Blessed Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!

My family and I spent 4 days in Ho Chi Minh City.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and plan to go back.  Lady Inspiration came back with me so I'll be sitting down to make some new designs.  I will only start work on orders next week.  In the meantime, here are some photos of our trip.

The first thing that greeted us was the thousands of motorcycles on the road.  This is the normal mode of transportation for the people.  Some motorcycles had 2 adults and 2 children on it!  Weaving in and out of traffic takes a cyclist with nerves of steel!

We saw people carrying fridges, glass panels, doors and this man carrying steel bars!

In Ho Chi Minh City, the power cables are external.  We saw this man laying more cables!

More cables...

At the crossroads where the cables seem to be a mess.

We saw a lot of street vendors who were working really hard trying to sell their wares.

Street food stores are very common.

The locals everywhere seemed to be sitting on the sides of the streets eating their lunches and dinners, oblivious to the traffic and smog around them.

Ho Chi Minh City has some French influence so some of their older buildings are distinctly different.  Here's the Central Post Office.  Really quite beautiful.

Our tour of the Mekong Delta.  This was the suspension bridge we had to cross to go on land for our orchard and factory tour.

At the honey farm.

We rode on the pony and buggy to get to our cultural destination where we listened to traditional southern Vietnam music and tasted their tropical fruits grown on the farm.

A street vendor peeling fresh lotus seeds from the pods.

Cheng Nam and Cecilia, our very hospitable and gracious hosts during our stay.

Goodbye, Ho Chi Minh City!

The month of December...

I've been baking, baking, baking for friends.  This year I made more Christmas fruitcakes, cookies and American carrot cakes than last year.  My daughter commented that our kitchen looks like a bakery! 

In total, I must have baked more than 100 tubs of cornflakes, coconut, rum and raisin, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and coffee cookies.  Many were packed as gifts for family and friends.

American carrot cake with lots of pineapples, currants, walnuts and carrots!  I told my daughter that this is a healthy snack because of all the fruits and vegetable we can get in this moist, dense cake.  The Philadelphia Cream Cheese frosting is not too sweet, just a thin layer and topped with a few Hershey's chocolate chips!

In December we decided we needed to learn how to run properly (without injury) so joined my physiotherapist, Gino Ng, in his running club where he teaches Chi running. It was my first experience in running.  It was amazing!  No knee or ankle pain!  It was also fun running in a group from Amoy Street to the Esplanade.

 Gino was a former national triathlete, 2-time Singapore National Triathlon champion (2000-2001), National Duathlon champion (2001), 9-time winner of the National Vertical Marathon (1998-2001, 2004-2005, 2007-2009) and was also placed 4th at the 2001 Asian Duathlon Championships in Hong Kong and made several podium finishes in the Asian Cup Triathlon Series events over the years while holding down a full time job as a physiotherapist.  Check out his website at http://www.sportssolutions.com.sg/.

Gino has also been a source of encouragement to me in my journey of injury and recovery this year.  If not for him, I would probably have just given up and given in. Thanks, Gino!

This year we're thankful that Alethea has grown up as a young lady as well as a beautiful dancer. Come January she'll be starting Year 3 at School of the Arts (aka SOTA) where her art form is ballet.

Alethea with her classmate Janice (who's also from SOTA), at rehearsals.

Beautiful lines and extensions!  (Proud Mum speaking)

Alethea with her Dance Station friends and director, Ms Rosalind Ong at the Barker Road Methodist Church's Christmas concert. 

To rest from the year's work and season's busy-ness, I will be taking a break from jewelry designing until the beginning of next year. Thank you to all my old and new friends who have supported me this year.  I have really enjoyed making jewelry for you! Looking forward to a new year of more colours, textures and designs!  May this Christmas season make us more aware of what is important in our lives and lead us to cherish our relationships. Blessed Christmas, everyone!

Freeform Beadwork Embroidery

I spent 4 days working on my freeform bead embroidery necklace.  It was really fun working out the main shape, choosing the main gemstone cabachon and then finding Japanese glass seed beads to bring out the colours.  Now I'll wait for a while for Lady inspiration to visit me!  This necklace will be part of my private collection. 

Some of the beads I used.  I also used lots of freshwater pearls and paua shells.

The completed main part of the necklace!