April

April... I know it's only last month,.. but I have to think back what I did in April... and the only thing that came to mind was Hubby's absence and Visit to Jo's.

So with hubby hardly home in April, I went and visited Jo.  This time, we stayed away from shops..hehe which was a good thing cos everytime I go to her place, we go shopping and I always end up with a new pair of shoes and new clothes. Not that I didn't buy a pair of shoes, I did but the focus of this trip was going places. And because my problem is I am too busy enjoying myself looking at things that I forget to take pics... wakaka...

We went... drove to The Lake District. The silly sat nav took us through an ultra one lane winding and hilly road instead of through the villages for some reason. but it was very pretty!. That part of Uk is gorgeous.  I didn't take a pic cos I would have thrown up all over the car if I did.  But I did take pictures of Windermere when we went on the Boatride. 

Don let the sun deceive you. It was freezing and windy that day. We were frozen half way back despite the fact that we were all bundled up in our coats.

 

The yachts all docked there.  Only the rich can afford to live by the lake here!

 This is Windermere or what you would see when you are step off the boat.

These are gigantic swan. If you look at the top left of the pic, you'll see a couple on the bench having their lunch. Compare the size of that swan to them!  They were scary.

And here is a pic of Jo and me. My face is soooo ROUND and BIG compared to hers. hehe. You should have seen the other pics... sigh...

 And as is customary, I bought a pair of pumps!!!!(Ya, pumps! Dunno what came over me!) My first pair of pumps! We went to Lytham and walked around the town. It's a pretty and quiet town.  No, I didn't buy this green. I bought a pair of cream-coloured ones in this design.... because they didn't have my size in green... wahahahhaa.... This is my going to Sainsburys-Grocery-Shopping Shoes...which I haven't had much opportunity wearing in the cold. Hubby gave me a look when he saw it. lol...cos this just so isn't me. I had a hard time wearing it too cos it just feels and looks soooo weird. but it's soft and the rubber soles grip the floor well in case I decide to ski across the floor in Sainsburys.

I also made what I thought was a stunning cushion cover... hehe... I took the pattern off one of my magazines.  It was a Mother's Day pattern.  It was fun to make.

and this one is hubby's.

I also finally finished the covers of the other cushions in the lounge. hehe. I promised hubby I'd make cushion covers with this nice chinese brocade meaterial since Reading last year. Hubby chose the fabric from Fabricland when we still lived in Reading.  The porject got disrupted cos I stole half of it for my dress... hehe... and I finally made enough covers when I was in my cushion cover mode. aren't they pretty?

 And my featured piece of jewllery for April is.... this.  Dunno what to name it yet though. What do you think?

And lastly, I love this pic of hubby and me....  :-)

Busy March

This is crazy!!! It's been a while and this time, I had to think about what my password is!!! sigh... Oh well....I have an excuse why I haven't been blogging religiously lately. It's because...... tadaaa.... I forgot I had a blog!!!!! wakakakaka... Nahhhh.... March has been a month of visitors! Oh, and my birthday.

First, beginning of March, when my sister and her friend were still here, we went to Fountain Abbey ( I think it's Fountain Abbey...hubby laughed at me cos I can never get it right. or Abbey Fountain??? whichever!) on a beautiful, albeit cold, March day!

Fountain Abbey was supposed to be one of the biggest and richest abbeys back in the 13th century and was built in the 12th century. They made money feom farming, horse breeding, sheep, mining, quarry, etc.  They sound like a hardworking bunch, don't they? Anyways, this is what is left from the Dissolution of Monasteries in the mid 16th century after whatever was taken to built other buildings. It's pretty impressive.

 

We also took the girls to Whitby for some fish and chips and sightseeing through the Yorkshire Moors, which I think is gloomy and Hubby thinks it's beautiful. This pic was taken in a rush cos it was soooo cold when we couldn't be bothered putting our coat on and got out of the car. BIG mistake! The photographer was too cold to concentrate. Anyways, what I'm standing on is heather. Heather covers the land for miles and miles. And cos it was late winter, flowers haven't bloomed yet so the landscape looks brown.

 

Whitby was COLD!!!! The winds... brrrrr.... that'sll all I can say! I didn't bother taking pics cos my hands were too cold to come out of my pockets. The fish and chips were good though.

And then Janet and her family came over from Ireland for a visit. We had loads of fun catching up and we went round town showing them the sights. By then I was pretty good at being a tour guide. hehe...had bits of stories from the horse cart tour round the city with my sister and her friend.

