{ School Holidays }

I can hardly believe that the June holidays came and went. Work wise, it is usually a slighly lull period as the kindys are close but there are still the childcare centres to support. I also usually take the 'quiet' period to catch up on paper work and the occassional longer lunches (It does get quite hectic during school terms so lunch is a rushed affair).

It's the semester break for me as well. I SURVIVED my first sem! It was certainly tough this time juggling Masters and work. I thought the previous adv dip course would help me jump start my 'study mode' but it did little to help. Anyway, the good news is I survived and I did pretty well for the 2 modules :) so my efforts have paid off!

Holiday plans are in mind but am waiting for my 'official' travel planner to let me know the itinerary! hahaha...

Of course, I also made use of the welcomed break to scrap. It's pretty tough trying to scrap again after such a long hiatus.

I finally broke into my hoarded Dear Lizzy products...

{Untitled} yet

This layout is R's little album keepsake that I've been doing and it's for her parents' keeping.. I've missed many months of pictures but this one is of her during our CNY trip to phuket.

R with mummy, and also from our CNY trip to phuket.

The details, probably not my best clustering of embellishments but it works :)

I did a few more layouts.. will post them soon!

ARGH

Am feeling peeved today by small things that I did! Why am I so silly and hasty at times???

Must learn to read carefully and not be so hasty!
It has now cost me marks and also inconvenience!

So angry with myself...

My mood is horrid... perhaps it's the lack of sleep and the headache that has been bugging me the whole day.

It's before my desk was cleared for...

*serious* work...

I managed to finish up the layouts that I wanted to do for my US trip last Sept.
I can't believe it was only 4 months ago! It certainly felt so long ago.

Night lights in vegas are so bright... I swear the city never sleeps!


What is a trip to Las Vegas without watching a show or two? We managed to catch "O" by cirque de soliel. It's a must watch as it won't come to Singapore due to the intricate stage design.



{Juz Fun} in the toilet of Paris hotel! The sinks were painted with intricate flowers and the mirrors were sooo preeettty! We couldn't resist a picture in there!




Closer look... I stacked 2 butterflies together to give it a 3-D look


I have more pics to scrap from my 2 other holidays now! but... looks like it's gonna be hard for me to scrap given that deadlines for assignments are in! Boo!

1st ever CNY away from Singapore

My family had our first ever Chinese New Year away from Singapore. As excited as everyone was to go away, a bit of sadness linger. For the reason for being away from CNY was due to the sudden passing of my paternal grandpa last year. Nevertheless, it was a good break for my family and I, chilling out by the beach, lazing around the villa and just taking our own sweet time everyday.



We had did some sightseeing as well and of course beaches were definitely on the list!



Our 'Reunion' dinner by the beach, accompanied by loud booms of firecrackers going off! It was certainly a first for me. Firecrackers could be heard since the eve of CNY to the 1st day of CNY in Phuket.



It was definitely a good break.. but now it's back to hit the books and sadly to nurse blocked noses and coughs!

Wishing all my friends a happy and prosperous year of the bunny!

Albums are the way to go

Woohoo... Blogging two days in a roll!

The Bali trip in Oct 2010 was the first of a kind for me. My friends in Perth organised it in Perth while the lonesome me in SG received emails and the occasional calls while the rest planned the itinerary. How the idea of this trip started was to celebrate a wonderful gal turning the BIG 3 0 and of course relaxation!

And since it's a birthday bash, a present is in order. So typical me decided that what better gift than a handmade album of pictures of the birthday gal throughout the years that my friends and I know her. It documents all the fun and experiences that we have had and will have with her. The whole album took me almost 3 months to complete, but it was all worth it when Ming opened the gift and leafing through the pages.

I made another album of the Sept US trip with my cousin. It was my surprise Xmas gift to her for all the effort that she put in to organise the trip as well - looking for good air ticket deals, hotels, cars and planning the itinerary. More pics in another post! How lucky I am... going on holidays that's all planned for :)

& of course, how can I resist not doing a layout when all the mess have been created!

Hmm I've not been scrapping since 2011 started... in my annual flair I'll do a layout of me in 2011... no pics were taken at the end of the year.. but I'm thinking of using the pic of me in the deck chair. It can be a resolution for 2011 to take time and breathe and relax in the mist of work and studies :)

7 months later...

