I finally got down to scrapping – since my last layout in November!! In the beginning, it did take off rather slowly and with some difficulty but after tinkering with it for a few days, it became a whole lot easier! Of course it helps to have great photos to scrap.

I used a mix of old and new supplies on this layout. I took the opportunity to dig up some old stash such as the Making Memories metal clip, Maya Road Sheer Journalling Tag and Unity Stamps.

My Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint has also been getting a lot of love lately.

Pictures are of the cutest baby Tya … such a sweetie pie she is and what a blessing to her parents Agnes and Navin.

On another note, we attended Erin’s 7th birthday party recently and here are some photos…

Have a good week and thanks for stopping by!!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post. It’s heartening to see so many of you still visiting this blog despite the lack of updates. Thank you so much!

Here’s the project I promised to share… it’s a Sizzix project for my LSS, Made With Love. All dies are available at Made With Love now.

The task was to create a design that was bold using red and black and I had fun doing this project.

All the die-cuts you see on this project is Sizzix, even the base of the mini album!

I used lots of glossy accent on the die-cuts to make them stand out against the black background.

That’s all for now. I’ll be preparing for another move in 3 weeks’ time but it’ll be a more permanent place this time and I’m soooo looking forward to scrapping again!

We celebrated Hannah’s birthday last Saturday with a big bash. We’ve been planning it for some time now and she has been looking forward to the party for the longest time. We settled on a Tinkerbell theme and had party supplies shipped in from the U.S.

We still can’t believe 7 years have gone by so quickly. I still look at her and see her as my ‘little baby’. Guess moms and dads will always look at their children that way, no matter how old they get, huh?

Anyway, here are some pics from that wonderful day…

This is the birthday cake – custom ordered cupcakes which are oooh sooo pretty!!

You can see more pictures here.

I finally scrapped some yesterday after more than 2 months. I’m glad things are settled down somewhat and I can get back to crafting. Will be back tomorrow to share the project.

I admit I haven’t been shooting as often as I would like to, and I REALLY SHOULD! But here are some random shots from the past week.

We celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday last week with a treat to a nice Italian restaurant.

The beef carpaccio was YUMMY!!!

As was this risotto.

The kids had pizza and they looked happy…

These are some pictures taken on Sunday at church…

Since we said ‘I do’ to each other. In a way, it seems to have gone by really quickly but there were definitely the tough times and maybe one or two instances when we thought we wouldn’t make it to this day. But we persevered and here we are today….

So on this day, I just want to tell you…

J’s colleague, Hung and his wife, invited our family to a house-warming last night. A nice, cozy home about 5mins drive from where we are.

After we arrived, I soon found out the cook in the family was Hung. I am rather impressed with many husbands these days, who seem to be the one cooking… and they’re great at it too! So I couldn’t resist snooping around the kitchen for these…

The host had some help after awhile…Rob, Shankar and Shankar’s wife and of course, J.

Before long, the YUMMY food made it to the table. Check it out…

A variety of cheeses.

Heavenly shrimps sauteed with garlic, olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and white wine.

Jackie’s potato salad.

Roasted lamb leg with roasted veggies. And Vietnamese spring rolls (which I didn’t manage to get a picture of ). Hung’s Vietnamese, you see.

But what’s a party without good company right? Here are pictures of the guests (big and little ).

And I leave you with pictures of the host and his lovely wife… thanks for having us over!

Yup, we’ve been here in Switzerland 5 months now and we haven’t scaled any mountain yet. So last Saturday, we decided to go up Mount Pilatu.

We started out on a 2hr train ride to Luzern.

Luzern is a big city in Switzerland, much like Zurich.

and a city of cyclists, like many Switzerland towns and cities.

Once we exited from the train station, we saw a street market by the old bridge with peddlers selling fruit, flowers, breads and more…

After a short bus ride and a hike, we arrived at the cable car station to begin our ascent to Mount Pilatus.

As we began our ascent, we got a good view of the city of Luzern.

We saw a few hikers hiking up the mountain but check out this guy… it’s almost a 45degrees slope!!

Visibility was already getting poor by this stage and I could only manage a couple of shots… which was a pity because I think on a clear day, I would be able to take a picture of Lake Luzern below.

After the guys had their fun and we walked around a bit, it was time to get on the gondola to the peak.

And so, after another 5mins in the gondola, we arrived at the peak of Mount Pilatus.

Weird that there deck chairs… but here are the kids having some fun.

And Jon had his own fun too, a self-service beer tap for 3CHF per glass.

After lunch and a short walk around, it was time to leave. By the time we were at the peak, visibility was only about 3 metres and it started drizzling as well so I couldn’t capture any pictures of the view from the mountain.   We took the cog train down the mountain.. the world’s steepest cog railway train by the way.

And then on a boat across Lake Luzern back to the Luzern Bahnhof.

The boat ride took us 1.5hrs!! And by the time we got home, it was 8pm and we were all bushed. It was fun though… hopefully we get to visit a snow-capped mountain next. And as usual, I want to leave you with some favourite pictures of the day.

Hope you enjoyed this (picture-intensive) post. Have a great week ahead!

This is gonna be quite a picture-intensive post simply because Venice is truly beautiful and I couldn’t resist taking all those pictures.

It was a 3hr train ride from Florence but as we approached, I knew it was just going to be wonderful… clear blue skies and Venice’s world-famous lagoon and canals. This was the view from the train as we were approaching Santa Lucia railway station.

