[Blog Train] Making Good - Replacing A Broken Clasp on Necklace or Bracelet

It could be a new necklace you just bought or a favorite versatile piece that you've been wearing for the longest time. Then the inevitable happens! The spring clasp break and you aren't sure whether to chuck it (that would be such a waste!) or where to find help to get it fixed.

As far as I am aware, most bead supply shops in Singapore do not cater to helping you fix such dilemmas. Approaching a professional at a retail shop may set you up between S$10-S$20 for this service. As for me, truth be told, when my clients approach me to fix a straightforward broken jewelry like this, there will also be minimal charges to cover workmanship, materials, postage and packaging which would be between $4-$6. This of course, also excludes the (hassle) to and fro mailing plus the waiting time.

So with just a little investment on your end, I hope this post will help you make good your own broken jewelry without the need to part with so much cash just to get a broken clasp replaced. Here's a quick list of what you will need :

Lobster clasp or spring clasp

You can buy a small quantity of this at any bead supply shop. A small packet would usually consist of 4-6 pieces which should cost you no more than 40 cents a piece. They come in various sizes and shapes too! Get one that you are comfortable with handling.

Jump rings

These round little loops are required for connecting parts together, in this case, the new clasp. A small packet would usually have at least a dozen pieces which should cost you no more than 10 cents a piece. They come in various gauge (thickness of wire) and sizes. Ask the staff at the bead shop to help you select the appropriate one. Or better yet, ask them to help pick out the components you need to get your item fixed.

Pliers

To help with the opening and closure of the jump rings. I don't suggest you buy them but if you do, a mini set would cost you no more than $9.  A standard set will comprise of a flat nose pliers, sharp nose pliers (both shown in the photo below) and a cutter. Or look around your dad's or hubby's tool box for something similar because you basically just need them to help open and close the jump rings. Alternatively, you can also try using tweezers.

*Please note that the above pricing of components are in Singapore dollars and serves as a guide.*

Here's a little video tutorial I took using my mobile phone, of how a broken clasp is replaced. Or if the existing jump ring holding the broken clasp is not damaged, you can recycle it.

Just a couple more tips to note :

- in the video, do observe the proper way of opening up the jump rings. Using both pliers, twist one side open toward you and the other away from you. There's no need to open up too wide lest it gets distorted. Do the same when closing the ring till the ends meet. It is wrong to open jump rings apart by pulling the ends away in a left and right motion as it will cause more distortion and may result in breakage.

- using the same method in the video, you can also do the same for replacing extension chains in your accessories, connect broken chains or even earrings.

Do you have any questions for me regarding this post? Let me know and I'll be most happy to help!

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I hope you are having fun checking out all the other bloggers that are on this blog train so far too!

Did you manage to check out Stella's make good post about fixing a shoulder strap bag with yarn? Read about how she went about perfecting it at Purfylle.com 

I'm also excited to introduce the next blogger, Nueyer, on board tomorrow's train!

Nueyer is from sunny Singapore and started crafting/sewing from young.  As school and work commitments came along, the crafting got less and less until it disappeared.  However, when there was a need to sew an odd-sized pillow case for Big One, the crafting bug came alive!  Now, I can't stop crafting and hope that one day, I'll be able to make some change to this world, no matter how small. 

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Till the next post, have a wonderful day!

This post is part of a blog train hosted by Agatha from Green Issues by Agy on "Making Good". What is repair, and why do we even bother to repair the things we have? Some see repair as a way of reconnecting with our possessions as we extend their lives. Others see it as a form of creative potential and an avenue to express their craft. The rewards for mending varies from feeling immense satisfaction to prolonging the life of the product. Follow the “Making Good” blog train this month and see what we have repaired and reconnected with. 

Have you mended anything today?

The Key to an SAHM's Sanity

Of all the jobs in the world, they say a stay-at-home-mom's (SAHM) job is the toughest one. We are expected to run the household and multi-task. Nothing can prepare us for this job. We learn to go with the flow (not exactly smooth ones) and are expected to wear many hats at home. We help ourselves solve specific tasks, as much as possible. Those without external help would know what I mean. It's not so much of physical tiredness. It's just.... emotionally draining.

The many sleepless nights with my bubs at this stage, as I was nursing both of them concurrently.

Having been a SAHM for the last 13 years, there are possibly many things that I could have done to better manage my well-being, IF I had known better. Opportunities to manage the burnout feeling I felt at the end of the day was too insignificant to remember that I am being appreciated at home. I was an angry, grouchy and emotional mom in the earlier years. My identity was lost until my children went to school. Only then I could find a little bit more time to myself to pursue my interests.

