last min outing

suddenly decided that i should buy an extra camera battery after running into some batteries inconsistency recently (suddenly dying on me, all 3 of them!)

i am still feeling out of sort today, esp after going to the supermarket in the early afternoon.

but i gotta drag myself out of the house to hougang mall to buy the battery from harvey normal (yes, i am going to harvey norman! what to do, get rip off lor, last min decision) and get a hair cut for tomorrow's shoot (someone's else getting married but i am dolling up? haha)

how can a dog sleep like this?

QQ the dog is really an amazing dog. for one, she doesn't care where and when, she just sleep wherever she likes. even if it means she is in a lift going home, she will flop down on the floor and decide to rest.and unlike most dogs, she doesn't follow me up and down in the house when i am moving around, mao mao does, she doesn't care, she will continue sleeping wherever she is.

her favourite sleeping spot is right outside the kitchen, esp when i am cooking, she will sleep there smelling the sweet aroma of food. she will of course, later whine for food but she knows it is cooking now and she cannot eat yet.

today i was amused to find her in this sleeping position, on her back and with her legs resting against the wall and her head, tail, front legs, back legs, all in different direction. this dog can do yoga. Photos are from my camera phone - pardon the lousy image quality!
and just to sidetrack, here's one of her in a basket:
amusing also that she doesn't really behave for me when i am holding my dslr, but when i am using my handphone, she doesn't think i am shooting her so she gets very relaxed. keke.

(on another sidenote, quite irritated that maomao peed in the house and dirtied the walls. what is with him!!!)

bitten by the bugs

i was down with a bad fever, really horrible, reminded me of dengue fever which landed me in hospital till my birthday few years bad, and i was so sick yesterday and the day before.

i haven't slept soooo much in a loooong time. even when i was sleeping and nursing the terrible fever in the day, i kept thinking about work! i was so concerned about my shoot this sat, it was on my mind the whole time.

apparently, i got this sore throat infection from dylan. when he fell sick last week, i was very careful to steer clear of him, but i guess, germs spread really well among family.

so now, i feel slightly better and quite excited about sat.

just on a side note, i found out that:

What can I do to make my sore throat better?

Whether your sore throat is due to bacteria or a virus, the following will help to relieve your symptoms:

* Drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids.
* Gargle with warm salty water.
* If you have a temperature take paracetamol to reduce it.
* Adults may try gargling with soluble aspirin before swallowing it.
* Suck throat lozenges (available from chemists and some supermarkets).
* Use throat sprays (available from chemists and some supermarkets).
* Do not smoke.
* Avoid alcohol.

When do I need to see a doctor?

* You are finding it difficult and almost impossible to swallow.
* Symptoms persist for more than 4 days.
* The glands in your neck are swollen.
* You have a persistent fever over 38.3 °C (101°F).
* You have pus on your tonsils.
* You have any difficulty in breathing.
* You have a stiff neck and severe headache.
* You have an earache.
* If a rash develops.
* There is blood in saliva or phlegm.
* You have mouth ulcers lasting for over 2 weeks.
* If the phlegm you have coughed up is either green or yellow.

and a really good herbal rememdy:

Lemon, Apple Cider Vinegar, Cayenne, and Honey Tea

An old home remedy for sore throats is a tea made with lemon, apple cider vinegar, cayenne, and honey.

It is made by adding one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper, the juice of 1/4 lemon, and one teaspoon of honey to a cup of hot water. Stir.

Typically, up to four cups a day is suggested.

therefore, once the rain stops, i will head out for ntuc to get some lemons.

