Panasonic Lumix Craze!

Last few weeks, my uncle bought Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1… I took these two shots using his new toy…. :)

 

These two shots are taken using my new camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3.

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Joel’s 1st Christmas

This year was quite quiet… Usually we would be celebrating with my parents and brothers. However, this year, they were not here. Kinda miss those moments with them around during this season…

On Christmas Eve, Hub suggested that I cooked. He didn’t feel like dining out. So, I’ve prepared a very simple meal: Spaghettis (my forte), fish fillet, salads, vegetable tempura and clam chowder soup. That’s what we had for Christmas Eve…

Hub still went back to site to do some supervision on the morning of Christmas day. Came back during lunch and brought us out for a walk. Took me by surprise, he bought me a camera… :) I was so excited!!

The party started on BOXING DAY!! In the afternoon, Joel and I went to Betsy’s place for KBCC Christmas Pot-luck Party…. :) Then Joel was showered with a BIG BAG of gifts!! Thanks to Aunt Betsy, Uncle Edward, Aunt Ayako and Cindy Jie Jie…. :)

After that, we went for our 2nd party @ my cousin’s place with my brother, Jin and his girlfriend, MayLing… Dear Hub was working whole day and he joined us later. It was fun!

Mayling & Jin

My Hub and I

Joel, Tong Tong and my cousin Ing

This little rascal received a lot of gifts from my cousins and their friends…. My brother was so envy and how he’ll never grow up!! *LOL*

Our Childhood Memory….

On the way sending my brother back, we were chatting about our younger days… When we were very young, we wrote our wish list to Santa Claus every year (Well, that’s our dad but during that time, we did believe we were writing to ‘real’ Santa Claus). After writing our wish list, we would attention our letters to SANTA CLAUS with NO ADDRESS  and put it inside the letterbox. My mom told us that the little elf would pick up our letters middle of the night. So, the next day, we actually went to check and the letter was gone! So, we believed that the elf had pick up our letters. So NAIVE!!!  My mom said we were not suppose to wait or peep, otherwise Santa would not appear. So, we went to sleep very early. After we went to bed, our dear ‘SANTA CLAUS’ would sneakily put our presents underneath the Christmas Tree.. It was fun and Christmas is always our favorite season of the year!!

I’m still pondering whether should I continue this trend on Joel. During then, we were asking for stuffs like books, dolls, pencil case, stationery, bags and etc… Not something fanciful or expensive. But I’m very sure, Joel won’t be asking things like this anymore, he probably will be listing a long wish list or asking for expensive toys like WII, PSP and etc… Well, we shall see then…. :)

But I really miss our childhood time… We were so naive… LOL!!!

Once again, wishing everyone a Merry Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year 2010…. :)

All I want for Christmas is…. And I GOT IT!!

It was really a surprise when my husband finally agreed to get a camera for me. I’ve been wanting to get a new camera, preferably semi-SLR, where I can use for my product shot… I have two brands in mind: CANON G11 and Panasonic Lumix DCS LX-3.

Initially, I wanted to get CANON for it’s user-friendliness and my current camera is also CANON. But the price is quite steep… :( Then my friends suggested LX-3. It’s more compact and comparable to CANON G11 with slightly lower price.

Almost every visit to any electronic stores, I would play with these 2 cameras. Well, during then, my husband was strongly against the idea of getting a new camera cos, 1stly, I don’t have a stable income and 2ndly, these cameras are not cheap. He finds it a waste of money. Well, he’s always a better financial planner and controller than me… =P

Out of the blue, yesterday, he drove me around to look for my camera!! I was very surprised and un-prepared… Still not sure which one to get… Then, I ‘sms’ed Ngiam, my good friend and also a photographer, to ask him for advise. All I asked: “Should I get G11 or LX3?” His answer was straightforward:”Leica lens. Wins CANON anytime”. =P Took his advise, I decided to get LX-3!

Then we went from Expo to Funan just to check for better deal.. Walked around a few shops and finally, we bought from SLR-Revolution. :) Initially, I wanted to pay by 12 monthly installments. Less than S$100 a month, I still can afford. The most, I do more dolls… =P But who knows, my husband quickly took out his card and paid for me!!! I was sooo surprised and touched… ;)

Taken using my CANON IXUS 75 (Through Editing)

Taken using LX-3 (without editing)

Using Macro Mode

Different Setting

 

Joel in his playpen in normal lighting… NICE

In future, I won’t need to spend too much time in editing….=P

Woke up @ 7am this morning to play with my new toy. I’m still in cloud 9…. LOL

Thanks, dear… *MUACK*

Joel 11th month!!

