Cupcakes and Results

I cannot believe how quickly the weekend went! One minute it was Friday night and the next thing here we are on Monday morning. We had a great weekend. My rapidly improving health meant we spent lots of time out and about. We have also had some good uninterrupted nights of sleep. Scarlett is no longer having an afternoon nap which means she is generally out for the count by 7 pm and not appearing in our room until around six. I cannot tell you how happy that is making everyone.

I got an unexpected call from my specialist this morning. It turns out that all the testing I had done last week was worthwhile. I have no markers for coeliac or gluten intolerance but I have developed lactose intolerance as a result of food poisoning. Those who know me in real life will realise this is not good news. My favourite food in the world is cheese. I love cream and ice cream and milky drinks. At least it does mean that I may be able to drastically reduce my symptoms and even reduce or stop taking medication all together. I am still not sure if giving up cheese will be worth it!

A foody layout to finish today's post. My daughter loves cupcakes. We have a number of good bakeries in our neighbourhood. Scarlett's favourites is called Swirls and they only make cupcakes. 

They have a few tables and chairs outside where you can enjoy their beautiful cupcakes and this photo was taken at one. Scarlett enjoys walking along the river and a big part of that enjoyment is stopping at Swirls for a cupcake on the way home. 

I used papers from Roller Rink and the add ons for this layout. I love the MME background paper and just added a little dimension to the pre printed elements on the page. I hand cut some pennants behind the photo to echo the printed ones in the bottom corner. The grid background made it easy to keep my journalling neat and orderly!

Have a wonderful Monday and I fully recommend the cupcake solution if the day is less than perfect. It always improves my mood, if not my waistline.

Wearing Her Out

I believe I am a bit of a Mean Mummy. I find I run a tighter ship when Tet is away. Scarlett goes to bed earlier. She is expected to do a little more when she is getting ready for school or an outing. It is so worth it though. She is sleeping at least 90 minutes more a day this week and we have had a lot of fun. There is nothing better than a child who wakes up with big smile on her face!

Yes she really has been waking up happy!

Scarlett does not go to school on Tuesdays. We always try to do something fun on those days. She decided she wanted to go to a park a bus ride away from our house. She loves the bus. She would ride the bus with me everyday if she could. She smiles at and talks to the other passengers, talks about all the things she can see out the windows and just loves every aspect of public transport. 

Tiong Bahru Park has a really great playground. It has a big train climbing contraption which is all on a lean. Scarlett loves the "wobbly train" even if she is too scared to do too much in there. She loves the slides and the ladders though and it keeps her happy and occupied. We left our trip a little late and some of the equipment was too hot to touch by the time we reached the playground. There is a lot of grass and winding paths to explore so we were kept more than occupied for a good ninety minutes. Scarlett especially likes standing on the little bridge and watching the turtles.

I was amazed that we had the entire playground to ourselves for the length of time we were there. There were a number of people using the wider park facilities but no other children. It was very warm though.

Scarlett loved running around and exploring... and I like to let her think she is unsupervised. I can always see her but I think it is good to give her a sense of freedom. It is a joy living in a country where children are so safe. 

She is a very sporty wee tot. She loves to swim, take gym classes and ride her scooter. She will start ballet next month and she can hardly wait. I made a layout this week to celebrate her active self.

I love the look of the stacked paper squares. I find it is my go to technique especially when I love so many patterned papers in a kit. The Elmwood Park kit is just chock full of beautiful patterned paper. I am in love with all the reds this time around.

Miss S will be home from school soon. I had best get a snack ready and try and get another couple of mini book pages completed before she returns. We have been making a lot of smoothies lately. She loves putting all the fruit and yogurt into the blender and turning the blender on. Two year olds and noisy machines - surely a match made in heaven!

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week - Transparency Challenge

If you are a regular reader, you will know I am a bit of a Shimelle Laine aka Glitter Girl fan. I love her blog and her challenges and her classes.... you get the idea. Earlier in the week she posted a sketch with the added twist of using a transparency. I had a couple sitting in my stash that I bought on a whim at a Studio Calico sale and really had no idea what to do with them. I dragged them out from the bottom of a box of supplies and decided to have a go.

The idea of the sketch is to complete two layouts that mirror each other using both sides of the transparency. I have a big pile of photos from three day trips we made to Sentosa so I decided to scrap a couple of those onto the transparency. I have realised I need to start a day trips album or something similar as I have made half a dozen layouts from the photos of those three days already so there are a few too many to add to my annual album. I love the idea of these add on albums from Shimelle's Cover to Cover class - it has totally revolutionised the way I organise my layouts. It has also meant I have ordered one or two or six albums to improve the flow... oh well it is only money!

I will start by apologising for the photos. I tried about half a dozen ways of photographing the transparencies including hanging them on a clothes line and even a window but the reflections were shocking. I placed white paper under the transparency in an attempt to minimise this issue but they are still there. 

This photo was from a trip to Port of Lost Wonder, a water play park on Sentosa. On the day we went the main pirate ship was out of action so we could only play on the beach or in a foam pool. It turns out that there had been an outbreak of giardia in the previous couple of days traced back to the pirate ship so I am glad we did not go on it! This photo is of Scarlett and her best buddy, Joshua, as they approach the entrance. 

