The week is almost over...

Today's the first day I wont be dancing at all for the first time in about a month. Its a nice break that I've been waiting for. My dance instructor DD just told me that he's leaving for S'pore for 2 weeks on Sunday which means I wont be dancing for about a week after the Inaugral Law Society Dinner next week where we'll be doing the hip hop performance. I get to watch the whole of H's match tonight without having to run off somewhere after the 1st quarter. (However tomorrow I have a totally choc-a-block day)

The past month has been totally exhausting for me and if any of you have noticed I havent even had the chance to scrap for almost 2 weeks now (feels much longer though). We had a farewell dinner for a fabulous friend yesterday and it was full of laughs and great company, not forgetting the food as well! Jenkie will be going back to Phlippines while Norman works in Shanghai and we'll all miss her dearly especially at the studio. Her last performance will be with DD at the GHK Annual Dinner this Saturday which I have to rush to after showing my face at the International Women's Club (Arabian Nights) dinner....oh well, at least I get to use my belly dancing costume more than once *grinz* Our belly performance was such a success, they have asked us to perform at a charity event next month...thankfully its a while away so I can put up my feet for now.

I tried on this absolutely gorgeous dress at Bajoo yesterday. I noticed it after going through their racks and its gold which totally goes with the Law Society dinner theme of Silver and Gold plus its in lovely chiffon....unfortunately the price is a bit too much for me. The lady was apprehensive about me fitting into it at first cos she said it was too small but well what do u know...guess all that dancing has done me some good eh *wink*

This exhausting week is almost over. I've prepared what the 2 bosses have been harping on since last week despite all my dance and Law Society commitments and I'm ending it with a totally relaxing hot stones massage at the blissful Shiatzen Spa and treating H to the same for being such a lovely bf :) I *heart* my boyfriend :D

Now for some self advertising...LOL

Look what I was naughty with last week...sigh.... this is not even all of it. I also got a few buttons, SEI pattern papers, K&Co pattern papers & stickers, American Craft precision pens and galaxy markers....I controlled myself but I still bought more than I thought I would. Oh well, they are LOVELY and I cant wait to get started!!

They think its all over...it is now!

So after all the hard work, sweat, tears, laughter, etc...last night we showed everyone our stuff. I'm so proud to be a part of the DMM family. The many friends I have made there really know how to have a good time and what's even better is that we all share a common bond, a love for dance. If anyone went, I hope you enjoyed the show cos we sure did!

A sneak preview...

Latin:- The accessories are all handmade i.e. the bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings, etc. The costumes have all been individually designed and made by our beloved instructor DD.

The other costumes are gorgeously bling as well especially the belly dancing ones! Only 2 days to go now!!

Yay! I’m single for a week!! Don’t get my wrong, I love my cuddles and will miss them dearly but there has just been so much happening and will be happening this month, I’m starting to wear myself out. When H is around, squeezing in “US” time amongst all my other activities is a must so its easier not to do that when he’s not around…hehe.

The show is now just next Monday and I still have stones to stick on my costume. Before that we’re having daily bowling practice for the upcoming Law Society Bowling Tournament on Friday and our dance classes for the performance at the Law Ball is starting as well. Catwalk practice is this Saturday…ppffffttt!! All this and I gotta squeeze in time to finish my “to watch” list….

i. episodes 13 -16, Season 3 of House;
ii. episodes 13 – 16 of 24;
iii. season 2 (and *fingers crossed* season 3) of Gray’s Anatomy;
iv. season 7 of CSI: Las Vegas
v. all of Prisonbreak

Am I being realistic? No, I don’t think so either….lets try and get through (i) and (ii) first la…Oh there is also regular rummy night tomorrow and and and…. Red Bull Basketball Tournament in Gadong and *groan* lots of work….I better make sure Shawn organises that trip to Labuan…its been ages since a good nite out thanks to the crack down on local parties…

Cards n embossing...

Its not been a scraptafic weekend as I've been sticking stones on my costumes n tiring myself out with dance rehersals all weekend. Its like Sha says, I dont really feel like I've had a weekend really...I couldnt even stay awake to watch a basketball match live!! Hope to get an LO done while H is in China this week...

