Hols are ♥

Finally had the time to go into cooking & baking once again over this long break! I miss miss baking...last time I baked anything was pineapple tarts about 2 years ago. Neway, I made sesame lavosh crackers, a recipe I got off Annabel Langbein and I like the outcome :)

Before it goes into the oven















Hot & crisp!

And I'm gonna attempt No Bake Cheesecake in this presentation on Friday, which I hope is going to be successful because I'm supposed to bring dessert for a party over the weekend. Anyway I dont think it could go badly wrong because it's a no-bake recipe and that's why I love no-bake recipes (cheesecakes, crumbles, tarts, tiramisu etc)- simply because I dont need to use an oven, which is one of the most difficult things to use correctly (the timing, the temperature etc. which are almost always different from what's stated in the recipe) when baking stuff.

And then, it's time to get my nails ready for my favourite holiday! (should have replaced one of the trees with a santa's hat design..)

70% recharged.

My new favourite band!

I'm finally done with WORK for this semester!! Didn't expect to be this sad @ leaving...especially on the last day I saw the kids. When they presented me with the surprise card, I just lost it; tears couldn't stop flowing & it stunned the little ones who thought I was upset cause they've never seen me cry before, haha. Come to think of it, I've never cried a single time during my 2 years at work but I cried twice during my last 2 days. Sigh..it's finally dawned on me that I won't be seeing them anymore or waking up to that teaching routine every morning at 6.30am. It's been merely 2 years but as I was packing up on Fri, I realised how much I've learnt and how much effort I've put in and how attached I've grown towards most things & ppl at work. I must have grown so rigid that I'm resisting changes like my kids!! Oh wells...I guess I'll eventually get over it. Like I've mentioned a zillion times, life's been sort of a blur and state of confusion over the past few weeks. And now that I've made up with lotsa long-lost sleep over the weekend, I'm feeling as refreshed as me. Time to soak up the festive air once again at this time of the year!

Hanging there

Last week's been crazy. My mind's been a complete blur with 4hrs of sleep a night and endless typing on the comp. Rushed my butt off 2 sch assignments while the first of my besties tied the knot. And though there were the usual hiccups here and there, the wedding was a success! 10 hats off to her & her hubs for planning & organizing their own wedding (which was a pretty grand & formal affair) almost all by themselves (without the silly fuss of gatecrashing and all) and in such a short period of time (something like less than 6mths??). In fact, it's an even smoother wedding than some others that had 2-3x the amount of time & help. Congrats once again a + t.

Neway, one more assignment and 2 more days at work and I'm good to slack for the rest of this year!! Can't wait for Friday to come, though I don't look forward to packing and clearing my stuff at work. 2 years worth of teaching materials, toys etc...I hope I can finish packing up by the end of my last day @ work 'cause I seriously don't wanna make an extra trip down next week.

Crafts

After completing a psych report and a quiz on Mon, followed by another quiz this afternoon, decided to take a break from the books tonight...to catch up on the craft work which I've been putting on hold because of work.

Definitely not one of my best works but I'm too tired to do much DIY crafts so made do with ready-made deco & trinkets from my random craft collection. Hope she likes it.

And some small random stuff for workmates to celebrate the long weekend & Trick-or-Treat cause I won't be joining them for the scare night this year :'(

Starting again..

The sickening feeling of stress & exhaustion has started to overwhelm me once again, and after some stuff that happened this week @ work & other bad news for paperwork load, I am really starting to regret going part-time instead of just sticking to my original decision to leave in Sept. URGH, what's wrong with me!! Well, I really was asking for torture and so it's gonna be a continuous period of reports and reports and nothing but more reports to churn out for both school & work for the next 4 weeks. I'm just gonna run to the top of my blk and scream my lungs out after November the 16th.

For now, it's back to getting lost in my tables and notes once again.

 I really don't mind doing the psychological reports, but doing them after a long day at work and when I'm so darn tired is NOT fun at all. Sigh. Only things that cheer me up recently are ending my counseling practicum last week (thank goodness!) & not having to work the next 2 Fridays 'cause of HRJ & Sped Day!

Culminating into flu!

