Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A book on Singapore Houses



This book was my Christmas present and it is AWESOME. The book talks about Singapore history, the history of the bungalow house and has some awesome pictures of the black and white houses here in Sinagpore.

Oh to be able to live in one of these gems.... but, alas, most of them are either privately owned or rented out at SUPER high prices to wealthy ex-pats. In fact, in one way, I found it sad that many of the private homes owned by Singaporeans have been destroyed in order to sell the land to a developer at a higher cost. Pity that.

Highly recomend this book to anyone who wants a great coffee table book, but one with enough substance that keeps you reading!

Technorati tags:


Thursday, December 22, 2005

A great reminder... what to do instead of shopping

From Keri Smith's Blog what do do instead of shopping. Great reminder two days before Christmas.

Peace to you all!

Kristy

Friday, December 09, 2005

Lost Innocence


Day6a
Originally uploaded by Farflungcraft.


In the Journal your Christmas class, we were asked to do a journal entry about Christmas past. And then to think of both a good and a bad memory.

For me, it was looking through some old pictures that the good memories came flooding back. I looked at the pictures of three matching dresses, the huge tree... with the homemade popcorn garland. The smiles on our faces... the anticipation of not just the presents under the tree, but the dinner, the goodies, the snacks. Often the day would be spent with cousins, grandparents. Family. The day was joy. pure and simple.

My memory of a bad Christmas memory was probably one where I wanted a Breyer horse (you can see part of the page over on my Flickr account). Anyway, as I grew older, I started to snoop. I wanted to know what I was getting. I still to this day have little patience, but I can at least control myself now. So, I snooped. I found the horse I had asked for. I was so happy. But then Christmas came, and the horse didn't. I pouted, I moped... after a while mom or dad asked me what was wrong and I said I had not gotten the one gift I really really wanted. Well, a few minutes later, it came out... I am not sure if the gift was forgotten, if it was purchased to be a birthday present... but I do recall that while I did get what I wanted in the end, it felt sort of hollow. I knew that Santa didn't exist (I was probably in 6th/7th grade) but...really the magic of Christmas was gone. Gone based on my selfishness, my desires, my impatience.

I hope my kids don't face that. I hope that we can create a Christmas that is not just about material things. A Christmas that is about love-and joy-and family. A Christmas that puts "presents" lower on the list than joy. Very hard to do in a material society. But my goal nonetheless.

Simply,

K

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Starting a new tradition

This year I have been participating in an online class called "journaling your christmas" It is lead by Shimelle Laine a papercraft artist living in England.

The journal is for the month of December, plus the first 6 days of January.

It is a nice way for me to spend a few minutes thinking about what we do every year for the holidays and then being creative and putting it on paper in an artistic way.


SO far we have had a prompt on advent calendars, weather, Christmas cards... great stuff!

I have the 5th and 6th of December to still get on paper, but the days are in my head....

Here is a link to my Flickr account that shows these pages.

Simply,

K

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Holiday Countdown

How to live purposefully and simply during the holidays is a struggle. No matter where you live. In the consumer capital of SE Asia, it is even harder. I am going to spend the next few days compiling a list of quotes, ideas and thoughts on how our family is going to celebrate as "non-commercial" as possible.

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. ~Dr. Seuss
 
Who links to me?