NYC and City Crafter Challenge Blog Week 381 ~ Colorful Birds

I went to NYC last week, to see little Alfie Coconut....

he is as cute as can be, I spent a lot of time at Dolce's apartment with Alfie while Dolce is at work, he sure is happy that I am there.

We stay at a hotel on the upper west side, just a few steps from The Dakota....

The Dakota Apartments is famous as the home of the John Lennon from 1973 to his murder outside the building in 1980.

I also went to the Strawberry Fields in Central Park, it was named after the Beatles' song Strawberry Fields Forever written by John Lennon.

This time we used a pet sitter for Papi recommended by our neighbor Bob. It didn't turn out well, it really DIDN"T!!!!!

My poor baby...

Well, Bob uses Joy, the pet sitter when he travels, which is not very often, he only has good things to say about Joy, so we didn't even hesitate, we called Joy a few days before our trip and she said OK right away, when she arrived, we told her that we don't wear shoes at home, so she did take off her shoes. And she also told us that she doesn't want to use our alarm system, well, she will be the one staying in our house for 4 days while we are gone, so we leave it to her. What she didn't know is that we have a pet cube, a pet camera where I used to see Papi while I am not at home with him, and for the kids when they want to see Papi too. It shocked me to death when the first thing I saw Wednesday morning, I saw Joy pushes Papi real hard when he stand up and watch her prepared her food, and then Papi was very scared..............

My heart was bleeding when I saw that, sop sop....

And that is no all, she wore her shoes around the house, and worst thing is, she invited different people to our house at least 4 different times. WHAT ON EARTH IS SHE THINKING?????? Not only she wore her shoes, all her friends walk on our clean carpet with their shoes on, Oh my, I was about to explode, we keep our house very clean, and then someone who supposed to pet sit and house sit (we didn't really need a house sitter), but this is what she does, she stay over when she pet sit.

She also lied to me that Papi eats well, I know my dog, and I watched from the video that Papi's bowl is full as she texted me and said:" Papi did very well, he finished all his food and I filled it up again, and then he ate it all up again" What a lier!

When we came home, we said nothing, we just pay her and hope she get out as soon as possible, everything just feels very different for both of us, we both feel that the house is very dirty, and that we were violated. Later, we found out that at least two of the people that came over was someone who stay two houses away, we have not talk to this couple because DH said when we first move to Vegas, he tried to say hello to them but they didn't response, and then 7 years went by, we don't really see them out of the house much, in fact, I don't even know how they look like. How would you feel that a neighbor that whom you have not really "met" or know, come into your house and have a house tour when you are not home, who invited them? who give them the right to come into our house knowing that we are not home? I just want to YELL OUT LOUD....... what is going on????????

SIGH...........

First thing we do the next morning is to change all our locks on the doors.

When you have someone at your house for a few days, and then found out that is one that cannot be trusted, and invited different people who you do not know to your house as if that is HER house, this is the least we can do!

.........

I better talk about happy things or I will explode!

This week at....

City Crafter Challenge Blog

The theme is Colorful Birds, check out challenge details HERE!

Since it is holiday cards, I try to make a few more, with different patterned paper...

The stamps I used is a set called Song Bird by Papertrey Ink

Hope you could join in the fun this week at....

City Crafter Challenge Blog

Hello Fall

Warm and Cozy

  

 source

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Happy Fall!!!!!

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Happy Birthday Lucille!!!!

This is a birthday card I made for Lucille.

Happy Birthday Lucille!!!!!

Wishing you a fabulous day and many many more ahead!

The cute animals are MamaElephant, a stamp set called Tandem Ride.

I enjoyed coloring them with my Copics Markers.

other supplies on this project are -

Balloon die - My Creative Time

Frame Die - Papertrey Ink

Sentiment - Papertrey Ink

Patterned paper - Melissa Francis Kitschy Kitchen paper pad.

City Crafter Challenge Blog Week 380 ~ Apples Everywhere

This week at....

City Crafter Challenge Blog

The theme is Apples Everywhere, check out challenge details HERE!

I used a very old PTI stamp set....

the sentiment is also from PTI, the card base die is from MFT.