That's Janet(second from left) and her lovely husband, Vincent and daughter, Michelle. Do re mi in the pic and guess who's the shortest? wakakaka...

 

Then my birthday convo drove down to Reading with hubby and me in one car and Janet and her family in another. That's really sweet of them, wasn't it? It was St Patricks day so they had a long weekend and decided to come to York and then go down to Reading to celebrate my birthday at East West, where I used to work. Bart and Hanie from The Netherlands were there. Fahim and his lovely partner, were there. Of course, Sem, Sandy and Anthonio were there.  My sister and her partner, Gareth, came as well. It was like  a mini reunion...haha...   As usual, I helped out at the restaurant (which I missed doing) and they even had a surprised cake for me!!! As a rule, I hate surprises so it was really nice of them to do that! Bart and Hannie did the balloons. so cute!

Here comes pic of how FAT I am!!! haha... Not a good look but it's ok. It's a pic of the 3 of us. We used to compare lives and gossip when we were all at Reading. I didn't realised how FAT I was till I saw this pic!!! So now, I'm on a major diet! But I blame the camera and phtographer more!

And I had loads of beautiful and much appreciated presents!!!! I loved all of them! Too much? NAH!!! I don't think so. This one is from Hubby dearest. hahaha... I'm spoilt rotten, aren't I? Hubby said 35th is a big birthday so I went for it... hahaha... why waste an excellent excuse for shopping and presents??? haha

 From my sister, a tea set!!!! Love it!

And the rest of my presents.

The handmade wallet is from PengPeng. Peng Peng visited me at the end of March. It was a girly weekend filled with food, hair, nails and fun! heheh We had lots of laughs and there was also a panic moment too cos I lost my bankcard due to 3 rounds of supermarket shopping in one day! We must do it again soon, Peng!

And that's Busy March! Next blog, Creative April...

 

Not working???

I work from home... although some people would insist that I don't work at all and that I stay home and play all day...hmmm... not to be defensive but I do work. I make jewellery and then sell them. Now, I may not be selling much and it's not (yet!) a multi-billion business. Nonetheless, I do object to people saying I don't work at all. So there! Rant over.

I just realised yesterday that I haven't blogged since November... haha...well, so now I thought I should update my blog a bit. Not that I have many pics to show but still...

December- Visited Rick's family in Oz.
Regardless of what people say, I haven't seen much of Adelaide or Melbourne. Everytime we go back, it's a family visit and with family visits, I see more of their homes and restaurants then sightseeing.
Adelaide- Linda's birthday. wish I took  a pic. I don like lugging Rick's big cam around. Oh well!
                Baby Thomas. ultra cute! He's Rick's niece's baby.

Melbourne- Christmas! had a quiet christmas dinner at home. Then Christmas lunch with Sarah.

                   Sarah's birthday. went out for a meal with Hil's whole family. 

                   oh and before that, went to the Ashes(cricket).  England trashed Australia (shushhhh!)

January...Yeah!!!! KK! went home to KK for the whole month till Chinese New Year.  Babysat as usual!!! But I love it.The kids are sooooooo cute!!!! 

Worked as well.. made loads of jewellery and actually sold some!!! That made me happy! Here are some pics of the things I made.

 

February- Chinese New Year!!! Gave away some ang pows...hahha..wish I'm on the receiving end though! hehe

Incidentally, I made the dress. Can't fit in it anymore though... hahah I got fat! Looks fat kan??? I blame it on the angle this pic was taken! Made the necklace and earrings to go with the dress as well... hahah that's the best part! I can make my jewellery to go with my dresses!!!

Came back to UK...still freezing! Celebrated our 2nd anniversary at the tapas place. Yum! Note: take pics next time!

Then my sister and her friend came and visited us! So it was shopping and food galore...hahah the week they were here, I put on abt 2 kgs!!!!! Imagine that! Dahlah already fat now fatter! But we had fun! Forgot to get the pics from my sister's cam though! sigh!

Sharrifah and I on the city wall. The wall surrounds York city.

Behind is the Fountain Abbey ruins. very pretty. sunny but cold and windy.

The house is so quiet now with the 2 girls down in London. oh well... So that's all the major events in the past few months!

My Room

Hehe... Yes, I have my own room, my very own sanctuary,  in this house as I've told you guys.... heheh so here are some pics that might make Peng Peng and Fely a wee bit envious... hehe...here goes....

 A bit messy but at least I know where everything is! I call it 'Organised Mess'. hehehe...

