My biggest headache..

Everyone around me knows that I love the little monster to bits. (Possibly more than anyone/anything else in my life) BUT, his shedding is just driving me nuts! To attempt to minimize the stray hair, I do brush him about 2 to 3 times a week.

Here's a preview of just how much 'loose' fur he has..

I vacuum the house every single freaking day and still there's just endless amount of stray fur around (even after the brushing!). Sigh, I'm pretty sure we are going to invest in a heavy duty vacuum cleaner when we are back... Meanwhile, -_-...

The portraits of the little monster are here!!

Though they are a little smaller than what I thought, they were still AWESOME and the drawings completely blew me away!! I'm so happy! Hee, I shall save up some bucks to get the artist to do more of Sam's portraits before we make our way back to Singapore.

And I'm not the only happy/satisfied one..

My days..

People always asked me how I pass my days doing nothing.. but the truth is, there are always tons of things to do - that is if the little monster is at home. I bring him out 4-5times a day and we recently got into a "Let's walk till we die" routine where we would go for 2-3 hours walks (which often end up with one of us being carried home, and no surprises, it's not me). Other than that, whenever I'm bored at home after doing housework (if ever) or anything else, I would either bring him out to kill time or disturb and play with him. Even holding him in my arms makes time fly by.

But, without him, it's just B-O-R-I-N-G.

I decided to leave the little boy at daycare to allow me a day of errand running, which I lazied out from (I blame it on the rain). Thus, I ended up staying home. Without the need to bring the little boy to relieve himself or to exercise him, I just literally rotted at home.

And damn, time is crawling~

So I guess life's a bitch. I complain when he takes up too much of my time, and I complain when I have too much time in my hands. Nice~

In the mail...almost here..

I'm expecting something in the mail this week..and I CANNOT WAIT!

Isn't it just out of the world cute! After searching for the longest of time, I finally found the artist I would like to commission Sam's portrait. I found this artist, Paintmybuddy, on Etsy (the MOST addictive website ever) and just fell in love with her work.

After tons of consideration, I picked 4 photos of the little monster - Sam's smile, Sam's sleepy face, Sam's begging face and Sam's side profile, and sent it to her.
Within a week, she got the paintings done and they just blew me away. It was AWESOME. Hee, to make things even cuter, I ordered the canvas in 3" x 3" size. So, they are going to be tiny cute.

I'm still trying to decide where to place the canvas. But of course, I've to get my hands on it first! Waiting for the mail!! So exciting!

PS: The artist felt that Sam was too cute (well, we all know. =P) and asked if she could use the portraits as samples for her etsy shop. Check this out.

NYC Comic Convention 2011!

We were at NYC Comic Convention 2011 and had tons of fun!!
We bought the one day pass (which was USD50 a pax) and went with a whole group of friends. Well, Mr Lim was once again given the task of the photographer and I guess he didn't do too badly this time. (Still got ugly shots but I'll let it pass..)

As usual, it was a place for me to have a shopping spree! I started off with buying a Tokidoki skateboard which cost as much as my ticket! Hee, Zim and I agreed that the skateboard would add a cute/quirky touch to our home decor (in Senja). Lucky us, the artist, Simone Legno was there to personalize the skateboard! And, he's kinda cute! Hopefully, his autograph would increase the re-sale value of the skateboard, but for now, it's ours to keep!

Close up of the skateboard and the personalized drawing. And yap, it's a branch of tokidokis eating sushi! Cute, isn't it?
I went on to buy another quirky drawing of Christina Strain (signed too!). Happy~
It's a really funny drawing of a lion (holding cup of hot chocolate with mashmallows), raccoon and shark (with ear masks) riding a unicorn!
Of course, how could I ever forget my Zombie love.. I bought a "I Love Zombies" shopping bag (for a whooping USD12) and I grabbed two "The Walking Dead" posters

Mr Lim didn't leave empty handed either. He bought a couple of boardgames and a series of 3 batman posters (that will go up our walls in Senja too!).

There were tons of cosplayers as well (most commonly were games, marvel, star wars and star trek characters). My favourite was a service dog that was dressed up as Captain American. What a darling!

Anyway, the best part of the day was being able to take photos with our favourite characters!

Mr Lim and "Kick-Ass".

And of course, me and my favourite - ZOMBIES!
Till next year!

My few steals from UK..

As mentioned earlier, I really didn't spend much buying things in the UK. I seriously think Zim spent more after investing in his Hugo Boss suit (even when all my purchases add up). Anyway, I managed to buy some items in London for Zim to bring back with him.

