A Most Productive Day at Home

Finally a chance to craft today and I made some progress on the cool-io folio I mentioned earlier.

Look at all the surfaces waiting for photos and journalling and altering. Thirteen spots per folio, and that's not counting the surfaces on the album and slipcover. I can't wait for my next crafting opportunity because I have some rubberstamps waiting to be inked. They'll be perfect for embellishing those pages.

Here's my slide show of the steps in making it. Mouse over for the descriptions. So happy it's working. I got the kit from here, everything is pre-cut and instructions are so clear that assembly is a breeze - your only headache is finding enough photos to put in it!! Alright, end of commercial!!

A bit of grousing. This is the book that came in the mail:This is the packaging that came with the book that came in the mail.
This is the box that came with the packaging that came with the book that came in the mail.
This is the empty space that came in the box that came with the packaging that came with the book that came in the mail.I think I must have paid $20 in shipping all that space and excessive packaging. Sigh ...On a brighter note, look what's new:Just in time for Chinese New Year, yay!

10-17 Jan

A typical working day begins at 5.20 am. By six everyone is dressed and ready to set off.
The roads are quieter at 6.20 am ... and road users are sane.  

It's good to be at work before 7.  I start real slowly by checking mail and planning for the rest of the day.  I only wish I can leave work an hour earlier since I've already put in the hours.  

For a variety of reasons, I sleep very poorly at night and by 4 pm daily, the migraine will strike. I'm a wreck all the way home, barely making it through dinner.  I might as well put Painkiller as dessert on the daily menu.  Forget quality time with anyone.  It's me nursing my headache while singing "Glory" for the 20th time, and I'm usually the one who falls asleep first!

Weekends offer little reprieve. With E clocking in only 1 nap these days, I barely have time to clean up the mess she makes round the clock. 

Her offers of help do not count.  

And since so many things interest her (except her toys), it takes incredible energy and perserverance to coax her to nap.  It's usually after a lot of whining and protests that she finally knocks out, for ... oh maybe 45 minutes?

Hopefully long enough for me to blog this and take a breather.

Edited to note: she did sleep long enough for me to hit post before I realise I forgot to proofread some parts first. 

On a separate topic, I subscribed to the Simple Scrapbooking philosophy for the longest time.  So it's sad to hear the announcement.  Scrapping Simply has helped me get caught up, and I still love the graphic style and the focus on photo and journalling.  I hope the idea of scrapping simple will not fade.  Much as I admire detailed layouts and the patience of scrappers who adopt the style, I still prefer to keep things simple on my pages.  Sure, I'll do some elaborate pages, but it's like going out to a fancy dinner - to be done occasionally.

I completed the flipping cool project, sans photos.  Will experiment with putting it up here later.

Atypical Friday - I hope

P and I took half day leave today, different halves.  I was home in the morning, then went to pick J from school after camp.  She was dismissed later than expected, so we were running late.  We handed over duties at lunch and it was P's turn to watch the girls in the afternoon.  I hope this eases over next month when I'm back to part time.  Working full-time is wreaking havoc on everyone's schedule .... but I like the full-pay this month haha!!

First Sentence

Well, more like two words combined to convey a concept.

Twelve years ago, J's first sentence at 16 months was "No more light".

Tonight, E, also 16 months old, said "No cho-cho" after I checked if she had done her "business".

This will definitely get retold in the family for years to come.

6 Jan

End of a working day for P, whose work week begins on Tuesdays. I fetch him from work and we'll have couple time catching up or just enjoying togetherness.
Reached home to find E all excited at having us back. She is learning to feed herself and demands that she scoops the porrigdge herself, occassionally flicking the food on the wall and floor around her high chair.

J will be in school until Friday for a camp. I'm going to miss her.

4-5 Jan

Yesterday was a typical Sunday - preparing the day's meal before 7 am, getting everyone out of the house and in church by 7.30.  Except the Toddlers were promoted and E will be one of the older few remaining with the Wobblers and Crawlers.  

Out of sheer routine, we went to PS for lunch and hung out at my Happy Place.  What's extraordinary was J's request to buy a dress - a dressy dress.  Granted, she paired it with a cardigan, but it's a far cry from her T-shirt and jeans do.  I fought mixed feelings as she pointed out to me what's in and what would not work with her complexion and her shape.  Feeling proud at how she has grown more assertive and speaking her mind, yet melancholic that she has outgrown her dependence on us to make decisions for her.

She is still shy about her looks and refuses to be photographed if she can help it.  Today, she either cannot help it, or is being kind to her Momma in obliging with a less than sunny countenance.

My Word

I pondered over my word for the year and decided on "trim". As in:
being trim and fit physically
keeping the house trim by cutting back on the frills and clutter
removing emotional and mental baggage so as to strengthen relationships

In keeping with my chosen word, I have changed the blog colour scheme. Hope you find it easy on the eyes too.

1 - 3 Jan

The first day of the year was spent quietly at home.  P was house-husband for the day, taking care of chores around the house, including preparing the porridge for Little One.  I began organising our photos according to Library of Memories themes.  LOM is Stacey Julian's approach to organising and scrapbooking photos.  For more details, visit Big Picture or her blog.  

I put the photos into photoboxes and stamped on the handle with StazOn:

I got a little carried away writing labels for each of the four of us, all 12 combinations of any two of us, 6 combinations of three of us, and our extended family members with one or more of us ... well you get the picture?

Eventually my labels include:

All About Us: The immediate family of us four individually and with each other.

People We Love: extended family and relatives, friends and colleagues

Places We Go: homes-ours and relatives', parks and playgrounds, beach, in the car, vacation destinations

Things We Do: food, toys, hobby, work, celebrations, swimming, music, animals, nature, seasons and colours.

Events are put by decades and years.

Henceforth I will scrap the events and leave the remaining photos for year in review layouts.  The remaining photos thereafter will be moved into the categories above.

I finished placing one big box of photos into the categories.  I still have some 4x6 index card boxes to be sorted.  Following that, I'll have to rethink my mishmash collection of albums.  I started with 8.5x11 and later 12x12, 8x8 and 6x6.  I just haven't reconciled how to replace my old albums.  As I crave uniformity and standardisation, it will cost an arm and a leg to replace those albums.

As for rest of the study, it's still overflowing with my stash.  My best estimate is I'll use 60-70% of the room.  

Yesterday was the first day of school for J.  She was placed in a different class but was pleased to find most of her former classmates were there too. She'll attend camp next week, of which two days are stay in.  I missed the first-day-of-school photo so I'll take a shot of her on Monday.

Today E was cranky from her runny nose and barely napped in the late morning before I had to disturb her to go fetch J from the CCA fair in school.  Runny nose or not, her appetite hardly waned.  She had a whole slice of plain bread, separately (I'll tell this story later) a slice of cheese, some biscuits, and topped it all off with a bottle of milk.

I got some goodies in the mail today.  Two kits from Club Scrap and an extra order for a project which I can't wait to start on.  It'll be flipping cool.  I must remember to post pics in progress.