Spring Cleaning

Our Ragdoll, Sniffles, wishing all my friends a wonderful Christmas season and New Year ahead!

Last year ended with a great need to have more storage space in my home office and jewelry studio.  After our vacation in Australia, my husband and I decided to shop for furniture.  Since my home office bookshelves are all teakwood, we decided to look for store we got our shelves from but alas, they no longer exist.  A visit to various teak furniture shops drew a blank as they were either too rustic, exotic or workmanship poor (including well known stores). 

We finally found a place that sold what we are happy with.  The past two weeks have been spent clearing out stuff, cleaning and packing up.  It has taken most of my waking hours and I'm still nowhere near the end.  The new furniture will be coming tomorrow and hopefully I can pack things up by the end of the week.

This project has been more major than I imagined.  After Chinese New Year we plan to change all our ceiling fans so another mess will be in store... Anyways, I've been thinking, planning and designing (on paper) the new jewelry I want to make this year and am looking forward to next week when I can (hopefully) begin my work once again.  I know many of you are hoping to visit my studio.  Thank you for being SO patient!

Today I'm posting a couple of photos of the socks I knitted a while back.  I've been knitting all kinds of socks for the past few years.  They make great gifts to friends overseas.

Aren't the colours gorgeous?

I got the sock yarn from the USA.  Bought a whole boxful a couple of years back.  Hoping to resume some knitting this year.

Wanted to show you our other Ragdoll, Lion-O, who loves to sit with Ethan when I'm not available.  Here you can see Lion-O taking over the chair!  In fact, I sometimes wonder if he thinks he's a dog!

Lion-O loves to sleep with support.  He usually stays close by me when I'm working and he knows not to disturb me.  Our friend Felix will be happy to see grandma and grandson thriving in our household.  Thanks for the cats, Felix!  We absolutely love them to bits!!

Until I blog again, do check back ever so often to see what's been happening.  You are most welcome to send in your orders anytime.  Visits to my studio will resume after Chinese New Year since we will be away for a few days.  Have a great week ahead!

Happy 2011 Everyone!

Hi Everyone!  I trust you had a great holiday season with your family and loved ones.  We had an amazing time as a family in Gold Coast and Brisbane.  This was our longest family vacation of 14 days!  Although it rained 9 days out of our 14 days there (and it's supposed to be the Sunshine State!), we still enjoyed the cool air of 18-23 deg C and the 24/7 company of each other.  I must confess after the first week, the adults started getting restless and we looked forward to our free MacDonald's WIFI time each evening to check our mail, read updates on facebook and work... The children, of course, enjoyed watching TV in the evenings (did I mention stores closed around 6pm??)  and walking around the supermarkets (they close at 9pm).  Certainly we mustn't forget the theme parks.  I went on some of the rides with the children (anyone knows of a good psychologist to treat my "post traumatic stress disorder"??  The one I usually go to is suffering from the same disorder at this moment!) and I guess it meant a lot to them that their parents joined them in the fun.

Thank you for your support in my small business the past year.  It has been really fun designing for you.  Thank you too for the new orders coming in.  This week I received 10 custom orders!  Before I start work, I need to paint and re-do our home office and library.  Hopefully I will be able to start work next week but you can still call for custom orders and the shop is open.

Here are some photos taken on our trip.

Keng Mun playing Cooking Mama at the KL airport while waiting for our flight to Gold Coast.

View from our first service apartment at Sunset Paradise Resort.  We were about 100m from the waterfront. 

A lovely bird's nest.  Notice how long her claws are!

At the Tropical Fruit Farm.  Alethea's cracking the macadamia nuts for our snack.

Here's my macadamia nut, perfecrtly cracked.  I had about 5.  They were yummy!

I've never met a sheep this colour before in real life so it was a special treat for me.

The laziest bunch of kangaroos I've ever met!  They just lie there while folks feed them!!

Early one morning in Brisbane, Keng Mun and I took a walk in the Botanical Gardens.  This tree caught my eye because of it's unique shape.

At Whitewater World, this bird was so thirsty, he braved the dangerous toes of Ethan to have a drink!  He was at it for a good 10 minutes, even pecking at Ethan's leg to drink the drops of water there.

Alethea trying her hand at cracking a whip.  Look at the priceless expression on her face!  She was very scared of the loud sound.  In the end she managed a soft crack.

Ethan was quite good at throwing the boomerang.  In fact, he was the only one who could get it to return!  Must be his Ultimate Frisbee training paying off.

A koala and her one-year-old joey.  I simply loved the smell of the eucalyptus trees!

At Whitewater World.  The children were so excited because the sun finally shone through.  Even so, it was cold moving from ride to ride.

View from our service apartment in Brisbane, Oaks iStay City River.  We were on the 15th storey of the 41 storey apartment building.  The Queen St Mall was only 2 streets down from us.

This owl is the same species as the one in the Harry Potter movies.  Really beautiful.  We got front seats at the Birds of Prey show and enjoyed looking at the wonderful creations of God!

Our final destination, Paradise Resort Gold Coast.  This was a hotel style accommodation and we all decided we much preferred service apartments because of the cooking facilities.

View from our 3rd floor hotel room.

My family and I want to wish you a wonderful year ahead with lots of adventures, experiences and learning opportunities.  May I get lots of inspiration to craft new jewelry designs for you!