Her Drama-ness

Hello 2008!

2008-01-22T13:43:00.000+11:00

Wow, it has been exactly 7 months since my last post! Well, I'm still here, although very very much inactive. The second half of last year was incredibly hectic that I barely had enough time for sleep, let alone doing the things I loved: stitching, reading, blogging. What's that thing they say about the tree falling in the forest, I wonder if the same applies to a stitcher: if there's no time to stitch, can it still be considered a hobby? When I could catch a breather, I didn't have the energy or motivation to blog as I knew I couldn't keep up, and as much as I loved reading other blogs and catching up with what was going on in other people's lives and all the latest stitchy conquests, I was just out of gas. Which is a shame, because I peek in now and then, and what I see is always so amazing and I wish I could be an active part of all your blogs with my regular visits and comments. Thank you to those who have thought of me and keep dropping by to see if I have updated, I'm so sorry to have stayed away until now, and even so, I won't be able to blog regularly, but I'm here, and I will try to say hello now and again. Please know that I think of all of you and visit when I can, even though I'm a silent lurker. If you want to, feel free to e-mail me, I definitely have more time for e-mails than blogging because I can at least sneak those in while at work! *grin*

So, what's new with me? Nothing much, really. I'm still chugging along with my health and exercise regime, although it has taken a serious hit since the Christmas break with lots of pigging out while I was overseas for work and a holiday. I'm resuming with it though, so hopefully I will reach my goal -- if only I can resist all the bad stuff! As for wedding plans, we still hope for a wedding in September, although we're fast approaching it and we still are being absolute slackers and haven't done much. I'm sure we'll get there once we start panicking although I sure hope it doesn't get to that stage! I still haven't fully settled in with my new role at work but I think it's a matter of mindset and getting out of my comfort zone, and I will get there eventually.

I also started a book blog. I know what you're thinking, she can barely keep up with one, and now she's starting another? Is the woman mad or what?! My book blog is purely for sharing what I think about the books I read. Unlike stitching, reading is something that I can keep up with, although not as much as I would like to. A book is easy for me bring around anywhere, although I know the dedicated stitchers will probably say the same about their projects. When I joined BookCrossing, I picked up the habit of putting in journal entries for books I read and I would like to continue that for books that aren't registered on BookCrossing. By no means am I a book reviewer, I just share what I think, regardless of popular opinion. There aren't many books on there yet, but feel free to visit: A Rainbow of Books.

Before I go, I will leave you with a picture of my RR (from two years ago, and still not complete!) with my square finished. Well, technically it's still missing my signature, but at least the square is all stitched. It's not something I did recently, I think I finished it somewhere between August and October last year? I had hoped to only share it after I've signed it, and I said I would do it last year, but here we are in 2008 and it's still at where I've left it. Hopefully I'll get to the signature and the middle section sometime this year. To my RR mates, Harmien, Annemarie and Mady, aren't I the most pathetic RR partner ever?! I don't know if my RR mates will read this but I promise, I will e-mail a picture of a complete RR one of these days, even if it only comes years later!

Well, that's it from me, and hopefully it won't be another 7 months before I check in next. I hope it has been a great start to the year for all of you and I wish everyone well for 2008!

Me Pretty Clockz

2007-06-22T23:04:00.000+10:00

It's not going to be a very useful clock, LOL, but it sure does look good! At least to me anyway, I really like it. And I can take partial credit for it because I helped to stick the vinyl on the canvas, hee hee. Most likely this will be hanging above the TV, or maybe above our floating DVD shelves, we'll figure it out eventually. Anyways, here's a photo of MY clock (I've decided everything in the house belongs to ME! *grin*), just ignore my wilted flowers in the background. It's time for fresh ones, methinks!

500 grams!

2007-06-21T21:13:00.000+10:00

After 5 weeks of hard work doing this 'Weekend Warriors' thing at the gym, I have only lost half a kilo! *sob* Isn't that sad?! My trainer also took other measurements and I have lost a total of 5cm, which is like negligible! Sigh, I was in Sydney on Monday and Tuesday for a business planning workshop, I really shouldn't have pigged out at the buffet! LOL. Oh well, who knows if it would have made a significant difference, but I guess ultimately, at least losing something is better than nothing, or an increase! *gasp* I guess I was hoping for a little bit more as I thought I had lost 2kg when I checked a couple of weeks ago, or maybe I was cross-eyed! I'm not actually too disappointed as I'm still pretty proud of myself for putting in all this effort, but compared to those weight loss programs on TV, it seems rather pathetic! I know it's unrealistic to do such a comparison, but it would definitely be pretty cool to see a 5kg loss! Anyways, I will keep plugging along, hopefully I will see more results at the end of 12 weeks!

I do have an update on my Monsterbubbles freebie, 'Home', but I actually haven't stitched on it in ages. Most of the latest progress came about from stitching during the men's French Open final (I was hoping Federer would win, but alas!), which was a couple of weeks ago. I haven't stitched since then but I'm sure I will get back to it eventually. If not soon, at least during the 2nd week of July as I have another stitchy date with my friends! Anyway, here's the latest WIP pic:

I have more pictures to share with you! Firstly, looky at my pretty fruit bowl -- きれい！ My very clever, artistic and talented Terrence created this gorgeous design, had it cut out of vinyl with adhesive backing and stuck it on our plain red fruit bowl (actually a salad bowl, but it works for us!) that we just bought yesterday, and VOILA! I really love it, it's so pretttteeeee :) The corner of our coffee table is also decorated in a similar style, and Terrence is in the midst of designing a clock that will be hung above our TV. I'll share the photos when the clock is done! He's just waiting for the vinyl he's ordered to come in. In the meantime, check out our fruit bowl and the coffee table!

Before I go, let me leave you with one of my favourite websites at the moment. The pictures with their crazy captions never fail to make me chuckle and hopefully you will get a few laughs too! Go on, you can has cheezburger too! Don't raise your eyebrows at me, you'll get it once you see the website: http://icanhascheezburger.com/, hee hee....

いち、に、さん。。。

2007-06-10T16:55:00.000+10:00

Before I continue, I just want to thank everyone who has visited and left comments. I don't have a popular blog so I don't get a lot of comments, but I do relish whatever I get, so thank you to those who have dropped me a message! :) Of course, my thanks to those who have visited too -- don't be shy, say hello! Hee hee...

Anyways, I have managed to do more stitching, so that has been great. Still not close to finishing yet but I reckon I have made good progress. The only thing is, it's going to be off-centre! *sob* I assumed the specified stitch count (74w x 69h) would be right and I didn't count on the chart to be sure. I guess I should have, but I don't think I have ever come across a chart where the stitch count provided was wrong! And this has to be one of the rare times where I don't start stitching from the middle and started from a corner. So yeah, the right stitch count should have been 72w x 67h, which makes all of my calculations wrong and I didn't realise until I had done a fair bit. It's not a huge disaster, it's just a little lop-sided with the left looking pretty cramped compared to the right. This totally goes against my anal-retentiveness where everything has to be just right, but the desire to NOT want to frog is stronger, so this stays! LOL. It's okay, I will get over it, hopefully when the whole thing is finished, it won't look too bad.

Alrighty, that's it from me, just a quick one from me today. Bubbye! :)

Hurrah!

2007-06-03T14:59:00.000+10:00

Firstly, I have some great news to share. My grandmother had her check-up with the doctors recently and we received excellent news. My grandma had two tumours, one of which is now gone! Of course, there is no guarantee that it won't come back, but this was really the best outcome possible as the doctors were hoping for precisely that to happen through the radiotherapy and chemo sessions. The other tumour that is in the rectum wall is still there, but that one the doctors were always planning to remove through surgery. I'm not too sure when the operation is scheduled, my sister said that the doctors still plan to keep monitoring my grandmother's condition before going ahead. But still, this is really really fantastic stuff and we couldn't be more pleased. It was definitely nice to have some uplifting news.

Secondly, I cut my hair on Friday! I went through a phase where I would only cut my hair once a year when I was back in Singapore because I could never find a hairdresser in Melbourne that I liked. Then, my friend, Miho, recommended a place to me, and the guy was pretty good; at least I didn't feel like crying when I walked out. LOL. Okay, that's being a tad dramatic, but you get what I mean. Anyways, the last few times I've been there, I've just been getting a bob haircut, which is fine but getting a bit boring. So this time, I said I want something different and I got it! I'm still getting used to it because I haven't had a fringe for ages, but it's growing on me and I like it! So yep, that's me, with my round face and all, but hopefully it will get sharper with all the exercise that I'm doing! Muahahaha... For some reason, my hair looks really flat in the photo, but oh well, you get the idea. (^_^)

Lastly, I managed to get some stitching in yesterday! I had another craft night with my friends, and this time there were 6 of us (and Licorice the cat) so that was good fun! Three of us stitched, one was knitting, another was beading and the last was drawing. I didn't work on the LHN piece that I was previously stitching but decided to get started on my own part of my RR, which should have been done yonks ago. I didn't get much done, but it's a good start and it feels good to be stitching again! Anyways, it's a Monsterbubbles freebie called 'Home' and suits my theme perfectly. Hopefully I will finish it soon, here's where I'm up to at the moment:

Anyway, that's it from me. Before the weekend totally disappears, I better get some laundry done! Till next time!

One Republic - Apologize

2007-05-23T16:35:00.000+10:00

This is one of my favourite songs at the moment. I also like the remix version that features Timbaland. I would love the piano sheet music for this, it would be so cool!

Back in high school?!

2007-05-23T16:19:00.000+10:00

So yesterday, I had Japanese class. I actually enjoyed last night's class the most so far because we were covering time, which I only vaguely remember, so it felt like I was learning something new. Anyway, we have been getting homework sheets for the last two weeks so when the class ended without us getting anything, I just asked if there would be anything for us to do this week. Now, the teacher knows that I've learnt Japanese before so she knows that I can handle the slightly more difficult stuff (which is probably still only kindergarten-level stuff anyway) so she said she can give me some sheets to do, but she would only be giving it to me. And then this guy sitting behind me goes something like this, "Go on, teacher's pet." OMG! Am I back in high school or what?! That was just so juvenile. And this coming from a guy who has got to be at least in his 50s. Yeesh. And here I thought I was doing a language course for adults. ばか。

And my neck is hurting from doing crunches at the gym both on Monday and Tuesday. It's actually sore to touch! At least my stomach hurts too, so I know it wasn't just my neck that was doing all the work.

Okay, ranting is now over.

A couple more things

2007-05-20T11:52:00.000+10:00

Oops, I left out a couple of things from my previous post. Firstly, when I returned from Singapore, my RR was waiting for me at the office. All three ladies -- Mady, Harmien and Annemarie -- did a spectacular job on my RR, I couldn't have been happier. No pictures yet, because shockingly, my own part on it isn't complete yet! LOL. So yeah, I'll get to it, hopefully soon, and when I'm ready, I will post up some pictures!

But anyway, that's not the main point. When Annemarie mailed my RR home to me, she included the most lovely gift ever. I did send her and the others a note to say that I had received my RR and to thank her for the gift, but I never shared about it on my blog. You may have already seen it on Annemarie's blog, but I think it's still necessary to post it here to express my thanks and to say how much I do love it! An Annemarie floss fob original and I was lucky enough to receive one. So once again, a big thank you to you, Annemarie, so sorry I couldn't give it the reaction it deserved when I first received it!

The other thing that I forgot is that I purchased the most adorable needlework magnets from The Silver Needle! I have been wanting to get more magnets but somehow just never got round to it. Then I saw that The Silver Needle had the cutest magnets and I just had to place an order. Currently, they are just decorating my fridge at the moment, but I am sure I will be putting them to good use soon! Although, I reckon the 'Break in Case of Emergency' one will probably be used for decorative purposes only! Anyway, here's a pic of the ones that I got:

Okie dokes, that's it from me. I'm off to make some pumpkin soup -- I don't want to be boastful, but I love my homemade pumpkin soup and it's the perfect remedy for such a cold Melbourne day!

Hello World

2007-05-19T11:44:00.000+10:00

Wow, didn't realise I was away for a while. I sorta retreated into my shell a little bit. When I got back from Singapore, I didn't want to have lunch with my colleagues, or go to some of my regular social engagements, I just wanted time to myself, my own space, and I didn't want to talk to anyone about what happened so I stayed away. That way, I could minimise the opportunities for people to ask me. I'm doing good now though, I've stopped being anti-social at work, I'm meeting people again and I'm getting stronger, where I don't break down and cry when on the rare occasion, someone asks me about my grandfather.

My family is doing great too. My sister started her new job not too long ago and finds that she can actually have a life outside of work. My dad has been really busy, but I think he's probably enjoying that, if at least just to keep him occupied. He has lots of travelling to do, so I hope he keeps safe throughout them all. My grandma seems to be in excellent spirits. She will have a check-up with the doctor next week to see what her progress is since the chemo and radiotherapy sessions and then they will make the decision about the surgery from there.

There were also a couple of celebrations this month -- it was my dad's birthday on the 5th (but he was in Mexico for work) and it was my grandma's birthday on the 14th. Nothing spectacular, but the family went out for dinner on my grandma's birthday, which is always nice, in my opinion. It's hard being away from my family, but I'm glad all's going well. As to what I've been up to, it's a bit here and there, so here's what I have been doing!

#1: I've taken up Japanese lessons again! The last time I learnt Japanese was back in 1999 and it's something that I always wanted to do again. My friend has had a plan to learn a language this year for a while, so when she mentioned it to me, I figured this could be a good time to do Japanese together. She was keen, so off we went! We started a couple of weeks ago, and so far, she's really enjoying it. It's okay for me, only because we're just still at the basics, which I still remember, but I knew that I wasn't good enough to just jump straight into the next level. That's what I expected, so it's cool, but I hope to learn some new stuff as the course progresses, we still have 6 weeks to go.

#2: If you're a book lover like me, then I have a GREAT website for you to visit! This UK online store is called The Book Depository and it's fabulous! Their retail prices can sometimes be a whole $10 or more less than what I can get in bookstores here or even from local online places. The even more fantastic thing about it, shipping is absolutely FREE! All the way from the UK! While this free shipping offer doesn't apply to every country, they still cover many places. Great huh? How the heck they do it, I don't know, but to be honest, I don't really care! All I know is I'm getting an incredible deal. These brand new books are delivered directly to me at work and arrive in pristine condition. I purchased the Japanese texts for me and my friend, which we could buy here from between $38-45, depending where we get them from, but it only cost us $27 each from The Book Depository. I've since made more purchases from them, and I'm sure there will be more. I could not be more thrilled to find this website!

#3: Terrence and I haven't made any wedding plans at all, partly because of what had happened, but I think also because we're trying to avoid it. Don't get me wrong, we both are ready for marriage, but it's the wedding that's going to be an absolute pain in the bum! We haven't even figured out which country to hold the wedding in! It's probably going to be a toss-up between Singapore and Melbourne, and there are pros and cons for both places. I've taken a first step and asked my sister for her guest list, so at least I can see how many people there could potentially be from my side of my family so I have a better idea of what numbers we're dealing with. That may help us to decide the location. I'm sure we will get there eventually, but we both agree, it's going to be a big headache! LOL.

#4: Well, even though no wedding plans have been made, there is ONE thing that I am very sure of: I do not want to be a fat bride! *grin* So yep, that's a plan that has been implemented already! We cancelled our gym membership at the old place and signed up at another gym, which is about 5 minutes' away from where we live. I have also signed up for a personal trainer, because I have no willpower whatsoever and I need someone to help me get through the session. I started this thing at the gym this week that will go for 12 weeks, it's called 'Weekend Warriors'. There are two one-on-one personal training sessions each week, as well as two group PT sessions, 45 minutes long each time. Then every Saturday, there is some sort of activity, like rock-climbing, mountain biking etc.

It's only the first week and this thing is already KILLING me! I had to miss Monday's personal PT session because we were donating blood that evening, but I rocked up for the group session the next morning at 6am, which is ridiculously early IMO, but I didn't have a choice as Japanese lessons are on Tuesday evenings so I wouldn't be able to make it for the evening session at the gym. But anyways, back to the group PT session, the trainer started us on a cardio session and it was soooooo hard! I'm super unfit and I think I was still a bit weak from the blood donation the night before, and he had set the treadmill at like the highest incline possible and a running speed at about 9km/h. Maybe that's slow, but to me, that was bloody fast and my heart felt like it was going to explode and I was feeling faint and seeing stars. We were swapping machines during the cardio session, but after the 3rd machine, I couldn't take it, I had to go to the bathroom and puke (pardon the gross details). I had nothing in me but water, but even that I couldn't keep down. I came back out after a while and went back to the group fitness thing doing some step-up step-down thingy and my legs were screwed. Thursday evening I had my personal PT session, did leg weights, more cardio, and my legs were EVEN more screwed. Had another group session yesterday evening and of course, just more tired again, but at least I didn't puke that time! Though I did have sneezing fits.

However, nothing beats today's activity, which started at 7.30 am. It's something called '1000 steps' and if you want more information about it, here's a website that you can visit. At first I thought it was just running up and down normal office building steps, but after asking a couple of people, I found out what it really was. I thought of chickening out but after speaking to a colleague yesterday, she said it "wasn't that bad" so I believed her and went along (and dragged Terrence with me) for the activity this morning. Well, those people lied because it was a killer! There's this trail leading to the steps, and I was already puffing and panting before I reached the steps! The incline was killing my legs and they were already feeling so weak after all the gym work; it was really really tough. It also didn't help that I didn't have anything to eat anything in the morning as I didn't want to puke! The group just got further and further away, and soon enough, I was on my own. I was really tempted a few times to just give up and turn back around, but somehow, I managed to hang on in there. I came in dead last, which was really embarrassing, but at least I finished it and Terrence was really sweet and said that he thought it was really good I completed the walk, as he found it pretty tough as well. It's still kinda demoralising though, coming in last -- a couple of kids and a granny beat me! -- but I guess I'm quite pleased that I did manage to finish the thing, even though my fitness level is so crap. I have to thank one of the trainers; I don't know what his name is, but on the home stretch, I saw some of the group coming back down and when he saw me, he stayed with me and helped me get up to the top and then went down with me as well and kept encouraging me. I will have to thank him properly the next time I see him at the gym! I don't know if I'm going to survive 12 weeks, I just hope I can!

#5: I've been keeping up with my reading but I haven't touched any stitching at all in a long time. I did place an order at Down Sunshine Lane though, so I'm looking forward to that arriving! I also locked in a stitchy/catch-up date with a couple of friends whom I stitched with the last time, so that's gonna be good. I will be going over to their place this time, and I think an activity where I can be sitting on a couch is fantastic! If nothing crops up, this will be going ahead on June 2, just in a couple of weeks' time, it's going to be a lot of fun!

Okay, I think I've rambled on long enough! I guess I've more than made up for my period of silence, hee hee. Sorry if I bored ya, and thanks for visiting! じゃ、まったね (Ja, matta ne)！

RIP Gong Gong

2007-04-18T09:30:00.000+10:00

I have been quiet for a while as a lot of stuff happened after I returned to Melbourne. On 5 April 2007, the day before Good Friday, my grandfather passed away at about 6.30 pm. He would have turned 86 on the 22nd of this month. I had just spoken to my sister that morning and while the update wasn't great, it appeared that he was holding on well and his vital signs were strong. However, at around lunchtime, I got another call asking me to come back asap. I was scrambling, trying to get flights out that night, but unfortunately, they were all full. In the end, it didn't matter anyway, as I wouldn't have made it back in time. I flew out in the afternoon on Good Friday and just returned to Melbourne on Sunday morning. While I was upset that I didn't get the chance to say goodbye, at least he went peacefully, which was all we hoped for. Only my dad was with my grandfather at the time. Of course, we will never know, but we think maybe that maybe my grandfather didn't want everyone to see him go, especially my grandmother -- his oxygen levels dropped right after my grandmother left the room and within 20 minutes, it dropped to 65%, took his last breath and left. While it's a sad time for all of us, we have our memories as a family, and especially precious, from the time when my immediate family (except my brother and brother-in-law) was here in Melbourne at the end of 2004 for my graduation ceremony and we had a lovely time together. At that time, we hadn't taken a family holiday for ages, and I definitely don't think we ever travelled with my grandparents either.

