Chronic Pharyngitis

Saw the doctor today.  I suffer from Chronic Pharyngitis now.  Sigh... Don't know when I can shake this virus off.  It's very annoying especially when I have coughing fits.  

I have had visitors throughout summer.  It was great to see my friends again and thsi time I made their kids make a canvas each to remember me by.  Here they are and I must say that the kids did such great jobs with theirs.  I love them all....

James' canvas.

Kirsten's Canvas.

Callum's canvas

Penang

I am back - finally after 2 weeks.  It's been quite some time since I have been so sick.  I have gone through several different types of medications and 2 jabs to make me heal. I am on the way but not quite there.  I still have a little sore throat but that's nothing compared to what I had last week and the week before.

Summer holidays will be ending soon and I took the opportunity to pack the sunny island of Penang.  We went to stay at this beautiful and historic hotel and had the best of time with her.  She was a great host and I swear I must have left Penang at least 5 kilos heavier...  I leave you with some photos of Penang.  I must say that I have fallen in love with this place and I suspect I will definitely visit this island soon - since it took me 2.5 hours drive from KL.  Hee hee...

The pool in our hotel.

Was slightly hazey but the sideview of the hotel.

The now defunct but yet so rustic lift.

The dome in the lobby.  Beware - every tiny sound is resonated throughout the dome and can be quite discerning.

Love the antique wash basins.

The toilets were all antiques too.

View from the back of the restaurant "The Tsunami Village".  

Photo taken by Kitkatz.  She was showing me the difference in Aperture.  Thanks Kat.

Sunrise from our room.

Photo taken by DD as we wee leaving using the Penang Bridge.

Sk Tutorial - Square Mini Book Tutorial

Our tutorial this month will be run by the very talented Cookie Aguilar.  Do join us here if you are interested.

Time Out

I will be out for a few days as I am down with pharyngitis.  I am on antibiotics and the lack of sleep has made me even more irritable and less patient.  By nature I am quite grouchy,  but when I am sick - look out!

Will be back as soon as I recover and hope to see more beautiful creations from my fellow bloggers.

Layout {Izzie and me}

A simple layout using a sketch challenge here.  I had fun with this simple layout.

Materials used:

Hambly transparency,  Technique Tuesday Chipboard bracket,  Thickers foam alphas,  Faded Jeans Crackle Paint,  Lace from local haberdashery,  Tattered Angels chipboard Flourish,  brown corrugated board,  K n Co Amy Butler pp,  Maya Road Trinkets,  Little pebbles from MWL Spore - sorry cannot remember brand and 3D pop up dots.

Shabby Chic Challenge No 1

She put me up to this. Thanks for giving me a kick in the butt. I was quite clueless and mojoless till this challenge. Thanks babe.

This was one not so easy challenge as it was to draw inspiration from a poster in this blog. I was quite stumped for a while as the DTs did very exceptional jobs and I was trying very hard not to copy what the rest of the DTs had done.

Check out this very beautiful poster.  All I could see what a profusion of pastel colours,  pleats,  layering and lots of peekaboos.  Hence,  I decided to go with the flow and started to do my layout.

The photo selection was the easiest of all.  Simone,  a friend of mine had actually taken this beautiful photo of Clarissa.  I thought that the photo really suited the layout as she was quite shy in this photo.  

Paper wise, I have decided to use vellum paper to layer to avoid a very heavy look.  To my delight,  I have managed to use a beautiful glitter vellum which I bought way back in 2004 which had tiny roses in it which I though suited the theme very well.  The rest of the background consisted of 3 different coloured vellum which I had traced out and cut in scallops.

I was also pleased to be able to find some of the buttons of the same era which I had stuck on as embellishment and used gauze to soften the whole effect.  I have layered on lots of flowers as they remind me of the layers of clothing in the ladies dresses.  I have also made sure that this layout was as 3D as possible to simulate the can can in the dresses.

A string of pearls is always associated with that ear and I sewed on a green one and the lo at the lace area.  That would complete my whole layout.

Materials used:

Mrs Grossman's Vellum Papers,  K n Co Glittered Vellum,  BG pp, Bazzill cs, Tattered Angel Chipboards,  Prima Flowers (lots of it),  Ladies Buttons,  trim and ric rac from local haberdashery,  Pearl roses,Canvas roses, Pearls,  Gold Blings,  String of green pearls and Butterflies from local shops,  Lace from Australia,  Chipboard Leaves from Collections Australia,  Cotton Gauze from local pharmacy,  Doiley,  Kaiser Bling Word "Adore" and burlap from Australia.  

Scrappin Kids July Challenge

The Scrapping mojo has yet to return but when datelines are here,  we do what we need to do.  I love the latest SK July challenge.  Most of us scrap mostly of the happy things but this month,  SK is asking you to scrap about an unhappy event.  For details on the challenge, please check it out here.

My layout is pretty simple.  The journalling goes:

Helping out and late night at the bazaar

PLUS

Having to wake up early the next day

for his 2 hour art exhibition 

PLUS 

Having to finish his food

EQUALS

TANTRUMS!

I apologise for the photo quality in the layout but it was so spontaneous - I just had to just snap snap.  But I am glad that I did regardless as Sean can be very grouchy when he is tired.

Materials used:

Scenic Route pps,  Hambly Transparencies,  Bella Cork,  Ribbon from Francheville,  Trim from Maya Road,  robot cb from Scrapfx,  Brads from Momoyo,  Thickers Alphas,  Blue ribbon from Momoyo,  Coordinations pp,  Corrugated Cardboard,  Zig Pen from Momoyo and 3D pop up dots.

Scrap-it-Lah July Challenge

Fancy a Malaysian breakfast?  Then head over to the Scrap-It-Lah blog.  This is what I had for breakfast this morning - BURP!!!  Pardon my manners...

We were to choose a selection of yummy Malaysian breakfast choices from 4 main categories - mainly,  the main dish,  side dish,  dessert and drinks.  The Twist of the challenge is that you can only USE ONE of each of the category which  made it quite challenging indeed as we tend to layer and use lots of different embellishments.

I think I managed this layout and was quite full too after my scrumptious breakfast.  Hee hee... 

My breakfast choice:

Nasi Lemak = Use chipboards/stickers

Sambal Sotong = Handwritten Journaling

Kueh Koci = Sew on your layout

Teh O' Ais Limau= Your choice of paper

Hence is you are hungry,  head over to Scrap-It-Lah and check out this very yummy challenge.

Materials used:

KCK papers,  Far East pp,  Red and black Vellum,  Thickers chipboard alphas, Chinese chipboard embellishments from Far East,  Zig pen for journalling and 3d pop up dots.

  

Away to camp we go

My 2 munchkins are away at camp and it has been relatively quiet.  Hubby and I went to their cam to spy on them on monday and thought they were in good hands. With the flu going around - it is quite scary to send your kids away anywhere - esp to a hotel where tourists are arriving everyday.

Having said that - we have to live a little and hence we allowed them both to go.  The 2 munchkins were excited,  elated and crying out for JOY!!!  They didn't even bat an eyelid when they left.  They were so glad to get rid of us!  Sigh  the realisation that they do not need us anymore hit home.  Gosh - that smarts!  

The first munchkin didn't bother even looking back at me.  :(

The little munchkin beaming.  So happy to get rid of parentals.

With his bodyguard,  Mr Nazareno.

Clarissa started snacking as soon as she got on the bus. Sigh...