Some randomness for the end of April

It is coming to the end of yet another month and I am quite ashamed with myself.
My cameras have been in cold storage for quite awhile.
The weather has been crazy hot and the sun has been burning down at us very harshly causing me to be in constant pain in the head area...

Anyway, just to make sure that I do not totally disappear from this space, like me indulge in a little randomness...

First, there is this new Indian stall at the coffeeshop that we visit very weekend mornings. Other than the usual prata, this is what it serves also. It is crispy and the chocolate syrup simply makes it even more delicious. However, its prata needs to be a little more crispy to be able to meet my standard.


Second, Aver likes to read and bugs me to read to her. However, I have been putting it off. I have decided not to put this off anymore. My version of homeschooling will have to start soon. She is an eager learner and enjoys going for lessons. Come weekends, she will ask to go for lessons and if does not have lesson on that day, she will sulk. If I tell her that she can have Mummy's lesson, she will reply,"Ok, I wan Mummy's lessson," smiles and walk away satisfied.



Ash had her first ballet exam somewhere last month and she got her result.
I was hoping that she may not do quite well for it so that I can have an excuse to drop ballet from her extra curriculums... but guess I have to wait another year.
Anyhow, I should be proud of her.

There was some fabric shopping over the last weekend and I managed to sew two pieces of clothing for the two princesses... will show photos of it the next time.

Mini Pouchies

I have made these two mini pounches which for the sake of cuteness, I call them mini pouchies.

Mini Sweetie Pouchie

Mini Sweetic Pouchie (back)
Mini Flora Pouchie
Mini Flora Pouchie (back)

They measures approximately 5.5" by 5''.

Inner lining is green (somewhat like the Detol kind of green... lightish green).

Has a ribbon strap at one side which is long enough to allow yoor wrist to slip in.

I can put my Nokia N95 in it and a packet of tissue too.

These pouchies are for sale but I do not know how much to price them at.

Tentatively, I am thinking in the range of S$5 to S$7.

Would you like to suggest a price for it?

Would you be interested in purchasing one?

Thanks for dropping by.

Randomness of life

It had been awhile and this little space is a little neglected.
So... here is just a little randomness around me.

Aver's newest hairstlye...

Ash snoozing away in the car...

Aver got so tired waiting for her favourite soya bean tart...

Another beautiful morning sky...

I have called in sick today as my body and my mind can no longer function properly.

My migraine attacks are more frequent now and I need time to nurse the sore head.

I need a break from all the frustrations and the best way is to be alone at home for a few hours.

Quiet and peace is what I need now.

Just Photos

I took this photo of Aver napping this afternoon when we reached home.

She must had felt that the classic music playing from the radio is too noisy for her.

These groups of photos were taken while on the way to schools in the morning.

If you have noticed, I typed 'schools', in the plural form as it refers to three different schools we are heading to in the mornings.

This particular one is a sunset.

It was so beautiful... my photography skill does not do justice to the sunset and Superpig refused to stop the car for me to have a good shot too.

And there were rainbows...

Again, my skill does not do justice to the magnificent view.

The sun was setting and the sky was tinted orange.

There was a slight drizzle and I thought there might be a rainbow...

As I walked out into the corridor, I saw it and was in awe.

The rest of the evening was all joyful as I cannot stop thinking about the beautiful rainbow in the orange tinted evening sky.

Lastly, another digital layout of the girls reading together.

It is a rare sight as Aver will always snatch the books away from her sister.

Or you can hear Aver shouting at her sister...

Towel is is hanging on the pole

I am not alllowed to throw in the towel yet...
At the rate that we are going, I don't think I can throw in the towel anytime soon.

I want to say that this time, the problem is not the institution or the people that I worked with. So my need to quit is more personal.
It seemed that since I have returned to teaching, things at home are not doing very well.
I have been easily tired and easily stressed (because I am a perfectionist and I believe that I can change the world ... which I cannot!) that this has started to affect my two princesses.
It has also started to affect me... I look very different as compared to 2 years ago. My skin is dull and unpleasant and I am usually seen with a frown and not a smile.

