One month away...

We're finally reaching the final stretch of our NYC adventure. Just one more month.

Am i excited? Absolutely. Am i sad? Surprisingly, not at all. I'm really happy to have called the Big Apple my home for the past 3 years but am equally happy to say goodbye to her. Yes, i would certainly miss the many friends that we have made, the nice carefree 2+1 life we have lead (Yap, zero family obligations kinda rock) and of course, the seemingly endless holidays and road trips we have done. Yet, with all that being said, we both know it's time to go home. Mr Lim's work life balance here is close to zero and admittedly, I've enough of doing nothing. (It was awesome while it lasted but I think 3 years is enough.) Not to mention, the depressing winter days. BYEEEEE!

Meanwhile, we've been really busy with packing and sorting through our belongings. To account for the insurance of our shipment, we had to declare the value of all our stuff and it sure is scary to see the total value of all my shopping (No, I'm not saying it here, but it's certainly wayyy more than I have expected.). Guess that's a good way to keep my future spending in check. 

On a separate note, the bittersweet feeling suddenly hit me when I saw Sam playing in snow a couple days ago. I just felt a little sorry for him that that was probably the last time (in his lifetime) that he would feel the coldness and fluffiness of snow under his little paws. Sorry Sammy boy, while I can't give you snow, I promise you that you will have tons of grass, sun, beaches and humidity (pui~) in our future home. That is if you survive the flight. *Fingers crossed*

We are going home~~

My stupid husband....

Here's a little background story: My cousin is currently staying with us and happened to have a late night out yesterday and came home after we both fell asleep.

So...in the middle of the night while Mr Lim and I were both asleep, I woke to Sam eagerly wagging his tail at me (he normally does that when we come home after leaving him behind and not in the middle of the night).

Me:  tapping Mr Lim to try to wake him up "dear~ why is Sam wagging his tail? Is something wrong?"
Mr Lim: half-awake.. "Huh, no la, think your cousin just came home.."
Me: "Izzit? Okay..." and I went back to sleep.

Sounds normal? I thought so, so I kinda let it slipped.

UNTIL.. I heard the truth..

While having lunch the next day, my cousin asked if we had purposely locked Sam out the room last night. I was shocked and insisted that I didn't and certainly wouldn't. Then I remembered what happened....

Before I went to sleep, Mr Lim had stepped out of the room to make a call and the silly boy tagged along. I fell asleep before Mr Lim returned from the call. SO, what exactly happened was...our beloved Mr Lim conveniently locked my precious little boy out of the room after he returned from the call without realising that Sam followed after him. Hence, the poor little thing was locked out in the dark for a couple of hours before my cousin came back. She was surprised to find him greeting her at the door and he was really excited. After she showered, she saw Sam sitting outside our bedroom door staring at it. Hence, she opened the door to let him in and that was when he jumped on the bed and greeted us, wagging his tail excitedly and waking me up. (Thus leading to the conversation above..)

SO POOR THING!! MY POOR LITTLE BOY!

After I realized what exactly happened, I quickly texted Mr Lim to 'scold' him.. and no surprises, he didn't realised that the silly little boy was outside the whole time.

SIGH~

This is what you get when you married a guy that's living in his own world....

T_T Poor sam~

Lotsa Love, Zim & Key

I went etsy shopping again and found this amazing shop, Lush Prints, that sells USA made stamps. Not only do they make dog stamps, they even had a Jack Russell one! Hee, so of course I went ahead and made one for us. 

I love the quality of the stamp and how it turned out.

The stamp arrived right on time as I had just finish making a set of "thank you" cards.

Instead of the usual signing off, all I have to do is to stamp. Hee, under Rachel's suggestion, we used a darker brown ink to highlight Sam's ears and tail! (I know it's the wrong ear, but it's still distinctively Sam!) Love it~

The "Thank You" cards were actually made for some of the service providers here (e.g. doorman, sam's daycare) and would be given out to them when we leave for good. Seems like Sam approves!

Another DIY Project - stickers and magnets!

I was inspired by the dog silhouette stickers and stationary by Fire Hydrant Press on etsy and was extremely tempted to purchase a couple. 

(source: FireHydrantPress)

I was real close to purchasing them when I mentioned to Mr Lim. As usual, he wasn't exactly supportive (which I understand as they weren't that cheap). Interestingly, he suggested that we should try to make it ourselves since he had previously purchased some sticker paper (for his boardgaming stuff). I figured, why not? And here we go...

I browsed through all Sam's photographs and found one that was most suitable for his silhouette. 

