If The Shoe Fits

About time...

for an update...LOL. Even my parents and brother had been asking. So sorry to all those who had been checking this blog for an update and thanks to everyone who emailed to check up on me. I'm alright. Just had been feeling a bit sorry for myself some days not having family to help but it's ok now:)

I don't really know what I've been up to. With winter being colder than the past few years, we stayed home most days. Today, we were invited by my SIL who works for the management of Village Cinemas for an advance screening of Disney cartoon "Ratatouille". I think screening starts here in Sept. Definitely a great movie to take the kids. Very funny unless you have a phobia of seeing colonies of rats...lol.

I haven't really been scrapping much. Just some layouts for CHA and a few swap layouts.

I was lucky enough to play with some new Fancy Pants Designs new CHA products and managed to send my layouts off to the US within 2 days of receiving them. Otherwise, they would have never made it there in time for the show. Here are my layouts.

Be sure to check out Fancy Pants Designs spanking new website. It has a new gallery and I think you can upload your layouts using Fancy Pants products.  Lots of cool ideas using Fancy Pants products on there too.

For Queen & Co., I won't be getting the new CHA products (drooling for them like everyone else) till later so I was asked to do a few layouts with last CHA products which I still love:) 

I did a couple of swap layouts with two lovely and very talented  girls from Netherlands. Thank you girls for my layouts. I really love them:)

Here's one for Revlie.

and here's Ellemieke.

This layout is in this month's Scrapbooking Memories. I was asked to do a layout for the Babies gallery and I didn't really have a lot of photos of Abby as a baby so I asked Charmane for one of Harmony. She's so cute. Thanks, Charmane, for letting me scrap Harmony's photo.

Just one more thing before I forget. I was nominated by my fellow Fancy Pant Designs dter, the super sweet and talented Amber Tosh, as a Rockin' Girl Blogger. Thanks, Amber. I'm very flattered to be nominated but this is a blogger that hardly update her blog...lol. I will in turn nominate 5 bloggers. I wish I can nominate more because there are so many of you that inspire me daily.

Janine Kaye
Revlie
Claire Bremner
Vita Thai
Sarah Van Wijck

Sorry, this post is almost all layouts...lol. I really don't have much to say. I will post some photos next time I update (hopefully it won't be too long). I have been taking lots of photos.

Take care.
                                  

happy anniversary....

to my dh. today is our 7th anniversary. i can't believe we've been married for so long. what do people say about the 7th year?...the 7 years itch???? lol.

we came back from marysville this morning and colin took us out for japanese tonight. we ordered way too much appetizer so when the mains arrived, we didn't feel like eating much any more. colin doesn't care much for japanese but he knows i love it:)

let's backtrack to friday. we left for marysville on friday morning. it's about 21km away from lake mountain resort. we decided to only go up to the mountain on saturday. that way we don't have to rush at all. abby got carsick on the way there and vomited in the car. that aways happen when we go for a long drive. it's not even that long a drive...abit more than an hour but it was a windy drive up the mountain. good thing we were prepared with a plastic bag. still managed to stink out the car though.

we reach maryville with plenty of time to explore the town. we went to  steavensons fall and abby had a whistling lollipop throughout the walk and it never left her mouth so all the photos i had of her were with the lollipop in her mouth. by the time we got to the car, both her hands, face, hair and jacket were all sticky...lol. she was a bit scared of the waterfall and didn't want any photos taken near it. we didn't go all the way to the top because it was a 40mins climb (return?). after that we headed back to the cottage we rented for a bit of r&r before dinner.

the next morning, we headed out to lake mountain resort and remembered not to give abby any food or drinks before the drive...lol.  it was snowing on the way there already.  the cottage provided a brand new pink toboggan for us to use and abby was really protective of it and didn't want to let go of it much at all. i went down with her on the toboggan a couple of times. there were a lot of people there and the area wasn't big at all so we had to avoid collision with other people. it was pretty tough pulling her back up the hill...lol. we built 3 snowmen. it was more colin and i doing the building. abby just asked us to give her snow to pile on because she couldn't hold much with her mittens. she was only really interested in sticking the carrot on the snowmen...lol.

