>>> On Display! <<<

Some LOs created using BackPorch Memories Feb Medley kit:

Papers by SEI Lovebirds!
Made use of a Cuttlebug snow emblossing folder on the circle.

Papers by Little Yellow Bicycle Love Letter. This LO was based on a sketch (which I rotated a little) by Becky Fleck. Have to admit, the sketch kinda hampered my style!

Papers by Collage Press Jackson Lodge.

Birthday card using Collage Press Jackson Lodge scraps!
'Birthday' word created using Cuttlebug birthday embossing folder.

All created under extreme adrenalin! Stress works! LOL! :) TTFN!

>>> Duh! >>>

What a dork I am! Got all my dates mixed up and I was thinking that today my son had to dress up in an Egyptian costume. I only read it on Saturday nite and by then it was too late to order any costume for him. So I decided to make a few bits. Managed to dig out a pj that nearly resembled a costume. Then proceeded to make a head gear, bracelets and belt.

Not a great shot! The headgear that I made. Think I will now get him an proper Egyptian costune instead!

Got him dressed and when we reached school, realised that no one was wearing any costume!!! Suddenly it dawned on me that I might read the date wrongly so drove back to check and true enough, it was supposed to be on the 24th Feb! Duh!!! So Ollie got back into his uniform and I had to send him to school late. So crossed with myself! And to think I wasted my time making all those things... I could have done my BPM DT assignments!

Yeah, postie brought my BackPorch Memories kit yesterday! So I only had a day to create my stuff. Good thing I work well under pressure and managed to produce some reasonable LOs! He also brought along some Cuttlebug embossing dies which I had gotten in the US at sale prices! I've fallen in luv with these dies and have been using them a lot in cards.

Need to prepare for Zac's party this Sat and his actual birthday on Friday! I've got plans but whether or not they take shape remains to be seen. Better make a start now! TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Here's the challenge that I set for the Card-athon at Scrapitude forum. Found the basic instructions from Spiltcoaststampers site and tweaked it a little to suit me.

The stairstep card. Used stamps from Autumn Leaves Mindy's Zoo, Purple Onion Designs and BackPorch Memories.

Here's another card that I made based on a sketch. This was Kimmy's challenge:

Took out my Basic Grey clown stamps to play. Other stamps used are from Autumn Leaves and Purple Onion Designs.

I will be tackling more challenges as soon as I get my DT assignments done! TTFN!

>>> Chill Out! <<<

Another chilled out weekend.

Sunday started out as a brillant day, with sunshine and it looked promising! We had to get a sack of rice from the Chinese supermarket, along with some snacks as well. Then we hopped into Costco to get some water where hubs found a pair of Levi's jeans. He had gone to town yesterday to buy one but couldn't find a suitable pair and Costco provided him with one, even cheaper than what was sold in town! Final hop at Fort Shopping Centre to check the price of Wii. That will be Zac's birthday pressie this coming Friday.

Scrapitude forum held a Card-athon this weekend and I was involved. I created a card challenge. The other gals chipped in as well so we have a week to complete the challenges. I seriously need some cards as birthdays are coming so this will be a good time to do them.

There is still snow on the ground and I took a few of Zac trying to fatten the snowman we had in the garden.

After all his efforts, the snowman is still skinny! LOL!

TTFN!

>>> More Snow Yet Again! <<<

So it happened! More snow fell and this morning I received a text from Zac's school announcing it's closure. Yah! So I waited for another one from the Juniors.... nothing! And I was thinking... they can't do this... aren't both schools supposed to collaborate with each other... how can one be opened and the other not. So in the end, hubs brought Oliver to school. His school was opened alright much to the annoyance of a lot of parents who had to drag their little ones along as well.

Had a very uncrafty day... the boiler man came to repair the boiler and spent a good 4 hours doing it. I even provided him lunch as he came about 11am and didn't leave till 3.15pm! Poor chap must have been starving as he was working non-stop! He did accept the offer of a sandwich and a banana and loads of tea!

Seeing that I was stuck at home, hubs offered to pick Ollie up from school. Heard from him that he had only 6 pupils in class today and almost every class was the same. Looks like a lot of parents kept their kids at home. Anyway, I wanted Ollie to go today as he had violin lessons and his music teacher actually turned up!

Hubs decided to let the boys try sledging. We bought this sleek sledge a couple of years back and never got the chance to use it. When we got there, we were dismayed to find that most of the snow on the hill was gone as they were a few number of people sledging . Anyway, we decided to give it a go. The boys had a whale of a time. They have never done it before and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Having their first go!

They soon became pro in no time!

So I had a go... sheesh, it was scary initially but it was fun! Here we are on the slightly higher but rather muddy hill.

