Easter Holidays - Update

How was your Easter? How did you celebrate? Anyone stuff their faces with lots of Easter chocolate? Cadbury creme eggs are my weakness and I still have a hidden stash of minis for those sweet tooth cravings.

We skipped out on egg hunts and decorating this year and headed off on a 24 hour journey to The Happiest Place On Earth. Do you know where? Yes, that right. Orlando, Florida. Twelve days of ageless fun. Miss C had a blast, of course. We did Walt Disney World; the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and also Universal Studios. Miss C is a huge Harry Potter fan, just like me and was ecstatic to be able to walk through Hogwarts and Hogsmeade village.

Saying hi to Elsa and Anna at the Magic Kingdom - every little girl's dream.

I don't think you can be too old to go on a merry-go-round. There is a certain charm to them.

Gobsmacking choice of cheesecakes at the Cheesecake Factory - actually pretty decent food here.

 Something you didn't know - I love roller coasters. Hubby and Miss C love them too, but I'm talking about the tallest, biggest ones with big drops and lots of loops. I've been known to keep hubby waiting for me while I queue for this adrenaline thrill.

Frothy, creamy, cold butterbeer at Hogsmeade. We had some at the London studios last summer and have been pining for more. I think I'll have to search out a similar recipe for this to recreate at home.

Of course, we had to take a day or two out of the theme parks to do some shopping and one of the must go stops has to be Michaels. Miss C loves roaming the aisles and finding all sorts of crafting wonders, just like me.

Our brunch on day one at Ihop. See the look of skepticism on hubby's face and the happy face on Miss C. That didn't last very long, until she started to ask for sushi. Luckily, we were able to find a couple of sushi places to indulge in.

All in all, a wonderful holiday and one to remember. Look out for layouts coming out soon.

Thanks for looking,

Trips and Birthdays - Update

I spent a few days early this month in Sydney with hubby. We were able to meet up with most of our Sydney friends and get some down time. I had a couple of days to just browse vintage stores and old bookshops; something I've been dying to do for a while but hadn't found the time for. We also don't have a lot of them in Hong Kong, so it was a real treat.

We flew back on Monday; hubby's birthday and were rewarded with an upgrade to business class. Yay! Hubby travels so much, that he gets upgraded more often than not, but not usually when I'm travelling with him, so that was a nice treat for me. We arrived back in the afternoon and went out for dinner with friends to celebrate hubby's birthday.

We also just celebrated Miss C's 8th birthday. Goodness. Eight. It's no wonder I scrapbook. I know I can't stop time and it's the best way to review the time that has gone by. I think we've started a new tradition, as we went for afternoon tea at the same place as last year and then ended up at her favourite sushi restaurant. This was on Friday and on Saturday, we had a party at ours. Miss C wanted a Furby party, which of course means Furby art time, Furby games, Furby get together (we had everyone bring theirs) and last but not least, a Furby cake. I can hear you saying, wow, what can be worse than having a house full of noisy Furbys? I actually find them funny and adorable even if they wake you up in the middle of the night because the cat brushes against them and it was fascinating watching them chatter to one another and dance to the music during the party.

Miss C blowing out her candles.

Furbys all in a row, singing and dancing.

A few samples of the Furby art canvases the girls did.

It was all followed with a sleepover with her two best friends, chatting and giggling all night and not sleeping until almost midnight. The next morning, they were already awake at six and demanding pancakes. On a Sunday...

In the end, Miss C had a blast of a weekend and to see the smiles on her face was well worth it.

Hope you had a good weekend too.

Art Venture and CHA Review

Hi there,

Early this month, I got to go to Anaheim again for the winter CHA, and there is so much that we saw and did, but first I want to tell you about what we did a couple of days before the show opened.

Angela Collingwood and I both signed up for the Prima Marketing Art Venture, which ran for two days, just before CHA. What a treat this was. We both came away with six awesome projects by six amazing Prima educators. We got to play with the newest Prima lines and they even opened up a store so we could indulge with more of their new products. Oh, and don't get me started on the many, many packs of flowers I came away with; Prima heaven.