it was snowing the entire time we were there. i didn't get to take much photos because it was making my camera wet. i had a clear shower cap on the camera but i couldn't see well enough to  focus through the shower cap. i think abby did have fun and she didn't complain about the  cold at all.

the snowman's got my scarf and beanie and i had my gloves off because i wanted to take photos so i was freezing...lol.

there were a lot of lorikeets and cockatoos that visits the cottage where we stayed. the hosts of the cottage provided some bird seeds and abby was spreading the seeds on the driveway and waited for them to eat them but they stayed up in the trees...lol. there was one particular cockatoo  that came to the porch to eat the seeds but it was a rather scary one with it's crest bitten or pulled off  from a fight and it was staring right at us at the screen door when it finished the seeds and wanted us to give it more and it came back a few times. i'm not a really a big fan of birds so i didn't want to put anymore seeds at the porch.

sorry about the boring post full of photos but my mum and dad will be happy:) thank you so much for all the comments and emails to congrats about my layout on the cover of for keeps:)

cover girl...

yap, that's abby on cover of this month's (issue 56) for keeps. thank for all the emails to say congrats! we haven't seen it yet irl. i "stole" the image from for keeps website...shhhhh...don't tell...lol.

i used that photo before. for keeps actually requested the original layout i did for fancy pants cha_summer sneak peek but the layout was picked up for publication by another magazine. they wanted me to do another layout using the same photo even though i emailed them other photos to choose from. guess that was a perfect photo for a cover...lol.

here's the actual layout. i love how they embellished the cover with that big swirl!

some more layouts...

not sure what else i want to say. nothing much happening lately. it's wet and cold here. talking about wet and cold, we are heading to the snow this coming friday. abby's been reading books about winter and she wants to build a snowman...lol.

take care.
shirls

i got a bit confused...

when i checked my last post. i think it's been nearly 1 week since i updated but the title of my last post "thurday not thursday" got me thinking i last updated on thursday and nothing much had been  accomplished since then!

remind me to update more often. it's too hard to remember what happened a week ago! on wednesday, i met up with the lovely emily whom i first met at scrappy hollow "scrap-pile" crop. emily sat next to me during the crop so we chatted a  bit. i think both of us didn't get much done...lol. em stuck a few photos down and i cut some flowers from a pattern paper during the 7 hour crop...lol. we met up at maccas at croydon. her kids are some of the sweetest kids i had ever met and i'm not saying that because they let me take their photos. her daughter isabelle was doing different poses and saying "take my photos" !!!. i wish it was that easy with abby...lol. they are both gorgeous. emily gave me permission to post some of the photos here.  check out those lashes. we will definitely be catching up soon again, em:)

colin was away in sydney for 2 days so we caught up with some friends for the next couple of days.

we spent the weekend searching for a new lcd tv as we have quite a small living area and it is also my scrap area. abby is also watching the tv too close so we thought lcd would be better for her eyes. our old tv was bought when we first moved to australia and it is a 22 inch. now we've got a 37inch!!! dean and sam winchester from supernatural look so much more cuter. can't say the same for the demons...lol. we ordered a tv cabinet too but it will take a couple of weeks to deliver.

sunday, i took abby for a walk to the reserve again to feed the ducks since colin offered to cook dinner. it was raining so i didn't bring the camera with me. abby was in her raincoat and we both had an umbrella each. because our street is on a slight slope, the water flow down the side of the street so we make boats out of leaves and watch them "sail" down.  i hope these are the things she will look back and smile  on when she's older.

