Wednesday 19 June 2013

Scrap Therapy

We are still in the midst of family drama here. Lots of deep breaths and more than a few tears. I found some time to scrap and decided to remind myself of something I love.



I decided to use some papers I really loved too as a way to cheer me up. I love that Maggie Holmes clouds and text paper. I couldn't choose so I used both sides. Then I added the Amy Tangerine kraft and clouds paper as well. Now that I look at the finished layout I see the kraft mirrors the sand and the blues in the the sky paper and the sky in my photo are a good match. I didn't notice that until looking at the layout onscreen.

I included a couple of embellishment clusters. I used mainly Amy Tangerine and Crate Paper and Dear Lizzy embellishments.






There is some journalling behind the photo. It just talks about the stuff we are going through and how hard it is . It doesn't need to be the focus of the layout but I feel so much happier to get the feelings out of my head.

I am in the home stretch of my knitting so I may just get another layout or even some Project Life up before the end of the week. We have a field trip to look forward to tomorrow so long as the haze is not too bad. We have been housebound as the air quality is at a level that young children should not be out in it. If it doesn't improve then the field trip will be cancelled. Roll on our New Zealand holiday and lots of cold fresh air!

Friday 14 June 2013

Quick Update

So sorry for the long period of silence on the blog. It may continue for a little longer I fear.

My Grandad died last week and I made a whirlwind trip (24 hours of flying for 48 hours in Christchurch) home to attend his funeral. It was good to be back and catch up with friends and family but I was shocked to see how much my Nana has deteriorated in the last 18 months. I fear there could be another trip home required before too much longer.

Hubby held the fort spectacularly while I was away in spite of being quite unwell for the last day. Just as everything started to return to normal we received a message from Japan letting us know that a close family friend is not likely to last the week. So hubby is off to Kobe for the weekend this afternoon to catch up with our friend and his wife. It is very sad as he is only 64 and has battled so hard.

Anyhoo the short version is that I am sole parenting for the next few days and Miss Three has no school today which means I have no crafting time until Monday at the absolute earliest. I am feeling a bit jet lagged from the whistle stop trip and the haze has returned to Singapore bringing with it the encouragement for those with young children to remain indoors. Something has to give and I am afraid it is crafting and blogging that have not made the cut. I hope that I will have some new posts up next week.

Thanks for all the kind comments I have received on my most recent posts. I love my readers and their generosity of spirit.

On the bright side, my Simon Says Stamp June/July Kelly Purkey kit has arrived. I am intending to do a blitz on Project Life once my photo printer returns from Japan.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to getting some creative time next week.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Shimelle Starting Point: BKK Baby

I was looking for a creative spark and once again Shimelle came to the rescue with her latest starting point. I had an unopened kit from Studio Calico gathering dust so I pulled it out, followed Shimelle's steps and came up with this.


I pulled out the papers I really liked and didn't hesitate to cut them up and put them to use. The background paper is from Dear Lizzy as is the yellow heart strip and the stripey paper. The grey wave paper is a Studio Calico piece. In lieu of the ink splatters suggested by Shimelle I went for gold sequins instead. The doily die cut is from Crate Paper's new The Pier line and the other loved card is from Dear Lizzy.

The photo is an Origrami print from our trip to Bangkok earlier in the year. I love that the colours in the stripey paper echo the colours on Scarlett's leggings in the photo. It really is the small things that make me happy.

I am linking this up to Shimelle's page here.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Listmania 20: A Day In The Life

I must confess that I started with a hiss and a roar but there are some big gaps later in the day when wrangling an uncooperative three year old meant photo taking was out of the question. I think this will give a bit of an indication of my average sort of day.


It has just gone six and the light is on. Miss Three has been awake for about half an hour but is not allowed out of bed until six. Her bed is currently at the foot of ours which is a big improvement on her being in ours. Social media has already been checked by both adults!

The coffee machine milk frother broke yesterday so we have resorted to microwaving the milk and adding the espresso. Hopefully we can get a replacement part as the machine is not that old. Every morning starts with espresso.


We check the weather outside and take the time to check out the sunrise most mornings. The sun rises around seven every morning so it is about now that hubby hits the shower and I wrestle MT into her school uniform.

I also potter around with some minor household tasks. This morning it involved removing the past their best orchids and playing with the cat.




Turn your back for a moment and MT will grab the iPhone. These are three of the photos she took. A passing shot of Daddy, her new Belle Havianas and Mummy's new trainers for Zumba.



