Halloween 2009 and a long hospital trip

Its Halloween again and this year - looks like it is a quiet one in our household.  Sean has a football match in the morning and I have planned to ship Clarissa off to her friends to do trick and treating there.  Must say that it feels funny that we are not doing a Halloween party this year as I have done it for so many years.  

It was the Halloween Dress up  Day at school today.  The older one woke up wanting eye make-up as she has decided to be the "Emo" girl.  I have no idea what emo is but she told me that she was supposed to be an emotional girl.  Ahhhh....  The revelation as I am still in the mode whereby I know Elmo but Emo - hmmm......  So here she is in her "Emo" costume complete with a red scar on her arm.  Your guess is as good as mine as why she needed a red scar.  I blame it on the tween years and the generation gap.

This little one definitely looks like he needs more sleep in his ninja costume.  Desperately needing a better haircut - I did bring him to one a fortnight ago but they did a lousy job as you can see.

My day was a relatively long one with bringing father-in-law to the hospital.  His gait is getting worse and my fears were confirmed.  His latest brain scan showed that he suffered a stroke within these 5 - 10 days.  Sigh.  Its a long story how he is always refusing to show up for appointments and the way he forgets about his medicines - thats another long story.  Well I certainly hope that nothing untoward will happen to him.  Its been a long day and I am ready for bed.  Sean has an early match tomorrow and yup no rest for the wicked mummy.  Toodles.

Little Pink Riding Hood

I had fun with Izzie tonight and took pictures of her in this pink hair band.  Doesn't she look like the Little Pink Riding Hood?  Hee hee...

Layout - Pedicure Fun

Found these old pictures of the 2 monsters playing pedicure.  This is hilarious.  Sean will definitely be cringing in embarrassment when he sees this.  He was merrily giving Clarissa a manicure and pedicure when I snapped these pictures.  Back then I only had an automatic camera which I really didn't really know how to use.  Hence the pitch black photos. But never mind,  I ahve decided to choose the merry SSF pps to counter the photos.  Hee hee...

Materials used:
SSF pp,  Kraft pp,  Thickers foam alphas,  Buttons and Ribbons from Momoyo,  Fabric Button from Sharon Chan,  SSF chipboards,  Versamagic Black ink,  3d pop up dots and Helmars Glue.

Layout - Adventures of a bubbly kind

Sifting through my old pictures, I stumbled upon these old ones which I have taken of Sean ages ago way back in 2004 in the KLCC park. He was happily blowing bubbles and boy he looked so cute back then with his mop of hair.

Thought I would try something which I deemed new. Layering a piece of Hambly on top of a corrugated cardboard. My initial design was very plain but as I added on more embellishment, I am glad that I have managed to turn the layout into quite a colourful one. Definitely different than what I am used to but I must say that I am quite pleased with the results.

Materials used:
Hambly transparency, Normal Corrugated Board, Autumn Leaves Buttons, Francheville sticker alphas, Prima blings, K n Co 3d stickers, October Afternoon Stickers, 7 Gypsies stickers, grosgrain ribbons, 3d foam tape, Jo Sonja titanium white acrylic paint and 3d lacquer.

LAyout - Jiya

I took these pictures of Jiya two years ago and I still love them to this day. I loved howshe posed for me and how I managed to capture her charming and beautiful personality.

I have decided to use the Pencil Lines sketch No 154 for this layout. I have to admit that I heart circle sketches and I tend to scrap them.

Materials used:

Normal Corrugated Cardboard, Webster Page pp, Kaiser Wooden Flourish, K n Co Que Sera Sera border sticker, Plastic trim with bling and cotton lace trim from local haberdashery,

Adirondack Dimensional Pearl (Butterscotch), Pearl Blings from my local market, Jo Sonja Titanium White, Thickers white foam alphas, White coloured MM Sticker alphas and double sided foam.

Another 10 days flies by

It's been a very busy 10 ten days for me. The adjustment to a new school is taking longer than I thought. Parents are very welcome to help and I have done just that. I have gone in to help make Ondeh-Ondeh - which is a Malay Traditional dessert in conjunction to the Hari Raya Celebration. The Middle School Play just ended last Saturday and I have gone in to help paint the sets. Sean has had his first football match with the Japanese School - we lost 4-9 and it was amazing watching the Japanese kids as they are petite in size but don't let that fool you, they can FLY across the field like lightning.