 Amazing 3D layout with Frank Garcia, king of the pop dots.

 Gorgeous paper line that Frank designed. This layout is the funniest.

Beautiful jewel colours on my new journal book.

 My hero, Anna Finnabair Dabrowska.

Vivacious Stef Miller with my notebook cover.

How cute is the girl?

 Rustic vintage wall hanging designed by Nathalie Kalbach. I missed out having a photo with her as she had to leave near the end of the class due to a bout of food poisoning, poor thing.

Had a fun time inking up the flowers.

Incredible artist Jamie Dougherty.

I love this album so much. The girl is a new stamp from Jamie, which I promptly lost. I'm still upset about that.

Look at this pack of goodies that came with Limor Webber's class

This was one that I finished at home as it would have been impossible to get home in one piece. I love this one so much.

On the second day, although I enjoyed every class, I started to come down with the flu and by the time CHA opened, I was a mess. Regardless, I couldn't pass up the CHA workshops we signed up for. We didn't sign up for many, but one of them was Tim Holtz's class. It is so difficult to get into and I was on the wait list, but Angela was very kind to give me her spot, while she did Dyan Reaveley's class. Thanks Ang.  I'd never done Tim's class, so was super excited.

Tim, giving his intro on the class. He's so funny and personable.

Look at these new mini distress inks. One quarter the size of the standard ones. Perfect for taking on crops.

Our first card. I'm officially in love with the distress glitter. Also loved the little die cut bow.

Vintage style gift card holder. 

Colouring with distress markers for our third card and we got to use and keep the new distress marker spritzer. So easy to use and so much fun.

 Look at what Angela made in Dyan's class.

 

How cool is this class photo. They're only holding up one canvas, but in fact, they all had three canvases each.

 This was a Faber-Castell class with Limor Webber. Really fun techniques.

Holding our finished frames with Limor.

These were the major classes that we attended. There was a few seminars and talks as well, basically on trends and new innovations.  After that, we had three full days to look around the show floor and to decide on and order for the HKMC kit club. What fun we had doing that, despite me feeling like death warmed over. I've put lots of collage photos up on some of the things we saw. I'm not going to explain them as it's far too late here and I don't think I could remember half of what I saw, but hope you enjoy looking.

Right, I think that sums up CHA this year. I've been inspired yet again with all the wonderful artworks and layouts that I saw and hopefully, I'll be bringing some of those inspirations to life soon.

Thanks for dropping by,

I'm Back and Ready To Go!

Hi all,

How is everyone doing? It's been agessssss, I know.  Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Saying that, it's been so long since I've blogged, that even Chinese New Year is upon us in two days. It has been non-stop since before Christmas, and only now have I had time to just sit down and get my head around to writing (and scrapbooking) again.

 A quick photo before Christmas lunch

We had my in-laws here for six weeks from the beginning of December and they actually only left mid January. I'd say that was one of the reasons why I haven't had time to do much else. It was a long stay but we had a good Christmas with them and I think they enjoyed themselves.  Right after Christmas, we all flew to Singapore for an Asian cruise that took us to Phuket and Port Klang in Malaysia. We rang in the new year on the ship, before arriving back in Singapore and ate our way through all my favourites. I can never resist chicken rice, rojak, laksa, chilli crab, fish head curry (OMG, this is so good) and of course, we had to bring back a gorgeous green pandan chiffon cake (the best).

 Enjoying a refreshing coconut in Phuket

 Bibbing up for some yummy crab in Singapore

Right after coming back from Singapore, I left the hubby to deal with look after his parents, while I headed off to CHA!! Oh yeah. More of that later as I think it deserves its own entry. I came back just in time to send off the in-laws, who were leaving for home on the same day.

