Good Mail week!

We had kind of a busy week. But I couldn't remember what exactly we were busy with. One of those weeks, you know?

I ordered some Love, Elsie Lola and Riley products from USA and they are now up on eBay. If you are one of those dying to buy them cos they are exclusive to a craft shop in USA, and they are not making their way to Australia, please click on this link. Thanks!

The All My Memories Tote-ally Cool Tote 2 are finally here!!!! YES! The new ones with patterns! We waited soooooo long for these. Made a preorder a few months' back. They have finally arrived and I quickly gave the distributor my credit card number so they could process my order and have them sent out of their warehouse PRONTO!! The totes arrived at my doorstep THE NEXT DAY!! WHOOOOHOOO!!!!!! I gave them (the totes, not the delivery man) big hugs and quickly filled mine up. I got a black & white (strangely predominantly white), and you know what, THEY SWIVEL!! I'm quite pathetic I know. :)The other 3 (Red stripes and Plum Polkadot) went to Jess, Ruey and Felicity. It was also an exciting Friday night cos we are going to Ruey's for the Stampin' Up demo she's hosting. The lovely Fleur did the demo for us. I swear, most of us HAD some idea what we wanted to buy. But by the end of the demo, most of our "wish list" was just out of the window cos there was so many more interesting products!

On Saturday, I had a 1-hour remedial massage and a chiro appointment which means I get to get out of the house without the kids. I also got to go to Peter Alexander and bought myself a pair of these fancy slipper boots. I got the charcoal with lime green pair :) :) :)


Sunday - Kinder Working Bee today at Ellen's Kinder. So I roped Peter into it, bringing shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows to fill up the play area with soft bark. There were a few other Dads and Moms who came to give a helping hand too. We also did a sausage sizzle at the end of the session.

But before the whole thing started, we witnessed a car running over a dog, and it didn't survive. There were these 2 little dogs that (we think) belong to a house opposite the kinder. I believe these dogs are not registered (no collar), and they are not the best behaved dogs. They are never on a leash, the owners are never in sight, and they would quite often bark and growl at the kinder kids in the morning. A few times, and that was what happened this morning as well, they crossed the road, got closer to us, and growled at us. So while I was standing in front of my kids protecting them from these 2 dogs, one of the dogs got run over by a car. As much as I hated dogs that don't behave (but that has to do with irresponsible pet owners), I felt sorry for the dog. We had to pick it up and laid it on the nature strip. The other dog was probably feeling very sad that its friend got run over cos it won't leave. We knocked on the presumed owner's door but no one came to it. Apparently someone who saw what happened later, said that the owners came out, had a look at the dead dog, and left it there!!! How awful! Shame on you!

Anyway, I think it's a loooooong enough post. I need to get off this computer now. Laters!

Lunch, and LAYOUT!

I met with a few girls yesterday for lunch - Liz, Ngaire, Melissa, Jorja and Monk. It was one glorious winter day, and we had soooo much fun. Food was great, the desserts were to die for. And we had to do something scrapbooky like taking some pics too.

Group shot with the help of waiter (not that crash hot looking, that's why we didn't put on that 1000W smile but gorgeous bunch nonetheless!).


Had to take pics of ME of course!!!!

Lovely friends, Jorja and Monk!

Monk had said that one of the in-things to do in photography is to take a portrait photo from this angle so we don't get double chins and anything undesirable. So I climbed the couch and she posed! LOL ...


Lately, some Aussie online scrapbooking stores are bugging me. I don't know what their idea of "pre-orders" is, but I certainly have a very different idea. The preorder system I have come to know of, involves the retailer taking your order online, before the stock comes in, so that you get priority over those who didn't. But you are GUARANTEED to have them. But some of these local online stores seem to have a completely twisted idea of preordering. They take your orders without knowing what they will be receiving. They may have ordered the whole range, but if they get delivered 1/2 the range, and if you order something from that 1/2 of the range that they didn't get delivered, you just don't get them. Too bad! Some even worse, they use your preorder as a gauge of how much stock they need to order, and THEN place the order! I have serious issues with these retailers because while I have my preorders with them, I feel committed. If I see these products available on another Aussie store, I would be wondering ...
1. "if this store is already stocking them, then why is my preorder not dispatched yet?"
2. "should I get them from this store now that they are right in front of me?"
3. "should I wait for my preorder to be fulfilled?"
4. "If I wait, will I still get all of the items I have preordered or will there be missing items??"

