In odds and ends...

2007 certainly flew by for me...

Lots to be grateful for this year.

1) Great family - i.e. everyone's hail and healthy + happy
of course there were the quarrels and the squabbles but as a family we stood together and held each other hands, esp in the times of my brother's house renovation + wedding prep.
also including extended family members - the joy that a big family has during every occasion is indescribable.

2) Friends - new and old, near and afar -
I treasure every thoughts that they have for me and the kindness and concern shown towards me. Also can't wait to meet up with more friends soon! :) *yippee*

3) Fantastic Job -
This year has been a totally humbling and eye-opening experience for me. The people / family / children that I have met this year felt like from another world to me. *i beg to differ - but I am NOT a spoilt brat* From the day I have been born, I have lived a life of relative comfort, experiencing 1st hand the lives of the less fortunate has really taught me to value life / be contented and being down to earth. I am glad I am staying on with my current company *despite the initial headache of deciding which offer to take up*. Hope to be learning more and contributing more in 2008 and more years to come! * bit corny right? but TRUE!!*

4) My hobby(s)
- baking - was revived this year :D especially during the end of the year when i baked brownies for my aunt's xmas party

- sewing - finally conquered my mom's grandmother of all sewing machine! and whipping up a few pretty good creations. hope to do more next year!

- scrapbook - wow! it's been slightly over a year since i starting scrapping. Certainly not a cheap hobby but a very rewarding one! All birthday gifts / farewell / thank you / Xmas gifts were handmade especially for the recipients! & slow but steadily working into my 3rd album :D


&

Finally! I walked down orchard road last night - post x'mas! (kudos to late night shopping - although we were so unsure I kept asking salesgirls what time do you close?) It was really impromptu decision and ended with rounding up aunts & cousins for a spot of sale shopping!

aunts / cousins / nephews

SB wise - i've been slacking a bit with all the festive family gatherings but I managed to complete a very simple and quick layout. Not my usual style but i like it though - and the feel good factor that I finally finished using a full 12x12 pattern paper!

"zam cha" = serving tea to your elders, especially during CNY / their birthdays
here, mom's serving tea to my paternal grandparents in her traditional kua

&

being the totally vain me.. and one of the little indulgence that i need every month or so...

my festive nails :D

2 more days to the New Year's!
Have you made your new year resolution??

[ gathering at the boss' ]

Early X'mas gathering and belated Boss' Day was celebrated at my boss's place on Tuesday...


Despite the horrible ride that I had there... the blind trying to lead the blind to the location and proudly saying "I know the way!" , it was all good fun.

Can you guess who THE boss is?

The only male colleauge in my department who was the LUCKY recipient of my gift exchange!

glad he likes it! He was telling me he brought home and the kids love it :D yippee

&

My ex-students! Who totally adored their gifts *phew*
They were so cute.. touching and feeling the flocked stickers and flowers.

M & G

the altered mirror that I forgot to take a picture of before wrapping it up! *duh*

and 10 more days to X'mas?
Done your shopping yet??
keke

[ NO planning ]

totally bored in the morning and to get my 'engines moving' and before I start a day at work writting lessons plans... i took some time to relieve some morning stress??

Your Nail Polish Color is Red

How you're unique: You have an incredible eye for style and art Why your style rocks: You are classic and classy - and that's hot! What this color says about you: "I'm smart, sassy, and sexy. And I know it."

What Color Nail Polish Best Fits You?

by doing some online quizzes! haha

TGIF!!! seriously

weekend of frenzy scrapping...

1st of from my crafting weekend is an layout of me pigging out! haha.. it's been really long since i scrapped as the whole of Nov was crazy and busy. Finally a breather....

Thanx IG for the photo :D

2)
a dear dear friend will be going over to Japan from Feb next year, so to thank her for all the help she has given me, I made a flower for her. I didn't glue on the photo as I thought she might want to change the photos when newer ones come along - so I made a little pocket for photographs.



3)
a colleague left the company in preparation of her 3rd child's arrival within the month. A little token that I did for her:

an album which she can put her 3 children's photographs. I put '08 as she hopes the little one in her tummy comes out only in JAN.. she doesn't want a year-end baby :D. I name #1, #2 and #3 as I am not sure of the spelling of her kid's name, but am very sure of the order of gender.. haha.. so i don't make mistakes this way!





She want to keep the gender of her 3rd a surprise so I can't put boy or girl! :P
I wish her all the best as she stays home to be a full time mom chauffeuring her kids to and from school / enrichment lessons / swimming lessons and to the arrival of her little one..

4)
Tomorrow's a little department gathering at my boss' place. As X'mas is around the corner, it was suggested that we all do a gift exchange, but with the stipulated amount, I can't think of something nice that I wanted to give.. so therefore... me made THIS!!!

a hanging wooden album displaying family photos :D hope the person who picks my name likes his/her present...

