It’s been raining. And we have stuff growing on our door mat.

If you have travelled to Australia, you have probably experienced our strict and daunting customs and quarantine regulations. Even as a local, I find the whole customs process to be close to terrifying.

The airport is filled with security guards. Sniffer dogs roam the baggage collection points. Attendants will literally open up your bags, rip open packets of tea, and cut open Chinese Moon Cakes in search of illegal substances!

And they’re not looking for drugs, they’re looking for egg yolks!

As a general rule, you can’t bring in food products, or objects made of wood, plants, animals, egg, shells, soils or anything biological into the country. And being the good citizen that I am, plus the fact that I’m terrified that one of those cute sniffer dogs will turn on me, I made sure I had none of the above.

So imagine my blood curling alarm, as my bag went through the xray – something close to nuclear sirens screamed from the machines and a security attendant came hurtling my way.

They whisked my bag away, slammed it onto a table, and asked me a zillion questions.

I was trying to be calm. Cool. Composed.

They kept asking me if I had any plant material. I kept saying NO.

But I could feel every pore on my body prickle and break out into a sickening sweat.

They dug through my bag, and behold, my illegal LEAF was immediately found.

The customs people had a good old yuk yuk yuk about it, while I stood there, trying to mend my frazzled nerves and sweep my stomach off the floor.

I can hardly believe it. I am back in Perth.

There is a deep layer of autumn leaves covering my backyard lawn, testament of our absence.

Perth is having a particularly cold snap. I flew in late on Sunday night, and the air temperature was only 7 degrees! And when I got up this morning to go and collect my sons from my parent’s house, there was ICE on the windshield of my car.

The warm, humid air of tropical Singapore seems to be so far away!

I continue to be absolutely inspired by the generosity of Singapore.

It has just been confirmed that the charity event “Doing the Karen Cheng in Singapore” will be hosted by IndoChine Forbidden City bar/club in Clarke Quay.

IndoChine are giving us the space for free, and will also kindly serve soft drinks for free, to all the event participants as their contribution to the charity event. This is fantastic. Thank you so much IndoChine!

But wait, there’s more! Fashion Bar at The Cannery, also in Clarke Quay, is sponsoring the media reception that will happen on Friday, to help raise awareness of this cause. Thank you so much Fashion Bar!

It’s fantastic to be able to have these events in such amazing places. Their reputations have spread all the way to Perth, and I can’t wait to see the venues.

Carrey Hill Productions have been, and still are, working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring all this together at such short notice, and their contribution is also at no cost. Thanks May!

I also want to mention once again, FashionJunkee.com online boutique for their US$1000 donation to the event! I’ll be wearing a FashionJunkee dress on Saturday!

So the official details are:

Sat 5th July 2008, 3 - 5pm
Indochine’s Forbidden City
3A Merchant’s Court, River Valley Road
Clarke Quay

Dress up a bit, or a lot, (I will be!)
Bring your camera
Bring a $10 gift for charity - money will go to help humanitarian work.

We will be taking lots of photos – yours, mine, and a professional photographer will be there to help. And after the event, we can all upload our photos to the Facebook GROUP “Doing The Karen Cheng”.

** Please note, this is a Private Event, which means that you have to be invited, and you must RSVP.

This is an invitation to all karencheng.com.au readers, so you need to RSVP over at the Facebook EVENT “Doing The Karen Cheng in Singapore”.

I hope to see you there!

Note to self: It’s probably not a good idea to store my muesli and green tea in identical glass jars in my pantry.

What’s more amazing is that I didn’t notice till I tasted it!

Happiness is,

A spontaneous trip to the river foreshore.

Watching my boys laugh and play for hours.

Chilling out on the sand. Soaking up the warm winter sun.

Then having my boys run up to me and

plant sandy kisses on my cheeks.

Wow. Only a few days till I go to Singapore, and “Do The Karen Cheng” with readers of this blog to raise money for those in need. I am so excited to let you know that we have already raised US$1000 for this cause.

I have previously talked about FashionJunkee.com, an online fashion boutique, and when they heard about this charity event I was organising, they offered to sponsor a gift to the Singapore Red Cross of – just let me say this again - ONE THOUSAND U. S. DOLLARS!!

The check (and a couple of their latest dresses) are in an express parcel pack as I write this, to meet me at my hotel in Singapore when I arrive there on Wednesday. So, now I know what I’ll be wearing! What will you be you wearing?

