[CNY trip + Home]

It has been a little hiatus over here on blogland cos we've been up north to visit my grandma (1st visit after grandpa passed on), it was a quick trip of just 3 days, but quite a relaxing one. Thank goodness there were no more changes by a certain budget airline (whose horrendous multiple changes at the most stressful time of the year made for horrible business ethics) and we got through the flights as planned. It was a really quiet visit, as it was already the 3rd day of the New Year that we arrived, most of my cousins and aunts and uncles have left for home, with only the ones based locally still around. Grandma also had a fall recently and had to be wheelchair bound. Which selfishly meant not much yummy food to indulge. (Although that didn't prevent us from bingeing on the local fare everyday!)
She wanted 2 little pigtails
Sometimes G is so much larger than she really is in her personality and in volume that I forget how small she is in real life.
K reading from her inflight magazine - the minute she stepped on the plane she commented - hey, there is no tv on this airplane!
K and pooh in Tumpat.
Our little tin shed store room in the backyard. It is humbling to see architecture at it's simplest and purest.
The 2 cheeky ones that refused to sleep.
(all photos in Tumpat taken with my iphone)


This weekend, we hosted the cousins over at our new place for a little post CNY dinner.
The menu was pretty filling:
Lasagne
Spinach Quiche
Spinach souffles (actually just the quiche filling without the pastry baked in cupcake tray)
Pizzas from downstairs
Icecream
Muffins

Quite a spread for a light meal which was supposed to be just ordered in (which started with adding a homecooked dish of lasagne but ended up creating more than that as the oven was already preheated.. heh)
Everybody (except v the cameraman)


G and her wriggly worm
Funny expressions galore!
Ditto...
The spread
Heartshaped souffles
The little ones playing together.
It was quite a lot of fun and we're thinking that perhaps we should make this a yearly affair....

Looking at all the various offspring brings to mind how our 2 were like at the respective ages of 10mths and 15mths respectively. Which made me scroll through old blog posts and reminisce with V about the time past. How thankful we are of their cuteness, their adorable little mannerisms at various stages, and how maintaining this blog allowed us to track that chronological development. It is times like this which I am reminded that it does not really matter what I post on this blog (as in, how profound or mundane), as it does capture a freeze frame of our life at the present moment, and for that, it is enough.

So, with a little bit of nostalgia and to keep to the trueness of the subject, here is a little soundtrack of our life too:


K (age - 2.5) singing "branbury cross" in her little voice that got higher and higher pitched! She is such a talker nowadays, she loves using descriptions like "u know" and "though". She also loves finishing up people's sentences, quietly listening to your conversation and inserting her own words when there is pause at the end of the sentence.

[Happy Chinese New Year!!!]

Welcoming in the Year of the Tiger (my year- haha, now everybody knows how old i am.. lol!!!) with lots and lots of pics. Nothing much out of the usual rounds of visiting, except that this year we were joined by even more younger nieces and nephews.
K checking out G's sparkly new mary janes.
The girls doing some trial shots for Mummy while waiting for Daddy to join us (hence the loveys still being attached to them!)
G sitting down all demure like a princess cos I told her she wasn't wearing the flouncy skirt otherwise.
K and G - testing the timer and lighting
Another shot while I adjusted the camera position - we can never find our tripod at the right moment so our timer shots are usually with the camera positioned precariously over some tissue boxes / other props.
K getting a little bit cranky
1st backdrop - G being her usual hyper self. She thinks running into the camera while the timer beeps is quite fun.
2nd backdrop - I love how these series of pictures turn out. They look like a frozen screenplay of our life with the girls, their silly faces, the posed / unposed contrasts.
K refused to stand up in this shot and G is still trying to run into the camera...
One of the better shots in the series, love the colour scheme
K looking melancholic
Shot of Daddy with the girls
Shot of Mummy with the girls
Girls together while I disappear behind.
Giving K her Angpow from the both of us. She was so intent of keeping all the angpows in her little bag.
A really wonderful shot of the youngest addition - Baby R, her very 1st CNY!!


Happy Valentine's Day to everybody too!!! :)

[cupcakes!]

We had one of those quiet days, the type that is at the start of a loooong break from school and work. You know the sort of days that happen just as the yearend school holidays start. Well, we decided that we'll make cupcakes!
Borrowed this book - "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery" and bought all the ingredients on our morning grocery shop, we were raring to go right after lunch. K obligingly fell asleep at about 2, and that was the start of our baking adventure. G and me diligently weighed, sifted, mixed, cracked and creamed 2 whole loads of batter, making 2 different flavored cupcakes - a zesty orange carrot raison-y one, and a lighter vanilla one. Was really impressed at G's stamina! She sat through the whole 3 hour baking session without much fidgeting, concentrating on reading me the recipes (she was a little upset at me for substituting self-raising flour when i realised we didn't have bicarbonate of soda)
Here are the pics:

The happy baker....

