Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Plug: Love.Go.Round

One of my friends has set up a webshop recently selling gorgeous necklaces, bracelets and earrings. I got one for Christmas and they are really pretty!

Evidence:

Visit http://www.lovegoround.blogspot.com for more. =)

Monday, December 29, 2008

017: Play Date #1 / Altered Art Christmas

Miss Mouse has had a few playdates with James so far. Used the series of pictures I took during one of them to do an LO (I promise myself its the last LO for the year!) for Challenge 02 at Moments Recorded. I ended up getting rather carried away and had plenty of "jia yan jia cu (add salt add vinegar)" to the actual requirements of the challenge which were:

For the T & Cs for this themed challenge
You need to use:
  • 4 patterned papers (of which one can be used as a base instead of a cardstock)

  • 3 photos (or more if you want)

  • Chipboard Alphas (Time to bring those Thickers out)

  • Buttons (Any amount is up to you)

  • Stamps! (I'm sure most of us have stamps either from sprees or the kits we sub to)
Ah well.
Since when have my LOs not been over-the-top? Lol.

One day, I should take part a challenge that states "ONLY" - like you can ONLY use x types of embellishments etc. I sure die. Heh.

Here goes the fullsize:

And close ups:
Its not very visible unless you look really really closely, but the yellow swirls on the page are a mixture of cut outs from American Crafts Moda Bella paper from Scarlet Lime's August kit, and yellow vinyl thickers from the same kit. Cutting the paper was enough to kill me! But it had to be done to fulfil the requirement for 4 pattern papers. Ah well.

I'm going to be lazy with the ingredients list and state that almost everything comes from the Scarlet Lime August kit! Heh. With a few notable exceptions - the super cute bubble speech captions from some randon sticker pack at Spotlight, aqua chipboard alphas from a long-ago RAK from Wati, buttons mostly from Autumn Leaves Mod Techno-pop bag-o-buttons, big pink flower button from another long-ago RAK from Sophia, upper right hand corner flourish from Autumn Leaves Heather Bailey chipboards, # sign from Scenic Route, "1" from American Crafts vinyl Sprinkles thickers, black and pink ribbons from Imaginisce Lavishly Latin collection, yellow ribbon, small butterfly paper and bracket sticker from Scarlet Lime's July kit.

And yes, you did not read wrongly, Scarlet Lime's July and August kits. Oops. Shows how behind I am! The rest of the kits are still untouched given my stubborn penchant for not moving on until the previous one(s) are completely used up.

Disclaimer: The conversation between James and Sophie exists in my head only. I'm sure James ain't "sian-ing" zharbor at such a young age. Heh. But it was just too cute to resist putting those speech bubbles in!


Prior to this, I was very very busy over the pre-Christmas period making altered stuff for gifts. Made coasters for my ushers, notebooks for friends and CG members, and other, more Christmassy-looking notebooks for door gifts. Nearly killed myself being ambitious to make these but boy I really think they look good!

Coasters:
Did close to 60 pieces of these over 7.5 hours, with plenty of help from 4S1 and 4S5 ics. Zhng'd some pieces on the back with cutouts or rubons - those really nearly killed me. Have I mentioned I hate cutting yet??

Front courtesy of circle cutters, Autumn Leaves Stampology stamps, Spotlight christmas tree stickers and Vivian's Revo (hehe). Back courtesy of more Autumn Leaves Stampology stamps (I swear I love their stamps so much!), "Blessings for you" stamp from Laine's, and Autumn Leaves rub-ons. Yes, I am a huge AL fan, how would you have guessed??

Notebooks (personalized):
Zhng notebooks from Campus series - super hard to find! Only found at A&NBC stores and absolutely nowhere else. Argh.

I took this series of photos only after giving the majority of my notebooks away (and I am kicking myself for it evermore):
This is the favourite of the books I had remaining then.

1/3 of the total I made clustering behind ade's book. Yupp, I was very ambitious.

