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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Finally I can share this news!

Would like to shout this out!! Hee hee hee!
I've been selected for Scrap and Stamp Saturday to be part of their wonderful design team! They are a scrapping and stamping community who just love their stamps and scraps! (as do I, of course!)

From the blog of Scrap and Stamp Saturday
It is time for the announcement everyone has been waiting for!
First I would like to say thank you to everyone who applied to be on the design team. I so wish that I could have chosen each and everyone of you. I really hope that you will apply again the next go around. This was truly a tough decision to narrow the pool down to just six. After several days of blog hopping and hopping again it was finally time to decide. I am honored to introduce you to the new members of the Scrap and Stamp team. We are completely thrilled to have them with us. You all are in for a treat with their beautiful work!
Hollie Smallwood
Tamara Bennett
Cariena Basson
Lacey Stephens
Shirley Yow
Isolde Pyncket
They will be joining the existing team of
Boni Boutelle-Jones
Pamela Young
Shana Tedrick
Regina Jones

Thank you S&SS!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Then and Now

Reflections
Then and now. What a difference. And so fast. She's already 9months now and getting into so many things! Her big brother's truck is also fair play for her. She squeezed herself in and tried to get it to move and ended up toppling the whole truck over and her little head banged!
Then she decided that the night view was good and started her "King Kong" climb up the chair, table and finally the "pinnacle" of the "Empire State Building"!! What a little monkey. And she scaled it so fast!
Finally Dad decided that he needed to teach the little on how to build with the bricks. I hope she does not become too tom boyish cos the mummy wanted to save costs and space and decided to let the little girl play with "boy toys"!! But apparently, she loves the boy toys and can repeatedly play with Big Bro's toys over and over and over. And it helps that Big Bro seems interested in his little boy's toys again and is usually playing with the little sister. How sweet eh?!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

I'm back in circulation!

Hahaha! I just had to use that as a title! Vision still a little blur. But that's cos the 'scab' on the eyes have not fallen out yet. (just like the scab you get when you fall and get cut) At least the pain's not there anymore.
Apparently, I was over sensitive to the temporary lens that they put into my eyes. I was in severe pain over the weekend and Monday was hell! It was probably the worst day of my life - in terms of physical pain that is. I could not open my eyes for more than half a minute. Each time I tried to open my eyes for a longer time, the stinging pain would force me to close and tears just kept dripping. I was also so sensitive to light that I had to hide in the darkened room almost the whole day.
Misery was my companion and I was moaning and groaning about why I had to choose beauty over life and all that nonsense. Luckily, I was at my mother in law's place and they helped me to handle my little one. Otherwise, I'd have "died" of pain and exhaustion! Phew! It was torture I never wanted to go through ever again!
At least it's over now even though its gonna take me another 2 weeks before I can safely drive. It'll be another couple days before my vision clears up and I can really SEE without any aid for the first time in 20 plus years!!!!! Yipee!!!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Lasik over and done with....

Finally. Done. Over. But the healing process goes on... I'm still tearing and there's some slight pain. But according to doc, it went as well as it possibly could.
After a series of pre-op check up, I was found to be unsuitable to do the more common LASIK ops. My eyeballs were asymmetrical due to chronic contact lens wearing. I had to undergo another procedure called Epi Lasik. It was a less common procedure as it had a longer healing time and post op was more painful than Lasik. However, it was less invasive than Lasik as it did not involve the removing of the cornea to laser the eye. The exact procedure or differences of the two is simply beyond my understanding! (as of now, cos the pain and the near blurness of my current vision now does not make me feel like checking out the differences!)
I now have a lens in each of my eye to protect the tender surface of the eyeball. They will be removed in 3 to 4 days time. The whole procedure took about 10mins and that was due to the doc having to prepare the eye for the laser itself. The actual lasering took only a couple seconds and like my friend said, it was probably the most expensive operation ever for such a quick procedure!! It was pretty scary actually to allow someone to invade your eyes like that. But in actual fact, there was not really enough time for the scary feeling to take over. By the time the surgeon was done, the scary feeling had not even had time to develop! Hahahaha! So on the second day when the other eye was to be done, all feeling of nervousness was more or less over cos the procedure was fairly quick and painless.
So now, I'm still in slight stinging pain (only occasionally, not constant pain) and the blurness is still there but at least I can see without any eye aid. That has gotta be the best feeling in the world after wearing glasses and contacts for almost 20 years!
Need to stop now cos the tearing is starting. Will have brand new eyes in a week's time! Yipeeeee!!!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Does this look like a Balinese Spa Resort?








