happy moments

This was THE picture on one scrapbook blog that made me endlessly fascinated by buttons on scrapbooking. I got a few buttons so all the next projects will have buttons, and more ribbons, and using my sister's stamps...lalala... the weekends seem shorter and less lonely. In fact, can't wait to go home after work and start on some new project... ...

I am really missing someone right now. I wish we can spend endless summer weekends together. While recalling those happy moments we shared, I remember the small little smile I would give him, a pouty little smile... and he would smile at me with glee, eyes wrinkling up into little joyful gleams, whereupon I would act disturbed... ...I did not learn to treasure those happy moments and I'm afraid they will be gone forever.

The small little worries I had during my relationship all seems so mundane and insipid now compared to the bleak future. I am always living in the present, but nowadays it seems that the recent past is a much better place to hide in. I am a better person, after all that has transpired. I know that I would be happier with - than without him in my life. After all, since the first time I met him, I knew. I knew... ...it took an excruciatingly long 5 months for him to come to that realization too. And now... I just hope that...the love will be rekindled again.

scrapbook project - baby and birthday!

So last week, was doing up a couple of scrapbook projects. This was my initial plan but I felt it was too cramped so I added another board to space out the 3 photos!


This is the other board that was added. The paper already had the lovely flower print and polka dots, just added the lace and gloss on the dots.


I don't like to show the joining part so I covered it with 2 tags. Thought a flower was nice to be pasted on the envelope with baby's name! The tag and very nice christmas puffy sticker is found in my all time favorite stationery shop 'a'n b c' at Raffles City basement. I seem to be going there lots! And awesome gold nail polish at etude.house. I've been into their products recently and some of them are better than the other similar brands I've tried. Worth to go in to etude to have a look anyway since their products are so affordable!

So here's the blank boards. I love this 'pebble' stickers... very hard to find nice ones. This one from art republic at novena square. Papermarket doesn't have such nice 'pebbles'!

Close-up shot of the middle part! Notice the pebble! And the very cute kitty sticker... she is wearing a scarf!

Close up of both panels... I love this pastel pinks and vintage look very much... almost can't bear to give away...haha!

The final product! Hee....hope nothing will fall off unexpectedly...and the recipient will be happy to see it!
Next up is a super belated birthday project for a trusted friend. It was tough finding a photo of him, thankfully had snapped one earlier this year when we were at a museum exhibition. I always feel happy and content in my heart to do such craft works, although I was never very interested to do scrapbooking before (maybe because it's square!) and now of course there are so much more materials and shops to choose from, I really enjoy browsing the well-designed papers and little materials.

My concept for the project was to use some old postcards of buildings in Singapore which I had previously - recycle! We're both a fan of buildings. It's also a project for a guy, so I can't use those frilly ribbons, lace, glitter... stuck with a monochrome vintage theme and on the same base chipboard placed vertically. This is about 90% complete.

Closeup. I buy the 'rope', lace in previous project and other ribbons all from those traditional craft shop in Serangoon Central, the kind that teach how to make CNY lanterns out of red packets and teach how to knit, etc. I find their per meter cost of such materials so much cheaper. The lace is around $1+/ yard, to me it's cheap!

Here is the closeup of the finished project! Some words and dots from a scrapbook paper added to fill in the blank spaces.

I hope that he likes it!

Next project: I've finally decided to make Christmas cards and I have an idea for it. Made some samples yesterday and they looked swell! As budget is limited, shall use all the years past of scrap material I have at home! That way I won't kill the environment either. I love receiving Christmas cards (and birthday cards too) so I hope that many people will send me nice ones this year!

quiet times

I bought two more Parker pens.

They are gorgeously sitting in their boxes. Somehow the feel of using a solid pen to write is fantastic, compared to using the normal plastic pens. I never knew I would love pens, is it a guy's thing? Anyway they cost less than a ladies' blouse...so, justified.


So pretty and so shiny! I guess I like writing so it's a matter of progression to like pens too. The Uncle was quite happy to see a young girl like me liking such old-school things and happily chatted to me about the time when there was a tri-pen, the pen could pop out pencil, red ink, and normal ink nib. I saw some calligraphy pens for sale as well (Now where can find!) and remember fondly my Mom who used to learn calligraphy in school and also wrote some calligraphy art before. We are all very 'English' in this sense... tea with milk... calligraphy and 'quink ink'... I still remember the 'brother' typewriter!!! And the Uncle volunteered to ask his other Uncle suppliers whether they know of the Parker Jotter pencil still for sale... Wowee! The good thing about old school people is that they bother to help. I mean, without asking, he knows the pencil is reminiscent of some fond memory to me. Sentimental value. And he volunteered to help me ask around when he could be selfish and pretend dunno. I noticed the hawkers there are also the same. When people ask for directions to other food stalls (Old Airport is huge) they really bother to give specific directions and lead you along your way. A community spirit we can all learn from!

