My 2014 New Year's Resolutions

I know its kinda late to write about my 2014 New Year's Resolutions but who cares..because today is Gong Xi Fa Cai in the Lion City! Singapore my home....

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is one of the most eagerly anticipated occasions each year.  This is the biggest and most significant event of the Chinese community in Singapore.

So before I talk about my 2014 New Year's Resolutions, I want to greet my Chinese friends and everyone.....

Gong Xi Fa Cai!
May the year of the horse bring your way good fortune, good health, good luck, peace and happiness and light up your life with great success and prosperity all the years through..

one of the best things to start off a brand new year is to put up a list of new year's resolution. I don't usually believe in making resolutions because I don't think I can keep it-in short I'm afraid to be disappointed and I hate having those feelings!
But then I realised that New Year is all about hope, new beginnings and new opportunities, chance to do better...

So aside from making my resolutions list, I also write down a plan on how to achieve them...(not in this blog but in my diary)

Here's my 2014 New Years Resolutions

1.  Spend more time with Yves

I noticed that Yves is closer to my helper and this really breaks my heart to see...but I know it will change as time goes by...
most of the time, I reached home around 7:30-8 pm and I am so tired to play with Yves but this time I will make sure that when I reached home, I will still play with him or read him story books. And during the weekend, I will make sure that I don't think or do my work..
Will make sure that Weekend is all about Yves and my hubby.

Yves was featured in the Mother & Baby Singapore (Feb) issue

2.  Exercise more, make it part of my lifestyle

3.  Eat Healthy, More fruits, more vegetables and drink less soft drinks/soda.

4.  Practice my French at least 1 hour everyday.

5.  Be more organised

6.   Start on my special projects & focus on it

7.  Have at least once a week, pamper myself day

Hair treatments, facial, manicure or pedicure at least once a week.

My gold nail polish for CNY

8.  Pray more

9.  Read more

10. Talk more with my Mom & Dad


That's my list! Best of luck in 2014!

Happy New Year! 2014, Here we come.

I always see a new year as another challenge.  A way to challenge myself to make this year better than the last.   What a great 2013 it has been.  I look back and think there is no way I can beat that.  I am looking forward for another joyous and adventurous ride!  Last year has been good to my family.  I started the year with a new job in a very exciting new career.  We found ourselves another house we can now call home.  My daughter turned six and started first grade in her  new school without a hitch.  We celebrated my son's wonderful first year of life.

Madison posing on our the front yard the day we closed escrow on our new home

I'm six!

Jackson's First birthday invitation

 Although we ended the year with much anxiety over Jackson's health, we managed to overcome our nerves with the fact that we are very blessed to have him every day of our life.  I pray this new year will bring good health and continuous happiness for our family.

We just adore you Jackson!

Sister and Brotherly love is the best

drooling over his present,hehehe

A new year is also a good time to make resolutions.  Number one on my list is to make my kids my priority.  No matter what the cost.  I realized there is always time to make more money and afford better things in life.  But there is nothing in this world that will buy back the time that I could have spent with my kids.  They won't be so little forever.  I dread the day that I will have to beg them to stay home with me.  Good news is, I already achieved part of that resolution a week ago.  My boss approved my decision to go on a part time status until my kids are a little bit older.  I went from working 4-5 days a week to 3 days.  A decision that I know will give me more time to be with Jackson and handle his health concerns efficiently. 

The year hasn't been perfect but obstacles come and go.  If it doesn't make us any wiser, it definitely makes us stronger.  I will not only hope for a better year, but I commit to make it happen.  That is my challenge.  A challenge that I look forward to conquer. 

2014, Here we come.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

More Costumes anyone?

I'm posting more pictures that I finally managed to take out from my phone.  This was taken at Madison's Halloween Parade at school.  Just want to show what a big deal Halloween is for American kids.

How cute are these girls? esp that rainbow monster costume of her friend?

Madison with her classmates from school getting ready for their Halloween parade...she is the tallest among them!

Here they are waiting to take their turn to go around and show off their costume...it was one sunny day!

Everyone is on their best behavior so far

Until Madison spots her mom and her brother in the crowd!hehehe

In the end, it was well worth it for Mommy calling in sick from work to witness all the festivities of Halloween.  It was great to be able to be there for my little girl.  Times like these fly by fast and I don't think I will get to enjoy this as long as I want to.  Ten years from now, I will never see my little girl be goofy and excited for Halloween.  They just grow up so fast and I try to enjoy every moment of it no matter how life gets so crazy.

