Kaylen & the Tree

My little guy is so curious about the X'mas tree that i'm always finding him at some moments spending his time with it. It's either that i have done a decent job at decorating it that the tree appeals to him so much to touch the little ornaments, or that he simply loves X'mas as much as i do.....i was sneaking behind him taking this great picture moment of him on his KungFu panda car that he rode all the way from his room to the back of the tree secretly where i found him...

Caught you Kay....
Trying to destroy any possible evidence....

Just look at that cute face of his....

Those little fingers...

Finished the last batch of X'mas Cards, and this time i followed basically the initial design of having kraft cardstock as the base & punching out squares (i can't leave without kraft cardstock & square punches), and my earlier batches were using patterened paper from My Mind's Eye, and the below batches were paper from October Afternoon. Rest of the diecuts cardstock of X'massy designs were from K&Co / Making Memories, and stickers from Making Memories.

Found these great clear stamps from Creative Cafe the other day of x'mas greetings, and as i don't own much of these x'mas sayings, and knowing that this would not be the only year i'm hand making my x'mas cards (it's actually my first year deciding to make my own), and with the clear stamps at such a good price, why not???

Got to scoot, kaylen's up from nap time..

Good Ol' Saturday...

It's here again, and never fails to cheer me up that i get to spend time alone with Kay today at the usual playgroup session this morning & just staying home, being just the 2 of us. Whole week has been busy at work with oversea supplier visiting, and frustrating on the other hand having to face the "tight fist clenching & squeezed up facial expression" (looking like he is angry) of Kay. It has become so regular in the past weeks that i'm concerned as to why all this particular expression, and another a month ago this action of his evolved to something which i didn't expected it to be. All was going as usual at lunch time, with Kay having his meal, and out of no where, he did all of the above, and burst into violent crying and he just couldn't stop all these. He usual would just clench his fist & squeeze till his face turns red, but this time it lasted longer than seconds, and with the loud burst in tears, both me & jayce had to calm him down. WHY???? I'm having so much questions as to why he is behaving this way????

Went on after through the last few weeks monitoring him, and caught him doing it alone when he watches TV (his fave - Monster Inc or Bob the Builder, minus any outburst of tears), and i sort of had enough of figuring it out that yesterday when i caught him at it (he would start clenching his fists first) that i shouted at him to stop. So i ended up with one very sad kid on the verge of tears brimming at his eyes (cause when he knows mummy is angry, i really meant serious business) and a almost going crazy me....I'm still asking questions and watching him cause i totally don't understand why he does it, and sometimes he does it when he sees people. I hope it's just a phase that he will get through, but it's not like i'm not doing anything about it. Everytime when such episodes comes, i would tell Kay nicely that he shouldn't do it. So i'm at this till i see improvement in his behaviour. It's only this issue that worries me cause other then this, Kay is pretty much alright to handle. He knows of stuff when it is asked of him, our "no" when it dangerous, and Kay's been doing well.

I'm off to prepare lunch...so have yourself a happy saturday...while i have figured out that the rest of this afternoon will be spent organising & packing my scrap area & stuff (bought so much lately + freshly arrived scrap kits from Label Tulip that i have yet to even taken the stuff out of their bags/boxes yet). Hope to be able to complete also my 2nd batch of X'mas cards & several other gift projects. Till next post...

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!! To this wonderful man whose the pillar of strenght in all i do, believing in me that i can almost achieve anything i ask for, for your unconditional love & support though the times in my life, and mostly my mentor whom since young i know i want to grow up like you. You are not only my dearest dad, but also my bestest friend ever. Love you dad and on your special day today, i wish for you good health & happiness!!!

Yes indeed a very happy day for me today, but also my heart goes out to my close pal J whom had just a couple hours earlier lost her dad to a year long battle with cancer. I teared cause i know how much pain she is going through right now cause she is here in Singapore, and he is back in Medan, so no one will truly feel the pain she is having now then herself & her family. This is diffifult time for her & her family. My deepest condolenses to J & her family, and that they seek comfort that he is no longer suffering from any illness.

So basically i'm having a mixed emotional day today...

18 months ago this day

I became mom to an adorable boy whom i named Kaylen Lim Yu Xuan. Ever since the day he came into our life, both me & jayce didn't mind at all the sleepless nights that followed, 5 months of total breast feeding (wanted to go as long as i could, but a week of high fever on the end of 5th month & the anti biotics i was on didn't allow me to continue), totally having no life except mostly shuttering between work, my parent's place & back home again for the past 18 months & dirty diaper changes that lasted forever, and never getting to sleep past 7am every single day, i'm okay with all these. Looking back to these last 18 months of me being mummy and many more zillion years to come, i'm actually enjoying the role.

