First of the month

I am not sure if it is just me but December seems to have come around awfully quick this year. I have to admit I find this time of year a little disconcerting when we live away from our families. Either I constantly feel like I am missing something by being away or I am super excited to be heading home.

This year is a heading home year (we get home leave every two years) and we are starting to get very excited. It is going to be a little strange to leave tropical Singapore for quake damaged Christchurch. At least it is Summer though so the weather should be ok.

The Christmas lights here have been fabulous. The theme is blue and silver and they really do look magical. It is times like this that I am so grateful to live in the central city so we can easily walk to see them rather than having to brave the traffic.

 December first brings the start of the December Daily. I spent a wonderful two hours in Starbucks yesterday while Scarlett went to her weekly playgroup. I packed a SC crop bag full of Christmas stickers, chipboards and thickers and sat with my toffee nut frap and worked on my foundation pages. I got up to the 20th which is great as I am only going to Christmas day before swapping to my holiday minibook. I did get some odd looks but it was wonderful with carols playing in the background... I actually felt really in the festive spirit.

To be honest, I have no clue what I will record from today. Our playdate friends are under the weather so we will not be going there. I might just pop down to the shops and take some photos of the decorations to get things started. I had hoped Scarlett might be happier having her photo taken with Father Christmas this year but sadly when we offered her the chance she clung like a limpet. I will try again when we return home but I think the big man in red is just a wee bit frightening for her. As you can see from the Christmas party last year tears were the order of the day!

I thought I might start the monthly task of goal setting on my blog. It always helps to be a little accountable for our actions (or lack there of). This month I would like to:

• have all our presents bought and wrapped by the end of this weekend
• survive the flight home with Scarlett without either of us being permanently traumatised
• keep up with my December Daily and not feel pressure to have the amazing products that I am already seeing online
• have a proper family holiday between Christmas and New Year where we can introduce Scarlett to some of our favourite places in New Zealand  - namely the MacKenzie Basin, in the central South Island
• make a good start on a holiday album using the Amy Tangerine mini book
• not feel guilty about indulging in the wonderful food and wine while I am home - January is a new start
• create some new Christmas traditions for our family as Scarlett will actually enjoy and start to understand what all the fuss is about this year

Just one or two then! Hopefully I can achieve most of them!

Have you got any goals for December? I would love to hear them.

Here is a photo of Lake Ohau where we hope to spend some time this month from Alangrinberg.com. Can you see why I am getting excited?

Busy weekend

I was sure I would have a spare minute to post over the weekend but it was not to be. We had some of our favourite people visiting from KL and they kept us entertained. Scarlett loves her honorary uncles and they make such a fuss of her.

The best thing was they agreed to babysit Scarlett on Saturday night so that Tet and I could go out for dinner with friends. To put this in context, this is the second time Tet and I have been out in the evening since Scarlett was born 21 months ago. We were really excited! Scarlett was less excited and in fact was a real monkey. We spent a lot of time trying to get her down before we left but she was not having a bar of it. So we left with her screaming. She continued to do this for quite a while and her uncles gave in and let her come out to the lounge. She watched half an hour of Happy Feet, ate a snack, had a drink and then asked to be put down in Mummy's bed. She was still sound asleep when we got home. 

We had a fabulous evening with our friends K and P. They introduced us to their local wine bar. It was wonderful with an amazing range of wines. Even better though, they have the menus for all the restaurants in the area. We decided we felt like Thai and so we rang the restaurant and they delivered the food (on china no less) in less than 15 minutes. We had a great evening. They are wonderful company and we look forward to getting together again in the new year.

I have definitely decided one of my resolutions for 2012 is to find a reliable babysitter and have a date night once a month. It makes us feel a bit more like the way we were pre baby. I think we could do with putting a bit more focus on us as a couple instead of just us as a family.

I am working on a couple of new layouts - still working through the Boardwalk kit and using Shimelle's PPP as a starting point. I am so much more productive with a sketch to get me started - even if the finished product bears little relation to the original idea.

SC have had their reveal this past weekend and I have been very restrained. I have not ordered a single add on - although I have picked up more than a few items in the shop. I have my fingers crossed that the box will arrive before I head overseas but suspect that hubby will be bringing things back for me.

