CNY 2014: Eve and Day 1

Chinese New Year 2014 had been over for nearly two months. Now only I have time to sit down to retrieve the photo taken during CNY and blog about it. Oh dear, so many of photo to sort out! Well, this year we had our CNY celebration a bit different from previous. We had our family trip to KL for 4 days and 3 nights to visit our grandmother and for some shopping.

CNY 2014: Eve (除夕)

We had our simple reunion dinner, just the few of us. My in-laws cooked a square meal, instead of having steamboat. Yummy! 

 Look at Baby Hang! Cheeky boy!

We were so happy and always feel great to have our own family reunion. Most importantly, it was great to see my boys accompany and entertain their grandparents. You could hear their laughter and feel the joy. Both of my boys slept before twelve as they were too tired after playing for whole day. They were so deeply in sleep even the firecracker and fireworks here and there couldn't wake them up.

CNY 2014: First Day (年初一)

Early in the morning, we got ready and I let my 2 boys wore Chinese costume. This was Baby Hang’s first Chinese New Year in his life. 

Both kids got their ang pows from grandparents. 

They got their ang pows from us too! 

See….they were counting and... so happy!

After some CNY visiting, we started our journey to KL. When we reached KL, we stopped at The Gardens Mall. We knew that most of Chinese restaurants closed on the first day of CNY. We thought that the shops in shopping mall would open year long. Opps…we were wrong. Only 1 or 2 Chinese restaurants remained their business. We just simply chose one and had our simple dinner there. 

Before leaving the mall, I took a few shots of the mall’s CNY deco. They were so beautiful. We did not manage to take all. There were too many them and we were in a rush.

 When will I have the chance to wear Cheongsam again?

It was quite late at night when we reached uncle’s house. Grandmother still stayed awake waiting for us! Two great grandchildren gave her hugs. How sweet they were!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Green… You inspired me!

Not long ago, my friend asked me to make a card for a very special person and the card will be given to him during a breastfeeding event. This very special person is a leading international civil society person who has contributed much to our society in areas of consumer, health environment, human rights and so forth. He is a grassroots environmental activist. He loves greens. I was honored to have the chance to make a card for him. 

Since he loves greens, I captured and ‘moved’ the beautiful scenery into the card. I would say: “Green… You inspired me!”

Here’s the outcome:  

It’s a sunny day! It’s such a nice day to have a ride in the park. My card has trees, flowers, butterflies, birds! Blue skies, rainbow, wind blows… Isn't it nice?

I punched 3 circles from 3 different green patterned papers to make the trees. I stamped the sentiment on each of the trees. For the sun, I layered the paper flower with a punched circle and a scalloped circle. A big yellow button is added on top of it. 

I’m entering this layout to

Chic Tags March 2014 Challenge Sunday - It's a green challenge.

Love this photo...

Love our beautiful earth! 

Love our lovely environment! 

Green! Green! Green!

Just Add Ink # 206: Great Job! totally cool!

Phew...! Luckily manage to link up before the list is closed.

Just Add Ink is celebrating Stampin Up’s new products this week with Just Add Sale-A-Brations Challenge. The Design Team has come up with their fabulous projects and you can check them out at Just Add Ink. Do you notice there are lots of pennants? It’s time to Sale-A-Brate! I want to join the fun with Just Add Sale-A-Brations too! Here's my card:

I made a celebration card titled “Great Job! Totally cool!”. This card was made to congratulate and thank the crew and casts of the movie ‘The Journey’. This card was also made to celebrate the success of ‘The Journey’ became Malaysia’s No. 1 local movie. I personally handed this card to the director of this movie. I was over the moon! (You can view the photo of the casts holding my card here.)

‘The Journey’ is a beautiful Malaysian made movie with a huge Malaysian appeal as it transcends cultures and generations, thus celebrating the values of filial piety, love, family unity, cultural diversity, as well as themes of east-west and parent-child tension. The story revolves around a conservative father who reluctantly agrees to his daughter’s marriage to a foreigner. The movie places importance in the concept of family, a universal theme that is relevant to all cultures regardless of background. ‘The Journey’ is the third part of a film trilogy by award winning director Chiu Keng Guan – with Woohoo! (2010) and Great Day (2011), both top grossing films in local cinemas respectively. ‘The Journey’ will make its theatrical debut in Singapore in March. This movie is also slated for a release in Taiwan later this year.