I’m also glad to say that we have another sponsor as well. Carrey Hill Events Management in Singapore are very generously organizing the event (at VERY short notice) where we will be “Doing The Karen Cheng”.

I’ll publish the details of this location on Thursday or Friday here on this website, and also on the Facebook group “Doing The Karen Cheng” and the Facebook event “Doing The Karen Cheng in Singapore”.

We’re still confirming all the details. It might be in the Orchard district, or maybe somewhere else.

If you are planning to come, please indicate this with an RSVP at the Facebook “Doing The Karen Cheng in Singapore” event.

Please support and check out FashionJunkee’s latest garments at www.fashionjunkee.com.

EEEK!! So excited!

Things have gotten very busy in our little house this last week.

I have been charging around at a zillion miles per hour organising the details of my trip to Singapore - interviews with designers and boutiques, meeting friends, organising birthday drinks, managing a charity event, emailing people, calling people, picking the kids up from school and classes, helping them with homework, cooking dinner, washing clothes.

My brain is full of ideas, plan, strategies, schedules. My thoughts are swirling with reminders and to-dos. Time is getting tighter. And I can just feel something inside me looking for that moment of rest. That quiet place.

My 5yo son grew some sunflowers for a school project. A few weeks later, he brought them home and out of obligation, I planted them in a garden bed next to our car. Just so we would remember to water them everyday.

It’s been lovely seeing them grow. Bit by bit each day. New leaves. A little taller. A little greener. Buds. They are like our little friends swaying in the wind, nodding at us, and waving farewell.

In the midst of our daily hustle and bustle, our flurry of daily activities, rushing here and there, we see LIFE. As it is. Steady and continuous. Ongoing and faithful. Unaffected by us.

I found my moment.

A baby sunflower. It was all I needed.

Oh My Goodness!

For the last couple of months, my husband’s been telling me that he has booked a little “trip for our family” for the weekend of my birthday. I didn’t know any more detail than that. It was a SURPRISE. But he warned me that we would all need warm clothes and water proof boots.

I assumed that we were going down south to stay in a nice bed-and-breakfast by a forest. Or maybe camping in a national park, with winter hiking in the bush. Or maybe we’d stay at an organic farm-stay, with activities for families and children. Spending the day feeding chickens, horses and pigs. That’s okay, I thought - but not very glamorous for my 30th birthday.

But today he told me the REAL surprise he has been planning all along – our kids are staying with my parents, and the two of us are going to Singapore for 4 days! OMG! He’s crazy! I can’t believe it!

I am completely lost for words. Eeek, what an amazing surprise! We’ll be there from 2 July – 6 July. We’ll be catching up with friends, eating, boutique hunting and shopping!! Now I have to plan every day to get the most out of my second favorite place in the world! Only 10 more sleeps!

SINGAPORE, HERE I COME!

Hey I just got an email from Dove. They are offering an additional prize pack to two of my readers who enter in the Dove Go Fresh Competition.

And they want me to decide who should get them! OOOH WHAT FUN!

1) Upload a photo that describes What Refreshes Your Spirit? onto the Dove Go Fresh website.

2) When you submit your entry, you will see a “Thank You” page. The final word on that page is the code word.

3) Email me ( karen[AT]karencheng[DOT]com[DOT]au ) the code word AND why you want the product pack (in 10 words or less).

4) I’ll decide the TWO best, funniest, creative, silliest, charming, heart-wrenching, ridiculous or whatever answers… and Dove will send you a prize. Easy.

I’ll be judging the entries received by 22 June 2008, Sunday midnight, Perth time.

So with the weekend coming up, plan your photos people! Get your girlfriends together, watch a movie, do your nails, go to the park, take a bike ride, go to the beach, have a picnic, bake some cupcakes.

Even if you don’t win this prize, you still could win the $500 goodie hamper, AND $20,000!!

Linkylove to others who are taking up the challenge:
Beccaboo

(Btw, if you know someone who’s a keen photographer, let them know about the comp!)

I have been invited by Dove to be one of four blogs that will take part in a blogger exclusive competition as part of the launch of their new product range, called Dove Go Fresh.

The idea behind Go Fresh is all about being energised, keeping your life fresh and exciting, being cool and staying cool.

It’s about celebrating your “Fresh Moments” – which ties in wonderfully with my site, my passion for living a balanced, happy life and finding fulfilment in the everyday moments.