5)
Altered wooden mirror (part 1)

also it happens that my boss' 2 daughters are my ex-students long ago (I shall not say how long ago, but my age still had a '1' with it), so I thought I make something for them too. Silly me wrapped up one of the wooden framed mirrors so I couldn't take a picture, but I'll remember tomorrow when I pass the gift to her! Hope both gals like it!!

6)
another scrapping frenzy that I was up to was dressing up BERRI juice glass bottles. This year's YEAR END company party is organised by my department. The theme naturally is X'mas. While digging through some stuff that a colleague of mine kept, there were several bottles within the 'reusable junk' so she asked me if I could do anything about the bottles so that we could use them as vases.


glass bottles all dressed up for the festive season!

illusion of snowflakes on the bottle...
- Nice??

so productive and so happy! can't wait to have more time to scrap more!!
& I can't complain that I don't have photos to scrap :D

Have a great week everyone!!

15 days to CHRISTMAS!!!

[ happenings ]

Celebrated a couple of birthdays... my 2nd Aunt Alice's 60th birthday.
A wonderful dinner treat by her boys at Tien Court, Copthorne Kings Hotel

the birthday girl with the elder nephew...

the generous sons...

more cousins pictures...

eldest cousin, May

Serene & Alvin

We celebrated Dad's birthday in advance before younger bro left for States last Tuesday. Dad's birthday is not till this week, but luckily I remembered so we had a quick dinner at Soup Restaurant at T2, Changi Airport in between bro checking in and entering the gate...

a family portrait taken by a kind customer who was sitting next to us...
he was rewarded by a piece of nice yummy coffee cake :D

Company trip on the 15th - 18th November to Chiangmai. It was pretty interesting to go travelling with a whole new group colleagues after knowing some for a year and some barely hi and byes in the office. But it was all good fun... the ladies shopped like crazy, the few guys who were with us also shopped like crazy or ideal hubby, carrying wife's purchases or making helpful suggestions on their choices.

Temple @ Chiangmai, had to walk up 100 over steps!!

elephant tricks

feeding elephant...

The elephant we sat on... and my colleague who was with me :D

children and lady at Karen village, Chiangrai.

They start putting rings around their necks and legs from approximately 5 years old
and can roughly put aroudn12 rings on their necks (yucks!).
it weighs approx 4-5kg!!!

illegal immigrant at Laos ...
part of the trip was a boat ride to either Myanmar or Laos, which is of course additional cost
Myanmar is out of the question as the country is unstable at the moment with riots
So we all choose Laos... it was said initially that we will have to bring our passports along, but subsequently the tour guide say, no need.
ended up? being illegal immigrant to Laos for approx 1.2 hr... the boat alighted us at this area that is cover with trees and sanded ground.. with lots of makeshift shops ... dun even need to chop passport despite going to another country!!!??!!!! huh??
wasted my 450B... i could've done for 2 excellent massages!!!

At the Golden Triangle...

Map of the countries
for more photos, go here.

now i can't complain no pictures to scrap!

some dinner pictures...

Managed to take some photos courtesy of E after the dinner... night mode shooting so the photos don't come out great! but i think it's the moment that counts :D


Here goes:...

me la!!

love the smoky eyes and beautifully side-swept hairstyle :D

GLAM mama :P in her short in front & long behind gown!

can't see the beading on the dress but it's nice ;D

SIL and me
3+1 = 4

brothers and me :D

more photos to come from the day event and ROM...

patience ppl!!!

a new sister....

I OFFICIALLY, have a new sister, that is Sister in law...

Feels a bit odd to have another gal in the house after 26 years of only mom and me at home - but all good.

Sorry there has not been time to upload photos from personal camera, afterall, I was also not the photographer having to overlook logistics during the tea ceremony and the dinner itself.

Despite the lack of sleep everyone in my family were running on adrenaline for the past couple of days leading up to the wedding proper. Dad, mom & I were up till 5am cleaning Bro's house to be ready for the tea ceremony, while younger bro spent the earlier part of the night shifting some serviceable furnitures to my brother's place - FOR THE TIME BEING... who wants old stuff at their new house right?

I had 2 hours of interrupted sleep - so afraid that I could not wake up in time! I ended up waking everyone up at 7am on Sunday... rest of the days went in a daze... rushing here and there.. waiting for caterers to arrive (who were late - but thankfully the food was quite good) after that was a mad rush to get makeup and hair done - very nicely and so pretty :D *pictures to follow up soon*

A big shoutout and THANK YOU!!!
to all male cousins who did the extended and thunderous YUM SENG :D
to female cousins who helped with manning reception table and with the rehearsing of the flower boy and girl, and ring bearer walk.
to K1, K2 and G for cute little presence who made the whole wedding fun and lighthearted
&
to friends and relatives who graced the event to make it a success :D

lots of stories to share after the event with mom , dad, Bro and SIL as well as younger bro... at the end we are just glad and happy that the wedding went well, the food was great! the company was fantastic, the live music was incredible. Everyone was totally shagged out but it was a ball! :D really really happy

till later for photos...

baaaaacccccccckkkkkkkkk

from Chiangmai, Thailand... the land of smiles!!

not that I am smiling today... just came out from a meeting... it's really hard working with educators... such 1 track mind of thinking... sadly they are all ages of my mother...*read: stubborn as a mule / 1 track mind / can't think out of the box* and they look at me like their daughter *read: naive and immature*...

i kinda blew my top and guess what was said to me at the end?

