Stickygram! An Instagramer's Must Have

I enjoy taking photos on my mobile more than ever these days. Because I am ultra lazy to lug my pen cam around unless it is a planned photography outing with the family.

So anyway. I Instagram pretty often. (ok, a lot!) I love capturing moments and sharing them through visuals with my friends and family - as you can see from this snippet :

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, I learned about the existence of Stickygram and wondered why I never knew about it any earlier! This is the kind of thing that I absolute-must-have because of my love for taking photos. So to turn my favorite Instagram pictures printed into little magnets was too good to be true.

In less than a week, my order arrived! *Thumbs up for an international service*

I was also impressed by the quality print on the magnets! There's nine of them in each sheet.

Yay! We now have nice memories on our fridge! Perfect!

How would you like to win a sheet of Stickygram for yourself ? Yes? *squeal* Then come and take part in my photo challenge!

Here's how :

1) Make sure you are already signed up with Instagram on your smart phone and follow me : adeoon
(If you are a private user, I will not be able to view your picture in proper, neither will it appear in #getstickywithade album nor can I like your picture. Therefore, it will be automatically disqualified)

2) Submit ONE picture on anything with a main color focal - YELLOW 
(I will accept the first picture you post on the album as the entry photo. You can submit as many photos after that if you wish to have more fun with the challenge! However, it doesn't mean that it is a multiple entry. Only one name will be entered in the draw) 
 

3) Tag me @adeoon and direct your picture to the album  #stickygram and
    #getstickywithade 

4) A draw will be conducted for two lucky instagramers to win a sheet of Stickygram each!

BIG TIP : be creative, be funny, heartwarming or abstract in all aspects possible because if your picture stands out, you get one extra chance in winning the prize!

So come join and have fun in this challenge! It is open to international readers and will run from today, 25 Jan 2013 and end on 30 Jan 2013  midnight, Singapore time, GMT +8. Winners will be announced and tagged on Instagram on 31 Jan 2013.

I've already started the ball rolling on the album #getstickywithade and I look forward to your participation!

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If you can't wait already to land a sheet of magnets in your hands, here's a very special discount for my blog readers!

You can proceed to place your order with Stickygram now, select your favorite pictures and checkout!

Key in this code : FRIEND_OF_ADELINE to receive your 10% discount!

Or use this referral code : FRIENDI9JD to get $2 off your first purchase!

######################################################################################     Till the next post, have a blessed week!

Disclaimer : The Accidental Mom Blogger received the same product from Stickygram.com for review purposes only. I am no way affiliated to this company nor compensated in monetary form. The photo challenge idea and all other opinions are purely my own.

There Was No Carrot Dangling To Make Us Have a Baby

Yes. It takes a whole lot of time, commitment and some finance to have babies and raise children. Perhaps for some, it takes a whole village to raise a family!

 

Image extracted from http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/bigger-baby-bonus-and-medisave-grants-under-marriage-and-parenthood-me

Having children is ultimately, a very personal decision between man and wife.  When I got married at 25, having children were not in my cards. Somehow, after a year or two living together in our tiny 3 room flat, there was a need to complete our marriage - have a baby! There was no "reward" to entice us in making the decision to have a child. Isn't it supposed to be a natural want when you decide to be married?

I don't remember it being a difficult decision to make with my husband to have a child. We've always had the mindset of "crossing the bridge when we get to it". We took challenges in our stride and thankfully, we have been able to cross the many hurdles that we faced together to raise our family.

My daughter came along in 2002. We "enjoyed" the very first baby bonus scheme given by the government. Minimal, if compared to what is given to the younger families these days.

There's no denial that it will be tough on the financial aspects in the beginning with another mouth to feed. However, isn't raising a family about sacrifices? Fortunate are those that are/will be born with a silver spoon.  For the middle income family, there will be a need to compromise on our lifestyle. We've always had to think twice (if not 4 times!) between a want and a need. We've stayed positive throughout our parenting journey and knowing that things would only get better (thinking worst would not help), it keeps us moving on with our lives.

All in all, I feel that baby bonuses and increased paternity leave (yay for the daddies - no doubt!) are only temporal. It should not be a factor for couples to plan on having more babies because we are not looking at having "short term kids"!

It would be really great though, if the government would broaden their focus on all families with children below 16 years of age - on the rising costs of education and health. I think this would be more useful and beneficial for all of us than a one time cash outlay.

 

Till the next post, have a blessed week!

Linking up with :

Changing Expectation to Appreciation

image extracted from http://thezars.com

Expectations. 

I have allowed this action to manifest in my mind each time things do not turn out well in my favor or others' favor. It is definitely a kind of self infliction to my soul.

