Dad's birthday 2023

 

This year Dad's birthday coincided with his first visit to the orthopaedic doctor. He has been complaining that his chest hurts when he swings his arm after he got his stents put in back in March. An x-ray was taken and the doctor said there is no physical manifestation of his pain. And that he should be able to do resistance training...(getting him to actually do it is difficult because he's so lazy and sits in front of the computer all day).

Anyway, I made an outing of the whole day. Apparently, old folks become young kids again. They were pretty happy taking joy rides around the university campus as I took a walk down memory lane at my alma mater (National University of Singapore Business School).

We went out all day (no cooking for me..hooray!) and went home to cut his birthday cake.

He looked pretty happy with his mango cake right? 

Here are the folks with my signages! :)

Lots of fussy-cut packaging on this one...from skincare packaging to cakebox packaging. 

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The one where I played with my mixed media supplies

 

Yes friends, I actually played with gesso, acrylic paint and mist on this layout! It's been a while since I played with wet media except for the recent gold misting extravaganza. But I really wanted to use up my random chipboard collection plus this acrylic paint colour was calling out to me, "Pick me, pick me!" You know I don't ignore art supplies' pleas to get some love, right? *winks*

Anyway, mum's sister and cousin came for a visit last week so I have actually photos to scrapbook *high fives all around*. 

Just the usual mish mash of found and upcycled stuff from my stash. :)

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The one where E was Snow White

 

So my sister went with me for the Sephora x KVD event featuring their new foundation since she wanted to buy a foundation.

They chose a shade that was two shades lighter than her exact skin colour so she looked like Snow White next to me. *LOL*

My sister does a lot of outdoor sporting activities in the sun so she is naturally on the tan side...while I'm the homebody with fairer skin. But not that day. *winks*

Lots of fun bits on this layout...

Check out the freebies I got from the event - a free contour brush and a travel-size eyeliner! :) 

(And I was good and didn't buy anything...*high fives all around*)

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The one about the new hot water flask

 

So on Monday we said goodbye to our old hot water flask and said hello to our new one! :)

The new one is smaller and has a "window" for the water level...and mum was clearly very excited! *LOL*

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The one about the galette obsession

 

Unless it's your first visit here, you would know that when this gal gets obsessed with something, her blog pals are bound to find out. *LOL*

Currently, this gal is a tad obsessed with making galettes. Last week, she made a savoury one - tomato and also a sweet one - apple. :)

I found a pie dough recipe that works for both savoury and sweet galettes and have just been trying out different variations. I love that they are meant to be rustic-looking so I don't have to roll out a perfect "circle". *winks*

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Mummy Yam's birthday 2022

 

Earlier this month, we celebrated Mummy Yam's birthday. I was travelling the next day so it was a busy day for me, making bread for my "kid" (aka nephew #1), baking and icing a cake...and cooking lunch and dinner...you know the usual stuff. *winks*

I must say that I was tempted to buy a cake instead of making it from scratch like Papa Yam's cake last month. But I was sick last month and this month, I was perfectly well. No excuses. So I kept it simple. I made an almond flavoured white cake (lots of egg whites after making pastry cream) with peaches in cream cheese frosting.

Well you know your gal here likes to challenge herself on time-crunched days *LOL* so she went for a new cream cheese frosting recipe...which whipped up okay but didn't quite hold up. So the cake looked pretty rustic. *hahaha*

It was yummy though. :)

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Papa Yam's birthday 2022

 

So I found a bunch of fussy-cut patterned paper flowers in my stash...and just had to use them on a layout! :)

Never mind that it was for Papa Yam's birthday layout....everyone loves flowers, right? *winks*

Some bits from happy mail plus some recently fussy-cut elements plus washi tape...

Love a bright happy layout...:)

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The one about overfeeding the nephew

 

It's been a month since school has been in full swing for nephew #1. His days start early and end late. Except for breakfast, he eats most of his meals out.

So when he does come back for dinner, he gets a lot of food. We might be overfeeding him. *LOL*

Like all teenage boys lifting weights, he likes loading up on protein of the animal kind. ;)

Found his old sticker album (both nephew #1 and 2 had sticker albums and they would spend hours arranging the stickers and trading with each other...fun times!) and added some of his stickers on this layout. :)

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The one about siblings bonding

 

Okay friends, roughly two months ago, I mentioned that I've had a major schedule adjustment because something happened at home. 

Well, my mum suffered a minor stroke to the left side of her brain. She has no physical immobility/impairments, just problems with her language centre which affects her ability to converse in full sentences. She's much better now but of course, is on a host of medications and there are many doctor appointments - for her heart, her brain and also speech therapy.

Her cognitive decline wasn't sudden...she would forget some words here and there. But when she had a big bruise on her arm and didn't know if she fell or hit something, we brought her to the doctor's and he suggested that we send her to the hospital for all the necessary scans/tests. She stayed in hospital for 5 days and no visitors were allowed (because of COVID)...and of course lost a ton of weight.

The upside of this health scare is that two of her siblings now come regularly to reminisce about good old times and "brag" about their grandchildren. *LOL*

Another upside is that mum is finally willing to let go of some of her stuff (she was quite a hoarder)...and my aunt was the happy recipient of her stuff. 

Of course I made my auntie take a photo with her loot for the family scrapbook album. Hehehe...:)

I had lots of fun putting together this layout because I hadn't scrapbooked in ages! :)

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