This frustrates me to no end. To me, when I place a preorder, I EXPECT to get whatever I have ordered. That's the whole idea of preordering, i.e. I don't want to miss out. Even if they don't all arrive together, which happens, I know I'll still be getting it. But I really don't expect to place a preorder, wait for months, and then be told that I am only getting half of what I have ordered! That is just preposterous!

Anyway, enough of my whining.

I also did 2 layouts at the crop on Friday night. I can only show 1 at the moment, but I'm really happy that I finally get to do ONE layout that doesn't need to be kept until whenever. I CAN SHOW IT OFF!!!! YAY!! So here it is...

LO - Size Matters. I've had this layout in mind for a while now, just cannot find time to scrap it. The journaling reads:
I believe it is normal. I believe it is all part of toilet-training. Kids just love doing a running commentary when they do their 'big jobs'. This was one of yours...
Me: Are you done?
You: I keep pushing and pushing... it is not coming out.
(another hard push .... "nnngggg!!!"...)
You: It's coming! (with a glee on your face)
("nnnggg!!!"....)
You: YAY! It's out! It's a BIG one!!
(lifts up one leg to take a peek inside the toilet bowl)
You: Oh no.... just medium.

Materials: Scenic Route papers, Bazzill Basics cardstock, Scenic Route chipboard letters, Scenic Route letter stickers, MME embossed chipboards, Blueye Dezines felt ribbons, brads.

This is going to be one of those layouts that I will use to blackmail him in future... BWAHAHAHAH... Man! I am PUMPED to do more! LOL...

Edited to add that, no, that is not a photo of my son while he's on the toilet, but it's the same "glee".

This week.....

I have been wanting to blog about this for a few days now, just kept forgetting.

My daughter has taken a liking to this character on TV. I'm not sure what to make of it. It is an English game show called Lily Savage Blankety Blanks. Now for those who don't know.... Lily Savage (Google it, you'll find her) is a comic drag character played by Paul O'Grady. She has been nicknamed Birkenhead Bombshell, and has an extremely heavy Birkenhead accent. She dresses... well... like most drag queens do really.......


And my daughter is ADDICTED to this game show that plays daily at 5.00pm on UKTV (one of the pay TV channels). I have a hard time getting her accent, so I seriously doubt my daughter understands what she says. Besides, there are plenty of adult humour between her, her celebrity guests and contestants. But she will still laugh at her antics (obviously cued by the laughter on screen). I must admit, she is very very funny and comical. But I just don't understand how she could comprehend any of what she says. She would actually remind us to put the program on for her!!! She calls it "The Silly Lady Show". BWAHAHAHAHA....

Ellen's kinder term didn't start till Tuesday. On Monday, I decided to do some motherly duties and took the kids to a nearby playground for the kids to have a play. I also brought along a mat, some sandwiches so we can do a picnic. Believe it or not, I have never done this with my kids, by myself that is. I also brought along some bread crusts so we can go feed the ducks! There hasn't been a good sunny day all of the school holidays. Everyday has been gloomy, rainy (not complaining about having rain cos we really needed it), and really really cold. The kids loved a good play at the playground... and Phaedon just couldn't wait to feed the ducks.... kept running towards the pond. Took a few pics...




After this glorious winter day, Ellen went back to kinder the next day with a 6-degree centigrade day. It was miserable. Kids couldn't go out to play because there had been a bit too much rain and the playground was wet and muddy.

I had some foot-in-my-mouth-good-luck today. I found out that I won the RAK prize on Tinkering Ink's Blog!!!!! YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!! I was just whinging to Ruey a few days ago - that there must be a bounty set for Lady Luck if she ever comes to me. I don't win anything, anything that has to do with luck. I would be playing bingo, and miss my bingo and not even realise it until someone else wins it ..... TWICE! So today, I won one of Tinkering Ink's RAK prizes!!!! Could not believe my eyes! I SMSed Ruey and she had a good laugh at me too. But wait!!! There's more!!! I get to pick a line of products I like!! Yippee! I couldn't go pass Botanical Bliss....