Well, Friday night was CT's birthday and I did indicate to the girls that I would make a card. I wish I knew that they had forgotten about it so I wouldnt have rushed it but its ok. I thought of a simple design but it all went out the window when I decided to try my hand at embossing. Yes!I've finally done it and I LOVE IT!!

The flower was already in my mind so that was the 1st thing I put on. I knew I wanted a tri-fold card as well, hence the design. I used the embossing pen to write the words Happy Birthday and embossed it with clear rainbow powder. Before fitting the Heidi Swapp flower on the edge and securing it with an MM brad, I drew a doodle from the Chatterbox doodle genie and coloured it in with my white zig marker. I used MM Spring stamps to print the pink flowers and alternated the stamped flowers with AC and Prima flowers. The words still looked a bit plain so I drew around them with a purple Uniball signo pen. The name Siti were rub-ons from Scrapworks and the heart brad is MM. The "Happy Birthday" PP was from the DCWV text paper stack I bought from SC last Thursday. I was good!! That was all I bought along with a vanishing pen (I deserve a medal for not shopping more :p)

One of my good mates birthday is coming up in May in UK. I had seen a similar design in Card Creations mag and the DCWV text paper provided some great words for me to cut out and paste on here. Bazzil cardstock and Tim Holtz Distress Ink helped me out here as well as the ever reliable Xyron sticker maker! Doodled a bit with my white chalk ZIG marker but didnt show up too well on dark cardstock....oh well...

I still had time to twiddle my thumbs while H was watching football (on a Saturday night) so I decided to make a Mother's Day card...yup, so organised for once! I picked out the paper from my Rose Garden card kit which was already cut and scored. I wanted to emboss again so I got a strip of pink cardstock, stamped it, outlined it with my embossing pen, sprinkled embossing powder n embossed. Its really lovely cos its like black with all these shiny rainbowy bits. I had a vellum family quotes stack where I picked out the words "Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother". Stuck the vellum on the same pink cardstock then framed it with Prima flowers. Tied ribbon at one side cos I thought all flowers would be overbearing. My costume rhinestone sticking followed into my scrapping as I put rhinestones in the centre of my flowers and in between quotes.

TFL!!

P.S. On a good note, I won loads (for my standards...anything more than $10 is good la) at our last weekly rummy session *grinz* Cant wait for the next one!! Hehe...

F & J

I managed to get some scrapping done over the past week. I made H a good luck card on Monday night for his game on Tuesday as I was not able to attend it. It was a lame attempt and I was rushed for time. Have not taken a picture cos I just dont think its very good. They won tho :) Hope it doesnt mean I have to make him a card every time he has a game...hehe

On Friday, I got inspired to make an accordian album for H cos he's leaving for China next week for an exhibition n thought it would be nice if he had some pics of us. Though him being the un-soppy soul he is is probably going to leave it at home...hehe. Anyways I knew what PP (think its American Crafts) I wanted so it was a trek to Shabby Chic to get this and I bought my chipboard from Active Art. A huge piece for $3.50 is very worth it!! Its a pain to cut tho :p I bought the ribbon from Neptune Florist at The Mall as Shabby didnt have any to match the PP. Cut it a bit short tho. Opps!

Its only a 5"x5" album cos I didnt want him to carry something too big and 4"x4" was too small to fit in the pictures properly. As you can see, even for 3R size, it didnt leave me much space for embelishing nor journaling.

I had my idea for my 1st page before I started on the album already. My circle cutter from Laines in Singapore made cutting circles a breeze. I matted the picture with Bazzil cardstock and pasted it onto my Heidi Swapp flower for the effect I wanted. It still looked a bit plain so after much deliberation, I added the "F" and "J" thickers. H's name in Mandarin is Fung hence "F" :)

The 2nd page is relatively simple. I just matted the photo longer on one side to allow for the scalloped edge and added the photo corners. The bling frame is Heidi Swapp which I purposely skewed to allow our (held) hands to fit in. Heart brads are MM.

Funny enough I was running out of ideas cos the pictures filled up the page so much. I wrote my private message for H on an MM Fresh Anthology Tag n slipped it behind this photo. To make it less plain, I added Heidi Swapp fussy rub-ons. The rub-on on the right didnt manage to 'avoid' H's head cos the backing is actually not transparent so u cant see where its going. Made a bit of a boo-boo but it wasnt too bad. It takes alot of rubbing for these rub-ons to come off I tell ya!

