Tuesday, November 23

This photo to love...

I love this photo so much that it's on my computer desktop at work, and i have to scrap it. Even when i close my eyes, i can still see clearly that face, those bright eyes looking back at me. I love him to bits, and he knows that. I'm enjoying everything about him being at this age of 3 1/2 of years, so much talking, so much mischief, so much innocence, & so much fun. He just brings me ounces & ounces of joy each day.

Scrapping with Basic Grey's lastest range - "Curio", i love this range, so much flowers, so much of my type of colours, and so soothing to its feel. I've used "Dear LIzzy" enchanted series of lacecut papers, a little of that fantastic washi tape....

Title: "3 & Half"


I've got little holiday plans & activties for the little one in December. Tickets to the "Walking with Dinosaurs" The Arena Spectacular is what we'll start our December with (Kaylen's counting down), 2 nights stay at Hard Rock Hotel at Resort World, and this time we'll have more time compared to the last stay we had at Resort World (Festive Hotel), tentative 5 days trip to Penang as a whole family & best part of it all, I will have at least 1 whole week to spend with Kaylen cause my mom will be going for a minor operation, and she needs rest, so to me, I'll gladly have this additional time with my lil guy.
I can't wait for December to be here, it's going to be a busy busy month since it's Christmas too. I've a long list of to-do's & with the X'mas pressie hunting.....oh gosh i need more time!!!

Thursday, November 18

All 18 of them....

I enjoyed creating each & everyone of this for the recent Friendship Swap. It certainly has me-style written all over it, and a pity that i didn't get the chance to meet up with the rest of the lovely ladies who made their very own special piece (you can see from Pooi's post on all 18 of our swap pieces here) for the swap. Unfortunately due to my time schedule i didn't make it for the crop to meet them, and i've just collected my set. Each piece has a style signature of the creator, and i hope i will get a chance to meet them in person someday, they make really such beautiful & unique pieces.

Here's my very own 1st friendship swap piece....



& so with the above 18, i've signed up for the next round of Friendship Swap & it's 24pcs I'm creating next....ohhhhh & just the 1st thought that went in my mind after signing up for it was - "what am i getting myself into????!!!"" wahahahaha.......oh well, i know like my 1st friendship swap, i enjoyed the process of creating, i enjoyed that i had a piece of someone elses work with me to keep, and i enjoy that it's all about people passionate about the same hobby I'm crazy about since 3 years already. I can just say that this "Friendship Swap" thingy is just pure addictive.

School's out & holidays are in for the little one, which means mummy here has to do my best to fill up the upcoming months with something to do......


Enjoy your week ahead!!!

Monday, November 15

Mandarin Here we Come.....

He needs to start somewhere...somehow....this language of Mandarin scares me in the past when it's the schooling days, and now it seems to be passed on to my lil guy. We never spoke a word of Mandarin at home, and i somehow think that somewhere we have to start with this Mandarin speaking. He hates Mandarin, and most likely hate it that i call him by his chinese name - Yu Xuan. Whenever we call him Yu Xuan, he would "correct us" No, my name is KAYLEN. This is bad, right??? The only chinese thing he does is to sing parts of songs (i mean pop songs like from Show Luo, or his latest favourite, Nicky Lee) & to him it doesn't mean Mandarin. To him, it's just a song.

I want him to like Mandarin when he gets more of this exposure in school next year since they will teach Mandarin 3 times a week in N1, so that should do, and to get him started, I've signed him up at the start of next year - once a week at Mandarin Speech & Drama class at Hua Language Centre at United Square (thanks Pooi for the recommendation, i finally got to registering him for this). We're starting slow with the Mandarin thingy cause at Speech & Drama, there is going to be songs, story telling, puppetry, games, & sing along (Kay loves to sing), it's light and not daunting for a start. The school wanted to put him due to his age right into N2 (that's where they teach Han Yu Pin Yin, recognise chinese characters, and I was like asking the receptionist if it's going to just be a little too much for someone who doesn't even understand or speak a word of Mandarin), so i opted to just have his start out with speech & drama first and see how he goes. Crossing my fingers when the time comes to the new school term, that this will open his eyes and experience for himself that Mandarin is actually fun.

I believe we're going to have lots of stories from this new chapter of Mandarin when the time comes....to Kay when year 2011 comes, it means a brand new schooling environment as he moves up to N1, new teachers & a whole lot of new friends. He has fantastic schooling experience since April this year, his teachers has good remarks on his whole schooling journey for me to remember during my last week's teacher's & parents meeting, discovering his love for songs & storybooks at class, and how we can continue to influencing him in more positive ways. He learns with each experience, and there is no point in me forcing him to take up chinese just because how important it is our current times. I know of the importance of this language, & that's why i'm starting this very slowly. Let him enjoy the songs ,dances & stories first since he likes so much of this singing thingy, and go slow from there.

I'm so proud of him, and how much like the teacher said that Kaylen has grown since his 1st day at school. Confident & always willing to try out things & tasks. We're starting to see the areas which interest him most (my brother was commenting today "why on earth did you sign him up for speech & drama, when he is already such a drama king!!! wahahaha.......)

Have a good start of the week!!!

Tuesday, November 9

I enjoy....

Everyone who knows me would know that i just can't get enough of my son. I love him so dearly, and how much time i have free from work, i would just be spending it with him. He is my world, and he is the source of my strength, and sometimes i just can't believe it that i've got so much love for someone so little.