GORGEOUS ain't it?? I love love coming here. It's actually my husband's 3rd anutie's house in Malaysia. They completed it only last year after quite a number of years in the making. The house is really really seriously HUGE!! It was designed in the Balinese resort spa style and the theme runs throughout the whole house. There are heavy wooden tables, chairs, "trees" (for lack of a better word), pots, etc! Even the entrance to the main house is flanked by 2 ponds and a wooden bridge to walk across. As we drive in, the wooden pavillion (pic right at the top) greets us with its sparkling fountains and creatively built ponds. The pavillion is used for relaxation and playing mahjong when the mood suits them. Sometimes it does get a little too hot outside and we escape into the cool of the house. Only problem I see with the house is that the seats have no sofas. It's all completely wooden and pretty uncomfortable at times! But this is just a minor inconvenience in the splendor of the house itself!

Even the furniture itself is mostly imported from Bali and other parts of Malaysia. Impressive huh??! Wait till you actually have a chance to GO there to see it! Jaws will literally smack the hot asphalt!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Groovie Cover Challenge

Here's the cover...
Here's my take!
123 Smile*
This is my first debut at Groovie Cover and here's my take! Come join in the fun and there's a RAK from one of the Groovie Girls!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Stickles Stickles Everywhere!

Special Girl

To make a "wavey" ribbon like this without a sewing machine, (I have one, but just too lazy to take it out for a little bitty ribbon!) just thread your needle and do a quick stitch through the ribbon. No worries about whether the stitch is straight or not, just pull it slightly when you're done and sew through the end of the ribbon and knot it.
There's no need to paint chipboards when there's prettily coloured stickles like these!
No more plain felted birdie. Just squeeze some stickles and voila! There's your pretty little birdie with eyes and wings!
Another plain felted chipboard tree. (which I also felted myself, like the birdie) Used green stickles and dotted it all over the tree. Gives it more omphh! Don't ya think so??!!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Lipstick Accident (Really funny one!!)

LIPSTICK DISASTER!!

Check out the trail of lipstick on the floor all the way to her clothes and face and hands and hair and goodness knows where else!!

She was still playing and smearing the lipstick all over herself and the floor!

I knew the lil lady had already woken up. She padded into the hall while I was at the computer. I chose to ignore her coz I had spent an hour persuading her back to sleep and she refused to sleep. So she found her own entertainment. I heard her mumbling with the occasional yell thrown in. Finally, after about almost 5 minutes of loud mutterings, I decided I'd better get up and see what she was up to. THIS was what I found!! Too dumbfounded to react, I just stared at her for half a minute. She knew she was in serious trouble and was whimpering away with those little cat like noises. I didn't know if I should cry or laugh but I ended up laughing SO LOUDLY and woke the whole family up. Told daddy to grab the camera and I laughed so hard that many of the pics I took ended up quite blur! These were the best to showcase her LIPSTICK DISASTER!!
THE AFTERMATH
I love how she isn't afraid of water even when I sprayed it all over her head and face. It took 3 rounds of soap and 4 rounds of water to completely clean her of the lipstick and smell! Happy and clean at last! I laughed all through the washings! I had to hold back the laughter cos she was getting perplexed as to why I started laughing each time I looked at her. She was beginning to get scared even though I was laughing probably cos she never saw me laughing when she got into trouble like that. Hahahahahaha!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Laines "Stickles" Challenge

At Play


Again another LO for a challenge at Laines Gallery. But their gallery is not up yet for this challenge so just have 'ta wait!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Yummylicious Food and a Rockin' layout!

