Christmas is a time for family and friends

Christmas features largely in our annual calendar of celebrations. For our family, it is a busy of the year as we gather at various weekend parties before Christmas.

This year, we decided to organize just one large combined Christmas party for our family and friends instead of segregating the group and having different parties over several days. Also, I felt motivated to add some personal touches to an otherwise outsourced party as we are engaging a caterer to handle the food arrangements for almost a hundred guests.

The Christmas party invites were handmade from cardstock sourced from the craft shop. I decided I did not want a cookie-cutter style and so each invitation card is unique, no two are the same. One side has a shiny-but-slightly-matt surface while the other side sported colourful borders.

For each table group, I made a Christmas Tree centre-piece to add a festive tinge to the room and as a tribute to the season. Chocolate hearts were scattered around its base to bring some colour to the table setting.

The sugar cookies I baked earlier were also left in plates on each table to serve as snacks for those with a penchant for sweet things. The kids loved them and I was so touched that several came up to say how much they liked the cookies.

This is the first time I baked for a large-scale occasion and I was so touched and encouraged when all the shepherd’s pie, fruitcake and brownie squares were polished off. Alas, Hubby and I were so caught up as hosts that we totally forgot to take pictures of the other food once our guests started arriving and we flitted from table to table, chatting and reveling in their company.

After dinner, the kids had fun with a piñata lovingly made by my mother. Using only natural materials, she lent her creative energy to fashion a striking piñata, heavily stuffed with goodies and little knickknacks. My mother truly has a way with kids as she organized the kids program that night and all of them, including the older children, had lots of fun.

It was a really wonderful evening spent with family and friends and a satisfying culmination of weeks’ of preparation, to finally know that it had been one great party.

All things nice and beautiful

I pride myself as someone with relatively good taste and discerning enough to appreciate the finer things in life. Not that I am good at creating lovely things, but more of being able to recognise a well-designed item when I see one.

During my moments of web-surfing, I sometimes chance upon some fabulous blogs. They exhibit such a refreshing style of artistic flair in the writing, layout or design that gets me all inspired. So much so that, I have decided to bookmark them at the new column I created at the left.

So if you happen to know of any other design-worthy blogs, do drop me a line. For now, do enjoy these.

For the little kid in each of us

Hey folks, go check out Mini Modern.

This is a fascinating website showcasing sleek mini room and house displays made up entirely of mini furniture and figurines. It is really amazing, the lengths and efforts the creator has gone to in order to setup each of those rooms.

Here are some preview pictures of what's available. Absolutely exquisite and drool-worthy, are they not?

Who says heroes must be superhumans?

Several years ago, I got to know a young lady through some friends in church. My first impression of her was someone with more grey matter in her brain than she chooses to let on. She was quietly confident, without a need to shout out her presence in large groups.

My contacts with her over the subsequent years have been brief and sporadic. She was an acquaintance but yet somehow she never strayed far from my mind. Perhaps it is due in part to how she chose to conduct herself in situations that most would have responded in the extreme opposite way. Over time, I discovered that she was jovial without being boisterous, talented without being boastful and kind without making a big deal out of it. Instead of the proverbial “an eye for an eye”, she chose to let go and let her talent and tenacity speak for her.

Today, she is one of the anchor teachers at Rus Art Studio, an artist with hundreds of paintings sold all over the world and recently, a business owner of her newly opened shop at Crown Centre #02-15. Take a peek at Artokoro and be refreshed by a whole new perspective of what art is.

My friend is Chun Wee Ping – an accomplished artist, a passionate teacher and an inspiring cancer survivor whose story has been published several times. She is a role model to her students, an inspiration to many and a strong testimony to the world of God’s faithfulness and goodness.

Thank you Wee Ping, for touching my life with your bravado and inspiring me. God bless you.

All ready for the Chinese New Year

How do you like my toe-sies all done up for the Chinese New Year in festive red and mini floral blooms? I had them done yesterday at a little shop at Orchard Plaza for a meager $30 for the whole works!

It was an enjoyable day out yesterday with lots of ME time. After the pedicure, I pampered myself with a heavenly 2-hour facial with eye, face and neck masks and an upper body massage. What bliss it was to be able to indulge one-self!

Next, I proceeded for some retail therapy at City Plaza. My impression of that place had always been shops selling auntie clothes, mobile phones, knick knacks that would mostly appeal to youngsters or domestic helpers (considering the crowds of Indonesian foreign workers milling around that place on weekends). The avid shopper that I am, I decided to give City Plaza a second chance after someone told me that it was clothes haven.

The majority of the shops still hawk clothing that can hardly be ranked on my scale of appeal. However, after 3 hours of patient scrimmaging and sifting through the various stores and racks of clothes, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to score some good buys. My booty for the day included two dresses, a skirt and a blouse, all for just $100.

That rounded up a wonderful day for me :)

Tectonic movements

The past 48 hours have been face-changing for the financial sector.

Ripple effects of the US sub-prime crisis had never hit home so close as the news about AIG, the insurer for several of our insurance policies. I read with growing unease about how Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers have been drawn into the Wall Street carnage with buy-outs by Bank of America for the former and Barclays for the latter's US units.

Events moved so quickly that it left little time for reaction, leaving many in the tailspin of the whirlwind. In a knee-jerk reaction to the AIG gloom, many responded quickly. Not that I blame them, I guess it is the survival instinct that kicked in the need to do something and not just sit and wait for the worst.

Hubby and I spent a good part of last night assessing the opportunities and risks in the current market turmoil with our financial advisor, who called to address any concerns we might have in view of the recent events. Hopefully things will pan out well in the days to come.

It is early days still. Yet I sense the peace of God even in the midst of all this, akin to being in the eye of the storm.