I think it all began when I started my motherhood journey, circumstances "forced" me to be ultra independent - something that was never in my dictionary because I have been fortunate not to experience any form of lack in my life before we started a family of our own.

When I had my first child, I was expected to be "the greatest indispensable mother" overnight. In order to live up to my own personal expectations (oooh the pressure I give myself of those who are watching me), I felt it was necessary to sacrifice all my time to be deemed as "a good mother".  I didn't allow myself the room to make mistakes thus shouldered the blame for the slightest imperfection that I stumbled upon.  It got really crazy because the need for myself to be a perfect mom and having perfect kids became quite obsessive in the earlier years of my motherhood journey. I could hardly just let myself go and appreciate parenting.

So there began the manifestation of expectations of myself to be good wife, mother and daughter. Likewise, I expect quite a fair bit from my husband and children. It sometimes make me uptight in my train of thoughts and the way I react to certain situations. I wonder at times, if I am considered no fun to be with at all.

I know for sure that I cannot fulfill every single expectations that come my way.  I am learning to let some things go and trusting God for a lot of things now.

I am embarking on a journey to be grateful for who I am and what I have. To accept for things that happened, happened for a reason - it could be worst but its not. If something is not mine or meant-to-be to begin with, I should be contented with what I have than having desirous thoughts of what I could have.

I don't wish to be so hard on myself anymore. I want to be happy and live simply.  It is probably the best thing I can ever want to pursue in my life.

Till the next post, have a blessed week!

Linking up with :

[Foodie Fridays] Have Tofu Shall Revel!

Do any of your offsprings detest tofu?

My son is a big fan of tofu of any kind - so am very pleased with his palate that way.

I can't say the same for my daughter, Megan. Her only soya intake is fresh soya bean milk but it comes with a condition - only if tapioca pearls are added.

Though I've known all along that soya bean is a good substitute for milk - which in fact my 2 children used to drink after I stopped breastfeeding them - I've never really enforced Megan to eat her tofu that way. So I decided to improvised my much loved meat pattie by adding tau-kwa (the square and firm kind) in it, hoping that she wouldn't know the difference. 

It worked! She even commented that "this is nice mommy!" Shhhh...

Here's what I did.

I mixed :

- 1 piece mashed tau-kwa and minced pork (about 200gm)
- 1 medium sized onion, minced
- marinated with 1 egg, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 2 tsp black soya sauce
 
Shape them into bite-sized patties and pan fry till brown on both sides. Keep the patties thin so that the insides will cook evenly.

Ready to eat patties! Dip it with ketchup or BBQ sauce would be nice.

However, I decided to make sweet and sour sauce (consists of oyster sauce, ketchup and a little sugar) with red capsicum, spring onions and onions for the extra texture. Definitely looks more appealing!

Till the next post, have a blessed week!

[Family Vacation] Sydney -> Blue Mountains -> Sydney

This will be my finale post!    Yah!! It seems like eternity since we came back from our vacation... and I am still covering it in my blog posts! None too pleased with my efficiency. Pffffffpt!   SO! Anyway... in the previous post, I blogged about our tour experience at Hunter Valley. And finally, we got to stay in Sydney the next two nights! This was the 4th day of our tour and it was supposed to be free and easy. However, since our trip didn't cover Blue Mountains, our tour leader decided to plan this route out for us (super expensive to get there at an extra AUD$120 per person... never felt so broke!) - with a special request to stop by the infamous Sydney fish market first!   

We had oysters and sashimi at 8am. Bliss!

Then we took another long bus ride to Blue Mountains just to see  'The Three Sisters'.

Breathtaking view together with some of our fellow tour mates! Weather was awesome up there!

 

We took the scenic cable ride across the ravines at 270m high! The coolest part of the cable was that the floor board was see through! Not for the faint hearted!

 By the time we arrived back to Sydney, it was in the late afternoon. Since it was free and easy, we walked around the shopping area where our hotel was, settled dinner with some of our tour mates (yes! we had sushi on the belt!) before settling in for the night. As it was our last night there and our next day's flight is in the early evening, we still had morning to go and explore Sydney on our own!

We left the hotel early after breakfast to visit Darling Harbor.

We walked through 'Market City' where there was a weekend flea market. It reminded me of our pasar malam here so I didn't quite bother to shop around. These days, souvenirs seem very cheesy to me.

I am personally impressed that we could cover Sydney Aquarium and Madame Tussard's within 2 hours while we were at Darling Habor. Here are just some photos we took!

The aquarium is very much like our Underwater World in Sentosa - except maybe 3 times bigger!

Some 'sampat' photos we took! Love this place. Can you spot my best friend? We share the same bad hair day everyday.

And that wraps up our trip to Sydney! We do hope to be back again in the near future - next time, we will explore the place on our own.

  Till the next post, have a blessed week!