some lovely lace/trimmings etc, not all the time but if you're lucky, they are dirt cheap too! Couldn't browse long as my boys were running riot in the market! It's hard to shop with kids!!! TTFN!

>>> Half Term Monday! <<<

Well, it's half term and the boys' cousins were staying over at their nan's so they came over in the morning and spent time with them. It was a brillant day and the sun (surprisingly) was shining. We took them to the park to expand their energy as they beginning to make a din at home. I'm seriously glad I don't have 4 boys... having 2 is enough!

Pity about the graffiti! Some kids just don't appreciate public property!

Not easy taking photo of 4 boys.....

TTFN!

>>> Birthday Party! <<<

It's Zac's birthday party today! We decided to hold one for him at Build-a-Bear Workshop. I had heard about it and decided to give it a try.

His party commenced at 1.30pm. He had invited some of his school friends and all his cousins were there as well so there were 11 excited kiddies at his party. A party leader took charge of them leaving me free to take the pictures. I gave hubby the camcorder and he recorded the event.

Party started with the kids choosing their bears and it was centred around filling up the bears, combing and decorating them with ribbons. In between were games to occupy them. I believe the kids were dead excited and enjoyed themselves. Anyway, how often do they go to a birthday party and come back with a teddy bear??? Anyway, here are some photos:

Gathering the kids together

The fun part: choosing the bears

Zac and his chosen bear

Each kid were given a heart and they made a wish to put it inside the bears. This was the stage where they put the sound inside the bears as well.

Filling up the bear. Each kid stepped on a pedal to activate the filling process.

Grooming the bears

Photo session. We were given a photo of the event. (I took one as well). Later each kid were given a box to house their bears.

A surprise bear for Zac, signed by his party friends

After the teddy bear party, we proceeded to MacDonald for a Happy Meal. They were brillant in giving us the entire children's section to celebrate and even had balloons for the kids!

I can't say how thankful the day went smoothly. Kudos to Suzy, the party leader at Build-a-Bear Workshop and Steve, the manager at MacDonalds for making the day a success! TTFN!

>>> Chinese New Year Dinner! <<<

What a day! Oh well, started out normally with swimming for Oliver in the morning and Chinese classes for him in the afternoon. Decided to sit down with him to prepare him for his Chinese class as he has been finding it difficult to follow in class. Anyway it paid off as I received a brillant report from his Chinese teacher. He did so well in class and got a reward as well. He was ever so pleased. Guess I need to do it frequently now. I'm hoping he will be able to speak a bit of Mandarin when we are in Singapore as the language is widely used there!

Got in at 4ish and started preparations for the CNY dinner. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot to prepare in terms of cooking it as the cooking of the food is done during the meal itself! Hence, it was a matter of getting all the ingredients into plates and laying it out on the table.

Guest list was suddenly augmented today! Hubby invited his other sis and her two boys. Then in the afternoon, his youngest sis got herself and boyfriend invited when she heard about it. (The one who often sashays 2-3 hrs late for family functions!) Well, today she did arrive on time but then hubby and I wasn't about to start dinner any later than 6pm if she didn't turn up on time! It was a tight squeeze on the dining table and the rice ran out halfway (I had cooked 4.5 cups of rice which was the max that my rice cooker can handle). Had to re-cook another 2 cups! It was a great dinner and I'm quite surprised that hubby's sisters knew nothing about CNY traditional dinners seeing that they are half Chinese! But then their dad was away all the time anyway. Was so busy with serving that I didn't take much photos during the dinner so I leave you with photos of the food instead! Mmmmmm.....

Hubby preparing chicken wings for the kiddies and also cooking beef rendang (beef curry for BIL)

Chinese delicacy: abalone. A tin costs £30 at a Chinese supermarket here! Thank goodness my Dad brought one with him when he came over last Aug.

My fav: king prawns!
(you need to know how to decipher the numbers when buying them in a box at a Chinese supermart. Usually it's written 16/20 which means you get between 16-20 pieces and they are fairly big prawns. If you see 30/35, it means you get between those numbers but the prawns are much smaller in size. So the bigger the numbers, the smaller the prawns!)

A dish full of seafood i.e. fish balls, cuttlefish balls, fish tofu etc.

A dish of seaweed tofu

Squids!

Marinated beef!

Not forgetting vegetables! So essential in our meals.

Not included in the picture is the steamboat which we used for cooking the food. Also the beef rendang which we specially prepare for BIL as he dislikes anything fishy. So annoying when you forget to take such photos but I was just too busy serving 14 hungry guests!