Ingredients vary from book to book, but are mainly Hamblys birdcage screenprints, Prima Pop Ups paper flowers and birds, Sassafrass Lass Woodland Creatures chipboard stickers, various types of AC thickers and ribbons, and AC Remarks stickers which suited beautifully as they were printed on transparent background.

Notebooks (door gifts):
Much more Christmassy. Much simpler. But yet still pretty nice looking. =)
This round, being unable to get any more Campus notebooks, I fell to zhng'ing notebooks from Muji. Turned out to be a very good decision!

Much thanks to Fancy Pants Christmas collection papers, Scenic Route Christmas chipboards and cardstocks, s.e.i Holly Lane mini coasters, Autumn Leaves Holly Jolly ribbons, and the ubiquitous AL Christmas stamps!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Travels: World Heritage

UNESCO World Heritage Centre lists 878 properties, of which I have been to the following:

Australia
1. Great Barrier Reef
2. Greater Blue Mountains Area
3. Sydney Opera House

Europe
4. Austria - City of Salzburg
5. Austria - City of Vienna
6. Belgium - La Grande-Place, Brussels
7. France - Versailles
8. France - Prehistoric caves of the Vezere
9. France - Pont du Gard
10. France - Notre Dame Cathedral, Reims
11. France - Paris itself!
12. France - Loire Valley
13. France - Saint-Emilion
14. France - Bordeaux
15. Germany - Cologne Cathedral
16. Italy - Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, containing the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
17. Italy - Rome
18. Italy - Venice
19. Vatican City
20. Luxembourg
21. Netherlands - Amsterdam canals
22. Switzerland - Berne
23. Switzerland - Swiss Alps
24. UK - Tower of London
25. UK - Westminster Abbey
26. UK - Royal Botanic Gardens

America
27. Mexico City
28. US - Statue of Liberty
29. US - Grand Canyon National Park
30. US - Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
31. US - Yosemite National Park

Asia
32. China - Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties
33. China - The Great Wall
34. China - Mount Huangshan National Park
35. China - Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties
36. China - The Summer Palace
37. China - The Temple of Heaven
38. Japan - Kyoto
39. Korea - Changdeokgung Palace
40. Korea - Gyeongju
41. Philippines - Rice Terraces

Middle East
42. Israel - Masada
43. Israel - Tel Aviv
44. Israel - Jerusalem

Just 44 places.. a mere 5%.. I wanna travel!!

Hello, Cow!

I've had my 17th week scan for #2 today, and Doc says that its another girl! Hooray! I've wanted a 2nd girl ever since I found out I was pregnant.

1. Two sisters can play together and share together much more than brother and sister. I mean, there are some things you just don't discuss with a guy right?? Especially not your own brother..
2. Sophie's pretty clothes can all be re-used! Get more of their money's worth out of them. OMG I am so superficial. lol.
3. No need to start learning to avoid "sprinkler" systems when we change diapers.

Hehe..

Hopefully this moomoocow is more docile and less wriggly than her Jiejie. Sophie was always super active and flipping somersaults in her ultrasound scans. And her movements were so vigorous that I could see my entire stomach move at, like, 20 weeks? So far, moomoo has been rather quiet and "relax one corner" during the scans. I've felt her scritch-ing me about once or twice a day for the past few weeks, but nowhere near as much as Sophie! Let's pray that this will be an indicator of things to come after she's born.

Also, I'm gaining much less weight for this round than I did at first. Probably because my fat stores, increased blood volume, uterine muscles etc have all not quite subsided yet from the first pregnancy. I gained a total of 18kg for the 1st round, lost 13kg in between, and have gained only 2.5kg so far this round. I hope my weight gain maxes out at 10kg or less - makes it easier to lose after.

Fruit Update:
Eeek! Its an onion this week??
Urgh.

Lets look at happier fruits (ie. those I missed out the past few weeks)
Week 16 is an avocado. Urgh too. No avocadoes on my blog! See you for Week 18's fruit!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

My table

is now so absolutely neat and spotlessly clean that I can't find ANYTHING.

