So I know I said yesterday that I am officially finished with my last post for the year. But I just had to sneak in these photos of the wonderful party we had yesterday to celebrate Nathan’s fourth birthday and a sort of final year-end/Christmas bash we had for my beloved day care children. None of   my parties have ever been the fancy sort, but the only thing I hope for is that they are fun and memorable. We borrowed an inflatable pool and colourful plastic balls to make a simple ball pit which the children all just went mad over. It got a little crowded in there at times, but we somehow always managed to work something out. Hubby sportingly took on the role as the ‘magic balloon man’ and made all sorts of fun shapes and creations with a little balloon kit we got from the party supplies section at the shops. The theme of the party was all about lollipops. So I made some ‘ marshmallow dough ’ for the children to have a lollipop-making activity. I knew my children all love ...

So Christmas came early for me this year in the form of a shiny new hardback set of this well-known saga . As some of you might have known, I only recently discovered what the whole Twilight obsession was all about less than a couple of months ago. I happened to catch the first movie on TV while I was surfing around the channels one Saturday night and got sucked into the story. I know, I knoooow… I am like soooo late for THIS party that I am arriving after the whole thing has long died down. Yes, I have heard of the Twilight Saga, but for one reason or another, the whole thing had evaded me somehow. It wasn’t because I was anti-Twilight or something. I was just probably busy with other things at that time while the whole party was going on. Hubby must have obviously seen how captivated I was by the series. Being the sweet man he is, he quietly went and got the complete set of books that the movies were based on. Apparently it was no easy feat tracking down these books as I was re...

Sometime last year I had made this piece for myself from a stripy mint fabric my mum had given me. Lately I’ve been going through another crazy sewing phase . I suddenly had an urge to make a cute little outfit or dress for my little girl. And I thought, why not make up a matchy-matchy piece for her too! As this was the first little girl’s dress I was making, I selected a simple peasant dress pattern to experiment with. I was able to put it all together in under an hour to wear the very next day. Grace seemed to like it. So we could head out to church with our mother and daughter matchy-matchy outfits. Definitely one of the fun perks of having a little girl!

So I know it’s now officially summer here for us in the land down under. But around this time of the year since I was a little girl, my family has also been celebrating Dongzhì or Chinese Winter Solstice Festival . The Dongzhì Festival or Winter Solstice Festival is celebrated by the Chinese annually around 21st December. During this festival, family members will travel from far and wide to come together for a big reunion meal. The biggest highlight I remember about the festival as a child was making and eating Tangyuan , a traditional dessert of dumplings served in a sweet syrup. Although this Chinese festival is generally not as well-known compared to other festive occasions such as Chinese New Year or the Mooncake festival, it still holds a special place in my childhood. So this year, I decided to share this experience with my kids, together with a couple of my other day care children. I decorated our house with snowflake cut-outs to set the mood for the cold winter setting and...

Back when I was still pregnant with Grace, I had busied myself sewing various pretty little things in anticipation of her arrival. I was a big fan of bandanna bibs with Nathan. But somehow with a baby girl, it seemed to be more fitting to have pretty, floral, ribbony classic style bibs on her. I added a couple more here and there along the way after she arrived, but not very many as she was not really a very dribbly baby. Well, not at that time at least.   However over the past couple of months, her dribble level was reaching a record breaking amount. Almost, if not as much as her older brother when he was her age now. It got so bad at one point that I was unable to keep up with the laundry turnover and had to resort to drying her morning bib so she could use it again later in the afternoon. So over the weekend, I finally got my head down and sewed up yet more bibs to keep up with her over-productive dribble glands. I was quite pleased with my handiwork. So please ind...

There must be something about this time of year with so many bloggy awards and blog hop series going around. The bloggy love is really in the air. There is just so much to express and be thankful for the connections and bonds we have formed over the year in the little time we have remaining of 2014. I was really touched when my dear bloggy friend Druimé of Snippets and Spirits nominated me for the Five in Five ‘Worth Casing’ blog award hosted (and sponsored) by Agent Mystery Case . Five in five is a series of five questions for each nominee to answer and then pass the baton on. There is also a great prize up for grabs which is six months of advertising on Agent Mystery Case's website worth $500. There are so many amazing bloggers out there, so I think I’m honoured already just to be invited to join in the fun. So whether there is a prize or not, I’m just happy to hop on board to answer these five questions…   How long have you been blogging and why did you start? I first st...

So today marks the momentous occasion of my tenth year anniversary of being married to my dear hubby. I meant to write a big epic post for this special day…. but I’m finding it all quite overwhelming. Ten years! My goodness! What can I say? I remember a conversation I had with my parents on one occasion. I asked them “ Does it ever get any easier? ”. Their answer: “ No, not really! ”. After over 35 years of marriage, apparently there are times that they still can get hopping mad at each other and they still drive each other crazy sometimes. Image Source So for us, after a decade of marriage it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier. We sometimes still argue over petty things or even disagree over more serious matters. I still can get hopping mad at him at times. It’s crazy how someone you are so crazy about can REALLY drive you crazy sometimes. But one thing I can say is: It’s better. Not easier. But better. It’s still at uphill journey. But with each upward step we take, it j...