I'm still here..

Oh my gosh, time sure flies. The past months have been BUSY!

Let's see what happened over those months?

1. Apply for Masters course

2. Finish Adv Dip course

3. Holiday #1

4. Holiday #2

5. Eye infection (x3 times!!! what a big bummer)

6. Getting excited over a brown paper envelope with my acceptance letter for the course during my 1 week MC

7. Family gatherings over the Xmas and NY period

8. Catching up with as much movies as I can

9. Scrapping layouts and also mini-albums as wonderful gifts

10. MOST IMPORTANTLY.. making the decision to be without specs and contacts for a long long time!

I have exactly 1 more week to relax before the Orientation & classes start the following week!

Now I wish I'm back here again...

it's been a long long time...

When was the last time I blogged?

Gosh! I don't even remember... Work, studies, friends and family (and I hope it's not in that particular order!) have been keeping me real busy. Not that I'm complaining... half the year's gone already and it'll be another 3-4 more months for my current course to finish. I'm totally glad that my hard work is paying off and my result have been great so far. While it does seem like I'm learning similar stuff most of the time, there are certainly new aspects for me to ponder about. I must be crazy but I'm planning the next step to study more... I want to do this when I still have the ability and *young* haha... before all my brain cells die on me.

Sometime that I have not done as much as I would love to is scrap. I've not been buying a lot of stuff but I still keep myself up to date with all the new releases. They are all so tempting. Sometimes, I cave in to my temptations but mostly I have been good and controlled my *wants*

My mission is to clear up at least half of my current supply before buying new ones!
WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO BUY THEN?????

Some layouts I've managed to do the past few months...

My yearly layout!

Hong Kong in Nov '09.
I've been trying to plan another trip down
but it's not possible so far with the usual work and studies!

The 3 little girls @ my cousin's wedding in Dec.

&....

This little one is 1!She is the pride and joy of her parents and grandparents. All love her to bits with her antics... She's growing up so fast that it's hardly believable!
* She loves to read and sits with us when we read to her
* She loves my iPhone esp Talking Carl and Peek-a-boo app... to the extend that whenever I whip it out to check msgs or play games, she crawls after me
* She loves shaking her bum-bum when we sing to her
* Her favourite song is "Open, Shut Them" and she does the actions of opening, closing and clapping!!!
* She likes car rides
* She talks *babbles* alot.. some of the words she can imitate after us is 'da-di', 'ah-ple', 'car', 'ku-jie' (me!!!)
* She does amazing things with her tongue and lips, sucking them to make 'zi-zi' sounds...
* She loves porridge and her little biscuit treats.

It's the long weekend PLUS GSS... well, I want to scrap too... hmm which one should I do?? What a toss-up!

Blah to my research report!

HAHA!!!!

Productivity

Another layout from 2009....

{so very blessed}

Totally love sassafrass lass range of papers... I have yet to dig into the *newer* range as I just can't bear to do so... I'm just waiting for the right picture to come along...



Lots of cutting, layering and detailing going on here.. although it may seem quite cluttered I like it very much :)
Monday blues have gone away and it's replaced by Tuesday tantrums (?!?!) I don't want to go to class tonight!!

I just had a tempting offer last night... a holiday in June?? Am I going to cut it too thin with my assignments and research paper deadline??

New Year... New Challenges!

Oh my! It's 2010... I've not blogged for slightly more than a month! Dec was a blast with lots of festive family gatherings, outings with dear friends and just some me time! 2009 just flew by so fast and now it's back to being hectic again in 2010.

I'm back to school & back to more workload... less time to scrap again.. not like I've managed to scrap much last year... but here's one of the sweet niece that just light up my parent's life.

I'm also very proud to say I've listed my New year resolutions and also made some progress on some.. it's day 11 of 2010 and I'm keeping to my goals! Yeah!!! I will continue to keep up the good work!! *pat on my back*

Oh! I've to do my annual "2010 me" layout too! hehe... looking for mojo but before that I should get started on my assignment before having some creative outlet!

It's back to work now... Monday blues... +_+

Have a break...

Have a kit kat! hahaha I also managed to do up a few layouts when my mojo engine started. Didn't dare to take the chance for it to die down...

