woodgrain journal + vintage*spoons

found these gorgeous BLUE woodgrain contact sheets. seeing as how i *adore* anything woodgrain, woody, birdie, owls (you get picture), i just had to make a notebook for myself! these are apparently from Holland. there were only 2 rolls left, so i bought both.

need-to-find-MORE. yes. 

stationery always makes school more bearable. and makes me happy anyhow. andrew can attest to that. i have tonnes of stationery at home, but it never seems to be too much!

now, if only i can buy these woodgrain sheets in a nice timber tone...

went for the mgs Aloud concert last night. it was pretty okay. this girl was really cool tho! she's like p5 and she was the only girl who came with her own band. whats more, her band was all guys, waaaaay older than her! bet one of them was her older brother or father (like hannah montana or something!). if i was a younger sister, i would love to have my older brother have a band and let me join as the lead soloist! :D 

maybe since i can't have that, maybe my distant future daughter can. hmm...

okay, some other happy finds and products and purchases!

i miss you andrew.

can't wait to go out with you again.

to go for our long walks and endless meanderings. 

perfect.

*sheryl

teachers' day & crafty*weekend

ah! i know i have neglected this blog for a bit. been rather lazy. anyhow, here is a snapshot of what i've been up to lately...

yesterday, sherwin and i were doing teachers' day presents! he did mini chalkboard tags. i helped mom make 10 purse notebooks - stamped "happy teachers day 2008" on all, one letter at a time, plus 20 tags with the same type of stamping + i stamped the front of each little paper bag. the tags and these beautiful shell spoons were put inside the paper bag. i forgot to take pictures of the completed purse books in their individual mesh bags, but the last picture in the collage shows how the notebook looks like. and sherwin is very proud of his Ben 10 omitrix. its quite impressive really, looks like just like the real thing in the cartoon. sounds kinda oxymoronic. hmm.

last week i made this double-lined pouch for andrew. and i hand-stitched 6 little booklets. its pretty big, as in it can fit his Bible, story book, the mini booklets and some pens. i'm pretty happy with the result. this is by far the nicest, most professional looking pouch that i've made so far. not saying that it is excellent. but its not too shabby. (:

and andrew passed me his acrylic paints! haven't really got down to using them yet, but i'm going to try and do so this weekend! (:

met up with mel for lunch after school (as in after relief teaching). we had yummy hotdogs from 1901. that one is the ny chicken. reaaaaaally yummy. but eating hotdogs always reminds me of ikea. i wanna go ikea. ):

crafty*weekend

okay! so yesterday was my last day of relief teaching! so i finally have some time to do crafty stuff. here's the list:

• chalkboard paint and cheeseboards. intending to paint them. very inspired by elsie and enimsay designs!
• crop-a-dile (finally, i know!) and the lovely alpha stamps (which i suddenly realise i'm so dependent on! haha). 
• recycled journal. this one is by donna, she has a how-to-video. looked interesting so i decided to try it too! so far i've only got the base down. need to paint the pages soon. (:
• mom has a stack of journals for me to do up.
• i'm going to try decorating them with these lovely prints.
• mom bought a truckload of scrap stuff for me from philippines. 
  

yupp! lots and lots to do! and here are some envelopes i did for squiggletown! (:

ttfn!

*sheryl

Samsung Soul EXTREME

haha. i *love* the giant samsung. you know what the coolest thing is? we both actually have the samsung soul. this is like the version for giants! we took photos with giant crocs too. so me i had one foot in the giant cros and the other wearing normal shoes. funny. its like a collection of items for giants. hmm...

and a scrapbook for lianne. she left for a 6 month exchange programme. she's going to somewhere in europe i think...

and guess what?! i finally managed to get a copy of my class photo from last year! (: asked one of the kids to bring it so i could scan a copy :D actually the teachers are supposed to get a complimentary copy. but i left before the photos got delivered. but i'm very happy with a scanned copy. 

 ttfn!