So the last couple of weeks have been a complete blur where I was focused on nothing but getting through all my school assignments, clearing stuff at work, doing my counseling practicum and attending school. I was initially really looking forward to the end of September because it was when I would officially stop working and could finally concentrate on my studies. However, I don't know how and why (might be because of the difficulties my employers were facing trying to hire someone to replace me or could be my lack of energy to think properly etc.) but I ended up agreeing to stay on till mid November as a part-timer. Not exactly a wise decision upon deeper reflection because from now till mid November, both work work and school work's just gonna increase and stay heavy but I guess I'll really be doing my work partner and my kids a big favor and that's what's most important. And switching to part-time beginning this week has made me feel less stressed and more focused + energized especially during night classes (previously I was just struggling to stay awake after a super long day at work). Anyway, all the weeks of stress and rush and lack of rest had finally boiled over into a bad flu but I'm actually glad that the flu only came when I started on my part-time work and when my previous major school assignment was completed on Monday...and when there is no counseling practicum this week! Thank goodness or the flu would just have resulted in work spilling over to the next week and so on. For now, it's just getting lots of much needed rest, sleep and some fun and relaxed time these few days before I start working on school assignments and work related reports again next week. I just can't wait for 16th Nov!!

Overwhelmed

It's so ironic to come home from helping a counseling client through her family issues and feel like my family doesn't even exist. These few weeks have been extremely stressful and I don't remember feeling this stressed before in my life actually. Well, I had prepped myself when I decided to take on a full-time study load while working full-time but I didn't expect it to be this tiring. Almost every single weekday is the same old exhausting routine- waking up at 6.30am, going to work, knocking off at 3.30pm, rushing down for my counseling session at 4.30pm, grabbing a quick bite at 5.45pm before starting class from 6-9pm, reaching home around 10pm, bathing and clearing some compulsory readings/school assignments till after midnight, before I can finally hit my bed in peace. Well not in peace exactly, since I've been so stressed that sometimes I can't even sleep in peace. But I've been able to sleep pretty well the past week simply because I'm just so damn zonked out! I don't know whether it's due to the stress I've been feeling lately but I really just feel like crying my heart out right now.

Harry P. overload

This HP themed party by bakingdom is simply wicked! Loveeee the cake!

  

And the paperkit for the 3D owl can be downloaded & printed from 3eyedbear. So cool! Haven't indulged in my favourite craft work in agesss. All because school work has been stealing all my time!

Dizzy with words & numerals

Tis' what I've been doing most of the time over the long weekend :'(
 














And despite that, I'm not even able to clear ALL of this week's assigned readings for 1 module! Let alone 3....Thank goodness there's no assigned readings for the other 2 modules this week or...

Now I'm even more certain that there's no way I'll be able to cope adequately with studying + working full-time, and I haven't even factored in my 3 hrs weekly counselling practicum which is starting next week! So yeah, despite my bosses' persuasions, am gonna have to stick to my original plan so that I don't end up zombified beyond recognition by the end of this year.

First week of...

Full-time course load while working = madness. Especially when there's the killer psych testing module which involves conducting 4 rounds of different assessments & writing 4 full psych reports in less than 3 months?!? Though I know this is gonna be a super useful & enriching course and the one which provides the training most applicable for my future work, I'm still really freaked out by the assignments. Anyhow, enough of studies and on to nicer things..

Recent nail art:
Inspired by my band uniform in sec sch













Nautical













City lights













In celebration of national day @ work
 













And recent gastronomical activities @...
Tiong Bahru Bakery (which serves the best croissants I've ever tasted)










 TWG

GWP hotel's high tea













Carpenter & Cook's scrumptious tarts

And I'll like to end off by showing some love for Harry Potter, my comical dad & my bestie who's getting hitched in Nov!

Fire!

The weather's maddening these days. Where is the rain & wind?!?!?! Our school had a fire drill today but while we were supposed to evacuate the building & escape from the "fire", we were ironically entering real fire because the sun & heat was burning everyone up. Seriously, it was hot enough to start a fire & cook my lunch on the ground.

The elegance of the hedgehog.

It's been ages since I've picked up such a good book which makes me laugh & cry and that's what Muriel Barbery's novel does. Despite plenty of rather lofty & pretentious discussion and analysis over art, literature & philosophy (e.g. what makes a table a table, how humans are nothing more than primates, the awareness of time due to the falling of a rose petal etc.) and the exaggerated praise for Japanese culture, which is typical of the French & most of which I don't get anyways, the style of writing is a delightful mixture of lucidity, wit, humour, sarcasm, intelligence, subtlety and poignancy. The ending was so beautifully expressed that I actually teared and I hardly ever cry when reading novels. And I really really love Paloma & her perspectives and the way she grows and matures as a person; she's really one of my all-time favourite characters from a novel!