For now, I hope my grandmother stays strong -- she needs to battle her own colon cancer and I hope her will hasn't weakened. She was very withdrawn during the period of the funeral service but her spirits lifted a little afterwards. On the day we were picking a niche for my grandfather at the columbarium, she selected a spot that was eye-level and it was between two occupied niches by females. She then said, "Okay, this spot for Gong Gong and he can have two temporary 'girlfriends' to accompany him". Now, she said this in Hokkien, which is my family's dialect that I'm not very good at. My eyes widened and I just kinda said out loud, "Did she just say that?!" There were chuckles all round and even my grandmother managed a laugh. The day after, she was admitted into hospital for her chemo drips and she felt well despite the treatments. Her appetite was excellent and she kept asking us to buy 'char kway teow' for her to eat every day. Her platelets count was low initially, but it increased during the course of treatment so the doctors were very pleased with her progress. She was definitely the terror of her ward and I think she provided much amusement to the nurses, hee hee. Now, there is a month of recovery before her surgery, and I hope she continues to do as well as she has throughout her treatments.

Before I go, I just want to thank my friends for their messages and for coming to my grandfather's wake. It was very last-minute and out of the blue, and I really appreciate everything. Thanks guys, and I hope to meet up with you at happier times. Take care, and once again, thank you.

Back in Australia!

2007-03-04T14:37:00.000+11:00

I'm baaaacccckkkkk! :) Actually, I have been back for a while, we arrived on Tuesday morning but I have been so sick, I haven't had the energy to blog and post an update. Unfortunately, I am still sick but I'm feeling a little bit better than I have been this whole week. It's nothing serious, just a cold because of a viral infection, - which unfortunately the doctors can't do anything about (I've been told to ride it out) - but with the most dreadful cough; it's hard to sleep when I feel like I'm coughing my lungs out every 5 minutes. I'm hoping that I get well soon, it's the coughing that drives me crazy and drains all my energy.

Anyways, as for the trip itself, that was good. Thankfully, I really only became sick the last day before flying home so it didn't affect my entire holiday. It was really great to be home, especially during Chinese New Year, with the whole family gathering together. I spent lots of time with my family so that was good. I was also VERY well-fed while I was there, hahaha, there were tons of pigging out sessions! So not good, but OH SO VERY GOOD, if you get what I mean! *grin* My grandfather is still weak, but slowly getting better, which is excellent. My grandmother started her radiation and chemo sessions after I left and she's doing okay so far, which is also excellent. The doctors have faith that all should go well so we're taking it one step at a time and hoping for the best. Because time was so short, I couldn't meet up with all of my friends, but I had a fantastic time with those I managed to catch up with, and I hope I see them again soon, either in Melbourne or in Singapore or some other part of the world!

However, the biggest news of all is.......I'M ENGAGED! :) Terrence "proposed" at the playground downstairs from my family's place the night before we left for Melbourne. It was totally unexpected and it was very much a surprise. I mean, I know we were going to get married eventually, but I certainly didn't expect the proposal then. So a bit of background, I actually knew about the ring, because we had gone diamond shopping just before Christmas last year. However, the main reason for doing so was because Terrence wanted to ask my father for his blessing and he wanted to have a ring to show so that it looked more convincing. Well, maybe convincing is not the right word, but you know, just to give the whole asking thing a bit more weight. So I had picked out the diamond and had chosen a band setting, but I wasn't allowed to see the finished product and I was certainly given the impression that I wouldn't be getting the ring anytime soon, which was fine by me. In fact it was Terrence who initiated the whole getting-a-ring thing so that he could show my dad while we were in Singapore. So anyways, as I was saying, I was very stunned and I think my brain wasn't working very well at that particular moment. And I say "proposed", because he didn't ask the traditional "Will you marry me?" but rather something along the lines of, "I know you won't say no, so I'm giving you this ring as a symbol of my love and for us to spend the rest of our lives together." Something like that anyway, as I said, my brain wasn't working very well, so I can't remember the exact words, hee hee. So but yes, to cut a long rambling story short, I'm engaged, and here's the 'symbol of love' on my fat fingers, muahahahaha.... *grin*

Well, that's pretty much all the exciting news from me - getting engaged, getting home and getting sick, LOL. I'm off to take more cough medicine (it tastes like candy!) and hopefully this nasty cold will soon be on its way. Glad to be back in blogland and I'll come around and visit as soon as I can! :)

Stitching progress and goodbye

2007-02-12T19:50:00.000+11:00

It's not a permanent goodbye, but I'm going to be away for a while as I'm going back home to Singapore for Chinese New Year. My flight is on Wednesday afternoon. I haven't been back for CNY for a while so it should be good. So yeah, I will have access to internet but I doubt I would have much time for blogging and such, so I'm probably going to be pretty quiet for a while. I will post pics of the car when I'm back as well, as I didn't get it today, the dealer couldn't have it ready in time for today, hopefully it will be ready for pick-up tomorrow!

Here's some stitching progress that I've made on the piece I'm working on. I really shouldn't be posting this as it's going to be a gift but I simply can't resist, hee hee. I hardly have much stitched work to show so now that I've made some good progress, I just have to show off! LOL. Anyways, here's the latest picture of it, I probably won't work on it again till I get back from my holiday. I'm not going to bring any stitching with me as I have quite a few library books that I need to finish reading so it's gonna be books all the way while in Singapore. Okay, just a quick one from me today, I'll see all of ya when I get back! Ciao!

It was a big day today!

2007-02-11T01:22:00.000+11:00

Well, the biggest news of the day is that I got a new car! Okay, so I don't have the car yet, and it's not really new, but at least it's a "new" 2nd-hand car. Terrence and I had planned to replace my Toyota Echo soon enough, maybe in the next year or so, but it happened a lot sooner than expected as we chanced upon a deal too good to pass up. We did have a look at the car last week and we were sooooooo close to deciding then but thought we would hold off first. Anyways, the dealer rang me back yesterday, sweetened the deal, and we though, what the heck, as good as any other day, so we went for it. Which was a little tricky since I had to discuss this with Terrence over the phone (he's away at the moment) but all worked out in the end. So today I headed to the dealer (my first time ever purchasing from a dealer!) and finalised all the paperwork and put in a deposit. If all goes well, I should be able to collect it on Monday!

So, what car did I get? It's a 2003 silver Honda Jazz VTi-S 5-door hatchback, which is a neat little car. It's still a small car like the Echo (I don't like big cars), but has a little bit more power and still great on fuel economy. And it has FOUR DOORS! I really missed having four doors; even when I was driving my tiny 0.7 litre Daihatsu Mira, it had four doors and just made things so much easier. So yeah, I have always liked the Jazz and this car should last me quite a while. And because I bought from a dealer, the transaction is fairly hassle-free with the Echo as a trade-in, as opposed to me trying to sell the Echo myself and then going through another private seller to buy the new car. And I reckon we got a pretty good deal on it, considering a couple of other dealers were selling the same model Jazz with similar kilometres but at prices set about $3,000 higher. All in all, it was a quick turnover -- from seeing the ad online and then testing out the car to the final transaction -- but I think it was a good decision, I'm looking forward to getting the car on Monday! :) Anyways, as you can see, I've pinched a picture of the car from the Honda website. Ignore the garish yellow background, hee hee...

I also had a couple of friends come over today and we had a great afternoon. We took a walk on the beach (which is about 5 minutes away from me and I had never been there yet!) and just enjoyed a bit of the sun (it was kinda cloudy) and the sea breeze. We did walk for quite a long while (I reckon a good hour maybe?) and the shoreline was fairly uneven so it was quite a challenge walking on the sand as well, so it was good excercise too! After the walk, we went back to my place and prepared a gourmet veggie pizza (my friends are vegetarians), which was yum! I have never actually made pizza at home before and although we cheated (we used a bought pizza base), it tasted really good and I reckon it's something I should do myself in the future. And if I'm not making pizza dough myself, it's actually really quick and easy to do! No more toiling over dinners....

Well, the best part came after dinner, we STITCHED! Yes, I found real stitching friends! LOL. Not that you online folks aren't real, but I have never had anyone I could hang out with and stitch together with. I have known these two girls for about 7 months now and I found out that they also stitched a while ago. We had talked for ages about getting together for a stitching night but it was always hard to co-ordinate (they live quite far away from me), but we finally got together today! And it was real fun, what with the walk and the dinner, and then just stitching together and chatting away, I really enjoyed myself. We also had some ice-cream before the girls left for home. They were here at about 4.15 pm and didn't leave till 10pm! Hopefully we can do this more often, I will try to organise another session and go over to their place next time.

I also finally pulled out my Q-Snaps to try again with my stitching tonight. I used it once before but wasn't a big fan of it and had just stuck to my stitch-in-hand method since then. I gave it a 2nd go tonight and I think I was more comfortable with it today but I reckon unless I remember to use the Q-Snaps, I will probably just stitch in hand. But I must say, with the Q-Snaps, I could finally use my needle magnet! Anyways, here's a pic of what I started tonight. I managed to do a fair bit as I did continue stitching after they left, so it has been a fairly productive night for me.

Oh, and a funny story from last night. I went with a colleague to watch Perfume: The Story of a Murderer yesterday evening (which is a pretty good movie, btw) after work. Anyways, the movie ended and the credits started rolling. Other people are now chit-chatting amongst themselves, preparing to leave etc. So I started talking to my colleague as well, nothing loud or anything, just in quiet voices, and we were just voicing our opinions at how we both quite enjoyed the film, blah blah blah, when suddenly, the lady in front of us turns around, glares at us and says, "Can you wait until it's finished?!" And the both of us just stare at each other incredulously; the movie is over, credits are rolling! People are already talking and getting ready to leave so it's not like it was dead quiet at that point in time. And I mean, if I were talking during the actual movie itself, I reckon the lady had every right to tell us off, but during the credits?! It's not like Pixar credits where there's still stuff going on. Anyways, I think the both of us laughed/snorted in disbelief and just chuckled, I think we won't be forgetting this in a hurry. Which is such a shame as I will always associate this incident with this movie and it deserved a better memory than that. So yeah, I thought this was pretty funny and thought I'd share.

Alrighty then, that's it from me today. I'm soooooo tired, I was up at 7am and it's now 2.09am, and I have been doing household chores all day before my friends came over, which feel like so much now that it's just one person doing them all! I think it's the stitching excitement that has sustained me so long. I'm off to bed, I'll come round to visit when I'm more awake tomorrow! Or technically later in the morning. Oyasumi!

Six weird things about me

2007-02-04T20:46:00.000+11:00

Okay, it took me a while to post this after I got tagged by Mercy and Meari. Here are the six weird things about me:

1. I have no toenails. Okay, that's a gross exaggeration, but I do have very stunted toenails, which is why I never bother with painting them (or fingernails, for that matter of fact). My little toes do have no toenails, they only grow this weird twisted grayish thing about 0.1cm long, which always annoy me so I cut them off, so voila, no toenails! Only flesh left. My sister only realised this a few years ago and she thought it was the weirdest thing ever, so I figured this counts as Weird Thing #1. Oh, and my second toe is the longest, but I don't think it's weird, my sister has that too. I think we got it from our dad.

2. I don't wear make-up - no foundation, blusher, lipstick, blusher, mascara etc. Absolutely nothing. The only times I have had make-up on is at my sister's wedding, where she made the make-up artist do something for me; at my graduation ceremony, when my sister made me put on lipstick so I would have some colour in photos; and at my job interview so I looked a bit more presentable, which surprise surprise, was also my sister's suggestion. The only make-up item I own is some lip gloss thingy which my friend gave as a birthday present which she figured would come in handy once I started work, only I never bothered with the make-up! I guess it's not that weird, but a lot of people find it amazing that at 26 years old, I never walk around with a painted face, even if I'm going to some big event or something.

3. I like to smell my dogs' paws. LOL. And no, I do not have a foot fetish or something. My dogs get this sleepy smell when they're sleeping, and I love hugging them and sniffing them because they smell so different from normal, and because they're normally lying on their backs, I also end up smelling their paws and the smell is strongest from their paws. I hope I don't gross people out too much - really, I'm not a crazy person! *grin*

4. Speaking about smelling things, I like to sniff my food before eating something, usually when I'm trying something new. It's like a little trial run before it ends up in my mouth. I don't think it's that weird, but my dad seems to think I'm like a dog, and he always tells me to stuff it in my mouth, but I'm not eating something unless it smells okay!

5. I talk to myself. That's pretty common, I suppose, but I don't have an existing conversation with myself, I start talking about something completely random and unrelated to me, sometimes with different accents or whatever, and sometimes I don't even realise it until Terrence goes, "What are you doing?" LOL. I'm not sure why I do it, maybe I like the sound of my voice?

6. I'm definitely no English professor or writer, and I'm sure I make my fair share of mistakes, but basic grammatical errors irk me, especially from e-mails at work sent by well-paid executives who should know the difference between its and it's, and your and you're! Or worse, from journalists. I once saw these errors in an article posted online by a newspaper, and I stewed over it half a day and decided that a newspaper should not be making such mistakes, so I sent through an e-mail highlighting the errors, LOL. It was definitely not a typo, it was throughout the entire article! I have a friend who shares this pet quirk with me, so I'm comforted by that. I'm looking forward to reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss - a book about punctuation, I will be a happy woman! LOL.

Okay, those are my six weird things, which may or may not be weird to you. If you're still happy to be associated with me, please do leave me a comment! :) Till next time, adios!

PS. Just adding an update to my list of weird things. I realise that not all of the things I have listed are really that weird, because I was struggling to think of weird stuff about me last night. Not that I think I'm not weird, just that they could be so ingrained in me that it's no longer apparent to me even if everyone thinks it's the wackiest thing ever! LOL. Anyways, this weird thing is Terrence's. He counts characters in his head as he speaks, as he reads, as other people speak. Apparently it's an automatic part of his brain process. So for example, if I say, "What's for dinner tonight?", he will be processing the question, along with, 6 3 7 10. And I can count; to him, unjoined letters like i, j etc. count as 2 characters, and the question mark also qualifies. I only found out a couple of years ago (and I think we had been together for 5 years at that stage) and I don't even know how that came about in the conversation, but when he told me, I thought it was the freakiest thing ever!! I kept testing him like throwing out long words and words that are not part of daily conversation and his response would be instantaneous. He's a weird fellow, indeedy!

Presenting Mady's gorgeous RR

2007-01-28T21:40:00.000+11:00

This is going to be a quick one, just posting a picture of the entire RR as promised. Mady's theme was 'Friendship' and here is what we stitched for her! I love the fabric that Mady has used, it's absolutely beautiful (hand-dyed fabrics are awesome!) and I think it's come together beautifully. Apologies for the poor picture, it's a little blurry, but I assure you, it is extremely gorgeous in person. It will be heading on its way to Canada tomorrow, unfortunately, it always takes ages from Australia, but here's wishing it a safe journey, and I hope Mady likes what she receives!

Here's another scan of my part with my "signature". It's the first time for me stitching one over one, it was fun! I love how it's so tiny and so neat, I don't normally sign off on my own pieces when stitching for myself, but I think it may be the way to go in the future, I really like it. I used lettering from Bent Creek's Wedding Row.

Also, for those who may be interested, here are the details of what I used in the design:

Pink in the border - Wild Cherry by Dinky Dyes (silk threads)
Yellow in the border and flower - Daisy by Dinky Dyes (cotton floss)
Blue lettering in main piece and signature - Icy Nights by The Dye Is Cast (cotton floss)
Purple thread - Berry Freeze by The Dye Is Cast (cotton floss)
Spool - Tiger Eye by Dinky Dyes (silk threads)
Needles and backstitched lettering - Soot by Gentle Art Sampler Threads (cotton floss)
Leaves - Crème de Menthe by Dinky Dyes (silk threads)
Flower petals - Secondhand Rose by Crescent Colours (cotton floss)
Red in heart and flower - Good ole' DMC cotton floss

Okay, I'm heading back to watch Federer serve for the championship!

Hanging around...

2007-01-26T21:43:00.000+11:00

I'm still here, just have been a bit busy as I was travelling and needed time to settle back in, and also preoccupied with some personal stuff, so I haven't had the chance to update my blog or go visiting either. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and/or left a comment for me, I didn't mean to ignore you, it has just been a little crazy for me. But it's the long weekend, and I plan to catch up on my blog-reading, so look out for me at your blogs! :)

A couple of updates from me. Firstly, there was a bit of a scare with my grandfather. As most of you would know, he had lung cancer and is recovering from surgery. He hasn't recovered as fast as we liked but has been doing okay for the last few months. About two weeks ago though, he relapsed with hallucinations caused by a lack of oxygen, which the doctors advised that it came about from a viral infection and had developed into pneumonia. That was pretty scary - it's bad enough for an old guy to get pneumonia, let alone someone in his condition. The doctors were also telling my family to "mentally prepare" ourselves and asked us to make some tough decisions. Needless to say, everyone was tense, and I was feeling especially helpless as I am miles away so all I really could do was get updates from my sister. Anyways, the good news is, we received some positive feedback early in the week. While my grandfather is still pretty weak, medication had helped to get rid of the fluid in his lungs and x-rays show that the infection is clearing. He's still in hospital but it seems like he's on the mend. That was a tremendous relief for everyone, and we are hoping he's going to be well enough for Chinese New Year. I go back to Singapore the middle of February and my aunt will also be there from New York, so it will be the first time in quite a while that the whole family is gathered together on such a significant occasion. It's going to be good. I just hope that my grandfather continues to get better.

The news about my grandfather had distracted me from stitching, even though I was late on the deadline for the RR I'm in (as always!), but as usual, my RR mates are so patient with me and so understanding. With the good news early in the week, I could focus on stitching again, and I'm proud to say that I finished my piece today. Well, pretty much finished, all that is left is for me to "sign" the piece. I guess having a long weekend (it's a public holiday today as it's Australia Day) helped as well, and apart from having breaks to eat and going to the toilet, I was pretty focused on stitching! I reckon I worked harder today than at the office! LOL. This is the last round of the RR with my friends from Cyberstitchers and this is on Mady's piece. I stitched Friendly Stitchers by Brittercup Designs.

Initially, I was unsure about this choice as I wasnn't sure if it would fit with the overall RR so I sought advice from a fellow RR-mate, Harmien, who assured me that it was fine and I'm glad I did. I am really pleased with how it turned out. I changed the colours completely from the original as I wanted it to match with Mady's fabric and if I do say so myself, I think I did a pretty good job! I did consult with Terrence, but the choices were still mine, so I take full credit! LOL. I also didn't use the flower button as required for the piece - partly because I didn't have it, but even if I did, the colour wouldn't match and I didn't have any substitute buttons that would work so I just stitched in a flower. Anyways, without further ado, here's a picture of my stitched piece! I have also included a picture of the original. Once I "sign" the piece, I'll upload a photo of the entire RR - it's a real pretty one, I think Mady will love what is going home to her!

I have also been watching some pretty exciting tennis matches on the telly. I love it when the Australian Open is on, it's the only time that I get to watch the matches on TV at fairly decent times. I would love to follow all the grand slams but with the different time zones, it's pretty hard to do that. Oh, and the first time, we actually have decent reception so we can SEE where the ball is going! LOL. We weren't organised enough (and also didn't feel like paying so much) to watch the games in person but I think I would like to do that next year. Sure, it's pretty pricey for a ticket but I think it's worth it for the experience and atmosphere, and I think doing it once won't kill us. So Australian Open, I'll see you in 2008! For now, I will be happy watching the finals on TV. I'm happy that Gonzales has beaten Mr. Fancy Pants (aka Nadal, whom I really don't like) and now that he's beaten Tommy Haas and gotten through to the final, I hope it's going to be an exciting match with Federer. I'm still gonna support Federer (you just gotta love that sheepish charm of his, so adorable!) but I hope Gonzales puts up a good fight and don't get destroyed like Roddick in the semis. Did anyone see that match? Poor Andy was bitch slapped; he was destroyed and crushed and even though I was supporting Roger, I actually felt sorry for Andy and was hoping he could get some points in. Anyways, I'm definitely looking forward to Sunday night's final, I hope it doesn't keep me up for too long, I still need to get to work the day after!

Well, I think I've yapped on long enough, I sure was making up for lost time there! :) For those who have been visiting, I hope you keep visiting, and be sure to leave me a comment! I love comments! *big smile* I will catch up with my blog reading, so expect me to pop up here and there! Oh, on a closing note, I just discovered my local library and I just want to say it's AWESOME! Almost as cool as Bookcrossing! Okay, it really is the end for me now, bye bye everyone, I will be back soon! (^_^)

Oh dear...

