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.
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• 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
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• 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) 
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  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.

Listmania 10 A-Z of Now

It is Monday and it is Listmania time again. This week's challenge is an A - Z of now which I so enjoyed thinking and writing about. It is such a perfect way to see where life is for us right now.

A is for adventure, our word of 2013. It has felt like we have chosen the safe path a bit too often lately and this reminds us to take some risks.

B is for burr grinder - it seemed expensive at the time but this little gem has successfully kept me caffeinated for five years now without missing a beat

C is for Changi Airport. We are off on a little trip later in the week and this airport is truly one of our happy places. So many things to see and do there and the Gold Lounge is always good for fuelling Miss Three if it all gets too much.

D is for diet - not the losing weight kind but the adapting to life without dairy kind. I have found some great resources but it is still really hard to eat anything other than Asian food when we go out and I really miss baked goods that I haven't made myself.

E is for exercise. I need to start getting more of this. The monsoon made me lazy and it was a long one this year. April is going to be my month to walk every day. Just 30 minutes. I know my brain and my body will thank me.

F is for family - hokey maybe but our little family of three is generally a happy healthy little unit

G is for gratitude. We are starting a gratitude handbook in April. My kit has just arrived and we will sit down together and think of something we are each grateful for and record it with a photo or a drawing. It is a habit I want Miss Three to get into and if we use it as a positive family time then so much the better.

H is for the Happiness Project which is in the mail to me now. I have enjoyed following Gretchen Rubin on Facebook for a while and I now want to take a more focused approach to increasing my happiness quota.

I is for independent. Miss Three is increasingly independent and I want to encourage this all the time and not just when it suits me. I need to give her the time to do things herself even if it is slower. She will thank me in the long run.

J is for jewellery. I hardly ever wear any and I want to change that. Scarlett has more broken jewellery than I have jewellery full stop.

the current selection of broken jewellery

K is for Kuala Lumpur. We are off here for a few days and it is a city I haven't been to for years. We have good friends staying there so it will be a good chance to see them before they move to Bangkok.

L is for life coach. I am increasingly at the point where I think I need one - just to help me decide where to from here. I really am at a cross roads and I think someone outside my life might be better placed to help guide me through it.

M is for messy crafts. I need to let this happen more often. She does a lot of messy things at school but it is good to do them with me as well.

N is for nurturing both my self and my family relationships. Life has been busy lately but April is looking much less stressed and rushed for all of us. I want to take the time to spend meaningful moments with hubby and Miss Three, creating memories that we will look back on with fondness.

O is for organised. My craft supplies are semi organised thanks to my sister but there is definitely room for improvement. I want to know exactly what I have and where it is so I get the most use possible out of those supplies.

P is for Poppy, our gorgeous, slightly neglected, Maine Coon. She is becoming a much more affectionate cat in her middle age and our late night nuzzles are a blessing.

Q is for quiet. I often have noise from the tv on just to avoid the silences. I want to use those silent mornings to think more and give myself the relaxation that will enable me to make the most of my afternoons with Miss Three

R is for radio. We don't have the joys of pandora or similar in Singapore but I need to get more online radio and podcasts into my day. I particularly enjoy the National radio broadcasts from back home as it keeps me in the loop with politics and so on. The time difference does make it a little tricky though.

S is for schools and making a decision about where to send Miss Three next year. We have gone round and round on this topic but the time has come to book some school visits and make a decision.

T is for tea. While coffee will always be my poison of choice, I am beginning to appreciate the joys of tea. I have discovered some lovely herb and spice blends and it is nice to have something I can drink at any time of the day.

U is for undecided. I just do not know where to for me next both location wise and job wise. See L is for life coach.

V is for variety. Life has been a bit formulaic of late so I am looking to shake things up.

W is for winter envy. I know most Northern Hemisphere folk are well and truly over their long and hard winter but I really miss cold weather.

X is for eXhaustion - a perennial problem with the parents of toddlers and pre schoolers. We are no exception. I would give a great deal for a few sleep ins.

Y is for yarn. My knitting project is well over half done and I am starting to look at beautiful yarns for my next one.

Z is for the zoo. Miss Three loves it and it has been way too long since we last visited. I am wondering if she might be old enough to try the Night Safari this year.

Head over to Home Life Simplified and see the other lists. It is such a fascinating insight into the lives of the contributors.

