>>> Finally, Online Again! <<<

Friday

Sheesh! It was sheer nitemare on Friday to find myself unable to get online. I managed about an hour in the morning before discovering that any attempts to connect was unsuccessful! Couldn't have come at the worst timing as the Asian Dare was due to be up! Thank godness I had managed to shop during the one hour I was on!

Well, it must have been bad as it knocked the cable out too. It wasn't until Saturday evening that all was back to normal. Sure as hell left me a cold turkey which led me thinking that I'm seriously addicted to being online (that and scrapbooking, another serious addiction too!) I suddenly left isolated at the mere thought of not being able to go online and it sure as hell spoilt my mood the whole day! Even hubby commented how long my face was when he came in and laughed when he heard the broadband was down!

Saturday
Zac went for a friend's birthday party at Wacky Warehouse. Gosh, he met his best friend from Nursery there and played like mad! His hair was literally soaking wet!

Prior to going, he was so excited about it and since then has asked that he has a party to celebrate his birthday next year! After the party, went to Asda to get my hot chocco, Milo! Have been without it for a week and suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms! Managed to grab a Father's Day gift as well!

Sunday
What a shocker! It didn't rain at all and the weather was kinda brillant for the BBQ hosted by hubby's company. There were a few activities for the kiddies... bouncy castle, face painting, sporting equipment i.e cricket, tennis etc. My boys were off in a shot. Oliver found himself a playmate and Zac simply zipped about. He even had his face painted!!! Eventually he found a gal a few years his senior and hunted with her for rabbits! As for myself, got stung by nettle that was growing near the fence in the tennis court! Just goes to show how badly kept it was... imagine having nettles in that area! The kids were about too. Thank goodness for dock leaves!

Moi messing about in the bouncy castle with Zac!

Of all animals, Zac has to ask for an elephant, the one that doesn't appear in the painted face guidebook! The gal who painted him did a great job though! Later he changed his mind and went back for a tiger face!

Ollie hates having his face painted but prefer balloons instead. Somehow managed to get himself some fanciful ones!

The boys and their father having a tug of war... on the other side were kids! Hubby lost to them!

Food was typical... hot dog, burgers, bacon and chicken in a skewer. I took the latter and I despise eating the typical BBQ spread! Chicken was good though! There was an endless flow of drinks (now wondering how much the company paid for that! As usual when there's free flow, people tend to abuse it. However, as it was hubby's work colleagues, hence, there wasn't much debauchery around... doubt if that would reflect well on them!)

Have to say, the day went well. Must have been a miracle for it not to rain. TTFN!

>>> Back To Reality! <<<

Wow! After an eventful weekend, it's back to reality... back to folding clothes and putting them away! Ohh really hate that chore... I've got no problems putting them into the machine but I absolutely hate folding them and I had 3 basketful of unfold clothes to sort out! Don't even venture into ironing...

I'm sitting twiddling my thumbs while waiting for a parcel from Homegrown where I've got tons to do, May/June DT LOs as well as Summer Survival projects! So annoying when you having ideas flying around but no kit to work on! Darn the postal system..... sometimes wish we could just beam parcels about! How cool would that be!!!

So in the meantime, I've decided to make sketches of the LOs that I've done. I always sketch before scrapping hence, thought it would be a cool idea to collate them on file. Here's one that I've done:

Decided to call them Sketchomatic. These sketches help me to scrap real quick as I hate fluffing around with papers and bellies and wasting precious time. When I have time to scrap, I just wanna get down and do it. The huge circles are chipboards buttons but they can be easily substituted for something else. As the sketches will be done on Publisher, hence it will be kept simple. Haven't mastered using any Adobe software yet! This is a 6x12" LO. Luv that size. Quick and easy to do a LO for photos just wanna scrap without much journaling. I used them during the cyber crop and they came in real handy! Incidentally, out of this sketch came this LO:

My two cropping friends are back from their holidays... both went to the US though not together and have bought tons of scrapping stuff! Who wouldn't since most of the scrapbook supplies come from there!!! Gonna be cropping with them tonite. Rite, guess I had better pack my stuff... TTFN!