At this very moment, I leave the house to go to work with heavy heart.
At the back of my mind is the two princesses.
Hence, I cannot concentrate on my work.

I need to find a way out of this situation but it seems like it will be like that for the next few years.

So... I cannot quit even if I need to.

So... I need to learn to super multitask and multi think!

I am throwing in the towel!

I am typing this at work and I am throwing in the towel.
What happens when the passion for your job is now become a chore, a fear and exreme stress.
I quit 4 years ago and now I am quitting again.
Call me weak but I realised that I am no longer as good as I was before.
I do not want to coninue asking myself what is it that I am not doing right or wht went wrong.
The answer is nothing went wrong!
It just that it is not my path.
This is no longer my calling...
Actually, what is my calling?

Another Digital L/O

Aver is sick and hence I am home with her.

Other than trying to get some rest along with Aver, I decided to do a quick layout.

I kept it real simple by using item from mostly one collection - Valentine 2009 from Scrapbook Flair. (I think... I am lousy, mostly hopeless at keeping records of those scrapbooking kits I downloaded.)

Back to Aver being sick...

Well, if you had been following this blog, you will have known that she has sensitive skin and hence her eczema attacks. For the past year, the eczema raches came and went and along with it she started to have this cough. The cough is prolonged and it usually appears when her rashes appear.

It was finally confirmed that her cough is largely due to her eczema... she developed sensitive airways too. In the recent two months, this cough started to develop into wheezing. She had that last month and I had to be away from work for 4 days to look after her. She got the wheezing again on Saturday and went to see the doctor on Sunday. Today she is kept at home to recuperate. Her wheezing has stopped and now she is nursing the cough and the phelgm.

On top of that, her fingers are badly infected and that is also due to eczema! I would have shown you a picture of her badly infected thumb but it will definitely make you upset.

Let's just pray that she will get better by tonight and we can all go back to our normal routine tomorrow.

Digital Scrapbook Layout

It has been a long time since I last did a digital scrapbooking layout.
I am getting dusty.
Hope I can find some time to do at least one layout a week.

More Stamps!!!

I am sort of hooked on this eraser stamp craft thingy... and Superpig has been very encouraging. He is even willing to sponsor the craving tools but I don't mind waiting a little longer. I like my penknife for now.

So in the span of three days, I made these.




Although they are not very professional looking or even cute enough compared to those I have seen on Flicker but I am willing to keep learning and testing my own skills.

It is a joy to learn something new and it is a even greater joy to perfect this new skill. I have learnt to sew for my daughters and myself, I have learnt to crochet, I have learnt to do digital scrapbooking and now I have learnt to carve my own stamps... in these two years that past, I must say that I am growing slowly in my crafting talent.

Maybe... just maybe, I do have a talent somewhere.

No... I am not being pessimistic. I had always wondered what is my talent. I had always asked God about it. I had grown up thinking that I am a talentless and unintelligent person. (Actually, I still feel this way sometimes.)

Maybe... just maybe ...

I am happy

Buckwheat Wrists Rest

Two posts in one day?

That is because Aver is in childcare and Ash has been brought out by her paternal grandmother. And I already miss her... I wonder why my mother-in-law never asked me along? I guess in her eyes I am not a good enough mother to my children or a good enough wife to her son...

Anyway, since I am at home alone and feeling depress, I need to work on something. So, I sewn.

I did mentioned somewhere in the past that I had lots of organic buckwheat ... since Superpig had been asking for a wrists rest. I made one ... sorry ...FIVE of them!

Why so many? That is because I want to use up the scrap fabric from the curtains I made yesterday and I am feeling generous (despite fighting the abovementioned depressing thoughts).

So if you want any of it just leave a comment here. Four friends will be picked out at the end of this week. Don't worry about your distance ... I am feeling generous.

Two Noren Curtains and some rubber stamps

It's the school holiday for a week here so I can stay at home with Ash. Ash knows how to entertain herself so I can do my own stuffs. Aver, on the other hand, goes to childcare as usual.

So, I sew and I surfed the web for more inspiration.