No surprises.. more Crumpler!!
I was so upset that I could not find anything that I liked at the factory outlet that I decided to just purchase a burberry scarf despite it being ridiculously expensive (sigh, it was about SGD200. -_-). I guess I was just pissed that Zim bought tons of stuff and I refused to return empty handed. grrrrr. Yap, an impulse buy. Pui~
A doggy umbrella and a doggy key chain that were probably worth less than what I paid for, but still, it works for a dog lover sucker like me. But again, Radley was quite a popular brand in London.
That was pretty much what Zim brought back for me. Pathetic huh?

For the dog lover sucker part of me, I bought some handmade items from a quirky store. (These I really love and do think it was probably the best buy of the trip.)
Oh oh, and of course, to add on to my shotglass collection!


For the food junkie part of me, I found some really yummy bites from Marks & Spencer that zim's sister used to get for me when she travelled for work. Love love love it!
To bribe the little monster and to distract him from attacking my snacks, I bought him some treats from Marks & Spencer and a little highland cow from Scotland. (Okay, I wanted the highland cow for me, so this is just an excuse.)
Well, I was so disappointed in my steals that I went on a shopping spree at Heathrow Airport. I swear I could have spent more had I not spend one stupid hour standing in line for VAT refund for a mere 5 pounds. (Like WTF right?) I found a tea towel, a foldable shopping bag and a pouch from Harolds! And yap, all of dog prints. ^_^
Hee... and shhh.. I also bought a longchamp duffel bag which I shall not post a picture of, lest Qian scolds me even more. =P But that was a lifesaver as I was able to fit everything, including my camera bag, into it to carry on the plane.

Guess that explains why I still have so much cash left behind. I barely did any shopping!!!!!!! T_T

Better luck in Rome. This I will ensure.

UK..

Okay, I conclude, Backpacking really ain't my style. Carrying a shitload on my back and constantly moving from hostels to hostels really just don't cut it for me. I'm still having a massive backache from the weight and the really uncomfortable beddings (I think age did contribute as well). Oh, did I mention that there was no TV! Thank god I had my faithful old kindle and iPod to keep me sane during the early nights. Oh well, I guess that's it. My future trips, either go luxury (okay, not extravagant, just reasonable.) or not go at all. Period.

That being said, it was a pretty good trip. My travel buddies were really nice and accommodating and UK is beautiful beyond words. I fell deep in love with Bath (and almost refused to come back had it not that Zim threatened to throw Sam away if I don't return) and was equally blown away by Edinburgh (which I would almost certainly return to).

It's funny to say this, but since I'm doing nothing most of the time in NYC, going on vacation is actually more exhausting than ever. All I could think of on the trip was to return to NYC, back to the comforts of my bed and couch and to indulge in my ever favourite pastime of watching trashy reality TV and just surfing the web. (Yeah, yeah, I'm pathetic.) Going on this holiday, while scenic and breathtaking, took away the simple joys of my life - TV, internet (this I could probably live without if I had TV, oh, and CABLE) and bringing Sam for walks. There was even one point of time that I was contemplating cutting the vacation short to come home (okay, yes, I'm that spoilt.) but thankfully stopped short of doing that.

On another positive note, this was probably the one trip that I spent the least as I was constantly worried about fitting everything into the backpack. Thus, after ALOT of self-editing, I came back with pretty much what I went with. Yes, I was wayyyy under budget and have a hell lot of pounds left. Damn. Hopefully, it's not going to fall too low. *Fingers crossed*

Yet, the biggest smile and joy I have had for the past two weeks was when I finally arrived back to NYC and held the little monster in my arms again. That was, without a doubt, the best moment.

You know that...

your husband secretly hates you when you asked him to be a photographer for a wedding and all he took were really unflattering photos of you. -_-

In case you are wondering, there are worse shots that I am not showing... N-E-V-E-R.

sigh. what can I say...

Back to my little monster!!

I was suffering from severe Sam-withdrawal syndrome while I was away. And it really did not help that Jack Russell Terrier is a really popular breed in UK. (Think I saw almost 10-15 JRTs within 2 weeks. But, yap, Sam is still da CUTEST, without a doubt!) Now that I'm back, with the little monster in my arms once again, I cannot resist but take tons of photos of him, yeah, AGAIN.

Caught Sam's transition in falling asleep. LOVE love love it..





What a lovely sight. =D

I'm going ROME!

I was woken up from my beauty sleep one random sunday morning by Mr Lim's excited voice. In my half conscious state, I vaguely heard Mr Lim asking if I wanted to go Italy for thanksgiving. Thinking that I was still dreaming, I said yes and pretty much fell back to sleep.

