This Is Why I Do It

I am much happier with today's layout. I have been saving the beautiful KesiArt paper for something special and I think I found it.

 

I thought I might use the paper for a photo of Miss Three and her Daddy reading but when I was thumbing through my recent Origrami print stack I found this photo and knew it was the one. Scarlett often pulls out the Project Life album and looks at all the pictures. I encourage her to tell me all about it as it is a good boost for her oral language ( I cannot shake the teacher thing) and she loves remembering all the things we have done together. 

As well as the KesiArt paper I have added some die cuts from the latest Dear Lizzy and Maggie Holmes collections and a piece of Paper Bakery flair . The little list of words to live by is from Simple Stories and the journalling card is from one of the Studio Calico kits.

I am waiting patiently for my Kelly Purkey kit to arrive from Simon Says Stamp. I have cancelled my SC subs and signed for a three month trial of the Citrus Twist starting in June. I just saw the sneaks and I am very excited to see them in my hands!

We have had our home leave approved so will be spending a couple of weeks in wintery New Zealand in July. I cannot wait! I could really do with some winter scrappy bits and pieces but it is the wrong end of the year! I have totally fallen in love with the new Simple Story Summer range so I may have to save that for our beachy holiday later in the year.

I was so excited to see all the lovely comments from ladies over at Two Peas as well as some old friends. Welcome to Adventures in Singapore. I hope you find something that takes your interest here.

In a Crafting Funk

Sometimes I just do not have any creative spark. I sit and push pieces of paper around and nothing works. I took a bit of a break from crafting this past week. The ongoing Studio Calico saga has worn me down and made me a little blue. The latest developments have made me very glad I cancelled my membership.

Anyhoo I sat my sad self down and forced myself to craft. It is not the best layout ever but it is done. I worked on something new today and I am happier with that and can feel a little spark of creativity coming back! The subject was thrilled to see all the sequins so I guess that is a win!

These papers are all odds and ends left over from a kit. The patterned paper at the bottom is a Basic Grey exclusive for SC. I am not sure about the others as all the branding strips are gone. 

Miss Three was snaffled up by a photographer at a fair we went to and he took quite a few photos of her. I took some of her being photographed and I especially liked her expression in this one. We quite often get stopped by strangers here asking to take a photo of Miss Three. I think she thinks this happens to everyone!

I am having a quiet afternoon with MT. We were hoping to go swimming this afternoon but it is raining just enough to be a pain. I think my knitting project will be getting a lot of attention instead. Time is running out to get it done!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Project Life Week 20

I am sad to say that this is the only crafty activity I have managed in the past week and I only really got it done this morning. I just haven't been feeling it. This spread is pretty minimalist even by my own standards but I am happy with how it turned out and really glad to have these events recorded.

I must apologise for the reflections on the pages this week. It has been threatening to rain all morning and I finally just had to take the photos or not post. They are not great but you will get the general idea at any rate.

This is the reverse of last weeks G insert. It was all subtly patterned white cards as it was mainly the back of Studio Calico kit cards. I used a couple of these plain backdrops but also added in Basic Grey card from the Clippings collection, an Elle's Studio Today's Story card and a red Simple Stories mini card from one of their Snap pads. I also included some SC stickers, an Amy Tangerine puffy sticker and a flair from Paper Bakery.

We have been enduring some very hot weather here in Singapore. A lot of our time has been spent in or by the pool with Miss Three. I have also included some of the random things we see in Singapore like a million dollar car dropping off an elderly gent outside a temple. Turns out the car was a bit low and he really struggled to get out! I also added a couple of photos of our regular post ballet dim sum and cut fruit snack. These are the things we do all the time but I have never bothered to record. Just the sort of thing I want to have in PL.

The second half of the spread is pretty minimalist. The central four spots are a combination of patterned paper (the chevron) and SC cards. The bottom row is a Pebbles floral card and a Simple Stories Snap insert. The top row is a pair of Snap 4 x 6 cards.

The middle row is pictures from an outing we took to watch dragon boating at Marina Bay. The boats were further from shore than we expected and it started to rain when we arrived but it was a fun walk around the bay to get there. The bottom photos are from a couple of public art installations we saw while walking around the bay. I especially liked the images of hands holding water which was displayed in the fountain outside the Arts and Science Museum. They were black and white and very effective. The top row is a picture of hubby on our weekly coffee date and MT showing off her swimming skills. She is really making massive progress with her swimming now.

I am hoping to get a bit more scrapbooking done this week, and will share that here with you soon. All the Studio Calico drama has left a very bad taste in my mouth but I am happy to move onwards and upwards!

