tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-128609872009-07-03T17:48:11.962+08:00Random thoughts and news from ShanghaiArlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-79354927927946051402009-07-03T17:40:00.002+08:002009-07-03T17:43:39.158+08:00

So so so excited. Placed my order for Amanda Blake Soule's new book Handmade Home, from her e-shop. Can't wait to get my copy in the post...

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-84011396071253652852009-06-26T13:50:00.003+08:002009-06-26T15:31:14.003+08:00

Last few days of school for the kids. I'm kinda going to miss walking to school with them. In spite of all the traffic noises around us, we still manage to get some conversations going.The other day, Audrey was telling me all about Pizza Planet on Toy Story 1 and how you can eat pizza there but no place to sit, where there's play area, and where you can buy some drinks.Samuel usually walks

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-43737287843128033912009-06-23T18:02:00.002+08:002009-06-23T18:11:21.438+08:00

Wow! I just saw a small bit about my kids matching cards on Designing Moms. I've just had a chance to read thru blogs I follow and didn't see this until now. So cool!Thanks, Cat.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-37224520887768975142009-06-23T11:36:00.005+08:002009-06-23T11:42:00.398+08:00

This took longer than it should to be posted online. But really quite happy with this new set of paper packs. Now available for download from aCloset.com. Check them out now.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-65129987352574203872009-06-17T13:05:00.003+08:002009-06-17T13:15:34.941+08:00

oh la la! Just found Spoonflower via Fantastic Toys and so so so excited about the possibilities... The cool thing is they can ship to China! Okay, China may be the source for textile products but I cannot seem to be able to get customized fabric in small quantity... everyone I checked before can only make them in big orders.Anyways, I've got some designs that I would love to get printed and just

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-60915302550599687272009-06-17T12:38:00.002+08:002009-06-17T12:51:05.305+08:00

Father's Day is just around the corner. I've managed to get my kids to do their 'surprise' for Daddy last Sunday, whew!In case you're a bit late in organizing anything, here's a little freebie card that you can download, print and add some little writings before giving to daddy. Click on the image above to download the PDF or click here.ENJOY.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-12156347863530030132009-06-01T16:41:00.002+08:002009-06-05T17:30:31.134+08:00

We just had a very enjoyable and productive 4-day weekend while kids had only 3 days off, back to school on Sunday.Day 1: ThursdayLots of walking around our neighborhood. Did a couple shorts using fabric bought from Ikea about 3 years ago! Quite happy with the result. Pattern from Betsey & Joey which was also something I purchased years ago and never got the chance to do anything with. I made the

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-66257038190980858172009-05-27T19:29:00.003+08:002009-05-27T19:32:15.222+08:00

With the Dragonboat Festival coming up, I thought I'd do a Chinese-inspired freebie for download. This is a little illustration I did years ago, before my twins were born and have used this on their birth announcement card. I thought I'd take this out of the 'vault' and share with you as gift tags and a little notecard. The colour scheme is a bit Shanghai Tang style, modern chic.Grab it from here.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-29905244622587773232009-05-26T19:16:00.002+08:002009-05-26T19:27:10.985+08:00

Dragonboat FestivalOriginally uploaded by arlyna. Our 4-day weekend is coming up. Shops have started selling traditional Chinese crafts in time for the Dragonboat Festival or Duan Wu Jie. The nearby traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy near where we work has set up a stall outside dedicated to selling these hangings filled with mugwort and calamus, which are said to ward off diseases and evil

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-7571303877284364792009-05-19T19:25:00.006+08:002009-05-19T19:52:56.605+08:00

We had quite a productive weekend, esp. me. Finally managed to finish a lot of projects and a lump of them were for some handmade gifts for our neighbour's new baby. To wrap up the gifts, I made these wrappers which are free to download from here. An extra page is available in case you need to increase the length of the wrapper. Download, print, and cut the wrapper. Add a bit of double-sided tape

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-57153401065628359142009-05-13T20:34:00.004+08:002009-05-13T20:38:50.563+08:00

Just finished the latest freebies for aCloset. Excited with this series of paper and tags and hope you can use this. Click on the preview pictures above to download.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-65421213670837932692009-05-13T20:29:00.001+08:002009-05-13T20:30:34.301+08:00

So happy that my Twitter account is now back and my tweets are in tact. Whew!

