Tropical Nail Art Challenge

Part of an August Nail Art Challenge @nailartaug on instagram I am currently following is the theme 'tropical'.  I wasn't sure what tropical was... but images of pineapples,  sunset,  cocktails and coconut trees sprang to mind.

Anyways,  I  was going through my wardrobe looking for something to wear and I came across an old pairs of shorts and I thought 'that's it!  That's my tropical nail!'

And so here is an image of what inspired me and what  I drew. @bealeejewellery

Nail technology

I have recently started training to be a nail technician!  Hehe I smile when I think of the phrase 'nail technician' or 'nail technology'.  In case you don't know what a nail technician  does...it's a person who does more than just manicures  and pedicures... She or he does nail art,  acrylic nails and gel nails.

It's so exciting! I've always loved doing nails even back in college.  I used to ambush my friends and so their nails for them. Now,  I'm actually training to get certified for it!  Exciting! 

My favourite model who is my sister has just gone back to Gloucester to her in-laws'place so i have no 24-hr live model to play with anymore!

Anyways,  it's never too late to change careers. Here's a pic of my sister's red nails which I have to send in for assessment. Red is a bully to paint.  Every mistake shows up like a neon sign!

Rum and brandy Soaked Dried Fruits!

Dried fruits soaked in rum and cherry brandy...YUM!!!! I opened the lid to take a pic of the fruits and the smell was HEAVENLY!!!!

Yes, it's that time of the year again. Last year I made Christmas cakes and the cakes earned me brownie points with hubby and my friend, Joanne also said it was nice. I brought some home for my family and my mum and sister enjoyed it too and told me to make it again this year.

Here's a pic of my decorated christmas cakes last year. I had so much fun playing with the icing.



So here I am, soaking the fruits in preparation to make them moist and plump. I think the secret to a moist Christmas or any fruit cakes is to plump up the dried fruits first.

Well, I'm using a new recipe this year because I can't remember what I did last year and I can't remember which recipes I mixed and matched from. So this year, I will write it down! I Promise! (at this point, I should write down how much and what dried fruits I used!)

Will let you know how it goes!!!! Fingers crossed!

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....  :-)

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!

Oct Highlights

Let's see...

Visit to Jo's. I didn't want to stay home alone that week cos of the reactions people get when I tell them the block of apartment where I stay used to be a hospital. These people would joke about the unseen and the morgue and etc. Their stupid jokes didn't help me at all while I'm trying to get used to the place! So when Rick went away for a week, I went to Jo's and stayed away from these friends. Jo and the kids helped a lot cos after I came back, I wasn't pissing in my pants anymore. sigh.... but anyways, spending time at Jo's was great...not to mention the shopping. hahah

finished a crochet project. this is warmer than it looks. hmmm... it's black with pink flower buttons. the pink i used for my shawl. horrible lighting.

Baked a Japanese Cake according to the recipe Vic sent me. didn't line the bottom enough so water seeped in while it was baking but came out beautifully though a bit too moist. added more lemon cos the hubby likes lemony things but I didn't like it cos it was wayyyy too tart for me.

hmmm.... jewellery....here are some of the pieces I've made in Oct. Lighting in this country is horrible for photos.

and sewing... hahah made a winter coat... it's not that hard to make a coat...(dressmaking is easy if you get ready made patterns!)...just the amount of work!!! and of course the fabric i chose was beautiful to look at but a pain to work with! and obviously I made mistakes here and there and by the time it came to hemming it, I was wayyy too sick working on it. but overall, I thought it looked very well done! although from the pic, the back looks funny. Hubby assures me I did a good job though...

a dress before that...looks more like the primary school uniform! should have chosen a diff colour! Just as well, I have never worn one.

A dress for Chinese New Year assuming by then I can still fit in it! . This fabric...sigh... cost me £9.90 per metre. I needed 2m and I am a housewife with no income!!! sigh...

 And the grand finale!!! As I was piling on weight like there's no tomorrow... I have convinced myself to break my own rule and overcome my allergy to exercising and convinced the hubby I needed help. Tadaa!!! A cheap Cross Trainer from Argos. Putting it together was fun and tiring cos the hubby was away when it came. the first 2 weeks, I did an hour about 15km on average every other day. This past week, I'm doing 20 mins about 5km every morning. Bloody hard work if you ask me! I must be out of my mind! All this just so I won't get too many 'Geez! You've put on weight!' or 'OMG! You're SO fat now!' Hubby assures me I'm not fat and he loves me the way I am.. but then he's not going to complain if I have a fitter body, is he???

 

And Jo and the kids visited us and we had loads of fun but too much walking. Poor kids! and the hubby's been away for 3/4 of the month. That's it I think for Oct!...

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...