A big whinge ....

Well, for those who are concerned, I still haven't heard from the cop. Chief Operations Colin Mattheson was his name. Let's just hope it stays this way. I was going to say something sarcastic but I won't, just in case he's reading this. And Carole, I know what you meant... lol.

Past few days... very frustrated with my daughter's behaviour. Outrageously rude and manipulative. She yelled at me at the swimming pool, and aggressively pushed my hands away, when it was time to leave (because she has finished her lesson and another group's lesson was about to start). When I firmly demanded that she has to leave, she shouted that she wants Daddy to get her out of the pool instead of me. This is what she has been doing of late. Just out right manipulation, wants Daddy to do something when I was the one asking to do it for her, and wants me to do it when it was Daddy. And because we were at a public place, I didn't know what to do - I wish I could smack the bejeesus out of her but heaven forbid I can't lift a finger at my child, I couldn't talk her out of leaving the pool, and I couldn't leave her in the pool and walk away (which is what I would do if she did this in a mall). But I walked out of the pool and true enough, she started crying the house down. Still insisting on Daddy taking her out of the pool. He was busy showering our son, and of course, I wouldn't let her manipulate us anymore, I stood there and waited till she got out. After 2 minutes of this, I was freezing cold cos I was still wet, and my son is now ready to be dressed, I had no choice but gave in. I let Peter pick her out of the pool and I dressed my son instead. I got advised by Ruey... that we should be consistent that every time she misbehaves, in the house or in public, she will get her time outs. We need to keep reminding her on the way home, that she will get her time out as soon as she gets home, so she knows that is what she was being punished for in case they forget why by the time they get home.

I am so emotionally drained. It's a constant emotional and power struggle with her. I hate yelling at her, I really do. It makes her feel lousy... and I feel lousy too. But soooo many times, I'm so at my wit's end... that is the only emotion I can muster. Sometimes, I wish I'm a robot, not programmed with anger. Just process the logics and the happy emotions. I don't know how some people can only say nice things about their children. Don't their children ever misbehave? Don't their children ever do anything, anything at all that upset them? If they do, which I hope they do cos that means my children are still normal, then don't they have one single upset muscle in their body?? How come their children are always angels? My children always appear to be sooooo unbelievably .... ill-behaved (took me at least 30 seconds to come up with that word so it doesn't sound too bad [I know of people who don't like using the word "naughty" cos that's labelling their children and would be mortified that I publicly talk of my children like that. All I can say is, I admit I need counselling and I think the whole world does. ]).

Anyway, enough of blabber.

This layout took a while to complete.... 1.5 days. I was quite stuck with balancing the top part of the layout. The colours on these papers are rather ... bland. It was a challenge to colour balance it without having too much of a colour contrast. I'm glad it turned out quite decent.


Thanks for dropping by and listening to my whinge.

Cop It!!!

OK... it's been another week... and a half. I have been lazy... updating my blog, that is. Well, just plain lazy in general. Most days I find myself just glued to my computer - forums, emails, yet not updating my blog. I'm a sad case.

On Saturday, I was driving to Ruey's place for a crop. On my way to her place, I met with a minor accident. Basically, I was stopped at the traffic lights, got distracted, released the foot brake without realising, and the car rolled forward and bumped the car in front of me. That was not the big deal. The big deal was it was a cop car.

A FREAKIN' COP CAR.

I panicked. I really didn't know what to do when you hit a cop car! The lights turned green, I froze. I wasn't sure if he wanted to pull to the side because he hadn't put the indicator on. And he didn't signal me what to do either. Do I go? (OF COURSE NOT!!!! YOU IDIOT!!!! That will be undisputably a hit and run, you stupid cow!!!!! And then you can forget about seeing daylight in a cell!) After what seemed like eternity, I finally saw him pulling to the side and I followed. I didn't even wait for him to say anything, I offered him my driver's license as if I was bribing him. He took all my details, my registration number, and said that it was probably nothing serious. (NOTHING SERIOUS? REALLY? You mean nothing's going to happen to me?) Then he said, he'll take it back to the station, and if the 'guys' can polish it off, I won't hear about it. (What do you mean if the 'guys' can polish it off? Let me polish it for you NOW! I'll do it for FREE! Cos I REALLY don't want to hear about it... EVER!!) Anyway, we split. And I felt like I'm doomed. Cos now I have to "hear about it" from my husband. That's the other difficult obstacle I have to get through. Sigh....

Needless to say, my scrapping mojo got arrested by the cop car. I couldn't even finish one layout that day. By the evening, I called hubby to bring the kids over to Ruey's as well. So we can have dinner, and hopefully this bad luck will bring me some good luck at poker.

We had another poker game with Ruey, Joseph, Nucel and Tom. This time I had a better grasp of the game. It was really fun. I did have an early win but lost the winnings throughout the rest of the game. Hubby was filthy when I told him about the accident. So the win probably made him a lot happier. Even though it wasn't real money we were playing with, but he's a man. Any win is a good win.


So... throughout the week and a half, I did about 6 layouts. However, one has been picked for publishing by FK, the other 2 are 8x8s for the ABC album which I won't be showing.