We ended with a snowball fight!

All of us ended with muddy clothes, frozen extremities but we had so much fun! As I said before, we hardly get that much snow so we just have to make the most of it!!! Now that is what winter is all about! TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Now that it's out on Banana Frog blog, I can reveal my LO:

LO created using Scarlet Lime kit (not sure which month though). Background was sprayed using glimmer mists and Tattered Angels masks were used.

Flower embellishment created from stamping heart image from BF I Heart You stamp set, cut out and arranged as petals.

With some spare time, I created this LO using Scarlet Lime Nov 08 kit. They came out with exclusive papers and I simply luv them:

Added a few extras such a ribbons and laces. Dusted my sewing machine and got it to work as well.

TTFN!

>>> More Snow! <<<

Thankfully the heavy snow meant that schools were closed today and we had a lovely time indoors, more precisely, in bed, watching TV and playing with our DSs! In the afternoon, got them out to play in the snow. It's rare that we have so much snow and it's a sin if we don't play with them! So we did and I made sure my camera was on remote so that I could get in on the action as well.

Oliver doing the butterfly action in the snow!

Preparing for snowball fight!

Building our mini snowman.

The snowball fight!

Putting the finishing touches to our snowman. Ok, he's a little on the skinny side!

This came for me today. Bought it from this site where they had 40% off Crocs shoes during Jan sales. They are my most fav pairs of shoes. I own at least half a dozen different pairs at the moment. There are a couple that I have to say aren't comfortable, notably Sassari and Prima. The rest are great!

Unfortunately when I put it on, my toes were hitting the front part and I was so disappointed. I called them up and they were willing to exchange for the next size up so I sent it off. It's weird but usually size 4 fits me but some different styles require me to get size 5, notably, Endeavor. Anyway, can't wait to get it .... they look so hip and funky! Seeing that I already own a brown and black pairs of boots, that's why I went for hot pink!

Hubs came back with a big smile on his face... the Jag is back! He had an accident in December and it was sent for repair. In the meantime, he was given a Golf GTi to drive, which sucks! The front passenger seat was ever so uncomfortable. I'm glad it's back too... miss it!

Right I'm off to do some scrapping! Got a few projects to complete... TTFN!

>>> Snow! <<<

This was what greeted me this morning!

Snow and tons of them! Unfortunately, the boys' school decided to remain open! What a bummer! So had to get ready although Oliver stayed in as he wasn't feeling too well. It was treacherous driving through the snow. My car skidded a few times and I wasn't even driving fast! What was worst is that the roads around the school wasn't gritted so I had to go at 10 miles as there was snow on the ground. It was sheer madness!

Came home and took more photos of the snow:

Our front drive! That slope is lethal!

Look at how thick the snow is. It's amazing but very seldom do we have that much amount of snow.

The plants covered in snow.

Finally the trees. It does provide a lovely scenary!

Well, the boys' schools came to their senses and decided to call it a day at 1.30pm. As a result, parents had to bring them home. Fingers crossed they are closed tomorrow. It's stressing me out driving in such icy conditions. I guess probably I'm not used to it. I get so frightened when the car skids and have had a couple of close shaves. I just can't go out again.

On a lighter note, Banana Frog, UK stamp manufacturer, has come up with new designs for their stamps. Check this out:

These are absolutely gorgeous and can't wait to lay my hands on them to have a play.

Think I will go to bed early. Caught the fever/flu bug from my boys! Just heard on the news that all schools in B'ham will be closed so hooray! Look forward to a lie-in tomorrow! Thankfully my boys aren't early risers! TTFN!

>>> The Weekend! <<<

Spent the weekend chilling out! It was wayyy too cold to go out!

Saturday

Both boys had to skip swimming lessons as they weren't feeling well (Zac just recovering from fever and Ollie was coughing and sneezing!) Hubs went over to Leicester in the afternoon to see a house that his youngest sis was looking to buy. His verdict was that it was too close to a motorway but hey, the decision it ultimately hers to make!

As for me, I spent my time sorting out my LOs. Yup, over the past few years, I had conveniently chucked them in 12x12 baggies and left them and now it was time to sort them out properly. I pulled previous ones out from the albums and sorted them according to the people that I had scrapped. So each of the boys had a pile, as well as both of them together. Then there was moi, relatives, friends, inanimated objects etc.

The 12 x12 LOs.
I only started doing 12x12 in the middle of last year after spending years with 8.5x11 ones.

The 8.5x11" LOs.
This is just a tiny part of them! Also realised that Zac (my youngest) has a much higher pile than Oliver! Oops, certainly didn't mean to scrap him less!