The scrapbook project for Baby S is done... will upload and show photos over the weekend!
There are gazillion things for me to do at home, now that I'm ever spending more time with myself... I don't know how people can be bored with their own time at home, there's so many things to complete. I gave one of my Coach bags a wash last night! After accompanying me on many over-the-sea trips and whatnot, it starts to have this 'musty' smell. Funny cause the other bags does not have it, only this one, despite being kept together. I sunned it but it still dun smell good. Wanted to bring it to professional bag cleaning...wayyyyyyy expensive. Around $50 for a small Coach and not even 'so' branded in my opinion to warrant the amount. If I had $50 I will wash my self rather than my bags... so I just washed it with shampoo, olive oil shampoo from Korea, then a sea salt scrub...then about 2 hours in front of the TV blow drying it. Very free right... but it seems to look nice (a bit of the leather 'red' color came out, but minimal) and new! Saved $50. Can put it towards the lambskin brown bag which I'm sure will need a wash in a few months and I don't dare wash and dry such a big bag. Coach is made of canvas anyways, with leather trimmings, and I've had it for a while now.

I'm grateful for the 'quiet times' phase in my life which I'm having now. The upside is that I have a clean bag and managed to make many pretty presents for people in my life I treasure. Here's what I usually do with my free time...

1. Read a book (novel) + cheese + wine... luxurious! (A small bottle of wine for one can be purchased at most Cold Storage). I do spend a lot on books as I read very fast. One book can be read in a day or so.

2. Wash things while in the bath. My scarf, delicates, red-color clothes... Now that I have high maintenance hair, I need to wait some time for the hair masks, conditioners, etc to be left in my hair, no choice. So bored while waiting. So it started off as just washing a few items. Now I'm a washaholic!

3. Write. I just need to write a page everyday. It keeps me grounded and less likely to rant off on things. Less upset as well. And now that I have shiny new pens...

4. Walk for one hour. Since I won't/can't run, walking is the next best activity. I usually take the road via Kensington to Serangoon Gardens and I always have an aim, like to buy frolick, or the nice bread sold in the mornings... yea.

5. Scrapbooking. But I seem to do it really fast. I really like to cut things... Cut cut cut!

love, parker

“When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on--series polygamy--until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.”
-Tom Robbins


My heart just goes warm and fuzzy when I see those intricate and nice christmas cards for sale. I actually save the ones I received, all, somewhere, and display them every christmas, and this weekend that's what I will do! They have such lovely displays at the stationery shop I frequent (a'n' bc at raffles city) and such cute calendars for sale. I'm always going there to buy cards and stickers and look at all the beautiful stationery for ages (great way to kill time in shopping centre since I'm so much more inclined to buy things to wear, than things to...collect dust.) They also have my fave Edward Monkton cards - ever since Mr A. gave me a card unexpectedly we have been giving each other cards from the range and they are all sitting pretty on my dresser! Every christmas, for years, I have been giving cards from Marks & Spencer, mainly because they come in 20s and I have that many people to write to, also because the cards give back a percentage to charity and the paper is made from recycled wood pulp... so I feel good even if I don't use up all of them! This year I feel like doing things differently... let's see how.

It's funny how memories can influence us in such subliminal ways. I was at Old Airport Road eating yesterday and decided to go to the old skool shops for post-lunch walk. They have some shops selling those ancient vintage watches that are all gold! Bought a magazine from a stationery shop...lo and behold! I spied Parker pens in the display... (and it was on sale! bad.) Best of all, it was 'the one' which I loved. When I was about 10 or so, Dad gave me a Parker pen exactly like that one. Only it was a pencil that looked like a pen.

'Uncle, is this a pen?'
'It's a pen.'
'Not a pencil?'
'All pens.'
'But I remember it was a pencil...'
'...it's a pen, lah...'

I think I irritated the uncle... cannot be I remember wrongly right? 10 year-olds have little uses for pens during my era. Anyway I found a photo on the lovely internet, see, Parker pen and pencil looking exactly the same. I loved that pencil very much, my Dad had specially engraved it for me. I think it was quite costly then. Cross pens were in too for the similar category range, but I really didn't like their ink coming out and the painted part flakes after a while. Parker is the best, lor. Can't seem to find their old school pens selling anywhere anymore.
My lovely pen. I feel quite happy looking at it. On my 'note' book (the irony.) And it was only left in red (last 2) and my old pencil was this color too!