2007-01-02T17:58:00.000+11:00

Okay, so I faced a pretty awkward situation at work today. Getting into work today, I was stuck at the entrance of the car park as there was a car in front of me blocking my access with no sign of the driver. The car looked familiar though - it was a green Toyota Kluger, which a colleague of mine drives, and although I don't know his licence plate number, I had a pretty strong feeling it was his car. Anyways, lo and behold, he walked out of the car park (the gate was open but the boom gate was down) and got back to his car. So just to make fun of him, I was making gestures to indicate, what's the hold-up? He made signs back indicating his card to swipe in wasn't working and it looked like he just got back from speaking to the security guard. He gets back to his car and keeps trying his card and it's still not working. Meanwhile, a car comes in behind me, and another pulls up behind that car! The bay is not very long, and the street that it's off is a NARROW street - you couldn't fit two cars side by side - the last car was already blocking part of the street, one more car and the entire street would be blocked. So I got out of my car to see what's going on, and I tried my work pass to see if it's his card that was kaput or maybe the system was out. Well, my card worked because the boom gate went up so I thought, okay, just let him get in first and clear the congestion, and then he can continue sorting it out with the security guard. I didn't think it would be a big deal since he was already talking to security, so she should know what the situation is about.

So I make my way to my floor and just as I popped my laptop into the docking station, I get a call on my mobile. I answer it and it's the security guard! She goes, "Did you let so-and-so into the car park?" and I'm like, yes? And then she basically goes into her lecture that you are not supposed to do that, it's a big no-no, blah blah blah. Which I totally get, because of security reasons and all that, but in this situation, I thought it was completely justified, and she was completely aware of the situation since my colleague had already been speaking to her before I got there. Plus, there were so many cars waiting! So I let her know how I feel and she still says, no no, it's still not allowed. Oh, just a note, this lady is not the regular security guard, so she doesn't know who we are, otherwise the regular guy could have just pressed a button or something to let my colleague through and then sort out from there, which the regular security guy has done for me when I have forgotten my work pass. Anyways, I didn't want to get into a lengthy conversation, so I just said that was fine and ended the call. I wasn't feeling angry or annoyed, really more amused than anything else, and I had a quick chuckle about it with my colleague in question.

Okay, I'm being quite long-winded with my story, please bear with me, I'm not the greatest storyteller! So fast forward to the afternoon, I'm having lunch with two different colleagues at the office's "chill-out" area on another floor and we were just chit-chatting away. I mentioned how great traffic was today as I had left my house later than usual and I still got to work at the usual time! Which then reminded me of the incident this morning, so I was telling them the story. It had stayed on my mind because of the unusual circumstances, and also because that colleague usually comes in a whole hour after me and it was really strange to see him at that hour. So yah, I'm telling them about what happened in the morning and ended with the security guard calling me about letting my colleague in. Then one of them made a remark, "I can't believe she rang you, that's pathetic." And WHAT DO YOU KNOW, the security guard lady is sitting at the next table having her lunch! I almost died. I hadn't noticed her as she had her back to us and there was a pillar between our tables, so I only realised when I glanced over just as my colleague made that remark. I didn't say anything rude, and I was just sharing my experience from the morning, but I still feel really embarrassed. On top of that, there was my colleague's remark, which I know was just a passing comment and wasn't meant to be an attack or anything, but it still wasn't very nice, so I feel bad. Even though it wasn't me who said it, it was I who brought up the whole incident, and I just talked without thinking or being aware of my surroundings. I feel like such an idiot!

So yeah, that's my story for the day. I know it's not a big thing at all, but it has been on my mind since lunch, I just feel so bad. Well, I'm off to extract my foot from my mouth, I hope the security lady doesn't hate me... :(

2007 is here!

2007-01-01T10:50:00.000+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow, where has the year gone? Some days seem to just drag on while the year just flies by. Overall, 2006 has been good to me and I can't complain much. I guess the biggest event by far was Terrence and I buying our first home and it just keeps getting better. I know I've said this before, but nothing beats having your own place and it has been so nice putting in our own personal touches, and just having the liberty to do that in the first place (wouldn't have happened at the rental property!), it's been great. Work hasn't been the best, but hey, it has afforded us some luxuries and here's hoping that it will pick up for 2007. The biggest upset also came in 2006, with the family learning that my grandfather had lung cancer. While the surgery was successful, it has been a slow and painful recovery for my granddad, and he's still doing it tough. I know we should be grateful that at least the tumours have been removed, but it is heart-breaking seeing the loss of his vibrancy. My hope and wish for 2007 is that my grandfather regains his strength and the quality of life he had before his surgery, and live out the rest of his years in comfort. No new year's resolutions, I think they're pointless, I just want all the best for my family, and especially for my grandfather, hopefully this will be the year.

Before I go, here's a little story about my fuzzballs. Nothing too exciting, I just think they're cute, LOL. Terrence and I were having a little showdown on Mario Tennis (video game on Nintendo GameCube) so we were sitting at the foot of the bed having our match. We weren't really focused on the dogs as Terrence was putting in all his energies in trying to beat me. Believe it or not, I'm better at this game even though I don't actually know how to play tennis! Haha. Anyways, when we turned around, guess what we found? We didn't even know when they got there but they sure made themselves comfy! FYI, Banzai is on the left and Reuben is the one sort of hugging him.

Well, that's it from me! I head back to the office tomorrow - *sob* I need a longer holiday break! I want to wish everyone a happy 2007, all the best for the new year! :)

(no subject)

2006-12-28T14:20:00.000+11:00

Okay, so it's a stupid title, but I have no ideas for the title of my post, hence the cheesy title, hee....

Anyways, the holiday break has been great so far. I have been such a bummer, it's awesome! :) Okay, so I'm not that lazy, I have been catching up with my household chores, doing laundry, ironing, that sort of stuff, but otherwise, it has been super relaxing and just chilling around the house. I don't head back to the office till Jan 2, which really isn't too far away, I'm so going to struggle once I get back to work!

We haven't done a whole lot for the holidays. We headed to a suburb in Melbourne called Ivanhoe, which is famed for a particular street (The Boulevard) where the residents put in a lot of effort in decorating their homes with Christmas lights. To be honest, it was a little disappointing, some were pretty good, but nothing that really wowed me. And of course, there were HEAPS of people, which can really bug me at times. Also, as we went with Terrence's parents, we couldn't walk the whole street (it's a really long stretch) and probably only saw half, so I kinda wonder if the good stuff was at the other half. Oh wells, I guess there is always next year if we do decide to check it out again. I know Terrence definitely didnt like the crowds!

I also got to fly a kite, it was fun! I know, I must have flown a kite when I was a kid or something, but I don't really have any memory of it, or at least of a successful kite-flying experience. So yeah, it was pretty exciting to see the kite flying high in the sky, and it wasn't a particular windy day either. I relinquished the controls pretty soon though, I couldn't control the kite very well, it was doing somersaults in the sky and took a nose-dive, LOL. I quickly gave it back to Terrence so I wouldn't jinx it further, hee hee. Here's a tiny pic, you can see the kite in the top right-hand corner, the person in the picture is Terrence's dad.

Oh, and would you believe it, we got a white Christmas during SUMMER in Melbourne! Unbelievable! I think it snowed in the mountain areas, and in certain parts of metropolitan Melbourne, there was heavy hail, so it covered everything like snow. We also got a bit of hail where we live, not quite enough to be a realistic white Christmas, but it's pretty wild to see it. That's Melbourne for you, famed for its unpredictable weather; four seasons in a day! Here's a picture; pardon my patchy and dying grass, we're on water restrictions at the moment so we can't water our lawns, and my poor grass isn't surviving.

Last night, I caught up with a friend I haven't seen in ages. We met up for dinner, had our chit-chat, and then watched Happy Feet at the cinemas. It was a great movie, I loved it! The ending was a little cheesy and total BS, but I guess the protagonist has to save the day somehow. But overall, the movie was fantastic, I loved the music, the characters, it was totally enjoyable. I didn't think I would like it this much, the animation was done in a realistic manner, as in penguins look like penguins, and not like the cutesy-fied Disney style (if that makes sense), and I thought that injection of realism may put me off the animation but it didn't. My friend kept telling me she wants a baby penguin - I wish her luck! LOL. I reckon I will be getting this one when it comes out on DVD!

Anyways, that's it from me. I'm off to continue the rest of my lazy holiday, if I'm not back before the new year, I want to wish everyone all the best for 2007, I'll see you in the new year! Take care! :)

The holidays are here!

2006-12-20T11:05:00.000+11:00

Okay, so we're not quite there yet, there are still a couple more days but it's so close, the sensation of freedom is washing over me. LOL. It's really not that long a break, but still, 10 straight days away from the office is going to be awesome, and I'm looking forward to catching up on stitching, reading, watching telly or just doing nothing! Ahhhhhh.... it's going to be good!

Also, I wanted to share a piccie of my new stash! :) I made two separate orders in November; one was through a birthday discount with Amy at Down Sunshine Lane, and the other was with Bobbie at Stitching Bits and Bobs. The DSL order had arrived quite a while ago, but the SB&B order only just arrived yesterday, hence the post today. I was so excited, I hadn't gotten new stash for a very long time, maybe even close to a year, which is why I treated myself to a few things. November was the right time to buy as well, using my birthday discount with DSL and SB&B had a 25% off everything sale, so it was perfect! This is what I got:

Raise the Roof Designs - What Side? (with button pack)
Raise the Roof Designs - Warmth of a Good Friend (with button pack)
Raise the Roof Designs - Warm Water Wash kit
La-D-Da - My Sunshine
Embellishments for Winter and Spring Snapperlands (with free border charts)
A pack of Floss-A-Way bags

And yes, if you were wondering, Raise the Roof Designs is one of my favourite designers. Ever since Witchy Washy, I have been completely won over! Although, I only noticed the "quirk" with Warmth of a Good Friend when my order arrived, and I'm not entirely sure about that bit, hee hee. That I may have to edit out!

Btw, these two online shops are GREAT places to buy from. Amy at DSL is just such a lovely lady, she turns around orders so quickly and always provides top-notch service and consistent communications. SB&B is also another favourite place of mine because their service is also great and they have sales all the time, so you can get quite good deals. They also carry Floss-A-Way bags, which I love! LOL. You usually have to wait a little bit for orders from SB&B, but that is not a problem at all as you can get updates on your order, so you know exactly where the progress is at, and the wait is never horribly long anyways. Both are terrific places; and thank goodness for them, otherwise I will be suffering from S.E.X withdrawal symptoms! Hee hee...

Well, that's it from me. Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, have a great holiday and stay safe!

Photos intensive

2006-12-14T18:18:00.000+11:00

Okay, I've been a little trigger happy lately so I have lots of photos to share! Hopefully it makes for a more visually exciting post, hee hee...

First up, the bushfires still haven't abated in Victoria. We really need some decent rain to help ease the fires but it doesn't appear that there are going to be any heavy rainfalls in sight. Yesterday was a very smoky day, much more than over the weekend. Here are a couple of photos that I asked a colleague to help me take from the office:

Thankfully the smoke has cleared up significantly today, but the battle with the fires continues. Again, I hope everyone stays safe, and these fires will soon be under control.

Last night was also a fairly interesting night for us. A colleague who lives in my neighbourhood informed me about a particular street where the houses had gone all out with the Christmas lights, and said that it was worth going to have a look. There aren't many houses on my street that have done major Christmas decorations, and the only two that have, it's just simple lights, so nothing too fancy. So Terrence and I got the dogs together and we decided to go for a walk to check out these houses. I mean, we have absolutely NO Christmas decorations at all ourselves, so we need to live vicariously through others, LOL. I know, it's quite pathetic, we just weren't organised this year, we'll do better next year!

So, back to these houses, it was a sight indeed! I'm sure there must be fancier out there, I mean, I remember seeing one on the web last year where this dude had his lights TIMED in sync with some song, it was totally full on. But anyways, back to the houses we saw, I haven't seen many like these in person, so it was still pretty impressive to me! There were many more houses with Christmas lights on this street, but there were two in particular that went all out. One of these seems to also be a finalist in some TV network's Christmas lights competition (first three photos). Terrence took a few photos, they are probably not great since it was with his mobile phone, but they're still pretty good. I told Terrence, next year we will blow everyone out of the water with our decorations! HAHAHAHA.... so not going to happen! *grin*

Well, that's it from me today! I'm a happy camper at the moment; tomorrow is Friday, which means the weekend is fast approaching. WOO HOO! A friend is also in Melbourne from Malaysia, so me and another friend will meet up with her for dinner on Saturday, which is always good. Then one more week of work, and it's HOLIDAY TIME! I soooooooooo cannot wait! Can you tell I'm excited from all those exclaimation marks?! LOL. Okie dokes, dinner time for me now, tata for now!

It's the weekend!

2006-12-09T10:44:00.000+11:00

I love weekends, they're great. I never appreciated the weekend when I was a university student, but now I'm a slave to the MAN, I relish every weekend and can never wait till they come around. I'm also hanging out for the Christmas break, that will be a nice long break, it's going to be awesome. Terrence's parents will also be coming to visit, so that's good too.

Anyways, this morning, we woke up to a VERY hazy day; you can smell the smoke in the air. This is a photo that I took from my backyard. Normally we get blue skies, or even if it was a cloudy day, you could still see the clouds. Everything is just shrouded in smoke and haze at the moment. I've been in Melbourne for about 7 odd years now, and we have bushfires every year, but this is the first time that I've seen the air like that in the metropolitan areas. Frightening.

Not sure whether this is being covered in news overseas, but Victoria is facing extremely bad bushfires at the moment, in fact, this weekend could shape up to be the worst in the state's bushfire history. Thankfully, I don't live in a region that gets hit by bushfires. I really don't know how the people who live in affected regions do it, their courage and determination to tough it out each year. Every summer you hear about these horrific fires and yet people don't move away, and some stay behind to defend their properties during bushfire season and don't leave until they're forced to. I could never do that, I would stress myself to death. My heart goes out to those in the affected areas, I hope they stay safe and we get some rain to help control these raging fires.

We took the dogs to the vet this morning. Nothing major, they were just due for the annual vaccinations and heartworm shots. They always get sooooooo excited when they go to the vet's, so it's always a major challenge. Terrence almost couldn't make it for today's vet appointment, but he managed to postpone his later commitment by an hour, so that was good. I would be struggling just by myself, two crazy dogs are just too much for me! Anyways, the boys had their shots, got their worming tablets, they also had some blood tests done as part of the check-up and all is well. It did set me back by about $500 (YIKES!), but I guess it's a once-a-year thing, so I'll get over it. But it does hit the pocket when it's a huge chunk at one go like that!

And now, on to some stitchy stuff! Some of you may remember my previous stitchy post about part of a finish for Harmien's RR. It was a modifed design of My Garden Wild by 4 My Boys. I never got round to posting the complete picture, so I'm finally doing it today! This one is a scanned picture. The flower and butterfly are from Roots and Wings by Waxing Moon Designs. I used the Crescent Colours threads that the chart specified. The little flowers and beehive are from Lives to Stitch by Stitchy Kitty. And last but not least, the bees are from Ladybugs and Bumblebees by Cottage Country Needleworks. Oh, and I suppose I shouldn't forget my very boring signature, LOL.

I've also attached a picture of how the entire RR is looking at the moment. This one was taken with the camera. Just one more stop and our RRs return home! Isn't Harmien's RR looking so gorgeous at the moment? Unfortunately, my creative ideas aren't up to scratch so I couldn't get the "full" look like how Harmien and Annemarie achieved. But I still hope that Harmien likes what I've stitched! And also, if my fellow RR buddies are reading this, I just want to thank them for being sooooooo incredibly patient with me. I have been the most AWFUL RR partner this year; constantly missing deadlines and holding up the RR, I just have been terrible. Harmien, Annemarie and Mady are just wonderful folks and have been so understanding. So ladies, thank you so much for being such great RR partners; hopefully there will be a next time when I get my act together, and you'll still have me! :)

Well, that's it from me! I really should get started on clearing the lounge room (otherwise Terrence will nag at me non-stop, how's that for reversal of roles?!), but I'm just feeling so lazy at the moment. It's the weekend! I think I'll do a bit of lazing around but I will get cracking eventually, hee hee. Anyways, if you do drop by, please leave me a comment! I love comments and I just can't get enough of them, hee hee. Thanks for visiting! (^_^)

It's gonna be a long one!

2006-12-01T22:49:00.000+11:00

I'm having a fat day. Not that I'm not normally fat, but today, I'm especially feeling it. LOL. Terrence keeps telling me to stop talking rubbish, but he's biased, so it doesn't count. But at least he's being sweet :)

Anyways, it has been a while since I last blogged, so expect me to ramble on and on! I got back from my Korea trip last Saturday but I think I only just recovered! I never do well with travelling, I get motion sickness and I always make sure I have my pills (it's called 'Kwells') with me to help me, but I think this time there were just too many flights and not enough rest in between, so I still got kinda sick. I shall spare you the details as it can be quite gross, LOL. But otherwise, it was still a pretty good trip, just really tiring and I was EXTREMELY happy to get home by the end of it. I didn't take a lot of photos, and from those that I took, I didn't have many good shots at all. So here are the three best ones!

This is a shot of the outside area that we had dinner at on the first day of my 3-day academy. The place is called 'Korea House', and if I got it right, it's an old palace and you get to experience a dinner that the royal family would have eaten. The wait staff were all dressed in traditional Korean gear.

This is a shot of the city from the conference room where we were having our academy at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul.

A very bright and busy shopping street!

The really good thing from my trip was that I got to see my family when I stopped over in Singapore, especially getting the chance to see my grandfather. It was a bit of a shock at first when I saw him, I mean, I knew he would be frail, I know the kind of treatments that he has to go through, and he's an old fella, so he would be worse for wear. But seeing him, I really got a jolt, it was really emotional and I had to try really hard not to cry. His beautiful hair, which he is always so proud of, is now cut short so he wouldn't be too hot as he's on the bed most of the time now. He's also lost soooooooooo much weight, and according to my family, he already looks a lot better than when he first came out of surgery. He was literally just skin and bones before. There was a photo nearby that had been taken when my family had come to visit me in Melbourne about two years ago; he looked so healthy in that photo, and he was so mobile, going with us to farms for strawberry-picking and that kind of stuff, it's just so hard to see him like that. And the first thing he said to me was, "Just waiting..." :( I just hope he keeps recovering and that he can think positive, it's been slow but he has been making good progress, so I hope he can take one step at a time and he'll be able to get back something close to the quality of life he's had before...

Anyways, I need to move on from this topic as I will probably burst into tears soon. I just have to stay strong, keep staying positive and trust in the doctors. My family is doing much better than me, and they are the ones who are in the thick of it. Something a bit more upbeat, we were in the city tonight as Terrence's brother had a gallery opening as part of his art school, and it was pretty cool actually. We reckoned it was more interesting than the Picasso exhibition we went to earlier this year! Although to be fair, it featured only one period in Picasso's life, and didn't feature his more famous works. So, back to the gallery tonight, I'm not a big art person, but there were definitely a few pieces that appealed to me. And Greg's piece(s) turned out well, which he got an award for it, so he's super pleased about that. And part of his exhibition will probably end up in our house, which is cool too! Hee hee... it's nice to have an artist in the family, helps to fill wall space when I can't stitch fast enough! LOL.

Oh, and while waiting for the tram, I got Terrence to take a photo of the pretty Christmas lights. I like blue lights :) The photo is not great as it was taken with a mobile phone, but it's still pretty good! If you're wondering what that building is, it's the old post office, but it has since been converted to a retail joint, I think. I don't go into the city much, so I can be quite clueless about what goes on in the big bad world, hee hee.

Alrighty, I think I have yakked on enough. Not much stitchy stuff in this post, but I will try to have more of that next time. Oh, I am expecting some stash to arrive, which is really neat as I haven't ordered stash in AGES. I actually ordered from two different places (Down Sunshine Lane and Stitching Bits and Bobs), so it is a bit of a treat. It's kinda like a birthday order as I get a discount from DSL in my birthday month, and I needed Floss-A-Way bags, which I ordered from SB&B, and they were having a sale, so of course I had to get a few extra things, hee hee. It will be an early Christmas gift to myself!

Okay, this really is the end this time, if you managed to get all the way here, wow, I'm truly impressed! Thanks for toughing it out and I hope I didn't bore you too much. Till next time! (^_^)

Big week ahead...

2006-11-13T21:36:00.000+11:00

Things are just cruising along, although I do have a fairly big week ahead of me. I had my hair cut today, which is a big thing for me, as I usually cut my hair once a year, LOL. Although this is my 2nd haircut in 3 months, so that's pretty good for me! Tomorrow, Terrence and I have an appointment after work to donate blood, it took a lot of convincing, but I finally managed to get him to come along with me! On Wednesday, it's my birthday, another year older! *sob* We won't be doing much, I'm still working that day, so we're just having Thai for dinner after work. On Thursday, I may possibly be watching a movie with a colleague, she has free tickets to Saw III. I have a work function/celebration on Friday night, and depending on whether I get my waitlisted flight, I head off to (South) Korea for work either midnight Friday or Saturday morning! Phew, it's a big one alright! I'll be gone for a week and won't get back till the Saturday after, so I'll probably be totally worn out after all that travelling, especially since there aren't any direct flights, I will be flying through Singapore. Which is kinda good, as I get to see my family, even if just for a few hours. Better than nothing!