Stir Fried Udon

Just a couple of days ago, I fried this. I was out of ideas for dinner. Found a 3 pack udon in the fridge. Took out the baby corn, carrots, cabbage, smoked bacon and a tin of vegetarian Lo Han Chai. Yummy! Husband, son and daughter loved it so much that even though it was a huge pot, they finished it all up!
Family Together

I completed this LO in just one night. I was actually inspired by Georgina's LO for the Groovie Cover Girls October challenge. I didn't realize it at that time I saw it that it was actually for this challenge, so I scraplifted it and lo and behold, I can now enter the challenge! Hee hee!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Kukup Kelong Trip

Brandon holding onto 2 starfish
Standing on the rickety planks of the kelong
Holding out fish food for the Archer Fish to aim at!
Family fun at the kelong
At Kukup Kelong having lunch
It was a super hot Sunday afternoon in Pontian, Johor. We didn't want to cook for such a large number of people so we all decided to go to the pretty well known and popular Kukup seafood restaurant. It was only a short 20min drive from the uncle's house in Pontian Besar to Kukup. At the restaurant, the view was so nice and breezy and everything was a new experience for the young ones. (the adults too!) We took pictures of pretty much everything and posed everywhere "posable"! Hahahaha! The lunch was mostly seafood and there were around 12 dishes for the 10 adults and 2 kids and 1 baby. The bill? RM$230!! What a reasonable price for such a sumptuous lunch!
After lunch, the "suaku" Singaporeans decided to take a ferry to the kelongs (fish farms) at sea. There, we stopped at the kelong and walked along the rickety wooden planks. It was pretty scary for those who have "land feet" as the locals called the land lubbers! My sister in law was pretty terrified and my husband had to hold her hand and helped her across the planks. Her own husband was helping her equally terrified son across the planks! Luckily, my son found his "sea feet" after a while as I had to carry Brianna across the planks.
There were some interesting stuff to see. The guide pulled out a horseshoe crab and flipped it upside down so we could look at it without it scuttling away. Then we saw the uncannily accurate shot of the archer fish as they shot out squirts of water to hit the fish food. Baby sharks, starfish, jellyfish and a dried out puffer fish completed the interesting tour.
Well, this trip was really meant for the city kids. We hardly have a chance to see all these things first hand and even if we do, it's always through a glass window and they are usually not allowed to touch anything. This time, the boys had fun feeding the archer fish and touching the starfish and the shark. They also saw a jellyfish up close. It was really fun and educational even though we all had a pretty bad sunburn!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Hey! I've got inspiration!

Autumn Leaves 2008 Design Calender


Sweet as a Berry

Together Moments



So Happy Together
Finally! I've done something! Enjoy!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Zzz...ZZzz...zzZ...zz...