Wah, my boy has turned 11th month today!!! One more month and he’ll be ONE YEAR OLD! Time really flies…. As if like yesterday I gave birth to him.

For the past two weeks, I was very busy and exhausted…. :( I have quite a few orders to rush. I really want to apologize to some of you for rejecting your orders, but thank God, you guys are really sweet and really understanding… :)

Besides rushing orders, Joel was sick last week! He had fever for the FIRST TIME! One middle of the nights, Joel was very warm, his body was burning… My hub thought it’s the weather, so we turned on aircon. But after an hour, he was still burning. The thermometer failed to work at that time! Temp showed 34.5 deg. Both my husband and I were clueless of what to do. So, the next day, we brought him to see PD. PD said just a normal virus attack, but if the fever still very high on the 4th day, we had to bring him back. I kept praying and breastfeeding him, cos breastmilk contains elements that can help to fight virus. That few nights, my hub and I couldn’t sleep well, cos Joel was very very cranky and kept crying…. :(

That’s why I’m so tired and exhausted. But thank God, Joel is well now… :) We didn’t bring him back to see the PD.

 

Well, his progress…

Joe can recognize quite a few vocabs: clap, jump, kiss mama, bye, mama, papa, light, porridge, bread, splash, ‘neh neh’ (milk), and etc…. When we said, “Joe, clap clap” He’ll clap his hand. He can call mamamama, papapapapa and mum mum (wanna eat something)

Then now, he is learning to walk. He is able to walk quite a few steps by holding on something and his walkers.

But something that worry me most is his diet… He seems to lost interest in taking porridge… :( Last time he could take one big bowl of porridge. But now, not even half… We suspect due to tasting table food, that’s why he lost interest in his own food. Sigh… It’s all our fault!

Oh yea, he has 4 teeth: two on top and two at the bottom. :) Very cute! He likes to bite. He will giggle very loudly when we screamed after bitten by him. Notti Notti boy!!

He is really our bundle of joy. His smiles really melt our hearts.

Merry Blessed Christmas

I’ve received this from a good friend of mine yesterday…

On behalf of George, I’ll like to wish all the women and well, men, a Merry Merry Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year….

May God bless you and your family with abundant loves, joys and prosperities… May all your wishes come true before reaching year 2010!!!

Wedding Corsages for Clairice

This wedding corsages are very different from my usual one. Clairice wanted a freeform flower corsage for her 6 sisters. Something different and unique.

Octie Couple for Sharon

This is a surprise present for Sharon’s boyfriend. On the day of collection, Sharon asked me to wrap them up because her boyfriend is the one who came over to collect….

I love this pair of octies…

The lady octie is wearing a dress with a flower on the of the head. The guy octie has a headphone on and wearing colorful socks…. :) I decided to embroider their eyes, cos I couldn’t find big eyes for them

10 Personalized Dolls for Christine

Christine wanted me to make 10 dolls for her friends that help out during her wedding as token of appreciation.. I was pretty stretch when I confirmed her order, so I got Betsy to help me on the guys… Thanks, my friend, for helping out…

Little angel for Charmain, she’s a God Loving person. Besides that she has curl ‘till shoulder.

This is Jolene, she is a cheerful person and Christine asked me to add a hair band for her…

This is Susan… Well, Christine said she loves to bake and eat. So I’ve made a chef hat for her…

This is Xueting… Christine said she always wear dark colors clothings. Took me awhile to think what I should made. So, I’ve decided to make a dress with a cape over it.

This is my FAVORITE! She is Deng li… Christine told me she has tan skin and wears specs. At first, I didn’t know how the turn out would be while crocheting the body parts. But after assembling, the doll really looks cute! I hope Dengli will like her…

Jing Jing and Eugene… They are getting married on Christmas day! Congrats. Eugene is made by Betsy.

This is CF, who likes to smoke… Made by Betsy, Knotty Bicsie

CY, who is serious type and Christine wanted him to hold a steering wheel… :) Made by Betsy, Knotty Bicsie

Lastly, Song, who loves soccer…. Made by Betsy, Knotty Bicsie

I hope Christine’s friends will love all these dolls…. :) Merry Merry Blessed Christmas….