>>> Cropped Out! <<<

Gosh! What a whirlwind day it was! Never scrapped so much and so fast before. Managed 3 LOs for the cyber crops. Thankfully hubby occupied the boys so that I could scrap in peace. Have to say I used up photos that were lingering in my photo wallet and also some old stash, papers from previous months' kits! Really had a blast with this cyber crop. What made it fun was the people involved. It's a small group and we just had so much fun chatting with each other.

This challenge require one to use 5 different circles on the LO.

This LO was inspired by an Advert. I lifted the labels from the Advert.

This LO required one to use ribbon creatively, as an embellishment. Finally scrapped Zac's Pre-school portrait.

I did my class on stamping and it can be downloaded here. Luv that Postage stamp set! Rite, fun's over and got some DT work to do.... TTFN!

>>> Scrapitude Cyber Crop! <<<

Today marks the start of Scrapitude Cyber Crop! It's gonna be fun and exciting with lots of challenges and classes!

I don't fare well at cyber crops as I can't really speed scrap! In the past I've done stuff during cyber crop but 'cos it was done too quickly, I ended up not liking it at all. Hence, this time around, I'm gonna take my time doing stuff that I enjoy and will probably like it later too! Hence, managed a couple of challenges and a class:

A challenge to do 2 tags with photo on each, chipboard, patterned papers, stamping and ribbon! The boys have been clamouring for bookmarks so these will come in handy!

A challenge to do 2 Father's Day cards in non-traditional colours i.e. no blues, greens or browns. On the left, I coloured the background using my newly acquired Twinkling H20s in gold, red and lavender. On the right, made use of orangy inks and papers. Yah! For once got these cards sorted in advance!

A class by Kimmy to use transparency. It was required to use a particular font as a title, printed on transparency and a dingbat!

My class on stamping is due tomorrow at 1545. As the class is sponsored by Banana Frog, I've chosen the Postage stamp to play with. Hopefully it will inspire people how to use that particular stamp set.

I've written an article on alcohol inks as there was a request from those who wanted to have an idea how to play with these little beauties. I've released it as a challenge.

Rite, off to see if I can manage another challenge or class.... TTFN!

>>> Busy! <<<

Won't be blogging much as I'm pretty busy with DT work. Currently waiting Homegrown Summer Survival kit as I'll be working on some class LOs/projects. I'm also in the midst of working on a class for Scrapitude cyber crop which is taking place this weekend so if you're free, do join in! Lots of prizes and I understand Banana Frog is one of the prize sponsors! TTFN!

>>> Just Chillin'! <<<

I had a great lie-in this morning! Another scorcher of a day. Popped into Asda to get the kids some racket games i.e. badminton and tennis. Got the boys a packet of mini water pistol too. Darn store sold out of my fav chocolate drink, Milo! I'm already near empty on the current tin... mental note... always have a spare tin on hand! I'm not a tea or coffee drinker so Milo's is my only hot drink and luv to have one in the morning and before bedtime! It's one chocco drink that doesn't leave a sweet after taste unlike most brands that I've tried! For those who have not heard of it, it's a tin with chocco grains (that I even put on bread and butter and it makes the best sandwich!). You simply add water that viola, hot steaming chocco drink. You can add sugar to sweeten but I much prefer adding condensed milk.... ohhhh makes the drink taste even better!

Got home and hubby and I engaged in a game of badminton! I had a game yesterday with SIL and it was fun. However, I woke up this morning pretty stiff and sore with aching muscles... that's what happens when one doesn't exercise often. Anyway, with my sore limb, engaged in a game with hubby.

Moi, trying to hit every shot!

The boys engaging in their own water pistol game!

Glad to know that my skills aren't rusty. For someone who used to be a Physical Education teacher to one who sits on her arse all day, I feel pretty much embarrassed at my state of inactivity! Think I need to get down to the Leisure Centre to see what's sporting activity is on! I miss my yoga sessions!

Check out the Banana Frog Blog. Every Sunday there's a highlight of stamps used in various projects. Here's what I did this week:

Papers from Jack and Jill collection by Piggy Tales, and stamps: Fanciful, Journaling & Elegant Swirls.