I'm going to a crop tomorrow night at Monk's. I really hope to scrap at least 1 layout. And then lunch with a few scrapping friends on Saturday? What do you have planned for this weekend?

The Party

Always love that Peter Sellers movie. The house was nice (in the 60s/70s point of view), the outfits were trendy,.. and the part that makes me laugh the most was still his "Birdie num num".... LOL

Anyway, I've gone totally off topic. I wanted to tell you about the party, OUR party for the kids. Nothing big, just immediate family, and very close friends. We had about 16 adults, 7 kids.... enough to make this house seem like a hole. But everyone ate, chatted, laughed, ate some more.... the finger food all went in 1/2 hour. I was beginning to feel embarrassed and worried that I actually didn't prepare enough food! But from a very selfish point of view..... I hate leftovers! LOL... I would rather have just enough food... guests finish eating and sit around and chat, and then continue to pick on bits of food here and there for the next few hours. Cos our brains do register how full we actually are, way after we have stuffed ourselves with too much food. So I'm actually doing everyone's diet a HUGE favour.... BWAHAHAHAHA....

We also had an incident with my FIL. Him being a traditional Greek man, probably never had sushi in his life, and never seen them, didn't know what that green paste was. The small amount of "avocado dip", was in the middle of the sushi and my other relatively bigger bowls of dips. So he picked up a cracker, smothered it with "avocado dip" ..... ..... he nearly died. I wish I was there to witness it, but everyone who saw what happened, some had to walk away and laugh, some had to keep their giggles down ..... but he apparently turned red, and all the tears were running down his face.... Damn! Would have been a perfect Kodak moment!

Here are some pics....

Cupcake tree - OK, this was my first piping effort in my whole entire life, so at least give me credit for that. Didn't know what pattern each tip will give me, so I just went for it and hoped for the best.


Pirate Ship Cake - This was Jess' idea cos she made the same cake for her son, Ethan's birthday. I spent more time hunting down the pirate toys than I did making the cake. No, actually I lied.... I almost forgot about the batch of icing that I stuffed up! LOL....


The spread - Vol-au-vents were also my first attempt. Sushi were ordered. There were some sausage rolls too.... but I didn't even get a chance to snap some photos of them cos they were gone before I came back out from the kitchen!


Blowing out candles - I told Ellen she can blow out 2 of Phaedon's candles on this side of the cake cos she wasn't having candles on her cupcake tree.


And I promised a photo of me in my short hair..... left curly. I stole my neighbour's garden as the backdrop cos my garden sucks big time. LOL...


I was TAGGED by Kim Arnold.(sometime early July.... oops!) I really like the simplicity of her style, and she has the biggest heart, so you can't not like Kim. BTW Kim, I didn't know half those things about you!!!!!!! :) :)

The Rules: So this is how it works. I must post the rules, 7 random things about me and then tag others to do the same. Sound fair enough, right? These are the rules…. each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves on their Blog. People who are tagged need to blog 7 facts about themselves and post the rules as well. At the end of their blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment.

1. I moved out of home at 17 to live in a clinic shophouse (very common in Asia.... shop on ground floor, residence above) while doing my Diploma in Business. I worked part-time at the clinic for a low wage, while living upstairs (kind of free boarding), while studying.

2. I played the clarinet for 10 years (age 8 - 17). Made it to First Clarinetist when I was 15, and played in many school concerts and public concerts. So stage fright? Nah....

3. I told everyone when I left Singapore, that I am going to Australia to study. I did "some" studies, but I actually came to Australia in the hope of getting somewhere with my relationship with Peter. He wouldn't promise me anything, but I just had to try. I guess I my constant bugging worked! LOL...

4. I dislike lots of Mediterranean food - olives, capers, feta cheese, ricotta cheese, ... and green vegies that had their chlorophyll cooked out of them, and they turn yellow... like they have shit their pants.

5. I prefer not to be driving behind Asian or female drivers. That combination is deadly.... except for me. :D

6. I don't like freezing cooked food.

7. My ex-husband of 10 years still won't talk to me cos he's still angry. I wish he can get over himself.

OK... I'm tagging the following friends.... Some of you may already have done it before....but just tell me something else to humour me ... hehehe

1. Ruey (you think you can get away with not doing one???)
2. Christie
3. Felicity
4. Jane
5. Aida
6. Jenn
7. Nura Keif

MUAKS to everyone.... can't wait till tomorrow is here and Ellen goes back to kinder. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Phaedon!!