Blogger Exclusive Competition
From 16 -25 June, the only people who will know about this competition are the readers of this, and three other blogs. One reader from this blog will win a $500 goodies hamper!

Main Competition Launches
On 8 July, the competition will be officially launched and opened to the rest of Australia / New Zealand, and EVERYONE who has entered (in both the exclusive, and the main competition) will be in the running to win $20,000!

What you have to do:

Upload a photo that describes What Refreshes Your Spirit? onto the Dove Go Fresh website.

You might want to take a picture of you going out with your girlfriends. You laying on a beach with a fruit cocktail in your hand. You volunteering at a charity event. You going for an early morning swim at the beach. You trying on a really expensive dress that you could never afford. You and your girlfriends with cucumber facemasks. You at a dress up party where you’re dressed up as Wonder Woman (Ok, maybe not.)

Judges are looking for quality, content and creativity! Have fun!

The Blogger Exclusive Competition starts 5pm AEST on Monday June 16, 2008 and runs until 5pm AEST on Wed June 25th 2008.

This competition is only open to residents of Australia and New Zealand.

We went scuba diving on the weekend!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my husband has organised for us to dive with sharks this month. The problem was, I haven’t dived in 6 years, so we decided to have a practice dive at the Rockingham Wreck Trail.

It’s a famously easy and shallow dive for beginners. You basically park your car opposite the main café strip. Get into your gear. Walk down the beach. Get into the water. Swim a bit, and behold, there’s a sunken boat wreck and a few small aircraft wrecks sitting in 12m of water. The wrecks are connected by rope, so you just follow the path.

OK it sounds pretty glamorous and exciting, but the truth is, the Wreck Trail Dive is actually quite an un-glamorous dive. The beach access is very easy, and the water is always very still. But the terrain is sand, with no natural reef, so there are no caves, no big fish or sting rays, and the visibility is poor (you can only see 2 to 5m ahead of you). People usually go there to practice scuba diving, or to try out new equipment, and there are often lots of dive courses on the weekends.

The wrecks themselves are pretty interesting, especially if you haven’t seen a sunken boat with stuff growing all over it. They are literally covered with sponges and other weird and wonderful things, there are tiny little creatures hanging around, schools of fish, crabs, eels and seahorses! I am always amazed by the huge diversity of colours and textures in the detail of marine life.

We saw a couple of seahorses hiding in the growth. As usual, they were just floating around in this spaced out kind of way. I didn’t have an underwater camera, but this photo was taken at the same Wreck Trail, by my fellow club member Kieran Lee from the Underwater Dive Club. Thanks Kieran!

Overall, it was a success. Nothing went wrong. I can still remember how to use my gear! I CAN SCUBA DIVE!

After the dive, we got out of our gear, walked across the road, sat in a café and had a cup of tea. Awesome.

Today my son ran up to me and said,

“Hey mum! Wanna hear my brain?!”

I’ve been trying to take better portrait photographs with my camera. I’m so happy with the results!

This is Sean on a cold, wet, rainy day, trying to find a stick so we can play fishing in the creek.

Last week I was interviewed by Channel Ten for a news feature on blogging. It was broadcasted this morning and I was told it will be on again in the evening news. It included two other bloggers, Darren Rowse and Neerav Bhatt.

I thought I’d take some time to introduce my site and show the new people around!

Snippets of Life is a personal and lifestyle blog.

I cover a wide range of topics such as parenting, women’s issues, fashion, shopping, food, health, cooking, gardening, art, design, photography – stuff that I’m really passionate about!

My main goal is to inspire others to find happiness, inspiration, purpose and laughter in the simple things in life.

Topical Threads in Snippets of Life

My site starts in 2003, with the birth of my first son.

In 2004, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. I have yet to share my private journal writings with the world, but I have summarised the ordeal here. After a year of heartache and anguish, he is now cancer free.

In 2005, my second son was born. Barely recovering from one of life’s blows, I embark on another - the daily struggle of mild post-natal depression.

Now in 2008, my husband and I have decided to have a third child, and we’re now facing a few problems - just getting pregnant is a challenge!

Throughout all this, I strive to vary my daily posts with my passion for healthy living, shopping, cooking, reading, photography, entertaining, art, design and much more.

Have a look around!

There are over 900 posts here, on a wide variety of topics - perhaps you might like to start with a selection of my Favourite Posts, or use the categories menu on the right hand side.

