The Holidays

I love January for the amount of holidays I get with my family, and with the lil one......I literally flew through everyday in January be it at work or at home preparing for the festive Chinese Lunar New Year. What a great month it is for me, and i feel that truly this is the 1st year that the meaning of Chinese New Year is experienced by Kay be at home or at school.

It's a pity that Kay didn't get a chance to visit Chinatown this year, but next year for sure I will arrange for it to happen cause he fell sick one week before the new year, and i wanted him to recover in time for the festive season, and with the immense heat we had this January, i didn't want to risk for him to fall even sickier. I had the chance to venture with the hubs to Chinatown on our day off (one day before Kay's school new year celebration cause he wanted to dress up in a chinese costume). The last time we were there Kay was only 1 years old, so other than the heat, i love the colours and the festive mood, the stalls and it made my trip down there so much more fun.


Here's Kay after his school celebration in his chinese costume.....I'm happy as long as he loves wearing it........

With the Chinese New Year holidays, we had a chance to also visit with my brother's in-laws to the Sentosa Flower Show on the 2nd day......yes once again the heat and the crowd was a killer, but those gorgeous blooms.....and not to mention all that bubbles, Kay loved it too......

A trip down to the Istana (a first for all of us and my grams).......and ride on the Cable Car again is a must whenever we visit Sentosa.....you see that wide smile of his....this is just how much he loves being in it.....

And my extended Chinese New Year holiday to Bali with my family.....our very 1st time travelling out of Singapore during this festive season.......I'm just so happy to spend so much time with him which I'm always so badly in need since usually with work, we never get a chance to get ourselves to travel for leisure. He loves Bali, the beaches, the banana boat,the fact that family is with us (he loves to have loads of family to travel with him, the more the merrier type). This is Kay, he loves everyone to go places with him TOGETHER, and he keeps getting us to partner each other all the time......wahahaha.....

Some photo collages of our Bali holiday....wished it was longer....

At our villa located around the Kuta Beach - Namaste Villa & Spa....

Dinner views at Bali was so beautiful....facing the sea, and the breeze.....nice....for Kay as long as there is sand, he is one happy boy....
This is dinner at Jimbaran.....a pity we skipped grilled seafood cause most of us were either having sore throats or very heaty.....

He entertains me the most with all his funny faces.....he's just learned how to do that cross eye thingy....not so well yet but good enough to crack me up......

Half a day out at the sea and at the beach at Nusa Dua....snokeling by my family, out to sea on the glass bottom boat, visit to the turtle island(Kay held on to his very own baby turtle), jet ski for the guys , a banana boat ride which during the whole ride, Kay was screaming, laughing out loud shouting "Brocolli...Brocolli.....Brocolli...." He says he was afraid so he has to say this.....lol what a weird kid i got there.......

Our last Bali night dinner at Bubba Gump..... love how this restaurant is decorated, and all that shrimps......i like!!

Experience about wood carving, batik making, as well as a visit to this shop that sells whole table made from a piece of wood.....all that lovely wood grains, and each table top is unique.....

A trip to the cultural park.......

And Kay's most favourite person....our guide for a day.....Bali people are just so warm and friendly....Kay loves to hold hands with him.....

I enjoyed myself in Bali even though how tired I was because I was having a terrible flu and sore throat on the day we departed from Singapore (what a spoiler), having to handle a total full of energy lil guy, and the very hot weather but what's important is family is with me, Kay is with me....that's enough to make me go through it......like i always say, he's growing way to fast (in another 4 months time he will be the BIG 5).....I want to go through different things with him, be it cultural experiences of different countries, people interaction which he lacks big time because we don't let him mix enough, to build his lil heart up cause he is afraid of almost everything (9 out of 10 things we asked him to try out, his answer would be NO!!). He is capable of so much more then he knows he can do, and that it's all going turn out fine. Love this lil guy so so very much, and till this day I've never stop being thankful that he's came into our lives, constantly a reminder for me of how blessed this feeling of being able to hear him call me mummy everyday, and that i can be a better person then i am now (keep thinking that maybe i'm doing my job well enough, and what more can i do for him) I really don't wish to let go....but slowly i know he is gaining his indepedence in things he wants to do by himself, it hurts to know he doesn't need you for small things now like going to the toilet, feeding himself.....so use to be doing things for him that automatically i forget and would just do it first.....something i need to work on for 2012.

