Officially 1 week

It's officially 1 week hubby has been out of town.
I'm half way there, one more week, he'll be home.
I'm still alive.
Just kickin'.
Sick of Phaedon asking, "Why is Daddy late?" (To him, Daddy not at home = Daddy is late {from work})
"I wanna go pick up Daddy."
"Mummy!!!! Phaedon is not sharing!" (when she just wants to have the toy he just picked up)
"Mummy!!!! YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!" (when I insisted that Phaedon picks up his toys, and he repeatedly refused.)
"Mummay, I'm fiiiniiished!!!" (toilet duty)
"Mummy, can I watch Nick Junior please?"
"Mummy, can I watch a video?"
***loud scream from Phaedon*** he comes running to the study in tears.... Ellen comes running behind him, and the first to open her mouth "He, he, Phaedon won't let me play with his toy!!"
"But Mummy, it's not time for bed yet! We're still playing. 5 more minutes, OK?"

And you know what the worst thing about this job is? You can't quit!

Movie and more layouts

OK... some of you might have heard that I'm single mum for 2 weeks. Hubby left me.... went to US for work. Everyone I told, had their eyes lit up immediately. They wondered if I have a scrapbook shopping list for my husband! LOL... that was the last thing on my mind.... god honest truth! All I kept thinking is... how am I going to survive 2 weeks of school holidays, without any help??? Kids 24/7, no break, and no one to take over after 6 or 7pm???? Yes, I'm normally very well taken care of by my wonderful husband. That's why, I couldn't fathom 2 weeks of my life without him coming home to take over the kids from me!

He left on Friday morning. We stayed home on Friday and Saturday all day. On Sunday, I decided we need to get out of the house. We went shopping at a very busy shopping centre. I needed to get my hair conditioner from a salon. Then we had lunch. Then we shopped at Target. I put a massive dinosaur on layby and told Phaedon that I will send that to Santa, so Santa can give that to him for Christmas. Then I bought the kids a bottle of bubbles each, that made them very happy.

Today, I was very brave. I took them to the movies. **insert shock horror emoticon here** I can just about hear some of you say, "BOTH your kids?! You did not!!!!" Yep, I sure did. We bought tickets to see Surf's Up. We made rules though:
1. We need to go to the toilet before the movie.
2. We will sit still on the seat during the movie.
3. We are allowed to run and dance only during credits.
And I must say, they did pretty well. Ellen wasn't going to go to the toilet when I was putting Phaedon on the toilet. But I told her Auntie Ruey's threat: that if she needs to go to the toilet during the movie, the butcher will be taking her, not Mommy. Tell me how quickly she changed her mind. ROFLMAO... They got a bit antsy towards the end... but as soon as the surfing and the boppy music was on, they were happy. And they did their dance and running around to the end theme which I promised they could do. The movie was GREAT!!! Really funny and cute. I highly recommend it.

OK.. more layouts to share. Got my For Keeps #59 today. These were the layouts in it. Ellen was just delighted to see herself turn into a caterpillar on magazine! LOL...





That's all for today. Tomorrow is baking day with my kids (betcha never seen me so domesticated) and Wednesday, is lunch date with Ruey, Vita, Felicity, and Jane. Can't wait!

A Plug and Layouts to share

This is a plug for my online class at Crop For Kids.

Cake Slice Gift Box. I made these about 2 months ago. I created a template and quite a few people liked it. So I pitched the idea to the CFK committee and here I am, doing my first ever online class. My first ever class for that matter. Here are the sneak peeks.



Date: Thursday, 4th October 2007
Time: 7.30pm - 9.30pm
Cost: $10.00 per person (own materials)

If you want to register, just email Crop For Kids.

Ok.. ... plenty of layouts to share, I hope I won't crash their servers. These are all the 9 layouts I did at the retreat. This is what happens when I free myself from any challenges... just scrap! :) :)

Phaedosaurus - I finished the layout at the retreat but desperately wanted a dino embellishment. So I came home and shopped at KitiQ for a BamPop Popzilla stamp. ;) Not quite a dinosaur but to me.... godzilla, dinosaur.... same same. LOL...


I wish I hadn't - A very personal layout with very sensitive journaling.


Are you proud of me? - A few new things I used here: Making Memories Clear overlays (over the photo), Making Memories clear letters (Are you), Making Memories green ribbon (love it!), Bampop clear stamp coloured in with Stampin' Up Wonder Crayons.


Kerplunk! - just a layout about our new family game.


Birthday Boy - my nephew in Singapore has turned 1!!!! I can't wait to see him in November.