What's going on... 2 blog entries in a day!!!!!

Oh, I'm such a horrible mother. I did all my whinging... and actually forgot to wish my son Happy Birthday. He doesn't quite get why his birthday is today... and the party is tomorrow, and kept asking for his pirate ship cake. tee hee.....

This is my message for him, it'll be in one of my layouts some time:

Happy Birthday, Phaedon!!!!! You have turned 4. And I want you to know that no matter how old you are, you are always my very precious bubba. I love it that every morning around 7, you come into our bed and snuggle up with me. I love it that you still want me to carry you like a baby in my arms when you are tired. I love it that you give me lots of kisses when I sit there waiting for you to finish your toilet business. I love it that you laugh heartily over the most trivial and silliest things. And most of all... I love that you are my son.

OK.... better go have my cuppa... and sleep.... and slave for the party again when tomorrow comes.

Day before the party

THANK YOU EVERYONE, for your sweet comments about my hair. Will do some shots tomorrow when Ruey is here .... and I will leave them curly. ;-)

We are having a joined birthday party for both kids tomorrow, at 2pm. I take advantage that their birthdays are only 2 weeks apart, so I have always had combined parties. That way, I only need to do it once, and people only need to come once (which I'm sure many will appreciate due to their busy schedules). I figure .... when they get older and start having their own friends at school, and having a party together with your younger brother / older sister is something very uncool, they will then ask for their own parties. But while they are still 'under control', I call the shots.

OK... menu for the party:
1. 1x birthday cake - Phaedon
2. 1x birthday cake - Ellen
3. Vol-au-vents
4. Sausage rolls
5. Sushi - California rolls, Tobiko, Mix hand rolls
6. Jelly (compliments from Ruey)

So today has been non-stop for me. I had to go to a cake deco shop in the city to get these Wilton Nut and Party Cups. I would like to use them to make the cupcakes for my cupcake tree, which will be Ellen's birthday cake. I could've used normal cupcake liners but I don't have enough muffin trays to make 23 at one go, and I didn't think leaving the cake mixture out while the first tray was baking, wasn't a good idea.

I got home, to bake Phaedon's birthday cake. I am making a Pirate Ship cake for him. Thanks to Jess for this brilliant suggestion. Remember a few posts ago, I was asking for Playmobil toys? I found a set of Playmobil pirates on eBay and I bought them. Those will be for the cake deco. So while the cake was cooling, I made the filling for my vol-au-vents - chicken and mushroom.

Then I started making the 2nd batch of cake mixture for Ellen's cupcakes. Seeing that it was the same cake mixture as Phaedon, this one went smoothly in the oven..... until I checked it at 1/2 time, I found that all the cups have over-flowed. I have filled them up too much. STUFF-UP #1.

Then I started making the butter cream icing for the pirate ship cake. You would have thought I would still remember how to do it considering I did the same icing 2 weeks ago for Ellen's cake for kinder. Bugger-all chance... but I still went ahead without the destruction manual - icing sugar and butter all in - AT THE SAME TIME. DESTRUCTION it was. Into the bin the crumbly icing went. STUFF-UP #2. Started all over again. This time, I read the instructions... in detail. Somehow I don't think I'll ever forget that method again.

We also needed some wafer biscuits to act as the cannons on the ship. And you think I remembered to tell my husband to stop eating those wafers like they were going out of fashion?? So no cannons. I had to get Ruey to buy me the wafers and bring them to me tomorrow before the party. STUFF-UP#3.

Now the cupcakes have cooled... I stood over the sink and scraped the overflowed cupcakes one by one. Thank goodness I only bought a medium size cupcake tree with 23 cupcakes. And I sent DH to the supermarket to get more unsalted butter and icing sugar to make icing for the cupcakes since I completely destroyed the first batch.

By 6.30pm... I'm exhausted. My feet are aching cos I've been standing all day - baking, stir-frying, baking, icing, more icing, scraping ...