This is the sofa bed... at the moment, it is my storage place for miscellaneous... I just chucked them on the sofa bed. the red bag on the sofa bed contains all my yarn that I stuffed into it for the move...doesn't look like much here cos I stuffed it all into the bag. If you look at one of my previous blog entries, I used to have all my yarn on a shelf.

My old sewing machine that I got free cos Peng Peng found a lady who wanted to give it away in reading. It doesn't sew well at all but it's not like it can't be used and I can still sew with it. I'm not going to get it fixed cos getting it fixed could well be the cost of a new sewing machine.... And I made this chair cushion for one of our garden chairs which I used before we bought the blue one. I made this in a hurry and I didn't bother to measure and cut my cloth properly so the lines don match but it turned out brilliantly I thought. Made it out of the fat quarters of cloth I bought in Reading... Have to get more filling cos I used up the filling I bought to stuff our flat cushions... hehe...and now what should I do with this?

My sewing boxes with my fabric, patterns, scissors, etc....got more fabric but beside the sewing machine in the pink bag.

And this is where my multi-billion jewellery business takes place... hehe.. we bought all the furniture and my bureau table in my previous blog from a second hand shop.... let's see, the gorgeous dark wood foldable table cost £15 I think. my bureau table cost £30 or £40. The shelf and the chair was £10 each. The table top was quite scratched so I covered it with vinyl.

Looks messy in the pic, doesn't it?? but to my eye it is very neat cos I have everything I need on hand. well, I don normally have the tray out. I just bought it and so tried it out. I normally used my homemade one under the tray. I draw out measurements on oil cloth leftover from the dining table cover. hehe... my beads don run away from me on the white bit on the wrong side of the table cloth . The red and black box contains my earrings.

This was my old workstation in Reading... hehe I've graduated now!!! hehe I use this table for my sewing machine now. I had to clear the table when I made my dress and then  move everything back on the table after that.

My work supplies... hehe..my big box of beads and things I need for jewellery. the white tray on the top left contains half done and complete pieces.

So there you go, my room... hehe

And while I was writing this blog, I looked out my window and saw this.

The old lady was washing the car while the man was just standing there watching!!! heheh I feel like I'm the nosy parker spying on my neighbours!!! Wonder if this is how the papparazzi feel taking secret pics. I wonder how much I could blackmail them for... hmmm...

York

Everything is unpacked in our new apartment now...except for hubby's books in his office.... might take a holw year before he unpacks them cos he doesn't have enough shelves...hehe... moving is a pain but when you hire movers, it cuts down a lot of hassle. so I actually managed to unpack most essentials on the day we moved cos I wanted to give the movers their boxes back. It took me 3 days actually to sort out the kitchen, lounge and our shower room. I call it oour shower room cos the shower is in the ensuite but we don use that room as our bedroom cos it was smaller than the room we use as our bedroom. our wardrobes are also in the shower room(my own walk in wardrobe!). we also hang our laundry there cos I don like the aundry in the kitchen.

Here are some pics of the apartment...first the lounge.

 

The lounge is upstairs... but 'you live in an apartment!' I hear you ask... hehhe.. if you look at the top right half of the pic, you can see the white ceiling... heheh it's not a very high ceiling unlike the place in Reading. See the railing at the end? This next pic is what you see when you lean over it.

That's the dining table. I covered our garden table with oil cloth.

 Remember the exercise bike in the lounge? You can see it through the railings if you look up. I'm standing by the dining table while I took this pic. See my apron and red heart on the right of the pic? Use that as your bearing in this next pic.

hehe...still with me?  The lounge is right above the kitchen and on sort of like a mezzanine floor.

Cool, isn't it??? heheh We have 3 rooms downstairs and they are all like that. In fact, all the units in this building are like this. This building, County House, used to be a hospital in the late 1800s so the ceilings are very high and they have been converted into mezzanine floors to add extra rooms. I must tremember to take a pic of the garish pink lobby and show you one of these days.

 Because there are built in cupboards... sigh... I can't reach the top shelves so this is my new kitchen helper.

I love it. I can reach anything now without having to shout for hubby... hehe

 York Minster to the right when you look out the window.

My walk in wardrobe/shower room

If you look up, that's my room/workshop

My shoes in the storage room which is supposed to be used for hanging coats.

I finally finished the latch hook door rug I bought the first time when I visited Joanne. It adds colour to the tiny hallway.

This is my new second-hand Bureau Desk. I love it!!!!

I will take pics of my room when I have tidied it a bit... heheh... it also serves as the guest room.  I also have to get used to a new place asap cos hubby is going away on a long trip soon...  So there you go... pics of my new place.