Celebrating success

reminiscing R with her suk suk

Just had a nice break from studies (self imposed.. naughty, naughty) and I'll be getting another break from lessons soon! Yippee!

Hope to scrap more then!

somehow

this year seems to fly by real fast... so many things are happening and often all at the same time... Efforts seems futile this year too... as much as I try, it seems that the output is little. It's getting frustrating when it seems that I've been trying my very best. Perhaps more needs to be done? Perhaps I need to work on it with a different method. Giving myself datelines are also probably making things worse but I know I need it.

On the hindsight, I am grateful for the little things in life. I find joy in just spending time at home, reading a book snuggled up in bed, chats with overseas friends, occasional meet up with my dearest pals, working with the one kid who shows potential. Even a smile and five minutes with Renee makes my day.

I definitely need a break and to refresh myself. I can't wait for next week... I hope to be better when I'm back! I will work on my efforts again and this time I hope it'll be better...

:: peepz ::

Been totally stuck doing assignments and working, plus spending time with the darling.
She's totally adorable now, cooing and smiling as she responses to us talking or playing with her.

I am almost 5 months into the course... that's only one-third of it... It is just so hard juggling time with work especially when work does not decrease :( in fact I've on hand more projects to handle / help with...

On a brighter note, here's a layout I managed to squeeze in between after a couple of month of no scrapping!



Hope to be able to scrap more..

:: still going busy ::

Whenever I have pockets of time on my hands, the first thing on my to-do list is to scrap! I am always so afraid that the interest wanes out as my mojo get rusty :S

Here's one that I did recently... very simple nothing complicated just documenting R's first month celebration :)
So he graduated... like finally!! Mentioned here previously, we are all so proud of him! Here is the obligatory family photo that we must take! It's 10.50am now... in another few hours time, we are all going to the airport, taking another obligatory family photo before he jet-set off to HK and London and embarking on his career... we will not see him till Dec maybe... the baby of the family no more!



Life is slowly resuming for us as R gets bigger and we can go out for meals *albeit a quick one say 2 hrs or so?* Here's one that we took celebrating Mom's birthday! Love her chubby cheeks

She melts everyone's heart with her smile... esp her ah-yeh!



Hello world! She's about 11 weeks now and these photos of her were taken last week. Her neck's getting stronger as she grows and she weighs quite a bit now...


With her Suk-suk (uncle in cantonese) getting loves and cuddles! When he comes back for a holiday you'll be a big girl already! Grow up fast so we can bring you to HK disneyland!


On boring notes, I've started my revision for an exam end of this month! Wish me luck!

:: apologies are in order ::

Apologies for the blog tardiness

I've been busy working! - a new and exciting project is in the process of starting it's engine and so much logistics and planning to work out. It's all good new though as it also reflects on a promotion of my current position as I have new people in junior positions than me now!

I've been busy studying! - I had a test last tuesday and phew was it tough to try to study after such a long time... another big one end of Aug, *tearing hair out*

I've been busy with my family! - Seems like every weekend something comes up for a family event. First was Father's Day and Ron's bday, not long later is Ron's graduation, yesterday was Mom's bday. I had dinner with Dad and her yesterday with their fav Jap food. Today is the big one with the family :) and soon Ron's flying off... We are just trying to spend as much time as a family before the baby-no-more flies off for his career.

In all the busy-ness, I did not manage to scrap at all :( *hands are itching*

but here are some from several months ago!

Yes! Wishing that I can have a break...
the future looks bleak for a quick getaway but I shall persevere for a good recharge!

Fun with the boys!
I've not seen these 2 rascals for a while... missing them too :(

Documenting my transformation:
From sooo long to sooo short!
& definitely loving it *it's been so hot!*

Off I go and it's the start of a busy weekend!
Tata!

:: looking for inspiration ::

On my bloglines, there is definitely AE's blog

A new 'must read is her Tuesdays tutorials.

It is so full on inspiration and ideas, of how to 'up' one's layout to the new level, or even a nice and oh so needed reminder of how to use some of the existing materials that we already have but have stashed aside with the arrival of new SB products.