Selfies did exist in the year 2004! :p

So listen up, all you new SAHMs out there, especially with the younger bubs who are not yet in school. This is really really important to have.

Looking back, I think it would have been perfectly alright to ask for some time off, to remember there is a 'me'. Moms are the reason for the existence of our children and I don't see why SAHMs should not take regular healthy time-offs to recharge and be energized. Wouldn't it be nice to go home feeling ready to face new challenges and embrace our family with a more loving and positive mind?

So whether you can squeeze in some time off to have a meal alone (without having to eat leftovers), get a hair wash at your neighborhood salon, bake a cake - anything that will make you feel on top of the world. Do it. You will appreciate yourself more. Your family would too.

Here's a recent photo of us enjoying each others' company! When they are older, things get much easier despite teenage angst. That's another story for another day. :)

  Till the next post, have a blessed week!

Next up on the blog train!

Pauline, a mother-of-two, a home cook, a baker and a crafter. She has been a SAHM for almost 7 years now and she’s still enjoying every minute of being one. Days with the children, to her, are never dull and having a hobby or something interesting to be kept busy with makes life so much more easier. Beyond her interest in cooking, baking and sewing, blogging keeps her sane as she shares with many like-minded moms about her struggles, moments of pride and everything in between, so visit her blog tomorrow to find out more!

This post is part of a blog train hosted by Gingerbreadmum where 31 stay-at-home mums share their survival tips. We hope that you'll find our tips useful and remember that you're not alone!

[Recipe] Fried Hokkien Mee

   

Truth be told, this dish often tastes so good when we get from our local hawkers because of the pork lard that they use to fry the noodles. My home cooked version does not have pork lard because ermmm, I've honestly never handled them before and have no intention to! 

My homecooked fried hokkien mee version is equally flavorful. Thanks to the prawn and pork soup stock that I've used. As I couldn't get fresh-looking squid the day I prepared this, it is regretfully, one ingredient short. Though I've replaced it with fish cake slices which my children very much prefer.

Estimated total time to prepare : 2 hours  Makes : 5 servings

Ingredients :

- 1 portion of pork belly, sliced thinly (about 150 grams)

- 300 grams medium fresh prawns

- 1 packet fresh thick vermicelli (or laksa bee hoon)

- 1 packet fresh yellow noodles

- 2 pcs of fish cake, lightly pan fried and sliced

- 3 eggs (or 2 eggs, if you prefer)

-  a few stalks of spring onions, cut into finger lengths

- 2 tbsp minced garlic

- 2 tbsp fish sauce

- 1 teaspoon light soya sauce

- salt and pepper

- 2 tbsp cooking oil

Preparation :
1) Boil the whole piece of pork belly with about 2 soup bowls of water with a pinch of salt. Leave it to boil till tender, for about 1 hour.
2) When done, take out the meat and add in the prawns into the pork stock to cook for about 10 minutes.
3) Take out the prawns and de-shell/de-vein them when cooled. Don't discard the prawn heads and shell after they are de-shelled. Put them back into the stock and continue to let it simmer for another hour or so. Add a tsp of salt to the stock.
4) Loosen and blanch the noodles before frying this dish.

How to cook :
1) fry the garlic till fragrant and add the noodles, together with the fish sauce and light soya sauce. Toss the noodle till well mixed and transfer them out into a bowl.
2) In the same wok, add some oil to fry the egg till fragrant and scramble them.
3) Add in the other ingredients : prawns, pork, fish cake and spring onion. Fry for a bit.
4) Add in the noodles, mix it with the ingredients and add about 2 rice bowls of soup stock. (you can add more if you prefer a wetter version of hokkien mee)
5) Cover the wok and let it simmer for about 3-5 minutes so that the flavors can be absorbed in the noodles.
6) Serve hot with fried shallot topping and sambal chilli.
7) Enjoy!

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This post is part of a blog train series hosted by Beanie N Us. In this series, moms have taken the challenge to share recipes that relates to a certain dialect.

 

Up next is Diana of  www.thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com. She will be sharing her recipe for Easy Taro Rice - Rice stir-fried with pork, dried shrimps, mushrooms and yam (taro). 

              Hop on over to view the list of contributors on this blog train for more yummy-licious home cooked food! 

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

[Festive Food Blog Train] What We Had on Christmas Eve

Every year for at least the past 12 years, my aunt-in-law Hannah, has been keeping this special annual tradition in hosting Christmas eve dinner gatherings with the extended family.

Aunt Hannah is a great dinner host and superb cook! Whenever she throws a party or gathering, we would be awed by her well-thought out themes and special touches. I vividly remember once, she threw a birthday party at her home and engaged an Indian caterer who prepared our pratas with fillings to our whims and fancies on the spot! We all loved the idea very much and thoroughly enjoyed it! Of course, it would have been better if all of us were a better sport for dressing up to the theme that night. :p
  

For Christmas, Aunt Hannah usually whips up a delicious spread of awesome ang-moh food - which you will see for yourself in the photos I've taken.
 