Making the batterHeart shapes for valentine's day
All warm and baked!
With lemon buttercream frosting (essentially A LOT of icing sugar!) Topped with even more saccharine goodness courtesy of G's rainbow sprinkles.
Yumm, i guess it meets the taste test, although they don't really like the butter cream frosting.

K enjoying hers.
She wanted to give V the "naked" one.... (cupcake sans frosting)
hee..
G got very tickled at the "naked" word...
Adding strawberry hearts and packing it up for "taigong's" house for reunion dinner.
Of course, they would need to burn off all that sugar somehow...
Yup! jumping on our bed....


To all of you, Happy Chinese New Year!!! :)

[happy birthday mummy!]

to the bestest and most supportive mum, Happy Birthday!!!
We had dinner at Peach Garden, the food was really good. Of course, the girls were looking forward to the cake!
Cheeky G actually licked (?!?) my mum? eeewwww....
I'll post a video of the bday song too, as soon as it uploads onto Youtube.


There's the latest CHA releases for October Afternoon up on their Website. Here's my favorite:
Love maps! this is no exception.
Vintage patterns.... how wonderful.. i can almost see how this will go so well with hybrid layouts that uses lots of fabric and embellishments :)
I just love the happy happy colours here, i think i might reserve these for decorating the girl's shelves.

[Our Home - process 03]

This is a post about all the things that still need to be done for our place.. it seems like it is a neverending process, but I remind myself everyday that this IS our home, there is no need for a "handover", and I can take my time to slowly suss out what stays on the "need" list and what should be whittled down on the "want" list. (the want list is now Very Long!) The thing i really wish not to happen of course, is for the "need" list to eventually morph into a "never had the time to do it, therefore it is just left as it is" list, which is something we all know happens so easily!
So, here it is, my recently compiled list, which has been compiled and put down on my "todo" app on my phone :
1. Get Main Gate commissioned and installed
2. Get some plants for the balcony / patio
3. TV console / shelf
4. Fix Wireless server (really irritatingly, after changing Telco, my wireless server does not work anymore!!! Arrrgh....)
5. Research and buy nice office chairs (we had to change them cos of the carpet)
6. K's bed and our bed
7. Sort out girl's sleeping arrangements - get baby monitor
8. Artwork for the dining space (there's a huge wall with LOTS of potential, we just need to make some art to hang there!)
9. Fix dishwasher, microwave and hood (these electrical teething problems are driving me nuts!!)
10. Fix plumbing for washing machine (ditto the plumbing problems!)
11. Get nice lamps
12. Deck furniture

That's a good baker's dozen to whittle down. Hopefully these get done soon, some are infinitely more urgent than others, but I suppose these are already the priority!

I haven't taken much more pictures of our place, but V just posted his thoughts over at the office blog HERE.

Been busy over the weekend also with some decorating (so not used to doing it as we're hardly interiors people, but maybe it's all the styling blogs osmosifying - is that a word? - into me?)
There is this horizontal clear glass window that we have made (in keeping with the original architecture) in our bedroom. Of course, it is now overlooked by our neighbors upper floor windows. Something which is pretty disconcerting in the supposedly most private part of the house. In any case, something had to be done about it quickly, we didn't have the time to purchase those 1-way glass film, which would have solved the visibility problem. Initially I was going to just cover it up with opaque paper, which would obscure the view, but will also shut out all the light coming in. There was a lightbulb moment when I chanced upon some spare doillies which were in my scraps.
Here's the whole window all covered up by these lacy lacy things. Amazing that it's just paper!
That little ledge also makes a perfect spot for my handthrown ceramics (i really need to get back to making those!)
Since the ceramics were unpacked, I decided to line the ones with colourful insides along the other bedroom wall. :)
Bought this wooden saying from Spotlight..... so apt! G was predictably thrilled.....

Here she is hiding in her little cubby hole under my craft desk.
Cheeky little one!
Our other weekend activity. I bought these felt heart from a seller at Etsy quite a long time ago. They are meant to be sewn together to form a trivet, but i liked them so much we decided that we should frame them up! plus it was much easier... hee, G put them all together - she couldn't decide whether to make them into a butterfly or a simple flower - so, here it is - butterfly / flower?

I lined the inside of the shadow box with OA paper, then another layer of doillies, and finally glued the felt heart above them all. Perfect for a little wall decoration!!