Opps… Back to my card.

I used the layout from Life. Paper. Scrapbook.

Since it’s a celebration, I included a pennant in the card. The rest of the elements were actually inspired by the scene and the props used in the movie.

First, the hot air balloon.

ONE BIG PROP: The biggest prop in The Journey is a hot air balloon made of over 10,000 recycled plastic bags contributed by the people all over the country.

This is my version of hot air balloon. I stamped the hot air balloon on a jeans printed patterned paper. I think it won’t be nice if I use black cardstock. I cut out the image. In order to create a similar effect and texture with the one in the movie, I adhere the assorted little tiny scrap papers pieces by pieces. I normally will keep the leftover of the cardstocks and patterned papers. Well, it’s time to utilize those leftover, no wastage. I adhere the hot air balloon to the right top corner of a panel with form squares. If you look clearly from the side, the balloon is slanting. I used foam squares on the top part of the balloon but glue tape at the lower part. I just want to create some dimension instead of the whole balloon pop out from the card.

Bike and Yellow car

BIKE RIDING IN MALAYSIA: First time actor Lee ‘Uncle Chuan’ and Australian stage actor, Pfeiffer ‘Benji’ on a journey delivering wedding invitations in the film.

Oh dear! I don’t have any embellishment with motorbike. I replace it with bicycle wood veneer from Studio Calico. For the car, I had this car wood veneer from Studio Calico as well. They looked so alike! The dotted lines represent the long journey, the routes they have been through.

I chose the clouds with tiny wording patterned paper as background and paired with plain wording paper. I just love the combination. I layered 2 patterned papers that I like to create a pennant. I stamped the sentiment on the pennant.

Actually, this card is just a simple card. There’s no special technique or embellishments being used. But is the effort that I put in the card. Just like this movie, instead of casting celebrities as the main characters, the movie this time starred amateur actors, as well as the average men of the streets- kids and senior citizens which have little or no acting experience. But the outcome is great!

I'm entering this card for

Just Add Ink # 206 -Sale-a-brations!

Happy Crafting!

Celebrate!

全民电影《一路有你》见面会 Meet the Casts of 《一路有你》The Journey

2014 年3月2日 （星期日)  晴天

Ben回来和大家见面了...Ben is Back!

难得全民电影《一路有你》的一家人再次团聚－Ben (Benji)，李世平 (全叔)，尤凤音Joanne (Bee) ，还有 CHIU导出现在Queensbay Mall与槟城的朋友做最近距离接触。我和家人也到现场与他们见面！

我与小泽从星期四等到今天，或不急待的想与他们见面。我们1.30pm到达现场。一眼望去早已有不少人在那儿等待了，椅子早已坐满人，我们只好站着等。小泽兴奋地指着台上的海报，一边喊着《一路有你》！在等待的当儿，小泽每听到在场地播放的电影歌曲，他都会说出是什么歌，是谁唱的歌！歌曲才开始，过门都还没完，他一下就说：“Mummy, Geraldine唱的歌。。。”， “Mummy, 《The Better Half》”。。。 还跟着唱，真是服了他！（他才三岁多，不到四岁。）

大约1.35pm，突然听到Hubby Jay说：“他们来了！”。话一说完就马上拿起相机拍照。我转身一看就见Ben，Uncle Frankie，Joanne及 CHIU导从入口处走进来。哇！Joanne很高、很白、很漂亮、很清秀，好迷人啊！当时，还不是很多人察觉，很有冲动很想冲上前去。后来就不见人影了。

老实说，带着小孩去这样的场面还蛮挑战的。小泽一下说要上厕所，一下说肚子饿，一下说口渴。。。多花样。我的小儿子航航呢？睡在婴儿推车跟着我们去‘霸’位子。没一下又醒了，只好把他背在身上。后来，我巧遇认识的朋友，她让个椅子给我坐，歇一歇。

2.00pm左右，主持人出来了。还没正式请四位嘉宾出来之前，主持人给大家先来个Quiz, 让大家热身，并把一些《一路有你》周边产品送出去。大家都抢答，好热闹啊！

不久，四位嘉宾亮相啦！大家都欢呼，好热情的场面啊！他们向大家问好及感谢大家的支持后，各自分享他们拍戏时面对的挑战与心得，还蛮有趣的。

过后，Uncle Frankie现场用口琴吹出《The Better Half》这首歌，接着Ben亲唱这首他亲自写的歌。主持人还逗Ben讲几句华语及广东话。哦！Ben讲了几句，他超可爱的，尤其是他讲：“爸爸！”最后，来到了合照时间。