A couple of hours later, in my fully conscious state, I clarified that the conversation did indeed take place and got the rest of the details about this really random event. It turned out that one of his usual news feeder sent him a link to a travel blog that publicized really cheap air tickets to Europe from the states. Since most americans do not travel overseas during thanksgiving, the air fares are ridiculously cheap.

And that was not the end of the story.

Our beloved Mr Lim actually bought business class tickets on Continental since it was about 20% of the original price. -_- Okay, I'm not really complaining.

So, yes. I'm going Rome (and probably Florence) for a week over thanksgiving.. woohoo~

Stop the door...

We had a door stopper in our Senja Flat known as T-Dog. That was our pet dog for the one year we spent in that flat. However, before we came over to NYC, we packed our faithful pet into one of the boxes and left without him.

After months of door slamming and using my poor havianas (or whatever I could grab) as a temporary door stopper, I had enough. Hence, when my friends asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I requested for a T-dog. True enough, it came. T-dog II served us well through many happy days. Until, the S-monster got his mouth on it.
The little prick is still eyeing it despite mauling it to the extent that T-Dog II is unable to serve the very function he was made for.
Once again, we were back to days of door slamming and havianas door stopper. When we returned home in August, Zim decided to dig through the boxes and found T-Dog! This time, no one was left behind. We brought the little man back to NYC with us!

Sadly, once again, our happiness was shortlived. While T-Dog survived the S-monster, it succumbed to old age and lost all friction it had on it's tail. As a result, T-Dog was unable to hold/stop any door and was nothing more than a pretty 'vase'.
Sad huh. I was pretty resigned to the fate of slamming doors. With a twist of fate, I stumbled upon a quirky store called Pylones while waiting for a friend. Even luckier, I was able to find T-Dogs for sale! (When I saw it, I could feel little dogs holding pom-poms cheering inside my head) T_T Finally~ But this time, I decided to go for a change and settled for...
T-Cat! Don't get me wrong, I am still a dog person. I just needed a change and hopefully, (with an ultra thick stroke of luck) the S-monster would leave her alone. Meanwhile, at least we are free of slamming doors for a little while!

Happy~

You know you..

married a workaholic when he didn't even realised that his stupid dog pooped right in front of him and left him a small chunk of stinky poop... (that probably sat there for a good 10 minutes!)

I'm impressed...

Coffee Bean!

Found another piece of home away from home! It's The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf!! They finally opened a branch in the east coast and it's at NYC! Hooray!The Sucky part: just because it was newly opened (and hence, uber popular), all pastries were sold out by the time we arrived at around 9pm. Chey~ Was so excited to finally be able to eat my favourite cheesecake. WTH.. Ended up settling for an ice blended instead. I was happy nonetheless. At least I managed to get a little taste of home (Think Holland Village & Serangoon Gardens with my favourite peeps! Sigh~). Ironically, TCB&TL originated from the West coast! Hence, there's really nothing 'home' about it at all. But again, who cares, it still reminds me of home.

Happy~ but better (Cheesecake) luck next time!

All I want for breakfast is...

I miss YAKUN!

Little little sam..

Found this photo while reorganizing my external hard disk. Just makes my heart melts.

Doesn't this just make you go awww...

My backpacking trip..

I finally invested in a backpacking bag for my upcoming UK trip (and hopefully many others more in future..)! After some deliberation, I settled for a Deuter 45Litres backpack! And, it being green was an absolute bonus. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the ugly flower is totally detachable and I'm definitely going to remove it!

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to fit in ALL the stuff that I would like to bring. And yap, to nobody's surprise, I've yet to start packing. Maybe I should start...The bag is so big that I could probably fit 2 sams into it!
Well, can't wait to attend both Sangee's wedding and to experience my very first backpacking trip! I'm not exactly sure if I would like it (especially when I'm a spoilt luxurious traveller.) We shall see..

Wish me luck!

Things on my wall...

My growing project!! See how it has grown from here..

My new art piece...
Illustration by Izak Zenou and thanks to Zim's hard work in standing in line, it's personalized with my name! (Down goes the resale value though..=/)

Yummy.. not so..

The long due home-cooked dinner...The "I want to cook" feeling is returning! Plus, Sam's phobia of the cooking smoke seemed to have disappear too! (Hooray~) Time to find some recipes!

My dog, the monkey..

Sam's new ability - tree climbing..

At this rate, he is going to catch a squirrel pretty soon.

Good job, my little man!