Good Company at Blu Jaz

Despite being a SAHM for 5 years now, I’m very lucky to have friend in high hip places who still keep in contact with me and don’t find me too fuddy-duddy to ask out This week was a very nice surprise because it was an unexpected gathering of old pals (dating back 20+ years!!) at another one of our old pal’s music gig at Blu Jaz Cafe.

My Lychee Martini at Blu Jaz

Now an established jazz musician, Chok Kerong used to play piano with me on drums in our church Youth Band when we were teenagers. I’m so honoured that I once had the chance to play with such an amazing talent. Even at that tender age, he was already filling in the gaps with unbelievably complicated but beautiful jazz riffs – which, unfortunately was not really appreciated by everyone, simply because it was too brilliant, I believe And I think jazz is not something that is for the masses. Not everyone knows how to appreciate jazz. I think it was he who introduced me to Sonny Rollins and I attribute my meagre collection of jazz CDs in the 1990s to him and a few other friends. Ah, the good old days of irritating my family with high pitched squeals of the saxophone and the more pleasing sounds of Dave Brubeck. Heh.

Well, enough reminiscing! Here are the pictures of Kerong (who still looks exactly the same to me!) and the band who performed with him for his CD Launch performance 10 November. He has got some really great songs on his CD, entitled Good Company! and I can’t believe I forgot to buy one and get it autographed! Cos I was too busy being Cinderella and rushing home by 11pm because Littlelam was refusing to sleep and waiting up for me! Sigh. I actually had a baseline in one of his songs stuck in my head for the whole night! haha!

Blur picture of the virtuoso in action (sorry, ipod pics not so good!)

Clearer picture of Kerong and Soh Wen-Ming on drums. I felt rather wistful about my long-gone drumming days watching him.

Greg Lyons on saxophones. (Incidentally, Jeremy Monterio's head is to the right of the picture.)

Art Garden at SAM – Walter Rabbit again!

Hearing so many positive reports of the Children’s Season programme at the Singapore Art Museum this year, I decided to take Littlelam to the Art Garden at SAM once again. Last year we had a blast at 8Q at SAM, and silly me, I thought it was at the same place this year! Don’t make the same mistake if you go – it’s at the main museum this year! We were wondering why we didn’t see the giant inflatable Walter Rabbit this year and true enough, we were at the wrong place. Fortunately the main museum was just across the road!

Walter Rabbit immortalised - now there's even merchandise! Littlelam wanted me to buy her the plush toy but I refused. Heh

We started out rather confusedly at the first level, where we saw an elephant covered in flowers. Apparently this was part of the exhibit called “Elephant Sitting and Elephant at Rest“. A staff member came up to us and offered LittleLam a sticker. And she stuck it on her hand. The man just smiled and walked away. I was like “ok, how nice, a sticker.” Then I looked at the elephant and realised it was covered in the same kind of stickers that Littlelam was given. Ohhhhhhhh! So I got her to stick it on. I was already a bit miffed by the strange behaviour of the staff – I mean, he could have just explained to us what in the world he was giving us the sticker for!

Staring in confusion at the elephant

So after this confusion, there was YET ANOTHER confusion, and we were ignored and turned away again. I really have no idea why I had such a bad experience since all my friends with younger kids raved about Art Garden at SAM. Maybe Littlelam is too tall? Or maybe because we arrived there at 4pm and everyone was tired out? I don’t know, but I didn’t like the treatment at all. Anyhow, we headed to this room where there was a giant installation made up of wooden discs, and so it happened that it was my friend and her son slipping the discs in. Naturally, I thought it was some game so I allowed Littlelam to just run up the stairs to meet her friend and suddenly the staff stopped her and asked her to come down. Ok, so it was a turn-taking thing. So we headed down the stairs and was wondering what we were supposed to do. After a long time of standing around, I was the one who finally spotted a staff member and approached him to ask what this was all about! He finally deigned to tell me that the kids were supposed to colour a design in the dots using a piece of paper, and they would have to wait their turn to make their design life-sized by slotting in the discs. At this point, he told me, “Oh, but there are already 11 families waiting, so I don’t think you have time to do this.” RIGHT.

So we trooped off to the next room, which was supposedly the dress-up room. Named “Mummy Dearest” by Justin Lee, the installation was made up of giant dolls with velcro clothes you could dress them with, and a giant cake which you could also decorate with the velcro pieces. At least Littlelam FINALLY got to do something in this room.