I enjoy all my time spent with him, i enjoy taking sniffs in his hair which he would say that it smells like strawberries, i enjoy scrapbooking because of him, I enjoy the memories we make together, simply i enjoy us!!


He is 3 1/2 this month, and he never fails to amaze me just how much he is talking & understanding at this age, I enjoy him being at this age, and how much i'm holding on to this precious time. I enjoy our conversations & questions.



I enjoy putting together our year 2010 journal, slowly the months are coming together even though i'm far from finishing it anytime soon, but will definitely before the end of this year. Within it i decided to document important events as this year marks many happy occasion for our family, 1 big travel to Szechuan, 2 weddings, the start of a new school & within it i also recorded our simple everyday life.

Here's snippets of some of the pages....




I enjoy how much scrapbooking has allowed for me to keep memories fresh in our minds whenever we re-visit the pages, and each photo tells so much of my little guy, his moods, and at times special moments. I see him growing up with each scrapbooking page i've done....Here's one which i did lately, and one which i enjoy using mist on the latest Pink Paislee's Parisian Anthropology resist patterned paper.


Title: Shine


Have a superb Thursday everyone!!

Monday, November 8

A Weekly Affair....

When we're at home, i do my best to find interesting things to do with Kay cause it's not always about watching his favourite movies or DVDs, or playing this or that....I try to fill up his time at home with crafty hands-on projects. He is one who will not sit for too long, and it better be exciting if i want him to be sitted for a good 1/2 hour. & the best way to getting around this is doing craft stuff. Daddy's the one who's really good at drawing or doing origami of some sort...so when he's not around....i turn to my scrap tools for help.



Kay loves Martha Stewart punches especially the apple & flower shaped punches, so we gave it a try over the weekend...he would create lil punch out shapes, then put them in a plastic box i got him to put these shapes in and so he can use them anytime to glue them down to coloured papers. He simply loves doing this, and he got most of his fun crafting time out of just punching....and even happier when he's got half punched out apple shapes.



Just look at his face....i can see just how much he is enjoying this process.....





and showing of his finished punched out apple...a full one for this....






It's also at the weekends that i've more time to be crafting cause work has increased for me over the last few weeks, and as much as i would love to de-stress by scrapping when Kay goes to bed, i just can't seem to find the energy left to be creative. So come the weekends, i have afternoons during Kay's nap time to work on stuff....started on my 6"x6" mini for my beloved car, and Pooi's always my inspiration when it comes to minis...she's like the goddess of all mini...so here a peek at my mini which the next would be to fill it up with photos (awaiting to be collected from the photo lab) & loads of journaling for this. Did this mini in an accordian style, loads of pages to work on....& my all time favourite - washi tape to hold all the pages together.

Title: Remember Swift


& remember my gift for my pal M, here's the full review....our favourite go to Ikea frames....a photo of M (she's the one on the left) with my cousin at my brother's wedding. Sweet young ladies...and both of them are of the same age. Love love how the latest Dear Lizzy Enchanted series of papers goes so well with this photo...This is one range of paper which I've yet to experiment using Kaylen's photo (it's a tough one cause i tried but it's just too girly so i gave up)

Title: GirlFriends

Have a great great Monday!!

Wednesday, November 3

It's a short week....

Indeed a short work week for me since I only started at work this Tuesday. I had an a long weekend, and a wonderful time (yes to more more Kay time) with this lil guy at home....Him taking a pose in the midst of his breakfast (see the unfinished toasted ham & cheese sandwich at the background)....a look at this adorable face, how can i resist not spending time with him....






We've been crafty on Monday....what a way to chase away any possible monday blues since he's got no school since last Friday due to PCF having their teachers prepare for the K2 graduation, so all pre-nursery kids get the long weekend off last week till Monday.

Him getting all happy & excited each time he paints....from far i would be able to hear him constantly say about his work "BEAUTIFUL"...& there i would be smiling....& if you see the van picture in the 2nd photo...he thinks it's already complete....




& me being crafty as I work on a birthday gift for this lovely friend of mine. She's turning 18 in a weeks time, and I've known her since she was a baby.....& sometimes looking back at just the number of years...i really feel so much older...Scrapped her a shadow box frame, filled it up with tons of sweet pretty colours & lots of butterflies....for such a sweet pal.....Here's a sneek peek of the gift. Hope she likes it! (I'll review it next week cause her birthday is next week)





It's the long weekend I'm looking forward to cause we're setting up the Christmas tree (oh gosh it's going to be Christmas), some scrappy theraphy in a lesson at the LSS & we're heading to IKEA tomorrow to just hang out, have lunch & what Kay likes best of IKEA - Ice Cream....


Have a wonderful time you all!!!

Tuesday, November 2

Come tomorrow.....



My dear old car is going....like how my brother says, we've come along way with the Swift, and we've been through days with this trusty car, and honestly i'm missing it already....I'm going to have a mini album done with all the photos my brother had willingly help to take despite the horrendous hazy sky the day we had this photo shoot, the fact that we're all crampy & hot going in & out of the car, and the very fact that Kaylen was not as co-operative (with me, my mom & my sis in law hopping up & down making funny faces just to get him to smile), and thanks so much bro for such wonderful photos. I certainly have a story to tell in my mini....and one which i will remember always.....thanks Swift for all the great memories, and I'm sure these photos will remind Kay of how you are a part of our lives....
I'm sentimental to everything i owned....& i get attached to almost everything i get through in my life....that's me.