i surprised abby with this polly pocket doll when i picked her up from kindy yesterday. i was kind of like a "reward" because she went to the toilet at kindy. she had been wetting her pants whens she's at kindy. i think it was either she was too occupied and not wanting to miss anything, she didn't want to go to the toilet. she doesn't wet herself whenever we are out or at home at all! she was so happy she had been playing with it since then.

this afternoon when abby was taking her nap, my mouse died and i couldn't be bothered getting the batteries so i scrapped a layout. most of this is from the jenny bowlin kit that arrived today. i couldn't help but added some li'l davis designs products to make it part of my dt assignment...lol.

supply list: patterned papers, sticker(melissa frances); chipboard(jenny bowlin studio); chipboard word, stamp, metallic paint,  ricrac(li'l davis designs); paper frill(doodlebug designs); journaling die-cut(my mind's eye); glitter chipboard, brad(making memories)

thanks for visiting:)

it's thurday, not thursday...

yes, this is from abby, my little smarty pants. when she gets some idea in her head, it gets stuck there.  in a way it's good because it's easy to "brainwash" (did i just say brainwash...i meant educate her...lol). when she sees a carrot, she will eat it because "carrots are good for you". "too much sweets and chocolates are bad for you, just a little bit is ok"...this is another one we use. she repeats it each time she comes across them...lol. we are bad!!! real bad!!! LOL.

another funny thing she said yesterday. we had some pasta with some pumpkin yesterday for dinner. now i know it sounds weird, colin puts chilli sauce on anything be it chinese or western food, pizza or pasta. he didn't yesterday and abby turned and looked at her daddy and asked "daddy, where's your chilli?" she's too observant! if colin went for a haircut the night before when abby was already in bed and when she sees him the next morning, she will comment on his haircut.

 

poor girl. it seems like the vomiting was just for that day. on sunday, she complaint that it hurts when she wees. i thought it was just because she didn't pull her pants down properly. she complaint the next couple of times she went toilet and i knew immediately it was urinary tract infection. we took her to the clinic on monday morning. there was only one doctor on duty as it was a public holiday. he confirmed it was urinary tract infection and gave her some pink syrup. she loves it. she asked to get the meds and to give the bottle a shake and licks the spoon and the measuring cup each time she takes her meds...lol. it still haven't clear up completely but i don't think it hurts as much anymore. i had it before so i knew so much it hurts so each time she goes to wee, i give her a cuddle and she says it doesn't hurt until she finishes weeing.

back track, on saturday i had my GTT(glucose tolerance test) and a whole heap of other tests so hoping it's good news when the results come back. i had to sit in the waiting area for 2 hours so i brought a good book. it was kinda relaxing reading there with no interruptions except to have some blood drawn every hourly.

on sunday, we went to ikea to meet up with janine, ennis(janine's mum) and little lucy. janine and ennis were so lovely. i wished there were more time to chat. lucy and abby are just nearly a month apart in age and i think they got along well. photos on janine's blog. i love the ones of the girls...not so much of me...lol. i look so tired lately. we went straight to the city after ikea and took abby for a few tram rides. i think we hopped on and off the trams 3 times...lol.

on monday, it was raining and i promised abby to take her for a walk to the reserve at the end of our street to look for some puddles to jump in. she had been reading winnie the pooh books we bought from malaysia and it was about rain and jumping in puddles. everytime she sees a puddle when we are out, she wants to jump in them. we only managed to find some very small puddles. here are some photos of her having fun:)
 

i only scrapped one layout the entire week but it was picked up yesterday by for keeps so i have no layout to show:( i really need to start scrapping more...lol. lots of photos to scrap.

take care,
shirls

 

"what day is today?"

this was the question abby used to ask every morning. nowadays, this is the question i have to ask her and she knows the answer because she watches "playschool" on abc channel every morning when she eats her breakfast. playschool is a kids' program that's on at 9.30am and 3.30pm every weekday. i think it is somewhere before storytime, they tell you the time and the day...lol.

