Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

It's my Daddy's birthday today! He's doing really well and he's his optimistic self, as always :) The poor thing's eating 'rabbit food' (no meat, no carbs, no fun) while undergoing treatment, and thankfully, he's one of those people who'll do whatever needs to be done without question. Me? I'd be walking into on-coming traffic before the first day was done.

Since I posted a video on my Mum's birthday, I thought I'd do the same for Dad. Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple always reminds me of him. I've heard the opening riff thousands upon thousands of times in my lifetime. We had a little studio in the house and his band would always play this song. And I mean always. But because it reminds me of my Dad, I don't hate it at all. I still get a kick out of it every time I hear it. My parents went to see Deep Purple in the 90s. When they got home, Mum announced that she was the oldest person there. I highly doubt that... hehe!

The last time I was home in Singapore, I was singing the first few lines of the song...

Dad: *grinning like a monkey* "You know this song?!?! How!!!"
Me: "Umm, because you played it all through my childhood. It would be weird if I didn't!"

Happy Birthday, Mum!!!

It's my Mum's birthday, people! Well technically her birthday's over because Singapore is 13 hours ahead of us. I did txt her yesterday afternoon (after her midnight) to wish her a happy birthday though. Such a good girl I am. 

I looked for a current picture of my Mum but I'm pretty sure I'll get disowned for posting the ones that I do have. And the ones that she's smiling sweetly in, she's in her jammies. Oh Mum. But I have a feeling that if anyone's looking for proper pictures of me, they'll have the same problems. I definitely know here I get my disdain of having my picture taken from for certain :) 

So instead of a picture, here's a video of a song she loved back in the 90s. She doesn't really listen to stuff like that but for a time, she'd listen to it on her CD player and headphones and sing along. She's pretty adorable, that mother of mine. Plus she actually called me long distance from Singapore just to tell me that Shannon Hoon had passed away. Umm, très importante, mother. 

Here it is... No Rain by Blind Melon. I hope you remember it, Mum. Otherwise, I'm booking you a room at a retirement home.  Love you.

For The Love Of iPad

For the hub's upcoming 30th birthday, I got him the new iPad. I hid it and had him go look for it with a few clues. I hid it up on a shelf in the library, behind one of his awards. I had to get up on a chair to hide it by the way. Ahem.


This afternoon, I overheard this lovely conversation...

Hubs: "Siri, I love you."
Siri: "You can't."

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Rejected!

If you want a bit of a giggle, go to Shit That Siri Says :)

Carnival Birthday

My niece Ava had her 5th birthday party over the weekend and despite the rain, it was loads of fun! She was running around all day, getting her face painted and tattoos on her arms and legs, having a great time. My friend Shauna made the cupcakes and little carnival cake for her, which she made cotton candy flavour! What?!?! That girl is too amazing for words.

Our friend Sean was the clown, Bonkers... I think dude missed his calling there! His balloon animals need a bit of work though... just saying. His wife's about to have a baby any second now and we were hoping she'd go into labour so he'd show up at the delivery room like that HAHAHAHA!!! How awesome and frightening would that be?!

Happy Birthday To My Sisters!!!

It's my sisters' birthdays today!!! Woot woot!

They're 29. Seriously? They're still my babies. Tiny, little babies.

Dearest Averil & Aurelia,

I'm forever thankful that Mum and Dad made a little oopsies and ended up with you guys. Best oopsies EVARRR. Life would be boring without you. More sane, but boring. Also, my inheritance would be muuuuuch more significant. Just saying. I can't wait to see you guys in September! We're going to have SO much devious fun and drive Steve sooooo crazy. Awesome sauce on both counts. MUAK!

Love youse guys,
Your LBS*


* Little Big Sis

Olivia Turns One!

Our niece Olivia turned one and she had a rainbow party over the weekend! I got a txt the other day asking if I'd be the official / unofficial photog for the party. 

Her mummy is big on themes and does a beautiful job of decorating. If I had a kid, the theme would be 'birthday party' and as long as there was some food and a cake, I'd consider it a success haha!

The birthday girl in her handmade birthday tutu :) She's freaking adorable.

Big sister Ava showing me how she eats broccoli lol! Quite violently, actually!

A friend of mine made the cake, and it was giant. It's covered in buttercream and it was over 90°F outside, so kudos to her for keeping it looking so lovely. 

It's a rainbow cake!!! Isn't it magnificent??? I don't know how she did it. She'd been stressing about whether the layers would turn out, and I believe it came out beautifully. The hubs said it looked like such a simple cake from the outside, and so the rainbow was such a great surprise. And it tasted better than it looked. Seriously.

[If anyone in the CT area wants cakes done by my friend, drop me an email and I'll give you her info.]

Olivia got her own slice and made a cute little mess hehe She went colour by colour, so her face went from purple to blue to green to yellow... and then her mummy decided that was quite enough cake lol!

