Peace - SGD 45 - Sold

10mm new jade carved roses with semi-precious rondelle clusters (garnet, tourmaline, carnelian, peridot) , tiny pale pink freshwater pearls, gold-tone metal leaves, faceted deep red garnet and citrine briolettes. Drop is about 3.5cm from goldfilled hooks.

Mandarin Rose - SGD 45 (only pair) - Sold

10mm orange aventurine carved roses with semi-precious rondelle clusters (red garnet, peridot, tourmaline, carnelian) and chalcedony puffy heart briolettes.
Drop is 3.5cm from goldfilled hooks.

Ruyi - SGD 75 - Sold

I did up this colourful drop cluster of petite tourmaline flat brios a while back but could never quite finish the piece until I dug up this lone jade donut which would go perfectly with them! A pretty goldfilled leaf charm completes this oriental charmer ~ pendant drop is 5cm on a 16" goldfilled chain.

Prosperous Fishies II - SGD 45 - only pair

Managed to dig up another pair of chinois-inspired tenshas and another pair of jade fishies, this time with a darker tinge of green for some contrast. Drop is 4.5cm from goldfilled hooks~

Willow Frond - SGD 45 (only pair) - Sold

The belly is now 37 weeks so not long now! He's not a small baby so we're psyching up for his arrival anytime. We've been pretty occupied with sorting out the nursery and couldn't be more pleased that the long-awaited cot finally turned up!! For a while we thought he might have to fit in our chest of drawers haha. And then came days of baby laundering ~ our weekends were burnt just washing and ironing and reorganizing the kitchen for bottles and other baby equipment. It was so adorable seeing the little booties and rompers hanging out to dry that it made up for all that time spent doing laundry :)

Sadly I've had to stop playing with my beads cos the belly's too big and uncomfortable to fit at the work desk. It doesn't help that the minute I sit there, he keeps squirming nonstop until I have to go lie down. But thankfully I was able to squeeze out pockets of time here and there so here are some new earrings just in time for Chinese New Year! They are all specially priced at $45 for the festive season :)

Willow Frond

Cherry quartz carved roses and tourmaline clusters atop jade drops with petite leaves.
Drop is 3.8cm from goldfilled hooks.

Prosperous Fishies - SGD 45 (only pair) - Sold

12mm goldfish tensha rounds with little semi-precious clusters (ruby, peridot, tourmaline, carnelian) and cute 14mm pale jade fishies. Drop is 4.5cm from goldfilled hooks.

Mandarin Garnet - SGD 45 - Sold

10mm orange aventurine carved roses with semi-precious rondelle clusters (red garnet, tourmaline, carnelian, emerald) and deep red garnet 10x7mm teardrop briolettes.
Drop is 3.5cm from goldfilled hooks.

Jade Garnet - SGD 45 (only pair) - Sold

10mm new jade carved roses with semi-precious rondelle clusters (red garnet, tourmaline, carnelian, emerald) and deep red garnet 10x7mm teardrop briolettes.

Drop is 3cm from goldfilled hooks.

Baby Shower!

We finally had the baby shower on Saturday after having to postpone it by a week due to the unfortunate accident I had. It was really just an excuse to have our close friends over and shower us with gifts hahaha! Thank you guys for your presence and for putting up with our silly games! We are so blessed to have friends like you!

Preparing for the shower

Packing the macaroon favours

Don't the colours look bright and chirpy?

Mini Dumbo welcomes guests at the door

Guests were invited to pen notes and wishes for the little one

Xin customised a gorgeous mobile for the nursery!
We used it to decorate the dining area for the shower :)

Christmas all over again!

Demonstrating how the cloth diapers work
That teddy is older than I am!

Our unfortunate participants in the diaper-changing game

Neon green?! Hunny what were you thinking??

Pressie-opening time!

The peek-a-boo piano toy that had everyone going oohh and aahh

Adorable embellished tees from Chelsea our artistic friend!

We also had "Mommy's Boy" and "Got Milk?" tees to complete the set.

My favourite Lana cake!

Snooze time. zzzzz.

Baby Nat all snug and cosy and fast asleep

The cutest wee feet

Impromptu bottle ad haha

Thank you for visiting! Please take home a token of our appreciation.

And of cos the latest belly update~
When will we finally get to see you oh little one?

(you're getting pretty heavy you know!)

More Christmas pictures

I have no idea we took so many pictures over Christmas! Guess I was more trigger happy than I thought haha! I half-wish we still had our Sony T10 (the camera that got snitched in Bangkok) so maybe the photos would have turned out better and I wouldn't have to spend hours altering them into something more decent. Oh well... we make do with what we have, though I am making sure we borrow something good for the birth!

Dec 28th 2008

What do you need when making good old brandy butter?

A good old-fashioned cookbook of cos!

And nothing beats the heirloom of a treasure recipe book that the hubster smuggled from home when he moved out here. If you look carefully, you can see the year his mommy got it from her school - 1963!

We brought Matt's homemade brandy butter to the Chngs for yet again another round of face-stuffing. This is what happens when you have too much leftover turkey and pudding. You invite less fussy friends over to help clear the fridge.

Having the Challengers at any Christmas feast always entails being coerced into following the Challenger tradition of having Christmas crackers and wearing funny paper crowns throughout dinner. Here Matt is demonstrating how the crackers worked. Everyone was really game so it was a great laugh! I'm just glad I got to work the camera so no funny shots of me haha!

Goodbye 2008 and hello 2009!

This is probably not the cheeriest news to share on the first day of the new year but oh well, it is a NEW year after all! And a time for fresh beginnings... and maybe another miracle story haha :) As some of our friends may have already heard, I was involved in a 5 car accident pile-up a few days ago on the highway as a cab passenger (we were the 5th vehicle) and had to be admitted to a hospital for contractions that brought on the risk of preterm labour. I shall not go into details here but let's just say I didn't know I was having contractions at all!! Let alone know that they were coming at 2-3 minutes apart! It was not fun at all being put under close observation in the delivery suite being poked and pricked by needles that were bigger than your veins.

We really thank God that the little one was never under serious threat - his heartbeat was strong and steady - it was more the risk of him being born early at 34 weeks so I had to be given incredibly painful steroid jabs to mature his lungs in case that was to happen. Thankfully the medication finally kicked in and along with the wonderful care of the doctors and nurses in charge of my condition, we were well enough to be discharged yesterday on new year's eve so we could at least usher in 2009 in the comfort of our home (and be free of needles!!!).

Thank you for all your prayers and kind wishes, we know that it is truly by the grace of God that protected us so that we were able to emerge relatively unscathed save for a bit of a scare. The incident also showed us how unprepared we were if the wee one were to say hello now so yeah, time to make sure we're really really really ready for his arrival! Another good thing that came out of it was getting a foretaste of how contractions felt like so I would know when the time came :)

I am still under strict house rest so I apologise if I am unable to reply correspondences as quick as I'd like to, but I will be checking my mail as and when the hubster-dictator-nurse allows me to actually get out of bed. (yes he is that strict!) 2008 may have ended on a more dramatic note than we anticipated but we are really looking forward to the new year and our soon-to-be-here little bundle of joy!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday too and a great start to the new year!

(and remember to always always wear seatbelts! Trust me.)