" Fiona you are still young, you can only handle 1 thing at a time, don't worry,

we are not going to stress you and leave you alone and we are going to work as a term.

you are still very young and inexperience lots more to learn...

for now, you just concentrate on your brother's wedding

and we will do the rest when the event is over,

you can join us and you can concentrate on the task at hand.

Don't worry! "

Oh yes! thank you so much.. for that pat in the back and the vote of confidence.

=_=

all in a week....

Work week has been extremely short this week - 2 days of work. I was on leave yesterday for the 'exchange of wedding dowry'. My hands nearly died when I had to carry the huge basket of canned abalone, pig trotters, oranges, dried seafood! - and there were 2 of these baskets!! Luckily, Dad helped me put the heavier basket on a trolley so I can just roll it along. In hand were another 4 plastic bags of cakes for the bride's family. After the exchange was slightly better with a lighter load, but there was another mission to accomplish - to deliver the wedding cakes to relatives.That took almost the whole day! *I swear I will give getting married third thoughts*

Back to work today for meeting and to clear up some paper work before I am off to Chiangmai tomorrow for a company recreational trip till Sunday. I guess I'm pretty lucky to have the opportunity for the trip as:

1) I've work for the company for only a year

2) I'm a contract staff and it's ending soon!

3) I am contemplating if I should stay on?

anyway, I guess I'll just enjoy myself 1st and stop worry myself silly and letting my conscience eat me up!

So I shall relax, go for soothing massages and return home to a crazed state of mad packing, preparing for bro's wedding and career decision making

till later..................................

in preparation ...

Mom has started her long leave from work in preparation of my elder brother's wedding. I can hardly believe it's in 2 weeks time! We went shopping on Thursday for all the things needed for the traditional gift exchange. I was driving, alighting Mom, SIL and her mom as they went to buy things as I looked for a parking spot.

We also managed to buy little baskets for the flower girl and boy! Mom sewed them up to match ANGBAO baskets... so cute right??


matching corsages
*recycled from my Cousin's wedding 7 years ago!! together with the big ANGBAO baskets*


On my side, I enlisted the help of Cousin J to make a frame layout to put at the reception area at the Wedding dinner. It's great to have a good crop session after a long time! It's also amazing to see how quickly and decisive J places embellishments while I take forever to do so!



Scrapping with someone else always motivates and inspires me to scrap and with possible layouts in mind! Since there were a couple of photos left over from what J printed, I went home and continued to scrap :) and here it is...

I love everything about it... from the backing paper from BG to the embellishments and I finally digged into July somo kit!!! i absolutely heart the little love word that is printed on the paper too!


Another Layout I did of my Cousins... if i remember correctly this is one of the rare photos of us together! We've never really posted for photos... what a treasure to keep :D




Have a great week everyone! :)

SO loved....

Younger bro called on Sunday - the weekly phonecall from States reporting that he is ALIVE and doing well.



With my elder bro's wedding coming up, lots more to talk about over the phone with last minute prep that he might be able to help with (?) or what he is to expect when he comes back that wedding week.




Anywayz! great news from that little kind brother who has certainly grown up lots during his 1 half year away...


he's thinking of getting mom & I a bag each... He was asking about the size that we would like so now i'm wondering is it this?


or?

or?

:D good to be the only dd at home? keke...

and what is all the nonsense about being a middle child??? i am so not attention seeking !!! HA

oh gosh!

it's NOVEMBER!

Crazy busy month it's gonna be!

To tick off from the ever growing long lists of to-do/followup with:

1. decide on job!! i need more info 1st!
   
   
2. Proposal for further studies
   
   
3. Brother's wedding - I can hardly believe it's this month... and the *quabbles* that has been going on at my place!?!?! - I can safely say *he/my family is/are SO not ready* - at least I have clothes to wear for the day?? haha
   
   
4. Help Mom prepare things for the exchange of gifts and for actual day.
   
   
5. Clean up house for wedding!!! - it's not my mess that I have to clean up though
   
   
6. I need to scrap! I've been buying a *fair* bit of irresistable SB products and I've hardly touched them!
   
   
7. Prepare for company incentive trip - is it already Nov? and 1 year in this company??
   
   
8. Tick off another ever growing list of things to do at office - reportts/proposals/planning - arghhh
   

I should be happy that there's only 8 things on my list?
there is always a silver lining in the cloud right?

&

after november...

... it's DECEMBER!!! when the shop starts to beckon with all the X'Mas sales!!
arghh... I am so glad I work far away from town!! *or am i??* >_<