After a lot of trial and error (well, I'm really NOT savvy with Gimp) and a couple of arguments between the husband and wife, we finally figured out how to trace out his silhouette. Well, it doesn't look fantastically like him, but I thought that we did a pretty decent job highlighting his distinctive tail and capturing his hunting posture. I know that the mouth is a little off, but I HACK CARE! LOL, I was quite frustrated and annoyed by this point and thought that this was good enough. -_-

We finalized the silhouette template and that was when the real fun started! I mixed and matched colors and did some individual designs to achieve this!

A little close up. We thought that it would be kinda cute to put Sam's full name!

Once we were done, we went ahead to print the template onto actual sticker and magnet paper. We even tried printing it on decal paper but unfortunately, the decal paper melted in our Laser printer! Yap, there goes the laser printer! (Sigh, on hindsight, it was probably cheaper to just purchase the actual sticker from etsy! What an irony~) BUT, we were not discouraged, we purchased a much cheaper ink jet and resumed our project! 

Sam doing a QC for the final product.

He was guarding the newly printed stickers from my itchy and anxious fingers.

After checking through thoroughly, the dog approves. 

I thought I was done with the project! However, I realised that the stickers and magnets were not water proof! Hence, I went ahead and purchased some self-adhesive laminating stickers to add a protective layer and to give them a glossy finish.

After ALOT of cutting and pasting, here's Sam with one of the end products!

Proof of my hard work!

Guess where the stickers went: Sam's personal items! 

1. His water bottle!

 

2. His poop bag dispenser!

Meanwhile, the magnets went on to join our already Sam-populated fridge!

While the items were no way near as nice and professionally done as the ones available on etsy, I was really happy with the end products! My next step is to go ahead and purchase dies for my cuttlebug so that I don't have to manually cut the stickers and they would have neater edges! Meanwhile, I'm just so pleased and proud of myself!

Job well done!

Yet another handmade project!

This project is EXTREMELY jinxed. I started it about two months ago but stopped midway after I messed up the zipper. (I actually completed it and then realised that I had mis-sewn the zipper. Ahhhh~) After undoing the seams, I called it a day and planned to resume the next day. Then the flooding occurred. *Faints* So after another two weeks, I was ready again. That was when I realised that my zipper has gone missing! ahhhhh~ I'm sure it's still in the house somewhere, but probably misplaced when the workers moved our furniture around. After yet a few more weeks, I finally freed up a day to pop by the store to buy a replacement zipper. And of course, after yet more procrastination (probably a month or so), I finally embarked on the project.

Here are the materials for this project. I really liked the fabric I used for my tokyo bag. However, I was unable to find the exact same purple fabric (well, let's say that looking for fabric in Moods in a challenge) and thus had to settle for the green equivalent.

And the dog approves. 

I was basically pulling my hair out doing this project. I can only blamed it on myself for wanting to do an invisible zip. I was totally asking for it. -_-  FML. I should have payed more attention in sewing class. After 4 attempts and X hours later, I finally did it correctly. Here's the end product - A pillow case!

(notice that the lighting had changed? It was still daylight when I started the project and by the time I was done, it was almost midnight! Felt like slapping myself. T_T)

Anyway, here's the original pillow from Ikea that served as the stuffing.

The final product! I had to wake Sam up again to pose for me, hence explaining his sleepy blur face. 

I decided to take some more photos in daylight. I'm actually really happy that Sam seemed to like it!

The silly boy was actually falling asleep when sitting up. Too cute~

Well, he eventually figured that resting his head was easier. 

Despite the blood and sweat hardwork, I'm really pleased with the end product. While it looked like an effortless project, it sure was frustrating. Guess it goes to show that I'm no where near competent with my sewing projects. Time to put in more effort!

Meanwhile, let me procrastinate a little more just to recover from this project. Hee, what can I say, I AM A SLACKER.

My random buys...

1. A collage of a dog made up of Stamps. 

I found this amazing 'picture' at the Brooklyn flea again (gosh, I LOVE the flea!). I really like the creativity of project and I'm obsessed with the vintage frame. I paid USD35 for it. A little on the high side but since it was handmade and pretty unique, I'm sold! Plus, Mr Lim approves~ 

I'm still thinking of a better place to hang it but for now, it sits at the bar. (I need more walls!!)

2. Jack Russell Luggage Tags from FouFou X 3

I wanted to get luggage tags to personalize Sam's luggage and carrier (Yes, he has a luggage that we use on road trips) and what else is more fun than actual JRT tags. Hee, found this online and thought that they are really cute!! 

I instantly hooked one onto Sam's new travel carrier. Puuuurfect~

Hee, I think my hoarding tendencies are showing and there are more and more dog related items popping up around the house. (Ooops) But I have to admit that it's really fun spotting dog stuff that ain't tacky but actually kinda nice. It's almost like a game and I sure am addicted to it!

