~ 365 Cards: Day 230 ~

Today's challenge is called Tuesday Trio. The items required is an animal, something yellow and floss. Here's my card:

Card created using Jen Maddocks Designs: Hallows Eve kit, available at Oscraps. 

Oh well, Halloween is coming and I really like that festive occasion! TTFN!

~ Pink Reptile Designs & T For Me: Eco Friendly ~

Played with a collaboration kit by PRD and T For Me called Eco-Friendly, currently available at The Lilypad where Mirjam is a guest designer there.

Here's my LO made using this kit: 

Supplies:Pink Reptile Designs & T For Me: Eco Friendly

Fonts: Digs My Hart & Chalkduster

The designer of T For Me is retiring so this will be her last kit. Shame as she does quite lovely kits too. TTFN!

~ At Last! ~

Managed to get my new hard disk into my Mac and install the Operating System Snow Leopard (yup still using the old one despite Mountain Lion is out now and no inclination to change at the moment. Why fix something that isn't broken!) Then I realised I had to update all the security patches etc. Somehow during that fix, something went wrong. On Sunday morning, went down to the Apple store whereby they wipe my hard disk and install the latest Snow Leopard for me thereby eliminating any updates! I went home and restore my hard disk. The only problem is that I didn't have the latest backup i.e. Tuesday, 11th Oct! The latest was actually late August! So I lost a lot of files that was created in Sep and early Oct! So annoyed. Apparently my Cloud storage failed to update properly and I had to rely on my backup based on late Aug! Oh well, thankfully my digi stuff was stored in an external hard disk so that was ok! I now need to find another storage area for Time Machine just in case!

Good to know that my Macbook is now up and running! TTFN! 

~ Restore! ~

My new hard disk arrived today. With hub's help, I got it installed. Fortunately, I found my original Snow Leopard disk and started to prepare the new disk. I couldn't manage to get it restore from my latest backup on my Cloud storage (couldn't connect) but luckily had an old backup from an EHD so I used that. As I'm writing, it's now restoring from my backup and will take 3 hrs approximately. Fingers crossed that I get my stuff back. My main concern is the photos in iPhoto as I've not transferred two and a half years worth of photos onto an external hard disk! I'm so gonna dedicate a day in every week to backup everything! Never know when your hard disk will suddenly fail on you! TTFN!

~ GIS: Page Embellishment Clusters ~

There's an article on using Embellishment Clusters on your pages. These days, you can find specially-made embellishment clusters for sale. I rather make them myself from various elements. Anyway, here's my page: 

Supplies: Anna Aspnes: Artsy Layered Template No65, ArtPlay Palette Socialize, Good Stuff Word Mix No1
Julianna Kniepp Designs & Captured Visions: Love Is All You Need Julianna Kniepp Designs: Old Sweet Times Dawn Inskip: Chinese Whispers Papers Fonts: Pea Elaine & Spice Curry Rice_G

For me, meeting friends also inevitably involve food. We love a good meal, not so much drinking (I don't care much for it) but good food is a must! Well, my best friend brought me to this particular restaurant where the food was amazing! I highlighted this Japanese sashimi dish. It was so fresh and lovely to eat! Yum! And their Chinese dishes was cooked in such an unusual manner, very creative and delicious! The background was blended with Chinese paper as I was in Shanghai then. TTFN!

~ And It Happened! ~

The inevitable happened! My Macbook died on me on Tuesday night. It started with this ball and I rebooted and that ball kept coming up. Each reboot got no further and eventually, I got a grey screen of death! A trip to the Apple store confirmed the inevitable! My hard disk has gone kaput! Nothing wrong with the Macbook. Now that hard disk is only 2 yrs old, younger than my Macbook! Thank goodness I had set up my Time Machine on my new storage system so I do have a latest copy of what was in the Macbook. The unfortunately part is that two external hard disks (that contains all my digi files) were configured in Mac format hence, I can't use them on a PC. I'm currently using my son's PC laptop and it sucks big time as all my links were saved in Safari. I've ordered a new internal hard disk from Amazon and hope it comes soon. I feel so lost with my trusty Macbook. TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 223 ~

Today's challenge is called 'Double The Fun'. Basically double up any thing used on the card. Here's mine: 

 

Created using Forever Joy Designs' Sweet Days, available at Oscraps.

On my card, I've got 2 gals, 2 patterned papers and the 2 ends of the banner! TTFN!

~ Easy Scrapbook Pages: October 2012 ~

My page for Easy Scrapbooking Page has come out, as seen here. 

Supplies:
Val C.Designs & Bee Design: Self Confidence
Fonts: Xerography and Pea Alicia

Took this photo while at my best friend's house, playing with her baby! We were in front of the mirror! I combined this picture taken with the Hiptamatic app with two art journaling background pages. They seem to match pretty well. TTFN!

~ Val C. Designs: NoteBook ~

The second new kit that Val brought out is called Notebook, available at Scrap Art Studio at the moment where she is currently a guest designer there. The kit is available separately as well. 

Here's my page: 

TTFN!

~ Val C. Designs: Circle Of Life ~

Val released a new kit called Circle Of Life. She is currently a guest designer at  Scrap Art Studio where it is being sold. 

Luv those trees. Reminds me of a particular set of stamps which featured trees in seasons! Here's my page: 

I depicted what we did in the various seasons. Just a note, Val will be moving permanently to a new home soon! Watch this space! TTFN!