Cake mess = outfit change. I think I'd wear that dress if it came in my size. Seriously.

It was such a great birthday party and I know Olivia had fun. Looking forward to more birthday parties over the summer which I'll have the pleasure of shooting :)

35

I turned 35 today... well I was born in Singapore, so I technically turned 35 12 hours ahead of EST. So the only thing to do is claim a total of 36 hours as my birthday. It's the only logical thing to do, right?

So anyway, it's my birthday and I'll sew what I want to!

My Grandma's Star templates arrived this afternoon and I immediately broke open the parcel and got to work! I'd been itching to get my hands on this template ever since I got the Sew Charming book eons ago.  I hesitated because I'd found the templates on an Australian site, and as much as I want to support my adopted home, the shipping was pretty ridiculous.

So last week while flicking through the book again, I happened to see that there was a shop in the US that stocked them! Lo and behold, the shop is in CT! What the what?! I'm just thrilled to have the templates and am ignoring the fact that I'm kind of dumb. You should too.

Ahh so pretty :)

I sewed the entire block on my machine so it came together very quickly. There are tiny holes on the template where you can mark where the points should meet, and that helps a great deal. There are a lot of y-seams, which can be tedious but it's not too terrible, honestly.

Has anyone else ever tried their hand at sewing hexagons on their machine? Or has anyone sewn this block before?

Happy Birthday Dad

Once again, the time difference has made me forget to do a birthday post! This time for my daddy-o! Doh!

He'd hurt his back again a few days ago and he's informed me that he's back to normal and playing golf :) So much for Brokeback Mountain: The Sequel. (Umm, click here for an explanation of the stupid title... also just keep in mind that I come from a demented family...)

Dad, I hope you had a great birthday and got to play some golf :) Love and miss you always.

Happy Birthday Mum

Yesterday was my Mum's birthday... And since she's 13 hours ahead, I wished her a happy birthday the day before that. Living in a different time zone forces you to be good at math. Doesn't help with remembering to write the birthday post on the correct date though. Ah, what ya gonna do?

I Facetime'd with her, and one of the first things she says is "Why's your face like that?"... I felt so special. It's called no make-up, Mother. Not all of us can be as ravishing as you without the warpaint, ya know? Hehehe :)

Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Mum. I love you and miss you, every day. Enjoy your birthday sunset :)

Happy Birthday Steve!

My dearest Steve,

Happy birthday! I hope you have the best day and an amazing year ahead. You're the best person ever, and I'm lucky just to know you. 

xoxo

Heehee :)

Birthday Celebration

My father-in-law had a birthday yesterday :) Big Steve (my husband's a Steve Jr so I've always called my FIL Big Steve because it's too confusing otherwise!) wouldn't stop pulling faces, so this is the best picture I could get. You can see where my husband gets his silliness.

He wanted to keep his birthday celebration simple so the hubs picked up delicious grinders (subs) from Franklin Giant Grinders for dinner, and I got a yummy ice cream cake (a smores one!) for dessert. We don't get to sit down for dinner with them too often these days because they're so busy running their creamery from the start of spring to the end of autumn, so it was really nice :)

And then some of my husband's aunts, uncles and cousins filed into the house with birthday wishes, balloons and pressies. This is my mother-in-law attempting to work the camera on her phone. I can't tell you how long everyone had to stay put and smile. Well, I could, but you wouldn't believe me heehee!

Pressies

I've had three friends have birthdays this week. I've finished one pressie (it didn't require sewing), I'm working on one right now, and I've got one more to go. I haven't seen them this week so it's given me lots of time to procrastinate in true Audrie fashion. Both friends whose pressies I've yet to make like black and white. One likes a little red thrown in, the other likes skulls. They're getting black and white. 

The pressie I'm working on right now is a pillow. I don't make them too often, and I don't really know why. It's like working on just one giant block and tada, you're done. 

I started cutting some 60 degree triangles and then decided perhaps I wanted to go a different route. I'll probably use the triangles in a different project, but I think I'm going to use the same fabrics and do something different. Or go back to the triangles.

I procrastinate AND I'm fickle. Jealous?

And some awesomeness arrived in my mailbox today. Well actually it sat atop my mailbox, wrapped in a big plastic bag because it was pouring rain and I didn't see it till about 4pm so thank goodness for the plastic bag. (What... A long sentence.)

Quilts In Sweden by Kaffe Fassett. I've been waiting for this book to be released and it's finally here! :) You know what's funny? And kind of pathetic? I have almost all his books and never have I made one of his quilts. I just like the pretty pictures.

Happy Birthday, Times Two

My niece turns 4 today and she had a Rapunzel party yesterday afternoon. 

Little sister Olivia celebrated with a bit of a snooze :) 

Her parents made her this adorable cupcake tower, which they had to hide in the laundry closet so they could surprise her.

