Quick shots of Christmas 2008

Just wanted to share some shots of Christmas 2008 with you:

Gathering #1: With our friends at our place







Gathering #2: 12 hours' drive away at my in laws













Gathering #3: At husband's aunt's place







Gathering #4: At my sister in law's place



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Silhouette of Hannah and aunt

I love giving unique gifts to loved ones. Since I'm silhouette nutty, I thought I'd create this personal yet artsy print for my youngest sister! Hannah was actually pointing to the high vaulted ceiling of a cathedral-turned-cafe in a country town between Melbourne and Warrnambool, VIC. The swirly thing at bottom left is wood.



Contact me for personalised silhouettes! Read More..

Mamma I love you!

*from my vintage orange Litton typewriter

I type very fast. About 88 wpm. 90% accuracy. Do I credit myself for that? Was i due to long hours on the computer chatting or surfing or blogging?

No. Twas my mum.

From the age of 12 till about 16. I had typing lessons at home, on a vintage typewriter, MUCH older than my Litton above. This was the chunky, press down hard on keys and tap with all your strength type. The ones so heavy they needed an industrial metal desk to perch on. I was not allowed to see the paper in the roller, much less the keyboard. My eyes had to be trained on the paper I was typing from at all times. Later on, she would dictate to me a speech (I have a dream was popular) at only slightly slower pace than normal. Again, my eyes had to be trained on her, rather than the line on the paper or the keyboard.

So I type as I do, because mum gave me the skills, time and tenacity to learn, conquer and master.

As she has many other things. Perseverance is mum's middle name. In the face of hardship most of her life, she kept going. She also taught me about true love.
True love does not come with fireworks, roses and diamonds.
It comes with "despite", i.e. forgiveness, acceptance, challenges and belief.

I salute you mum.
Happy Mother's Day. Read More..

Cafe style garden birthday ala Martha Stewart

Hope you have a good weekday, everyone :)

Hannah turns two in a months' time and we're inviting 35 guests to our small townhouse (or that's the current plan). Decided to have the birthday party for her in our not-so-large courtyard with four overgrown bushes and 8 succulent plant pots.




Choice #1: Mid-morning finger food affair
Cafe style tables covered with pretty yellow and white floral fabric
Pretty chairs
Orange and yellow lanterns above on a string across courtyard
(Problems: nearing afternoon will get very hot and with a sail shade above, it will make it very unpleasant. Our townhouse is WAYYY too small for 35 people)



Lanterns available (Australian sites) at Vivid Room and Asian Ideas.


Or make my own pretty ornaments from something called "honeycomb paper" ala MS.





Choice #2: Twilight BBQ
Cafe style tables covered with pretty yellow and white floral fabric
Pretty chairs
Plenty of mozzie repellants
Row of different height pillar candles lining the buffet table
Candles on the cafe style tables
(Problems: have a few very young babies and come evening time it's time for parents to wind down and put their bubs to bed)

All images via Martha Stewart unless stated otherwise.

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Shenanigans of an 18 month old

She's 18 months. And we've just started to allow her to feed herself meals. This morning for breakfast, she dropped her spoon on the floor and decided, nah, don't need a spoon... just use fingers. Except after a while she thought it would be good to feed cornflakes to her NOSTRILS...


And this is bubs on the exercise bike (she’s facing the wrong way hahahahah). She loves getting on and off it and pretend she’s riding a bike while I cook.


(Pardon the mess) Read More..

Rat infestation... not.

Whilst in the shower today, I noticed Hannah standing with her back to me really still and quietly. I thought it was time to visit the potty bench, but when I got out of the shower, I found her with a bar of hotel soap.



No, that's not a sign of rat infestation. It's my DAUGHTER GNAWING AT SOAP.

Needless to say, she's been walking around with a puckered face.
But she's all right. Read More..

A horse for a child

In laws are here for a week and Hannah's had more playmates so she's been having loads of fun. They brought down husband's old rocking horse (his second birthday present). It's in great condition, just needs a leather ear attached to the left side.