I also had quite a fun day yesterday. I took a day trip with some friends out to Sorrento in Victoria. It's down the bay, so it's like a nice little coastal town out of the city. Despite having been here for about 7 years now, it was my first time there, so it was lots of fun! I had the yummiest grilled fish, and then we had vanilla slices, which the town is famous for. It was really more custard than vanilla slice, I reckon, but definitely still delicious! We checked out a couple of galleries then just walked by the beach and parks around. Afterwards, we headed to another area nearby called Cape Schank, again another place that I have never been for, so it was really great to see something new, and the scenery was awesome, here are some pictures!

A picture of the coastline.

This is the massive boardwalk down to the rockpool; as I am so unfit, I was so exhausted by the time I got back up!

A picture of the rockpool when we reached the bottom.

The other thing that I got done over the weekend was the sorting of my hand-dyed threads. I still have Crescent Colours to sort out (I ran out of Floss-A-Way bags!), but I don't have many of those, so that won't take me long once I get to it. I stuck to my not-so-smart way of arranging threads as I couldn't come up with anything else better, but I guess it's still some kind of system. So, as in the picture below, I've got my WDW and GAST threads arranged in groups in alphabetical order; Six Strand Sweets by themselves in a box, but arranged in alphabetical order with rings; and all "others" in a box by themselves. I'm currently just using cheapo post-it notes to mark my boxes, but I'll get nice labels made up to identify the threads. The boxes I used are clear plastic boxes meant for shoes, but they work pretty well for threads! LOL. I haven't finished organising my DMC or Anchor threads, but those were never the problem anyway, so I'm pretty pleased with what I've done. Next thing is to get a box for my fabrics!

Well, that's it from me for now. I need to get to bed as I'm still recovering from all that walking I did on Sunday! LOL. At least I got some exercise, hee hee... I hope everyone has a great week ahead! (^_^)

Stash Sorting

2006-11-08T20:27:00.000+11:00

I'm stuck in a 'meh' stage; not feeling that great but not completely bummed out either. Work has been affecting my mood, more so than I would like. I try to not think about it and not let it affect me, but it's easier said than done. I really hope things will pick up or I can do something about my situation.

But anyways, enough with my whinging, let's get to my little stash sorting adventure! Thanks for the suggestions that people have left for me, I'm still not done yet, so any clever ideas, feel free to send them my way! So, as you can tell from my picture, my magazines are almost all sorted. I'm just short of the clear magazine files, so I need to get a couple more and I can get rid of the blue one to have them all consistent. I also arranged my chart leaflets and some of my kits into those plastic sleeves and filed them into lever arch files, these are the gray and blue files on the 3rd shelf. The other coloured files hold some of my DMC threads, I always had them that way. I also unwrapped my Mount Forest Frameworks frames; I had bubbled-wrapped them when I moved. That's probably not going to be their permanent spot, but they will sit there for now.

What I haven't done is organise my fabrics and overdyed threads. For fabrics, I think I will just buy a storage box and then put them in there. Those don't have to be too organised, that's easy enough to rummage through. As for the threads, I still haven't come up with an efficient way of storing them! I initially thought of keeping them in boxes and just arrange them in groups by thread colour, like A-C together, D-F etc. However, I still don't think it's the smartest thing to do, if I were looking for, say WDW's Cocoa, I still essentially need to dump all the threads from that box to get that colour. Sigh, there's got to be something easier, anyone has some bright ideas for me? Btw, I use Floss-A-Way bags, so at least they won't get tangled together when I dump them all together in a box. I used to ring them up in groups in alphabetical order and stuck them on a cork board, but I don't like how the bags gathered dust - it's a lot easier to dust boxes than little floss bags! Besides, I don't really want to stick up a whole row of cork boards in the lounge room, it didn't bother me before when we used to rent, but now everything has to look right! Hee hee...

So yeah, that's how I've progressed so far, not much, but at least I've done something! Once again, suggestions are welcome, if you've got some great organising system that you use, let me know about it! In the meantime, I still need to put my threads away in their Floss-A-Way bags, I still have a stack of WDW threads that I haven't labelled! *yikes* Off to get busy...

A quickie!

2006-11-07T21:59:00.000+11:00

Just a super quick update before I dash off - Terrence is yelling at me to get to bed, he knows that I have an early start at work tomorrow! Anyways, this is My Garden Wild by 4 My Boys. I changed the colours completely, I hoped my colour choices worked! I used threads by Six Strand Sweets, aren't they yummy? This is for an RR that I'm a part of (and I'm horribly way past the deadline *yikes*), it's not complete yet, just a bit more on the right, but I will post another updated picture when I'm finished and of the whole piece itself. Anyways, just wanted to share a pic since I haven't blogged in a while, let me know what you think! :)

PS. I will also let you know how my stash sorting went in the next post, and if you have any suggestions, keep 'em coming!

Confession...

2006-10-29T12:03:00.000+11:00

Alright, I thought I would be brave and reveal my horrible stitching mess. As some of you would know, I moved house recently and being the slowest unpacker in the world, most of my stitching stash had remained in their boxes. We visited Ikea on Friday night to get some Billy bookshelves for the lounge room and these arrived yesterday. We assembled a few of these and had them set up. Terrence wanted me to get rid of some boxes so I unpacked my stitching stuff. It's TOTALLY unorganised as I was literally just 'unloading' from the boxes and onto the shelves. I don't think I have a lot of stash (although Terrence begs to differ) but it's just SO MESSY. I know I need to get them organised and catalogued, but I don't know where to start, LOL. I have a rough idea though, magazines will go into labelled magazine files (I already have some up), threads will probably go into storage boxes of some kind (probably alphabetised), this could be the same for fabric. I'm not sure about charts and kits though, what is a sensible, efficient and effective way of organising these? Anyways, I am completely open to any suggestions and ideas, anyone brave enough to help me sort through my mess? Hee hee...

Well, the next order of business is that I got book-tagged by Heidi! I'm a little slow in responding but I promised I would, so here it is!

1. One book that changed my life
I don't think books or movies can be life-changing, IMO anyways, I think you get those lightbulb moments through lived experiences. But, my favourite book of the year, one that really touched me and moved me, was Marley and Me.

2. One book that I'd read more than once
There are plenty of books that I would read more than once, probably the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, the Harry Potter books, and Neil Gaiman's novels.

3. One book I'd want on a deserted island
Probably the fattest book that I can have, I may need it as emergency paper.... LOL.

4. One book that made me cry
Hahaha... have I mentioned that I'm a total sook? I can cry at everything! People are amazed when I tell them I cried while watching A Bug's Life! LOL. To make it easier, the last book I cried while reading was Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes.

5. One book I wish I'd written
Any of the runaway hits that would be able to support my stitching addiction, hee hee...

6. One book I wish had never been written
None that I can think of.

7. One book I'm currently reading
I just finished Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, haven't figured out what my next book will be. I probably should stitch though...

8. One book I've been meaning to read
Too many to list, if you visit my Bookcrossing bookshelf (link on the right menu), you can look at my TBR section, it's massive!

Anyways, that's it from me today! Remember, I am in dire need of help to organise my stitching stuff, so please, feel free to give me as many suggestions as you want! Thanks in advance! (^_^)

Another framed piece

2006-10-21T20:51:00.000+10:00

Here is a picture of the latest piece I got back from the framer's. I actually picked it up yesterday but didn't get the chance to take a photo till today. For some reason, the frame looks really red in the photo and the other colours very pale, but it's more balanced in real life and I think it turned out gorgeous. It's definitely a feature piece on its own, I just have to figure out where its spot is going to be. At the moment, all the framed pieces have just been hanging up on the walls where the previous owners had put in hooks. We have yet to decide where the pieces should go, but hopefully we will get to that soon! Anyways, I'm going to keep this short as I'm feeling tired and I think it's time for dinner. Till next time! :)

Moonlight Garden - framed

2006-10-17T17:43:00.000+10:00

As promised, here's a picture of the piece framed. It's not too great a picture as it's already evening here so there wasn't much light. Still, a picture is better than nothing, so you can get an idea how it turned out! I reckon I could have stretched and adjusted the piece a bit better by making it straighter, but I find it quite tough, the 'rolling' part is a bit tricky, I never get it just right! Oh well, I think it's pretty good for this piece.

I actually dropped in another piece at the framer's on Saturday, it was Needle and Thread by 4 My Boys, which hopefully will be ready by this weekend! I had the whole lot done with that one. With the borders, it's gonna be too difficult for me to attempt the lacing so I rather pay the extra money to get it right.

Oh, and here's a picture of what Moonlight Garden looks like if the snowman has a proper carrot nose :( This was my first scan when I had initially completed the piece.

In other news, Australian Idol is currently on and I am absolutely gutted that Bobby Flynn has left the show. He was such an original, so unique, and Idol has never had anyone like him, not even on the American version, I reckon. He's the kind where you either love him or you hate him - I was in the love camp. I didn't think he was gonna win it because he's way too out-there and he probably shouldn't win as the Idol guys will just be at a loss as to what to do with him, but it's disappointing that he's out this early (Top 7), I reckon he should at least be in the Top 3 or 4. And the fact is that Ricky Muscat is still in there! He needs to be booted out, the dude is just horrible, he's too plastic, too fake, too blah. HE NEEDS TO GO. Well, nothing can reverse that decision, I just hope that Bobby goes on to have a fabulous musical career and that this has opened doors to him. As Terrence tells me, if Ricky doesn't win the show, he will have nothing after, but Bobby can make it on his own with his brilliant talents. Good on you Bobby, don't ever change!

Lacing needlework

2006-10-16T22:28:00.000+10:00

A couple of posts ago, I shared pictures of my recently framed pieces. Those were professionally done and they turned out great. Amongst those, I also had a framing kit done for one of my pieces, "Moonlight Garden" by San-Man Originals. The framing store near my home offers a DIY framing kit, which helps to reduce the costs. They will cut and join the frame, cut the glass and mats for me, but then I have to put everything together. This then means that I have to stretch and lace the piece myself, which is probably one of the trickiest parts in framing needlework, IMO anyways. So yeah, the framer had shown me a quick example of how to do it, but I couldn't quite remember exactly how he did it, so I probably had to improvise a little bit. I reckoned I did pretty well and that it turned out alright! Much better than I expected, although not as good compared to someone who has 20 odd years' experience! The only unfortunate thing is that it probably wasn't a very smart thing trying to lace the piece on a glass table, so my snowman's nose button broke! *sob* It doesn't look toooooo bad, so I thought I would leave it as a round nose as I really don't want to have to unlace the piece just to replace the button. Oh wells, Terrence reckons that it doesn't have to be a carrot nose and it looks alright like this. It kinda bugs me, but I'm sure I will get over it eventually. In the meantime, here are some pictures of how my lacing went, I will share a picture of the actual framed piece tomorrow!

Mi Casa, Su Casa

2006-10-12T19:33:00.000+10:00

I actually received this a few months ago, but that was during the busiest time of my house move, so that's why this blog post is only appearing now! *sheepish grin* But back to the darling piece. This was the nicest surprise, it was stitched by Harmien from CyberStitchers as a housewarming gift and was completely unexpected when it arrived in my mailbox. Harmien even included a postcard with a note addressed to both Terrence and I, so it's a proper housewarming gift for us, not just for me! Although I did tell Harmien that it should be 'Mi Casa, Mi Casa', because this house is all mine! Terrence can have the garage, muahahaha.... *grin* But yes, I LOVE this design, it's so cute and really made my day when I received it, even till this day! I haven't had any housewarming parties at all, so this is my first gift, hee hee. It was also the first decorative item up in the house, this takes pride of place on my front door, on the inside though, as I don't want anyone pinching this off my door! I took this photo outside because it was too dark in the hallway. A big THANK YOU to Harmien, it was so sweet of you and thanks to your talents, I have such a pretty doorknob decoration. I know it would be waaaaaaay beyond me to put something like that together, I can only stitch and that's about all I can do with a needle! LOL.

Fresh pictures!

2006-10-10T12:20:00.000+10:00

Okay, since it's a lovely sunny day in Melbourne, I thought I'd use the opportunity to take some new pictures of the framed pieces from my previous post. Still not super great, but I think the colours show better! I was going to use Hello and BloggerBot to upload these photos, but this is another thing that's not working with Blogger Beta, so here they are via the manual method:

Happy Dance!

2006-10-10T09:05:00.000+10:00

Yay, I got a new look for my blog! :) And I did try to do as much of it as possible by myself, although I did need Terrence's help to get the pictures working. It was some complicated CSS thing, which is waaaaay over my head. But otherwise, it was fairly simple and I didn't have to drive Terrence too crazy with too much customisation, hee hee. The only thing that's annoying me is that my profile picture and little blurb has now disappeared, and that is not because of the new layout, it's because I chose to migrate over to Blogger Beta. DOH! I knew I shouldn't have switched! :( Oh wells, I'll get over it, it's the only blemish on an overall successful layout change.

The other thing that called for a happy dance is that I finally got some of my stitched pieces framed! \(^o^)/ I also got some other stuff framed. It's almost a week ago that I got them back but I'm still so pleased about it. The photos really don't do them justice, they dulled the colours a little bit, but they are so lovely in person, I am just happy that I can finally display them, rather than packed away somewhere, collecting dust. Here are the pictures!

This is "Everyone Brings Joy" by Waxing Moon Designs. Can you spot Terrence's reflection? Hee hee...

This is an art piece that I purchased when I was in Paris. It had been laying around for 2 years!

This one is "Magic" by San-Man Originals. The framer was really spot-on with the colours, I know it looks so dull here, but it is so gorgeous in real-life! I really need to try to take a better photo...

Amazing creatures

2006-08-26T19:24:00.000+10:00

I just wanted to share a couple of pics that I got off the Internet. I think these animals are amazing and absolutely adorable!

This one is of some dormice in hibernation, aren't they cute?!

This picture shows a newborn pygmy marmoset monkey, I can't believe how small it is! Here are some stats about it: The pygmy marmoset is the world's smallest monkey tipping the scales at 100g and measuring 35cm in length fully grown.

I'm still alive!

2006-08-22T21:37:00.000+10:00

Wow, it has been months since I've blogged, just way too much happening for me and the blogging thing just kinda fell out of my routine! Not that I actually have my routine back on track yet, everything is still slowly catching up! Just trying to get on with it while life continues to whizz past me...

So, anyways, one of the big things that has happened is my house move! \(^o^)/ Yep, Terrence and I have moved into our new home! It's kinda old news now since we actually moved in late July but the excitement hasn't died down yet, especially since we're not fully settled just yet. There are all these new things to discover about the place! We painted some walls, drilled some holes to put things up - just simple things like these gave us so much pleasure because of the freedom of what we could do, no more restrictions like with rental places! Not that we're going to go nuts and just drill holes into everything, but we definitely like the freedom of doing things up the way we want to! And of course, the boys are loving it, Banzai and Reuben have been having so much fun in the now massive backyard (it's no football field but definitely very roomy in comparison to the old place!) and they're just galloping up and down everywhere. This suburb is also a very dog-friendly place, heaps of households have pets, which is kinda good, but also means the doggies tend to go a little crazy everytime they see a dog walk past, hee hee hee.

I don't have any of my own photos of the house to share just yet, I wanna wait until it's not quite so messy before taking some pics to show. *grin* But I promise, I will post some pics once the place looks more decent! :) And before everyone imagines something horrific, it's really not that bad, I just want to show off the place when it's looking its best, heh. Oh, I do have a picture to share, it's of my bookshelves! The first thing that I unpacked was my books, LOL. I know, priorities! I used to be quite picking about arranging my books and would only do it by height but I thought I would give it a try by colour. So, with Terrence's brother's help, the books were arranged by colour and voila! I think they look very pretty and I actually kinda like the differences in height, makes the landscape more interesting! It's definitely growing on me and I reckon this style of arrangement will probably stay for a while...

The other big and not-so-great thing that has happened in my life was learning that my grandfather has lung cancer. It's been a while now so a lot has happened since my family first found out. To sum up quickly, it was pretty devastating initially, but thankfully, it was early-stage cancer and the doctors determined that my grandfather could undergo surgery to remove the tumour in the lung. The most important thing was his quality of life and based on my grandfather's situation and the doctor's recommendations, this was the best option. My grandpa has since had the surgery, he's still in the hospital, it's been a slow recovery but the doctors feel that he will be back on his feet eventually. He is getting better, which is the most important. Hopefully he will be well enough to leave the hospital soon!

Anyways, I shan't waffle on too much longer, I know it's been a while but I don't want to bore anyone to tears! I'm not sure if anyone still visits, but if you do drop by, please leave me a message! Take care and big hugs, till next time, ADIOUS!

Danielle is an idiot

2006-05-17T21:23:00.000+10:00

Okay, if you haven't watched the finale of Survivor: Exile Island, this is a warning that this post is a SPOILER. So if you hate knowing the result before you've watched it, go away now!

My thoughts on the finale - Danielle is a MORON. Aras threatens her that if she doesn't take him to the final two, she won't have his or Cirie's vote. But hang on a second, by taking Aras, she doesn't have his vote anyway, she is delusional if she thinks that Cirie will vote for Danielle when Cirie and Aras have been so close, and of course Terry ain't gonna be voting for her after she screwed him over. So that logic totally doesn't work, in my opinion. Her rationale is that if she had not taken Aras, Casaya tribe members would feel betrayed and it would work against her. To me, it's so obvious that between Aras and Danielle, Aras would be the more popular choice with the jury so she would not have had a good chance. I reckon she would have had a better shot with Terry in the final two, she should have taken her chances with Terry, the Casaya folks may have disliked Terry enough to vote against him thus casting votes for Danielle, whereas with Aras, they would be voting for him. Oh well, the dumb bimbo made the wrong choice and it cost her a million bucks. Although I think she would probably have lost the million bucks even if she had taken Terry. Which is okay with me, as I never liked her at all, so I'm glad she didn't win. I would have liked to see Terry in the final two though, and if he had won it, I wanted to see him vs Tom, the other super "older" guy on Survivor!

Tinkling ivory keys...

2006-05-13T21:42:00.000+10:00

And my piano obssession continues, hee hee... Terrence and I went to a couple of stores today to look at some pianos. I had e-mailed my piano teacher (I still think of him as my piano teacher even though I've stopped having lessons for a long time now!) and asked for some recommendations. He didn't go into specific brands but did say that most European brands would be of better quality, which I already know and agree with. He also suggested that perhaps I could ship my existing grand piano in Singapore over here to Australia. That is definitely a possibility, so the option would be to ship that over and tide me for a while until I can afford the piano of my dreams (close to anyway!) or to just jump straight in and buy a brand new piano here. Of course there will be the packing and international shipping costs, which will be quite substantial for a grand piano, but could still mean significant cost-savings compared to buying a new piano.

However, after speaking to one of the piano dealers today, that may not seem like the best alternative. Singapore and Australia have very different climates - one very humid, the other very dry. As such, the timber may not be able to adapt to the conditions here and the soundboard could crack. Which is not ideal. The piano that I have back home is also a really old one, it's one that I've played on since I was 10 years old, so although the shipping costs will be a lot less than purchasing a brand new piano, spending the few thousand dollars to get it here may not be worth it and could be better spent on a new piano purchase. So, I'm still weighing up all the various possibilities and see what would be best. If I did go for one here, there are also a few options here. One was the Boston, which is designed by Steinway but manufactured by Kawai, so it would be an affordable way for me to get the "Steinway" name. I quite liked it when I tried it at the showroom last week, but today, I went to another place and tried the Schimmel pianos, and they are lovely. The touch and sound were excellent and I think I probably like them better than the Bostons. However, these are also a lot pricier, the cheapest Schimmel grand retails from about A$60K, which is A LOT of money. The dealer did say he could discount to A$50K, but still, that's a big chunk of moolah! Which then brings me back to Steinway. For $50K, I could probably get a 2nd-hand Steinway, so it's then being able to get the piano that I would like to own in a pre-loved condition, or something else, which is pretty good as well, in a brand new condition. Then again, I will need to have $50K first! LOL. At least dreaming hasn't cost me any money......yet. *grin*

On the house front, apparently there is a bit of a hoopla back home in Singapore about the house. The settlement date for our new place is 21 July and my mom and grandparents are panicking about it, because the first day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is 25 July. And why are they freaking out? Because it's the first day of the Hungry Ghost Festival and it's highly inauspicious to do much on that day, especially with big events, like moving house, getting married etc. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, in the Chinese lunar calendar, the seventh month is the Hungry Ghost Festival, and most believe that the gates of hell open for the hungry ghosts to wander in the living world for food before returning at the end of the month. Kinda like a Chinese version of Halloween. I know that some of you must be thinking this is some ridiculous BS; I personally don't take it too seriously, but it's part of my Chinese culture and customs and especially if my family believes in it, I cannot just renounce it - it's who I am. So, we get the keys on 21st July and as long as I do a "symbolic move" before 25 July, my mother and grandparents will be happy. My dad will be e-mailing me instructions, apparently we will need to cook dinner there and spend the night and some other stuff, I'm not sure. I actually find it kinda funny, Terrence got a bit annoyed because he absolutely believes in none of this stuff. Oh well, I wanna appease my family and keep everyone happy! Some things are more than just about us. It doesn't cost me an arm or leg anyways. We will most likely be moving earlier than later anyway, as we hope to settle early if circumstances allow.