Confused little superhero - Love those squiggly chipboard arrows by Buzz n Bloom! Been wanting to use these Love, Elsie Roxie papers for so long with this photo. You probably can't read the journaling... but try figuring out why the title.


Squish - patterned papers are American Crafts. I've not used AC papers for sooooo long. I bought these at the retreat and had to make myself use them or they will just add to my AC stash.
Cars fanatic - my son's collection of cars. He happily let me stage a photo shoot of his precious and growing collection. The chipboard is Magistical Memories which I've covered with pp and doodled a track on it. See those little car ceramic embellishments at the bottom? Cute huh? Jane makes them and sells them at Crafty Matters.

Prima Donna - I really like the gigantic swirls on this. They are Technique Tuesday tiles which I bought ages ago. I covered them with patterned paper, and surrounded them with button brads by Imaginisce. I somehow feel it's missing something, perhaps journaling? I really don't know what to journal on this.... my mind draws a complete blank. Maybe you can tell me?


OK.... sorry for bombarding. My creative juices were just flowing. bwahahahaha....

Have a great weekend.

The Winners!!!!

I am soooo sorry for the long delay. I was sooo busy last week trying to get ready for the retreat that I was going to that I didn't even have time to come in here to post about where I was going. Truly truly sorry. Here are the winners of my Pay-It-Forward RAK.

Yu'er
brainybairn
Ruey

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! (or is it commiserations to win a handmade gift from me?!?! LOL) Will all of you please email me your mailing address so I can make those RAKs and send them out to you. Now you need to PAY IT FORWARD on your blog! :) :)

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I went to a retreat with some great friends over the weekend at Portsea. It wasn't a commercial scrapbooking retreat as such, just one that friends all got together, scrapped, chatted, ate ..... didn't have a full shop setup but Trish and Anne-Marie brought along their latest arrivals from Scrapanalia with them. I still managed to spend about $30+ .... not bad for a weekend huh? :) Most of us brought our own food, eg casseroles, curries, rice... etc. Jorja even cooked bacon and egg breakfast for us on Saturday morning, and made satay chicken on Saturday night for dinner. She is just the bestest!! I call her Mom .... probably my first time being taken care of !! :)

I scrapped.... boy did I scrap! LOL.... I aimed to do 10 layouts, but only managed 9, and altered 2 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I am extremely satisfied with what I created though. I will finish up my journaling and take some photos when I can. I think the reason why I was that productive, was because I was scrapping without inhibitions. Although I have a few DT layouts to do, I refused to do them over the weekend cos I tend to ponder more over those layouts. I just wanted to create freely without any rules. I really needed that. I needed the weekend to be about me and not answering to anyone, .... no offence FK, Addicted to Craft and Blueye Dezines. :) :)

Ask me if I missed my kids..... sorry LUVS! I missed the bit that Phaedon comes to bed to snuggle up with me in the morning, but I got over that pretty quickly. LOL ...

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I am also busy setting up Crop For Kids' first online class. It'll be held tomorrow, Thursday 20th September 2007. Our first tutor on the list is Lou Spiden! She is truly a very funny and great person to be with and learn something from. If you haven't registered, go to Crop For Kids blog now and be quick!!!

There is also a very cool competition going on CFK .... Design-A-Chippie Competition! You get to design your own chipboard embellishments and stand to win a very cool $50 prize pack from Scrapware AND a $50 gift certificate from The Scrapbook Establishment. The winning design will be manufactured by Scrapware and sold by Crop For Kids exclusively!!!! All proceeds will go to Crop For Kids, and official fundraising event for Royal Children's Hospital's Good Friday Appeal.

So there! You get to design, you stand to win, ..... VERY ATTRACTIVE PRIZES, winning design gets manufactured, sale proceeds go to charity ..... is this a win-win-win situation or what?! So start sketching and doodling my friends!

Ok... it's 2.40am.... time for bed ..... bit of a zombie now....

Have a great week ahead!

Daughter (again). CFK. Pay It Forward.

People do not believe all the stories I've told about my daughter when they see her. They say she is the sweetest thing, so polite, so adorable, so gorgeous ..... I never knew 5 year olds are that clever at concealing their true self either. Either her true self is the tantrum-throwing, I'll-do-all-I-can-to-drive-mum-crazy one and she puts on another personality to perfect strangers, or she is the truly angelic one where she shows true colours to strangers, and puts on a difficult personality with us. I'll let you be the judge cos I'm tired of second guessing her. This is what happened by 9am this morning.

She was trying to put on this new short sleeve top I bought for her to wear in summer. But spring had just begun and we are still having cold days. So I told her she can wear a long sleeve top underneath, and wear the short sleeve top over it.