Our fur-babies

even though we spoke about rehoming maomao due to his barking issue, i am quite sure that will not happen.

because mao mao, like qianqian, is like a piece of us. they live in our hearts, our minds, our house. every inch of this house smell like them, has traces of them and i enjoy falling asleep to the sound of maomoa's snore everynight, because i know he is safe and happy.

falling in love is a very lovely thing. and falling in love with dogs, is one experience you cannot miss. the laughter we had with the dogs, always makes me feel so happy. :)

i cannot imagine one day without hugging the two of them. mao mao, esp, is close to me. when he was made to sleep in the study room, dyl says that every morning when he let maomao out, he will run to our bedroom door and scratch, looking for me. (my heart melted)

maomao goes to everywhere i go. qianqian our darling, who has been very secure from day 1, knows that there's no need to follow me everywhere i go because i will not vanish but maomao is so sticky. i like it though.

was getting very teary reading about the death of this dog here and realised that if one day, sth bad happen to the 2 of them, i will be devastated. dyl too.

our fur babies.

update on dog issue

some update on the dog issue.

maomao has returned to our bedroom. we just cannot take his whining anymore.

Month of Lent

this is the first time we are going through the month of lent after dyl's a "official" catholic.

i was totally lost about the food rules bit but after some research, i decided to rely on the good old rachel ray.

Here's some great recipes to get through lent. I won't be doing the fasting thing on food but i will be thinking of fasting off television for a week (learning to sacrifice)

A new daniel in the family

today, my husband added a new name to his name.

upon completing his RCIA (YES! he did it! so proud of him), he is going to be confirmed as a member of the catholic church next sunday.

And, he has a new middle name added officially - DANIEL

So it goes as Dylan Daniel Lim.
I like to call him DD Lim.

:p

now, I haven't completed RCIA but i am already thinking of a christian name for myself. Then again, Regina is already a Christian name.

initially he really liked Moses but i had to strongly discourage because I cannot imagine him being called Moses Lim.

Seriously.

Workplans for 2009

I have realised that some of my couples for 2009 have found out about me no longer being with JLP through our blogs. For their convenience, I would like to answer some FAQs here (I will also definitely also reply all sms, emails) :) For my lovely couples who have engaged me through John Lim Photography, here we go:

1. I will still be shooting everyone's wedding (all the way till my last assignment in DEC 2009)
2. It will still be as per normal through John Lim Photography (JLP), you can contact John or me personally if there's any changes or enquiries.
3. We will still meet up at JLP's studio located at Chinatown.
4. Albums are collected at JLP's studio.
5. Payment are still made to JLP.
6. Package charges remain the same as you have signed up for. (Additional hourly charges are subjected to pre-vailing rates)

For couples who engaged me now that i'm out on my own - through Beautiful Days:

1. Just look forward to your wedding :) Let's rock and roll!
   

Do feel free to contact me if you have any other concerns. :)

As for baby planning, we (Dyl and me) are planning for a 2010 baby. So likely the first few months of 2010 will be totally closed, except for portraits shoot. :) And that should not affect any 2009 couples. (i have specially planned for that)

cheers :)

being earthly

i got stuck the whole day at the blogsite as i was trying to decide which wallpaper to use, colour scheme etc.

I loved:
1) warm and cuddly
2) professional and appealing
3) lady-like and feminine

so i went from pink to orange to blue to finally, earthly tones.

and that was it. found a perfect match.

my main website is already (3) and i decided (1) will be more suitable for children's portraits site so luckily we found a winner in (2).

:)

New website and blogsite

The official date is out. The new website and blog is ready to go live on 21st Mar. After which I will be around town for another 1 week to ensure it is running well etc and then I will fly off to Japan for a wedding assignment. (away for 10 days)

Here's the good news. If I do not get the sites out by that date, YOU get a free photoshoot. (The first person who email me and say, "hey, your site is NOT out!"

Serious.