Come play along with us!

City Crafter Challenge Blog

Speaking of apples, I have been making these apple cozy on my trips, road trips or the long 17 hours flight to Singapore.... I made 28 of them so far

my aim is to get to 25 by end of the school year, and I am giving one each to the students in my class this year, I guess I have no problem reaching that target! : )

Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

My recent new love is this Tea Time stamp set from Altenew.

Perfect to play along with...

2017 Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

the scalloped frame die is from Papertrey Ink

You still have time to play along with

2017 Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop! Check it out!

PTI Create Along With Us (September 2017)

It is pretty rare for me to do a second post in the week these days, but I realized that I am quite far behind my Christmas card, so when I saw this card from Wanda Guess for Papertrey Ink September release, I just had to play along.....

  

Click HERE to see the original post from Wanda

I was inspired by the holiday background and white embossing on kraft paper....

 

the stamps and sentiment stamp I used on this card are both from Papertrey Ink

I am linking this to....

Create Along With Us (September 2017)

City Crafter Challenge Blog Week 379 ~ I know what you did last summer.

This week at...

City Crafter Challenge Blog

The theme is I know what you did last summer, check out challenge details HERE!

Well, I travel quite a bit this summer, so I have a lot of photos to scrap, I chosen this one taken in Singapore.....

We visited National Gallery during our stay in Singapore for Yayoi Kusama's exhibit, life is the heart of rainbow. I thought it was a funny picture of me, kind of go along with the wonky polka dots at the background.... LOL!

I noticed recently that the photos I took came out blurry....

most of them are.... sigh...

guess I need a new camera huh? *wink wink*

the flower stamp is one of my new favorite from Altenew, the sequins are from lawn fawn, the rest of the supplies are from my stash....

Come join us this week at

City Crafter Challenge Blog

Trip to Singapore and City Crafter Challenge Blog 378 ~ Pick One!

I spent most of August on the road, 2 trips to San Francisco, and then Utah and Colorado, Iowa and finally Singapore.

This trip to Singapore, we flew the newest direct flight from San Francisco.

   

If you fly often, you would agree with me that Singapore is one of the best airline in the world, just look at the meals they served on the flight to Singapore.

and this is just economy class, I flew a few first class seats with other airlines before and the food not even quite as good.

we picked our food from a menu that has two different entrée, I usually go for Asian and DH of course like his western. In between meals, you can ask for anything you want from the sneak menu, the items includes wrap, muffins, fresh fruits to cookies, chips and nuts.

food is big on my list, we visited a few of my favorite local food center, and Randy has became a food snob like me, I won't blame him, after numerous visits to Singapore, he is now spoilt just like many other Singaporean.

we also visited The National Gallery for Yayoi Kusama's exhibit.....

It is simply AMAZING, if you have a chance anywhere in the world to see her work, you MUST GO DO IT! Pictures just don't do justice for her work.

The infinity room is the highlight of this exhibit, I get this from the internet because we were given only 20 seconds in the room, I decided to absorb as much in this short 20 seconds instead of taking picture, so I don't have any picture in that room.

you can find a lot of Yayoi Kusama's work online.

The very famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore is closed for renovation, so we didn't get to see the inside this time, we did it every trip, just for the taste of old Singapore.

new thing I see in Singapore this trip is the 30 cars display building, looks just like matchbox cars....

just like other trips to Singapore, we took public transport everywhere, sometimes to places we want to go, sometimes just from terminal to terminal, doing sightseeing on the top of a double decker bus...

I dare to say there is no place in the world run public transportation as good as Singapore, we can take bus anywhere, hop off the bus and have covered walk ways that leads to either train stations (MRT is what we called in Singapore, like subways in NYC), shopping mall, food center, government service center, and to your home if you stay in one of those government housing (I would say 90-95% of Singaporean stay in government housing high rise buildings) Yes, we all do in Singapore, stay in government housing, but I mind you, I can sell my house in Vegas and still can't effort one of those units. That is why they said Singapore is one of the most expensive city in the world, but if you are Singaporean, you will get a big sum subsidized by the government, yes, if you work hard you will have your own place in Singapore, the government takes good care of you.