We had always wanted curtains at our doorway so that we can open our doors without having to feel shy about the mess inside. We had went to Ikea in the past two weekends and we bought two fabulous fabric from the curtain section and the curtain rod.

Yesterday, I sew the curtains... both of it. I put the first one up and the other went into the storeroom before I took any photos of it. So here is the first one...

As I blog hopped, I got even more inspired by the crafts made by others out there. I had always love rubber stamps and had wanted to try making my own (ha... this sound rather familiar. According to Superpig, I like to try every crafts out there.) This time my inspiration came from Xue-originals. She made beautiful rubber stamps.

At first, I did not have the intention of making my own as that would mean I need to go look for the craving knives and the wood blocks... cost cost cost... At the moment, I am biting my fingers, trying very hard not to buy need craft supplies. But, I chanced upon another blog (which I have lost the link...) which featured some Japanese craft books which involve making your own rubber stamps using erasers.

And TAH....DAH.....

I used those flag erasers (which does not erase pencil marks well...), a pencil (to draw the design...) and a pen knife (to try to carve..). It worked! These may be very simple and amateur but I like the simplicity and these are images that I like. I like the little girl as it resembles my two girls.

Hope you will like them too.

Fun with dough, Sports Day and...

I finally managed to drag out the cold storaged play dough and soft clay for the princesses to play.
Aver did cutting and rolling of play dough with Superpig.
Ash and I tried our hands at the rather-not-so-soft soft clay (it was not kept in air tight condition...)
However, we had no final product to show as Ash and myself have no idea what to do.

And today, it's Ash's Sports Day at school.
She was running in the class relay.
Her group came in second... WELL DONE!
We observed her from a distance whilst she was with her friends.
It was fun to observe her from a distance.
Very much like me, she is a loner and a follower.
But she tried her best to be with her friends and she did enjoy herself also.

Crochet and Sewn

From an ugly transponder to a lovely item to hang on my neck whilst I am at work.

So if anyone is interested in beautifying your transponder drop me an email.

Oh... I am very proud of it because I designed it myself and it is my first very own pattern.

Next is a blouse I had sewn for myself.

After sewing for my princesses and also other non-wearable items, I finally embarked on a blouse for myself.

I like the blouse a lot and the instruction is rather easy to follow.

I believe there will be more blouses for myself in future.

With regard to the Pay It Forward game, the response is weak but as and when you like to join in just drop a comment here.

Ah Fat, your item is in the designing stage... and thanks for responding to that post.

Pay It Forward

I had heard about this movie called "Pay It Forward" and had wanted to watch it but did not got to. Now, a fellow blogger friend had participated in this "Pay It Forward" scheme on blogland and I thought it will be interesting to join in as ...

(1) It will help get myself motivated to craft again.

(2) I like to share

(3) I can think of other things other than work

(4) It is a great de-stresser

So how do you play?

1. You have to have a blog.

2. First 3 commenters on this post will get to have something handmade by me (it is not bound by territory... its international).

3. You will in turn play the Pay It Forward game on your blog and it will go on from there.

4. I have 365 days to prepare the handmade gifts to the 3 commenters.

Crochet necklace for Ash

I was not feeling up to beat for the past week.

Aver fell sick last Friday and she is still running a fever and developed a nasty phlegmy cough.

So since I was stuck at home with her, I made this necklace for Ash.

I have been neglecting Ash due to over tiredness from work and also a demanding Aver.
Ash felt unwanted and had been acting up (partly due to her lack of focus also...).
I am guilty of how I reacted towards her made her feel this way.
Plus, I am turning into my mother, subconsciously, being very sceptical and critical of our own offspring. (Which i was determined not to be but... a long story which I will pour out another time.
So, now I am trying my best to show Ash that i love her just as much as before and that she still a precious gem in my eyes.
So this is for her.

Kids' Valentine Crafts

Since it is Valentine's Day, I wanted to have the children work on some heart day's crafts.

For Aver, I cut out a heart on construction paper and let her cut paper scraps tp stick on the big heart. This allow her to learn scissors skill.