Courtesy of my (very efficient) FDW.

A dream with a point

I dreamt that my current house was located along a stretch in Pasir Panjang that had been turned into a seafront promenade. Like, stepping out of the front door, you see cobblestoned streets and festive lights strung from lamp poles and a gorgeous sea view (never knew Singapore had such jewel-green seas so lovely). And lots of people strolling along the street that was lined chock-a-block with hole-in-the-wall eateries and uppity little boutiques.

Then it struck me that such a place would exist only in Sydney (the Rocks), or San Francisco (Pier 39), but no-way in Singapore. Awww. And hence we come to the main point of this post, a hint to G: bring me travelling!

(Continue to digress about the dream)
Our house had lovely princessy bedrooms upstairs where everything was coated in purple, haha. And it was snooty-uppity to the extent that the entrance from the cobblestoned walk was via a glass door that led to a hotel lobby, and then a further glass door that only we could get through. Woo!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christmas Wishlist Part 1

Have thought of some things:

1. Makeup base from MAC or Shu Uemura (the tube, not the foam)
2. Heat gun and embossing powder
3. My Ted Baker bag! (provided its still in stock)
4. Of course, the ubiquitous vouchers - then again, I should be careful what I wish for: this birthday, i got NOTHING but paper (all Capitalland Mall vouchers). and yes I've spent them all. haha.
5. Bling bling sunglasses! Juan knows which pair.

alrighty! Sounds a little more positive eh! =)

Update #1 - Got my first 2 Christmas pressies today.
From KQ, a pair of Fie earrings that I wheedled her into getting for me (yes, I gave in to temptation despite not being able to wear them whenever Sophie's around). Yumms.
And from Tiffany, a bottle of Clarins' stretchmark oil. LOLLLLLL!! Definitely not something I would think of asking for but definitely uber useful in the months to come.


Update #2 - I've thought of Sophie's wishlist!
5. Jamie Rae hat - like so:

6. Fisher Price activity table - the one Kiddy Palace sells for $39.90. Sorry, didn't take note of the name.

Christmas is getting better and better! =)

Friday, December 05, 2008

Christmas Non-Wishlist

- Clothes are depressing [can't wear]
- Shoes are depressing [can't wear - unless you can find me really nice and comfy and non-boring flats]
- Manicures and pedicures are depressing [nails are short and stubby in case i poke Sophie]
- Long dangly earrings are depressing [she pulls]
- in fact jewellery of any sort is depressing [she pulls, she grabs and she gnaws]
- Hair treatments are depressing [chemical treatments like dye-ing, highlighting and rebonding are supposed to affect the baby yada yada yada]

They're all depressing cos I can't have them / there is no point having them now.

- Bags I have in abundance (courtesy of last Christmas)
- Baby stuff I have in abundance [and can't think of any age appropriate toys that would entertain Sophie for the next few months]
- Scrapbooking stuff I have in abundance [oh Lord let that continue to be my (misguided) opinion and let it not change when I hit the stores and see the new releases ARGH!]


________________________________________________________
Update!!

I got a pretty pretty pair of shoes from Kelly (Thank you so much!!) They are flats, non-boring, and really made my day. Hooray!!

Finally 014, 015 and 016

Ai yo yo.
After how-many-months of no scrapping, here come 3 LOs.

Well 014 is supposed to be for my birthday (17th Sept) - I am more than 2 months late on this one.

015 and 016 done at KQ's place today for Moments Recorded challenge. Still slowly finding my mojo back so its relatively simple for these 3 LO.

014: I am Twenty Nine

The idea was to have 29 things that define me or I have done this year. It was so much harder to do (and so much more personal) than I thought and it took me ages to complete this. Which 29 things to choose? Why these? And how to condense it all into one page?

015 + 016: Jumperoo
First double page LO. They can be read separately or together as a spread - the journalling and titles can be read separately or together. Also, first LO with so many photos!

