More cheering is needed

God works in a very mysterious manner which I can never understand. Most importantly, I don't spend too much time trying to understand but trying to take His lead.

He has plans for me but I just do not know what. He had made me attend the recent Miracle Service and He spoke to me there. I know that healing of the wounded heart will come and forgiveness will eventually set in.

Now, I just need to pray that He will make every other things easier so that I do not end up being so burdened.

I realised that I am being blamed for quite a lot of things eventhough I am not the one at fault. I realised that when things go wrong, I also am the one to stand up and try and make it right again. Now, I am tired.

I am weary and my mind is empty. I tried as I may to not think about what happened and everytime those thoughts come back, I will push it all away and pray that God will help me look forward.

Today, I failed. I blew up and I cried and I screamed and I shouted and I threw a terrible tantrum. Why is it always me to pick up the pieces for everyone when the one hurting most is myself? Why do I have to keep smiling eventhough my life has been turned upside down? Why do I have to be strong when I really need to cry and to scream? Why do I have to be the mother of everyone and pick up after each and everyone when I need to really rest and heal?


Why?

Sorry.... I just made this a lousy post with a lousy mood. I just needed to get it out of the system and if you are reading this, I do really need a little cheering up.

Need a little cheer

Things have not been going very well for this week.Our lives have been turned upside down. Hence, the blog has been quite quiet.

I will not go into details of the unpleasant as I want to keep things cheery and since no matter how much is to be said the unhappiness had been caused, the hurt has been done so now I want to pick up the pieces and move on with my family.



To heal a wounded crafter, the best is to start on another project.

So I did...





There was also Aver starting to draw. I finally made the attempt to cut out the butcher paper and to bring out the crayons for her. She had been attacking my pen and pencil that were lying around, so I guess its time for some pencil time.



As she sat and "drew" away, I drew too.

A potrait of her ... okay, my drawing sucks but I still like it. (Sorry, ego problem...)

Time to be kind

Remember him?

For us who live in this little island and have been educated here will know him very well.

He is Singa, the mascot for Singapore Kindness Movement.

Singapore Kindness Movement was launched aiming to encourage Singaporeans to make a positive commitment to gracious living through simple acts of kindness in their daily activities.

For me, I find that it is sad that we need a movement to remind us to be kind and gracious.

I don't know but isn't being kind to one another and being gracious be part of everyone's life without a movement to remind us?

Let's take a look around us...

How many times we get fed up with people jumping our queue?

How many times we get upset that no one bothers to hold the lift for you?

How many times we enter a crowded bus, MRT or LRT and shake our heads that no one is bothered to give up their seats to the elderly, pregnant or young?

How many times we have our hands full and would just need someone to hold the door to the mall so that you can go in?

How many times we get irritated when our neighbours start making a hell lot of noise near midnight?

How many times we look at the dustbins right beside the letterboxes empty but the floor is littered with leaftlets and brochures and wonder why it is there in the first palce.

How many times we enter the lift and are greeted with that horrible stale smell of someone who just smoked in the short journey in the lift?

How many times we get rude answers from customer service personnels?

Oh... the list goes on and on and on.

Think about it... what is kindness? What is graciousness?

I may not be the best person in this world but I dare say that I am one who do bother to be kind.

I hold the door at the lift, I give up seats for the elderly, pregnant or young, I queue and don't jump queue no matter how much I need to be faster, I always say thank you and smile at the cashiers even if they don't, I hold the door open at the mall for the person who seems to have his/her hands full.... and the list goes on and on and on.

Why do I bother to show such act of kindness? I don't know but it comes naturally.

I only know that I do not like those umpleasant situations I mentioned earlier.

I tell myself and my princesses...

Do not do unto others what you do not like others to do unto you.

I still believe in that and I still try my very best to live up to that.

If only the neighbour will just show a little graciousness...

I am totally living in a prison cell now as I refuse to open my door and hear her screaming at her children, blasting her hi-fi on religious chants (no, I am not racist or what... but I believe it can be done at a lower volume?), them coming home like near midnight and announcing their arrival, them trying to grow a forest out there, them deciding that their laundry deserve to take up all the space outside (which we value a lot because that was where Ash goes out and have bubble time and me not having to worry about her, which I hope Aver will get to enjoy with her sis too...) and many many more.

Oh... I endure and be nice... you know... smile and wish that someday they will just stop being so selfish.

Why do I even bother to be kind?

As my baby grows...

Looking at Aver, I realised that Ash is no longer a baby but a little girl.

Looking at Aver, I realised that Ash has grown from cute to pretty.
Looking at Aver, I realised that I miss Ash at that age.
Looking at Aver, I realised that I cannot turn back the clock.
Looking at both girls, I realised that I can hold on to the memories of them growing.
So I decided on having a photo wall which shows them growing.
I started with Ash and after every layout, I cannot help but want to hug Ash and tell her how much I love her.

If you noticed, first and second months are missing as we did not have our digital camera then and now that our scanner is throwing a tantrum, I cannot get the hardcopies scanned.

What do you think? Isn't Ash a chubby cutie pie?

Aver's rashes...again

Yes...again...

Went for another follow-up and how timely for her rashes to start to get infected again and turned all weepy and pus-producing.

Even the dermatologist was going,"hmmm, huuuummmm, errrrr...hmmmm...."

There, she has no idea what to do as she is not reluctant to prescribe any other creams as the ones that Aver is using is already quite laden with steriods.

Then, she sent us off to a senior consultant and she went,"hmmmmm.....huuuummmmm...errrrmmmm...hmmmm..."

No... I don't mean to say that they are not good enough but really how much steriod creams can a little 15 month baby take?

They have to find alternative medicine that may not harm the baby but yet do the job.