Sticking a piece of topping on the fake cake

Next, we headed for SUPERHIGH, by Dawn Ng, a room that depicted coloured raindrops and the pools of water they formed using vinyl-covered acrylic and foam board. The kids were supposed to move the round stool-like platforms to match the shape on the ground. Guess what Littlelam ended up doing, hehe!

Jumping from platform to platform instead of pushing them to fit the dots on the ground! Obviously this was tailored for younger kids.. Too easy so Littlelam decided to adapt it to her own game!

Next we walked through a room filled with modular toy train tracks fixed on the floors, walls and even the ceilings. Named “Paramodelic-Graffit Paramodel“, it captured the children’s attention with the colourful and whimsical display of grass, animals and various vehicles. Once again, there was supposed to be a ‘workshop’ but it was only limited to 8 children at a time so obviously, it was too late, too full and Littlelam was turned away again.

Train tracks on the walls and ceiling!

The next room involved the making of a paper fruit, using a template that you could get with your entry ticket. Titled “Fruits“, the installation by Wit Pimkanchanapong (2007) was actually more engaging for the adults because of its difficulty level! A peek into the room saw many hapless parents struggling away at the little worktables while the kids looked on and occasionally helped squeeze on some glue. And mainly got restless and kept asking, “Is it ready yet?”. I myself was covered in glue by the time I was done with our Apple.

All the lovely paper fruits!

Our apple!

Finally, we headed upstairs to the chapel where there was a short film screening, but Littlelam promptly got bored and so I was at a loss when she asked, “Is there anything else to do?”. Poor child was clearly rather disappointed. Fortunately, I asked a nice lady staff member who directed us to the Glass House which was designated as the Activity Room. Here Littlelam finally got to play with a set of trains and tracks (with other kids), colour, and work on a giant puzzle. Actually, most of the work was also done by me, again. Heh.

Having fun building her "Downtown Line" to connect to the boys' main line!

Attempting to work on the giant puzzle - without a final picture guide! Some boys came and messed it up, but just ran off without fixing it. Then it fell to 3 mothers and their daughters to figure out how to fix it! How typical.

Yay! Our finished puzzle! It took nearly 30mins to do!

The PlayDome at National Museum

Last weekend, while I spent a glorious 3 days away from the mundanity of life in a hotel with 176 other women for a retreat, my two girls were left at home with Daddy and my mother-in-law. So the resourceful hubby decided to take Littlelam out to the National Museum, Singapore where a special children’s season PlayDome was set up for the first time in Singapore, partnering with Playeum, The Play Museum. (Here I’m gonna copy from the brochure cos I didn’t go): The exploratory space consists of dedicated zones, where children get to play with props, materials and get really hands-on in creating orginail art works inspired by the collection in the museum’s Living Galleries and its iconic Dome.

Black Box - or what Littlelam called the ‘giant kaleidoscope’. It features the world premiere of The Real Thing by Jordana Maisie, courtesy of Ipswich Art Gallery (Australia).

Using fabrics to create various designs within the kaleidoscope

Changing the patterns

Spot Littlelam in the pattern!

Various interactive games:

Video screen projection

Tracing patterns on the fabric

Making masks with Daddy! Spiderman and Ninja Turtle...

Maze made of fabrics that the children could pull away to get through

Littlelam having a great time dashing through! She told me this was her favourite

There was another interactive art piece which is made up of many separate pieces of string I think! It is for the kids to help the artist to make a giant dress!

Adding string to the giant dress?

There were also some outdoor installations which involved the kids drawing their own glass art piece and inserting it into ‘telescopes’ that were set up in the small grass patch outside the museum.

Littlelam drawing her images on the glass pieces

Field of telescopes!

Looking through her creation

Littlelam told me excitedly, "I climbed up on a giant chilli, you know!"

Year of the Rabbit Chinese New Year Decoration

It’s been a very very busy Chinese New Year this year so I haven’t had time to post about this easy craft that I did with Littlelam for the Year of the Rabbit. I’m trying to give her more ownership with the crafts now, since she will be turning 5 later on in the year and I’m trying to get her to be more independent. So I figured a simple craft that doesn’t look that great, but is safe and easy for her to put together almost totally by herself would be good. So here’s a hanging decoration that I thought up for her to do:

Happy New Year!