Left side, the ribbons almost killed me for sticking them on:

Right side:

As a 2 page LO:

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

i keep having epiphanies

and forgetting them just before i get around to blogging them down. argh.

i miss going on trips and taking random photographs of all sorts of stuff. 9/10 pictures recently are of miss mouse.
i miss going on trips, per se.
i miss my SB mojo. i am so stuck on this LO.

roar!!!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

On such a roll tonight

Or maybe it's just avoidance of doing useful work.

Hemmm.

Recently reminded that motivation has got to be something innate, before we do not need others to push us on to doing what is right. Else, we would falter time and again in the very same areas because that's what we're not motivated to do.
But shouldn't that be indelible (no, I did not misspell inedible) knowledge by now?
Sigh.

Slam a glass globe over their heads

and make sure that they, and only they, get to breathe in the horrid fumes of their incense / wood / charcoal / whatever burning. Then maybe it'll stop! Gosh!

Living here is like being adjacent to the forest fires in Indonesia.
I kid you not. It is that bad. Some random insomniac neighbour (GAHHHH if I ever find out who) keeps on burning copious amounts of Foul Smelling Stuff.
In the middle of the night.
Every night.

I swear, my lungs are turning all black on their nice pinky moist insides with the smoke. And when I think of what its doing to Sophie's little lungs.. Urgh.

Anyone knows if there's anything we can do about it?
- it only happens at night, hardly possible to call an MOEnv person to come down in the wee hours, no?
- difficult to identify which house is doing it because its night time
- the perps are doing everything in their own back yard, but it definitely affects many many people around

GAHHHHHHH!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Monday, November 17, 2008

Week 12, and a host of other things

So its Week 12, and it's Plum Time! Woo!
Plums are nice fruits. Hooray!

Week 12 means the end of the first trimester soon, and I'm kind of glad because the cow has seemed.. well kind of unreal since I can't see anything beyond the fats on my tummy sticking out yet. I'm looking forward to being able to feel cow's movements and seeing a visible bump appearing.

As for Miss Mouse, she has had many new experiences in the last week.
Last Thursday, we brought her out for tea with my mum, mum-in-law and aunty Ah Chin. Mouse was fussing the whole time and we finally hit on the idea of giving her (just a little) the food we were eating. Of course, no sumptuous spread for her. She only got some plain porridge and plain bread. But that was enough to keep her happy for awhile. When she got bored again, she decided to climb the cake display (ulp!) Amazingly she could climb the smooth sided display. Don't ask me how. She is a monkey more than a mouse!
On Thursday morning she had some pictures taken with her in Daddy's car. Daddy was most miserable at sending off his Suzy, but Sophie was more than happy to crawl all over and abuse the interior and in general make a most cute nuisance of herself. Will upload the pictures when I get my hands on the camera!

Sunday, we had Sophie dedicated in church. Again, pics when I get the softcopies! The mouse was a terror all morning long, clambering in and out of the Nursery play area and looking so pleased with herself for figuring out how; refusing milk for 6 hours and requiring 3 people to change her diaper (1 to hold her arms, 1 to hold her legs and 1 to change her which was finally managed only in standing position!). Thankfully she fell asleep the moment we began queueing and didn't squall during the dedication! Whew.

Sunday evening, she learnt to climb up the sofa all by herself using her newly discovered climbing ability. And then she tried climbing the sides of her playpen. Oh dear. What are we going to use to contain this mouse next?

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Its been long

and here I am finally for a quick update. Holidays have started but it doesn't quite seem like holidays yet as there are still so many things to settle for next year (school), and I'm invigilating almost every day at NJC. My intensive invigilation ends this Friday, with only sporadic invigilations after that, but next week I'm on course Mon and Tue and Asia Conference is on from Wed-Sun. So I guess I'll only feel like its the holidays come December. Sigh.

We are changing car, from a Suzuki Swift to a Honda Edix. Effecting the change this week. Hope I can get used to the new car, which is much more roomy (read: bulky to drive) soon! G is devastated over his Suzy though. The change is all for the better though he says the cow had better appreciate it in future. Heh.

