The year 2012 is certainly off to a fast pace right from the onstart, for me at least. I hardly found the time to dismantle the Christmas tree (oh yeah, we only took it down last night!), and in the blink of an eye, it’s already the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Seriously, where HAS all the time gone?
January has indeed been a really busy month, what with the kids starting off a new and exciting year in school, complete with orientations programs and whatnot. I’m sure it shows from the frequency of my blog updates. We’re also planning Ethan’s birthday do at the end of the month, which ALWAYS coincides with the Chinese Lunar New Year. Of course, the customary spring cleaning at home is a given, plus some personal endeavors left me with absolutely no breathing room.
This year after some due consideration (and quotations and chasing contractors around), we decided, together with our next door neighbor, to transform our old steel grille door to a stainless steel one, which included extending the gated area all the way to the edge of the corridor. Our old gate was built at the halfway point in our hallway due to developer’s requirements at the time of purchase, but once the strata title was obtained a couple of years back, we are able to extend the gated hallway area to the corridor. We just didn’t have the time to do it since then.
Our old white grille gate, which had been with us since inception, which was almost 8 years, was also showing signs of rust and wear and tear. Not very sightly at all.
The entire process of removing the old and installing the new gate took a good 8 hours. This was the stage when the old door was completely removed and we were waiting for the new one to be installed.
It was a long day of drilling, and hacking but the result was definitely worth the wait. We now have a wider and longer hallway, somehow making our home seem more private :). The stainless steel gate would also prevent any rust in the future. And it certainly made our home looked brand new 🙂
In addition to the new gate, I ventured into some homemade cookie-baking this year too, against the advice of my hubby (sorry, love). My kids were more than willing to help too, and in fact, the ones on the left were actually Ethan’s idea. He calls them “Mickey Mouse cookies”, and Ethan and Hannah helped to place the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavored chips on the cookies before I baked them.
For their school’s Chinese New Year party last Fridayt, Ethan brought the Mickey Mouse cookies to share, while Hannah brought the cornflake cookies I made (the ones in the brown and white polka dot liners).
And finally…a work in progress..
It’s now late at night and I have not had time to paint my nails yet…so please excuse me while I try to get this done before the New Year begins. Happy Chinese Lunar New year everyone! GONG XI FA CAI!
Little Miracles
Our Journey of Love