This ATC was done using Pharmacy font as background and flowers, leaves and swirls created using Tropical Garden and Fanciful.

TTFN!

>>> Family Reunion! <<<

Another brillant day and we were invited over to SIL's house in Leicester where another SIL from Poole was there! So off we went with MIL too. The boys were mighty pleased to see their cousins (2 males & 1 female) and they had a wild time together. In the afternoon, we headed toward the park where they spent a good 2 hrs playing in the playground and generally basking in the warm sunshine!

The rose among the thorns!

Playing on the balancing beam. I was giving them instructions on the different ways of going on it!

Ollie & Grace

The boys on the tree and stepping over each other!
Ollie on the swing... think he's a little too big on it!

We stayed for dinner where hubby did a Chinese meal for 10 people (5 adults and 5 kiddies), no mean feat but he managed! At 9pm, we headed back to Birmingham. The boys were wide awake throughout and didn't get to bed till 10.30pm. Let's hope they will somehow do a lie-in tomorrow! TTFN!

>>> Sun At Last! <<<

What a brillant day Friday was! Sun was out and it was just lovely. Took the kids to Melbricks Garden Centre to choose a potted plant for the garden.

Thankfully, there was a hunt the Teddies' name contest so the boys had fun looking in various departments for a teddy's name. I had to have a nose at the craft section and came out with some stamps and Dewdrop inkpads!

More layouts to share, this time from Scrapitude kits! There are 2 kits available, June kit and a Hambly kit which can be seen here. I was given a Hambly kit to design and had great fun playing with them!

Ollie in his super mega pose!

Story behind this LO... Zac wanted to cycle so we took him to a cycling park and he moaned how bumpy it was and drove us bonkers that day! Man, that boy can really whine!

Ollie and Zac in one of their Power Rangers pose!

Just me and some stamps: Fontwerks and Purple Onion Designs, two of my fav stamp brand.
A card I made with leftover scraps! Can't bear to throw away any usable Hambly scraps!

TTFN!

>>> Layouts To Share! <<<

Here's some LOs that I can reveal and the cause of irregular blogging too! These were done for Little Silver Hat that specializes in ribbons and June's ribbon kit is exceptionally fabulous! Dusty pink and cream with a hint of vintage. I had a ball playing with the ribbons.

Ollie @ 1 year old

Zac @ 4 mths

The boys and their cousins playing 'Simon Says'

Ollie and his mega watts smile

A christening card done for a relative's daughter

TTFN!

>>> Groan.... It's Raining Again! <<<

Weather sucks big time at the moment. It has been raining non-stop everyday this week and I can't even bring the boys out. They're getting bored staying in all day and it's too wet to even play in the garden!

Managed to somehow sneak the boys out to the library while the weather cleared a little and they spent some time choosing 8 books each. They love reading their books before bedtime and it's a cheap way of reading as much books as possible without spending da bomb on books! Already we're rapidly running out of space to store their toys! Desperately need to sort out a proper storage area for their bedroom.

Ohhhh, received a piece of exciting news today! Will share once it's official! :)

Dare #9 of the Asian Dare is up and the theme focus on inspiration from a word. I chose 'Ensemble', french for together. Decided to do the entire LO in French just for fun. Need to keep in touch with the language once in a while. Here's what I've done:

Journaling reads:
you and me
together
we pose
we talk
we laugh
fabulous!

TTFN!

>>> What A Day! <<<

Wanted to bring the boys out to the library but thankfully I called and found out it was closed today! What a bummer! To make it worse, it poured heavily so couldn't think of anywhere to go with the boys. Thankfully, MIL popped over and entertained the boys for a while. She even managed to bring both out to the shops and got them each a cake! Bless her!

As for me, been busy fulfuling DT duties as I've got a few assignment due end of the month. Will share as soon as they have been displayed!

TTFN!

