Bookmark Exchange and Father's Day Presents

The bookmark exchange from the NeedlesnCrafts group came in from Paul Lionel (Malaysia).

Paul crocheted book thongs for me. They can stretch and fit deep into the spine.  The green one is a sprout that sprouts out of the book. The hand-drawn sakura flowers postcard is also intended as a bookmark!

My girl, Joey, just learned to crochet after I showed her some basic stitches.  After just a few small practice pieces, she crocheted this round motif for Kristine who mounted it on a 20 cm diameter ring. Kristine just love dream catchers.

Joey's next project was this crocheted monkey. She did everything herself without any guidance. Not bad for a beginner, right?  Her handmade Father's Day gift.  He is 15 cm tall.

Kristine went into baking mode again and baked a red velvet cake for papa.  Don't tell her, but it looked better than it tasted.

Last School Holidays

I took some time to collage the photos.  After "resting" for a few months nursing my fractured foot, I'm back to "action". A little pity that we didn't manage to go for any tour during the last year-end school holidays, but we still had fun with other activities.

We had the opening of the National Gallery in Nov.  Of course we couldn't miss it, though the younger ones and older one weren't too keen after walking a few halls, and my boy was feeling sick.  A pity as I would have loved to spend more time inside and the opening carnival.

My children said I'm the only Mommy who will join them on their outings with class and school mates.  But well, when I joined them, I literally joined in and participated in whatever they do and not sitting around to keep watchful eyes.  Great to be out ...

...and in the indoor playground too!!  Though I must admit I couldn't catch up with any of them, and at some spots, I really needed to squeeze through! (The playground is opened to a adults too, even without accompanying children.) All the climbing, spiralling down slides, and bowling, I was arching all over for the rest of that week. Well, I'm all game to go again!

My girls hogged the mike!

Joined another outing of my girl with her CCA group.

Stuffs the Girls Made and A New Celestial

Just want to show some stuff the girls made - some for their classmates' birthdays ...

Kristine drew the card ...

... made all the bracelets and hair clips, some for fund-raising ...

messed the whole place with Hama beads!

And I just picked up my new 1.11 carat Celestial ring from Goldheart, which DH upgraded for me from the previous 1.02 diamond!!!

ATC @ Bishan Library Sep 2013

The theme for Sep ATC session was "Colour Wheel".  I did it literally, making colour wheels, but with little ghosts for the spooky colour wheel, extraterrestrial beings for the alien colour wheel, and flowers for the garden one. Now, I have a simple colour wheel in my pocket!

During the session, we created ATCs with pressed leaves, flowers and seeds, courtesy of Sor Huan.  Thank you, Sor Huan!

Here are our creations in the hour!  The first 2 on the left in the top row are mine, while the right-most on the 2nd row is done by Kristine.

I traded my colour wheel ATCs with Richard's butterfly, Melissa's yellow bird and Geok Lan's pop-up fence.

The Oct session will be on 10 Oct (Thu), 6.30 pm.  Theme: Word Collage.  Here are some samples from the swap I have done and new ATCs I did.   Postcard on the bottom right came from Bev Langill (Canada).  Her first piece never made it here, thanks, Bev, for making the replacement!

I spent 1 weekend cycling.  Cycling has never been more fun now, with all the parks and park connectors developed throughout Singapore. 1 of the longest routes is the Eastern Coastal Park Connector Network (PCN), with a total of 38 km.  Joey and I attempted the route on a cloudy and windy afternoon.  We cycled for 4 hours, with a break for an ice-cream and another one at the end, some occasional photo shots, and wrapped up the last half hour cycling in Pasir Ris Park itself along the coast.  I didn't measure the distance we covered, but it should be more than 25 km. 

Although I have had cycled enough, I had to go for another round the next day, this time with Kristine!  She just learnt not long ago, but fell and hurt her elbow. This time, she managed much better with more confidence.  We are sure looking forward to more cycling trips!  

 

More Swaps Received and Some Little Things The Girls Did

More swaps came in, this time from the Inchies-Onexone group.

Jan 2013 Swaps

B. Valentine's inchies from Polly (2 on the left), Katherine W (2 on the right) and Debbie House's Be Mine (bottom).

C. 2 ATCs - Valentine ATCs - pink heart from Polly and Tink-a-tude from Debbie House.

G. 2 Minature Art Cards (1.5x 2.5) on the Oriental theme from Debbie House (left) and Polly (right).

Feb 2013 Swaps

A. 4 Black & White inchies from Cheryl Russ, Polly, KW, Debbie House.

B. 4 Zentangles inchies with hearts from Debbie House, Polly, Cheryl Russ, Katherine W.

E. 4 Foreign Stamp inchies - 2 from Polly, 2 from Debbie House.

H. 2 Twinchies with an inchies (Sewing theme) - Button from Cheryl Russ, Thimble & thread from Debbie House.

Mar 2013 swaps included 

B. 4 Purrfect Inchies (Cats, Kittens) - 2 from Debbie House, 2 from Polly.

G. 4 Analogous Twinchies Spring Time theme- 2 from Debbie House, 2 from Polly.

Apr 2013 swaps 

D. 4 inchies - Pastel watercolour background with butterfly theme- 2 from Katherine W, 1 each from Polly, and Debbie House.