Love the feeling of US.....

What will February be like for us!! That's for us to make our very own memories........

Gosh it's already 2nd week of January....

Happy 2012 Everyone!!


Can't believe the 1st week of the year just whizzes past me so quickly. New work week to get through with having to tell myself that I have to be more organised, set some rules for myself on how I want to work in this new year with areas I want to see myself improve, and also for Kay it's a new class environment with a new teacher for K1 although he still gets to see some of his friends from nursery classes. For the 1st week at school, I try my best to drop him off and pick him up from school to see how he is coping, and like he is with his previous 1st days at school, he's doing just fine. It's also the start of him not taking anymore afternoon naps (for someone who naps for 2 to 3 hours every afternoon, this is a huge change he has to adapt to, which i'm glad is sooner then later), and he definitely knocks straight out in less then 5 minutes when I put him to bed at 9pm, and i do miss having our bedtime chats, not as long as I wish they could be.


This is him waiting for school to open at his 1st day at school.......boy do they really grow up fast!! My little K1.

I've also the time during the New Year long weekend to pack, organise and sort....a very long overdue task which I've seen so many of the fellow scrappers starting to pack their supplies....I'm very much a hoarder of stickers especially of the brands i love such as 7Gypsies, October Afternoon (this brand got to be my favourite cause i can have 3 or 4 sheets of the same word or label stickers, and keep using them in every of my layouts), Crate Paper's phase and border stickers are my latest addition to my list of favourite stickers. I tried to be focus and not get too carried away while sorting cause that will only slow me down ( i get distracted away so easliy with scrap supplies cause I'll be there admiring my stash). I admire some of my fellow scrappers that go through this packing and sorting process with so much determination, and getting all organised at the end of the day unlike me....here's some of packing scenes.....

& a so much neater "desk space" aka half of my dining table that it.......I'm trying to be more discipline with the space i have, meaning whatever i take out to scrap, I must return it back to the orginal place so that my desk will be kept as neat as possible after each scrap session. This is one of the must i set for myself for 2012......TO BE NEAT

I had also time over the new year's long weekend to work more on Kay's Christmas Mini...here are some of the pages that is already completed...only balance with pages of the end of Dec photos to put within and I'm all done...

& my 1st layout after such a long dry spell.....happy to just be working with OA's latest range - Farmhouse.....love it!! Simple LO and my favourite photo of Kay and his signature smile.....this has been his way of smiling for the whole of 2011, and I'm wondering for 2012, will we see a change from his this super "fake" smile....

Title: Smile

I'm definitely not scrapping up to speed with his photos cause I've been moving on slowly in terms of scrapbooking. I scrap whenever I feel the mojo coming and not so much like before that whenever i don't keep up i tend to stress out. To me now, it's the journey of documenting his growth, our days, our special moments rather then to ensure that each month I scrap to keep up for him. My iphone is currrently my most used tool to just snap the photos of that Kay moment, and when i've the time i would look back, decide which photos will be printed to be scrapped about. I also see myself scrapping mini's more then i use to about specific times for Kay. I use to and will still continue yearly minis like during Valentine's day (yes i'm scratching my head to just come up with that suitable title for this year's V-day mini for Kay), his birthday mini, and a Christmas mini, I've never missed it, and intend to have at least these 3 minis for him each year.

We'll be away to Bali in another 2 weeks time, so i believe this will become another mini for Kay since this will be his 2nd travel so far....

Till then, have a great week ahead, and thanks for still popping over despite my lack of posting. Will try to come in at least once a week with great memory moments, and something scrappy.

Today

We had the best time ever despite the heavy downpour in the late afternoon while we are Universal Studios. It's WE today. It's usually us, just me and Kay as we spent our time together, but today it's a WE!! Actually it's been WE since the long weekend, and we are happy just soaking in the festive season with our dear family, and having Jayce with us these past few days. We took a day off from work today to just bring Kay out, and we've decided that we will re-visit Universal Studios again since Transformer has its latest ride there. Thinking that Kay will be thrilled about the ride (since he is into this at this point of time), but knowing that he does not like loud sounds, we are taking the chances that his like for Transformer will overcome this fear. But boy were we wrong....so let's just said that me and Jayce were the ones who enjoyed this ride!!