Have a great Tuesday!

Listmania: Lottery winner

This week is all about what we would do if we won the lottery. After the usual charities and buy a new house what fun things would you buy or do with a great big lottery win?

When I first started all I could think about was travel. Anywhere and everywhere. We would hire a tutor so Miss Three would still be educated but the world would be her classroom. Top of the list would be a couple of years around Europe, spending a month or so in most of the major cities so we could immerse ourselves in the local culture. We would follow that with a long road trip round the States before heading back to Asia to reacquaint ourselves with our favourite food and culture spots.

We would then build a dream style holiday home in the South Island of New Zealand probably in Tekapo or perhaps a little further south.

The view from our last stay in Tekapo

I wouldn't want to never work again so I think we would probably buy a business that hubby and I could work in together. Something with short hours and high enjoyment - maybe craft or hobby related.

I would love to have full time help around the home and especially someone to cook for us - healthy organic food would be nice.

I would buy a pair of mini schnauzers to keep me active and give us some friendly faces to spend time with of an evening.

Oh and the dream home that we would build is this one - with a separate little flat for my dad so he can have our support as he gets older but still have plenty of his own space to enjoy.

I must go and see if we did win Lotto on Saturday!

I am heading off to Home Life Simplified to see how the other contributors are spending their millions.

Wordless (ish) Wednesday

On My Walk (urban adventures)

Post walk coffee people watching

A very ungreen green smoothie

Project Life Week 19

All my crafty time this week has been taken up working on my knitting project as the the deadline for completion is coming ever closer. I did manage to squeeze in some Project Life time last night and another week is complete.

  

The top and bottom pairs of pockets are the reverse of the Simple Stories cards from last week. The muted colours worked well with this week's pictures too. The middle row is a pair of April cards from Studio Calico. I kept everything super simple as the Simple Stories pages are pretty embellished already. The aqua letter are BG for Studio Calico and there is a MME label and a button and that is all she wrote!

One of the major events this week was Miss Three joining the Tiara Society. This is a princess themed play space near our home with an enormous collection of princess costumes, princess themed toys, books and activities. She was in heaven. We have taken out a membership so I can see we will be visiting there at least once a month. We also received our first collection of Origrami prints. These were super and we cannot wait to collect enough images to order some more. I had a very furry scrappy assistant and an enormous beetroot and apple juice - definitely my new favourite poison.

 

The second half of the spread is dedicated to Mother's Day which fell on the Sunday of this week. I used mainly SC cards and an additional Becky Higgins PL card from the Clemetine collection. All the photos shown are from that day with the exception of the giant bowl of ramen. I kept this half of the spread really simple too with just a couple of additional Amy Tangerine stickers.

My favourite part of Mother's Day was the little interview that my husband did with Miss Three about me. They gave it to me in a frame and I keep it by my bed now. It just makes me smile.

 

I especially love the little face she drew on the heart.

We did the usual Sunday run of ballet and yoga but we then made an impromptu trip to Sentosa for a drink by the ocean. We had a lovely time there on a scorching hot afternoon. There is a marina full of some very expensive boats and some lovely areas to walk and admire the new restaurants and bars that have sprung up there. It was a very relaxing end to the day.

I had a couple of unrelated photos and one large pocket at the bottom left of the page so I just popped them on 3 x 4 cards together in the 4 x 6 slot. I must remember to do this more often as I like the effect.

Miss Three looks like a cross between a hard core rapper and someone with the mumps in this shot!

I intend to complete week 20 tonight and be (gasp) completely up to date! I would like to try and stay up to date until we head back to New Zealand for a couple of weeks in July - then the wheels will fall off again I am sure!

How is your PL going? Do you still love it or are you not as thrilled as you were at the beginning of the year?

 

Sadness, Scrapbooking and Gratitude

There has been a bit of drama on the Studio Calico website this week. Normally I try and stay out of these things but I haven't been able to do so on this occasion. It all started with an announcement that free shipping was no longer available and there would be new shipping charges.

I have to admit I was not surprised to see the end of free shipping. Shipping has gone up across the board and I understand that a company cannot absorb high shipping costs and stay in business. What has saddened me, in fact it has made my stomach ache, is the way the changes have been handled. The original email sent out to customers trying to sell the increase as a positive was pretty insensitive and certainly poorly worded. I could have lived with that. Companies get it wrong. The addition of a service fee for internationals only was a pretty telling sign of how much the company values our business but I might have got past that as well. What has shocked me is the way the company has censored the message boards to the point where almost all discussion relating to these issues has been locked or removed. Members (and long term ones at that) asking valid questions have been banned from the boards! Just hideous things and certainly not an exercise in customer service.