Well, I hope I provided an entertaining post, hee hee. If any of you out there are experts on the various pianos available on the market, please feel free to share your thoughts! Unfortunately, I know more about piano-playing than the manufacture of the instrument itself! That's it from me this time, till the next drama unfolds, take care! :)

It's been a while...

2006-05-01T21:11:00.000+10:00

Wow, how time flies, I haven't blogged for ages and so much has happened! Where do I start? Well, I don't know if I have been missed much, but I'm glad to be back on my blog and I hope my friends out there keep visiting!

Okay, first piece of big news to share with everyone - Terrence and I bought a house! AHHHH! This probably happened a couple of weeks ago so there was a lot of activity and the initial stretch has just quietened down a little bit, although there will still be plenty to do. It was really really exciting, but also very scary at the same time. When the real estate agent rang to confirm that the vendors had accepted our offer, I was happy but also freaked out at the same time - it really is overwhelming and frightening! Nevertheless, we are definitely looking forward to it, a place to call our own and plan a future together, and the freedom to do it up as we please and to make it our home. We don't actually move in till late July as that's when settlement will be happening but that at least gives us plenty of time to prepare for the move - I hate moving as it is, it will be a real pain to move when rushed! We purposely looked for a place that would last for at least 20 years, even when kids become part of the picture, so hopefully once we settle in the house, we don't have to move anytime soon! If you would like a look-see, click here for some pictures. Let me know what you think! Be honest, but not too harsh, after all, I can't ask for a refund! LOL.

Secondly, I am finally ready to mail out my RR, which I'm doing with some friends from Cyberstitchers. I am totally GUILTY of holding this RR up! *sheepish grin* I had started well, and then things at work got a bit crazy, I never quite caught up and only managed to get my act together over the weekend. It really is quite shameful, I only managed to add the border and still didn't have enough time to work on my own square! Thankfully, I have such understanding and patient stitching buddies and they have been very very kind to me. I will be mailing off to Mady (who has a great RR piece!) this week and I should be able to get started on Annemarie's piece soon and meet the timeline for the 2nd round. There isn't much to show and it's not a great photo, but here is a picture of where my RR is at:

Work has also been going quite alright, I have a few new challenges, which always helps to change things up a bit and keeps it interesting. I have been given a product line to manage, which is good, but also a bit intimidating as I don't know where to start, and it hasn't been easy to get information that I can leverage and use to understand the business. Well, I have to cut my teeth on something and I'm definitely up for the challenge, but I must say that it does brings a bit of stress, and as we all know, I have very exciting and stressful things happening in my personal life at the moment! To cap that all off, I could then also get married at the same time! LOL. Nah, just kidding, it isn't happening, hee hee. It will, just that right now, our focus is on the house; we definitely see it happening in the future, we're just not horribly concerned with a piece of paper right this moment - although I must say it is of utmost importance to our parents.

The house is definitely a huge thing for us. We have started some form of packing, okay, I lie, we haven't got to the packing bit, it's more of clearing out junk at the moment. We have a lot of crap and I really don't want to haul things over to the new place that will just remain as rubbish - I would rather accumulate new junk! LOL. Anything that's definitely trash has been and will be thrown out, but I have also been freecycling heaps of things that are useless to me but are wanted and can still be used by others. Say what? There are freecycling groups globally and it's where you can give things away to others in your own community, like an old guitar that you never play anymore but is still in good condition and will be much appreciated by someone else. I think it's a great way of clearing out stuff, much better than just throwing things away, which is so wasteful - as they say, someone's trash is someone else's treasure! For more information, you can visit Freecycle. I'm also gonna be giving plenty of clothes and miscellaneous items to Salvation Army, which again is so much better than just chucking things out.

Oh, and I have also been dreaming about getting a piano (I've played from young and actually performed in a few public concerts back in Singapore), since with our own home, this can now be a possibility, depending on finances. A dream of mine was to always get a Steinway, but this is definitely out of reach after I found out today that an upright starts from $50K and the cheapest grand piano is over $100K! YIKES! Even a 2nd-hand Steinway grand is at least $40K, which is just waaayyyyy too much. As Terrence likes to say, I am getting ahead of myself since the house isn't technically ours until the day of settlement. Oh well, I can dream, can't I? Hee hee... I will most definitely get a piano, it just won't be a Steinway.... *sigh*

I haven't blogged in such a long time and now I can't shut up! I guess that's what over-compensation is all about huh? *grin* Well, I think that's about all the latest updates with me. I hope everyone has been keeping well, if you have dropped by, do leave me a message! Take care and till next time, lots of hugs and kisses from me! :)

LONG WEEKEND!

2006-03-12T16:31:00.000+11:00

Hurrah! Okay, so it's already Sunday and the long weekend is almost over, but hey, I don't have to go to work tomorrow and that's always a good thing! I have been absolutely exhausted from work, I have never been so busy before! The week before, I was pretty much in Sydney the whole week, working on preparations for an internal event and it was just work, work, work. I was always in the office early, about 7am and it was late nights too, till about 2+ am. I arrived back in Melbourne late on Friday night, and on Saturday, I had to head back into the office for about half a day to finish up some things. The event itself was from Monday to Wednesday, it was held at Wollongong, so there was more travelling there, which always makes me feel very weary, but all in all, the event went well! I feel absolutely drained, but I was very pleased that everything flowed smoothly and there was a lot of positive feedback about the 3-day event. It is still going to be pretty hectic at work, but at least with this major event over, I won't feel like I need to clone myself!

I also had a very interesting day yesterday. Terrence's mother is here on holidays from Egypt. She had gone to Brunei first, arrived last Sunday and will be heading back to Brunei on a late flight tonight for about 2-3 more weeks before returning to Egypt. So anyway, one of Terrence's relatives owns a vineyard/winery in Anakie, Victoria, very near Geelong, for those who know where that is. It's now the season to pick grapes, so we headed out there yesterday to help with the grape-picking. They don't use any machinery, all the fruit is handpicked so they need all the support they can get. It was the first time I had ever gone grape-picking, so it was a lot of fun. It is also labour-intensive and I felt pretty tired, not to mention I haven't quite recovered from my hectic work weeks! It started getting pretty hot in the early afternoon as well and I wasn't quite attired properly to cope with the heat. Still, it was a very unique experience and since the grape-picking pretty much happens once a year, I definitely wouldn't mind helping out at the next one. I also got the chance to try the fresh grape juice from the pressing of the grapes that we helped pick, it was soooooo incredibly sweet, it was just lovely! I don't drink wine so I can't appreciate the final product very well, but that grape juice was heavenly. Being the lovely folks that they are, they actually gave me a couple of bottles of grape juice! I also got a bottle of still fermenting Sauvignon Blanc, I can't remember how old it is, but it was actually still very sweet and just a touch of the alcohol flavours coming through. It was absolutely fantastic, if only all wine could be sold like that! LOL. Terrence got a few proper bottles of wine for himself, he enjoyed the Pinot Noir so they gave him 2 of that, plus a bottle of Rose. Anyways, for those in Australia, do go visit the website and buy a few bottles to try yourself: http://www.delrios.com.au/.

To my RR friends who are reading, can I confess that life has been so hectic, I haven't had a chance to stitch?! I'm stuck at where I last stopped, I will try to stitch as much as I can with the spare time that I get, but I'm a little worried that I may not be able to hit the March 21 deadline. I will definitely hustle, but if I somehow don't make it, please be patient with me! And Annemarie, apologies about giving away spoilers on Grey's Anatomy! I just wasn't thinking, I was so caught up with the latest plot developments, hee hee. I will make sure not to do that in the future, or if I simply must share, I will provide spoiler warnings!

Anyways, I'm off to enjoy some of that lovely grape juice chilling in my fridge. It's an incredibly hot day today, so what better way to cool off? Hee hee.... Thanks everyone for reading my ramblings, I hope your weekend has been going well so far! Till next time, see ya! (^_^)

Have you missed me?

2006-02-18T20:30:00.000+11:00

LOL. Yes, I know no shame. *wink* I have been gone for a while... just haven't felt like blogging and didn't get much chance to visit my friends' blogs too. Unfortunately, I also haven't stitched since my last post! I have just been pretty busy with work, and with the spare time that I have had, I just didn't have the urge to pick up the needle. I will start again soon though, the March 21st deadline is looming! I have done quite a bit of reading though, I'm currently at 20 books for the year, so I'm well ahead of schedule! For those who don't know, I've set myself a 100-book challenge for the year and I will need to read at least 9 books a year to hit that target. I need to transfer some of that motivation from reading to stitching, so that I will also achieve my goals with stitching!

Oh, I should also share, last weekend, I went to my first ever movie drive-in, it was fun! I didn't know what to expect so it was quite exciting. We stocked up on all sorts of nibblies and I brought along a cushion for myself. I had asked Terrence if he wanted one and the silly boy said no. When we arrived at the drive-in, we saw others had literally dragged their whole bedrooms with them, so the next time we go, we will at least bring a few pillows to be more comfy. We also had minor hiccups at the beginning, I wasn't sure where we should park and once we got a spot, I was asking incessant questions - are you sure we can park here? should we move forward? will other cars block our view? - until Terrence told me to shut up, LOL. It was an interesting experience; although I thought the screen itself was a little too dark, I definitely had fun. It was our own personal space (I don't like having strangers sit beside me at movie theatres, hee hee) and being able to talk during the movie was strangely liberating! We hope to go again in the future, we're just waiting for a change of movies, the selection of films at the drive-in is very limited.

My favourite TV show at the moment is Grey's Anatomy. I just love that show, it's one of the most compelling new shows that I've seen. Okay, it's not that new, but it's a new-to-me show. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it's just fabulous! I especially love Meredith and Derek, aka McDreamy, but them being apart at the moment is just killing me. I just want them to be together! Especially with the last 2 episodes, what with the bomb and all, it's just screaming for a dramatic reunion. And how sweet was Derek, remembering all those details about their last kiss. Sigh, when will those two lovebirds just get back together?! The next episode promises to be an exciting one - I think the best friend that the wife had the affair with makes an appearance, more tension, woo hoo! Hee hee.... yes, I know it's incredibly sad that I'm so hooked on a TV show, but hey, I'm a self-confessed TV junkie so I make no apologies.

Anyways, that's it from me. Sorry for the absolutely boring post, but I promise, the minute I experience any drama/scandal/adventure, you guys will be the first ones to hear about it! LOL. Till next time! *muaks*

Can you spot the mistake?

2006-01-29T22:50:00.000+11:00

Don't let me know if you do see it, LOL. Actually, please let me know if you can spot the mistake, if it's jarringly obvious and looks "off", then I should probably go back and frog it, but I just couldn't be stuffed at that point in time. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad! Well, here's my progress so far, I think I did pretty good since yesterday! I was plugging away while watching Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy and during the men's final of the Australian Open.

YAY! Federer won! \(^o^)/ He's so sweet, crying during his speech, I think it's a big moment for him, and people always talk about the up-and-coming young players but they forget that he's young too. I mean, the dude is younger than me! But good on Marcos though, he did put up quite a fight at the beginning, but I was cheering Federer on.

Anyways, I digress, I just wanted to share my progress, I only have a little more for this centre piece to complete, the chimney smoke, the windows, the heart outline, but it still will be far from finished. I have the borders to do plus my own part of the RR. I won't get much done during the week with me returning to work tomorrow, but I think I am on track and could possibly be ahead of schedule. That's it from me, and feel free to flood me with comments! Hee hee....

TA-DA!

2006-01-29T01:18:00.000+11:00

I got over myself in the end and started stitching tonight. As mentioned earlier, I couldn't find most of my GAST collection, so I didn't have 'Tea Rose', so I just grabbed a random DMC pink that I thought would be the closest match. Would have liked it to have the overdyed effect, but it's just one flower, I think I can survive, LOL. The rest (so far) were stitched with the specified Weeks Dye Works floss. Anyways, here's my progress so far, not a whole lot, but it feels good to be stitching again! :) This is a Lizzie*Kate design - Hugs and Kisses, and is the centre piece for my RR.

ARRRGGGHHHHH

2006-01-28T17:25:00.000+11:00

Just when I'm fired up to start stitching on my RR, I get thrown a roadblock. Somehow, I have managed to misplace about 3/4 of my complete GAST collection and I have NO IDEA where the threads are. Serves me right for having my stash scattered throughout the house, but still, you would think a big bag of threads wouldn't be that hard to find! I am frustrated and angry, I love stitching with my overdyed threads and I was really looking forward to stitch my parts of the RR with my hand-dyed threads. I've looked almost everywhere and I still can't find them. *sob* Sigh, I know it's not a big deal but I just needed to vent as I'm just soooooo mad at myself, and mad at this stupid house, and mad at the threads for staying hidden. ARGH. Anyways, that's my rant for the day, I'm off to simmer in anger and frustration, and when I calm down, hopefully I'll still have the stitching bug and I'll get started with some substitute colours. Grrrrr......

Half the weekend gone

2006-01-27T22:01:00.000+11:00

So yesterday was a public holiday (Australia Day) and to capitalise on that and to make it a 4-day weekend, I took today (Friday) off. I didn't do anything dodgy, I didn't pull a sickie or anything like that, I submitted a leave form and made it a legit annual leave day, hee hee. I haven't really done all that much though, yesterday was ridiculously hot and it sapped all my energy so I was really just lazing at home. We did go out for a little bit at night, we just wanted to have some cold milkshakes and desserts at an air-conditioned place for some respite from the heat, so we hopped over to a TGIF near us.

Today was still hot but just slightly more bearable than yesterday so I made use of the day to run some errands and clear some chores around the house. I still have stacks of ironing waiting for me, maybe tomorrow if the heat lets up. I also spent a good part of today planning out the layout for the RR. It took me much longer than expected, even though I had quite a clear idea of how I wanted the structure to be. Working on PC Stitch was also pretty tedious, and quite a few times, I had erased big chunks of what I had alread plotted by mistake, and the damned software doesn't let me undo for these errors. So it was kinda frustrating, but I did get there in the end! Now I just need to get on with the stitching. I'm using hand-dyed fabric from Wichelt Imports, 28-count Jobelan Summer Sky. I somehow thought I had Babbling Brook, which I think would work better, but oh well, this colour shouldn't be too far off and should also be a lovely fabric for my RR.

Tomorrow is also Chinese New Year's eve, but unfortunately, not being at home means I won't be doing anything special. I won't be joining my family for the traditional reunion dinner but I will most definitely be ringing home to speak to my family. I am aiming to return to Singapore next year during CNY, it's been ages since I've joined my family during this festive period and I think it will be really good to be back during that time. I have asked Terrence to consider going bowling tomorrow night, just to do something fun for the day; I'm absolutely awful at it but I think it would be fun. Otherwise, I guess I would be happy staying at home and watching the Australian Open on telly. There have been some exciting matches this year and maybe next year I'll actually get the chance to get tickets to Rod Laver Arena.

Well, that's it with my boring post. I really don't have anything exciting to share! Hopefully I will make some good stitching progress with my RR and can share some pics with my next post. I'm excited to start stitching again, this will be the first time I've picked up the needle in 2006! Till next time, keep well, take care, have a good weekend! :)

Stinkin' HOT

2006-01-21T22:14:00.000+11:00

I HATE summer! I know that most people love the warm weather, but for me, I say, winter please! Currently I'm living in a rental place and we have no air-conditioning, it gets incredible stuffy and suffocating, and having the fans blowing doesn't really help much as it's only the hot air that gets circulated around! So, my theory is, when it's cold, I can layer up and keep warm, but when it's hot, there's only so much I can strip off. I do like the longer days, I admit, but I wish it wouldn't be so friggin' hot! And according to the weather report, it's going to be more than 40 degrees celcius tomorrow, oh dear, I'm not leaving the house. I can only look forward to the day I have my own place, and you can bet, there will be some kind of cooling system somewhere!

Speaking about properties, we did spend most of the day looking at houses. Today wasn't the best day for running around from place to place as it was so incredibly hot, but at least it was a fairly productive day. In total, we saw 5 places, one we only drove past as we were too late for open inspection. Out of the 5, I really like 2, and another one was okay. Unfortunately, one of the 2 that I like, the real estate agent said that there isn't a price set yet, so I have no idea whether it's completely out of budget or it could be something that we can seriously consider. And, it's going to be sold by auction and that won't happen till first week of March. Not like I'm dying to buy a house right NOW (like money will drop out of the sky), but I just like to know, if that makes sense. The other one that I like, the price is okay, the interior is very nice and it's a decent-sized house. The cons are, it's pretty far away from the city, and it's also in an estate area, so it does feel a little cramped with all the surrounding houses and we won't get as much privacy as we currently have. Oh well, this is a big move and there's a lot to consider, so it will take us a long time before we decide. Sigh, the pains of being an adult! LOL.

I haven't started stitching for my RR yet (oops), but I will start this coming week. It's a public holiday on Thursday (Australia Day) and I have asked to take the day off the Friday after, so it will be a nice long weekend for me! It's supposedly REALLY HOT as well from the Thursday onwards, so I will just hide out at home and start with the stitching! *keeping my fingers crossed* As for my reading goal, I'm doing well so far, I'm now at 10 books for the month, and I've started book #11. I'm currently reading Zadie Smith's White Teeth, I'm only a few pages in, but it does seem quite interesting so far. I think I will enjoy it!

Well, that's it from me. I'm going to try to find the coolest corner of the house and chill out there, before my head explodes! LOL. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)

A (late) Happy New Year message

2006-01-07T13:25:00.000+11:00

WOW, it's already 8 days into 2006, where have I been? I've just been lazy and haven't had much motivation to blog, hee hee. Well, a happy 2006 to all! I hope the holidays have been good to you. I didn't do anything all that exciting, but it was good to have that break from the office. I watched the Narnia movie on Christmas Day, did some Boxing Day shopping, and then went to Melbourne Aquarium on New Year's Day. I've also started doing some wild releasing for BookCrossing, I actually left a book at the jellyfish section in Melbourne Aquarium! I haven't any catches yet though, but I'll keep trying!

Also, I do own a pink Razr now, hee hee. It has been a while actually, I just didn't post about it. In fact, I think I bid on an eBay auction the night I posted about it, and it arrived probably about a week after. I was really excited when I first received it, in fact I went around the office showing my colleagues and most of them just rolled their eyes at me, LOL (they're quite a bit older than me). That excitement has died now, but it's still fun to have a pink phone. Oh, and Debbi, I have 2 pink watches, I don't wear them everyday as I alternate my watches (I have about 10 Paul Frank watches), but I love all my pink accessories! I told Terrence one day I will give him a pink overload, pink shirt, pink shoes, pink watch, pink phone, driving around in a pink Mini! Hahaha.... *grin*

Work has been picking up a little bit. Sometimes I still feel meh about it, but at least there are a few projects that I'm working on that I do feel quite enthusiastic about. Having to deal with people is still my Achilles heel though, I get nervous and very uncomfortable. And of course, some are just pricks. Like yesterday, I had to present to a guy who's one of the sales directors in the company, so he's quite up there, if you get what I mean. Naturally, I'm anxious as hell and just trying to keep calm as much as possible. I was presenting about some analysis that I did about the customer base, which he was really keen to know more about, and he wanted a printout. I wanted to make sure that he got it so I asked how I could pass it to him as he was running out for lunch and he was flying back to Sydney shortly after. His employee, the team leader of his sales team, just asked me to pop it on his desk for the big boss, and that's fine. Like I said, I was quite nervous, so I must have said it a few times to the big boss that I would be leaving it on the other guy's desk for him. Then the team leader dude went up to the big boss and said, "D, did you hear that? Eileen said she would be leaving it on my desk for you" in a really sarcastic tone and with a smirking laugh. Fine, I was probably babbling on a bit, but I'm nervous, I'm trying to make a good impression, trying to get my work to him, and he didn't have to be so cruel and such a jerk about it. *sigh* Why can't people just be nice?