Sigh, shopping is such a happy thing!

Our family portrait...

When we did our bridal shoots donkey years ago, we didn't have Sam. Now that we have a new (okay, not that new) member in our family, I kept toying with the thought of doing a family portrait. Besides, I thought that it would be a great way to also capture our memories in the Big Apple. I was still obsessed with our wedding photographer, Terry from One Eye Click, but flying them over just didn't make any economic sense. Thus, after tons of research, I finally found a photographer that gave me the exact vibes I'm looking for. I can't really quite put that in words, but just looking at her precious works made me smile and I knew Melissa from Beimaged photography was the one for us. After a quick email exchange (she's like the friendliest and nicest person around!), we booked our photoshoot!

After some brainstorming, I we shortlisted a few venues - Central Park (duh.), Times Square and Soho. Reasons were simple: I wanted to go to Sam's favorite place on earth, an iconic place of NYC and the beautiful clobber stone of Soho.

The shoot was real simple. We chose our own outfits, did our own hairdos/ makeup, sent Sam for a groom and just went ahead and did it. It was really fun and causal and I love how easy Melissa is to work with. 

And the best part of it, I'm obsessed with the outcome. It's just WAY gorgeous and even better than what I've envisioned. It was just perfection in my eyes. We are certainly not the best models around but this is my family and I love them to bits. 

Anyway, here's part of the end product Melissa uploaded on her blog. Check out more here. 

PS: Spot the little bow tie I made the boy?

 

I'm just waiting for the rest of photos to be sent to us and I have already shortlisted a few that are certainly going up on our walls. 

We just need a little more wall space. 

Happy Mothers' day!

To me!

A little red parcel came in the mail. It was lovely surprise present for me!

Once I opened the gift card, I couldn't stop smiling. It was a gift from the little boy!

So, the cheeky boy wished me a happy mothers' day, *Melts~*,

before he proudly presented the gift to me.

Ta-da~ It's a personalized key chain that says: "SAM's MOM".

I loooove it!

Well, I know it's all Mr Lim's idea and I really appreciate it. (Even though the gift card signed off as Sam Forest Loo Lim) The cutest part of this surprise, was when Mr Lim made up a story about how he dropped his wallet on the floor a couple of days ago and caught Sam sniffing at it. He ended the 'story' by saying that he thought that Sam might have taken some of his money or used his credit card. Hee. I thought that it was a funny story but took it with a pinch of salt. (no, I certainly didn't believe that money/ credit card was stolen, but kinda fell for the sam-sniffing-the-wallet part. -_-) And yap, it was really sweet and I couldn't resist giving the little boy a huge kiss and hug. (yap, mr lim got a 'thanks' too!) I also announced whispered to sam while I absolutely adored the present, a tory burch bag would be a wonderful gift next year. *Grinz* Wonder if "he" got my hint. =P

Anyway, who needs kids when you have a wonderful husband and a lovely little dog. Sigh, I'm really Happy and contented!

PS: Happy mothers' day to doggie mummy(s) too!

A cute little bow tie for the cute little dog...

In preparation for our photoshoot (hee, more details soon), I was obsessing about how to 'dress' the little monster up. Besides, sending him for a groom (which he wasn't exactly pleased about), I decided to get him a 'boy' accessory too. And what else is cuter than a little bow tie! 

The first thing I did was to search for it on etsy. I fell in love with this below. Unfortunately, being the last minute idiot I always am, I realised that the package wouldn't arrive on time. Ahhhh...

(source: cheridogdesign)

Undefeated, I started searching for pet stores that might sell them but to no avail. So when one of my girlfriends suggested that I should make it myself, it was such a 'light bulb' moment. (Okay, I'm sounding a little bimbo..) 

So after some quick research online, I found a real easy tutorial from Decor and The Dog, gathered the materials and embarked on my new sewing project. 

I was thinking between three different fabrics and chose the solid orange fabric since you can't go wrong with a solid. And yap, the little monster approved.

After 1 failed attempt and maybe 30 minutes, tada~ 

I then attached the bow tie to one of Sam's collars (which happened to be orange as well).

Here's the end product!

I was trying to figure out what measurements to use since the dog in the tutorial is slightly bigger than Sammy. (Sam's about 13lbs.) I stupidly decided to use 2" by 10". The length worked out fine but it slipped my mind that I had to fold the fabric, so the first bow was just ... a failure. On the second attempt, I used 4" by 10" and it turned out great. Phew~

Hee, I'm so pleased with the end product and since it isn't a huge article, Sam didn't mind wearing it at all. (He looked a little stunned as I woke him up from his beauty sleep just to pose for me.) I'm loving it!