I must go find my old school pencil. Oh man, now I feel like buying up the whole range. *controls insane urge to run over to Old Airport Road now*

Some history:
http://www.penbox.co.uk/jotter.history.htm


Today I thought about Christmas and I remembered what we did last year, it was an unplanned trip up to Melaka. Due to our friends who had their transport canceled at the last minute, we drove them up and had the bonus of nice company and free lodging as well! Quite paiseh but all the hotels in the area were fully booked! And we had satisfied my craving for the longkang burger, he satisfy his cravings for gazillion chicken feet dimsum...(the sate celup craving remained unsatisfied up till this date) we took requisite photos in front of a christmas tree, etc. So a small town christmas is something that I really look forward to instead of the mad rush and scary crowds type.

I really wonder when I will get to enjoy such moments again.

scrapbooking continuously

Whee! Am inspired by the type of chipboard that is not... square. I have two square ones, anyone wants to take them off my hands?! I really can't be inspired in a square!

Here's (one of) my ongoing projects. For those who want to print mini photos in fours for a theme, it's done at Ang Mo Kio Central near the Koi bubble tea. The photos are instant and it's $2.50. I've been to almost ALL photo shops and this quality is decent. Plus I like the size. I now have lots of lace from the traditional craft shops, and some small papers in the floral vintage theme I heart.

This looks similar to the previous but it's actually much bigger and cheaper! I joined two papers which sort of matched and I like checks and florals together then stick the lace to hide the line.
Later, the sides need to be sandpapered off to clear the jagged cut edges. Can use normal nail file, the black side.

Then I stamped the hearts (which will not really be visible after the photos are being put on), made a tag, put gloss on the flowers. Hesitated a bit on the '6 month'. It's "2 year old", 2 year (not years) so it should be 6 month (not months)? It just seems right not to add the 's' although we are so used to saying it (months...years...DAYS!!!). Ah well.

This project is going to be something simpler with 3 photos (I decided on 3)and hopefully not so many things jutting out from the sides...It's about done actually! Just need to add some flowers and bubbles and ribbons, all the fun fun fun stuff that is so therapeutic to do!
And the end product... ... ...???

TO BE CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PUBLIC HOLIDAY, 2 days from now.
This hobby is turning out to be more expensive than I thought, but still cheaper than spending a day outside in sg! Anyone needs random material please feel free to take from me! Those who have birthdays coming up... no promises, but I will try to make something. Must make first for those whose birthdays have already passed. Jonathan is the next project. LOL!

So here was the initial design I made for 'first day'. The quote is a decal. In my opinion decals are expensive and a pain to affix. This one does suit the color and the theme though.


Close up of the bottom and top. I really like the pale yellow glitter ribbon. It does not look like much on the photo but it gives a special feel to the whole 'atmosphere'. The brown words were an after thought, we actually wrote those places we wanted to go during our first days... and we did go to most, if not all the places we wanted to enjoy. It's very meaningful for couples to keep a journal or scrapbook of sorts of silly thoughts and memories. Now that I'm scrapbooking, very regret never keep all the movie ticket stubs, souvenirs from eating places, etc etc... Very regret!


I really love it!

presentation

It's always interesting to me when people, as they usually do, like to discuss other people's relationship and sometimes quote their words out of context. Similar to Bible quoting people who often make the mistake of proclaiming a verse without noting the context, the intent, to whom it was written for, and written by who... ... this goes the same for people very quickly categorizing someone's ex-girlfriend as the 'unreasonable' type, for instance. The said man goes to ex-girlfriend's place and presents her with nice gifts to appease her recent frustration about him neglecting her needs of quantity time. Instead of being appeased, she is incensed and say ' Do you think your expensive branded gifts can buy me over? You can forget it!' Guy is puzzled, irate, frustrated. Well-meaning friends tell him to forget this bitch and move on, you can always find someone better.

All I gotta say is probably the APPROACH in which he presents his appeasement to the subject is already a recipe for disaster, nevermind who's right and who's wrong in this scenario.

If he said 'Come on la sweetheart, don't be angry with me anymore, see what I bought for you', any irritated-already lass would be even more irritated. 'See, I came all the way to your house downstairs and spend many hours buying this expensive branded gift for you'. The girl would be enraged, seriously.