Well, first rant of 2006, yay! LOL. Apart from that, the year has been going fine. Terrence's birthday is next week, he wants something quiet so we'll just be enjoying a nice meal at home. Frankly, I think he's depressed that he's turning 26, hee hee, it's inching closer to the late 20s mark! *grin* He has also declared 2006 the year of the diet, not sure how I feel about that, but I will try my best to at least stick to the exercise. I'm already aching from the first week back at gym so I will need strong willpower to tough it out for the rest of the year! Hopefully I will finally lose some weight this year :(

I've also set a challenge for myself to read 100 books in 2006, don't know if I will make it, but I am currently doing well, I have read 5 books so far. I'll also be doing a round robin this year! How exciting is that?! I haven't stitched in ages! The two RRs that I've been in have been disappointing, but I reckon this one will be different. It's with 3 online friends from Cyberstitchers, they're fabulous people and excellent stitchers, so I'm really looking forward to it! I just need to be disciplined and organised and make sure I stick to the timelines, and definitely no getting distracted by books when I should be stitching, hee hee. I also found an Australian charity stitching organisation, Quilts4Kids, so that's great too. This one allows for no time-limit stitching so that's great, I always felt guilty with Binky Helpers when I couldn't quickly finish up squares that I signed up for. With Quilts4Kids, I can stitch on some general themes that they have identified as the more popular ones, so I can just send in stitched squares whenever I have them done!

Look at me, I haven't blogged in a while, and here I am, just blabbering away, heh. If you've dropped by, leave me a message to say hello! Take care everyone, and I hope to post an update sooner than later! :)

PINK is the new black

2005-12-07T20:32:00.000+11:00

I am absolutely OBSESSED with the pink Motorola V3 Razr at the moment. I always thought the Razr was a pretty cool phone and when the black one came out, I thought that was even sweeter. And of course, when I first heard about the pink version, I thought that was AWESOME. I have been patient though, the plan was to wait for it to make its way to Australian shores (who knows how long that will take?!) and to actually see the phone in person because pictures can be very deceiving. Well, during my lunch break today, I just thought I would browse through eBay and there are sellers on there who are just selling TONS of these phones. And I'm just sooooooo itching to get one right now. They even have those cute accessories to accompany the mobile phone, like matching bluetooth headset in the same colour, pink leather case and I just want a PINK phone! (I'm in this insane pink phase at the moment, like I want a pink Mini Cooper in the future, LOL.) I'm watching like 8 different auctions on my eBay, I'm even planning to wake up at 5am tomorrow morning to see what price one of them will end at. Don't know if that truly demonstrates the strength of my obsession, but I reckon that's crazy enough, hee hee. Oh well, off to agonise more (it's a fair expense) and to answer the eternal question: to buy or not to buy?

Life goes on...

2005-11-13T15:59:00.000+11:00

Ahhh....it's been ages since I've posted huh? No excuses on my part, primarily laziness and of course, I don't really have anything exciting to report. Work has been a bit of a bummer lately as well, I'm getting a taste of internal politics, and I absolutely HATE it. I'm not a "networker", I do my job and get recognition based on that, I'm not the kind to make buddy-buddy with managers and hope that my connections will get me far. Or brag and oversell what I did in front of others. While I understand that it is important to establish some kind of a network (which is a challenge for me), I abhor that sometimes, it seems like the network is the only thing that counts. I have heard people say, "It's not what you know, it's who you know" and I hope that's not gonna be true for the rest of my career.

Oh well, enough with my rant. On to other things. I won an eBay auction of 160+ books, which I picked up yesterday. Yay, SOOOO exciting, I know, LOL. Well, it was pretty thrilling for me, more books to add to my bookshelf and to help in doing some wild relasing for BookCrossing! I'm also meeting up with a couple of friends tomorrow night. They're both friends from secondary school; one I haven't seen in ages, I didn't know she was in Melbourne, I bumped into her by accident in the city! The other, I had caught up with recently, she's currently located in Sydney but will be heading here for a business trip, so it was opportune for all 3 of us to catch up. Nothing fancy, just dinner, coffee (or hot chocolate, in my case!) and possibly cake (the restaurant we're meeting at has the most DIVINE cakes!), if we all decide to indulge, hee hee.

I'm also turning 25 on Tuesday, yippee hoo ha. Yikes, I'm getting OLD. I'm not freaking out yet, so far I haven't had the fear of getting older, but I'm sure it will hit me soon, like when I turn 30, hee hee. Oh well, for now, I will enjoy being in my twenties, and hitting the mid-twenties mark! I'm not doing anything special, I will be having dinner with Terrence at this Thai place that I like, and possibly getting a birthday cake, if Terrence is organised! *grin* I will be working that day anyways, so it's not like I have the time to anything spectacular. Which reminds me, I actually have to bring something to the office on my birthday, apparently it's some office tradition, I'm gonna be making Asian jelly (it's the easiest way for me to explain), I thought something different may be neat, hopefully my colleagues will like it!

Alrighty, I think that's it for my break, I've gotta get back to my laundry. I hate weekend chores! Hope everyone had a good week, till next time! :)

Ideas please! :)

2005-11-01T21:32:00.000+11:00

So, I've stalled on the bookmark that I was stitching for myself but I started working on the ones that I wanted to send out as gifts. I'm part of a Secret Santa exchange with BookCrossing, and I thought it would be neat to send my exchange partners bookmarks as little extras together with the main gift (books from their wishlists). I was going to do regular designs, but I figured it would be too time-consuming (not enough time and I've got 2 to do!) so I just picked out an alphabet design I liked and charted them into PC Stitch, spelling out their names. Something really simple, nothing fancy.

I started stitching this one today as it's a public holiday here in Melbourne, in between doing laundry, ironing and watching TV, hee hee. I was hoping that I could get more ideas on finishing them when they're completed. I was going to go with an idea from one of my friends, Esther, to just use craft glue, but I think that probably works better with aida fabric. I ended up using evenweave and just cropping it and "firming" the piece up with craft glue may not work too well. So, if anyone has any other ideas, please share with me! The simpler the better, nothing too complicated for this un-crafty person, stitching is the only thing that I can handle! *grin*

Anyways, thanks for dropping by and if you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it if you leave me a message and share with me your ideas! :)

Is Vaughn really gone?

2005-10-16T17:36:00.000+10:00

Hmm....I'm not entirely pleased with the progress of Season 5 of Alias so far. Is Michael Vartan truly gone from the show? I never heard any rumours/news that he was leaving so I'm not sure if he's definitely gone for good. It feels weird without him there, and I'm not crazy about the new additions either. Keeping my fingers crossed that the dead body that has been revived MAY be Vaughn, but who knows?

Stitching-wise, I started something during the week, I'm stitching a music-themed bookmark. Although fairly simple and small, it's suprisingly tedious as it's predominantly made up of backstitching, and any full stitches are scattered all over the place, and I want to get the stitches done first before getting started on the backstitching. And of course, trying to do fractional stitches on 18-count aida is painful, to say the least. When I'm finished, I also need to figure out what to do with it. I don't want to leave it as it is as I don't like floppy bookmarks but I am also not sure what I can do. A friend suggested some iron-on webbing thingy, which probably would work, hopefully the craft shops here have that. Any other ideas?

Anyways, I'm off to enjoy what's left of the weekend, work's been such a drag lately, it's always hard to go back on a Monday. Tuesday should be fun though, we have a social badminton thing, I'm really looking forward to it! Maybe I can kick some butt too, LOL. Till next time! :)

Loving my TV

2005-10-08T14:53:00.000+10:00

YAY! All my fave TV shows are back, plus some new ones! :) I know this post comes a bit late, but with last week's drama, I thought it wasn't the best time to talk about TV then, hee hee. With everything coming back almost all at once, I haven't even had the time to watch all of my shows! Oh well, I definitely have lots of viewing material to help me get through my ironing, LOL.

Another good piece of news was that my badminton membership finally came through! I try to play badminton at least once a week (on top of gym), it's a sport that I do enjoy and of course, I would rather play badminton more than increasing the number of gym days. Court hire is $9.50 an hour, but membership for unlimited use is only $32 a month. There was a limit of 130 memberships though, and I have been on the waiting list for almost 5 months. I got a call a couple of days ago that I finally got a membership! Even if I just stuck to the usual once a week, I would already have made more than full use of my membership. The plan is to play badminton 3 times a week and go to gym twice a week. The bad thing is I find it difficult to give up food, I'm not going to have a feast every day, but I don't want to eat like a rabbit either. Well, let's hope with increase physical activity, the weight will soon start coming off anyway.

I still haven't done any stitching. I probably will start soon, I wanna stitch myself a bookmark, I think it will be a very useful item considering all the books that I'm reading now. Much better than just shoving in the nearest piece of scrap paper I can find, hee hee. I will start looking at patterns and see what I wanna use for my bookmark. Hopefully my needle will be put to work soon enough!

Oh, and try this: http://www.websudoku.com/, it's kinda fun and you can get lost in it. I solved my first puzzle yesterday, I was proud of myself! Hee hee...

Lola has been found :)

2005-10-07T05:37:00.000+10:00

Just a quick update, Lola was found on Monday and I haven't had a chance to post an update till today. Lola was really lucky (or should I say my sister?!), she apparently ran back in the direction of my Grandma's house and actually ran up the stairs to the 14th floor (which is the wrong floor, but never mind) and was found by someone 5 minutes after my sister first lost her! While my sister was hysterically looking for her, someone else was already taking care of her! My sister didn't think to look around my Grandma's place because it was at the OTHER END from where my sister lost her. It was really good that the lady who found her was a dog lover as well, so she took good care of Lola and made sure that the dog was rightfully returned to the true owner. Apparently lots of people were making claims on Lola, so the lady was interrogating away and found all these fakes. Anyways, I could go on forever, the most important part is that my sister got Lola back thanks to a very kind lady (who asked for nothing in return, not even reimbursement of expenses even though my sister insisted), Lola is now safe and sound back at home! Thanks everyone :)

PLEASE HELP!

2005-10-02T12:28:00.000+10:00

*Update* Lola has been found, thanks :)

My sister is absolutely distraught, she lost her dog last night. She was walking Lola, she dropped the leash and it was one of those retractable ones, it scared her and she just took off. My sister couldn't catch up with her cos she just ran so fast. I know not everyone can help, but if you're from Singapore and you're reading this, please keep an eye out and spread the word with friends and family.

My dog is a pervert

2005-09-25T21:39:00.000+10:00

I have been noticing something very weird lately. I have been finding underwear scattered around the bedroom floor along with some miscellaneous items from the laundry basket. I knew it was the dogs, and I thought it was most likely Reuben than Banzai, as this has never happened with Banzai before, but I couldn't be absolutely sure, and I didn't want to punish the wrong dog! I told Terrence to peek on the dogs once in a while when we're home to see if we could catch one of them in the act. This only happens when we're home as they don't have access to the bedroom/bathroom when we're out. Well, we tried for a few days and we never managed to actually see it happen, and I would still find clothing (mainly underwear) around the bedroom floor. Today though, I finally caught the culprit, and I didn't even need to be sneaky! I was in the bathroom, and Reuben, right in front of me, started pulling clothes out of the laundry basket! GEEEEZ, are dogs crazy or what?! They can always find new ways to get up to mischief. I gave him a smack and he quickly gave me a guilty/cute look to get out of it. Sigh, what do I do with my nutty boys? I think it's time to get one of those IKEA vertical laundry baskets so that my clothes stay out of reach!

5 years, WOO HOO!

2005-09-19T18:43:00.000+10:00

Terrence and I celebrated 5 years together yesterday :) I know it's not an impressive number compared to people who have been with each other for 50 years and counting, but I think it's pretty cool for people our age, and he's my first boyfriend too! (Not that I'm complaining *grin*) We didn't do anything spectacular as we're trying to save as much as we can at the moment, but we did go out for yum cha and had a look-see at Ikea. Boring, I know, but we're just happy to spend time with each other, even if it's just rotting at home, LOL.

Apart from that, everything has been same old same old around here. As usual, still too lazy to dig out pictures to share, let's see if I will get to it by the end of the month, hee hee. I'm still obsessed with BookCrossing, I'm enjoying myself completely, and I have WAAAAAY too many books to read *grin* I'm also still in a stitching slump, but I'm getting pumped for a RR that I will be doing with some other Cyberstitchers. We won't be starting this till next year, but we're sorta talking about it and putting together a plan. We kinda know each other, so things can be flexible and I just have the feeling that this RR will be great. My RR experiences have not been great so far, my first RR was butchered by a couple of people, and there was too much drama with my second RR (which I joined reluctantly as well) to truly enjoy it. So yes, this one will be lots of fun and I'm really looking forward to it!

Alrighty, I think that's enough for a Monday, sigh, I wish weekends were longer, hee hee. I'm off now, it's time for the result show for Australian Idol. OUT!

Bum Bum BUMMER

2005-09-04T19:54:00.000+10:00

Yes, I'm lazy. I promised I would share a little bit about my holiday, but I still haven't done anything. The photos are scattered everywhere at the moment, there are some on my laptop, some on Terrence's computer, and I'm not sure if some are still on the memory cards. I have been quite disorganised, and haven't quite had the motivation to get everything back in order. So you will have to wait a little while more (hopefully not too long). It really wasn't that exciting, hee hee...so in a way, it's not a big deal *grin*

I didn't stitch at all on my holiday, and I haven't stitched since I'm back. I've just sorta been groovin' along, taking things easy and getting back into the swing of things. I'm sure I will get back to stitching soon, I just don't feel like I have to hop right back into it. I have been enjoying my reading, bookcrossing has really opened me to heaps of books and I'm really enjoying it so far. Btw, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Jodi Picoult's 'My Sister's Keeper', but be warned, the tears will come, better get the Kleenex out. I read this on and between flights, and boy did I sob, LOL. People were staring at me curiously at airports, and the air stewardesses kept asking if I was okay. On hindsight, it was a bad choice to read that book on the plane, cos I gave myself a massive headache, and I already get motion sickness when I'm travelling, it was not a good combination at all! But yes, before I get carried away, it was a fabulous book, and I'm looking forward to reading the other books by Jodi Picoult.

Alrighty, that's it for now. I hope everyone had a good weekend, till next time! *hugs and kisses*

I'm BACK!

2005-08-26T17:53:00.000+10:00

Actually, I have been back for a while. Arrived back in Melbourne last Sunday, but I was so tired that day I just didn't want to do anything. It was back to work the following Monday so I didn't really have time to post. The week flew by pretty quick, it's already Friday evening, and another weekend is here! I won't post much now, just wanted to say hi to those who have been checking in, no matter how few there are of you. Thanks, and I'll try to share more about my holiday in my next post! :)

TA-DA!

2005-08-05T20:08:00.000+10:00

Details of piece: This is 'The Marriage Tree' by Raise the Roof Designs. I stitched it on 32-count Lugana fabric by Sugar Maple Fabrics, 'Papilio Ulysses', which was from one of the Collaboration packs from last year.

Here it is, finally finished! Oh boy, did I cut it close! One hour before I leave for the airport *grin* This will be pressed nicely when I return to Singapore and I will have it framed there as well. It would have been really cool to have framed it myself over here in Australia, imagine, I could have said that it was stitched AND framed by me! Oh well, time did not permit, and it's all cool. Probably should let a professional do this one anyways, since it's supposed to be a wedding/anniversary gift, hee hee. Alrighty, this is the last post before I leave, off to make sure I've got everything packed! I will see if I can post while on my holidays, if not, I will share all of my experiences once I'm back. Don't miss me too much! LOL. *wink* :)

Almost done

2005-08-04T01:09:00.000+10:00

Well, I am almost finished with this one. There is some backstitching on the tree trunk to do, I need to finish up the apple in the tree, and the finishing touches would be to personalise the piece. Otherwise, it's a fairly complete piece! Like I said, all I needed was to hustle, and I jusssssstttttt made it, right before I need to leave for my holiday, hee hee. I will pay for this dearly tomorrow, it's not fun sleeping this late and then having to wake up at 6 am! Yikes!

On a separate note, I also checked in for my flight on Friday night (technically Saturday morning), so I've got my seat number, all I need to do is check in my luggage. Easy-peasy. And there is a special line for internet check-ins too, so no ridiculous long queues for me!

Okay, no more rambling from me, time to get to bed, wish me luck at work tomorrow (technically today), and I will share the final picture when I have this one completed! Nitey nite! :)

OMG

2005-08-02T22:47:00.000+10:00

*Six Feet Under Spoiler*

Nate DIES?! Well, I guess I kinda saw it coming, but still, it's totally unexpected. I'm at a loss, I need the next episode, I need to know what happens. AHHHHHH..... So much for a happy ever after huh? Too much to ask for on Six Feet Under, I suppose. Can the next episode get here faster? And I better get to bed now....you see, this staying up late thing would never happen if Terrence was around, LOL.

Not quite there

2005-07-31T21:19:00.000+10:00

Hmmm....not going to be able to get this finished tonight. Wasted a fair bit of time today with that frogging, blech. I should have realised my moon was too high, DOH. And of course, stitching with the wrong colour, that was pretty hopeless. Regardless, I am still pretty close to getting this completed, so I will try to hustle as much as I can over the next few nights, and get it finished ASAP. Wish me luck!

ARRRGGHHHHH

2005-07-31T13:04:00.000+10:00

I was stitching the word "Marriage" at the top of my tree, and then I realised that I stuffed up the position of my moon. So, I had to frog the moon, and the plan was to finish up the lettering and then back to the moon. And now I've discovered, I've stitched the word in the WRONG COLOUR!!! ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH. I'm so frustrated right now, and it's so damn friggin' annoying! Now I have to frog the word and redo the entire top bit, including the moon. At least I didn't stuff up the sun, blech. And there I was thinking, hey, I didn't do too bad on this one, I haven't made any mistakes yet. Never speak too soon and jinx yourself eh? Grrrrrrr..... Oh wells, gonna take a tiny break from this before getting back into it. The frog had better be gone when I'm back!

La-dee-da

2005-07-30T17:57:00.000+10:00

I found this on the web and thought it was hilarious. I really needed a laugh, not that I'm feeling down or anything, but yeah, things have been pretty dead around here (although uneventful can be good).

So, after proclaiming that I was going to finish 'The Marriage Tree' this week, I only managed to get in 2 nights' worth of stitching, so I'm still not quite near the finish line. I will try to do some stitching tonight and hopefully more tomorrow, and see if I can still meet that deadline. I guess as long as I've finished it before I head off for my vacation, I will be okay, I'll just have to get this framed in Singapore instead of here. It would have been so neat to frame this myself, alas, things don't always go the way you want them to.

I have been so lazy....just procrastinating and not doing the things that I really should be doing. This computer can be sooooooo bad sometimes, I just sit here and veg out, which is such a complete waste of my time. I know it, but I just do that at times, like my brain just needs to "rot" for a while. Also because I'm alone, it's almost like I don't quite know what to do with myself. I did do a few things today, but I've stretched them out over a few hours, when really they don't take long to do. Oh well, the night is still young, plenty of time for me to squeeze in all the stuff that needs to be done, eh?

I can't wait for Friday to come, I will miss the doggies terribly, and I will probably worry about a million things even while on vacation, but it also means I get a break from work, and just have a bit of fun for 2 weeks, that will be awesome. I'm going to start packing this weekend, cos I know I won't have time to pack during the work week, and I don't want to start panicking and freaking out on the Friday night I leave. I bought a few books from Borders yesterday, I also have a couple of bookrings, so I will have plenty of in-flight and airport reading material.

Anyways, I better finish up this post, otherwise I'm never going to leave this computer. Here's wishing everyone a good weekend! I hope my next post will be a picture of 'The Marriage Tree' completed. Till then.

WIP update

2005-07-24T22:35:00.000+10:00

Raise the Roof Designs - The Marriage Tree

So, this is my progress after 2 evenings of stitching. I didn't get a whole lot done as I didn't have as much time as I would have liked, but I hope to be stitching on this every night of the week. I am getting close to the finish line, so let's see if I can have this completed within the week. Anyways, time for me to head to bed, it's back to work tomorrow, boooooo hooooooo.....

Say hi to Lola :)

2005-07-24T11:48:00.000+10:00

The adorable Lola!

