Arrived on our sunny shores 1 week ago and only remembered about my blog now hahaha.

It was an OK trip! Rather tiring but I guess all trips are. Encountered various hiccups during the journey and we might have gotten irritated on occasion but when looking back on the trip as a whole I tend to gloss over these irritable moments and only remember the better moments machiam like it's playing smooth mellifluous music and hypnotizing me... hahaha. The overseas grass always feels greener...

But sometimes while I on holiday I find myself craving the routine of everyday life! Is this age catching up :x Have I lost my wanderlust and the desire to see more of the world?

There're maps to navigate, reservations to make, trains to catch... which is quite tiring really. I would attribute this to me wanting to visit too many places in a day heh. Maybe I have to slowly graduate to joining guided tours where I can just chill, relax and behave like sheep (i.e. get herded around).

I have like over 1000 photos and I just only sorted out the photos of our Taiwan leg of our trip 2 days ago... will post more about my Jiro Sushi experience soon haha.

Enough about wedding plans and grumbling! Haha I am turning into a grouchy bride-to-be. Anyway, Paul and I embarked on a little project over the weekend! It's also related to the wedding - though it was tedious and time consuming but there was a great sense of satisfaction when we were done!

So anyway, we always had this idea to make our bears some suits but we didn't actually get around to doing it, till the bears decided to officially ask for some suits. (We have very smart and technologically inclined bears who know how to email and update their own blog.)

Hahaha LOL ok don't judge :p

Being very obliging people, we acceded to their request! Plus we thought we could have them all suited up for our photoshoot and also suited up and seated in the first pew at our wedding :D

So after sitting on it for a while more, we decided to go to Queensway to look for the uncle who made custom made their shirts! But *dum dum dum* the uncle's shop was closed.

We got a bit desperate (coz photoshoot date was drawing near) and asked my mother if she has any tailor contacts and she said my 三姨 was very good at sewing. So arrangements were made to pass their shirt sample to her and she came back with 3 white shirts for the bears.

Unfortunately the shirts were a little too big and they looked like hospital gowns on the bears :x Let me see if I have any photos of that.

It doesn't look that bad on Rolly here but we might have tightened the back a little

The shirts were rather ill-fitting and we were trying to figure out options to make the best of the situation... the original plan was to print an image of a suit on a plain white shirt but that doesn't seem as easy as it sounds coz we will need to come up with the images plus our bears are all shaped a little differently. 

Brainstorming and work in progress haha

So anyway we thought we could sew some vests for the bears coz that sounds a lot more manageable haha. Diligent Paul went to Art Friend and bought all the materials needed (including buttons that cost $1.33 per piece) and we spent Sunday afternoon after the Nila Run threading needles, measuring, cutting and sewing!

(BTW it rained super duper heavily at the Nila Run but that's another topic for another day.)

That's Slumpy and Squishy waiting patiently for their turn while Rolly gets measured :)

Putting on the finishing touches for Slumpy

Hehe the red bow ties and corsages are a nice touch! Helps to have a crafty fiance heh

Bears looking smart in their bespoke bear suits! :)

Very pleased with how they turned out! They look so smart and cute hehe. The workmanship is only so-so upon closer scrutiny due to my limited sewing abilities but from far they look quite good! And we safety pinned the back of their white shirts else it will be too big for them! 

We're going to bring the bears along for our photoshoot on 22 June! Quite excited about it! Haha :D

Oh yes and we also finished another project recently which is a painting that we've been working on for close to a year haha. Also bringing that for photoshoot! I think we'll end up with too many props haha.

And in other wedding related news, we bought our wedding bands last Friday and collected them yesterday! Chop chop! Woots!

Parent management is definitely a very important skill when planning for weddings. Feels like it is my mother getting married instead of me! I must say my sister was smart to not include my mother in the decision making for too many things for her own wedding.

And this whole wedding dinner business is just a sham to recoup losses, show off and invite 10,000 people/relatives who probably don't give two hoots about us anyway. -__- I have insufficient tables to cater to my mother and her guest list! Ballroom can fit only 30 including the spares but she thinks that I'm hoodwinking her coz my sister insisted that hers can only fit 20 and viola on that day another 5 more tables magically appeared haha.

Anyway the newest item for discussion is the day's schedule! Conflicting opinions on how the day should pan out! -_-

I am so lazy to think and plan and talk! Can I just lie down somewhere and let it plan by itself? Hah!

Smashing those arm and shoulder muscles yesterday! Shoulder presses till my arms don't even have any energy left to lift even an inch.

After all the hard work and eating clean - chapalang salad or salmon + broccoli + and carrots for lunch - the effect is slow but gradual. But it is there! I know it! I shall continue and persevere!!!

My mother wants 17 tables at my wedding dinner, which is frankly, ridiculous!!!

Our ballroom can fit maximum 30 tables, max maybe 32 if we squeeze. And half of the tables are going to be occupied just by her and her extensive guest list! Wah angry leh! 她在嫁女儿不是娶媳妇叻！Even Paul's relatives are not going to be 17 tables. Not paiseh one seriously.

She is demanding for 14 tables from my poor groom, i.e she will pocket all the angbaos collected from those 14 tables. That is easily $21K that we will have to be prepared to lose for sure. She thinks we print cash?!

For my sister's wedding, she got 10 tables (120 pax in total) which amounts to about $13K or $14K but I have to pay $21K? And my sis and bro-in-law earn much more than we do! I'm gonna haggle it down to 8 tables man. If you want to invite more then you pay more! That is the reality!!!

I'm so annoyed, a wedding is not a time for you to "earn" or "recoup" all the money you "invested" in raising us up! We are already struggling with finances as it is! I get it that it's tradition that the groom "gives" some tables to the brides' side for free to repay them for raising their daughter yada yada filial piety blah blah, but 做人要有分寸！Don't give one inch take one metre! That's another 50 more people she wants to invite grrrrrr and seriously I don't give a hoot if those people are present or not!

I feel very sorry to Paul for having such a mother-in-law :(