Feel free to read through my month by month Archives, you may like to start with this month May 2008, April 2008, February 2008. Or you might like to read some of my older adventures September 2006, August 2006, January 2005, February 2007.

Or look at a gallery of Graphical Headers I create for this site.

Or you can read About me and this site.

Or subscribe to my RSS feed.

And please do say hi here! Enjoy!

Hey check out my capsicum!

Ages ago, I found the plant growing out of my compost heap. I stuck it in a pot, and it started to fruit! This is what it looked like 2 months ago.

I pointed it out to my 5yo and I tried to explain how fruits and vegetables grow. But he couldn’t contain his excitement.

He keep saying, “WOW! Can we take it to the markets and sell it? We’ll be the richest people in the world!!”

“Don’t you want to eat it?” I asked.

“No, I want to sell it.”

“What are we going to do with all that money?”

“I don’t know. Buy more stuff?”

“Hey mate. We don’t need more stuff. We ARE the richest people in the world.” Even as I said it in exaggerated mock sincerity, I heard the audience in my head roll their eyes.

“Oh. Ok then. Let’s put it on some pizza tonight!” he chirped.

We snipped the capsicum off its stalk, and my son carried it into the house, while rubbing it in his little hands like a golden lamp.

My 5 year old was asked to make a robot in his class.

So where most kids go for the classic robot shape – rectangular cereal boxes with toilet paper arms – my kid comes up with this, a robot bird.

As I gingerly pulled it out of his bag, I was COMPLETELY FLOORED by it’s amazing sense of design – great shape. Great proportion. Great colours. Heaps of originality. Nice use of repetition. Symmetry.

It’s the seed of a strong, signature image. It’s what logo designers will absolutely kill for.

I was standing in the courtyard, staring at this thing in my hands, thinking, “OMG this is so cool”. The designer in me was trembling with pride. I almost blurted it out to various people nearby, but ah, perhaps to share the sense of pride with strangers, is not welcomed, especially those who don’t understand my neurotic particularities in all things visual.

I just told my son that I really liked it. Then it went straight to the pool room.

Charisma takes practice.

I believe I used to be a fairly chatty, outgoing person, who was able to make small talk with strangers, and exude warmth, happiness, charm and a nice level of wit.

But the truth is, it takes a whole lot of practice. And being a stay-at-home-mother, stuck at home, with no other adult contact, it’s pretty hard to practice your people skills. Very rarely do I have opportunities to engage with the range of personalities one would find in a workplace. I’m very rusty!

So lately, I’ve been making extra effort to talk (in length) to a wide range of different people during my day. People I wouldn’t usually talk to. The librarian. The pharmacist. The guy who runs the fruit shop. Mothers and fathers picking up their kids from school. It all takes practice.

Stop trying to control everything!

My husband has recently decided to do more cooking in our household. So on the weekend, we hosted a dinner party with several friends and their kids – and my husband cooked the whole meal.

Now my husband is a pretty good cook. It’s just, when he comes home from work, I’d prefer him to play with the kids, while I cook dinner. So he hardly ever gets the opportunity to cook. Plus I am my mother’s daughter – I am a kitchen tyrant. Things have to be done in a certain way. You have to use the right pot and the right utensil. Because that’s just the way it is.

My husband made goat rendang for the adults, and spaghetti bolognaise (using a secret family recipe from Malta) for the children. My whole body was twitching all afternoon, I knew he was using the wrong implements and doing things very inefficiently! Grrr!

But, oh my goodness, the end result was INCREDIBLE. Both dishes were made to absolute perfection. My jaw was on the floor, my mouth was watering. It was hands-down the most amazing rendang and pasta sauce I’ve ever had (eaten separately, of course).

Seize the opportunity to say something nice.

On the weekend, I saw someone I knew, whom I knew was currently going through a rough patch in life. I immediately wanted to say hi, but ah, I don’t know, she suddenly seemed busy and engaged with something else, and I wasn’t sure if it was a good time to approach her, and bring it up…

Basically I hesitated, she walked away, and so, I lost the opportunity to pass on some kinds words, which, who knows, might have made her day. Sigh.

Be thankful for good health.

The moment my children fall sick, I always realise that I take good health for granted.

Teach your kids that, even if they are feeling pretty bad, there’s probably someone out there who is a lot sicker than they are. Stop the complaining and whinging about a small cold!