My sister (in Singapore) recently adopted an 8-month old puppy. The previous owner absolutely loved the doggie, but had to give her up because his niece was developing allergic reactions to the pup. This cute little furball's name is Lola and her breed is Beagle x Schnauzer. She looks really cute and I'm looking forward to playing with her when I visit in two weeks! :)

All by myself

2005-07-23T02:08:00.000+10:00

Terrence left for Brunei tonight, so I will be by myself for a while. I will see him pretty soon when I fly over myself in a couple of weeks, but I still miss him :( There will be a few perks to having the house to myself, like staying up to 2 am playing Mario Party 5, LOL. At least I defeated Bowser in the final battle, hee hee. I will also be able to focus on finishing up the piece I'm stitching on for my friend. Not that I couldn't do it with him here, but it's just easier when there's nothing else around to distract you. I haven't done any stitching this week, yet again, but I plan to dedicate most of the weekend to stitching.

Work has been getting busy busy busy. It's probably gonna be pretty hectic these 2 weeks before I go on leave, trying to clear everything and get stuff finished. I just hope I will be able to do so, which is really difficult at times, cos' I'm usually dependent on someone else for information or parts of work before I can complete my tasks. I'll see how it goes. I'm expecting some goodies to arrive at the office next week though, so hopefully that will help perk me up when I feel like I'm drowning in work, LOL. I've got a BookCrossing order coming, just some release supplies, as well as a book coming from a BookRay (means that the last person on the list will do a wild release). I'm looking forward to those arriving!

Alrighty, I'm off to bed, it's waaaaaaaay past my bedtime, considering that I have been up since 6.30 am. I'm so glad that it's the weekend, even if I'm alone, at least I can still relax and just chill at home! Her Drama-ness bids you farewell for now, have a good weekend everyone! :)

What to do, what to do....

2005-07-19T22:40:00.001+10:00

*sigh* And I was so proud of myself.

It's almost 11 pm, but here I am, blogging away. I had my 2nd framing class tonight, and tonight's session was about cutting the actual frame. I managed to get 2 done for the pieces that I had cut the mounts for, and I was soooooooooo happy when I actually put them over the pieces, they had looked really pretty! Now, even when I was in class, I did think they may have been a teensy weensy big, but they were so pretty, I hardly thought much about it.

Then, I got home, happily showed both pieces to Terrence, and he goes, "Yeah, they're nice, but a bit big." I'm crushed instantly, I was so pleased about them, I was really hoping for a much bigger reaction. Don't get me wrong, he does think they look quite good, but I had really wanted him to go 'WOW'.

So here I am, at 10.46 pm, asking for opinions yet again. I know the first piece seems very white, I had originally wanted to go for a coloured frame, but as I had said before, the teacher ain't big on colour, and she recommended the frame that I ended up using in the end. I wasn't convinced when I saw the sample, but after cutting the moulding and putting the frame together, I thought it looked quite good! I wouldn't put it against a white wall, everything would be too lost, but I reckon it would look nice against a coloured background.

As for the 2nd piece, Terrence liked this a whole lot better, because of the dark frame, but he also thought it was a bit big. Those were my initial thoughts too, but I was kinda okay with it, but hearing him say it then makes me second-guess everything all over again. By the way, these pieces aren't completed yet, there's still the glass and finishing to do, but you can pretty see how the finished products will look like.

Honest comments please? Pictures are below, any feedback will be much appreciated. I could be completely blinded by my tiny achievements of cutting and putting a frame together, that I'm missing what Terrence is saying altogether. I mean, I can see where he's coming from, but I don't think they're that horribly big....*sigh* I was really so happy about what I had done tonight too.... :(

Framed piece #1

Framed piece #2

I'm happy :)

2005-07-16T16:32:00.000+10:00

Things are alright now, not that it was ever horribly bad, but things feel good at this stage. Work wasn't that fantastic, there were more challenges, but I had a 1:1 with my manager yesterday (it got postponed from Tuesday), and I voiced my concerns with that particular person. I don't necessarily want any particular action to happen, but as long as he's aware, I'm happy with that. I'm looking forward to better weeks at work until I run off for my 2-week break. It's gonna be busy and stressful, but I can deal with situations like that, I just don't need some b*tch antagonising me for no reason. I'm leaving for Sydney tomorrow afternoon for work. I need to be at the Sydney office by 7.30 am on the Monday morning, so there's no way I'm leaving that morning and turning myself into a zombie, I won't be able to get anything done. It will be an exceptionally short weekend, so just gotta make the most of it.

I bought Mario Party 5 for the Gamecube yesterday, it was on special, so I simply couldn't resist. I got my copy of the sixth HP book today, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', so I'm also happy about that! Something I can read on the flight to Sydney and back, and at the hotel too, if I'm not doing work on my laptop. I also bought 'The Wishlist' by Eoin Colfer while I was at the bookstore. I already had this book, but I had lent it to my sister, who, without asking me, had lent it to a colleague, and that person apparently has no memory of it whatsoever! GRRRRR.... I hate it when people lose my stuff, or just claim ignorance when I ask them about something that they have borrowed! This wasn't a direct loan (and my sister really shouldn't have done it!!) but still, it's annoying. Oh wells, I got my replacement, and I'm over it now.

I have not done any stitching at all this week *gasp* I have been really engrossed with this whole bookcrossing thing, so that has been taking up my spare time during the evenings. I will start putting stitches into my 'Marriage Tree' piece next week, as I really should hustle and meet the deadline I set for myself. Anyways, that's it from me, I need to get some household chores done before I settle down and sink my teeth into my HP (just realised, same initials as my workplace, LOL) book. I hope everyone has a good weekend, till next time! :)

1st week's results

2005-07-13T21:29:00.000+10:00

So, I went for my framing course last night, and I had lots of fun. I was really tired though at the end of it, cos I had gone to the class straight from work, so it was a looooong day by the time I got home about 10.20 pm. I really enjoyed it though, and I'm looking forward to the 2nd session next week.

Now, I have done mounts/mats for one of my stitched pieces, and I've included the picture with this post (below). While I'm so happy that I've learnt how to cut mounts/mats and really proud of myself (even though it's hardly a big achievement), I have concerns about them. The teacher of the class isn't big on colour, so it was already a struggle for me to fight to get the strip of colour in. I would love some honest comments, especially from those framing experts out there on what you think. Is it too white? I'm also worried that the mounts/mats are too big and are overpowering the piece? It's not fancy or anything, but I didn't think I would even get to be quite this elaborate for such a small and simple piece. I'm such a newbie, so I've taken the teacher's advice with some faith, but I would still like some feedback. So if you don't mind, please drop me a line and let me know what you think! Thanks very much! :)

Sorry about the fuzzy picture!

DOH!

2005-07-10T11:35:00.000+10:00

I had asked Terrence to fix the comments part for me because they wouldn't show with the original post on the blog itself. Well, got that part fixed, but didn't realise the 'post a comment' bit was stuffed up! And there I was, wondering why nobody was visiting or leaving me messages! And feeling a little sad :( ....... LOL. Anyways, it's all fixed up now (thanks to Terrence, and he also put in the little BookCrossing banner for me), so there is no excuse to not drop in and say hello, hee hee *grin* Thanks Petra and Harsha for the heads-up! :)

I'm obsessed!

2005-07-10T02:18:00.000+10:00

I'm back again! I couldn't sleep, so I just ended up playing with my books! I tagged and labelled more books to be released into the "wild", and also registered books for my bookshelf from my permanent collection. In my previous post, I had registered 3 books, it's now up to 16, though not all are to be set free. It's amazing how addictive this is, I've really been enjoying it, and all I've done is label the books or just registering them! LOL. See how sad my life is? Oh well, I better head to bed now...I'm feeling tired and the yawns are starting to kick in. So tell me, with my mad enthusiasm, is anyone inspired to be a BookCrosser too? LOL. Just remember, if you sign up, put me down as a referral (leeny37), and here's the link again: http://www.bookcrossing.com/. Good night and have fun! :)

I'm a BookCrosser!

2005-07-09T22:55:00.000+10:00

Yep, you heard me right, as of today, I'm officially a BookCrosser! Before I ramble on, here's a definition of BookCrossing:

"The practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise."

Essentially, you "release a book in the wild", but each book has its own little tracking mechanism thing, and hopefully the person who picks it up will head to the website and keep the trail going. I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this, so it's best if you go here to have a quick read: http://www.bookcrossing.com/. I have heard about this a couple of years ago and thought it was pretty neat, but never gave it a go in the end. I then read about it on Candice's blog and thought, hey, probably time to give it a try! I had a few books that I was planning to give to the local library anyways, so this was just a more adventurous avenue, and will be lots of fun for me to see if anyone "catches" them!

I've registered 3 books and I'm planning to release these in the "wild" - 1. Michael Connelly's City of Bones, which I finished reading recently, 2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (a duplicate copy), and 3. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner. I was so excited, I ran off to Officeworks to get labels and prepare the books to be released, LOL. I have more to let go, but I will take my time with this. Well, if I do manage to convince anyone to give this a go, when you join, please put me as your referral: leeny37. Thanks! :) If you want to check out my bookshelf, go to: http://leeny37.bookcrossing.com/.

Here's the latest update on my WIP, I'm liking it so far, I loved how the rainbow came together, I think it's pretty! Alrighty, that's it from me for now, if you are visiting, please say hello!

Raise the Roof Designs - The Marriage Tree

It's Friday....

2005-07-08T17:37:00.000+10:00

This week has gone by pretty quick, and the weekend is here already. Had a few dramas at work, which got me pretty upset, I'm over it now, but it still bugs me at times. I'm gonna be raising these issues about this particular person during my review session with my manager this coming Tuesday, don't know if it will actually do anything, but I think it's important that he's aware that someone is preventing me from doing my job effectively. I feel even harrassed and targeted at times. Not a good feeling, which is why I can't wait to get away from the office.

This is my new display picture on MSN Messenger, I love it, it's soooooo cute! :) If you're interested, I got it from here: http://snorf.deviantart.com/. I've also taken other images from the gallery as desktop wallpapers on my own computer and work laptop. At least something to perk me up, eh? Hee hee..... I asked Terrence if he would create a new blog skin for me with these images, and he completely ignored me, like as though I didn't exist at that point in time. LOL. I really don't think I will be allowed to make any changes in the near future. *grin* He did fix up the comments section part for me though, so that was impressive.....

Nothing exciting for the weekend, the usual things happening, and I hope to be plugging away at my Raise the Roof piece. I see the deadline inching closer and closer, so I want to make sure it's completed in time. My sister did say that I could get it framed in Singapore, which would be cheaper, and I guess I could do that, but I'll see what happens. Speaking about framing, I'm really excited about my framing course starting this Tuesday night. I've got all my stitched pieces bagged up and ready to go in this boxy folder, and I'll see if I manage to get anything framed by the end of the course.

Well, that's it from me for now, will probably be back tomorrow to update my stitching progress. Have a good weekend! :)

New look! :)

2005-07-03T16:23:00.000+10:00

Yay! After wanting a new look for a while, I've finally got one. This was a skin I got from BlogSkins, but a BIG THANK YOU must go out to my darling Terrence because he had to spend a lot of time in changing the code and he put in a lot of work to get it to look the way I liked and wanted it to be. I think it's kinda cute, a bit of fun, and quite different from my previous template. Any comments? Let me know if you love it or hate it!

Waiting for August...

2005-07-03T10:48:00.000+10:00

Yet another stressful week. I know I should really learn to deal with it, I mean, I'm sure every single working person goes through what I'm facing right now, but sometimes, it still feels really tough. I try not to think about it too much when I'm home, I just wanna relax, but I know it's still on my mind, and I've been getting some pretty whacked up dreams because of it, LOL. Oh well......just something that I've gotta get used to.

But anyways, I simply can't wait for August to come! The ridiculous amounts of work waiting for me when I get back from vacation will be scary, but hey, I'm still looking forward to my break! LOL. Terrence will be leaving about 2 weeks before me, so I'll be alone for a while. This was the plan, so that he will have plenty of time to spend with family in Brunei as his parents are also heading back for a while (his dad is an expat in Egypt). Then, I will join him 2 weeks later and I will be in Brunei for about 4 days, and together, we will head off to Singapore. The weekend we arrive in Singapore, my sister has decided that it's a good time for a quick weekend at Bangkok (apparently airfares are very cheap now), so off we go with my sis and my brother-in-law to Thailand, back to Singapore on the Monday morning, before flying back to Melbourne the following Saturday night! It's quite a jam-packed schedule, especially for me, as Terrence would have had time to settle during the 2 weeks he's at Brunei. I think it's still gonna be fun though, I really can't wait for it, but I'll be so broke when I get back! LOL.

Terrence and I also went out last night, woooo hoooo, we were actually acting like normal young people and going out on a Saturday night, hahahahaha....*grin* We didn't do anything special, we went to watch 'Batman Begins', which was pretty good actually. There were some parts that were cheesy and I couldn't stand it, like Christian Bale talks funny when he's in the Batman suit, I know he's in disguise and he's trying not to be Bruce Wayne, but it was way OTT for me. But apart from that, I think he did a great job as Batman and it was a movie I thoroughly enjoyed. WAAAAAYYYY better than Spiderman, and Spidey is actually my favourite superhero :( I had also seen 'The Machinist' recently, and MAN, that Christian Bale is just insane, I know it's talked about a lot in the media, but if you haven't seen 'The Machinist', just compare those 2 roles, and the fact he did those back-to-back, unbelievable.......

On the stitching front, I didn't get as much done as I would like, but I think I'm doing pretty alright. Hopefully I will make my 3rd week of July deadline, so that I will have time to get it framed. I found a place that actually gives framing courses, $99 for 3 sessions, which I think is a decent price. And once you've done the course, you can go back anytime to use their equipment and workshop to frame your own pieces, and just pay for any materials/supplies. I probably won't have enough time to learn and frame this piece on my own as the course ends on 26 July, so I'll get this one professionally done, but I'm still gonna take the course. It should be interesting and if I somehow manage to get the hang of it, all the $$$$$ that I can save!

Anyways, gonna end with a couple of stitchy pictures. This is my progress to date, and for kicks, I thought I would throw in a photo of how the back of it looks too. Not my neatest, especially since this is stitched with overdyeds, it has to be done stitch by stitch, but I do think I'm quite a neat stitcher, heh. But of course, if you disagree, tell me, just don't crush me too badly, LOL. That's it from me, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Front of WIP

Back of WIP

After a week.....

2005-06-25T23:41:00.000+10:00

What a week. This week flew by really fast because of 2 full-day training sessions, before I knew it, it was the weekend already. Which usually is a good thing, but this time, not that great. A lot of things happened while I was away at training, and there are a lot of new initiatives starting. We have a huge revenue target for the second half of the financial year, and I'm starting to feel the pressure and getting a little stressed out. I want to do the best I can and contribute in every way, but sometimes I feel a little helpless because I do not have the knowledge like the veterans I'm working with, and also feel a little frustrated because of a lack of direction and guidance sometimes. I did get some good feedback from some bigshots in the company on Friday on something that I have been working on, so that definitely felt good. It's crunch time from now on, I just hope I don't royally screw up somehow, and if I were to do a good job, I sure hope that management will also acknowledge that too. I think validation and recognition is important, at least someone knows that I've been doing well! Hee hee....

Stitching wise, I think it's been going great. I have been stitching every night since last Saturday night, which is a first since starting full-time work back in February. Stitching has also helped me to stay awake longer. I know it sounds so pathetic, but while getting adjusted to full-time work, I have been heading to bed usually by 9 plus, so that I don't feel like I'm a zombie at 6.3o am the next morning, LOL. With stitching, I didn't put down the needle until 10 plus, with a record 11 plus almost midnight for one night. It didn't feel too horrible in the morning either, I hope I will get used to it, cos it's great to have more hours during the day, I sometimes feel I just don't have enough time to do everything.

As for the actual progress, don't think I did too bad at all, not shabby for a week's worth of stitching, about 1-2 hours each night. I did get a fair bit in today though. At this rate, I think I should be able to make my August deadline with plenty of time for framing and ready to be on the plane with me when I head off for my holiday. I can't wait for the break!!

Anyways, here's the picture of my progress. If you're visiting, do leave a comment! It feels like no one's visiting me much anymore, boooo hoooo *sob* Hee hee......

Raise the Roof Designs - The Marriage Tree (WIP)

Revenge of the Bitch

2005-06-25T09:39:00.000+10:00

Title - courtesy of Terrence. You HAVE to check this out. I say, GOOD ON HER. That's what you get for being an ass and complete jerk, muahahahahaha........

Check out this link first, paying attention to the description:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4556985749

Then read this news article:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1436341.html

My current stitching project

2005-06-20T22:21:00.000+10:00

Finally got started on the project I wanted to do for a while, Raise the Roof Designs - The Marriage Tree. I started this on Saturday night, did a bit more last night, and a little more tonight as well. Not much progress still, but it feels good to be stitching on a fairly consistent basis (for the last 3 days anyway) after being quite on and off for the previous piece. The goal for this one is to have it completed and framed before I go on vacation early August, as this is going to be a gift for my friend who got married last year. I didn't give her a proper wedding present, so this will be it, a late wedding gift/anniversary present, hee hee. Hope to post regular updates on this one! :)

I fell.....AGAIN!!!!!

2005-06-17T22:35:00.000+10:00

I don't freaking believe this, I had just scraped my poor knee on Tuesday morning, and what do you know, I scrape the SAME ONE again tonight! This time, I was walking towards a restaurant with Terrence for dinner, and again, I suddenly slipped and BAM, there goes my right knee, AGAIN! You can kinda see the parts that had barely healed, and I scraped it off clean. It hurts like a bitch. Oh well, a fresh start to healing eh?! Just to make sure if I'm a clumsy ass in the near future, to aim for the left knee, LOL.

Little House Needleworks - Lavender Hill

2005-06-15T17:36:00.000+10:00

WOO HOO! I kinda like sick days, because it means I can stitch while resting, LOL. Anyways, I finally got this finished, I don't know why it took me so long, cos once I got started on it, it was a fairly quick stitch and I got it done in no time. I'm really happy that I completed this, and I can't wait to send it off to a lady in Netherlands, I hope she likes it and enjoys the other goodies that I have included! :)

GROSS ALERT

2005-06-15T10:02:00.000+10:00

Just posting a warning nice and early, I fell down yesterday morning as I was getting into work. I'm not quite sure what happened exactly, I got out of the car, was brushing breadcrumbs off my skirt, and then I slipped and grazed both knees. Only had a few cuts and scratches on my left knee, but for my right knee, well, you will see. That was a most exciting way to start the day at work, walking in with bloody knees, and my freaking skirt kept sticking to my right knee until I found the first aid room and put some dressing on it. DNA anyone?

I'm taking it easy today, not feeling too great, I'm home sick today, but I probably can't resist, and start doing some work on the laptop anyways. Oh, I also deleted my long stitchy post, and suddenly, all my thingys on the right all came back. Go figure! Oh wells, don't think anyone will miss my stitchy post, so no biggie. Well, I'm off to rest, do some work, and maybe a bit of stitching too. Hope everyone is having a good week, and if you're not, you sure will once you see this picture! LOL.

Crazy shit!

2005-06-12T13:32:00.000+10:00

http://media.skoopy.com/misc/snake_roo/

WOW! I mean, I know this stuff from Science classes, and I know it's extremely possible, but still, it's crazy to actually see it from pictures. Caution: don't view if you're queasy about animals, there's no blood and gore, but it may still freak you out. Just a warning!

I'm annoyed

2005-06-11T20:57:00.000+10:00

Okay, since I made my long stitchy post, my thingys on the side have all disappeared. Oh well, maybe not disappeared, but it doesn't show up on IE, until I click on comments, and suddenly, lo and behold, it's back. It seems to show up fine on Netscape though, but still, I don't know what messed it up on Internet Explorer. I'm hoping that doing a new post will suddenly miraculously bring it back. We'll see.

Learn to Quilt

2005-06-05T20:42:00.000+10:00

I got a present! LOL. Terrence bought me something from his little shopping trip at K-Mart yesterday. It's this "Learn to Quilt" package, I really don't need another hobby, and while quilting looks fun and interesting, I don't think I'll quite get into it. I will give this a go though and attempt to finish, since he was sweet enough to get me something, which was totally unexpected, hee hee.

And the weekend is here....

2005-06-03T22:28:00.000+10:00

WOOO HOOO, weekends usually go quick, but at least this week felt as though it went by just as quick. Nothing out of the ordinary happened for me, I did have one awesome day, and that was because my order from Amy @ Down Sunshine Lane arrived! YIPPEEE! It certainly made my day, and I had fun poring over my new stash at the office, just for a little while anyways, hee hee. What was even better, my Treat of the Month from Sugar Maple Fabrics arrived on the same day, so it was double fun for me. The only downer for that day was my laptop went screwy that night, it's still a bit messed up at the moment, but seems to be stable for now, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else stuffs up.