I'm not allowed to do anything to it...

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pajamas 24hrs

sorry for the lack of posts of late. um generally feeling blue about hannah's sleeping (she now won't go to sleep unless I'm there (not dad) and wakes up at 2-3am and stays awake for 2 hours)... and some other personal stuff.

will bounce back soonish. Read More..

NO sleep. No SLEEP.

Hannah is wearing me down. I hardly get sustained rest so I'm falling sick alot. *sigh*. She is not sleeping through the night. We remember maybe three good weeks that she did. She's now 15 months old and never slept through the night. While some nights she is cold, the majority of the nights she's not. She's not hungry, the room isn't raining and we're not noisy folk. So why isn't she sleeping through the night?

NO discipline? Actually we have. When she was younger, we tried the controlled crying method and she would cry until she threw up. It worked when she was very young. She was perfect. Then we had visitors and travelling and that basically screwed it up... until now.

No consistency? We are rather consistent. I have a night time routine for her every night and she has had no issues falling asleep. It's the waking up in the middle of the night 2-3 times a night that gets me down.

Many cultures, traditional and otherwise don't have the luxury (or waste?) of different rooms for different members of the family. Life happened in one room... and the babies slept with their mothers from the time they were born to... the time they left to be married and start their own little clan. Hannah seems more settled when allowed the few times to sleep with us. Is it so bad then, to leave it like that?

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hannah!

she just took the plum of the fruit basket and proceeded to enjoy it. no please, no thank you, just mmmm mmmm periodically. at this point i thought she'd only eat fruit i sliced for her. but the in laws like their fruit real soft... hannah likes soft too, i guess. (i like my fruit very very very hard/unripe)


i realised then that she takes note of more than we think! she was driving the game thing as if we were driving the car! simultaneously pushing my knee (pedal) and the gear stick and turning the steering wheel! and then once a while touching the buttons to the left (like i do with airconditioning!!)
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photos as promised

here are some shots of the wedding day and my lush 1.5 hour curls. (and the Spring Races hat!!)



noticeably a bit limper. pardon the cheesy grin.

the wedding topper


the wedding party


the invites, guestbook and programs i created


the happy couple

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am back!

Have been a week at the in laws in anticipation of my sister in law's wedding.

In a desperate attempt to look half human for the event, I had my hair coloured. I am Asian so have had black hair all my life. The one other time I was sick of the look I spent a fortune buying 3 packs of Loreal home hair colour only to have my hair remain black. So this time, in an effort to tame flyaways, hair-sticking-out-because-of-glasses-because-I -can't-be-bothered-to-wear-my-contacts syndrome, I went to get a professional hair colour job. Now it's a glorious warm dark auburn which looks fabulous!

So off I went to the wedding, hoping no one would notice I didn't know what to do with my hairstyle with this new hair colour of mine. But my dear hubby paid $40 to get my hair coiffed by the guy who did the bride/bridesmaids. I had glorious large curls!! (Again, I am Asian.. which means one of two things: I got straight hair... or I got straight hair.)

Another thing I had was a brand new Spring Races hat! You know, the fancy ones with feathers and flowers sticking out of it?

Guess what happened on the day of the wedding?

It rained... and rained... and rained.... and then it rained more!

It was a garden wedding with a small marquee. Reception held 2 hours after the ceremony at the same place. So... we got wet.

My curls lasted 1.5 hours after being coiffed. *sigh*

The water made my hat a little less... sturdy.

Then... my hubby flattened my hat.