Wedding Couple for Sweet YK and Ryan

YK is really a very sweet lady. She’s really petite and pretty… She asked me to make a wedding couple but smaller version for her ROM. This pair of wedding couple measured @ 3.5” to 4” tall.

On the day of collection, she has waited for me for half an hour… Really sorry about it. But I’m glad this pair of wedding couple cheered her up!! :)

Congrats to YK and Ryan…. May God bless both of you abundantly.

Wedding Couple for Stella

This is the 2nd pair of wedding couple Stella got me to make for her. It’s for her friends who are getting married on 18.12.09…And this pair of dolls is completed on the day itself!!!

Ahem… This friend of hers is busty (according to her). =P

I really want to apologize to Stella for such a last minute delivery. I’ve mistaken the date. But thank GOD, I managed to complete it.

Congrats once again to LH & SY….

Wedding Couple for Amy

This is the first wedding couple that I did with the bride let down her hair. Amy wanted it that way…. So, I thought of trying it out… Both Amy and I like it very much. What do you think?

I was kinda crazy too… I actually stitched beads into flowers on the lace… =P That’s why, there’s delay in delivery, but Thank God still make it for her wedding…. :) 

Besides that, I’ve made 4 corsages for her sisters. Her wedding theme is white and pink… So everything pink pink… ;)

Lastly, congratulation to Amy and her future husband, J… May God bless both of your abundantly…. :)

Mic & Cal Wedding Couple on Styleweddings.sg

This morning, received an email from Mic. She told me that their wedding couple appeared in styleweddings.sg…. :)

Photo from Mic & Cal

Besides that, received some of the sweet comments from some of the buyers…. This is one of them:

“I will like to say a big thank you for the lovely dolls you have made for my friend. She loves it a lot and a lots of guests have good comments on it. Thank you. Cannot wait to receive the other two pairs from you.”

From Ste

“Have passed the dolls to Karen. She like it alot ^_^ Thanks for everything...”

From SY

“I finally received them ystd!! Thanks alot Jullie! Super cute!! The eyes seem to be able to talk! Haha!! Will take more pictures of them in Japan!! Yeah~”

From TYL

Travelling with Baby….

Something to share….

A few friends asked me how I handle Joel when we brought him to Taiwan….

Q1. Will baby’s ear sting during boarding and landing due to pressure?

For Joel, he was ok… He was quite normal during boarding and landing… :) There’s another couple who also brought their 13 months old daughter, they let her suck her pacifier and she was fine too…. :) However, if your baby doesn’t take pacifier like mine, prepare bread/bun or some teething biscuit, let them bite and suck… The best way is to pray that they will sleep will boarding and landing… =P But Joel was too excited to sleep….

Q2. Is there any food or seat provided for baby in the flight?

NO FOOD. So better prepare your own cereal. We are allowed to bring a thermo flask and water bottle for baby up to the plane. Well, as for seat, limited baby bassinets provided at the front row… The bassinet provided by SIA is too small for Joel… =P So, ended up, Joel slept on my chest…. Try to book the front row, the space is spacious.

Q3. How to kill time in the plane?

Bring along some toys for them to play. There are kids programs for them to watch too. As for Joel, we brought a small handheld fan with light, and he likes to play with the fan.

Then he also likes to look out of the window….

Q4. How to prepare baby food?

This was the biggest challenge! How to prepare baby food…. My SIL asked me whether I’ll be bringing slow cooker to prepare Joel’s porridge. Thank God I didn’t… We were hardly stayed in hotel. Most of the time we were on the road. There were a few alternatives:

My friend YL recommended me to Pigeon Retortable Food Pouch… Very simple, all you need to do is dipped the pack in hot water and they are ready to be served… I let Joel tried, he didn’t really like it. I tasted it myself too, it was pretty salty….

Finally we decided to try Nestle Cereal Rice Mix Vegetable…

This is the best solution. It contains not only cereal, but also milk and rich with nutrients and vitamins…. :) Joel LOVES it! It’s easy to prepare too…Just mix with lukewarm water and ready to be served!

Besides that, I also mixed with rice… We ate rice almost every meal.

We also fed Joel with buns and breads… We ‘stole’ some buns from the breakfast table for Joel for the rest of the day. =P

I continued breastfeeding Joel throughout the trip. Most of the time, I breastfed in the bus. Quite convenient…. And not many people noticed, cos most of them were fast asleep!! LOL!!!

Q5. How to bath Joel? Especially in cold weather….

