Friday, February 29, 2008

Yippee! Nigel Turns 5!

It was exactly 5 years ago I gave birth to this bundle of joy. Nicknamed 'poo-poo' King, Sir Fret-Alot & my little 'Bo-Bo' (Precious in chinese), Nigel has changed how we live our life. He drove us crazy, he's the only one who can make me cry and laugh at the same time. So, 5 years have passed and yesterday we celebrated his birthday in school, and I realise that people do change because of their kids! They're the disciplinarians and they teach you how to love - unconditionally.
Look at him. Isn't he adorable. At 7 months old, a truly happy baby who rarely cries. Nigel loves his little toes. So does his Poh-poh (grandma)!
Nigel with his first art attack model plane. He loves the classes. We went there right after the fantastic lion dance show at GE Mall.
AND last Christmas, my dad made him a Rubber-band gun. It's one of those home made toys you'll only get to play if your dad or grandpa is a DIY kind of guy. (Hey, maybe I inherited his DIY genes, and yes, I see traits of that gene in Nigel too!) Anyway, this is my dad's Christmas present to Nigel and it's his most precious favourite toy. Wait till you see the Jacob's ladder my dad made him for his birthday! Will post that as soon as Unca Meow passes me the photos he took on his birthday party last Sunday.

My dad (I'm so proud of him!) crafted this wooden toy and even had a 'N' carved into the handle. It took him weeks before he found the perfect wood to carve this little gun.
All you need is some targets - none moving ones preferably! Oh yes, lots of rubber-band ammo!!

See how the rubber band gun works right here!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Gifts From The Heart

I have had the privilege of receiving something special from a kindred blogging friend. She's a talented scrapbooking artist who specialises in beautiful paper crafts and cute little paperie projects. We met on the net and have been skype buddies and we had a little gift exchange
last year. I made a wabbit and a peachy tutu for her cute and adorable three year old and she made me these beautiful gifts. My very own blog name hanger, a very cute little note book for Nigel with matching dino stickers and some of my favourite stashing materials, tags and ribbons. Thanks Katherine for these little surprises and for your precious friendship too. Go visit her blog here at kitkatzmeow!


Her equally talented daughter made me a cute little card too. Well done 'Sica'!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Our Trip to Singapore

The week before Chinese New Year we took a trip down South to Singapore. It was a pleasant drive down, but with Nigel showing signs of a bad cough, we were in for an expensive holiday. Singapore is still one of the cleanest cities we've ever seen. With more than 4 million citizen packed into this little island, I often wondered how they manage such prim and proper order. Walking along Orchard road, I see many shopping centres demolished and brought back up to life like a SIM game over the years. Everything here is warp speed. Efficient. If you're into design and the arts, taking a holiday in Singapore is like having a stroll in a design reference book, you'll find inspiration at every corner. Beautiful buildings, impressive shopping centres, packaging is impressive here, food courts are everywhere, clean toilets, super efficient public transportation system and very expensive medical services (You'll soon find out why!!!) And funny enough, you'll notice that the people in Singapore do speak like Pua Chu Kang's family!! Singlish to the max.

Anyway, it is nice to visit Singapore during this festive season, the Chinese New Year celebration here is larger in scale than in KL. I like chinatown and its hustle and bustle. Queues are long, crowds buying goodies aplenty and you're welcomed to sample the goodies along your way.
The very clean streets of Singapore. Walking is very much encouraged here even if the transportation service is tiptop.


A very excited 4 year old who couldn't sit still. This is his first underground train experience.


There are 10 things you need to do when in Singapore and one of those is to take a DUCK Tour! It's a military boat that runs on ground and water. Pretty expensive for a 1-hour trip but we liked the fun despite the rain.


Stan and Nigel posing for a quick picture onboard the Katrina, one of the 4 ducks.


Some scenic shots of the everchanging Singapore skyline. See the clouds!


The eye of Singapore on its test run before the launch. Forget about going on this eye - they're fully booked until June!!!