We just enjoyed the rest of the day, wondering the streets of Universal, and him just doing whatever he wanted....running here and there with his purple foiled balloon, and that's what makes him happy, so be it!! We as the parents just watched on as I try to get some decent photos but just say it's difficult having to keep up with a 4 1/2 and that this 4 1/2 just doesn't like having a camera in his face....and mommy having to threaten or bride just to get a photo......here's some iphone photos first.....

With this year is coming to an end, I've a few things I like to get done....and the 1st would be to get a decent haircut.....it's grown "too long" that it's become unmanageable and I'm getting a little fed up, so here's the latest new do.....so much lighter, so much shorter to my liking......i think I'm going to keep this do for quite some time...

Looking forward to completing more stuff from my to-do list, and wondering if I would be able to squeeze in one last layout before this great year ends!!

I'm still in a festive mood....and i guess it will stay a little longer till this year ends.....one more long weekend to go.....whoooopeee, that means more time for WE!!

So Far in December......

We've decorated, shopped, shopped and shopped somemore in our 1st 2 weeks of this fantastic month......we packed, throw, give away stuff which has unknowingly been kept with us ever since staying at our nest since 2005, and also since we had Kay 4 years ago, things being kept just doubled up. There's still loads more to pack and organize at home and I see us doing this till 24th Dec for sure cause I'm just moving so so slow when it comes to packing the house.....

Love love this month cause December had always been my most favourite month of th year....and this year we've got ourselves a brand new tree after spending a good 10 years with my tree from Australia. Lugged back a Christmas Tree when I completed my studies, and it's spent every good year at my parent's home, to my new nest when I got married, and Kay had 3 good years with my Aussie tree and we decided we needed a brand new one since it's already looking thinner each year. Words aside, here's some photos of the tree setting scene....big thanks to my dear hubby who religiously every year unpacks the tree, the ornament boxes, sets it up (this year was harder cause it's a new tree with tricker bits to this super tall tree), puts up the lights, and awaits for me to do the decoration. Kay's been really helpful as always.....


December's also school holidays for him....loads of home time cause this year I didn't get the time to plan any holiday programmes for him....so each weekend I'm bringing him to places to eat, walk and shop for Christmas pressies for the family. We've even toured around with the open top buses and Duck Tours around Singapore, Night Safari (His very 2nd time) during this last 2 weeks of December. I really wish for more time with him cause he's growing up so quickly each month, and I don't wish to miss out anything about him. He tends to ask more of everything now, and i seem to have to search for answers myself to.

We've also started on the Christmas shopping list for the family and friends, and colleagues....and i can't believe it that it seems even harder now to shop cause i can never finish that list of things to buy. It's not so simple when it comes to picking up gifts for everyone in my life, and with Kay around, we both are just few notches slower in completing cause he's just running everywhere at the stores. I've only completed scrapping and wrapping all my colleagues gift, and then moving on to wrapping our family's gift.....and you know what both me and Jayce has yet to even get down to buying Kay's Christmas gift this year. What do you get for a boy who has almost everything?? The best for me is to spend as much time as possible as this would be the perfect gift for him. I've gotten tickets for us to re-visit Universal Studios again right after Christmas. He enjoyed the last time he was there in May for his birthday, so I figured out even if it's not his 1st time, just as long as we are with him, he's going to love it.

I've also started on Kay's Christmas Mini.....it's more of what he's been doing in the whole of December on top of the new Christmas tree we've gotten.....so it will record our outings, our sights, just us spending precious time with him this December. Here's some peeks at it.....

*Using some of my inexpensive Ikea Christmas Tree Decorations which makes absolutely great mask for the background of my mini which this round, my mini is made of cardboard from boxes which I've plenty of at work.....

& here's the cover page......a good mix of embellishment from October Afternoon, Crate Paper, Simple Stories Christmas series.....

Till the next post, I'm going to enjoy our days leading to Christmas and yet determined to have my home as neat as possible before Christmas Eve........my scrap desk included as well.....

As we say goodbye to a great school year.....

School's ended for Kay last Friday.....can't believe that his nursery days passes by so quickly. I've been telling him since 2 days back that school's ending, that he will be going to a brand new class environment next year, new teachers but at least most of his friends will still be with him....so nothing for him to worry about. It's more mummy getting the jitters of whether if he will take to his new teachers. So far I've seen at the other classes, the teachers change so frequently that the lil ones get affected. I'm thankful that Kay had his teacher ever since he joined and she's fantastic, and he enjoys her classes, and going to school each morning is something he looks forward to.