Haven't got much planned for the weekend, did do a little shopping tonight cos there are stocktake sales happening, didn't get much though, got a new shirt for work, a couple pairs of earrings, was really hoping to get new shoes, but everything sucked! Got a few errands to run tomorrow, and probably will just spend the rest of the day doing stuff around the house or bum and veg out *grin* Will be playing badminton on Sunday morning and then, it's waiting for the week to begin again, sigh. At least a long weekend is coming up, that will be really awesome, but the next long weekend won't be till November! We should really push for 4-day work weeks, LOL. Just kidding!

Alrighty, just a short one for tonight, probably will do a stitchy blog tomorrow. Annette answered some stitching questions on her blog, and I will probably pinch it from there and do the same, hee hee. Anyways, hope everyone has a killer weekend coming up, be back soon!

Darth Banzai

2005-05-29T20:57:00.000+10:00

Title of the picture - courtesy of Terrence. Banzai was lying very comfortably on the couch, and then Terrence thought he would wrap Banz up in a blanket, and he still stayed put in his snuggly spot, so Terrence snapped this picture. Btw, I'm not the Star Wars freak in the house (Terrence is the one, although I'm glad to say he isn't obsessed like the fans you read about in the papers), I honestly don't understand what the fuss is all about, hee hee, but anyways, just thought I would share the picture! :)

HUH?

2005-05-28T16:22:00.000+10:00

Okay, I know I said I wouldn't talk about TV, but I'm just watching the American Idol finale at the moment, and one of the songs that Carrie sang (Angels Brought Me Here) was the first Australian Idol's single, you know, the original song that you release once you win the competition. And I'm not being biased (cos I'm not "technically" Australian either) but Guy (the 1st Australian Idol winner) did a much better job of this song. During the finale, he gave a phenomenal performance, and I absolutely loved that song. Nothing wrong with Carrie singing it, but I wasn't expecting it at all, maybe the producers recycle songs between Idol series throughout the world. Oh well. On a side note, I'm disappointed that Bo didn't win, I won't say that I'm crushed, but I think he will still do well anyway, so it will be interesting to see what comes next from Bo! Anyways, that's it for now, will blog again later. Leeny, OUT.

Aloha!

2005-05-22T16:38:00.000+10:00

How is everyone doing? The week has been fairly uneventful, which is perfect, just the way I like it, hee hee. I will be getting back the Echo from the repairer tomorrow, so phew, that will finally be done and out of the way, chapter closed! I also got news from Amy at Down Sunshine Lane that my order has been shipped out, I can't wait for all my goodies to arrive *stars in my eyes* LOL.

Being a TV junkie, it's quite sad that most of the shows that I have been following will be ending really soon, whatever will I do over the weekends?! *grin* The last episode of CSI was excellent, probably one of the best CSI episodes that I have seen. And of course, those Quentin Tarantino touches near the end made it slightly different from the usual offering, can't wait for the next season! I was also happy that the reality TV shows that I had been watching had the right people win. Uchenna and Joyce for Amazing Race, sorry to Rob and Amber fans, but I really disliked them, especially Rob, I understand that it's a competition for a million bucks, but it probably wasn't necessary to be that obnoxious. And Uchenna really blew me away in the last couple of episodes, he was such a great guy even in the most stressful of situations, that really touched me, they were awesome, and I'm so glad they won. Kendra was named the new Apprentice, I liked Tana as well, but I do think Kendra probably is more suited for the big bad corporate world, all the best to the both of them! And Tom won Surivor, YAY! It was the first Survivor series that I watched and I was captivated with the show (I did say I was a TV junkie, right? Don't hate me, hee hee). I can't believe Katie got to the final 2 (and got US$100,000 for it!), but I will admit she had an excellent strategy, at least she was honest about it. I liked Ian too, it probably would have been a tough choice for the jury if it were Ian and Tom in the final 2, but oh well, Tom won, and I'm happy with that!

The last result to wait for is American Idol. Come on America, you've gotta vote for Bo, he KICKS ASS!! I like Carrie, I think she's alright and she does have a good voice, but I just think Bo is better. If I were in America, I would vote like crazy, but unfortunately, I can't, so whoever is reading this, and you love Bo and you want him to win, then you've gotta put in those votes and make him the American Idol! It would be so cool that a rocker wins this, we had a rocker in the last season of Australian Idol, but he just wasn't good enough, Bo is completely different though, it would be great if he won.

Alrighty, that's it from me today. It's back to work tomorrow, sigh, where does the weekend go?! And I promise I won't talk about TV the next time, LOL. Hope you all had a good weekend and will have a good week ahead!

Buttons galore

2005-05-22T16:35:00.000+10:00

More buttons! Yep yep, I was lazy for a while, but the picture finally is up. Don't think I will be making anymore buttons in the near future, but I will keep up with it and do some squishing when I feel like it, hee hee.....

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

2005-05-14T15:02:00.000+10:00

Hello folks! Just finished my lunch, salmon sashimi and a glass of milk, YUMMMMM. LOL. It was pretty yummy, but yes I know, raw salmon and milk sounds like a weird combination, or most of you may think it's pretty whacked, hee hee.....

Anyways, I had a really crap week the week before and really didn't feel like doing a whole lot, much less blogging. I've just been chillin' and taking it easy after that, and just looking forward to an uneventful and relaxing weekend! So far so good. Stitching progress has stalled for quite a while on the 'Lavender Hill' piece, I'm hoping I will be able to get it finished this weekend. It's really sad that I don't stitch that much anymore, I haven't stitched at all on weekdays, and it seems that I don't have enough time over the weekends to fit stitching in! *sob* All you stitching gurus, any tips to share with me?

I placed a HUGE order during DSL's anniversary sale, and I was also lucky enough to win a gift certificate! It was pretty cool as I never seem to win anything, so that was neat! I can't wait for my goodies to arrive, I know I will be in stash heaven! LOL. Who cares if I can't find enough to stitch, as long as I know it's sitting pretty amongst my stash, hee hee.... I will work out a routine eventually, and get the stitching going.

I made more buttons a couple of weeks ago, just more hearts and I also attempted a flower. I think this batch turned out better, I probably baked the first batch too long which is why those buttons turned out so dark, these buttons are a brighter red and look a lot more vibrant. Feeling lazy, but will share a photo when I get them scanned.

Alrighty, ain't got much else to blog about, so I think I will stop here. Oh, I got tagged by Annette, but I'm too lazy to do it, for now anyways, hee hee. Till next time!

Buttons Part II

2005-05-02T17:58:00.000+10:00

Hey Debbi, just for you, here is another picture with a penny in it! Although I think this is the British penny, but I don't think the size will differ too much. And now to answer the questions! :)

I followed the instructions and oven-baked these buttons at 130 degrees celcius for 30 minutes. I bought metallic red-coloured clay, I think it probably shows a bit better in this picture, you can see the glittery bits. So yeah, I didn't do any painting at all, I don't think my creative talents can extend that far, LOL. The clay is actually a much brighter red, for some reason after baking the colour became a bit dull, and it doesn't help that I've got my fingerprints all over it and baked into the clay, which has affected the overall shine. I need to figure out how to somehow polish it to get the shine back...but only if I'm that bothered eventually, hee hee.

Thanks anyway for the comments on my buttons, hopefully my next batch will show an improvement! :)

Check out my badly made buttons

2005-05-01T20:42:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago, while just walking around the mall with Terrence, I bought some clay for fun cos I had the inspiration then to make some buttons. The clay was lying around on my table for a while before I finally got round to trying to make some today. And boy did I fail miserably! It's hard! How the heck do people make buttons?! LOL. I thought I would start with something simple like a heart, and even that was so hard to do! I only made these 5 buttons, but as you can tell, they are quite mis-shapened as I had to do it myself because I don't have any moulds or cutters. I think my last attempt was probably the best one (the biggest heart). Don't know what I will do with the rest of the clay cos I have only used a little bit so far, probably will be making more heart buttons (since it's probably the only shape I can do decently, LOL), but that will be A LOT of buttons. Anyone wants some? Hee hee....

My poor baby :(

2005-04-30T17:14:00.000+10:00

Banzai was acting funny last night, usually he's always so hyper and excited, and would be jumping up and down when Terrence and I get home, but he was a little subdued and not his usual exuberant self. He also seemed exceptionally cranky, if you would try to move him off the couch or just budged him a little, he would start whining, and it sounded almost like he was in pain. He also wouldn't play with Reuben (they usually get into a friendly scuffle when we get home), he would run off and hide under my table or chair. We did think initially that he may have just been in a bad mood, but he was whining all the time and I was getting really worried. It was also hard for us to tell if he was really hurt, cos we sorta did a little check-up ourselves, not that we knew what to do, but we were just kinda pressing bits to see if he was hurting and he wouldn't have any reaction, but if you would move him, he would start whining, like as though he was in pain. He also couldn't jump very well, which is something he does all the time. So, we let him rest for the night, and if he were still like that in the morning, it would be off to the vet immediately. The situation didn't change this morning, so I made an appointment with the vet, luckily there was a cancellation and he could fit us in for an afternoon slot. Turns out that Banzai has a sore "back", he's either twisted or sprained it, not sure how it happened, the vet said it could be from playing or during an attempt at an acrobatic stunt, either way, he just needs lots of rest and he should be alright in a week. So, Banzai got a shot, some tablets to take for a week, and then another check next Saturday to make sure he's okay, and he should be back to normal. I'm glad he's gonna be alright, but I definitely don't like seeing him in pain, especially when he makes those noises :( Just have to make sure that Reuben will be gentle with him during this period and Banzai should get well in no time!

Is this GORGEOUS or what?!

2005-04-26T20:40:00.000+10:00

I LOVE THIS STITCHED ENVELOPE! It's my first ever and I am absolutely in love with it. When I took it out of my mailbox, I was squealing in delight, it's just so pretty, and the stitching is FABULOUS. Can you believe the lady who stitched this for me did it OVER ONE?! It's so beautiful in person, this scan simply doesn't do it justice. THANK YOU ANNEMARIE, it's the best stitched gift EVER! :)

One and only

2005-04-24T16:32:00.000+10:00

Alright, just one picture. The damage is worse when you see it in person, but you can probably get an idea from this photo. Like I said, one for the photo books to be passed down for generations! LOL.

Ready for a laugh?

2005-04-24T14:23:00.000+10:00

HELLO! Sorry for disappearing, but after the car drama, I wasn't up for blogging, and after that, it was just a whole lot of other stuff to do during the weekends. But now I'm back, I have a long weekend because of Anzac day tomorrow, and I'm ready to reveal my story! Brace yourselves, you may end up laughing so much it hurts.....

So, when the accident happened on Saturday, I had the car less than a week, Terrence's friend had driven the car way past the 80,000 km mark, and it was due for a major service, so I had it booked at the service centre. Terrence and I left the house about 7.40am that morning, I was driving my new car, and he was following me behind in his car, so we could go home after dropping off my car. Hmmm....can I hear some, Oh no, don't tell me!!!!!! LOL. So, anyways, he was driving behind me, we had probably driven for about 10-15 minutes and were already 3/4 of the way there. We were on a major road, and needed to turn right onto another major road to get to the service centre. So, as I was nearing the turn, the traffic light went yellow, I probably would have made it through, but I was thinking, I need to wait for Terrence, so I stopped. Unbeknownst to me, Terrence was speeding up trying to catch me, thinking that I was gonna go THROUGH the light, and BAM! He hit me. Yep, you heard (or read) right, the person who rear-ended me was Terrence, LOL. He was already braking hard, but he still hit me pretty hard, so I was rolling across the intersection onto the other main road. Luckily, it was early on a Saturday morning, otherwise I think it could have been a lot worse.

So, when he hit me, I was pretty much stunned. I saw him coming, I felt the impact, like I said in my previous post, I got whiplash pretty bad, my head and neck was hurting, and the whole time I was just thinking, this is not happening, this is not happening. It was kinda surreal, like a bad dream that you just want to wake up from and have it disappear. I was really worried that Terrence would be angry with me, but he was more concerned about me and wanted to make sure that I was okay. The cars were pretty smashed up, but we could still drive them, so we got off the road, and parked somewhere while we figured out what to do. The first place I rang was the insurance company, but it wasn't open that early. This was the first time either of us had been in an accident, and I was kinda in shock and didn't know what else to do. I wanted to make sure that we did everything by the book so that we won't have any other issues, so I rang up the police. The policeman who spoke to me on the phone was really nice, he was asking if everyone was okay, if we needed an ambulance and all that. Then he asked me if I had the other driver's details and each other's information, and I was like, uh, actually, it was my partner who hit me. And he just BURST OUT laughing on the phone, going, are you serious?! And I gave him the story on the phone, and he was still chuckling throughout. Like I said, looking back at it, it is pretty funny, and I was kinda laughing then, although probably in a semi-traumatised way, LOL. So anyways, he just said, well, as long as everybody is okay, he said it should be alright, we just had to go home first, and ring up the insurance company when they opened.

Everything is alright at the moment, Terrence's car is with the repairer at the moment, once his is done, then mine will go in, and everything will be back to normal. Everything went well with the insurance company, they didn't have as big a reaction as the policeman, so maybe it isn't that uncommon. It is quite a bizarre situation, but I would think it should be a fairly common incident with couples, I mean, once you're out there on the roads, you're subject to the same conditions that may cause an accident. We have to pay an excess (technically Terrence's but we pay for stuff together anyways) and his rating will be affected when it's time for renewal, but apart from that, we are okay and will be okay. I recovered from the whiplash after a few days and I feel perfectly fine by now. When I told my family and colleagues the story, they couldn't stop laughing, it's nice to know I have support huh? *grin*

That is pretty much the full story, I'm long-winded enough, and if I gave you anymore details I think I would put everyone to sleep. I do have some pictures, but I don't really want to post them online until the cars have been repaired, so if you do want to check them out, just pop me an e-mail and I'll send you the link. Thanks for all the best wishes, I'm fine and doing more than okay, thank you so much for caring! This is quite a story, and one to tell the future kids and grandkids, it will be part of my legacy, LOL. Well, I hope I have provided some amusement for the day, but I definitely hope that I don't have any similar stories to share in the near future.

Crazy Saturday

2005-04-09T19:43:00.000+10:00

You won't believe the morning that I had, I mean, I don't even quite believe it myself. It's been pretty surreal and I don't know if it has sunk it yet, even now. I won't go into much detail, I'm not really up for it, and I want things to be settled before I share the whole story. Anyways, I had just gotten the replacement car for my Mira, I got the Echo on Monday and was driving it to get a service this morning. On the way there, I was rear-ended and I experienced whiplash. My head was hurting earlier in the morning, it doesn't feel too bad now, but my neck hurts a little bit, my back feels a little funny, but I think I should recover and be alright over the next few days. It's unbelievable how much car drama has happened for me, for us, over the last few weeks. I'll share pictures and the whole story once insurance has this settled and everything is back on track. I'm thankful that nothing worse happened, but I really hope this streak of bad luck/sucky stuff/insane drama or whatever to call it, just STOP and let my life get back to normal. Man, this is just nuts nuts nuts. It's a pretty funny story (you'll see when you hear it), I can sorta laugh about it now (while still semi-stunned and semi-traumatised), but I think I'll only fully crack up when I know everything is really okay. Alrighty, I'm getting off now, probably won't be back for a while, but watch this space!

Death of the Mira

2005-04-03T13:15:00.000+10:00

This is the picture that Terrence took with his mobile phone of my car being prepared to be towed away. Sigh....bye bye, my little red car......

WIP pic

2005-04-02T23:23:00.000+10:00

My stitching progress for today. Didn't do a whole lot more since the last time, but at least it's something. Don't think I will get any stitching in tomorrow as I want to get some things done around the house, since I was pretty much bumming today, hee hee. Well, will post an update if I do get any stitching done, or when I finally get that picture of my little red car from my laptop. Till then! :)

Friday Post

2005-04-01T22:12:00.000+10:00

Yay, it's Friday night, no long weekend this time, but hey, it's a weekend, I'll still take it, LOL. It has been a fairly intense work week, especially today, so it will be great to forget about work for a bit, although it will probably still weigh on my mind and give me weird dreams, heh.

First update, my little red car, is officially GONE. Terrence took the day off from work yesterday and organised for a wrecker to pick up my car from the service centre, and we got the grand sum of $100 for it. As pathetic as it sounds, it was the best offer we could find. Most wouldn't pay anything for the car, if not, it was an offer about $30-$40. So, we settled for the $100 (like it was a hard choice to make from the available options, hee hee) and I will also get a bit of money back from the cancellation of my registration and insurance early. I think if I were there, I would have probably started crying. Not because of the actual loss of car or money, but all the memories and experiences attached with the car. It was my first car, after we got the car, we probably explored so much more of Melbourne in that first few months than the first few years I was here, and just so much emotional attachment to it because of the memories. Terrence actually felt sad and heart-broken when he saw the car getting towed away, if I were there, I would probably be bawling away!

Second update, we're getting pretty close to a replacement car. Most likely we will be getting Terrence's friend's 2001 Toyata Echo. It's not red, it's white, and while it's not as small as my Mira, it's still a pretty small car and I should adapt to it pretty quickly. It's just getting all the necessary papers, get the loan signed off, go through the transaction, and we should be getting the car soon. I did have some issues with this deal initially. We had been thinking about getting a replacement car quite a while ago, this was probably decided slightly over a month ago. Back then, the Echo's registration was not up for renewal, but it was nearing. We had agreed to cover that cost, cos I mean, getting a long registration is a bonus, it could be luck that you buy a car with rego expiring in March 2006, but it's just too bad if the car that you want has rego expiring at the end of March 2005. Well, because the transaction never went through and was dragged on because Terrence's friend couldn't get a loan until now, he had to renew the registration if he wanted to keep driving on the road. However, he's still making us pay for the registration even though it isn't in our hands yet. I don't really have issues with the money, cos we had already been prepared to pay that sum, but I didn't like being forced into a corner like this, and it wasn't even a discussion, it was like, hey man, I'm doing blah blah, you've gotta pay this. That's why sometimes, I think it's probably not a good idea to buy cars from friends. Oh well, I didn't want to push the issue and ruin the frienship between Terrence and this guy, so we just gave in. I just can't wait for this to be over, so we can get the car and get this tension out of the way. Hopefully no other issues turn up!

Well, that's about it from me today. I was gonna blog about some more stuff, but I've kinda run out of steam for now, LOL. I will try to post the photo that Terrence took of my car on the tow truck with his mobile, either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. I've gotta get the photo out of my laptop and just feeling a little too lazy to do that at the moment, heh. Alrighty then, bye bye for now, and I'll be back sometime over the weekend!

Her Drama-ness

Hello 2008!

Me Pretty Clockz

500 grams!

いち、に、さん 。。。

Hurrah!

One Republic - Apologize

Back in high school?!

A couple more things

Hello World

RIP Gong Gong

Back in Australia!

Stitching progress and goodbye

It was a big day today!

Six weird things about me

Presenting Mady's gorgeous RR

Hanging around...

Oh dear...

2007 is here!

(no subject)

The holidays are here!

Photos intensive

It's the weekend!

It's gonna be a long one!

Big week ahead...

Stash Sorting

A quickie!

Confession...

Another framed piece

Moonlight Garden - framed

Lacing needlework

Mi Casa, Su Casa

Fresh pictures!

Happy Dance!

Amazing creatures

I'm still alive!

Danielle is an idiot

Tinkling ivory keys...

It's been a while...

LONG WEEKEND!

Have you missed me?

Can you spot the mistake?

TA-DA!

ARRRGGGHHHHH

Half the weekend gone

Stinkin' HOT

A (late) Happy New Year message

PINK is the new black

Life goes on...

Ideas please! :)

Is Vaughn really gone?

Loving my TV

Lola has been found :)

PLEASE HELP!

My dog is a pervert

5 years, WOO HOO!

Bum Bum BUMMER

I'm BACK!

TA-DA!

Almost done

OMG

Not quite there

ARRRGGHHHHH

La-dee-da

WIP update

Say hi to Lola :)

All by myself

What to do, what to do....

I'm happy :)

1st week's results

DOH!

I'm obsessed!

I'm a BookCrosser!

It's Friday....

New look! :)

Waiting for August...

After a week.....

Revenge of the Bitch

My current stitching project

I fell.....AGAIN!!!!!

いち、に、さん。。。

GROSS ALERT