Once done, went through each pile and sorted them according to dates (realised a fair few with no dates which made them very difficult ... note to self: put dates on LOs in future!) It took me the whole nite & wee morning to sort out my 8.5x11" LOs and there were loads! I ran out of page protectors for them and ended up using the normal A4 punch pockets instead! As I was on a roll, I just had to continue. I think I'm just gonna put them in normal folders as opposed to albums.


Sunday

Continued my sorting out process and attacked my 12x12 pile as well as 6x12 ones too. The whole process was repeated and each LO carefully put into page protectors. Unfortunately had to go online to buy more 12x12 page protectors (can't find any alternatives to them).

While sorting, a few alphabets fell out and I realised those that did were the Heidi Swapp chipboards ones. Gosh the glue in them are absolutely crap! Another chipboard alpha that fell out were those from Pressed Petals. I won't be surprised if they came from the same factory that made them! I'll be more wary of using chipboard alphas from now on or ensure they had extra adhesive on them.

I'm so glad I've got them sorted out. They were part of my cleaning up process last year. Now to finish up sorting my stamps as I've still got a few bags left to tackle. After that, sorting out papers. They are beginning to irriate me as they are literally in baggies everywhere! Sheesh, never realised there were so much chores to do with scrapbooking!

There were predictions of snow falling the weekend and it did! Not a lot but it did snow.

It might get worst tomorrow! Fingers crossed the schools will close! TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Here's the letter Q of my A-Z BOM:

I had mega problem deciding a word for 'Q' and eventually settled for 'quintessential'. Made use of Scarlet Lime Nov kit to do this LO. The papers were SL exclusives and I luv them!

And here are a couple of LOs that I did for a Chatterbox challenge held by a UK scrapbooking store, A Trip Down Memory Lane. I was lucky to receive their latest papers in BPM kit and after completing my required LOs, I still had leftovers. Thankfully Scarlet Lime kit had a few CB papers as well so decided to make a couple of LOs for the challenge:

Have to say, the latest papers from Chatterbox are truly scrumptious! Absolutely luv their new ranges!

TTFN!

>>> RIP! <<<

My dad called and told me my uncle passed away suddenly from a massive heart attack! It happened yesterday and his wife brought him to the hospital but in the wee morning, he suffered another 4 more attacks and as a result, passed away. I'm reeling from shock at his sudden death. He was only 61 years old and still actively working! Just goes to show how transient life can be... one minute you're here and the next, you're gone! Just wondering if he missed the signs of heart attack as usually your body will alert you, signs that something isn't right. My mom and her sis are now busy preparing the funeral arrangements. I used to see him a lot when I was younger, playing with his kids, my cousins. Unfortunately, I'm unable to attend (I really hate being so far away from family during such situation). Guess I will have to pay my respects when I'm in Singapore in July! TTFN!

>>> Random Thoughts! <<<

Read this on the website and I was howling with laughter. Apparently, a disgruntled customer of Virgin Airway complaining about the food from Mumbai to Heathrow. Although I sincerely sympathise with the customer, his complaint letter was simply hilarious!

Zac spent the last two days at home, down with fever. Thankfully it wasn't serious, just need Calpol and lots of fluid and sleep and plenty of TLC! Luckily, MIL was able to have him while I went to work.

Been busy completing my A-Z BOM pages. I've completed Q, R and S letters so far. Got all my words sorted out for the other letters and now I just need to print out photos for it. Been digging into my Scarlet Lime kits too and having fun with them.

It's nearly the end of January! Sheesh, time is passing by so quickly. I've noticed it's getting darker much later too. Today it started getting dark from 5pm onwards. Looking so forward when the day is much longer. TTFN!

>>> 新年快乐! <<<

Happy Chinese New Year to my dear friends who celebrate it! This the Year of the Ox.

These are the animals that represent the Chinese years. Each appear once every 12 years.

And this is what we give out , exchange of oranges when we visit friends and ang pows (red packets containing cash) to kids only. Unfortunately don't get a chance to practice them here. Hub's family are more white than chinese even though his dad is Chinese!

I know I'm missing the CNY goodies back home! There's so much delicious snacks that goes with this festive occasion. Sigh! TTFN!

>>> Chinese New Year Eve! <<<

I usually hold the traditional Chinese New Year dinner and this year was no exception. It was a little low key this year as not all the family members were available but we still had a great time. Best part about the meal is little preparation is required as everything is raw, well almost! We actually cooked the ingredients in a pot (aka steamboat) during the meal.

Hubs prepared a cooked duck, more for the kiddies.

Laying out the ingredients for the meal, fishball, cuttleball, fish tofu, vegetable, king prawns, squids and raw, marinated beef!