I didnt realise how blurry the pic of this last page was but I cant be bothered to take it again...hehe. I used the same cardstock to matt again but this time I added a quote from a Sticker Quote stack at the side which reads "It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun - Henry Wandsworth Longfellow". Another pull-out was added behind which was a message I meant to give H on our aniversary. I really wanted to use the MM Shimmer Stickers I got from Pictures2pages so I managed to squeeze them on here as you can see :)

Overall I'm quite happy with the result. Love the colours and can you believe this was all done (chipboard cutting, making the accordian album and decorating it) in less than 3 hours?!! I couldnt either...hehe.

Its my first attempt at making n decorating an accordian album from scratch so its a bit messy but its good practice for my next one!!

One year ago...

Its been a year since dad left us....I still miss him loads....

Headaches...me no likes!

I've been having a headache since Saturday night. I think it was further aggravated with the lack of sleep that night and subsequently the sun and smoke from graveyard cleaning duties n all the praying and burning of "gold" paper. Last night when I mentioned to H about my aching head, he offered me Panadol. I refused cos I told him it was bearable and my dad always used to say "Dont take pain killers unless you really need to". H lives by the same philosophy. That set me off. The whole night I couldnt stop thinking about dad and how in the year preceeding his death, he was taking pain killers at regular intervals throughout the day. He must have been in a lot of pain and that made me cry....over and over. It led to further memories....how he didnt want me to go to KK for my birthday last year cos he wouldnt see me for 2 days, how I promised him 'siu mai' from Phongmun but didnt manage to get it for him before he left us, how I awoke one night from my shift of looking after him to find him stroking my face, how when he was slipping away he thought he was very short cos I told him how little he weighed when he asked me, how I was the only child whose graduation (actually it was call to Brunei Bar. He missed my graduations cos he was ill) he attended, etc. I gotta put this all down one day with appropriate pictures of him as and when I find them. For now these stories are still etched in my memory but incase I ever forget, I can read this post to get my memory jogging again :)

Baby Ryan's Bathtime

I absolutely love this LO I did of my little cousin. I've always loved this picture and since it was only 3R thought it would only make a 9x9 but then I got inspired on what I could do with it. Its the simplest and one of the best I've done I think. I was too tired after clearing n re-arranging all my scrapping stuff so I just did a simple LO. I chose bold colours to make the photo stand out more and pattern paper to depict bath bubbles. The duck was actually a coaster that had the words "Baby Mine" on it (compliments from Jazz) so I had to cover it up with pattern paper and rubbed on words of my own using Scrapworks Colour Rubz Font Folders for "Ryan" and L'll Davis Tinstletown Rub On Alphas for the words "baby". Both are from Pictures2Pages, Singapore. The holes were made using the eyelet tool from the Deluxe Tool Kit and a different colour was put behind the holes to get that cool effect. I drew the circles n wavy lines using pencil and tried to space out the holes as evenly as possible. Oh and the words bathtime are Thickers from Pictures2Pages as well :)

Its been a scrapping great weekend!

So, I've finally decided not to wait to retake my not very good pictures of my latest work and post it up anyway along with some pictures of my scrap space and the stuff I got that arrived from Singapore. This was the mess that was when I had to take out all my stuff n rearrange it so that I would know where everything was and ensure there was stuff for my big shopping spree to Shabby Chic.

So, this was what I cut and pasted and embelished for ages last week when I finally had a night free to scrap....

These pictures of my sisters inspired me to have them scrapped straightaway. It took me a total of about 3 hours including all the cutting n arranging but it was worth it in the end! The 3D flowers were painstakingly cut out from the same pattern paper from MM's Fresh Anthology Eliza collection. Had sore fingers for a while and put on 3D sponge dots for a layered 3D effect. The big "S" was chipboard which was painted with pink paint then I painted the edges with white paint then covered the whole thing with shiny clear paint. The rest of the title was from DCWV black chipboard stickers which had to be painted pink twice to cover up the black colour properly. Flowers are from the Prima Bitty Bag and the rub-ons are American Craft. The jigsaw frames are from the same MM Fresh Anthology collection.