Now it's time to watch the film adaptation and see how it compares to the book. Next up on my list: Hector and the search for happiness. And I really hope that I'll be able to get my hands on The particular sadness of lemon cake soon!

Nail @rt

First time doing ombre/gradient nails and I almost died. This is by far the most difficult design i've tried. Took hours and re-did it so many times only for it to turn out to be something crappy like this:















And being extremely dissatisfied, youtubed another design with a much better tutorial and clearer instructions. And though it's far from perfect, this one took just one try, lesser time and turned out much nicer!
 














Hols are (sadly) over and it's back to seeing the kids again tomorrow. Hope this term's a smooth one, especially with a new partner and my new study term beginning in another month's time.

Barely a week.

And I'm already missing him so much...
 


















One more week before sch term ends at work and....June hols arrive and most importantly, Korea in 2 weeks time!! Absolutely CAN'T wait for the break after months of exhausting work + studies since the start of this year. So much has happened over the last few weeks: good news, sad news, bad news, anticipation, closures, grief, acceptance, stress, exhaustion. Really, a swirl of emotions have overtaken my senses in such a short period of time. I'm really really thankful that all these happened AFTER my study term ended or I don't know how I'll be able to deal with it all.

In loving memory....

Of my dear little boy who has passed on after more than 10 years with us.

On his last night with us (10th May)















All that's left of him in a box.

May day

Really likeee this video!...And safari week for me nails :)

Weekends

I loove this MV (not so much the song though). Owl City always makes such amazing videos! Anyhow, I'm finally able to enjoy my weekend without having to catch up (or worry about catching up) with school work for the first time in 4 months.

Pitter Patter drops..















Doesn't this look like sunset @ the beach? It's taken at a coffee shop though

Some days are just like rainbows

Had such a packed & tiring BUT fantastic day. Brought the kids for school outing @ sentosa underwater world and it's such a great experience to see how excited and happy the little ones were today. I miss being a child at times...where you're living in such blissful ignorance & where you're thrilled by the slightest things in life. And then we had a wonderful afternoon celebrating Tricia's bday, such that I actually forgot about the terrible migraine I was nursing as a result of the powerful sunshine this morning. And to end of the day in dramatic fashion, I went to chop off my hair so that I'm back to looking like a kid & my head feels a ton lighter now.


And the penguins come marching onto my nails..


Strawberry jello


And DIY miniature furniture sets I'm using to teach prepositions! Ain't it cutee?

March hols

March hols are coming to an end & its back to work tmr. Somehow, this week just seemed so very short. Prob cause I was spending almost every day catching up on readings & assignments though I'm still glad that this break gave me some much needed breather time for sch work & rest.

No need to rush for work in the morning = ample time to prepare & enjoy a proper breakfast:


Just like everyone else, I've been hooked on Draw Smtg. And i go ????? when pals draw smtg that I have zero inkling as to what the ans is. haha!


My recent purchase of black & white nail stripers allowed me to try on designs which I couldn't in the past, such as...

Chucks!


Am gonna embrace myself for the next 5 wks where ALL my remaining assignments, presentations & pre-practicum sessions are gonna be due.

Recess wk!

Finally, a short break from studies (though its ending already) plus, another more week and it's a short break from work! Though i'll probably be spending most of the time completing my sch assignments.

Anyhow, time really flies. Just awhile ago it was the start of the new year and now it's already March & the end of Term 1 at work. Very soon time'll flash past & it'll be a new year all over again. And I'll turn 26. Sighs, can't believe I'm aging this fast. It seems like such a short while ago that I celebrated my 21st. But it's already 5 years later. Never have I yearned so much for the aging process to take on a slower pace...

Anyhow, i'm going a little mad over nail art these days maybe 'cause I find the whole process & outcome really therapeutic & satisfying but the only downside is the overwhelming smell of the polish & remover.

Cuppies


Angry birds (though my kids hardly notice my nails, wonder whether they'll notice this time round since all of them loveee ABirds)

Taking a breather from work & studies

De-stressing or procrastinating??


CNY gathering at ham's 2 wks ago..



Overbought food as usual.


Spent 30 mins trying to open xy's dessert wine. Cork ultimately pushed into the bottle.


Rounds & rounds to polish up my rusty mj skills.


Prawn crackers to replace the absence of fish.


This was the last thing I ate for the night & I was stuffed for real!


Slowly starting to feel the stress now with school assignments & tests piling up. Thank goodness work's ok with not much to rush atm.