本来坐在前排的我，一下就被挤到中间去了。Hubby Jay 更加糟糕。由于Hubby Jay 需要顾着我的包包及婴儿推车，他更本挤不进人群中。没办法之下，我前面背着航航，一边手牵着小泽，一边手拿着相机，又挂着一个装着书及要送给他们的礼物，向前挤呀！幸好大家没有你挤我推，要不然就无法想象了。突然，静静的航航哭了，或许是热吧！小泽则被挤在下面。我又不能退，又不能进，进退两难。旁边的哥哥姐姐帮忙逗航航也拿他没办法。接着让我感动的事发生了。身边与身后传来年轻人的声音。“有baby哭了。。。这里有baby，请让位。。。”慢慢地，我一直往前去了。我不断地向让位给我的人说谢谢。其实，我内心不好受，因为要大家让位给我，但我没有选择。航航越哭越大声了。我非常感激那些为我开路的朋友们，也感激那些让位让我先上台合照的朋友们。谢谢你们！

我终于可以跟Ben，Uncle Frankie，Joanne 及 CHIU导合照咯！哎呀！天不作美！相机的镜头不适于短距离拍摄，再加上相机的setting在我挤在人群中时被调走了。结果拍出来的照片就。。。

希望与我同组一起拍的朋友可以分享他们相机里捕捉到漂亮的照片给我。唯有这样吧！

我想再辛苦也比不上他们四人来得辛苦。他们需要在短时间里这里奔波、那里奔波，北上南下一个一个地方去与影迷见面感谢。除此之外，每场见面会要站上好几个小时，还要对着镜头笑，跟大家拍好几百、几千次的合照。Uncle Frankie这把年龄还撑得住，真是佩服！辛苦他了!从头到尾跟着大家一起站着合照，没坐椅子呢！

其实，我可说我到达现场的目的已达成。要与全民电影《一路有你》的导演及演员见面，我做到了。虽然我没有漂亮的合照做纪念，但我与我的小孩曾经与CHIU导、Uncle Frankie、 Ben 及Joanne近距离接触过啊！就让那些在现场的画面与感受，深深地永远留在我脑海里。

我自己亲手自制了一张祝福卡要送给全体的全民电影《一路有你》的团队，我也亲手把这张卡亲自送到CHIU导手中，他们都收到了！（CHIU导、Uncle Frankie、 Ben 及Joanne，当你们漏夜赶路往槟城时，我也等孩子睡了才漏夜‘陪伴’你们一起，为你们做这张卡喔！）。

除此之外，我很想要的热气球日历书签，我终于拿到手了！我的两本书，《在路上》及《一路有你》小说，各有热气球日历书签陪伴咯！虽然没有多余时间让他们签个名在我的两本书上，但有这两张书签也算不错了啦！

我的小泽呢，他也很开心。

问他：“你今天开心吗?”

“开心！”兴奋、大声地回答：“见到Benji & Bee! Uncle Chuan! 还有CHIU导！” （Beh Tahan nya）

或许有些人会说这妈妈也真是的，带着两个这么小的小孩一起来挤。对，我承认是有点疯狂，但至少我曾经跟我的两个小孩一起疯狂过！至于追星嘛，我想换着是别的明星，再有知名度也好，再多有重量级也好，我也不会去追。反而，我就是偏偏只想要与全民电影《一路有你》的导演及演员们见面。或许我把他们当成是朋友吧！总觉得比较亲切、靠近与踏实。

当然，最重要的还是要谢谢我亲爱的老公哦！他为了我的‘追星梦’，放弃了跟他的车队一起去参加槟城第二大桥开幕历史之游。谢谢你，老公！哈哈！

最后，我想喊一喊 （因为在现场没喊到）

“CHIU导，你真棒！真的真的很棒！很敬佩你！加油！”

“Benji & Bee, you both are so sweet!”

“Ben, you are great! You are so cute, Sofaman! We love your song!”

“Joanne, you are so beautiful! 我爱你！ （in Hokkian）”

“Uncle Frankie, well done! I salute you! ‘san fu sai lei’- （辛苦你了in Cantonese）”