Happy Fall Back!

I thought I was going to get an extra hour of sleep today since it was officially Fall in California with the time moving back an hour for daylight savings time, I guess not.  My little boy has no concept of time whatsoever and decides 6:30 AM is no different than 7:30.  Anyway, I did promise to post our Halloween photos and blog about it but silly me, I got so busy preparing dinner and getting the kids ready for trick or treating that I forgot to take my camera and take pictures! Oh well.  We had a great time and that's all that matters right? Here's whatever pictures we managed to take during our fun Hallow's eve.

Our house number decked out in goofy pumpkin stickers

Our front screen door with a fuzzy tarantula

My daughter and I also made some arts and crafts of witch's hats, bats, a mummy and scared pumpkins to adorn our windows.

Pumpkins we carved and painted and glittered, we have one each for each member of our family :)

We were dressed as a skeleton family...here's two of the cutest skeletons in the planet!

We had some friends over that we invited for dinner and game night, we ended playing Junior Taboo with them and the kids had a blast!

Here with her best friend Isabel dressed as a spider

And of course the main treat for the kids, a pot full of goodies that they collected from our neighbors, this is just for one kid! Craziness....

I feel bad I didn't take all the pictures I could have taken.  I took out all the Halloween decorations we put up today and got ready for Thanksgiving....

One of the two scarecrows we left out that can stay until Thanksgiving

I hope everybody had a great Halloween! 

Halloween 2013

Hello everybody and Hello November!
But  before we can truly welcome November let us not first forget Halloween.
I must admit I wasn't  prepared for this year's Halloween. As mentioned  in my previous post, I had the week before with my hand's full on the DIY bedroom makeover. To make it even busier,  I had to do the necessary catching up with my house chores and laundry (ironing as well) that piled up during the DIY days.
But of course, we just could not let Halloween go by just because of my DIY.

What Halloween wouldn't be complete without some pumpkins!
Carved the night before in a  such a haste but was still a very surprising and pleasant turn out and made my Little Girl  very happy and excited.

Which graced our front door along with my friend pretending to be the vampire!

Left with not much time to decorate but just to have a quick Halloween atmosphere in the house (apart from the front door decor) buntings helped achieved the easy trick.

Living Room Halloween bunting 

Another thing about the Halloween excitement is the dressing up (which I just leave that part only to my little girl ). Every year I make it a point that she gets to dress in a new outfit different from the previous ones.
Here she is in her past Halloween outfits!

A pretty witch in pink at 10 months old for her first Halloween (left)
A very cutie spider the year after (middle)
And a sulking little white lady last year (right)

As my little girl is already old enough this year to understand Halloween I let her choose her outfit.
Her outfit choice didn't surprise me at all as she was into pirates lately.
Here is  my very lovely, naughty pirate!

My darling Captain Emilia!

I  mentioned in one of my recent posts about my plan of hosting an afternoon tea to my friends at my newly finished dining room before we do the trick or treating.

Here are a few pictures of our Halloween afternoon tea.

One happy occasion to bring out my chinawares
Small pumpkins and Halloween printed paper napkins as placemats set the tone for a Halloween table setting

Biscuits, chocolate cake, scones, tart jams, sandwiches, cupcakes, sausage rolls served with a very warm cup of tea made up our Halloween afternoon tea at home

Once full and ready to venture the cold outside we proceeded with the trick or treating part of the afternoon.
I'm glad we started it early and got back home just before the rain started pouring again and were able to marvel  and enjoy the other trick or treaters who kept our door bell very busy that night.

My little trick or treater was more into the fun of going round different houses and knocking doors than the sweets she gets to have. Her friend was more than happy to take home her bucketful of Halloween treats.

Until next Halloween and a very good night everyone!

Little Girl's Bedroom Makeover

I had to put on my decorator suit one more time as the  DIY makeover bug had struck me again.
This time it directed me to my little girl's bedroom.

The before makeover photo of Little Girl's bedroom
A Disney Princess themed room just decorated by yours truly 2 years ago

The past week therefore was all about wallpaper stripping, wall painting and wallpaper hanging.
Wallpaper stripping this time was uncomplicated. Even wallpaper solution was no longer needed.
I just simply tried the corner of the wallpaper, loosen it and peeled it with my hands or with my putty knife.
Sometimes the whole paper came off in one piece or  just the surface layer with the bottom layer still in the wall. This,  I just sponged it with a warm soapy water and most of the time it just peeled away by hand or with the aid of my putty knife.