For Ash, I followed Martha Stewart's napkin heart dollies. She had difficulty trying to cut through the thick layers. When she saw the final product, she was very happy. She found the little piece and opened it up. She exclaimed,"Mummy, look! It's a flower!" So I guess she was happy with her craft.

Happy Valentine's Day to you out there.

Just some mundane ramblings

These are scenes around me the last few days...

Yellow Post-It Tags to indicate corrections on the pupils' worksheets.

I hope that the number of tags used will be lesser as time goes by.

I do hope that they will be able to improve.

The massive amount of books that I had marked.

On average, I need to mark about two sets of books or worksheets but this was one very particular day which I had quite a massive bit.

The other portion of the books that I had to leave behind as I packed up to go pick my daughters up from school.

I cleared this pile the next morning when I returned.

There is a very motherly colleague who makes the effort to cook for the staff in the staffroom that I am in.

I like to walk into the room and be greeted with the delicious smell, it sort of drown out the tiredness in my body and recharges my energy to tackle my marking.

This particular day she cooked chicken curry.

I am going to try to cook this for my family.

I found this seedling amongst the vegetable that I was preparing for dinner and I thought I would just plant it.
It survived! It is growing tall and growing well. I will be potting it soon.

Some interesting flower pattern on my centry eggs. Don't think it is good for the health, most probably it is bacteria growth ... I remembered reading somewhere or seeing somewhere that the bacteria have the most interesting patterns and designs. So I played it safe and threw them away.

And this is what I see when I turned around ... Aver lying on the floor while waiting for me to finish cooking. She was tired and totally bored. A reminder to myself that I must create a little corner to let her "cook" too.

That is my life for the past two weeks.

Hope yours is well and good too.

It has been a long time

Well, it has been a long time since I have blogged. So, you can imagine the amount of work that is keeping me busy.

There is work from school and there is stuff to do at home and also stuff to do as a mother and a wife. However, I had taken quite a few photos with the intention of sharing on this space but well they have been left in the camera ...

Crafting and sewing is non-existant at the moment... but I hope I can get to it soon as I can feel my fingers itching and hear my sewing machine crying out for attention.

So I leave you with these not so cute Hello Kitty pineapple tarts that I baked during the Chinese New Year.

Some crafting to divert my attention

There are some irritating problems happening in the homefront. I had spent too much time and effort plus brain juice fretting over it and hence I fell sick, drove badly as my mind was busy... However, I am very glad that the Lord sent a nice lady to listen and to talk to me.

She told me to stop fretting and move on... only when I move on than my life will be free of bad vibes. She told me to be still and to listen to the Lord's voice.

So I moved on... the problem is smaller now but still there but we can solve it.

So I made these roses... its the month of Love. So I made these roses to brighten up our house.


Then I seached for my stash of cross-stitch fabric and sewed this. It is small, about 3 inches by 3 inches and I still do not have any idea what to do with it yet. What you see here is not the completed one yet.

Happy Love month to you out there.

First Day of Lunar New Year 2009

After two days of cleaning, I have to finally keep all cleaning equipments as it is bad omen to clean on the first day.

After so many years, now I finally unserstood why we are not allowed to clean or do any housework on the first day of Lunar New Year. Long ago and till now, women usually stayed home and made sure that food was on the table to feed the family and the house was cleaned throughout the year. They do not have any rest days or annual leave. Hence, there must be some wise lady who decided that they should also have some days to rest and put up their feet, if not to put on some make up and feel beautiful again. Hence, NO HOUSEWORK on the first day of Lunar New Year. (What do you think?)

Anyway, even if I want to clean the house, I can't as out first day have always been packed.

We started the day with my feeble attempt to style their hair with rag curls. I should have done it the night before so that the hair will dry as they slept.

Then, the princesses got to 拜年 to us with two oranges and we returned them with red packets.

And we were off to their paternal grandmother's house and then round the island we went and ended up at my brother's place for dinner. I felt so much more comfortable there than anywhere else and dinner was good... with my mum's best belachan chilli.

However, Ash vomited after drinking a cup of milk... guess she had not chewed her food properly and she did too much jumping around with her cousins.

So this is the four of us wishing all of you a wonderful and blessed "moo moo" year ahead.