*sheryl

my grab bag + what is me (now)

i was reading the ck mag, and ali edwards was talking about making mini albums on the go. so one of the things she suggested was compiling a little bag of essentials so that scrapbooking on the go wouldn't be such a put off because of the need to pack the stuff. so i decided to share what i think essentials are for me. at the moment, i'm really into labels, journaling tags and tabs. i recently (FINALLY) got some tag and tab punches! been waiting forever to get some. haha. so i spent some time yesterday going through my smaller scraps to punch some tags and tabs. (: andrew was really sweet and helped. so i've got some jam and candy jars and my uber cute robot tin. using those to house the tabs and tags. so naturally my grab bag has some tags and tabs too. ((:

sheryl's grab bag:

• labels
• tabs
• tags
• glue stick
• tape glue
• pva glue
• pen knife
• scissors
• cutting mat
• metal ruler
• white signo
• pencil (eraser)

this doesn't include my pencil case which has my other bits of stationery like pens and all. so the grab bag i choose has two compartments. a larger (almost A4 size) compartment, which i'll put the bits of my project in and the smaller compartment where my essentials will go. note i didn't put items that would cost me too much, because since its on the go, there is the possibility that i would lose some stuff. but if i were going for a class or a crop session, i'd prolly bring my cutterbee (penknife) and honeybee (scissors) and perhaps even my dymo :p 

what is me now (in terms of craft)?

(note: i used wordle for this, having some trouble with making it larger, so clicking on the picture will direct you to the wordle website where you will see a large version of this)

*sheryl

pen geek

i'm such a pen geek! love love looooooove pens. got tonnes but it never seems enough. bought some more new ones yesterday. love the colours. the pinks-orange-yellow hues! plus the fact that these weren't the usual pinks and oranges that are sold. the unique colours makes them keepers!

*sheryl

henderson waves

on national day, my family went for a walk around henderson waves. it was really great, but slightly rushed cos we woke up late and met with the blazing midday sun, plus the fact that san had tuition in the afternoon. but it was really nice. i got some great pictures! mostly nature. but pretty nonetheless. makes me want to go for long walks.

*sheryl

wishing for Christmas...

i know its kinda early, but i'm wishing for Christmas already. and a white one at that!

looking at my snowglobe helps me pretend Christmas is coming. (: love the happy festive mood, the shopping, the gift-giving, the exchange of goodwill and most importantly the reminder of Christ's birth.

*sheryl

happy national day Singapore!

found these really cute mouse staplers. since this year is the year of the rat (according to the chinese zodiac) and national day is tmr and my parents are born in the year of the rat, thought they might like this. thought it was pretty apt. haha. anyhow, sometimes its fun to give gifts for no reason. but in case they need a reason i'll say its their national day present.

sidetrack: see behind the mice? the margarita bottle? its filled with the thumbtacks for my notice board. thought it'd be neat to use the bottle instead of some normal jar. (:

*sheryl

oakley: i want this....or that...

Hello everybody(if there's even anyone looking at this blog at all)
so sorry for the long due post.
as you guys can see, Sheryl's back to SKPS. and i do kinda miss the place since i taught there before. I dont think the kids will remember and love me like they do to Sheryl though. was never the teacher who connects? more of doing my job and keeping them quiet. weird thing is, GOD seem to want me to teach. Right now in NS, i'm actually a medical instructor in the NAVY so i do alot of teaching, conducting of courses. I actually enjoy teacher and like the fact that i always find ways to teach my audiences easier way to remember things and the logic of doing them. I taught the BMT batch today and despite them being mono intake, they were very co operative and eager to learn, so thank God for that. (i'm not saying that mono intakes are bad people, they just tend to be more rowdy? but i like them better than the A levels's, they are more up front and dont carry balls as much)

but one thing i dont get is, i didnt really enjoy teaching while in SKPS? i actually dreaded going to school every morning? no idea if its the waking early part, the lack of preparation or the surprises that comes along the way (unlike Sheryl who puts in alot of effort to prepare for her lessons and to make them bloody interesting for the kids, its not surprising that they love her)

ah, i dont know. right now, i wish i could open a gym? like a franchise of GOLD's gym? that'd be awesome, having a job that is also my passion(: but what percentage of the people actually have a job that they love?