The Christmas decor in her home also adds a special touch to our dinner with the scent of her fresh pine Christmas tree.

This year, I'm so pleased to be able to share with you in my blog, snippets of what we had for our festive dinner!

{ All photos taken with my iphone! Apologies if pictures not up to standard! :p } 

There's turkey, pork ribs, cottage pie, potato salad, brussel sprouts (never thought I would like it but I did! Tasted like mini cabbages!) baked garlic and to-die-for salami from Italy! Homemade cranberry and turkey sauces.

Smoked duck, pork knuckles, pasta, chicken salad and mozerella ball salad with fresh olives and tomatoes.

For dessert, we had awfully Chocolate log cake, fruit cake, jelly and fruits!

Can you smell the fresh pine from the tree? :) The other highlight of the night was giving out pressies under the Christmas tree. And every family received a Christmas stollen to bring home.

Photo with the extended family! Aunt Hannah is seated holding her doggie!

Thanks Aunt Hannah for hosting such wonderful Christmas dinner every year.
It's always great to catch up with the family with food!

Merry Christmas everyone!

  Till the next post, have a blessed week!




Up next on the festive blog train :

Alicia is a Part Time Working Mum (PTWM) who enjoys re-living her childhood as she and her preschooler (fondly referred to as Dumpling) go on field trips, embark on new crafts, recipes as well as review places and home learning programs. Alicia blogs regularly at Beanie N Us where she shares her parenting views and her sometimes whimsical thoughts.

I blog. Therefore, I am.

I have been a "blogger" since 2005.

Well, not really full-fledged-wordy-kind of blogger that chronicles everything about what I do but considering that blogger.com hosts my blogshop, I am a "blogger"? Okay, not funny! Like what MummyMoo would say to me, I must have had cornflakes* for breakfast! (*and that's why I was being corny.)

Actually, I first started a photoblog for the family in the beginning of this year. You see, the family is each equipped with a camera so I thought it would be interesting to showcase our best shots in different perspectives when we go for our photo taking outings.

Just at the point when I was reaching out to contacts with my photos in Facebook, I chanced upon 'Singapore Mom Bloggers' (SMB).  It was then less than a week old group set up and led by Rachel. I didn't think for one second that I would "qualify" to be in the group and was absolutely thrilled when she accepted my self-invite! I also began to enjoy reading the mommies' blogs and how they share their motherhood journey, milestones of their children and other snippets of their lives -something I never did before. It felt great to be part of this lively group of motivated Singaporean moms and to network with them.

As the group members grew in numbers within a short span of time, I realized I seemed to be the only one with a photoblog. I wondered to myself if I am considered a true blogger? Because there are hardly any expression of words as I was mostly using photographs to convey messages and feelings so, that was not how I perceived a blogger per se.  I felt kind of  "left out" when the group could discuss about their blog posts yet, mine was confined to visuals. Could I take a step further and tell my story with photos and plenty of words too? Am I prepared to open up part of my personal life for others to read about or would people even be interested to read what I want to say?

There was a struggle to the last question. Then it hit me! I was reminded (I think it was God) that I used to have a silly dream when I was in my late teens. To be a writer. (aiyo, now you know my darkest secret! *blush*) For what is worth, I did take up a writer's course when I was in my youth though it didn't work out for me and I never completed my course. It was a correspondent course and to follow through to it's entirety proved overwhelming for me.

When I finally decided to blog in April this year, I must admit that I did it solely to "fit in" the group. (The ladies at SMB surely has influential powers.) Or should I just say, I was bitten by the blogging bug! Hence, the name of my blog. I wanted to be selective with who can read my blog and I didn't mind that only the SMB members could glimpse into my life. I was very shy to share it with my family and friends because I wasn't sure if they would embrace my new undertaking or feel embarrassed for me on the lack of vocabulary. (and trust me, I am still trying to come out of my shell.)

As the months went by, I learned that blogging need not be about exposing every detail in my life. It is about journalizing your encounters which others can learn or be inspired from. It is about sharing my experience and perspective with matters that are close to my heart that may able me to connect with the person reading my post by the familiarity of my story. We need not express ourselves using big words because very often, the simplest of tenses can get messages across.

Blogging has become an outlet for me to express my feelings and perhaps, reach out to my children who will know more about me - as an individual, through this journal. I also intend to make this a personal challenge to keep my mind more active and improve my writing - something I had lost touch since school days.