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-11878391391610344272009-05-12T13:33:00.003+08:002009-05-12T13:40:57.388+08:00

Over the weekend, been occupied with kids and a lot of documenting and tidying up so never got a chance to go online.Yesterday I logged in to Twitter. And alas! I found that ALL my tweets (posts) except for the very first one I posted when I signed up are ALL GONE! I cannot believe it! Even submitting a report cannot get me to the support page properly... I am very very very down at the moment

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-7368623147277733192009-05-07T16:42:00.003+08:002009-05-07T17:46:49.705+08:00

Here's another version of the Journal Strips. This version is print-ready PDF so you just need to download, print, and cut.Click here to go to the download page.Enjoy.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-43348319967586893272009-05-06T21:08:00.002+08:002009-05-06T21:10:30.404+08:00

Hurry! Checkout Ali Edwards' blog now for some giveaways. My 'baby' aCloset.com is featured in one of the giveaways...

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-46451109282932966922009-05-06T19:14:00.003+08:002009-05-06T19:21:24.323+08:00

So excited with this small set of journal strips that I've just finished. These are now available for download from aCloset.com. Or by clicking on each preview.I'm still working on a few more stuff like tags, paper packs and knitting patterns. So be sure to check aCloset.com for new additions.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-58279195196424568422009-05-04T19:32:00.005+08:002009-05-04T20:00:32.068+08:00

Made my first 2 sets of paper pack free for download. Check out aCloset.com for more info. Or directly click on the pictures to go directly to the download pages. Hope you like these and let me know what pages you made with these.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-4647308619257138522009-04-30T12:54:00.003+08:002009-04-30T13:01:56.701+08:00

This is the first of the free offerings from my blog.This is a desktop wallpaper I did ages ago but have never really distributed. To download, just click on the image, right-click on the image and save to your computer.This image is copyright of Arlyna Blanchard and is for personal use only. Not to be redistributed or used for commercial purposes. Thank you.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-39970868543041126282009-04-30T12:43:00.003+08:002009-04-30T12:49:19.157+08:00

Just managed to get around offering free downloads on aCloset. The first one is a template I created for Valentine's Day when I needed to do one for my DH. You can download the template from here.This was the original post I did last February...

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-92060909238925285002009-04-29T09:43:00.005+08:002009-04-29T09:56:53.239+08:00

After I got the pictures on the right, I was just itching to scrap a page to show how my kids have grown. The template I used was from the 'Bloom & Grow' kit purchased from Songbird Avenue. So happy with the turnout of this page...

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-38560579120141092202009-04-24T11:21:00.005+08:002009-04-24T13:00:25.299+08:00

Everyday in Shanghai we see so many things happening and everywhere places are changing or getting a facelift in time for the upcoming World Expo in 2010.The city government has been steadily beautifying a lot of areas in the city adding a lot of greenery. Yesterday morning, on Huai Hai Road, a major thoroughfare, we saw these women working on adding shrubs bit by bit to this shape of the mascot

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-54799565262009351652009-04-05T19:52:00.003+08:002009-04-24T09:58:42.080+08:00

Sometime last year, I bought 2 set of chalkboard decals - a growth chart tree with squirrels and a set of squarish ones.We immediately put up the growth chart in the kids' bedroom. The other set, I had planned on covering up this piece of wall in between the kitchen and dining area where the kids had done some drawings when they were around 1.5 years old. We've been unable to clean this up as

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-6852901688474581782009-04-03T16:42:00.005+08:002009-04-03T16:48:22.640+08:00

Just discovered this new site dedicated to selling digital scrapbooking kits for charity. This is a great idea and have purchased my first kit Bloom & Grow. A collaboration kit which features a few exclusive templates designed by my favourite, Ali Edwards.Check out the site.

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-23633754351505196922009-04-01T14:04:00.002+08:002009-04-01T14:24:32.568+08:00

A quick project I had to do last week was an anniversary album for my parents. I bought this album of quickpages some time ago from Design Digitals and never got to use it until now. As I didn't have enough materials on hand I decided this would be more of a 3D anniversary card and filled up the pages with poems, quotes, and song lyrics. The last few pages were filled with dedications from my

Arlyna's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519580538565990683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12860987.post-49692837584693430212009-03-28T22:28:00.002+08:002009-04-01T10:38:56.256+08:00

Yes, we turned off our lights at 8:30pm today. We saw lots of the skyscrapers turn off their lights, too. Was really exciting. We saw the Skyway Landis Hotel Shanghai turn off the lights at exactly 8:30pm then a few other buildings followed (at least ones we can see and know) like The Oriental Pearl TV Tower, JW Marriot at Tomorrow Square, Le Meridien, Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt. The Aurora and

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