Items needed
- Red craft foam or cardboard
- Cotton wool
- Gold sequin/ confetti or bead
- Twine or string
- Hole puncher
- Red packets (preferably square ones)
- glue

How to:

Step 1) Draw a circle (use a round container to trace it), and rabbit in the middle of it, on the red craft foam/ cardboard.  Get your child to put glue inside the rabbit outline.

Step 2) Get your child to tear the cotton wool into small pieces and stick it onto the rabbit shape to form a furry rabbit. You might need to help with the edges.

Step 3) For the eye, stick  on the gold sequin/ bead. Leave aside to dry.

Step 4) Get your child to write the Chinese characters on each of the 4 red packets. I’ve chosen the very basic “Happy New Year”.  Usually Chinese New Year well-wishes consist of 4 characters so you can take your pick. I can’t type it here cos I’m using my laptop which has no Chinese character programme.

Step 5) Punch holes in the top and bottom of each red packet. Cut some twine/ string for your child to thread through the holes to join each character together.

Step 6) Cut out the circle with the rabbit on it and then join it as the top. And there you have it!

It’s not very pretty, but very very easy and fun for your child. Try not to assist, and let him/ her try to do most of it. You can let your child copy the Chinese characters – that’s what I did. Cos she can only write the “kuai” on her own.

Christmas Tree Craft

This year, with the baby still nursing round the clock, I have had hardly any time to do housework or spend quality moments with Littlelam, much less do the usual baking for her classmates and teachers for Christmas.

Instead, I came up with this idea for a Christmas Tree craft which accomplishes a couple of purposes at he same time. 1) Keep Littlelam occupied for a while
2) Gives us a more purposeful ‘quality time’ to spend together
3) Serves as gifts/Christmas cards for her classmates and teachers
4) Develops her fine motor skills
5) Looks pretty and gives me a break for the norm!

So here are the pictures and steps to follow should you want to attempt this super easy craft too:

Things Needed
- Green Craft Foam (usually they sell it in a pack)
- Craft glue (Get the white glue that dries on clear)
- Shiny confetti (any design)
- Star confetti
- Scissors
- Ice-cream sticks
- Pen

How to:
Step 1: Draw a Christmas Tree shape on a piece of the craft foam. Cut it out. This will serve as your template. Using this template, trace as many Christmas tree shapes out of the rest of your craft foam as your require. Cut them out.

Here's what your cut-outs should look like

Step 2: Separate your confetti shapes into different bowls/ containers. Let your child choose what she’d like to put on the tree – they will be the ‘ornaments’. Because the confetti is very small, flat and hard to put glue on directly, you may wish to use a cotton bud to apply the glue.

Littlelam trying to apply the glue onto the tiny confetti

Step 3: Remember to glue the star shape on top of the tree. Leave the confetti to dry for a few hours (or a day). Once dry, you can get your child to turn it over and write a message at the back of the tree, directly on the foam. Just be sure that you leave a space in the middle for the ice-cream stick.

Step 4: Apply glue onto about 2/3 of the ice-cream stick. Press the glue portion onto the back of the tree, acting as the ‘stem’. Leave to dry.

Stick on the ice-cream sticks

And there you have it!

We don’t know anything about Cowboys here

Littlelam turns 4 next week and we’re having a big party for her…kinda like a last hurrah before she becomes a big sister. Little did I expect her to choose such a difficult theme for her party! Since she (sorta) watched Toy Story 3 in the movies, and then later watched Toy Story 2 on Disney Channel, she’s been totally crazy over anything Toy Story, in particular the characters Woody, Jessie and Bulls-Eye. Thankfully, we have not needed to buy ANY new Toy Story 3 toys in the stores because if you remember, the 1st Toy Story installment came out in 1997. Littlelam’s Daddy and I had just started dating at the time, and Toy Story was one of the movies that we first watched in a GROUP DATE (we were already old enough to drink alcohol legally, mind you). Anyway, the thing is that the both of us somehow managed to amass a large collection of free Toy Story toys that were given out at fast food joints during the time, and even through to the Toy Story 2 season.

BUT, this post isn’t supposed to be about the embarrasing secrets of my past, but rather how ridiculously HARD it is to find anything Cowboy-themed for parties in Singapore! Ok, if I was willing to spend more $, maybe, but there’s really hardly any novelty stuff to find here. So I searched heaps of party shops, went online etc.. and did not find a viable, affordable, practical option, until I went to my trusty, favourite $2 shop store DIASO. There I found cowboy hats, bandanas and toy guns (which I didn’t buy cos I thought it might a bit too violent for a little girl’s party).