(of course, family need not apply. haha, I will shoot foc anyway for you) So keep a look out!

big issue with whinny dog

we are facing a home crisis situation now.

ever since we start to prepare the dogs for the possible arrival of a baby - shifting them out of our room, letting them smell the baby cot and stuff, banning them from going up the sofa, we are havin a little problem with maomao.

he has been a super insecure dog since day 1, when we tried to get him to sleep in the other room, he literally tore the door down trying to get out and managed to whine continuously for 2 hours on the 1st day. in the end, we had to let him sleep in our bedroom.

now, many months later, we are trying to get him to sleep on his own again (with qq in the same room), but he is giving us another problem.

he's fine going in the room in the night but automatically starts his whining at about 630am everyday. he turned himself into an alarm clock!

nothing much can stop him and i have spent the last few days waking up at 630am (Why do i have to wake up at such unearthly time???!!) and asking him to keep quiet then going back to sleep and then waking up to his whining every hourly.

i would love to let him whine on and on but the problem is that our neighbours will prob kill us.

see, i am trying to ensure some luxury of sleep that will disappear once the baby arrives and i can't do that....

i also want to whine.

what's up for dinner?

website going well. will be asking some good pals to review for me before the official launch.

cracking my head on what to cook for dinner. guess i will have to make another trip down to ntuc.

time to flip jamie oliver again. :)

by the way, interestingly, yesterday after dinner, dyl was filling in some forms for credit card application and he applied a sub card for me. he was really happy and proud to fill in "housewife" as my employment. haha, i am happy too, because i think being a housewife is such a joy, especially one without kids! (men has certain pride that they can afford to have their wife at home full time, i guess)

although seriously, i am just a part-time housewife. i work too, just from home.

I'm officially 'on my own'

I think one of the biggest lessons of life is that we just can't have everything we want.

now that we are seriously trying for a baby (trust me, it is highly stressful doing that, it's no longer lovemaking anymore, it's mission-making... haha)

dyl has decided (with my agreement) that i should be a stay-at-home wife and perhaps, take on minimal work commitments.

as such, I am no longer taking on new jobs through john lim photography, essentially, I have stopped selling my art through this avenue. I will continue to fulfil all my engagements and I will do them to my best.

in some part, I feel like I have to let my career slow down and also on some note, seem to have affected my mentor, john. it is definitely difficult when one decision makes a lot of changes in others' life and work. although i had long wished to have my own label and studio, i also want to maintain a positive relationship to the place which has groomed me and played a part in making who i am today. i hope i can do that and i look forward to continuing the friendship we have built.

being chinese, i strongly believe in positive traits like "when drinking water, think of its source"

i will be lauching my new website before the end of feb (finally!) and new blog and this blog will no longer exist then.

cheers. and God bless.

a little one.. hoping to be made

I have started a separately blog for my experience as a "hoping to be a mother-to-be" at http://mummyregina.blogspot.com/ so that those who are interested in this wonderful experience can pop by and if you are strictly here on business, just check out my portfolio on the right :)

and I will be shooting all the way till probably the last 2 month. don't worry, many has done that and I have my super efficient assistant with me all the time. check out http://drewbphotography.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html and http://cheninboutwell.com/ some of the planet's most talented photographers who just had and having a baby while shooting weddings all the way.

maybe the baby hormones will make your photos sparkle more? :)




cheers!

The simple joy of life

after i started on the journey of being home based - meaning full time homemaker, full time wife, full time photographer working at home - i have re-discovered the simple joy of life.

like the dogs and i greeting my husband with thrill when he returns from work (all of us jumping on him at the same time),
the satisfaction of a home cook dinner (my receipe has expanded with jamie oliver!),
the joy of seeing my husband enjoying the dinner (good nutrients too!),
doing housework in the lazy afternoon listening to my favourite radio station (933),
playing with the dogs during tea time(that explain the 15kg weight gain over 2 yrs! gyne asked me to lose weight asap),
processing photos while the dogs sleep and snore, making my house clean and neat (i suddenly love that, now i know that when you are stressed, you have no mood for housework, but now, i love it!),
going to ntuc (o yeah, im so aunty),
waking up at ungodly time (11am almost daily - i need to change that),
sleeping at ungodly time (esp mon - desperate houswives, private practice, grey's anatomy, how to resist!),
lazing on the bed when i feel like it (that's the best part)..

seriously, i would trade nothing for this, not even a million dollar job (sure stress till die), although i have to say goodbye to annual bonus, maternity leave (paid), maternity benefit (quite a few grands in total) but i have a lifestyle i love, so it's worth it.