It breaks my heart to be honest. Discovering SC and starting to scrapbook saved my sanity as a SAHM in a foreign country with a husband who travels a lot. The boards were a wealth of information to someone starting out in the hobby and the people were so friendly and welcoming. I have made some real friends in my time there. I love the kits. I agree that they are getting lighter in product and that being up at midnight or one in the morning to get an add on when you have a young family and are often sole parenting makes life harder than it might be, but SC was my happy place. I feel like I am breaking up with someone... it is not how I wanted things to end.

I would love to hear of any other kit clubs people have enjoyed using. I have ordered Kelly Purkey's latest kit through Simon Says Stamp and am excited to receive that. I have been thinking about Gossamer Blue, Cocoa Daisy and Citrus Twist. There look to be some good kits coming out of Australia now too but mainly they are Aussie only. 

I want to keep things positive so am also going to list a few things I am grateful for this week as part of Listmania.

• I am so grateful for my little family of three. After some rough weeks with tantrums and drama Miss Three is returning to her sunshiney self and we are all so much happier. It is due, in no small part, to me making more of an effort to take her swimming during the week. It absolutely tires her out and we all get a good night's sleep
  
• Our pool. We live in a building with 54 apartments in total. Almost none of the residents use the pool. We were down there yesterday afternoon. It was stinking hot (36 degrees!) and we had the pool to ourselves. Miss Three is getting so good in the water. She was swimming under water and doing backstroke yesterday. We really appreciate having pool access.
• 
  
  
• Living in a tropical climate. Yes sometimes it rains a lot and we do get a lot of grey overcast days being so close to the equator but on a good day Singapore 's climate is magic. Yes even when the temperature recorded by the car is 41 degrees

  

  Watching the dragon boats (not the most flattering photo but...)

• Living in Singapore specifically is a wonderful thing. There are so many things to do and activities on. We wandered around the Marina Bay area on Saturday and watched dragon boat races, a sailing regatta was underway and an international six aside football competition was on at the Padang. People who find Singapore boring just aren't doing it right
• 
  
  
• Taking my Self Care Blueprint course has been a blessing in unexpected ways. I have struggled to keep up with things but I made a commitment to exercise for 15 minutes every day. This has led to me walking 22.5 kms over three days last week and swimming most days too. I feel so much better for it. It is quite hard work walking in this climate though. My 10k walk nearly killed me (see photo above) 
•  

  

  Chowing down on banana pancakes for breakfast. She followed it up with half her father's soup (yes for breakfast !)

• My final thing I am grateful for is a child who will eat almost anything. We eat out a lot and it is wonderful that there is always something on the menu that MT will eat. I have friends who are struggling with picky eaters and while MT may have other issues, food is not one of them. It makes this lazy chef's life much happier.

Check out Home Life Simplified  to add your gratitude list and see what the other contributors have to be grateful for today.

Project Life Weeks 17 and 18

Finally I have caught up a week and it looks like (of course this will jinx it) that I might actually get another week done this week so I will be up to date. I really do enjoy this project so much. These are probably my favourite albums.

Week 17 was dominated by Scarlett's first school Sports Day. It was well organised and a lot of fun. Given that it was on a Saturday and a long way from the school the turn out was really good. The other photo I love from this spread was taken that day. It is of Scarlett and her frenemy, Alex. They have a lot of ups and downs in their friendship but when they are good friends they are adorable together.

Most of this page is the reverse of Simple Stories Urban Traveller and Vintage Bliss lines. The flair is from Paper Bakery and the Dymo look labels are from Pebbles.

 The other event of the week was my birthday. I was given a beautiful dairy free cake by my husband. The two birthday themed journalling cards are from October Afternoon's Cakewalk line. The two portrait photos are backed by Crate Paper patterned paper. The two larger black cards are from one of my Studio Calico PL kits.

Week 18 was a quiet week with a very busy weekend. During the week Scarlett started showing more realistic drawing skills and we enjoyed some mid week swims. On Sunday she had a little graduation ceremony for successfully completing Level One of her Yogabugs class.

I kept these papers very simple. I just used the reverse of the other sides with the exception of the Tim and Beck journalling card with the sun on it which was part of one of my Studio Calico kits. A handful of stars and enamel dots and that was pretty much done.