ok, so today is thursday. where did the week go?

let's start with monday. i volunteered as teacher's helper at abby's kinder. it was lots of fun. i might just do it again some time soon. abby was really happy and she was very much herself (as she is at home) when i was there. she still doesn't talk to the other kids much but i did hear a very loud and clear "must share!" when i was somewhere else helping other kids and she was at the playdough table...lol. i noticed most of the other kids just play side by side without interacting much except for a few that are already good friends  (their parents are friends) or related to each other. she was very helpful during packing up time, checking with me where things go but when i didn't know, she went to ask her teacher. however, she did wet herself when i was there!!! i think she was too engrossed playing and didn't want to leave. it's funny because she knows how to go to the bathroom at home and when we are out shopping. she likes having me at her kinder so much she wants me to go every week....uhmmm...don't think so, my dear.

tuesday was jane's and ruey's birthday. a bunch of us and our kids met up at chelsea heights and there is a huge indoor playground  so the kids entertained themselves there. it was great catching up with everyone.

wednesday, abby wasn't feeling too well and threw up twice, the first was in the morning after her cup of morning milk and the second time was in the car when we went and picked up colin from the station.  there were at least 5 kids that had runny nose when i was at the kinder on monday and i think she probably caught something. sometimes, i don't understand why some parents would want to send their sick kids to kinder/school to spread germs around. anyhow, she's all better today. in fact, she doesn't seem to be unwell at all.  she wanted her meds (panadol) this morning and it was a new bottle and child proofed. it took me at least 20 minutes to unscrew the cap!!! abby was telling me to call colin and get him to come home and open it for me...lol.

some dt layouts from this week and some that i forgot to post here.

Fancy Pants Designs:

Li'l Davis Designs:

thank you so much for dropping by:)

this weekend....

we were supposed to be in geelong. we wanted to go for a short drive and stay overnight in geelong but the weather forecast wasn't too promising on friday night so we had a change of plans. the weather turned out to be beautiful this weekend! oh well....

got a few photos from yesterday to show. these were taken in morning before abby got stung by a bee on her right brow. we kept her from napping to see if there were any allergic reactions. there were none (thankfully). she hardly felt the sting at all and she complaint about us putting the icepack on her to stop the swelling (not much of that either). she was so happy she didn't have to nap:)

notice the stick she was carrying. she was carrying a stick around too on the photos from 3 posts ago and those were taken nearly one month ago!!!  look at that gorgeous blue sky. it's winter here!

i've been doing minimal scrapping. i do have tonnes of deadline but i can't seem to get myself out of the rut after the holidays and chicken pox!  some i can't show just yet but here are some i can.

*this is for this week's challenge at hmitm blog. the challenge is to use only circular elements on the layout except for the background patterned paper or cardstock and photos.

supply list: patterned papers (autumn leaves);  foam alphabet stickers(american crafts); chipboard alphadots, big brads, sprinkle brads (queen & co.); chipboard alphabet(making memories); stamp(art warehouse); journaling spot(heidi swapp); transparency(ek success)

supply list: patterned papers, rub-ons, journaling cut-outs(jenni bowlin studio); chipboard alphadots, sequin elements, felt ribbon, sprinkle brads(queen & co.); stickers(pebble inc); lace; ricrac


supply list: patterned papers, chipboard, creative card, flowers, rub-ons, ribbons, lace, stamp(fancy pants designs); buttons

thanks for dropping by:)

finally...

went out today. colin worked from home the entire week last week (from tuesday arvo) and yesterday so he could take abby to kinder. i didn't have any new blisters appearing since last thursday so i should be all clear but i didn't want to scare the kids...lol. just kidding! it was just in case.

i took these photos today. it was such a gusty day, i was a bit worried the roof would get blown off when abby was taking her nap! love the one of her jumping because it was so hard to capture. abby doesn't jump very high at all...lol.