A nice shot of us taken by the tour guide. A chatterbox with a quirky sense of humour.


The short visit at Clark Quay, where the Merlion sits. Rain was beginning to pour down on us.


Nigel's definition of a good holiday. But this poor boy had us running to the emergency clinic and 12 midnight. His cough was so bad he was barking and whizzing. So for the use of the nebulizer and anti-biotics at the Raffles hospital, it all costed us a whopping RM670 for that one time visit to the emergency clinic. (But what to do?) Thanks Dr. Tay!


One of the must visit in Singapore is the Raffles Hotel. Very nice colonial building facades and the boutique shops along its corridor is a must-see. Stan is right outside one of these fancy shops, they sell Kaya too. Very expensive Kaya!







Taking a walk down Chinatown. There's a train that stops right in the middle of this busy street. Again, these streets are so clean, they put our local chinatown to shame. You won't find foreigners working here and the stalls sell better quality things. No rude shopowners here.


We stopped by to have lunch with two of mum's Singapore colleagues. Thanks Alison and Carol for the Hakka lunch!


On the way to Bugis Junction. You can buy lotus flowers and a variety of fresh flowers here.


This was taken at the courtyard of Bugis Junction on our last day of stay. Nigel escaped a near blast of water a few seconds after he walked away. The fountain changes its course of sprays and it was quite hilarious to see the huge sprays of water right after he moved from that spot. He would have been a very very very upset boy in wet clothings!

Oh yes, I also made a short trip to the famed SPOTLIGHT. What a craft shop! I busted my stashing budget on my first day. I bought a fancy puncher that does embossing, silver earring studs, a binder maker and other doo-dads. They have everything from scrapbooking materials, sewing paraphenalia (how do you spell that?), fancy crafting fabrics and every other crafting material in the market. Lots of Oohing and Aahing, a good trip with fellow crafters.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Happy Chinese New Year from the Ng's

We want to wish everyone A blessed Chinese New Year! Although it's the 3rd day of CNY, I hope I'm not late in wishing everyone a happy time together with family and friends!!!. Here's Nigel in my homemade ang-pow paper. We took close to over 60 pictures and boy, he's so photogenic it was a great time doing this.




Will be posting about our Singapore trip last weekend soon (Until I recover from the flu I caught from Nigel!) See Ya.

Grace & Spencer's Wedding Preparation

My dearest cousin, Grace is flying off this Sunday to the States to marry her 'mountain man' and all the preparations for her Valentine wedding began two weeks before. These are now on its way to her special home-made wedding. Have a beautiful wedding Spencer & Grace, we look forward to seeing all those lovely pictures your dad is going to take!!

The mess on my desk. These are the flowers we got from SSF (thanks, Victoria! for her privilege card. It was pretty cheap after 40% discount!!!) All laid out for some assembling.
The bridesmaid's hand bouquet. I was trying to mix orchids and some rattan twirls for a tropical feel. They turn out quite well, colour palette and composition wise.

I added a magical touch with the sequined birds perched on the side and finished it off with some flowing satin ribbons.
Took apart the orchid and replaced it with a chinese button and a little bling for Grace's hairpin. Here, you'll see I have the 'male' button (each chinese buttons comes with a male and female part), and I used the 'female' part of the chinese button for Spencer's bouttoneire.


Adding more bling to the smaller orchids and attaching it to a fine twisted comb. Super glue helps to secure the wires.
See how it blings!
The finished hairpin. A little Asian Oriental piece.
We changed the look of this wedding dress with a little flower embellishment. I hope it doesn't flatten out during its shipping over there (Keeping my fingers crossed and praying very hard!!!)


The flower girl basket, some boutonnaires and hairpin together.

Male and Female chinese buttons.


A little bird perched on the flower girl basket.

Gift tags for the home made chocolate favours. Please keep one for me - Grace!

The cake topper. All stuck to a piece of translucent plastic so she can just slide it to the top of the cake. It's a vanilla scented candle in the middle and surrounded by orchids.