and in the future, baby has a stay-at-home-mum and all the time while expanding my photography business :)

let's try obedience training

on second thought, after looking through many website for adoptions, there are obviously a lot of dogs put up for adoption and i am not going to risk putting mm to spca where he may be put to sleep so i guess we can try obedience training first.

pls maomao, just do not bark at little children and babies and you will be fine and happily living with the entire family!

maomao's fate

I have to start seriously consider putting mao mao to another home or even the spca if we really cannot relocate him.
we are actually prepared to have him all the way but he has proven that he cannot live with little children, he loves to bark in a frightening way to anything his height or lower and just today, he terrified a poor adorable little girl and she was so upset she kept screaming. i hope this incident doesn't turn her off dogs because there are dogs like QQ who is such a sweetie and love everyone, esp children.

since we are hoping to welcome a little one into our family this year, mao mao's fate is hanging in the air. we adopted maomao not knowing his character and although he is loveable in all sense, very protective of us, a good cisco alarm, a good doorbell (after our doorbell spoilt, we just rely on him), playful at times but mostful calm but... the only prob is the biggest prob - barking at children and babies. i believe he was not well socialised as a puppy and may have bad experience with children in the past.

if you know of anyone who can love maomao, pls let us know... this darling needs a warm home with no children but able to live with other dogs eg. QQ and need minimal care. no shedding, short fur, no health problem.

what else to do... haiz... obedience class? teach a old dog new trick.. sounds tricky.

a second shooter

one of the guaranteed thing i have decided to do is to add a second shooter to all my weddings. starting maybe march or april onwards.

firstly, i realised that a second shooter changes a lot of things. it really enhances a wedding to have different viewpoints and essentially capture a wedding at literally all the moments. eg.mum and dad would also like more exclusive photos of themselves crying over you. and it makes everyone's job easier! the main photographer and the second working hand in hand, is a good experience :)

i have shot a few weddings with an assistant. it's nice too, having someone to carry my stuff, making sure everything's safe etc. so i'm looking forward to shooting with an assistant AND a second shooter.

yup.

Dyl + QQ

Dylan and QQ share a very unique bond because dyl does most of the looking after bit while i do most of the playing bit only :p

for eg. here, dyl is inspecting qq's nails to ensure that the groomer cut them real well . sweet :) this day of bringing the dogs out also mark our post 2nd wedding anniversary day and the first day of Dyl turning 30!

2 years of marriage - our pride and joy!

(Click for bigger version)

Presenting a peek into our recently went by 2nd wedding anniversary!

2 years!

:)

Iamstillhere

i must be losing all of you by not blogging enough, not posting enough photos (hey im a photographer- i should do that), not bitching enough..

I am taking a break recently, enjoying being at home (with all the chores but I find it a blessing to have a home to attend to)

I am only doing 1 wedding day assisgnment this month so hurray for freedom!

I am supposed to put all the energy into building up the website and studio but well, let's just say the engine haven't started yet :p

go live issue

i am eagerly waiting for my website, which now has lots of beautiful images thanks to my dear friends, Beautrice & Hubby, and Amabel, who's cousin recent wedding is featured... finally, I have images under my own copyright! :)

there's a lil issues with the go live bit and it doesn't help that my designer is based in the states.

a while more..

what a wonderful world

i am so blessed to wake up to a house filled with chores and 2 lovely dogs to care for, a husband to come home to, and so much more.

i was really touched bya fellow blogger, Shin Na, who passed on recently, have been following her blog for a while and dreading the day she die, but she herself, was more brave than any one of us. i encourage you to read about her strengths at http://shinscancerblog.blogspot.com/

she shared a favourite song as me, what a wonderful world.

i learnt that time is valuable, and that you never know what happen tomorrow.

so i am really keen to welcome a baby into our house soon... a gift of love between dylan and me, and a bundle of joy to our 3 sets of parents. :)

and I am sure, photography can go well with it.