when we were out at the shopping centre, we ran into one of abby's kinder classmate and her mum. i asked abby is she knows her name and she said no. the mum told her daughter that it's abby and her daughter said, "no, it's not abby. it's abigail.". it was too funny. i think these kids are aware of each, knows each other's names but they are not playing with each other just as yet. i asked abby each time she comes home from kinder who she played with and she will tell me a few names but when i asked her if she talks to them, she says no! hmmm...just play and no talk???

she's all talk at home though. it's hard to have a moment of peace except at nap time. she talks when she eats (more like she talks and has no time to put food in her mouth or having food in her mouth deters her from talking so she doesn't want to eat). it's the same with drinking. talks when she's in the bath, on the toilet, brushing her teeth, in the car and when we are trying to read to her. when there is no one to talk to her, she talks to her dolls and stuffed animals. 

if she's talking to us and if we ignore her or are too busy to answer, she will keep repeating what she say until she gets a response. she will interrupt colin and i if we are talking. we told her it was rude to interrupt and if she has something to say, she has to say "excuse me". now if we are talking and if she wants to say something, she will say "excuse me, abby want to talk" and carries on talking. if you don't let her interrupt, she will say, "excuse me, i did say excuse me!!!!!".  serve us right!

the other day, she woke up from her nap and after a while she came up to me and we had this conversation.
abby: mummy, abby good girl sleeping?
me: ya
abby: abby can do something?
me: what would you like to do?
abby: i want to watch dora (dvd)

it carried on for a couple of days. it was either mummy reads her a story, doing puzzles or playing certain toys. i think it was because sometimes before she goes for her naps we promise her when she wakes up, she can do this and that. they sure pick it up fast!

backlighting...

feeling much better today. the weather was really nice. we went to the backyard and took some photos. got a new umbrella for abby before i got the chicken pox because she broke the last one and it had probably only been used in the rain less than 2 times. i really need to play around with my camera a bit more now since i haven't touched it since we left for our holidays and a lot of photos turned out blurry. i love the effect in this one though. those hi-5 boots again:)

conversation from today.
colin was wavering whether to buy lunch back for us or not.

abby: "abby want to go out"
daddy: "daddy give you the keys and you drive?"
abby: (long pause...thinking) "i don't have license!"
abby: "daddy magic abby into daddy!!!!....hahahaha"

i think she had been watching a bit too much cinderella or dora...lol.

oh yes, abby was vaccinated for chicken pox quite a while back. i was smart enough to get her vaccinated way before she started kinder but not smart enough to get me vaccinated too...lol.

still alive...

if you saw me yesterday or the day before, you would probably think otherwise. i was completely zonked out. i slept and slept. this chicken pox thing got me in a bad way. some people have like 20 spots...i have like 200 on my scalp alone. the skin on my scalp and forehead are stretched so taunt that it hurts so much. it hurts to even lie my head down on the pillow. i don't think i feel the itch at all. i had fever, sore throat and headache for a couple of days and couldn't even eat anything. it is probably a good thing considering i ate too much when we were on holidays...lol.

do you want to know what are the worst places to have the blisters? on the scalp, in the ears, on the lips, on the tongue and can you believe it, in between my teeth. i can't even brush properly for fear of breaking the blister and causing more. there are other worst places i won't even mention.

so if anyone of you still haven't had your chicken pox yet, please i beg you, go get vaccinated. i didn't think i would get it. it's the worst thing ever. it's such a degrading disease. i can't bear looking at myself in the mirror now. good thing abby didn't think i look like a monster...lol. she told me, "mummy, just go to sleep and you will be better tomorrow." i wake up every morning and hope it is like she said...lol.

ok, enough of me and chicken pox. i just want to thank everyone for all your well wishes and advice:)

some photos i took of abby before we left for our holidays. the weather was still nice then. it's freezing now. i will need to take new photos of her soon. she changed so much in the last few weeks.