By 7:30 MT is dressed, packed and out the door with Daddy to wait for her school bus. She is happy enough on the bus and loves the extra Daddy time. When Daddy travelled a lot this was my job but while he is in town he is in hot demand.


The first of several loads of washing goes on now. It is never ending!



Most mornings I have a nosey at the new condo that is being built on the other side of the building. Fortunately we live as far a way as possible from the noise and it only really bothers me if the house is silent. Just the background hum of the washing machine seems to be enough to keep it at bay.


Monday morning usually involves a trip to the supermarket to pick up whatever we didn't buy on the weekend. I buy most of my meat and dairy from one chain and my fruit and vege from another and most of my non perishables are delivered by a third company. What I wouldn't give for there to be one supermarket chain that stocks what I need at a reasonable price! This was the view as I walked down the road yesterday. The building in shot is nearing completion and they are starting to do the finishing touches like landscaping.

 

A trolley shot. This trip was a fruit and vege stock up that was derailed by chips being on special (almost the only flavour without a dairy component) and a need for nuts.


A quick sneaky shot of the checkout. Monday morning is always busy and most people get their groceries delivered which makes the process a good bit longer. I always take mine home as their delivery windows are  four hours long and I hate being stuck at home for that length of time.






Once I got home I was finally able to have my breakfast smoothie. We were totally out of greens so I had to wait to do my shop. I got clever and added a shot of espresso but it made it awfully bitter when combined with kale. A lesson learnt and I will not be doing that again!





The rest of my morning was spent completing a scrapbook layout while listening to the most recent edition of the Paperclipping roundtable. I found a great sketch and the layout turned out well. (the finished layout was yesterday's post if you would like to see it here. )




Next thing I knew it was 12.45 and time to meet MT off the bus. We have a fountain in our foyer that she loves to play around. There are little ceramic frogs that all the children in the building like to rearrange.


Back upstairs for a snack for MT (she has lunch at school) and a pot noodle for me. I have rather more of these for lunch than I would care to admit. At least these ones come with a big portion of green vegetables!






After getting MT quickly changed we headed out to another supermarket to get the organic milk I forgot on Sunday. I am pleased I took these shots of her waiting for the lift and inside the lift as we do this all the time and I don't think I have ever recorded her waiting for the lift before.

Sadly I had a bit of an epic failure at this point as MT was a bit of a handful on the bus and in the mall and I didn't have enough free hands for photo taking. We came home and played for a little while before I dropped her with her Daddy at work and I went to collect some scrapbooking supplies from my contact at the MRT station.


 It was rush hour but the station was remarkably calm. I was very please to see my friend and a big bag of new MME and Crate Paper goodness. I decided the trains were too crowded to catch home so I took a short walk to the bus stop.




Even the roads were quieter than usual. It is local school holidays at present and it has a major impact on the level of road traffic at peak times. This church was on my walk to the bus stop.




I got home just in time to admire the sunset and tuck my daughter into bed with a story. 

Hubby and MT had managed to buy some bento dinners as I had run out of time to make dinner with all our outings. Don't you love the box they come in?





By the time I ate my Hamburg and caught up on Facebook and a couple of games I am addicted to (Criminal Case I am talking to you) it was nine o'clock and we try to be in bed early on Monday and Wednesday nights. 

Not an earth shattering day but a fairly typical one.

I am linking up with Home Life Simplified's Listmania this week. I would love to see a day in your life. Let me know if you join in.



Monday 3 June 2013

Dim Sum Diva : Stuck Sketch June 1

I opened my Feedly app (loving that by the way) and this sketch was just what I needed. I had kept aside some smaller pictures that I had not found a place for in Project Life but still wanted to use. I had two collections of four that I could have used and I suspect I may use the sketch again for the second set of photos.


 

 Here is my take.


 This series of photos was from a lunch out one weekend . I had about ten shots of Miss Three with her tongue poking out but decided to restrict it to just one. Sushi and dim sum are her favourite lunches out so we usually have one on Saturday and the other on Sunday.

The background paper is from Studio Calico and the coral stripes is Amy Tangerine. The  Laugh quote is from the most recent Dear Lizzy collection and, with the exception of the golf star washi and the little envelope in the bottom cluster from Basic Grey, all the stickers are from the most recent Amy Tangerine collection, Yes Please.



I went to enter this layout in the competition at Stuck but it doesn't appear the linky is up yet. I would love to see other takes on this sketch so please let me know if you give it a try. I found it a nice simple way to get a memory scrapped today.