Cowboy hat and Bandana I finally found

Instead of the guns, I decided to make Sheriff Badges for each of the kids. The party’s not till next week, so I haven’t written the names on it yet, but basically the kids will get to dress up in the hat and bandana, and write their own name on the Sheriff Star. Sometimes I really think kids’ parties are as much for the parents as the kids! I sure am having fun thinking of Cowboy games and props … I know, I’m nuts but I actually like doing nonsense like that now that I’m totally done with my real official adult work.

So for any of you moms in Singapore or in other Asian countries that have a diurge of country Western party stuff, I’ll be sharing what I did for the party in my next post. For now, here are the pictures and steps to make your very own SHERIFF BADGE:

Materials
- Cardboard
- Cutter/ Scissors / Ruler
- Permanent marker pen
- Yellow / Gold acrylic paint
- Paintbrushes
- Gold Glitter glue (preferably in a small tube)
- Safety pins
- Sticky tape

STEP 1) Draw either a 6-sided or 5-sided star on a piece of cardboard. This will be your ‘prototype’ star.

Step 2) Using your prototype, trace out your full required number of stars. Cut out.

Step 3) Mix a batch of yellow and gold acrylic paint. I found the two colours combined to have the nicest effect. Yellow alone is too ‘cartoony bright’, while gold alone is a little too dark. Paint all the stars. Make sure you do it on newspaper because acrylic paint is permanent. Make sure kids are watched as they paint.

Kids can help to paint the stars themselves

STEP 4) Leave the painted stars to dry for at least 1 day.

Don't worry about getting the painting perfect; I find the 'raw' & scratched effect suits a worn-down look of a seasoned Sheriff's badge

Step 5) Use a permanent black marker and write the word “Sheriff” on the upper half of each star. This is so you can leave a space for the child’s name to be written at the party itself.

Oops, picture already shows the gold dots, but you get what I mean

Step 6) Using your tube of gold glitter glue, dot each point of the star, as close to the tip as possible. Just a small glob of glue will do, don’t over-squeeze. Kids would also love to be involved at this point.

Littlelam concentrating hard on squeezing out the glitter glue!

Step 7) Make sure the gold glitter globs are completely dry; then attach a safety pin to the back of your cardboard star using some sticky-tape. And there you have it!

For additional security, if you have time and if you rather pre-write the names of the kids coming to the party, then you can laminate the stars using the soft-type laminating paper.

Enjoy!

Art Garden at 8Q SAM

Yes, this is a bit late cos everyone has been there and done that already, but unfortunately we just never got round to going. Until the 2nd last day of the exhibition, thankfully! I shall let the pictures do the talking:

Walter's Garden: Flying 'Walter rabbits' at the entrance

Reading the explanation and artistic inspiration

She's REALLY following the instructions to HOP!!

We actually spent the most time at this first Walter’s Garden exhibit because out of sheer coincidence, Littlelam bumped (quite literally) into her classmate at school. The two of them kinda ignored each other at first, strangely, but then it was like they suddenly recognised each other and started playing happily together. I got to meet the boy’s mother as well and we sorta concluded that the kids seem to have trouble recognising each other in a different context! But they did warm up and eventually even bargained for more time to play together. How cute!

Next, we headed upstairs to the Enchanted Garden, but to our horror, our camera was fast running out of battery. Heh, so the pictures are a bit blurry cos I didn’t use flash to save batt.

In the Enchanted Forest

Drawing her own interpretation in the guestbook

In the next room were the Floribots, an innovative, interactive robotic installation of flowers made from an origami folding. Only thing that was a bit uncool was the unfriendly Auntie who was ‘guarding’ the exhibit and barking at everyone who tried to touch it. While I agree that we have to stop the kids from touching the exhibit, we also have to understand that children will be children and can’t help but be fascinated by it. No need to stomp and clap like you’re teaching a pet animal not to bite a chair!

One lone open flower

Ooh look! How they've grown!

In another room which didn’t appeal so much to the kids was this exhibit that combined various mediums, including animation. The theme was a little scary though and the staff there said that small children tended to cry and get afraid when they were in the screening room (which we realised was designed as a cemetary). I did like the concept of layering images within the resin, installed in this sink though:

The Sink

What was inside the sink. Images silkscreened and layered within the resin.

Lastly, we headed for the ‘Daisies’ exhibit, where Littlelam got off to a flying start. As in she literally flew across the room and hit herself against the wall in her excitement to run across the projected daisy field!