My aunt taught this method which I find it very very useful. Turn on the hot water tap and let the hot steam filled up the room. Then bath and change Joel in the bathroom. Besides that, I also brought eucalyptus oil to rub Joel’s body and a bit on the crown to keep warm. This can also help the baby to sleep well at night…. :)

Q6. How to change baby’s diaper if there’s no baby changing room?

Simple! Joel was wearing pull-up pants diapers most of the time. We changed him in the bus and one time @ a shop cos my hub thought he passed motion. It’s easier to use pull-up pants. You don’t need to lie him down on changing mat and can change in standing position… :)

Q7. Is stroller useful during the trip?

We purposely bought a light stroller for this trip and we only used it twice (when we were at Yeh Liu and walking along the Tunnel of the Nine Turns trail. Other time, we didn’t have a chance to use it. Most of the places that we went had staircases and very crowded. Thank God, we brought baby carrier along, so my husband carried Joel most of the time. Besides that, Joel was more comfortable in the carrier too: warmer and he felt more secure… ;)

Q8. How about at the Hotel? Any extra mattress for Joel?

Well, Joel slept with us. He slept in between… We didn’t request for any extra mattress. However, one of the couple requested for extra mattress and baby cot… Some hotels do have baby cot! So, remember to request… If they don’t have, request for a twin sharing room, so that you can pull two beds together to create bigger space. That time we didn’t request for twin sharing room, ended up, the three of us had to squeeze on one queen size bed… :( Except @ Shangrila Boutique Hotel, they provided us with twin sharing room! That’s the only night both Alan and I had a good sleep. Think Joel too… LOL!!!

That’s about all… If you have any tips or tricks on travelling with babies, feel free to comment…. :) I’m sure some of us will be very keen to know… :)

Welcome to TAIWAN!

We just came back from Taiwan last Tuesday. It was a very tiring trip. The tour was pretty rush. We were given an hour @ on destination before moving on to the next destination. Most of the time we were in the bus and we stayed in different hotels every night! Well, if we were still single, I’ll consider this trip adventurous but with Joel, well, pretty tiring… =P

Overall, my little rascal behaved pretty well. He could sleep at any place and at any time. He was pretty ok with strangers too… :)

On the day we left Singapore, Joel wasn’t in a good mood cos he didn’t have enough sleep.

Before the plane took off, he was pretty cranky. Wah, we were very worry… But when the plane took off, Joel was very excited. He kept looking out the window to see clouds. He laughed and clapped… Both of us were so relieved!

When we reached Taiwan, we were ferried to Shilin Night Market for their local delicacies… I tried almost everything… Pretty interesting food that you can find: Smelly Beancurb, Big Pancake wraps Small Pancake ( 大饼抱小饼), Fried Oyster, Pig’s organs, Fried Chicken Chop and etc….

We were staying in a resort that was located @ Yangminshan National Park that called Spring City Resort. On the way to our Hotel @ YangMinShan, we passed by a few 檳榔店 and we saw sexy 檳榔妹. 檳榔 is a kind of bitternut that can help to sober drunkard and help to improve concentration.

Spring City Resort is a hot spring resort. By the time we reached, it was kinda late so we couldn’t enjoy the outdoor hot spring. However, in our room, we have our own hot  spring pool! We enjoyed the indoor pool after the long day! I even used the water from the hot spring to wipe Joel.

Day 2:

As early as 8 O’clock, we had to travel to Yeh Liu Geopark to see the hoodoo stone… It was drizzling that morning and pretty cold, so I got Joel to wear 4 layers of clothing… =P 1st layer, the thermal t-shirt, 2nd layer, long sleeves t-shirt, 3rd layer, a jumper and final layer, a winter jacket….

I got Betsy to make a beanie for Joel… She even sew two ears on the beanie… Very cute!!! Along the way, Joel fall asleep… When we reached Yehliu, it was so windy cos Yehliu is located beside the Ocean Pacific.

We stayed there for 2 hours, then we moved on to Jiufen, where we had to take their local bus to this place. I quite like Jiufen, it reminded me of small ‘kampung’. One narrow and crowded lane with shops at both side. These shops are selling all sort of thing, from interesting food to souvenirs Too bad, we were only given 1 hour to roam around. But I’ve managed to grab some souvenirs and also tried their local delicacies like beef noodle.