Another change - we will be getting a domestic helper. One mouse is almost too much to handle, let alone mouse plus cow! So yes, bowing to the inevitable. =)

The Mouse has not really been behaving but I guess we can't quite blame her; she's suddenly jumped from 2 teeth to 8! 4 of her upper teeth decided to appear together, followed almost immediately by 2 more lower teeth. No wonder she is cranky. But I do hope the crankiness will end really soon so that we can get more sleep.

Didn't want to miss the Weekly Fruit Update, so here we are:
Your fetus currently enjoys a 1:1 ratio between body and head, and has skin so transparent that blood vessels show right through. But, fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds and nail beds are forming -- setting up a significantly more attractive future.

Lime's much nicer than prune. Although prune plus lime juice packs a mean punch - try it at Beach Road hawker center one day. Teehee.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Week 10: Prune

With bones and cartilage starting to form and vital organs beginning to function, baby is making major progress. Body length will almost double in the next three weeks, and arm joints are now working. (Soon, legs will too.)

Sigh! A prune! Goodness. No wonder I feel all old and wrinkled and wrinkly.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Update, finally

While I have the energy and time to do so over the long weekend..

Anyway, if you read G's blog, you will know the reason why I am so tired / lack of time - it's cos the Cow, is on the way. 9 weeks now, 31 weeks to go till 1st June 2009.

Cow is a much more troublesome thing than Mouse; making me perpetually tired, perpetually hungry and often dizzy. Maybe because it's cos a Cow is a larger creature than a Mouse? Of course, having Miss Active Mouse around to tire me out does not help. =(

As as aside, I've found a darned amusing webbie, which measures the development of a baby in terms of fruits and veggies. Like so:
What an unattractive week to start off with... green olive! Urgh!
Had I started with Week 8 it would have been a raspberry, and Week 7 a blueberry. Ah well.

On another note, I have a new tablet PC. Yumms. Fujitsu T series lifebook.. but I haven't transferred my stuff over yet because i have Too Darn Many Things To Do! Grr! I shall hurry up and do my stuff (hello, stop blogging, me) and then I can PLAY with my new tablet. Hooray!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mouse News Edition 5: 13102008

It all began with a cough on Tuesday night..

By Friday Sophie had progressed to a full blown chesty, phlegmy cough; sneezing with abundant mucus running out of her nose, loss of appetite and throwing up all the solid food we fed her. Her throwing up is no joke! It means cleaning her, changing her, cleaning the chair/table/floor and whatever is in her vicinity, and finally cleaning and changing whoever was nearest her when she puked. And being unable to sleep at night because of the mucus clogging her nostrils (which she doesn't know how to expel!) or violent coughing, so she kept on waking up (read: we have to keep waking up too).

Doc said that Miss Mouse would take some time to recover as her immune system is very low. Seems like the worst is over as her coughing frequency has decreased already. But it will take awhile for her to fully recover, and gain back her appetite, and re-train her to take solids (we have switched her to full liquid diet since she had been puking!)

Poor Mouse! And poor us!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Engrish.com revisited

Haven't been to Engrish.com for the longest. It hasn't lost its ability to crack me up..

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Mouse News Edition 4: 01102008

Happy Children's Day - and what an appropriate day to update about Miss Mouse.

She is standing much more stably now. Not wobbly at all when holding on to a handhold and she once managed to keep her balance for a few seconds without any handhold too!

Her top 2 teeth are coming up and boy is she cranky. These few days when she feels the pain she literally screams and yells at the top of her voice. And teething gel only soothes her for less than 5 mins before she begins yelling again. Food/milk doesn't seem to go down well either as it irritates the gums, so she's been eating a little less than she used to.