Stepping on the daisies will make them 'disappear'

In all, a great way to expose children to art at a young age. But next year, I’ll definitely try to go on a weekday, and not on the last run!

Very Belated Easter Post – Resurrection Eggs again!

My apologies I’ve been slacking off posting the past 2 weeks because a lot of stuff has been happening at home and the pace has been relentless. Illness has befallen Littlelam’s Daddy and he’s to be quarantined till next week, so I’ve been up to my ears managing work, home and trying not to fall ill myself!

Thus this very belated Easter Post. We actually held a small (ok, not so small when you count the number of kids) Easter Party at my place over the Easter weekend. Making use of plastic eggs (didn’t want the choc eggs to smash or get attacked by ants) and Resurrection Eggs, I hid them in the living room and also along the common HDB corridor for the kids to find. I had the participation and help of my neighbour and her 2yo girl – so we created a nice outdoor seating/eating area for the kids along our HDB corridor too. Which reduced the food mess tremendously.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the 8 kids that came and the chaos that ensued, namely because I was running the show and didn’t have time to whip out the camera! So I’ll just have to share the craft pictures only.

After we had the Easter Egg Hunt, I got all the kids to sit down while I explained the Easter Story through the use of Resurrection Eggs. I actually got a hold of these actual commercially-made ones through my good friend Wini who lives in the US – poor girl actually lugged it all the way back for me. Last year, I didn’t have these actual ones, so I improvised and made my own 2-D ones, which I blogged about here. Anyways, I managed to get the kids to participate through the telling of the story by asking for the colour-coded eggs in sequence, so all of them got a chance to open and pass me an egg.

After the egg-illustration, I added another important component to the programme. Explaining why Jesus had to die on the cross. The 3+ yos all listened very attentively and understood, but I’m not so sure about the younger ones! But this is a relatively simple illustration to use:

We are separated from God because of sin. Though we try our very best, through good works, religion, being nice, it still doesn't cut it cos we can't be 100% holy.

That's why Jesus had to die on the cross to break the power of sin and death! He is the only perfect sacrifice so he died in our place on the cross. Now, we can have a personal relationship with God himself!

After the illustration, we had our lunch and then a wonderful craft of making their very own Easter Egg basket (or bag), crafted up by our very talented friend P. Unfortunately she couldn’t join us because her two girls were down with the flu! (Check out her site of amazing crafts)

We used the bag to store the mini chocolate eggs that I gave out as doorgifts instead!

Of Pedicures

Due to the Chinese New Year festivities last month, I got myself a rather ‘new year-ish’ (read: ang ang, or red) pedicure. I’d been super lazy to remove the remains of this pedi until recently, which sparked a very funny conversation and creative piece of work on Littlelam’s part.

I’d somehow overlooked a glob of Blu-tac that I’d left on the corner of the table after I’d removed some of the CNY decorations still on the wall, and so the lump of blue clay-like temptation too much for Littlelam. She got her hands on it without me knowing, and I came into the living room to this sight:

Apparently a new, safe for kids version of a temporary pedicure, haha! Of course it didn’t last more than 5 minutes of her walking around, but well, I think it was a good attempt on her part! She was particularly amused with herself and declared, “Look, Mommy!” very proudly, I must say. I showed her my feet and a very interesting conversation ensued:

Littlelam: Your toes [sic] are red, right, Mommy? Mine are blue!
Me: Yeah, you did yours very nicely! That was a very good idea!
Littlelam: Yah, mine is not real.
Me: Yes, little girls shouldn’t be using real nail polish.
Littlelam: Next time when I am bigger, I can, right?
Me: Yeah, sure.
Littlelam: When I am 30 years old?
Me: *choking back a laugh* er, yeah… I think younger also ok. Don’t have to wait till you’re Mommy’s age!
Littelam: How about 20 years old? *pause* I think maybe 12 years old better.

12 years old it is! I shall hold her to her promise that she will only paint her nails when she turns 12!!

On a side note, I reckon this could make a fun girly thing to do with young daughters – get more colours by using playdoh instead!!

s’khor-a-hit! designs

So I’ve finally gone and done it – I’ve launched a new baby/ toddler t-shirt line at my blogshop site!

Choose from a range of charms to personalise on your very own necklace-tee!

Do pop by and I’ll be happy to hear your feedback ! Contact me at skhor.a.hit [AT] gmail [DOT] com