Randoms | I Am Still Here ;)

Hello there,

Some of you might be wondering why is my Big Cartel down for maintenance or it keeps showing 'Check Back Soon' for the past few days….. And I am so blessed that I have received some emails asking if I am feeling ok or some even asked if I am pregnant. Lol. No no no, I am not pregnant, I just need a little break, for the following reasons:

1. My mini-me has just started Montessori in October and we are still adapting to the new schedule. I am always a nocturnal person who works during the wee hours (till 4~5am) and I need to wake up 8.30am the next day to send him to school. It is very PAINFUL for me every morning since I am never a morning person. I also came to realisation that I haven't been spending much time with my family ever since my little shop has picked up a little + the number of assignments that I have to do monthly is kinda overwhelming. 

Nothing beats spending a lazy morning reading books, singing songs, doing silly dance with my 18-month-old.

2. I am kinda proud of myself being able to send out nearly 200 orders this month. Can't thank everyone enough for being so supportive + patience with me because sometimes it take me a few days just to reply emails. These mails stuck at my local post office for a few days because their system was down and it took a while to process all these registered mails.

3. This is how my room looks like during packing & shipping days. Being so unorganised is driving me crazy and I am totally in creative rut and unmotivated when my room is in huge mess.



Eeekkk! I couldn't even write on my work desk for a week. Invoices, washi tapes, pens, pencil cases and books are were all over my desk.

4. Even my dad said i need to re-organise my overflowing wasabi. Lol. Well, he calls my washi tapes as wasabi =P And then I asked him to made some new shelves for my work desk and I need a little re-organisation to fit my dual-screen. Can't wait to show you my room when I am done reorganising it.

5. My room barely has any floor space after my shipping day. It was kinda crazy and this was no where to be called a happy mess.

Then we moved the day bed out and did another round of re-organisation. Well, it is still very packed and messy, i think I would be able to clean things up after a few more rounds of purging ;) 

6. After reading A Bowl Full of Lemons' blog about 31 days of purging, I reorganised our living room, Ivan's play area and his wardrobe too. Well, my scrap room is messy but at least I have cleaned up one of the corner in the house.  I think I would not be able to be so consistent in doing the purging daily but I am very determined to purge area by area according to my own schedule. #abfol31daypurge

7. And here's another main reason I am taking a short break from work. I have a ganglion cyst of ping-pong ball sized on my right ankle. It's getting a little painful when I sit on the floor when I pack orders. I have had this ganglion cyst since I was heavily pregnant and it is getting bigger recently. So I went to see doctor and also did an Xray & MRI scan for this. Well, no biggie, i just need to schedule another appointment to go for an excision to remove this. 

8. I am also grateful to be able to take a mini break and its been a while since I had lunch with the hubs during weekdays ;)

8. I am also closing the shop to catch up on back logs and orders. My little shop is run by myself only with very little help from friends / family when it comes to packing / working on orders. I do feel terribly bad when I have so many unread / un-replied emails.

My to-do list was getting so crazily overwhelming that I felt extremely unmotivated.

9. My little shop is in need of stock-taking LoL. That's the part that I hate most.

10. I have to confess: I am never good in de-stressing or dealing with stress. So when I am so swamped with work, I can never be creative or work on assignments. This much needed break definitely help myself unwind a little and do more things that I love + work on ideas that I wrote on my to-do list for a while ;) Feel so good to be able to create something for myself, just for fun, not for order / assignments. 

Don't get me wrong, i do love working on custom orders or scrapbook assignments, but sometimes doing something without any guidelines, just follow your heart to create is really what I am craving for recently.

11. Can't help be thankful for all the little things at the moment and also drafting a few blog post to show you more about my planner set ups, stationery reviews etc.

12. Again, nothing beats spending time with my little one. He never fails to amaze me with his new tricks that he learns everyday, with his smile and his happy-self.

And also, extremely happy to bump into one of my long-time instagram firmed Pooi Chin who never fails to amaze me with her super awesome Midori Traveler's Notebook.

