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!