Now, you're going to hate me, as after one day back, we jetted off to Hokkaido, Japan for a snowy four day weekend trip. What? Another holiday?? This was courtesy of hubby's company and we spent a day in Hakodate, savouring the most freshest and tastiest seafood, before hopping over to Sapporo for shopping and more yummy foods. Miss C and I both love our Japanese food, so we were more than happy.

 How many plates did we eat?? Not enough!! (In Sapporo, Japan)

 Building a snow cat in freezing cold Hokkaido

That's pretty much taken us up to this point. Funny to say, but I'm looking forward to a quiet week at home this Chinese New Year. No destinations, no planes, just the three of us vegging on the sofa together. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some crafting done and have more layouts and projects to show you very soon.

Hope everyone who celebrates have a wonderful Chinese New Year and wishing you all a happy and prosperous Year of the Horse.

Kung Hei Fat Choy,

Lazy Summer Holidays

Hi all,

You might have noticed that I've been very irregular with my postings lately. I do apologize but I blame it on the summer holidays. When Miss C goes on holiday, seems like I follow suit. To be honest, I've not felt very creative lately. Maybe it's the anticipation of going on holiday. I stopped taking cake orders for July and August as well. Need that little break.

Hence, we're off to the UK tonight, to visit with the in-laws for a month. I must say, one month could be a bit long, but I do enjoy England in the summer, rain or shine.  Apparently, they've been having really hot (but dry) weather lately. Better than hot and humid, like it is here.

Hubby joins us on the 29th and we'll be doing some short trips around the country and even up to Scotland. Hope we can catch a highland game or the Edinburgh tattoo.

In short, the next month will be very sparse on posts, so apologies in advance. I have brought a minimum amount of scrapbooking supplies with me on the trip, so there may be a layout or two, but that's about it.

Looking forward to September when I shift back into full gears with the scrapbooking and cake making.

Have a great summer.

Bringing in the Year of the Snake

Hello there,

How is everyone doing? Happy Chinese New Year (yes, it still is for a few days). The last couple of weeks have been pretty full, from cake orders and helping out with an art class project, followed by a week off for Chinese New Year.

My cake orders are quite sporadic, and that's the way I like it for now. I'm still thinking of whether I want to make of turning it into a full blown cake business, as it would be a 24/7 deal for sure. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Family comes first for me and being able to look after my hubby and daughter take precedence.

Having said that, here are the two cakes I made in the last two weeks:

Barbie Fairy Cake

 I've done a few doll cakes but this one is really pretty. I love how the wings, which came with the doll, really brings the cake to life.

Gordon the Big Engine Cake

This one was for hubby's Godson, Josh, who's visiting from the UK. Joshy, as any other three year old, loves Thomas and Friends. His mummy asked for a Gordon train - I had to google the difference between him and Thomas - they are both blue afterall. The bear is a representation of Joshy's lovey, Stinky bear.

Aside from the cakes, last week was one big holiday. Since both the hubby and Miss C were off from work and school respectively, we spent some time with friends and family. We went to a barbeque, to the movies, tottered around on ice skates and in between, lounged around and just vegged out.
  

Miss C in her Chinese outfit.

Celebrating Valentine's Day 

Out and about during the holiday

The absolute, absolute highlight though, was adopting this little kitty. We've (I've) been dying for a second cat to keep our Jake company, so when an adoption request came about for the cutest little kitty, we knew we had to have her. She's the sweetest little cat; almost five, and had to be parted from her former owners, as they are leaving Hong Kong. She's only been with us for a day and is still being acclimatised to her new surroundings and still quite wary of us, but we're hoping she'll be able to integrate into the family soon. I can't wait to have lots of cuddles with her.

Miss Molly Bluebell

It takes a little getting used to having a cat with pointy cat ears. Our Jake is a Scottish Fold, so we're used to an "earless" cat

 

Looking a little unsure

Love her beautiful golden eyes

So, not much scrapbooking at all in the last two weeks. It's back to the grind though and I'm looking forward to getting some new layouts and projects done this week.

Thanks for dropping by,