Monday Mood

The start of a new week is always exciting, especially after this one, I will have a mid-term break!

As I mentioned in the last post, I have more things to share here. My children usually spend a lot of time on their art work, they draw, paint, sketch, colour, they do a lot of stuff at school as well as home. I always have to find more place to keep the treasures -- well, just can't throw them away, can I?

I used to file Renee's art work in big A3 size file, but eventually that doesn't work any more since Rafeeqa joined in. She can start to draw from the moment she wakes up till the minute before she goes to bed, every a few days, I have to sort out the things she has. There always a few pieces of great work caught my eye and I simply couldn't just file them away, kept thinking of ways to display them. Not very long ago, I discovered a few ways to show off the girls art work. Along with the JB kit, I received KaiserCraft's wonderful project items and decided to use them to display the girls work.

Rafeeqa was very into Beatrix Potter's beautiful books and decided to try some by herself. The pictures of the duck, cat, and bunnies were all drawn on to a piece of A4 paper, I wonder how to keep the pencil sketch forever then thought of use the UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) to keep the image into the 3D kinda version and it worked perfectly after I add on some wing and button.

The best thing about Kaiser Craft's display item is that you can use your creativity to transform into anything you like:
I first arranged dollies on the bottom part then used Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium gloss to make sure they stay. American Craft's rub-on fits perfectly in this frame, not to mention the grass stamp to complete the whole look.

Another one is called Aliah, who is actually a friend of Rafeeqa. My little girl sketched her friend in the woods one day. I laid it on Kaiser Craft's wood canvas and again applied multi-medium gloss to make sure the picture can last forever, for the edge of the canvas I used Heidi Swapp's ribbon. Now these two beautiful work sit outside their room on the desk, as well as the other work by Renee.


I once did a layout called :" Your art make me Happy", I scanned some of Rafeeqa's work and reprint them on A5 size sheet, used a lot of Maya Road's frame to display the work, as if the gallery style, we loved it.


Let children know that they are appreciated and make them create more, do not the imagination stop...

Till then,

Wow! It is nearly 6 months since my last post.

Let's see, where to start: life is as usual, work, home and the girls...

Scrapping is still where I spend most of my free time, late afternoon before dinner and after dinner; sometimes after putting the girls to bed; weekend whenever I am able to be in front of my table. Many boxes are piling up and the scrapping table is forever a mess!

Sharon was here a week ago and of course we had a great time, not to mention the home cooked food from Bev.

Quite a lot of projects were completed, I will slowly post them up. Today let's see my album for the trip last October:





That's the best memory a little girl could have and I am so glad that I get to know the scrapping world, where I learned to keep memory for my family.

When I am blogging today, I read a story, a sad story of a scrapper: Linda Burnasakorn.

Though we live so far away from each other but I simply could not stop thinking about her. Please read here and see what you can do. Big or small, does not matter, just do it follow your heart.

Have a good day! Till then.

The excitement is not over yet...

Not to mention the inspiration I received during the whole weekend but also the anxious waiting since the day I knew she is coming...

I still can't believe that Iris was here with us for the past weekend, an exciting, beautiful and technique packed fun weekend. We talked, laughed, scrapped and most of all, been totally inspired!

The 4 projects that she prepared specially for Shabby Chic are beautiful -- I simply have no idea how to describe them, so breathe taking, each of them. The 4 hours each afternoon will be remembered for a long long time, I am sure.
I remember exactly a year ago, Hilda started scrapping and nothing has taken her back since, she is a professional now...

And I have to say this is actually the first time, I finished all projects within the class! Here is one of them:


I was kinda packed with work and slowed down for a while, but guess not any more, after these lessons, I have to get back to my scrapping table and start all over again!!! Thanks, Iris, for the inspiration!

Just a few updates

First, Shabby Chic's aniversary sales starts today!!! And don't forget Iris's fabulous class is scheduled this Saturday and Sunday, I can't wait any more!!!

Secondly, this month over at Artz de Scrap, the project is taking your breathe away: Candy's design of that beautiful earring carusel! Mine is here:

pp: melissa francis; crystal: heidi swapp and lots of buttons. Anyway, mine more looks like a tower (as per Rafeeqa's words), so this has to go to her table!!!

Enjoy your sunday!

Horses and ghosts

Yes, that's our last weekend.

Horse riding in the morning and the Halloween Party in the late afternoon.

A very busy, exciting and tired ( for me ) day, but seeing their joy, it's all worthy!!!

18 years

There are tons of things happened in 18 years for all of us, especially for me. But I didn't expect that nothing has really changed at the place I was born -- Hou Ba, Si Chuan.

I hardly lived there though as my parents sent me off to Shanghai to stay with my grandparents when I was three years old. In 1966, at their early twenties, they left Shanghai to join the service to help the Southwest China, I was born 7 years later.

When I was much older, I recalled all the train trips in summer, which took me 48 hours to meet my dear mummy and daddy. I can remember my parents moved from the tiny house at the riverside to the bigger apartment. Later during my last two years in the high school, I had to leave Shanghai and stayed in Si Chuan to join the national level university entrance exam. But again, I stayed in boarding house in the school, travelled weekend by train to see my parents. After I started university, my parents left that little town, left all the thing behind, that was after spending over 20 years in that little town.

Dad always wanted to go back to see the place especially after mom left us. I know that is a special place just for her and him, and me. After many planning , I finally made the trip with my dad during my recent break.

There are lot of changes in the big cities, but once our rented car entered the small and only road lead to Hou Ba, I realize that nothing really changed. I remembered the bridge, the old hospital near the roadside, the school, nearly everything...

4 hours' drive from Chengdu, after this bridge we arrived Hou Ba.

I can't believe that this little house is still there. This was my parents' first house where I was born. The iron bar on the window was installed by father nearly 37 years ago.

This is the place we lived before we left, now it looked so old and small... but still there!!!

The weekly train ride was never bored coz I couldn't wait to see my parents, I can remember that I usually ran on this road to the staircase that lead to the home. The place was small but very warm.

Almost

Almost
Almost there
Almost reach my target
after 6 whole weeks
sorting out the new mess
at work
and at home

Missed a lot of things
Hope to be back on the track soon