~ Banana Frog Hop ~

It's time for another Blog Hop. This month's theme focus on 'summer fete'! My eldest recently had a BBQ Sleepover Birthday party. It went well but I always like to ensure he thanks his guests and relatives for the presents he received. Hence, I made them some 'thank you' tags.

The tag, 4x6",  is cut from patterned paper. It shows both the front and back of the tag. I made use of Hiya Chick to decorate the tags. The journaling block is from Sentimental Style. I left some space for my boy to write his 'thank you' message. 

No doubt, these will be winging their way to his relatives as soon as he is done. I made them as tags as they can easily be re-used as bookmarks!

Thanks for dropping by and hope you are enjoying your hop! If you fancy winning a stamp set, don't forget to leave a comment! Your next hop is Annlouise! Have a great day! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 149 ~

This week is sketches week and this is my sketch for today: 

As I'm on holiday and not brought a lot of stash with me, I had to make do with what I have got on hand, i.e. a few Xmas stamp sets mainly! So I tailored my card towards an Xmas theme! Here's my card, based loosely on the sketch: 

Patterned paper by Basic Grey Wassil. Stamp by Unity. Didn't bring any sticklers with me but I have a pen that writes shiny so applied it to the 'Cheer'.

TTFN!

~ Food Glorious Food! ~

The one thing great about here is the food! Boy have I been stuffing myself silly with the local food and fruits! 

Durians, king of fruits here. 

Some people are put off by the smell but it's heavenly! My dad had bought them ready for my arrival!

Roasted chestnut. 

Sure you can get them in the UK too but these ones taste so different, a lot more sweeter and very more-ish!

My fav: yong tau foo!

 It's a dish where you choose your ingredients (usually about 7 pieces) and throw in noodle.  You can either have it dry or with soup! I chose dry with chilli sauce. The soup dish has seaweed (mmm, another fav of mine) in it!

Yup, there's lots more food to try and I'm looking forward to it! Mmmm! TTFN!

~ Still Around ~

I'm currently in Singapore and desperately trying to recover from jet lag which is hitting me rather hard! I'll be updating my blog as soon as I'm up for it. Got so much to say but too knackered to do much! Anyway, feels good to be home and eating all the local food to my heart's content! :) TTFN!

~ TGIF ~

Our second day in Singapore. We woke up pretty early like 7ish! Had breakfast and then I fell asleep no thanks to jet lag! Just felt this overwhelming sense of tiredness! The boys, in the meantime, were well and truly awake and was pestering me to bring them swimming so we did in the afternoon. 

They had an hour at the local swimming pool and they enjoyed it. I don't bring them to the pool back home as it's a breeding ground for verrucas! And I'm serious! Those bloody things are a nitemare to get rid off and they take ever so long to clear! The pools here are outdoor so I guess the germs find it hard to breed but I have never ever gotten a verruca here and I used to swim on a daily basis when I was living here.

No doubt we will be there again next week and throughout the hols! TTFN!

~ Such A Long Journey ~

It didn't take long to reach Dubai (about 6 hourish flight time). We had about 3 hrs to kill and I did a bit of shopping (mainly food). Then it was time to board the flight to Singapore (another 7 hrs). 

Can't say I slept well... I did drop off but was woken up with stiff neck! So in the end, I gave up and watched movies instead. I must have seen at least 5 movies ... Clash of the Titans, It's Complicated, Leap Year, The Lovely Bones and another new one with Catherine Zeta Jones in it (she and the babysitter). Eventually we did reached our destination. Can't tell you how pleased I was to get off the plane!

My dad and bros were there to meet us.

My luggages, including 2 small ones that the boys were wheeling. Both insisted of having a separate bag each! Sigh! Thank goodness Emirates give each passenger 30kg and it's based on weight not quantity of luggage!

Looking forward to the next 41 days here! TTFN!

~ Leavers' Assembly / Departure ~

My youngest finishes Infant School this week and the teachers got them to perform a Leavers' Assembly for the parents. The performance was brilliant and it was based upon the theme when the Ofsted came to visit the School. The ending was a tear jerker and as hard as I tried, I couldn't help shedding a tear or two (confession: I cried!) Can't believed 3 years have passed so quickly in this school. He certainly had a great time there!

My wee one in his snail outfit! (image grabbed off a video!)

Teachers' gifts consisted of decorated academic planners bought from The Works. I merely decorated the covers. They seem to go well with the teachers last year so I gave them out again this year. 

These papers came from Scarlet Lime exclusive papers that were in a previous kit. Never used them but they sure came in handy for such projects! The insides were stamped with a quote (from Unity stamps). 

A close up of it. Tim Holtz's birdcage came in handy for this project! Kept it simple due to lack of time!

And some choccies for those who weren't the main teachers but did help out in my son's class!

Once home, it was a mad rush to finish packing, those annoying little bits like chargers of various equipment. However, few days of little sleep took its toll and I ended up forgetting quite a few items (only remembered them when I was at the airport!)