On Saturday we went to the Gardens By The Bay where over 40,000 tulips from Holland were on display. The dome was temperature controlled and very pleasant on a typical sticky Singapore day. We then decided to brave the Arts and Science Museum with Scarlett and took in two exhibits - The Mummy straight from the British Museum (no cameras allowed sadly) and the Art of the Brick exhibit with some amazing art made from Lego. We enjoyed both shows thoroughly and even Scarlett was able to happily be in the museum for over two hours. It was a great day out. We also had a very long visit to the Pandora shop to get my bracelet cleaned and Miss Three fell in love with all the little charms.

This page is really flat but the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss line has enough interest to stop it from being boring. The centre row of pockets is using some cards from the Becky Higgins Clementine collection. The top left card is a Studio Calico card - the green is not quite as bright as it appears here.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into what we have been up to of late!

Listmania 17 : Favourite Quotes

If you had asked me a couple of years ago what my favourite quotes were, I would not have had any. One of the joys of Pinterest is the thousands of new quotes added every day. I don't know how accurate some of them are but my board has 70 or 80 quotes on it and that number usually grows by one or two most times I hop on there. Here are a few of my favourites.

Source via http://myrevelment.com/

Source

Source

Source

Source

You may have noticed I am a bit of a typography junkie too. I love a good quote presented beautifully. 


I could have added dozens more quotes to this list but I think five is enough to be going on with.

Thanks once again to Deb at Home Life Simplified for another great Listmania topic.

I am always looking out for great quotes so I would love to see you link up this week and share some of your best ones.

Happy Monday!

Scrap Busting Layout

After inundating my faithful readers with layouts and posts I took a break for both of us yesterday and today's post is a short and sweet one.

I discovered a bag of pretty scraps from the Elmwood Park kit that I decided to use up. I pulled a pair of photos of Miss Three from last year when she found my lipstick.

I played with this layout and tried adding quite a lot of embellishments and nothing worked so I pared it right back to the photos and the patterned paper stack. I tried a tip I saw from Lilith Eeckels and stapled my stack together using my tiny attacher and then adhered parts of that stack with my glue runner. I loved this technique and I will be using it again. I added a couple of puffy Amy Tangerine stickers top and bottom  of the stack and called it done.

I am so happy to have these photos the star of the layout as they show MT's personality so clearly. Her emotions are so mercurial and fast changing and these two shots really capture that.

I have matched a wedding photo to a piece of patterned paper but I am at a loss as to how to embellish the images. I would love to see anyone else's wedding layouts. If you have some that you love I would really appreciate a link in the comments.

I am totally looking forward to the weekend. We don't have anything planned but sometimes that is just what you need. I am hoping we might manage to hit the pool and get some family relaxation time in. Have a great weekend, wherever you spend it. Oh and Happy Mother's Day to those celebrating on Sunday.

ETA: This is linked up with Shimelle's NSD Use 4x6 photos challenge .

Two For the Work of One Blog Hop

After enjoying the Scrapping Within Limits experience, I was so excited to be invited to take part in a blog hop taking on another one of Shimelle's challenges. Toni from Life Scrapbook Repeat has gathered a great group of crafty types together. This week's challenge is to use a page kit to scrap a page with some current photos and a page with some older photos, using the same limited kit of supplies.


Here is the kit I assembled for this challenge.

A selection of papers including Crate Paper's Little Bo Peep collection, some current Amy Tangerine and Kesi Art.

Some AC Thickers and stickers and a Crate Paper border sheet,

And a selection of embellishements including some Paper Bakery flair, Dear Lizzy stickers and MME labels and enamel dots. I also added some Basic Grey mini envelopes and some Crate Paper veneer.

I struggled a little with the older photos as I do not have any access to many photos prior to moving to Singapore just under three years ago. I printed out some wedding photos and some photos from Scarlett's birth along with a couple of current Scarlett photos. I also decided to work with larger 5 x 7 photos for this challenge.

Crate Paper PP paired with a picture of my sister-in-law holding Scarlett when she was a few hours old

More Crate Paper with a very recent shot of Scarlett dwarfed by the neighbouring condo

I tackled the current picture first as it was not so major as the pictures from Scarlett's birth. This is what I ended up creating.

I am generally really happy with this layout, although I am kicking myself for not including some sequins in my kit as I think a little bit more sparkle would set the photo off nicely. I found I got a lot of good use from the Crate Paper border stickers and the MME word labels to help give my journalling a little more punch. I love the darker wood shapes from Crate Paper. I am also super pleased to have used the last of that KesiArt paper alongside the image. This is one of my favourite papers of late and I am so glad to have used it with a photo I really love.