Wallpaper stripping in progress.
Allotted 2 hours a night when little girl was asleep in our bed

As soon as all the walls were bared ( side walls stripped with the wallpaper and the feature wall mural removed) came the wallpaper and paint colour selection and finalisation.

This time I wanted to decorate my little girl's bedroom with something she can grow into.
I scoured for different wallpaper prints in the internet. Once my top choices were narrowed down I let my little girl picked the one she likes best.
Next came the paint colour selection. Her old room was very pink so we made sure it wasn't in the list of choices.
With her new wallpaper in mind I know green would be the perfect match for the side walls.
But never did I imagine colour Green could have so many shades it could possibly get!
In the end we settled with Guava Green by B&Q for the side walls.

Bare walls ready for decorating.
Several shades of paint testers on the wall.

Finally,  after a week long  of hard work with sleepless nights spent on painting, re coating and wallpaper hanging, I can finally share with you my little girl's bedroom.

Here is my little girl's green and pink vision of an owl themed bedroom with white furnitures.

The pink and green owl on a white background wallpaper is from A.S creation.
The matching Duvet set and the pink novelty owl shaped cushion are both from Just Kidding.
They were all ordered from Amazon.
(Just a warning though, an extra £3.50/per roll on the wallpaper was charged for p&p).
Her furnitures are the same ones she had previously except for the bed.
Since she travels a lot while asleep we decided it is best if she sleeps on a double size bed this time.

I wanted to keep her bedroom simple, cosy, feminine, inviting and relaxing yet still in keeping with her age at the same time.
I also wanted the feature wallpaper as the focal point of her bedroom so keeping the side walls simple and barely decorated would be fundamental.

Fabric bunting from a local toy shop with her name on it.

Furnitures for storage necessity as a basic for every girl's bedroom.
Windows dressed in pink roller blind with a matching soft pink curtain with flower details on it by Mothercare.
And a dress that serves as a wall decor yet perfectly spells the theme of the room - pink and green!

Books for bedtime reading decked her drawer chest.
Royal Doulton Bunnykins wall clock to help her learn in telling the time

The view from the opposite end of her bedroom

I only allowed her doll house and a baby in the cradle wooden toys in her bedroom to instill in her the idea that bedroom is for relaxing and sleeping only.
I don't want her to get into the habit of playing before bedtime.
There is her adjacent playroom anyway for her toys and study materials which is topping my list for my next DIY makeover projects.

Halloween is just 2 days away and I am still very busy catching up with my laundry and ironing  that piled up during the makeover days.
Pumpkins are still uncarved but hey at least as I still have tomorrow to get the house Halloween ready.
My little girl is loving her new bedroom and that's the most important thing to me at the moment.

Happy Halloween everyone.

My first online grocery with Redmart

'Ding dong' just went and a kind man, with a trolley and plastic bags of my essentials just delivered my monthly supermarket run...Thank God for the online grocery shopping making my life easier...


It was my first time doing online grocery shopping with Redmart most of the time, I shop at Giant and arranged for a delivery. But with Redmart! It was just wonderful! Being a working mom is tough-- it's hard to divide my time from unending work, baby and husband. Though I love shopping.....grocery shopping is often my worst nightmare as I have little enough time as it is..since we do it every Saturday. The whole family (Yves, Nanny, Me, and hubby) have to travel to the supermarket, jostle with crowds, wait in long queues for payment and bring a lot of plastic bags at home..

Shopping online enabled me to have a coffee and a bite to eat while selecting my goodies. If I couldnt remember what I needed, I just walked into the kitchen and looked in my cabinets. Not only did it save me time, but it saved me money as I didn't spend my money on things I didn't need.


Let me share how easy to use this Redmart. This website is easy to navigate. Delivery is free for orders over $75!
And if you need help using the website at any time, you can simply call them-the number is prominently published at the top of each page

1. Go to https://redmart.com
2. Shop and put everything in the cart
3. then pay and the good thing is because I am a first time customer, I have 10% discount!
Yey...

The only thing that I hope that redmart has is that I cannot use my Passion card to earn points..
so hopefully, they will have a loyalty card soon or free gifts as well (yeah I love free stuff hehehe)


But I will certainly be doing this again...