I seriously can't thank everyone enough for your concern and kind words. Just in case you are wondering, my little shop will re-open on 25th October and of course, with the new November Happie Planner Kit and some amazing new arrivals! 

XoXo,

Blog Hop⎪How Do I Organise My Scraproom *Citrus Twist Kits*

Welcome to Citrus Twist Kits Organizing Blog Hop!! We have some fun inspiration, great organizational ideas & awesome prizes! Each of our designers will share a fun organizing tip with you to help you get your crafty space organized and more functional. 

Now for the Prizes: Two lucky commenters who hop to ALL design team blogs will be entered to win a $10 GC to the Citrus Twist Store, plus we are also giving away one main kit.

You just need to leave a comment on EVERY designer's blog to be entered to win. Come back to the main Blog Hop blog post and comment that you hopped to each blog and we will pick a winner from those that commented. (place link to main blog) Comments end Tuesday February 4th. Winners will be announced on the main Citrus Twist kits blog by Friday February 7th.

Let's get started:

Amelie Mordret

Angie Gutshall

April Hill

Eve Limacher

Evelyn Yusuf

Gina Rodgers

Jen Boumis

Jennifer Chapin

Kasia Tomaszewska

Melissa Stintson

Nathalie Leonelli

Nina Ostermann

Sandy Ang

Tanya Batrak

Waisam Ho  <— This is me!

Shawna Saucier  <— Visit Shawna's blog next!

Citrus Twist Kits

Here are pictures of my scrap room that I have newly set up since September 2013. Huge thanks to my dad & brother for the customs-made work desk and shelf. 

Sneak peak of Citrus Twist February 2014 Pocket Life kit. I had so much fun working on this month kit, love that it is not very valentine-themed as I have been working on too many Vday's project. And you know, we don't really celebrate Valentine's day after baby Ivan is here =P

Another picture of my work-in-progress work desk. Normally it gets messier than this if I am not working on a kit. If I am pulling my own papers and embellishments + stamps, my supplies would be all over the desk and floor and I would end up scrapping on the floor.

Let's have a scrap room tour, shall we?

We start from the left side of the room. This is what you see when you enter the playroom / scrap room. It is actually a guest room that I converted it into Ivan's playroom. The only natural light for the room is on the left window, so I don't get much natural lights here! Thank god the room is very well-lit.

I have a 2x2 expedit shelf in this corner that I keep my fabrics and all my albums. I am hoping one day I would always sit Ivan down and flip through the albums and tell him story. This wall is not done yet, I have so many ideas that I pinned from Pinterest but just couldn't decide what to do ;)

This is the main wall of the room. I put a 1x5 expedit shelf and place my 3  typewriters on it. This shelf is supposed to keep Ivan's toys and book but its been occupied by my yarn for crochet and bookbinding. Sooner or later I will purge some stuff and put his toys + reading materials here.

This is the main view of my scrap area with my huge L-shaped work desk. Loving this huge desk because I didn't have a desk for my first 2 years of scrapping life! I place all my main tools and supplies on and under the desk.

I normally sit in front of the desk for at least an hour a day, that's my me-time that either I scrap, I PL, I watch youtube (China matchmaking show =P), I edit photo and blog. And this is also the desk where I normally take my instagram photos. I love using the white desk (with a litre wood grain) as my Instagram background. I have my beloved sewing machine on my left, a baby monitor gifted from my brother above the sewing machine. I put a lot of stuff in the cubes that I requested dad to customise for me - mostly stuff that be sent from all my instagram friends and scrappy friends.

Sitting right inront this wall makes me happy. All the handmade cards that have been sent all over the world made me feel so blessed and inspired ;)

The other side of my desk - I put my Silhouette Cameo, Craftwell eBosser and Canon Printer MG6370.  I gotta keep them really handy and easy to reach for so that I would use them more often. The 1,2,3 baskets are from Ikea Children's department and I keep all my embellishments, bookbinding threads and adhesives here.

Under the table: More 1,2,3 baskets - to house my stamps, ink pads, punches, sequins, Accessories and stickers for my planners. And papers + sticker sheets are on the right shelf - with bigger plaster boxes that can keep 12x12 papers.