At the end, its another round of antibiotics (a different one from the previos) and a change in the cream.

Also there is a scheduled blood test just so that we know what she is allergic to.

OUCH!

The Senior said that it will be an uncomfortable 10 minutes and we agreed to that comment but well what is 10 minutes compared to a whole childhood plagued by this weepy pus-producing eczema?

And so if you are reading this post, please utter a prayer for the little one that the eczema will be gone and she will be released from this horror.

Thank you.

To prevent her from scratching it at night, I sewed two pieces of shrugs..."Straitjacket" shrug.
u can read more about that in Wen Crafting but here is a picture of it.




And I will leave you with a little of her cheekiness when the rash was recovering a few weeks ago.

Lost in the mail

I am very upset because I have items that I ordered on eBay lost in mail.
The seller has been very kind in trying to help with the tracking of it but we still have no news at all.
I hope...I just hope that it will just appear in my mailbox soon.
Very sad...
Very very very sad.

Easter Bunnies

I will not go on about it here.
Click the title and see for yourself.

A new blog

Yes... I am crazy!
I have created a new blog just for my crafts... just to put everything pertaining to my craft work there.
I will still be posting bits and pieces here and majority of it goes there.
I like to blog because it helps me to look at myself and allows me to tell myself that I am not that useless afterall.
If you just want to read about the crafts, go to Wen Crafting.
If you just cannot get enough of my nonsense yak about my life then come back here for your dose often.

Care Bear Personality Check

	Tenderheart Bear You are thinker, organizer, peacekeeper, and leader all in one. You have a power to command attention and people listen to you. However, you are often so concerned about not hurting others' feelings that you don't tell them what they need to hear and this gets you both into trouble. But you always have loyal friends to help you out.
Take the Which Care Bear Are You? Quiz!

I have alway loved Carebears although not as obssess with it as Winnie the Pooh and Sanrio characters.

I remebered I took the same test before but cannot remember what kind of Carebear was I.

Now, I am Tenderheart... guess as time pass by we do things differently and value things differently hence the change.

Our Photo Light Box

Have read up a bit on taking better pictures and found a blog which taught how to DIY a photo light box. Talked to Superpig about it and this is what he came up with.

Please ignore the unmade bed...

It is an Ikea laundry bag.

It served the purpose well, except that we have to find way to make sure it doesn't collapse.

It works just as well but we need to get white light because all the lights in the house is yellow.

Best part, when not in use it can be folded away in the storeroom and it can replace an old laundry bag in future.

P.S. The photos of the rosettes and embroidery barrettes were taken in it.

Rosettes and embroidery barrettes

Since the first batch of barrettes, I have been waiting for an another opportunity to start another round. I decided to make use of ribbon embroidery and stitch embroidery this time rather than buttons.

I must say it is harder, especially for my fingers. I am not satisfied with the outcome this time as they look wonky. Never mind... there will be a better batch the next time.

Now, what do you think? Let me know so that I can improve. Thank you.

Jelly Time

It's a week of break from school and since I had spent massive amount on the Sanrio moulds, I have to do something, right?
So I let Ash have a go in the kitchen.

Start collecting cool water

Pour the stuff into the cup of hot water Mummy had prepared
Ash still pouring away
Then stir away
Let's take a sniff...smells like... hmmm...

Read instructions to make sure its right
Now poor in the cool water to the hot mixture
Moulds all ready for Ash
Here goes...
There is more...

End product is now sitting snuggly in the fridge.

Wait patiently... (not written in the instruction on the package)

Later, after dinner there will be dessert!

A new shrug for Aver

If you had been following this blog, you will know that Aver is suffering from eczema and her rashes came and go for 9 months already.
Despite the antibiotics and steriod creams, the rashes do come back and it gets infected.
When it is itching, she scratches them and it worsens the condition.
Recently the infected rash at her elbow was clearly up but she scratched it real bad.
It worsened yet again.
So we had to find a solution to prevent her from getting at it again.
At night, she wears her long sleeved pj to sleep and that helps as she cannot scratch the rash directly.
In the day, wearing long sleeved blouses is not an option unless we do not mind the increase electrical bill due to 24 air conditioning.
So I made a shrug for her.

Here she is showing you how happy she is wearing it.

Here is a view from the back.

And this is her answering my question of who is the pretty girl.

It is cool enough to wear over a singlet and if the weather is warm, we can easily pull it of.

Material : 100 % cotton knit
Cost : Scraps from the ponchos that I made

My Crafting Till Now

I thought I should do a list of all the crafty things that I had done since years ago.

I started with cross stitches but have been neglecting it.
I had tried some Precious Moments designs but I have no idea where they went.
And for those projects that I had completed, I did not frame them up as there was no place for them to be hung up.
These were done some seven to ten years ago.

Then I tried my hands on sewing and started with quilting.
I made a blanket for Aver and then I planned another for Ash.
Although all the blocks had been cut I have yet to sew them yet.
It has been coming to a year.

I moved on to appliques... I did a few bibs for Aver and a few more for friends' babies last Christmas.

After that I started to learn to sew for my two little girls.

I think I did sew a few more but I just do not have any photos to show...

Mental note to myself...take more photos!

Next I tried to sew a blouse for myself but it did not work out.

So there is definitely no photos to show at all.

Then there is the halter top I sewed for Pam.

There are other bits and pieces of things I have done.

Hair clips... or barrettes.

I am starting on another batch and this time I used ribbon embroidery and thread embroidery as designs.

There were also grocery bags.

Tissue cozies...

Diaper bags

There are crocheting too.

And of course, there is the digital scrapbooking.

There... I have lsited down those that I have done in the past few years.

I have a lot of craft supplies sitting in my storeroom waiting for me to turn them into something nice.

Soon... my friends... soon.