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!

Project Life Weeks 4 and 5

Well, I have finally managed to catch up my Project Life and am feeling a lot happier. Getting one weeks worth of photos together at a time will be a much simpler process.

Week 4 was dominated by our trip to Bangkok. If it looks a little like a playground tour of Bangkok you would not be wrong. We found some good ones!

The bulk of page one was the early part of the week at home in Singapore. It includes Scarlett's current favourite game of campout complete with toasting marshmallows, Chinese New Year decorations and beautiful fresh flowers from the market. The final photo is one of me that hubby took on our first morning in Bangkok. Quite nice to be caught in the act!

These pages are a real hotch potch of supplies including the January Studio Calico Project Life kit, SC stamps, cut aparts from an SC exclusive paper and some scraps of paper from last years kits that were just begging to be used for something.

All these photos with the exception of Miss S being nearly at one with the television are from Bangkok. The lovely image in the centre bottom slot is actually my day pass for the BTS train system. I thought it was a beautiful picture of another side of Thai life that was in no way evident in Bangkok itself. Poor hubby had a cold from the moment we left on Friday afternoon until we returned home on Tuesday when it promptly disappeared. He looks pretty unwell in the shot from the aeroplane. I love the photo of Scarlett returning the wai or greeting to Ronald McDonald as we walked past the local branch. 

Week 4 was so jam packed with excitement that I added an additional page. We stayed in an amazing apartment complex that we would happily live at. It had a beautiful pool, outdoor playground and an enormous soft play indoor playground. Scarlett was in heaven. The pool was on the 7th floor of the building so had lovely views of the city and a number of beautifully fragrant frangipani trees to make it all seem that much more resort like. The top right photo is from a really wonderful Japanese restaurant we ate at in Bangkok. I loved the decorative ceiling and the food was very good too.

Week 5 started in Bangkok and ended back home in Singapore. We had a bit of a wait at the airport which we spent looking at the Thai art and having breakfast at Starbucks. Scarlett got into the swing of moving overseas by organising her animals into an international move, complete with passports. Poppy was not that pleased to see us on our return as our cat sitter is way nicer than we are! Lots of journalling here trying to get all our thoughts about the move down on paper.

The latter part of the week was dominated by Chinese New Year preparations. We have a CNY party to attend at school tomorrow so Miss S had a lovely time trying on a new cheongsam and embroidered slippers for the occasion. I will be taking lots of proper photos as she looks adorable in them! Tet's work also had a traditional gathering including tossing the Yu Sheng salad for good luck in the year ahead. They also had the Singapore standard of chilli crab which was delicious I have been told. The week is rounded off with some fun painting with Scarlett teaching Daddy how to finger paint. I also added a little about our ongoing sleep issues with Miss Nearly Three. It isn't all beer and skittles and I think my Project Life needs to reflect that.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at a little slice of our lives through the Project Life lens. I am really enjoying being back on the bandwagon. This is such a wonderful record of our lives. I cannot wait to start my Scarlett baby album using the  baby kit I purchased a while back. I promised myself I would not start it until I have finished my December Daily though.

Right, I am off to order a tutu for the upcoming birthday celebrations. Someone is ballet mad and I know she will love it!

Stuck Sketches January First Sketch

I am working hard to get through my Sock Hop kit. I discovered this Stuck sketch site on a Studio Calico thread about Australasian blogs. The challenge closes today so I grabbed a photo and some scraps and got stuck in.

Here is the sketch

 

And here is my take...

This photo is from our recent holiday in Phuket. Scarlett was desperate to make sand angels as she has never played in snow and figured this was the next best thing! I love her delighted expression in the photo.

I used scraps from my SC Sock Hop kit and a handful of arrow and star veneer along with some flair from a variety of sources. A simple take on the sketch but it lets the photo take a starring role.

Life Paper Scrapbook Sketch

I am so excited for my friend Manda who has just started a new online scrapbooking magazine based in Australia, Life.Paper.Scrapbook. I love it when people find something they are unhappy with and go out there and do something about it. The site is well worth a look as she is currently looking for a design team and has recently put up a new sketch challenge.

I love a sketch as it really helps me get my pictures scrapped quickly and painlessly. Here is the new Life.Paper. Scrapbook sketch.

 

I pulled out my November Studio Calico kit and a couple of photos from the Marina Bay area of Singapore and got to work.

I started off working on a  red and white patterned paper but as I flicked through my papers looking for my secondary patterned papers I realised that the colours of this feather paper matched really well with the colours in the photos. That made adding the feather patterned vellum a no brainer and I decided to keep it pretty clean by using the swiss dot white cardstock as my third option.  Some quick embossing onto wood veneer triangles, Pink Paislee glitter letters and a few bits and pieces from the Dear Lizzy line and I called it done.