Title : Let's talk. 8.5x11" using the latest Basic Grey Romani Gypsy papers. I also used some dew drops I bought from Scrapbook Society. I love the size of these beads. They are easy to pick up with thumb and index, apply glue to and stuck down. Shame I didn't get more colours.



Title : If friends were flowers, I will pick you. 11x8.5" using SEI Winnie's Walls papers, rubons, iron-ons, alpha stickers.. etc. The Li'l Davis flower was cream and I inked all the petals with matching colours. Some of the flowers in the 'garden bed' are raised.


Title: Scrapoholics Anonymous. This is a layout of my scrapping friends, Jane Fitchett (DT on For Keeps mag.), Shirley Chai (also DT on For Keeps mag. and many others) and Ruey Enanoria (DT on Arty Pants)..... shheeeesh, all the name-throwing! LOL... Photo was taken at a cafe in Mornington. 12x12 using Fancy Pants and Kodomo Inc. papers, Pressed Petals chipboard letters, Doodlebug letters, Fancy Pants flowers, Petaloo flower, Fancy Pants rubons, 7Gypsies rubbings and tag, GinX rubons and Technique Tuesday arrow tile.



Thanks for looking. Have a nice week.

Poker Fun

Hi there .....


It's been a week. Nothing dramatic has happened, really. But have done a lot of shopping.... scrapbooking of course. sigh.... so much so that I have already advanced my own Christmas present from my husband. LOL.... BUT I am now a proud owner of a Black MiMi Large Wheeled Tote!!!! SO I DON'T REALLY CARE! bwahahahha.....

But I've only completed 2 LOs this week, so that's not very productive. I shall try to attempt 1 or 2 today.

9th August is Singapore's National Day. M4M set a challenge for us to do a layout that is indicative of Singapore, in red and white. All I can think of is food.... or I could go political and tell everyone back home they don't how lucky they are. So I went the politically right way....


It might not be very visible but I actually have 2 sets of journaling on the LO. One set in black.... and the other in white on the other side of the arrow.

The other layout is for the Effer Dare LSS. This was my take and I actually like my title work and everything else... except, and sadly for the journaling bit. However, I manage to squeeze myself through to the 2nd round. Now I'm up for 13 photos... youch!

Last night, at 6pm I was chatting to Ruey on MSN. Then somehow, I ended up being invited to go over for dinner and poker! It was as impromptu as I have ever been.... and she doesn't live close to me (45 min away). I asked Peter if we have any plans tonight, he said no, and I said, "Let's go over to Ruey's for dinner." Actually, I kind of self-invited myself over.... kekekeke... which surprised her a little bit... and she didn't think I was serious! hahahaa...... but I know her house is always an open house. Well, ..... now I've officially made her house an OPEN HOUSE. lol...

Dinner was great. And poker was even better. I have always only watched the game on TV but to play it myself... was nerve wrecking. I know we only played with chips and no real money involved... but it was still no easy feat deciding to call or raise or check or fold! You heard of Beginner's Luck? Yeah, it didn't happen to me. I lost my stack pretty quickly and had to "borrow" 3 more stacks from the "bank".... too funny. It was finally getting late and the kids were a bit restless. So Peter and I decided to play our last hand and go. Guess what.... I won my last hand!! FIRST TIME FOR THE NIGHT!!!!!! LAST HAND!!!!! With just an Ace pair... over Ruey's King pair! And I won enough to payback the bank! It was hilarious. It was a great night... not had so much fun for a long time. I'm pathetic.

Anyway... better try to do some house work, feed the bunch, and scrap.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.... whatever is left of it.

Pay It Forward

I am so not motivated to blog. Not motivated... I just feel like my days are just filled with mundanity. What's there to blog about..... sigh .... let me think....

oh..... I forgot to mention this kind soul we met last week when we took the kids swimming at the aquatic centre. We drove into this huge car park to find a parking spot. There was a 4-wheel drive that was about to leave, so we exchanged the international silent car park language (the nod - are you leaving?-Yes, we are-OK, thanks, we'll wait here), and we waited. Just when they finished fitting the baby in its car seat, mom jumps in the passenger seat, the nice gentleman came towards us, handed us a ticket, and said, "you might as well have this.". It was a parking ticket that they had paid for, that will last the day, till 9pm. Although it didn't cost them too much (they paid $2), but it was such a nice gesture. Most people would rather drive off, let the ticket go to waste than benefit a stranger. We actually felt very good, and that Sunday morning all seemed better. There is still hope in mankind. Whoever you are, Mr Nice Guy, bless you and your soul.

When we left, we decided to "pay it forward" (LOVE that movie. ..... so touching.... I bawled my eyes out). But the lady who got it, didn't even say thank you. And she drove a fancy BMW. It's like she does not have faith, and that all she has ever achieved, she never needed help, it's all her and her hardwork. So does that mean that a $2 ticket is not worth a thank you? Sigh.....

Anyway, a few layouts I did over this week.

Thanks for looking. And oh Shirley darling..... Happy 30th Birthday... again .... I know I've said it many times today ... kekeke but you can never have too many birthday wishes ;). See you on Monday!