Thankfully Emirates allowed me to check in online and therefore save me the hassle of hanging about in the airport. Eventually we got on the plane and the boys lost no time watching their favourite movies.

Thank goodness for inflight entertainment! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 142 ~

We are sponsored by Lauretta's Digital Stamp this week! This was the image I had to play with:

Today's challenge was to fill the background of a card with ribbons! So taking the image in mind, I came up with this card: 

I cut out the bird and brand images as well as the flower and placed them on top of the ribbons which kinda represented wreath. Inside the card reads 'Christmas'. 

Have to say, it was fun pulling out my ribbons to play! Still haven't made a dent though! TTFN!

~ School Award ~

Every year, the Junior school hands out awards and today was my eldest's year group to receive theirs! He received 3 awards, the last was 100% attendance in school (which the Head is always stressing on, every time in the newsletter!) In fact, both boys had 100% attendance this year. I'm lucky they didn't fall sick during school days.

Proud moment for him!

TTFN!

~ Birthday Weekend! ~

So it was my eldest's 10th birthday and he wanted a sleepover party with his friends. Hubs got him a tent (well, not especially for the party as he has ideas of going camping... ) Anyway, he set up the tent in the morning. It is quite a massive tent, considering it's a 4 person tent! The weather wasn't very cooperative and it rained while he was setting it up! 

Our tent that sleep 4 person.

At mid-day, we had tim sum at our favourite restaurant in Chinatown. Then it was off to the boys' violin concert, yup, the second one in a row! Turn out was rather small this time round but still, it was a good performance.

We went home to prepare for the arrival of his 6 friends who turned up promptly at 7pm. Most of their moms said how eager they were and extremely excited. That certainly showed as they raced into the garden, squealing with delight when they saw the tent! Hubs, in the mean time, prepared the BBQ. My MIL and SIL was also there to help out (thankfully) as I was completely engrossed with entertaining the boys). 

His friends from school. 

Cake time!

By 11pm, we got them ready for bed. That's when the nitemare started as they were too hyped to sleep and were making a little din in the garden (just as well we had warned the neighbours about the sleepover party!) Hubs had the chiminea  going so we both sat outside, taking turns to control the sound level of them. At midnite, my eldest came in and demanded a midnite feast so it was jelly and ice-cream for them. Let's just say that at 3am, some of them were still yakking away! 

The boys woke up extremely early at 7ish the next day! How they managed is beyond comprehension, given that they slept so late. My two were still fast asleep and I had to wake them! We gave them breakfast and they spent the morning playing Wii until their parents picked them up at 11am. Each kid got a thank you tag as well as a goodie bag.

I stamped the back with a thank you stamp. The tag size is 6x4, cut from a rather loud patterned paper! That made 6 tags. The paper behind the photo is a digi image printed out on an A4 sheet. 

Glad it's over! Not an easy job looking after 8 boys!!! TTFN!

~ Stringamia ~

The boys had a violin concert at Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham in the evening, which was organised by their violin teacher. The theme was focused on ABBA era. The concert was certainly entertaining and the boys had fun! 

The eldest in action!

The wee one in action!

His students in action. No guessing who's the conductor here.... the guy in the pink wig!

The boys were rewarded with a treat in MacDo. My excuse... it was too late to cook! TTFN!

~ Woot! ~

A couple of weeks back, I was invited to join the Christmas Card All Year 'Round (CCAYR) design team. Naturally said yes as I've been following the blog early this year and been joining in their challenges. It's a blog which does Christmas cards (never too early to do them!) challenges each month. Now that I'm on the team, I've got even more incentive to make more Christmas cards. Every year, I give them out so much at the end of the year that I'm always getting commercial ones to supplement what I've made. So this year, my aim is to make enough so as not to rely on commercial ones. I've given myself a quota of 8 Xmas cards to make each month. Unfortunately, I've slackened in June so I've got to catch up! 

Here's a few that I've made in July so far: 

This particular card will be given out to relatives as it's a picture of my boys (which I had commissioned). 

This card was done for 365 Cards (which I'm on the DT as well). 

I'm looking forward to doing more cards later once the school term has ended. Currently, I'm swarmed with teachers' gifts and organising my eldest's birthday party for this Sat, not to mention having to pack for my holidays as I fly off next Wed! Why do everything seem to come together at the same time!!! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 135 ~

We had a one week hiatus as it was Celebration Week last week. We invited guest designers. But it's back to designing again and this week we are sponsored by {Ippity} Stamps. 

Today's challenge is based on a sketch:

Here's my card: 

That tiny bit of patterned paper is from Basic Grey Wassil (a 6x6 pack I got in a sale!) This has to be the simplest and easiest card ever made. I don't do white space well hence, I embossed that area! {ippity} stamps used is from Kissmas & Mistletoe, one of my all time fav set!

TTFN!

~ Sports Day ~

It was my youngest's sports day today, which nearly got cancelled due to rain but fortunately, the weather held out during the afternoon. It's his first time as well as Sports day was cancelled when he was in reception, again due to bad weather, then in Year 1, he missed it as he was away. Finally, this year, he managed to take part! The children were put into groups and he was in Green Gorilla group which meant he had to wear green. 