Happy birthday Ava! The funniest, smartest little girl I know :)

And one of my best friends Margie has a birthday today too :) Happy birthday babe *hugs* Hope you had a fun trip to Australia and I reaaaaally hope we'll see each other again soon! Love ya!

Weekend In Pictures

We took some baked ziti and a pie over to the hub's cousin's to celebrate a belated birthday, and spent some time with the nieces :)

As soon as dinner was eaten, this little cutie asked her daddy if she could put her rainboots on so she could play on the swings with me. Who could say no to that face? :)

She turns 4 next week and I can't believe how grown up she's become!

Pretty dahlias growing in the garden.

The hubs playing football and pretending he wouldn't rather be reading a book hehe

Olivia, now a month old :)

Once a year I make a chocolate peanut butter pie for their dad's birthday because it's his favourite pie.

His sister brought an Oreo ice cream cake that was so flipping good.

Happy Happy Birthday To My Bestest Girls!

Dearest Averil and Aurelia,

Happy birthday you two! You make a big sister proud, and I'm thankful to have you guys in my life. I wish you both the bestest birthday ever, and I'm so glad you're spending this birthday together on the same continent. Wish I were there too! I miss you every day, and I love you guys more than you'll ever know.

Love,
LBS*


* LBS = Little Big Sis. Cos I'm little. And the big sister. Yup, total rocket science when we came up with that one.

Happy Birthday To My Grandma

My grandma would've been 85 today. 85 years young :)

Dearest Ma,

I'm sure you know your third great-grandchild was born yesterday. I told everyone to tell Carrie* to keep her legs crossed and wait one more day so the little bub could share your birthdate. I was told to shut up. I don't like them anymore. I like you though.

I miss you, and I love you. I know you're with me everywhere I go, and I'm going to smile today because you should be celebrated with happiness and not tears. Say hi to Kong** for me.

Love always,

Dawn***

* Carrie is my cousin who's the bride in the picture above.

** Kong is what we called our grandpa.

*** Dawn is what my family calls me. A Chinese name that my Dad turned into an English name so as to confuse everyone. Thanks Dad.

34

I started off my birthday celebrations by making a doctor's appointment. Is it strange that I'm looking forward to it? I just want to get this asthma rubbish taken care of so I can get back to my daily runs again. As much as I hated them, I miss them so much.

We took a little ride to Northampton for lunch and a spot of shopping :) The hubs insisted on driving the speed limit so I got bored and got out the camera to entertain myself.

Shrimp enchiladas for me, and chicken tamales for the hubs. He's exhibiting plenty of self-control while I take pictures of our food hehe

To make up for it, I invited him to finish the rest of my lunch. I didn't have to ask twice.

We spent the entire day out and about, just spending time with each other, laughing and being completely silly. The perfect way to usher in my 34th year!

Oh, and as if I wasn't having a lovely enough birthday, I got an email from Denyse saying she'd posted my blog on the DSQ FaceBook, along with very lovely and glowing words! I'm speechless, and that really doesn't happen very often!!! Thanks Denyse! :)

Bad, Followed By Good

So... early this morning, I had the worst asthma attack I'd ever suffered, and had to be taken to the ER pronto. I couldn't stand straight, walk without assistance, nor could I speak full sentences. I honestly thought that was it for me and that I was going to stop breathing.

But the docs and nurses gave me plenty of meds, and a chest x-ray, and it turns out my air passages were so inflamed that it was impossible for me to breathe. Time to get an inhaler...

(By the way, the hubs asked if they found a heart in the chest x-ray. Not sure if I want to laugh or punch him.)

I'm on some meds now and I'll see my GP within the next few days to sort all this nonsense out.

That was the bad. Now on to the good, because who wants to dwell on that rubbish?

I've already gotten some birthday pressies from near and far even though it's not my birthday till Monday. I'm a very lucky girl and I don't let myself forget it :)

My middle sister sent me a beautiful Kate Spade ring! It's insanely gorgeous and I love it so dearly.

It's set slightly askew, just like my grandmother's engagement ring, so they kind of fit into each other.

(Please pay no attention to the weird, claw-like hand in the picture... Just focus on the pretty, pretty rings... hehe)

My dear friend Margie sent over these cute arty gifts from MoMa... a leather ladybug pencil holder (I love ladybugs!) and a hilarious tape measure that looks like Pinnochio! Love!

And because I always know what I want, I bought myself some books. They were on discount so I thought, why not!? Why not indeed :)

My little sister has informed me I have a pressie arriving fashionably late. The hubs is still asking what I want. I never want for anything... everything I receive is just icing on the cake. But you know, if he'd like directions to a jewellery store, I could help him out with that... hehe...

Now to continue my convalescing on the couch. Hope everyone's having a lovely weekend! :)