It's all his little giggles & smiles & occasional hugs & "sayangs" i get that keeps me full of energy. No doubt i'm mostly drained out by the time Kay goes to bed (cause it's only at bed time that he stops running around the house), all these are well worth it cause nothing beats seeing one happy chap having the time of his life. I go by the rule "as long as it's not dangerous, you are allowed to do it" seems to work. If we say no to him, he does not insists. If we ask for him to help out with simple things like throwing his diapers, or take his milk bottle to the kitchen, he does. At age 18 months, he is slowly understanding what we ask of him, and he does have his moods. We are also start understanding his little sounds, and gestures. He has his emotions when any of us leave him, or his happy giggly times before bed time. All these are just him. I enjoy all our play sessions at home & at playgroup, and now 1 month into his playgroup, I'm able now at home to play & sing "row row row your boat" (kay will sit down automatically when i ask if he would like to row the boat with me & stretch out his hands) or "twinkle twinkle little stars" gestures as i sing. He is able now to sit through the sing along sessions at playgroup (way much longer than his 1st 2 play sessions at Tumble Tots). I'm just proud of how much he has grown. No more baby, just a little boy now we see him.

Sometimes, i tell him "you are growing up just too fast Kay", wished he would slow down a little where i can just cherish carrying him in my arms for a little while longer. I do miss those baby days...in another 6 months time, Kay will be 2. Didn't we just celebrated his 1st birthday awhile ago...goodess gracious. Just too fast Kay.

Leaving you with a picture of Kaylen just when he is one day old....love you Kay....

Have yourself a good night...

I Heart Christmas

Our Christmas tree was finally up during the weekends (with me decorating it at 6am plus in the morning before our lil guy is up for the day), cause sweet old jayce has set up the tree & lights all the night before. Being Kaylen whom is always "helpful", we know he would really love to meddle with the X'mas decors even before hanging them up so we got to get it all done when he is asleep. So here's Kay in the wee hours of Sunday morning which Jayce caught a picture of him by himself by the x'mas tree that same morning when i have just gotten the decorations up, having his very own alone time with the tree.

good old snowman is also sitting pretty on the table

And my beautiful decors all looking clear & crystal

And my crop session went real well, not only am i pleased at having company over at my place in the afternoon, it also means that Kay has play friends too. Sort of in form of Vicole Jie Jie. He just adores her so that he hangs around wherever she was in our home. Kay would just be standing by her side, and he giggles...how cute is that. He just loves having her around. Pictures from our crop session...

there you have it - my little brother Yixi at work...

there you have it - Jianxi concentrating on creating her X'mas LO for her best friend

Vicole in pink cutting away....

Yixi showing off his hands at work...

Yixi's creativity flows....

Jianxi's sweet layout...

I enjoyed myself very much with the company i have over the weekend, i wish for more of such sessions....soon in Dec, i'm having Wendy & her friend come over at my place for another crop session.

Acrylic Album Put Together

In on of my earlier posts, someone asked me how to put together my acrylic album which i completed sometime back for my brother's ROM. So here are basically the materials which i used to create this album. I happen to attend sometime back a workshop at MWL on clear acrylic albums, and i found such albums to be such lovely gifts to make. Thanks Kelly from MWL for some of the tips which i used on my very own made version.

Materials:-
Pageframe Design Clear 6"Acrylic Album (cover dimension 7 1/2" x 6 1/2", with 9 page & 3 rings)

It being a clear album, i chose to work with mostly overlays & lace cardstocks as it allows for the album to have a more dept through the visual of such materials used. For both the cover & back of the album, i used the technique taught in the workshop of having to stamp with Stazon (butter creme) of word phases all over one side of the album, thus creating translucent effect through the rest of the pages of the album. Stazon ink would be appropriate for use on stamping on material such as acrylics.

Overlays such as Hambly's are my favourite, and in this album i used the latest birdcage series of overlays in white and chocolate colours + their clear overlay of journaling spots. I chosed an overall colour scheme of no more than 3 colours as i work through the patterened paper & matching embellishments (mostly greens, pinks & browns). And given that this is a wedding album of a sort, i used Blings & sticklers on certain pages to create a more classy look. For this album, i played with my square punch on each different page, and along side that every page created is of the same style, but changing only the playment of the photos, and how the patterened paper is being co-ordinated in position to the photos. I also used the corner punch for most of my photos & paper. Rub ons are also great for such albums.

As for the type of glue used for adhering the paper or overlays, i used glue tap for the paper, glossy accents for the overlays & glue dots for the ribbons. As this album will be on display for many to flip during the event, i had to ensure that the embellishments like chipboards, ribbons are glued down with stronger version of glue dots by Zots.

Lastly, as i finish creating each page, i would tend to stack each page above one another to ensure that the complete effect of having to see bits of the photos or embellishments are still visible, and parts of whether be it the overlay or lettering are seen through the layers of the clear album. I finished it all off with assortment of ribbons of different textures & adding some strings of pearls too (you can get the strings of pearls from Spotlight in whatever lengths you like)

So there you have it, one clear album created with loads of love..hope the pointers i gave are helpful in creating your very own for your loved ones.

Going slow

I'm off today from work, spending time shopping with my mon & kaylen cause she needs to get her dinner outfit foy my lil brother's ROM next month. Don't always take leave unless its absolutely needed, and crucially is keeping those leave days to when i want to spend time with Kaylen or i have certain important matters to attend to.

So after a busy weekend, i'm taking today slower. No time pressure to get home, and having Kay with me the whole of day is just totally fun for me. Will post again later today about my busy bee weekend (i had a funtastic crop on Sunday, great scrap shopping with Wen on Sat, + doing up the X'mas tree at 6plus in the MORNING..), so i have certainly been 1 busy gal...

I'm off to Centrepoint now....