Here are some photo's of him on his last day at school as he visits his new class environment, and a new teacher as well as he enter's into Kindy next year...

To say a Big Thank You to his favourite teacher - Mrs Branson, I scrapped her a washi tape note book which i bought a stack of Kraft covered notebooks from MUJI, and got to say how easy it is to just create the background with all sorts of washi tapes, and Kay added his personal touch for his teacher by drawing in the inner cover.....rainbows and little seedlings. I love how Pooi uses washi tapes for her notebook projects, and she always never fail to inspire me.

Here's a sneak at the cover......

& Kay's drawing...

I've got to start to plan what to do with Kay over the school holidays.......it's already one week into his holidays, and so far I've yet to think of places & activities for him to do....any ideas??

Have a beautiful Thursday!!

To be grateful for......

so many things in my life. Life gets to me sometimes, and as much as I would love to live it much more simpler cause it doesn't have to be complicating, I've people telling me that you cannot live a simple life. I'm the sort of person who will just take it in, think about it over and over again, and yet not say a single word. It got me thinking for a long time, what simple is to everyone, and what it means to me and my family. We will strive to work to make money so that we can all have better lives. I'm thankful and grateful for my entire life, to my love ones especially, and my dear friends.


To have that amount of love I have for my dear lil one.....to be able to have him laugh, smile, cry, whine all in my face....to experience what's it like being a parent, walking down this journey not knowing if what I want best for him is really the best.


*Getting 2 days in a week with him, doing anything, and going places together.....




*that gorgeous smile that never fails to melt my heart everything......

*his angry and moody days that he experiences once something is not going his way......i've realised how when he came into my life, I've became a better person. One who can be so patient during such mood swings, taking the time to understand why he is feeling this way rather then to have to shout my head off right away at him for behaving like such a brat

*his love, his hugs and kisses, his daily conversations, being his playmate, his bedtime buddy, and I can't imagine what my life would be like not having him.

*this hobby of mine that it helps me to document, and remember all my very special memories of Kay since his birth, and for me to always look back together with him, and for him to have a piece of me in the future. Whether be it layouts or mini albums, or frames, and whether I'm doing it for my family or friends, it brings me great joy and i see myself doing this for a long long time. Here's what I've been having the pleasure to work on lately.....

*an altered 7Gypise's solo tray for myself......and the use of my favourite papers from October Afternoon "Side Walk"....

& starting to work early for my Christmas pressie's for my colleagues at work......altered mongrams.....love these crisps white alpha's from Cotton On Kids.....

So what are you grateful for in your life??

Have a beautiful day!!

What an October it is!!

October came and went as quickly as I expected it to be, and I keep reminding myself to document as much as I can of my lil guy's growing up journey.....So here is October for him, and his very 1st Halloween....this year he's dressed up as a wizard, and a good one i must add. In Singapore we never celebrate much of this western tradition and the most we would see would be at my parent's estate where you have some foreigners staying there, that you are greeted with pretty much the usual Halloween decors at the front of their home, and this round we manage to see groups of lil ones all dressed up, and making their way with lil pumpkin treat baskets or bags, and attending such party celebration , and not forgetting their mummies and daddies too....

Kayl comes to love this festival cause he loves pumpkins....so this year we decided to add some of the Halloween stuff into our home.....our gate's stuck with orange and white cobwebs, and tons of creepy spiders that he added on, Halloween banners at the front area of our home, a family of daddy, mommy and Kaylen Jack O' lanterns (unfortunately I was too afraid to crave any of them cause it might look even more gruesome if i get my hands on them, but instead he bought some weeks back a pack of Martha Stewart pumpkin transfers while I was scrapbook shopping.....). Just too bad there wasn't anyone to trick a treat with, but he's already too excited about the spooky gate we have that got the attention of a few of my neighbours.

So here's some pictures I've taken of him and his very 1st Halloween.....

And back to something less creepy, my LO which finally I've completed but haven't got time earlier to post about, using latest October Afternoon's Side Walk. Love this range so much that I'm guilty of hoarding the papers and the chipboards that I'm planning to use them for this year's scrap pressie for my office colleagues....slowly but surely I'm starting my Christmas gift project soon.

Title: A Day in the Sunshine

It's the 1st day of November today.....is this going to be yet another fast month??

Have a great start of November you all!!