There were six sporting events: Spoon & Egg, Throwing Ball, Passing the ball over the head, Jumping in Sack, Throwing bean bag & walking with Quoit on the head. Each group would take part in the different event during a certain period. Then point would be counted and collected before the groups proceeded to the next event. It was fun to see the kids getting excited and yelling their heads off. Here are some photos of today's event:

Spoon & Egg race

Throw the Ball race

Quoit race

Quite pleased he participated this year. A great way to end his year in Infants! TTFN!

~ A Weekend in Bournemouth! ~

Hubs and I had a Ladies Nite function in a hotel in Bournemouth so we set off on Friday evening. Took us a good 3 hrs to reach down there. We had booked a family room and boy was it huge! The boys had a separate room to themselves. 

The hotel we stayed in.

After dinner, we took a walk on the beach. Gosh it was heaving with people, mainly students (probably learning English as there are a few language schools in the area). The boys had a quick play with the sand. Getting them to bed early was difficult!

The next day, after a typical English breakfast, we sent the boys off to the babysitters (hub's uncle & aunt kindly agreed to babysit them for the nite). I spent the afternoon having a Swedish body massage, courtesy of hubs, and it was great! Felt so relaxed! Then it was time to get ready for the Nite!

Boys at their babysitters'

The ferry between Swanage & Poole

My outfit for the nite, a 3/4 black & white dress.

Dinner was a lavish affair... a 6 course meal (rather long in my opinion and I was already full up by the 3rd course!) It was delicious but just too long! We had a live band who kinda spoilt it by finishing at 12 just when the crowd was getting into the grove! The nite ended with a bacon roll for the guests! Boy were we spoilt! 

Sunday morning's breakfast consisted of something fishy! I had enough of bacon and opted for kipper while hubs went for haddock. It was fab! We had a bit of time and we went shopping in Bournemouth town centre. Then we checked out of the hotel and went to picked the boys up. They had a great time, visiting the beach and a ruined castle the day before. 

We spent the afternoon in our SIL's place. We wanted to make sure we avoided the traffic, as the Grand Prix was at Silverstone that weekend. We left Poole at 7.30pm and got home 3 hrs later! 

~ Banana Frog Hop Winner ~

Using a random generator, it picked...

And the lucky commenter is ...

Congratulations! Please email Bev (sales@bananafrog.co.uk) regarding your chosen stamp set! TTFN!

~ New App ~

While browsing the App Store, I found a new photography app called Swankolab! It's from the same makers as Hipstamatic but this app uses photos in the gallery to create the same kind of look as the Hipstamatic camera! How cool is that! While Hipstamatic allows you to take photos, the Swankolab enables you to play in the darkroom and mix chemicals to achieve a certain look to your photos! Not surprising, I simply revelled in it! The app allows you to save the different formulae you created and even to name them! Here's some samples of the same photo created using different chemical mix: 

I made use of a photo taken on a Hipstamatic to re-create three different looks. Here's another one taken with the camera on iPhone: 

Again mixing different chemical gave me two different looks to the same picture.

Unfortunately, the black and white photos still have a bluish tint. Not sure if this is due to the upgrade of iOS4. Both Hipstamatic and Swankolab photos are affected. Hopefully it will be resolved soon otherwise I won't be using creating any black & white photos! App cost £1.19 and you can subscribed for another £1.19 to get more chemicals and a lifelong addition of new chemicals when it comes out! One of my most played apps at the moment! TTFN!

~ Sports Day/Sponsored Bounce ~

It was my eldest's sport day today and it happens to be his first time participating in it. He has missed it for the past 2 years as we were away on holiday. So naturally he was pretty excited about it. Basically, it was a race between teams. First, it was mere running, then using a skipping rope, tying one leg of a pair together to walk to the finishing line, using bean bags, throwing a foam arrow (not easy when there's wind about), walking on 2 hands with your legs carried by a partner and finally a relay. 

Here he is in action in the relay, the last runner. 

Halfway, I had to leave to go to the Infants where my youngest was involved in a Sponsored Bounce which I was supposed to be helping out but had to opt out due to the Sports Day (nothing worst than having 2 events happening at the same time).

The wee one in action. He bounced 70 times in a minute. 

Not a clear picture I'm afraid (wrong setting on the camera and forgetting my flash!)

I did manage to sneak back to the Juniors to catch the last part of the Sports Day and my son begged me to take part in the Parents' race! I've not run for a long time but decided to humour him and took part. I was so not dressed for it and had to run barefooted as I was wearing a wee bit of heels! Surprise! Surprise! I came in first! Unfortunately, he failed to take a photo as he said I ran far too quickly for him to snap me! LOL! 

This was what he managed to snap!
If you see a hand sticking out in the air, that's moi (hidden by those running behind).

Think maybe it's time I start running again to keep fit! TTFN!