I brought Nestle Rice Cereal for Joel. It’s really convenient. I just mix the cereal with water. Thank God Joel likes it very much and finished all every meal… :)

We took their local bus to a train station, Ruifeng Station to take a 3 hour long journey train to Hualien. Joel slept for 2 hours in the train. When we reached Hualien, it’s already 6pm, then we had to rush to their cultural village to catch their last cultural show @ 7:30pm!! After the show, we had our dinner @ this restaurant before check-in to the hotel @ Hualien.

The show was so loud. But my dear Joel was sleeping throughout the whole show…. :)

Day 3:

The next day, we visited their national park called Taroko National Park. We went to 3 places, Swallow Grotto Trail, Tunnel of Nine Turns and the other one, I do not know what it’s called but it has a huge waterfall. I managed to capture some nice shots @ these places…

Unfortunately, my camera battery ran out of life! :( So, I had to borrow my friend’s camera to continue shooting some of these nice sceneries.

After this, we travelled 2 hours on winding road to Yilan Shangrila Leisure Farm. This place is interesting. It’s like farm stay. Once again, we were there for 3 hours. After dinner, we joined their activities like top (gasing) spinning competition, duck race and making tang yuan 汤圆. The final activity was launching of kong ming lantern where we wrote all our wishes on the lantern. I wrote that God bless our family with abundant joy, peace and love. :)

After that, we proceed to our hotel, Shangrila Boutique Hotel. This is the best hotel throughout the whole trip! The room was super big! We were given two king size beds! We joined the beds together so that Joel could sleep in the middle. Wah, that night he had huge space to roll around… LOL!!

Day 4:

Once again, due to tight schedule, we were asked to get ready by 7am. So, didn’t get to explore the resort. :( It was a very beautiful resort. Look so vintage. I love this windmill…. It’s located right outside the hotel.

We were on the bus again. Travelling around 1 hour 30 minutes to catch the ceremony of soldier exchanging duty… Sorry, I don’t know what it’s called… :( It’s kinda boring… Later on, we went to visit a stones factory, where they produced stones like jade. At the factory, we were asked to listen to 20 mins talk how to differentiate a real ‘cat eye’ stone and a fake one… =P Kinda interesting. The real one will have a stripe down only when put under the light, but fake one have stripe all the time. ;)

Then we took 2 hours long bus back to Taipei to visit a shop that sells a lot of ‘feng sui’ stuffs… Again, sat in a classroom to listen to a short half an hour talk. Well, this time round, they talked about names. How to calculate the number of strokes in your name. For good name, usually will have 9 and 13 strokes (after adding the two names together). Well, for me, I don’t really believe this cos I only believe in blessings from God… :)

We stopped here for at least 2 hours!! After that we went for our lunch. Then we proceed to a place Wulai… Wu Lai in their Taiwan dialect means hot spring. The whole place is full of hot spring motels and also spas…

Then we had to climb this damn high staircase to take electric train. After taking the train, we had to walk and climb another set of high staircase to take cable car to travel to the mid of the hill… Then we had to walk up a few sets of staircase in order to reach to the top… Guess what can be found on the top? Well, a big pond and a resort… Initially we were wondering how they travel up cos we didn’t see any road when climbing up. The tour guide told us they can travel by small car up to the hill top via a small narrow lane.

Can you see small huts above the water fall behind? We literally walked toward there!!!

Finally, we check-in into another hotel @ ShengKeng. The 4th night was our free and easy night. We went to Ximenting, Wubu (Wholesales market) and also ShiLin Market within a night. By the time we went back to the hotel it’s already 1am in the morning. I almost shattered, both my legs were aching so badly and I was so tired that I just slept without taking my bath. Joel too… By the time he reached hotel, he had his milk and slept throughout the whole night.

5th day (Last day)

Suppose to be free and easy on the last day. But last minute change, we had some program. Our plane departed @ 6pm. In the morning, around 9am, we visited a tea house to see how they brew and drink tea. According to the lady, ones must make a loud noise while drinking tea to show that the tea that served by the host is fragrant… LOL!! Then we learnt that green tea powder mix with Yakult (yogurt drink) can help to clean our intestine and help in slimming too… =P So, we bought one pack of green tea powder @ S$96!! LOL!!!

Around 11am, we visited National Palace Museum, the world's largest assemblage of priceless Chinese art treasures, one which
spans Chinese's nearly 5,000 year history.

We had our lunch at Yehliu before going to the airport. My husband’s boss treated all of us with a scrumptious seafood meal!

Hooray!! We were finally on our home… This is the first vacation that I was looking forward to go home!!