We have started painting our whole apartment both inside and out. On the home front, the domestic engineer had created some problems but hopefully it is all ironed out. To tell the truth - I am quite fed up of her giving me so much problems. We will see how it goes otherwise I have decided that maybe she is not worth that much trouble.

Kids wise - I have one that is very happy - funnily enough Sean is wracking up more social engagements than Clarissa nowadays. He is enjoying school more and his parent conference meeting went really well and I was glad. Clarissa was in tears at hers as she scored a "B" for math. She is definitely learning the hard way that its not so easy to maintain the "As" as you proceed on to the Middle School and half-hearted work is definitely not appreciated by her teachers.

I had a very enjoyable day yesterday - made a sock puppet with my friend's daughter - she is such a doll. All that crafting made me want to scrap but I really do not know where to begin. I really need to sit down and start scrapping.

Izzie - wise - she is getting better. Just had her 2 annual jabs and she was house bound for 1 week. She is totally miserable and I wanted to bring her out for a walk but alas, the weather is not cooperating - its raining and being the sensible dame she is, I decided to take a rain check on that walk.

I read a post at Aida's blog and what she said is true for me nowadays. I have attend less social engagements nowadays as I really wish to concentrate on my kids. I scrap less but that does not mean that I will stop scrapping. At this point in time, I think I just want to take a step back and concentrate on myself for a change. Do what I enjoy and I realise that yes I do have some dear friends but some of them - I really have to change my views on them and re-evaluate. I make no apologies for being me and this is who I am - take it or leave it. As I have said before:

"I am me - I am the Me I want to be. I am not Perfect but that's just ME!"

Enough said - time for a quick think and start scrapping.

Layout -My boy breaks down when he is tired

This is a layout that describes Sean to a "T". We took these photos of him crying in Hong Kong Disneyland. Naturally after 1 day of fun and not getting his way at the Astro Blasters, he broke down one of the restaurants there. I just found these photos and thought that I better scrap it before I forget about them again. I feel that this layout is still unfinished (re: white circle that I drew). Maybe it would be nicer if I put something more 3D there. Will think about it.

Materials used:

Creative Imaginations pp, Making Memories Fabric Stickers and Tag, Pink Paislee Chipboard, K n Co Chipboard Flourish, SSF stickers, Thickers foam alphas, Blue DMC thread, Blue GRosgrain ribbon, White Sakura Pen, Making Memories Black Sticker Alphas and Momoyo Brads.

Pharyngitis no more {hopefully}

FInally after 3 months of suffering from pharyngitis - I went to see another 2nd opinion and voila - the answer is never what it seems huh? The ENT that I am currently seeing says that I have Gastro Reflux. That would mean that my stomach acids are actually regurgitated whilst I am sleeping and it burnt my esophagus and namely now - the back of my throat.

I have been unwell for so long and I am just glad that this third doctor I am seeing has managed to pinpoint the problem. Although it has only been day 1 since I started the medicine, I do feel that my throat is less painful and I don't cough and gag as much when I sleep. Last night I had a more restful sleep and I am thankful for that.

This is a life long disease with some adjustments to my diet. I can live with that and hopefully I will be feeling better and start to go back to my normal routines.

Scrap-it-Lah October Challenge

Jessy thought of the "SIMPLE" challenge this month. I was wracking my brain on how to expand this and explain to the rest what we wanted. FInally I decided on the interpretation of the word simple and added some quotes to the challenge.

As I started to think about scrapping for the challenge, I was also stumped by what we mean as simple. There were so many meanings and as I sifted through my photos - I have decided on cycling. Its a simple pleasure really. Everytime I ride a bicycle, memories of my childhood come flooding back. Ahhhh... such simple pleasure - you are carefree and wind in your hair.

Materials used:

Hamby transparency, 7Gyspies cards, Thickers Vinyl Black Stickers and teh rest is from my Scarlet Lime Kit this month.