Fortunately, I only have 1 more item on the menu - sausage rolls. I think I'll leave them for tomorrow, as well as the icing on the cupcakes. I've ordered 2 platters of sushi to be picked up tomorrow as well and Peter can take care of that.

I hope I have the brains to take some pics tomorrow.

Chilling out tonight.

Ok, ok... photos...

Well... I've been chased by several friends who wants to see photos me in my new hair do. But unfortunately, no one took a picture of my new hair (when I had make up on and looked nice). So I didn't have photos for days. Last night, I was out with Jess and I purposely did my make up, and had her take my photos. Not my best side (LOL... is there a good side?) but here they are.



I would have gone a lot shorter (Sharon Stone short ... hehehe) but my hairdresser was reluctant. He convinced me that I should do it in 2 stages.... in case I regret. As soon as I came out of the salon... I regretted. I regretted not sticking to my guts. Well, I wasn't going back in straight away to have it cut shorter and have him charge me again ... so I'll keep it for a few months. But I must say, it is SO good having short hair again. I use a lot less shampoo, my showers are quicker, my hair dries faster .... all good things!

I've done a few layouts but nothing I can show yet. One of them a layout for Addicted to Craft, using Blueye Dezine products. Another layout I have to churn out pretty quickly will be for Blueye Dezine, of course using BED products. I need to scrap something I can show!!!! Having withdrawal symptoms!!! LOL... but then I am such a slow scrapper, I usually always run out of time meeting deadlines!

We have started planning Crop For Kids 2008. The first committee meeting would be some time around August. We would most likely be registering a new blog address with new details and so on. If anyone in Victoria/Melbourne is willing to contribute some of their time in helping us, please let me know. We do have LOTS more interesting stuff this time round. And as promised, we are going to let interstaters get involved!!! We achieved about $7K this year, so we believe with what we have in mind, we are going to do more next year. Keep a lookout for us!!

Kids and my hair

No, it's not what it sounds. One has nothing to do with the other ... or does it?

Kids are doing a fantastic job driving me crazy during this first week of school holidays. I just can't wait for next week to be over. I don't know where my about-to-turn-4yo son is getting these clever ideas from. He will do something naughty, and as soon as he knows that I've found out, and was about to give him a scolding, he will run to me and hug my thighs really hard and say, "I love you, Mummy!" and then takes off!!

Then I have my just-turned-5 daughter, who now thinks that just because she has turned 5, she is allowed to do all the things adults do, eg. When I tell her off that she is not supposed to, she argued and said, "Well, I thought you said I'm a big girl!" .... Don't you just want to kick yourself sometimes? You tell them "You're a big girl now.." so they can stop being naughty and behave more reasonably, or give up the bottle, or make their own bed, or be a big sister and give in to your younger brother...... but you didn't mean that they can start playing with YOUR toiletries, or helping herself to air fresheners in the bathroom and practically spraying half a can after she used the toilet, or completely bossing everyone (especially her brother) around the house and reminding everyone that she is the big sister and hence should be listened to. How do you give a 5-year-old 'selective power'?

I have always had dead-straight hair. Last May, I had my hair permed. Since then, it has grown really long ... well ... long enough for me to get a bit sick of it. I thought about it for a week, and decided yesterday that that was what I would do - get the chop. The only question was... how short. Well ... I will post a photo on Saturday. Why Saturday? Because I am meeting some girlfriends for dinner on Friday, and they will get surprised first... hahaha...

These are some of the 'before' shots... curls and straight, but both long. It took me 8 years to grow it out to this length.



Over the last week or so, I have received 2 packages - one from Addicted to Craft, the other from Blueye Dezine, both of whom I'll be designing for the first time. Gorgeous drool-worthy packs I'll say. Gotta quickly finish these layouts I'm doing at the moment so I can get my hands on these yummy stuff soon!

If you have a sticky beak, stay tuned! I hope you do, and let me know what you think! Of my new hair, that is.

Barbie's house and layouts

These are some of the pics of her dollhouse...

Overview. This whole thing folds up into a carry box.

Living/Bedroom - The bed is convertible to a couch and ottoman. See the lamp, TV, remove control and cordless phone. Notice the flower growing outside the window??

Bathroom - The shower and toilet make sounds. See the towel, scrub, bar of soap, shower curtain, bin.. etc.