Santa Lucia station

And I’m sooo glad we splurged a bit on the hotel we chose in Venice. It made the visit all the more memorable. We stayed a the Ca’Gottardi boutique hotel… and it was worth every penny. Our room was spacious and well-decorated…

Venice is still one of the most interesting and lovely places in the world. This sanctuary on a lagoon is virtually the same as it was six hundred years ago, which adds to the fascinating character. And the best way is still by taking the vaporetti (water buses) which ply the Grand Canal. And here’s where all the photos come in.. Enjoy!

It was just amazing to see the different styles of architecture as you travel down the canal… no wonder Venice remains one of the most popular cities in the world to visit!

The famed Gondola ride

Rialto Bridge

San Giorgio Maggiore Island

Did you know that the city Venice stretches over 118 small islands?

So once we set foot on land once again, we headed to Piazza San Marco… Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark’s Square, is the principal square of Venice. As the central landmark and gathering place for Venice, Piazza San Marco is extremely popular with tourists, photographers and Venetian pigeons.

Here are more pictures from our exploring on foot (and if you haven’t realised, Venice is a car-free city! )

One of the many, many shops selling Venetian masks. They are a centuries-old tradition in Venice. Worn during the Carnevale (the Carnival of Venice, elsewhere known as Mardi Gras), they come in all different colors and they can be full-face masks or eye masks. Here is Miss H picking the one she likes. :p

Well, that concludes Venice. I loved the city although I think some may think it’s just over-hyped. And I don’t think there will be a blog post on Milan, we had a short stop-over there (about 2 hours) to grab lunch and have a break from the long train journey. So, THIS IS IT! We had a great time in Italy and hope you had fun ‘going’ on this trip with us. And my apologies for the lack of photos of me, haha, I’m the official family photographer… until I can train someone in the family to do it! And oh yes, you can see the almost 500 pictures of our whole trip here.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Before I continue with today’s post, I just want to thank those who left comments on the previous posts.. so glad to be able to share our trip with you and that you have been enjoying these recounts. So.. our next stop was…

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. The city lies on the Arno River and is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, especially for its art and architecture.

We arrived at Florence by train and our first was to find our hotel, but it wasn’t as easy as we thought.. just look at this…

It was a tight network of roads and small streets around the city centre and our hotel was located on one of these obscure streets. Took us more than half and hour to find it even though we had a map in hand! After we had FINALLY settled our bags, we were out on the streets again.

The best-known site and crowning architectural jewel of Florence is the domed cathedral of the city, Santa Maria del Fiore known as The Duomo. The dome, 600 years after its completion, is still the largest dome built in brick and mortar in the world.

Also in the heart of the city is the Piazza della Signoria which is an L-shaped square.

Here are some of the eye-catching statues in the Piazza…

Bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I (1594)

Hercules and Cacus (1533)

Fountain of Neptune (1575)

There is also a replica of Michelangelo’s David (which I did not manage to capture).

And a bit of interesting history about this square… In 1497 Girolamo Savonarola and his followers carried out on this square the famous Bonfire of the Vanities, burning in a large pile books, gaming tables, fine dresses, and works of poets. In front of the fountain of Neptune, this round marble plaque marks the exact spot where Girolamo Savonarola was hanged and burned on May 23, 1498.

The Arno River which cuts through the old part of the city, is as much a character in Florentine history as many of the men who lived there. Historically, the locals have had a love-hate relationship with the Arno — which alternated from nourishing the city with commerce, and destroying it by flood.

One of the bridges in particular stands out as being unique — The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), whose most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts. I think I have never seen so many jewelery shops at one place before. The whole bridge was lined with them.

Here are some pics we took on the bridge…

And so that concludes our visit to Florence, before I end this post, just want to share my 2 favourite photos taken in Florence. Nope, it wasn’t of any landmark but of Miss H of course! As a sidenote, I do wish E would be as enthusiastic about posing for mummy as his sister.

Day 4 on our trip to Italy and we headed for Siena.

Siena is a medieval city of brick. From a vantage point such as the Palazzo Pubblico’s tower, its sea of roof tiles blends into a landscape of steep, twisting stone alleys. This cityscape hides dozens of Gothic palaces and pastry shops galore, unseen neighborhood rivalries, and altarpieces of unsurpassed beauty.

Of course the steep hills and narrow streets were no mean feat to navigate. And as said in our guide, there is no shortcut to get from one place to another in Siena, and there are no buses in these narrow streets. After arriving, first stop was to find food!

This is where we had lunch… funny name for a restaurant, ain’t it? And I had my Carpaccio… yumm!

With only one day in the city, we wasted no time in checking in out. After we had the luggages placed in the room, we went out exploring.

There were streets lined with shops and cafes… and especially these specialty food shops. I didn’t have much time to shop but I did get some stuff from here. How could I resist?

One of the attractions in Siena is the Piazza del Campo, hailed as one of Europe’s most beautiful medieval squares.

It was beautiful, couples and families out strolling and sitting around. We sat for a while too and E had fun with the pigeons. This was also where I captured probably my fav shots of the whole trip.

Here’s an aerial view of the Piazza I took off the internet… beautiful isn’t it?

And this is the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) which is a palace in the city of Siena.

The medieval cathedral in Siena is the Duomo. It is distinctive in it’s black and white tiles on it’s facade.

And you know what?? I didn’t get a picture of the full building, so here’s one I found.

We managed to see the major sites by the end of the day and early next morning, we would be on the train to Florence. In all, I loved Siena. It was quaint and different from the cities we’ve visited so far.