E: But I want to wear this (short sleeve top) inside
Me: So you want to wear something over it? But then you won't be able to see your new top?
E: But I want to!!!
Me: Fine.
(took out a track suit for her... jacket and pants)
E (screamed): NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! (started wailing) I don't want to!!!!

I rest my case.

Have been doing a lot of shopping this week (scrapbook shopping that is). Blue Bazaar had their annual sale on, I bought some stuff on Saturday, bought some more together with Ruey a few days later, and bought some more today with my partner in crime again. Heehee... haven't done so much shopping in a while. Trust me, I didn't strike lottery. I'm just depressed.

Peter has to go to the US for work in late September, for 2 friggin weeks!!!!!!! I have a retreat this weekend I'm going to, somehow I wish it was after he comes back. God forbid, I REALLY need a retreat after those 2 weeks. Funny how when I told Ruey and Jess about Peter having to go away, their first reaction was, "Oh, crap...." and "Oh, no....." hahahaa... these girls really do know what I go through with my kids on a daily basis. So this is something they know I don't look forward to. And honestly, if my daughter's behaviour is going to be like that for those 2 weeks, you can all put me on suicide watch.

We had our 2nd Crop For Kids committee meeting last night!!! It was such a great meeting. There is a contest coming up which we are very very excited about. We are just finalising the details now and fingers crossed, it will be up and running the next week.

For those who haven't registered for Lou Spiden's online class, these are the details:
Date: Thursday, 20 September 2007
Time: 7.30pm - 9.30pm
Cost: $10.00
Proceeds will go to Crop For Kids, raising funds for Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal. As to how the online class works, you don't have to be physically present during the time. The class will be held via a blog, ie. classroom. The instructions will be left on the blog until Sunday. So even if you are not physically able to "be there" during 7.30pm - 9.30pm, you can still gain access to the 'classroom' for a few more days. I hope that helps clear up any doubts. :)

And if you missed my last entry, I am doing the Pay It Forward RAK on my blog. I was picked as a winner on Kim's blog, so now I'm paying forward. Leave a comment on my blog by today. If you are picked as one of the 3 winners, you'll get a handmade gift from me (don't laugh!). Yes... me... making a handmade gift. Can't promise it's going to be awesome, but I promise it won't be awful. bwahahahaha.....

OK..... that's all for now. Will update again soon with the contest at CFK when we have details, or when I scrap a layout. Which do you think will happen first? LOL...

EDITED TO ADD THESE HILARIOUS LINKS!!! Toooooo funneeeeeee ....
Say what???
Say what??? ... spoof

The past week...

So I went to a crop at Felicity's last Saturday with a few Essential Baby girls. It's really great to meet new people all the time. I did 2 DT layouts for For Keeps. Yes, I made a 2nd term on the Design Team for For Keeps Creative Scrapbooking. And I'm joined by many other talented girls, including a couple of friends, Kim Arnold and Vita Thai.

Most of last week, has been occupied by Crop For Kids. We have started our Online Class registration, with the first class taught by Lou Spiden. We have also a list of other scrapbookers who have already jumped on board to help us. We have layouts, mini album, canvas, Photoshop tips and tricks, hybrid layouts, etc etc etc. Different classes will be held fornightly, so don't miss out on any of these treasures! We will also be having some contests later on too. Get onto Crop For Kids blog and have us added to your bloglines, so you'll get the most updated news!

Did a few more DT layouts for Addicted to Craft, but I can't really share other than this one.

The Little Pirate - A layout to be added to Addicted to Craft's gallery.


This other layout I did the week before, very uninspired that's why I couldn't be bothered showing. Same Same but Different - I was comparing how different these 2 kids are. (Granted, they are equally good at driving me nuts!) But I know this layout is soooo not me... I just don't do justice to Basic Grey papers. It's a bloody disgrace, I know.


I wish I could show you the other DT layouts but I can't. You'll have to wait till the magazine comes out in 4 months' time.

OK... RAK TIME!!!

This is a Pay It Forward RAK. I won my RAK from Kim, so now I will be making 3 handmade gifts and there will be 3 lucky winners picked from all the names who have left a comment on my blog. If you are one of the 3 lucky winners, you will have to Pay It Forward by doing the same on your blog, i.e. make 3 handmade gifts and pick 3 winners. Kapish?

I am not fantastic at handmade gifts (can't sew to save myself), so I will alter papier mache boxes from Spotlight for the 3 winners. So leave your comment from now onwards to Thursday, 6 September. International comments are welcome too :) :) So delurk yourself and join in the fun!

Ta Ta for now!