I will try and post a couple of layouts today or tomorrow - it all depends how long my daughter naps for and if she goes to bed easily tonight. Yesterday it was a short nap and a battle to get her to sleep at night so here is hoping she plays the game and lets Mummy get some crafting done!

Black Friday and December Daily

I was planning on doing a post about the Black Friday sales today but overall they have not really rocked my world. I did pick up a few bargains at Studio Calico. They had an album I have been looking at marked down and some pens. I also used the sale as a chance to pick up some of the SC lines. I mainly went for the embellies and scrap tags. Pretty much things I can see me using with Project Life next year. Oh and I picked up one of the full sets of Mister Hueys which I am really excited about. I know I could have picked these items up cheaper elsewhere but I love the customer service at SC and I know what my postage is going to cost. When you don't live in the US the sticker shock on postage can be amazing. Ofter as much as the items purchased, if not more.

My wee dot was a great napper today after a lot of disruption around nap time. We had our air con units serviced which usually is a pretty quick process. We have had a bit of trouble with the unit in the master bedroom and they spent an age trying to get it spotless - without success. Long story short Monkey's nap was over an hour late. She still managed to sleep for over two hours though which gave me a chance to check out the SC sale, eat some lunch and make a start on my December Daily.


My DD is not going to be one of the works of art I see online. I do not have the stash, the time or the inclination to make something so elaborate to be honest. I am using the DD as a partial record of our trip home to New Zealand next month. I have also put aside an Amy Tan minibook to record the mini holiday we will be taking as a family while we are back home.


The basis of my DD is one of Elise Blaha Cripe's holiday books. I have been admiring her seasonal books for a while and I thought this would suit my needs perfectly. The 4 x 6 size also means that I can later add in full size photos as well as some instax prints into the album. I have been adding date numbers and the odd flat embellie to the pages. There are some envelopes inside too which I hope to find some special souvenirs to put inside. I am planning to take a fairly minimal kit of some EP and Simple Stories stickers and cards anf a Bo Bunny set of ephemera which has proved really useful already. I want to keep things fairly flat as I am going to be completing it on the go. EBC's etsy store Elise Joy has lots of cool quirky art as well as her seasonal books. Well worth a look.

I am also amazed at the response when I finally put a link onto the SC daily blog list. I had so many hits and was really encouraged by all the comments - I even have two followers now! (thanks ladies - you made my week!). I will definitely respond to the comments over the weekend.


We have Scarlett's "uncles" coming to stay with us from KL this weekend and we cannot wait to see them. They spoil her rotten! I am hoping to take a few photos and do a layout of the three of them together. This weekend is also all about making my Dad's Christmas present. I purchased an Elle's Studio thankful kit which I am adapting with photos of my dad with Scarlett on his visit to us earlier in the year. I have always wanted to complete a printer's tray project so this is a good chance to do it.


Have a great weekend!

Layouts!

I have finally taken some photos of two of the three layouts I have worked on this week. I have decided that one is a bit unfinished and needs something else so will hold off on sharing that one.

The first is based on one of Shimelle's sketches from Pretty Paper Party lesson one.

Please excuse the slightly washed out colours. It does have a washed out feel but not to the degree it appears here. I used the Studio Calico "Boardwalk" kit for this layout and  I am really happy with how it turned out. It is not actually a wonderful photo but it is the only photo of all three of us from this holiday and I am glad it has been scrapped and preserved.

Last night I completed another layout from Shimelle's PPP. This time it was from the second lesson. This took a bit longer to come together as the combination of so many patterned papers really did take me out of my comfort zone.

This one also used papers and embellishments from the Boardwalk kit along with some extra bits and pieces from a couple of the add ons. I am just so excited to have moved away from coloured card stock backgrounds with this class and have used some papers that, in the past, I would have shied away from.

I know I have a long way to go with this craft but it gives me such pleasure to create something special with our photos and my wee girl just gets so excited to see her pictures in the albums completed in this way.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!

A night at the theatre

After a period of thinking I was going to miss out, my friend Elena managed to get a couple of tickets to Richard III for last night. I had super high expectations as the reviews I had seen for this Sam Mendes production were uniformly excellent.

It was the first time I have seen a production at the Esplanade Theatre and I was really impressed. It has wonderful acoustics, comfortable seats and great views from every seat. I knew it would be chilly and was very glad for my long sleeves.