This week's tutorial by Christine Middlecamp is amazing! I am so inspired by 'Almost Perfect' layout. What I love? Everything! From the oh-so-cute picture (what an intense face) right down to the layering of the embellishments!

It's a definite must-try for me! Can't wait to get started!

____________________________

I can't believe it's July already. Where has the past 6 months gone to? So much things have happened... This weekend proves to be another busy, yet exciting one! hehe...

Sorry to my dear friends who have been hearing me go 'goo-go' & 'ga-ga' over my current fixation... I promise you it'll spot this weekend *wink*

Have a great weekend my dear friends! TGIF

:: 231 ::

That's the post #

As I was falling into slumberland last night, I was formulating 3 different posts in my head. Now I can't remember what I was formulating...

In all mundune of tasks, I just paid the bills for all various things and I'm feeling the pinch. It's especially so this & next month as there will be no mid year bonus to 'fill the money pot'. To make things worse, expenses have been high as well (granted some were definitely neccessary & some are not :S) ... all out but little in :(

Hope everyone's day is doing much better than mine!

ETA: I've been getting super weird phone numbers on my mob. They start with +861 --- and just a couple of minutes ago, one that started with +20808100... Some scam going on here??? Argh I don't like it! My weekend just got worse... BIG sigh

:: haircut ::

She's 40 day old tomorrow.

She's going for her first haircut tomorrow and it's bye bye baby hair. It is so soft and fine. It stand up right at the top and no matter how it's combed, it still stands up! It's going to be all gone tomorrow, in hope that the new hair will grow thicker and nicer :)

She's also going for her first outing tomorrow to visit her great grandparents! Woohoo... have fun sweetie...

:: baby overload ::

* be prepared for baby LOs overload... *

mentioned here... The layouts for the baby album is mainly from both the MM Noteworthy ranges. I've been hogging these papers for the right layouts to do and I guess this is it! With 9x9 layouts, space tends to be quite tight... so as you can see from the first layout that I did I'm getting used to smaller space.

I have a folder of all the papers, word stickers, hambly onesies and other stuff for the baby album together so I can reach for them easily.

In line with the whole album, inspired by J, I am doing a A-Z album too.

Here's A is for Adorable:

And my "space" coordination slowly gets better...

&

Here's "B is for Beautiful Baby":

This is is more free-flow for my own album :P & this is what I mean when I love being able to scrap at any chance I get. I've scrapped this pic *above* but I had to have it for my own album so here it is...

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great week ahead!

:: Happy Birthday ::

My younger bro is 26 today. How times flies!

He's finally finished his Uni studies and onto the workforce *fulltime*
Soon we may be missing him again as he is off to see the world *again*

I remember having HUGE sibling rivalry with him. Fight with hands, fist, legs and even *weapons*. Screaming and crying, kicking and shouting were all part of a normal day in our household. Even a big house could not contain our voices.

As we grew older, prob me.... , we wised up. Probably because every one of us children have been away from home for an extended period of time and thus it was made our sibling relationship stronger than ever. We know for sure that we can depend on one another on anything at all, even though we may be miles apart.

Although, the once little chubby boy is the baby of the family, roles have sometimes be turned when I feel that I am like the little one of the family. I remember him even telling me not to come home too late. Not to buy things that I don't need *oopz*

I shall miss him again if / when he goes off to seek his future...
We know in our hearts that in every choice he makes, the family is a big consideration that he factors in and he does the best that he can for himself & for the family.

Happy birthday my dearest younger brother. I know that I might not be say it very often.
But I and all of us are very proud of you.

Wishing you a Happy Birthday.. Off you are already to enjoy yourself today. See you later tonight as we celebrate it with food that you love, even if it's just local hawker fare which you LOVE so much! ... & a yummy cake :P

:: finding time ::

In between arriving home from a full day training session at about 5pm and a wedding dinner at 7.30pm, I managed to scrap a layout! It took less than an hour? without my usual style... it was just add and build on to the existing papers and embellishments.

Proud? yeah I am... My hands have been itching to scrap. Hoping to do more layouts this weekend but I guess not. Off to my bro's house to play with my sweetie & to catch up on some revision for my course... and it's a grand feast at his place tonight to celebrate a birthday and Fathers' Day. *we're wanting to go out and celebrate, but with the little one, it's tough*

Have a great weekend!