~ Forever Joy Designs: Breathe ~

Here's a new kit from another designer ForeverJoy Designs called Breathe, available at Oscraps. 

Luv the shabby look of this kit. Here's my page: 

Supplies:
Forever Joy: Breathe
Font: Clipper Script Fat

Here am I, having a manicure done in Shanghai. I generally don't like putting colours on my nails but decided to have a go! TTFN!

~ Lifescapes Designs: Zen Templates ~

New designer Lifescapes Designs came up with a set of templates called Zen Arcade Templates.

Here's my page:

Supplies:
Lifescapes: Zen Arcade Template2
Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette Golden Glory, ArtPlay Palette Concerto, ArtPlay Palette Jardinier
Charlize Creations: Be Yourself
Fonts: Xerography & Blessings Through Raindrops

Photos were taken using the Hipstamatic apps. Back to their music routine with the start of September. TTFN!

~ New Designers @ Oscraps ~

Oscraps recently had a designer call and as a result, there are new designers joining the team. Today we introduce 3 new designers! 

Do check out the Oscraps store. Lots of new goodies in store! TTFN!

~ Maya de Groot: Zen & The Art Of All Hallows Eve ~

Maya has done it again! She came up with this amazing Halloween kit called Zen & The Art Of All Hallows Eve. 

Here are my pages!

An art journaling page.

A LO page.

I had so much fun with this kit! So much cute elements in there! TTFN!

~ GIS: Inspired By Menswear Patterns ~

Get It Scrapped has come up with a new article based on inspiration by menswear patterns and how it can be translated onto a page. Here's my page:

Supplies:
Simply Tiffany Studios: Layered Template No16
Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette Viaggio, 12x12 Edge Overlays No5, Good Stuff Word Mix No1
Oscraps Collaboration: Novel
Julianna Kniepp Designs & Jenn Barrette: Seas The Day
Julianna Kniepp Designs & Studio Basic: Hello Fall
Julianna Kniepp Designs: Craft Time For Boys
Fonts: Kate & Veteran Typewriter

I combined artsy paper (background) with traditional pieces of menswear patterns (chevron and pinstripe). 

Hubby sent me these photos when I was away and they were my memories of the boys. No doubt, if I were there, there will be more taken and in a better angle too! Still, I make do with what I got! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 216 ~

This week we are sponsored by EAD Designs. 

Sad to say that they are closing at the end of October. Shame as they do have some very lovely stuff for sale. 

Today's challenge is to have a speckled background on the card. My style really and I enjoyed creating this background. Anyway, here's my card: 

When I saw this set of stickers, I knew I just had to have it. It was so adorable!

Incidentally, there is an app to create the 'Keep Calm' sayings. My boys had a field time playing with it and we had a good laugh over some sayings they made up! TTFN!

~ Oscaps Collaboration: 'Lil Monsters ~

The designers at Oscraps have put up another fantastic collaboration called 'Lil Monsters. It's such a cute kit! 

October is traditional the month for Halloween and therefore, a lot of stores will be selling Halloween kits. But I simply luv this particular kit as it a break from the traditional Halloween images. Hence, it can be used easily for pages with kids. For my page, I did do a Halloween one: 

We had a Halloween party once and the kids had a blast! So did I! So nice to be able to document them. TTFN!

~ Danielle Young Designs: Expectant ~

Danielle came out with a new kit at Oscraps called Expectant.

Seeing the name of the kit, I had to dig out some photos of me in my pregnancy stage. Can't say I took many then but I had this particular one which I just had to scrap.

I just had Oliver and he was only 11 days old. That accounts for the awfully huge tummy I had then!

It was the year that my SILs also had their babies too. My MIL was suddenly greeted with 3 new grandchildren in a year, the year 2000! Seriously, didn't plan to have any but accident happens! TTFN!

~ Happy Mooncake Festival ~

to my Singaporean friends. Enjoy your mooncake and think of me! Basically, it a festival where we have mooncake and play with lanterns! A typical Chinese festival also know as Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). I remember those fantastic lanterns I used to carry around at night. 

I did manage to buy two durian mooncake to bring back here for my hubby. These days, they have the most outrageous and innovative mooncakes for sale. 

This is a traditional mooncake, filled with lotus paste or even red bean paste and sometimes yolk from salted duke egg is included. I'm not personally keen on the yolk.

These are the snow skin mooncake, quite common in Singapore. A break from the traditional kind and it is filled with a lot of unusual filling eg. durian, rum and raisin, bak kua etc. I've not tried the unusual kind but my next trip out, I'll be hunting down for them!

Typical paper lanterns

When it lit at nite!

(all photos taken from the web)

My boys don't like mooncake. Well, at least they can play with lanterns! I did get them Angry Bird lanterns! TTFN!

~ Closure! ~

Read with sadness about the impending closure of Zig Zag Scrap. I do CT for 2 of the designers there, Pink Reptile Designs and Val C. Designs and it must be a great shock for them and all the other designers there. They do have some good designers with fantastic kits. I can't say that I'm a regular there (just don't have the time) but when they do have special events, I do join in and the community there is a friendly bunch. They will close their doors on 15th October for good. Some designers are having a 30% discount sale at their stores before the closure. TTFN!