And this is the steamboat that we use to cook the ingredients in. We actually make use of a rice cooker although one can actually purchase a proper steamboat (not sure if it exist in this country though as I hardly see this particular cuisine eaten in restaurants. It's very common in Singapore!

Pity I didn't have a tin of abalone, it would have been an icing on the cake! However, meal went well and kids enjoyed it. TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Here's some stuff that I've created. This was done for Banana Frog Blog:

Made use of Scarlet Lime Jan main kit but used Banana Frog stamps, namely, Diamonds Forever, Teen, That Takes the Cake, Journaling and Backgrounds.

I'm continuing my A-Z BOM album. I started last year but somehow, life got into the way and it got somehow forgotten. Anyway, I'm determined to finish the album. So here's letter 'P':

Made use of Scarlet Lime December main kit. I'm so glad I'm finally using these kits. They are simply gorgeous but I just don't have the time to play with them. Thank goodness, I've got a few projects coming up that require me to use my own stash so these kits will be top priority in usage!

TTFN!

>>> A New Beginning! <<<

for the United States of America! The Inauguration of Barrack Obama as President of the United States! I saw it on TV and have to say it was moving.

The crowd that went to watch it... bearing in mind it's very cold too. You could see the pride on people's faces and the joy too. Obviously, they must think he's very special. He did fumbled at his oath but he was ever so cool! What I like about him is his ability to make public speeches. He's so good at it and somehow, gets the crowd roaring away when he finishes!

All I can say, I sincerely do hope he does make changes for the better, not just for America but for the World as well. In this economic gloom and doom, we certainly do need hope and lots of it! TTFN!

>>> The Weekend's Here Again! <<<

I was looking at the calendar and suddenly realised that Chinese New Year is next Monday (26th)! OMG! That means I need to sort out the traditional New Year Eve dinner. I make it a point to try and follow tradition by having the reunion dinner here and that mean have a steamboat dinner with the immediate family. Wish I was in Singapore for this festival as you can really feel the buzz and get really excited about it. Over here, it's dead quiet!

Anyway, hubs and I went to Wing Yip to get stuff for next week's reunion dinner. Bought the usual stuff, king prawns, squids, fish tofu, fishball etc. Pity I don't have a tin of abalone. It would have make the meal even more delicious but unfortunately it's wayyyy too cost to buy it in this country! Oh well, will just have to make do with what I can get here for the dinner.

Will have to see if the boys can fit into their Chinese New Year outfits! It will be great to have a photo of them in it! TTFN!

>>> Unlucky! <<<

Hub's car was broken into this morning. They took his wallet and phone. God knows why the heck he left them in the car but that he hasn't learnt from past experience where his car was broken into a few years ago!!! My car was also on the driveway but it was untouched. I guess they saw the muck inside and thought better of it! I even sent hubs out last nite to retrieve Zac's violin that was in the boot and never once did he thought to look into his car to take anything out!

Anyway, he made the necessary calls to the banks to cancel the cards and was told that a neighbour had found his wallet sans cards! Not a surprise!

I'm sure they would have a harder time breaking into the Jag than a VW Golf GTi! Then again, if they wanted to steal, they would do anything! TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Well, now that the Homegrown Fall Survival programme is over, I can reveal the rest of my stuff that I did!

This LO was done as a challenge to try and record memories that you didn't have photos for. Well, I used to play a rope game when I was little and it was a pity I never had any photos taken as I played it all the time with my friends! Hence the photo of rubberbands and the journaling behind it.

I created a 2008 album. I've been doing such albums for 2006 -08. It's a good reflection of the year but oh, it's every so hard to chose just 1 photo to reflect that particular month!

In all, I created 11 LOs and a mini album with the kit and still have loads leftover! It has been a fun kit to work with! Looking forward to the Winter Survival kit. TTFN!

>>> Accolades & Brickbats! <<<

Last Friday, got a lovely bouquet of flowers from the mom of the boy that I look after in school. I wasn't expecting it and it was a pleasant surprise!

Not a good idea taking it in at nite!

Just practising my macro shots!

Not everyday is a good day and today was one of them. We had wet play i.e. it rained outside so the kids couldn't go out. The alternative is to gather them in the hall where we have a disco session. It can be a bit of a nitemare sometimes! Anyway, cutting the long story short, I ended up in the special needs class and trying to calm a particularly violent kid, prone to kicking and lashing out at others when he gets into that mood! So here I am, trying to restrain him but at the same time keeping an arm's length as he has a tendency to jerk his head backwards. Thankfully, his teacher came and took over but it sure as hell left me shocked. The incident only made me feel thankful that I've got normal kids. TTFN!