>>> Crop! <<<

Decided to popped into the Birmingham Junction 7 crop as I missed last Sunday's crop due to Ladies Nite! Glad I did as I need 'me' time badly. Managed to complete 2 LOs and made some new friends too. Will definitely go again next month as it's their first birthday so it will be fun! TTFN!

>>> Grey's Anatomy! <<<

Oh man! Today marks the start of Series 3 of Grey's Anatomy. The first episode was a scorcher! Hat's off to the writer of the series... so much emotion, the storyline just leaves you begging for more! No other TV programmes has me in grips (apart from Desperate Housewives & Prison Break!) That's it... Thursday nite at 10pm is reserved now for TV... no more scrapping! TTFN!

>>> Hambly! <<<

Postie brought me a fantastic box of Hambly goodies from Scrapitude! Oh man, the kit is so gorgeous, the overlays and papers! Not sure how I'm gonna bring myself to use them! Absolutely adore Hambly products!

The evening saw hubby & I at Lyndon Green, attending a parent's meeting with the school for Zac's entry this September. We were informed which class and teacher he will be having. He definitely won't be lonely as I saw a fair number of his Nursery mates there (oh well, recognised their parents anyway!) His best friend is even in the same school although not in the same class. I'm sure he will enjoy his Infant school as much as his Nursery! Pity Oliver won't be around as he will be in the Juniors (same compound but different buildings, each with their own Head!) TTFN!

>>> Amy Butler! <<<

Discovered a new love! Fabrics!!! Check out Amy Butler, her stuff is amazing. Oh gosh those handbags are to die for! Now I wished I had taken up home economics at secondary school instead and focus on sewing. I could easily then have made those bags! Sigh!

Then this morning, found a local retailer selling an Amy Butler fabric scrapbooking tote!!!

How pretty is that!!! Decided to google to find out more about it and eventually I was directed to US QVC to look into more detail about the bag. Completely sold and I succumbed to my weakness for bags. Apart from scrapping stash, I got a big weakness for bags of any nature. As a kid I used to change my school bags ever so often. As I grew older, my handbags accumulated as rapidly as my shoes! Anyway, what I like about this tote is that fact that it can be used for other purposes as well... some liken it to a diaper bag... too bad my boys are out of diapers. I went for the multi-coloured (Sola) bag as it appealed more to me. I'm into bright, bold colours at the moment.

Can't wait for its arrival... TTFN!

>>> Food! <<<

Attended a breakfast workshop at Zac's Nursery. Basically it's all about reading the food label and showing you the amount of sugar that exist in a typical cereal helping. Those like cocopops, frosties contain an obscene amount of sugar while weetabix has less of course! Then it was onto introducing the kids to healthier forms of breakfast. Zac had 2 bowls of different cereals, rice krispies and shreddies! Seriously I don't know where he puts it all in....

Gosh, I sure as hell miss my breakfast in Singapore. Forget about bread and cereals, bring on nasi lemak (rice soaked in chilli with ikan bilis (small fried fish), fried egg and otak (chilli mince fish). Heavens. Or how about carrot cake, wan tan noodle, chwee kuay etc. Sounds obscene but man they are flippin delicious! I can't tell how much I dislike having to eat bread everyday. Eating cereal isn't an option as it's not my usual diet. Sigh... I can but only dream.....

Yup, miss the food back home and more importantly, miss my favourite fruits. Durians, mangosteen, duku etc. Now I can find Thai durian in the chinese supermarket but as they are Thai, absolutely smell-less and mostly likely tasteless too! Nothing beats the Malaysian durian... stinkin(to some people) but fabulous taste. Luv the bitter sweet ones. I've seen mangosteen being sold here but it's sold per fruit for about 60p. To think I used to buy by the kilo... S$10 for 3 kg worth of mangosteen! Oh and there's duku, a fruit not even found here at all. That is my all time favourite fruit and if I can't find any in the local store near my house, I would drive all the way to Geyland where I know I can get some. It sucks not being able to eat what I was accustomed to....

As for food, my biggest loss has to be seafood as this country sucks big time for fresh fish and seafood. Boy do we have so much problem buying fish in supermarkets as it's always not fresh. God knows how many times we've been conned and I'm talking about well-known supermarkets too selling bloody rotten fish! DISGUSTING! Do miss my chilli and pepper crabs.... well, the good part I guess is not increasing my cholesterol level!