Kitchen - Fridge can be opened and it has eggs, milk, etc in it. Love the dining table with clear 70s-inspired see through chairs and crockery LOL... And we are already missing a fork.

Couch and Table set - yet-to-open. Can you see the fish tank? And the cat on top of the fish tank trying to grab the fish? See the miniature magazine, photo frame, disposable soft drink cup...

Desk and chair - this is also yet-to-open. The details in this set... laptop, notebook, table-mounted pencil sharpener, pencil holder, tissue box, mesh chair...

Oh.. and there is a sport convertible car too... which I forgot to take a pic of. But we all know what Barbie looks like in one of them. So can you see why I'm very keen on this set? LOL

I was actually quite surprised to hear from a few ladies who responded to my previous entry, that they don't know what Playmobils are. Then I realised.... DUH! WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! We are from a different generation!!!!!! ROFLMFAO... Playmobils were big in the 70s when I was a kid. Playsets, figurines and accessories... pretty much like Lego, but not so squarish. And they have always been expensive. Although I have seen them at Myer stores before, they would have been on their way out of the kids toys hall of fame. They are still very much a collector's item though... probably more in Europe than here. I got in contact with the ebay seller whose auction was closing in a few days, and she agreed to sell that to me and send over by Express Post. So that's taken care of now. :) Thank you all for your help.

I know I haven't shown layouts for a while now. So I'll leave you with the following layouts published in the current For Keeps Creative Scrapbooking #56.


These were actually 2 of the layouts that I submitted for last year's Awards for Excellence competition. This is a transparency layout and photographing it posed a bit of a problem for myself, as well as the magazine too. It's not doing it a whole lot of justice.




OK... images overload.... tee hee....

See you again in blog world soon!

Happy Birthday, my Princess Gorgeous!

Happy Birthday, Ellen, my Princess Gorgeous!!!!

My gorgeous daughter turned 5 today. What a milestone. Today is the day she will be getting rid of her bottle (yes... still weaning her, so she's only using a bottle for her afternoon milk for comfort). She got lots of hugs and kisses from Peter and myself. We went out for breakfast at McDonald's, followed by some shopping because we haven't really bought her a birthday present and I also needed to hunt around for some pirate figurines for a project, specifically Playmobil pirates. We got to Toy'R'Us before they even opened their doors! That had never happened to me before, LOL.

But after we got in, I was so disappointed. THEY DID NOT HAVE ANY PLAYMOBILS!!!!!!! What is a Toys'R'Us without Playmobils!!! Then I went to a few other fairly big departmental stores within the complex... and still no luck! I'm beginning to wonder what the heck is going on?!?! We even drove into the city to another store, hoping that since it's a bigger store, they should carry some. Not a single Playmobil soul... how sad! So if anyone knows a place in Australia that I can buy some Playmobile Pirates (other than eBay cos I know they have some but the auction doesn't finish for a while), I need to know... now ..... pronto ... immediately!

On another note, we did manage to buy Ellen a HUGE Barbie set that included: Totally Real House, Sport Convertible, Couch & Table playset, Futon & Table playset .... and the Barbie Doll (12" tall!!) was included! All these together would retail for A$179... and it was discounted to A$99. This would be her first ever Barbie doll set! I've never owned one doll myself, let alone a Barbie doll. But even though I never played with dolls, I have always had a thing for doll houses. Something about decorating the doll houses, room by room with tiny furniture, fascinates me. I've never introduced Barbie dolls, Bratz dolls and the like to Ellen because I didn't want "them" to "infect" her little mind with image-conscious ideas. Old school, I know. Not to mention, the endless outfits and "stuff" you are likely to keep buying in order to "update" your stash (pretty much like scrapbooking really)! But when I saw this bundle deal, and the chance to own lots of 'rooms' and a doll house, I kinda liked it more than she did. Think I almost convinced her to have it as a birthday present! LOL... it's plasticky I know... but it's so pweety I just had to. When she gets older, I was always going to get her a wooden doll house. We spent quite some time setting it up today.... all the tiny little things are so cute, eg TV remote control, cordless phone, hairdryer, cereal box, milk carton, eggs, washing machine/dryer, fridge, bar of soap, miniature magazine, cushion .... you name it. I'll try to take some photos tomorrow and post them here.

Okies ... laters!