We were warned by signs and the ushers that the first act was about two hours long. It certainly did not feel like it! The set was quite simple and costuming 20th century. The supporting cast were uniformly good with special mention to Chuk Iwuji who was remarkable as Buckingham.

Kevin Spacey was simply wonderful in this role. He was a pleasure to watch. 

He was believable as a crippled, spiteful man with no conscience. I imagine walking with the twisted leg and brace must be fairly draining night after night.

If you have the opportunity to watch this play do not hesitate. It is three and a half hours long including intermission but it felt much less. 

I am definitely going to make the effort to go to more theatre. I had forgotten how much I enjoy it.

Scrapping again!

It feels like forever since I actually sat down and scrapped. All the stars aligned and I managed to have photos, the inclination and a sketch all printed out. Scarlett was napping so after I got the required housework out of the way I sat on my sofa (my current favourite location to scrap) and got stuck in.

I have made a promise to myself to really make a dent in my first Studio Calico kit, Boardwalk, before I head away for the Christmas break. I have it packaged up in a SC crop bag along with the two add ons I purchased that month. I love the colours in this kit - it was the one that made me sign up for a sub after all. Having looked through it I felt it would work well with my beachy swimming photos. I got a swag of those printed last weekend.

I decided the important thing today was to make a real start so I printed out the first two prompts from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party. There are a lot of seriously patterned papers in this kit so it all seemed to make sense. I liked the look of the final sketch from prompt one so sorted through my landscape pictures and found one of the three of us on our first trip to Bintan this time last year. It is not a great photo (in fact my eyes are closed) but it is one of the few that has all three of us from this time so I really wanted to have it scrapped.

By the time Tet came home for lunch about 30 minutes after I started, I had the papers cut and adhered, the titles on and was looking for embellishments. Of course Monkey woke up just after we finished lunch so the layout is not quite finished. I am hoping to complete it tonight and get another one underway this evening after Scarlett has gone to bed.

I always thought that the kits would simplify the process and they really made things fall nicely into place. Having said that, I have picked a few things out of my stash to add to the layout. I am also able to stop feeling guilty for having these kits arrive month after month without using anything from them.

I totally love the Shimelle class prompts. They are full of great ideas and certainly give a novice scrapper like myself the confidence to have a go. I have also recently purchased Kelly Purkey's Sketchpad and am hoping to try some of those sketches too.

I will try and post two new layouts tomorrow. If I can get some pictures off the camera I might do  a quick picture dump of our weekend. It was action packed! 

Happy Monday!

Brunettis arrives in Singapore

We have had a very busy Sunday. It was sunny first thing, which is not a given when in the middle of the monsoon, so we got organised and took Scarlett to the Botanic Gardens to burn off some energy. We fed the fish and turtles and had a nice walk through the gardens. 

We headed down the road to Tanglin Mall for breakfast and came across the newly opened Brunettis cafe. This is apparently an institution in Melbourne and after eating breakfast there I can see why. They specialise in baked goods... particularly of the chocolatey, pastry variety. Cabinet after cabinet of all types of delicious treats - salted caramel macaroons, two types of chocolate croissants... fabulous.

We were not there for sweet treats though. Tet ordered the Sicilian Eggs Benedict and I had the Truffled Scrambled Eggs. We both had a flat white and the monkey had a chocolate croissant and a vanilla milkshake. The food was excellent. Scarlett's milkshake and croissant were received immediately upon ordering as were the coffees. The coffee was excellent and not badly priced. The croissant was decadent beyond words. Full of fondanty chocolate and the pastry was light and crispy. Her milkshake was also lovely. 

Sady there was a fairly long wait for the main orders but they were worth it. The truffled eggs were flavoursome and the mushrooms and grilled tomatoes were well cooked. It was served with some crispy bacon and a large slice of toasted farmstyle bread. It was a good sized portion. The eggs were a little more well cooked than I like but that is a small quibble in the overall scheme of things. The eggs bene looked lovely and I can only assume they were as Tet wolfed them down in short order without sharing. They were served on toast with ham and cheese to go with the hollandaise. 

We decided it would be rude to leave without trying some of the pastries. We are working our way through them at home. I will report further when we have tried them all. We were heavily involved in Scarlett wrangling during this meal so no photos I am afraid. I can definitely recommend Brunettis for breakfast as long as you are not in a hurry. I would suggest getting there early though as the cafe was packed by the time we left.