The approach matters, in many situations. Wheedling or coaxing only works on small children or some adults with the mentality of kids - kidults. You know those act cute people. But only they are not act cute.... they are real cute! No, I'm not judging anybody. They are enjoyable to bring to places like kid's birthday parties or zoos. Like what I heard at the zoo last time: "See...! What is that animal? It's Alex!! See kids, Alex! Say hi to Alex!"

It only dawned on me a few seconds later that 'Alex' is the 'lion' in Madagascar and not even a real lion, its a cartoon. So now all lion's names are 'Alex', makes you wonder what kind of adult the kid will grow up into... ...

Talking about Alex, I miss him. I missmissmiss miss him. I just want to say that endlessly.

The man, not the lion.

sense

I want to dispense some common sense advice for those who are lacking, haha!

Actually, some people are in the habit of asking people things and the answer is not something they want to hear, OR are not even interested in the answer. Why ask, then? I'm sure you know of those. The questions asked often range from 'what happened?', to 'what should I do now?' and being nice and helpful I offer then intricate explanations... which I'm sure you can tell by now, only falls on deaf ears. And they have the same issue the very next day. Which means, to me, that they refuse to get out of their issues because being intelligent and capable, they can easily get out of it if they want to. But they sadistically let it drag on. Oh well, it's not for me to judge... ...

So my advice, if you are feeling depressed, take antidepressants. Our medical institutions are the best in the region.
If you can't sleep, read the Bible.
If you are feeling lonely, don't call me out to drain me with your lonesome thoughts.... go and exercise or massage or manicure or take a class or watch tv for goodness' sake. Watch youtube videos. Write a poem.

Ok, will make this rant short.

Scrapbooking is addictive. Also a test of willpower. Cuz all the alphabets and pretty flowers and vintage things are calling my name. And they are pretty expensive to boot. Well, it's fun to make things for friends. Next project shall be a belated birthday project... =) for the next holiday! At least I'm spending my time doing something worthwhile!

first scrapbook project

Oh, I finally gave in to the scrapbooking bug!
After resisting the urges to walk into those scrapbook shops, I finally decided to start on some small projects what with the 'long' weekend and as usual, wanting to stay far from the madding crowd. Most of the stuff I bought from papermarket, ribbons from prints, I had the glossy accents previously. The mini photos are printed in shalom colorlab at brasbasah. Have to wait for a day but I'd say it's much much better than instant-print. If you want the photos to have gorgeous color!

I got the idea to do 'flags' or 'buntings' from greenweddingshoes, here are some buntings on wedding cakes and it's a nice celebratory feel and really easy to make, just cut out triangles and paste it on a ribbon. I made different ones...


So here are the 'triangles'. I'm not a sucker for measuring everything so all of them are different sized and I love the vintage paper. Using copper colored alphabets. And the cardstock is already having the paper pasted on it...comes in pack of 2. Used one for bestie project, our photos of melbourne last year... and another to remember me-and-Alex-moments.

Oh, not forgetting...glitter! I think glitter is such a lovely thing to use! Reminds me of school days where we get glitter everywhere. I'm quite stingy to buy the expensive branded glitter so I just used this tub of gold one I bought for mom's usage. I also like the flowers and had to literally restraint self control and only chose one pack to buy!

Doing the layout... I realized that putting two photos is a challenge. One is just nice actually. But of course it was two of us. I printed many spare photos also (Photo Uncle likes me, he charge me half price so I can print many many!) And I also realized that both the 'people' in the photo must be of same size. Somehow it just looks weird if one person is 'smaller' than the other.
The 'flags' with the glitter and the words, they will look '3d' which is a look I like, if folded on top and later a thick ribbon is added below.

The thickness will add extra dimension and then they will fold upwards and curved out by itself.
Next, a background for the word 'road'. No space to make 'flags' this time, but I did use 'flags' for both words on the following project.

I used a brown paper, crumpled it, pasted a tag on it and the silk ribbon over, once again creates a 3d effect...

Here is the layout, almost complete. I changed the flowers and added some vintage flowers at the side to look more interesting. And the photos looked better when the one with me is below instead. The flowers at the side (yellow and pink) as mentioned, are just normal scrapbook square paper. I put the 'glossy accents' on the petals, looks like glue and has shiny effect.


Closeups of top and bottom half. Butterfly donated by sister. Black diamantes is from those handphone sticker, words on top is a decal, also donated. Haha! She has an enviable trove of scrapbook materials. There's basically no space left ANYWHERE. My style la.

How it looks like under daylight and flourescent light. Strangely yellowish although my light is white.
Another project idea... using decals and two flag-lines.