Job 5:24
You will know that your tent is secure;
you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.

Tile painting

We happened to walk by the Crossroads, a Yellow Ribbon Project exhibition at Marina Square yesterday. There was a booth organised by hansart, one of their sponsors and my boys were invited to try out tile painting.

Because of the age difference, both boys were given different art materials. Big Buddy was instructed to draw a design in pencil on his blank white tile before going over with paint while Little Buddy was given coloured markers and told to draw straight away on his. That went rather well till Little Buddy saw his brother working with paint and his independent streak took over.

Little Buddy demanded to be allowed to use paints with full autonomy as to how he should hold the paintbrush, what colours to use and where to apply the paint. Considering his age, he has rather good control of his fine motor skills, managing to produce a fine piece of work all on his own.



Big Buddy displayed an acute interpretation of his version of a dog and a cat which he painstakingly drew with a pencil but which resulted in an interesting smorgasbord of colours.



The session concluded with 2 proud parents and 2 happily-satisfied boys, a proud Big Buddy and a paint-streaked Little Buddy.

Gifts for the teachers

A couple of weeks ago, I was racking my brains on what to get for Big Buddy and Little Buddy's teachers at school, enrichment class and church. I had aimed to get something nice with a personal touch as gifts for them.

Finally, we settled on chocolates and Marks and Spencer biscuits and handmade the butterfly gift cards using some of Big Buddy's past artwork. The message tags were created using WordArt.

Over the course of a few hours, both boys chipped in and created these. During the past few days, both had fun handing them out to their various teachers.

I found some great blinkies

For some time, I have been wanting to add some blinkies to my blog to liven up the look. Finally I managed to find some time to surf around and I uncovered some interesting ones at Blinkies By Alexis, Blinkies by Sparky, Desha's Blinkies, Mel's Blinkie Swap and Tami's Blinkies.

These brought back warm memories of some 80's movies I had enjoyed :






I remember watching this with my brother after accompanying him to collect his PSLE results.


My father brought us to watch Empire Strikes Back at the now-defunct Rex Theatre.


And here are some musicals that Hubby and I love.








I remember the front few rows of audience were offered umbrellas to shield themselves from the water during the splashing rain acts.

Here are some other random ones that described my family's taste in life, or just because they are so witty and catty!

Art in the family

Big Buddy loves to exercise his self expression through free-form drawing. We often find him doodling with whatever media he lays his hands - all types of pens, pencils, markers or crayons on his drawing journals or just about any scrap of paper he finds.

We have encouraged him to draw and paint since less than 2 years old by providing various materials for his experimentating. I am blessed with a mother who previously taught art and had produced students with award-winning works. She had been instrumental in fanning Big Buddy's art interest and guiding him.

Over the years, Big Buddy had filled several art journals with his creations and I enjoy flipping through them to witness how his drawings have matured.

Lest anyone says I have been biased towards Big Buddy, here are some of Little Buddy's too. He has great concentration power when it comes to drawing. Similarly, he has been given his own art journals to record his emotions and thoughts. After he outgrew the stage of throwing crayons around, he has shown more interest in producing some quirky work. While Big Buddy draws with broad bold strokes, Little Buddy has been great with fine detail work. Here are his recent renditions of the Chaos Theory.

Cool robot cities

I stumbled onto this interesting flash city and spent some time exploring it. Move your cursor around and you will discover that some features can be manipulated. There are two more fun robo-cities to check out, here and here. Have fun!

I love Pocoyo

I first met Pocoyo and his friends last month when we stumbled onto their program on Disney Playhouse. It had a very different concept for a children's program which to my surprise, worked! Big Buddy, and even Little Buddy, enjoy it very much.



The program revolves around the adventures of Pocoyo and his friends, Elly, Pato, Loula and Sleepy Bird as they explore the world around them. The characters are depicted in bold block colours with very little accessories. To further minimise distraction, the usage of props is kept to a minimal and when present, are always integral to the storyline. All these help young children focus on the main points. The storylines are simple, often exploring a single concept per show. Narrator Stephen Fry does a great job as he guides Pocoyo along, often engaging the viewer to participate too.

As for me, I love the artwork, humour and the antics.

Hey, I sound as if I am Zinkia Entertainment's spokesman, raving on and on about this precocious little boy! Anyway, I invite you to check it out and let me know what you think.

Bundles of wealth

I thought it would a nice gesture for Big Buddy to give mandarin oranges to his school teachers, his school bus uncle and lady when school reopens after Chinese New Year. After all, the teachers have been doing a great job teaching and caring for him in school. The bus driver and lady too have been very careful and mindful of child safety while ferrying him to and fro school each day.

However, I doubt if he can handle so many oranges and remember to give a pair to each person. There is a real possibility of him losing some of the oranges on the way to school and I would be terribly embarrassed if he ended up giving only 1 orange to each of his teachers or some other worse scenarios! So I decided to help him by wrapping these bundles of mandarin oranges. I reckon it will be much easier to remember to give a bundle of two mandarin oranges to each of his teachers and the bus driver and lady.

The whole family got involved in the process. Hubby and I cut the orange cellophane wrappers to size, arranged the mandarin oranges, tied the twisties. Big Buddy passed me each sticker to be pasted on while Little Buddy just waved the rolled-up cellophane wrapper around much like a sword. We had such fun together and wrapping the 8 bundles became less of a chore and so much more enjoyable.

If I may say too, the wrapped mandarin oranges look really good and festive with their orange wrappers ..... a pile of Bundles of Wealth.

Yummilicious sweets

We saw these exquisite handmade Japanese sweets last weekend and found them so irresistibly delightful that we just had to buy some. You could even opt to have them put into a beautiful gift box.

Don’t they just cheer you up and bring a smile to your face?