The supplies are a real mixture. The transparency is an old Hambly one. The card stock is a swiss dot style but beyond that I don't know. The papers are from the Studio Calico 35 mm kit and the Lomography add on as are the little gems. I also added some SC veneer people and a doily. The lettering comes from the So Cal add on Santa Monica as does the twine. 

The other side is a picture of Scarlett in the foam pool. I chose this transparency rather than the other chicken wire one I had as I thought the circles could be like bubbles in the foam. The colourful lettering, cloud and girl icons are all from Simple Stories. The ticket and banner are Amy Tangerine and the lettering and patterned paper strip are from the Lomography add on.

It was fun to work with the transparency but I was a bit safe in keeping all my embellishments below the transparency. I intend to use the other sheet in the next few weeks and try and get more embellishment matching going on.

Bakeries and Mondayitis

I have found, just lately, that I am getting that feeling in my stomach that I used to get on Sunday nights when I was working. You know that little pang that the weekend is coming to a close and the nose will be pressed firmly to the grind stone in just a few short hours? It is not so much that my nose is pressed to the grindstone on a Monday but more that Tet and Scarlett both head off to work and school at 7.45 and there I am in the empty house. Life really is telling me I need to get busy organising a kick arse CV and trotting it round the local international schools in the area. If only a little fairy would come and wave their wand and present the thing tied in a ribbon I would be so much happier...

We had a very relaxed weekend for a change. The only organised activity we had planned was Scarlett's gym class on Saturday morning. 

Once that was over the rest of the weekend stretched before us like a blank canvas. I had recently read reviews of a new bakery that opened not far from us run by a French Baker with wonderful pastries and coffee. We decided to head there after gym to see if the hype was justified.

I had pretty high hopes but my expectations were well and truly blown out of the water. We decided to order a croissant, pain au chocolat and a Salted Caramel pastry as we had already eaten breakfast. I added a couple of lattes to the order as we were offered a table in the very crowded restaurant by a super attentive waiter. We had thought we would have to take away so that was a nice surprise.

The croissant was delicious. Buttery, crisp on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside. Just a total delight! The pain au chocolat looked beautiful but Tet and Scarlett devoured it in record time so I can only take their word that it was delicious. The absolute triumph was the caramel pastry. It was totally moorish. Not too sweet but caramelly and delicious with a wonderful buttery flavour. The coffees were also delicious.

So the next morning we felt like going out for breakfast and long story short we headed back to the bakery. This time I took some photos of the food before we ate all of it! We ordered a couple of the caramel pastries, a chocolate brioche for Scarlett and an almond brioche for Tet and I to share. We also grabbed a lemon curd tart to go with our flat whites.

The caramel pastry was calling my name so I was halfway through before I thought to take a picture. Just as amazing as I remembered from the previous day. I had no expectation that the other treats would be as delicious but they looked promising.

The almond brioche was enormous. We definitely needed to share it. The pastry was topped with marzipan and slivered toasted almonds and a sprinkling of icing sugar. It was just delicious! The brioche was melt in the mouth and the almond flavour was strong but not overpowering. The contrast of the crunchy almonds and the squidgy brioche was perfect. Scarlett loved her more modestly sized chocolate brioche and declared it yummy and soft. The best treat of the day though in my eyes was the lemon tart. It was super tart in flavour and the creme patisserie was just perfect. Both Tet and Scarlett thought it was too tart but I loved it. We also bought a delicious loaf of fig and fennel bread to take home and it is delicious. One of the super friendly staff told me she had eaten it with goat's cheese the previous day and it had been delicious. I had the same for breakfast today and it was divine. 

So the diet is officially out the window and I plan to get fatter and fatter on delicious buttery pastry!

We discovered a great playground at Mt Emily yesterday too so Scarlett had a lovely time playing on the swings and slides. All in all just a lovely cruisey weekend.

I did get up to some crafts but this post is already a bit of a novel so will share those tomorrow. I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I enjoyed catching some of the Queen's Jubilee Flotilla last night on the telly. What a great occasion to mark 60 years as queen!

How I love a good Starting Point

I think it would be fair to say that inspiration does not always run hot. In fact, on many occasions it seems to have left the building entirely. On days such as this when I have the time and inclination to scrap but no great plan I find that sketches and increasingly, Shimelle Laine's starting points are where I turn.

Her pink and grey starting point this week had me reaching for my Glee Club Studio Calico kit which is very nearly finished. I found a recent photo of Miss Monkey that really shows her personality and went from there.

The link to the starting point is here.

The photo was taken on a day trip we took to Sentosa a few weeks ago. Monkey loved the butterfly park and especially liked the macaws and lorikeets that were also living there. She is pointing too some spectacular Scarlet Macaws just out of shot although she refused to believe they have her name too! All the patterned papers are from the very old Glee Club kit and Debate Team add on. The blue paper is actually the back of an advert that was popped in with the kit. The two bird themed journalling cards are from October Afternoon and the fonts are Amy Tangerine Muse in woodgrain and Studio Calico letter stickers. I did slightly adjust the starting point to suit the orientation of my journalling cards.

I am off to tackle another week or two of Project Life this afternoon. I remain about a month behind in spite of my best efforts. I am trying to focus on PL for the rest of the week in my evenings. Monkey is off school with a cold today and school is closed on Friday so ,once again, free time is a pretty scarce commodity.

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.