I think I am incapable of completing a layout without enamel dots at the moment. They add something special!

Now that I have braved the world of heat embossing I am trying it out at every opportunity. I will definitely be using it in my, as yet incomplete, December Daily.

I hope to see some of your interpretations of the sketch up on Manda's site soon.

I am off to finish packing as we head to Bangkok to have a good look round this weekend. I am hoping to post some pictures on here over the weekend. If you follow me on Instagram be prepared for a bit of a deluge!

Have a fantastic weekend.

Hello 2013 Hello Adventure

I don't know about you but the last half of December was a blur of family, fun and travel and I am only barely catching my breath two days into 2013. Currently we have my sister and hubby's brother plus girlfriend staying with us, so the house is full of fun and presents and a little less full of sleep and down time! We lose two guests and hubby returns to work tomorrow so things will slowly return to some type of normal and I am hopeful that with that, my blogging will fall back into its usual schedule.

I have a lot of fun non creative things to share over the next little while. We took an amazing break to Phuket with the family and it truly is paradise. Of course Christmas was a pretty big deal for the child portion of the family and the arrival of family right through to the end of December has meant someone has been extremely spoilt! I have not had too much time for scrapbooking projects but I have picked up my knitting needles after a long break and have started a little cardigan for Scarlett. It could all end in tears but I hope the excitement S has shown for my making a start will keep me going.

Scarlett in Bang Tao

Are any of you taking part in the One Little Word class offered by Ali Edwards? I started last year and it ground to a halt really quickly. I am wondering about attempting the class again though as I have definitely found my word for the year - adventure.

I haven't talked about it too much on the blog but there are a lot of changes projected for 2013 and the uncertainty of where we will be living and what we will all be doing by the end of the year has left me more stressed and anxious than I would like. Uncertainty is not my friend. Once I know what we are doing I can embrace it and make plans. I knew something had to change or I was going to have a miserable few months this year. I decided that it might all be in my attitude so I have dubbed 2013 as the Year of Adventure for our family. The changes are just part of the adventure.

Sunrise

Have you found your word for 2013? Have you any words of wisdom for getting through a very uncertain time? I would love to hear them. Let's make 2013 a wonderful year both personally and creatively!

JYC The First Sign of Christmas

I have to admit I was surprised at the first things that popped into my head when I read the Day 2 prompt. I feel like the season is here either when my feet hit the beach in Phuket, Thailand or when we go fruit and pea picking in New Zealand! Neither I suspect are the traditional answers to when you feel the festive season has begun.

I think I may need to take a few steps back to help put these two disparate options into some sort of context. I lived in New Zealand until I was 8 and then in Singapore until I was 15. When I lived in New Zealand going fruit (usually berry) picking before Christmas was a fun family activity before Christmas. When we lived in Singapore, if we did not go home for Christmas we spent the ten days before Christmas Eve in Phuket having a relaxing beach holiday. Both of these things totally scream Christmas to me!

I do not have access to my childhood photos as they are in NZ with my Dad but I do have photographic evidence of the way that we have embraced these traditions in our little family of three. 

We spent last Christmas back in New Zealand.

Grandad and Scarlett picking raspberries

It wasn't hard to find plenty of ripe ones

Taking instruction on the finer points of fruit picking

Scarlett picked all these herself

It was wonderful to see three generations picking together and enjoying the sunshine. The man who owns the place where we pick always tells us to eat at least as many as we buy so it is a pretty delicious way to spend an hour or two.

Christmas 2010 and 2012 will involve a few days in Phuket as we are spending Christmas Day in Singapore. This year will be great as my sister is coming from New Zealand to join us and Tet's brother and his girlfriend will meet us in Phuket too. Our trip in 2010 was much more low key as it was just Tet and Scarlett and me. We stayed at one of the quieter beaches and had a wonderful time. I was thrilled to see Scarlett enjoying just the same sort of childhood holiday that I loved so many years earlier.

It was a hard job spending time under these umbrellas and in the warm waters but we managed to survive

Scarlett loved playing in the sand

She was busy making sand castles at 10 months - she started walking a week after we got home from this trip

The beach air meant Scarlett had lots of great naps

Even though we now get to Phuket the day after Christmas it still feels like our holiday season starts with taking off our shoes and feeling the sand between our toes. I am much more excited this year about going to Phuket than I am about Christmas Day itself.

Do you have any rituals that signify the start of the season? Are they the traditional Black Friday shopping adventures or is there something a little more unique in your family. I would love to know what marks the beginning of your festive season.