Sorry that this photo is slightly over-exposed. I have all my electronic tools here. Super love my Canon Pixma MG6370 - I normally print my photos in A4 sized or 4R sized semi-gloss paper. This side of the shelf keeps all my washi tapes (on the bottom left), my card stocks, sewing tools and random tools like trimmer, circle cutter, stamp press, eraser carving tools etc.

Close up of the right shelf - I place my Color Shine mist here so that they are more accessible and I realise this method works for me. I used them more as mist and splatter on nmy pages ;) So the key to use you stash is to keep them accessible, and you get to see them so that you use them as frequent.

Close up of my die-cutting machine. I might do a review on these two machines soon ;) Soon, I promise.

I normally place layouts and PL pages that I have completed but yet to keep in album on this rack that I got from Typo. Mini albums are kept here too before I photo'd them. I have yet to find a good solution to keep my mini albums, any ideas?

And this is my favourite spot of my room. This wall has most of the postcards, letters and cards that been sent by all my instagram friends + scrappy friends from all over the world. This reminds me that I am so loved and blessed with so many good friends that I got to know online and share common interest. 

I have just framed this poster from Studio Calico recently. A reminder for me to remember to chase my dreams!

Lastly, I found this very very old stamp rack in my father-in-law's office and this is just perfect for my roller stamps! Love that it is perfect for the stamps but hate that I need one more to keep all my stamps! I have more than what this rack could hold!

Phew! Such a long blog post! I hope you had fun having this scrap room tour with me! Let me know and leave a comment if you have any question.

Happy blog hopping! And  remember to visit Shawna Saucier's blog next! XoXo

Project Life⎪Week 1 & 2 *Citrus Twist Kits*

Hello there! I have a great news to share! Elle's Studio is launching their new collection today and the new items can be found in Elle's Studio online shop here: http://www.shopellesstudio.com/New/ and also at other online stores and  your local scrapbooking stores! These new goodies just started shipping last week, so if your favorite store doesn't have it now, they probably will soon!

Also, the coordinated January stamps are running out real soon, go grab them while they are still available!

To celebrate the launch of Elle's Studio new items, the shop is offering free shipping on orders over $50 for USA (coupon code: 50freeship) and $75 for Canada/International (coupon code: 75freeship) this weekend only -  offer expires 26 January 2014. Coupon code must be used at checkout.

Speaking of Project Life, I am so PROUD that I have completed 48 weeks out of 52 weeks in 2013. Only 4 random weeks behind and I have decided to just moved on to the new album! I am not too worried about the missing weeks because I am pretty sure I have scrap / document some of the important photos in my 12x12. And also, here's a peek of my work desk where I sit here at least 3 hours a day during my lucky days (i.e. someone helps me with Ivan). Now that he is growing up and love exploring (no longer sleeps much as his newborn days), I actually have lesser crafting time.

And today I am also gonna share my Week 1 & 2 Project Life pages with you using Citrus Twist Kits.
p.s.: Since I am sharing two weekly spreads, so this is an extremely photo heavy post ;)

Here's my Week 1 for 2014. My week 1 was only 5 days from 1 Jan to 5 Jan because I didn't want to include 30 & 31 December in my new album. Do you do the same for your new album too? And I have decided to go for simpler PL spreads this year - I am not a minimalist, just make things simpler, less embellies (As I could barely close my 2013 albums) yet still stick to the colourful rainbow scheme which I always love love love. 

Started my week 1 with pretty pastel colours and a lot of fun pictures of Ivan.

A simple Title card is the way to go =)

Week 2 was awful as Ivan been having high fever due to urinary tract infection for the whole week. He had been sleeping so much (like 23 hours day, and spent the next one hour crying) really broke my heart. I wanted to make a not-so-colorful spreads for week two by using a lot of neutral colour pattern papers from the kit. I have no idea why it ended up so colourful >_<

There wasn't much to record in this awful, tiring week as we had run to paediatrician clinic and hospital 4 times. So I used the pink Thickers to write down the sequence of our hospital trip. Definitely NOT fun but somehow I remember to snap some photo to document this week.