What makes DH really angry about his own country is everything else in Singapore he enjoyed, he sees that there is no way USA can catch up, like the public transportation for example, we got a translink card, for bus and train (subway), I top up 20 SGD dollar (17 US$) every trip, you just tap in and out when you use the system, we spent about 20 each for the whole entire trip, some trips are as low as 22 cents, where can you find in this world, in a fully air conditioned, brand new buses. Even if we take cab once in a while, it is less than 10 Singapore dollars. At the bus stops, you have  electronic board to see how many more minutes your bus is arriving, and now I even have an app on my phone that tells you that, we would wait in our hotel room until we see that the bus will be there in 5 minutes then we started walking out of our room to the bus stop right in front of the hotel, how convenient!

If that is not enough, besides being the world best airport that has a huge sunflowers garden, shopping mall bigger than many other towns elsewhere, a swimming pool with huge water slide, free movies with recliner chairs while you wait for your flight, I need to tell you that it took me less than a minute to pass through custom, even DH is not a Singapore citizen and hold a US passport, it took him less than 5 minutes too, and it is not a small airport, Singapore airport handles 58.7 millions visitors each year!

The more Randy goes to Singapore, the more depressed he is with his own country. Health care is one, his doctor make mistakes again and again with his prescription order, the drug store did the same, and he witness me trying to get into a doctor's clinic here with numerous phone calls and lots of tears and still getting nowhere, I did all my medical in Singapore once a year, he always bug me to get my appointment early and then he witnessed me making 4 phone calls in 30 minutes a few days before we leave and get all my 4 medical appointments all set up, and then he would go to the clinic or hospital with me, and in less than an hour I get everything including taking my prescription at the same location of the doctor's office. This trip here, I had a skin condition that is pretty urgent, I've seen two doctors here and paid close to two hundred US dollars even we have insurance, the last one gave me a tube of cream to collect at CVS pharmacy, it was 95 US$ when I went to collect and I refused to do it, I rather wait till I go back to Singapore, so first thing I do in Singapore is to go see doctor for this,  guess how much is my bill, doctor's visit and medication cream before government subsidized is over 50 Singapore dollar, and after subsidized, I paid 19.40 Singapore dollar, which is like 16 US$, after two application, my skin is all clear. That makes DH really really sick, and said, I WANT TO MOVE TO SINGAPORE!!!!

OK, I would shut up and stop bragging about my country, oh yes, it is the cleanest city in the world, crime rate is close to zero, no guns, hardly any corruption, and policeman are as friendly as your friends! Ok, I'll stop! LOL!

We took a river boat this trip, watch the light, water, laser show by the Marina Sands resort.

we had a family get-together over the weekend, here's a picture of my mom, brother and sister...

we also went to East Coast Park for a walk....

saw someone glam-ping there....

and then eat more.... especially seafood.....

I grew up eating seafood like this, just few hours fresh from the sea and become a seafood snob, DH laughed at me when I complained about fish we get from the tank in the Asian supermarket here aren't fresh, no, they are NOT, they are "kept" fish grow up in a tank, fresh seafood are those fresh from the sea, they taste different! Let alone frozen fish, Yikes!

I put on at less 2 to 3 pounds by the time I get back to SF to see my babies...

and he can't wait to go home with me as well!

an hour after our 15 hours flight, we drove another 9 hours from SF back to Vegas!

It is HOME SWEET HOME!

Ahhhhhh..... I probably not going to travel for a while!

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This week at City Crafter Challenge Blog

The theme is PICK ONE!

   

We want you to pick one of the above as your background for your project.

I pick the pink/orange splash for mine.

I used a few of my ink pad on the acrylic stamp block, and then spray some water, place the watercolor paper on top to get the result for the background, let it dry before I stamp the sentiment and glue some sequins on it.

there were some ink left on the acrylic block, so I spray more water and get a lighter color version....

well, it is not exactly the color the challenge asked for but I don't like to waste anything, especially precious inks, LOL!

Come join in the fun at

City Crafter Challenge Blog