I guess I can only dream about the food I used to eat.... TTFN!

>>> Random Thoughts! <<<

Boy am I so glad that the smoking ban is coming into place on 1 July. That means no smoking in buildings. That will be such a relief! Hate going to restaurants where there's smokers and it's just spoils any appetite you have having to smell sinking smoke! That means you can start going out to pubs, clubs and not come out stinking to high heaven of smoke too! I've got nothing against smokers just can't stand the smoke from cigarettes and cigars! At the recent Christening I attended, there were a couple who was sitting in a corner of a confined room with no windows opened, smoking away and the room was filled with children and babies too! How flippin' inconsiderate! As said, I've not against smokers but I'm against them filling my breathable air with poison!

The weather's been crapped this week. Raining all week and flippin cold too. No chance to pack away any winter wear!

Been busy fulfilling my DT duties... have done a few LOs and I know I've got 2 boxes of assignment kits coming. Yeah! Nothing like having work to do! :)

TTFN!

>>> Asian Dare #8! <<<

Is out!!! Check it out on the blog. This week's theme focus on inspiration from Nature and here's my interpretation of it:

Played with Zing Boom March kit, Basic Grey Perhaps paper. Printed out a few baby photos of the boys as I've not gotten round to scrapping their baby photos.

TTFN!

>>> Tooty Toot! <<<

It was an early start for us as we had a Christening to attend. Hubby's cousin's little girl was being Christened. She has a lovely unusual name (well, unusual to me)... Breagha. She's such a laid-back baby... not once did she make a fuss, not even when her hair was washed with holy water. She just took it all in and smiled! Amazing! In fact, all day, she hardly cried. Gosh, that's the kind of baby you don't mind having, no fuss and simply delightful!

Got home, settled down and went online only to discover that I won a competition on Back Porch Memories to become June Guest Designer. Woo Hoo! Made my day!!! Here's my winning entry:

The requirement was to use at least 2 products from Daisy D's. I think I've got loads of Daisy D's on this LO. Why is it that the photos that you take that aren't perfect make the best scrapping pic??? Luv this pic of Zac! Just had to scrap it.

TTFN!

>>>ATCs & Charity Ball! <<<

Haven't been able to scrap recently so dabbled in Artish Trading Cards (ATCs) instead. Anyway, I have to make a few for some swaps I'm in at the UKScrappers forum. Here's the Oriental ATCs that I've made:

I had so much fun doing these! Played with tissue paper, embossing power, watercolour pencils and stamping of course! I had these oriental stamps for quite a while now and so glad to be able to make use of them. I'm supposed to do 5 for a swap but of course had to do one for myself as I won't be seeing the 5 that I've made.

Here's another random ones that I've made for a swap group I'm in too:

The heart is actually a stamped image that I received as a birthday pressie from Morag (thanx!) Such a gorgeous stamp. The right ATC was made using the new bird stamps that I bought. Let's hope my swappee likes them.

The nite was spent at a Diamond Charity Ball for the Primrose Hospice. One of those poshy function where you had to dress up. I had a great time and thankfully MIL had the boys overnite at her place. Didn't get back till 2ish in the morning. Again, thanx god for satnav as it was set in the deepest countryside of Redditch. As usual I had to drive home while hubby looked out for badgers, fox and wild rabbits! Imagine asking me if I had seen a badger.... like I would be looking anywhere else instead of the road!!! Man!

The one good thing that came out from the Ball was a prize that we won... a handmade cake. Boy is it absolutely gorgoeous! Never seen such a beauty and it's a fruit cake too! Mmmmmm......

TTFN!

>>> Lace! <<<

Went out with Morag to Birmingham town centre. As usual headed towards the haberdashery and got myself some lovely lace! Headed towards the Rag Market to check out the stall as there's a lovely ribbon store in there. Ended up with more lace again. Then it was off to our favourite Chinese restaurant for tim sum. We had Singapore noodle and 2 tim sum dishes! Man, that has to be the highlight! On our way back, popped into a craft store near my place but wasn't too impressed really with the selection.