Been sleeping on the blog. (as in "sleeping on the job") I have been scrapping. Really! I have! Scrapped! But simply too lazy to take photos and post. Hee hee! I sometimes wonder how all those wonderful gals out there cope with kids, husband, work, chores, scrap, blog, chat... I can barely cope with any of the above 2!
I seem to be fluctuating with the weather. Weird. That about describes the weather and me. Sometimes, I wake up in the morning and I see the sun shining through my window and I think... Hmmmm... wash clothes. THEN, when the load goes in, the soap goes in and the timer is set and the water starts to flow... I look out the window again and the sky is so dark I need to switch on the lights! What is wrong with our weather here??!! Does anyone else wonder too? But this weird thing happens only when I wash clothes. It never happens when I decide to sleep in late and not wash today. Then the sun is shining brighter than my daughter's eyes when she sees food!
Murphy's Law. My husband says. Why does it only apply to me? Traffic is green and smooth flowing when I'm early and wouldn't mind a few red lights. Traffic is red and the cab driver decides to stop in front of me to pick up passengers when I'm so late I dont even dare look at the time anymore.
Then, there was this weird thing that happened to me. I stopped at a light and there was this cab right beside me on the left. He seemed impatient to be off and zoomed off when the lights turned green. THEN he made an abrupt left turn and STOPPED right in front of me!!! I could not move and he kept raising his hand to apologise to me. I waited a couple seconds to see what he wanted. He didn't seem to want to move and I finally horned at him. Twice. He got angry and made a rude sign which I immediately copied back at him. What a ridiculous idiot! WHY did he have to make a left turn when there was a left filter lane? WHY did he have to be the 1st off the light when there was no car behind us at all? (He could have waited for me to move off before making his crazy move) WHY did he have to turn left and STOP in front of me? WHY couldn't he just move off? WHY did he have to make the rude sign at me when he was the one who was in the wrong? That is why I have utterly no respect for cabs on the road. I know that dumb @$%#* like him are the black sheep in an industry that already has a bad rep. I know that most cab drivers are nice fellows who tolerate drivers like me who hates the industry as a whole. I also know that I should not group all cab drivers in the same category. I know I should not be aggressive only towards cab drivers. But, often in life, knowing and doing are 2 utterly different things. Sigh...
Another weird thing. What all of you hope never to enocunter. Yes, an encounter with the "supernatural" kind. As most Singaporeans know, the 7th month was just over. The 7th month is the Ghost month where believers say that our "friends" from down below come up for some fun. Concerts are staged for them, feasts are prepared for them, entertainment is organized for them and worldly possessions are burned for them. Well, during the middle of the month, my mother in law would prepare a huge feast complete with prayers, food and all the works. That evening, our whole family went over for dinner. After dinner, the maid, my mil, me and I think my sister in law went out to burn joss papers. As it was a rather stiffling night, we were feeling the heat from all the burning. There wasn't a scrap of wind and the burnt papers were burning merrily in the huge bin. It was a rather sudden thing and I felt a chill around my legs. I looked around at the others to see if they could feel it. Nobody seemed to notice anything wrong. As a true blue Singaporean exposed to all the horror stories and the beliefs and superstitions, I sensed that something was nearby. (By something, I mean "those things") The burnt papers began to slowly twirl upwards whereas they were just lying quite still at the bottom of the bin a minute ago. Immediately my mil said, "Oh, got people come take the money liao!" in a matter of fact way. I felt the chill pass through my legs through the rest of my body! It wasn't my first time burning joss papers, nor was it my first encounter with the supernatural kind. Nevertheless, the sensation was chilling! I could sense things and I could see the papers twirling upwards in the absense of wind. Scientifically, it would have been explained as the rising of the hot air currents that carried the papers upwards. But unless one were there experiencing it first hand, it would have been difficult to convince a skeptic.

Phew, I finally got that scary episode out. I could feel the goosebumps rising again! But as a Buddhist and having a husband who's Taoist, I try not to let my imagination nor my fear get to me as I believe that if you do no evil and do not disturb the peace and make no fun, we will all leave each other alone and not cross each other's path.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Hi September mojo!

Frenz!

I made this for my neighbour cos her daughter is very fixated with my son and always comes over to play! Hee hee! She's 6yrs old and my son's 8 yrs old. But they seem to enjoy each other's company and my son doesn't mind playing with a younger girl. That's what so good about him. He plays with anyone and everyone and has no prejudice against anyone.


Water Play & Snow Fun

I got this hanging holder from Daiso (where else??!!) and was wondering what to do with it when I realized that the 8x8 papers I had fitted in nicely! So this was very quickly conceived and just as quickly churned out! All in one night!


Happiness Is: ...
I did quite a lot of sewing on this LO but because the colours I used were very pastel like the paper, it wasn't very outstanding. But I still had fun sewing it!
U're so TweetThis altered art was inspired by a visit to scrapping pal, Jaz's house. I saw the bird cage and how she used it and was totally hooked! I love the little cage and was thrilled to find it at the new Daiso at Rivervale Mall. This Daiso is sooooo near my place that I'm afraid that I'll go there and stock up every week!