At least my hair is still a warm dark auburn! :) (Congratulations, Rosie!) Read More..

mad woman i am... NOT!

so i finally finished invites, guestbook and programs for a client's wedding and it's all done :) after frantically calling around and sending the poor husband to locate some more ribbon and not getting any, in the end, it was just enough! finally i can forget about cherry blossoms for a bit and work on other projects.

the garage sale is three weekends away and i'm busting to get that pile out of my kitchen.

and my DIY list is not getting any shorter. i'll be learning how to lacquer (the quick and easy version) and staple-gun.

we're looking to relocate so this cleaning out comes in time with the need to pare down stuff.

need to find somewhere tree-lined to call our new temporary home.

bubs started walking and her crawling is so fast i have to walk FAST after her. she has developed a taste for keys and has found our stash of odd keys so after EACH nap i have to go seek and find keys.

am sick of sitting on the floor each time i need to feed her before her nap in the nursery so am on the prowl for a good easy chair i can tuck us into for reading, feeding and star gazing.

sold off the change table and awkward high chair so now have space for ... space! :) selling heaps more stuff... need to DIY first. Read More..

clean out!

we're cleaning out our home! having a garage sale!!!! how exciting :) Read More..

hannah eating sushi

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musing on "the home"

I spent a few glorious days with my sister in Philadelphia and I was struck by her "home" needs. I wouldn't call her a minimalist, but she is not like me (a collector). She only has what she needs. I, on the other hand, love quirky things and I collect stationery, jugs, whimsical prints and want to start a few more collections down the road.

I must say, seeing how she enjoys her "home" made me think about just how little we need to be happy. And how much so many of us surround ourselves with to enjoy our "home".

I am in paring-down mode. Doing bits of pieces up to sell off... in order to gain more stuff!

Heh. Read More..

on getting home

One quirk of mine is that when we have returned from a trip away from home, I NEED to clean the house and unpack totally in record time. So I have cleaned the whole house and unpacked in less than 36 hours. So I'm tired.

But one strange feeling I have to mention is the first time I walked back into our rented townhouse: it felt so... alien to me! LIke walking into a new home with all this furniture. I am so galvanised to redo our space. Every room. I have plans.

Big Plans. (hopefully requiring not much cash!) Photos to come soon! Read More..

brocade home

i'm back in melbourne and i am so tired. i will try to do a short update. our trip home was very very very long. about 34 hours. the flights were on time and considering what hannah had to go through, she did well. a little whingy but that's to be expected, poor bubs. the baggage folk in Dallas damaged our pram but we're getting the repairs reimbursed so that's fine. i am so sick of checking in and out of customs/security at airports. it's a whole production for our little young family. so tiring and stressful. next time we travel like this, it will be MUCH longer than just for 2 months.

got home and could not help but clean the entire upstairs of dust and un-use. tomorrow will attack the rest of unpacking and downstairs. tonight, we're all rather tired. we spent a great arvo and dinner with some close friends though. hannah went down without much of a whinge she was so tired. hubby fell asleep during after-dinner chatting. i am following suit soon.

i miss lancaster! (and the Pottery Barn outlet store! - will write more)

mohairpink: got a new email address yet? thanks for the wishes, will post pics of my soon-to-be-redone place :)


OOH!!! before I forget!!! Brocade Home finally released its online shopping and it looks gfeat, cant wait to browse through slowly tomorrow! Read More..

Hannah my cutie

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Our Niagara Falls trip

We went last weekend to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Was really quite cool, in the winter, it being uncrowded and all! And our tour was 50% off :) Took the VIA Rail, 1.5 hours later, we landed in Niagara just before a short snowstorm. After peering at brochures, we booked and headed off on a 5 hour tour.

We visited the Greenhouse, the St Mary's Anglican Church, Pillitteri Estates Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Falls, of course!

We were dropped off at Niagara-on-the-Lake for lunch and a little walk around. I particularly loved the houses aroundabout there - apparently those with water views pay $80,000 a year in taxes! Anyway. I now fancy a grey slate roof with on a bright red house with white trim! Mmmm so ... holiday-feel-y! We had lunch in a really cool 1950s sandwich place. I think there were two things we loved about it best: the GREAT apple pie and ice cream dessert and the cheesy fries. Andrew is lucky he doesn't live in America/Canada! He'd be fat as he absolutely loves the cheesy fries!

I'm quite impressed with my photo taking of the flowers in the Greenhouse!! mmm Might take up fauna photography!

Niagara Falls

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