Right now, i'm actually trying a new training concept called the "x reps"(just type X reps in google to find out more). the amount of reading is simply amazing (bodybuilders are actually very intellectual people k? they do frontier nutrition concepts more than nutritionists). do read up if you are interested. i'm still not sure if its working for me, its surprisingly more difficult a concept to grasp than i thought.

thinking of taking a off day from work tomorrow, not sure if i should. would love to spend a complete day with Sheryl. haven been able to due to duties.

alright, that's all for rantings.


ps: check out this up and coming natural bodybuiler , Jim Cordova. his genetics are simply awesome. (pic attached)

back to skps

went back to skps to teach for this august hols. my ex-students are so adorable! when i came in unexpectedly to relief their class, they were extremely co-operative and really helped me to keep the class noise level down. plus! they seemed really excited to see me. really warmed the cockles of my heart. its not like they were complete angels, but they were the first to go "shushhhh!!" to the rest of their classmates. while i enjoyed catching up with them, i didn't expect to take pictures with them. these pictures were taken during the second last lesson of the day. was in this primary 2 class. i taught some of them art last year when they were in p1. they were so sweet, wanted to take pictures with me and asked if i could print it out for them. i was more than happy to do so. here are some of the pictures: -

i took over a malay mother tongue teacher today. and so i took primary 1, 2 and 3 classes. and my form class last year was p2. so i managed to see some of my students who are in p2 and p3 now. the p1 pupils were really cute tho. my colleague took this malay teacher's timetable yesterday and she told me today i can actually just bring a book to read cos they don't have any work to do. but cos i knew these kids, i decided to catch up with them instead. its really interesting to see how much they have grown and what interests them now. the p3 pupils are just starting science and one of the things they are learning now is cycles - like from a egg, larvae, pupa, insect. so most of them got a container with a mealworm inside which i learnt will grow into a beetle in time. the boys especially were very fond of playing with the mealworm, taking it out of the container and handling it. the girls, some were quite squeamish about it. the boys were telling me how its like playing with centipedes which i told them were poisonous. but they said they didn't get bitten. it reminded me of how when i was in p3 myself and we used to go to the peranakan garden and pick up millipedes to play with. we'd pick it up and put it on precarious ledges or let it run along our hands. its weird how i was so fearless in the past. RIGHT now. right now if i were asked to do that, i'm not sure i'd dare. looking at the kids play with the mealworm, i wasn't too sure if i'd be able to pick it up like they did. 

but the main thing is just being with them and actually learning from them. for the p1 and p3 class, i played hangman with them. but i gave them the option of doing their own stuff as well. its then that you see the types of kids that make-up the class. some were talking, drawing, some were even doing their own homework?!! can you believe it? like in p1 and they were doing their own work, on their own. the p2 class was really small - only 16 kids. they were so-oooo adorable! they were playing restaurant! they split themselves into a sort of 2 groups and had two friendly rival restaurants! so i decided to play along with them - i was the customer cum restaurant reviewer. so part of the stars that i was giving them was for the food they prepared (they drew the food or used erasers and other stationery  to improvise), the presentation (part of which i told them included noise level. haha. sneaky huh, so they werent too noisy.) and service. very fun. so i got a little break from school. tmr, next monday, thursday and friday i don't have to go to school. because of national day celebrations and psle oral. but just as well. i do need a bit of break to gather my thoughts and settle down. 

i kinda plunged straight into work the moment school ended. so i didnt set goals for myself. like things i want to accomplish. i do know that part of it is strengthening my spiritual walk, especially since i'm in the yf camp committee - i need to make sure i am right with God before i can help plan such events. and the other stuff i want to do is to really start crafting! especially beading and scrapbooking. 

speaking of which, the weekend i ended my exams, i had this sudden urge to spring clean my room in a day (which frankly is near impossible). so i had to pare it down to just my craft area. before that, i had a lot of cute (but small) containers with everything separated and displayed. while it was nice aesthetically, but it was pretty cumbersome. like i had all these little bottles and nooks and crannies to shift before i can get something from the back. and it was a magnet for dust! plus i wasn't too happy about the little dark corners i was providing for potential beetles / lizards / cockroaches. *bleagh* so! i decided i needed an ikea field trip! haha. daddy was kind enough to bring me there after yf. so after we left sherwin at smalland (the play area for kiddies), within an hour we had dinner (naturally i had meatballs and coffee) and i bought almost $60 worth of containers to supplement the existing containers i already had. so then i started using these wonderfully colourful containers instead and used dymo to label! :D

okay, so watch out for some serious crafting coming up this weekend! (:

*sheryl