The boys had a great time with their cousins! It's not often they see them all so they had great fun playing with each other. Oh well, at least half of them played with the DSs. It's great they will be seeing them again tomorrow at Zac's party. TTFN!

>>> Gong Xi Fai Cai !<<<

A day late but want to wish a Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends celebrating this event! Really wish I was back home now as it would be an important occasion with loads of festive goodies to munch on. Anyway, CNY lasts for 15 days so I'm having the traditional CNY dinner on Sat with MIL and SIL and family who happens to be here for the weekend. I think it's her first time so hopefully she will enjoy it.

Went shopping at Wing Yip immediately after the school run. Talk about the store being empty, a far cry from Sunday! Managed to get the main ingredients except the vegetable as it was out of stock. Got Zac his birthday cake as well. He wanted a Spiderman cake. Also sent him to school with a bag of sweeties for his friends too. He was so proud to give them out. Apparently his school friends sang 'Happy Birthday' to him.

So what was I up to the past few days? Well, on Tuesday, the boys were at home as there was strike action in school (can you believe that?). So I brought them to Chinatown and we had duck horfun at a Chinese Restaurant. Later found out from hubby that we just missed him as he was there as well, entertaining a client.

As it was also Pancake day, I made some pancakes for the boys later in the evening. Did it from scratch too. Saw a morning programme how to do it and decided to give it a try. The recipe was easy enough to follow and I substituted it for goat's milk instead as Zac is intolerant to dairy products from cows (have to say that his eczema has cleared up tremendously since switching to goat's products). I made it a la French style i.e. thin and I much prefer it that way. Hubby usually makes it thick. It tasted really good and the three of us literally wiped it clean!


Wed and Thurs were bad days for me! Got the flu and really felt drained out! In fact, ended up in bed really early.

On Thursday, we had parents' evening for both boys. Oliver is slowly but surely improving on his writing (which happens to be a weak point of his). As for Zac, he's showing his stubborn streak in school by not wanting to record down stuff. He had to be threatened with staying in during play time before he would do some work! Typical... that boy responds to threat far better than persuasion! Then again, he's only 4 and a boy.... at this age, he's more incline to play than sitting down to write! I just feel that this country's education system forces them to write at too early an age! WHY? What purpose does it serve and does it make them any cleverer in the near future? Doubt very much so! I think it causes more harm than good! Sigh, unfortunately he's in this system and I've got to try and somehow get him used to it.

Rite, got a couple of assignments to finish off before the weekend mayhem starts. TTFN!

>>> Weekend Gone Again! <<<

Gosh, the weekend literally flew! Woke up on Sat morning to see a sheet of snow covering the garden, not much but enough to get Zac out there walking about! Sometimes wished it did snow much more!

Little one decided to play with snow but of course it's very cold. So luved his reaction when he found out the hard way!

The nite was spent at Morag's, scrapping to our heart's content. Can't say I was productive as I had to watch the latest series of CSI New York first! Finally towards midnite, managed to stuck down a few bits here and there!

On Sunday, went off to Costco for a browse. Managed to get a card for myself so couldn't wait to get in there to buy my Oreo biscuits! Absolutely adore those biscuits! God knows why it isn't readily available at the local supermarts! Have seen it sold at Selfridges at exorbitant prices!!!

Got a busy week ahead of me as it's Chinese New Year on Thursday. Wish I was back in Singapore as it would be so terribly festive over there not to mention all the CNY goodies on display. Ahhh, missed those seasonal titbits! Anyway, I do try to follow in this country by having the traditional CNY dinner consisting of steamboat with mega prawns, squids, fishballs, beef etc! Steamboat is basically a large pot consisting of soup that is boiling during the course of the meal and you add food in. Hence, all you get ready is the raw stuff that you want and you simply dip those into the soup during the meal. My dad got me a tin of abalone (which cost mega £££ here at the Chinese supermart i.e. £30) so that will be used for the CNY dinner! I'll be having the dinner on Sat evening and most likely hubby's relatives will be there too as they are coming up for Zac's birthday party, which lead me to the next busy schedule.

Zac's having his party at Build-a-Bear Workshop on Sunday and has invited his classmates from school. His 4 other cousins are coming as well. So this coming weekend will be busy. I've to get a birthday cake for him as well as order a Chinese cake for his actual birth date which is the 13th Feb. We always have a Chinese birthday cake as it's absolutely delicious! So the lucky boy will have 2 cakes, one to share with his school friends, and one on his actual day itself!

Will have to spring clean the house as well (not a chore I look forward to doing!) Anyway, this coming new year will be the Year of the Rat! It's my youngest brother's year so he will be 36! Gotta go check out this year prediction, not that I'm a great believer but it's good to know. TTFN!