Rite, off to organise my lace.... can't create when stuff are in a rite mess! TTFN!

>>> Ohhhh, More Stamps! <<<

Look what the Postie brought me from the US!!! Shopped there quite a lot as I can't get the stuff here in the UK!

Stamps!!! Fontwerks and Bam Pop! Been hankering after the Fat Birds and when they came back in stock on 2peas, went and grabbed it quick! As for Fontwerks, no UK supplier stocks them so again another hunt on US online stores and saw some that needed to be added to my collection! As for the clear stamp birds, well, aren't they gorgeous. That was from US Ebay!

Rite off to create, nothing like new stash to get you going..... TTFN!

>>> Rest! <<<

It was a day of rest today and scrapping! Hubby took the kids out and I spent all day in peace! Came out with these!

Another 6x12" LO using Rhonna Farrer French Twist papers. Adore the little owl.... isn't he cute! Somehow this size shows off the paper better!

Had another go at Heidi Swapp playing cards. Luv them. Made a picture frame for Zac as I had already done one for Ollie. Got that robot stamp from ZingBoom kit. Isn't he adorable?!!

TTFN!

>>> Elections & Cycling! <<<

You may wonder what the above two have in common??? Well, it's Election day today and somehow my boys are at home due to school closure... I presume their school/nursery is being used as polling station. Which leads me to wonder why do the darn Council have to use schools instead of empty church halls, community centres etc! Do they have to close the entire school down just for people to slip in a sheet of paper into a box??? Doubt very much if they will get a high attendance rate anyway!

So with the boys at home and hubby taking the day off, we decided to go cycling instead and headed towards Birches Valley Forest Centre. Day started out cold but by afternoon, it brightened up and it was a brillant day!

Zac was a literal nitemare!!! From start to finish, he complained about the bumpiness of the track and thus slowed us down considerably as he refused to bulge and either one of us had to attend to him.
Eventually we gave up and headed towards the large adventure playground where they played for a good hour plus. Surprisingly he didn't find the playground bumpy!

After lunch, we dragged both out of the playground and began our cycle! Gosh, it was fun.... nice to be on the bike again! This time, Zac was more cooperative!

There were lots of artwork along the cycle paths. Makes it a refreshing sight.

Ollie the poser! He has a knack of posing in the most amusing way!

I reckon we cycled for about a good 2 hrs plus. It was 5pm when we decided to go home. TTFN!

>>> More Stash & Stamps! <<<

Wheee! Finally received my Homegrown DT kit featuring Rhonna Farrer French Twist papers, along with some stamps that I had bought too. Then came Little Silver Hat ribbon kits. I'm designing the June kit and it's absolutely gorgeous.... dusty pink and cream with a hint of vintage. A pity I do not have old photos but hey, that's not gonna stop me!

Spent the afternoon playing with my Homegrown kit and churned out 2 LOs:

Played with some new stamps, mostly from Autumn Leaves, on this LO!

The shape of this paper prompted me to do a 12x6" LO instead and you know what?!!! I luv it! The idea for this LO came very quickly and took me less than an hour to complete!

Had a crop at my place tonite and was distracted by the Apprentice and Desperate Housewives. Eventually did manage to come up with a LO albeit halfway!

Zac went out on a field trip today with his Nursery. He visited a farm and was excitedly telling me all his adventure. One particularly remark stood out... it was smelly where the pigs and cows were!!! TTFN!

>>> Happy Birthday ! <<<

to ME! Shan't bother revealing my age.... it's old! Hubby asked what I wanted and I didn't know! Can't say I want more scrapping supplies as I'm already overwhelmed so he gave me cash instead. Suit me fine. The boys both gave me a box of choccies each....mmmm now that's what I call a great pressie! Nothing like choccies to fuel the creative mind.

In the evening, the boys helped me cut the cake.
Zac had an enormous piece of cake and he literally finished every single bit, even asking me for the strawberry! He's constantly eating all day long. God knows where he puts it all....

TTFN!