For the same reason, she has not drunk much water for the past few days (she only chews the teat rather than drink the water) and resulted in her having pretty bad constipation. We had to bring the poor girl to Mt Alvernia's A&E on Tuesday night after she was unable to get the poo out. Could see it going in and out of her backside but it was just too hard and too huge for her to get out on her own strength. So Mt A it was, she got some numbing cream, a glycerin suppository and a liquid enema which finally managed (after some 3 hours or so?) to induce her to poo. The doc had to manually break up the huge piece too to let her have an easier time.

That piece of shit, cost her daddy $105. Her most expensive shit ever.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

G's bday mini album

Something I only managed to finish on the morning of his birthday itself at 7am.. gave him with the mod podge still wet and quickly snatched it back after he has seen it to let it dry. Hahaha.. =P

This was meant to "showcase" the different sides of G - the things that he most loves.

This is my first attempt at doing mini album. Whew!

album: Victorian Key mini album from KaiserCrafts

Cover page:

family pp from 7G, plain cardstock with I stamped words on, rounded the edges and outlined in silver; transparency which I printed myself; alphas K&Co filigree chipboard (coloured over it in black pen to make the filigree more subtle and outlined in silver); MM tiny alphas in black; ghost arrow from Heidi Swapp with silver edging and BG Wholly Cow rubons; Hambly's transparency vintage frames; Maya Road microchips heart.


2nd and 3rd pages: Hubby

2nd page: cloth paper (man+woman) from Love,Elsie; sticker with quote - not sure where it is from, actually a random sticker that I cut out the words from; Cloud 9 Cinnamon Chalet 3d flower

3rd page: same cloth paper, 7G Family rubons for the words "together forever", filigree chipboard alphas same as the coverpage, Maya Road Microchips hearts, Maya Road house chipboard coloured in pink and sprayed with glimmer mist (I really like the effect on this one!) then used 7g family rubons for the "heart", MM tiny alphas for the "home", and the rest is doodling; Basic Grey Sultry chipboards for the swirl and "I heart you".



4th and 5th pages: Daddy

4th page: Family pp same as 1st page, with the definition of "father" cut out from elsewhere on the same paper and layered over the words on that part (which actually said mother hahahahahaha); alphas from Doodlebug - not sure what the actual name of the font is; joyful tab from Sei "Say it with Fabrics" - a super old range I picked up at Popular; Adore and Delight metal stickers on this and the next page from Kimberly Poloson; quote marks from Scenic Route black chipboard.

5th page: Same Family pp, cut to show the word lovely (luv-li); label writer tape for the line; 7G gaffer tape for the right bottom corner; Maya Road microchip heart with pink stickles; Prima Say it in Crystals frame, and the back end of stickers from 7G 97% complete photography tabs which was used on the 6th page



6th and 7th pages: Photographer

6th page: graph paper from hambly's screenprints (a RAK from mly2906), stickers and tabs from 7G 97% complete Photography; I also cut out my hubby's profile and popped it up from the rest of the picture to make it more outstanding.

7th page: The same graph paper; Pink Paislee press-ons on the PP; alphas from American Crafts Thickers Platform in black, also outlined in silver as well as MM tiny alphas; stickers from 7G 97% complete Photography and stamped words "people, places, things". I didn;t manage to stamp the words exactly where I wanted them as it was a rubber stamp. Sigh. The stamps from Heidi Swapp.



8th and 9th pages: Drama King

8th page: black and white polka dot PP was "stolen" from my friend's DCWV stack 6 (teehee); AC Thickers in Giftbox (green), flowers, swirls and the base of the word "drama" are from Basic Grey Sultry chipboards;
9th page: same polka dot PP, 3 green dots from BG Sultry again, to give a sense of continuity with the previous page; black crystals from KaiserCraft; live out loud stamp from Autumn Leaves Stampology Sandy Krieger Spring; "pure poser" words from 7G Photography as well.


10th page: Back cover
Love, Elsie cloth PP; love rubon from 7G Family rubons, MM tiny alphas, Limited Edition rubons from KaiserCraft; For You rubon from Autumn Leaves Rhona Farrer Greetings.