A new year

I realize this is my 1st blog in 2011!

Very busy with work since I started on Mon. I have more responsibilities now and this whole week I have a lot of conference calls to attend. Today during the conference call to Japan, I felt a sense of familiarity when I heard the Japanese language. After working in a Japanese company for almost 9 years, I really miss the Japanese environment. Now I work in a British company full of angmohs and I have to converse mainly in English, PROPER English!

Now I don't really have time for scrapbooking and sewing and cooking and photography as compared to my HDB tai-tai days but I will try to find some time to pick them up.

May this year be filled with love, laughter, peace, prosperity, good health and creativity! :)

And I hope the flood in Queensland will end soon. I am very sad to see Toowoomba, Rockhampton and Brisbane destroyed by the flood. I have happy memories of these places and some of my friends are still in Brisbane. Luckily they are alright but the area is very much affected from what I have seen on tv. Please have some mercy, weather god!

My birthday!

My birthday is wedged right between Christmas and New Year Day. 28 is an auspicious number for chinese and I am always happy to announce that my birthday is 1228, very auspicious! Having a birthday 3 days after Christmas means that I often celebrate my birthday with Christmas day or Boxing day! I don't mind!

This year I received many many well-wishes from my family, friends, colleagues, classmates, scrapbooking friends, overseas friends and even some long-lost friends! Thank you for your calls, sms and messages on Facebook! 2 young kids called and sang Happy Birthday song to me! They learnt how to sing this song recently and sang with much zest over the phone!

Thank you everyone! The year is coming to a close and as we countdown to Year 2011, I wish everyone good health and prosperity and may things go smooth sailing in the Year of the Rabbit!

Merry Christmas 2010!

It's Christmas today!

Here's my nephew Ethan wishing you a Merry merry Christmas!

My cute cousin Chloe is in a jolly mood too!

My cousin with her husband and baby Tristen!

Tristen is happy!

Chloe adores Ethan and Tristen. Ethan can sit upright now so I took a photo of them together. They are so cute!

That's my family! Hope you have a good Christmas with your family too! :)

A busy week

It has been a busy week! Very happy to keep myself occupied and I feel useful! :)

Orchard Road area is a no-no these few days. So crowded with people and cars! It will be worse next week!

I met up with my ex-colleague Sayaka yesterday to collect my 2011 diary from her. I ordered it online and it was sent wrongly to her house instead of another colleague's house. Her mum then sent the diary to Sayaka's colleague who was in Japan for a business trip. So I troubled 4 people just for this diary! Thank you everyone for your help!

Sayaka helped me to get my 2010 diary from last year too! See they are from the same Little Red Riding Hood series. I love this girl!

It's Christmas next weekend! Yeah!

Nippori Textile Town

Nippori Textile Town is also another paradise for crafters. Imagine a street on both sides of the road selling fabrics, laces, buttons, zips, beads etc! And they are cheaper than in Shinjuku.

Nippori 日暮里 JR station is located 1 stop after Ueno. If you are in Shinjuku, it is faster to take the JR Chuo line and change at Akihabara or you can just take the Yamanote line towards Ikebukuro. Exit at the South exit.

Welcome to Nippori Textile Town! There are many signs around leading you to the town.

This is an English map.

The most popular shop there is Tomato.

Note: Please bring cash because some of the shops do not accept credit cards.

If you do not have time to go Nippori, just go to Odakaya in Shinjuku (East exit, next to Alta building). It is 7-storey high and is like a megamart Golden Dragon (Singapore fabric store at Chinatown)!

Shinjuku - Natural Kitchen

Some of my scrapbooking friends are going to Japan so I decided to give some recommendations on where to get crafting stuffs in Tokyo. I have been to Tokyo many times and did a fair amount of exploring myself. I used to get lost in Shinjuku but I was determined to beat the crowd and now I can sorta find my ways around Shinjuku without a map. I cannot speak Japanese but recently Japan (or at least Tokyo) is quite friendly to add English maps and station names to help tourists find their way around.

One of my favourite store in Japan is Natural Kitchen, a store that sells lots of cute things ranging from household goods to little knick knacks. This store is also highly recommended by my Japanese friends! Almost everything is only JPY100 with the exception of larger items at JPY300 and above.

Look at the latest shop decor showing on their website. All ready for Christmas!

The location of the Shinjuku outlet is at the shopping mall Shinjuku Mylord. Here's a simple direction on how to get there.

1. Exit from Shinjuku JR Station West exit and turn to the right. (On the left is Keio department store)

2. Walk towards Odakyu department store.

3. Before you reach the store, there is a slope leading to shops. This is Mosaic Street.

4. Go up along Mosaic Street to reach Mylord.

5. Take the escalator to the 2nd floor.

You will find Natural Kitchen! You won't miss it!

Tip: If you are lost in the big busy Shinjuku station, try to go up to the ground level and look for landmarks to get your bearings. Keio and Odakyu department stores are at the West exit. Takashimaya is at the New South exit, Isetan is at the East exit.

This is how Mosaic Street looks like. There are small shops at one side and you can walk on the slope or the stairs to go up. (I took this photo in 2008.)

My friend Angeline went Tokyo recently and bought these for me from Natural Kitchen.

I am sure you will like Natural Kitchen so if you are going to Tokyo, drop by this shop and shop to your hearts' content! :)

Bonus prize!

Thank you to all my friends for helping me to click 'Like' at the contest at Joys@Uptown Sweets. It was so competitive! I didn't get the 2 prizes offered but they gave me a bonus prize! What a surprise! Thank you Joys and Jaz!

It was not easy for my friends to find 'Like' on my comments as most of them accessed the page from iPhone and somehow the 'Like' didn't appear. Most of them click 'Like' on the original post so I had to give clearer instructions to them. Really appreciate the efforts made by my friends! A big Thank YOU!

This event shows how powerful a viral marketing is. Social network is becoming an important media to promote products and services.

Looking forward to more contests online! But I hope I don't have to ask my friends to click 'Like' again!

Happy 2nd anniversary!

Today is our 2nd wedding anniversary!

But it is just a normal day for me, just that hubby is home today, not on leave but on MC! He had a very bad backache and headache and slept till noon. He continued to sleep after he came back from the doctor. We initially planned to go out and eat steak for dinner but in the end we just had takeaway food. Yes I didn't even bother to cook. So romantic huh!

But nevermind, every day can be anniversary day, I don't mind not having any celebration. I am just happy to have him in my life! We didn't buy presents for each other but I made him this card.

Can you feel it oozing with love and sweetness? :p