These days, I've become a wee bit more confident being a brand new blogger in the scene. Sometimes, I take longer than usual to come out with a post so I will just take a breather and continue to write another day or sometimes abandon the topic all together. There is no right or wrong about how I blog.

I must thank the mommy bloggers at SMB - some of whom have become my "partners-in-crime" and have been very generous with information and encouragements for me to have taken a bigger leap of faith in this area. I may still be a noob in many areas but am always open to learning and improving as it comes my way.

Our SMB facebook page tag line shares that :

"where every mum has a story, and every story has a heart"

 This must be the perfect phrase to sum up why I blog.

Till the next post, have a blessed week!

Linking up with :

Next on the ‘Why Moms Blog’ blog train -

Summer is a media executive and Chinese teacher turned SAHM from Singapore. She has a passion for writing, loves to travel and her life took a 360-degree change when she moved to Sweden in 2008. She is mum to 2-year-old Angel and currently pregnant with her second child. Read her blog at A Happy Mum, a place where she shares her joy on motherhood, DIY crafts, travelling and all things happy in life.  

Around The World in 18 Days - Desaru, Malaysia

Back in 2010 during the June school holidays, we scheduled an impromptu trip to Desaru with a close friend and his family for a one night stay.  It was our first drive up to Desaru as we usually end up in Malacca for short getaways! 

We booked rooms at the available resort (I was quite sure I can remember the resort name but that's not the case). Anyway, the place we stayed was nothing much to rave about. It was quite a worn out place. We envied those families that came prepared with their own barbeque pits and having a blast at the ground floor balcony though! (see below in photo on the top left) 

I am usually quite particular about cleanliness when it comes to hotel room. Especially when it comes to the musky smell (cough! gag!), it can almost spoil my holiday. But never mind about me if the kids aren't as affected! Look at them having fun at the hotel pool slide and trying out a game of table tennis. 

What is Desaru if it doesn't come complete with visiting the crocodile and fruit farm? You can see from the photos that the children were the most fascinated. At this trip, I also found out that Brandon has a natural love for animals in general. He wasn't the least bit afraid of holding a baby crocodile even though it tried to snap his fingers while holding it! 

 

One of the highlight of the trip would be the go kart as the children had first hand experience driving it. But as there were height restrictions, Megan had to "tompang" on my husband's lap throughout the laps. I think they had about 4-5 laps each and costed about RM30. Not too bad I think, for something that is not readily available in Singapore.

In the evening, all of us were looking forward to see some fireflies!  So we conveniently booked a dinner package cum firefly boat tour through the hotel's recommendation. I was really jitterish when I saw the little speedboat that came for us at the dock to send us to the kelong for our seafood dinner. (see top left photo below) You see, me and water don't get along like chalk and cheese. Anyway, prior to the dinner, we could walk around the kelong, something we never did in Singapore. There were some who did recreational fishing and the kids could feed the fishes.

I remember there were only 3 filled dinner tables at the kelong though I wasn't expecting that they were all there as part of the firefly tour. The one thing that irked us throughout the dinner were the mosquitoes that were enjoying a major buffet spread on us! So remember your repellants if you are ever there!

As night fell, we gathered along the boardwalk of the kelong to board our "boat" that will bring us deeper into the forested area where the fireflies can be seen. We thought we would be in a larger boat like the photo on the left side above, which was docked by the kelong. But lo and behold! We had to get into the same speedboat that ferried us to the kelong, and this time, squeezing at least 18 of us! *shudder*

Well I shan't talk about my fear and the wildest imagination I had in the total darkness. However, as soon as we spotted the fireflies, my fears instantly disappeared. It was a beautiful sight, almost like a fairy tale. We even managed to catch 2 fireflies and had them gently placed into a tissue paper which were lighted up like lanterns. Unfortunately we didn't capture any photos. The children were just too thrilled for words and remained excited throughout the night. So, it was a worthwhile boat trip afterall.

I won't say I will want to plan a trip back to Desaru again unless we are itching for a super quick getaway. It was nonethelss an educational trip for the children so I would encourage you to go there at least once in your lifetime for the experience, if you haven't already.  But truth be told, I would rather stick to Malacca anytime! 

So if you're up for a little adventure to catch fireflies, this is the closest bet you can get.

Till the next post, have a blessed week!

This post is part of a Blog Train hosted by Madeline at MadPsychMum. Continue your journey around the world through the eyes of Singapore Mom Bloggers!

Next up is Ai with her destination to Macau!

 Ai Sakura is a full-time working mother with a beautiful toddler daughter.  She hopes to inspire and show how passions like travel, food, fashion and photography can exist in a family setting. Ai Sakura shares insights and ideas about parenting and living in Singapore on her personal blog, Sakura Haruka.