F. 4 inchies Stamped and Embossed-2 from Debbie House, 2 from Polly.

H. 2 Moos (1 1/8" x 2 3/4") - Any theme: Japanese from Debbie House and Fashionable from Polly.

I. 2 Thrinchies - Any theme: Spring from Jaimie Sander, All Dressed Up from Rae Ann Ohlinger.

H. 4 ATCs - Any theme. Fashion (2 ATCs) from Polly, Birds from Debbie House, Butterflies from Rae Ann.

I'll end off this post with this recycled plastic bottle Joey did - a coin bank with a secret compartment for a little something!  Not her original idea though, but executed all by herself.

And a drawing Kristine did recently.  I think she can draw much, much better than me!

June holidays, despite the haze

Singapore has been occasionally hit by smoke haze from forest fires in nearby Sumatra, Indonesia, brought over by wind.  The haze this year was the worst so far, with the PSI hitting 401 at 12 noon on 21 Jun and persistent PSI readings in the Unhealthy to Hazardous range since 17 Jun. Luckily the haze eased after a week, but everyone is still cautious and stocking up the N95 masks. 

Photo taken from my office window 1 hour after the worst PSI reading on 21 Jun.

I couldn't resist adding this photo for comparison.
This was taken from the same place on a fine day on 10 Jul, 12.20 pm.
The sea and the port could be seen on the horizon.

We couldn't do much during this school holidays as a result. We baked more scones and tried baking some cupcakes.  

At least, we did manage to go for a family outing at Sentosa when DH was back from China, just before the haze got real bad.  We cycled for an hour and had 2 rounds of the Luge & Skyride, followed by a movie "Man of Steel" and a late dinner at Vivocity.  

Utilised a pair of free tickets to the S.E.A. Aquarium and the Typhoon Theatre at the Maritime Experiential Museum on the expiry date itself, almost forgotten due to the haze!

And I tagged along Joey with her school table-tennis team for a cycling outing to the East Coast, followed by a Korean BBQ buffet dinner at Ssikkek in Oriental Plaza.

Back to crafts and swaps.  I received the May "Forest Fantasy" ATCs from Jan Gray (USA). These are the first doll-ATCs Jan's did - "We're all mad here" and "Forest Elf".  Aren't the cards lovely?  I love the colours especially - rich and mystique.  

The NEEDLESnCRAFTS "Summer" Moo exchange has just arrived.  Going clockwise from top-left:  Moo done by Mel, Janet Chan, Rose Jonid, Radha, "Sunshine" from Vivian Ong and the last one by Usha.  Another great swap, thanks to Janet for hosting it! 

The 3rd swap I joined in the Paper_Traders group was the Crackle ATC swap - crackle effect on the background to be precise.  I didn't want to spend on crackle paints, so I used glue with acrylic paints. It wasn't easy or was it that I used the wrong glue?  I only managed to get some crackle effect after trying on the 6th piece.  I even resorted to brushing my silver crackle nail polish to some of the ATCs!  So these are my attempts.

As the theme is free, I made paper-punched bride and groom and tatted a pair of small dimpled hearts for these "Two Loving Hearts" ATCs. 

Sewing Sock Creatures and My New Celestial Ring

I was quite surprised to receive this in my letterbox. Almost thought it will never come, but it came - a pen and marker-drawn Peter Pan for the January Art Doll swap from Maureen Blakeley (Canada), sent out by Tanya (Maureen's daughter) as Maureen was not feeling too well.  Thanks, Maureen and Tanya, love the doll!
[Afternote: This was the last doll Maureen was able to do as her strength failed her rapidly after that.  Maureen had a cardiac arrest and passed away in May.  Everyone in the ATC-ArtDoll group will miss her.]

For May ATC session in Bishan Library, we did stamping and paper punches.  I have not used paper punches for a while, certainly not to my liking - it's too much for my hands to bear, I punched just enough to do up a card on the spot (the anemones and butterflies ATC on the left).   

The theme for the month was "Yesterday".  I did paper feather for these chapteks (a common game found in kampong days in the past) - fun to play and fun to make!  I traded for Mdm Au's paper punched-owl, one of my favourite birds.

Haven't joined a library programme for a while, but wait, I did, just that I haven't mentioned them yet here :( But let me talk about this latest session "Sewing Sock Creatures" I attended with Joey yesterday at the Bukit Merah Library.  

Using leg warmers, we cut and we sewed for a straight 2 hours to sew up a rabbit each - mine's the blue/pink/white one, and Joey's the purple/pink/white one.

Back home, Joey continued to sew - all hand-stitched.  Rather cute.  And I must say I couldn't have done much better than her.  Well done, Joey!

 

Kristine arranged her last flower arrangement for the year in school, with chrysanthemums.  Looked like a salad bowl to me!

And I'm most excited by my new diamond ring!!!  DH upgraded/traded in my previous 0.84 carat Celestial ring to this 1.02 carat, colour E, set in white and rose gold band.