I love this picture of Miss Three in her school uniform waiting for the bus to pick her up. She is so dwarfed by the surrounding buildings and yet she is such a big girl to me now. The wobbly legged deer reminds me of a creature finding its feet in the world and I feel that is the point in life that Miss Three is reaching. She is balancing being out in the world with needing the love and support of her parents and home. 

Here is a close up of the journalling block.

 The second layout using older photos was a little harder to get started with. Miss Three's birth did not go smoothly and looking at the photos of that day is something I still find quite hard. There is a reason that these are the first photos I have scrapped for her  baby album. I know one day I will write her birth story but it is still a pretty awful thing to relive even three years down the track!

Here is the page I created - well I ended up making this a double paged layout as I had two photos that would work perfectly together.

I still kept the same group of supplies but simply added a second sheet of the background paper that I had in my stash. I used those same pink glittery thickers and veneer from Crate Paper, some Paper Bakery flair and labels from Dear Lizzy and American Crafts. I tried to keep the pages pretty balanced and found a border sticker to use on the right hand page to replicate the label strip from an Amy Tangerine paper on the left hand page.

Here are some closer look at the two pages.

 I love the Crate Paper patterned papers in this layout. They both come from the Little Bo Peep range which is designed especially for baby girls.

The tones of the Dear Lizzy Love label worked really well with the Crate Paper and MME. I love the arrows from the branding strip of an Amy Tangerine paper.

The colours and the sentiment from the Paper Bakery Instalove flair set tied in perfectly with this page. I cannot say enough good things about the darker wood veneer either.

I cannot get over how happy my sister looks in this photo. She was one of my support people at the birth and she must have been exhausted as it was a through the nighter. This photo was taken while I was in surgery after the birth and she got a couple of hours of one on one time with baby.

 The colours and sentiment of the AC stickers worked well here too. I love a bit of grey in a layout and it gave me an excuse to add in some grey enamel dots too.

A similar grouping of veneer, enamel dots and flair to echo the matching layout.

I am loving using the smaller kit to make my memory keeping a much smoother process. I am not a fussy or layers girl so it makes my process so fast. I am definitely going to incorporate this method in my baby album going forward. Now that I have started some pages it is much easier to carry on. Now if only I could do the same with my wedding photos!

The first contributor on the blog hop today is Léa  who you may know online as Alinor. Her beautiful blog  A Freeze Frame  is well worth checking out for scrappy and Project Life inspiration.

Here is her selection of supplies.

Léa went through her stash of both old and new items and chose motifs and colours that she loves. She did the same with papers and embellishments and there are so many lovely pieces here! She decided to go with a neutral grey paper for each background.

Here are her two layouts.

She completed this layout first. I just love the layered frame behind the photo and the complexity of her layered embellishment spots. So many pretty things in each cluster!

Léa then used some of her scraps from the first layout to complete this gorgeous piece. I love the more muted colours and the tag as a photo mat is genius! I am definitely going to have to try that myself. 

Please visit  Léa at her blog to see more detail about her process.

Toni from Life Scrapbook Repeat has taken a different approach on gathering her supplies this time. She wanted to make a dent in her October Afternoon stash. Believe it or not she was able to use pieces from Farm Girl, 9 to 5, Thrift Shop, Five and Dime, Sidewalks, Woodland Park, and Farmhouse! Amazing that the lines all look so co-ordinated.

Here is a more detailed look at Toni's supplies.

A Stunning selection of OA papers

More OA goodness including tidbits, flyers and label stickers

A range of circle punches and adhesives

Thickers and Mini Market stickers and some lovely neutral background papers

And here are the beautiful layouts she made. I still cannot get my head around just how well those quite diverse collections worked together!

I love all the layering behind the central image on this layout and the mist spatters are perfect.

Here is a close up.

I love all the patterned circles stacked here. Such a clever way to add extra dimension.

 

I just love the contrast of the primary colour papers with the neutral background. I love the detailed handwritten journalling too. There is a place for everything in this layout!

I really like the tiny attacher staples holding the circles on. They give the edges room to move and add some movement to the layout. Stunning.

I am sure after seeing this you will be off to check out more of Toni's work at Life Scrapbook Repeat.

Finally here are some more fabulous pieces of inspiration from Senorita Scrapper.

Here are her original supplies.

Lots of lovely boy themed goodness!

And a sneak peek at her two layouts.


I just love all the layering and the amazing way the patterns all work so well together. 



 

 So much vibrant colour and lots of gorgeous little details. 

You need to head straight to her blog and take a closer look.
I loved taking part in this blog hop and hope you will take the time to check out the other blogs as there are some really amazing layouts!

It really does go to show that a little restriction can be a creative help when it comes to this scrappy habit of mine.