Listmania 8: Reverse Bucket List

I have to admit I was not entirely sure how to go about this post. I have not had the most exciting life ever. I am quite widely travelled I guess and have lived in a few interesting places but I still feel there is just so much more I would like to achieve.

 

Overseas Experiences

• My parents, who had never been further than Australia, moved our family to Singapore when I was 8. What was supposed to be a 2 year  experience turned into a nearly 20 year love affair with Singapore for my parents and an enduring second home for all members of my family.
• Travelling all around South East Asia on dodgy buses, no name airlines and cockroachy trains in the 80s. One trip we went on consisted of 24 hours on a bus to reach a city in Southern Thailand that turned out to be the red light capital of the region. Eek! Did I mention we had our 80 something year old Nana on this trip too?
• Travelling to the UK and France as a 15 year old on my own. I had a great 5 week trip visiting York, Bath, London, Derbyshire and Paris. I spent some of the time staying with friends but much of it I was on my own staying in B and Bs and hostels. 
• Finding a great travel companion in a work colleague when I lived in Singapore as a teacher at an international school. We went all over the place and it was great to go with someone who was happy to do their own thing and not bothered if you had a pool day or went off to a market without them while they had a massage. I have especially fond memories of a trip to Vietnam with her.
• Our babymoon to the US. It was just supposed to be a holiday but we found out we were expecting shortly after we booked the trip (to take our minds off nearly 4 years of trying for baby). I was 18 - 20 weeks pregnant and we drove from LA up to San Fran through Yosemite National Park and Death Valley down to Vegas and back across to LA. Amazing trip that I would do again in a heartbeat although I am not so sure that Miss Three would cope with all the driving. Oh and we did a day trip to the Grand Canyon (self driven) too. We saw a lot of the country and got to see the Killer live in Vegas. It was magic.
• Family holidays to Phuket around Christmas with my family on the years we didn't go back to NZ. We have introduced the same thing with my family now and I love seeing Miss Three enjoying the same food, clear water and amazing hospitality that was part of my childhood.
• Living in Singapore for the third time with my family (ie hubby, daughter and me) and experiencing a very different Singapore from that I had experienced in the past. Singapore as a SAHM is a very different kettle of fish from Singapore as a single woman or a child/teen. It was always the dream for my imaginary children to get to have a similar childhood to myself and circumstances have conspired to make it a reality. I am very blessed.
• Visiting Japan - a country I had no interest in (in spite of having a Japanese husband) and falling in love with it.

Education

•  Getting to attend an international school for a big chunk of my education. The best part is the acceptance of different cultures it gave my siblings and I from a young age. I am still in touch with lots of friends from this period of my life and see someone from my old school at least once a year either on our travels or theirs.
• Going to boarding school. I loathed every second of it but I have some amazing friends to this day as a result of the 13 months I lasted there.
• Being able to discover what I really enjoyed at Uni. Fees were low enough that when I discovered I really did not like law I was able to change and complete a history degree without it being a hugely expensive mistake.
• Teacher training in spite of having said (as the daughter of two teachers ) that I would never do it. It is a skill that is so useful and transferable and now that I am thinking about working again is something that offers enough flexibility to be able to work and spend time with my family.
• Insurance qualifications. It sounds like the driest topic ever but I loved getting my quals. I miss insurance way more than teaching but it does not work well with a family.

Real Life

• Going way out of my comfort zone for one day and meeting my husband.
• Throwing caution to the wind and getting engaged after having spent less than five weeks in the same place as my husband
•  Changing careers so we could live together - it seemed like such a huge step but I found a career I loved just as much and we were in the same place!
• Overcoming significant family traumas including the deaths of three of our parents, being in Japan during the big quake 2 years ago and losing friends in the Christchurch quakes and becoming even stronger as a couple as a result.
• Thriving after the shock diagnosis of a life threatening chronic health condition when we thought hubby was just a bit run down. It has certainly made us take more chances and live our lives more fully.
• Giving up on the idea of having children after 4 years of unexplained infertility only to conceive the week before we went back to the specialist to see what else could be done. Miss Three was so worth the wait.

This has been such a great exercise in gratitude. I have had so many extraordinary opportunities in my life and more than a little bit of luck. I would love to see you take part in this week's link up at Home Life Simplified . 

Have a super week!